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!

Inquisition Codex: I'm More Torn than Space-Time on the Crone Worlds

Let me remind you that I am skeptical of everything that isn't a hot sandwich or a cold beer. I love the Inquisition as much as a (barely) decent human being can love a maniacally obsessive, paranoid, genocidal army of cyborgs and side-show freaks. The designs, the flavor, the endless room for character personality--there is so much going for them. I haven't seen any rumors on what will be in this book. But I'll take a wild stab at it not being the tome it could be--a book with the GKs and Sisters redone and with the Deathwatch given their place as well. All three Ordos that would be, Malleus, Hereticus and Xenos, all under one sadistic, yet happy roof.

This release all but crushes any of hope of that under the hard sole of a Munitorum-issued boot. I can't wait to see it because I long ago learned that you have to take what you get with GW. The artwork does look really cool and a lot of the rules for 6th edition armies have been good, flavorful even. But I haven't seen the new Sisters stuff and that is probably the best indicator for this book. Bottom line for myself though, is that I let myself get too attached to a rumor I saw earlier in the year.

Which leads me to: that rumored 28mm Inquisition skirmish game. That was the most exciting rumor I read in the second half of this year. I hadn't heard anything about it so when I saw this news I went looking and found this not-so-recent thread on Dakka Dakka about it. This digital codex is slated for next month. It could make for a very Inquisition November to have this and the skirmish game come out around the same time. On the other hand I also worry that the skirmish game could have been twisted warp lies sent drifting in the aether of the internet. Terra help us if that's true.

Spotlight: Allan Carrasco

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I love Eldar. I had a good time playing Eldar vs Eldar over the weekend and I'll be posting something short about it this week, but just now a friend of mine shared an awesome CWE army on Facebook that I really wanted to share with you. It is by none other than the brilliant freelance sculptor, Allan Carrasco. You might know his work from Kingdom Death (NSFW). Everything he does is really gorgeous, so I'll just post a few pictures from his site and leave it to you to go check out his other work. Under "own works" in the "painting" link you can find some truly awe-inspiring stuff. Aside from the Eldar I'm partial to the Deathguard he did. Thanks to James for sharing this in the first place! Enjoy!

I Need Worlds of Magic Greenlit, Let's Help Make that Happen

You won't hear me say often how fortunate I was to grow up with three older brothers, but when it comes to my exposure to awesome stuff as I was growing up, there's no denying it. Games were a real big part of all of that. It was my brothers and their friends who brought home Final Fantasy 1. It was my brothers who introduced me to Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk and my older brother's friend who first showed me the glory of F-Zero on SNES. And it was the second oldest of my bros who bought and carelessly left out Master of Magic where I could steal it and lose myself in its deep wells of badassery. 

If you're not familiar with Master of Magic (MoM), it is one of the seminal works of the 4X gaming genre. 4X stands for the four X's of eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate, and it is essentially these four activities that make up the whole of the genre's gameplay. 

The 4X genre has withered away into a husk of it's former robust, mighty form. It is comprised of but a few recent titles, but luckily Wastelands Interactive is hard at work on a spiritual successor to MoM, Worlds of Magic. If you look at the features they're working hard to include, at the way they involve the dedicated fan base of the original in their development, at the way their game is almost flawlessly faithful to Master of Magic, it is clear that it is a game made for fans by fans. 

Unless it can't get greenlit because YOU wouldn't vote YES for it on Steam! Yeah, that's right I'm blaming YOU specifically for something that hasn't yet and might not even happen. All right not really, but this game will be seriously excellent if Wastelands Interactive can get the support they need to get the thing out. There is already a demo available and while it is clearly still in development, it is equally apparent that the developers are going in the right direction.

