Good times!

Archer is back on the air! If you are not watching this show you..........

1. have never heard of it

2. don't know it is was back on

3. don't watch the show, and in that case.......you are a heretic and need to be dealt with

Why Archer rocks!

Thats how you get ants!

A running gag at work

Pam is awesome!

One of the better FX series and it is running for another season. It will give my Thursday nights a bit of meaning and laughter fir the next few months.

Chaos review...Troops part 2

The second option for Chaos troops is a throwback to the halcyon days of the Eye of Terror. Well it seems that way. That was a little supplement that gave players the option to run Chaos infused/traitor Imperial Guard. Well a version of that can be run with the new rules for allies, or it can just be run with this codex.

The Cultists have been added as a second troop choice for the Chaos Marines. These are the fallen, traitor, corrupted or just plain crazy humans that follow the Chaos gods. That or they are crazy and like being bad. They can be used a few different ways and have some upgrades to help them fit different battlefield roles.

Chaos review...Troops part 1

There are only two pure choices for troops in the Chaos codex. They have all the typical troop stuff you expect from the 40K game, a variety of uses and the ability to customize to fit a few combat roles.

I’ll hit the first, and a personal favorite before….the Chaos Space Marine.

There is little here that is unfamiliar. If you have played 40K then you know what a Space Marine stat-line looks like. They are WS, BS, strength, toughness and initiative of 4, have a single wound and attack, have leadership 8 ( well some Astartes are leadership 9 base) and have a 3+ save. There is nothing real new here. These guys now come armed with a bolter, bolt pistol, frag and krak grenades. They start in a squad of four and have a champion leading them (he is the same except he has 2 attacks, leadership 9 and has a close combat weapon as well). This five man squad starts at a cost of three American quarter and that is pretty awesome. Now they can add up to 15 more bodies at the cost of 13 points each. These are, right now, the cheapest full bodied (meaning all 4’s and 3+ armor) Marines in the game.

From a pocket dimension they arrive!

Finished my quasi-kit bash Warrior-Deathmarks. I have a full squad of five now. WHOOOO HOOO!

Prospero Burns is done.

After finishing A Thousand Sons, I dove into the follow up/ continuation/ concurrently running, Prospero Burns. This is the other side of the Thousand Son-Space Wolf conflict. Well that is what I was lead to believe...........

I was informed of one story and what I received was another. This novel was not the concurrent/follow up that I was expecting. It was really something different. It wasn’t a bad different, just kind of a downer different.

Sometimes the internet gives me a happy!

This may be old and I may be the last to see it, but it is great!

Vader as Arnold

Watch it quick before it is stripped by 20th century, Fox, Lucas and whomever else can lay claim to this.

Chaos review...All the cool gear!

What is an army without cool wargear? Well kind of drab actually. This  the list of the new Chaos gear and some thoughts on it...or a review!

MARKS

Every non-vehicle unit in the game can purchase Marks of a patron Chaos power. They all come at varying costs per unit.

Khorne unit gains Rage and Counter-Attack. The cheap and angry choice.

Nurgle unit gains +1 to Toughness and Nurgle magic spells (psyker powers but lets call a spade a spade here folks)

The easy button choice for most people, as tougher equals better.

Tzeentch unit gains a +1 to their invulnerable save (to a maximum of 3++). If they don't have an invulnerable save then they get a 6++. They also gain access to Tzeentch spells. Wow a waste o' points here. I guess a 6++ save is good when? Sure you can make Terminators 4++, but is it worth the points?

Slaanesh unit gains +1 to initiative and access to Slaanesh spells. This is the other easy button mark. When the 40K tabletop is over populated with initiative 4, initiative 5 is awesome!

Now what would Chaos be without Marks and their associated Icons? Well, they would be boring evil Marines is what they would be.

ICONS

The major patron powers have their own special icons. A unit must have the specific mark to carry an icon in four out of the five choices. Much like the marks, these icons have varying prices per unit.

Icon of Wrath a Khorne only icon. The unit with this gains Furious Charge. They can also re-roll their random charge distance. Handy if you really want to run a Khorne Berzerkers or Astartes dedicated to them.

