Ish

£0.75 for a pack of three!

How does it compare to Paths of Glory?

First of all, it’s Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, show some respect for the cinematic tour de force and use the full title. Second of all, how in the world can Under Siege not be considered a Steven Seagal movie!? He’s not just the star, he’s also the producer!

How is it that we’re 28 films deep into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they haven’t included an Easter Egg, In-Joke, and/or full-blown Product Placement for Hostess Fruit Pies?

Imperial Space Marines are probably the army with the lowest cost of entry; They're in all the various Starter Sets, they've got great Start Collecting boxes, they've got several low-cost "Easy Build" kits, and if you're open to the idea of used miniatures, they are readily available on the second-hand market. They also have a fairly low- to middle-sized model count in the average army. The various faction of Chaos Space Marines are almost as good a value, especially if you either go "All Death Guard" or "Grab Bag." At present, Death Guard are in the Starter Set, have low-cost "Easy Build" kits, and a nice Start Collecting box. You can also usually snag the Death Guard half of the starter sets on the second-hand market too. If you go "Grab Bag," meaning a mix of Chaos Marines from all the legions, then you also tap into the fact that used collections are commonly available on the second-hand market. Imperial Guard are massively popular, but they require a lot of infantry and/or a lot of vehicles. Space Orks are in the same boat... So while you do occasionally see special deals on them (especially around Christmas) its still kind of expensive no matter how you slice it. Necrons, Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tyranids, and Grey Knights seem to be the less commonly played armies. Which means they're not commonly found on the second-hand market... Nor do they show up in Starter Sets or other special bundles. They're perfectly fine armies, but its hard to find good deals on them. Adeptus Custodes have a very low model count, but they also cost a lot of cash on a model-per-dollar basis, something like $12 per man for their "grunt" troops. But you'll need less than twenty of them. Imperial Knights or Chaos Knights dial that up to eleven... It's like $150 for a basic Knight. But, hey, you only need four of `em.

Generally speaking, AoS units will have every member of the group equipped with the same “basic” weapon, usually with a “leader” figure with a special weapon and occasionally with one or two guys in the unit with a special weapon too. Which isn’t too different from most squads in WH40k honestly... The biggest difference is that WH40k will have more options for what that “basic” weapon is. A squad of Marines can have bolt rifles, automatic bolt rifles, sniper bolt rifles, etc. A unit of Spearmen can have spears. There’s also loads more “conversion bitz” available from third-party vendors who will sell you all kinds of custom heads, weapons, shoulder pads, backpacks, and other gubbins designed for Space Marines (Chaos or Original Recipe), Imperial Guard, and Space Orks. The market for fantasy bitz is much smaller.

Ignore these people. Everyone on the gamer geek internet is the best wargame player ever (just ask them), just like every sports fan in your office the Monday after the Super Bowl is a super-genius coach who could have lead their team to a 24,601 to 3 victory. 🙄 Pick whichever army you are the most excited by and base that decision on what appeals to you and not the chattering ninnies of the Internet. If you care most about looks, pick the one you think looks the best; If you care most about playstyle, pick the one you think best matches your style of play; If you care most about storytelling, pick the one that you think has the coolest story. It's you money and your time that you'll be investing in these toy soldiers. You don't want to drop $500 and 1,000 hours of hobby time into an army you don't enjoy.

The wind is blowing almost due northeast, based on the smoke from the chimneys. The ship is pointed northeast as well... So it should be running and is instead close-hauled. Maybe she's meant to be hove to...? She's also got a tender on her coachroof that is approximately half the size of of the horses pulling the wagon. Must be a Halfling-built vessel.

All threads are secretly random thought threads.

Every now and again, I like to browse through government surplus sales, police auctions, and so forth. You never know when you’ll stumble across an awesome deal (back in high school a friend of mine got a sweet Pontiac Thunderbird for less than I paid for a used Geo Metro...) Turns our there is a Stratasys Objet30 Pro being auctioned off down in Salem. Currently the bidding is $200... Retail price on these things is north of $40,000. Now, I’ll admit, I don’t know diddly about 3D Printers. So no promises from me that this thing is any good... But figured it was worth sharing.

I think it will look odd, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with it.

Drowninged.

I found myself playing three strategies: keeping my territories contiguous in order to move between them to defend from attacks; using the Cop defensively; and trying to balance the fixed pay outs from Speakeasies and Brothels with the fluctuating payouts from Casinos. Had Godfather bidding happened, my thinking there was that it might be worth being Godfather in the early game, during the scramble for empty territories and then let someone else win a bidding war to become Godfather in the mid-game... So that they’d draw more heat from the other players during the phase of the game when everyone was fighting over rackets... Then try to force a bidding phase and win back godfather status in the late game. That was my plan anyway. But then I figured out how silly The Space Marine Castle racket was.

