Category: Blog Page 41 of 50

To Glasgow

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On 24th July 2019

In Blog

This post is later than planned but hey at least it’s here.

This past weekend I made my first ever trip to Glasgow and it’s not a bad place to visit, the people are nice and the city is rather pleasant.

I was demoing board games at the Resonate festival at the SEC, and that was a lot of fun, I learnt to play Cobra Paw, Maki Stack, Just One (this years SDJ winner), Pandemic Rapid Response, Dice Forge and Game of Thrones Catan, and the team I worked with we’re all amazing people, loved every one of them.

I have been out of video games for some time, ever since gamergate really, but it was nice to see that the community now, well at least in Scotland, isn’t just a bunch of white dudes, but it’s much more diverse with a lot more women and ethnic minorities there, so perhaps the community has changed for the better since I left.

I did have one negative experience, and that was tea on Saturday when we went to Pizza Punks, and I am gonna be honest here, it’s one to avoid, the food was very very late coming and was no where near as nice as Mod or PizzaStorm, so I will be avoiding the branch in Newcastle.

When I got back from Glasgow, Megan was keen on getting a new Hamster so yesterday morning we popped over to Pets at Home, and brought back Argel Tal, who is a lovely little boy, of a bit shy.

What I am Modelling

It’s been tough doing anything in the heat, but I did build my second Plagueburst Crawler.

Painting wise I did two sets of Thermic Plasma Regulators, one from Conquest, the other we got from Scottish Graham, Gabriel Angelos and Garreks Reavers.

I am going to clear off a few old projects from my desk next, so I have five Fire Warriors and five Tartaros Terminators I want to get finished as they have been in various stages of completion for about 18 months now.

What I am Reading

Slowly making my way through Last Son of Dorn, normally I would read quicker, but it’s just been too hot to concentrate.

What I am Playing

Other than the games I played at Resonate, I have played four games this week.

Last Tuesday, I played Megan at Shadespire, and I lost, big time, she just kept scoring this objectives, quicker than I could. Later that night we played When I Dream, and again I lost because I just did a bad job being the Sandman.

Wednesday we played a quick game of Monty Python Fluxx which I won and then last night we introduced Camel Up to Megan’s Mum, and as per usual, I came last!

What I am Backing

As expected I dropped out of backing Trial by Trolley, but am now backing Isle of Cats, which looks quite good.

What I am Cooking

I haven’t been capable of cooking this week

What I am Spending

I had a bit of money in PayPal, so yesterday I ordered Toofrippa’s Krew for Kill Team.

I Really Am Back This Time

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On 15th July 2019

In Blog

It’s been a long time since I blogged and it’s about time I got back to it, don’t you think.

Anyway I am starting of slow and just gonna update you on how my week went.

What I am Modelling

This week I have only really finished two things, the first was a Fortress of Redemption, which to be fair is a rather large model, the other was a set of Sector Sanctoris Ruins from The Fractal Blades, which I bought this week.

I have loads of stuff to be getting on with so will try and spend more time at the painting desk before I leave for Glasgow on Friday.

I did get my Conquest delivery on Saturday so I have built the stuff out of there, and will be priming all but the four Plague Marines tomorrow along with a second set of Thermic Plasma Conduits I got off Scottish Graham.

What I am Reading

This week I finished Scions of the Emperor which I will be reviewing on the next episode of Edge of Empire, and it wasn’t too bad a book, just a little shorter that Sons of the Emperor.

I have started on The Last Son of Dorn he as I slowly make my way through The Beast Arises, not sure what it is, but I have been finding that series a hard slog.

What I am Playing

A lot more than normal this week, I played Machi Koro twice, in the first game I beat Paul and Lindsay considerable, and then on the second game I utterly spanked Lindsay’s bum.

We also played Shadespire and I won on a technicality against Lindsay in my first game, but you can read about those in posts from earlier this week.

What I am Backing

Currently backing Trial by Trolley but Megan really doesn’t want me backing this project so I am likely to be dropping it in the next few days.

What I am Cooking

All I managed to cook this week were some burgers on the BBQ with Lindsay’s help.

What I am Spending

Not a lot, I bought The Fractal Blades a couple of weeks ago and they finally arrived but that’s it for this week, I am fairly broke.

  • Mood: Tired
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 4
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Cricket World Cup Final

Shadespire At Last!!!

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On 12th July 2019

In Blog

Tonight me and Lindsay played Warhammer Underworlds:- Shadespire, which first came out in 2017, and since then had had a second season in Nightvault and numerous warbands, and I have bought them all, including all the custom dice and extra goodies. I got the core set for £20 brand new from Jus at Battle Bunker back in December 2017 after he just moved the shop to its current location, and then bought a good deal of the rest from him as well.

