Winter War update

The Winter War pre-registration book has been updated. You can get the new version here. Several familiar names have been added, such as Paul Pomykala and Jim Ferguson. Also, there's now a spaceholder for the RPGA events. For more info on those events the program directs you to go here. I'm considering getting in on some Living Greyhawk intros. I want to start a new character and my sister might be interested in doing so as well. Anybody else up for this?

Still no sign that Dave or Dennis will be running anything. I sure hope they plan on GMing. They're the backbone of the RPG section.

I have seen Valhalla

So now that the place has been thoroughly vetted by Dave and Pat I finally managed to scope out Valhalla Comics & Games for myself. It's still a little rough, as they're working on arranging the store and remodeling the space and whatnot. But so far I'm impressed. The miniatures lines are diverse: 40K, WarMachine, the Hasbro/Wizards stuff, some WWII goodies, clickies, etc. The boardgames selection is limited but nifty. The roleplaying stuff covers D&D and White Wolf of course, but also things like most of the new Paranoia line. And they just got in the new Cyberpunk. (BTW, my notions of gaming art were not offended by the action figure based graphics. I thought the effect was neat-o and went well with the layout and choice of green highlights.) The Valhalla staff was friendly. Heck, they gave me a tour of the facility, making sure to point me to the gaming areas. Notice the plural. Gaming areas. There's an RPG room, a board/card room, and a minis room.

Let's talk about store loyalty for a moment. Nowadays I don't feel that I owe any obligation to anyone one store. I buy from online outfits, eBay, LeisureTime Pet & Hobby just as much as from my so-called Friendly Local Game Store, the Dragon's Table. Each one is a different tool in the box as far as I'm concerned. I think you ought to use the right tool for the right jorb. For obscure out-of-print stuff I end up online. For mainstream stuff that everybody carries I can just take my daughter to see the fishies at LeisureTime or incorporate a visit to Waldenbooks the next time the family hits the mall. For lunchtime browsing nobody's going to beat Dragon's Table as long as I work two blocks from the place. How does Valhalla fit into this scheme? My guess is that the secret will be the playing venue. I absolutely loathe the Dragon's Table back room, because it's too damn noisy for roleplaying and because it's overloaded with table space. The tables sardined-in such as they are may be great for Magic or clicky tournies, but for less competive, more leisurely gaming it's suffocating. The way that Valhalla is laid out seem much more conducive to some good gaming. For games where I want a neutral ground outside my gameroom, Valhalla may be the answer.

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani

Over a month now with no new Homestar Runner cartoon! Woe! I could tolerate an occasional week without a new Sbemail, as long as a fresh new toon was the result. But now the entire Decemberween season has come and gone with nary an update. Alas and alack! And I was really hoping for an old-timey black-and-white Decemberween this year, like That A Ghost but with more Santamen.

First draft, Red fleet

Here's my first attempt at the templates for the hulls of my first sci-fi fleet. Red Fleet (hopefully I'll come up with a better name soon) has big blocky vessels. Kinda like Star Destroyers made of bricks. Each vessel has large lower section and a smaller upper section that sits at or near the rear of the vessel. Except for the battleship, which has 3 sections. The cruisers and BB are each about 2" long. I figured that was the absolute largest I could make my ships and still be manaeable on my 1" hexmap.

Round bridge sections are not shown because they won't be cut out of plastruct. For the battleship and cruisers I've got these little wooden plugs that can sit atop the highest/smallest layer of the ship. I'll use something similar but smaller for the escorts. The BB/CA bridge section could probably be cast first and added to the prototype vessels. That way I'll only need to scratchbuild one bridge section.

I don't have specific Starmada stats laid out yet, but in my mind these vessels are armed and deployed somewhat like pre-airpower fleets. No fighters, no drones and few missiles. Just big gun platforms sliding through space with an ominous humming.

Click for a bigger version

I don't have any info on the origin of this map, but I think it's pretty cool.

A&A Miniatures Update

I still haven't bought any figures yet (apart from a Starter set for Pat's birthday) but I'm still making some efforts to follow the development of the Axis & Allies collectible minis game. Sometime during the holiday season blur the Wizards released the first expansion, rather dully titled Set II. Here's a PDF giving the list of new units and other vital info. They've added a few Nationalist Chinese, Polish, and Romanian units to the game with Set II, as well as expanding the selections for the main Allied and Axis powers. I wish I could point you to a handy figure gallery but Wizards seems to be hiding the link from me.

The next release on the schedule comes in March. They're calling this one Contested Skies. What, Set III not good enough for you all of the sudden? Anyway, the press blurb says that "Contested Skies features fighter planes, antiaircraft guns, tank destroyers, motorcycles, forward observers and more."

Alan Smithee: Cinema Legend

Here's the Internet Movie Database search results for Alan Smithee. For those who aren't familiar with the delightful Mr. Smithee, here's the Wikipedia article on him and his illustrious career.