NaNo: Writing Sample #7

Happy cyber-Monday! Have another sample!

ACTA: My Federation fleet

First up, I've updated my reference cards for ACTA. The Federation fleet is now completely finished! At least, until the Gettysburg and Mars are released. Check them out!

I've also finally finished a bunch of my Federation ships, and posted pictures. So, here you go!

NaNo: Writing Sample #6

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy another sample! The final secret of the Solar Alliance fleet is revealed!

NaNo: Writing Sample #5

Apologies for the delay. No internet and having my time eaten up means I'm definitely not finishing this project, but I will persevere! Also, to make up for it, I'll try my best to go for daily samples from now on. Hopefully THAT will keep me going, heh.

NaNo: Writing Sample #4

Here we go, finally some proper fighting action! Enjoy some dogfighting action as Lieutenant Grafton, a fighter pilot, tries to stay alive against massive odds, and a new ally joins the fight.

NaNo: Writing Sample #3

And another sample! The battle approaches, and Admiral du Saniel readies himself for combat, while having a brief conversation with his executive officer about the implications of the battle. Enjoy!

Also, keep in mind, the samples won't be contiguous from now on. There's a gap between #2 and #3 here, and this pattern will continue. But you'll at least get an idea of where I'm going with the book.

NaNo: Writing sample #2

The adventure continues! Today's sample is immediately after the first one, but later samples will likely have gaps in the narrative between them, so keep that in mind. I was actually going to fast forward a bit, but I figured I'd include this part to establish the character of Grand Admiral du Saniel, as well as provide a brief look at the wider universe (what's left of it, anyway). Enjoy!

NaNo: Writing Sample #1

NaNoWriMo is upon us! What is it, you might be asking? National Novel Writing Month, an annual internet sensation wherein thousands of people attempt to write an entire novel within the month of November. The goal is 50,000 words of original material by the end of the month, and, though many fall short, they find it an awesome motivation to write and at least get started on getting the creative juices flowing.

40K: Lords of Oblivion rules for Deathwatch

There's a series of tabletop RPGs based on 40K and published by Fantasy Flight Games. Simply put, they rock. Tons of extra lore exploring aspects of the 40K universe that aren't necessarily covered very much in the core 40K books, or even the Black Library novels, comprehensive rules that actually reward you for roleplaying properly, and each game is different enough to give a fairly distinct playing experience.

Book Review: Wrath of Iron

So, I just finished Wrath of Iron last night. I think I mentioned once or twice before that the Iron Hands are my favorite GW Chapter of Space Marines. Naturally, I was really looking forward to reading this, and decided to hit it up next after fully catching up on the Horus Heresy books (Fear to Tread is also awesome and I highly recommend it).

40K: Deus ex Mechanicum: (Iron Hands, pt. 2)

Yep, time for some updates on the stalwart sons of Ferrus! Alas, GW Direct Order has been slower than the VA on getting me the remaining bitz packs I need, so that's hampered things a bit, but things still progress. The deadline for the first 500 points is fast approaching, I have until August 31st to complete two combat squads, two Razorbacks, and a Librarian. But I've been working on the army in general, and here's an update on many of the units.

STO: Making a Show

As I think I've mentioned before, I'm working on a show. Specifically, a machinima. What's a machinima, I'm sure you're asking. It's basically a show of some sort using a video game as the primary source of visual material. It can be an on-going show like Red vs. Blue (which used Halo and Halo 2 and basically started the genre), a one-off deal, or just a bunch of random skits put together like the G-Mod Idiot Box (which is essentially a skit comedy show using Garry's Mod for various games by Valve).

In my case, I'm doing an on-going show based on the video game Star Trek Online. I'll say it now: I love Star Trek. I grew up on The Next Generation, seen all the shows and movies, and I've been playing the game for over 2 1/2 years, since closed beta. Out of this love, I've decided to do a proper machinima show based on the game. So, I'd like to talk about that a little bit.

40K: The Flesh is Weak! (Iron Hands, pt. 1)

One of the First Founding Chapters of Space Marines in 40K is the Iron Hands. And I frigging love them. Easily my favorite of the Legions. That much should be obvious with my own Chapter, the Lords of Oblivion, being descended from them. I love the character, and their primarch, Ferrus Manus, is just awesome. They abhor weakness, and Ferrus was always known for pushing himself to the absolute limit of his abilities, something I like to think I can find relatable.

The Iron Hands themselves favor purging their weaknesses through biomechanical augmentation, so a lot of them are more machine than man. The Lords of Oblivion shift this paradigm a little by focusing on mental weakness instead of physical weakness, which is part of why they wind up with so many psykers. Temperament-wise, the Iron Hands are kind of presented in a contradictory fashion in some of the fluff, somehow both cold and mechanical yet prone to berzerker fits of anger at the drop of a hat. Personally, I like to think of them as almost like Vulcan Space Marines, and perhaps what some perceive as rage is just cold fury.