But to my shame, until tonight I had never played a game, but now I have, and I loved it.

Such a simple, yet deeply tactical game, we just played with the original warbands, Lindsay took Steelhearts Champions and I took Garrek’s Reavers, and we used the basic starter decks.

Of course Lindsay insisted on watching an explanation video first, unlike me, she learns by reading the rules twice and watching a video, but tonight she just watched a video. Myself, well I prefer to just go ahead and learn as I go. We had to try a couple of videos as Lindsay finds Becca Scott a tough too excitable!

My warband were very squashy and I lost three of my fighters, whereas she only lost one, my guys really struggles to do much in combat, but they were fast and were able to grab objectives and score some glory, but I was always behind because Lindsay kept killing my fighters.

In the end we drew on glory, five each, but because I made a last dash to grab an objective, I won because I had a fighter on that.

Loved the game and I will be teaching it to Megan when she returns from holiday.

My main thing with it so far has been the opportunity to paint models for armies that I have no intention of ever owning, but it’s nice to paint a small number of them.

Last month I painted Thundrik’s Profiteers and they were a lot of fun to work on, I still have to paint, Zarbag’s Gitz, Mollog’s Mob, the Godsworn Hunt, and Ylthari’s Guardians, but I am gonna get them painted as soon as I can.

  • Current State of Projects: Fortress of Redemption 90% Done

Tuna Boat Baby!!!

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On 10th July 2019

In Blog

Tonight me and Lindsay were joined by Paul to play a game which I really love, Machi Koro.

It’s a few years old now, actually it’s about to have its 5th Anniversary Edition releases, but it’s a game I have always enjoyed even though it’s not the most in depth or strategically challenging game.

The concept is really simple, you roll dice, which activated different building and facilities within your city, and earn money with which to buy other buildings and facilities.

The aim is to build certain landmark buildings, such as an Airport and Amusement Park, the first one to build all of them wins the game.

It’s random and very much filled with luck but a little strategy can go a long way, tonight my aim was to focus on big rewarding facilities when people built their Train Stations and started to roll two dice, so whenever someone rolled a 9, I was getting 15 coins because of my three mines, and that won me the game in the end.

My real issue with Machi Koro is though, that you need to have the Harbour expansion to get the most out of the game, without that its a little less good, it’s still a fun game, but the Harbour takes it to the next level.

Ok, it’s not gonna satisfy players who want to play something like Twilight Imperium all the time, but it’s a light fun game, and my favourite thing is the low downtime (unless you happen to be playing with Lindsay that is).

I would say that if you get a chance to play it, give it a whirl, because I think it’s a lot of fun and a unique twist on city building.

We own the Deluxe Edition which came with both the Harbour and Millionaires Row expansions in a tin with some custom dice.

Back Again!

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On 31st January 2018

In Blog

I am back baby! But why was I away, well my PC decided to die and I hate writing these blog posts on my phone. The motherboard had a catastrophic failure and had taken an age to get repaired, but it’s back and up and running now.

I am not going to go into a full update about what went on over the past two months, but it was cool, I had a nice Christmas, although I was ghastly ill over New Years.

But I will just crack on with the normal categories of updates I do and try and get back into the swing of this next week properly.

What I am Modelling

This week I have been doing a bit of a Heresy mop up and finishing off some units by building them up to full squad numbers, I started with five Volkite Culverin Heavy Support Marines for my Word Bearers and have this week finished up some Destroyers for my Ultramarines.

I am currently working on some Lascannon Heavy Support Marines for my Ultramarines, but they just need the transfers.

Next up I will be painting some Recon Marines with shotguns, and starting on the Glaive which is going to join my Word Bearers.

What I am Reading

Not listening to any audiobooks at the minute as I have been catching up with Podcasts, but I have started the next Beats Arises book, The Last Wall, which I do have to say, this far is not as bad as the last David Annandale book I read. He still uses very short sentences which makes reading a bit hard at time, but the story seems solid enough.

What I am Playing

This weekend we made the pilgrimage to Warhammer World where me and Megan used our Blood Angels to play against my friend Nathan’s Necrons.

Nathan brought along a a Tesseract Vault which our army destroyed by turn 2, in fact we had few issues dealing with the big stuff, but we really struggled to take care of the Destroyers and Necron Warriors. Our list was very much a generic Marine list as opposed to a more Blood Angels list so we did fail to take advantage of the Blood Angels strengths but we enjoyed ourselves none the less.

We did lose the game 15-35 though as our cards were very unkind to us, we played a mission from Chapter Approved and it was an awful lot of fun.

On Tuesday I played against James Tyranids at Durham Raiders and that was a major loss, my Chaos Space Marines just couldn’t deal with all the Hive Guard with their good guns and he managed to tear my army apart very quickly, even my Spartan only lasted a turn!

