Gamer ADD

I really hate my gamer ADD. I'm sure I can't be the only one who gets frustrated by this. If you've ever been in the middle of a project and you get a great idea for three other projects AT THE SAME TIME. I really need to focus on the Balarant unit and the Type 61 tank company... It's been too long since I posted anything.

Deloyer Government requests military support from the Commonwealth to deal with growing Junker Insurgency

August 20, 3258

Union City - In the wake of the fifth Junker attack on a mining facility in under a month, the Deloyer Government officially requested military support from the Terran Commonwealth. This comes after Weyland Industries has expressed a lack of confidence that local planetary forces can adequately handle repeated attacks on there mining facitilies.

Weyland Industries has contracted with Private Military Contractor firm, Artemis Arms, to handle the security of it's mining operations. A Weyland spokesman Casvol Armand  made it clear in a press release earlier this month.  "If the Deloyer government doesn't get a handle on the Junker situation, then Weyland will be forced to take a more direct roll in the Junker Insurrections.

"We at Weyland harbor no ill will towards the Junkers and completely understand that they feel as though they have some sort of a bone to pick. That said, taking up arms and destroying privately owned property is not the way to do so. Weyland is more than willing to meet any Junker groups with grievances."

Armand also mentioned that he believes that Weyland's chief competitor in the region, Shinahara Heavy Industries, is at the root of the problem. He claims that Shinahara has been supplying the insurgents with weapons and equipment. Unfortunately, he also says that Weyland has no proof of this, but they are in the process of getting that proof.

Meanwhile, the men of the 22nd Fleet Initial Strike Team is preparing to deploy to the troubled world. The Commander of the 22nd, Brigadier Thurgood Foster, says that his men are ready and more than able to handle the situation. Brigadier Foster feels confident that his Marines can keep the situation from escalating, but only time will tell.

Pacific Rim Review Part Two

Edit: I wrote this some time ago. It's not quite finished but I hope that you enjoy it anyway. (published 9/27/2020

The Hype:

Growing up in the United States, any news of a live action giant robot movie that didn't involve the Transformers is alway greeted with nothing less than utter glee. I developed a taste for giant robots at at a young age, so it was safe to say that I was excited to hear the news about Pacific Rim on Gundamn!  I don't think that I had been that excited since the announcement of the Heavy Gear CGI animated show. Ok, ok so that didn't pan out exactly as I had hoped, but in the original announcement Heavy Gear was supposed to be done by Foundation Imaging. (the same company that did Roughneck Chronicles)

At any rate, more than likely there were alot of North American mecha-heads that checked the date to see if it was April fools. Guillermo del Torro... ok I can see that. Idris Elba... mm, not so sure. They're going to call the monsters Kaiju... ok you need to stop playing with my emotions before I hurt you.

So many trailers these days ruin movies. They try so hard to sell the movie that they end up showing too many of the good scenes. The result is that you end up seeing something that would have been better left as a nice surprise. I decided that I didn't want to take that chance with Pacific Rim. So I challenged myself to not see a single trailer until after I saw the movie. I have to say that there was a definitely a payoff.

My first thoughts about giant robots fighting giant monsters was that it was either going to be absolutely phenomenal or completely dreadful. Either way, I had every intention of seeing it in the theater. This is kind of a big deal for me as there are very few movies that I feel compelled to see in the theater. On a good year, I might see 3 movies in the theater. It was safe to say that come hell or high water... I was going to see Pacific Rim in the theater. 

The Story:

While the overall theme of Pacific Rim was fairly simple, there was a very rich and layered story that comprised of four parts. There was the Main Story Arc, Raleigh's Arc, Mako's Arc, and Dr. 

