indytims

How many slots are there total, Samwise?

Can it be played multi-player? Or is it strictly 1v1?

LOL Andrew! Today while unpacking boxes from my move, looking for Tyranids for you - I came across a small box of - yes - LotR playing cards (Decipher). An Aragorn starter deck, a Gandalf starter deck, and a couple hundred other random cards. The sad thing is - I don't ever remember buying them. LOL. I assume I got them in a trade back when I lived in Chicago. I wouldn't mind giving the game a go sometime, if I have enough cards to be able to play, of course!

They sell those hole-punches locally too, Seth. Most decent craft stores will have them in their paper-products section. I got mine at Michael's for $8 - and you guys down there don't even have to pay sales tax! :P Like tiger says, it makes life soooooo much easier. Sure, you could hand cut them out, but you'll have tons of time AND have nice, perfect little circles! :) -Tim

My understanding is that it will not be a 100% conversion chart... there may be some units from your WHFB list that do not make it over. I.e. They had the Skaven Stormfiends on the beta list... but removed them in one of the more recent updates. I have no idea if they will make the list or not. So don't be surprised if you don't see a statline for your favorite troop/hero. :( -Tim

There were plenty of reports of massive cheats going on, mainly dealing with 'aimbots' or whatever those programs are that help you auto-aim. One guy on Youtube even had a video advertising his cheat program, with a long 6 minute video showing how it worked. Not sure if the video is still there (or if they'll find a way to counter programs like this), but like you, I found myself being on-shotted -very- often, and even when squaring off against guys with regular rifles, some of them -never- seemed to miss. Obviously - they could just be really good, too. ;) I played the heck out of it up until it shut down, and I didn't see nearly the success with the Rebel side of things vs. the Imperial side. I saw a total of four rebel victories compared to a few dozen Imperial victories - it was very lopsided. But like you, I think once folks realize the objectives and how to win, it will force the Imps to do something other than bum-rush the Rebel locations willy-nilly, as well! :) Overall, I am still not 100% sure I'll pick it up. The graphics and sound were, of course, as immersive as any Star Wars title I've ever played. From the voices over the comms equipment, to all the weapon sounds, and yes, to the AT-AT movement, sound, and style... I -felt- like I was INSIDE 'The Empire Strikes Back', my favorite of all the Star Wars films. Definitely a blast, and I'll have to see how it goes. Maybe I'll wait until the first price reduction... or maybe not. ;) -Tim

I've played one game myself, and I have to admit, the things you discovered about the game, I felt pretty much the same about on all points. I am not sure if one game is enough to really judge, and at 1500 points, neither I nor my opponent seemed to have a 'lot' of stuff, but we were learning the rules. Like you said - they were pretty quick to learn, pretty straight forward, smooth, and we burned through the game fairly quickly. Yes, a lot of the 'fiddly bits' that we're used to in Warhammer aren't present. That speeds up the game, I think, but some people also loved all the 'personalization' that various unis have. KOW's 'Special Rules' are pretty limited, and for some, that could be both good and bad. I enjoyed it enough, though, that I do want to play it again, and I spent about $30 on a bunch of movement trays. Glad to hear you enjoyed it! -Tim