The confusion stems from “mind” having a similar sound to several more commonly used words, like “find” or “grind.” “Find” and “grind” are both irregular verbs which means they get turned into past tense form with irregular endings, becoming “found” and “ground.” But “mind” is actually a regular verb, so it gets turned into past tense by the regular “-ed / -d / -‘d” ending. “Mind” becomes “minded.” This is largely “mind” is relatively new as a verb. My Oxford English Dictionary says its origin was "[f]ormed within English, by conversion.” Which is highfalutin’ dictionary talk for the noun “mind” came first, and the verb “mind” was derived from the noun. Verbs that are derived from nouns cannot be irregular verbs. In fact, there is no real way for modern English to develop new irregular verbs. They're pretty much all inherited from Anglo-Saxon or even older Proto-Germanic verbs, because in those ancestral languages to modern English ALL verbs were effectively irregular verbs. English really isn’t that screwy, it has rules and those rules do have internal consistency and logic. The problem is that the vast majority of English-speakers are never taught what the rules are. James Nicoll’s quote is funny, but it really only applies to developments in the English language starting in the 18th Century (and not really gaining traction until the 20th Century).

Could you edit the 3D printer files to put holes in the base for magnets?

That’s probably beyond them. Sheet magnets like the Likto ones are a thin layer of plastic, embedded with millions of magnetized steel particles. The strength of a magnetic field falls off inversely with the cube of the distance from the magnet's center. Steel magnets have lower strength fields than neodymium magnets to begin with and the Litko magnetic bases are thin and wide... which means the field falls off rather sharply. About 5 mm from a ferrous surface and they’ve got no “pull” at all. So just ordinary jostling motions of a carrying case is going to give a Rhino or a Dreadnaught enough momentum to “jump” out of the magnet’s ability to hold it steady. The Litko magnets are great for infantry, for vehicles you need to go neodymium (or foam).

I’ve used the magnetic base bottoms from Litko quite a bit on WHFB models, back in the day. They’re self-adhesive, about a millimeter thick, and the “standard” strength ones are easily capable of keeping a standard infantry-sized mini attached to a steel sheet; but I’d opt for their “heavy duty” ones for pewter figures or especially beefy ones. I’ve always had good experiences with Likto. Speedy shipping, good customer service, and so forth.

It’s Angelina Jolie playing a character with the incredibly silly name of “Salt” in a movie entitled Salt... You’d think it would be memorable if only for that. And yet...

No joke, this is how I wound up watching Salt three times. Once in the theatre, once on DVD when my roommate brought it home, and the third time a year later when I rented the DVD. Totally blanked on it, both times, up until the final scene when it was “Hmm, this seems a lot more familiar that just the standard cliche action-movie set piece... Oh!”

“Hello, my name is Acecerak... And I’m a lich.” “Hi Acecerak.“ ”It’s been twelve months since my last necromantic ritual...”

I’m eagerly awaiting a Palanite Enforcers rulebook in 2027...

That’s why it’s so important to let the paper dry throughly between coats of paint and why you don’t cut out until the end.

<Cranky old man voice> In my day, sonny, the only options were paper banners or those terrible stickers that Gee Dubya sold... I used to use 1/4” graph paper from a pad. The pad’s lines were only printed on one side, and were dark enough to bee seen through to the other side – to use as guidelines – but not dark enough that they will be seen through paint when the painting is done on the non-lined side. Lay the banner-holding mini on his side against the gridded side of the paper so you can roughly sketch out the size and shape you need. For infantry, I usually found a 1” height and a 1.25” to 1.5” length worked best, with cavalry I’d usually go 1”-1.25” height with 2-2.25” length. Leave a 1/4” gap (one grid column) and then trace out the reverse outline of the shape on the other side. Flip the paper over and then start painting. You want to paint from the “bottom up.” Lay down the color that your field will be, it’ll probably take two or three thin coats. Give it ample time to dry. Feel free to “color outside the lines” at this point, you don’t cut out the flag until the end. After you’ve got the field done and dry, use black paint to paint the outline of whatever shape – dragon, bear, lion, whatever – and color in the inside in black too. Once that’s done, go back and paint in the color bitz of the shape, leaving a bit of the black as an outline. Clean up as needed. Flip it over and cut it out using the grid as a guide. Slather one half and the middle bit with Elmer’s white glue. Carefully wrap around making sure all corners match up - and wiping off any excess glue that squishes out the sides. Be sure pinch the flag together at the pole so it wraps tightly around at the pole. Give it a bit to start to go tacky, but before it totally dries, gently pinch and roll it so it looks like it’s flapping. Once it’s totally dry, you will probably need to trim a errant corner or two and might need to touch up the paint along the edges. Lastly, hit the whole thing with the matte spray sealant of your choice.

(I am really looking forward to Oathmark.)