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Let’s Play Tropico 4.

The view from my helicopter as we make final approach to my new island home.

Who doesn’t want to rule a Tropical Island? I’ve played a few of the earlier versions so it shouldn’t be too hard… I’ve picked a custom avatar, a Professor put into power via a “velvet revolution” who is a hardworking entrepreneur with administrative experience.

Farms

I started off with a few farms. Two producing corn, and a Papaya farm for variety, plus a couple (not pictured here) Tobacco farms to make some money. now I just have wait for my loyal subjects to build them all.

The Church, Clinc and pub are all vital to infrastructure.

Downtown I’ve constructed a Church, Clinic and Pub… As well as a Museum near the palace. Hopefully these should make the people happier.

With minimal infrastructure surely I’m missing something. The Police Station and Ministry are now finished and a High School has been commissioned. The marketplace should help feed my people, but I need some better housing. Even with two tenement buildings, I’ve still got a small shanty town building up behind the police station.

And everyone loves me! Nation El President is awesome day is a huge success. And don’t believe anyone who says otherwise.

MtC 2: Gurand Hetrix

Gurand Hetrix

Gurand Hetrix joined K&RAFB many years ago. Like many others he’s adopted Seanan’s colloidal silver supplemental diet leading to a rather weird skin color. Fairly early in his career he earned a mark of favor from Slaanesh which has left his skin far to sensitive to wear a shirt or armor so now he trusts in Slaanesh to protect him.

A couple of months ago he lost for the third time at Karoake night and is now been forcibly prohibited from singing, but this hasn’t dissuaded him from his devotion.

Keeper of Secrets #5

Keeper of Secrets needs a bath (most resin models do!) Click to Embiggen.

I might have a problem. No, GW has a problem. If they would release some new Slaanesh Daemons or Emperor’s Children models I’d give them my money. However they haven’t, and probably won’t for the near term future, so in my desire to expand my Slaaneshii army I end up turning to third party models. This, my 5th Keeper of Secrets, just arrived today. I was exceedingly pleased with the Creature Caster Spider Demon (the first of the 3 KoS I kickstarted, and the last to arrive) so when my friend Rick told me they’d made a new Demon I couldn’t resist picking up the Lady of Corruption. She’s a bit smaller so might be better as a Daemon Princess, though I don’t know how well Khaslillie would deal with competition.

If you are interested in alternate Keeper of Secrets models, I also highly recommend the Pleasure Demon from Mierce Miniatures. I also have two Lords of Lust from Titan-Forge. They are really much too small to be a good Keeper of Secrets, and they might be a bit big for a Herald. That said, the Banshees of Lust make excellent alternate Daemonettes, especially if you don’t like the aesthetic of the new models and can’t get your hands on any of the Diaz one.

Review: Trickster

Latest Kickstarter arrival is Trickster… A trick taking game, except generally you want to have as few cards as possible instead of as many. There are 8 colors, and each game you pick 7 heroes (there are nearly two dozen different heroes to choose from). Each trick one person picks a card to lead with, and the second player (called the Trickster) picks a card to follow with, which sets the rule for that trick. If they pick the same color, the rest of the cards have to match color. If they pick the same hero, cards have to match that hero, if they pick neither, then no card can match color or hero of a previously played card.

If you can’t play a hero the trick is over, you bust (taking all the cards into your tableau) and start the next trick.

The really interesting thing about the game is each hero has a special ability that lets you change up the game. Many of them involve manipulating tableaus (the cards you have in play, that count against you at the end of the round), hands, the trash, deck or even the pot (the cards currently being played).

I’ve only played a few games and it definitely feels like there is  a ton of depth, but it also feels like the game that works best at 5 or 6 players. With four players it flows pretty well, but at 3 it definitely felt forced.

Let’s play … Something

Click for more FUN options

So what would make a good Let’s Play? I could do Dwarf Fortress; It’s been a while and I wouldn’t mind some FUN! I’ve got X-com 2, but I’ve barely scratched the surface… That said a clueless ironman run could be entertaining… Though it’d probably end up getting all of my friends killed before I get the chance to included them all. Another possibility is Rimworld, which is kind of like Dwarf Fortress, but in space, and more firmly 2d.

