Month: April 2017

8th Looks Good!

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On 25th April 2017

In Blog

This evening I watched the live Q&A about the 8th edition of Warhammer 40,000. Well I watched it a bit later as I had to go to the pharmacist to pick up a prescription for Megan.

Anyway there is a lot in there to look forward to, it’s getting the Age of Sigmar treatment which is cool. Now a year ago I would have been horrified at such a thought, but now I look forward to it, why, well AoS is probably the best tabletop war game out there, ever since the Generals Handbook was released. 

The three ways to play and introduction of points was the moment that AoS went from being a bit of a mess to being an amazing game. 7th edition kind of killed my love for the game, the gap between armies was just huge, and some of the formations just made the game unplayable if you weren’t prepared to spend a small fortune. The arms race was just not fun.

And of course right now they are leaving Horus Heresy alone, so I will be able to continue to enjoy that as it is, but we will see what the future holds for that.

But right now I am really excited for what 8th edition will be, Jus at Battle Bunker is already planning a midnight launch and I am gonna be there for it!!!

Meet Lorgar

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On 24th April 2017

In Blog

This week, I was strong armed into getting a new Hamster, I was quite upset after Sweep killed my last hamster Tyrannosaurus Rex that I didn’t want to get one. But my thinking that our rabbit Gandalf deserved a companion, had the girls in a panic, I had already picked out the rabbit and was going to call him Angron, Eater of Cables.

Anyway so on Wednesday I was dragged to Pets at Home where we picked up a lovely little Syrian who I have named Lorgar, Bearer of the Word. She is a rather nice little one, with very little fear of us and she is partial to apple and cuddles.

On Saturday it was the 10th annual Record Store Day so me and Lindsay popped into town to see if we could pick up a few of the new releases. We had a list of what we wanted and we got all but one of them. Lindsay picked up Laura Marling Live at York Minster, the Moana Picture Disk and Barbie Girl by Aqua. I got the Porcelain Remixes by Moby. We really wanted Your Love Alone is Not Enough by the Nanic Street Preachers, but that was sold out by the time we got to the three record shops in Newcastke city centre. Windows nicely put in a band to entertain us whilst we were in the queue which was great, Reflex had no entertainment and their queue was much longer, but they had staff checking that what you wanted was still in stock, so that way you knew it wasn’t a waste of time to be in that queue.

What I am Modelling

All I have done this week is build Varag Ghoul-Chewer, I haven’t otherwise picked up a paintbrush or tool at all.

What I am Reading

Again I haven’t read too much at all this week, just a little bit more of On Basilisk Station.

What I am Playing

I was supposed to play Arran at club on Tuesday but at the last minute something came up for him and I was unable to arrange another game in time, so I didn’t go to club.

I did get a game of Carcassonne Hunters and Gatherers in with Lindsay today which was nice, I won by a small margin, my tactic of getting small amounts of points from small rivers really paid off for me.

What I am Backing

Still backing Gloomhaven, that’s got a little over a week left to go.

I have also pledged for a book called An Atlas to Time, Space, and Bonfires which is a Sci-Fi anthology of 21 original stories. It looks interesting but I am going to do a bit more research into the creators, I worry still with sci-fi still, I don’t want to end up backing projects favoured by the puppies.

What I am Spending

I have spent most money this week on food and takeaways, it’s been a very very lazy week and I have been feeling very under the weather, so I have ended up having pizza, fish and chips, Burger King, Shawarma and parmos!

I have also bought a Citadel Skirmish Case, I needed a small case to transport my Dropfleet Commander Models to the tournament at the UK Games Expo and this case will be perfect for that. I have ordered it from Battle Bunker so it was 30% off RRP which was brilliant really.

Fourth and Final Day at Eastercon

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On 18th April 2017

In Blog

Oh I was so shattered when I was woken up by a hug from Megan this morning, I don’t remember going to sleep at all, I had struggled trying to synch my Kobo over the hotel WiFi, instead I had to do it using my phones personal hotspot, because I wanted to download a few books I had bought. 

But I crawled out of bed and made my way to breakfast, although this morning we were sent to a different room for breakfast which we had mostly to ourselves for the time we were there. It was a little annoying as this room had a little less choice than the main breakfast restaurant, so I didn’t get my watermelon or pineapple with my breakfast, or a bagel, but it was still quite nice, going to miss having a nice large breakfast in a morning.

We then went back to our room to begin the process of packing up our stuff, and we took the bag with our food and snacks and the games we had brought to the con to the car leaving only our suitcases left to pack.

I then decided I wanted to attend a panel called Populism and SF/F, but there was a safety issue in the main hall, so I ended up as an unofficial gopher telling people they couldn’t go in the hall and that the panel was delayed for 15 minutes. I had decided to switch to that panel specifically because Tej Turner, whose reading I had attended last night was on it, and I think his, I assume rather left wing (based on his book) views would contribute towards an interesting panel, that and the panel description made it clear that it wasn’t favouring one side of the political spectrum but rather looking at populism from both sides, really appealed to me.

Anyway eventually the session was cancelled as they couldn’t fix the issue, and there wasn’t a room available to reschedule it, so I was a little disappointed, but you know what it’s unavoidable, these things can happen sadly.

