One very good, One very bad

Went to two fringe shows last night.

The highlight one, which was the one that was planned to go to, comedian Andrew Lawrence was very good. His ramblings and commentary on things were very good, thought out and occasionally a little dark edged leading to a good show and well worth the money.

The other show, which will remain nameless, was rubbish. The material was at best simplistic, the execution was terrible.

Question of the Day

What is right once a day?

The Circle Victorious

Well, last night was the first outing for my circle army. Against the elves of the Retribution (who have recently been my bane), which the circle won. The enemy warcaster was torn limb from limb by a feral warpwolf. It was an interesting game, I really don't like the elves, they have a lot of tricks. I think my circle list needs tweaked, I think the wolves infantry was wasted last night, while the mannikins did their job and got shot at and died a lot.

The winter argus is a nice warbeast, although builds up the fury very quickly. Kaya worked out well, even after all the doomsayers indicating she is rubbish. Maybe she is, but then maybe different playing styles prefer different warlocks.

Question of the Day

What song is this: story of the pixies in the big city

The Hordes await

Going to try out my Hordes circle army tonight instead of the staunch defenders of the Empire. I think it should be interesting to try out the fury mechanic and a more mobile, hit and run style force.

Have decided that while they are a good unit, I loathe the models for the doom reavers due to their fragility. Their swords stick out and snap off in the case, very annoying, has ruined the paint job.

Question of the Day

Who was the mother of Spock? and what was the original name of the song with the shortened version of her name?

Break in Transmission

Well, Friday was an unexpected break in transmission due to some mishaps with the car.

The olympics are over, now for the inevitable come down.

H+ looks to be shaping up as a good web series, the first 6 eps are good although I wish they would settle on a length of episode or cut some of the credits a little.

The circle is growing, and also have picked up a new warjack for my khador forces.

Finished off painting the sentry and mannikins last night, pictures below.

Unit

Mannikin and Stone

Mannikin

Mannikin

Sentry Stone

Question of the Day

What piece of music is: The Wireless Babytalk

Mess Around

Last night I did nothing to do with warmachine or anything. I did go to Adam Hills show, Mess Around, which was really funny and well done. The show is based around the audience for the most part and he works well with the audience in a funny and genuine manner, not cruel or harshly mocking like some people do. He adapted well to the differing types of people, including a 5 and 12 year in the audience. I would recommend his show to anyone.

Question of the Day

What will be consumed almost 1.7 billion times today?

Alas, the Elves Won, but Comedy tonight

Alas, last night, the elven forces of Vyros won over the brave troops of the motherland. It was a close game, swinging one way then the other. A few dice rolls either way would have blown it open.

Unfortunately that is two games on the bounce lost to the Retribution. This will be avenged, eventually.

I'm going to try out my circle forces next week, see how things go with them as they are a very different style to Khador.

I finished off my winter argus last night. May need a few tweaks.

Tonight I'm off to see the comedian Adam Hills in the fringe. Should be a good show.

Question of the Day

Who is quoted as saying, "God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us."

Warmachine night after a long weekend

But a long weekend as in three days not at work.

Spent a monday off taking my eldest niece to the edinburgh fringe, went to three shows with her. She enjoyed herself and the shows were good. Going to see Adam Hills later in the week.

Privateer Press has released their War Room app. A lot of things getting said in the forums about it, not all of it positive.

Have been working on my circle faction models, finished off a druid wilder, see below. This is essentially an apprentice type warlock druid from what I understand.

Wilder Front

Wilder Back

Question of the Day

What connects the following, William Kidd/Adventure Galley, John Gow/Revenge, Evans/Scowerer and Dirk Chivers/Soldado?

Friday, the weekend beckons

Another week gone, flown by it has. And only a brief entry today.

Other than watching some olympics and a few other things last night, I got my wolves infantry painted up. That is my main screening unit for my circle forces for now. Will need to get a few more of them plus their officer and standard bearer attachment so that they don't run away too easily.

Wolves Infantry Unit

Question of the Day

Taken from an SAT practice website(http://sat.collegeboard.org/):

The following sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E. 

The results of the study Aindicate that the new drug is Bboth safer and more effective than Cwas previously Dassumed.   ENo error

The Circle is coming

An eventful day in the Olympics, what with the badminton farce going on.

And the ends of the current series of Castle and final series of Eureka both fast approaching, its good to see the programs are finishing this year out on a high.