The Main Arc
When a portal to another dimension opens up somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, Giant Monsters called Kaiju come through and reek havoc on humanity. Conventional forces are deemed inadequate to fight the Kaiju so giant robots called Jaegers are built to fight the Kaiju. Jaegers were able to stand up to the Kaiju until higher and higher levels of Kaiju start to appear and are able to defeat the Jaegers. It quickly gets to the point where Jaegers can't be built quickly enough. The Jaeger Program is shut down in lieu of a Wall Defense Program. The Wall Defense fails spectacularly in Australia, but as luck would have it the country's remaining Jaeger, Coyote Tango, was around and able to defeat the Kaiju. Unfortunately for humanity,  by then only 4 Jaegers remain to defend the Earth. Stacker Pentecost, the Commander of the Jaeger Program, comes up with a plan to shut down the portal.



Mako's Arc

Mako was a woman who was orphaned as a small child and raised by Stacker Pentecost. She looks to Pentecost as a Father and treats him as such. Her dream is to one day pilot a Jaeger and take a more active role in the Kaiju War.


Dr. Newton Geiszler Arc

A self-professed Kaiju groupie, Dr. Newton "Newt" Geiszler grew up during the Kaiju Wars. He dedicated his life to studying them
At the same time a daring scientist ("Newt") attempts a mind meld with a Kaiju brain.

Pacific Rim Review Part One

At the risk of having a review that's entirely too long, I decided to break up the review into to parts. the first part will be my review of the movie and the second part will be a synopsis for those who thought it was interesting, but wanted to know more about the movie. Enjoy.

My Review:

Well it was a brilliantly done film. It reminded me of Resident Evil: Retribution in some ways. IT seemed like there was a serious focus on making a quality product, but at the same time the material wasn't taken too seriously. There were a few moments where the filmmaker clearly had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. There were a number of cheesy scenes in the movie, but it never seemed like they overwhelmed the overall feel of the movie. You really had to go along for the ride and just enjoy them.


I thoroughly enjoyed the story, but it wasn't without its flaws. There were two major problems with the story. The first is the fact that the story was VERY Japanese. While I loved this about the story, it was a little much for a North American audience. (sorry Canada, I meant the US) Most Americans don't have a taste for Anime let alone Japanese cinema in general. We (Americans ) all grew up watching Godzilla movies, but how many of us truly remember the stories. It was all about seeing a guy in a monster suit break some scale models. I have no delusions that the average American just wanted to see a giant monster get rocket punched in the face. The story to me was well done and well thought out. However, I have a poor track record of picking out what's cool as I've come to learn over the years. (no worries as I've made peace with it.)

The other major sticking point is the pace of the movie. Pacific Rim had a really weird pace. On one hand it seemed as though it moved much too fast, but on the other hand everything was explained. You really didn't miss anything and you could see that if they took their time then the movie would have been 3 hours long. Still the pace of the movie just didn't quite feel right.

The mecha design was well thought out. I mean piloting a giant robot must be a insanely complex task. It makes sense that it would take two people to pilot the Jaegers. And the mindmeld control system aka the "Drift" was nothing short of brillant. Unfortunately the  execution didn't quite feel right. I quickly got over it, but the way the pilots behaved just didn't seem realistic to me. Of course, it was at this point that I reminded myself "You can believe that there are Giant Robots fighting Giant Monsters, and THAT'S the part you have an issue with." Silly I know, but it still bugged me if only a little.

Also for a movie about robots fighting monsters. I expected to see more fights. Instead what I got was a bunch of best of clips. There were some REALLY good fights near the end, but it would have been nice to see some of the other Jaegers mentioned (particularly the Coyote Tango fight in defense of Sydney.). There was the sweet reward of seeing a ROCKET PUNCH TO THE FACE! Yeah... still got goosebumps from that and I saw the movie that Tuesday after opening weekend.

One of my favorite parts of the movie was the fact that there was no use of profanity and no nudity or even the hint of nudity. This is no small feat given a movie of this caliber. How many movies can you take a small child to and not worry about them seeing or hearing something that they shouldn't have? (Yeah I'm looking at you Transformers)

All in all I love the movie and in another rare first. I plan to ignore cost and buy the movie as soon as it comes out on DVD. I give the movie four and a half Giants... out of five.

Guess Who's Back?

