In the box: Star Wars X-Wing

I finally picked up X-Wing today after around a month of debating to get it or not. The last few nights I have been watching Mini Wargaming Bat-Reps. If you are not a MWG vault member I suggest getting it. There so many great Videos to watch online and hundreds of tutorials to learn from. Costs around $2.99 Canadian. So sign up.

The starter set for X-Wing costs £30 in most stores I got it a little cheaper at £24 due to having a family member work there. The starter set provides everything you need for some great little battles consisting of two Tie Fighters and an X-Wing. 

The box is of  rugged design consisting of thick cardboard and a tough outer coating, this is useful as Battlefoam sell a insert for this box so that you can store a good selection of ships and cards in the original box, reducing the costs of protecting the models you collect for it.

Inside the box we fined both a quick start guide that let's you setup and play straight away, as well as a glossy 28 page, full color rule book. 

We also fined inside, a selection of the movement templates that allow you to pull of the moves in the game as well as a double sided Range ruler.

We then get our dice, 3 defense and 3 attack, our movement dials and assorted tokens to mark different effects on the ships.

We then have the Pilot cards that give us the ship stats. The pilots you get in the starter set range from basic pilots all the way up to Luke Skywalker. Each pilot has its own points costs and different special abilities, as well as what extra items they can take. 

As mentioned above some pilots can take extra items, we get smaller cards for these items, some of these are one use only and others are multiple use like R2-D2's ability to restore a shield on the X-Wing. We also have are damage cards. That you place face down for normal damage or face up for critical damage.

And now the ships. As I mentioned before in the starter set you get two Tie Fighters and one X-Wing, the ships are very well detailed and come fully painted ready to play. 

The game itself plays very well. Although the 28 page rule book covers every rule you need to know, the most important thing to learn is strategies and how to use your ships ability's. And this makes what seems at first a very simple game, become very challenging and fun to play. 

I recommend buying two starter boxes. The cost of buying the ships separately to boost your fleets works out cheaper to just buy a second starter box. This also gives you more dice that I found you will need, as most of the time you will be rolling 4 dice to attack. So you actually save around £10 doing it this way. Plus you then get a spare set of movement templates as well as extra tokens. 

I can't give this game enough props. It really is an epic game. That can provide you with quick 10 min battles or long 2 hour all out wars. Depending on point limits and models.

There are plenty of other ships available as boosters as well. Including the millennium Falcon, and even Slave I. 

All in all I give this a Grumpy rating of 89% 

White Dwarf Classics: Issue #8

White Swarf Issue 8 stays the same bi-monthly release for WD, The cover is by Derek Hayes

  Mervyn Lemon presents a two-page article on scratch-building your own figures in Monster Modelling, Fun to read, but not something you’re likely to want to do now

 The first part of the Valley of the Four Winds by Rowland Flynn is a typical fantasy quest where the good guys must gather advice, allies and magic items before a final battle against evil. A brass wind god torments the city of Farrondil, extorting the kingdom unless Hero and his brave band can stop it, and the rise of evil creatures from the east.

The Fiend Factory features a number of silly creatures, plus some of the best that turned up in the Fiend Folio. The Tween, Carbuncle and Coffer Corpse are the creatures that made the cut.

  The cartoon Kalgar is down to a half-page this month, written and drawn by David Lloyd.

And I have also included the Games Workshop price list. As Now we have the original Space Marines: SF Land warfare Rulebook listed. It is safe to say that eventually this will become the Rogue Trader Rules. And then the Warhammer 40k we know today.

White dwarf Classics Issue #7

A complete change for White dwarf now. The front cover in now is full color, and is also 4 pages longer. granted these are just Advertising pages but it is easy to see that the Mag is starting to grow. A couple of features in this mag I am posting. More from the fiend Factory. And a new level for the Greenlands Dungeon. Plus a comic strip :)

So first up is a huge update to the Fiend Factory.  there a plenty of new but familiar creatures to be found here.  We have the Necrophidius, the Rover, a Living Wall, Volt, the Gluey, Squonk, Eye Killer, Witherweed, and the Withra.  All are complete with Monstermark ratings as well.  

Then we have a new level for the Greenlands Dungeon named Lair of the Demon Queen. Which is a just a quick encounter with a couple rooms.  Perfect to add into a game.

And then we have our Comic Strip.

 All in all White dwarf, as we can see is on the up and up. Still brilliant hand drawn artwork. and great written articles and information.

Iteractive SpaceHulk Maps.

Ok so I have been looking into something that has been done in in AD&D for a wile now. It consists of using A projector aimed down at a Table, Hooked up to a Laptop of PC. This then allows you to display full color HD battle maps to play on.

And I thought to my self. why the hell aren't people using this for games like Space Hulk? There are plenty of Map creators out there that can be used for making Space Hulk maps. One of the best software to get is

Space Hulk Tile creator.