So I just wandered to the Fan Lounge where I read for a bit, Megan and Lindsay were in Science Fictional Pub Signs, so once they were out of there we headed up to the room to get our stuff and pack the car, once we were done with that we checked out and pleasantly surprised to find that the car parking charges were not £9 per day, but £9 for the whole event which was awesome!

We then just hung around in the Fan Lounge until lunch time, when I had a really delicious Thai chicken and prawn noodles, whilst the girls had Thai vegetable red curry. Then I headed off to my last panel which was UK in 2024, which was a group who were looking to bring WorldCon back to the UK in, surprisingly 2024.

And it was interesting to see the ideas that they are talking about, it’s sounds very very good. They are looking at three venues, Liverpool, London and Glasgow, and Glasgow seems to be the favourite, of both the working group and the attendees at the panel. 

We then headed to the closing ceremony which was cool, lots of applause and the recipients of the Doc Weir award were very worthy, I saw them being quite busy and involved all weekend.

We then hurriedly exited the hotel and made our way to the car, refuelling at a Morrisons up the M42, and then headed home, stopping twice along the way for the toilet and arriving home about 7:30pm when we ordered pizza.

I was meant to record with Graham that night, but I was utterly shattered so we rearranged our recording time to Wednesday.

Overall, I had a great weekend, I am paying for it today, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and will have managed to book up a hotel for Follycon next year.

  • Mood: On top of the world
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 7
  • In My Ears: Scream by Michael Jackson
  • Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
  • Book Last Read: On Basilisk Station by David Weber
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Legends of Tomorrow 

Third Day at Eastercon

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On 17th April 2017

In Blog

I woke up far too early today, Megan woke me up after she was woken up by the sunrise, we forgot to close the curtains! So I dragged myself out of bed and we we t down to breakfast, where I managed to fill myself up a bit better than yesterday.

I then had a Lemsip before I headed off to my first event which was What Kind of Convention Do You Want To Run, which has given me some ideas about doing a small con, a proper con in the North East that’s not just a dealers room and cosplay as most events here in the north east tend to be.

After this I meet up with Lindsay and Megan whom had been to Mental Health and Super Heroes, which they tell me they enjoyed, and we went along to the dealers room because they wanted a Dublin 2019 ribbon, and I had a chat with the folk at the table. I forgot to mention that yesterday they had talked me round into attending OctoCon on my birthday weekend in Dublin, so yesterday I booked a flight and hostel for that, and I was told today that I have booked a rather nice hostel. Sadly I could not afford the hotel it’s being held at.

At this point we split up again, Lindsay and Megan went off to attend a Metal Clay Crafting Workshop they had been really looking forward to, whilst I went to the Eastercon Site Selection to find out a bit more about Follycon, next years Eastercon and vote for the 2019 Eastercon site.

Although Follycon looks amazing, I don’t think I am going to be able to go to it for more than a day visit, we are struggling to find a hotel room that will house us. Being a trio, makes things more difficult, but the Travelodge has yet to release its rooms so if they are a good price then it might work out for us. 

It’s hard going away when you are a group of three, with me and Megan being disabled, it’s normally impossible for us to be able to afford two room. But anyway I digress.

Then we had to two bids for 2019, one being a joke bid, Con-Fusion which would have been in the International Space Station and one for Ytterbium which won and will be held at the Park In Hotel in Heathrow. They have a low income membership which will be nice for me and Megan, but we are going to be waiting until after World Con in Helsinki to decide on what we do in 2019, because if Dublin wins it’s WorldCon bid, we will be going to that, and Ytterbium would be out of our budget sadly.

I had intended to do the Customised Lego Minifigs Workshop, but I needed a rest so ended up going to the room for an hour instead. After that I meet Lindsay and Megan in the Fan Lounge for lunch where I had a hot dog, which if I am honest was the worst value meal I had, it cost me £5.50 for a hot dog which was chunky, but smaller than that you get in CostCo.

Then we all headed to a panel we were all looking forward to Curing Disabled Characters in TV, which is something that really annoys me and Megan, it did segway a little into representation of disabilities on TV, but it was still good and informative.

Although I didn’t get to ask my question as we ran out of time, I wanted to ask how the panel feels about the curing of disabilities and representation, so in effect is the cure, wiping out disabled characters and robbing us disabled folk of relatable characters in our stories.

We then returned Megan to the room as she needed a rest, whilst I went to Disability and Conventions: Pragmatism and Idealism, which is a subject area I am very interested in, especially for things like Company of Legends. It was a good panel and I learnt a few things on how I can work to improve the things I do run, which is always good.

I then meet Lindsay and Megan in the lobby and we headed over to Resort World for food, we ended up deciding on TGI Fridays but annoyingly they had a 35 minute wait and no chairs available for us to sit on, so we ended up in Nando’s where we sat within 5 minutes.

Me and Megan split a medium Full Platter between us, and I had Peri-Peri Chips and coleslaw on the side. It’s nice to eat in the fan lounge, but I think we were all in need of a break from the con, it was Megan’s first time out of the hotel in two days!