I'd like to apologize for the long hiatus. I've got a slew of articles that are in the works. The next one should be my Pacific Rim Review... yeah I know it's late, but hey, now I don't have to worry about spoilers. :) Also I'll be doing a better job of showing pictures of my recent acquisitions (gaming related that is) And since I've been bitten by the 6mm bug. I have a project I'm calling 7 Battalions. This is where I build... you guessed it 7 Battalions of different Factions. I have quite a number of rule systems that I want to learn and what better way than to kill 2 birds with the same stone. I'll also be working on Campaign Seeds as well as Tactical Scenarios. I hope to get back into more of a regular schedule where I have at least 2 posts a month. My apologies again and stay tuned...

ECBACC 2013 "Journey of a Black Geek"

The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC)

I've been a geek pretty much all of my life. My mom was a fan of Star Trek the Original Series. This is compounded by the fact that my dad would bring home circuit boards from his job for me and my brother and tell us that they were from spaceships. Thus the seeds for a science fiction fanboy were in the making.

As everyone in the geek community knows, it's only a hop, skip and a jump from scifi to the world of comic books. Like alot of us, the tales of modern mythology captured my attention as well as my imagination. My parents always instilled in me to not get too engrossed into anything that where there wasn't any representation of people who look like you. As a black person (African American to those so inclined.), I grew up seeing a plethera of white faces doing tremdenous acts of heroism and feats of superhuman ability.

Fortunately for me, I hit my teens during the nineties. It was a time of pan-Africanism as well as neo Black nationalism. For those of us who were geeks, it meant that where were a number of Blacks invovled with the independent comic scene.

I remember my mom excitedly telling me about a Black comic book that had made the local news "Brother Man." With a bit of a sigh and groan, (really you couldn't come up with a better name than that.) I was even more dismayed when I saw that it was that iconic graffiti style art that I simply wasn't that into. That said I eventually picked up an issue and fell in love with the book. To this day, it remains my ideal of what a comic book about hero without any powers should be.

There were of course Black heros in the big two (Marvel and DC). Marvel had heroes like Falcon, Jim Rhodes (he wasn't War Machine yet), Storm, Black Panther and Cage. DC had it's own line up with John Steward Green Lantern, Black Lightning and Cyborg. DC turned it up a notch however when it started it's Milestone Media line.

For me, it was love at first sight... I mean first reading. An entire Universe of heroes as told from a primarily (altho not exclusively) non white perspective. There were white heroes and characters, of course, but the stories were more reflective of a diverse world view. Certainly, Marvel and DC as well as others (who didn't love Frank Miller's Martha Washington) tried their best. Yet, still the characters didn't quite feel authentic. Often, I felt conflicted. On the one hand, it was like Black people don't act like that. And yet on the other, you had to give them credit for the attempt.

Obviously, I don't exclusively read comics by black artists/ authors or about black characters. It is nice to see a well done comic with a well thought out story that features non white characters. Ok so the noteable exemption is Manga, but you get my point. So when I was friended by the East Coast Black Age of Comics (ECBAC), I thought oh goodie I'll hopefully get to find out about more Black Comics. However, like many things on the Book of Faces, I quickly got sidetracked by the myriad of distractions and it faded to the recesses of my FB stream only to be periodically visited from time to time.

It wasn't a surprise when I was invented to some event or another. I mean, how many of us on the Book of Faces get an invite to some event that we couldn't possiblly get to. What caught me off guard was that ECBAC was holding a convention in Philadelphia. In my head I was like. AWESOME!!! Ok ok so there is that comic something or another every year, but that somehow always sneaks up on me and I forget about it.  However, thanks to my mild addiction to the Book of Faces. I was constantly reminded of the event.


ECBACC is the first actual convention that I have been to. And I had a blast. In part two I'll talk more about what I saw while I was there. Stay tuned...

Gundamn 40k: AMBUSH!

Sooo... I got out my 1/300 Gundam figs, Gundam 40k rules and got a game in on Friday night (May 10th). We continued our on going campaign in Africa. This time we set up an ambush scenario. I let him pick the terrain and the deployment zones. (Well it wouldn't be much of an ambush if I didn't now would it?)

