Hail!

I have been very busy lately, so I haven't had the time to write anything here. There has been a lot of things I wanted to write about here... But now they all seem outdated. But, today I have a day off so I decided to write something. And what will that something be? A review of a 13 year old game. Yep.

I remember when I played this as a kid... I was really terrible at it. But this time I got the hang of it. I actually had to rebuy this game on GOG because when I installed it from the CD I own it said something about my video card being bad... In any case, it was 6$ well spent.

The game is a Might and Magic first person party RPG adventure. It's actually the first Might and Magic game that I've really played, I've only tried out MMI and MMII... They were a bit to confusing (to say the least...) for my taste.

The game starts off with party creation, you create four adventurers aspiring to become mighty and magical in the name of blood and honor. I personally ran the basic knight, thief, cleric and sorcerer. There are a good amount of options here, I just choose to run something very basic. You can pick classes like: monk, ranger, archer and druid also. You also pick their race and name them. Sadly, naming them is about as far as the roleplaying goes in this game... In any case; I made a goblin knight, human thief, dwarf cleric and elf sorcerer.  

 

The first thing that happens in the game is that your characters are competing in a contest on a little island called Emerald Island for the fiefdom of Harmondale. Of course, my characters won the competition! ... Just to find out that the castle they won was ruined, bummer. Also a tribe of goblins had moved in. "Aha! I will talk to my goblin brethren!" Hate, the goblin knight said. But as they moved in to their castle they noted that the goblin tribe felt more inclined to trade throwing axes with the party rather than words. The new lords of Harmondale made sure that not a single goblin woman nor child was alive after the encounter, otherwise the butler wouldn't tell them they had finished their task.  Then the butler told the party they had to seek out the dwarves, they were the only ones who could fix their castle. And so they did....

Well, as I mentioned earlier, naming your characters is as far as the roleplaying goes in this game, which is sad. I would have liked more roleplaying aspects in the game. I would have liked if your goblin character could have tried to talk to the goblins infesting your land. But, sadly that is not the case. Instead, all you really do is ask people which dungeon you should enter. Then you go there and exterminate all it's inhabitants.

Later on in the game you will get to choose between the path of light and the path of darkness. So you can choose the path of rainbows, kittens and friendship or the path of misery, pain and assholishness. I hate when games do this. It's nearly as stupid as Fable. It is sort of explained in the end why you had to pick a side like that, but meh. It just feels dumb and forced.

The story works out pretty well. I like the added sci-fi which apparently is a big part of the Might and Magic games. However, the story isn't that intresting, it just works out well. It could have been way better if they would have added roleplaying options like asking questions and such. Becuase, all you do is blindly following the orders of some guy you don''t truly know who it is until the end. In any case, I really love the ending. It feels truly mighty and magical.

 Hate the Champion with an artifact platemail and a blaster rifle...

The core game mechanics are simple, yet complex enough to be intresting. Whenever you level up your character, he will gain a number of skill points, five skills points the first few levels. Then you have a couple of skills you can add them to, like sword, water magc or stealing. Every skill starts out at one, and to advance it to the second level you need to spend two skill points, three skill points for the third level and so on. Once a skill has reached level four, you can start searching for an expert trainer, to make you an expert in the said skill. At level seven you look for a master trainer, and level 10, a grandmaster trainer. This system works out really well, and once your characters become grandmasters in skills you feel a great sense of accomplishment. Sadly, there is something really annoying as well.. You have to promote your classes. The knight turns into a cavalier, the sorcerer becomes a wizard and so on. To promote your characters you need to do some promotion quests. And this is where I got stuck when I played the game as a kid, the wizard promotion quest. You're supposed to build a golem. Sounds easy enough. But what you have to do is search exactly every area in the game for golem parts. This time I had internet as aid (don't know why I didn't do that last time...) so I actually was able to finish this quest. Without that promotion you pretty much can't beat the game, so that really sucks. Class promotions are needed to become master and grandmaster in skills. I don't like this system of class promotions, but they are needed for game balance, but still, meh.

The soundtrck is actually really good, the only downside is that the soundtrack resets whenever you enter a house, so when you're looking for a trainer among the houses, you'll hear the intro of the song quite a lot...Also, the voices are terrible. Seriously, you'll start hearing "It's just a scrath, but I need it fixed!" in your head with that annoying female elven voice. It will haunt your nightmares. It will haunt your everyday life. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE FROM THE TERRIBLE VOICE ACTING!
.....
......
Ehm... To sum things up...
I liked the game a whole lot in general, not one of my favorite games, but it was fun. I love how mighty and magical you become in the end. One of the last things I did was entering the Titan Stronghold and pretty much fought all of the titans and dragons in there at the same time without dying. That's mighty and magical for you!




