Publishing Games Now: Let's Talk About the Incredible "Band Saga"

The past few months of radio silence has culminated in a fantastic new job for me in Osaka. Active Gaming Media has signed me on as their new Content Manager for their indy game translation and distribution service, Playism. Basically that means I am going to be hunting far and wide across the net and convention centers for indy games that look truly excellent so that we can bring them to foreign audiences. Playism has already put out a lot of really killer games, including Gunhound EX which I wrote about some months ago. Take a look at the library on our site, which is quite big at this point and is full of awesome games that are otherwise not available in their non-native regions.

Having just joined the team, there is still a whole lot for me to learn (my god, the sheer number of names and companies I am going to learn about in the near and far future!), and so I'm still getting up to speed even with some of our current projects. What prompted this post was checking out the Kickstarter for Band Saga, the video for which simple blew my f#&king mind. Have a look at the Kickstarter page, but below I'll borrow the video and some of the images to let you get a feel for what it is.

Band Saga is "a musical action rogue-like of epic proportions." It is a game where you utilize the sounds available to you in the game to create and remix tracks. Those sounds then affect the random generation of the SHUMP levels that you battle across. It's a beautifully drawn and animated game. The colors really pop, as do the sprite animations. The creator, Roger Hicks, has both incredible talent and excellent support from his lead artist Hillmon Ancrum. Right now I am actually listening to the OST on a free stream here and it kicks very much ass.

Roger has some really cool ideas for where he wants his game to go, including simultaneous coop play and asynchronous music collaboration. But it is really the core game mechanic that intrigues me most. I can't wait to get my hands on a build so I can see how the gameplay in this video unfolds for the player. There is more information on the Kickstarter, so go there to find out more about the game and if you like what you see (why wouldn't you? This game looks utterly bonkers) then back it and spread the word.

Rumors: 7th Vehicle Damage and Perils of the Warp Charts

Some new rumors (or perhaps leaks!) that I came across on BoLS a few moments ago. 

The vehicle chart is roughly what I would expect factoring in for the rumored 7+ explodes result. The thing that really caught my eye was (obviously) flyers crashing on a 1-2 out of d6 when immobilized. The old locked velocity rule never sat right with me when damaged mobility should logically make a plane crash. This is a welcome change in my eyes.

The perils chart is interesting, but I hoped it would be a lot more interesting (read: utterly brutal and unforgiving). Psychic powers seem like they're about to get even more useful than they have been. While perils is likely to happen more often with people rolling 5 or more dice and praying they don't double up on sixes, I don't see the need to reward someone for tempting the warp beyond casting the spell they were attempting. That's the inherent reward and it seems sufficient to me. 

I've seen people on the boards who think they're going to summon a million Pink Horrors with fifteen Heralds of Tzeentch. I think they are likely in for a surprise when they nuke themselves and their units too. When not casting powers Tzeentch has very low leadership. This chart would not be terribly friendly to them. Just a few days before 7th comes out (coincidentally on my birthday, though I'll be in Tokyo watching an Uematsu Nobuo concert[!]), so we only have to wait a little longer to see what truth lies behind these rumors. 

via Gary:

Vehicle Damage Table:

1-3 Crew Shaken: vehicle only firing snap shots like normal
4 Crew Stunned: vehicle only firing snap shots and cannot move or pivot. Zooming flyers cannot turn and must move 18". 
5 Weapon Destroyed: as normal and if all weapons have run out of ammunition or or already destroyed count as immobilized
6 Immobilized: Chariots count as Crew Stunned, Flyers 1-2 flyer crashes with Crash and Burn rule. 3+ it counts as crew stunned.An already immobilized vehicle suffering another immobilized result loses an additional hull point.
7+Explodes: D6 radius for a Strenth 4 hit on nearby units. vehicle destroyed

Crash and Burn: lg blast and scatters 2d6 for S6 hits.