I had then intended to attend a panel called Genre, Fanfic, and Community and that looked really good, but I noticed on the schedule an author reading by Jaine Fenn and Tej Turner. Now Jaine is the author that pulled me back into fandom. During racefail back in 2009, I posted a passionate post about how representation was important and that authors had a duty to ensure that books represented our communities which are not racial homogenous, and how we should be uncomfortable at the silence of writers and fans of colour, not the criticism the community received from them at that time. 

I am. It gonna say it was a particular important post or one that should have been noticed, but it’s how I felt about the whole mess, I had observed it unfolding and developing and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut anymore. Well I got viciously attacked for that opinion by various people, all of whom were male, white and American and the way that I felt after that kinda had me walk away from fandom for about five years. It’s why when gamergate came along, I ended up walking away from that community, even though I recognised how the campaign of hatred and nastiness was utterly wrong and simply misogynistic bullying. I was a coward then and wish I had, but at that time I was still recovering.

I was then in 2014 working as a Man in Black for Steve Jackson Games, and was asked to work demoing Munchkin at Loncon 3, which I leapt at the chance to do. I still wanted to attend a WorldCon and figured, I can ignore the book stuff and just concentrate on the games (seriously I honestly thought that!!!), anyway on the Friday night I was in the games tent at the end of the evening I was playing in a large game of Werewolf and I was eliminated quite early on, so I stepped outside the tent into the fan village and sat down in the library area which had been filled with books provided by publishers, mostly pre-publication copies. Anyway I sat down in the far corner and sat on a book, and I picked it up and found myself looking at it and without thinking, I spent the night reading that entire book, cover to cover, and I was engrossed, I actually didn’t move from that spot until I had finished the book at 5:30am on the Saturday, yeah I spent the night in the fan village, at some point security had missed me and I was locked in.

It took me over 6 hours to get through the book because it wasn’t long after the car accident where I got my brain damage, and it was the first story that was new to me that I read after that accident. To sum it up I was in a pretty bad place at the time, WorldCon was a bright spot which did a lot for my mental health at the time, because I was struggling to adjust to these new limitations my body had, WorldCon was a baptism of fire for me, I found my new limitations and capabilities, I then tried to push further and after struggling with reading even the simplest of books before this, to be able to sit and digest a book in one sitting as I did often as a teenager, well it gave me hope that not everything about my body would be worse, that my mind, although dulled, could still function and deal with stuff the way it’s supposed to.

Anyway the book was Queen of Nowhere by Jaine Fenn and on my return home to the North East, I sought out the rest of the Hidden Empire series and downloaded them all on to my Kobo and well, that’s how I returned to the fandom and ended at Eastercon this year. I kinda wanted to tell her this after the reading because I was fanboying so hard, but I chickened out and returned to the room instead. But Jaine, if by some chance you read this, well please know you will have my eternal gratitude for being the women to bring me back home where I belong and your books will always have a special meaning for me, especially Queen of Nowhere. And seeing as the story she wrote was the origin story of Bez, the character from Queen of Nowhere I found it extra awesome. I also found out she has a Patreon so I will be subscribing to that once I get home.

The reading by Tej was also really good, it was a really interesting character, and his writing is really quite interesting, I think Lindsay in particular will enjoy his work, and I now own both his books, they are uploaded to my Kobo now.

When I got back to the room I found Megan recovering from a panic attack. She had thought someone was trying to break into the room. So I felt mega guilty for having gone to that leaving her in the room alone.

We managed to get calmed down and talked her round to joining us to watch Plan 9 From Outer Space, but I managed to get the room wrong and took us into the end of the recital by Thomas Bloch and Pauline Haas which was beautiful.

Anyway by the time we realised we found that they had changed the screening from Plan 9 from Outer Space to a Transformers film, and the unexpected change of plans followed by the extremely loud noises of the film caused Megan to have another panic attack, so we got her into the Fan Lounge where we got her calm, and she decided that instead of going to listen to some filk or go play some games, she just wanted to go to the room, so we did that.

She has been so brave this weekend and tonight has been the first time her anxiety caught up with her in a big way, normally she freaks out at the thought of spending a short time in the presence of a single person she doesn’t know, so how she has managed to get through 3 days with 900 odd people I don’t know, but I am incredibly proud of her.

At this point we retired to bed whilst I spent too much money on new books from the Kobo online store and struggled to connect to the hotel wi-fi so I could sync my Kobo.

At some point I feel asleep and didn’t wake up again until 7am when Megan hugged me.

  • Mood: Exhausted but so very happy
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 7
  • In My Ears: Lucia Di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
  • Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
  • Book Last Read: On Basilisk Station by David Weber
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition 

Second Day At Eastercon

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On 16th April 2017

In Blog

I woke up this morning feeling like hell, basically if I were at home I would be tucked up in bed with Lemsip, but instead I will be patient zero for con flu.

We had a lovely breakfast, I even had fruit, and it was a nice breakfast, just a bit better than a Premier Inn, I am looking forward to tomorrow’s. I did try to fill up as much as I could but my ill made me not want to eat much.

After breakfast me and Megan then attended a panel called Disability in SFF: Beyond 101, which got me lots of recommendations for books in which characters with disabilities were portrayed well, and it was a rather informative panel as well.

