Ish

Another aspect of Sturgeon’s Law is that in addition to 90% of everything being crud, most of us don’t remember the crud... or we only remember it in a vague: “Oh, yeah, I watched that. I think...” kind of way. The good stuff sticks with you. You want to remember it. Some stuff is truly great crud and we remember it because of how bad it was. We tend to forget the mediocre and the bad.

Sturgeon's law applies to anime as much as any other medium. 

Planetes is probably the hard-est science fiction I've ever come across, the manga ran from 1999-2004, with the anime coming out during the last year the manga was running. I consider it a "new" title, but your mileage may very. 

I’m a certified “OldTaku.” I was very much into anime from junior high through to university. Kinda lost interest around ‘05 or so... I still dabble and still pick up on the major trends through my friends who are still active in the fandom and due to general “geek culture osmosis.”

My relationship with anime is weird. It’s like, the easier is has become to get ahold of it in the States, the less of it I watch. I’ve gone from buying whole series sight unseen on VHS from sketchy ads in the back of fan ‘zines from Hong Kong bootleg fan-subbers back in the Nineties, to binge watching entire series on laser disc and/or DVD in the ‘00s, to having a paid CrunchyRoll account in the early ‘10s, to now just occasionally watching something on Netflix... 

It’s mostly about time, more than anything. Work, family, and “real life” eats up most of the week... And my other hobbies are all pretty time-consuming, so I’ve got to pick and choose how I spend the few free hours I’ve got. 

I did binge watch several Gundam series this past year, killing the doldrums of my weekly graveyard shift with Gundam Build Fighters, Gundam Build Fighters Try, Gundam Build Fighters: GM’s Counterattack, and Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans.

The Build Fighters series are good fun, light-hearted romps that should resonate well with all war gamers and model builders. Bonus need points for any “OldTaku” fans who will geek out over the many, many, many, many, many shout-outs and Easter Eggs.

Iron-Blooded Orphans is a great show, but it is a radically different tone. I’ve called it “Robert A Heinlein’s Tom Clancy’s Gundam” before and meant it. It’s probably the most grimdark the Gundam franchise has ever gotten and the most brutality emotional since 0080: War in the Pocket. 

7 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

The Expanse (4 seasons watched in only a few days)

Started this show myself about two weeks ago, I'm about a third of the way through season two right now. The first few episodes of season one were kind of bland, it felt like it took the principal cast a while to find their footing, but it's been going great since that point. 

Reminds me a lot of The Jovian Chronicles roleplaying game (only without mecha) or maybe a really well plotted Traveller campaign (albeit without interplanetary travel). I'm a huge fan of "hard" science fiction and The Expanse is about the hardest sci-fi I've ever seen on television, other than interplanetary travel being really fast and really, really, really efficient (but not faster-than-light) and the You-Know-What-If-You've-Seen-It thing that I won't spoil by naming, there really isn't anything in the show that isn't "hard" sci-fi. 

Plus, I gotta give props to a show that contains a Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra shout-out in every single episode.

I didn't say he was raising his family. 

Why? I’m rather enjoying it... I haven’t like any Star Wars stuff this much since Rogue One.
 

1 hour ago, Koyote said:

Four words: SAGA Age of Magic.

Saga: Age of Magic -- Great Kingdoms Army List [8 Points]

• 1x Samurai Hero with Katana, Warlord on foot                       ( 0 Points )
• 1x Samurai Hero with Halberd, Captain on foot, Heavy Weapon  (-6 Levies)
• 8x Samurai with Katana, Hearthguard on foot                        ( 2 Points )
• 16x Ashigaru with Yari, Warriors on foot                                 ( 2 Points )
• 1x Steam Tank The Incredible and Extraordinary Machine (2 Points)
• 10x Ashigaru with Muskets, Levies with Firearms             ( 1 Points )
• 8x Ashigaru with Muskets, Levies with Firearms             ( 1 Points )

This is a pretty solid block of troops, who should be pretty durable. Plop the Warlord in with the Hearthguard, have the Captain lead the Warriors, and count on using the Enfilade order a lot with the Levies. It would probably be more efficient to drop the Steam Tank and bring more Warriors and/or Hearthguard... But, c'mon: STEAM TANK!

I’m figuring I’ll get what I have repaired and rebuilt, then grow from there. I definitely want to add cannons, mortars, and mounted samurai.

I’ve also got a lot of ideas for “unit filler” miniature dioramas that should allow me to stretch these existing unit numbers a bit. Taiko drums, small shrines, equipment wagons, and so forth. 

Plus, eventually I’ll have to add a Great Big Dragon. Every fantasy army eventually acquires a Great Big Dragon.

Took a few minutes to throw the above list into The 9th Builder, bearing in mind that I’ve never played T9A and don’t really know what I’m doing. It’s 2,315 Points, leaving me wiggle room for magic items and special banners. This seems like a decent 2,500 Point list to me:

--- Characters ---

165 -  Samurai Hero on Foot Marshal, General, Halberd (5)

125 -  Sorcerer Hero Wizard, Divination

--- Core ---

525 - 50x Ashigaru with Yari Heavy Infantry, Spear (50), Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

225 - 20x Ashigaru with Naginata Heavy Infantry support unit, Halberd (20), Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

260 - 15x Ashigaru with Muskets Light Infantry, Handguns, Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

135 - 10x Ashigaru with Bows State Militia

--- Special ---

405 - 20x Samurai with Katana Imperial Guard, Great Weapon (80), Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

--- Sunna's Fury ---

475 -  Steam Tank Steam Tank

--- Total ---

2,315 Points

Why does everyone always pick on Necromancers — Can’t a guy just be left alone to raise a family in peace?