Icon of Despair a Nurgle only icon. The unit gains the Fear special rule. Waste points and time in this game. Who thought this was a viable item?

Icon of Flame a Tzeentch only icon. This gives the units bolt weapons (pistol,gun,combi-and heavy) the Soul Blaze special ability. I guess it has a minor use if you want to try and keep low armor/toughness units on fire after you shoot them. The problem is that it has to go with Tzeentch units and unless you are running 10K Sons, this is about as useless as the Icon o' Despair.

Icon of Excess a Slaanesh only Icon. This gives the unit the Feel No Pain special rule. An ok option, but 5+ to get back up is a hope not a viable strategy.

Icon of Vengance is for a unit without a mark. It gives the unit the Fearless special rule. This is big no-brainer item. It keeps your units on the board longer and Fearless is great again. Just make sure to keep this guy alive, since he can be picked out by characters and people trying to land blast templates centered on him.

4th edition D&D the spice is the life #2

Well a race has been chosen and dice have been rolled. I have almost everything I need, except a class. This is just a bit easier to narrow down then a race for my guy. It isn't due to lack of options, it is just I had narrowed the class choice down before I had an idea of who I wanted to be.

The amount of player classes is just amazing. There are the standard fighter, cleric, mage, and thief; and within each of these are two well defined choices of each class. I like that they give you two archetypes for each class and then there is my favorite, the third choice. This is where you see the two archetypes the book has given you, and then you scrap that to make your own build. This is probably what most people do. Still it is very polite of the designers to give the player a head start on a character class.

As I said the field was narrowed down to a few choices before I picked my race. They are...........

4th edition D&D is the spice of life #1

As I prepare for my first game of 4th D&D as a player I have a small problem. I have no damn idea who or what to be.

This is very alien to me as previous incarnations were simple choose a non-elf, non-1/2ling and only try a gnome one time. That was simple. Then it was a matter of what non wizard character did I want to be (minus the few times as a diabolical necromancer).

This new edition has a plethora of character races beyond the usual and even more classes. Now there were several classes in 2nd edition, but they were just a tiny twist on the established fighter,mage,cleric and thief.

I can now roll up anything from the know and typical fantasy races or I can go all crazy and throw out a minotaur, goliath, deva, shardmind, shifter ( Even though they are all trash and trouble. I learned that from True Blood), tri-kreen, drow ( for all you Drizzt fanboys) and the list just keeps going.

Then there are the classes and now there are descent differences between what seem to see similar classes. A fighter is a fighter, but a warlord is a completely different type of fighter. Wizards,sorcerers and warlocks are all spellslingers, but their mechanics are very different.

What does all this mean? Well that , for me, 4th D&D is the definition of spice o' life....a lot of variety.

I actually have a dog in this fight!

Tonight is one of my scared two truly sacred nights, the BCS Championship game. Now every year I celebrate and pay homage to the football deities by consuming mass quantities of meat,cheese and salted snacks while two teams face each other in gladiatorial style sport. It is awesome ( but not  as inspiring and grand as the Superbowl, my holiest of days)!

This year I actually have a team to champion and a stake in the game. I am a Notre Dame fan and damn if I'm not hoping for a win. There are a few good things in the world of college football: when the Irish win, when the SEC (and especially Florida schools )loses, whenever USC loses (being the best at the hands of the Irish) and hearing Keith Jackson saying, "Fumble!"

I would like nothing better than Manti Te'o, Zeke Motta, Bennett Jackson  and the boys to shut down Alabama and quiet the pundits.

He should have won the Heisman!

One more Tomb Blade for the cause

Nabbed this off Ebay months ago and finally got around to painting it.

This puts the squad to 4 strong. I guess I'll have to try they out now and decide if I need a fifth member.

I already know I do, but I'm just waiting to paint some other stuff first.

HAPPY 2013!

Well every day is a gift since the world didn't end! Make sure you do something with it in the coming year, because we may be living on borrowed time..................