Afterwards, I took Megan to the quiet room so she could meet Lindsay for a poetry reading, whilst I went for a swim followed by a sit in the steam room. The hope was that this would help clear up my nose.

We were then supposed to go to Beeblebear’s Picnic, but Lindsay and Megan were late back as they decided to go and wander the Dealers Room, so we took advantage and sped off to Morrisons to get me some Lemsip and more cough sweets, and we made it back just in time for our next panel Neurodiversity in SFF which was my favourite panel of the convention so far, a real fascinating look at how characters with neurodiversity are represented in the genre, and I learnt a new fandom term, telefantasy, which I think is rather a good one.

After that we then attended Characters with Disabilities Kicking-Ass, which had a lot of audience participation which was good, a bit different to the others I have been to, and that was cool because I got to hear a bit about the background of the comic Solider Zero, which I remembered as being very problematic in its depiction of a disabled character. It turned out the publisher basically ignored the writer and the disabled consultant Al Davison, who was on the panel.

After this panel we then went to the Fan Lounge for tea, we all had a lovely slow cooked pulled harisa lamb, which was served with couscous, pitta bread, hummus and a salad. That was really nice, and I am normally not a big fan of hummus, but in that meal it worked really really well.

After this we went up to our room for a little while, via the car where I picked up the rest of the Pepsi we brought from CostCo, where we chilled out for a little bit, before we headed down to watch the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who, in a large group screening, and that was brilliant. They set up three big screens and it was just wonderful to be around so many people who were as big fans of Doctor Who as we were, and they even handed out Jelly Babies as a treat!

The episode itself was really good and I liked how it addressed Bills sexuality, without making it a big deal, she was just her, no fuss, just as she was supposed to be.

We had then thought about going to the quiz, but we were all shattered so we just headed up to our rooms for a little chill time and changed into our pyjamas, before we headed down for the pyjama party. A bit of a miscommunication saw us at the door of the Kings Suite 25 minutes early, which caused Megan to have a small anxiety attack as she felt very vulnerable stood in the hotel in her pyjamas, but we found a corner to sit down in where we calmed her down.

We then managed an hour at the party before we gave up, me and Megan are just not as healthy as we would like to be and the little dancing we did exhausted us. So we headed back upto our room once more and with the munchies, we decided against ordering a £16.50 burger from room service in favour of ordering a pizza from Dominos.

After that I just got into bed and read a few chapters of On Basilisk Station, I was convinced by some representatives of The Royal Manticoran Navy to download it and give it a read.

  • Mood: Shattered but happy
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 6
  • In My Ears: Radio Ga Ga by Queen
  • Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
  • Book Last Read: On Basilisk Station by David Weber
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Doctor Who

First Day at Eastercon

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On 14th April 2017

In Blog

My first Eastercon is 17 years is a lot of fun so far, we arrived in good time, got registered and to the first program event that we wanted to do which was Introducing Accessible Boardgames to Newbies moderated by my friend Esther MacCallum-Stewart who is a professor of video and board games at the University of Staffordshire and an all round cool person.

It was a really good panel with plenty of discussion about how to make board games more accessible to people who are new to the hobby, as well as some hacks and changes you can make to games in order to make them better for people with different needs, like colourblindness or being on the autistic spectrum for example.

I learnt some cool things that I will certainly take away from me, and a few ideas that I will probably end up using.

We then took the car over to Morrisons to grab some sandwiches for lunch and some for tomorrow as well, and then we returned to the hotel where we checked in, and typically we have the room at the very end of the corridor, as far away from the lift as possible, so I am guessing Lindsay forgot to tuck the option for an accessible room when she made the booking!

After that I went on a Docent Tour with Emma England the head of programming, which was great, there was me and one other girl, for whom it was her first time got lots of personnel attention which was really nice.

Afterwards I went to the opening ceremony, which was a presentation by Emma King of the Royal Institute in which she demonstrated lots of cool science stuff, including turning a gherkin into a lightbulb. While I was doing that Megan and Lindsay used the pool to relax as Megan was all out of spoons.

We then meet up and had tea in the Fan Lounge, we all had fish and chips what with it being Good Friday, and we then went and played a game of King of Tokyo which was over in 10 minutes as Lindsay just kicked our arses!

At this point Megan was very very tired, so we have retired to bed, I am also shattered as I didn’t sleep until 3am in the morning being all excited and all, and I was up again at 5am, so I decided to skip the Blake’s 7 Wobblevision I wanted to see in order to set myself up for tomorrow, which will be a long day full of stuff.

  • Mood: Very Happy
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 4 in addition to the Mountain Dew I drank earlier.
  • In My Ears: Toxicity by System of a Down
  • Game Last Played: King of Tokyo

Off to Eastercon

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On 13th April 2017

In Blog

Right now I am on my way to Eastercon, my first since I was 17, and I am really looking forward to it. It’s going to be Lindsay and Megan’s first time at an Eastercon and I hope they have a good time. Megan is very very nervous and anxious, so she is going to be sticking with me and Lindsay for the weekend as opposed to doing anything on her own, so we have arranged our program around her. There is a lot of stuff on my program I am looking forward to, and I am going to try and make time to chill out and listen to some Filk in the jamming space.