Picked up a swamp gobber bellows crew and a woldwatcher light warbeast for my circle army last night. Also got more of my infantry worked on, the two main colours are painted on all of them now. Have to say units can be both rewarding and tedious to paint up, they look good as a coherent unit but takes ages to do them.

My woldwyrd has been painted up. This stone and wood construct is one of the stranger things in the circle arsenal. Pictures below.

Woldwyrd Front

Woldwyrd Side

Question of the Day

An nice simple one:


With only five of the letters in the word Europe,  the name of a unit of currency used in an Asian country can be spelled out.

Victory for the Motherland

Kommander Sorscha has taken the forces of the Motherland to victory over the forces of Cryx in a tense battle. Even with losses of some valiant assault kommandos and some criminal doomreavers, the warjacks and snipers of the Khador army prevailed over the teeming hordes of undead.

Afterwards, I got my woldwyrd painted up while watching Falling Skies. Falling Skies is getting interesting, but I hope they don't get too optimistic in it.

Have ordered some more circle stuff, so the first game with them should be in a few weeks time once I've got them all painted up, or at least mostly painted.

Question of the Day


What years were the following sets of movies produced:
a. Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz 
b. The Absent Minded Professor, The Hustler, and the West Side Story 
c. Manhattan, Norma Rae, 10, and the Tin Drum

No Pictures Today

Have managed to get my wilder, woldwyrd and winter argus undercoated and painted the first of my wolves infantry. Due to it all being a work in progress, I won't put up a picture until I finish the unit or one of the solos.

Its warmachine night tonight, and the forces of the motherland ride forth in hopes of avenging last weeks defeat. Well that is the plan, whether or not victory comes is another question.

Question of the Day

Name the two mates that make for really short chess games?

Bonus what are they written out in notation?

Monday Returns

The weekend is over, far too quick for my tastes.

Went to see The Pirates in an adventure with scientists, which was funny and the animation was good. Took my niece who enjoyed it alot as well.

Watched some of the olympics, the GB men getting thumped by Russia in the basketball tournament. Some of the badminton was good, some great shots getting pulled off in the Japan, South Korea mens doubles game.

Also worked on my circle forces some more, have added a woldwyrd, wilder and a winter argus to my force, although not painted yet.

I have painted up my feral warpwolf and warlock Kaya. The pictures are below. The next step is to undercoat the new models while working on the circle infantry.

The Feral Warpwolf and Kaya

The Feral Warpwolf

Kaya

Question of the Day

What do handball and table tennis at the olympics have in common?

Prepare for Overload

Today is the official start of the Olympics, with the opening ceremony tonight. Prepare for the media to be split between cynical/scathing about it all and preening/sycophantic about it.

My raspberry pi is going well, got tomcat on it and it runs quite nicely. Needs a few tweaks to improve performance but thats to be expected.

Also got my shifting stones painted up. Pictures below. I have also started on my feral warpwolf, the biggest model I've painted in a while.

Three in a row

Individuals Pictures

Puzzle of the Day

What films are these anagrams:

• Flip Into Cup
• Risk Hat For Oldest Era
• Rebel If No Faith

Another One of them

Woohoo, I got my raspberry pi. Got it booted up with Raspian, works fine connected up to the tv. Now to explore some ideas with it. It is a neat wee construction, so far so good.

Also got another Argus painted up last night. Pictures below. Have also made a start on the shifting stones, hopefully get more of them done soon. I am quite enjoying the circle force painting so far.

Start of the Pack

From the top

Question

When it was invented it was to be a torture device but now it is used by millions willingly. What is it?

The Circle Rises

Well, it is a bright and sunny day after the defeat at the hands of the forces of Ios. Even with their force in tatters, my forgetting about spacing and an activation cost me the battle. My opponent took his chances and won the day. How annoying.

My circle infantry and shifting stones are now undercoated.

I missed the delivery of my raspberry pi yesterday and the idiots instead of arranging a new delivery decided to put it in the post office. Muppets.

Argus

I did manage to paint up my first Argus, light warbeast of the Circle. From a distance it looks okay I think, here are a couple of pictures.

Front View of Argus

Side View of Argus

Puzzle

What connects: titan, rhea, mimas and dione

To the forward lines

Tuesday has arrived, it is Warmachine night. The forces of the motherland will once again sally forth to battle the enemies of the empress.

