Of Monsters, Malifaux, Broken Joypads and Boobs

How you could you not like this Spidicules guy?

This is the post that I had before I was sidetracked so I figured I'd try to get this one out before the Kickstarter deadline for Kingdom Death's Monster hits (it has 2 hours left and is at $1.85 million as I type this: edit - 1.86 million; edit - 1.87 million; edit - 1.88 million; edit - 1.89 million).

Most of the lads in Cork will tell you that I've been raving about this for the past month or so and I've managed to drag a few lads into giving it monies (thanks for that James) so there should be a Lantern-fetish gaming scene in place down here by the end of this year. I'm just gutted that I can't get my hands on more stuff (Oh Spidicules, how I adore thee) but I can wait until he hits the shelves to add it to my games. At least you get enough stuff in the box to keep you entertained for a long time.

While I'm waiting for that to arrive I have Malifaux and my Xbox with Dark Souls to keep me entertained. Dark Souls: what a horrendously difficult game.

I owe the National Newspapers of Ireland €1000. Allegedly.

My gold. Mine

I've enjoyed the Christmas break and hopefully you have too. Having lined up an article about the other game systems I'm playing at the moment and how much I hate my xbox, I was completely blown away by something I read online. A friend passed this to me on Facebook and I had to laugh. Eventually.

A solicitor firm in Dublin (McGarr's) have pieced together a brilliant story about how the media (or meedja as they're known in certain parts) have tried to come up with alternative routes of generating money, which ended up with them issuing a demand to a women's domestic violence charity for them to cough up for linking to a newspaper's website a story about their fundraising efforts that had appeared in the print version of said newspaper. I'm not joking: see the link here and feel free to criticise, review or ask questions in the comments below.

So I figured that I'd do my bit and see if I could get them to issue me with a warning. Apparently 26 links to various websites of members of the National Newspapers of Ireland means they'll charge me €1350. Which is £1094 or $1767 at the time of writing thanks to xe.com (I hope they don't charge too). This got me thinking about things that more traditional forms of businesses are doing to keep their profits coming in: see Ruport Murdoch's losing battle with Google (and Chrome and Firefox's Murdoch-block app) and I thought of GW, seeing as they are the biggest of the Titans when it comes to miniature wargaming and some of the many things that they've been doing in, or not doing, in order to keep their shareholders happy.

40k 6th: What's your plan B?

Random shit really is random

I met the Pinball Wizard a few days ago and we ended up chatting about what our hopes and fears for 6th ed were. There's two basic scenarios: A - they clean up the game and improve upon it or B - introduce an unnecessary amount of 'random shit is random' and ruin the game. Ala Fantasy, which for the record has seen numbers playing the game plummet in this part of the world. Except for Eoin, who is one of the few new gamers to buy and build up an army around here.

One thing GW did in the past with 40k was to use their GT/Throne of Skulls as a testing ground for rules changes. I think it might have been 1997 when they brought in wholesale changes (limiting the number of psychic powers a psyker had and requiring them to take a Ld test to use them) at a GT and they found their way into the 3rd ed version of the game. I'm quite worried that Jervis Johnson will be let loose on the game and we'll all be forced to play along with his vision of the game where at tournaments we'll all be made to give each other blowjobs to get most sporting awards to do well while in the corner Jervis chews his own faecal matter telling us how much more fun everyone is having due to the changes.

One Year On

Even I'm unimpressed with my once-a-month posting in the recent past. Thankfully I've been busy gaming instead of talking/theorising about games. In another day or two I should be comfortable with the Finnish lists that I'd expect to face at the ETC (now 2 and 1/2 weeks away) before I move onto the other team's lists.

To let my brain relax from the demanding 40k, I've really got stuck into Malifaux, running with Zoraida as my Master. She's hard to get the hang of but I've tried out Ol' Saddlebags with a variety of crews before I got my hands on Collodi and co. (on the right) and added them into the mix. I didn't rate him when I first ran him but having seen how much damage his Marionettes can do when using Puppet Show and Breathe Life and having Paired Talons with a Slow Trigger on Crows, I've since revised my opinion. Throw enough mud at a wall and some of it is bound to stick. It worked on David Norris.

GW vs Privateer. Locally.

GW v PP

So instead of getting in some ETC practice I've got some thoughts about my local gaming scene. There's been a few things that have come together to inspire this post. VT2's rant on 3++ , the calmer Back40k response  and the changing conditions in my own FLGS. The photo I've used is from Goethe's Erlkonig which to my mind at least sums up GW's attitude to their customers, and to a lesser extent, Privateer.

The story goes that a father and child are riding through the woods when the child spots a spirit that begins to haunt hm and the father tells him it is his imagination. When the child complains that he's been attacked the father rushes him home only to find that it is too late and the boy is already dead. That, and it was the inspiration for a Rammstein song (Dalai Lhama) for whom I just got a ticket for their gig in Dublin next year. Das ist sehr gut! :D