Basically the point is that I want to play this game really badly and I need you help to get this game onto my hard drive. C'mon, be bro. Err, a bro, not my bro. I"m not asking you to buy this so I can steal it off your desk. Just try the free demo and click yes that you'll buy it =)

Welcome to Wargaming Weekend - Back at Craftworld My'house

Well I'm back home after an astonishing and astonishingly tiring weekend. The Wargamers in Japan event, Welcome to Wargaming, was a huge success with a lot of attendees. We had people playing napoleonic games, Space Hulk, Magic: The Gathering, Necromunda, Warmachine and some other stuff I'd never seen besides 40k. We had people representing from the US, Japan, France, Scotland and Italy if I recall, and maybe even more. We had a raffle with some cool figures and a really good-looking chainsword prop by a company whose name I forget. My friend (and gracious driver) also won the first place prize for the tournament. It was judged on the most fun opponent and I couldn't think of a more deserving individual. Steve Parker gave him a signed copy of his new book Deathwatch as a prize. What personal message did he request, you ask? "You look sexy in power armor!" Hahahah

There were a lot of great figures on the tables and even greater people playing them. I'll be blogging (read, bragging) about it this week. I got some pictures, but I'll borrow better ones from some of the guys in the group and share them. Luckily this is just the first of many events there will be. I'll be posting about others to come, so if you know anyone in Japan who wants to game and just doesn't know where to go for it, it is far from too late to get in on some really awesome events. Let them know and let's keep building on the great momentum we've got going.

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!

Rumors: Space Marine Photo Dump

Here is a collection of all the new Space Marine photos I could scrounge up. Many of them came from Dakka and others from Pins of War, where you can find these photos of Tac Marines and Sternguard that I can't seem to steal shamelessly.

For my part, I'm none to impressed. I heard new Vanguard Vets and almost lost it because they have such potential. I do think they're the best of the bunch here, but from the GKs, Dark Vengeance chosen, DW Knights, and Death Company, I expected better. Especially from the Vanguard models. The poses are really disappointing to me. Especially when compared to that awesome PAGK kit where you get to have a guy stabbing through the skull of a Plaguebearer. It's a model so good it looks like a conversion, but isn't. The key to making amazing Vanguard Vets would have been in the momentum expressed by the poses, in my opinion. I do, however, like the Sternguard, tanks and the Libby a lot. Hope to see some good figures in the Sternguard kit as those photos surface.

Enjoy folks. I'll be around, but I'm on vacation and I'm trying to knock out that kids' book before I go back to work.

Changes to my Blogs and What's to Come

I have a lot coming up in the near future and in preparation of it all, I have decided to finally link my Blogger account with my Google+. So, nice to meet you, I'm Dan. Were I still only going to be writing 2d6D, I don't think I would link them, but it's all or nothing on Blogger.

I've just started a new blog that I will be using as my professional page as I release my self-published titles over the course of the next few months and it's for that blog that I linked my accounts. The first release, a children's picture book, ought to be done and available at all major eBook retailers around the end of August or beginning of September. The one to follow that will be an interactive picture book and educational tool for learning English and Japanese.

News articles and cool links that regard writing, 2D art and other topics that relate are going to be posted over here, on a blog that I have not yet configured at all. I'll also be blogging about works as they progress.

What does this mean for you, the reader? The first is that there will be more content, more articles and links. But more importantly in my opinion, they will be more sharply focused because non-40k material that relates more to writing, art and translation will be siphoned off to my other blog. So if you're only interested in one or the other, this should help filter out content that isn't pertinent to you.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but I'm really looking forward to it all because I think it will lead somewhere fun and interesting. Keep an eye out as there will be developments and updates all along the way. Cheers!

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.

Wargamers in Japan and Details on our First Event

Here is the official logo for Wargamers in Japan. It's hard to call it a group as that would defeat the purpose of the thing. Really it's more like a confederation lol. It's a group of all the 40k groups in Japan that we can get involved. So far we have groups in Zama, Atsugi, Yokosuka, Yokohama, Chima, Saitama, and Tokyo. I'm trying to get the Nagoya guys involved as well and hope to get them in on the meetings soon.

It's an open group and our basic philosophy is the more people, the more gaming, the more fun we'll all have. We have lots of people already involved who are all into a lot of different kinds of gaming.

