Final Post of 2012

 I thought I would end the year with some images of some Cryx models I painted and sold.  They were posted before on a previous blog. (bonus points if you find my old blog)  Sadly, I had a huge fully painted Cryx army, but I ended up selling them off before I could take pictures of it all.  Here are what few pictures I do have...

Terminus... undefeated at the 35 point level.  Bane of my LGS!

SPOILER FREE Book Review: Ghouls of the Miskatonic

Ghouls of the Miskatonic

Graham McNeill

From the back of the book:

It is the roaring twenties, and strange things are happening in the small Massachusetts town of Arkham.  When mutilated bodies are found on the grounds of Miskatonic University, is it the work of a serial killer, or something much darker?  While a professor seeks his own answers, nightmarish premonitions plague his most gifted student.  Meanwhile, a reporter trawls the town's dark underbelly for clues, and a bootlegger stumbles upon a strange, otherworldly device.  Now, these unlikely investigators must unite to seek answers to a mystery that threatens all they hold dear.

The Review:

Ironically, when I purchase a book online, I try to avoid reading the reviews there.  Not only because they may contain spoilers, but also I find that some people may seem unusually harsh, or have some weird expectations when they read a book like this.  They are entertaining reads, not thesis worthy masterpieces!  That said, I did accidently glance at the reviews, and I'm really afraid it may have influenced my views before I even read the book.  Aside from that, I went into the book asking myself these basic questions:

1) Does it feel like Lovecraft?

2) Would a read the next book?

I'm familiar with Graham McNeill from his Warhammer 40k novels, and as one of their "main writers", I may have had some prior expectations.  So, how did Ghouls of the Miskatonic stack up?

This Geek's Week...

I... literally... did... NOTHING gaming wise this week.

That said, I did work a little bit on my Man Cave/Nerd Lair.  I got a new cabinet for the Nerd Lair, which now holds all my movies, as well as my board games.  I also picked up several Bossk statues for the room as well.  I also got a new lounger for playing video games coming soon too.  I'll eventually post pictures once everything arrives...

Emperor Edition: Gempukku

I was lucky enough to receive the "Holiday Box" for L5R, and in it was 5 boosters for the soon to be released EE: Gempukku set, and... it... is... AWESOME!  If you are like me, then you always find that you are missing certain cards to get your deck running smoothly.  Sure, you can buy pack after pack and cross your fingers, or go hunting for rares online, but that adds up fast as well! (Not to mention when most online places are out of the cards you need, or only have 1 left instead of the 2-3 you need)  Well, this set may just have you covered!  (As well as it may have the side effect of possibly lowering secondary market prices)

In a nutshell, the set will have boosters and "toolbox" style starters.  The starters will contain a bunch of commons and uncommons for their respective clans from all through the Emperor arc, as well as 2 exclusive cards, and 3 EE:Gempukku boosters. (Fingers crossed that the Scorpion one will have guys like Bayushi Suwabe in it)  I don't have a firm MSRP, but I've read online that they'll be the standard $25 of the other EE starters.  The Booster packs will only contain 6 cards, but they will all be rares from throughout the arc. (2x EE, 1x SC, 1x BTD, 1x EoW, 1x SoD)  Again, no firm MSRP, but I've read that they will be $4.99 each... so $1 or so more expensive than the typical booster, but again, it's all rares!

Overall, this will be a nice way to catch new players up into building some more consistent decks.  As an added bonus with this set, all the L5R players at my LGS have been pretty generous with our trades, so with what could be a rather large influx of rares coming into the hands of the various players, I imagine the strength of the entire group's decks will grow as a whole!

The official blerb on the main L5R page can be found HERE.

INCOMING: SHADOWRUN!

Stumbled across a bit of info, and it looks like Shadowrun may be making a return in a big way!  Sure, the RPG is always been around, but I'm not much of an RPGer and I was much more of a fan of the old card game.  That said, this is another one of those settings that I get a bit nostalgic for.  I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing what they have planned over the coming year or so.  Several things look to be coming down the pipe: a deck builder game, skirmish miniatures game, board game, video games, the whole bit!  More official news can be found HERE.

I for one am looking forward to seeing what they come up with for their deck builder as well as their miniatures game.  I'll try and keep an eye out on any new info I see in the near future...

This Geek's Week...

Not a lot of gaming this week....

Tuesday

- Picked up the Honor & Treachery set for L5R.

Wednesday

- Played 2 games of L5R vs the local Crane player.  Once with my Scorpion Paragons, once with my Scorpion Magistrates, winning both.  My Paragons steamrolled over the crane rather quickly.  The 2nd game was much, much longer as it was honor vs dishonor.  I swung a couple of times, trying to hit with some honor loss, but in those attempts I either lost battles or simply bounced off provences in the end.  Eventually I  decided to sit back instead, and focus on static limited phase honor loss.  Eventually he decided to try and swing for a provence of mine, and that cost him the game.  It backfired, I won the battle and hit him with a -10 honor loss when he was already sitting at -10 before the battle.

