The Gaming Den

Ho ho fucking ho.

I had fun, spending the night with my dad and stepmother, but am just generally exhausted. So it was good, but I'm glad it's over, and the crazy capitalist "BUY MOAR THINGS" attitude can settle a bit.

On the plus side, when I forgot to take my meds with me and suffered pains, my dad gave me some of his Endone (Oxycodone - 5mg which makes it equal to about as much codeine as I usually used to take in one go).

So, who else here had fun/is over it?

Also, a Catholic priest decided to traumatise kids (in a way other than the normal one Catholic priests use to traumatise them) by telling them Santa isn't real. It's only fair, can we rock up to the church and say "Nor is God."? How about Market Forces?

It's 6:30 as I type this. I just got through packing up the wrapping paper.

And, really, it occurs to me that the big reason I enjoy the holiday season is the excuse to see all the people. Last night, I got to see more people in my aunt's house at one time than I believe has ever been in there at once. Despite the rain, I thought we'd have to move things outside, the inside was so crowded.

A couple of weeks ago there were the larger go-togethers for both sides of the family, scheduled for when people could make it, where I found out, for example, that upon his first son's birth, my uncle hugged the doctor so hard that the doctor slipped a disc and spent three days walking with his head at an angle. And eighteen months later, upon the birth of the second boy, the doctor sidled up to the nurse and said, "Uh, inform Mr. Wheeler--he's the tall man with the mustache wearing a track into the hallway outside--that it's another boy. But try to keep at least at least three feet away from him when you do." And, apparently, the nurse was very grateful for the head start.

So, given this amazing opportunity to see people like this...I don't harbor any resentment towards the holiday season.

Maxus, do you like to see the guy who hugztiem people to death?

Koumei: I wouldn't bet the priest believes in YHWH as well ...

I celebrate by cooking:



-Username17

Normally, my whole family just gets everybody cloths and candy fro X-mas. This year, we deviated and got each other books and DVDs. I got Daft Punk's Electroma. Looking thru the case, I found a booklet with pictures. There's no text, anywhere.
So I play the DVD. The best description I can come up with is that it's a film noir. In colour. With a little bit of sound. Absolutely gorgeous cinematography and some choice backdrops, but it's the worst movie I've ever seen.

Bigode wrote:Maxus, do you like to see the guy who hugztiem people to death?

Mmhmm. Uncle Freddy's a really cool guy, especially when put near his sons and his nephews. Between him, Butch, Wesley, and Jeremy, there's going to be something funny happening.

Even if it's my uncle turning out to be better at Xbox 360 football than Jeremy, despite Jeremy having a lot more video game experience under his belt.

Czech Christmas is a horrible thing. It is traditional for families to go get a Carp for Christmas. Seriously, a muck dwelling giant goldfish. And they take them home and keep them alive in a tub of water or bathtub until the big day, and then they beat the fish to death in front of the children and make it into food.

I think it is important to note that Carp are not considered to b an eating fish in China, a place that has the saying "If it has four legs and is not the table you should eat it." And the reason that they don't eat Carp is not because Carp are pretty or that legendarily they turn into fucking dragons, but because Carp are extremely bad tasting as a fish.

"The mossy, earthy flavor sometimes evident in carp tends to be stronger in the warmer months; carp harvested from November to April will have less of a river-bottom taste."

Mother fuckers! These assholes make gefilte fish right in front of small children and then act like it's a god damn delicacy. It's not a delicacy. It's revolting.

---

Anyway, then the Czechs do a bunch of crazy pagan shit. They seriously do divinations involving shoe throwing and floating candles in little boats. The church must loathe this country.

-Username17

Hahaha, that sounds completely awesome.

Make sure to tell us all about spanking day when it rolls around again.

So, my dad was asking if I wanted anything, seeing as he still buys us Christmas presents and Birthday presents and all, and doesn't see a problem with spending upwards of $200 on each of us on these occasions. I keep saying we're seriously old enough that he doesn't need to worry about it, that we're more interested in just spending the day together and having a laugh. And that I'm communist enough to despise the whole "Everyone, empty your wallets out to buy stuff! SPEND SPEND SPEND!" thing.

So he's relented, and this was the last year that he'll splash out. But my order from Forge World was delayed, because the cast was damaged so they need to remake the kit. I'm not actually sure what he's ordered - either a Macharius Vulcan Heavy Bolter (for the uninitiated, this kills Spess Mehreen squads like nothing you've ever seen), a Repressor (really handy cheap transport for Bolter Bitches) or both. Although he did comment on the price of the Macharius with "Bloody Hell, you could buy a real tank for that much!"* Incidentally, a few things there are over 500 pounds. Holy shit, has anyone ever bought one of those?

And Mum gave me some chocolate (always welcome), a nice facial moisturiser (always welcome after chocolate!), her old TV (nothing wrong with it, she just doesn't use it so thought I could put it in my room and hook it up to the PS2 I don't use, seeing as my sister also has a PS2, hooked up to the main one), St. Celestine (Faith points, whoo!) and a GW gift certificate.

Seriously. It's like I'm still a kid. Ah well. I knew they'd do it, so I made sure to buy everyone gifts early, a week before the "OMG MUST SPEND!" rush.

Also, tomorrow is Burn The Heretics Day (the day after Boxing Day, where GW holds an Apocalypse battle). So I've been madly painting away, and assembling like crazy as well. I have so many unpainted (base coated though) minis here on my desk, including 15 orks, 10 terminators and three fucking tanks. And I haven't even assembled my Hellhammer. Still, I have the genestealers and tyranid warriors done, as well as some Battle Sisters and Celestians and Repentias + Mistress. It should be a fun day, all in all. I hope to put shiny baubles on the trees of the heretics.

And by trees I mean tanks. And by baubles I mean melta bombs.

My painted Sisters look so awesome in their colour schemes. A selection of greens for the elites, and "hot pink, purple and blue" on black for the basic. WHERE IS YOUR GRIMDARK NOW?

*I then looked it up. You can seriously buy old Sovjet military tanks, repaired and maintained to run well, for around 40-50,000€. But they deactivated the weapons, of course. Not that anyone else necessarily knows that.

In Vietnam many Catholics eat Dog, which if you can get a good one, tastes like really juicy lamb.

Koumei wrote: *I then looked it up. You can seriously buy old Sovjet military tanks, repaired and maintained to run well, for around 40-50,000€. But they deactivated the weapons, of course. Not that anyone else necessarily knows that.

Holy shit! That would show the fucking idiots driving around in their SUVs. I'd probably only get to do it once, but it would be worth it.

There's a guy in Britain who drives around in a tank, which, in the UK, is perfectly legal with a driver's license and a deactivated cannon. He tends to pop up on TV shows about unusual rides.

The United States is rather more hard-nosed. Especially so ever since someone went on an omni-bender and walked into an armory, got into a tank, and wrecked a couple of neighborhoods and a lot of road before getting hung up on a median and got shot by police.

Count_Arioch_the_28th wrote:

Koumei wrote: *I then looked it up. You can seriously buy old Sovjet military tanks, repaired and maintained to run well, for around 40-50,000€. But they deactivated the weapons, of course. Not that anyone else necessarily knows that.

Holy shit! That would show the fucking idiots driving around in their SUVs. I'd probably only get to do it once, but it would be worth it.

I heard that too. I also heard that it's illegal to take them out of the country. Sounds like a plot for a teen movie.

Maxus wrote:Especially so ever since someone went on an omni-bender and walked into an armory, got into a tank,

The fact that he could do all of this is nearly as bad as the actual damage he caused. I mean, I know they have assault rifles in vending machines and hand grenade launchers to toddlers over in America, but seriously, letting any drugged up idiot wander in and pilot a tank?

Also, it mentions how in most countries you can't actually drive most of the tanks on the roads because the metal tracks would tear the road up. However it also has APCs, and some of them have wheels which make them fine for roads.

Apparently, the dude used to work at the armory. Or something similar. But, yeah, it precipitated a big hike in security.

Fire hydrants being knocked over and shooting a forty-foot water spout, multiple wrecked vehicles and houses, and innumerable street fixtures taken out...That's a pretty big object lesson.

old, bad movies. . .

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088224/

Koumei wrote:Incidentally, a few things there are over 500 pounds. Holy shit, has anyone ever bought one of those?

I believe they actually have managed to sell Mantas. There were a couple people claiming they were painting one on Warseer when they came out at least. Which seems odd since they're too big to actually use.

Sweet merciful Emperor on His golden throne! Nine hundred sodding pounds? Sure, it weighs several kilos and almost has a 1 metre wingspan, but you could easily buy a decent secondhand car for that much.

Anyway, I attended the Apocalypse game. It was good. I was late and missed the first game (disorder thrashed order), but deployed quickly for the second game. This time, order won by a long margin. The Land Raider Crusader did approximately fuck-all (immobilised a GK dreadnought so it could assault anyone) before being destroyed, my 16 genestealers were shot to pieces before they could assault anyone (although for what it's worth, they soaked up many hits in order to do that) and my Celestians died before they could attack anyone, so all they did was grant Faith points.

On the other hand, the tyranid warriors caused a little havoc, and the repentias annihilated one GK dread while a single Sister Superior used her Eviscerator to destroy another, and my Callidus assassin took out several terminators. They failed to hurt her, just about. She appears, shoots, assaults, kills some, dances about with an invulnerable save against their power fists... then on their turn, they can't move or shoot, only for her to disengage at the start of their assault phase, thus tying them up completely. In the end, she was taken out by the apocalyptic explosion of an Ork Stompa, while the Celestians shouted "Faith point!" and danced around, sticking two fingers up.

I had bad luck with deployment, I'll admit: the opponents consisted of 2 squads of 10 GK terminators (with maximum ass cannons), 3-4 GK dreads (multi-melta, 2 ass cannons at least - and then the dread weapons with storm bolters), a special hero squad that had relic blades and granted extra attacks to nearby allies, a GK chaplain and the Stompa. My bolters basically weren't worth anything, nullifying most of my army. And yet I still managed to inflict decent casualties (by making use of what COULD hurt them) and kept them from taking any objectives.

So sleep well, fellow humans, for the Battle Sisters protect us by day and night. The Emperor watches over us (and caused my name to be called three times in the raffle :3)

Man, now I wish I still played.

GK termis can't get ass cannons, just psy cannons.

I wish I wasn't too lazy to play.

Really? Because my foes sure looked like Grey Knights from where I was, and they certainly had a multitude of ass cannons. Perhaps they were just a bunch of Spess Mehreens painted grey, though. I can't remember any specific insignia - and they were on the other side of the table.

And it was only today that I realised I messed something up, and my Celestians should have been hitting on 3s in HtH instead of 4s or 5s or whatever it was. Holy Hatred for the win.

Ah well.

I got my father a copy of Dawn of War: Soulstorm for Christmas. I and a friend spent most of a day laughing as we played the campaign mode as Imperial Guard. Apparently, Blood Raven Space Marines are easily outclassed by Guardsmen with a 3 to 2 numerical advantage. With commissars there to shoot someone every half-minute, the odds get even better. We also specced our command squad for melee. The Commissar-General's primary role is to charge into the enemy's base with 2 priests in the beginning of the battle and attempt to chainsaw apart the Space Marine buildings (ignoring the 3 Space Marine squads firing their bolters at him as he does this. After he has destroyed their base. he's about 2/3 of his full health.). He also dismantles enemy minefields by hitting them with his power claws. Fun.

Did you notice how Vance Motherfucking Stubbs managed to lose 100 Baneblades?

Also, play through as Chaos ("Rhinos? Our enemies hide in METAL BOXES! The cowards, the... fools! We should... take away their metal boxes.") and the Spess Mehreens. There will be guaranteed laughs with the dialogue.

Koumei wrote:Did you notice how Vance Motherfucking Stubbs managed to lose 100 Baneblades?

Also, play through as Chaos ("Rhinos? Our enemies hide in METAL BOXES! The cowards, the... fools! We should... take away their metal boxes.") and the Spess Mehreens. There will be guaranteed laughs with the dialogue.

Sounds pretty good. I think I'll lower the difficulty level the next time I play through, though. The AI is pretty easily beatable through attrition, but spending 150 minutes on taking out a faction HQ gets old quite rapidly. I need a massive retinue if I want a decent chance at winning a normal battle in under 10 minutes.

By the way, do you know if the "3 to 1 kill ratio" wargear requirement measures the combined total of all your battles? If so, ack. It looks like I might have to forgoe the last of the imperial bling (comments have been made about the amount of gold Stubbs is wearing).

Also, my Necron are seasonal.

3 to 1 kill ratio is easy to get, just do the zone where you have to kill more enemies than you lose troops, hunker down and fortify up. Then send out kill teams to make sure that the enemy doesn't set up shop too close to your base.