In other news, my circle wolves infantry have been put together. Assuming the epoxy holds when I remove the blu-tac, the infantry and the shifting stones will be undercoated tonight.

Also my raspberry pi should arrive either today or tomorrow, so will need to get cracking on things to do with that.

I'm up to 15 points + a few extra in the circle force, so once I get a few more pieces, I'll be ready to try them out.

Puzzle for today

CAT × CAT = DEDCAT

what is CAT and what is DEDCAT?

And the cycle starts again

Monday has come around again, its a bit wet, quite warm and work has started.

At the weekend I got some more Circle faction models for my beginning force, a minimum unit of wolves infantry and some shifting stones. Hopefully tonight I'll get the wolves infantry built up and possibly undercoated. I should have also got a woldwyrd and druid wilder to go along with them.

First set of circle pictures will be when they are all undercoated.

Weekend was quite quiet.

Video for the Day

Short animation, called Ruin, post-apocalyptic setting: http://vimeo.com/38591304 

Anagram

Found in space: HELLO BACK (5,4)

Its Gone

Well, nine months after I put if off the road, and a couple of days after putting it up for sale, I've sold my PT Cruiser. It marks the start of a lot of changes coming in the next few years.

In other news, I got my warpwolf together, his spines on and my circle models undercoated. So last night was reasonable successful.

Hopefully, painting my circle models will not be as hard  as putting them together.

Everything on the radio this morning seemed to have to get the word olympic in, it is fast becoming annoying.

Puzzle for the day

How far can you walk into a forest? 

Electric City

The sun is out, the ground is wet, such a great driving combination. The glare was particularly annoying on the city bypass.

Yesterday I put a link to the Electric City web series, I've watched the first 10 episodes of it, and while it has its cliches and a few lazy bits, its mostly a good series. The animation is good, though not my favourite style, the dialogue is okay, sparse enough that it isn't infodumping onto you. The portrayed world is interesting, would like to see more in depth explanation of it and the links to other info while playing the episode is a good idea.

Got my warpwolf together last night, will it hold? Will find out later today, ended up having to plastered milliput clay on it, so its a bit ugly. Will probably paint up as a trophy pelt on it.

Puzzle for Today

What is the connection for the following:

Callahan, Kim, Maybourne, Osborn

A dismal defeat

Last night, my Khador forces were soundly trounced. A combination of bad force selection (light infantry against heavy armour never good), bad deployment (way too strung out), poor dice rolls and an opponent who had a plan, stuck to it and did it well, combined to me having my worst outing in a long time. Shall have to rethink some of my lists, need to come up some better heavy hitting forces.

Today normal weather service has resumed, and the drive from Glasgow to Edinburgh was absolutely brilliant with the rain coming down, the spray from the road and it coming off every truck and lorry on the way through, a boat would have been helpful.

No picture today, don't think anyone wants to see the rain and am still working on some models.

Tried yet again to put my feral warpwolf for my circle force together, and yet again failed. Managed to get the tail to stick but the arms keep falling off.

Video for the day: 

Haven't managed to watch this yet, but it could be interesting, would like to hear some thoughts, Electric City Episode 1: http://electriccity.yahoo.com/ep1-en-truth-or-consequences.html

Puzzle for the day:

At the sound of me, men may dream
Or stamp their feet,
At the sound of me, women may laugh
Or sometimes weep. Who am I?

A bright evening and a bright morning

Sunlight, in Scotland? Last night and this morning have been rather bright affairs, photographic evidence from the west of scotland from last night below, look at the blue sky and general lightness.

A Picture from the main street

Today is warmachine day, hopefully get a good game in after work today. Am going to try and get my circle faction kickstarted as well.

Hopefully before next week I will build up and maybe have started painting the four new assault kommandos and the two eliminators I picked up at the weekend.

Video for the Day

Short film, I think called The Cathedral: http://vimeo.com/16441202

Puzzle for the Day

Fill out the quote, which has the vowels, punctuation removed:

mnrmrrdytrpynnjrythnbnftbcsgrttdsbrdnndrvngplsr

Post Colossals Monday

Well Monday morning again.

Not raining, and a good drive in.

A tiring but enjoyable day at the Colossals free-for-all event. My first experience of a Warmachine event, it was good but even though this was a less formal event, you could see how some of the people were very competitive, maybe a little too much so. The scoring did skew itself to those will large faction collections and specific lists. Even so, I enjoyed the four player games, but the scenario was quite hard to win there for anyone.

