Frederick Pohl 1919 -2013

Frederick Pohl
The Way the Future Was

Just recently heard of the passing of Frederick Pohl who died at the beginning of this month.

One of his most famous works

One of the giants and Founding Fathers of Science Fiction and was in on the ground floor of sci-fi and worked as a prolific writer and editor from the 30's right into the 90's writing some of the early sci-fi classic's and mentored many of the now great SF writers both during his tenure at Astonishing Stories and as a writer collaborating with many including Lestor Del Ray, L Sprague de Camp and Arthur C Clark.

The novel which introduced me to
his work along with Chris Foss'
artwork

Much of his work, though based in a sci-fi context, was firmly dealing with issues of the contemporary world form consumerism to over complexity and built-in obsolescence in manufacturing and beyond.

The man and his work will be missed by many.

Riddick - Rule the Dark

or 'Riddick gets a Friend'

This, the third Riddick movie in the series, (not counting the animation ones) is sticking with the whole Riddiverse thing and Vin Diesel continues to make this role very much his own.

I thought Pitch Black, the first of the series was pretty good, and thought The Chronicles of Riddick was exceedingly good, but with the the first being released back in 2000, and The Chronicles in 2004 time marches on and nine years has made a difference to Mr Diesel but he still pulls off the part with aplomb.

David Twohy, Director and writer of the three movies, has returned to the story line of Pitch Black to get the main plot hook and indeed the whole movie 'feel' with the story line having a great deal in common with that movie.

The start of the story, picking up from where The Chronicles left off was I felt, a bit weak but sets up the rest of the film adequately and the ret is pretty much what you expect and probaly came to the cinema to see, Riddick being Riddick and killing things along with a fair bit of eye-candy CGI and I did like the whole look of the planet even though it was more 'ruling the sepia', than 'ruling the dark'.

A typical bunch of Mercs
 (and David Twohy)

With a reasonable amount of expected violence but nothing too graphic, a decent amount of hardware and a fair number of 'well kent faces' plus the ubiquitous horde of oncoming scary monsters the film does deliver a couple of mild twists.

A not so typical Merc?

I won't repeat the whole story line but enough to say that the movie does what it says on the tin but doesn't set the heather a light with a novel story line but I did enjoy the film a great deal and would recommend it to anyone into the genre.

The movie gets a solid 8 out of 10 from the Warblog, 

One of the scary monsters 'up close'

I don't know if there will be another in the series, but again the plot does leave a few things open though I suspect these items are more of interest to the Riddick Fan than being explored in a cinematic/box office sense. I hope the series continues as I do think the whole Riddick thing still has some legs but if you had to wait another nine years, Mr Diesel I think would rightly decline the favour.

 We'll see.

Different Construction Than Normal

My usual hobby past-times have been taking a back seat recently with gaming and painting being pretty sparse of late, but just for a change I'm quite happy about this state of affairs as I have at last got around to building a 'Man Cave', and this has been taking up most, if not all my free time over the last couple of weeks or so.

So I've swapped my craft knife and size 00 paint brush for a stanley knife and a compound mitre saw and have been doing a bit of carpentry instead.

Quite enjoying the whole construction thing and with a bit of progress now being made with the build now water tight and lock fast, I can slow down a bit and get the fit-out under way soon.

I'm now close enough to seeing the fruits of my labour's to be planning games and painting stations and all sorts of good stuff that I can now do with a bit of elbow room to spare that the whole project looking worth while. I'll be doing other stuff no doubt in the new cave but with enough room for 8' x 4' plus storage etc etc the activities planned will involve a game or two.

Still a couple of weeks away from getting whole thing habitable and a couple more to get it fitted out it'll be no time at all before it's under sail. Looking forward to it.

Future Wars Trial Game - Genestealer Attack!

With progress with the 'Future Wars' project slow but steady, I had decided to give the rules a whirl and see if they suited the flavour I was looking for.

With pal JTM looking to try out a layout he'd been amassing 'bits and bobs' for a ruined urban terrain layout he'd been planning, the two trials came together for a game a few nights ago.

With both the troops and the terrain being WIP, we still managed a fairly good game and certainly a good trial of the rules.

I fielded the majority of my Mechanised Assault Platoon with re-inforcements in the form of an elite SAS squad types, coming on on a random turn plus random delpoyment. JTM decided to field his growing horde of alien horde/genestealers. A quick scenario was thrown together with the Thin Blue Line deployed defending their Command HQ (int the form of a couple of Staff Officers with small squad of Mercenary Body Guards as last ditch defence and the rest of the platoon ranged across two thirds of the battlefield ready to sell their lives dearly against the oncoming tide.

Defence in depth

The initial couple of moves were uneventful with the aliens moving through the terrain pretty much in cover, but the next moves then opened up all sorts of hell-on-earth with the movement almost all on the alien side and the shooting all on the Mech Infantry side the moves were pretty quickly done.

