Saturday, February 27, 2010

Gale Force Nine did a nice thing

When Privateer updated Warmachine to Mk II, they introduced a new template to the game.  Or, rather, they changed an old one:  the spray template used to go out to 8"; now it goes to 10".  Not a big deal -- but a bit of a hassle if you had one of the nifty-but-now-obsolete acrylic templates from Gale Force Nine.

I'm a big fan of GF9's stuff.  As I've said many times before, I'm all about the eye candy, and GF9 makes some great products -- things that are both neat looking and very useful.  (I especially like their Flames of War marker tokens, as one particular example.)  They used to make licensed templates for Warmachine.  They lost that license a while back (I have no idea of the circumstances there), but they continued the product line under their "WarCogs" trademark.

When Mk II first came out, GF9 naturally updated their WarCog spray template to match the new 10" Warmachine version.  And here's where the "nice thing" comes in:  they offered to replace their old 8" templates for free.  All you had to do was send them your old one, and they'd send you back a new one.  (They even picked up the postage on the new one.)

That's just an extraordinarily cool move on GF9's part, in my book.  In no way did they "owe" a new template to those of us who had previously bought the original version:  we got exactly what we paid for and got full use of it while it was current.  And, of course, GF9 had absolutely nothing to do with the rule change that obsoleted the old one.  Bottom line:  no obligation whatsoever on their part to do anything to defray the cost of updating the product.  But, defray it they did, to the tune of 100%.  Again: extraordinarily cool move.

I'll feel good about spending money on GF9 products in the future.

And yeah, I know:  right now the world's got a lot of problems a lot bigger than whether or not a company replaces a couple dollar chunk of plastic.  Still.  Miniatures gaming is a hobby wherein the 500-lb. gorilla of the industry isn't exactly known for bending over backwards to save its customers money.  So, I can't help noticing -- and commenting on -- this instance where a company went out of its way to do something at its own expense that was unambiguously pro-customer.

So, thank you, Gale Force Nine.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

I think I'm in love

Last night was game night at the Monkey Den -- the first in three weeks that wasn't snowed out.  We took a break from the RPG scene and gave my copy of Nexus Ops its maiden voyage.

In short:  it rocks.

In slightly-less-short:  What a delightful, delightful game.  I had high hopes for it, and they were met or exceeded.  This is pretty much exactly what I want to be playing right now.  It's light, but not flimsy; fast, but not frantic.  It's fun to look at, fun to play -- just fun.  I cannot imagine why this wasn't a huge commercial success.

I say all of the above even though I got pummeled last night.  Joe F. won with 12 VP's before anyone else had half that many (I think).  It seems like he was burying us under Special Mission cards right from the first turn.  I felt like I was doing OK -- I held the monolith most of the game -- but I guess I wasn't aggressive enough.

Anyway, I can't wait to play this again.  I think I'm going to try a two-player game with Mrs. Greywing sometime soon and see how that works.  I know it will be a very different experience with two instead of four, but I'm hoping we find it worthwhile.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

A self-imposed deadline

I am getting just about fed up with getting big heaps of nothing accomplished.

Maybe it's the season; whatever.  I can't seem to shake the WoW-induced malaise toward miniatures that I've been suffering through over the last few months.  It's really starting to bug me.

Hobbies (even this one) are supposed to be fun.  Guilting out over not getting my new toys painted is not fun.

I don't know, maybe some formal (-ish) deadlines will get me moving, even if they are self-imposed.  It's worth a try, at least, I guess.  So here goes, with my first one:

I will get the miniatures from my Protectorate of Menoth starter box completely assembled and painted by the end of the day on March 7, 2010, or I will light them on fire.

OK, that's two full weeks, so it's not exactly a stretch to say that I should be able to pull that off.  But:  baby steps.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Punch drunk

I'm kind of lazy.

No way around it; I just am.  And, I have a pretty dodgy attention span too.  Stacking those two traits, it's no wonder that it's so hard for me to get around to game-related "chores" like punching games and clipping counters.

But, I am not hopeless!  On occasion, I'll unleash a veritable flurry of game-prepping activity on my unsuspecting collection.  For whatever reason, this past week was such an occasion.  I completely punched not one, not two, but three games.

First up was Twilight Struggle.  I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I had just bought the new deluxe edition, and it was delivered last week.  It's a very impressive looking game, and I turned this one around from "in shrink" to "ready to play" in record time.  The cards are sleeved (and not penny sleeves either -- I broke out the Dragon Shields for this one) and the counters are punched and sorted.  The counters are the nice thick ones with rounded corners (no clipping!).  I love those.  I really hope to get some games of this in soon.  We'll see.

Next was Nexus Ops.  I picked this one up about a year ago.  Up until a couple of days ago, it was out of shrink, but otherwise completely unpunched.  I finally got around to prepping this one because we were going to play it at the Monkey Den this week, until Snowmageddon intervened.  More nice, thick, rounded counters.  I edged those, and the hex tiles, with a black Sharpie and they look very -- sharp.  I still need to figure out something to do with the monolith hex, though.  I don't want to use the stock fold-up tower thing for a variety of reasons.  I bought a small sheet of black foamcore, and I'll probably start hacking at that this weekend in an attempt to rig up a replacement.  Anyway, I am salivating to play this.

Finally, I tackled Fields of Fire.  Holy cow.  This probably deserved its own post, but here we are.  Let me start by saying that the first sign that FoF is not for the faint of heart is the five counter sheets that greet one upon the unboxing.  (Well, OK, the first sign is probably the 3,000 BGG threads with titles like "ZOMG THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!!"  But the counter sheets are definitely the second.)  Seriously, this is not a hex-and-counter game, but it has 880 counters.

I was taken aback.

As I said before, I think learning to play this is going to be a massive undertaking.  I'm not quite ready to tear into that task right at the moment, but I do see the day coming in the near term when I will be.  In preparation, I decided to get the game physically ready to go.  The cards (the action and Normandy decks at least) also got Dragon Shielded (I am totally out of them now), and then I dove into the counter sheets.  I worked on them here and there for a week, and they are finally done.  Punched, sorted (roughly), bagged, and clipped.

I should add that I find them (and the cards too, for that matter) very nicely done.  They are attractive and understated.  They are colorful, but still entirely practical and functional -- never busy.  I especially like some of the graphics choices -- the use of unit badges instead of little drawings of soldiers, for example.  Plus, I have an absolutely irrational love for the use of any variety of Courier font on WWII game components.  (I said it, and I'm not ashamed of it.)

In fact, the entire aesthetic presence of Fields of Fire is pretty close to perfect in my eyes.  To summarize the look of the game in one word:  classy.  I've said before that the eye candy aspect of gaming is genuinely important to me, so I mean all of that as very high praise.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Must... resist...

I am itching to buy this.

And not just the computer version.  I am battling a wracking physical compulsion directing me to go out and buy the tabletop rules and about three or four 15 mm armies.

Until about ten days ago, I never had the slightest interest in ancient warfare.  Then I happened across this review, which led me to the above-linked site, which led me to additional research, etc., etc.  Bottom line:  the Wanting Mind has kicked in.  Hard.

Pretty, pretty hoplites.

But!  2010 is the Year of Warmachine.  And, I have an entire Flames of War panzergren army to paint.  "Have" as in have.  As in bought and paid for.  As in the boxes are strewn around my office right now.

So.  I will be thankful for what I have.  I will work on the projects I have already undertaken before I bite off any new ones.  I will resist.

Today.