The 31st part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.
In this episode, we play the next Scout Mission!
Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the Blood Ravens!
You can buy your own Task Lamp here
You can support what I do by doing any of the following:-
The 30th part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.
In this episode, we play the next Scout Mission!
Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the Blood Ravens!
You can buy your own Task Lamp here
You can support what I do by doing any of the following:-
Well, I turned 40 last week, and it was not what I expected!
After Marys passing, I had stated that I wanted a quiet birthday, the only thing I wanted to do, was get a Big Mac, that’s it, nothing else.
But the polycule convinced me to make a bigger deal, we planned awesome meals that I love, a trip to Warhammer World, and watching Hamilton.
However, none of it happened, Lindsay got Covid on the Sunday night and all of the plans were cancelled.
To be honest, after having people making me build it up into something great, it turned out to be a huge disappointment.
I don’t know, it’s just really got me down, that the week was such a bust, and Lindsay has no more time off until Christmas, so we can’t even reschedule it to later on in the year, because Paul works weekends, and Megan can’t handle the crowds at Warhammer World on the weekend.
I did get some nice gifts; we did watch Lord of the Rings in 4k (Extended Editions of course), but it still felt like a big disappointing week.
Sorry for the moan, but I couldn’t even get a prearranged game at the club as I had planned, and Lindsay was mostly asleep, no not even any board games got played.
I guess my decision to make a bigger deal of 42 is more sensible.
I finished a squad of Terminators for my Imperial Fists first.
And then another of the same!
I then started work on a trio of Dreadnoughts, two Contemptors and a Leviathan.
I finished a Contemptor first.
Followed by the Leviathan.
I then finished up a second Contemptor, this time the resin legion specific one.
Making my way through Cthonia’s Reckoning which is not as good as I had hoped so far, but its ok.
I listened to both Mortarion – The Pale King and Rogal Dorn – The Emperor’s Crusader as audiobooks.
I have also started listening to the Doctor Who Monthly Adventures and just finished The Marian Conspiracy.
I am currently listening to The Great Clans of Rokugan Volume 1.
I have gotten back on the wagon of making Battle Reports!
More will follow!!!
Got myself a couple of treats for my birthday.
First was SuperHot VR for my Meta Quest 2, looking forward to playing that.
And secondly I got Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection for the PS5.
I also scored a very cheap copy of Shadow of the Colossus for PS4 from eBay.
And a few more controller holders for the wall, so that’s pretty much what I want on the wall up for now.
So up there at the moment are:-
In the future I hope to add a PC Engine and CD32 controller as well as putting my SN30.
The 29th part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.
In this episode, we play the next Scout Mission!
Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the Blood Ravens!
You can buy your own Task Lamp here
You can support what I do by doing any of the following:-
These last few weeks have been a hell of a busy ones, with mine and Megan’s handfasting and house move, plus Company of Legends to boot.
My mental health is still in recovery mode, but I am getting there.
Me and Megan have intended to have a commitment ceremony for some time, because as a polyamorous couple and me already being married to Lindsay, we didn’t need to stick to the traditions of a normal marriage.
We were going to do it next year, but accelerated plans when Mary was diagnosed with cancer, in the hope’s she would still be with us. But the speed at which the cancer took her meant we are a few weeks too late, which in itself is devastating.
We hired a hall near Sedgefield, as it was close enough to Hartlepool for Mary that getting her there in the condition we thought she would be in, was not going to be too arduous.
Due to the speed in which it was organised, we couldn’t get a lot of guests there, especially with it being midweek, but we were happy with those that could make it.
Megan wore a beautiful green dress for the ceremony with a black shawl.
It was small and pleasant, not a lot of friends could come, but those that did, we greatly appreciated it.
It’s been nearly two months now, but we are pretty settled in Hartlepool now, and it’s quite nice here, the house is lovely if a bit smaller than the Pelton one, but in general is pretty good.
