Book Reviews 'n'such

This was generously loaned to me by Admiral Drax, when I saw him last in the flesh.  It's two soft cover volumes in a slip case with interviews with some of the key people from the early years of GW, starting in Sunbeam Road.  A lot of it seems to be almost the transcripts of podcast episodes, but I might have been imagining things.

The interviewers are two of the protagonists of the time anyway, so it really is a whole load of old people trying to remember things together (I have a lot of sympathy with that) and some interesting anecdotes of where some of the more interesting ideas ("Mad Shit") might have come from.  I'm not going to buy my own copy, but it's well worth sticking your nose in if you come across it on a friends coffee table.

Dave Taylor did a book called Armies, Legions and Hordes which is absolutely fab.  Love that book.  It's success obviously got his over creative mind bubbling away again and to prevent his pot boiling over, he came up with another jolly wheeze - get artists he likes to layout some content in a coherent manner and he'll publish the books.

Now, to be fair, the people he's spoken to are all top notch artists.  And the books are produced in batches of three (why not ?) and done through Kickstarter.  So if you sign on, you can get your set in a slipcase.

The backs of the three slipcases for the first nine books/artists are here, if you want you can click the pick (thanks Inso) and it'll give you a flavour of what's inside.  Some of them I've looked at once, some of them I keep going back to.  And then I drift off and want to give up work and just finish Devos IV and stuff. 

The front cover.  These are possibly not the most affordable thing ever.  And I'd hate to recommend one just in case someone bought it and then didn't like it.  But there's a fourth one coming (volumes 10 to 12) and yeah, seeing who is featured, I'm in again.  I can stop any time I like though.

Just 'effin' stop Dave, you're killing me.

This is also a KS related book, Carbon Grey.  It's an Alt History of a very early twentieth centuary Europe.  They did a whole game system with minis and everything.  There's possibly copies of the game stuff and the fluff stuff on ebay or Noble Knight Games now, as it's a couple of years old.

 I found it quite entertaining in it's own right.  The layout, storyboarding and so on match the pacing and narrarive well enough.  There are little bits I can pinch and slide into my games background, which is what I got it for.  

I hope that someone out there found this interesting.  Back to minis next time.

Black Star Initative on You Toob

 I know that there is some Black Star Initative thing for some online space opera game.  But this me, so you know I'm not talking about that.

This is what little men are for.  This is why my garage is full of the little guys.  I absolutely love what is being done here and commend this whole series to you.  It builds.  At the moment it goes to Episode 7.  I hope they do more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnJtGebVSOo

Sisters are doin' it for themselves

You've heard me before, waxing lyrical about the old softback codices, with their prose vignettes and their 5ed (-1/+1) charm.  And you can see from the price, that these were £12 each when they were current.  The 9ed Adepta Sororitas Codex was £33ish.  I'm not sure if what was £12 in the early 2000s is £33 twenty years later, but as we have discussed before, the world has moved on and even the people who work for GW have bills to pay (and shareholders to satisfy in a way they didn't twenty years ago)

So meh, the production values are better and more work has gone into it, but I'm not sure about creativity.  Maybe.  What this new book appears to have done is take all of the nunneries mentioned in the old book and fleshed them out.  This has been done in the most direct and least surprising way, but it has been done.  It's nice that the background has been built upon and expanded in a logical and sympathetic way, instead of being overtaken by a burst of hyperbole and ruined by covering it in skulls and more guns than it can carry ammunition for.  Ahem.

So by way of contrast, I offer up these two roughly corresponding paragraphs from the old (above) and new (below) publications.  What the new codex does is to squarely plant them as a faction in their own right (like the Ad Mech) in the new starting line up.  Whereas historically they have perhaps been under the wing of the church and the OH (even if the OH were actually using them to watch the church), the new edition has them out there being the driving force behind wars of faith and then has the OH standing around watching that wars of faith do not exceed their remit.  Exactly how one or even a handfull of Inquisitors is supposed to stop of war (harsh language ?) once its started* is not explained.  I think I prefer the version where the SoB are more or less the chamber militant of the OH, rather than the new one where they are making war on their own behest.  Of course, for once, it's been carefully written not to contradict the earlier version; if only they had been so careful with the rest of the 40K corpus. 

The Obvious pointers are that the old codex is entitled "Witch Hunters" and the basic option was (is) to build your army around an inquisitor and his/her retinue, with added Iggies, ISTs, SoBs and/or Space Marines.   This new codex is about fielding an SoB army; there is a large new mini range to shift and we don't want to be giving the spending public the idea that they might be using a significant part of their existing collection, when the codex can specify some neat all new SoB options.  It's the current world we live in; I don't begrudge GW their commerce - all the people I might face over the table are likely to be ok with 5ed and an iggy command squad of Straken and four heavy flamers because that game is going to run like a Bruckheimer movie - we are not the target audience anymore. 

