Adventures in Emulation

By

On 7th September 2021

In Blog

I want a full suite of all of the retro consoles, sadly due to money and space, that’s not an option.

And thus I have turned to emulation, mostly using Retroarch.

Controllers

One thing I need to have are good controllers, if I cannot have the original machine I can at least have a controller that’s as close as possible.

Currently I have the following.

  • Mega Drive x 2
  • Mega Drive 6 Button
  • NES x 2
  • SNES x 2
  • Saturn
  • N64
  • PlayStation Original x 2
  • GameCube (original & Wavebird)
  • Madcatz Arcade Joystick
  • Xbox One

The N64 is the most recent addition to that list and if I am honest, the next one I want is either a DualShock 4 or even a Dualsense for PlayStation emulation.

The plan is to do some play through videos of some classics from when I was a kid, the first one I want to do is Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, I loved that game, leant it to my friend Simon and never saw it again.

PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 is unused for the most part, so what I have done with that is installed PS3Hen along with a big collection of Mega Drive, Game Gear and Master System Games.

Sadly it won’t run Mega CD or 32X games, which is a shame, but I will live with that, to be honest, I have set it up mostly so the nibblings can play Sonic the Hedgehog, Willem and Brandon really love those games!

I mean every time they come round the first question is, can we play the Hedgehog game.

What I Am Painting

Not much given the needed work for Company of Legends.

But here is a pair of Pallas Grav-Attack for my Legio Custodes.

Right now on my painting desk is the Galvanic Servohaulers for my Zone Mortalis board.

So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3, Knight-Vexillor & Vindictor
  3. Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbikes x 3
  4. Stormcast Eternals Anhiliators x 3, Lord-Imperatant & Gryph Hound
  5. Blitzkrieg German HQ & MG34 MMG Team
  6. Death Guard Fire Raptor
  7. Necron Canoptek Wraiths x 6
  8. Magos Macrotek Enginseer & Servo-Automata x 4
  9. Flesh-Eater Courts Crypt Flayers x 3
  10. T’au Ramora Drones x 2

What I Am Reading

I started and finished Outlaw: Relentless by Tristan Palmgreen, and a review for that will be published in the next few days.

I also managed to get around to publishing the review for The Serpent and the Dead by Anna Stephens, which you can read here.

What Video Games Am I Playing

Not a lot, a little bit of Forza Horizon 4, and some various retro games when testing out the emulation stuff.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

I had a game of Disney Villainous in the week with Megan, in which I obviously lost, but it was a very fun game nonetheless.

I also had a game of Horus Heresy on Saturday but I will talk about that a bit more in next weeks post.

What Am I Creating

Got a couple of videos in post production, fist a Vlog from Company of Legends and the overdue Battle Report.

What I Am Backung

The pledges for Isle of Cats: Don’t Forget the Kittens and Avatar: Legends were both collected this week.

What I Am Cooking

Well I cooked hot dogs for 29 people on Saturday, with Graham’s help!

The Serpent and The Dead

By

On 6th September 2021

In Book Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Legends of Asgard book The Serpent and The Dead by Anna Stephens, 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.

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.

What is Marvel

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.

The Story

This story focuses on Lady Sif and the Valkyrie Brunnhilde as they investigate why the souls of slain warriors, including Sifs friend Gyda.

Travelling across Asgard, to try and get to the bottom of why worthy warriors are not reaching the promised afterlife and confront the dark forces behind this.

While they say its a story with a team of two, Brunnhildes girlfriend, Inge, also plays a pivotal part. And this story is a story of friendship and trust, with the relationship between the three protagonists being deep and very interesting, as the three characters all have their own distinct personality and role. Sif is the warrior, bold and brash, Brunnhilde is more thoughtful and wants a plan rather than rushing in, and then Inge is the diplomat who bridges the gulf between these two.

Of course Sif is convinced that Loki, the Trickster god, is behind the horror, and so they start a journey to find him and confront him.

Conclusion

This is a really good story, it is, at its heart an action book that quickly moves from battle to battle with little time in between, and the action itself is very well written.