There are a lot more things in the town which is nice and that really does help you make a lot better when you can pretty much get stuff without having to make a big plan on how to get it.
Only thing I am lacking is a place to buy paint in Hartlepool, but so far Lindsay and Paul have been getting me to Asgard when I need it.
Slowly but surely getting my studio in order, but next step is to actually put some armies into storage.
The first models I was able to get painting the new house were two units of Necron Warriors and some Canoptek Scarabs for my Necrons.
After that it took me ages, but I did manage to get a start on my Imperial Fists, starting with the Praetors from the boxset.
And a Tactical Squad.
I am now working on a Terminator Squad for the Imperial Fists.
I have had a couple of games of 40K at Durham Raiders using my Necrons, but that’s pretty much it.
Again, not a lot, but I did play and finish A Memoir Blue, which was rather more emotional than I expected!
GURPS Pyramid Scheme is back for 2022 from Steve Jackson Games, so I backed that, at the level that got you all three issues.
Most I have just been grabbing bits and bobs for the house and my studio, but there have been a few notable purchases.
I got a C64 Mini to add to my collection of retro mini consoles.
The Snottling stuff for Blood Bowl came out, so I grabbed the cards and dice for them!
Now this might sound daft, but when I renewed my phone contact, I was offered, and I snapped up a PS5 with Horizon Forbidden West!
But I also wanted some other games too, so I bought myself for the PS4, Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, The Last of Us Remastered and The Last of Us Part II.
The Uncharted Trilogy (and the Doctor Who Beginnings boxset)
And God of War plus Days Gone.
I also picked up a Contemptor Dreadnought for my Imperial Fist too and a Sicaran (not pictured)
And at Tabletop Gaming Live, I picked up some spray paints, bases and dice from TT Combat, plus a paint from Turbo Dork.
And finally, I picked up the Age of Darkness Reference Cards
I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Legends of Asgard book Three Swords by CL Werner, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.
So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.
I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.
I am also friends with Clint on Facebook, but I suspect that’s more about him connecting with fans rather than being a big fan of mine!
Also I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.
Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!
The Legends of Asgard novels specially focus on the Norse mythology influenced Asgard with characters like Thor, Odin and Loki.
This story focuses on the Warriors Three, at long last, this really is something I have been waiting eagerly for!
Hogunm Fandral and the ever so modest Fandral are helping a rebellion against a tyrant, when they are recruited into a quest to save the nine realms from a dire threat presented by three Sorcerers accross time and space.
Crossing across history and the cosmos itself, the Warriors Three must take down these three sorcerers and seize their living talismans to prevent them from completing their plans.
This book is full of action, from the very start you are involved in battle and it rarely lets up, its pretty much non-stop.
As you can probably guess, the Warriors Three facing three sorcerers, there is a degree of mirroring from their opponents, and this mostly works, but at some points less so, but 90% of the time it does.
The battle against the first sorcerer felt a little rushed but the second and third were much better.
There is plenty of humour in here too, you will laugh when you find out what name Fandral used to be known as. But alas, soon after, you will end up a little upset when you find out why he abandoned that name.
So far the Tales of Asgard stories have all been amazing, and this is the first one that I would say is absolutely anchored in the world of Marvel, as the rest could have passed for stories just of the Norse Gods.
This one absolutely could have been a dibbly dobbly, but instead its an outright corker.
I have to give this book, 5 out of 5.
Three Swords is out now in paperback and as an ebook!
Last night myself and Lindsay were invited along to the opening evening for NQ64, a new venue in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The venue provided us with a bunch of game tokens, and two drinks vouchers, but this review hasn’t been seen by them in advance or approved by them.
Now the place was initially pitched to me as a new adult arcade, but to be frank, it’s more of an arcade themed bar than an arcade, and that’s cool, just different to what I expected.
Entering the bar, which is located at 82 Pilgrim Street, opposite the old Bank of England site, which is currently under redevelopment, you come into a large room, this is where the main bar is located, along with a small selection of games, specifically Galiga, Donkey Kong and X-Men.