Week 2 - 120 points I played my same list from last week, and this week I faced George's Pan-O. The last time we played, he had terrible luck with his Nomads, so this time, he figured he'd pull out the big-dog Pan-O baddies and give me a run! His list consisted of 4 Order Sgts (one with a Spitfire, the rest with Combis), a lone Fusilier doc, and a Father Knight w/Spitfire! For a 120 point game, he brought a 50 pt character! He was OUT FOR BLOOD. We roll off and he picks to go first, I pick my side and make him set-up first. I had a total of 9 models, he had 6, so the order difference wasn't that bad. It was a much different game than playing against Joe with his 2059 order counters last week! I put my guys down as best I can, lots of prone guys. This included my Camo Hard Case, Chasseur, and Spetsnaz. So with George having the first turn, he came at me with his Father Knight, using all six of his orders on him to discover a Mine in the middle of the boar, and then to swoop around a container and try to get the drop on my Chasseur. For her part, she held fast, dropping another Mine in ARO, and then dropping her third as he advanced on her. Well, Mr. Father Knight smiled and put away his Spitfire and instead pulled out his Breaker pistol to get the range bonus. He hits once, and I roll a nat 20 to save. Who says models with 0 armor can't make saves? Then, he decides the pistol is TOO SMALL a weapon, and instead pulls out this sword that, to me, says that he is 'compensating' for something! He attacks and using the last of his orders, he manages to get two hits with a DA 14 damage attack. That's 4 armor saves needing 15s. And guess who made every single one of them? That's right, the cute lady engaged with him! Five armor saves in a row, all rolling 15s or higher. The best part was, George was laughing right along with me. When many people might have been hurling my fig through a window, George took it in stride with a great attitude. Unfortunately, this was where I decided to cheat him. Well, 'cheat' is a strong word. But at this point, I had 3 mines laying on the ground, and we had them go off. Only, as I read tonight after I got home - the mines wouldn't go off as long as a friendly is engaged with the enemy, because both models would be effective, and a mine will not detonate if it would hit a friendly. The mines ended up killing the poor guy, but that should not have happened when we had it happen. He -SHOULD- have been engaged with the Chasseur still, even though he was out of orders. The only CC model I had was on a rooftop some distance away, and obviously on his next Active turn, it would have simply been a matter of waiting out my AWESOME DICE ROLLS... and THEN eating the 3 mines. After that, it was my turn, and my Spetsnaz sniper came out of camo and took down his other Spitfire mode, leaving him with all combi-rifles. That allowed me to breathe a little easier, and after that, it was just a matter of order-starving him. In small games like that, every model feels like it counts EVEN MORE, because you have so few of them. I know some folks don't like 'smaller' games, but I really enjoy games between 120-200 most of all. I do enjoy 200-300 points, too of course, but I have zero interest going above 300. George was a gentleman, and wanted a rematch on the spot - but he'll have to wait. He about threw a fit when I refused to table him, letting his last model (the poor, lonely fusilier) live. Fun to play with as always, but I stepped aside so that another player who was hoping to get a game in could do so. I got to watch and then help clean-up, as Joe and Nick hammered each other on another table nearby. I loved Escalation leagues in 40K, and I also love them in Infinity as well. Definitely helpful for those of us who still feel quite 'new' to the game! :) -Tim

Heyas Von, This might be worth taking a look at? http://www.miniaturemarket.com/hcdsfmat02.html Right around $25 with shipping. -Tim

I like! :)

Man.... some people have ZERO sense of humor. If I worked at that place, I would have been rolling in my chair, and would have given the guy kudos. Live a little, people...

While I agree with your overall message - your examples are a bit hyperbolic, AP. ;) Using d4s instead of d6s? Not in the rules as far as I know. Using 1800 points instead of 2000? I suppose that would be legal I guess? Spotting your opponent VP? Again, I don't think that's even allowed by the rules, is it? Using your ~900 points of WK's on ~900 points of something less beardy? Definitely within the rules. No one has asked you to break rules, cheat yourself out of 200 points, or give away free VPs before the game starts. But I think you'd be hard-pressed to argue that you couldn't have used those points from 3 WK's on something else competitive to keep your list around 2k, and I'm pretty sure you'd be even more hard-pressed to argue that 3 WK's isn't a nice trip into cheddar-land... Which was completely legal. *Should* you have used those points on something else? Not if your overall goal was to win the tournament. BUT - it's also not your -responsibility- to explain yourself, either. Not in a tournament setting. Sportsmanship and the 'casual social contract' take a very distant back-seat to Win-At-All-Costs. A Tournament is designed as king of the hill, and at the end, to be at the top of that hill, chances are pretty high you have to maximize your every effort, which includes army list building. To me, there's a 'Tournament Social Contract' that goes something along the lines of, "Your fun-level is secondary to my VP level". It's why some folks don't bother with the tournament setting, while some folks love it. Different strokes and all that. "Pulling Punches" and "Tournament setting" really don't go together. Some folks learn this the hard way. Some folks get turned off to tournaments as a whole, and some even get turned off from the game itself completely. Others adapt and start to do the same thing. As long as it's all within the rules the TO has set, folks really lose a lot of ground to complain from. -Tim