The first event is scheduled for September 27th, 2013. We're definitely going to have tables for 40k, Fantasy, Bolt Action, Space Hulk, Necromunda and some historical war games that I know nothing about personally. There are details and Facebook contacts in the group. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you are in Japan and want to game or if you even know anyone who is moving out here and could use some community support for gaming or even getting adjusted to the country and lifestyle.

Satellite Reign (Syndicate, basically) Incoming

Here is another Kickstarter project that I have my eye on. It's by the creator of Syndicate Wars, which I never got around to, but it looks just like the original which I played religiously.

Space Hulk Pre-orders on Steam

Seems I was actually ahead of the curve on something. Seems a lot of people are finding out about the Space Hulk game only now that it is up for pre-order on Steam. There's no question as to whether or not I will buy it. The only question is whether I buy it for iOS or for Steam. I intend (finally) to get an iPad when the next one releases and I'd rather have this for that and my iPhone. Especially if it supports iCloud saves the way Warhammer Quest does. Being able to pick up where I left off on either device would be a really attractive feature. I also would like to be able to play during my break at work.

I am still enthralled by Warhammer Quest on iOS. I have by now beaten the basic content and bought all the extras. I had to start a new campaign because the Skaven content begins at level 2 and I didn't want to just blow through it with a maxed-out party. I hope Space Hulk follows up with more excellent UI design and fun gameplay. I feel like this is a very good time to be a gamer/hobbyist.

Full Control will release Space Hulk on August 16th, 2013.

A New Age of VR: Omni and Occulus Rift

So my brother was kind enough to tip me off to this kickstarter project for the Omni, a VR movement apparatus. It can be used with the Occulus Rift to create a very realistically engaging game experience. I have almost no interest in playing Skyrim after I sank hours of my life into Oblivion (funny how that phrase works out so perfectly), but I would actually play it with this if for nothing other than the exercise. The Skyrim world is unbelievably big and navigating it on foot would be a blast compared to running a treadmill. And while you're at it you might as well rob a whole town, run from the cops and slay a dragon. Crazy excited to see this become a widely supported consumer product.

Rumors: Future Eldar Supplements - Biel-Tan and Saim-Hann (2013.07.25)

Here is some more cool rumor news from Natfka. Sounds like in addition to Tau Mercenaries, the Black Legion and White Scars, there are whispers of Biel-Tan and Saim-Hann supplements in the works. I saw elsewhere that the Biel-Tan supplement would be the first to feature a model wave as well. That would be really exciting to me because I saw the lack of aspect warrior updates as a missed opportunity in the initial launch (you know, not taking into account the Iyanden supplement launch strategy). There are a few of them that really need new versions  (hey there Hawks and Spiders).

via Stickmonkey on Faeit 212 

I'd heard Biel-Tan was being worked on after Iyaden, and Saim-Hann was later. But from what I've heard lately it seems the supplements are pure labors of love, and not necessarily slotting into releases like we've traditionally thought. That they are following a "when it's done" release scheme, and not strict deadlines. Multiple digital supplements in a month would also not be unheard of.  

There is a lot going on. I've heard scattered rumors of 2014 seeing many new models introduce to codexes with rules in box, but I haven't confirmed this.

Rumors: Inquisition Skirmish Game in August?

I read somewhere on Natfka's blog that Inquisition is going to be the surprise release that was scheduled for August of this year. And here I was thinking I might have to wait a year or more!

From TastyTaste on Blood of Kittens 

http://natfka.blogspot.com/2013/07/inquisition-gws-entry-into-skirmish.html

GW is about to enter the skirmish scene with the release of Warhammer 40k: Inquisition Inquisition is designed for 2-4 players and each side will use custom cards and dice. Army sizes consist of about 5-10 models per side. A whole new set of models drawn from Blanche artwork will accompany. The game should be flexible as you can make and design your own Inquisitorial retinue. As for rules complexity that is anyone's guess, but the general marketing goal for Inquisition is a gateway game into the greater Warhammer 40k universe. 