The bar serves a selection of draught and bottled beers, and video game themed cocktails, but currently no mocktails which is a bit annoying as I am generally a teetotaller.
However I did cave and try a cocktail, I had a Dr Ro Bev Nik, which is a Jack Daniel’s, cherry and Dr Pepper concoction, which was very nice. (I know, I am a terrible example of a Baha’i, but I am still a work in progress).
Further in you come to a room in which there is a central column in which there is located a Mega Drive, Xbox (complete with Duke controllers), PS1 and Game Cube.
There are loaded up with a selection of games to play, but, the Mega Drive was using a widescreen monitor and was forced into 16:9 which made many of the games borderline unplayable, because they were originally designed to be played at 4:3.
The other games in this room include Outrun 2 SP, the only AM2 game in the bar, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Game, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and some Pinball machines.
In the back are a couple of shooting games, including House of the Dead, a dancing game, a snowboarding game and a couple of others.
Downstairs are the toilets, a further bar, but this was closed on this occasions. There is a room containing Mario Kart, Tetris, Mortal Kombat 2, Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition, and a couple of others.
On the opposite side of the basement is a larger room, in which you can find Ms Pac-Man, Tim Crisis and Time Crisis 2, a Neo Geo 4 slot MVS, Killer Instinct 2 and Crazy Taxi.
So what did we get up to, we’ll we played games and had a couple of drinks.
I am gonna start with the negatives, the first one, being a biggie for me, was when we got our second drink, a soft drink for both of us, the barman asked if we wanted a pint or half pint, we both said pint, but he pulled out a half pint, when we pointed this out, he swore blind that this was a pint glass, it clearly wasn’t and he wouldn’t believe me that a pint was twice and much, despite me handing over Lindsay used pint glass.
I wasn’t in the mood to make a scene, but that was not great and if we had been paying punters paying for a pint and getting only a half I would be quite angry, I could imagine a pissed up bloke could get very aggressive.
Lindsay loved the blue lemonade which reminded her of the Barr Bubblegum drink she and Megan are huge fans of .
The other criticism and this is very personal, but for me, the golden age of the arcade, at least from my youth was the first half of the 1990s and in particular the games made by Sega AM2, and other than Outrun 2 SP, these games were absent. I would have loved to have seen Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Virtua Racing or Virtua Striker. But that’s just me and my love of the Model 2 games!
The place has an emphasis it seems on original hardware, and I couldn’t find any emulated stuff at all, which was wonderful.
The Neo Geo MVS cabinet was in my opinion the best one there, oh my god the joystick microswitches were sublime and heavenly to feel. Best game of Metal Slug I have had in years, especially with the CRT monitor.
Time Cop 2 was fantastic, and me and Lindsay had a great time playing it.
The one slight disappointment was Street Fighter 2, I would have rather have seen The New Challengers or Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. The cabinet felt well worn, and some of the buttons felt like less good quality replacements and were a bit mushy, but most people won’t notice, and it’s good enough, especially with a few drinks in you.
There is also a cool Photo Booth, which not only gives you a print, but also a download code to allow you to get a digital version, which is really cool.
So would I go back, yeah I think I will, just annoyed I am moving to Hartlepool, putting me further away.
If I were to visit again, it would have to be on a school night, I get the feeling it will be a bit too crowded on a Friday or Saturday and you would struggle to get access to the games.
The prices seem reasonable, a bit more expensive than normal Newcastle bars, but those machines are gonna need a lot of maintenance, and being a chain you expect to pay a premium., and even then it’s not too daft.
The overall aesthetic is really cool, a bit too cool for a nearby 40 year old me, but I didn’t feel too out of place.
So I can absolutely see this being a regular haunt when I am in the Toon, it was a really fun night and other than the one barman who didn’t know what a pint was, it was a great night.
It’s been a a long time since my last post, a few months now.
Truth is, one of my best friends, and most trusted companions, Mary, passed away.
