Honest Scrap Award is me

Well bugger me.

The Honest Scrap award has been circulating in the WAR blogsphere and beyond recently.

Somehow I got nominated and so I am excited to recieve this award from S.T. on RvR Confessions.

Thanks mate! I will so get you back for this.

So what is it about?

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.


2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.


3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on.

I, Ardy, Hereby Nominate:

The Greenskin - Snafzg, Snafzg, Snafzg. I found the Greenskin before I wandered into the rest of the (at the time) new forming Warblogosphere. In fact if it wasnt for reading his blog and from it Book of Grudges and Waaagh! I likely would never have met the BoG girls nor gotten into blogging. So... he's the #1 nominee because it's all his fault. I even smacked him once or twice in a scenario. Though I then died as per my normal MO.

Stylish Corpse - I lessthanthree Ysharros

Bio Break - Syp. That's it. You either know his work or you've been on Mars for the last two years. I wish I was as good as Syp.

Wizards & Wenches - Regis writes Wizards & Wenches. He's the Admin for Blog Warhammer. Runs competitions that have brought us Girl IRL and hosted other blogs. He too is an inspiration to me. That as because I mod over at Blog Warhammer, a little ass kissing never hurt :P

Way of the Chosen - Rivs is another from Blog Warhammer. Never stops. Always has something to say and I love seeing his work. That and one day I'm going to hammerstaff his Chosen in the face. Wait and see.

Breakfast At WAR - They make me laugh. I could try to write more, but I don't know them as well as I'd like or to bastardise some Baggins, half as well as they deserve.

Symptom Of A Greater Cure - SoagCure isn't a WAR blog but is always always a blog I can count on for giving me something to think about. What more can you want from a blog?

10 honest things about myself

I am six and a half foot tall. Really. Check the photos or ask Arbitrary.
I am one year shy of a physics degree that I promise one day I will finish.
I love all things Jim Butcher and will be getting Turn Coat asap. In fact I'll be getting all the graphic novels of, you guessed it, the novels I already own.
I, unlike practically all Irish people, do not drink. Nor have I ever.
I met my wife on the internet through a friends med/fantasy roleplay 6 years ago.
I am a crap roleplayer. (Ok this one was a cop out)
Custard and chocolate chip cookies together is like rocket fuel for me. Causes immense hyperactivity.
I am very tactile and probably end up hugging most people. Beware at GOAMeet London.
I have a photographic memory (probably) where sci-fi is concerned.
I have a scar on my butt. Look, I ran out of things. Suffer with that knowledge :P

Coming home

In one of those "I was reading this, which linked to this and then to this" things, I was reading Tobolds blog, got on to Syncaines posts about Darkfall and WoW tourists and Ixobelle.

Also recently my WAR account expired because of a credit card issue. My better half, Shannon, hasn't been playing City of Heroes and cancelled her account a few weeks back and now I'm considering doing the same.

First a commentary on the linked post.
Ixobelle had this to say:

LotRO is probably the only other game I really respect out of the ‘non-WoW’
batch of MMOs I’ve played (but I never subscribed to LotRO, so there you go),
and I have yet to actually even make it to the character creator in Coh/CoV. I
signed up for a trial, and the downloader was so fucking slow that my free trial
ran out before I ever actually got the game installed. Don’t even get me started
on EVE. Hoo boy.

With Syncaine coming back with:

No please, do elaborate on EVE, it would be priceless. Warning though, the game
does not contain NPCs with ! in bright yellow, so right off the bat it’s not as
‘polished’ as WoW. LoTRO thanks you for your respect, all 10 days or less of it.
I am curious though what exactly you are looking for in an MMO if LoTRO was not
WoW-enough for you?

Now personally... I've played all of 5 minutes of WoW. Decided it wasn't for me and left it at that. It was on my brothers account to boot, so it's not like I wasted any money by not properly playing out a month. I've my four year badge in City of Heroes coming this month (would be more but hey, account lapses). I've played a few months of EVE. I have never played Lotro.
While not being as ... adamant as Syncaine, I agree that Ixo really shouldn't have said anything.

You can download the CoH patcher before the trial, and also if it takes you 10 days to download a game, what have you been doing?
EVE has so much to offer, only the fact that I think I couldn't give the game time enough to do it justice keeps me away still.
The comment about LOTRO is just insulting.

It highlights something obvious of course, people like what they like. Some people like Pepsi, others Coke. There's always a George Lazenby fanboy in the corner somewhere.

In the end the thought came down to this. I've played CoH for years, I've made friends there, I've had good times there. But when it came to payday and we did a budget, I resubbed to Warhammer and I'm taking time off City Of Heroes.
It's not just a Pepsi/Coke thing for some people. It's so much more because of what the games are, MMOs.

CoH has great bits. EVE has great bits. LOTRO has great bits. WoW has great bits. WAR has great bits. At the end of the day, what really matters and what really spawns the comments is this. Where at you most at home?

Royal WAR Rumble

Both The Greenskin and Werit suggested a while back about a third faction for the game.

Snaf suggests an NPC third faction that in some fashion brings balance back to the WAR. If you're clearly kicking ass the world over, you'd suffer greater attacks from this faction (Example given : Skaven, Vampire Counts and Ogres) to the point where they could flip RvR zones.

Werit suggests a third faction as a playable race, if I understand him correctly, which is limited in what it can do and the experience in game but would allow this third faction to tip the scales one way or another during rvr.

Snaf also gives the example of Aion, in which the NPC race will become more aggressive to whomever is clearly outplaying the other creating a challenge. On paper, I think it sounds fantastic (Im signed up for the Aion beta). In execution, I remain unconvinced. Zone Domination was introduced as a means to stop defending by not defending. On paper a self correcting NPC faction could indeed spice up RvR and require more of a WAR effort from people, but in practice, could it also mean that the other side simply stops resisting so that the NPCs strike back with a strength they cannot or are unwilling to muster?
Though in defense of the idea, it would encourage people to leave rear guard groups like I have only just begun to see outside of Fortresses designed to stem reinforcements (though why we seem to always being doing it at the Maw where there is a second route we can't deal with I don't know). You would not only have to have the strength and ability to bring the fight to your enemy but have the resources and support to fight off an ever stronger other faction so you can crush your foe. If it worked, now there's some realm pride.

Werits idea, with a comparison to how it works in Pirates of the Burning Sea, has a wee limiting factor in that both sides need their pvp players. A third faction that solely pvps I think would drain the pool of talent each side has as they go off to join the Skaven or what have you so they could break the stalemate and create their own. After all for an essentially pvp only side, they'd have to go where the fighting is or what's the point? However the idea reminded me of Planetsides Black Ops. Every so often some players get selected to play Black Ops characters. They're powerful, they're not numerous and they exsist solely to disrupt the three way Smurf/Commie/Vanu war. As such everyone loves to kill 'em.
What if the Skavenidea of Werit wasn't an always available option but rather an occasional appearance of a few warbands where the lucky players tapped to be hated ratmen can engage anyone on their server, regardless of what side they came from (and ideally they'd be pulled 50/50 from Order and Destruction) whose whole purpose isnt to tip an ongoing battle, but erode the control of the other two. For extra bastard points, they could stop one side from sieging the opposite city only to take their place.
Ahhh Altdorf is safe, those Skavenscum broke their fortress lock, siege over.....why're there so many ratmen all of a sudden?*splortch*

Personally I come down in the middle on both ideas. Ahh lawyerground.
I have before (I think on this blog, maybe somewhere else) suggested the third faction of WAR being not Order or Destruction but rather Balance. Bring in Wood Elves, Lizardmen and Tomb Kings (previously I suggested Brettonnia, but who wants pansy knights?) and have their t1 to t4 zones intersect with new zones for Order and Destruction equally. That way they are by factor of geography invited to fight against both sides equally. Also it introduces replayability in that if say in tier 1, Order can only fight Balance in Lustria and Destruction can only fight in areas of Nehekhara and Balance is denied Nordland/Norsca and Ekrund/Mount Bloodhorn, to fight everywhere, must at some stage play all three sides.
Tis an idea.

And to really spice things up, while Order, Destruction and Balance go at it hammer and tongs, bring in Snafs npc Opportunity. Ogres, Vampires and hell Chaos Daemons whose sole point is to act as a wild card rather than a balance mechanism.

After all, you win some, you lose some. Though wouldn't it be fantastic to say it two two factions and an 11th hour addition of rampaging NPCs to take down your city?

Blogroll

Blogroll updated with a whole bunch from the frankly huge Blog Warhammer Blogroll.

Blogs for the Blogroll! Posts for the Post Throne of WAR!

Ordering Order and Controlling Chaos.

Recently Massively pimped a link to the WARbander’s Handbook v1.0 (after Wizards and Wenches I do believe). It is a very good read indeed. However there is a question I have for everyone on your various servers.
How does your lot take control of the battle?