Wow, what an interesting read. :) I can see excellent points on all sides, to be honest. But honestly - once you throw the word 'Tournament' out there, the 'social contract' changes. It -has- to. The environment of your game setting has shifted. Instead of me and pretre sitting in his garage with two moderate lists, rolling dice to have fun, a Tournament by its very nature is a 'bring your best beat stick' in order to give you the best chance to pound 3-4 other people into the ground and score as high as you can. Why have brackets, otherwise? Why keep score? Why do any of the activities that encourages and denotes a 'competitive' environment, where the goal is to score as many points as possible, and to do this, use the best list possible? Of course, that's one of the primary reasons I don't do tournaments anymore. I have far more fun playing a relaxed game in pretre's garage than I do playing in a tournament setting where I -know- the other guy's "social contract" is bent more on my utter destruction, than actually making sure we both enjoy the game. A tournament setting really isn't conducive to that, at least not in all tournaments I've attended since 1990, across a dozen states. But of course, that experience is anecdotal. I greatly appreciate Aaron's mindset on 'just because you can, doesn't mean you should'. I am like that very much in casual play. Pretre himself and anyone else I've played with can tell you that I don't use WKs, loads of scatter-bikes, or hordes of Wraithguard with d-scythes. I feel these units are broken and easily abusable (for the most part). However, they -are- part of the printed rules, and the TO at this tournament you all are referring to allowed them. Ultimately, that's all that matters. What one person thinks 'should' be played or not played, could be totally different than the guy next to him. I have fellow Eldar players who have literally called me a 'tard' because I DON'T use WK's or go all-scatterbikes. That's cool. They're entitled to their opinion. But I know if I used those troops, especially en masse, they likely wouldn't want to game with me again. I -want- people to -want- to play with me. I think most of us want that, too. But in this case, was AP following the rules? Sounds like he was. Based on that, it's really hard for me to agree with someone who is criticizing someone who actually followed the rules. If anything, the rules are to blame - not the player. I know I know, the player makes the conscious choice when building their army, but if they are following the rules in a -tournament- setting, I find it very difficult to criticize them. That being said... I've only been on this site for 4-5 months or so. In that small amount of time, I think I've gotten a good feel for who on this forum knows their stuff and a decent feel for how they each play the game. I've always figured AP for one of those 'gaming god' type guys, who I could trust to know all the rules, and play a fair and balanced game. Finding out tonight that he was the guy with 3 WK's?... well, I kinda feel like that one chick who pulled the blue curtain aside to learn there's really no Wizard. Not like AP would care what some stranger thinks, but I had it in my head that he could have romped a tournament like that -without- resorting to 3 WKs. ;) Maybe he could have. But in the end, he won the show, played in the spirit of a competitive environment, and followed all the rules. I just find it hard to make a fellow player feel badly for doing that. Rather than come down on him and expect him to change how he plays (especially when it's within the rules provided), I'd look harder at the rules themselves. Limits/restrictions/comp... whatever needs to be done. Because putting out rules, and then -hoping- that people will essentially ignore those rules and play with some sort of abstract 'social rule set' in a tournament environment I just don't think will ever really work... Just my 2 coppers here. I am not intending any of this as an attack on AP, Aaron, or President Obama. -Tim

WE NOTICED!!!!1!1! :)

Well-wishes sent! :)

Yeah... that really does suck. :( I've seen folks report on Dakka that they've received replacements... but apparently that was cutting into their bottom line or something? I know I won't be ordering from them anytime soon now. Thanks for reporting on this DP!