She was diagnosed with cervical cancer earlier this year, and in around three months it took her from us.
It was a particularly aggressive form of cancer, by the time they discovered it, it was already stage 4 and it ravaged her body despite several types of chemotherapy being tried on it.
She leaves behind the rest of the polycule, devastated, particularly her husband Paul. They were only married in October and we are all heartbroken.
So as a result my mental health pretty much hit rock bottom and I let everything just go to hell.
Too many things were ignored, not properly written down and neglected.
It took some friends telling me that I looked and sounded like shit to try and pull myself together, and so yeah, I have kinda been working towards that.
As a result of her passing, we are relocating to Hartlepool, Paul needs looking after as he is a bit of a disaster of a human being, and with him working away from home a lot, someone needs to feed his cats, Lexi and Lilo.
We found a place, just 10 minutes walk away from his, and we pick up the keys on Tuesday.
We start moving in from Thursday when me and Megan Will be taking a bunch of stuff we transferred to storage at her parents, to the new house.
It’s a bit smaller, but to be honest not by much, other than the kitchen which is teeny tiny!
It has a dining room, in which we can pop our dining table and a lot of our kitchen stuff too, plus perhaps some board games, but it’s largely going to be a food eating/prep area.
The living room is huge compared to ours now and we will comfortably fit in there with a place for the telly and some board games with the sofa!
The first floor has two bedrooms, and because unlike most of the houses round there, it hasn’t tried to squeeze in a box room, these are both much bigger.
The loft is going to be my new studio, we are picking up some new desktops and a few bits and bob’s to make me and Megan a much bigger and better desk with more room.
Hopefully I can fit a gaming table in there too, well Paul has been commissioned to build us one.
Most of my stuff is out of the house now and in storage and the majority will be moved over in the first big day of moving.
The broadband gets switched on a week Wednesday and I need to be there for then do I am going to set up my desk then.
Still onwards and upwards
I worked the UK Games Expo, well as much as I could within the limits of my disability.
I worked the Catan stand with my good friend Donna from the Catan Studio in the US and mostly demoed 3D Catan, which I now want, despite the ruinous price tag!
I picked up the Port Royale big box, I bought direct from the publisher, so paid over the odds, but I am fairly happy with the choice as they got a bigger cut of the money.
I also purchased some bits for my Imperial Fists and some Primaris Company Champions!
The rest of the stuff took a bit longer to arrive.
As a Heresy nut I was so excited by the unveiling of the new edition of Heresy!
I managed to get hold of the new boxset, plus both books from Asgard Games, soon to be my FLGS.
I also got a set of the special weapons from Games Workshop.
As I am doing Imperial Fists I got myself the transfer sheet.
I later on grabbed them a Kratos!
I also managed to pick up a cheap sprue of the characters from Calth, so another Praetor and a Chaplain.
So far, all I have done with them, is to build three HQs, two Tactical Squads and three Terminator Squads, and I have airbrushed on the first coat of yellow for a single squad of each.
As we move, one thing I am doing is to reduce down my physical media, so all of my DVDs and BRDs have been ripped and I am only keeping the ones I really want to have physically.
So we have set up the Raspberry Pi which has been doing very little as a media server.
First up we installed Audio Book Shelf, a fantastic piece of software that runs in a docket container and is a wonderful little audio book server.
I love audio books and have an awful bloody lot of them, mostly Sci-Fi, a lot of Doctor Who, like pretty much most of Big Finishes catalogue, plus I think every Black Library audio published, and everything from Aconyte thus far.
The dude behind the software is constantly providing updates and so far it’s utterly fantastic.The two bugs I found were fixed in a matter of hours
The second side of the project is PLEX, for serving most other types of media.
So far we have transferred almost every single one of the over 1500 DVDs and BRDs we own.
Most of the way there and some are proving tricky to rip, but hopefully by the time Friday rolls along the project will be finished.
It’s been very very slow, grief has destroyed my motivation.
But I painted the Kill Team barricades.