Wrecked vehicles are those that lose all their hull points. becomes scenery

Perils of the Warp:
1. Dragged into the Warp: Psyker takes a leadership test, if passed suffers 1 wound or glancing hit no saves.if failed he is removed as a casualty and his unit takes d6 S6 AP1 hits. The hits come from the psyker for allocation
2. Mental Purge: Psyker suffers 1 wound/glancing hit no saves. randomly select one power from the psyker. its lost for the rest of the game. 
3. Power Drain: Psyker suffers 1 wound/glancing hit no saves. if its the psychic phase, both players lose d3 warp charge points 
4. Psychic Backlash: Psyker suffers 1 wound/glancing hit no saves.
5. Empyric Feedback: Psyker takes a leadership test. if failed Psyker suffers 1 wound/glancing hit no saves. If passed no effect.
6. Warp Surge: Psyker takes a leadership test. if failed Psyker suffers 1 wound/glancing hit no saves. If passed psyker gains a 3+ invul, fleshbane, armour bane, and smash until the next friendly psychic phase.

7th Ed Psychic Powers!

The new 7th edition psychic powers leaked today and there are a number interesting points herein. Of note is that the Sanctic Daemonology powers are really fascinating. On the whole they're easier to cast than the counterpart Malefic powers, although on the surface it seems they are not as incredible as summoning troops with wargear or summoning greater daemons. I do see that they match up well with many Grey Knight units, however. A 2++ on Draigo would be incredible. Or 4++ on Terminators would be very helpful. Teleporting slow-moving units like Terminators or Henchmen via Gate of Infinity looks like a powerful tactic as well. And then of course the big surprise is...Vortex of Doom with a Stength D profile! That looks very worth a possible failure and perils.

Other changes worth note are that Misfortune is much less useful now, especially to Eldar. I doubt I'd even keep it if I rolled it. Biomancy has some amazing powers and the ones that were good before only got better. Iron Arm is beyond amazing now that it gives a flat +3 to both S and T. Telepathy got worse in some respects, particularly Hallucination and the loss of Puppet Master, but Invisibility is still very good and Psychic Shrierk, which was my favorite anyway, picked up another six inches of range. Shrouding looks great, but if you read carefully it only buffs models within six inches of the psyker. I don't see it as a great option unless used to protect vehicles or unless used from inside a vehicle.

I like the look of many Telekinesis powers too. Again, some those would work great with Grey Knights. Using Levitation to position shooting units into their sweet spot 24" range stands out as a good option. Sorry for all the GK-centric thoughts, them and Inquisition are the only Imperial armies I really play. Anyway, have a look for yourself. There's a lot to gleam here.

Edit: to get the pictures to display large enough to read the text I'm finding I have to open them in new tabs first. FYI.

Finally getting around to posting about my game! 2k Eldar vs Eldar

I was already planning to visit friends in Tokyo about a month back, but out of nowhere I got a free day off on a Friday and I got some 40k in too. What a lucky break! Scott and I are slugged it out with the most brutal lists we could put together at 2000 points. I laid down my ForgeDar Council to see how it would fare against him without allies. Here's my list.

HQ

• Farseer - Jetbike, Spear
• Farseer - Jetbike
• 8 Warlocks - Jetbikes, 1 Spear

Troops

• 5 Dire Avengers
• Wave Serpent - TL Scatter Laser, Underslung Shuriken Cannon
• 5 Dire Avengers
• Wave Serpent - TL Scatter Laser, Underslung Shuriken Cannon

Fast Attack

• Nightwing Interceptor
• 2 Hornets - Dual Pulse Lasers, One with Holos
• 2 Hornets - Dual Pulse Lasers, One with Holos

Heavy Support

• Pheonix Bomber
• 2 War Walkers - Scatter Laser/Bright Lance
• War Walker - Scatter Laser/Bright Lance

2000 Total Points, 13 Kill Points, 2 Scoring Units

Not having Dark Eldar presents some of the old challenge in using the Seer Council (no Hit and Run). And it makes my powers less reliable (no Grisly Trophies). Part of what we were trying to do was test ways of bringing down the Council when it is backed by a powerful list, but not by the Baron.

