A Christmas Card for Wargamers

I couldn’t resist making a card out of the conversion picture on the Battlefront games site this week. To all my friends out there (and even those who do not count themselves in that category), I wish you the happiest Christmas possible, and a safe, propserous and healthy New Year.

Click to enlarge. Original Image from Battlefront.com

Merry Christmas, Human Scum!

Unnerving Christmas decorations for the office.

more about “Merry Christmas, Human Scum!“, posted with vodpod

Spartan Games gives us a look ahead towards 2010 for Uncharted Seas

Neil Fawcett from Spartan Games recently posted this on the Miniatures Page:

We know that you have been waiting sometime for this announcement, so I won’t talk too much before giving you the details. 2010 is going to be an exciting year for Uncharted Seas, and one we very much hope you will enjoy as much as we will. What you see below is a breakdown of the upcoming projects for this game.

Some of them are quick releases that allow us to balance out our fleets, and these will be the first out of the door at the start of the year. Others have less defined dates, and we will be working with our sales channel to hammer out the best times to release these new additions during the year.

Over the next day or two, we’ll add images of many of these models.

All the best and Happy Christmas!

New Uncharted Seas Ship types, 2010

(I’m editiorializing in red)

Two New Flagships (Early Feb)

• Shroud Mages Flagship
• Bone Griffons Flagship

(I presume different from the current flagships)

Three New Heavy Cruisers (Early Feb)

• Thaniras Elf Heavy Cruiser
• Bone Griffons Heavy Cruiser
• Shroud Mages Heavy Cruiser

Iron Dwarves (Early Feb)

• Bellows Class Dirigible Mk II

(now THAT is interesting.. I wonder if we couldn’t make something scratch built)

Bone Griffons (Late Feb)

• Pestilence Cruiser

Shroud Mages (Late Feb)

• Nautilus Class Submarine

Monsters & Beasties (Late Feb)

• Dragon Lord Elder Dragon
• Water Behemoth
• Gimpasaurus
• The Giant

(how about some actual dragons for the so-called Dragon Lords?  How come the Elves are the only race that actually has a dragon figure?)

Destroyer Class (Mid March 2010)

• Iron Dwarf Destroyer
• Shroud Mages Destroyer
• Bone Griffons Destroyer
• Dragon Lord Destroyer
• Orc Raiders Destroyer
• Thaniras Elf Destroyer
• Imperial Human Destroyer

(An excellent idea– increases tactical flexibility.  A destroyer should have some special ability beyond being “something between a frigate and a cruiser” however.. like smoke screens or hunting subs or something)

Faction Books

We will be creating a Race Guide for all of our Uncharted Seas fleets. The exact format of these books is yet to be locked down, but you can expect to see more detailed backgrounds, information on our upcoming 28mm range of miniatures, naval tactics, model statistics, painting guides and much more.

The Uncharted Seas Supplement

This book will bring many new rules out for the Uncharted Seas. As it stands, it is a 96-page, full-colour book that sits as an addition to the current core rulebook – not a replacement.

(How about shipping a replacement to those of us who shelled out a lot of $$ for an unfinished rulebook, which isn’t cheap by any standard?)

New Races

• Pirates of the Skies (Q2 2010)
• The Kreel (Q2 2010)

Dreadnought Class (Late Q2)

• Iron Dwarf Destroyer
• Shroud Mages Destroyer
• Bone Griffons Destroyer
• Dragon Lord Destroyer
• Orc Raiders Destroyer
• Thaniras Elf Destroyer
• Imperial Human Destroyer

(presuming Neil means Dreadnought instead of Destroyer in the snippet above)

The Ancients (Second Half of 2010)

The arrival of the Ancients marks an exciting and bloody period in the history of the Uncharted Seas. Watch out for more exciting information on our website. With this fleet comes an exciting campaign guide and new ships for your existing fleets.

(In summary, I’m delighted that Spartan will continue to support UNCHARTED SEAS, a game I’ve grown to like quite a bit in 2009– this is all good news.)