That said the moments of the book I enjoyed the most, were the quieter more insightful moments in which we got a better idea of the motivations behind why the characters have chosen to undertake this quest.

There is a deep appreciation for Norse mythology in this book and it feels very well researched and whilst its identifiable a Marvel book, its not so deeply Marvel, that you need to be too familiar with that fandom to appreciate this book.

Its an interesting mixture of action adventure, epic quest, Norse mythology and a little bit of superhero mixed together, which means I think it will really appeal to a lot of people.

The thing I really loved about this book though is the characters, they were at once very identifiable as the characters from the comics, with a nice twist from the author to make them her own, and the comradery and relationships, both platonic and romantic, between these three strong female characters made this a real joy to read.

The only thing I would have liked different, would be more of those quiet character building moments, but I hope to see Anna write more Legends of Asgard novels.

4 out of 5 stars!

You can buy the eBook now and the paperback gets a release on the 28th October

Resolutions Update – August 2021

By

On 1st September 2021

In Blog

This month got off to a better start and with the weather becoming cooler I managed to pick up the pace somewhat.

Right now I am at 944 models painted for the year.

Paint 2000 Points of Necrons for Warhammer 40,000 – 93.75% Complete

This month I got the Night Scythe painted, as well as a unit of Triarch Praetorians.

This leaves me with just the Canoptek Wraiths to paint for the list.

Paint 2000 Points of Flesh-Eater Courts for Warhammer Age of Sigmar – 56% Complete

This month I painted the last block of Crypt Ghouls as well as a Crypt Ghast Courtier.

Bring My Mechanicum to 3000 Points for Horus Heresy, Including The Warhound Titan – 63.2% Complete

This month I added the Secutarii Hoplites and their Terrax Patten Termite to the list.

Paint Blackstone Fortress And It’s Expansions – 33.13% Complete

This month I completed the Beastmen, Traitor Guard and the Traitor Commissar and Ogryn from Traitor Command.

Completed Resolutions 

  • Paint the Scourge for Dropfleet Commander
  • Paint 1000 Points of Early War Germans for Bolt Action

So whats coming up next month then?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Legio Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2
  3. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3, Vindictor & Knight-Vexellor
  4. Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbikes x 3
  5. Stormcast Eternals Anhiliators x 3, Lord Imperatant & Gryph Hound
  6. Blitzkrieg German HQ & MG34 MMG Team
  7. Death Guard Fire Raptor
  8. Necron Canoptek Wraiths x 6
  9. Mechanicum Magos Macrotek Enginseer & Servo-Automata x 4
  10. Flesh-Eater Courts Crypt Flayers x 3

Warhammer + Is Here

By

On 30th August 2021

In Blog

I know some people are determined to not get Warhammer +, but I have, and I will walk you through the reasons.

And I have honestly seen a lot of rants about it, mostly seeming to focus ok the animation side, but I do have to say that Warhammer + is a service that is more than just Warhammer TV, it’s also the included mini, the Warhammer Vault access, the apps, etc. to base your impression on just one aspect is just a bit daft.

First off, I would never usually suggest getting a service/product based on its possible future potential as I find this is usually a waste of money as nothing is ever guaranteed. Products should have a decent feature set before launching rather than promises of future features.

However Warhammer + makes sense financially for me, let me walk you through it. I play both Age of Sigmar and 40K, and I use the apps, which currently cost me £2.98, which is going to rise to £3.98 with the new AoS app.

So annually I will be paying £47.76 to Games Workshop for these two services, so Warhammer + would only cost me £2.23 if I get the annual plan.

Now the £10 voucher for signing up before 1st September means actually it’s going to be -£7.77, and when add in the model you get with the subscription, models that I want both of, you save even more.

These models I have set at a price of £20, although the Megaboss from the normal range is £25. So that means it’s actually now at -£27.77.

So it works for me, of course for other people the maths will vary and for them it may not be worth it, but it is for me.

What’s It Actually Like???

Well in all honesty, it’s a little thin on the ground right now, but what’s on there is good.

Angels of Death is very cool, although the mouths are a bit odd, but I can live with that.

