Warhammer Painting Progress - Part I

Yesterday morning I was sorting out my paints and generally clearing out a drawer when I came across a packet with "Forge World" emblazoned across the top. It took me a few seconds to realise what it was - A Space Wolf Venerable Dreadnought I'd bought from a Forge World day at Warhammer World a few months ago. I'd completely forgotten about it. If this isn't a sign that I buy too much hobby stuff, I don't know what is.

And then the very same day the new Warhammer 40,000 box set was revealed with some stunning Dark Angel and Chaos Space Marine models. Obviously, I have to get it.

But let's get a handle on things here. I need to get on top of the painting. Get stuff done and finished before moving onto something else.

So I thought I'd list what I still have unpainted as a means of motivation and keeping myself and others who might read this blog up to date on my progress. So here goes:

Ultramarines:

• 5 Tactical marines
• A Devestator Squad
• 3 bikers

Space Wolves:

• A Venerable Dreadnought (which I still need to buy the arms for)..

Eldar:

• Striking Scorpians
• 5 Dire Avengers
• Swooping Hawks (Going to buy some Finecast ones of these to replace my metal ones)
• Harlequins
• Avatar of Khaine

Dark Eldar:

• Lelith Hesperax

Scenery:

• Finish Basilica
• Two Bastions
• Quad guns etc

Dreadfleet:

• Grimnir's Thunder
• Flaming Scimitar
• Seadrake
• Skabrus
• Treasure tokens
• All auxiliaries
• Navigation rod, wind gauge etc.

Other:

•   Karazov on the Throne of Judgment.

Wow. I've depressed myself now. A lot of work ahead.

When I've finished the Blood Claws I'm working on at the minute, I'm going to go back to Dreadfleet. And we'll just see how we go from there.

I'll keep you posted.

Top 5

 

 Fellow list-lovers.

The words of a friend of mine from a piece he wrote a while ago:

"....every list has to be preceded with a disclaimer that the list is only valid for the period of your life up until now. you cannot claim that x will definitely be your favourite film of all time ever. that just cheapens the value of the list.
I'm looking forwards to day when the man visits me on my deathbed with the reel-to-reel to record my definitive lists. Be prepared."

Brilliantly put.

I want to address something that I’ve been experiencing over the past year or so. I’m finding it easier to make definitive lists.

For as long as we’ve been doing Top 5s and Top 10s, it’s always been quite scatological, determined by your mood and experiences at the time. The lists have come with an unspoken caveat that this is transient. In the moment. Likely to change.

But recently I have found that I can more easily slot a song choice into a list and say – that’s it.

 
With films, I’ve never been able to answer the question – “What’s your favourite film?” We’ve always had to categorise. Top 5 Action, Horror, Romance, Comedies and so on. But I was watching Casablanca sometime last year (something I do every couple of months) and as I half-mimed along with the words coming out of the TV, I was struck with a thought: This is it. This is my one. Casablanca is my one. My favourite, my be-all-and-end-all.

You might argue that I was just in the moment and enjoying the film to the point that all others felt inferior. But the thought has stayed with me. Casablanca stands firm. My number one, with a bullet.

How did this happen? Why is it that I can now say that Elvis Presley’s “American Trilogy” and “If I Can Dream” are in my Top 10 songs along with “All My Loving” by The Beatles and, dare I say it, my FAVOURITE song, “One Fine Day” by The Chiffons?

Is anyone else experiencing this? And what does it mean?

I fear it has something to do with age. Have we reached the point for the first time, where we have seen enough films, read enough books, listened to enough songs to be able to make more informed and concrete decisions?

What is going on?

Musical Moments in Movies

I wrote this article as a note on Facebook a few years ago. Thought I'd share it here - My ten favourite musical moments in film. The rule is – they must be songs and not scores, and no musicals. (In no particular order).....

1.) The end of Jerry McGuire when Bob Dylan’s "Shelter from the Storm" plays over Jerry, Dorothy and Ray’s walk through the park.