The story is forgettable. But the gameplay and audio (NOT THE VOICES) is actually really good, and it makes the game very playable and enjoying. Allthough, you'll have to keep in mind that the graphics are pretty terrible by today's standards, it doesn't bother me, but it might bother you.

I think I might do a review of Arcanum in the near future. Stay tuned.

Ave Victoria!
/Hate

The CF Times: P3 pinning set review, Bat Swarms, Infinity peak!

Hello guys!

So, I've been awfully inactive at hobbying lately, but that took a turn just recently! Yesterday I had two wonderful games of Infinity with a guy I've never even met before! And at his home, too boot (internet sure brings people closer).

And when I got home today, I noticed a thing I've been watinging for for over a month lying in the mailbox: A pinning set.

This above is the P3 pinning set. While I'm not a good reviewer, and I've only used it for like two hours, I'll tell you my impressions.
First up: Appearance.
I like the way it looks. Never liked pinning drills with balls on, so this is a nice option. Monocoloured silver. I like.

Feel:
Great! Lies down real smooth in my hand!

Ability:
Drills like a boss. Easy to spin too.

Extra pluses:
Good size for the brass rods included. Extra drill included, should the one you use go slow.
Also, it's cheap. Real cheap.

Con:
There's one bad thing... After using it for about 1.5 hour, the back of it (the part you rest in your hand) stopped spinning smoothly. Don't know why, but it started 'grinding' against the drill itself. I don't know if this happens to all the P3 drills or if mine just was a bad one... But I figure I'll just oil it or something!

But for the cost (as I'm living on a budget), worth it. I wouldn't say REALLY worth it, or exceptionally worth it. I just consider it to be a good buy, and I don't regret it. But if you have the cash I might suggest to try your luck on a slightly more expensive drill, if this 'grinding' issue is common. However, if the problem I encountered isn't common, then I strongly recommend the P3 pinning kit!

Now, can you guess what I've been doing ever since I got the drill..?



Working on my Bat Swarms obviously!
As you all may know, GW doesn't produce good bat swarms. They look... hideous. So I decided to search around for the best option, and found...
http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/1518mmswarms.html
Splintered Light Miniatures!

Now, they're an unknown company. Or perhaps it's just a single person, I'm not even sure it's a company. Either way, it's unknown and small. There were no reviews or words about their credibility or quality of minis. But I bought three bat swarm bags. So worth it!
For $8, you get 24 bats, size shown in my pic. I used one bag for two bases. I bought three bags, enough to fill six bases, or only four and then I'll have 24 to throw around my army (place around characters etc).
What I did was simple really. I drilled a hole in every bat's belly, super glue'd the brass rod, drilled a hole in the base, super glue'd other side of brass rod. Rinse and repeat. A little tedious, but well worth it. Didn't cost me much money, only time, and a great way to get a feel of the drill since the bats are very expendable. Highly recommended for you Vampire Counts players out there that don't like the looks of GWs bats!


And finally, remember I mentioned I played two games of Infinity? Well, I took notes during both battles, whilst my opponent (I'll call him Mr. M for now) snapped of random photos with his system camera. Don't be surprised if there's a batrep or two coming this way...
A little preview of how the terrain was set up for the first game:

Collected thoughts from the CF.

Hello everyone!
Sorry for not updating in such a long time, I just haven't been in the mood. But for this post, I'll discuss a but of everything I've been doing and thinking about since last time!
These will be, in order:

-What has happened with my Vampire Counts since last, as well as some talk about alternative miniatures.
-Beastmen. You will see.
-Infinity, both Nomads and... Shasvastii?

So, that's my Vampire Count. Sir Novkaer I've named him, basically an arrogant ex-bretonnian (now Vampire) roaming the lands.
The conversion in itself is rather simple. The Horse is the Gamezone Mournful Knight Hero, the body is Reaper's Judas Bloodspire, and the sword is the sword from GWs Zombie Dragon / Terrorgheist kit. It turned out pretty if I may say so myself! My usage of Greenstuff is subtle enough, but I need to put a little more work into his face someday -cough cough-.
I also have 5 more Mournful Knights ready to be painted... Just not in the mood.
Oh, and a word of advice for anyone thinking of buying the Mournful Knights - Be careful, they're tricky. And wide. Ranking them up is very difficult, believe me.