I am yet to watch any of Hammer and Bolter apart from Old Bale Eye, which I really enjoyed.

The Battle Reports are well, extremely high end and professional and really raise the bar for those. Makes my stuff look pants by comparison.

The painting Masterclass is superb and I am digging out some Thousand Sons Terminators to try out some wet blending.

The Vault, that’s the one aspect I am less keen on, simply because you can’t download stuff, and the site is clunky when using a phone, if they bring us an app for that it will be better.

In general I am happy with the service, if they keep up with the new content every Wednesday I will be very happy.

I would like to see the YouTube painting videos included in the service at some point, just so everything is together in one place that’s a bit easier to navigate.

The service is as I said, thin on the ground, but I think within a few months it will be a lot better.

I have subscribed for a year because I want it to be a success, I want it to work, and I am breaking my own rule because if this does work, it will be an amazing resource for the community.

The reveal of the first weeks new releases, is a bit underwhelming, I would have hoped for a couple of the Citadel Masterclasses and at least two animations.

The Vault additions are actually pretty nice, with some White Dwarfs for this year being added.

But it’s still early days.

What I Am Modelling

I started off the week with some Triarch Praetorians.

These have been painted as being from the Szarekhan Dynasty because they serve the Triarch and thus why would their armour be in the colours of another dynasty?

I also painted all the Traitor Guardsmen for Blackstone Fortress alongside the Commissar and Ogryn from Traitor Command.

The Traitor Command models were finished first.

Followed by the Traitor Guardmens.

I then painted a unit of 20 Crypt Ghoul’s for my Flesh-Eater Courts alongside a Crypt-Ghast Courtier.

After that I painted a squad of Secutarii Hoplites and their Termite transport

So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Legio Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack
  3. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3, Knight-Vexellor & Vindictor
  4. Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbikes x 3
  5. Stormcast Eternals Anhiliators x 3, Lord Imperatant & Gryph Hound
  6. Blitzkrieg HQ & MG34 MMG Team
  7. Death Guard Fire Raptor
  8. Necron Canoptek Wraiths x 6
  9. Mechanicum Magos Macrotek Engineseer & Servoautomata x 4
  10. Flesh-Eater Courts Crypt Flayers x 3

What I Am Reading

Ummm I actually haven’t read all week 🙁

What Video Games Am I Playing

Not played a lot, but just a few bits and pieces here and there.

I did manage to get the Saturn emulator running properly. Retroarch ended up being a bust, there wasn’t a single core that could run the games correctly and the way it handles six button controllers is kinda annoying.

So I ended up going with Mednafen which works like a dream, just need to add a graphical front end.

Speaking of six button controllers, I finally managed to get my hands on a reasonably priced 6 button USB Mega Drive controller, and playing Street Fighter 2 on the Mega Drive Mini is no longer an awful nightmare!

I did pull all of my controllers out on Saturday and I think I might have a problem!

But I am having real struggle controlling N64 emulated games, so I have ordered a USB Retro-Bit controller which should arrive Tuesday I think.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

On Tuesday I had an open war game of 40K at Durham Raiders.

I lost but it was very close, and a battle report is currently in production.

On Saturday we played a game of Pandemic: Hot Zone North America and were beaten by the game.

What I Am Creating

I have a new battle report in the production phase, there were camera issues so it’s taken a bit longer than I would have liked.

I am going to be making a report for the first Imperium game plan.

Me and Megan are going to play though all the collections game plans for some battle reports, as an ongoing narrative.

And tonight I am recording a Dreadclaw for the Company of Legends lists.

What I Am Backing

I am still backing Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game which has 3 days left to run at time of writing.

What I Am Cooking

I was supposed to be making shepherds pie on Saturday but we were really really busy tidying up all weekend 🙁

A Week of Nowt

By

On 23rd August 2021

In Blog

This week has been well a lot of nowt.

I got a fair few things painted, but not much else, I wanted to play some more Bioshock Infinite but the plans to do that fell apart.

I must do better next week.

In the meantime, I also must stop arguing with poorly educated idiots who love to spread nonsense about the Covid vaccine.