I then got painted up the a set of Thermic Plasma Conduits for my Inperium table.
And then painted up the barricades and rubble heaps from Speed Freeks.
Followed by the Ork scenery from Octarius.
And after that I painted a Tomb Blade for my Necrons!
I then painted some Ork Burna Boyz.
After that was a Mortis Poisoner Squad for my Death Guard.
I then worked with Megan to make these bases for some Totoro minis for our handfasting.
After that I finished off a T’au Breacher Team.
I then painted this Primaris Company Champion for the Blood Ravens.
Followed by a Cannoness for the Sisters of Battle.
But photos of those need to wait until next week I am afraid!
So what’s coming up next?
Since last time I have read a couple of books, I finished Splinter Cell Firewall by James Swallow, you can read my review here.
I also finished Sigismund The Eternal Crusader by John French, which was excellent.
Watch Dogs Legion: Day Zero by Josh Reynolds and James Swallow was also very good, and a review is here.
Three Swords by CL Werner was great, review coming very soon.
And finally Black Cat Discord by Cath Lauria was amazing.
I am now reading The Division – Recruited by Thomas Parott.
Mostly been playing Horizon Zero Dawn, with the odd session of Halo Infinite.
So lots of streams happened and here they are!
I have now started on Assassins Creed 2 and yeah I had some audio issues, but here are the videos!
I published the next battle report for Imperium the other Saturday.
A couple of new Edge of Empire episodes have dropped.
I backed Ravage by the Cybertronic Spree, which I am looking forward to a lot.
And my Redgrass Wet Palette V2 arrived, and it’s really nice.
Of course I already have it covered with stickers!
My copy of Car Wars 6th Editon finally arrived, and it’s gone straight into storage for the house move.
I picked up a few movies whilst they were on sale, Godzilla, Godzilla: King of Monsters, Godzilla vs King Kong and Minority Report.
I grabbed the new Battletome for the Nighthaunt, along with their Warscroll cards and dice.
Plus a Big’Ed Bossbunka to add to my Ork Scrap Town.
As my chair was dying we took a trip to IKEA and picked up a new one for me, a Matchspiel which is one of the ROG collaborations and it’s really nice.
We also picked up a set of Alex drawers to replace the cupboard which is moving to another part of the studio, this gives me more space to store stuff and actually get to what I need when I need it.
I did some market research for KFC and got a £20 Amazon voucher, which I used to buy Star Wars Episode IV on 4K Blu-Ray.
I got a couple more of these, starting with The Empire Strikes Back.
And The Last Jedi, cause it was on cheap.
My 9 month anniversary of Warhammer + was here, so I got the two exclusive models, plus some Kruleboyz for Warcry!
And I got a case to put my Switch in for when I travel!
I grabbed a 6TB external HDD for my PLEX/Audio Book Shelf server.
I grabbed the new Imperial Fist Legion Dice cause they looked nice!
And my studio needs a new Amazon Echo device.
The current Echo that’s in the studio is to be paired up with the current living room one to form a stereo pair for better music playback in that room.
So I got the kids Tiger version, cause look at it, it’s a mother fucking tiger, and I fucking love tigers!!!
I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Watch Dogs Legion novel Day Zero by Josh Reynolds and James Swallow, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.
So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.
I am also friend with Josh on Facebook, however I am sure for him that’s more about connecting with fans rather than being one of my best buds, that said he is actually a really nice guy.
I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.
Watch Dogs is an action-adventure game franchise, published by Ubisoft, and there have been three games published since 2014, the most recent being Watch Dogs Legion, published in late 2020.
Watch Dogs feature protagonists who are hackers working against criminal underworlds, corrupt companies and rival hackers.
Watch Dogs Legion, takes place in a post Brexit London, in which Britain has rapidly declined, and a hacker collective known as DedSec works to clear their name after being blamed for a series of terrorist bombings.