Some outliers:

  • Tropico 4 (I’ve played the first few, but haven’t tried this version yet)
  • Cities: Skylines (this could be interesting if I can find a nice map of bburg, or import one?)
  • Banished (somewhere between Cities and Dwarf Fort)
  • Massive Chalice (the “genetics/bloodline” nature of this game makes me kind of uncomfortable)

Alternatively instead of Let’s Play I could do Choose Your Own Post and either start a new adventure, or revive the stories where they stalled out. I’m also open to other suggestions if you’ve got ’em.

 

Meet the Cult

This blog rises from the dead! Welcome to the first real new post, a weekly section where you’ll be able to get a glimpse into the personal lives and histories of the cultists in my Emperor’s Children army. Each Friday a new cultist will be featured.

Seanan Mac Phaidin

Rheatrivix and Khaslillie have created a fearsome host of Daemons and Chaos Space Marines. Their concerts, parties, raids and crusades are Legendary and have drawn many in, seduced by the allure of Slaanesh and a desire for pleasure and power. Perhaps least amongst the aspirants are the cultists. Yet each of them has a story to tell, and so over the next months these pitiful yet devout conscripts’ tales will be told.

We’ll start with Seanan Mac Phaidin, 1st Champion of Slaanesh. Seanan has been taking powdered silver as health supplement for decades, and in fact many others in the cult have taken up the practice, despite (or in some cases because of) the skin discoloration that results. Seanan claims it’s also lead to increased sensation, and resistance to las-fire.

Seanan joined Khaslillie and Rheatrivix’s Awesome Fucking Band soon after Khaslillie first brought Rheatrivix out of the Eye of Terror. His skill at recruiting new members into the cult largely stems from his enthusiasm, but is dampened slightly by his hideous mouth. His lower face was disfigured during a run in with some xenos that nearly wiped out his squad. Recently he’s acquired a demon mask, which he now wears constantly to hide his disfigurement.

 

Once More, with feeling

State of the Blog

So it’s time to resurrect the blog, starting tomorrow (Friday) I’m going to try and get back into the 5 posts a week rhythm. I’m going to change the format up a little however as it’s been four years!

Mondays will remain Let’s Play… I’m thinking X-Com 2, but I’m open to suggestions, and I’ll need at least a week to actually figure out what I’m doing if it’s not going to be a very short campaign.

Board Game reviews will remain on Tuesdays… though I might focus more on my favorite games, with occasional worst or new games as an infrequent occurrence as opposed to my previous “whatever was on the table” approach.

Media Reviews will probably go away, or possibly be used as filler when I’m behind on a regular feature. Instead Wednesdays are going to be a hobby focus. I’ve been gluing metal and plastic together for  more than a decade and know a thing about a thing.

Thursdays will remain “Rant” day where I talk about whatever.

Fridays are going to be a new feature “Meet the Cult” where I take a day each week to focus on one of the many otherwise unremarkables who have devoted themselves to my Warhammer 40k cult of Slaanesh. Usually you hear about the backstory of the movers and shakers, which often becomes a bit of Mary-Sueism. So of the conversions I’ve done have been quite fun and I already have bits of story about these guys in my head so I’m going to flesh it out. You might learn a little bit about the big name characters in my 40k/AoS Slaanesh army by extension, but that won’t be the focus.

Choose Your Own Post unless there is popular demand, CYOP is going on indefinite hiatus. Once I get my writing chops back I may work on it as a separate project or something.

 

Well that was an exciting 4 year Hiatus

A lot happened (details available upon request), but I think it’s time to revive this old thing. There may be some format changes. We shall see.

Today was awesome

Coffee, games and hanging out with a cool person. I still feel kind of giddy.

A rotten start

Well… today WOULD have been the second day in two weeks where I could sleep in. Like, turn off my alarm clock entirely (I actually set it for noon), and just as sleep as long as my body would let me.

Nope. Of course not. One of my new roommate’s friends is over here banging around, shouting and making noise at 9:30am. So drunk my roommate fled into the house and locked the door, and then called the police when this guy drove off.

On the bright side I got some painting done while watching Killing them Softly and Hitchcock. Nice. I forgot how much I like Hitchcock’s work, so a biography was pretty excellent. Then we played some Dungeon World at the game store.

I leave for gencon in 2.5 days! Can’t wait!