I never had any interest in Tyranids, but recently I found a few spare sprues on Trademe (a local auction site) and it so happened that I needed some threatening aliens for a campaign I was about to run. Of course I had other options, but the price was good, there were a lot of them, and a good vari...
It's a constant battle. You can't get enough of the hobby you love, but you also can't possibly handle everything your hobby has to offer. But conversely, nothing is as annoying as wanting more from your hobby and suddenly finding you've got it all and there's nothing left. You want the perfect pace...
Wargames need soldiers. I own a bunch of miniatures designed for specific games, so I've been feeling the need lately to bolster my all-purpose miniatures. I wanted soldiers I could use across lots of games, from modern scenarios of Black Ops to sci-fi games of Rogue Stars, Space Station Zero,...
The Doom video games are the story of a guy, colloquially called "the Doom guy", killing demons. The Doom legacy started within the Union Aerospace Corporation facility on Mars, where scientists were experimenting with teleportation and ended up unleashing extraplanar horrors into the company, a...
One of my favourite hero archetypes is Joan of Arc. Speaking of her as a figure of myth rather than history, she's the perfect mix of chivalrous honour, unstoppable willpower, pervasive charisma, and toxic fanaticism. As a fictional trope, dystopian heroism lets fans embrace success as its own ethic...
In my Pathfinder Tomb of Annihiliation Pathfinder campaign, my players experienced (for better or for worse) the Tomb of the Nine Gods, a dungeon designed by the lich Acererak. This tomb was written as a modern version of Acererak's other tomb, the famous Tomb of Horrors. In my campaign, both tomb...
I'm continuing to rewatch every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. This review contains spoilers.
Since the show started developing the idea of THRUSH as an organisation of crime, it's had an awareness that THRUSH is literally a corporation, with all the concerns a corpor...
In the lore of Warhammer 40,000, the Adeptus Mechanicus is a mysterious organisation. But that's nothing compared to how mysterious the Adeptus Mechanicus is once you start digging into its origins. When I read the 1st edition rulebook for Warhammer 40,000, I was surprised to see my favourite I...
After a year's break, I'm continuing to rewatch every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. This review contains spoilers.
You hear a lot about how The Man from UNCLE became popular among the youth of the 1960s. I hadn't been born yet, so I have no idea, but I assume it'...
In my experience with wargames so far, there seems to be a predominant assumption that any given type of soldier inherits a specific set of attributes. The attributes are usually numbers, such as a target number to hit an enemy when attacking, or how many wounds a squad can endure, how far a squad c...
When I've earned enough XP in Pathfinder or Tales of the Valiant, or Requisition Points in a Warhammer 40,000 Crusade, or victories in Mansions of Madness, I convert those game points into real-world currency. The only bank that takes game points in exchange for cash is me, but exchanging ga...
In 2023, the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader video game, by Owlcat Games, was released. I'd previously backed Owlcat's Pathfinder: Kingmaker RPG and enjoyed the result, so I didn't hesitate to buy Rogue Trader. This is a mostly spoiler-free review, but if you want absolutely no spoilers for a g...
I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I roleplay as a Tolkien scholar in an attempt to understand Middle Earth, its lore, and its effect on modern gaming. I'm reviewing each chapter of the book as I read, and this is my review of the final 2, Chapter 18: The journey home and Chapter 19: "The last s...
Coming as I do from the world of RPG, I'm used to a long-lasting core game release, with several playable modules published each year. After I started playing Warhammer 40,000, I was pleased to learn that Games Workshop provides a similar structure. Over the lifecycle of each edition (which is arg...
I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I roleplay as a Tolkien scholar in an attempt to understand Middle Earth, its lore, and its effect on modern gaming. I'm reviewing each chapter of the book as I read, and this is my review of Chapter 17: The clouds burst.
This review contains spoilers.
What
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I was in a used book store recently and happened upon a copy of the Codex Imperialis source book for Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition. It was only $11 so I bought it, once again curious about the evolution of the Warhammer setting. This is my review of the book.
Codex Imperialis was released in 1...