I mean trust me, no one wants Covid, but the fact that people don’t get the concept of herd immunity achieved through vaccination just astounds me.

And then you get comments like this…

What I Am Modelling

I started off by finishing the two units of Vindictors from Dominion.

And then I moved onto the Volkite weaponry for my Adeptus Titanicus titans, so lots of opportunity to shout CHOOOOOOM!!!

Then I finished off the scenery from Mortal Realms by winging the Gryph-Hound Statues.

After that I started on Kurdoss Valentian and Lady Olynder. I got Kurdoss finished first.

Quickly followed by Lady Olynder.

And this completes my Nighthaunt, apart from a Black Coach and the limited edition Guardian of Souls, I have everything for the army that they make.

I might in the future add the Black Coach but I am not entirely sure when this will be.

I also painted up a Knight Castellan for my House Taranis Imperial Knights.

I did a lot of it on Stream Friday night and then finished most of the rest on Saturday morning.

I am a big fan of Imperial Knights, but I need to add a few more to my force, got a Warden in the box, but want another Crusader, some Helverins and then perhaps some Cerastus Knights.

I am currently working on the Triarch Praetorians and the Blackstone Fortress Traitor Guardsmen, Commissar and Ogryn.

So what’s coming up next week then?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Legio Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2
  3. Blackstone Fortress Traitor Guardsmen x 21, Commissar and Ogryn
  4. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3, Knight-Vexillor & Vindictor
  5. Flesh-Eater Courts Crypt Ghouls x 20 & Crypt
  6. Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbike x 3
  7. Mechanicum Secutarii Hoplites x 10 & Termite
  8. Necron Triarch Praetorians x 5
  9. Stormcast Eternals Annihilators x3, Lord Imperatant & Gryph Hound
  10. Blitzkrieg German HQ & MG34 MMG Team

What I Am Reading

I finished The Serpent and the Dead by Anna Stephens, and I loved it, will have a full review up in a few days.

I listened to Tomb of the Necron by Cavan Scott, the last of the current series of Warped Galaxies books for Warhammer Adventures.

It was very enjoyable and I hope they pick up the series again and give us further adventures of the trio and their allies.

What Video Games Am I Playing

Played a little Forza Horizon 4, a bit of Halo 2 Anniversary.

Tried out The Evil Within, but I didn’t really enjoy it.

I did try out XCloud gaming, playing some Forza Horizon 4 on my iPhone over a 5G signal whilst visiting my sister in law.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

On Sunday we had a game of Deep Space Nine Fluxx which I won, which is a very rare thing!

What I Am Creating

I managed to get the next episode of Edge of Empire published, just need to record another one!

What Am I Backing

I completed the pledge managers for Orlog and The Isle of Cats: Don’t Forget The Kittens.

And I am currently backing Avatar Legends at the Otter-Penguin level, considered going up to Polar Bear Dog, but the girls aren’t joining in, so I can’t justify the extra $25

What I Am Cooking

Yet another week of noting.

Just Cracking On

By

On 17th August 2021

In Blog

This week has been a week in which I have just really been cracking on with stuff.

I have had more self-isolation, some babysitting and a couple of days with a little bug.

But not really much else.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by painting four characters for my Stormcast Eternals. 3. Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Astreia Solbright & Berek the Indomitable.

This was followed by a unit of Infantry for my Death Korps of Krieg.

And finally a Primaris Chaplain on a bike for my Blood Ravens.

After this I began work on two units of Vindictors to join the Stormcast Eternals.

I also purchased an STL for Captain Carter, it still needs loads of work to get the print right but I am getting there.

So what’s coming up next week then?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Stormcast Eternals Vindictors x 10
  3. Kurdoss Valentian & Lady Olynder
  4. Legio Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2
  5. House Taranis Knight Castellan
  6. Blackstone Fortress Traitor Guardsmen x 21, Commissar & Ogryn
  7. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3
  8. Flesh-Eater Courts Crypt Ghouls x 20 & Crypt Ghast Courtier
  9. Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbike Squad x 3
  10. Mechanicus Secutarii Hoplites & Terrax Pattern Termite

What I Am Reading

Not much still working on The Serpent and the Dead by Anna Stephens which is a good read.