2.) Another Cameron Crowe movie: Vanilla Sky. David Aimes removes the mask and heads drunkenly into the night in search of Sophia as REM’s "Sweetness Follows" kicks in.

3.) Dazed & Confused. "Tuesday’s Gone" by Lynyrd Skynyrd serenades the party as it winds down. The empty cup, over the tap of the empty keg just the perfect image.

4.) "Just Like Honey" by The Jesus and Mary Chain, growing in strength as Bob and Charlotte part ways in Lost In Translation.

5.) The long tracking shot into the Copacabana club in Goodfellas is probably the most perfect shot in cinema. Made all the more so with "Then He Kissed Me" by The Crystals.

6.) Singing "Falling Slowly", Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova fall in love before your eyes in Once.

7.) Edith Piaf singing "Tu Es Partout" as the troops wait for their finest and, for many of them, final hour in Saving Private Ryan.

8.) Fight Club. The Pixies. "Where is my Mind?" = Possibly the best ending to a film ever.

9.) Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Fortunate Son" greets the arrival of Forrest Gump into Vietnam.

10.) Jim Carrey in Yes Man, urging a guy off the ledge with "Third Eye Blind’s" Jumper.

Mean Machines Sega

Inspired by @warllama40k's video reviews of White Dwarf magazines, I dug out this old copy of Mean Machines Sega and made a video of my own. 

Here it is, devided into two parts. The quality is a bit rubbish, but ne'mind.

Tom and Me - Part Two: Believe in Ghosts

While everyone moved onto the PS2, I was left behind. It would be some time before I would get one myself, but in the meantime, we upgraded our computer.

The first game I bought was Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. Combining the tactical gameplay of Rainbow Six with more open warfare, this game – along with its two excellent expansions 

Desert Siege and Island Thunder – made a big impression.

I bought Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm on the PS2 sometime later and while it wasn’t up to the same standards as the PC games, it entertained, largely due to the headset that came with the game, allowing you to issue orders to your squad with voice commands.

Now the PlayStation 2 might have been selling bucket loads around this time, but it was the Xbox that was gaining ground as the most powerful console on the market. That is no excuse, however, for the difference in quality between Ghost Recon 2 on the Xbox and the version over on the PS2. The latter was pretty terrible. It did, however, introduce Captain Scott Mitchell and a third-person perspective to the series.

For the PS2 at least, we were back to first-person for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, but that was eclipsed entirely by the same game on the new Xbox 360. It is difficult to quantify how important GRAW was to the 360. When the console was released we had PGR3 and Call of Duty 2 among a few others. They played and looked well, but it wasn’t the big step up we were all expecting. Then Advanced Warfighter came along and blew us away. Stunning graphics and terrific gameplay which – aside from a few glitches and a lot of screen tear – still holds up even now. GRAW set the ball rolling for the Xbox 360 in a big way.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 didn’t make any huge leaps, but it refined the mechanics of the previous game and was a joy to play.

Then everything went silent. Ghost Recon Future Soldier was set for a 2009 release, but was pushed back to 2010. It would be delayed twice more until it finally released in May 2012. Thankfully, it was worth the wait.

With brilliant stealth gameplay mechanics and graphically sharing some similarities with EA's Frostbite 2 engine, Ghost Recon Future Soldier came along at the perfect time for all those looking for a Call of Duty alternative.

The game garnered positive reviews and sold well, proving the market is still there for Tom Clancy flavoured gunplay.

Warhammer: My First Game of 6th Edition 40K

Last weekend I brought the grim darkness of the far future to my dining table for my first game of Warhammer 40,000 6^th edition.

 

I wanted to keep things simple and let the new rules emerge naturally over the course of the game. So it was Eldar vs Space Wolves, 600 points in the Battleforce Recon mission.

 

It being a relatively small battlefield, the Farseer moved in close enough in his first turn to use one of the new psychic powers. “Puppet Master”, from the Telepathy discipline allows a psyker to take control of a target and make a shooting attack with it. It is also a "Focussed Witchfire" ability which means that if the psychic test is passed with a total of 5 or less, the Psyker can choose which member of the target unit he takes control of. In this instance, the Eldar Farseer commanded the plasma gun-toting marine to fire on his comrades, killing one.

