I Descend!

Got a new game to play with sometime soon!



In other news... work sucks again. I didn't get the permanent position where I was working and was replaced. Luckily or unluckily I was requested for transfer to production where I work. I spend half my time as a Tester, and the other half doing odds and ends no-skill tasks for a lot more than minimum wage. So I spend half the time being appreciated and the other half being constantly too slow and overpaid. So I hate half my job but there isn't much I can do about it right now. The economy isn't picking up THAT much yet that I can tell. I think for sanity's sake I'm going to be trying really hard to find a new job anyways.

Sodapop miniatures announces Ryu Beat!

Sodapop miniatures just announced a couple new releases. Calico Kate and Ryu Beat were awesome figures I got to see at Sakuracon, but I was asked to keep a lid on Ryu Beat.

Now for those of you prepping miniatures I want to share this handy link of test results for different Primers wargamers are likely to use. The results confirmed what I already knew but couldn't prove, stay away from Citadel primers due to weaker adhesion and stay clear of craft store primers because they're more prone to bubbling. Oh, and don't use really ancient primers (Ral Partha in his case) because the chemicals degrade.

The test is missing two things due to no fault of the author. One is thickness, which is difficult to measure without the proper tools because they all go on thin. You can guess this from trial and error due to overspray and thinness of the coloring agent. The second is environmental conditions. Some primers due better in cold temperatures, warmer temperatures, or higher humidity (if you've got really high humidity though I recommend a brush on primer).

Now if this guide helps you out please drop me a comment or better yet shoot me some pictures of your work!

AT Week is coming at Warmonger!

So over at the other blog site, Warmongergameday we have a special Anima Tactics week coming up. There is sooooo much special material coming up for that week that I'm really excited to be a part of it. In the meanwhile things unfortunately are going a little slow on my solo blog.

We'll be reviewing models, faction overviews, product reviews, battle reports, and some extre-special stuff still under wraps. But meanwhile I did manage to get a video for AT week prepared to show you some of the models I'll be showing off for the upcoming Anima Tactics week:

U.S. government report on piracy... not as bad as it is made out to be!

Government Accountability Office (GAO) study says "Study: U.S. Piracy and Counterfeiting Data is Unsubstantiated"

Yep, that's right. They've looked into it and industry is making up data just to justify their claims (who'd have thought of it! /sarcasm) Not only industry either, the FBI was caught in fabricating that industry loses up to $250 billion a year due to copyright piracy... but when questioned had absolutely no data or way to veryify the claim.

In fact the long and short of it was that every government office and private industry group they contacted was making up claims of losses. Which comes back to a long understand issue: How many internet pirates are actually would-be customers if they didn't pirate? And how many pirates instead turn into actual customers as a result of trying a product?

Maybe IP piracy is less of a problem than just making a poor product and treating your customers badly. But I'm sure that is a lot harder to explain to shareholders than the convenient scapegoat of "there are people copying our stuff for freeeeeee!!!!! they made me lose your money".

I'm not sympathetic pirates, but I'm becoming even less sympathetic and intrusions into my private life, poor customer service, and denial of owner's rights in the excuse of combating piracy. When I BUY something from you, I own it... I'm not renting it from you because you have to fight piracy. I don't mind paying for subscription service games... if I get into it KNOWING it is a subscription service game. Big Business and Big Government are colluding to use it as an excuse to invade people's private lives and take away privacy that would never be allowed any other way. I mean seriously if the government or corporations sent people in person to such through all the private files in your house "just because you COULD do something bad" would people accept it?

In fact here in the U.S. we already had an American Revolution due in part to exactly that.

Disappointed with Stardock

If you've been a long time reader of mine then you know I'm a fan of Stardock. I haven't written about Elemental in quite a while. I'm wondering if they're also getting so big that they don't care about customer feedback. What I mean is tossing aside intense lengthy discussions they invite with customers, in favor of using a 1 dozen post low visiblity thread as an excuse to throw out the most recent economic model in favor of something with far less consensus (and I use that phrase to give them the benefit of the doubt). The forums over there are quite civil so I don't know why they'd ignore it.

Are they playing too much Starcraft over there and thinking that the economy of a real-time strategy game will import smoothly into a turn-based strategy game?

I don't know, but right now I'm hoping the game is worth my pre-order.