- Played Mage Wars for the 1st time.  I really enjoyed it, and now I have to debate whether or not I want to pick it up.  Maybe after Christmas...

Thursday

- Played a bit of Skyrim.

- Took apart my Ninja Castle of Order deck.  I then took a majority of it, threw in some new stuff, and built a Towers of the Yogo deck.  Lots of peons for bowing, a bit of the elite trait thrown in.

Honor & Treachery Unboxing/Review...

Mmmm, Scorpion girls are sexy!

Well, my LGS finally got its shipment of H&T in (don't get me started on that!), and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it and start sifting through the cards!  In this thread, I'll be posting pictures of the box's contents one by one, and going through MY personal views on the ups and downs on the set.  I'll jump right in...

Imperial Fist Test Rhino..

       Here's my test rhino to see how well my yellow technique would work on a vehicle.  It also served as a way for me to test out some weathering tricks.  The model itself was put together several years ago, the Forgeworld doors came out a bit janky... hence why I'm using it as a test model!  So, I've got a test model done for both an Infantry and a Vehicle, and all-in-all I'm pretty happy with the results.  That said, I'm still trying to decide if I want to commit to painting up a ton of Imperial Fists or if I'd rather do a Flesh Tearers army...

This Geek's Week...

Played the DC Deck Building game.  Good stuff!

Monday

- Played several rounds of MWO in a 4-man lance.  I was mostly in my Commando, but I ended up building a Centurion D.  I've enjoyed the centurion in the past, but right now I am not super impressed...

Tuesday

- Worked some more on my Imperial Fist "test Rhino".

- Played several rounds of MWO in pugs.  I swapped some stuff around on my Centurion, and now it acts as a proxy Kit Fox/Uller w/ a UAC-5, ER Large Laser, and 2x SSRM 2's.  I like him a little more now, but mu Commando is still my favorite.  Highlight for the day had to be when I kept a Raven, Hunchback, and 2x Cataphracts busy chasing me for pretty much an entire game!  4 vs 1 in the lightest mech in the game, and it still took them several minutes to bring me down!  Too bad the pugs couldn't capitalize on the 7 vs 4 advantage I gave them while I kept literally 1/2 the enemy team chasing me around...

Wednesday

- Finished painting my test rhino.

- Stayed up at the gaming store till 3 am.  I played a game of x-wing, and got my butt handed to me... again!  Although I do suck at maneuvering, the dice constantly bite me in the ass.  As an example, I get 6 ties in range of an x-wing, including rerolls from Howlrunner, and yet all I managed to do was strip some shields! Maybe a point to the hull.  Next round, I lose 2 ties due to rolling "blanks" on defense, and it starts going down hill fast as I quickly lose my numbers advantage.  Next, I played 2 games of the DC Comics Deck Builder.... I really enjoyed it!  I lost the first game, but surprisingly won the second.  Next I played Marvel: Legendary, and sadly didn't enjoy it that much.  I didn't dig the semi co-op nature of the game. (it should be co-op or competitive, not a mish-mash of both imho) We played a deck with deadpool, thor, iron man, storm, gambit, and wolverine against Dr. Doom and a mish-mash of villains.  This brings me to another point, I wish the game was set up so the hero deck was comprised of all of a single team, so it would've been Avengers vs Doom or x-men vs magneto etc.  Sure you CAN play it that way, but I wish it wouldn't have to be a house rule to do so.  I think it would've been more thematic that way.  Next I played a game of L5R, using my Naga vs Crane.  My Naga is still my "Fun deck" because of its slower pace, and it proved a bit too slow.  I let the Crane player get up to like 25 honor before I started attacking.  I then took one provence pretty easily, but he managed to save the next one I attacked.  He ended up hitting 40 honor, and I went to attack all 3 of his provences.  I took 2 of the 3 provences, but he was able to send my units home at the final battle so I lost.  Finally, I sat and chatted with some of the guys at the shop about "ins and outs" of owning a gaming store, which ended up turning into a "what would we do differently" type of conversation.

Thursday

- Further tweaked my Scorpion Magistrates as well as my Scorpion Paragons.

Saturday

- Played Batman: Arkham Asylum for a couple of hours.

181st Imperial Fighter Group

In FFG's X-Wing, I'm playing as the Empire's "181st Fighter group".  Early on, they were one of the Empire's worst units... in fact, early on they were actually referred to as the "one-eighty-worst".  Which is fitting, because i completely BLOW at this game!  Later on, they would eventually rise to become one of the Empire's most elite units.  But for right now, I'm still in the "one-eighty-worst" era...