Opposing Eldar:

HQ

• Spiritseer
• 3 Warlocks on Jetbikes, 2 Spears

Troops

• 5 Wraithguard with D-Scythes
• Wave Serpent - Scatter Laser, Holofields
• 5 Wraithguard with D-Scythes
• Wave Serpent - Scatter Laser, Holofields
• 3 Jetbikes with a Shuriken Cannon
• 3 Jetbikes with a Shuriken Cannon
• 3 Jetbikes with a Shuriken Cannon

Fast Attack

• 2 Hornets - Dual Pulse Lasers
• Nightwing Interceptor

Heavy Support

• Falcon - Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holofields
• Warp Hunter - Holofields
• Warp Hunter - Holofields

Basically our idea was to force the Council to roll a lot of 4++ saves against the Wraithguard and Warp Hunter templates. There is also a good amount of firepower coming in from other platforms on the other side. If the Council were dwindled down, my relatively low AV force might be dealt with over the course of the game.

Deployment.

I failed to roll either Fortune or Protect. And getting too focused on trying to Fortune I forgot to roll for Prescience and Psychic Shriek. I was off to a bad start. Then I lost the roll for first turn and failed to seize. This was basically the worst case scenario for the army I brought.

Scott's Saim Hann force. A work in progress, and I think his best painting to date.

But what we found was that while my opponent made a few mistakes in his movement phase, particularly putting long ranged assets too close (he's used to Dark Eldar skimmers with rifles firing from the inside) and his D-Scythe Wraithguard too far, it wasn't of great consequence that I lost a lot of my Council. What I had been wary of was him hammering even 2-3 models with 5 templates with both units. That could cripple the Council without even accounting for firepower coming from his vehicles. Instead the Wraithguard were too far away to lean on their optimal target and he had to fire on the Council with his Hornets and tanks. That spared my own vehicles a lot of damage. His battle tanks were also too close to avoid getting assaulted by the few Witchblades that remained, meaning that despite hurting the unit badly they were still causing roughly the same damage they would have at full strength.

Council casualties and their following assaults. Scott's Hornets really pounded them. We found Hornets to be obscenely powerful in this game, especially when Guided.

I discovered a few things about my list in this game. The Council is as amazing as always at killing vehicles with weak rear armor. While I think it would have been too diminished to fight large units of infantry or other tarpit units, I think it is likely armies with points invested in those units would have a hard time hammering the Council at long range. A list like that may not be able to deal with my Serpents, Hornets, Walkers and Flyers as well. It might also not have the ability to ignore cover which is huge in dealing effectively with a Fortuned 2+ Council, which before the game started was a very real concern.

Fielding a Council in my ForgeWorld mech list basically throws a wrench into target priority for my opponent. It takes very specific tools to bring it down. Even if it doesn't have a 2+ and 2+ cover, and even if it doesn't have Fortune, at long range you need to use weapons with AP 2/3 to kill them effectively and that keeps my mech elements mostly unmolested. Ignoring the Council, especially when there is a nice opportunity when they don't have Fortune up, can spell doom for many armies as well.

I also discovered that Pheonix Bombers are much better than the internet seems to believe. I've seen any number of times that people advise taking Nightwings instead for better jink saves, similar firepower and cheaper costs. But similar firepower is so untrue in my opinion. With the missile launchers you get a lot more shots at very good AP. I found my Bomber could basically remove a unit of Wraithguard every turn. And I'd be comfortable shooting it at almost anything: vehicles, weakly armored troops, other planes, really anything but AV14.

Before flyers.

After flyers. Cleared a Serpent and WG unit.

And finally what I learned is that even though I love the Council I built and using its rules is really ridiculously fun, I can't see what place it has in 40k generally. Most armies can't deal with it, especially not when it is backed up by a powerful force. I already felt like it clearly doesn't belong in casual games, but even when you tailor specifically to it and field a quite brutal army it throws off the balance of the game too much in my opinion. It takes a lot of force to destroy even when it doesn't have any of the powers that make it durable. And it takes very specific equipment even if you apply the force. You really need both AP2 and ignores cover and there aren't many armies that can wing that. Even if they can, I don't like it when a battle can be compared so easily to paper, rock, scissors. It's a strategy game, after all, and strategy ought to win the day.

