Ish

If Christopher Lee was a fictional character, no one would ever take the story seriously. He’d be the biggest Mary Sue in all of literature... 

And yet...

18 minutes ago, Munkie said:

FIFY. Whirling dervish Yoda was an abominable piece of hacky CG gaggery. It is unfortunate that he was the opposite for that stupid scene.

But otherwise, good.

That’s true for the scene overall, but Christopher Lee’s half of the fight is great. He had some mobility issues during filming (he was 79 years old at the time of filing AotC) which limited his ability to perform much footwork, so any shots where you can see his legs and he’s doing it rapid movement, it’s probably his stunt double. But Lee actually worked closely with the fight choreographer and his stunt double to make sure that Dooku fought the way Lee would have.

One of the greatest failings of the prequel trilogy, IMHO, was that the severely under-used Christopher Lee. If I was directing them, TPM would have still been mostly the same but I’d have had Darth Maul taking orders from Darth Tyranus. AtoC would play out mostly the same, only with a surprise reveal at the end that Darth Tyranus was himself the apprentice to Darth Sidious... RotS wouldn’t have had Grevous in it at all, with Dooku replacing him for most of the story. Then when Anakin fell to the Dark Side, he’d kill Tyranus late in the second act as part of his becoming Darth Vader. (Oh yeah, I’d also have named his character damn near anything other than “Dooku.”)

Christopher Lee was a world champion fencer, did most of his own stunts and participated in more on-screen sword fights than any actor in history... and his was in his thirties and forties for the bulk of them. Lee was FIFTY-ONE when he made The Three Musketeers... Which I mention purely as an excuse to share this clip:

I’ll just jump in to say I’m perpetually hunting for back issues of Batman Family. It was an anthology series which ran from 1975-78...

Sales were modest back in the day it never really had any major storylines or notable first appearances. So it’s not worth much on the collector’s market... and consequently I can never seem to find any.

I’ve always wanted to open my own hobby shop, with an emphasis on historical wargames. The name for it will be Gorilla Warfare.

Yes, the misspelling of guerrilla is intentional. The store’s mascot will be a cartoon ape in a shiny Patton style helmet and uniform. And the signage for each section of the store would have him in a different costume, like a knight’s helmet for the fantasy game section, a space helmet for the sci-fi section, a wizard’s robe with a pokéball on the end of a staff for the card games...

I just need those jerks at the lottery office to come through.

I swear, when I win the lottery, I’m going to mail you a massive box of minis, use some sort of random generator to pick a theme, and commission you to have at it...

”A 300 strong Napoleonic Line Infantry regiment, but they’re Dia de Los Muertos themed... Okay, they’ll be ready next Tuesday.”

I’m trying to get an army assembled for The 9th Age, but what’s got me really excited is the upcoming release of Oathmark. It promises to be the exact sort of old school rank-and-flank medieval fantasy that got me to fall in love with the whole wargame hobby back in 1991. 

I’m still enjoying Necromunda and WarCry, but I can’t bring myself to feel any sort of affection for GW’s Big Two these days. Both 8th Edition and AoS launched with promise of a return to a simplified, stream-lined, and fast paced game. Both are instead confusing, bloated, slogs. 

Yes, but the parts of those movies he’s in are good.

Jay and Silent Bob: Reboot

It’s a massive love letter to Kevin Smith’s fans. 90% of the film is callbacks, references, in-jokes, and repeated gags from the rest of Smith’s films, comics, tv shows, and pod casts. The remaining 10% is some surprisingly emotional acting from Jason Mewes as he wrestles with his conflicted feelings about fatherhood.

If you are already a Kevin Smith fan, you’ll love it. If you aren’t already a Kevin Smith fan, go watch Clerks instead.

1 hour ago, WestRider said:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: The Gathering

They're both Hasbro properties. No rights issues. Both settings are already part of multiverses with all kinds of variations. And Jace and Twilight would probably be adorably nerdy.

I always found it odd that the My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria roleplaying game* was published by River Horse and not Wizards of the Coast... Hasbro owns WotC. Hasbro owns MLP. Seems like a natural pairing.

* It is actually a pretty good system, by the way, with no less than Alessio Cavatore as lead designer.

1 hour ago, WestRider said:

I got the basic idea from this Instagram. It involves a lot of tedious filing and checking to make sure the cog teeth are enough smaller to be able to move, but not so much that they can't hold it in place.

Wouldn’t it be a heckuva lot easier just to use magnets to hold the lift carriage at various positions along the shaft?

Clearly this is proof that the hive-mind has been designing its creations to best conceal themselves among our galaxy’s native flora...

8 minutes ago, dalmer said:

for some reason i look at those barbed bracken and see tyranids

Probably because they look so much like Rippers.

Didn't we already fall down this rabbit hole?