I may have a game set up for this Wednesday, and this will be the list I'm taking:

Howlrunner

5x Academy Pilots

Tempest Squadron Pilot

- 99 points

So, 7 models, my current entire Imperial Fleet.  My hope is to swarm and focus fire targets, rerolling attack dice while within range 1 of Howlrunner.  I'm going to assume that my opponent will be playing rebels, but if not, being at 99 points should let me retain initiative if he decides to play empire at a full 100 points.  That, and the only 1 pt upgrade would be "Determination" on Howlrunner, and in general my ties never seem to live long enough make use of it.

Once the Interceptor is released, I plan to play an all Tie Interceptor list, complete with "Bloodstripes" as per the 181st background.

Imperial Fist "Test Scout" model...

When it comes to Space Marines, the Imperial Fists have always been a favorite of mine.  Ever since I first read "Storm of Iron".  Several years ago I had a 1500 pt Imperial Fists list built, but my yellow process at the time was so extensive, I think I was only ever able to paint a model or two.  This is my attempt to create a "quick yellow" paint job.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out on him, and if I can come up with some similar results on the current "test rhino" I have on my desk then I may end up collecting another Fist army!

Furthermore, I've always wanted to commit to collecting a Space Marine army consisting of whole companies, and eventually an entire chapter!  If the Imperial Fists do not work out, I still have a back up plan which would keep my dream of one day owning an entire chapter still on the table.  It all comes down to how the rhino turns out...

This Geek's Week...

Just a random picture from the internetz that made me giggle...

**Despite a pretty busy week, I still managed to squeeze in a bit of gaming...

Monday

- Booted up Batman: Arkham Asylum.

-  Started painting my test model for a potential future Imperial Fists project.  The project hinges on how the model turns out... so far, so good!

Tuesday 

- Finished painting my Imperial Fist test model.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but the real test will be the test Rhino.  I'm unsure of how my yellow technique will look on a larger vehicle.  If it turns out fine, then I'll proceed with my Imperial Fists project, if not, well.... maybe Flesh Tearers!

- Tweaked all 4 of my L5R decks for this coming Saturday's L5R night.  Nothing big, just swapped out a card or two here and there.

Wednesday

- Finished the "Way of the Clans" book from Battletech.  I really enjoyed it.  Started the 1st book in the X-Wing Rogue Squadron series.

- Started painting my test rhino.  I've got a couple of layers on it, and so far I'm liking how it looks thus far.  It's kind of a wet, almost watercolor-esque, and I'm thinking may come out looking pretty unique on the table.  That is of course, unless I botch it somewhere along the way!  =p

Thursday

- Painted the tracks on my test rhino.  Then I got bored with painting and switched to MWO...

- Played a few rounds of MWO in pugs.  I mainly wanted to see what all the fuss over ECM was about.  Several games saw a ton of light mechs, all packin ECM.  My Catapult w/ 6x SRMs couldn't hit the lights to do any real damage.  Played my Catapult again, and got some decent numbers, but in the end, no numbers that I couldn't achieve in  any of Commandos.  I ended up selling all but my 3 Commandos, and started rocking things.  I don't know what it is about the Comm, but that mech just works for me.  Tempted to try about a Centurion- D but those cost 8 million C-Bills, and I've currently only got 10 mil or so... I think I'd rather hold out for a bit and see if they ever announce the Zeus mech in MWO....

- Played 2 games with my Scorpion Paragons vs Crane duelist/courtier.  I lost the first one because I got greedy and split my forces, had I not done that I *might* have been able to keep him from getting to 40 honor.  The second game I made sure not to split my forces and took one provence at a time, although he still managed to get up to 32 honor before i took his last provence.

- Ran an L5R demo for a guy who has never played a single card game before.  It seemed to go fairly well, which is good because L5R can be a pretty tricky game, and I was worried if I would be able to teach a new player.  I played the Scorpion clan for both games, and after the 1st demo game he ended up picking up a Unicorn starter!  I played one more game using the Scorpion demo deck vs his new Unicorn starter.  I took it pretty easy on him both games, letting each of us get down to 1 or 2 provences, and he ended up winning the second one.  All in all, it seemed like he enjoyed the game which is the most important thing.  Maybe we'll see him again this Saturday!

Friday

- Built a Naga deck for L5R, just for fun.  Made a couple of slight tweaks to my Scorpion Magistrates, which is my favorite deck thus far.