So an overall thumbs up from me, which is a first for these GW hardbacks.  And of course, as I've reverted to 5ed for all gaming, most of the rules stuff means bugger all to me, but some can be shoe horned in for thematic reasons. 
 

Catching up with old friends

I like to think of the books I read in my teens and early twenties as old friends.  They are familiar and reliable; I know what they're going to say on a subject.  I can share their pain, their struggle and eventual triumph.  It's important to look after old friends.  

I became aware that there was going to be another filum of Doon/June/Djoon in the middle of last year.  Oh crikey, I thought, I'd better re-read it so I can pompously pontificate (as is my want) from a position of less ignorance than I'm under right now.  I remember that the Lynch film was a bit like the pop video of the book; that it was well produced etc but due to being less than 14 hours long, failed to capture the nuances of the book.  Re-reading the book, I was right.  Compared to most space opera epics, not much really happens in Dune.  What you do get is a fascinating insight into certain aspects of the his world(s) that Hubert wanted to talk about.  It's good.  It's attention grabbing enough even if it's not as utterly compelling as Abnett.  There's certainly a lot of Dune in the 1984 RT book.  And the Daniverse, for that matter. 

 

My old Dune and Dune Messiah were the older, green cover types.  I've obviously lent them out at some point, possibly back in another life when I was a Tom.  So I had to buy the new one.  Which is nice.  I'm kinda hoping that I can pick up a copy of Dune Messiah in the same style/imprint.  

For Christmas 1983/84, my mum bought me Magician.  I suspect that she asked in the FLBS what the hot sellers in fantasy were and picked it that way.  I was more than happy that Christmas Day and certainly cannot remember what else I might have got.  The adventures of Pug/Milamber and Thomas/Ashen Shengaur were more immediate and accessible than Tolkien's more Edwardian characters.  Of course I now realise that I possibly have more in common with Aragorn and Bilbo than with Milamber and Thomas, but meh, they were great.  And even the midst of the riftwar was sometimes preferable to the real world.

Decades later I saw the revised edition in Waterstones somewhere and instantly grabbed it.  It sat on the shelf with it's much loved older self for over a decade until, putting Dune away, I picked it up.  Once again, the transformation of the two young boys into their adult selves and the machinations of Macros the Black (is Pug ever going to find out that he is Macros ?  Who knows...) and the clash of Kingdom of the Isles and Tsurani Empire sucked me in like quicksand in Harold Lloyd film.

So that arc pans out with these two books, tying all the loose ends up, restoring Guy the Bastard, making Jimmy the Hand, securing the succession in the Kingdom and generally proving that former foes can be allies etc.  Epic.  All the subsequent books are up there as well, But it's got to be daughter/servant/mistress of the empire next. 

Ok, you're thinking, fair enough, but what brought this on in the first place ?  A couple of blogs I frequent from time to time had mentioned that they were re-reading old favourites in lockdown and making observations/suggestions etc.  I commented on one that I might go back over the Belgariad, as it's a comfortable read which does not demand of it's reader in the same way that LOTR or Dune does, it's a much easier ride. Which it is.

So after Midkemia, it was off to the Alorns and Murgos and poor ol' small kitchen boy Garion being fed to Torak, the Dragon God of the Angraks. The humour is outstanding, the characters are ace, the dun- dun- daaARR ! is there.  I hadn't previously spent quite so long considering the implications of the theological aspects.  Still a lovely journey with old friends.  The Mallorean is up there on the shelf as well, so I'll have to have that out as well soon.

The only 'new' read here.  Once again the ghosts, forlorn, sent on another one way trip.  For what, I ask you ?  I suspect that real answer by now, decades after the great enemy destroyed Tanith, is that they have forgotten how to do anything else.  But again, the nods to the rest of the 40K universe - Gaunt remembering seeing DKK engineers using Hades breaching drills as a cadet etc - make this another ripping yarn from Kent's favourite sleep-thief. 

Which brings me to here.  Having put The Victory (part 1) on the shelf and assured myself that (part 2) is not yet available, my hand strayed those few inches to where my love/hate relationship with Abnett started.  Oh my god what a rollercoaster.  As I write this, the whole lot of them have been captured and the baddies are going to crash the wounded Hinterlight into a local star.  This is still as good as when I first lost a weeks sleep to it decades ago. 