Last time I was at an Eastercon I borrowed a bodhrán and had a great time just drumming away on that, so perhaps I might get to do that again. I occasssionly think of buying one, but I am terrible at music so usually don’t proceed beyond putting it in my cart and then immediately closing the browser window.

This year Eastercon is particularly looking at disability in SFF, and I am attending a number of panels around this theme, I am specifically looking forward to “Characters with Disabilities Kicking-Ass” and “Curing Disabled Characters in TV”. We will also be attending a screening of the first episode of the new Season of Doctor Who on Saturday, followed by a pyjama party, for which I have bought myself a new pair of Batman pyjamas! There will also be a groan-a-long viewing of Plan 9 From Outer Space, which should be good, lets face it, it really is the worst film ever made, and Megan and Lindsay will be watching it for the first time.

There is also a 24 hour game room, so Lindsay and Megan aren’t expecting me to get a lot of sleep, I am taking along Splendor, One Night Revolution and Thunderbirds to try and play with people there. Oh and there is a LARP session going on as well, which should be fun, its been a few years since I did any LARP

We stopped off at Warhammer World on our way this morning for breakfast and so I could pick up a few things for people, Graham wanted some Thudd Guns, Aidan some shoulder pads and SOR a t-shirt. It’s always nice to pick up things for people and share the booty from a trip to Nottingham. I picked up a few things for myself but I will talk about those later.

We actually arrived at Warhammer World a full 25 minutes before it opened, I programmed in a much longer stop at Wheterby services for Lindsay to get her coffee, our quick stops there so often turn into a full hour! But this time we were quick, popped into the toilet, I grabbed a doughnut so I could take my pills, Lindsay got her coffee and she and Megan got some mini hash browns from Burger King and away we went!

I had a full English breakfast, they always do a good job of that here, I did want the Ogres Breakfast but Lindsay and Megan said no, apparently it’s too much meat and would make me ill!!! But they did let me have the deluxe Easter hot chocolate as a way which was nice, I would never have thought to put mini eggs in hot chocolate!

What I am Modelling

I have a big pile of stuff to paint so I am cracking on with that, and the first thing that has hit my desk is a squad of Tartaros Terminators for my Word Bearers. These guys are armed with three Power Fists, a Chainfists, Heavy Flamer and the Sgt has a Grenade Harness and a Power Axe. I haven’t got much done with them, I have the base coat of Mephiston Red done, got them washed and one has been tidied up. Alongside them I am also doing the Praetor Tribune as well.

What I am Reading

I listened to Magnus – Master of Prospero by Graham McNeil at the beginning of this week and I was very impressed, I will be giving my thoughts on it in the next Edge of Empire episode which should get released mid-next week so look out for that.

What I am Playing

IMG_9469This week I got in a game of Splendor with Lindsay and Megan, it was our first time playing in a while so I was a little rusty at first but a few turns in and I was back up and playing with ease.

I really enjoy Splendor, I got it in a Secret Santa on Board Game Geek a few years ago and its a firm favourite. I had thought I was won, I claimed 3 of the 4 nobles and when I picked up my last card, I got 16 points and declared myself the winner. I had that feeling for all of 5 seconds, when Megan piped up to say she also had 16 points, she thought we played until 20 points!!!

So my excitement at winning a game was crushed and Megan got to win again!

I still love the game though and I am taking it with us to Eastercon along with Thunderbirds.

What I am Backing

I am still backing Gloomhaven, which is an unusual campaign given that it’s a simple reprinting with no stretch goals or anything like that, but the updates are interesting and I am really looking forward to getting my hands on this.

I am also have a good look at Vikingar, a Canadian project, I am very much on the fence about it, but it’s reasonably cheap at CAD $70 which is about £35ish, anyway I have stared the project and will look at it again in the last 48hrs to decided on if I am backing it or not.

I got three Kickstarters in the post this week, Sliced Quarterly Volume #1, Paranoia and some expansions for Ember.

IMG_9467Sliced Quarterly Volume #1 was a quick turnaround and I am very impressed with the package, the colouring book is so much better than I thought it would be. Lindsay is particularly impressed with the Book Plate I got with it, the otter design really got a smile out of her.

As usual Kens ran a wonderful well oiled campaign and it’s a really nice book, and I will continue to recommend his projects to others, because I think they are worth it.

I have backed all of his projects so far, and I will certainly be backing any others he runs, he has the Kickstarter process down to a well refined machine now.

Paranoia was the first delivery, I pledged for the Ultraviolet boxset with all the add ons. Yesterday I took the first delivery which was the main Ultraviolet boxset, GM Screen, and Forms Pack and I am very impressed, it has quite a bit of heft to it. The books are only A5, but in all honesty I had no expectations about that either way, but a lot of other backers seemed to have been expecting A4, and to be honest since the PDFs were released, its been pretty obvious they would be A5.

IMG_9479In the box we got the Players Handbook, the Gamemasters Handbook, Mission Book, a Guide to Alpha Complex, 6 dry erase character sheets, the cards needed to play and some dice.