Saturday

- Played several L5R games.  First with my Naga vs Mantis Magistrates, and lost.  Then with my Paragons vs Mantis Naval and won.  Played a game with an old friend, and old veteran to the game, after giving him a refresher course.  That game he played my Crab Berzerkers while I used my Naga, and the berserkers just rolled right over me! We then played again, with him using the Spider demo deck while I used the Scorpion demo deck, and he rolled over me again!  I then played my Naga deck vs the new Unicorn player from a few days ago.  He had a much better grasp of the game now, and quickly brought me down to my last provence with his Cavalry.  He mounted one large, final offensive that backfired.  From there, I was able to to turn the game around, taking a provence a turn, while killing off anyone he used for defense.  My last game of the night was against my old friend, with him using my berserkers again, and this time I used my Scorpion magistrates.  He took one of my provences, but i knocked him down to -11 honor in the process. His next attack phase, he swung for 2 provences. I repelled his attacks at both and bumped him down to -20 honor, sealing the game.  I also received a ton of cards off my trade list, so I'll have plenty of tweaking to do too....

Honor and Treachery

A week or so ago AEG announced  their "Learn to Play set" for the Emperor Arc, "Honor and Treachery",  and I could not be more excited!  Not only because despite playing for several months now, I still consider myself a new player, but because it is primarily a Phoenix/Scorpion set, with one of my favorite Scorpions, our Champion, Bayushi Nitoshi taking a key role in the story. 

This Geek's Week...

Skyrim, Skyrim, and more Skyrim!

 Tuesday

- Started my character up on Skyrim.  I can't explain why, but so far the Argonians are my favorite race in the game.  I imagine when Elder Scrolls Online drops, a majority of the people will be playing as the "Ebonpact", which is the Nords, Dark Elves, and Argonians.  Unless I can get more into either the High Elves or the Wood Elves, I may just have to suck it up and accept that I'll be a part of an "over populated" faction.

- Played several hours worth of MWO, entirely in my Commando 2-D.  Got into lances with other members of HouseSteiner.com and they figured out a janky way to try and get full 8 man groups going, as a patch or two ago MWO decided to limit groups to a max of 4 despite the fact that matches are 8v8.  A lot of C-Bills were made, and I managed to add 2 more Atlas' to my kill tally as well!

Wednesday 

- Been Playing Skyrim, and suffice to say, I still have "Dragon Age Syndrom".  What is DAS you ask? Well in Dragon Age, I spent so many hours just rerolling characters and/or playing through their initial stories.  I just kept doing it, until I finally settled down on character.  So far, Skyrim has been the same for me.  I keep rerolling, and trying new races, only to come to the conclusion that I still like the Argonians the best.  I've tried High Elf, Wood Elves, and the Khajiit to see if I could possibly get into the races in the "Dominion" for ESO, but they all seem to lack the "cool" or the "it" factor for me that the Argonians poses!

Thursday

- More Skyrim.

- Played 3 games of L5R tonight at the shop.  I played my Scorpion Ninja, Magistrates, and my Crab Berserkers vs a new Crane player.  I won each game, but the Crane player did have some interesting stuff take place in each game.  1st game, my Ninjas kept bouncing off provences till I was finally able to swarm.  2nd game he ran high/fast enough honor that I feared my Magistrates might have stalled out till Nitoshi hit play and 1 or 2 decisive battles started the Dishonor really rolling.  Finally, he wanted to play vs my Berserkers.  I didn't get to attack until the start of turn 3, even after Border Keep uses and he actually held me off for my 1st 2 attacks with some good combos.  However, in the end, the strength 7 berserkers started to swarm.  I also gave him a ton of cards and helped him start to flesh out a theme for his Crane deck. between the last Scorpion game and the one vs my Crab.  Hopefully he'll stick with it, as he's on the right track once he gets more of the cards he needs.  

Friday

- More Skyrim today.  I really love that game!

- The Forgotten Legacy set I had pre-ordered arrived today!  I was finally able to build a Scorpion Paragon deck from it, but I'm still missing a few things.  I also tweaked my Magistrates and my Ninja decks with a few cards from the FL set as well.

Netrunner Decklist: Weyland Consortium - Shareholder Deck

Moving upwards by bringing you down...

I call this my "Shareholder" deck due to the fact that it has a pretty even spread of cards between the other Corps, Weyland has been buying stocks!  Otherwise, it's a simple "Tag N Bag" deck that has worked EXTREMELY well for me thus far.  Play it safe till I get 2x Scorch Earth in hand or 1 and an archived memories to pull it back for a second use.  Once I have the cards needed for the kill, I like to sit on a ready-to-be-scored Posted Bounty for a turn, then at the start of the next turn score it to make sure I have sufficient clicks to go for the kill.  Easy, basic, and pretty straightforward...

This Geek's (Thanksgiving) Week...

**Due to being out of town all of last week visiting the In-laws, and being sick on top of that, this time around I won't be doing the normal daily format for this "This Geek's Week" post.
WARNING: puking will be a common theme in this post!
All in all, I hope everyone's Thanksgiving week was less eventful than mine!

- So, we left Tuesday November 20th for our 8 hour drive from Kansas to Memphis TN.  My daughter (who wasn't feeling great to begin with the night before) started throwing up in the car about 4 hours into the trip.  Stopped, got everything cleaned up, then had to decide whether or not to turn around and drive 4 hours back home (what I would've done) or continue the 4 hour trip to the In-laws.  Seeing as my wife was the one driving, and it was her family, I had her make the call.