I think I'm done using my Council, and likely my Forge World units, in all but Apoc battles. Fun as they are there just aren't many situations where they are fair. For most of 5th edition I played feeling like within reason (ie as long as you're not facing utterly ridiculous lists from the few top tier books at the time), superior strategy would win out. But the game is clearly not balanced for competitive list-building under 6th when there are units that deal a lot of damage and are essentially unkillable to a lot of armies. I suppose that's just something I have to learn to accept. Hopefully it draws me back toward aspect warriors because then I wouldn't need to paint or build anything to keep my lists up-to-date.

NagoyaHammer 2014

Things have been really busy this year and I've only recently been able to squeeze hobbying back into my schedule, but rather than harp on that let's talk about NagoyaHammer 2014 and how much it will suck if you miss out on the awesomeness. NagoyaHammer is the big Nagoya event hosted every year during Golden Week by the ever-vigilant, stalwart shield of the Imperium of Man, Primarch (who runs the NagoyaHammer forums that you should be signed up for, by the way). Last year was absolutely fantastic. We had beautiful tables all around and a ton of really cool people with gorgeous armies. It was a great weekend and this year is sure to be awesome as well.

There is always a variety of games played at NagoyaHammer, but 40k remains the central event. This year there will be Bolt Action and tables set up for pick-up 40k on the first day. The second day is a 40k campaign-like set-up with four factions battling it out, defending and assaulting tables.

Below, I'll post the essential details and the links to the original posts. There is still a lot of time before the event, more than enough to sign up and get your army ready to go.

Event Schedule
Friday May 2nd

09.00 - Doors open
09.00 - 21.00 - Free play 40K, Bolt Action and much more besides.
21.30 - Doors close
Saturday May 3rd - Warhammer Task Force Campaign.

09.30 - 10.00 - Doors open and players get themselves ready for games
10.00 - 12.30 - Game 1 - last turn warning at 12.15
12.30 - 13.30 - Lunchtime
13.30 - 16.30 - Game 2 - last turn warning at 16.15
16.30 - 17.00 - Breaktime
17.00 - 20.45 - Game 3 - last turn warning at 20.30
21.30 - Doors close, Izakaya time begins.

The 40k event, the details of which can be found here, calls for 3-5 lists. For doubles games you need a 500, a 750 and a 1k list. For singles (which might not be necessary), you need a 1500 and a 2k. The teams have the codices and FW lists split up into the four different factions. You can find individual threads for each faction here.

If you have any questions or comments, contact me here or sign up with the NagoyaHammer forums and talk to Primarch there. Hope to see you in Nagoya!

Warhammer Quest and Star Command Updates

I never did get around to a follow-up post on Warhammer Quest. It's late now and I'm flying out to Hawaii tomorrow, but let me hit the points worth hitting. I had a brilliant first playthrough with the four basic characters. Even having used all but one downloadable characters (6 in all), I think the basic ones might be the best balanced. I found the Trollslayer flavorless and the Warrior Priest too unreliable to be of use. The Archmage was useful though, and in my recent playthrough I've been having fun with the Shadow archer-whatever and the fire mage. I haven't played with the new area, but from the description it looks like new tiles and enemies for the end-game, something WQ desperately needs. If you're looking into the downloads, I say skip the Trollslayer and Priest, but the rest of it has been good in my experience.

While I'm at it, Star Command has some new content. I haven't gotten to the new missions, but they did update the UI in some very useful ways. I honestly forget if I've mentioned this game on 2d6D or not, but it rocks inside and out. It is fun, funny and old skool hard--a rare combo these days indeed. Err, well it was hard for me until I leveled my doods and built up my ship. I'm actually thinking of restarting on a harder difficulty now. Still, it is a very demanding game in terms of tactics and dexterity. I strongly recommend it.