 

It was a great start to the game and things were only going to get better. The Rangers fired on the Wolf Lord and Blood Claw pack from their high vantage point in the Basilica. They would have wounded the Lord twice (him being the closest model, had it not being for the “Look Out, Sir!” attempt by one of the young  marines. When a wound is allocated to one of your characters and there is another model from the same unit within 6", you are allowed a "Look Out, Sir!" attempt. On the roll of a 4+ you can take the wound on another model instead.

In the Space Wolf turn the Wolf Lord set off up the field and thanks to the new charge distance rolls, managed to get in close combat with the Eldar War Walker on his first turn! The new Overwatch rule allows the unit being charged to fire on the enemy in an attempt to slow the advance. Representing the desperate nature of this volley, the unit can only fire using Ballistic Skill 1. On this occasion, the Wolf Lord made it through unscathed and ploughed into the walker. This was also my first game with the Space Wolves and knowing the Wolf Lord had an oath to keep and a Saga to add to, I charged him in without fear of the consequences. While his wolf companion was killed, the Lord came out triumphant and set his sights on the Eldar Farseer. 

 

Characters can now issue challenges to a unit in close combat, to face an enemy character one-on-one and it was my intention for the Wolf Lord to issue such a challenge to the Farseer. 

Sadly, the challenge never happened as the Wolf Lord was brought down by mass shuriken catapult fire from the Dire Avengers using the Exarch’s Bladestorm power. 

 

The Eldar went on to win the game 7-6 and the greater number and variety of ways you can now score points is a great addition to 40K. Not only do you get points for destroyed units and capturing objectives, but also being the first to destroy an enemy unit (First Blood), kill the opposing player’s Warlord (Slay the Warlord) and by having a unit in the enemy's deployment at the end of the game (Linebreaker).

 

My first game of 6^th edition Warhammer 40,000 was a fast and viscious affair and I can’t wait to try out the new rules in a bigger game.

Where do you draw The Line?

To say the games industry is dominated by shooters is an understatement. With the likes of Halo, Gears of War, Battlefield and Call of Duty selling hand over fist year on year, you could be forgiven for wanting something a little different. It may be surprising then, that I’m selling you another one. But bear with me.

 

On the face of things, Spec Ops: The Line is your basic third person military shooter. It looks well, plays fine, has decent squad mechanics. So far so what, right?

 

Where it differs from the pack is its themes and story and the way that story unfolds. This is one of the most gruelling games you’re likely to play and I don’t mean that it’s frustrating in any way. I mean that by the end you will have been put through an emotional wringer. Your family and friends will question the vacant stare in your eyes while those who have been there nod knowingly with a glance of shared sympathy, shame and regret.

 

Spec Ops: The Line is inspired by Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, the same book on which Apocalypse Now is based and centres around a three man squad of soldiers sent into Dubai after a series of city-destroying sandstorms. Your character – Walker  – and his squad of Delta operatives are tasked with finding the US Army rescue party sent into evacuate the city and who have since fallen off the grid – the leader of which appears to now rule over the ruins of Dubai as some cult-like figure.

 

It all starts out normally enough with great visuals and natural interaction between the squad members. But it soon descends into darker territory. The game throws various moral choices your way and your actions begin to take their toll. Your squad mates will start to bicker amongst themselves and question your orders and you’ll be questioning yourself before this is through. One sequence has you raining deadly white phosphorous down on an area full of enemy combatants. As the cloud disappears, most other games would have had your squad high-fiving each other as the screen cuts to the next chapter. In Spec Ops, you have to walk through the aftermath of what you just did – soldiers burning and screaming for mercy at your feet.

 

It’s strong stuff and it’s a game that will remain with you long after you switch off the console. It reminds you how compelling games can be and it makes you wonder why more books aren’t adapted into videogames.

 

If you’d prefer your shooters with less gung-ho and more brains, Spec Ops: The Line comes highly recommended. I’ve been there. The nurse says I’m ok to talk about it now.