ACTA: Reference Cards

Quick update today. I've finished the next round of reference cards for ACTA: Star Fleet. Mongoose was supposed to put some out in May, but they're still nowhere to be seen, so I made my own in the meantime. While Mongoose's are definitely prettier, I think mine are a little better functionally; there's more pertinent information, plus they're one-sided so you can see everything at once (The Mongoose ones are double-sided). My cards are also fully updated for the errata/FAQs.

You can download the cards here, as a PDF. Just take 'em to your local photocopy shop, print 'em off, laminate them, and play away! I've got most of the Federation fleet (both squad boxes plus the Ramius), and the Klingon fleet box done, I'll add more when I'm able (i.e. rest of the Federation, all of the Romulans, and then the Gorn/Kzinti as they get released. I guess I should do cards for the variants as well).

Let me do a quick run-through of the cards.

ACTA: thlIngan maH! (We are Klingons!)

I'm gonna start including category tags in my subject lines, so you can better find specific topics/settings. Though it'll probably be easy to guess what each post is about as it is.

Anyway, earlier this week a Klingon Fleet Box for ACTA was delivered, along with a few other goodies. I'm going to be running intro games at my local store this weekend, and I needed to spice it up and give people a choice besides Federation ships. Also, this gives me two full fleets, so now when I pester friends to play with me, I can provide them with all the ships they need as well. Mua ha ha.

Red Alert! Shields Up! Fire Phasers!

Earlier this year, Mongoose Publishing released an adaptation of their A Call to Arms rule system for Star Fleet Battles, a long-running (30+ years) tabletop game based on Star Trek (the original series). SFB was originally designed back when The Original Series was all there was for Star Trek, and vastly expanded on the lore. Unfortunately, the movies and later shows completely ignored SFB, and so SFB's lore, and ACTA's by extension, is wildly contradicted by the movies and shows, but the game itself is still tons of fun.

Sixth Edition! New Lists! Excitement! Maybe Some Romance!

Yes, it's finally here! Sixth edition of Warhammer 40K is upon us. I haven't had much time to go over the rules yet, as I'm still waiting for my copy to show up. Thanks GW! >.>

I did, however, get to look over the book a little at my local store and get in a couple turns of playing. So far I'm liking what I see! Although I thought 5th edition was pretty well-designed (certainly a vast improvement over the abomination of 4th!), I've noticed in the last year that the meta-game has practically split the game into two versions: those who played for tournaments with a very strict meta-game, and those who took whatever without any specific consideration to certain lists. Building a strong army for one version didn't necessarily guarantee success in the other version. Additionally, list-building darn near became more important than actual tactics, and the game was heading towards a glorified rock-paper-scissors game.

Catching Up

And we're back! Yeah, amazing what a study abroad semester will do to you. And then a semester that's easily the busiest of my college career. I think I was able to get more sleep in the Army, heh.

Anyway. I haven't been idle in the hobby and creative worlds. During my study abroad semester, I started working on a counts-as Blood Angels army, based on the scheme and history I developed for my gaming group, Military Gamers, for Space Marine and the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millenium Online. Our Chapter is the Black Serpents, and I'm working on a full 3000-point army, which includes a few limited edition models. Here's a WIP shot of all the infantry.

After returning to the States, I began two new modeling ventures. One was an Ork army for the Adepticon team tournament. My three partners and I all elected to go with Ork forces and make the army (American) football-themed, thus we were the WAAAGH!!!ington Greenskins. Here's a pic of the cheerleader objective markers I made for our army.

The other venture was my eagerly getting into a new game, A Call to Arms: Star Fleet, or ACTA. It's being developed by Mongoose Publishing in cooperation with Amarillo Design Bureau, and is essentially a streamlined version of the classic Star Fleet Battles. And it's based on Star Trek, which I love just as much as 40K, if not maybe more. So, I picked up the rulebook, two squads of Federation ships, made a bunch of terrain, and I'm trying to assimilate the rest of my game store! Here's my first few ships mostly done.

Finally, I've resumed work on my machinima based on Star Trek Online (Did I mention I like Star Trek? :P). Star Trek: Durandal follows the story of Star Trek Online, which takes place about 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis. The first episode was posted last Fall, and I just put up the trailer for episode two last week. The full episode should be out later this month!

And finally, like many, I'm eagerly anticipating the impending release of 6th edition for 40K! I've already put together four different lists to test it out with. I'm ESPECIALLY looking forward to the allies system, since I use the books for Space Marines, Grey Knights, and Space Wolves to represent different elements of my Chapter. I'll get into those lists in more detail later.

In fact, I'll do more in-depth posts on all of this in the coming weeks. Hooray for content!