I managed not to come last, thanks to help from my niece who did a lot of work on my sanctuary piece which scored me three points for having it, this meant I did not come last and came joint 8th. A picture of this is below. I also managed to lose every game I played, although did a fair bit of damage along the way. Taking out Deathjack of Cryx was fun for me as that jack always causes me problems.

The Assist from My Niece, the Sanctuary

Taking out Deathjack

Video to Watch

Geek and Sundry have a web series called TableTop, hosted by Wil Wheaton, which introduces tabletop games and explains a bit about them with some invited guests for TV, Comics and the games industry.

This is the first episode, featuring the game Smallworld: http://youtu.be/X9QtdiRJYro

Puzzle for the Day

Which of these numbers is the odd one out:

5, 13, 29, 59, 101, 109

Quick Drive

A very quick drive in this morning, and no rain again. What is going on? This is Summer of Scotland at its best.

Finished painting (however badly) my Khador forces last night for the Colossals event on Sunday. Will need to rejig/enhance some of the paint jobs, okay almost all of them, in the future but for now am just happy to have done it.

Last nights main unit was the 3rd Penal Doomreaver squad. See below for more information on these nutcases. And see who can guess which TV series the names come from.

I am very tempted to order a Nexus 7, maybe, maybe not, we will see.

3rd Penal Squad

The 3rd Penal squad is made up of soldiers and criminals deemed too psychotic or dangerous to hold in regular prisoner legions used for earthworks and construction. Each one a criminal chained to their sword now, each one the survivor of many a battle. Each one now so far gone, they live only to kill and maim.

The squad is made up of 6 individuals:

• Lucas - Once a promising young officer in the winter guard, he grew angry at the celebration of warcasters and mages who threw the lives of his troops away in what he saw as vainty conquests. Found guilty of murdering a junior warcaster and two greylords, he was sentenced to lead, as far as you can lead a doomreaver squad, the 3rd Penal Squad.
• Caleb - The illegitimate son of Lucas, who followed in the footsteps of his father, having been rejected by the greylord academy for insufficient mage ability. He took his revenge by kidnapping and torturing the young initiates of the academy. 
• Matt - A field medic driven mad by what he saw on the battlefield, he was found guilty of murder of an entire squad of injured winter guard after he thought they were demons.
• Ben - A colleague of Lucas, who helped subdue and eliminate the guards of the warcaster Lucas killed. For his loyalty to his commander, he was sentenced to follow him to the penal legions.
• Billy - A former doctor in the captial city, he is an unlikely candidate for the penal legions. However, Billy made the mistake of experimenting on his patients. Normally this would have gone unnoticed but one of his victims was the daughter of a high ranking and respected officer in the military. This officer took it upon himself to ensure that Billy would be tortured for the rest of his days.
• Floyd - A similar story to Ben, he created a distraction by blowing up a warjack to enable Lucas to dispatch the junior warcaster.

3rd Penal Squad

Puzzle for the Day

The following quote has all punctuation and vowels removed, what is the quote and who said it?

thptmstthnksthssthbstfllpssblwrldsthpssmstfrststr

No Rain

No rain on the way in, a bit of shock there and they say there may be some blue skies later today. Obviously, we've stolen some weather from somewhere else.

After a lot of painting, I'm down to only seven models to paint for Sunday, an Assault Kommando Flamethrower and a unit of Doomreavers. Last night was my largest unit, the winter guard infantry.

I will admit that my painting skills leave a lot to be desired, my only hope is that they get better with time and practice.

I'd previously painted up my Widowmakers and Widowmaker Marksman. This squad will now be known as the 12th Widowsmakers Squad, "The Red Ghosts" with their Marksman mentor.

I've put a quick summary of the 12th below, can anyone tell me which TV series the names come from?

The puzzle is at the end of the entry for today.

12th Widowmakers

The Red Ghosts are known for their abilities in camouflage and psychological warfare, their distinctive red cloaks often being the last thing a dying man may glimpse. The squad is composed of four individuals:

• Kate - the leader of the squad, a dedicated sniper and expert at tracking, rose to leadership quickly after being selected out of the Winter Guard Infantry training regiments.
• Rick - a maverick, a self made rich man who decided to serve the motherland, his off the wall ideas contribute greatly to the psychological tricks the squad uses against the enemy.
• Javier - a veteran of the Winter Guard and Assault Kommando, the military lifer who knows almost every trick in the book.
• Kevin - a former infantryman assigned to border defence, selected for his unerring attention to detail and diligence in the unit 'grunt' work.

