Weekly Update 22/9-11

Hail!

This week I'm going to try out something different, since there isn't really anything to report from our RPGs.. Nor have we played any wargames. So I'm going to discuss Innistrad! YEAH! INNISTRAD!

In case you don't know what Innistrad is, it is the next Magic: the Gathering expansion. So what's so special about Innistrad? Well.. Let me tell you.

INNISTRAD IS AWESOME! YEAH AWESOME!

Why is it awesome? Well, the setting is based on classical horror. So vampires and werewolves are common creatures, among others. This setting, I love. Classical horror films are my favorite kind of movie. So this is the most intresting set to come out in a long time (mayber ever!). The machanics of this set are; Double-Faced transform cards, curses and Tribes.

Transform-Cards: At first when I heard about this, I didn't believe it. The cards got a "card" on both sides. So there's no typical MtG-backside to them. I never thought they would do this, but it opens up new designing possibilities, which is great. The "problem" as I see it is theese cards in draft. Since there's no backside everyone will be able to see what awesome transform-rare you've opened. But hey, I guess that's fine since it applies to everyone. The fact that you need opaque sleeves doesn't bother me that much, since that's the kind I use myself. There really shouldn't be a problem for anyone. So this is and intresting somewhat flawed mechanic that opens up a whole new way of designing cards, which is good. I looking forward to see what this mechanic transforms into. (ha-ha.)

Curses: There really ain't that much to explain here. Curses are auras that enchant an oppnonent, making his (or.. her....) life miserable. I like the mechanic, but the cards aren't that good sadly. They seem pretty sweet in limited, but a bit to pricey for constructed I think.

Tribes: I. HATE. TRIBES. But Innistrad seem to have got it somewhat right. When there's tribes, you usually have to draft tribes in limited, but here it looks like you can draft something else. Tribe-decks sadly just build themselves which is why I don't like them. I can see people not agreeing with me on this, but people can never agree on anything in general, so whatever.

So that's my summary of Innistrad. I know I haven't talked about any specific cards, but this is just a weekly update-filler. My hopes for this set are high, and I really hope that Innistrad lives up to them. Next Weekly Update will probably be like the other ones I've made.



Ave Victoria!
/Hate

(Somewhat-)Weekly Update 11/9-11

Hail!

There hasn't been nearly as many of theese as I wanted recently. Reasons being that the summer holidays is over (BOOO! HISS!) and that there really hasn't been that much gaming done.

The only things we've played recently is Pathfinder, and some of my AD&D2e campaign. I also played a Magic duel against another of our dearest members. He didn't stand a chance, of course.

There is a lot to summarize in the Pathfinder campaign.. But I shall see if I can do it justice. (I think not..). First and foremost; we finsihed the campaign. The last adventure took place in a tomb, of the horrifying kind. Yes the last adventure was based on Tomb of Horrors, but apparently we skipped large parts of the module. My thoughts on what I played of the module however, is that it is a module made for tournament characters (pre-rolled). It really wasn't that fun playing it with the character you've been playing for the last 6 months and gotten attached to. To avoid spoiling anything I won't tell you why (Mwhahahahha..). So, good module, but run it with tournament characters (unless you're really masochistic...).
So when all the horryfying tombs were conquered, my character wanted to stop his adventuring career (and royal career.) to see the world with the love of his life. They got three kids and lived happily ever after, a pretty good way to end a campaign. Yes, all the other characters did stuff, mainly improving the kingdom which I left, the merfolk helped his people.. before heading out to find my character.. Life was apparently boring when I left. All and all: Great campaign, good game.

Well now I have to do something awesome to describe my campaign...

And there you go.
The picture visualizes the way the party solves things in a great way...
They are currently exploring an ancient dwarven clan hall. There's also been a lot of character development.. But I don't think this is where I'm going to write in great detail what happens during the sessions.. That, someone else will have to do.
Which brings me to my next point..

Our Roleplaying group will now that we have finished our Pathfinder campaign, start a new one!
This time we will play Savage Tides with the Pathfinder-rules. The same DM(GM?) as the last campaign and still the same players. People have been talking about how they shall write down what happens every session in that campaign. So stay tuned!



Ave Victoria!
/Hate

The Cornerfag's Converted Black Knights

Ah, finally I have the time to publish an article about my converted Black Knights!
I've been intrigued by their ethereal movement since I got the VC Armybook, but the models... Gah, I did not stand them. So I decided to convert some myself.
Unlike some other conversions I've seen however, I decided NOT TO USE FLESHY HORSES.
Seriously, their entry in the book specifically says Skeletal Steed. So I'd be damned if I wasn't going to get my skeletal steeds, and they were going to be barded damnit!
And thus, with some Grave Guard bits I've got, some Bretonnian Knights and a few Tomb Kings Horsemen, I set to the work with knife, greenstuff and a toothpick.

Now, this was my first extensive conversion. And I did not know very much how to do, so... Improvisation was my friend.



Now, this first picture illustrates the early stages very well, regarding the body.
I've included parts of everything before and after for simplicity.
One thing I noticed rather early is that the Bretonnian horse is well scaled with the Skeletal horse. Actually, it's so well scaled that the Bretonnian barding fits almost perfectly!
So that's what I did. I removed the fleshy parts of the living horse (which sounds pretty gruesome), and cut at the sides and flanks of the skeletal horse, then just... Donned the barding on the skeletal horse.
Note that you will need to cut some parts of the skeletal horse to get it to fit well, but nothing noticeable.

Then it would look something like this:


As for the head, well.. The Bretonnian horses' heads were varying a little bit, and so would my horses heads do too.
So I just used my imagination, a bit of greenstuff and the knife for the heads.
Some would look like the one in the previous picture, which required much cutting and fitting... Patience was needed.
And others would look like this one:



And that's also how you put together the head and body. Pretty much just glue it. Greenstuff if needed. Simple enough.
And then we move to the rider.
I used the Bretonnian knights legs - but I cut them off at different part, exchanging that part with the skeletal equivalent. Sometimes, I cut off from the knee and down, sometimes only the foot, and at some times not at all.

Then, for the body, I alternated between just using the Bretonnian body (cut on the sides, my skeletons aren't supposed to be that fat), or the Bretonnian body cut of in the bottom, placing the lower ribcage and spine of the skeletal horseman there, or in a few cases I juse used the skeletal horseman's body.
On the shoulders I placed a few spare Grave Guard shoulderpads I've aquired from not putting every shoulderpad onto the Grave Guards (Leaving a few with a single, or no shoulderpad at all, gives more of an ancient, slightly shambling feeling, with a little bit more variation within the unit, methinks).

Right arm: The Skeletal Horseman's spearhand, but the area of the spear above the hand is cut off and exchanged with the equivalent lance part from the Bretonnian (with the flag cut off).

Left arm: Simply the shield arm from the Grave Guard Kit.

Head: I made a makeshift neck out of greenstuff (but since I cannot model, I pretty much made it a big lump which smeared slightly out over the shoulder, looking like som kind of cloth). Then I just used some leftover Grave Guard Heads.

All in all, it would look something like this:


And here's my unit of 5 (aspiring to be 10 someday), painted and all:


And that's all for me today!