Now you can tell that some corners have been cut in final production, for example, the outer covering of the box is not fixed with the kind of attention to detail I expected and the paper in the books is a little thinner than I would have liked. Now saying that, this project went to print late last year and the reality is that the £ was worth a lot less than it was when this project funded, so I am guessing that forced them to make some budgetary decisions that they might not have wanted to do, and the paper isn’t exactly tissue thin, its about as thick as the paper in 5th edition D&D books.

The two areas where they did in my opinion screw up, are the GM Screen and the player dice. The GM screen is pretty poor on the joins between the screen sheets, its just really poor attention to detail and should have been done better, it doesn’t make it unusable, but frankly it looks pretty crap. There are two different dice, we get a 16mm Computer Dice for the GM which is OK I would have preferred the symbols be etched in rather than printed, but they are ok, but the player dice which are 14mm, are really crap. They are the kind of dice one would expect from a really crap supermarket version of Snakes and Ladders, or out of a Christmas cracker, they are just bad, they are cheap and shoddy and they lower the quality of an otherwise pretty good boxset.

Now I understand why they did it, as I said, the financial situation changed between when the game funded and when it went to print, but personally I think they should have tried to do better on the dice, or to be honest, not included them and just gave us the Computer Dice, D6s are easy to come by, every FLGS will sell them to you.

But don’t let those complaints take away from the fact that this is a really good package, if you backed just for this in the Kickstarter it would have cost you £30 which frankly is an amazing deal, I paid £95 simply because I wanted everything they were doing, and James Wallis, the lead writer is a friend and I know and trust his work, yes he took his sweet time with this, but it really was worth it in the end, plus he is going to autograph it at the UK Games Expo in June for me!!!

FullSizeRenderI also got some expansions for Ember a card game I backed from District 31 games last year, the guy lives in Scarborough so its sort of local, but when we meet him at the UK Games Expo last year his enthusiasm for his game really infected me and Lindsay, so I have backed the two projects he ran for expansions since then. They were From the Ashes, which has he put it, was designed to supercharge Ember, and the to two mini expansions that formed the Light and Dark project.

now the truth be told, I am yet to actually play Ember, but its the guys passion which got me hooked in, I really need to actually get round to playing it as its part of my pile of shame, games that I have yet to play, which i might blog about in a few weeks. Anyway the art in these is lovely and he also included some nice player sheets which list the stages of play, so that will be handy for when I actually get round to playing it.

What I am Spending

This week I have kept my spending small given that I am going to Eastercon. Although when we stopped off at Warhammer World I picked up a few things, I got a Space Wolves Legion transfer sheet, Space Marine Command Tanks, the reprint of Rogue Trader, a Reikland Reavers and a Space Wolves t-shirt, some MKIII Ultramarines shoulder pads, pack of Volkite Chargers and Varag Ghoul-Chewer for my Gouged Eye.

I did take advantage of a £10 off voucher from Warlord Games and ordered my myself a Blitzkrieg German 75mm LeiG 18 light artillery for my early war German army for Bolt Action. I already had one of these, but I bought it before they released a Blitzkrieg version, so it doesn’t really match the rest of the army, but now I have one that will. So at some point I will be selling that one which is currently unbuilt.

I also spent $9.99 on Robots of Unusual Size, the first mission for Paranoia outside the boxset which Kickstarter backers are just getting in their hands now, and from what I have read so far, is a pretty interesting adventure.

Also Thrawn was also released this week and I have had it on preorder for ages, so it was nice to be able to download it and then pop it on my Kobo, not to forget I also got the audiobook as well. I am very much looking forward to reading that, but then again, I have all the new Star Wars cannon books to read still!

FullSizeRenderIn addition, its not really spending, but I did pay for the postage, I have been sent a copy of the Suicide Squad Batman Miniatures Game boxset to review, so look out for that in about a month or so. So yeah I paid for postage for that and I picked it up yesterday.

New Section!!!

I am trying out this new little section below, I am going to try and blog more frequently so this will make a lot more sense, I have pinched the idea from friend Monica Valentinelli‘s blog, which given recent events has got a lot of my attention this week.

So I present to you this section, which may or may not interest you, but who knows eh!

  • Mood: Jubilant
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 1, a Sugar Free Mountain Dew
  • In My Ears: (It’s Not War) Just The End of Love
  • Game Last Played: Ticket to Ride Germany Map
  • Book Last Read: Predator, Prey by Rob Sanders
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Suicide Squad Extended Cut
  • Current State of Projects: Tartaros Terminators Basecoated

 

Improving the Sound

By

On 10th April 2017

In Blog

Since me and Graham started the podcast the issue that has been plaguing us is sound quality so this week I have been determined to tackle that.

Up until now I have been recording the headphones output of my mixer, but the results have been pretty poor, so I spent much of Saturday in the studio working with the mixer and various YouTube tutorials to try and figure out the best way to sort it out.

I have been unable to simply record the master mix off the mixer as it only picks up my voice, despite me gearing Graham through the headphones, and the volume from Skype has been coming in very hot. 

The first solution offered was to set my microphone to be listened to in the properties, and whilst this worked, it left me hearing an echo, which just really put me off, so I abandoned that rather quickly, as it also still had volume issues, quietening me down and pushing the Skype input up.

