Listening to beta testers is .... "Elemental"

Stardock did a wonderful job with Galactic Civilizations, and those of you who follow my blog know that I've been very eager for their new game "Elemental: War of Magic" for a long time. That is until it showed during beta that their egos were getting in the way of listening to customers and beta testers. I won't rehash the old parts, but the behavior continued and despite people like me posting game crashing bugs... the game went gold before it should have and the game you buy in the box is completely unstable. Tonight as I write this I think I'm downloading the 6th post-release patch already adding stabilization and making other basic mechanics work.

So if you're not buying a game and expecting to connect to the internet and patch it right off... don't buy this game. In fact, sadly as someone who already sunk their money into it you are probably better off waiting several months before the game is to the state where it should have been at release. Luckily, with Stardock one can still trust that they will do that and not just drop the title so I do feel that Elemental will eventually be a market ready game.

I painted something

and just recently go around to finishing a video of the pictures so others can see it.

The Starcraft 2 dilemma

So should I get Starcraft 2? I was a major fan of the original Starcraft and played it a lot in college when it originally came out as all my old college roommates can attest.

But this doesn't mean that Starcraft 2 will live up to that. Already I can tell that it seems they're with all the money they're raking in they're trying to be even more greedy by giving fans less for more. No editor like the original game, no LAN play which was and is a ton of fun with original starcraft, and most annoyingly of all you have to log online to "authenticate" your game to start playing it and then once a month there after. Furthermore despite buying the game in a store, once you start playing they'll inform you through an EULA that you don't own the game and owe them royalties for using videos of playing the game. Furthermore the new Battlenet is going to have a store for "premium" content.

But I've not actually played it, is the actual game going to be worth buying it 3 times for the full campaign game?

Summer vacation

Well things didn't happen like I'd hoped and we've been busy at home with people coming and going, including ourselves. Summer vacation is upon us and I expect it to last for at least two weeks more. Meanwhile all you VOR fans should be aware of the Ironwind Metals painting contest! Getting something VOR painted and send it in.

In August I will return with new videos and in eager preperation for PAX!

Tis' da Suck!

New crazy work schedule and insane work politics is keeping me away from my blog. I've got a 3-day holiday weekend with the 4th of July coming up though and I hope to finally get back to properly posting again and finish a video I've had mostly done for ages.

Hopefully this weekend will bring less whining and more gaming. But it will probably just bring more of both.

In a Funk

So yeah, I've not done much in the way of blog posts and videos for a few weeks. Sorry for that but I've been in a bit of a funk. Adjusting to the crazy new work schedule and the havoc it wreaks on life. Also, had a few events hit me that were more important and worrying.

Speaking of which, if you know Korina Marshall from Omaha, Nebraska (and numerous other locations) then let her know she has people who care about her. I knew her from the Oregon foster care system and was saddened when a relative checked up on her to find her on the missing person's registry. If you've run across her or think maybe you've seen her anywhere in the U.S. please do something about it.

Meanwhile if you've made it this far, don't worry too much because I'm certain new gaming related blog posts will continue soon.

Hang in there Natakue!

I was going to try and do a lot of things tonight after coming home from work but it just didn't happen after being ambushed at the door with kids and a 12 hour work day. But I did get news that Natakue was admitted to the hospital today for reasons I'll leave private until such a time he decides to announce. I'm hoping he pulls in there and makes a full recovery but I don't expect to see a lot of videos from him in the near future.

Natakue has been a major pillar of the wargaming community on youtube and is one of the admins who put Warmongergameday together. So to Natakue and family, thank you for sharing all your work on the hobby and helping everyone not just to enjoy our hobby more but to do so while coming together as a community!

Get well soon and G-d Bless!

Better late than never?

I intended to get this game and the battle report in last week for Anima Tactics week... oops. Life happened. But you can still enjoy it now at least!

More from Anima Tactics week

With my crazy work schedule last week I didn't get to repost as much as I wanted to. Like the review of the Black Sun ruleset I did for Warmonger, or the interview I did with Cipher Dave.

Most importantly if you like painting contests where you can win Anima Tactics stuff as prizes... then you need to enter this one:

The Insanity of it all!

Wow, time has flown. Two weeks ago yesterday I was told I didn't need to come back the rest of the week for my job due to a lack of production. Then I was let go on that wednesday and the same day got an interview for a new job. I had expected to be let go soon and have some unemployment but I got whirlwinded a week ago on monday into a new job. The new job surprised me by having me work 5 back to back days of 12 hour shifts. It is also now a 40 minute commute instead of my old 5 minute commute. So I was expecting to have a ton of time for Anima Tactics week but instead had next to none.

It also just in general sapped me of energy as I'm spending most of my working time on my feet. But the hard part has to be coming home to kids just screaming all the time. Just at the drop of a hat my 3 year old can't do something and decides to act like a 2 year old screaming at the top of her lungs and thrashing on the floor. It feels like I'm a character in the game Arkham Horror failing their sanity check against a Wailing Byakhee and going insane about ready to be committed to the asylum. Now I can understand more what H.P. Lovecraft was writing about with gibbering monsters and bad dreams taking the sanity away from grown men.

Too bad about the employment thing, my sanity could use a vacation I'm not going to be allowed to take.

Battle Report

Samael team shooty continues a losing streak. But I think it is still one of my best Battle Reports yet!

My Samael Tactics

While I'm primarily a Church player, sometimes I just want to try something different or try new tactics to beat difficult opponents for my Church forces. For this reason I use my wife's Samael force for playing a lot. Working with this I've found a group almost as effective as my main Church force (and for a long time was more effective till it taught me a different way of playing Church). I like to call this team and the tactics I use with it “Samael Toolbox”.

Statistically there are two unifiers to Samael forces. First they all have ranged attacks, but the ranged attacks largely aren't as powerful as the ones that groups like Wissenschaft get so it can be very hard to compete with Ranged. If you're watching my Battle Reports this week you'll see my “Samael Shooty” team losing to Wissenschaft. Second, they get average stats with no exceptional weaknesses or strengths. It doesn't seem like much does it? But it is enough that in the European Anima Tactics tournaments recently held in Spain 4 of the top 5 teams were all Samael teams.

Super Natural!

My Samael overview is finally here in time for Anima Tactics week!

Natakue's AT reviews

I wasn't going to include other people's content on my blog, but Natakue did a great job reviewing Anima Tactics in general and his special review of the Type-005 blister.





If you enjoy the videos, please give them a "Thumbs-up" at Youtube or leave a comment for him!

Black Sunrise

Black Sun unboxing! This is an awesome new faction, of course you'll have to stay tuned to Warmonger Gameday this week for more on them like a review of how the new rules for them work.