What Video Games Am I Playing

I got a single session in of Bioshock Infinite and will get another one in today.

I also played some Forza Horizon 4 and played a bit of Sonic Generations with my Nephews.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

Not a sausage 🙁

What I Am Creating

The next episode of Edge of Empire is on the editing desk now.

What I Am Backing

I am currently backing the Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game project, just not sure what level I will settle in.

What I Am Cooking

Not much really, I managed beans on toast but that was a struggle.

Painting My Death Korps of Krieg

By

On 12th August 2021

In Blog, Tutorials

I have been asked a couple of times how I paint my Death Korps of Krieg and considering a certain release coming out this Saturday, I figured I would share it.

And if you want to help me and the podcast out, use this link to purchase from Element Games and links to any products will be affiliate links.

I developed the scheme to be different from the army that I painted for Niki, which were very traditionally Krieg with blue French style uniforms.

These are my 510th Siege Regiment, and their uniform is a dark green greatcoat, grey trousers, dark green helmets and tan leather.

Their weapons also have wooden casings as I feel like they would want to ensure their equipment is manufactured as easily and as cheaply as possible.

Anyway let’s crack on, with a squad of Firing Infantry.

We start by priming all the models with black, in this instance I used Wilkos Satin Black.

All the paints I am using are all Citadel, apart from two Vallejo colours.

Step One

The first step is just getting on the base coats which are as follows.

Step Two

The second step is super simple, an all over wash of Agrax Earthshade.

Step Three

The third step is to tidy up the great coat by relayering Death Korps Drab, leaving the Agrax Earthsade in the deepest recesses.

And then do the same to the helmets with German Camo Dark Green.

Step Four

The last step is just some highlights.

And That’s It

It’s a super simple scheme, not a lot to it and it looks nice on the table, dirty and subdued, just like the Death Korps of Krieg.

I like to combo it up with a muddy and wet basing scheme, which is more or less the same scheme as Duncan Rhodes has demonstrated on his website and I think it looks really nice.

If I were to start over, the helmets would be black as the German Dark Camo Green is influenced by the Heer helmets, which is something I was trying to avoid.

I know I am not the worlds best painter, I paint for fun and to a tabletop standard, but I am really proud of these and I enjoy painting them.

Here is the squad that I completed today.

Anyway, I can’t wait to try this out on the new plastic models and will be ordering the new Kill Team box.

Next Projects

By

On 10th August 2021

In Blog

Now that both mine and Megan’s PCs are complete, it’s time to turn my attention to my next projects.

Setting up a Home Assistant server, and adding Network Attached Storage.

For the Home Assistant server, I am going with the Raspberry Pi 4 solution, but just to ensure it’s going to be as future proof as possible, I am going to build it around the 8GB version.

That’s probably gonna get out together in the next six weeks or so, and I will hopefully be able to join up a lot of the house smart systems together properly.

That said, I am actively looking to see if IFTTT can do many of those functions and if it’s possible we could put off the Home Assistant server by using that. Then again, I do like to tinker and Home Assistant would be a challenge and something to occupy me.

The Network Attached Storage is already in progress. When I built Megan’s PC I also built a PC for her dad, he had an old Dell Optiplex eBay special which managed to screw itself up all the bloody time.

Anyway I got sick of fixing it, so I built him a new PC that should last him a fair few years as his biggest usage is amateur photo editing.

Anyway this Optiolex has a couple of hardware issues, the motherboard has a couple of dead SATA ports and is very much at the end of its usable life as a general PC.

So I intend to use it to fiction as a the houses NAS for the short term, I have grabbed a SATA SSD to serve as it’s system drive and I am gonna pick up a couple of Ironwolf Drives next payday to run in RAID.

The idea being that all of our files can be stored centrally and backed up at the same time.