The Red Ghosts are often accompanied by their marksman mentor Roy, a veteran of many campaigns, who took it upon himself to further train these snipers. Many a time, Roy has stepped in to assist against particularly tenacious foes.

Marksman Roy

The Red Ghosts

Puzzle For Today

What should the tenth number in this series be?

3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, ?

Defending the Motherland

A trip to Worlds at War last night, and a confrontation between the forces of Khador and the black clad Druids of the Circle. Thankfully, the staunch defenders of the the motherland prevailed, gunning down the warlock intruding on their ancient lands.

Was a good game, and fairly quick so managed to get home and get some more painting done before the Colossals event on Sunday. Also got my doomreavers and flamethrower glued together.

Also the new No Quarter has some good articles on the upcoming Iron Kingdoms RPG.

A puzzle for today:

What mathematical operators replace the asterisks to make the following expression work:

16 * 12 * 2 * 3 = 99

For that beyond good and evil

Warmachine day.

The forces of Khador will once again sally forth in order to defend the motherland. Irusk and his brothers will staunchly hold back the tide of the undead, Cygnarites and other assorted malcontents.

Doomreavers are fiddly to put together as are flamethrowers.

Found a nice  little short film, Nightfall:  http://vimeo.com/vali/nightfall

Puzzle for the day: 
What occurs once in every minute, twice in every moment, yet never in a thousand years?

Monday Lunch

The weather is a bit better, but lunchtime was still a bit wet and raining. 


So found this short animated film Rosa: http://vimeo.com/31894179


Enjoy.


Another puzzle for today: 


What 5-digit number satisfies the following statement? If the numeral 1 is put at the front of the number, the result is a number three times smaller, than if  the numeral 1 was put behind this number.

Now on a Monday Morning

Well, it is Monday again, another week ahead full of fun and excitement.

Did not manage to get any of my warmachine force painted at the weekend and am looking forward to the release of War Room for Android, which should hopefully reduce on the table during games.

Falling Skies looks to be getting interesting and have just got series one on DVD to re-watch.

A simple puzzle for a Monday:

A certain number consists of two digits. The number is equal to five times the sum of its digits. If you add 9 to the number, the order of its digits is reversed. What is the number?


Will get a coherent format for this blog going yet.

The Dismal Weather, For the Motherland...

The dismal weather, or as it is known, typical Scottish weather continues this morning. With more heavy rain forecast this weekend, best make indoor plans.

A quick puzzle to start the day off, what is the next number in this sequence:

270965 56972 7965 697 ....

This year, I've taken up the game Warmachine (http://privateerpress.com/warmachine/the-game). It is the first miniature war game that has captured my imagination in many years. There is a thriving community for it in Scotland, and Worlds at War in Livingston is very good in its support for the game. Also the press ganger for these parts is good at introducing new players to the game.

My faction for the game is Khador. These folks are hard living by nature and by environment. They may appear to lack some of the fancy stuff of the other factions, but probably best represent the indomitable spirit of people living for a common cause. In this case the Empress and the Khador empire.


More will follow on this.

A Thursday morning, better than Wednesday morning?

After a mixed bag of weather, it continued this morning with some great fog on the drive into work. Love that this is July and summer here.

A quick puzzle for anyone reading this:

Which of the following numbers is the odd one out:

43 26 37 101 17 50

Answers on a postcard (or really just a comment below)

Hopefully my next post will have most substance, possibly a little bit about my warmachine forces.

And to add another short film, from a series of short films "Bendito Machine": http://vimeo.com/44428210

I've invited you here today....

Well, to be honest not sure why I invited you here today, or even if I did. Or even if today is today or whether it is past or still to come.

I'm also not sure what this blog will be about. Currently probably some stuff about Warmachine (table top wargame) which I took up this year. Maybe a little about some stuff I'm working on, and other random things.

Essentially it will be whatever and whenever I put something up.

To finish up, a short film, The Secret Number, recently caught my interest and also the short story it is based upon by Igor Teper.

The Film: http://vimeo.com/43732205

The Story: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20001120/secret_number.shtml