During the GOAMeet Tufmudda related some stories of what happened on his old server and his new one. You'll excuse me if I don't have the details down exactly as it was a wee while ago. One story related to the industrious Destruction player who through an immense amount of gold and the in game mail client mailed a huge amount of players to co-ordinate in secret a fortress attack. Operation Snotsner or something to that effect. Another related to Tufmudda himself and spending several hours in a warband not actively fighting. Instead of swinging his cleava and black orcing it up (guess on my part that) he had spent the entire time typing messages to a great many people, helping co-ordinate through the game and through voice chat the war effort. Pulling together bands, directing them to particular objectives and essentially running a battle across multiple fronts.

These stories and others about other peoples online experiences in WAR and other games served to firstly make me jealous. Jealous to such an extent that I toyed with the idea of moving away from the US servers of the game and to my own time and own people on the GOA servers. A place where I knew there was life, co-ordination and a battle to be fought.
Secondly it made me think about what can be done to change how it's all run where I currently am.

Anyone who plays MMOs for a while sooner or later hears that no matter how populated a game, the forums tend to be a vocal minority. Dedicated and devoted they may be (though that may be devoted to snark/flames) they are still a small number. Bloggers too are a small subset of a games population. Look at the Age of Blogging or WCPI initiative. Yes they raise the awareness of blogs and other forums but in the end most players will pass over them or give them a cursory glance at best.

With that excuse there, I admit that I am terrible with forums. I would love to be a regular on the forums, official or otherwise but sadly my attention span isn't up to it. Either I forget to log in, am too busy to or am considering blogging.

If I can't keep up with the war effort there, how can Joe Casual?

I happen to know that Ostermark has a channel, OrderRvR, for bringing people together to co-ordinate rvr. I know this because Bregel was around way in the beginning when people decided to create said channel. I heard it first from a friend and then over Christmas from the Warbands I was in. Sadly alot of those faces have either moved on or alted, and as a result I cannot tell how popular the channel is anymore. Do new folks get told? Am I part of an ever shrinking group joining the channel which one day may no longer have enough people on it to co-ordinate anything?

With this in mind I have an answer for Joe Casual, for me and for the war effort generally speaking.

Answer? Planetside.

We went halfway there with the leaders room in Sigmars Hammer and its Destruction equivalent. A room where only people of high guild rank can enter and thus can co-ordinate.
Planetside however had layers of channels dedicated to war efforts. To access them you had to earn command points for command ranks. CR1 would let you /sitrep. You could send a message one tier up to inform that layer of command. Messages and information passed up to higher ranks who in turn could co-ordinate with each other over greater distances. Onwards and upwards it went all the way to CR5 which allowed people to global message the entire server or a specific planet.

By giving these abilities only to people who earned command ranks which as you can guess can only be earned by leading, Planetside established the control for the war.

Throw in the channels or an equvialent and we may see more co-ordination on both sides beyond that of "Oh hey I see a warband" or "/g Is anything going on?" for people like me. The lazy guy, the footsoldier who will fight where told, when told, but only if someone is around to do the telling.

I'll serve my server in the war, but it'd be nice to give the people who spend the hours typing some framework to work from. Player created methods are fantastic, but only if we know they're out there.

Maybe I just missed it on Ostermark/Phoenix Throne. Anyone got a word for this foot soldier?

Dude... Where's my Deity?

One of the topics to emerge from the ramblings (I say ramblings, really the noise in the bar got to such that I destroyed my voice) during GOAMeet and with everyone was a simple question.

How do our characters come back from the dead?

Most games and lores have some reason, however fluffy or flighty, for peoples miracle returns from beyond.
City of Heroes/Villains has medical teleporters with Rikti technology that rebuilds and repairs you on a molecular level as your vitals hit a threshold and you're whisked away.
EVE has pods and when even those fail, cloning technology with flash memory transfer.
Warcraft has something where your screen goes all grey and you go hunting for your corpse. Hey I don't play, I don't know the particulars.

Warhammer though.... for a grim and gritty place where death is usually final and practically always brutal.. what is the mechanism. I remember once before theorising what it could be. Perhaps in the ebb and flow of the war your body is discovered by friendly forces and brought back to camp for a quick bit of r&r followed by more slash and hack.

However we have a new theory. One that explains why Slayers, Dwarfs who actively seek their own death, keep getting up. One that explains just how you manage to always come back for another bout.

Morr is on holiday. The Kingdom is closed and new applications are not at this time being reviewed. The God of the Underworld/Heaven/Souls/Whathaveyou is away in metaphysical Hawaii with his scythe covered and his feet up.

This begs the question though... what are all the other gods up to? There are plenty in Warhammer, everyone gets at least one.
Some theories.

Order

• Sigmar is currently sitting on a cloud weilding a padded Ghal Maraz. He's wrapped that bad boy in a few pillows and is playing Inspirational Whack A Mole. Given the amount of Warrior Priests suddenly heeding his call and going out praying/caving in skulls in his name, this makes sense. "You there, feel holy?" *WHACK* "You are now. Go preach."
  
• The only Elven Gods to get airtime for Order are Isha, Asuryan and Khaine.
  We'll come back to Khaine. My only theory regarding the (in)action of the High Elf Pantheon has got to be phone lines. Every Elf exclaims "ISHA!" or "ASURYAN!" about ten million times per scenario/public quest. All lines are currently jammed, please try again later or press 1 to speak to a member of another pantheon.
  
• Dwarfs? We're too hard to need to bother Grimnir, Grungi or Valaya. Anyway Grimnir is busy in the Chaos Gate proving how badass Dwarfs are.
  
• The most overworked Order deities though. Shallaya and Ranald. One's busy taking all the prayers that Morr has skipped out on. Death not sticking? Go bother the healer. The other is busy causing mischief in every loot roll in exsistence.
  Myrmidia isn't getting a look in right now.

Destruction

• Tzeentch. Just as planned. Tzeentch is busy orchestrating the entire Age of Reckoning. You know what this means? The entire thing is a fake out. If Khorne is busy sulking and making do with the Bastion Stair, Nurgle is busy cracking new jokes and old pustles and Slaneesh is keeping it under wraps then it can only mean they don't feel threathened by Tzeentch (or do feel threathened by the ESRB). Expect randomness.
  
• Gork And Mork.
  Like Morr they're mostly absent. Is it that they don't believe in da boyz? Not at all.
  Nurgle just made the best fart joke in all of exsistence and they are otherwise indisposed.
  
• Khaine
  MUUUUUUUUUUUURDER and polygamy. Seriously, with that many Brides of Khaine and Disciples running about he's a busy boy. Khaine doesn't have time for your sacrficies (though they are appreciated, don't let that bastard Khorne get them) because he's busy getting hitched, inspiring and making sure his brother Morr stays on the expenses paid vacation.
  "Morr....bro, I know you hate me but what could I gain from you taking some time off apart from having people endlessly coming back from the brink of death only so my followers can kill them again...what? I said nothing. So... Pina Coladas?"

What do you think? Where are the Warhammer Gods?

GOAMeet - Dublin 9th March

Rawr folks. It's about time that I got off my proverbial and got back to the blogging. Obviously it's easiest to start with the 9th of March and the first attempted GOAMeet.

Was it a sucess? I got fed, met people I didn't know and we talked about fun things. On a personal level it was very much a sucess.
However as Arbitrary will attest, the Dublin location wasnt the most popular choice when she polled the legions of Book Of Grudges readers. That's why during this first attempt, and in fact before it got off the ground, we started planning the second.
GOAMeet London - Coming May 9th. More on that in a bit.

Part of the delay in my blogging hasn't actually been work which normally would be the energy drainer. Rather I ended up with a blasted cold or flu or somesuch. I'm going to blame Arb and Sare if only because I'm taller and can get away with it hehe. Still it was lovely to have them both over.

Arb and myself set off into Dublin to invade the GOA Office. Signing in we got cute little badges that we completely forgot to put against the beepy thing, but then again I doubt we had to. We were also treated to Nic's reimaging of Evita, you had to be there.

There was an important task to tend to before the tour round the office so Arbitrary, myself, Nic, Magnus and ...err you know I've gone and forgotten their otherwise lovely bosses name (loves Tyranids, don't mention the Skaven apparently).. anyway the lot of us retired to the cafeteria for the first reveal.
Namely Arbitrarys birthday present, a modded and painted Queen Helga mini as a Dwarfen Rune Priestess with her very own Book Of Grudges. With any luck we'll have photos over on Nerf the Cat or Book of Grudges before long.