Next year I plan to transfer the NAS to dedicated hardware, potentially by pinching Megan’s motherboard after replacing hers for something a bit more high end. Plus either grabbing a new GPU for Megan so the 1660 Ti in her system can go into the NAS or getting something like a 1650 Super for the NAS.

The GPU would be needed because by the time I get ti the situation where I can put the NAS into dedicated hardware, I want it to be running a PLEX server too, so we can have our own home Netflix with all of the DVDs and Blu-Rays we have ripped onto the server.

I have a rough plan in my head now, and think that it’s possible in a couple of months I will have the basics of both of these systems up and running.

They are going to be housed in the cat cave (spare/junk room) and we have a monitor already set up in there for them, we will need a network switch still as both devices will need to be plugged in via Ethernet.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by painting the Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows for my Stormcast Eternals, two squads of five.

Then I painted the Night Scythe for my Necrons, a model I have wanted to paint for absolutely forever!

And then I painted the Beastmen for Blackstone Fortress. I have tried to give them a load of variety, with at least one dedicated to each of the four Chaos Gods and one that’s Chaos undivided.

I just wanted to see some variety on the table.

I am also working on printing a fleet for Battlefleet Heresy, so far I have gotten printed out a Battlebarge, with some damage from a print failure and four Strike Cruisers.

Tomorrow I intend to try another Battlebarge and a couple more Strike Cruisers, the plan is to get a fleet ready for Company of Legends.

Right now on my painting table are Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Astriea Solbright & Berek the Indomitable, who are about 50% done.

So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Astriea Solbright & Berek the Indomitable
  3. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10
  4. Stormcast Eternals Vindictors x 11
  5. Blood Ravens Primaris Chaplain on a Bike
  6. Kurdoss Valentian
  7. Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2
  8. House Taranis Knight Castilian
  9. Blackstone Fortress Traitor Guardsmen x 21, Commissar & Ogryn
  10. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3

What I Am Reading

My review of Target Keee by Stuart Moore was published and you can read it here.

And I started on Pandemic: Patient Zero by Amanda Bridgeman and I got it finished, it made for uncomfortable reading if I am honest.

You can read my review for that here.

I am now reading The Serpent and the Dead by Anna Stephens

What Video Games I Am Playing

Played a variety this week, there was a session of Bioshock Infinite, a bit of Clustertruck, Halo 2 Anniversary, Star Wars: Battlefront 2.

You can see my Bioshock Infinite play videos here.

I also got my Saturn emulator up and running and can now play some games I always wanted to play as a kid, but couldn’t because my parents couldn’t afford a Saturn.

My current queue of games to stream is right here below

  1. Bioshock Infinite (Nintendo Switch) – In Progress
  2. Assassins Creed (Xbox Series S)
  3. Borderlands(Nintendo Switch)
  4. Assassins Creed The Ezio Collection (Xbox Series S)
  5. Horizon Zero Dawn (PC)

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

We played Carcassonne as a family on Thurday night, albeit on the Switch, quite predictably I came last!

What Am I Creating

I got the unboxing video for Carnivale done!

What Am I Backing

Still backing AB Con, it’s only for a small amount, but I think it’s good to encourage events like this.

I am also backing Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game at the Otter-Penguin level right now, but might up it to the Polar Bear Dog.

What I Am Cooking

All I cooked this week was a mad concoction of chips, beans and cheese for lunch on Sunday for me and Lindsay.

Pandemic: Patient Zero

By

On 7th August 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Pandemic book Pandemic: Patient Zero by Amanda Bridgeman, 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 this cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What Is Pandemic

Pandemic is a cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock, in the game you work together to discover the cure for several diseases rampaging though the world.

Players take on various roles, such as medic, dispatcher, scientist, quarantine expert etc and though the combined efforts, collect enough data and information to find the cures to save the world.

The game is incredibly successful and has three expansions for itself as well as numerous spin off games and variations. As well as the extremely popular Legacy versions of the game.

My personal current favourite is Pandemic: Hot Zone North America.

The Story

The story starts with a nun falling ill in Peru, and quickly the disease she later dies from starts popping up in Brazil and Columbia too.

It’s a new disease to which humanity has no immunity and it rapidly kills those it infects.

