Category: news

Weaver

Saw this in a bookshop recently and am considering buying it.

weaver

Weaver is a novel around World War Two in which the Germans successfully invade England.

The Weaver of Time’s Tapestry has finally succeeded in twisting the threads of history into a new shape; the Luftwaffe have pushed the RAF to the brink, and the invasion barges have reached the beaches of Sussex and Kent. Britain wakes up to the nightmare of the Wermacht unleashed in Southern England. As the desperate battle to hold up the invasion rages it is left to a few individuals caught up in the panic and chaos to piece together what has really happened – is this the culmination of a plan that has taken centuries to play out, a plot from the future to change the past forever? Stephen Baxter’s historical thriller series crashes into the 20th century with a terrifying vision of mechanised war and political atrocity unleashed on English soil. This is the climax of one of the most thoughtful and involving series of novels that have brought history alive like no other.

My only reservation was that this is the fourth book in a series of books, the first of which deal with Romans and William the Conqueror.

Do I need to read the first three books to make sense of the fourth, or can I enjoy the fourth without needing to buy and read the first three books?

Ork Heavy Support

The more I look at my Ork army, especially the unpainted stuff, I start to realise how unbalanced the force is. I have way too much Heavy Support and much less of everything else.

What only now you realise this?

I have very few HQ and Elite units, though in comparison more Troops and Fast Attack types.

Why is this?

Forge World to be honest.

Can I help it that they make such wonderful Ork vehicles and tanks? The recent new stuff is fantastic.

Not really sure what to do about it. Well I like the models so getting rid of them is not an option. I also don’t want to spend more money building up my other non-Heavy Support units.

Don’t get me wrong the force is ideal for Apocalypse. So it’s also not like that I can’t use the models either.

To be honest I think the only real solution us for my opponent to invest in a ShadowSword.

The Triffids are back…

Tonight (and part two tomorrow night) sees the new interpretation of The Day of the Triffids. I mentioned this back in November 2008 and quoted the BBC back then saying:

The drama, about menacing plants taking over the world, will be shown in two feature-length episodes next year.

Well, here we are in the final week of “next year” and the drama is on this week!

I think that there is quite a bit of gaming potential with The Day Of The Triffids, small groups of survivors trying to get past hordes of triffids. Even groups of survivors fighting each other over food caches.

Might try and think of some rules and look for models.

Survivors returns in January

Yay, the BBC’s Survivors is coming back in January 2010 for a second season.

Survivors by Adrian Hodges returns to BBC One for a second series in January 2010 picking up moments after the thrilling cliff-hanger to season one.

Abby (Julie Graham) and her mismatched family of Survivors are in disarray, now struggling not just with the difficulties of day-to-day life amidst the ruins of the post-virus apocalypse, but also with the threat of other emerging communities and the machinations of the sinister Lab.

Update: Get Survivors on Amazon Video

The superhero is back…

Back in the 1980s one of the big RPG games from GW was Golden Heroes. This was followed by various syndicated RGS with characters from Marvel and DC Comics.

The one similarity behind all of these was the superhero wore a suit or had a cape! Too often wearing underpants and tights; oh very camp.

Today as well as the costumed heroes we also have other heroes, those that are found in the film Push and the acclaimed series Heroes. These superheroes are not the ones in costumes, these aren’t even heroes, some don’t even realise they have superpowers. I have enjoyed watching Heroes and have also managed to catch Push as well.

heroes

Now I am not sure if there are any serious gaming possibilities with what you could call not-superheroes. Yes you could create a really entertaining RPG scenario, but not sure if there is room for miniatures gaming. Now I could be wrong (and I have been wrong before) so if you have thoughts please post them in the comments.

Update: Get Heroes on Amazon Video.

ALIENS

I re-watched ALIENS the other day, and it was a reminder what an excellent film it is. The concept of Colonial Marines on a bug hunt is an appealing scenario for gaming.

I did buy the ALIENS boardgame, though I have no idea where it is now. That was a fun game, very much like Space Hulk. A small group of Colonial Marines is holed out and blips from all corners descend on them. I should of course actually say how much Space Hulk is like the ALIENS film!

There was also other games and gaming books based on ALIENS and though I know I bought a few again I have no idea where they are – I probably sold them on eBay!

I think the only reason that I didn’t spend a lot of time playing a miniatures game based on ALIENS was the miniatures that were available were not up to the standard I thought they should be. The aliens were fine, but the Colonial Marines were too much like cartoons. Oh and the hardware wasn’t up to scratch either. Can’t remember who made them, anyone know?

I think rather than recreate scenes from ALIENS I’ll just have a few games of Space Hulk.