I think part of the problem is that my Chaos Space Marines are just what I have in terms of Word Bearers in Heresy that can be used in 40k and perhaps they need some more specific 40k units in order to shine.

What I am Backing

I am role so I am not backing anything, but I am eagerly awaiting my copy of arising Sun which will hopefully be coming very soon!

What I am Cooking

I managed to make myself an omelette yesterday, but that was a huge struggle.

I did cook some pulled chicken sliders on Friday night, I boiled some chicken thighs in chicken stock, a bay leaf, cumin and salt and pepper, before I pulled it and the cooked it in my BBQ sauce for a little bit.

What I am Spending

Very little, I bought a few bits at Warhammer World, a Mortis Lascannon so I can build a Mortis Dreadnought armed with two Twin-Linked Lascannons for my Ultramarines. I preordered the new Rhino Word Bearer doors for my Glaive and hopefully they will arrive in Friday so I can get started on that model, and I got a Tau t-shirt which was the last one in my size.

I also got the two souvenir coins that Warhammer World now do as well.

Experiments in Live Streaming/Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Fifteen

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On 15th November 2017

In Blog

 

On Sunday we had our four weekly board games day, and we decided to have a go at live streaming the games, as I have mentioned, me and Graham want to live stream some games from Company of Legends.

So to try out the technology we gave it a shot on Sunday and below you can watch the results for yourself.

We have been doing dome other tests to see what we can do to make it look as good as possible and we are going to be doing a big test by live streaming a full game of Horus Heresy in the next couple of weeks.

I thought I had decided how we were going to do it, but I have been seeing other ideas that may look better, but its a case of doing more tests over the next few weeks and seeing how we can make this look as good as possible.

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge

I have previously mentioned that as a Bahá’í everyday I say the phrase Alláh-u-Abh‎‎á which is Arabic for God is the Most Glorious.

Now normally I use an app to help me keep track, but a few years ago, my wife Lindsay made me this set of prayer beads. They are based on a dream of Mirza Abbas Buzurg, Bahá’u’lláh’s father in which he saw his Son in a vast ocean and Bahá’u’lláh’s body was aglow lighting up all around him. And around him gathered a large amount of fish each of which clung to end of one of his hairs, and they followed him wherever he swam doing him no harm and not preventing him from swimming anywhere he wanted to.

When he awoke Mirza Buzurg who was a minister in the Persian Government summoned a soothsayer to him to interpret the dreams and his interpretation was as follows:

“O Minister, the endless ocean in which you saw your son is the world of creation. Your son will achieve mastery over this world. The multitude of fish are the people of the world and the turmoil that Bahá’u’lláh will generate among them. None will be able to prevent him doing whatever he wishes. Around him the people will gather and to him they will cling. They will be unable to harm him.”

Anyway these are my prayer beads, I love them and I don’t use them as often as I should.

What I am Modelling

I finished up a Daemon Prince of Khorne model that I built for my Blades of Khorne/Chaos army for Age of Sigmar. He will also find a role in my Chaos Marines army in 40k and as a HQ for Daemon allies for my 30k Word Bearers.

I have now started and have almost finished a few units for my Ultramarines, a Praetor from the MKIV Commander Set and a squad of Tactical Support Marines armed with Volkite Chargers and a Rhino to go with them.

The infantry is nearly finished now whilst the Rhino has a long way to go still. The Preator I managed to finish up whilst I was writing this post.

What I am Reading

Despite saying I would I still have yet to pick up my book since my last update :-(.

I am however making good progress through Praetorian of Dorn and have almost finished it.

What I am Playing

On Sunday in our four weekly board games day we started off with Mars Attacks The Dice Game, followed by Carcassonne (which included the River, Abbot, the Spiel Promo tiles from 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, the Labyrinth and the Japanese Buildings), Pretending to Grownup, Ca$h ‘n Guns, Unspeakable Words Deluxe and Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice. I won’t go into detail about them as you can look above to watch the videos of us playing them.

What I am Backing

Not a thing at the minute, not a single thing.

I had hoped to back Ogre Miniatures Set 2, but sadly its not available for international backers :-(.

What I am Cooking

I have had a poor week pain wise and haven’t cooked anything this week, which has knocked my confidence quite a bit.

What I am Spending

I have spent a bit more money than I planned to this week, I started the week by buying some 90mm Oval Bases and a Lictor from Games Workshop this week and Roboute Guilliman from Forgeworld.

We also picked up a few bits for the podcast, a tripod for the second webcam which arrived this week, a USB sound card so we can plug the shotgun microphone into the laptop and a USB active repeater extension cable, these are for the video work we will be doing.