The Global Health Agency dispatches a team from its base in Lyon to discover the cause of this disease and hopefully find a cure.

We have a cast who roughly represent many of the possible roles within the Pandemic board game, and a nice mixture of nationalities and genders. There is also an interesting little bit of minor subplot about one of the field team finding it more difficult to traverse the world due to her being from Nigeria rather than the US, UK or Australia.

The story takes us on a hunt for the source of the disease, from Lima, into the jungle and down the Amazon river and then deep into a drug lords village as the team desperately search for patient zero and understand how this disease came into existence.

Conclusion

Look I need to be straight up here, I got Covid early on in the pandemic, it took a third of my lungs from me and has ruined my lungs to the point where I can’t climb stairs without an inhaler.

This book was extremely difficult to read because it quite often referred to Covid in the past tense, when Covid is still very much with us and killing people.

The book itself is well written, it’s a by the numbers virus outbreak kind of story, nowt ground breaking but well done and brilliantly written with relatable characters.

But it feels far too soon for a book to talk about Covid as being in the past, had I known this book would have done this, I would never have read it.

So it comes down to this, if you can handle many references to Covid and a new respiratory disease, then it’s a good book to read, but if like me you basically have PTSD when it comes to Covid, I would strongly advise giving this book a miss for now.

Just for now though, because it is a good book, but frankly it needs a trigger warning, I donMt know why I pushed myself to keep reading, I really shouldn’t have.

I don’t know how to score this book so I am going to ignore my instincts which are to refuse to score it because of how much it triggered my PTSD and made my chest feel incredibly tight.

It’s a well written book with a good story so I will give it a 4 out of 5 stars, but as I said, it desperately needs a proper trigger warning.

The book is published as an ebook on 7th September and will hit bookstores on the 11th November.

Target Kree

By

On 4th August 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Crisis Protocol book Target Kree by Stuart Moore, 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 this cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Marvel

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!

Marvel Crisis Protocol is a tabletop skirmish miniatures game from Atomic Mass Games based on the Marvel comic characters, with its starter set conations five of the Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Black Widow) and five of the Kabel (Barron Zemo, Red Skull, Crossbones, Doctor Octopus and Ultron).

I own the core set and its well worth investing into, if you fancy it you can purchase it from my Element Games affiliate link!

The Story

The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy team up in a search for a planet killer amongst a group of Kree refugees on earth working for Tony Stark.

The story starts with the Guardians of the Galaxy trying to save which is in the middle of being destroyed, but they sadly fail and lose a beloved member in the process.

The story then picks up on earth six months later as the Guardians hunt down the planet killer and Tony Stark (Iron Man) faces the wrath of Jennifer Walters (She Hulk) and Kamala Khan (Ms Marvel) over the conditions of the refugees from the planet, but of course the Guardians crash the party and chaos ensues.

You know what there isn’t much to talk about in regards to the plot, its very simply and as it develops you end up with a huge number of Marvel characters making an appearance, most included in Crisis Protocol, but at least two who are not.

Conclusion

This is a hard book to review, on the one hand, it’s filled with lots of fun and some cool interesting fight sequences.

But there is way too much fighting and not enough stories, especially when you are cramming so many characters into the book.

At points it’s felt like they were just throwing in extra characters for the sake of it, I mean there is a scene with Black Panther that goes nowhere and serves no purpose other than to have Black Panther in the book.

The characters all want the same thing but they are too busy fighting each other to figure that out, and that’s not exactly in keeping with the characters.

The book starts off great, the first part is fantastic, but honestly, I think this would have been better as a comic rather than a prose book.

But then again it is promoting a skirmish combat game.

It’s a 3 1/2 stars from me, and had it just had a bit more dialogue and story in it, it could have really been a lot better. That’s not to say its bad, its actually quite fun, but it wasn’t quite what I was hoping it would be.

But if all you want is literally a fun beat-em-up story, give this a go as it is rather entertaining.

The eBook is released this Friday the 6th July and the paperback hits the shelves on the 2nd September.

Page 29 of 63

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén