Salamander8

With it being veteran's day here in the US, and Remembrance day to our Canadian neighbors, I felt this song was rather appropriate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9TDt3Ouo4 I normally hate slower music, with certain exceptions, but the Dropkick Murphys did a great job on this song and the subject matter never ceases to affect me.

My first goblin team game I just finished was versus a Norse team and it was pretty crazy. On my team we have trolls, a chainsaw looney, a ball-and-chain wielding fanatic, a bombardier, and a goblin on a pogo-stick. On the other side you have berzerkers and at least one werewolf (although I never saw him shapeshift). I won 2-0 thanks to actually killing one of his players and injuring enough to blast a hole through his line before my secret weapons got sent off the pitch. I got my second score via an interception that turned into a brawl at the end zone! This brings back some fond memories, football is a lot more fun this way! :thumbsup: Chainsaw screenshot! http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab268/Salamander8888/chainsawlooney.jpg Just got a touchdown with my pogostick goblin and his victory dance has him riding it like those old play horses from long ago. It's pretty funny. http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab268/Salamander8888/pogotouchdown.jpg

I just finished the Guns of August. I see why Barbara Tuchman won the Pulitzer for this book, it's excellent and also extremely informative about that fist month of the war. Now to start my next one, Mussolini and his generals:The armed forces and fascist foreign policy, 1922-1940 by John Gooch.

I've managed to play through the starting 'clean cup' tournament in the campaign game and win it, but most of my games were low scoring since the undead are not exactly masters of the passing game it takes longer to score and the game is only 16 turns long per team. My ghouls have gotten the most touchdowns as they are fast and a couple of TDs were scored by my wights, but mummies have trouble just picking the ball off the ground, much less trying to catch or throw! It's a lot like the board game as I remember it although it's the later version after GW went off on their simplification binge, so there's some significant differences. There's still 3 ways to play; the passing game, the running game, and the physical game. I of course prefer the physical game as this is where you win by beating the other team so you can score without them interfering. Certain races excel at one or another, and some are more flexible, but maybe lacking in certain areas. The wood elves are the champions of the passing game, whereas the skaven prefer the running game, and the dwarves prefer a good physical brawl. You get star player points as you do things like score touchdowns, injure opposing players, and etc., and you can get various skills that let you play the game better in one way or another. I'm mostly going for things that let me hurt my opponents more readily, but both of my ghouls have sure hands and catch now since they are the ones most likely to be able to manipulate the ball. There's a lot of races, although you can't do mixed races as of yet, but they do have: Undead, Khemri (Egyptian-themed undead), Necromantic, Chaos, Nurgle, Amazon, Dark Elf, High Elf, Wood Elf, Elf, Human, Norse, Dwarf, Goblin, Skaven, Orc, Lizardmen, Halfling, Ogre, and Vampires. I may try goblins next as they have players with chainsaws and bombs. ;)

Actually, when I was in high school this song was popular and I listened to it quite a bit. It was on MTV a lot back when they actually played videos (shocking I know). :whistling: Time for: Malevolent Creation-Eve of the Apocalypse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Koi-LGMkguo

There was a DoS version but it was poorly done, I still have it on CD-ROM here somewhere. The original game was actually played with miniatures on a foam, and later on, cardboard playing field. We all made our teams and then went and got the miniatures and most of them were even painted! For a long time Patrick had the only cheerleader, a dark elf he painted so he always won the damn cheer reroll. My fans had horrible chant, decent loyalty but max hooliganism, which let's face it, is the most important factor anyway. :tongue: The DoS game I had a couple of years after college on my 486-25. :whistling: Here's an example although this one is nicer than my old board (the pitch as it's called). http://www.drunkdwarves.com/images/lamenters_pitch/001.JPG Also here's a shot of my undead cheerleaders from a replay of my first game vs. the wood elf team (them being called the "green glades" is no surprise). http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab268/Salamander8888/undeadcheerleaderssmall.jpg I've been up against the same wood elf team for both of my campaign games so far. Beat them 2-0 and 2-1. The little blighters have the best passing game of any race in the game, but they don't take hits well. They got that touchdown because the only 2 players I had in line to attempt an interception were a zombie and a mummy... So basically a free long pass. You can play the game in one of three ways; running, passing, or physical. And by physical I mean beat the crap out of the other team so you can score at your leisure. I prefer the physical method myself. The undead are a bit odd in game, as the physical strategy is the best for them, but they aren't the toughest per se, but are hard to keep down as they can just re-assemble. Mummies hit really hard, but are hopeless at handling the ball. Ghouls are great runners, but zombies and skeletons are slow and not overly skilled, and wights are better at hurting people than handling the ball, although they are better than everyone else but the ghouls.

I still have Pigskin Footbrawl along with Mutant League Football and Hockey for my Genesis which is currently boxed but playable ;) We had a blast with an older version of BB in college. My team was "The Nasty Slashas" and was a mix of goblins and skaven and trolls. One friend just had to use a chainsaw-wielding loony every game and we had one game where everyone was ignoring the ball and chasing the severed head of a player around to get the re-roll for it!

This new version just got released a few days ago and I had to grab it. We had a league for this game in an older incarnation with the miniatures and the foam playing field (and the dungeonbowl variant too!) back in college (I'm talking 88-91 here :P ), and had a blast. Most of us actually even painted our teams, unlike our Warhammer armies, which many of us were guilty of fielding in 'primer' camouflage. This version game uses the newer rules, but has a lot of variety of teams. The 2 commentators get a bit repetitive but are overall pretty funny. I'm trying a campaign with a custom team of the undead called the Tombstone Terrors and this sight of a Wight's touchdown dance made my day: http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab268/Salamander8888/Wighttouchdownsmall.jpg My first match was against a wood elf team. They dodge like mad, but when one of my mummies did connect, it was rare they got back up. They definitely out-did my team in the cheerleader category however. Mine do look amusing as a skeleton dressed in sneakers and a mini-skirt with a blond wig though.

Yeah, part of the problem with WoW's popularity is the immense amount of scams out there. When I used to play, there was a period with constant in-game mail spam for awhile. Other bad ones both in and out of the game are always popping up. I'd do a system scan and be careful that your computer's security isn't compromised. I don;t want to overly alarm you, but you may have to do a clean OS install if it's bad. Better that than what happened to an old WoW guildmate that refused after getting a key-logger and then getting it again when he wouldn't re-do his OS. I sometimes get the itch to dust-off my 2 level 80 troll ladies (a disc-specced Priest(ess) and a rare tank-specced Death Knight, as almost all other ones I ran into were all about DPS and then complain they couldn't get raid spots :wallbash: ), but we had some really nasty drama, which I loathe, awhile back and some of my old friends refuse to play, and I can't deal with the drama anymore. I got as far as 10-man and 25-man Ulduar before slowing my play down and then did one of the later instances in Icecrown and let my account lapse. Before I made the mistake of moving off of it to Bloodhoof, I found Shadow Council to be a really nice server. If I would ever play again, I'd pay to transfer my characters back there.

Leave it to Impaled to be so over-the-top with cheesy violence like in this video. Each member of the band "chokes on it" in different ways. It's pretty goofy overall, but somewhat appropriate for Halloween as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEJ0upyanKk Naktis, I have only Mayhem CD: Wolf's Lair Abyss, but they're pretty decent overall. Lots of good metal shared here, but you guys are going to make me spend more money on CDs when I need to save cash for going back to school! :P

Oh man...I wouldn't live through that. It's too hot for me above 80F lol Yeah...it's getting so cold here too...week looks pretty chilly *brr* You sound like me! I can't deal with the heat but the cold and I get along just fine. I can take sub-freezing far better than anything over 80F. Driving through this wind the other 2 days was crazy on highway 45. I had to not only fight off the typical traffic issues on my roughly 1/2 hour commute, but had to fight to keep my car in my lane as the wind buffeted it across the highway! The fence gate got heavily damaged by the wind and the hinges are bent and the last screw in each one got pulled completely out of the wood. Living this close to Lake Michigan has it's ups and downs.

Exhumed-Waxwork from their Anatomy is Destiny album http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d571jRglYXs

It is similar to both of those, and of course MoO and SE4, but it is quite different in that the AI you fight against plays by very different rules than you do and you can 'anger' the AI too quickly and it will crush you like a bug if you do. It's hard for me to put into words, but the biggest original idea of the game is the way the AI behaves. Instead of playing like a reflection of the human players, it's more like a sleeping giant that if you rouse it's ire unprepared, will make your life short and brutal.

I have started playing AI War: Fleet Command again now that the new micro-expansion is coming soon and the good folks at Arcen Games were asking those of us that like the game to spread the word, so I immediately thought of The Nexus! It's an RTS, but it's a quite different RTS. It's actually cooperative for 1 to 8 human players against 2 asymmetrical AI players for control of the galaxy. Like turn-based 4x games, you start out small, but can quickly grow and the battles can involve hundreds, even thousands of ships. Here's an early screenshot of a new game with the newest beta patch as an example: http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab268/Salamander8888/AIminifleet.jpg The graphics are pretty simple, but they get the job done. The game's biggest allure is the massive number of different unit types; from the basic Fighter to the versatile Riot Control Starships; from the very dangerous Parasites, to the Massive Golems, the game has a staggering array of units. Some of them are AI only as the AI plays to different rules, but many can be unlocked via research or capturing AI labs and special production facilities. The game has a lot of depth and replayability as you can set the AI types and difficulty, pick different galaxy sizes and layouts, play solo or with up to 8 people, and have different 3rd-party factions be present or not. The game is not a short one as it can take hours to complete, and you can save at any time. Time actually plays against you as the AI becomes more dangerous the longer the game lasts, but pushing too quickly can backfire as the AI sends attack waves after your systems. You can get in-depth info at one of these sites as I don't want to make this post 5 pages long. ;) Their Website: Arcen Games Their forums are here: Arcen Games Forum Arcen Games AI War wiki: Wiki Community Wiki: Community Wiki You can get a free demo at their Website or via Steam, and use either of these sources to actually buy the game as well. Buying the main game and the first big expansion (The Zenith Remnant) is quite reasonable, and the new micro-expansion is only $4, and that $4 all goes to the Child's Play charity! Pretty crazy for an independent game company. It truly is a labor of love and it shows. If you like starship-based combat and lots of variety of units, you will most likely enjoy this game.

Anata-Downward Spiral into Madness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIueKHJE1GM

I played the original Dungeon Siege a lot with some of my friends on our LAN set-up back in Michigan. It was fun and I liked a lot of the summons, but I really loved the chicken gun when we found out about that.

Finally a new update. I added BBB to Fizz99's sultry Menace outfit. BBB for Menace Outfit

piece of toast

We have a local restaurant called Robert's that serves far better burgers and fries than any fast food chain, and they are fresh and made to order but they still have a drive-through (with a fair wait of course). On the rare occasion that I do have fast food, it's Wendy's in Menomonee Falls. Better burgers than average and the food is always hot. I really really hate cold french fries with a passion. When I was a kid I had fast food as much as I could get away with but almost never these days.

I just finished the book on Erich Raeder. It was interesting as he really is not as well known here in the US as Karl Donitz (who's autobiography I've read), and I was quite curious about the man in charge of the Kriegsmarine before Donitz took over in 1943. In many ways he was the inheritor of the legacy of Tirpitz and in others quite different. Moving on to: The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.

by throwing sandwiches