Touring the GOA offices was very enjoyable and despite rumours of super secret information being on whiteboards somewhere, either I missed it or was distracted, and there's plenty to distract.
The QA department has been orcified by the QA dept themselves. Spikes and Gork/Mork faces abound.
The busy CSR area (all of the language areas) had folks tending to tickets and all things WAR.
The Community Management and Forum area is covered in gorgeous in game art and coloured maps of every zone in the game as well as all the bits and pieces people bring in themselves (Space Marines guard Magnus' area). It was lovely to see those people at work, and believe me those forums are monitored. Very Tome of Knowledge (or for CoX players, Nemesis plot-y) with all the watching going on.

Two other areas came up in the tour. The first you may actually see featured here on Tuesday or Wednesday as St Patricks Day will be the first battle between the Dwarfs of Karak Grim and the 'Ard Enuf Greenskin Tribe. It is the games room where all things fun and geeky occur. The second was like an engine room. Huge monitors, incomprehensible things displayed on them, people watching computers carefully. Basically if ever I go in there and unplug something, doom will befall us all. Probably runs the EU or something.

Eventually we all left the office and made for the Bull & Castle. What can I say about the evening? I met Tufmudda. Stories were shared, jokes were made, one cheerful friendly crazy bastard drained a huge glass (check back for photos), blogging ideas came up and a good time was had by all. It was something better experienced.
Seriously, be at the next one.

Of course the night ended on a proper Warhammer note. The obligatory WAAAGH! photo. (Photos to go up as soon as I can get hold of Tufmudda >.<)



Now ... the next time.
Here's the plan ladies and gents. On the poll alot of you voted for London and this appeals to a great many people on a few levels.
Friday the 8th of May is the premiere of Star Trek in cinemas the world over, including IMax screens.
Early details (which of course are subject to change) of GOAMeet London are cinema on the 8th and a proper meet up for Warhammer gamers and GOA on the 9th in a pub to be booked. Apparently Dark Age players may know/remember it. Be sure to keep an eye here and on the Book of Grudges for more concrete details as they emerge.

This! Is! FANMEET!

As Arbitrary pointed out over here there is but a week to go on the GOA fanmeet.

Details remain the same and in good news the bus strike is off or delayed. So there shouldn't be any trouble travelwise. If anyone has any questions they want asked of the GOA lads, feel free to drop a comment or email me (it's in my blogger profile). We'll try to get answers for everything, but of course it's down to the lads themselves.

Travel info can be found here.
Bull & Castle Pub, Temple Bar, 7pm.

Camera-ambushes, Twitter and possibly some live updates will occur during the evening.

Oh and March 17th will be the first Ardy V Nic Warhammer battle. Wish me luck, or failing that insanely cheesey dice rolls.

All things Warhammer

How's it going folks?

I know, I know. I've been quiet lately (blame work). As such an update is in order.

First up, Bregel and Zylashiir of the Oathkeepers Legacy are finally together (awwww) and all set up. This is rather important.
I've had plenty of time to play games lately. I've a villain duo with Sephorus on City of Villains. My wife and I still have a duo on City of Heroes, and recently a duo I have with a good friend hit 50 and they've rerolled.

WAR though.... WAR is best in groups. In mobs. In rampaging armies.
I've no problem wandering through quests and pqs by myself or with random public groups to get the job done and get myself levels. But for the battle, for the fights and for the moments of complete win, it's better with friends. Failing that, with a warband to be in and another to fight.
So with them back, Leggit and Orrekai are pushing up the ranks again.

On the subject of Orrekai. It seems Dwarves are incapable of percieving anything above their own head height when there's Orcs about. Bregel is a fine Ironbreaker. I'm told I'm not a bad Rune Priest.
How then do I explain the fact that our Archmage and Shadow Warrior ended up buried under a mountain of Greenskins?
....There were Orcs to be killin....what'd you expect? And you better believe I can cause some serious AoE trouble.


On to the other war. Warhammer Fantasy!
The Battle for Skull Pass arrived today. Tomorrow I'll be swinging near the GOA offices and eventually tracking down NicGOA. He's getting Dwarves, I'm getting Greenies. Hopefully in a week or two I should have enough assembled and painted (badly) to blog a battle report!

GOA Meet March 9th.
Seems that Dublin Bus (rightly so) has stepped up its industrial action. There are to be no city buses from Sunday the 1st of March until.... some time. It could be that buses are running when everyone is here to meet the lads. It could be that the city is whimpering and curled up in the corner due to no transport. Either way, mark it in the calendar. It's happening!

GOA Meet Travel Advisory

The RTÉ has this little story about Dublin Bus. The up, down and sideways of the issue aside, anyone coming to Dublin on March 9th for the GOA meet or leaving on the 10th (I'm looking at you Arb) should keep an eye on developments.

That said, for getting to and from the airport, there is still the Aircoach. For getting around the city, well it's small enough really and there's also the Luas.

Thankfully the bar chosen for the meeting is in the Temple Bar last I checked, so just a wee walk away from where the Aircoach would leave any of our would be invaders.

More on this as it becomes available and if it becomes terribly relevant, so far we'll just have to take a little more time and enjoy the chaos of a city without its main bus service. Personally till I remembered I was taking that day off, I had planned to walk to work to be amused by the traffic.

Night of Murder Post Mortem

Another short entry.

Partially to amuse people, partially to remind myself to bloody write damnit.

The Night of Murder ran from Feb 5th-16th. I only got home on the eve of the 7th. I had pretty much a week (except for Valentines day, yes I did all that) to play it and to my own shame, I didn't do much.

Why am I bothered? This was far easier to earn influence for than Kegs End. I got to the second reward on Leggit quite easily before it occured to me to try and do it all on my Dwarves who sadly got nowt.

What did everyone else think of the automated killmails? Personally I quite enjoyed getting my head sent to me in the mail. It gave me a goal, find that guy and kill him (I managed it). It gave me a pocket item, which I always enjoy having. It gave me a reason to charge blindly into my foes screaming as only a Goblin can...
..well I never need a reason for that last one, no matter who I am playing.

I'm not bothered that I missed out on an item that I can't use till level 35. As it is, I am going to have to get off my arse and get back to work on Orrekai. I've dawdled too long at 29.

In WAR related news, the official forums are there for people with active US accounts. Which I have, despite being a Euro. So far there's nothing in the healer forum, but I hope that will change soon. Granted when I say nothing, I mean literally nothing. No posts at all.
*makes eyes at the GOA guys for a EuroForum account so he can be globally nosey*

The Good

The lovely Sareini pointed me to a site a little while ago. It's called Gifts for Geeks. It says it is an Authorised Retailer for the Games Workshop.

What does this mean in practice? It means that I went and got the Battle for Skull Pass box set and paint set (with even more Goblins) for a price, including shipping, that is still €10 cheaper than the basic box in GW Liffey Street.

What does that mean in practice? That means ladies and gents that Ardy is go for getting a Warhammer army up and ready to take on NicGOA.

Now to the bad news for some.
I'm going Greenskins.

The poll results are actually 36% voted for Dwarfs (I love you all) and 30% for Orcs. However the offer of models from Magnus over in GOA, Nic himself, Mr Sareini and the models that I'll have in the box means a nigh 1000pt army from the word go. Which is far better than what I'd be at relying solely on the boxed Dwarves.

There we have it then. Despite online my heart belonging to the Dwarf side, my first WHFB army will be Greenskins.
Still could be worse. I could be trying to launch back into 40k. The world doesn't need another Necron player does it? (Speaking of which, anyone up for some Dark Crusade/Soulstorm?)

Catching up

I forgot to mention I was back.

I'm back. Yaaaay.

So while I catch up on work, cleaning and the blogosphere, bear with me. Hopefully I'll be back to blathering inanely soon.

In other news, I've ordered the Warhammer stuff (more on that sooner than the previous soon) and should be ready to field an army within a month. I say a month because I really am an awful painter.

Back in a bit

Just a heads up. Ardy is off to Rome for a week.
\o/

Don't while I'm gone.

Hit the polls!

Nic over at GOA has asked me for some Warhammer Fantasy battling.

How can I say no to that?

Well... plenty of ways. I've never played tabletop WHFB. I've always been more of a 40k nut (NECRONS!). I'm lousy at painting (Necrons are metal, done). I don't have an army (good reason that one).

Still, that's all just blathering. I'm going to pick up a set of paints and the Battle for Skull Pass set.
The plan is to build an army slowly, skirmish at first and build up to massive battles.

To that end, I ask you. What army should I play properly?



Two added questions. Given that I am a lousy painter and generally better on computers than with putty...
Should I a) use one of my two Collectors Edition Orc models or b) attempt to model one of my WAR characters for use in the army?

Slayers: A Reason.

This one is for you T.

In Karak Kadrin there is a very special Slayer. Specifically the King Ungrim Ironfist. Long long ago there was a Dwarf King who undertook the Oath of the Slayer. He did the normal, shaved his hair, spiked the rest, tattoos. The lot of it.