It doesn’t count as spending but one of my Secret Santa gifts arrived today, this one from The Board Game Group Secret Santa, it wasn’t wrapped and had no indication on it that it was a present, so I opened it and got a wonderful surprise in the form of 7 Wonders Duel Pantheon and Kingdomino!

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Thirteen

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On 13th November 2017

In Blog

Today I discovered that the past few days posts have not been published in the website for some reason.

So I have had to take time to sort that out so today I am being lazy again and just sharing a prayer by Bahá’u’lláh which calls for unity to follow on from yesterday’s post about unity and oneness.

“O my God! O my God! Unite the hearts of Thy servants, and reveal to them Thy great purpose. May they follow Thy commandments and abide in Thy law. Help them, O God, in their endeavor, and grant them strength to serve Thee. O God! Leave them not to themselves, but guide their steps by the light of Thy knowledge, and cheer their hearts by Thy love. Verily, Thou art their Helper and their Lord.”

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Twelve

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On 12th November 2017

In Blog

Today has been a satisfying day, in which we played games and live streamed them.

But what I wanted to talk about today was the three onenesses, which are core principles of the Bahá’í faith. They are the oneness of God, the oneness of religion and the oneness of humanity.

So how do I explain them, well I will probably do so very badly but here goes.

Oneness of God

We Bahá’ís believe in a single unknowable God who is the source of all existence, a creator who created us to have the capacity to know and love him.

In our belief system, we believe that the beings worshiped as gods by other societies are all a reflection of this single Being, and rather than the differences being irreconcilable, we see them as simply aspects that are relevant to the time and culture in which they were revealed.

So to summarise that, there is one God, there has only ever been the one God and all people have worshiped that same God throughout history.

Oneness of Religion

We believe that there is only one religion, and that God has been progressively revealing that religion to mankind, depending on the needs of a society at a particular time and place which is why they have differences.

We believe that Bahá’u’lláh is the latest is in a long line of messengers which has included Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and others. We believe that denying any one of these messengers is to deny them all, this we accept Zoroaster as much as we accept the Báb and Krishna.

Oneness of Humanity

The Bahá’í teachings tell us that there is only one humanity and that all people, regardless of race, nation, gender, class, and caste are equal in the eyes of God.

`Abdu’l Bahá stated that “the paramount issue and question in the religious and political conditions of the world.” And Bahá’u’lláh wrote –

“Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship.”

The differences we see in people are superficial, like skin colour, or a result of differences in education or background.

It is a guiding principle of the Bahá’í faith that we wish to eliminate all forms of prejudice and discrimination be that racial or other forms like gender discrimination.

We believe in a principle called “Unity in Diversity”, which means that whilst mankind is essentially one people we should also celebrate the cultural diversity that makes us all different, it’s often likened to the flowers in a garden, where when different varieties and colours are added to a garden it enhances its beauty.

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Eleven

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On 11th November 2017

In Blog

It’s been a jam packed day today so I thought I would keep it simple and share a prayer, this prayer, like yesterday’s is by `Abdu’l Bahá and is on the subject of peace.

“Thou kind Lord! Thou hast created all humanity from the same stock. Thou hast decreed that all shall belong to the same household. In Thy Holy Presence they are all Thy servants, and all mankind are sheltered beneath Thy Tabernacle; all have gathered together at Thy Table of Bounty; all are illumined through the light of Thy Providence.

O God! Thou art kind to all, Thou hast provided for all, dost shelter all, conferrest life upon all. Thou hast endowed each and all with talents and faculties, and all are submerged in the Ocean of Thy Mercy.

O Thou kind Lord! Unite all. Let the religions agree and make the nations one, so that they may see each other as one family and the whole earth as one home. May they all live together in perfect harmony.

O God! Raise aloft the banner of the oneness of mankind.

O God! Establish the Most Great Peace.

Cement Thou, O God, the hearts together.

O Thou kind Father, God! Gladden our hearts through the fragrance of Thy love. Brighten our eyes through the Light of Thy Guidance. Delight our ears with the melody of Thy Word, and shelter us all in the Stronghold of Thy Providence.

Thou art the Mighty and Powerful, Thou art the Forgiving and Thou art the One Who overlooketh the shortcomings of all mankind.”

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Ten

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On 10th November 2017

In Blog

My nephew has been unwell today so I thought I would share a prayer I have been saying for him.

“O Thou peerless Lord! Let this suckling babe be nursed from the breast of Thy loving-kindness, guard it within the cradle of Thy safety and protection and grant that it be reared in the arms of Thy tender affection.”

It’s a prayer by `Abdu’l Bahá and like many of his prayers I find it extraordinarily beautiful. Some of the nicest prayers were revealed by him, and his writings are often those I turn to most. He was an amazing man who spent most of his life as a prisoner and then when he was finally released he used his remaining life to travel the world and spread the word of Bahá’u’lláh.

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