That's all I've got right now. I'll be back to posting when I'm back from vacation. Peace out 'til then!

Last Weekend's Gaming Sans Pictures (D'oh!)

Unfortunately I have less to say about last weekend's gaming than I'd hoped. I hadn't known what exactly we were going to play and was surprised to find out I was supposed to field both armies. I didn't have any lists prepared for that and I only brought my Eldar. It was also a good deal later than we'd thought it would be when my buddy rode in. Still, we got a kill team-ish game in and had a great time. We sort of just eyeballed the points costs for some footdar squads and then put them in pairs. Then we rolled off on each pair and the winner got to choose one of the two squads. We didn't really pay attention to full squad sizes and we allowed combat squadding for all of them. A kill point to be awarded for the death of half a squad, or for a full combat squad. 1 Farseer each. I ended up with 7 Rangers, 3 Warp Spiders and 9 Guardians with a Shuriken Cannon. He got 5 Scorpions, 5 DAs and 4 Fire Dragons.

Honestly I thought I'd mop him up before he ever got near me and on the first turn it looked like that's what would happen. I layed out 4/5 Scorpions and it looked like I would kill off his DAs. But he rolled very well for his assault range on his Scorpion who got to kill off my heavy weapon. Then his DAs made about 12 4+ saves in a row and Battle Tranced behind my terrain to lay waste to me. We had a few combats that were dragging on when we called it. If he wasn't going to table me, it would be a boring 3 turn slapfest while we take turns rolling dice.

It made for a really fun game. I hadn't been on the receiving end of Battle Trance yet and I feel like it is the best army-wide rule you could ask for except maybe ATSKNF. It's fantastic for both defense and offense. This game was also only about the third time I've used my terrain (that this same friend actually did up for me) and it was pretty rad playing on it. Hopefully after my vacation next week in Hawaii (woo!) then finances and parenting time permitting, I might be able to have more of my doods out here to play on this killer table I almost never use. I'll try to actually get pictures next time too. Sorry!

Gaming at Home in Nagano

I'm going to get to play some 40k this weekend and I don't even have to travel for it! A friend of mine is training up for the Mongolian Bike Challenge and as training he is biking all the way here from Ogaki. That's something like 180km if I'm not mistaken! He called me this morning at like 6:30 when he left and I acknowledged his departure with a groggy "Grhughrlllr gu huh." This should be a great time! I love the terrain I have but I haven't gotten to use it much as I live far out and have few visitors. He actually put most of it together for me and this will be his first time to play on it.

I think I'll throw my aspect warriors against him. If we do a second game I'll probably give him a Seer Council list. Since I don't own the Dark Eldar allies I wrote my current Council list with I'll put something else together, probably including Shining Spears and Warp Spiders.

This ought to be a really great time. I'll post about our gaming during the week, most like.

List-building: 1500 AspectDar

When I first got into Eldar it was the synergy required of aspect warriors, each operating at maximum efficiency and in perfect harmony, that had me falling in love with the flavor of the army. My first taste of Eldar gameplay was in Dawn of War and I found immediately that depending on the match up, my units either slayed or were slain. The steep learning curve and fierce tactical demands were exhilarating. When I first tried it with models I had a little success, and then far less as my opponent got used to my army. I found that in the face of sheer optimization and efficiency, our masterful warriors were just too pricey and not quite good enough to justify it. Well now we have a new book and have seen a lot of improvements for certain aspects--luckily they were the ones I already own and enjoy, so I have gone back to enjoying the Eldar play style that I think most embodies the harmony and calibration that drew me to the army in the first place. This list focuses on synergy, board control, overlapping target priority, and deceptive deployment:

HQ

--Farseer - Singing Spear 105

Troops

--8 Dire Avengers 249

  Wave Serpent - TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-fields, Spirit stones

--10 Guardians with Bright Lance 110

--5 Rangers 60

--5 Rangers 60

  

Elites

--10 Striking Scorpions - Exarch w/ Scorpion's Claw and Crushing Blow 220

--9 Fire Dragons 343

  Wave Serpent - TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-fields, Spirit stones

Fast Attack

5 Warp Spiders - 95

5 Warp Spiders - 95

5 Shining Spears - Exarch w/ Hit & Run and Star Lance 160

12 Kill Points, 4 Scoring Units and 1497 Total Points

It's not what I'm used to these days. It isn't especially heavy on the long-ranged firepower and doesn't have any dedicated anti-air. In lists I make, I generally try to have a couple of ways to deal with every threat in the game while keeping my units' movement speed roughly the same. 