Unfortunately, his oath of kingship came first. He couldn't well abandon his rule and his people. So then the original king passed on this grudge and this Slayer Oath to all his descendants. Ungrim Ironfist is a King first, a Slayer second. He cannot simply throw away his duty for an honorable death.

Now we have Slayers in the Age of Reckoning. Dwarfs join the Oathbearers. From the Armies of WAR page:

Such was the importance of their task; any Dwarf wishing to join the Oathbearers
would be required to swear an oath to the High King himself.

Any Oathbearer active, has sworn their service to the High King. Any Dwarf who shamed themselves while in said service could become a Slayer. In this way you can argue for Slayers for the game. They fight, recklessly as they would, but accept aid from the others because they've not yet fulfilled the oath. To see the Doomstrikers forged and the armies ranged against all Dwarfs fought.

The best (or worst) Slayers grow in power. They can't just commit suicide and be freed of the shame. They have to always improve in skill and power. They are supposed to seek the toughest foes and greatest evils to fight an epic battle. One that will destroy them and wipe away the shame.


You know... that or Mythic can just say they've popped over from the Slayer keep.
"'Ere lads, go smack up those armies. Live long enough and you'll get a fine axe and we'll go invade the Inevitable City"

Yep

Eeeeveryone else is mentioning what I was a little slow on getting.

Slayers and Choppas. AXE FOR ALL!

Also, three live events, a new zone, new scenario and other new newnews.

I would have preferred the Hammerer, but hey. AXE!

Final countdown

It's 29/01

Or 01/29 if you're from Americaland.

The big news comes today. Is it actually the Choppa and Slayer? Are they toying with us? Will it be something else entirely?

Why'd I have to be busy today?

GOA Meet, March 9th

Cheap Accomodation
Rough Directions
Bus Fare Information
Dublin Airport
Ardys Twitter

For anyone flying in, getting into the city is a doddle. There's a million buses that'll do the trick.
If you're going on a one day over and back trip, I suggest the €6 All Day Rambler. You can get the 747 to the centre of the city, wander about as you please and be able to head back that night.
If you're taking two days or more, the top link is to a very affordable and rather nice hotel. Sure if only a few come, I can see about putting you up, otherwise feel free to have a bed and breakfast on the Ripley Court. Walking directions have been included because well....shush I was bored and it seemed like a good idea. Also available is the three day Freedom of the City bus ticket at €25 which will get you from the airport and back, give access to Dublin bus tours and is also good for regular routes. If you're here for beer, games and GOA, two one day ramblers is better.

Anyone in Dublin/Ireland, you'll be able to find your way. Tail end of the Temple Bar area, 'nuff said.

There's also a Games Workshop in the area if we all feel like descending upon them for whatever reason. GOA's offices are in a dark mysterious place deep in the middle of somewhere that was boring, we can ignore those.

One of those annoucement posts.

Eurotrip!

Ladies and Gents. Dawi and pansy Elves. Chaos filth and Uruk scum. I bid you welcome. March 9th The Book of Grudges and GOA are having a get together. Seeing as they're having it in my city (yes, I own all of Dublin, get your mitts off) I will of course be there. More importantly, I am here as well. So anyone with any questions about accomodation, travel, dates, times, location, squigs, food and anything else can feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you.


Age Of Blogging!

The Age of Blogging continues! Blogs for the Blogroll!
Click the wee picture to the side or my Age of Blogging post link to get involved.
A little note to the new folks on Blog Warhammer. I was double xping. I will be doing that thing that I do on the site shortly.


29/01/09

Where will you be? Me? I'll be in work. However time difference works in my favour. If Mythic decide to delay till after lunch, yours truly will be at home while America works. Anyone who wants can follow me, or any of the bloggers, on Twitter for the news as we get it.

My City Weekend.

This weekend just gone it was Double Xp weekend in City of Heroes.
As much as I love Warhammer, I do still play in the City with Shannon and others and really... double xp? How can you not?

A little recap of the achievements.

Robo-Buddy Mk III (Crab Spider) went from 47 to 50, making him my 6th 50.
Tempestas Silex (Controller) went from 46 to 48, on the cusp of 49. Two more levels and the great staminaless duo (a conversation for another time) will hit 50.
Specialist Mitchell (Shield Tank) went from 21 and a bit to 31ish. I say ish because Shannon is at home, playing the last of DXP and our Specialists are using level pact. It is entirely possible that I could log in when I get home and hit 32.
[Breaking news : Ding 32]

A few other characters got some work, including my scrapper and Warshade.

DXP weekends are always food for thought. Seph for one DXP weekend thought ahead and made sure to buy in groceries and dinners that could be cooked quickly to ensure minimal downtime due to food. His lovely other half Erin also got plenty of xp that day.
I myself made sure to have snacks on hand, no plans and a clear idea of who I wanted to get where in the grand scheme of things.
Then there's folks (who shall remain nameless) in the coalition who all but drove themselves into the ground. Missing sleep, missing meals and practically making themselves sick... all because of double the normal reward.

City of Heroes isn't that hard any more. It really isn't. Without doing the crotchety old guy schtick, when I started, debt was a big deal. Missions were worth the same as random mobs in the street. You slogged to 14 (travel power), then to 20 (Stamina), six slotted it to squeeze the best out of it and rejoiced at 22 when you got Single Origin enhancements.

Now there are Yin-Os and IOs. There are missions to get a travel power from level 5. There is patrol xp, rewarding you with faster levelling for taking a break and more besides. Yet people organise their weekends around these events and others.

Is it good to see?
Yes and no.

One or two Double Xp weekends a year is all you should have. Any more and the novelty is undone. Also you want people to keep playing your game, if it was DXP the last weekend of every month, everyone would hit the cap with very little effort in very little time. People are everywhere, work is done. It's a good time for most.
The dark side is of course the people who will play insane hours to their own detriment or the inevitable complaints from people who can't play. DXP regularly puts Virtue server in the red and unstable. It population locks Freedom Server. You can imagine what the boards look like after a crash or an inability to log in.

I had a good weekend. But I wouldn't do it often.

Catching up

A quick recap for both me and for anyone reading.

First. January 29th. Stick it in the calendar. Big things are coming.
Second. Bloggers, I shall be catching up shortly. Though I'm enjoying the idea from Arb with regards villages and such.
Third and most important. Go to the Book of Grudges my little euros. Go now and vote about a Eurogettogether for GOA/Mythic/Us.

My recap.
Guests are lovely. For a bit. You can have one person for ages, or lots for a few days. Never try to have 6 for a week.

And in my highlight, I did that Marriage instance thing with Shannon and all we got were lousy bind on equip rings. Someone needs to check the loot tables.

\o/ WIN!

Age of Blogging Continues!

Just a quick note on the Age of Blogging.

We've now infiltrated the Warhammer Grab Bag!

Hop on over to Blog Warhammer for more on blogging about WAR.

Oh! Blogroll!

Stolen liberally from Blog Warhammer because I'm a moderator and I can :P

Blog Warhammer Blogroll
Asuryan's Flames
Alt Much?
Blame the Healer
Boathammer
Book of Grudges
Bootaes Bloody Blog
Boredom Blogging
Bow & Stab
Bugmans Best
Cabal of War
Casual Chaos
Classy Gamer
Cry Moar Noob
Da Bloggy Tingy
Denizens of Xibalba
Echoes of Nonsense
Epic Slant
Fires of WAR
From the Forging of Ice and Fire
Garrison of WAR
Goblin Rampage
Grumble And Mutter
Healer At Heart
High Magic
High On Chaos
Incoming Pull
In The Xone
Kiss my Bolter
Laughing Lion Tavern
Lets not have a Breakdown
Metro Gamer
One Side of The Fence
Rainbow MMO
Reroller
RP That Way ===>
Schlotzkys Game Blog
Skurm
Sneaky Gits
Stunty Stomper
The Greenskin
The Grumblings of Gorebash
That's Skar With A K
The Slurm Factory
The Weekend Gamer
The White Lion Blog
Waaagh!
WAR! For Casuals
WAR Roleplaying for Dummies (And Zealots)
Warhammer Addons Reviewed
Way of the Chosen
Werit Blog
Wizards & Wenches
Word of Shadow
Zizlak's Travel Diary

Blogger and Blog Friend Guild
Casualties of War

Dev/CM
Blogs
Paul Barnett's blog
Josh Drescher's blog
Doubt the Stars
Elvish Parsley
Fierce Kitten
Adventures in MMO Community Management

Other
Warhammer Alliance
WarhammerOnline.tv
Hammer of War

MMO News
Links
Massively
Ten Ton Hammer

Respect Thy Enemy.

A blog post in progress. Or rather, I'm half asleep and sure I'll become annoyed with my ramble later. Enjoy for now.

I am not saying you need to like your enemy. This is Warhammer. You don't even have to like your allies, neighbours or friends. They're all likely heretics, mutants or Elves anyway.