- Once there, everything seem to settle down.  I brought Sentinels of The Multiverse with me, and played 2 games of it that night with the bro-in-law after teaching him the game.  We lost the 1st game to Omnitron (poor hero choices) but easily smoked Ambuscade in the 2nd game.  Then, I started feeling ill myself.  Later that night, about 12-1 am, I ended up puking my guts out... EVERYWHERE!  Even now, I question whether or not I'll be able to eat another beef-stick or peanut butter cup ever again!

- Wednesday.  Slept for 20 hours... literally.  The rest of the vacation was a bit of a blur.

-Thursday, I felt a bit better, so I ate Thanksgiving dinner with everyone else.  Kinda regretted it, as my belly hadn't fully recovered.  Luckily, I kept it all in.  My daughter however, did not.  (Even though she really didn't eat anything at dinner)  That one I blame on the wife feeding her a bunch of greek yogurt and other stuff just before bed, despite telling her I thought it was a bad idea to give her that much dairy when we already new her stomach was on the sensitive side these last few days.

- Friday, took my daughter to a random doctor (another reason why we should've turned around imho), and because we were out of state, had to pay for the visit out of pocket.  $200 is nothing when it comes to the well being of my family... not to mention I would've gladly paid $200 to not get puked all over for like a fourth time that trip!

- Now, it wasn't ALL bad!  I did end up playing Skyrim for the 1st time, and absolutely fallen in LOVE with the game! (Especially the Argonians)  I had played one of the very early Elder Scrolls games, and just couldn't get into it, so I think I may had wrongly written off the whole series which is why I never got around to playing it despite all the internet fanboyism surrounding Skyrim.  Needless to say, I played that all weekend long, and ended up buying myself a copy for the PS3 to bring back home!  In addition to Skyrim, I also picked up Dead Space, and Batman: Arkham Asylum, both of which have also been on my "to play" list for the longest time, I just never had gotten around to picking them up.  Sunday, I also introduced my brother-in-law to Mechwarrior Online, and showed him the ropes a bit. I say that, because MWO can have a bit of a learning curve to it imo.  I also ended up finishing "A Dance with Dragons" on the trip as well, and moved on to a Battletech novel, "Way of the Clans".  I'm all nostalgic for "Way of the Clans", as it was the first sci-fi novel that I ever went out and purchased with my own money back in the early 90's.  I actually never even got around to truly reading it, as at the time it was waaay of my head, but I can remember constantly going over the mech schematics in the back of the book, and pretending to pilot a "Hellbringer, which was back then, and still to this day, remains one of my favorite mechs.  It was also a pain in the butt to find and get ahold of at a reasonable price.

- Now it's Monday the 26th, and we finally made it back!  My daughter is sleeping soundly, and hasn't gotten sick for a few days.  On my end, my stomach is feeling better as well.  Not perfect, maybe feeling about 90%, but I can live with that.  Hopefully things will be getting back to normal, and I can start playing my new games tomorrow...

This Geek's Week...

A bit light this week... and with being out of town all next week, I predict another light week to come...

Monday

- Slapped together a chaos and empire deck for Warhammer: Invasion and a Targaryen Dragon deck for A game of Thrones.

Wednesday

- Tweaked my Scorpion Clan Magistrate and Ninja decks for L5R.

Thursday

- Picked up a couple of Chapter packs for A game of Thrones.

- Played 6 games of Netrunner.  3 with my Noise deck and 3 with my NBN.  I won all my games with my NBN deck, twice via Scorched Earth kills, and once via agendas.  However, I lost all my games with Noise.  A couple of them were close, but I think I put way too much emphasis on the Viruses, and in general, my economy sucked.  He just seems to take way too much time to set up.  I think I need to play him as more of a normal runner, while using only a few viruses like data sucker to augment his inability to pump up his icebreakers.  If this doesn't work then I'm just going to go back to playing my Criminals exclusively.

Plans for my 40k Eldar army...

Let me preface this by saying I HATE "Net Lists", people who have broken 40k down to numbers and science, ally abusers, the whole lot... for me, it takes a lot of the fun out of the game.  I'm a bit of a fluff player, in that if the fluff says an army doesn't have access to something, I won't use it, if fluff says something is rare, I wont spam it.  That said, I do still strive for some kind competitiveness, and firmly believe there can be some sort of happy medium between a fluff list and a competitive one.  The reason I'm staying all this before hand is so that whomever reads this will know I didn't look up the latest "internet hawt-list" for the Eldar (if there even is such a thing), and as I break down my reasoning behind unit choices, you'll probably notice plenty of "non-optimized units" and poor unit choices as well as 1 or 2 descent ones.