So, rather than a page about airbrush failures, I thought I'd share this with you all.  After a decade or so of nothing more than military histories, revisiting fantasy and sci-fi is great.  There's a bit of 70s stuff in there, L Sprage deCamps, Harry Harrison, Ursula LeGunn, Michael Morcock, Fritz Leiber, Eric Vanlustbader.  So I might try a bit of that next. 
 

Christmas give away

 Hello,  I need to make some space and these form a nice little, potentially useful package for someone.  Even if you're not an RPGer yourself, perhaps you know someone who is ?  I don't think that the intention to play GURPS is even important, your friendly neighbourhood RPG player might be looking for ideas from sources to drop into their game.  

Anyway, I tried the few people I know and no-one wanted them.  I'm an avid fan of the printed  word and hate to think of this little treasure trove not finding a use anywhere.  Even if it's just making some gamers bookshelf look a bit more diverse. So these are free to a good home.

I'm even so keen that these find home where they are appreciated, rather than going in the recycling to become toilet roll that I could be persuaded to go halves on the postage.  

It's not going to get anywhere for Christmas, but hey, free stuff.

Carcharodons Outer Darkness

Some may remember my review of the first Carcharodon book.  On the strength of that one good experience, when this caught my eye, I stuck my hand in my pocket.

If you've spent long, lonely hours, sat in your cell, pondering the ins and outs of how any of multiple types of Space Marine chapters might work as you illuminate letters in your hand written Libram Imperialis by the light of a tallow candle, then this might be for you.

It's been out a while (I picked this up at the beginning of February), so hopefully there are no spoilers here for anyone who might have been hanging on out there for it to be published.

As with the previous book, what Robbie MacNiven has done here is explore the functioning of a fleet based chapter through the medium of an operational deployment. This is done in a considered, engagingly paced way in a manner which makes logical sense within the context of the fluff.

As with the previous book, there is a cast of 'normal people' as contrast and to compare to the genengineered super soldiers.  In this case, an inquisitor and his retinue straight out of the Daniverse - exactly the type of writing BL should be peddling, IMHO.  And a useful conduit to introduce common characters (and hence plot points hinting at a greater story arc) from the previous book. 

As with the previous book, the Carcharodons themselves are carefully presented as both a Space Marine chapter and also the scary bogey men from the FW Badab War books.  Tyberios the Red Wake is there in character, which can't have easy to write and might or might not have been rewritten more than once to get right. There are hints and tit bits, about them as shadowy outsiders and as a fleet based chapter, in there to inform and entertain.

If you want to know what a blackshield chapter might look like after ten thousand years, one permutation is presented here.  They are certainly interesting and hopefully someone in BL who enjoys the FW insights into the 40K universe will ask for them to make a re-appearance at some point.  Perhaps even Mr MacNiven has a plan for them; through the course of the book, I certainly saw more than one future for them. 

It makes perfect sense as a stand alone book, you don't need to have read Red Tithe first, you could read it afterwards and it just make even more sense.  The story is nicely paced and the action is consistent with the game mechanics and fluff;  It's also a set up for a third book...

bacck to place holding

I was getting tired of the KS question, so here's more photos from the archives:

Freebooter's fate masquarade figure done as Mandrake for me by PVP:

Old School Sentinels (from Admiral Drax) done as Blood Pact by Raven's Nest Painting:

Random Imperial Shrine city picture:

Antenocti's Zebu as Police Cruisers done by Golem:

Death Riders (Uhlans) holding the center ground somewhere:

I need to get my hobby night back, it's been taken over by ballet, guides and the shopping delivery (all whilst Mrs Z is at Rock Choir). 

Revised Placeholder

Housekeeping

There wasn't a lot of room left on the BoS.  The clean up was overdue.  Fortunately there is lot of slate in the garden to do the scraping with.  

A Relic

Some of you may dimly remember me banging on about clearing out the garage (Devos IV !!!), there's stuff in there we boxed when we moved in which hasn't seen the light of day in decades, some of these boxes moving with me from house to house as I make my progress around the kingdom*.

And the last box had delayed it's final opening and reckoning because it was bigger and heavier than the others.  Anyway, as you have already deduced, you geniuses, I finally got it down without it crushing me and this was one of the things I found at the bottom. 

If I really did have a museum, this'd go in it.

Such a pretty box.

With hindsight, possibly better than the contents....(?)

But there y'go.  Another little piece of history.

*just for you medievalists.

All things come to he who waits

You may remember this post, where I outlined why I wouldn't be buying the audio book (I know a lot of people love them, painting their minis to the soundtrack of the Horus Heresy etc).  But that what I'd really like is the real book...