I took two GMs, a Type 74 and a Ground Type Gundam. He had a Dom, Gouf, and a Zaku II. The 100mm MG continued to hurt me with it's measley strength of 6. This time I did take a Beam Spray Pistol (strength 9). The Dom had a heavy bazooka, but fortunately for me spent most of the game missing its shots. The Zaku had a 120mm MG and I forget what the Gouf had.

The objectives were really simple. It was only an ambush designed to keep Federation units operating on their toes so he really didn't have to kill all of my units. My objective was simply to fight him off and get the heck out of dodge.

The game started off not completely horribly for me as he let me have initiative for the game. (not that it helped.) The first turn was uneventful as only his Dom had a clean shot, but missed. Round two saw my MS Team mixing it up with the Gouf and Zaku II.  At the beginning of  round 2 a transport helicopter entered the battlefield. It was mostly ignored as the Mobile Suits slugged it out. Only minor damage was inflicted. A shield lost here. A Glancing hit there.

I tried my best to sneak my Type 74 off the field in an effort to at least get one of my units off the field. This was for naught as it was tag teamed by the Dom and Zaku. By this point of the game, the Gouf and one of the GMs were engaged in melee combat. The Gundam had made a play for a flanking manuever on the Dom. And the second GM tried unsuccessfully to engage the Zaku II. As the Zaku II finished off the Type 74, I tried to get my Gundam off the board. My opponent saw right through this and pounced. It really is amazing at how fragile the mass produced Gundams are.

With the Gundam out of the way, the Zeeks took a pot shot at the helicopter and was able to knock it out of the game only to crash somewhere in the distance as a brillant fireball. The Gouf finished its dance with the GM equipped with the 100mm MG and managed to turn it into a pile of  scrap (thankfully salvageable).  Down to the my final GM. I decided to make a break for it for it an get the heck out of dodge. Unfortunately, even with jump packs I was fourteen or fifteen inches from the edge of the board where I could escape. I was sweating bullets as Zeon Suits swarmed me like stink on crap, but everything was a miss and I at least had one guy escape.

At the end of the game, we rolled some dice to determine the outcome of some of the events in the game.  I had the high roll and informed the Zeon player that the missing ace was in the helicopter that he shot down. The look on his face was worth losing the game. HA! Wait that wasn't nice now was it... anywho.

The Type 74 really doesn't do much and I really haven't been able to use it's special ability of being able to pick one of my units with clear line of sight at the beginning of the game to get a free attack on my opponent. It probably would make a good spotter as it most likely won't be doing any shooting. Other than that it's pretty much a waste. I plan on getting some Type 61s. At 50pts each, they could make good filler or even maybe a good swarm army to take if reinforced with Mobile Suits.

All in all I continue to have fun with Gundam 40k. And it is helping me become better aquainted with the rules. 40k really does seem better suited for smaller scales. And Gundam 40k has me thinking about picking up an epic army and playing 40k with the movement cut in half, but leaving the weapons ranges in tact.

Wiskey Tango Foxtrot, Batwing!

So I've been following Batwing for the better part of a year now. And I have to say that while it had it's been a mixed bag. On the one hand it's always awesome to see a new Black superhero, especially one that's not a throw away character. On the other, it's been fustrating to read a book with so much wasted potential.  I really enjoyed picking out the parallels between Batman and the African Batman. (let's just call a spade a spade here.)

When they critically injured Batwing's Alfred, Matu, in issue 18. I was like WWWHHHAATTT!!! I was so excited to see what Batman would do if anything ever happened to Alfred. I'll tell you what he'd do. Apparently, he'd get mad, beat up some people and then wuss out and quit being Batman. Because that's what Batwing did.