The whole list I made is based off of experience with previous editions, a single demo game of 6th ed, and after reading through the 6th ed rule book... one time.  Needless to say it's all theory crafting.  More important than building a hardcore list, this will serve as a "to buy" list to get me to start collecting and building an Eldar army. In addition, I was looking for a list that would break down easily into other values like 1k, 1500, or 1850.  

With all that said, on with the list!

This Geek's Week...

More, more, more LCG's!

Monday

- Played a couple of rounds of Space Marine's "Exterminatus" mission, solo.

- Painted some on my Eldar D-Cannon, but I think I may need to redo it a bit.  The solid "Alaitoc Blue" i was going to do looked a little bland.  I think I will do a mottled pattern instead.

- I also began to cast a Summoner mech for Battletech. (Shame, shame, I know)  The Battletech intro box came with a ton of mechs, 2 of which were clan mechs (Summoner & Hellbringer, my 2 personal favorites) in a high quality, multi-part plastic format.  However, they are also at a larger scale than the original.  As a Jade Falcon fan (hence why those 2 mechs are my favorite) I had originally planned to use the Summoner as my primary mech for my Falcon lances, with the only addition(s) being a light Kit Fox.  Thus rather than trying to track down 4+ of the summoners from the intro box, I decided to try and cast my own instead.  As an added bonus, I'm hoping the Summoner/Hellbringer's larger scale will also give the Kit Fox the appropriate look of a light mech on the tabletop.  Casting is definitely a unique part of the miniature hobby experience, and a challenge to say the least.  (or I should say one I have not mastered yet)  If you haven't done so, give it a try!  It'll definitely make you more appreciative of the work that goes into crafting miniatures.

Tuesday

- Did a little more painting on my Eldar.  I also realized that I needed to thin down my yellows a bit more, and now they flow and go on much better!

Wednesday

- Painted a bit more of my Eldar.  I also started a test model for a future Imperial Fists project now that I have a better handle on the yellow situation.

- Played a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse vs Citizen Dawn, and we... got... rocked!  I just don't think we had an ideal team set up for it.

- Played a 4 player game of Warhammer Invasion.  It was Orks and Dark Elves vs Empire and Dwarves.  I ended up losing as the Dark Elf player, but it's such a fun game!  I think I may have to pick some of it up...

- Did a demo game of Netrunner and found it fairly easy to teach.

- Played a game of Elder Sign vs Hastur.  We got close to beating him via Elder Signs, but he ended up awaking on us.  We then ended up defeating him the old fashioned way, without losing a single investigator.

- Finished the night with a game of Smash Up.  I played as Ninja/Robots, and ended up tied for 2nd/3rd at 13 points.

Friday

- Played 2 games of Killzone 3. (botzone)  I haven't played KZ in FOREVER, I used to be pretty good, playing both online as well as botzone on the highest setting.  This time around, due to rust, I played botzone on the mid setting.  Did ok K/D wise  at 24/8 and 34/14, but back when I was playing daily those were typical scores for online play and the hardest botzone settings.  I'm now slow, and my aim is a bit off! =P

- Dismantled my Criminal and Weyland decks for Netrunner.  They worked really, really well for me (if you've been reading these, I've been posting my results), so I kept them written down.  Built an Anarch deck for something new on the runner side, and an NBN deck on the corp side.  Hopefully I can test em out sometime soon...

Saturday

- Played a bunch of L5R.  I lost vs Phoenix using my "for fun" ninja scorpion deck.  Although, the Phoenix player (and myself for not catching it) made a pretty big mistake that affected the outcome of the game.  I then got to play against a real "high end" player visiting the shop.  He runs the semi-local kotei (national) tournaments.  I played his Scorpion Dishonor vs my Crab Berserkers.  The game went in my favor pretty quickly, despite a slow start on my part.  We followed that up with a game against my Scorpion Dishonor vs his KL mantis, and I... got... spanked... HARD!  My deck had a rough start, but it was no real excuse, his deck was just waaay better! Before he left though, he hooked myself and several of the players there up with both free packs and promos!  What a great L5R night!

- Played several games of Netrunner, both using my newly built NBN and Noise decks.  the first two games I used my NBN.  The first game was over so quickly it barely counted!  I waited till I had 2x Scorched Earth in my hand, advanced breaking news to 2 but waited to score next turn. Runner drew cards/gained credits then my turn I scored breaking news and Scorched Earth for the kill.  2nd game went much the same, but at a slower pace as it took longer to get my second Scorched Earth hand.  Then I tried my new Noise deck, and it didn't work so well.  I started the first game hitting hard and fast, scoring several quick agenda points.  Eventually, my deck stalled out, and i couldn't get the final agenda point in time.  Next game with my Noise deck was bad from the start.  Made a couple of dumb plays early on, and the game went south.  Oh well, it was my first time trying Noise out, and I think I learned a thing or two about what I need to do to tweak his deck.  His play style was completely different from earlier Criminal deck, and I think I was still stuck in Criminal mode while playing him.