Their main opponents are the PMC Albion, who they try to liberate London from, Clan Kelly, an east end crime family, and Zero Day, a cyber terrorism group.
Day Zero takes place a over a few days and features several characters who find themselves drawn into a murderous conspiracy, that they must get to the bottom of, or risk London falling into control of a private military contractor who have their own designs on the city.
Our cast of characters is Olly, a new DedSec recruit and bike messenger, Sarah, an ambitious young Labour MP who has an eye on the advancement of her own career, Danny, a former soldier, and now Albion employee, being lead down a dark path, and his sister, Ro, a former MMA fighter and enforcer with Clan Kelly.
A series of assassinations across the city drag our protagonists into a mystery and things are starting to spiral out of control, requiring the killer to be tracked down.
Ok I have yet to play the game, I did buy the Ultimate Edition when it was on sale after reading this novel, but I am aware that this is a prequel, and the game protagonists and antagonists only feature briefly.
But as I said I haven’t played it, so for me, its very much a cool intro to the universe, as I have yet to play the first two games either, but they are on my purchase list!
The book was very enjoyable to read, it took me a little longer than I would have like to read, but I have some personal stuff going on in my life right now which is reducing my reading abilities.
I personally think, this not being a retelling is actually a positive thing, because the plot didn’t feel like a video game plot, sometimes when tie-ins are a retelling, it just doesn’t work.
This book is a perfect meld of the two writers style, James Swallow, writes very tight, very ordered plots, and Josh Reynolds is a master of witty dialogue and unlike many books with two authors, you never really see where ones work begins and the others ends. It feels like the two authors have merged Tuvix style and created a work that takes the best of both of their talent.
My only criticism is that with so many characters, the development of those characters is not the best, and I would like to learn more about them. So I do hope that they return to the setting and what Olly, Ro and Danny in particular do next.
I find myself very excited to play Watch Dogs Legion, and I am very much considering buying the first two games first.
This is a very solid 4 out of 5 Stars.
Day Zero is out now in both ePub, paperback and as an audiobook from all good booksellers!
If buying online, I recommend the below, but if you have a local indie bookstore and like the physical books, go take your custom to them!
I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Splinter Cell novel Firewall by James Swallow, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.
So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.
I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.
Splinter Cell is a video game franchise published by Ubisoft, they are stealth action adventures endorsed by Tom Clancy. The first game was a breakout hit on the original Xbox, and has led to a series of novels and several sequel games, although there has not been a new game for 9 years at this point.
The franchise revolves around Sam Fisher, and operative for a mysterious NAS organisation called Third Echelon, later Fourth Echelon, and his work to keep the United States safe from various threats.
This story sees Sam Fisher team up with a new Fourth Echelon operative, his daughter Sarah, ass they work to destroy a sinister threat to the world in the form of the Gordian Sword, a piece of cyberwarfare technology that can bypass any cyber security in existence.
But going up against them, is an old foe of Sam’s a former Soviet assassin long thought dead by Sams own hand.
Thus starts a race against time to neutralise the billionaire trying to use the technology to remake the world in his own image, and the blunt tool of his Russian relic!
The book is a very good, whilst Tom Clancy’s actual involvement in the Splinter Cell series, is questionable and the quality of the previous books has been middling, this one has been written very very well.
Given that this is essentially a reboot of the series, being the first installment, novel or game in nine long years, it had a lot to live up to, and I am glad to say I think it pulled it off!
James’s writing is very much in the style of Tom Clancy, and to be frank, very little of his own style shone through. It was a well researched book and felt like a love letter to the Tom Clancy books of old, the main inspiration felt to be the Rainbow Six book he wrote in 1998, but that might be because it was the last Clancyverse novel I read!
If Splinter Cell is to come back, and I really hope it does, then this is a good first step in that journey.
A solid 4 out of 5 stars.
Firewall is out now in both ePub, paperback and as an audiobook from all good booksellers!
If buying online, I recommend the below, but if you have a local indie bookstore and like the physical books, go take your custom to them!
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