My only consolation is that Bruce Wanye left the door open for David Zavimbe to return as an agent of Batman, Inc. Which brings us to the new Batwing, Luke Fox... that's right LUCAS FOX'S SON! I would have been excited if he had been the first choice or if Batman had brought him in to assisst (they kind of wrapped up the Zavimbe). The whole thing just seems forced. I'm not sure if they were going to go this way eventually. I mean on a certain level it feels that way, but they way they did it was rushed. And just when Zavimbe was getting good. It was nice to see Batwing take on organized crime in Africa. I mean that's what Batman is supposed to do right?

So as Batwing takes on it's THIRD creative team. I only hope they bring back Zavimbe in some form. Oh did I not tell you. They put the new Batwing in Tinisha the same city where the old Batwing took roost. If you're wondering why they don't just pull the plug on the book, it's because of the 52 books that DC releases every month Batwing and Katana are the only two nonwhite characters that have they're own stand alone books. Which is pretty sad given the number of Batman (just batman not the Batman family of books) and Superman books there are.


My final thought:
I thought it would be interesting if Batwing and Black Panther would meet up in some kind of wierd crossover. It's painfully clear that's what they were going for. You tell me if DC isn't trying to get it's own version of the Black Panther in the DC 'verse.

Armarauders: The Last Battalion Issue #1 Review

Armarauders: The Last Battalion Issue #1 Review
by Mecha Workshop
free comic available for digital download
link: http://www.mecha.ws/English_Wave01-04_Pages01-28.pdf

Intro:
Mecha Workshop release this comic online via their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/#!/Armarauders?fref=ts). They plan on releasing a line of toys (model kits maybe.) based on their mecha designs. Armarauders: the Last Battalion is intended provide some back ground fluff for their kits. It does look like they'll eventually release this in printed form.


The Story:
After engaging in a ground campaign against an alien foe called the wasters, an unidentified group of humans pulls out of the planet Runera. A comedy of errors ensues after two mech pilots fall into a waster mine and their unit tries to rescue them. Unfortunately, this happens just as the last of the division (I'm guessing) pulls out. After arguing with the ship's captain, one of the company commanders gets the general's permission to lead a rescue mission. Meanwhile back in the enemy mine (pun intended), the two mech pilots run into civilians that the wasters have been using as slaves. While briefly argueing, one of the pilots is shot by a waster mech. On the surface the rest of the unit tries in vain to contact their fallen comrades(pun unintended). As the rescue team arrives, the wasters find the ship and begin attacking it. The rescuers return to the ship just in time to see the wasters bring it down. The issue ends with that last battalion stranded on runera and the mech pilot leading the slaves to freedom only to be brought down by what I guess are only Runerian freedom fighters. It's at this point that it's revealed that the mech pilot is the son of the battalion commander.

My Review:

The Story seems to jump around. Destroying the ship trying to escape seemed a like forced dramatics. I do hope that the main fleet didn't wait around and got out of dodge before the Wasters got to them. It would have been nice to for the writer to not pull any punches and for the general to just leave the battalion on the ground as soon as the enemy showed up. I always wonder how a unit that's been left behind always seems to have more supplies than it should only to be saved time and time again due to plot magic.

The art kind of reminds me of Mech Destroyer (Image Comics 2001). Some of the lettering can be a bit hard to read at times. In places, it's kind of understandable. They were trying to recreate a sense that a transmission was breaking up, but in other place it was a bit blurry. That said, the coloring really gives the feel that you're on an alien planet. Also, the mecha design is phenomenal and keeps a faux-anime feel while remaining clearly western. Overall the art is really good.

It is a solid story even if it has the "ripped from the headlines" feel of pulling out of a seemingly endless conflict after an extended campaign. It is nice to see someone in the west trying to do an original mecha story that's not completely anime inspired. The commander looks a bit young to be a colonel and certainly doesn't look old enough to have a son in the military.

As a long time fan of giant robots, I have to say it's really refreshing to see something like this. I've already read most of issue #2 and I have to say that this is a very compelling story. It's nice to see a comic that doesn't have a protracted origin story arc. The story arc isn't without its holes of course, but they certainly give you more story than you get for comics cost $3.99. I really enjoyed what the guys at Mecha Workshop did. I hope it continues to improve. I'm giving this comic three and a half giants out of five.