- Tweaked my Noise deck for Netrunner.

- Picked up the Warhammer: Invasion LCG core box set.

Sunday

- Played a game with my Noise deck, I lost again, but I'm on the right track as far as deck building goes.  I need to further tweak him a bit more and get some more experience to get a handle on a play style for him.

- Picked up the Game of Thrones LCG core box set in a trade.

- Tweaked my Noise deck again.

Netrunner Decklist: Gabriel Santiago - "Always the Professional"

This has been the Criminal deck that I have been running in Netrunner since I picked up my second core set box.  Although it looks and feels rather basic, it has worked really well. (Undefeated so far)  As I've mentioned before, when it comes to Netrunner, games are won and lost based on a player's decisions and gameplay throughout the game, and not deck building perfection.  Hence, why a basic deck like this can work... it has an answer for everything I have encountered so far.  Another perk of it being rather basic means that there are plenty of sub-optimal card choices built in, making updating it when new cards come out much easier.  Also, I should note that this deck was created using the CardGameDB.com Android: Netrunner Deck Builder.  If you have not checked out CardGameDB.com before and are into ANY of FFG's LCGs, then you probably should!  Anyway, on with the deck...

This Geek's Week...

This week was pretty much all about MWO!

Tuesday

- Played a couple of games of Mechwarrior online.  Rebuilt my Commando 2-D after the latest wipe for like the 4th time.

Thursday

- Played several rounds of Mechwarrior online.  If you haven't already, I'd suggest giving it a try as its in open beta right now.  It's more of a mech sim than a twitchy shooter like Call of Duty though, and it's way better if you can get in group to play as tactics are vital!  Give it a try, join Housesteiner.com and add me under the name "WuhSawBe".

Friday

- Played a for more rounds of MWO while my daughter napped.

Saturday

- Played MWO, then played MWO a ton more!  Literally, for several hours that night.  So, yeah, I've been bit by the Battletech/MWO bug once again!

The Traveler: My Sentinels of the Multiverse "Design a Villain" entry...

Back in September, the creators of "Sentinels of the Multiverse" had a "Design a Villain" contest with a Time travel/alternate dimension theme.  Sentinels gets played a TON up at the local shop, and I'm definitely a fan, so I jumped at the chance to submit something.  Sadly, I didn't win, but I thought I would share exactly what I submitted to "Greater Than Games".  (Note: if you are not familiar with the mechanics behind Sentinels, then a lot of what I'm listing out will mean little to you!)

"THE TRAVELER"

I envisioned something kind of like
the Shade from DC comics.

Aliases: Drake Dexter
Age: 47 (at the time of receiving his powers)
Height: 5’ 8”
Weight: 157 lbs
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Birthplace: Unknown
Power Source: Mystical/Alien
Group Affiliation: None
Occupation: Time Traveler, self-proclaimed god
First Appearance: Mystical Mysteries #4

Nemesis: The Visionary

Physical Appearance- 

"Gentlemen" looks.  Early 1900's black tuxedo, top hat, white gloves, monocle, and black cane with a silver "ball" on top.

Backstory - 

A shrewd business man from a wealthy background, Drake Dexter felt there was nothing outside the reach of his money... and what his money couldn't buy, he could always pay someone else to steal.  A museum exhibit made the front page of the "Herald", and the main attraction was a priceless orb recovered from a recently discovered sunken city in the south pacific.  Drake attended the unveiling, and was instantly mystified by the orb... he knew he MUST have it all for himself!  As usual, he knew the museum "stiffs" would refused to sell, so as usual in these cases he sought some outside help to acquire the orb.

What is Netrunner? (Gameplay)

This is my second "What is Netrunner" post.  The previous one (found HERE) went into the background of the game, and this post will delve a little bit into the general gameplay of the Netrunner LCG.  I wont dive too deep in explaining ALL the rules of Netrunner as the game can be a bit complex.  For those looking for the actual the Netrunner rulebook, they can be found HERE.

TL;DR

Netrunner pits Runners against Corporations as each side attempts to score agendas, or in the case of the Corp, kill the runner.  It features a unique, mechanic that breaks free from the traditional rigid "phases" of other games.  There's also a subtle (and not so subtle) bluffing mechanic player's can utilize that I have yet to find in any other games as well.  Finally, Netrunner is game more about a player's skill and the decisions they make during a game and less about how well they can build a deck.  Unlike other games, there is NO "autopilot" decks found in this game!

Still interested?  Well, I've got a lot more to say!

This Geek's Week...

Some just want to watch the world burn...

Monday

--  Played a handful of games of Mechwarrior Online.