And I've gotten my hand on the best bat swarms around! They're 15mm, but as they're small animals, that doesn't matter. And everybat is the same, but at that size that's not a problem. I bought three small plastic bags of them, which totalled 72 (!) individual bats... Sad thing is I can't remember the manufacturer! It wasn't a big company. In fact, it might not even be a company at all (that's the feel I got). If you search around the web, I'm sure you'll find them.
The main problem is that I have yet to figure out a good way to place them on a base...

Now, what's this? Could it be... Yes, it can very much be!
As of late, our dear Erik, The Tomb King started up his second fantasy army - Empire, and this got me thinking: "ME WANTS MOAR PLASTIC CRACK TOO RAWRGH!"
So I looked around a little, and something crossed my eyes that I missed before it was the Gors.
There is something special about the Gors. Something very... primal, raw and manly. I find that very attractive and a bit beautiful in a very, very bestial way.
Then I looked up beastmen tactics. They're Leadership-dependant, something that would be a nice change from the Undead. They tend to use many diverters and chaff units, which I love. They've also got ace models (Go check the Beastlord model. Do it now. It's probably one of GWs best, despite age!), and they have some sweet monster stuff (and who doesn't love that?). The last icing upon the icing on the cake was that Lore of Beasts is a viably, well-used lore withing Beastmen. And I love the Lore of Beasts.

But I'm not just gonna jump in and start a Beastmen army. No, this will be slow. I've got my Fantasy army that I can play with, so I might as well take time to do this. A lot of time. I want to make a themed army.
Now, Beastmen are the Children of Chaos. Mutation and whatnot all day erry'day. But yet... They all seem very goat-y. Meh.
So, what animals do I like?
...
Insects.
Yeah, really. I love insects. And there came my idea. Gors will have legs of spiders. Centigors will be spiders or centipedes. Minotaurs can be truly gigantic Stag Beetles! The Ghorgon will be kitbashed with the Arachnarok and harpies will be flies! I can really see the awesome yet creepy army before me... But it will take a lot of time, and a lot of money.
But soon enough, I will surely get around to do it.

So, for those of you who doesn't know, that's the symbol of the Combined army in Infinity. But I will get to that later.
First up, I want to tell you that I've finally tempted an opponent in the FLGS into playing Infinity. And now that I've planted the seed of corruption, soon shall the whole shop fall AND ALL WILL PLAY INFINITY FOREVER!!!
However, so far I've only gotten one game with him. We can call him Mr. W. And the game was pretty much introductory to us both, because even though I know the rules well, you can't know them well enough until you've played with them.
It was my Nomads against his Haqqislam. Basically, we both spend our first turn moving towards each other. I drop one of his guys with my Grenade Launcher, and he then drops two of my guys... And that's a lot when you're only running 7 guys.
Then in comes my airborne doctor, promptly kills one of my guys (stupid doctor failing his checks) and starts to advance towards the enemy. I set up an defensive perimeter around a very critical door opening. I get some good shit going, and start to wrestle myself back into the game.
The rest of the game is spend by Mr. W. spending half of his orders to penetrate my defensive perimeter and the mine my Zero placed to well. The other half of his orders is spend on his doctor to climb up a wall where an injured Sniper lies bleeding. The doctor fell down every time, and when my well-armed Lieutenant reach the frontline, it's game over. She guns Mr. Ws Lieutenant down, and I chase him off the board.
Overall a good game. Got a better grip of the game, and learned the importance of tactics in this game. Defensive positions might not give a bonus when it comes to stats, but the tactical advantage is huge.

But that's not all. I wanted to start a second Infinity-army too. And Shasvastii was my choice. I just love Camouflaged and Hidden Deployment. And the Noctifier Missile Launcher... Oh god how I love it, it's beyond words. The mini is as ace as the ace of spades, and a TO Missile Launcher... It's like it's christmas!
So, I bought the Shasvastii starter and three more Shasvastii dudes just now, as well as some reinforcements for my Bakunin. Also waiting for both the rulebooks in the mail!

*phew* Wow, that was a lot more than I thought it would be! Perhaps I shouldn't procrastinate as much, haha!
That said, here's hoping that I get this blog rolling again!
Alea iacta est!

The Cornerfag

Bonus Update: Savage Tide

Hello everybody! Handing out the campaign introduction guide for Savage Tide which I have created more or less myself.