That's true - I only played maybe 3-dozen matches or so. Some of those guys said they'd been sitting there literally -all day-. But in my time in the game, I DID spawn under an AT-AT foot once (which I thought was hilarious), and as a Rebel spawning inside the confines of the base, I did spawn right as an Imp was running the hallway and started blasting me before I could really do anything. But I was never actually 'camped'. I'll be playing some more of course and maybe I'll start to see it then. :) Picking a spawn point would be -awesome-. There -were- several times I kept -hoping- that I would spawn at a certain location, but it does seem pretty random. I -am- grateful that as the mission progresses, it does move spawn points up so you have less distance to traverse to get back into the battle. And YES! -Some- sort of Strategic map definitely would help! I was hoping that was just a 'beta thing', and that a map would be available at launch perhaps....

The Martian - 7.5/10 This was a pretty good movie from start to finish, probably one of my favorite Matt Damon movies now. I enjoyed it a LOT more than 'Gravity', which so many people made a big deal about when it came out. I thought their rendition of Mars was really well-done, and a lot of the equipment and explanations they gave for him doing certain things was well done, too. His actions seemed believable, and not once did I think, 'This sounds like horse poo'. Then again, I am not a scientist, and in cinema ignorance can be bliss. I also love how Jeff Daniels can go from playing a serious, cranky boss-type after playing a super-goofy retard. Trying watching Dumb and Dummber, then Newsroom, then Dumb and Dumber Too, then this movie. It's pretty awesome how he can vary his roles so drastically. The one major complaint I had was that I never -really- felt that he was in danger, and the amount of time he was alone didn't 'feel' very long. Yeah, they jumped ahead to him having a beard. That's about it. I was expecting an atmosphere more like "Castaway", but it wasn't anything like that, really. At the end of the film, the wife and I were talking, and I thought they had reached day '900' or higher, or almost 3 years. Yet, looking back, it -felt- like he was alone for many a couple months. Maybe it was the amount of levity present. Bonus points for the Lord of the Rings reference in the movie.... especially with Sean Bean sitting RIGHT THERE. ;) Definitely a good movie worth the trip once. Doubt I'll see it again, though. -Tim

Heyas BG! What issue were you having with the spawns? I thought they did pretty good... I've yet to be 'spawn camped' because there are so many spawn points, and they 'move' as the enemy advances (i,e, on the Hoth map, the spawn points move closer to the generators to save both sides time running and running and running and....) Just curious what sorts of issues you were having? Sammy - I do think there is something 'up' with the Hoth map.... or, people playing the Rebels just ignore the victory conditions. The Imps just need to push forward, mass killing along the way. The rebs can only attack the AT-ATs at a certain time, I think. I dunno. I've done a few dozen rounds and have only seen the Rebs win twice. Maybe I've just been on at odd times, or maybe it's just coincidence. :)

I'd be happy with a Molotok, or a Chain Rifle! :)

What, good sir, is an "Infinity Rampage"?

Very impressive Don!!! Thanks for sharing! It stirs some ideas I've had about my space, as well! :)

I KNEW they cheated....

I just saw the shipping... almost $100? Lowered my pledge. Otherwise I could have helped you out, general. Maybe pretre has some space for you?

Yep, Sectorials really only offer two things over vanilla as far as I can see: Links, and sometimes higher AVA for certain troops. As far as I know, that's all you get. Oh, and some mercs can only fight for specific ones. The downside is that you are excluding a pretty large portion of your faction's troops from your choices. It's an interesting option, 'factions within factions'. I am curious how the rumored upcoming 'Duo teams' will be limited: sectorials only as well? Can't wait to see!