Sodapop miniatures

So something I haven't spoken of enough yet is Sodapop miniatures who was sharing a booth with Cipher Studios at Sakuracon. Their miniatures are cast by Cipher Studios but they have a seperate online store from them at their website and at coolminiornot. Their sculpts in my opinion are top notch and on par with Anima Tactics, though their style is a lot more comical. I'll be keeping an eye on sodapop miniatures in the future.

Also, to all you gamers out there: They do have a game in the works which is aiming for a 2011 release. Right now they're just building the miniatures line for collectors. Keep coming back to this blog because I got a photo of a nice new painted miniature that hasn't been released to the public yet. I was asked to hold off on showing it for a couple weeks, so come back again to get a sneak peek of one of their awesome new figures that is coming up!

Anima Eclipsed... Black Sun Rising

"AGAIN? Blogging again?" Yes, despite my wife's protests I'm back due to the email messages I keep getting. It appears people don't want me to wait till the end of the week to talk about Black Sun again. So based off the first 3 undead units and the first two mystics here is my initial proposed strategy for Black Sun:

(Pictured at left is the alternate body for the Type-005 which will be sold individually in blister)

How I got to Sakuracon!

So some people have wondered, why did you get to go to Sakuracon and see all this fun stuff and get all these spoilers? The answer is simple and comes in two parts. First I'm in Seattle at the right time (I live there, eh?) and second I'm part of Cipher Studios Free Agent program.

I really have to strongly recommend this program (or others like it for other games). If you really like a game then you want more people to play against or with. But people aren't like to try a game they haven't seen or played before. This is where demo-ers come in. It is easy to get people playing a game if they see it and enjoy it.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Sakuracon! Cosplay Jesus says "Go to Church" (or he'll flip you the bird)



Have some family fun.


or hang out with some friends:


but be sure to hold someone you love!

Black Ol' Sun, Won't you come...

So I got the chance to pull Dave Freeman, a.k.a Cipher Dave aside and shoot a video where he could present the new Anima Tactics organization "Black Sun" to us.



In addition I got to take pictures of models from the example starter set and of the cards for the first several new Black Sun releases.

I guess it worked out after all

So a week ago I got sick and was busy "puking my brains out" right after my two daughters did. So I didn't do a demo of Anima Tactics or make any youtube videos like I had planned on. One of those videos I had planned was to do an overview of Summons in Anima Tactics because I had all 4 of them and I figured the next two weren't coming out for a while.



Well I guess I was wrong. I know own one of the two new summons for Anima Tactics.


My wife has fallen in love with this new model as well. It is simply gorgeous and neither of us can wait to start painting it. I'm going to paint her 4 crystal spheres and I agreed to let her paint the girl. If you follow me on youtube then you can expect I'll be updating people on my status of painting her as I go on!

Finally I didn't see Al-Djinn but I did see his stat card:

This guy is going to make things interesting. Seems tricky to use right with only 1 bind point, but he has to be devestating. I think using a Greater version in a Samael team with Genma and Dinah could be potentially very devestating. Deny your opponent Gnosis while using plenty of it on your own ranged attacks. Plus you could use disposable agents to hold your opponent at bay. But I doubt I've yet to see the full potential of this model by a long shot.

Sakauracon 2010

I just got back from my first day at Sakuracon where I volunteered at the Cipher Studios exhibit booth.



Sakuracon is just non-serious fun. People in costumes everywhere. All the controversial Japanese pop culture I grew up with is everywhere. Anime, Manga, music, women in Kimonos chasing after guys with Samurai Swords. Fun! Even the Cipher Studios booth I was at had its own Booth Babe to show off the new exciting line of Sodapop collectible miniatures. Miniatures gaming is always nice to look at!



But for this first day I'm not just roaming around. I'm focused on introducing more people to the Anima Tactics game. But as a bonus, I get to see a number of sneak peeks of things that have never been seen before!

I love this dynamic looking model. Her abilities fit with it too. Her innate ability Mjolnir causes her opponent to be thrown and lose an action point whenever she scores a critical hit against them. She also has a 3 action point ability "Ka-Boom" which causes ALL enemies in her control zone to lose 1 action point at an effect of 15. That is one powerful hammer girl!

I got to see a bunch of new minis which I will write about soon.