So I have been perusing the interwebs, drolling over all of the gorgeous French and Indian War, American War of Independence, and Seven Years' War miniatures on the market. But I keep coming back to Perry Miniatures. The stuff from Old Glory is dirt cheap (especially if you buy in bulk), the stuff from Fife & Drum is gorgeous, and the stuff from Warlord Games seems perfectly fine... But the Perry Brothers are just legends in my opinion. 

I've come up with two ideas:

Nth Regiment of Foot (King's Own Nonexistent Regiment)

British Regular Officer       (1x @ 25 Points Base; Plus Natural Talent +10 Points)     [ 35 Points ]
British Regular Infantry     (10x @ 8 Points Each)                                                             [ 80 Points ]
British Regular Infantry     (10x @ 8 Points Each)                                                             [ 80 Points ]
British Regular Infantry     (10x @ 8 Points Each)                                                             [ 80 Points ]
British Light Infantry          ( 6x @ 10 Points Base; Plus Elites +2 Pts. Ea.)                   [ 72 Points ]
British Artillery                    ( 4x @ 10 Points Base; Plus Heavy +3 Pts. Ea.)                  [ 52 Points ]

That's 399 Points, which seems to be the "big game" standard. Best part is that can be built with nothing more than the contents of one plastic British Infantry box set, one 6-pdr cannon blister pack, and sourcing a single officer figure from somewhere else. I'm partial to Fife & Drum's Lord Charles Cornwallis, although giving the officer in this list a mount would raise the total to 401 Points. Should cost about $50.00 USD, plus any shipping charges. Not bad.

Nth Oregon Regiment (The Extremely Lost Boys)

American Regular Officer (1x @ 25 Points Base; Plus Random Talent +5 Points)     [ 30 Points ]
Continental Infantry          (15x @ 8 Points Each)                                                             [ 120 Points ]
Continental Infantry          (15x @ 8 Points Each)                                                             [ 120 Points ]
Stockbridge Chief             (1x @ 20 Points Base; Plus Rifle +2 Points)                         [ 22 Points ]
Stockbridge Indians         (12x @ 7 Points Base; Plus Rifles +2 Pts. Ea.)                     [ 108 Points ]

That's 400 Points, dead on. Like the above list, the core is a single plastic boxed set, joined by a pair of Stockbridge blister packs and a single Indian Chief blister pack. There's even seven Continental Infantry left-over, who could be modeled as a small unit Riflemen, just to add some variety. Again, should only cost about $50.00 USD.

No idea if these point values will remain the same in the upcoming edition of the game. However, I don't imagine they'll be too different... So clearly, you can build a very sizable force for this game for very little money. 

44 minutes ago, WestRider said:

[T]he parts with Christopher Lee and/or Peter Cushing are worth it.

This sentence can serve as an accurate review for all of cinema, from 1939 to 2014.

I'll see your Lorenzo Llamas and raise you one Kendrick Llama:

7 hours ago, Raindog said:

Neat design, it’s always nice to see a “live-work” space the way urban buildings in the medieval period actually were laid out... 

But, did the artist not realize that the staircase placement logically means that the building’s basement isn’t actually directly under the ground floor, but is instead next to it?

Obligatory meme is obligatory...

The Iranian calendar has been “corrected” multiple times during its history to suit political and religious purposes. The Achaemenid Empire changed it, Cyrus the Great changed it when he conquered them, Alexander the Great changed it a few centuries later when he conquered the region, the Arsacid dynasty changed it when they took over, and round about 900 BCE the Muslims changed the date of the the new year, then around 1000 CE they completely scrapped the system... Until 1925 CE when the Pahlavi dynasty adopted a new solar calendar.

The year also ends and begins at the midnight nearest to the instant of the vernal equinox as determined by astronomical observations. Which means that there necessarily must be differences between the length of years, both due to compounding observational error and the earth’s ever changing orbit.

Any calendar system based on orbital mechanics be it solar, lunar, sidereal, or some combination thereof, is going to have to have “leap days” or even “leap seconds” somewhere in it... or it’s eventually going to crash. The universe persists in not operating according to our time tables.

This is why we should all just say “to heck with it” and use the British Regnal year dating system. I hope you all are having a pleasant Day 38 68 Eliz. 2 – 69 Eliz. 2! 

Karma.

2 hours ago, Inquisitor66 said:

Since I have a small number of random chaos troops I think I shall try the alpha legion for the first week and switch to imperium after that.....or will i?

Or have you already done it...?

I think it was the Fourth Edition Codex: Space Marines that has the “pick your own” chapter traits system. They had preselected options for the official Chapters, but it allowed a lot of great personalization for players’ own creations.

I do like the way the current system allows for the otherwise “vanilla” Chapters to all feel and play quite distinctly different from each other. But I do miss the way the Fourth Edition codex encouraged original creations.

6 minutes ago, Yarbicus said:

I do have a similar nose