It is a 45mb download. And allows you to create amazing Space Hulk maps with infinite possibility's. You can also use the software to place markers and tokens. Hell if you wanted to you could even use it to place digital top down view models instead of actually using the Models that come with space hulk, But that's no fun and kinda boring. You just create a Map and save it as a PDF. then use 1 of the millions of Virtual D&D programs to open the file. Load some custom tokens and your away.

Its also a good idea to place actual Door ways from the Spacehulk Game. if you have lost your Door markers then you can make your own.

So how does this work then?

It works by displaying the map you have just made through a Video out port on your PC or Laptop. VGA, DVI or HDMI depending on what hardware you have available to you. Most projectors will all take one of these 3 if not all of them. And if the projector you pick up does not have the correct connector for older hardware Say you only have a VGA out port. Then you can get a Convertor to make this into a HDMI or DVI. But note that if you are going from a VGA to a HD projector the VGA ports don't put out HD images and so you will only get a standard definition image displayed by the projector.

Once you have sorted this problem out you need to mount the projector above a Table. There are proper Table projectors available but because they are a specialized projector (only because they point downwards) they tend to be More expensive. So I have been coming up with ways in which you could mount the projector and I have come up a with a few ideas.


The cradle: Now the Cradle is the best because you can have the projector project directly down rather than at an angle. It consist of Buying some white PVC pipe from a DIY store and the Push fit connections to go with it. Now you just have to build a cube like a large Mechano set (please note if you have a tone of Mechano you can also use that. Show off). Bear in mined this has to sit on a table. So make it so it sits on your table safely. 

You then need to build a device that will hold the Projector. You could do this by getting some timber and building a L section that with stretch across the top of the Cube you have built. And can mount the projector to the timber using the mounting hardware that most projectors come with for ceiling mounted version.


The Lazy way: the lazy way is simple you need a stand of some sort. And belive it or not a Music stand is perfect. Because where you would store your Music books for reading wile playing. Is the perfect angle for the projector, Plus the shelf at the bottom where the book would rest on will olso stop the projector slipping off. enough good advantage of this setup is that the stand is Adjustable in height. So you have a bit more customization of the zoom on the projector.

After all is mounted your are ready to go. And you should have something that looks like this.

Yeah that's right fracking awesome. Now imagine having the lights turned off, A horrid Spacehulk board glowing in the center of the table, With the Scanner noise from Aliens playing in the background for some ambient noises. 





 Now cost wise, obviously the main bulk is the cost of the projector. You can buy a Pocket projector from Amazon for around £100. they are perfect, light weight and portable. and are also fully HD.
Making the Cube cradle for this is more of a case of shopping around or ask someone like me that has a Trade account in places. Total cost for me works out at around £10 for pipe and fittings.

Now this is a cool if not expensive way to play Spacehulk. however it has loads more uses. and some incredibly fun ones as well. this can be used for AD&D you can use this for smaller 40k battles. Instead of using a battle mat you can display an image of any kind of surface you like. And then add some scenery to it as well for cover. Or how about displaying an amazing solar system to use with Battle Fleet Gothic, Or even Dark Future race track.  This is also the most basic method, you can attach a Wii remote to the cradle and using software freely available on the internet create a interactive whiteboard or battle board. by simply adding an inferred LED and a battery to a pen.

White Dwarf Classics issue #6

AHHHH havent updated the White Dwarf Classics for DAYYYYYS. 


Ok so White Dwarf Issue 6.

So we at one year of WD and we see some changes.  The first, most notable change is the right justification of the the text.  I does make the magazine a bit easier to read and looks cleaner.  The second is the introduction of a new feature called The Fiend Factory.  Something that in time will be a major feature of WD and spawn the AD&D Fiend Folio.

A new feature of WD is Fiend Factory. The monsters presented here are from various authors but edited by Don Turnbull.  The format is near-AD&D/Basic D&D.  Each includes a picture and a Monster mark rating right there with all the other stats. In this issue, The Needleman, The Throat Leech, The Mite, Bonesnapper, The Fiend, Disenchanter, and The Nilbog.  The article is longer than most WD articles have been to date, this is a significant jump in the evolution of WD.

Also we have a Kalgar Comic strip added in. there has been a few of these. But they start to get rare from now on.

 

This is also the Last ever two color White Dwarf. From Issue 7 onwards, The Cover Art work Is full color artwork. Much better from today's Lazy Photo covers.

World Eaters PC Case: Day 2

So today I have been planning out and cutting up the case a bit. I decided on an irregular window shape instead of just square. I also decided to make a small display window next to it. Now I wanted to give it a mechanical type look so I came up with an idea to put the internals of a HDD on display. So to do this I have to remove the cover plate from a HDD and then cut out the area I want displayed. This then deeds to be covered is clear plexiglass. And will be. Mounted behind the small case window.

Talking of plexiglass, I am going to engrave a digital read out, with warning runes, and other items that would be displayed. This will be done on Green crystal plexiglass. And should give the feeling of looking at the control displays of a Fell-blade tank. 