Got to play me some Y Wing... I mean X Wing

Soo as many of you know, Friday night (April 5th) Games Workshop released the new Tau Codex for 6th Edition 40k... (I swear didn't 5th Ed just come out?) At any rate, one of my favorite gaming stores Outside the Box,the other being Top Deck Games (yeah, I said both in the same sentence. I ain't scurred.), having a midnight release night so I stopped through for a game of X Wing with one of the guys, Joe.

We played a 100 point game which seems to be the standard point value for X Wing. He had Darth Vader in a Tie Fighter Advanced and Boba Fetta in a Firespry-31 (Slave One upgrade). I took three Y Wings (Dutch Vander and 2 Gold Squadron Pilots.) The game was fairly tight all the way through, but I think being able to shoot almost every turn really helped alot. Having 3 shields and 5 damage points didn't hurt either as my Y Wings took a pounding from Vader. I can certainly see why he is so feared in the game. I even lost one of my Y Wings (a first for me).

All in all, Joe was the kind of opponent that you wanted to play against. At one point we argued over a rule that would let me shoot, I was trying to be gracious and forgo attacking as the rules (to me) seemed unclear as to whether or not I could attack or not. After a quick rules check it appeared that I could and scored a Crit (sorry joe). At any rate, I can see that as you have two players who know what they're doing this game can be alot of fun and tight all the way through to the end. I think going forward though I'm going to retire the Ion Cannon Turrent for a little while. Being able to shoot EVERY TURN is a huge advantage in that game. I think I'll practice using Ion Torpedos. I don't quite have the hang of those yet.

Feel Free to leave comments, questions or even your personal experiences with the game.

Gundam 40k Scenario: The Gau Hunter

Edit: This is something I was working on several years ago. I think that this would work well with the 1/400 Gundam Collection figs. 
 

    One of my favorite video games set in the Universal Century Gundam Universe is Rise from the Ashes for the Dreamcast. Rise From the Ashes takes place during the One Year War. You play the part of Master Pierce Rayer, Commander of the White Dingos. One of the things that helps this game feel like a "Gundam" story is the fact that you even have a rival Visch Donahue. If the game has one flaw, it is that it was too short. This shouldn't be surprising as the proprietary media that Sega used at the time only held a gig of space. This was due to the Dreamcast coming out just before DVDs hit the technology scene. When you consider all the different cutscenes in the game, it's not surprising that the development team just ran out of space to cram extra stuff like a quick battles mode. I love the game despite it's flaws.

     I really enjoy the third mission third. You get to snipe at a Gau Assualt Carrier.


The Briefing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-RxdPT2fs

Part 1 of the gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6qPuMl6o8I


Overview:
A Zeon Gau is making a bombing run on Earth Federation positions along the front and an EFSF Mobile Suit Team has been sent with an experimental beam rifle to cripple the Gau by taking out its engines. Meanwhile, a Zeon unit is forward deployed in an effort to ambush them.

Scenario Special Rules:
Eperimental Beam Rifle - After 5 shots, the Federation player has to wait one turn for the Beam Rifle to recharge.

The Gau Bomber arrives in 1d6 turns. And the Gau will take one turn to be in range from the top of the mesa. The Gau will be out of range in 4 turns.
Ambushers -

Set Up:

Game Length: (see Scenario Special Rules)

Mision Objectives:
Zeon Player must stop the Earth Federation player from shooting down the Gau.

Earth Federation Forces:
The Federation Commander may take three mobile suits (RX 79[G], GMs, or GM Ground types only) and a Type 74 Sonar truck..
One pilot may be HQ level
All other pilots must be Aces
Duchy of Zeon Forces:
The Zeon Commander must take at least 2 Magella Attack tanks and may take up to 1000 points of Mobile Suits. Only Zakus, Zaku IIs or Doms may be taken.
One pilot may be a Zeon Lieutenant.
All other pilots must be Troop level

Recent Acquistions

Sooo I got some more stuff for my 1/300 Gundam armies (Earth Federation and Principality of Zeon) I scored a Geara Dogda, MS Selection set 8, and a Mechwarrior Dark Ages Lamprey VTOL.