Well this list has a huge variety of weapon ranges and movement speeds. Playing it means deploying smart. You have to make good use of infiltration on the Rangers and Scorpions. Using reserves with Spiders deep striking and Spears outflanking can cripple crucial enemy units mid-late game. The slow/immobile units are best used to hold back-field objectives and depending on the enemy's ability to close in on them they should be supported accordingly. Objectives can be used to split up the enemy force and then you can apply pressure with the right units.

Being a hybrid force, this army could easily get separated into small battle groups that would be easily destroyed. The key to playing it is to evaluate the opponent's ability to do that and not to overextend your units. None of the units are meant to suicide into the enemy, least of all the Fire Dragons who have a reputation for that kind of thing. With their new armor and a Farseer backing them up, they should delay their attack until absolutely necessary and deliver a crucial blow at a vital moment. They're too pricey and have great survivability with their new armor; they are wasted when thrown away on a single target. The Spiders and Spears can easily find themselves outnumbered in the enemy backfield and that is something that must be avoided as well.

I think this list has a solid chance against many opposing forces. It's far from a power build, but I have had some success with it already and find it to be a lot more strategically demanding (and rewarding) than my mech lists.

What are your thoughts? What style of Eldar do you prefer? How do you feel about playing aspect-heavy with the new book?

Welcome to Wargaming 2013.9.21

The Welcome to Wargaming WiJ event was absolutely amazing. Everything from the hall to the tables to the players to the food to the prizes--just fantastic. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking this time, but even if each picture said 1,000 words they would fall short of telling what a great event it was.

Happened on this beauty while we were stuck in traffic.

Here are many of the tables just before we started rolling dice. We showed up late because the gate house was full of people and the guards were apparently not in much of a hurry (it's a military base, so everyone has to be signed in). I didn't finish getting pictures because games got started as I was snapping off shots. Had to rush to get my army out.

I thought Necromunda was going to be played on this table, but maybe it was Judge Dredd that got some time on it. Maybe someone from the group can correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's a huge and beautiful table for a game whose name I forget. In my blog list you can find a link to these fellas' blog. Their painting is just gorgeous, but my photos are taken from too far away to do them any justice.

 In the following two pics you can get the gist of how my first game went. I ran a list where I just crammed in all my aspect warriors, rangers and guardians. Well not all my Rangers. I have 29 of them now, but only 10 are painted. Anyway, it was an experimental list with much less long-ranged firepower than I'm used to bringing. My opponent was playing an experimental GK list with a very low body count, however, and my numbers and offensive power proved too much for his force. I didn't really have an MVP unit, but my Dragons, Scorpions, Rangers, Spiders and Spears all performed admirably. His MVP was easily Draigo. He ate a lot of shooting and broke my Dragon unit's Morale. His contending MVP unit was probably the Storm Raven. It wiped a 5 man Spider squad and seemed like it planned on bringing even more pain elsewhere on his next turn.

His GKs were beautifully painted. Traditional silver and Inquisition red, but you could tell he put the time in to do it up right.

Notice the conspicuous lack of Warp Spiders. Yeah, Dakka Ravens hurt.

Second game was against Tyranids. My opponent chose my competitive list rather than my experimental one and I got out my Forgedar. It's a mech list with a lot of S6 and S8AP2 shooting. In hindsight it was a worse match-up than even my first game, but again my opponent was an awesome guy and we had a good game of it nonetheless. He actually almost won anyway despite how tough a fast, shooty, mech army is to fight with a Nid list like his. When it came time for the dice to stop rolling he had his objective and I didn't have any. I won just barely through secondary objectives, but not through any forethought of my own. I wish I had close-ups of his Nids. They looked fabulous.