-- I *think* I may have finally come up with a 2,000 pt Eldar list which I'll use as a base to build all my other Eldar lists from as it breaks down pretty easily into 1500 and 1750 pts.  It'll also serve as my "buy" list as well.  I'll admit it though, it's pretty much all theory as I've only had a single game of 6th ed. (i.e. it probably sucks!)

Tuesday

-- Finally beat "A Game of Thrones" on the PS3.  I've been sitting on the final fight for a long time, but just never gotten around to beating it.  I'm a major junkie for the Song of Ice & Fire series.  The gameplay was buggy, and could've been better, but I enjoyed the characters and the story none the less. 

-- Painting my Eldar.  Eldrad is close to being finished.

Wednesday

-- Finished Eldrad.

-- Played 2 games of Sentinels of the Multiverse.  1st game was Legacy, Mr. Fixer, and Fanatic (1st time playing her) vs Omnitron in the waste factory.  Everything seemed to be going fine, then we stalled out, and ended up losing.  It was really close, at one point he only had 11 life left, but ended up springing back to 28 hp, and we couldn't recover.  2nd game was Wraith, Expatriette, and Ra vs Ambuscade.  This guy was such a push over, and barely touched us!

Friday

-- Rebuilt my Crab berserker deck.  I don't really plan on playing or collecting Crab very much anymore, mainly because there's another player in my local L5R group interested in playing Crab more than I am.  Berserkers are also pretty straightforward, big guy, go smash, so I'll probably keep it built as an easy to play demo deck.  My focus will be on my original love, the Scorpion clan.  (Although I plan to tinker around with a Ronin deck at some point)

-- I'm toying around with a new Scorpion Ninja deck.  I'm hoping to build one that combines heavy in-province personality discard with  negative chi.  I lack a lot of the needed cards, but I'm gonna give it a shot as more of a "fun deck" and see if there isn't something there to develop.

Saturday

-- Played a "refresher" game of L5R to re-teach a player how to play. He used my Berserkers, while I tested my new Scorpion Ninja deck.  I think my ninja multi-control idea may show some promise once I get the cards I need.

-- Played 3 games of Netrunner.  Once with my Runner deck and twice with my Weyland.  I played a timely account siphon, stripping the corp player of all his  money, an easily walked over his unrezzed ice to score an agenda.  Next turn I snagged one out of R&D, and after a few following turns I snagged the final one from a remote server.  My 1st Weyland game was against a Gabriel deck.  He got out a crash space and 2 copies of his resource that he can trash to prevent tags early on, so I knew my usual "tag & bag" strategy wasn't going to work, so I switched to the old fashion method of winning via scoring agendas.  For some reason, he didn't really make many runs and worried to much about setting up his side of the board.  By the time he felt ready to start making runs, it was already too late.  The 2nd game was my Weyland vs Noise.  1st turn he ran twice on R&D and scored 2 each agendas, the fact that I also had 2 in my hand meant a shuffle fail on my part.  Once again however, he spent too much time setting up his side of board and not enough time running for the last agendas he needed.  In the end, I flatlined him after a scored "posted bounty" and 2x Scorched Earth.

-- Played 2 quick, friendly games of Smash Up.  Once as Brownies/Mages and once as Robots/Zombies.  Lost both games pretty badly, but no biggie, such is life!

SPOILER FREE book review: Free Fall

Android: Free Fall

By William H. Keith

From the back of the book:

  When an influential lawyer is murdered miles above Earth's surface, Captain of Detectives Rick Harrison reluctantly accepts the case.  Harrison quickly finds himself at the center of a deepening conspiracy.  Why did the killer use a mining laser, an unwieldy weapon?  What is the connection between the victim and the powerful anti-android lobby?  And the toughest question Harrison never expected to ask: what defines humanity?

This Geek's Week...

Tuesday

-- Finished painting the remnants of my leftover Eldar Pathfinders.

-- Worked on painting Eldrad, worked on putting together my Wraithguard, and D-Cannon.

Wednesday

-- Started priming my Wraithguard till I ran out of primer.  

-- Finished putting together the D-Cannon.

-- Played a game of X-Wing.  I LOVE the game, but the dice gods hate me in that one for sure!

-- Played my 1st game of "Dominant Species".  It wasn't too bad, but man the game took FOREVER!  It took a couple of turns for me to get a handle on figuring up the count for who controlled a space, but it wasn't too bad.  Jury's still out on it though.  It comes down time vs fun.  Is it fun enough to warrant the several hours it takes to play through a game?  I could get in several games in the time it took for just 1 of Dominant Species.

Thursday

-- Worked on painting my Eldar a bit more.  Eldrad is only a few steps away from being finished.

Sunday

--  Working on an Eldar list, so I know what to buy next.

-- Finally updated and patched Mechwarrior Online.  I'm hoping to step back in the ol' mech-cockpit tomorrow or the next day.