 

While I've learned not to expect a whole lot from MS Selection stuff, but I was particularly disappointed with the Rick Dom fig.

As you can see, from the front/side view, it doesn't look so bad, but from the back you can see the ridiculously warped Heat Rod.

However, what really irritated me was the discolored bazooka. (highlighted in the yellow box)

While it doesn't compare to the Strategy of Gundam figs. I'll still use them for gaming purposes.

I was impressed with the Rick Dom II. Something about a Dom holding an MG over the bazooka just seems cool and pose clearly designates it as a command unit.

I really didn't expect much from the Agguy. It's not particularly my favorite Mobile Suit anyway, but it'll still make a nice addition to my Zeon Force. It did seem a bit undersized. This kind of surprised me as MS Selection figs tend to run on the larger size.

The Real surprise of the group was the Guntank. I thought it was going to be a lot crappier than it really turned out and it's close enough in size to my Strategy of Gundam series  Guntank (mass produced)  to be useful in my Earth Federation Army.

Rounding out the new Mobile Suits in the motor pool is the Geara Dogda which will be making an appearance in my Gundam 40k campaign as a prototype Zeon Suit. I really wish I could have gotten my hands on the command version, but this will do.

And lastly, is the Mechwarrior: Dark Ages Lamprey. I already had one, but I lost it. So I got another one. I plan on using them as red herrings during campaigns. I'll never forget playing the mission in Rise from the Ashes on the Dreamcast where you're attacking the Zeon sub pen and a helicopter flies over head and you find out later that there was some kind of bioweapon on board. So it'll serve to cause all kinds of doubts in players.

That's it for now. I was supposed to play the second mission in the Campaign last week, but my buddy got sucked into a honey dew list so it didn't happen. Maybe this week. Feel free to leave comments.

Gundam 40k: Mission 01 - The Extraction

So after sitting on the rules for eons and the figs for a while now. I finally got to put my Strategy of gundam gashapons (trading figures) to good use with the Gundam 40k rules.

The Scenario was that a Zeon Special Operations Team was to extract a Zeon spy working under the nose of the local Earth Federation unit. The Zeon MS Team (a Gouf Custom (HQ), a Dom w/ 120mm MG (Troop), a Zaku II w/ 120 MG (Troop), and a Dom w/ 280mm Bazooka (Heavy Support)) had to cover the Cui which had extracted the Spec Op team and the spy until it escaped from the far opposite corner of the table. The Earth Federation had deployed a Type 74 Hovertruck, 2 Tanks and an MS Team (RX 79[G] w/ 90mm MG (HQ), RX79[G] w/ 90mm MG (Troop), a Guncannon Mass Produced (Heavy Support) w/ a 90mm MG and twin 240mm cannons).

I played the part of the Earth Federation Forces and I held my own for the most part. Not being able to hurt those Doms really hurt me. As when they closed into melee combat there wasn't a whole lot I could do. In the end the Cui was able to make it off the table with Zeon successfully rescueing their spy. This the first game in a Campaign and at the end I informed my friend that the Earth Federation was holding a Zeon ace who had stashed a Prototype MS before being captured. I hope to capture the feel of Rise From the Ashes for the Dreamcast.

So, while I was a little disappointed at the fact that the standard Earth Federation weapon, the 90mm MG, didn't have a high enough armor piercing value to even scratch the Doms. All in all the game was fairly enjoyable. I wish I had taken pics.

This will be my umpteenth attempt at a blog. It's sad that my most successful attempt at a blog was on MySpace. Hopefully this one will be a little more regular. I'll be focusing on my love for Giant Robots and the games where I get to pretend I pilot one. Other randomness will probably be making cameos, but as my FB wall has devolved into political rantings/ musing I'll try to keep it light here.