Summer Update!

Marines from Khurasan, APC from Konami and (unpainted) mat from Zuzzy.

Hello everyone!

Yes, it's been a bit quiet here recently. I think it's a case of summer catching up with both me and my gaming buddies. The last couple of weeks have been very quiet gaming wise and I've been busy with a friend from Japan staying with us. It's not all quiet though and I thought I'd make a bit of an update post about what I've been doing (or planning to) and some general ramblings. Business as usual as you know by now.

First off, today I got my Despoiled Reaches rubber gaming mat from Zuzzy and I have only one word for it: spectawesome! The detailing is excellent and I really think this will make a great looking Mars table. Also Jim was kind enough to send along a smaller 28cm x 35cm mat as well that I'll likely use for small skirmishes, photography and perhaps for Diaspora gaming. The sulphur mounds look good as well and will give me some heavy cover on the table top. More on this when I start painting it later on.

In other miniature news I've slowly been painting my UNSC and you will see more of that later. My recent games of Earth Reborn has really made me want to paint that bunch of minis properly. I also got the Exterminators from Khurasan and they look good indeed! Especially combined with the Konami APC. Speaking of Khurasan, Jon has asked me to paint a couple of upcoming releases for him so those will show up here or on Dropship Horizon in the near future.

With no one to play board and miniature games with I've gone over to the digital realm. First off I played Dragon Age: Awakening which I thought was an excellent expansion. It's almost an entire game in it's own right. I've been reading the Dragon Age rpg and the first Dragon Age book (The Stolen Throne) as well recently so I thought I might as well keep the ball rolling and bought the sequal for the Xbox when I found it for a good price. So far I miss the greater tactical combat of the first game. I love Mass Effect for its action (well, besides the story I mean) but I loved Dragon Age: Origins for its deep tactical, almost turn-based combat. I hope they go back to it in the third game. I've also played Beyond Good & Evil HD. Great game with great world building. Definitely worth the small amount of money needed to download it. Got the last chapter left right now. Finally, yesterday Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet was released on Xbox Live and I really enjoyed the trial game so will have to get the full version. Love the graphic design! And the music! And the name!

As I mentioned above I've been reading the Dragon Age rpg from Green Ronin and I would like to give it a whirl when we can get the group together. I like the world and the written adventures seem good, but what's really attracts me to it is the simple fairly old school rules system. It's fairly simple but with some interesting twists (Stunts!) but having run WFRP3 for some time now I look forward to playing something more... minimalistic. I like the cards and the bits of WFRP3 but sometimes a few character sheets (that are eerily reminiscent of the first edition of WFRP's sheets!) and three dice is all you want to bring. Other rpgs I'm considering are Diaspora (as always) and 3:16 - Carnage Among the Stars.

Then I have some random thoughts and doodads that I don't think will go together very well so here's a list of bullet points:

• Listening to A Dance with Dragons at the moment. I'm almost half way through and I've finally started to get used to Roy Dotrice's narration. He has a great voice but only three modes: 1. insane pirate, 2. gruff senior citizen, and 3. toothless old crone. It's hard imagine the nubile Daenerys Targaryan when she sounds like Terry Jones in drag. Been a year since I last read anything GRRM-related so all the names made my head hurt and I found myself a little lost. So today I tried to find some kind of portable companion guide and lo and behold: A Game of Thrones Companion for Android! Yes, I could have just used The Tower of the Hand, but having it as an app is very conveniant. It really enhances your reading experience to be able to quickly look up people and places. Highly recommended!
• Started watching Breaking Bad  and I love it (yes I know, I'm late. But in good company at least)! About half way through season three.
• Getting more and more excited about the Gears of War board game which is just around the corner. Reading through the rules the other day clinched the deal and I've pre-ordered it from Maelstrom (who have started selling more FFG board games recently!). The rules seem to be fairly straight forward and easy to comprehend but with a quite a lot of depth in them anyway. I also like how FFG has managed to keep token and card count down. Feels elegant.
• I keep wondering if they're going to stop faffing about in Falling Skies and it will become actually good. 
• The number of different 15mm projects keep growing in my head. Will have to get them organized somehow.
• O-Yoroi Kidobutai!
• Speaking of organizing, I will put together a master plan akin to Gyro's HUD: Project's 2011.
• Also considering a regular (bi-weekly perhaps?) series of posts where I just mention stuff I've done, seen, read or played. Kind of a catch-all thing.
• Too many cool looking video games on the horizon! Just to mention a few: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (pre-order!) this month, then Battlefield 3, Rage and Skyrim later this year and Mass Effect 3 (Spoilers!) and Prey 2 early next year. And then I still haven't played stuff like Dead Space 2 or L.A. Noire!
• Glad to finally see it become official: FFG has the Star Wars licence (although, not for board games?). Like the looks of the Wings of War-esque X-Wing and intrigued about the Star Wars LCG, although worried it might be too similar to the (admittedly great) LotR LCG.
• Happy Curb is back on the air!

There is a lot more to write about but it will have to wait. Now it's time to grab a quick bite to eat and maybe watch the continued adventures of Walter White.

Oh, one last thing; flowing water on Mars! How cool is that?!