I do however have a current problem with disrespect. There is a side in this battle. They have many members who constantly insult their opposition. Call them derogatory names. Belittle their intelligence and resolve.
It's Order on Ostermark.

I mentioned previously a tactic that consists of breaking into a keeps inner doors and weakening them to the point of failure before backing off (in good order I might add). I've not seen it since, but then again I've not been playing nearly as much. Perhaps the ringleaders on Destruction have hit T4. Perhaps it's a tactic for later hours than mine.
Now Seph has stated that a guild on Ostermark-Order has used it, and it was his understanding that it tended only to crop up in guild-only or guild-majority warbands. That too could be true.

However having the ability to get 20 some odd rampaging characters to fight to a point and then break off? That's something worth admiring. The "legality" or fairness of the tactic aside. Sucessfully pulling it off is, to me, an achievement.

Why then do alot of Order players feel superior to Destruction? You didn't sucessfully defend, they sucessfully left. You didn't rout them, they've another objective in mind.
I've alot of respect for Destruction but I will still play the role of my character. Defeated Orcs and Goblins get laughed at. Defeated Elves aren't worthy of attention. Bloody manlings get a bit of glare (Allied manlings and Elves typically rate a glare as well, depending). However, that doesn't mean I think they aren't worthy of my time.

Shittalk is one thing. Bragging about what you have done and how easily the others fell before you? If they did, go right ahead. Calling Destruction names because you can't bring them to the battle? I'm sorry, in that instance, even if every zone is locked for blue, they're better because they're playing a game above you.

Order needs to grow up substantially.

Destruction are the enemy and I love them for it. They are the bar, they aren't there for ridicule, they're there for me to do better than. They are an enemy worth our while. Stop insulting them, you only insult your own side.

Armor Addendum

You know... it's like life plans these things out.

"Oh Ardy is ambivalent about the Devestator Set" ... "Oh he likely will ignore it and use WarDB to plan something else or get the oRvR stuff"

So Ardy helps take a keep and goes to the vendor. There's the Runemantle. Teasing me. Buy me. I'm only 8 Gold.

FINE!

Then to make matters worse, the next keep? I manage to snag #1 contribution. Devestator Skullcap.

Now I have to go find the last piece. Curses.

Dawi's got a brand new bag

What do you wear?

Werit recently got his Annihilator set on his engineer a ways up in t4. Orrekai my Rune Priest recently got the title, Captain of Consignments. What this means is I have the Tracker and Stalker sets. I also have the Decimator set and am working on my Devestator. Norri my Engineer, down in T2, has the Tracker set and two bits of the Obliterator set.

Now, here's the thing. By the time I got to getting the tracker pieces, I had outleveled most of them, but wore them out of an idea that the buffs were worth it somehow. By the time I got myself the Stalker set, well I had again outleveled bits, was wearing some of the oRvR stuff and have even more of it ready and waiting for my next renown level.

This introduces a problem. T4 beckons my friends and myself. Alot of us are 31-28 and ready to rock. A few others are just a tiny bit behind. Should we intentionally Auction/grind for the purposes of getting a particular set or should we continue to hodgepodge?
Even if we all decided we'd be the Oathbearers Legacy all outfitted in Annihilator armor... we're not like Werit. He's kept his rank and renown rank even. I'm in a position myself where they arent too far off (28/26). I'm unsure about the others in the guild, but one I know (yes you, you arrow throwing Elf) has a rather large gap between rank and renown.

We've all come from City of Heroes were there is no armor and life is simpler. There's not the added restriction of "Why yes, you're high enough level to wear this...but you're just not badass enough. Get more renown".

Should we all pause on the cusp of T4 and plan what to do to maximise potential?

I think not. If the wood flinging elf isn't getting much rvr done, so be it. We'd not exclude. If the talkative heretic hunter is constantly rank and renown matched, there's an advantage, but only in that certain options exsist but others may not.

Werit has done fantastic and now looks it on his engineer.
But would he have been 40 by now if he wasnt getting the renown up? Or does it come so thick and fast later that we cannot all help but take our levels in badass?

Me? I'm going to continue having fun in the manner I see fit. Right now, that happens to be making a nuisance of myself in oRvR. It has benefits and if my friends come along, it's better again. If not, well we can all go PvEing.
I just need to shake this armor habit.

Shifting lines

How quickly can lines shift? How quickly can an almost complete victory shift into an almost total rout?

Apparently as long as it takes me to sleep.

Before going to bed last night, T3 Ostermark was a battle zone. We had two warbands of Order (Including Relaenas first big taste of running a warband in that tier) versus likely two of the same. Cue either Duel of Fates or the Benny Hill theme depending on the particular time of the battle.

The main shift, the focus of the "endgame" was tier 4. Before Orrekai said his goodbyes and I took myself off to sleep, Order had locked Praag, Thunder Mountain and Dragonwake. Dragonwake was especially nice to see as from my understanding of what filters down on OrderRvR its been one hell of a battle lately.
This morning, Praag remains in the righteous/bloody manling/sissy elf hands of Order. Dragonwake is contested once again.
Dwarf Versus Greenskin though has gone from a reasonably long lock on Thunder Mountain with action in Black Crag to a push all the way back to Kadrin Valley.

Only time will tell if the t4 folks will swing back just as hard. On the bright side though, being Rank 28 (rr26) I can hop up there and join in if there's a real big push going on. Not that I will be terribly useful, but I seem to make my presence felt on occasion.

Back to T3 and what went on last night.

Tactics. The most efficient win. The most bang for your buck.

When do good tactics become poor gameplay? Some people complain about being ganked when they were unprepared. Sometimes by higher characters, other times when they were in the middle of a mob. On paper though, that's entirely fair. You are at war, war won't stop for breaks or niceities. You kill the other guy when you can, as hard as you can.

Rambling related story. I wanted my pistol on Norri as previously mentioned and to begin with I was in Dwarf Chapter 6 in the Marshes of Madness. One of the Versus PQs. Who will get to stage II first? Well... the Dwarves were always going to win this one. There were three of us and none of them. Then there was one, a Squig Herder.
Me feeling playful, I flagged and taunted the squig loving Grobi. I never honestly expected him to flag back, after all I had 7 levels on him and we were no were near the lake. No bolster for the mushroom gobbler.
He waited till I was busy with some mobs and he went for it. Ganker? No. Good sense.
Did it work? Ehhh no. Unfortunately for him I was much higher as mentioned and I could take what the pve mobs were throwing, so I dealt with the greater risk. Three times.

Don't look at me like that, I never expected the fight, I was being silly. He gave it his best shot though and always looked for opportunities against me. He just happened to get beaten.

So now I got to experience something I am told is quite the topic on forums. RvDoor I think someone called it.
Warband runs up, warband fights tooth and nail to breach the first door and fights twice as hard to lay siege against the second door and then... leaves. Just like that the assaulting force packs up and legs it. A victory some think. Defense in the face of overwhelming odds, we broke their spirit etc etc.

No... they weakened the inner door and then left. And now they're doing it to another door somewhere else.

This was the start of the evening for me yesterday. Relaena, Walton of the Templars and myself went to kill a hero for my Stalker set and happened to run into goings on. We joined in. Orlun (Witch hunter) was running a band, and as previously mentioned Relaena ended up with one as well. Destruction would show up somewhere. Fight as hard as they could in the face of defense if there was any and then evaporate just before breaking through. Other times while we were busy recapturing battle objectives or locking zones they would take other keeps. Many complained.

Personally I admired. It's a clever tactic. It keeps us wrong footed and off balance. You cant defend everywhere at all times. People always want to clump up into bigger and bigger groups. Relaena told me though that once, at an ungodly hour, two people managed to duo a keep from start to finish. If half the work has already been done by weakening the doors, well that just makes it easier. Two full warbands can become four half strength ones with just enough muscle to quickly convert a few keeps all over the place.

Apparently the damage can be undone by Archmages or Warrior priests in T3 by targetting the door and the ram pad and using particular skills which boil down to "I hit you, so the door feels better". Later Tanks get a skill I am told to properly repair doors, but it will only ever come into play up in the top tier. Repairing it is tedious but leaving it that way is dangerous.

So my hats off to Destruction. From a personal point of view, playing the game and wanting to fight, it's annoying. They appear to run every time the fight gets to fever pitch. From a tactical point of view, and remember we're all in this war to win, it is genius. They can come back at any time, strike any keep and have done most of the work before.
Order claims it is above such practices, but how long until I find myself in a band where that is the modus operandi?


The late part of that evening showed me another type of shifting line. What to do in a big big bust up.
The answer is run around like a lunatic until something half baked works or until something occurs to whomever shouts loudest (apparently me at times).