Obviously someone in BL is listening, cause a few weeks ago, I got this:

Which is nice, and was quickly read.  I like the British Museum,  It's great, having almost nowt about Great Britain in it, but being full of cultural treasures from around the globe appropriated by our forefathers.  Regardless of the rights and wrongs of that, I love the Assyrian/Babylonian permanent exhibit.  The Shedu gates (the one on the left is a bull, the one of the right is a lion) are a particular favourite of mine and crop up in my FRPG campaign in the most impressive settings (not that the players would ever even notice).

So now the bounty that is the internet has provided something which could quite easily become a focal point in my long planned basilica.  Heck, it doesn't even need to be the front door.  Get a load of this:

On sale here and definitely one for the Christmas list.  Possibly the only one at 75 Euro Dollars.

If you want to see the DKK in an RTS game.

I caught this on a DKK Facebook group post.  Like the OP commented, I can't understand a word, however, this would seem to be what Steam was made for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKkh9y11llA  This is the DKK (three LRMBT with Plasma sponsons vs late war USSR ( a stupendous amount of T34/85s and SU100s and infantry).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvmAyA91_PY  Two tac squads of Blood Ravens vs late war Wehrmacht.

Something slightly different

Still not Devos IV content (sorry), but it's been a bit busy.  But as it's just my hobby time which has been interrupted, I'm in no position to complain.

Anyway for one reason or another, I had to clear out a lot of the garage.  Some of you know just how much there is in there.  Those who remember the film clip will have a sense of how cluttered it is, but the rafters were pretty much jammed with stuff.

Anyway, clearing out and throwing away I did find caches of AD&D and Traveller stuff.  Along with this:

A reminder that we live in a different world.  Germany is not bisected by the Iron Curtain, the UK is about to leave the EU and China is screwing down on pro-democracy elements in Hong Kong.  There is no reason that we should expect GW to behave in the way it did then, it might be nice, but then so would a lot of other things.  Ho hum. Mail order trolls, indeed.

Amongst the stuff are character sketches in ink from my AD&D stuff from the early 1980s.  It's all derivative; the trio of elves and pet sabre tooth kitty are very much taken from Liz Danforth's work; probably for the best.

This is an elf mage which I really loved.  So those two works are now saved here for prosterity; the late teenaged me was creative.  I discussed this with my Dad at the weekend (my sister and I took him out in London as a late birthday jaunt) and he reminded me of a pencil sketch which hung in the loo of my childhood home.  It was a kestrel on a post, looking at the viewer over her shoulder.  My Dad reminded me this had been the case and commented that the eyes of the kestrel seemed to follow the occupant around the room as he or she went about their business.  Nice that he should remember to remind me of that.

Anyway, I thought some of you might find this interesting.

Legoland

Now Legoland has a Starwars hall.  We went with a handy handy nephew in 2013 and had a good look around, good job too as two little girls are not too interested in a film franchise which they are actually too young to appreciate.

So, and if Courtney reads this, I'm sorry man, we didn't even go anywhere near it.

But wandering around, did come across this:

Which is a life sized Iron Man hulk buster suit.  Obviously it qualifies for inclusion in this blog as it is a  Sci Fi model.  Although it doesn't look too impressive in the ifone picture, it really was.

Fortunately, there was this there to illustrate the scale of it:

Anyway, I hope to get back to some decent content soon.  Mostly 'cause I don't have the 600K lego bricks to build one for myself.

OOooh Look ! Judge Dredd goodies

This at my Friendly 'Local' Comic Shop :

That's however many issues of the Judge Dredd Magazine in sequence from issue 1 for as high as it goes.  There's quite enough there for any Judge Dredd aficionado.  For about £60 plus postage.  So quite possibly worth the postage if even you live across the pond.  Or in the antipodes.  Or Ulan Bator.

Here's their fb page. https://www.facebook.com/comicconnectionsUK/ 

If you are interested and fb is problematic, pm me.

The rules of acquisition don't count at birthdays and Christmas

Well, not so much 'don't count' as 'can be circumvented'.

So I saw this on TTF http://ttfix.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/things-from-basement-pavlovs-house.html

Which is available here http://www.thingsfromthebasement.com/store/p350/Pavlov_House.html  but is so new and shiney that it doesn't yet have a price.

So coupled with the Blackhawk down Target Building: http://gcmini.mybigcommerce.com/28mm-blackhawk-down-target-building-28mmdf085/ 

And the Stalingrad tank factory: Although my link for this no longer works, it's probably on the bay of Es somewhere.

So, that's birthdays and Christmas sorted.  I've got that kickstarter building for my dad to build - he fell of a step ladder at the age of 72 and scared the bejesus out of all of us.  Fortunately he's fine now, so I'll be press ganging him soon.  Just my need for ten Chimerae left to sort.