HMGS East Announcement Concerning HISTORICON 2010

Dec. 21, 2009

HMGS Board of Director’s Announcement

HISTORICON 2010 LOCATION

HISTORICON July 8-11, 2010 will take place at the Valley Forge Convention Center located in historic Valley Forge, PA.

http://www.vfconventioncenter.com/

Here is a snapshot of what attendees can expect for HISTORICON 2010

• 108,000+ Square Feet of Historical Miniature Gaming
• 2,500 FREE Parking Spaces
• 488 hotel rooms onsite – HMGS special rates Single, Double, Triple, Quad/$109.00, Suites/$124.00 (plus Tax)
• Additional Hotels and Food nearby
• Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) approximately 45 minutes (shuttles available) to the VFCC
• Budget Car Rental onsite – no need to rent car for full time or pay 1 way rental fees

For GMs/Gamers

Same great convention, cozy new location ”big box” feel
Easy load in/out access to gaming areas
24 hour gaming
Several Bars, Restaurants and Food Concessions onsite.
Bigger Vendor Hall, better flea market, best historical gaming

For the History:
Valley Forge National Park  –  http://www.nps.gov/vafo/index.htm
Battleship New Jersey -  http://www.battleshipnewjersey.org/
Historic Philadelphia -  http://www.gophila.com/C/Historic_Philadelphia/624.html

For the Family:
Famed King of Prussia Mall  http://www.kingofprussiamall.com/
Philadelphia Premium Outlets – http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=75

Nearby:
Adventure Aquarium, Camden, NJ -  http://www.adventureaquarium.com/
Philadelphia Museum of Art -  http://www.philamuseum.org/
Please Touch Museum -  http://www.pleasetouchmuseum.org/
The Franklin Institute -  http://www2.fi.edu/
And much more -   http://www.vfconventioncenter.com/local_attractions.htm

For Vendors:
Non-Union Facility
Good access to load/unload areas
Working Air-conditioning and plumbing
Drayage Services Available

We will continue to post further separate releases and updates for the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society membership, and to the gaming community as soon as additional details are confirmed.

Sincerely,

The HMGS Board of Directors

Frank Preziosa
Michelle Preziosa
Orest Swystun
Dudley Garidel
Jim Petrie
Heather Blush
Pete Panzeri

Commentary (my thoughts only, not anything from HMGS-East)

My feelings are mixed.  I am greatly relieved that our convention program is not going to be dismantled, but I am having grave doubts about the cost.  I really need to be certain of a few things before I can muster enthusiasm for the Valley Forge move.  Primarily, are we disengaged from all the poorly negotiated agreements made by one individual with the Baltimore Convention Center this quickly?  Was the BCC that eager to cut loose HMGS-East, regardless of whether they would get a PR black eye from suing a 501.c3 nonprofit or not?  After all, business is business, and the BCC is not full most weekends, from what I hear.  The absolute WORST thing that could happen to HMGS East would be entering into the convention season with TWO very expensive facilities under contract, one of which we wouldn’t even use!  I will ask the BOD members I know how we managed to disentangle so quickly– I thought the legal wrangling would go on well into 2010, personally.  Secondly, I know from some past experience as Cold Wars Director– six months is not much time to execute a convention plan.  Will it be sufficient time to change horses from BCC to Valley Forge?  I don’t envy Historicon 10 director Bob Giglio or his staff– they have a mountain of work ahead– largely thankless, I might add.  They have both my support and my sympathy for being placed in this lamentable situation.

Lastly, and most importantly… have we learned anything at all from this?  Will we make long term fiscal policy changes?  Adopt a more stringent form of cost control?  Try to stay above the cost line, at the very least?  We have a lot of capital to make back after a solid year of overspending (on poorly explained, or non-explained items such as ‘professional services’).  I sincerely hope this disaster has taught us the value of stringent cost control mechanisms and the wisdom of regulating out of control BOD members.

To my friends on the Board of Directors, I congratulate you one and all for arriving at such a speedy resolution, and a big pat on the back for a job well done!

An Embarassment of Dejah Thorises

And when I mean, embarrassment, I mean embarrassment. Bargain basement movie studio THE ASYLUM (makers of such cinematic wonders as MEGA SHARK VERSUS GIANT OCTOPUS and TRANSMORPHERS: FALL OF MAN) are known for jumping on the bandwagon to make a knockoff of an established film in niche genre (though what original film Mega Shark was copying is a mystery to me). Usually the company waits until a movie has been released to copy it. Their new Princess of Mars film does double duty. Their version is already close to finished, and is already being promoted as a tie-in to John Cameron’s AVATAR (what the connection is is puzzling to me) while the straight to DVD release will be on shelves when Disney eventually begins to promote Andrew Stanton’s JOHN CARTER OF MARS.