Beyond that GW, seems to be taking cues from Kickstarter projects like Sedition Wars and home-brewed rules like Inq28 for Inquisitor. This also might not end up as a limited edition run, but that all depends on sales, and if any support is continued will be done through digital expansions and updates. 

Rumors: Sisters of Battle, Black Templars and Inquisitor Skimishes

Man, what a treat when I opened up my browser and saw so much good news! I mean, Apoc is nice news and all, but I favor medium-sized games and didn't really follow the rumors for it at all. These, however, I am very interested in. The Inquisition is easily my favorite faction in 40k after the Eldar. I could easily see myself playing a skirmish game based on Inquisitors instead of hive gangs. Something about Necromunda always seemed so despondently arbitrary considering the scale of the Imperium. I suppose that's part of the point, but it just didn't catch my interest. Persecuting cultists and witches on the other hand--sign me up!

Links to Natfka's Rumors Posts:

• Black Templars - Initial Rumors
• Black Templars - Initiates and Neophytes
• Black Templars - Initiates and Neophytes Part 2
• Sisters of Battle
• Inquisition

It still seems really early on a lot of this stuff and so I'm not really buying into the specifics yet. All I care about is that armies aren't being dropped and that hopefully there will be a skirmish alternative to Necromunda (sorry those figures are hideous). The Sisters are neat and I could see myself getting into collecting some to go with my GK/Inquisition forces. Hopefully they'll be even better integrated the next time around. Good lord I would love expanded Inquisition options.

On Black Templars, I don't have so much to say, I suppose. I hope they really do lose that rule where they run forward when they get shot. That's tactically too dumb for me to believe their chapter would survive very long at all. It must also be very hard for BT players to hold objectives right now hehe. Being able to attach Initiates and Neophytes to existing BT units would be awesome too and would provide some very cool flexibility.

And just because, the last rumored release schedule I saw looked something like this:

August: Lizardmen
September: Bloodbowl
October: Space Marines
November: Dwarves?
December: Hobbit
January: Tyranids
Later in 2014: IG

Resources on Self-publishing Novels

I just read this interesting article from Salon about self-publishing novels. Wargamers are a creative bunch and I expect there are many with their own ambitions, so I thought I'd share resources like this as I come across them. Here's another from CNET that I read the other day which covers many different ways to approach self-publishing ebooks specifically.

What I take away from these (and the excellent comments on the Salon article) is a couple of interesting key points:

• When self-publishing, you retain the rights to your work. You can publish the traditional way any time afterward.
• Books never go off shelves if published as ebooks. There is no need for them to be successful right away. They can earn you money for a long period of time.
• If you pursue traditional publishing later on, already profiting from your work can help in negotiations.
• It's still hard to be the success story that people focus too much on, but with hard work it more possible than ever to supplement your income with the hobby you love.
• You don't have to spend a fortune promoting. Find free and cheap avenues of promotion and be patient while working on the next book.

It's nice to see something encouraging on the very daunting business side of writing. There is a lot more to it than making the product. Even with good work finished in your hands, much more needs to be done to get any readers, not to mention getting some compensation for the effort. As I come across any other good articles like these, I'll share them. 

I'd love to see any that you have seen if you have some to share. Heck, feel free to plug your work and share your experiences if you have a self-published title yourself.

Repost: Link to 6th Ed. Eldar Battlescribe Data File

A couple posters recently informed me that the link to the Eldar data file was broken. I edited the original post, but I'm reposting the link again now for anyone who had the same issue before.

Links to the Eternal Crusade AMA Videos

Just in case you missed them here are the twitch streams of the Eternal Crusade AMA. There are two. Here is the first and here is the second. Enjoy!

Happy 5th Anniversary, App Store! Thanks for the free games!

Apparently there are a number of free games available on the App Store. Here is the Kotaku link I found out about this through. They may not have a full, comprehensive list of what's free, but I did manage to pick up some games I've been wanting for a while.

In other news, Limbo is apparently on iOS now. If you never played it on the console, it is an action/platformer/puzzle/horror game with a delightfully eery aesthetic. I strongly recommend it.