Our two warbands headed for Stoneclaw Castle in High Pass to take it back. We ran into two Destruction warbands headed the other way as they stopped to take Ogrunds Tavern. Hilarity ensued.
First it was a fight to maintain our hold. Come into the tavern, dont come in. Fight in front, try and flank. Everyone rally and move together, yes we know half of you are dead. Rez me rez me rez me, oh you're dead. Well rez me anyway.
Then it was a desperate fight to take back the point in three minutes, a fight we likely wouldnt win because well... they stuffed a warband and a bit inside the tavern. Cue new objective, keep them in the tavern and slaughter them as they leave.

It was total chaos and for me at least, exhaustingly fun. So much changed so rapidly. Geography broke lines of sight and made for rdps hills. Order partially zerged on the basis that you could spit and hit the warcamp. Several times Destruction was treated to a kamikaze Rune Priest if only because it made me laugh (and Rune of Battle wasnt going to kill them but I like seeing all the pretty numbers). All in all neither side achieved much, well.. they got the tavern but we got the fight people had been complaining about being deprived, and I ended the night satisfied.

Did we retake High Pass on my late watch? No. But we fought hard at times, defended hard at others, I learned some tricks and I got a good laugh. Win or lose, it was fun.
However tonight, time to try win.

A final question though. Those of you who read this and who run or are up there in guilds. Do you think new recruits should read the Art of War? Do you think your guild should instill a sense of honour in always fighting, even if it means certain doom? Or do you play to win?
Know thy enemy or pwn thy enemy?

Some bits and pieces

You know... I sometimes compose blog entries in my head. What I'll write about, what I won't. What has just occured to me.

It's part of why I am considering chaning my mobile phone so I can try my hand at mobile blogging and actually get those thoughts down when they are thunked.

Blame The Healer has beaten me to one of those topics today. Specifically, the Boon of the Impalpable Tome Tactic.

Farting about yesterday on my Engineer, I was overcome with the urge to get myself a pistol. After much browsing of WarDB I located one below T3. Norri is still 21 and Im happy with him there until such time as Orrekai slows back down or I hit my head off something in T3/T4 and need a break.

As a result I met the Ironbreaker Durndon and a nice Rune Priest Falgrim (or something to that effect, I've gone and forgotten sadly. See why I need to write things down?). Chapter 6 lied to me. It said the epic reward was a handgun. It's still a rifle. Chapter 7 however does have a handgun as the PQ Epic Reward.
The problem is Chapter 7 has only one PQ. It's rated Hard as well.
No matter, I set up my turret and merrily started culling Orcs. After a few run throughs (I can only imagine how the Rune Priest enjoyed it, apart from the odd blip in my health he was free to loot to his hearts content) I finally got my handgun. Seeing as I was in Barak Varr, I decided to visit the Slayer ship and get my tactic. I had long since completed the Wanted part of the tactic when I was out getting my Tracker Armor set. Durndon had stuck with me, so I thought I'd get him the tactic as well. Off we went to talk to the Captain.

For bonus points, or rather for a Tome Unlock, also talk to the First Mate on the ship for the entry on Slayers.

Quick trip over to Ostland, even quicker stomping on the chap we needed. To Altdorf!

At this point I realised a few things. Firstly, there's alot in Altdorf to do that people don't know. They figure it's a high level place or something, I am not entirely sure. So tomorrow, I shall ramble aimlessly about Altdorf.
Secondly, Ostermark has a channel on the Order side of things for co-ordinating open field RvR. /channeljoin OrderRvR to get in on the action. All tiers, all the time. Mostly you'll find t3 or t4 action and after a few days, familiar names at certain times.

Also, Massively.com has reported on the Age of Blogging initiative. Rock on!

Ostermark and Phoenix Throne

Some quick notes on those servers.

First up, Phoenix Throne is where you'll find me doing Destruction things every so often. I've got myself a Squig Herder by the name of Leggit sitting pretty at 11 and still in love with Squig Armor.
Also the fantastic Bregel from Oathkeepers Legacy gave me (on his Destro alt) the BattleBrew backpack. Man I love that thing.

There'll be a guild up there soon. So anyone who wants to kill Ardy, say hi to Virtue folks from City of Heroes or generally get a blog entry up (along the lines of "Must kill this guy") pop by and say hi.

Ostermark.

Still only have three order characters. I've been very well behaved in that regard.
Katrine the Witch Hunter reached 10 and then paused.
Norri Powderkeg, my engineer, is similarly on ice for the moment at level 21.

Orrekai Dalinsson, my main, has been runing his Dwarven ass off over the Christmas break. This has seen me go from what... rank 23 rr 18 or so up to rank 28 rr25 in a very short period. I've also gleefully taken part in more oRvR over the last while than I can ever remember doing before.
To that end, the news from Ostermark.
Last I saw we had both the Chaos Wastes and Black Crag open with a serious push on Dragonwake over the last two days. Thunder Mountain and Praag have been locked for sometime. With any luck, alot of work and some pressure we could be looking at a fortress assault reasonably soon. I'm getting married in 15 days. That entire weekend I wont be available. I have a t4-able character.

So...my prediction is Ostermark will siege the Inevitable City the weekend of the 17th :P

Also a quick shout out.
Thanks go to the following Characters for making my oRvR entertaining and constant recently. No particular order.

• Walton (Ironbreaker)
• Damiana (Rune Priest)
• Kaelidan (Ironbreaker)
• Faulheim (KoBS)
• Faustred (Bright Wizard)
• Tyrandell (White Lion)
• Maligaunt (KoBS)
• Relaena (Witch Hunter, also blogs. Check out the Forging of Ice and Fire)
• Amera (Warrior Priest)
• Gang (KoBS)
• Devilchild (KoBS with the amusing surname of Poorbastard)
• many many more in Empire, Dwarf and yes even Elf T3

This weekend, assuming I am not too busy, you'll likely find me trying in vain to kill 14 more Ogre Tyrants and get myself alot of beer kegs. I wont make the Elite Kegs End reward (pity), but by Grimnir, Grungi and Vallaya I will get myself that trophy and fill that list.

Oh and the Rune of Battle mastery ability is my new best friend.

WAR Age of Blogging

Yeah yeah I'm slow.

I looked into this when I was linked (thanks mate) but me being a lazy sod I've been a bit slow off the mark. Bad Ardy, no cookie.

So folks, here's the deal. Pop on over to the blogger community at Blog Warhammer to take part in the initiative.

We want you. Uncle Orky sez so.

Blogs that support WAR: Age of Blogging are:

• Waaagh!
• The Greenskin
• Wizards & Wenches
• Echoes of Nonsense
• Werit
• Stunty Stomper
• Way of the Chosen
• RP That Way
• Lagwar
• Reroller
• Tome of Knowledge
• Fires of War
• Obsessive Focus
• Blame the Healer

Well what else would I post today?

Merry Christmas one and all.

Tis The Season.

That's right folks, it's the season to be merry fa la la la la and so so onnn.

Offline, well work has been busy. Life has been busy and there's all that stuff next month.
Yeep I haven't gotten any gifts or put up the tree. Lazy I know. Fortunately (in a very odd sense) my laziness includes the interwebs. Not only do I have to still do proper Christmas out in the real world, granted I have been listening to Phil Spectors Christmas Albumn, I have to poke my head in on the two events around in my games.

City of Heroes brings the Winter EVent with the now traditional Ski Chalet and Warhammer Online brings beer, booms and boasts with Kegs End.

Winter in City of Heroes means a few things.
There are presents everywhere that when opened could have something good or a bunch of snowmen. Naughty or Nice, opening 200 presents gets the Toy Collector Badge.
Never again will I grind that. Once was enough.
The snowmen are annoying, but every so often you can get the Giant Monster class Winter Lord. Thar be a badge there as well and as Shannon has discovered, two merits per kill. Granted I've not looked at the Merit system but I don't think that's a particularly impressive haul. The right team and he's down faster than a catgirl in Atlas.
Candy Canes! Oh yes. Oh yes indeed. There are various temporary power rewards for the candy canes. They're a clever bit of work. Previously if you missed an event and it's badges, they were gone. Badge whores abhor such things. Candy canes however were introduced...last year I think? With them you can get the temp powers, but you can also get badges that you may have missed from earlier Winter Events (y'know, by not being there or not working for 'em) that are otherwise no longer available. This year they've also thrown in a Halo aura. Naughty or nice, you can now complete the Angel or Devil look.

I'm tempted to put it on my possibly Holy powered, certainly wing sporting Dual Blades Tanker just to annoy people and further confuse the whole "She is not an Angel stop asking" issue.

Mostly though I bet they'll be used in Pocket D to signal being cyberbait. That's just me being cynical.

The only thing that has got my attention at the moment (and yes I am glossing over other details like the Winter Event only Universal Travel IO set, in game roleplay events and the hideous looking Baby New Year in his own mission from Father Time) is the redesign to the Ski Chalet.I say now that I am not interested in the badges, I claim that the Tome Of Knowledge has now moved into that obsessive centre of my brain/heart and reigns supreme but... well there's a giant snow slide with a time challenge. Going to have to give that a go.


