An update

The 1000 point game was never concluded, thanks to a bunch of last minute scheduling snafus on my part. I conceded, not ungrudgingly, since I was in an unfavorable position anyway. There's always next time, I suppose, and I'm excited to start working on a new list, and get some new minis together. I have it in my head to actually paint these guys up properly (yes) and I will post up pictures of the whole endevour as they become available.

And about that blog-thru: I'm still working on numbers 24 and 23, but current gen games are keeping me preoccuppied, namely, Valkyrie Chronicles (PS3), Fallout 3 (X360), and Final Fantasy Dissidia (PSP).

I'm also working on a new project, haphazardly (of course) but it should be promising. Updates on that when I get them.

One month WTF?

So, about that 1,000 PT game we started playing...

Actually we ended it after turn 3. When we do start playing again, it'll be my go, Turn 4. The battle moved slower than we had anticipated, due to my turtling Cygnar defense, and let's face it, the Khador aren't known for their swift movements over the battlefield. I've been hesitant to post any thoughts about an ongoing match, for reasons that should be fairly obvious, but...

It hasn't been the slogfest it could have been. Early on, our snipers engaged in some fire on my right flank, but both groups of shooters were ineffective for the most part. His Man Hunters took out my Hunter (light 'Jack) after a botched shot at one of his solos. They were promptly gunned down by Eiryss and Journeyman Warcaster, with Miss Haley providing the requisite Temporal Barrier spam each turn.

Meanwhile, in the center of my line, a full unit of trenchers has been laying down smoke and lying in wait for his big mechs to make it to their line. Their sole contribution beyond that came from the unit marksmen, who headshotted an exposed Greylord Turnion. This solo also happened to be marshalling the Kodiak - his death rendered it inert for that round, forcing the Butcher to come up to reactivie it. This probably saved Stryker's Lancer from getting thoroughly mangled. Speaking of the Lancer, the usual "cast Earthquake through the arc node every possible chance" combo hasn't been too successful for me. Bad die rolls.

Probably the worst loss I took so far was the loss of nearly an entire unit of Sword Knights, located in my right center. I carelessly left them exposed to magic spells from the 3 surviving greylord turnions. My opponent has been spamming Vlad's blood of kings, which made their offensive spells even more potent. I think anyway.

So that's the battle report so far, a month later. When we do get around to finishing it, we'll see if I can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Or vice versa.

Return to the Table

It's been nearly four months since I last played Warmachine, and now I'll be fielding a 1000 point Cygnar force against my old nemesis, the Khador. I have never been able to defeat them, under the command of this particular general, in non-sanctioned play.

Let's see if we can't change that today.

We've both agreed to play with two casters, which is actually a first for us both. I'm not trying any particularly new strategy, and I have a feeling this may be the last game that we play under the Prime:Remix ruleset before getting into the Mk.II rules. Why? We both plan on entering the tournament next year at TempleCon, which will be using the new ruleset.

2000 points worth of minis on a 4X4 table, things should get hectic really fast. I'll post the army lists, battle report and pics after the match.

Day 5, Game 25 - MGS conclusion

I distinctly remember my first play-through of Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sons of Liberty, and how much I wished Konami would go back and redux the original classic. Give it the same kind of excellent gameplay mechanics and cutting-edge graphics that MGS2 SOL had, and millions of people like me would be enraptured and give thanks at the altar of Hideo Kojima's greatness every day. Three years later, they granted my wish, and best of all, they did it for my fanboi console of choice, the GameCube.

Yes, it's probably time for me to admit upfront that I'm a closet Nintendo loyalist, an allegiance that goes back to the 16-bit era when Nintendo and Sega acolytes savaged each other on middle school playgrounds around the nation in support of their preferred console. While today I'm officially platform-agnostic (with age comes wisdom, right?) , old indoctrination dies hard. I still find myself secretly rooting for Nintendo's success in the so-called "Console Wars. " Yeah that's silly. But so is this blog.

After all my bitching and moaning, MGS does end rather too soon. After the Vulcan Raven battle and the silly key card business with activating the nukes on Metal Gear Rex (thanks to Silicon Knights for putting in the shortcut), you get the the emotional roller coaster ride that is the final Metal Gear Rex/Liquid/Escape sequence. I felt satisfied with only the slightest hint of wanting more. I'm flirting with the idea of booting up MGS2, but no, this blog-thru must go on! I'll write a more detailed synopsis of MGS soon, but for now, it's on to uncharted territory for me - game number 24, on IGN's Top 25 GCN of all time - DK Jungle Beat. I've got the bongos and everything.

Days 3 and 4, Game 25 - MGS cont.

Talk about a grind down memory lane.

The staircase chase. Rappelling down the side of the tower. Going up the other tower and fighting the Hind. Getting back down the tower. Cheesy stealth camouflage ambush in the elevator. Fighting Sniper Wolf the second and final time. Getting into the blast furnace. Now I'm saved at the Vulcan Raven battle, which is probably my least favorite boss fight of the game, hence why I'm signing off now. The timestamp reads 7 hours and change, and yet it took me two actual days to get to here. Just Raven, Metal Gear Rex, and Liquid to go. Oh well, at least there's no more backtracking ahead of me. Oh wait.

It's funny how the cut scenes and lengthy monologues added so much to the experience, certainly back in 1998 and even so in the remake. Now these elements seem a little a quaint, at best, and at worst, tiresome. Of course it probably doesn't help that this is officially the 7X10E6 time I've played the blasted game. And while I could just skip through them all (and consequentially beaten this game about two days ago), I haven't watched the cut scenes in a long time...and believe it or not, they do add to the experience. If rather slowly.

If all goes well tomorrow, I can wrap up number 25. Finally.

Day 2, Game 25 - MGS cont.

My timestamp says I'm roughly 5 and a half hours into the game. If you're keeping score, I just switched to disc 2 (at the Communications Tower in the GCN version, not before the steel mill/Metal Gear base like in the original PS version). I wonder if people will look back on the disc-media years and all the disc changing with the same kind of fondness as the "blow in the slot to get it to work" cartridge years. Assuming they look back on those years with fondness at all.

Anyway, it's good thing I finally shook off the rust and got my micro back. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that at first I totally forgot to switch controller ports during the Psycho Mantis boss fight (STILL one of the best boss fights of all time in my opinion). It came back to me though, and now I'm right at the slightly annoying "run up the long stairs while getting chased and shot at" sequence, before the Hind boss battle. Should be another 2-3 hours before I complete the game and subsequently write up a nice post-mortem about MGS:TTS.

Day 1, Game 25 - Metal Gear Solid TTS

Ok, I'm going to have to bend rule 3 from yesterday slightly. Today I booted up the GameCube and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes as promised. According to my save files, I last played this game in 2005. And it showed. I've got four years of rust on me in this game, which I used to be pretty good at. Now, playing on normal difficulty, with Type 2 radar set, I was detected by enemy guards 5 times, including three straight detections in the first three areas (Dock, HeliPad and Tank Hangar). I died first thing in the Ocelot battle by clumsily somersaulting into the C4 trip wires, and then fell through a trap door in the Armory area while trying to get to the elevator. I barely survived the tank boss battle, and I used all of my rations and chaff grenades during it. If none of that means anything to you, I'll have a more formal post about the game when I manage to actually beat it!

This blog-thru may take longer than I had anticipated if I don't get my micro back.