Thrifty Gamer

I have started going to the Goodwill outlet near our house for kids toys. If you DIG and bring your hand sanitizer and garden gloves you never know what treasures you will find.

Today I found HeroScape. It was in remarkably good condition and only a few pieces were missing. I took a chance that the 4.5 pound box would be something interesting. At the very least $2.50 for some miniatures that can be used for D & D is still a GREAT deal.

The hubby found rules on line, now I'm interested in finding out if the game is worth playing or if it is just "pieces".

I like the car, but...

So, we have a 2005 Nissan Murano. I like it! It's comfortable, lots of legroom for our tall family, lots of storage area, AWD so it does well in the wet, snow, and ice, enough ground clearance to make bumpy rutted backroads not problem but not so much that we need a ladder to enter, gets decent gas mileage, and it wasn't too expensive. There's just one thing that drives me crazy: the speedometer goes to 160. Not 160 kilometers per hour. Miles per hour. This is not a performance machine. If I bothered to put Super Unleaded into it, we can get a respectable 240 hp out of the V6. It's not as square as some dedicated SUV's, but the aerodynamics aren't the greatest - I've never tried it, but I'd be very surprised if it topped 130. I've had it in the 80's in normal driving occaisionally, but I'm a 5-over-the-limit at most driver. If I'm going over, say, 90, I don't need to know my speed. All I need to know is that I need to slow the f$%^ down. Even freeway driving is in the 60-75 mph range - using less than half the dial, making it harder to tell your exact speed and your general speed at a glance. Why, Nissan? Why? Does the 160 top speed make buyers feel like the crossover is a sports car? Are you reusing parts from the Z (which probably could hit 160)? Would it kill you to use a 0-100 range instead? Are there some Japanophile Germans on the Autobahn that just need to get 5 mpg by flooring it in a quite large (by Euro standards) 'tall car'? It's dumb, but it annoys me anyways.

Too Much Spray On Tanner

Well, I learned something about painting miniatures. Because they are 3D, certain colors don't work well when applied 'normally'. So, my poor little saurus warriors look like they had too much spray on tanner. I'm going for an orange saurus with purple spots. Then the hubby thought up a couple other ideas that I thought would look better...too many changes made mud. The little fashion disasters are going to be taking a bath in Simple Green and are going to be starting over from scratch. One of our friends has a paint that works well for painting orange so I am going to give that a try.... More later.

Between Session Roleplay

By the folks at Penny Arcade's "Pursuit of Destiny" campaign, here. "Benedrix lay on the ground, dead." Supreme roleplaying there :) Also a neat idea.

Rethinking Warband and the Future of the Kyrg Horde

With CJ's Lizard army on the way, we've been thinking about moving to higher points (199 till she's really comfortable with it and then moving up to to the 250-300 range, which adds magic items, special and rare units, and more allowance for characters). With my Skaven, I'm going to have to add a lot of guys to even make 199, not to mention beyond that. Then, I want to replace my monkey-rats with the new ones...

I'm thinking more and more that we need to limit ourselves to two armies in a household - Lizardmen and Warriors of Chaos. I already have a good WoC army going, though all cavalry/monsters, it would do me good to add some infantry. I already have the elite covered (Knights, Dragon Ogres), so it would be fun to play with some cheap ranked cannon fodder - which means just one thing: Marauders of Chaos.

The reason I haven't picked up any so far is cosmetic. These are the Marauder models:

Yea. They look like mini He-Mans wearing bondage gear. Also that drummer there might be a very butch chick...not that there's anything wrong with that.

However, there is hope! In February the new Beastmen are coming out. Here are the Gors:

Much better. Also muscle-y but for some reason it doesn't bother me as much. They are very goat/sheep-like which is pretty cool. The base size is the same for both the Marauders and the Gors (25mm). The Marauders come 16 to a box; the Gors 10 to a box but cheaper. It works out that each Marauders costs $2.20 ($1.75 on a 20% off like WarStore or Guardian league pricing). Each Gor costs $2.50 ($2.00). Could be worse I suppose.

I'll try my Warriors of Chaos in a warband as soon as CJ has her Lizards up and going to 199 pts. Unfortunately I only have Marauder Horsemen as core (the Warhounds don't count towards core units) so my army is going to be small but really really annoying.

Tricorn Hats

(Didn't post yesterday so two today!) To fit my Skaven pirate theme, I'd like to have some tricorn hats for the skurvy ratters. Here's the plan - eventually to be made of greenstuff but likely do some practice in polymer clay to get size and technique right first.

1. Start with a thin disc (brim) and a half-sphere (crown). Stick the half-sphere in the middle of the disc.
2. Take three points on the brim 120 degrees apart and fold into the crown.
3. Completed view. Scoop out a bit of the brim/crown underneath so that it fits on a head.

Works similarly for bicorns. Can carve ragged slices on the brims of the lower ranking rats, and fancy tassled edges on the higher ranking ones.

Reverse Calvin and Hobbes

Series starting here. Hi-larious.