Warhammer Online is bringing in the Kegs End, or rather by the time I post this it is live. I've not heard much about it myself having been busy lately. However I caught some highlights thanks to the Herald mostly and Massively in general.

Heres what I learned.
1) Beer, explosions and /boast.I mostly play Dwarfs, so all three are fantastic. (In a moment of subverting Paul Barnett, while I adore Dwarfs, I don't drink, I am 6'6'' and I'm not that hairy. I do however love tunnels.)

/Boast is something that I think is good. Sure making fun of people you whomp in PvP or RvR can go either way. Sometimes it's in the spirit of the thing (What won't Goblins/Orcs laugh at?) and sometimes it's clear that the guys clustered around your corpse are wishing for a /teabag.Still in the interests of fostering rivalries (not discord) being able to boast over the broken bodies of foes who had previously been laughing their greenie faces off appeals to me.

Bloody grobi.

2) Rewards.Live Events have thus far always given me something worth having. It may not be the basic reward (Though the title and see through effect of the Witching potion was fun), it may not be the advanced (though the capes from both events are wonderful with interesting bits) but by the Elite I've had something well worth having.

This time around?I can get a Trophy. They're always good to have. In fact I want more trophys and pocket items.
I can get a title, The Drunkard. Norri tends to be either sozzled or convinced he's a master scout. Sounds like they've got the title for him.I can get a recall spell. No idea if it has limited uses, but the ability to zap myself all the way back to a City Pub? Fantastic! Especially if you're after the Auction House.

3) Last bits.
There'll be mobs, there'll be things occuring. There will be interesting effects and new sights to see. Third live event they've had and they are still pulling out new things. I love this.

The two last sticky out in memory bits then.
The Golden Stein? Well... on that I am ambivalent. I don't know if it's something everyone can have, and even if they can, I have Furds Bottomless Mug already. Still..if it's goin' beggin'...

The Keg backpack?
Two words. DO WANT!

City of Heroes, I still enjoy you and I will come to play in the snow, but if anyone wants me and I'm not on the slide, I'm in the Warhammer world chasing down a Beerpack or two. It'll be a blast.

A Knight, a Cop and a Centurion...

..walk into an instanced mission and no one bats an eye.

Issue 13 recently hit for City of Heroes and there are some fun bits in it. Granted alot of people are looking forward to the Mission Architect in I14 and the big carrot on a stick that is I15 (Will the 5th be back back back?!).

There are a few things in Issue 13 that I am enjoying but they're hardly stellar. That said, let's go through 'em. (Clarification : There are more aspects to I13 than those below, these are just the ones I am currently interested in/affected by)

Dual Builds
Now in City of Heroes you can have dual builds. You can't change AT, primary or secondary powersets or side. You can however pick powers and slots in a new order. The idea is you could have a grouping build and a soloing build.
I'm sure some people will love that, especially the "I have one attack" Empaths. It doesn't do a whole lot for me. Mostly because I pick what I am going to do and stick to it. My Bubbler doesn't need a pvp spec or a soloing spec because he has teammates for that.
However I am using it on my VEAT (villain epic at) as they branch down two different paths and this allows my Crab Spider VEAT to hit a button and become a Bane Spider. From a Pet-ish Blaster-ish tough guy (well robot) into a mace wielding blastery Stalker.

In those situations, sure it makes sense and is useful even. The thing is... I like my Crab Spider. That's why I chose Crab Spider. Being able to swap is nice but I survived without before. Mostly I think that whole thing is for PvP.

Levelling pact
I'm doing this one with Shannon right now. Duos, trios and superteams are a feature of City Of Heroes. Moving in levelstep is something you do. I have a lvl 46 controller with a good friend of mine (my God I must make time for her and get us to 50) and they've been the same level and played at the same time all the way up the ladder. Without Stamina either.
Anyway I am still a little unclear on all the ins and outs of levelling pact. Since CoH redesigned its site and patcher and whatnot, they seem to have gone to shorthand. I don't know about other people, but I love pages of patch notes. It's nice to see all the little tweaks. Seeing that 1.06 stretched over two pages on the Herald made me grin like a loon. Sure most of it wasnt applicable to things I played, but it shows what they've worked hard for.

Anyway. Levelling pact. Your exp is shared. If I play 100 hours and Shannon plays 10, we'll still be the same level. It keeps us level and rewards playing with a particular player. At the moment the pact is only open below level 5 and only for two people at a time. I do see it being expanded and wait for the day that a Supergroup is started, hardcores and casuals together all linked in a pact.
Given how much bigger the Plume of Awesome is at 50, I'd pay to see 8 simultaneous dings at 50.

Day Jobs
I don't like 'em. The Tome Of Knowledge has cured my badge whoring in City of Heroes. Badges have nothing on the Tome. So I wont grind them out (30 days offline in a particular location per badge) on people. If they introduced it several issues ago when I had few alts and a hard time picking who to play, I'd have been all for it. The rewards, while nice, are just that. Nice. It is an incentive to make alts and to not play all your characters. Neglect some, then come back to goodies. Make alts and grind out rewards for later use. I see it more as a cynical means of extending the games lifespan by rewarding players for not playing but still paying.

The Patrol XP (Rest xp basically) is tasty though. You can get one bar of 1.5xp per day logged out. So even over night you'll get a little boost when you start playing. If you've had a busy week and no play, come back to a faster levelling. This I approve of.


Shields
Sooo many cops. This is all the art guys fault. He put a Nightstick option in for War Mace and a Riot Shield. If it's not cops, it's knights. If it's not knights, it's centurions. There do seem to be a few going for the tech options and a few going for interesting combinations, but not as many as you'd like. That's life with a new powerset. Hell that's life in a current MMO. New Class? MUST HAVE! Style and thought go out the window usually, just want to play NAO!

That said, Sheilds are very interesting. Some nice powers I like, some aspects I don't. It's essentially Super Reflexes with a dash of Willpower-style and a teleporting attack like EM's Lightning Rod (of which I am jealous). But a few of the powers, granting defense buffs and gaining your own for being close up with other players (ideally in melee) look tasty for Shield players who stick together.

Despite my complaint, I'd love to see a super team of all Centurions Phalanxing it up a notch.


Midweek I play City of. Weekends are WAR time. Let's see how long the midweek play lasts. So far, so good.
Then again I am in a Shield duo in a level pact. It pays to play.

I should blog more

It's true. I should.

However work and life oppose me at every turn.

Anyway. On with the show.

My idea mentioned below. The little get together for a small group to start a fight night...
Well as you can guess I got a little busy before I was supposed to haunt forums. So that has been put back. Add to that this little nugget from Wizards & Wenches.

Sorry to be the party-pooper here, but arranging duels like this isn’t allowed. This is so for a few reasons. To start with, it doesn’t go well with the WAR setting; Order and Destruction aren’t enemies due to mere ideological or political reasons but rather are bitter and irrevocable enemies where kill-on-sight is the the norm. There’s also the aspect of renown and victory points to consider. Although duels don’t have a large impact on zone locking mechanisms, they do contribute and again, it’s just not the way these things are meant to work.
This doesn’t mean that RvR can’t be pre-arranged. It’s perfectly fine to say “we’ll roam this-and-this zone tomorrow evening from 8pm and we’ll kill anyone entering it!”. Basically, as long as the RvR taking place make sense within the WAR setting it’s fine.
Currently, players cought participating in what is clearly arranged duels risk being penalized for this.

I will argue one point. The Non RP servers outnumber the RP servers. There are by definition more people not concerned with the setting than there are those who are. That's not an absolute garuntee, but there are likely players on other servers who haven't a clue who Sigmar is or what the whole WAAAGH thing is about.

Even with that little warning in mind, the idea of an Ostermark fight night will move ahead. If I am quick about it, I'll be able to entice the second round of Knights and Blackguards to participate as they come up the ranks.


Contribution!
They admit it's borked
Colin gets one back

That's all that needs to be said there. Sure some people thought it was in poor taste, but I saw what they were trying to say and enjoyed the video. The second one is similarly amusing.

Last WAR bit
All in all, I do need to blog more. With any luck I shall be. Certainly I got to spend some decent time in WAR lately. Keep watching.
Oh and My friend Seph has also started blogging. If he can bother me, I can advertise him :P

You gotta fight for your right to party

On City of Heroes there have been a few fight night type things organised. Tanker Tuesdays on Champion, Golden Giza nights on Virtue, Supergroup clashes (iirc) on Test server. The community which has had years to grow pulls together in various different ways to play together.

At the moment in WAR, people are pointing out a lack of cohesion thus far. Guilds are taking care of their own sure (Or at least one hopes they are and that Oathkeepers Legacy isn't an abberation). The realms have a rough identity as well.