There are some things in reserves, but this is it for the most part.

Wine, beer and food all day with the entry fee. I don't eat while I play because I worry about my figs, but I did indulge a little in the drinks =)

We had a surprise special guest at our event! Through a fairly roundabout way, one of our gamers/organizers found out that Steve Parker, BL author of titles such as Gunheads and Deathwatch, lives in Japan. Well he was kind enough to come to our event, sign some books and sort of just hang out and chat. He's a really cool guy and an excellent conversationalist. It certainly helped kick off the Wargamers in Japan events.

As a side note, we raffled of that chainsword he's holding and I'm incredibly jealous of the guy who got it. He's one of fellas from Giant Hobby in Tokyo. Head on out to their shop if you want to see it. Or you know, I think you can order one from the internet.

And that was the first event we've held! Definitely a huge success and a start to something really great. There are going to be a lot of other awesome game days in the future and I hope to see even more of the Japan gamers at the next one. Thanks to everyone who put so much into making this event fantastic.

Publishing Weekend Followed by Welcome to Wargaming Weekend

This weekend I finally published my children's book to Smashwords. It took a while to write, draw, paint and compile the thing. Still, it might have taken even longer to register for the international book numbers I needed to publish it how I wanted to. I'll post some details on my other blog, but for now I thought I'd share over here since my other audience has heard plenty through the facebook page. The kids that have read Bear with Me and those that have had it read to them have all loved it and asked it to be read a number of times in a row. The parents who have read it liked it too. I put a lot into making it appeal to both, because having become a dad this year I know what it's like to read kids' books that make me roll my eyes. Or that get boring to me quickly. Or that just kind of suck. It's pretty cheap at 3.99 and the first half is available as a free sample if you want to get a feel for the art. Really though, the story comes together at the end (as any story should). For now it is only available through Smashwords, but once it clears their vetter review it will be available through Apple, Sony, Kobo and Barnes & Noble. I'll be uploading to Amazon myself later this week. The Japanese version will be coming this week as well. Smashwords is best if you just want to show your support as the royalties rate is much better, but you do also get access to every available file format, so it's a win/win for us both.

On the 40k front, next weekend is the Welcome to Wargaming event! God I can't wait for it. There are going to be a lot of tables set up for a lot of different games. There will be representatives from a lot of the hobby shops in Japan and I heard that Steve Parker of Black Library fame will be around too! I'd love to get a chance to talk to him. I had no idea any of the BL authors live in Japan.

For gaming, I opted to play a little demo game of Necromunda and 3 games of 40k at 1500 points. I haven't played 40k in a while. The last games I did get in were with Seer Council/Dark Eldar mech list variants. I picked up a few new lessons with my favorite unit in the game. Allying in Dark Eldar and using Wave Serpents, War Walkers and GJBs lets me shoot pretty darn hard in addition to having a truly obscene beat stick.

Good lessons, but I'm not sure if they're one's I'll be leaning on next Saturday. I have three different lists in mind: two competitive ones and one that is experimental. The experimental one has lots of aspect warriors and a mix of vehicles. One competitive one is my Council DEldar list and the other is a mech list that is tough as nails. I forget how well I can pack everything up. I'm pretty sure I can bring all three and then play each once since there are three games (it's not a tourney).

I haven't been up to date on all the Space Marine rules, but from what I've heard they sound in line with the newer books. I'll have a look before the event, but I can't imagine a solid TAC Eldar list suddenly can't hang just because SMs got some price adjustments and new toys. It should be a great time!

Vassal Engine Update

Just in case you haven't seen it already, the Vassal Engine was updated not long ago. Far too many bugs have been corrected and there are too many updates for me to cover them all here, so I recommend reading the update news on their site. You can download the new version here.