For doing the cuts in the window I used normal painters masking tape. So that I could draw out the pattern. After I was happy with position of the window so that the view through it would only be of the motherboard and hardware, I then made some starter cuts with my Dremel, before cutting out the shapes with a Jig saw.

The problem with using a jig saw on thin steel like this, is it leaves a sort of rippled effect along the cut edge, because of the movement of the blade. So I have to spend the remainder of my time with the side panel. Hammering the small ripples and any dents. And then a a heap of time to file the cut edges smooth.

By tomorrow I should be able to get the case cleaned up and sanded down ready for primer. The inside of the case is going to stay mostly black being as the blue motherboard. And possible white water cooling tubes will continue the wold eaters theme inside.

Any way a few pics of where I am today.

World Eaters PC case: Day 1

Ok, Now my first love (second if you include the children) is Custom PC's. Over the years I have built some fantastic Cases. From R2D2's Micro ITX millennium Falcons. Even built a Bio-shock Case that had the PC completely submerged in Mineral Oil.

And the time has come for a new PC project. The reason why I am going with a World eaters theme is simple. I love the Blue and White Pre heresy World eaters. Within the next few months you will actually see me mass an entire pre heresy Army using all the Forge world models. So why a PC. well I need a PC to go into the hobby room. My main PC takes up far too much room with its triple 24" monitors and huge desk.
So I want to build a PC for browsing the internet and blogging, wile I am in the Hobby room. This will also come in handy if I decide to do Battle reports. As They can be streamed directly to the PC. rather than Uploading at a later date.

Now the plan. I am not one for planning ahead plans always go wrong and the worst ALWAYS happens. so i never plan anything I just get on and do it, and make it up as a go a long. I call this an "Adaptive Life" don't plan, adapt.

But for the purpose of getting you lot to tune in to these build days I need to at least give you some direction of what I will be doing.
Now anybody that knows me knows I hate Apple with a passion. They are like supermodels, Great to look at but in the end you are left with pretty box that cant communicate. But because of "trend" there are a lot of Apps and items I can get on Apple to help me in my hobby that i cant otherwise get on my windows based computer, of witch there are 6 of in a house that consists of 2 adults and 2 children. So with this trend of apple based products taking over the GW hobby scene I have decided that this build will be a Hackingtosh.

Now for those of you that don't know what the hell a Hackintosh is. It is a bog standard PC, with PC hardware, in a normal PC case. But by means of some handy programs, runs MAC OSX. like any other £1000 Mac would. Only for 25% of the price. And normally twice as fast. As Macs don't have particularly great hardware. But because the operating system is so basic. the computers resources are not used up by the operating system meaning a much much faster computer.

And with this in mined it means I don't have to use Powerhouse CPU's like the Intel 3960X in my main gaming rig. I also have no need to use large HDD's in this either as I have a main Server with over 20TB of storage space that serves all the PC's PlayStation, Phones, Xbox's ETC in the house hold. So I will be using just a single Super fast 60gb solid state drive. to provide me with super fast loading times and increasing the quality of video captured to to the bandwidth being unlimited by mechanical HDD speed when streaming video to my PC.

 So design wise, White and Blue is going to be the most obvious theme here. But its how to put it into practice. I will definitely be cutting out a window for this case. and i am contemplating doing it as the inside on the world eaters symbol with the rest painted onto the actual case. Im also thinking of a battle damaged look. And I'm loving this idea as i haven't weathered a PC case for a long time not since Half Life 2 came out and I rusted an entire case. and gave it a Steam Punk look..I am also considering having a Battle diorama inside of the actual case with World eaters VS ultramarine. I did this on a case before But I did it in the front drive bays, And had a Cerberus figure standing in front of some twisted up and rusted gates. like he is Guarding the gates of the underworld. If anyone has been a long time reader of PC format You probably would of seen this case in a Readers rigs section around 2005. the actual issue I can not remember. So i have all of these ideas for the case. But until I put Dremel to metal. I wont know exactly what Direction I will be taking it.

So let's take a look at the base for this build. For around a year I have had this stunning and plain Micro ATX Silverstone case with a 180 degree flipped Motherboard tray. I brought this case for a media server as it was small compact but fitted in with the Black entertainment system i had setup. However I also brought a new TV that had the option of taking your content directly from a NAS (network attached storage). so the need for a media center/server went out the window. So the case has been gathering Dust in the garage.

I love the flipped MB tray so this case was defiantly the one I wanted for this build. It small compact. But has enough room inside to take a full size Power supply and even enough room to stick a 240mm Radiator in it just in case I decide to go water cooled.

Now for today. I have completely stripped down to the case to all of its components. And I will also Drill out the rivets before Spraying the case. But until everything is cut and mock fitted its a good idea to keep the carcase in 1 piece. so as you can see from the picture below it is now in its basic broken down form. ready for modding and cutting. Now I am going to be pondering over this for tonight and any comments and suggestions you might have are most welcome. And Then tomorrow with an idea or not I'm gonna start cutting this up   :)