So I turned to recording software for Skype, but that was giving me a very weird echo on the incoming call, so that didn’t work.

Anyway I eventually discovered that the easiest way to make this work, was to do all the work on the mixer but having a separate machine just for the Skype calls, meaning everything is integrated into the master mix. To do this I need to create a mix minus, which has meant I needed more cables! So I ordered them and I hope they arrive tomorrow, so far Amazon Prime hasn’t let me down and here is hoping it won’t start now.

Thankfully Lindsay had an old PC that we had been playing around with Ubuntu on, but this wasn’t working out, so I was able to take that and move it into the studio, I then reinstalled Windows 7 Starter on it, which has got it running much better. Now that has Skype running on it, I just need to cables to connecting it to the mixer and get it working.

Basically what’s going to happen is that I plug a cable from the headphone jack into a microphone input of the mixer to feed the Skype call into the mixer properly, I then put everything in the mixer except that microphone feed, into an aux channel which then feeds back into the microphone socket of the Skype machine, so that mix has everything “minus” the output of Skype so it doesn’t create feedback on the call.

It all sounds quite complicated but hopefully by this time tomorrow I should know if this is going to work or not and if it does then we will have a much better show going forward.

What I am Modelling

My Triumvirate of the Primarch arrived and I couldn’t resist opening it up and building the models. I recently got rid of the old Cypher model in anticipation of getting this one, and I currently don’t have any Grey Knights, but I plan to put together a small one as a little allied force.

I also built up my Troll and Ogre for Blood Bowl, the Troll was a really detailed build with lots of small parts but when its come together it’s really nice, a lot less horrid than the GW photos made it appear to be

On the painting side, I started and finished up Griff Oberwald and the Ogre for my Bloodbowl team and finished up a Word Bearers Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought I started painting the other week.

What I am Reading

I listened to the Binary Succession this week, and I have to say it blew me away. It was a really good book with an interesting and strong female lead, it wasn’t an action book, but that’s what I liked about it, it was full of intrigue and infighting and gave a great insight into the founding of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and even introduced Electropriests to 30k.

I will be reviewing the book in a bit more detail on the next episode of Edge of Empire so listen out for that.

What I am Playing

On Tuesday at the Raiders I played a game against John and Stuart, they teamed up with 1000pts each to take on my 2000pt list for Betrayal at the Bunker. 

Stuart brought along good old Perturabo, and a squad of Tyrant Siege Terminators and a Tactical Squad, and John had some Terminators, couple of Tactical Squads a Mor Deythan squad and interestingly a Librarian. I had a Siege Breaker, Primus Medicae, two Tactical Squads in Rhinos, Terminator Squad in a Spartan, three Medusas and three Quad Mortar Rapiers with Phosphex Cannister Shots.

We played War of Lies with Ambush and guess who got to defend, that’s right I did! So I put my Spartan, Medusas and Rapiers in a circular formation and left my Tactical Squads with their Rhinos in reserve. I started off by killing three Tyrant Siege Terminators with my Medusas and taking a couple of wounds off Perturabo whilst using my Phosphex shots from the Rapiers to bog down Johns Terminator squad, which also killed two of them.

Perturabos orbital bombardment then destroyed two of my Medusas and shook the other one, so I sent my Spartan round to try and do some damage to him, it did take off another two wounds, but he regained one with his ITWND roll. He then tried to charge the Spartan but managed to fail to r a huge it, so my Terminators, Siege Breaker and Primus Medicae got out and charged him instead after shooting him which took off another wound with the Siege Breakers Combi-Volkite.

The resultant combat saw me lose a Terminator and the squad be blinded but at the same initiative step I was able to take off Perturabos last two wounds and kill him. Then my Terminators found themselves subject to Fury of the Legion from two different Tactical squads, losing me all but one of the squad, so he was left there with the two centurions.

Meanwhile on the other side of the battle, my Rapiers continued to bombard the Terminator squad, with no more deaths, but it continued to keep them stuck in dangerous terrain and from actually doing anything major in the game. They did really well and them being T7 was really their saving grace and John threw everything at them, by the games end all he had done was remove four of the crew and one Rapier.

I ended up winning the game 5-4, we each ended up with two objectives and both rolled a 2 and a 5, but I got Slay the Warlord from killing Perturabo.

What I am Backing

The second printing of Gloomhaven hit Kickstarter and I couldn’t help myself, so I will make myself poor for another month.

This innovative euro style game just appeals to me on so many levels, it’s a cooperative game, so Megan will want to play it and the choose your own adventure style game really draws me in. 

It’s got excellent reviews from people who have the first printing and this one is meant to address the issues that one had, and also there is a book of solo adventures.

I will also most certainly be getting the removable sticker set as well to extend its lifespan.

What I am Spending

The past few weeks has seen me do quite a bit of wheeler dealing, mostly sending stuff I am not going to use out the door, but on the plus side it has brought a few things in the door as well.

I ended up with two built, but unpainted Medusas, which will join my Word Bearers, and enough money that I have been able to place another Forgeworld order, netting me a few things for my eventual Space Wolves for Heresy, a Xiphon for my Ultramarines, a pair of Moritats one each for my Ultramarines and Word Bearers and most excitingly a Legion Glaive!