However it seems that a good stand up scrap is elusive. Werit has lamented the lack of non primetime action. Snaffy over on the Greenskin also talks about how many MMOs suffer from a lack of critical numbers at other times of the day. I, myself, have commented many times on Ostermark servers seeming tendancy towards early bird Order and night owl Destruction, with the zone control swinging after some seemingly invisible watershed time.

Another good point from Snaf is that there are no current "go to" areas. Or if there are, we either don't all know about them, or I just don't because Im in the bottom end of T3 and haven't played much recently (due to Girlfriend rather than lack of desire).

We can lament the fact that the roleplaying on Roleplay servers seems not be as prevalent as some other games, but I won't because I prefer roleplay lite. We could decry the fact that late afternoon/early evening EST isn't primetime but being on GMT myself I've long since accepted the fact.
We could hope that once the server gets enough of a mature population (in the sense of levels rather than maturity) that the campaign will coalese along the lines laid out for us and the fight will begin in earnest.

Many things could be hoped or said or wished for. I, however, am going to try an experiment.

God willing my fickle attention span will hold out long enough to see it to fruition and that I will put as much energy into its dawn as I used to into the blog.

I want to organise a completely out of character fight night on Ostermark.
In my own teeny opinion, nothing will bring a server together better than having rivals. While the other realm is a faceless mass seemingly bent on opposing us and taking the best bits of geography (Bregel has much to say on this, but rightly so) there's no real sense of connection. We already can't talk to one another except by going outside the game. The seeming solution is to then forge a connection. For the first few attempts, I am going to try organise a well behaved and informal fight night. People or teams will sign up. There may be themed battles (I've a few bad puns for that).

Basically until we get to know one another, we can't really get to rival one another.
When Norri, my engineer, came up through T2 I ran alot of Mourkain Temple scenarios. Not because I was grinding xp/money/rp but because I genuinely enjoyed the experience. In doing so I started to recognise names. Maybe they were grinding, maybe they were just enjoying the play. Maybe they prefer scenarios. At any rate, I could have my own rivalry. I could yell "That guy, I know him, let's kill him". The war became personal, but still fun.

Hopefully Fight Night will get off the ground and hopefully it will do the same for a few people that scenarios did for me. So expect me to try to infiltrate forums and blogs this coming weekend.

I'm not looking to hate the other side, but I am looking to get to know people so caving their heads in will be that bit more personal and fun. A friendly rivalry now is tomorrows guild on guild keep battle.

Ardy Proudly Presents a Blog Entry

When was the last time you were proud of an achievement? When was the last time that it wasn't just a tick on a list, but rather a crowning moment in your game?

Or even better, when was the last time someone was proud of what they've given you to play?

We all have different definitions of a defining moment. However nowadays people are less interested in having the crowning moment of awesome than they are in ticking all the boxes in the checklist of their game. Have to win... have to complete everything... have to get ready for the next hurdle and pointless task. Not because it's fun, but because we're compelled to.

We all have different cherished memories in life, games and everything else besides. One strong memory for me was the change in my own thinking between Command and Conquer Red Alert and Red Alert 2.

I've always had many gaps in my geekery so to speak. I've never, for example, played a Blizzard game barring a five minute attempt at WoW. I haven't ever developed a taste for anime like many of my friends. There are books and comics and the other media that seem to be woven into the concept of "geek" that I just have never had the pleasure of nor bothered with (Watchmen, I'm looking at you).

My first experience with RTS games was with Settlers, way way back and played on an Amiga. After that I didn't come back to them till the Playstation. Command and Conquer mind you, not Dune.
Fortunately I could rent alot of Playstation games, and I came across Red Alert. It was fun, it was an RTS and I enjoyed it. Beyond that, I don't remember much. It just didn't impact me the way some games do (though I did love the Chronotank and missed it in later installments). I played the expansion in the same manner, fiddling with the Playstation controller and being paranoid that my brother on a borrowed and linked Playstation was looking over my shoulder to see what I was doing.

Roll on RA2. Man was it a different beast entirely. This time, this time I was on the PC. I was comfortable with computing. I was expecting a mere game.
I got an experience.

The Premier was plotting. America would be his. The Kirovs cast shadows on skyscrapers as the sound of jackboots revved up. The Hell March kicked in and man did it kick ass. Fantastic music, a sense of story and in the middle of it all... Westwood Proudly Presents. This was their baby and they were proud to show it to me, to let me play with the game and to enjoy the movie that came between missions.
I was hooked. Yuri’s Revenge? Same thing all over again. An experience. A cherished memory.

There was a Penny Arcade strip that in a nutshell dealt with EA. When they mass produced crap, they made money hand over fist. Since trying for smart, clever or just simply good games? They make a loss.

I'm supporting them during this loss with my copies of Warhammer and Red Alert 3. This is not EA fanboyism though. This is something else besides. It's something visceral.

The Empire delivered their ultimatum. One lone man on the cliffs saw the ships approaching... and in the middle of the opening of Hell March 3. EA proudly presented.

Everything I do in that game isn't just a tick on a list. It's a proper achievement, hard fought and hard won.

I am proud.

I'm not quitting

Everyone in Warblogosphere has commented by now. Some are staying, some are going. Some have clever plans to reignite the fun. Others have defined expectations of fun and others have found their center.
Me? I'm still plugging away. Being an infrequent writer (I have excuses, some of them are even good) and frequent player.

The world is no less beautiful than it was when I first logged in. In fact it is more so as I never could look above the horizon on my specs during beta, but that all changed for live.
The flavour of the world is still Warhammer.
The fun is what you make it, and me? I'm making it as best I can.

So... completely pointless entry of the month here. I'm not quitting WAR. I see no reason to leave somewhere I am enjoying still, despite a slowdown personally in tier 2, despite population questions and for the simple fact that some of the complaints bandied about can only ever be fixed by staying.

So folks. Ostermark is the place. Orrekai and Norri are the names.
I'm still there, why don't you drop by an open party? We'll make some fun. It'll be a blast.


Upcoming : Badlands on Orrekai and running around RvR lakes, causing trouble, on Norri.

Zomg nudies!

On Virtue server in City of Heroes, the cyber crowd is easy to spot.Either a) their profile has the little tag "Erp" or b) they're in Pocket D. I know that is a broad generalisation but more often than not it is accurate. Even dawdling in the D can sometimes be dangerous to your sense of squick. One time I was playing one of my female toons (gasp!) and a friend was playing one as well. They were roleplayed as sisters and were having a harmless chat in the Tiki Lounge.
Along came a chap and he sent me a tell. "Mrp?". I asked what he was on about and eventually got the blunt answer of "I'm asking if you two are mrping, if so I want to join". Eww.

Such is life on Virtue. The leather clad succubi and hyperactive nearly naked catgirls are possibly the most harmless of the crowd.
I'm sure that most other games where there are roleplay servers will eventually encounter the problem of digital nookie.The thing is ... I can't tell if it's going on in Warhammer or not (granted, do I really want to know?).

Allow me to set the scene. Myself and a friend have rolled up Witch Hunters for the purposes of eventually causing mayhem at keep sieges and defense. Edelmann and Katrine had joined up with a Bright Wizard friend (whose name I've forgotten, sorry Sare) to enjoy Nordland.
That's when I came across the pair. A male Warrior Priest standing in a field, with a naked Bright Wizard lady standing in front of him. A little unusual I thought, but I wrote it off as someone going for nude unlocks. After all the Tome rewards you running around in your skivvies so...

But then doubt set it. We were fighting at the beaches and as is my habit, I got more aggro than I could manage and had to trudge back from the Grey Lady twice. Both times, they're still standing in that field...

So we did as amused and nosey players would. Edelmann and Katrine, Witch Hunters both, ran up and demanded an explanation for the possibly heretical behaviour. Can't trust those Wizards you know, they have truck with magic and that way madness and Chaos lies.

The response to our in character accusation? An emoted eyebrow raise and then a run for the border. Cue the Benny Hill add-on (Seriously, someone should write that) and begin the chase. Shouting and hollering for the witch and heretic to stop and face Sigmars Inquisition.
Eventually they escaped through the flight master and we ourselves had no interest in chasing them further.

I'm left with a question though. Did we four have an amusing roleplayed moment? Did we confuse and chase off someone dual boxing or duoing who was after nude unlocks? Or did we actually bust a couple getting it on in the middle of a field which happens to be in the rough path between two PQ's and the Grey Lady?

You can never be sure after all.

On a final naked note, there is apparently a bug that will make someone appear as though they are nude when mounted, despite being fully armored. Kaelani, our Archmage in Oathkeepers Legacy, declared that she was Lady Godiva!I declared that I had that title.

Yes ladies and gents, summon a mount in your capital while naked and you too can be Lady Godiva.