The Asylum’s strategy works .. for a second. Reading the news of this release, my first thought was “Antonia Sabato as John Carter? NOOOOOOO…. followed quickly by Traci Lords as Dejah Thoris…? NOOOOOOO!!!! Are they out of their minds???” Then I figured out this was a cheap knockoff. Given that the source material has lapsed into public domain, The Asylum can get away with it. Okay, maybe I’ll view this version of a Princess of Mars when it hits the SyFy channel, but I shudder at the thought of this cast.. Sabato is, essentially, a television actor. Lords? Well, I can forgive a lady the indiscretions of her youth, but the fact is she’s a bit of a block of wood when it comes to straight roles. In any event, it should be.. erm.. interesting viewing.

Vincent Price’s Christmas Special

And a sinister Merry Christmas to all!

more about “Vincent Price’s Christmas Special“, posted with vodpod

Gratuitious Space Battles

With a title like that, I expected something tongue in cheek! My perception matched reality, as we will see. I’ve always enjoyed that “next step back” when it came to space combat games– I’m not much interested in joystick enabled single ship combats, and the “explore/colonize/exploit/develop/research” model of most space combat games seems done to death any more. I always liked the big fleet battle part.. where lines of ships (many of which you have designed) face off with other lines of ships and an epic melee takes place. Cliff Harris – the lone developer at Positech Games, apparently feels the same way. Positech Games latest offering, GRATUITOUS SPACE BATTLES (GSB), pretty much distills the experience down to key elements:

1) Design ships
2) Fight Battles
3) Win them for more honor points
4) Design better ships
5) repeat from step 2.

Design is simple and fast– you have a range of hull types with slots for Attack, Defense and “Other” modules. The actual battle sequence is truly visually awe-inspiring. It reminds me of nothing so much as those giant sprawling Cylon/Human fights from the Remake of the Battlestar Galactica remake. There’s a campaign system that VERY loosely ties things together.

A Gratuitious Space Battle. It should be moving to appreciate it.

Tactical choices are pretty limited– you have a fleet of ships depicted in 2D overhead view, you line up the ships pretty much across from the enemy fleet and hit the “Fight” button. What happens then is pretty much setting up a set piece engagement over which the admiral (you) seems to have little additional control. I didn’t find that all that much of a setback, as what transpires next is a gorgeously epic-scaled battle sequence that would do justice to the imagination of any SF geek. The sense of fun and creativity that went into GSB is palpable.

This game isn’t going to give any armchair general pause to wrinkle his forehead, but it is very good for what it promises, and the cost is extremely affordable at about 30 dollars. I’m still playing the Demo, downloaded HERE, and having a blast.

In the meantime, check out the game trailer here to get an idea of the tactical scale, visuals and general sense of fun of GSB:

Limited Time Engagement: watch Brian Lonano’s ATTACKAZOIDS, DEPLOY!

You can watch the entire film at the Attackazoids OFFICIAL SITE..

Enjoy!

2009 Nigel Clarke Memorial Christmas Game

Here's to you, Nigel! Merry Christmas, you are sorely missed! photo: S. Gibson

Circus Santacus, the Chariot Racing game held at the North Pole every year.  Reindeer chariots, yeti, glaciers, and angry Eskimo hunting parties.  It was hilarious.. Best fantasy chariot racing game in a long time!

I got there about 20 minutes late, so ended up with a pretty standard reindeer chariot.  These were a very limiting design by game standards– not heavy enough to ram, only one crewman, not the fastest thing in the world.  Still I pushed it and had fun with it.  The terrain was a nice random factor.  Racing on snow and ice means sometimes the chariot doesn’t go where you say it will, and sometimes that might even mean taking an involuntary dip in one of the water openings in the ice.

As usual, we didn’t even get one lap in.  That is because this game really isn’t meant to be played to “win” as in “win a race”.  You are racing for ‘points’ .. so the race is a measure of your dash, flair, cheekiness and creativity.    Unfortunately there was no way I could top Richard’s heroic death by diving under the ice flow with his entire sleigh, and I didn’t even want to try.

Related:

• A gallery of these pictures, without all the slideshow animation stuff
• Steve Gibson’s photobucket of the same event
• Previous Race

Zombie Outbreak Simulator! using Google Maps!

Class 3 Outbreak brings you Zombie Outbreak Simulator.. a simulation of the growth and spread of a zombie outbreak in a civilian population. The folks at Class 3 Outbreak use real maps from Google Maps to simulate an urban area complete with a stadium (nod to Zombietown’s opening shot, perhaps?).The popup ads are a bit of a pain but they are removable with a click.

more about “Zombie Outbreak Simulator! using Goog…“, posted with vodpod

Zombie Outbreak Simulator: http://www.class3outbreak.com/zombie-outbreak-simulator/