NOT SURE IF POSTING THIS RANT BLOG

WHY O WHY O WHY ETC ETC

can't rules writers ,when writing a rulebook place everything relevant to each other together. Its bad enough struggling with a new rule set, or a newer version of one you know ,with out looking in 15 places to peice together a paragraph of writing to tell you what to do.

This blog is being written because of not one rulebook but many, its just the Dystopian wars rulebook, is the straw that broke the camels back. Why the rant? You ask. Let me explain.

  I want to know if a flight of tiny flyers; Dive bombers, to be exact. Can split its fire, between to targets. In a well laid out rulebook, this would be easy. But in the Dystopian Wars book ooooooo no, let me talk you through this , to show you why I am raged.

  If you have the rulebook, I will drop page numbers in so you can follow my rantings, I am using the ver1.1, the rules for tiny flyers are on page 48, it talks about them being set up, landing taking off etc. But nothing about how they attack or defend, even though they attack and defend different to other things. Tiny flyers are able to combine attack rather than link, this is on page 62; it states and I quote, "tiny flyer CAN - COMBINE FIRE with ORDANANCE with stands in their wing". This to me says they can , but don't have to, my problem with this is, does this mean if they don't COMBINE they can hit a different target to the others in base contact ?

Next is SPLIT FIRE on page 49, again I quote "ORDANANCE and AUX weapons can SPLIT FIRE to allocate any available attack dice (AD) amongst VALID TARGETS". Now to see what is VALID for a TINY FLYER, we have to look to page 64. Again here I will quote, " a tiny flyer dive bomber wing uses BOMB ORDANANCE.it does NOT use RANGE BANDS, it has a RANGE of 0inch, the wing MUST be in contact with the MODEL, BASE or STAND of the target". Now this is a problem if I have a wing making contact with 2 vessels technically they are both VALID, technically then I can COMBINE and/or SPLIT my ATTACK DICE (AD) between 1 or both of these 2 vessels

OR CAN I, I don't frigging know do you? 

So I return to my first point why is this not all in one section why do I need to search for 30 minutes to piece together a paragraph or sentences that allow me to work out if I can or can't attack something. Worse still because I am having to piece together this its open to interpretation of the reader or readers, see I think I can split fire as you can see by my musing, I concur with my thoughts during the last game I had with ASH. he was unsure either wat and said, err on side of caution till we knew, hence why I tried to suss it out.

So can I or can't I.

The adventures/misadventures of Chezhinka

Where O where to begin, I have decided to go a bit curve ball, ok a lot 'curve ball', with my Russian Confederate fleet carriers. As in I am going for slabs of ice fitted together for runway rather than wood, Crazy huh, lol.

Let me explain in very cold places they clear snow, to smooth ice, so planes can land. The carriers make icebergs. Wooden runways on ships, in real world, need replacing loads. So the carrier can resupply its runway whenever it wants using its generators.
  Ash likes the scheme, but as we like to pull each others pigtails, he called my mighty carrier, SNOWFLAKE. This translated into Russian is..........

Chezhinka

I like it, it's catchy, so I am taking ownership of the insult. It's staying as the carrier's name, Now what to call the other one, hmmmmmmmmm.

Iceberg = Aysberg, not sure

Trial paint scheme for Dystopian Wars, Covenant of the Antarctic

So I said to ash, if I do your CoA black,like you wanted it will be to much like your Dropzone forces. I said as a 'off the cuff' idea, military use camouflage & your guys are surrounded by ICE, it make sense to paint them like icebergs / ice flows or whatever the proper term is. So here goes a trial scheme. The first photo is of my Russian carriers icebergs, they are deliberately over blued, otherwise if I did them realistic they would be WHIIIIITE, so artistic licence was used, my hope is his ships will look similar to this, in photo 1, you can see the carrier's icebergs.

Well as you can see the blue/white is done now, in photos 2 & 3. The guns and engine/moving parts are yet to be done, I'm thinking I will go copper for archimedes' screw. Guns I thinking leave alone on smaller vessels.

The forth photo is of the vessel with metal parts done, only thing left outstanding is the archimedes' screw device.

Beards first look at the new Warhammer 40,000 6th edition rules

EDIT:  IT SEEMS THE PERSON WHO TALKED ME THROUGH IT WAS STILL NEW TO THE RULES

As the title suggested, after delaying the inevitable first game of 40k, it has happened, so here are my thoughts.

First off let's start with the book itself; it looks amazing and for the first time in ages it seems to be put together in the right order, I know, I know, but it does on first glance seem to be the case.

Secondly, let's get to, for me what I think was going to be, the "elephant in the room", the main thing to scare me was the psychic phase. At first glance it appears that there isn't one, but it's carried out during the other phases of the game. Is it over powered? I have no idea, at all. Time will, as they say, tell.