The Glaive is probably going to my Ultramarines, they already have a Fellblade, but I was thinking that my Word Bearers would get a Typhon as their shooty superheavy as they are already getting the Mastodon.

I also paid for a ticket to the Dropfleet Commander Summer Invasion at the UK Games Expo on the Saturday. That should be interesting as I have only been able to play one game of it up until now and this will be throwing me in at the deep end really, now to prepare my 1250pt list! 

And in an unexpected move I bought a shock mount for my shotgun microphone with a hot shoe adapter so that I can try and film stuff in a better way, so will try and get some test footage done next week.

A Few Events I Looking Forward To

By

On 3rd April 2017

In Blog

It’s only been a few days since my last blog entry but I am getting back on schedule so here is another one!

Graham finally put together the Durham Raiders Heresy event for the 14th May, so I am going to be taking along my Word Bearers to that, I even have Scottish Graham coming down and staying overnight so he can play in it.

Also looking forward to the Battle Bunker tournament on the 29th, figure I am going to take along an Ultramarines phosphex artillery list to that, well it is a tournament!

And other than that I am looking forward to Eastercon, I have convinced the girls to drop into Warhammer World for Breakfast on the the way down, I want to pop into Forgeworld and grab a Space Wolves transfer sheet and Varag-Ghoul-Chewer while I am there.

What I am Modelling

Megan got my bug on Thursday morning, so I stayed in the studio all day to be near her for when she inevitably needed a hug.

So Lindsay gave me a hand finishing up the tidying there to make it a bit more accessible as my stuff was all over the place.

But I got on a roll in the afternoon with some building and built a Deredeo Dreadnought with Hellfire Plasma Cannonade, a Deimos Pattern Rhino and a Titan Techpriest which had been sitting unbuilt on my desk for the past two years.

I also started work on painting up a Legion MKIV Recon Squad with sniper rifles for my Ultramarines, I built them a while ago and never got round to painting them, so I am putting that right now, gonna try and get them finished up for beginning of next week. I have another squad of them to do after these, but this time armed with shotguns. I got them finished off on Friday night and I am happy with them, although I am not as happy as I could be with the camoline cloaks.

On Saturday night I got an itch to build some Terminators, because they are one of the things I plan to deliver with the Mastodon. I have 15 Tartaros Terminators and figured I would build a squad of them, well I ended up building all 15 of them, plus the Praetor Tribune and the Praetor from Betrayal at Calth and the Primus Medicae! And then I went away and wrote a Pride of the Legion list with all of them in it, well all but the Praetor Tribune, I still have to squeeze a Chaplain in the list!

I have also started to do a bit more work on my Caestus Assault Ram, although I am now no longer sure how I will be using it, my initial plan was to give it to a squad of Breachers, but now I have the second Land Raider Armoured Proteus for them, so it’s use is currently questionable. 

What I am Reading

I resumed reading Predator, Prey and I am enjoying it, I am only about a quarter of the way through it, but it’s interesting seeing how the Ork invasion is impacting other Imperial systems.

I have been listening to Angel Exterminatus again and it’s interesting because I didn’t really pick up on the meeting between Perturabo and the Emperor when I first listened to/read the book, and it’s interesting to see how noble he was when the Crusade began, compared to where he is at this point in the series. It’s funny how you pick up on different things every time you read or listen to a book.

I finished it up tonight and will be moving onto the new Magnus book next, but first a couple of Podcast episodes stand between me and it.

What I am Playing

Today me and Lindsay played a game of Firefly that took us 4 1/2 hours, which was great. We played with Blue Sun, Kalidasa and Burning Atmo using a standard set up and the “Respectable” Persons of Business story, all of which was on the Whole Damn Verse game mat.

I also played with one of the two new ships for the first time, specifically the Jetwash. It was a very satisfying game and really scratched my urge to play a nice long involved game, I could have gone on for a bit longer, but Megan was hungry and wanted to order tea, so I had the $12,000 needed to end the game, so I called last turn and ended up winning with $9900 to Lindsays $8900.

Perhaps we will do that again sometime soon, but introduce Pirates and Bounty Hunters as well.

What I am Backing

This week I have thrown a couple of quid into Toucan Play that Game Season 2. It’s a YouTube channel about board games with a twist in that it focuses on games that can be played with only two players.

Michael is a decent guy and he has made some pretty cool videos about the board game hobby, so its a good thing to back this project, hopefully his second season will be as enjoyable as the first.

I am still also baking Rising Sun which ends very soon, we now have all 7 Kami and are now working towards the Earth Dragon, here is hoping we get that and that they next do a Wind Dragon which we will hopefully get as well.

And of course not forgetting Cognition Issue #2 which has hit all of its Stretch goals.

What I am Spending

I finally cracked, I really, really wanted him and I have gone and bought him, by him I mean my Spiritual Liege, Roboute Gulliman and his Triumvirate.

Not sure what I will do with the other two guys though, suppose I could see if Harry wants the Grey Knights dude, and I guess I could use Cypher.

Also with that I also ordered a Troll for my Blood Bowl Orcs, so that gives me the three initial teams all with their big boy model as well.

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