So, as you can see, four years in storage and a cross-continent journey via UPS truck hasn’t been kind. A lot of broken weapons, some broken banner, numerous models that have separated from the bases, and so forth...

All of my mounted samurai, half my ashigaru with muskets, and two-thirds of my ashigaru with bows have apparently vanished into the Warp.

Here’s what’s left:

• Various “hero” models; three mounted, one fantasy samurai on foot with a great weapon, and one fantasy Chinese wizard/priest guy;

• War elephant with howdah (the plan was to convert this to a Celestial Arcanium);

• Steamtank (Steamtank);

• 18 Ashigaru with naginata (Halberdiers);

• 20 Samurai with katanas (Greatswords);

• 15 Ashigaru with muskets (Handgunners);

• 10 Ashigaru with longbows (Archers); and,

• 50 Ashigaru with yari pikes (Spearmen).

Gonna need a lot of repair work, but I’ve got plenty of spare parts.

Back when WHFB 8th Edition was all too briefly popular, I assembled a large army of Tomb Kings, but grew bored with it and sold it; assembled a large army of Dark Elves, but grew bored with it and sold it; and then I assembled a large Empire army using samurai and ashigaru figures. I absolutely loved it... But then came the End Times. WHFB was no more!

Soon afterwards I packed up everything I owned, stuck it in storage, and headed to Oregon via Amtrak with only one suitcase and a laptop bag.

I only recently had my old samurai army shipped to me. Today, 16 December 2019, marks the four year anniversary of them going into storage... I decided to take an inventory.

Meatgrinder games should be tense for the defender, that's what makes them fun!

It's also why the old Warhammer Siege rules suggested playing alternating games of Defender and Attacker. 
 

So they're not going to win you a Golden Daemon painting award? Bah, they still look damn good if you ask me. 

A fully painted army where nearly every model has a individualized design, yet the entire army has a cohesive and unified look is a lot more impressive than an army of bare plastic led by a single hero with an award winning paint job. 

You might have better results with your next batch of cavalry if you put a base coat on the horse then drybrush them with a lighter shade of the same color prior to washing (Space Marines are pretty much all convex surfaces too and this has worked well with my Imperial Fists). Then use a strong tone on the darker horses, medium tone on the lighter horses, and stick to a light tone on the riders. It would mean painting and washing them separately, then assembling, which might require pinning the riders to their mounts (I'm not exactly sure if the Fireforge models have a peg for the riders or not.) But that shouldn't be too difficult. 

8 minutes ago, Jay said:

Dealing with a plumbing emergency. Might stop in later. 

I told you that you should use the potty before you left the house!

15 minutes ago, CountElmdor said:

What time do the doors open on Tuesdays?

How hard can you kick?

I’m almost certain that Chapter 6 was a Flashpoint mission from the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG.

Well, it’s new to me.

6 minutes ago, Raindog said:

“I don’t understand it either, Mister Mayor... But this report from be Shantytown Better Business Bureau seems to indicate we’re having a lot of trouble attracting new investors.“

”Yes, but the Tourism Board says we’ve got a 300% uptick in vacation rentals ever since we changed our name from Cholera River...“

Five Dominions with storm bolters (and maybe a sixth with an Simulacrum throwing a krak grenade) using the Blessed Bolts stratagem are absolutely bonkers against Primaris Marines: Rapid Fire 2, Strength 4, AP -2, Damage 2... 

We’re talking pseudo-Plasmaguns here. 

Modiphius's Robert E. Howard's Conan Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of Roleplaying Game has rules for decapitating your enemy and holding up the severed head in order to intimidate the remaining foes... How can you not love that?

11 minutes ago, Duckman said:

You're ignoring all the people who have been abducted from the Bermuda Triangle and spirited away to other planets for experimentation!  😉

No I'm not! Everyone knows that those unfortunate souls were actually abducted by the Mahars and taken into Pellucidar inside the Earth (for use as slave-labor and slave breeding stock in their wars against the Sagoths. I mean, duh.

As a grognard, I feel it’s also my duty to  proselytize one of the major benefits of historical wargaming is that the vast majority of historical games rules publishers don’t care what models you use and no historical miniatures manufacturers can claim exclusivity over a concept. You can copyright a specific sculpt for a “Anglo-Saxon with Spear and Shield” but you can’t claim IP control over the idea of an Anglo-Saxon with a spear and shield.

So... How about some Saga, eh?

25 minutes ago, InfestedKerrigan said:

"Good eye!  You win a Reaver Power Fist!"

You get a Land Speeder! You get a Land Speeder! Everybody gets a Land Speeder! 
 

Hence my original assessment of “Don’t be That Guy.”

Almost all canons of ethics essentially boil down to social mores and norms for interacting with other people. If one man all by himself was the sole sapient being on Earth, he wouldn’t need ethics. Ethics are how we silly, talking, hairless upright monkeys have learned to get along with the rest of the talking monkeys. 

Hobby games are a social event, more so than a competitive one. Be a good sport, be someone other people want to spend time with, don’t be a dick. That’s what matters.