The Green Tide emerges

The first few creatures to appear in the centre, quickly disappeared in a hail of automatic gun fire and mortar rounds, but there were plenty more to come.

View from one of APC's

The firing was pretty effective, mainly due to the huge amount coming at the enemy and the aliens in the centre had a pretty hard time of it.

The alien right flank had a lot more cover right up to contact so faired much better. The alien left however broke up pretty quickly with some very accurate shooting from Section Charlie.

JTM quickly realised that he had to concentrate his rushes and the natural course of event pushed the horde to the right flank.

There did appear a natural wave effect with the horde making more progress every second turn, this was the result of the light mortars and grenade launchers (vehicle mounted mainly) firing every second turn.

The two APC mounted mini-guns proved to be singularly in-accurate except at the closest ranges where they gratifyingly shredded several aliens clambering over their hulls.

The pinning result from the shooting proved to be a real godsend as this often caused battle necks with the alien numbers getting in their own way when a 'pinned' alien blocked an avenue of advance and allowing more time to hose the enemy lines with lead and depleted uranium.

Not surprisingly, once the aliens got into close combat, they started to deal out a reasonable amount of damage and the line started an orderly withdraw, firing as they went.

First casualties as the aliens get to grips

The front line start to fall back, firing as they go

With the agreed time running out, the aliens eventually beat a grudged retreat and the Mech Infantry in possession of the field with the HQ intact but weakened before the next assault, though they had inflicted huge casualties (but there's always more aliens).

A good trial of the rules and of the terrain, which now goes to the painting and basing stage suitably modified.

The rules seemed to be fine in most respects, the only minor niggle was that there didn't seem to be much noticeable difference between weapon types eg assault rifle and LMG for instance, so a few tweeks on the weapon types is probably on the cards but nothing major, but a good old fire fight is needed to check whether things are going the right way there.

The rules certainly produced a quick game and with the feel of high powered modern weaponry but a little bit more complexity might be a nice twist of chilli to the overall flavour. We'll see.

More Claymore Castings Islesmen/Highlanders

Claymore Castings - OT25 Islesmen/Highlanders

Some more very nicely done Islesmen/Highlanders have just been released from Claymore Castings to go with the command group recently done, again designed by Paul Hicks.

David of Claymore Castings let me see some of these pre-release at Claymore 13 and they are very nice in the flesh too.

Though these are released as part of the Otterburn range, due to the nature of the troops, particularly if you want to use them as Gallowglass, they can be used right up to the 17th century with suitable weapon swops. Certainly into the early 16th century in Scotland.

David has also promised Kern and the like to be added to the range but the ETA for these is unknown currently.

Mordheim Season 2 - Talabec Tussle

This week, we played the fourth round of the 'Season 2' Mordheim Campaign, the Talabec Tussle with a depleted four players due to holidays etc, with myself (Kislevites), Dave K (Marienburgers), Kev (Beastmen) and Andy (Sisters of Sigmar) all taking part.

The scenario this time round was a race to get across the single bridge over the Talabec river to obtain an old Key from the remains of a shrine through the abandoned remains of a village. Occupying the village were five giant armoured woodlice who though not very viscious were harder to kill than an armoured knight, they would prove to be the downfall of many of the combatants and with random deployment it was going to be fun.

The set up from the random deployment was the Beastmen and the Marienburgers were at each of the far corners from the crossing, the Sisters and the Kislevite's opposite each other closest to the crossing but also the Woodlice.

All quiet in the abandoned ruins, only the local fauna stir

The quiet of the village ruins are soon broken as the Kislevite's open up as they quickly advance towards the centre and take out the nearest Woodlouse with a lucky bow shot. The Marienburgers advance up the flank of the village and the Beastmen do the same but in a looser formation on the other flank. The Sister's quickly move towards cover and a vantage point that is near their deployment area.

The Beastmen make their move towards the goal

The Woodlice patrol the approach to the crossing

The next couple of moves continued in this vain with the bands generally keeping safe and in cover while cautiously moving towards each other, the Marienburger's loosing a Billman to a lucky shot through the ruins from the Kislevite Streltzi and the the Kislevite's also took out another Woodlouse to a lucky shot as the advanced towards the Sister's.

The Sister's initially take cover and move towards
the Beastmen

The 'cute' Woodlice

The Marienburgers skirt the main action but take pot-shots
at the Kislevite's as they go

The action then heated up as the Kislevite's broke from cover and began to pepper the Sister's with annoying rather than accurate fire. The Sister's, charged by one of the Woodlice eventually managed to take the beastie out but taking a couple of rounds and three warriors to do it.

The Beastmen, still keeping to cover began to close on the Sister's from the flank and the Sister's beginning to feel pressured withdrew to around the strong point they had occupied.