The oncoming campaign set in the world of Greyhawk begins in the exotic port city of Sasserine, it is here that the foundations of your character will be laid. The city of Sasserine is perched on the edge of the known world, the last stop before the endless expanse of the Amedio Jungle. It is a hub of trade, and a home to more than fifteen thousand souls, a bastion of civilization in a realm haunted by piracy, disease, horrible weather, and terrible monsters.

The Savage Tide is originally placed in the Greyhawk world, but I've made a few minor or major changes depending on how you view it. Firstly the pantheon is of the Greyhawk world, but I've introduced real world religions like Christianity stemming from the first world, although as of yet Christianity has little influence in the currently free colony of Sasserine.

I have also added a new race that has replaced the Olman tribes that are present throughout the campaign. They have instead been replaced by a race of brown-colored elves known as the Mwangi. Real world factions like the British, Dutch, French and Spanish exists and all struggle for control of this newly rediscovered colony, additionally they have all been introduced as affiliations. For those of you unfamiliar with affiliations: Affiliations is briefly explained a concept of guilds introduced in the campaign where one can rise in ranks as the adventure progress.

Sasserine (Large City): Conventional; AL NG;Population 15,650; 40,000 gp limit; Assets 31,300,000gp; Mixed (57% human, 21% Mwangi, 6% halfling, 4%gnome, 4% dwarf, 9% half-elf, 1% half-orc, 1% other)

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The seven districts of Sasserine: Azure District, Champion's District, Cudgel District, Merchant District, Noble District, Shadowshore, and Sunrise

History:Sasserine was founded 700 years ago, by a group of pilgrims led by a priest of Wee Jas named Sasserine; she was inspired to found the town after receiving a vision. Unfortunately she died protecting the town against a black dragon by the name of Zelkarune. However, after her death, the town gradually grew and expanded until it encompassed not merely the area inside the city walls, but a number of farming plantations lying on the outskirts. The growth of the city made it a target for pirates.

After a time, a family named Teraknian, descended from Sasserine's lover, began to rule predominantly over the city as mayors, taking advice from the clergy Wee Jas and Kord. The last line of Teraknian and the last lord mayor, Orren Teraknian, began a reign of terror, and launched a persecution of the church of Wee Jas in the city. Orren was deposed soon after the city was conquered by The British. The British kept the existence of Sasserine a secret from the rest of the world to prevent the city from being taken from them.

The subjugation would last for a century, until The British were forced to let go of Sasserine due to internal turmoil in their own lands. That has only first now been resolved.However, in the past century the now free city has gradually opened up to the outside world, which resulted in The Spanish, The French, The Dutch to establish influence in the city, but even The British try to once more claim the jewel in the wild. With them the colonial powers has brought with them an influx of immigrants not only of themselves but also the elf slaves known as the Mwangi. The question is a matter of time, how much longer Sasserine will be able to uphold their newly gained independence? It is the era of the colonial powers; an independent colony cannot last for long. Sasserine will have to chose its alliances in order to survive.

Venice trait: Sasserine is a city very much like the 17-th century Venice. Since every district is separated by a flood of water, the use of gondolas, bridges and smaller boats are necessary for travel inside Sasserine.

Rule: Sasserine itself is governed by a group of seven noble families called the Dawn Council, each representing one of the city’s seven districts.

Law: Law and order is for the most parts relaxed inside the city and only the worst and most visible crimes are taken care of. For example prostitution, sale of exotic and potentially dangerous animals and even the sale of alchemical drugs are more or less allowed. Thus Sasserine has a heavy problem with drugs. Although the law and other problems varies from district to district. ( See The Player's Guide Savage Tide )

Geography: Sasserine lies in the equivalent of an area very similar to the Caribbean seas, set on the main continent of the area, very close to the Hellfurnance mountain chain. Sasserines closest neighbor is Jeklea Bay, another colony but much smaller than Sasserine. Jeklea bay is in the control of the English. Sasserine itself is a connection by a couple of small islands in close vicinity to each other, which makes water travel an essential part of the city's trade. Much like real life Venice.

Climate: The Climate is tropical, with high (but tolerable) temperature and humidity.

Close by: Amedio Jungle the rain forest which Sasserine is perched around, it is mainly populated by the Mwangi Elf-race, but even a race of intelligent apes, known as The Dakon. The jungle is rumored to have once been the center of an ancient Mwangi Empire. Since deep within the jungle is ancient architecture hidden beneath its leaves. Only the most powerful of beings know what happened to this once powerful empire. Additionally to this, not far away lies the mountain chain Hellfurnance which is populated by all kinds of dangerous beings such as ogres, giants and even demons. There are rumors that somewhere, perhaps far into the jungle or deep into the mountains that a gateway to the Underdark shall exist. Now onto the campaign rules

Campaign traits

17th Century: The campaign is set technology wise during the 17th century. A new era has dawned where technology that once was available to only the richest has reached even the poorest. Alchemy and shooting weapons has become an integrated part of society.