Thirdly, and and this is after only 2 games of it being played, mind you, it seems the "beer and pretzels" tag is GW way to do away with loop holes and streamlining the game. ie, vehicles just have to be behind cover, and not 50% covered, and yes its silly that a "supermodel" can give cover to a "lemon fresh" Russ. But how many times have you or a player kicked off about the precise amount of the%. If - "that's 40.5% so u ain't in cover" or "my tank is 50.1% in cover" sounds like you, well done, you are why Kate Moss gives cover to my Tank, so "tank you". While on the subject of cover, it appears that some/most levels of cover have been reduced by one, on the surface, this appears bad, but, now instead of taking the best of 2 or 3 covers you could use, you add +1 to your base cover save, for every extra piece it goes through. Ie, you hide behind a wall, that's a 5+ cover but another wall is between you and the firers. Old rules would make you choose a 5+ or a 5+, under new rules, you get a 4+ cover save.

EDIT: OK HAVING NOW GOT MY HANDS ON A BOOK THEY MODELS HAVE TO BE 25% COVERED NOT JUST BEHIND IT. SECOND, IT APPEARS THE COVER SAVES DONT STACK,UST THROUGH MY FIRST READ THROUGH OF RULES, I MAY BE BACK TO RE-EDIT THIS.

Forth there will be always rules we hate, like or think are stooooopid, I am the same so I can't moan about peeps who do, I think we all do. It's human nature I think or at least a British one, lol. But the new rules I have seen don't fill me with dread, the one about your main guy getting a super perk is cool, its random, so no cheese festing, the replacement psychic powers are random and there fore maybe not over powered (maybe we will see), wounds taken of front I like, not from clappers at the back. Whether I like the rule of rolling on front person till a wound is taken, I am unsure of, as said it's only 2 games. But, I didn't come across anything rules wise, that made me want to invade a small country. That's gotta be a good thing, right?

EDIT: THE FRONT MAIN ON MULTIPLE SAVES TYPE IS WORRYING ME, A CHARACTER WITH A 2+ BASIC 3+ INV WITH 4 WOUNDS CUD SWALLOW 10 20 30 HITS ON A UNIT THAT WOULD OTHER WISE WIPE OUT A UNIT, HMMM OVER BOARD MUCH I THINK.

So I can only say as my fifth point I am not done with the the new 40k, as I have had said, it's only been 2 games, I think the game deserves a few more play throughs for me to fully absorb it all
Hopefully I haven't bored you with my ramblings, drop a comment. Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts or have something to add,

EDIT: AGAIN PLEASE COMMENT ON MY EDIT MUSINGS, AM I MISSING SOMETHING????

Of Wargaming and Music.

Dropzone Commander unboxing blog has yet to materialise, but until I get that done, I've been thinking about music one can wargame to - the Beard has a CD player in the same room as his gaming table, and the Outpost often had music playing in the background. The Beards CD player had as yet gone unused, but the Outpost often plays discs I assume are brought in by members of staff, who fortunately have a better taste in music than the drivel usually played on local radio stations.

It doesn't really set much of an atmosphere though, so I've been wondering what sort of music would? Would classical music be suitable for the epic naval battles of Dystopian Wars or the titanic clashes of Warmachine? Would the Halo soundtrack add that little extra something to a game of Dropzone Commander? I don't know, but I'm going to find out!

http://www.realmwargames.com/

Our friend Peter has started his own online wargaming shop at http://www.realmwargames.com/. As of this post he only has the Mantic range in stock, but he's going to expand into Magic: the Gathering, Anima Tactics, Dystopian Wars and more very soon!

As much as we've only been blogging a couple of days ourselves and probably don't have any regular readers yet, we wanted to do our bit to help!

Dropzone Commander Get!

Dropzone Commander from Hawk Wargames has just landed at our local gaming shop The Outpost and has literally flown off the shelves in a matter of days, and I am, fortunately, now out of terrible puns! Dropzone Commander is a 10mm science fiction tabletop wargame featuring ground infantry, mechanised armour and futuristic aircraft, which is enough to make it relevant to my interests!

I picked up a rulebook and the Premium United Colonies of Mankind Starter Army. The UCM are similar in design to the USMC of the Halo series of videogames (no seven-foot soldiers in powered armour though) which is why I chose them - I like the idea that even though some of the technology in use on these vehicles does not and may not ever exist, it wouldn't be a great leap of the imagination to believe that the vehicles of the USMC Halo or the UCM of Dropzone Commander is the shape they would take if it did!

The premium packages are a winning touch as far as the Beard and I are concerned. We're already fans of KR Multicase, but to get a case already filled with custom cut foam trays specifically for the package you buy is pure excellence!

During the next week I'm going to put together a post going through the contents of the UCM premium starter set with lots of pictures provided my camera is up for it. That's all I wanted to say really, I'm just not very good at doing short, to the point blogs.