The only effective shooting from the Kislevite's occured here with their Augur taking a hit and getting knocked down while on the upper walkway but did not take a tumble from the vantage point.

The Kislevite's firing line begins to form

The first couple of Beastmen arrived and feeling bold charged in including the Centigor on his flank and held the line (surprising Kev no less than anyone else).

The Beastmen spot their prey

The Kislevite's continued their advance while pouring shot onto the Sister's and then when they appeared, the Beastmen but their early luck had deserted them and now they couldn't hit a barn door despite upwards of eight shots a round, pretty disastrous dicing.

The Kislev's know there's something the other side of the
hut, but what?

The Beastmen and the Kislev's close in on the feeling
picked upon Sister's

THe Kislevite's close on the Sister's who retreat to face
the Beastman threat to their rear

While engaged to the flank, the Sisters moved their mercenary Elf Archer to the vantage point vacated by the Augur but as the rest of the Beastmen did a sweeping advance to catch the Sisters stretched out to meet the multiple threats, the Beastmen Shaman let loose a furious and nasty spell which though knocking the Shaman to the ground himself did what for for the Elf who disappeared in a spray of blood and other nasty stuff.

A tempting target for everyone the Sisters Elf Archer
gets a vantage point

The Beastmen close on the Sisters

The Marienburger's still keeping a low profile were circling the action and slowly moving to the goal while shooting at any Kislevite target that presented itself to little effect but did manage a lucky shot a floor one of the Kislevite Youngbloods as he was rushing to attack the hated Sister's (hated due to previous wounding from the Sister's).

The prize is in reach of the Sisters and Kislevites

The Kislevite's close on the action

Things got even nastier as the rest of the Beastman posse arrived and got stuck into the melee, and though the Sister's had withdrawn their numbers together for the ensuing barney, the dice quickly went the way of the Beastmen and about half of the Sisters number went down in the ensuing ding dong fight.

Kislevite Captain and Esaul take cover

The Beastmen close for the kill

With the Sister's effectively out of the race (Andy wisely voluntarily routing on his next round) made their move towards the bridge and the key, with the Marienburgers cautiously moving up to the river on the flank behind them. The Beastmen moved in cover together and closed towards the next fight.

The Beastmen, victorious against the Sisters, take cover
from the impending fire storm

Unfortunately for the Kislevite's one lone Woodlouse was left guarding the prize and though three Warriors jumped on the beast, they could nor pierce it's thick hide with their axes's but it did manage to munch into a couple of the Warriors in quick succession and the Kislevite's promptly failed their rout test. Curses.

So with only the Beastmen and the Marienburgers left, Kev decided he didn't like the odds of charging the Marienburgers and their four longbowmen over open ground with depleated numbers thanks to his fight with the Sister's and so he quit while ahead and so this only left the Marienburgers to deal with the final Giant Woolouse and claim the prize which they did with surprising speed. A victory to Dave and his new Marienburger Warband.

Another good game with again a different feel to it, great stuff. Once again my Kislevite's shooting was abysmal, with the amount of shots taken the odds on getting at least a couple of kills was pretty good but failed to materialise when it counted. Typical. I think I'll need to have a word with my warriors and maybe threaten a spell in the Northern Oblast if things don't improve.

Claymore 2013

Another yearly trip to the Far East and the event that is Claymore in Edinburgh.

The show seemed a bit quieter than previous years though the initial impression as you came through the doors was one of being absolutely packed, but I think that was due to an increase in the number of traders with several of these right as you came in the doors so making that seem busier.

Speaking to couple of the traders I know, all said it had been a quiet day with sales down quite a bit on the day. Even the bring and buy was deserted and looking at the fayre on offer, it did seem pretty poor in terms of quantity of stuff on sale rather than on the products themselves, but the lack of bustle there spoke for itself.

There were, as I said, a slight increase on the number of traders which was good but there wasn't a lot to tempt me into that un-planned purchase I just got the couple of items I had planned to get in the way of some Renedra Gabions (yes Warlord Games who haven't had any for two shows running!) which I picked up from Coritani and some barrier bits and bobs from the nice man at Ainsty.

There were some nice games on show, but nothing that really had the wow factor but definitely a couple that caught my eye like Dave Imries' Roman's vs Celts, FDWC's Monmouth Courthouse and the very nice 'Very Civil War' to name but a few. Barry Hilton's piece was as usual visually stunning but also very static, which I could say for several of the games which would have been much more intriguing if they had actually been playing them.

All in all another nice day out in the capital with pretty nice (if a tad windy) weather and good to get to chat to the bods which I sadly only ever get to see at the shows and catch up.

I surmise that it may have not been the most successful show that the SESWC have put on, perhaps the sun keeping the crowds away.