Commonplace Guns: While still expensive and tricky to wield, early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are simple weapons. Even commoners wield guns, but they are forbidden to be wielded inside Sasserine. Regardless of that guns are still wielded openly in most districts, especially inside the notorious district Shadow District. Most guards are equipped with at least a pistol.

Commonplace alchemy: The arts of alchemy have reached an highly advanced level, and made it available for almost everyone. Low level potions (third level and below) and drugs cost only 10% of their original price. The advancement of alchemy has reached such a level that it has become a problem for society, with addicts lingering the lesser districts. Yet the society is dependent of alchemists and their wonderful brews, despite some of their addictive effects. (Healing potions, and alike have an addictive effect if indulged too often.)

Power of affiliations: The true powers lies in the different affiliations. Almost everyone of status is a member in one of the affiliations. The ones of importance are The Seekers, Witchwardens, Zelkarune’s Horns, Dawn Council (Sasserine itself), The British, The Dutch, The Spanish, and The French.

Bonus feat: Each player has right to a district-feat/trait in case they have been raised in Sasserine. If so chose a district and a trait from the Player´s Guide- Savage Tide.

Divine Resurrection: Resurrection is a dangerous and hard vice; although not unheard of it is not a simple task. It it requires a sacrifice of a certain level.

Soon we will bring you more information about Lakronya, including the world map and a few more gods! Oh, and I almost forgot; next update I will update you about future posting. Stay tuned!

Last Session 16/3

The Spanish Inquisiton

This week Sköll became the Gamemaster, school is certainly beginning to take its toll on our traditional gaming. So due to exams being had in the middle of we had to move the previous session to the Friday. (Which obviously resulted in a shorter session then usual. )

In respect of the player that could not join us that evening we decided to roll with something new, something new in an old form. Which resulted in the system World of Darkness (Sköll's personal favorite, or so I believe) being played.

However...this was not your everyday World of Darkness campaign, this was not set in Europe, neither was it set in the 21th century.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

No, it was not set in Spain. But it was set in South America, during the 17th century and the Spanish Inquisition was involved...plentifully. Let's go through the characters before I tell the story.

Dhaik: Friedrich Himmler a German mercenary who had escaped the thirty year war with his family, running away to the South American province where his friend the catholic priest Paul Thompson would be waiting for him. STR based character with the giant Merit. (Making him fucking huge.)

The Cornerfag: El Bandido, rolled something which reminded me heavily of a mexican bandit in the wrong time period. (He even had a sombrero) TC even spoke real Spanish for most of the game when IC. Talk about hardcore.

Haté: The romantic era pirate, basically imagine the pirates of the Romantic Era. Yes, pretty much like that. A charming pirate, a ladies man combined with a pirate. That was pretty much my opinion of him.

Our characters all arrived in port, when we suddenly got kidnapped by...yeah, you can guess who. Together with three other NPCS we were placed in an iron cage being transported by two horses, with two guards escorting.

The three NPCS were Paul Thompson, a chick whose name I can't remeber for the love of god. She was pretty much only there to be annoying. Apparently she was the governors daughter too, that had been kidnapped for...well, she didn't know. The third was a shady guy, an obvious thief that had tried to steal from probably the wrong Inquisitors pockets.

The shady guy had hidden a knife which he quickly used to kill the driver from the cage. This resulting in the horses running wild to eventually crash and break free. We manage to get a hold of the key and escaped, the priest and the girl was both injured, especially the priest.

We began discussing our next move. We were out in the middle of nowhere, hours from the road. The shady guy who knew the county compared to the rest of us explained that it was two days to the closest city. We decided to travel together, for the jungles are dangerous in the night.

Eventually the young girl woke up, she regained her conscious easily. Paul however, didn't wake up. We had attended to his wounds earlier, but his situation kept getting worse. We had to hurry, and Freidrich realized this. He had carried Freidrich so far, and would not stop doing it yet. It was tiresome, but he refused to give up. He used all of his willpower to continue marching, they had to reach a proper doctor for him to have a chance to survive. Fate looked grim indeed.

It was here...that I had to leave.

Yes, nobody expects it.