VLog - The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

Auros and Dare give another vlog, this time on the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Once again these are first impressions, so there may be errors... and cake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2402eFDahE

Pandora on Dreadfleet

Hey there, Pandora here with another awesome thing that has stolen my mind. This month it has been all about Dreadfleet.

Dreadfleet is the newest sub-game from Games Workshop. To be honest I hadn't really paid much attention to the hype about it, and wasn't all that bothered until I happened to be in store on the launch day.

After 1 demo game I was sold.

So what's it all about? It is set in the Warhammer fantasy universe, sort of. The actual setting is a sort of 'Bermuda Triangle', a ship graveyard with many strange tales around it.

There are 2 main groups in the game the Grand Alliance (goodies) and Dreadfleet (baddies). All the ships have there own story of how they ended up in this strange place, as you would expect from a Games Workshop product the back stories are detailed and mesh together as part of an overall story of the game. There are 10 ships altogether, plus auxiliaries and scenery. The game box was priced at £70, which seems steep until you take into account it contains literally everything you will need, including dice, game mat and even plastic bags to keep cards in.

The models for this game are amazing. Each of the 10 ships is distinctive, and reflects the faction it represents very well. Though the one that surprised me was the inclusion of a Chaos Dwarf ship, the Black Kraken.

It's almost impossible to say which the best looking ship is, as they all have unique points that make them stand out. Though the 2 head ships, the Heldenhammer and the Bloody Reaver, are as expected the most impressive and the largest, though that's not saying all the ships aren't awesome.

I am also happy to report in the most part the models go together very easily and neatly. Painting wise, I found it easiest to follow the suggested colour schemes, as none of the factions I collect are included so I had little in the way of colour scheme knowledge for them. The accompanying White Dwarf has painting guides for all the ships, some of the auxiliaries and an overall guide to the scenery. The scenery pieces that are included with the game are equally impressive and distinctive. Hell, Citadel have even gone all out on the pieces for measuring the angle of a turn, measuring stick and wind direction gauge. Even the auxiliaries are detailed and unique. All in all a class act from the model point of view.

As for game play, again all angles have been covered well. All the ships have a card with their stats and Captain's abilities, meaning no fighting over the rule book. The instructions are clear and concise and cover almost everything that may come up during game play. Anyone familiar with playing Warhammer won't find this too much of a jump. The turn phases may have different names but are essentially the same, so there are orders (resolving continual effects etc), movement, Broadside (shooting) and boarding (close combat).

Player turn order is decided by a D6 roll at the start of each round, so tactics vary each turn depending on your roll and the actions of the players before you as well as anticipating the actions of the people after you. Also, as the instruction book is well laid out it isn't hard to find what you are looking for, for the times the player's minds go blank or an argument threatens to break out. Almost all special instructions are written on the various cards that come with the set. This means that when they are all laid out in front of the player, they essentially act as a quick reference guide.

Most of all this is a very sociable game. As there are 10 ships, there can be up to 10 players. The rule book contains various scenarios for different numbers of ships, and uneven sided battles.

There is also the matter of portability. As the girls quarters of the WIP HQ are a long way from the main HQ, I don't tend to war game much. As it means lugging an army case there and back, where as this is much easier to move. And only 1 person needs to bring things, so as many people can join in as are interested.

So get your pirate on. Yaarrrr! Rum all round!

Welcome, Pandora!

          This is Pandora. A short intro may be in order: I am a gamer geek who also happens to be a girl - we exist, honest! I play RPGs, table top games and console games and I take all of them very seriously. By seriously I mean I have a large collection of XBox games, I have characters for several RPGs and I have a fair few Warhammer and Warhammer 40K armies and a Warmachine army. Which is the point of the first piece that I am doing. I would like to point out that I know this isn't the case all of the time, with all people - this is based on some of my experiences and some experiences I know other girls have had.

          First of all, back off into the mists of time, when I was still in college, my group of friends would often go to the local LAN arena to play. Normally this would mean a first person shooter, mainly Call of Duty, Day of Defeat, Battlefield Vietnam or Halo; and although I am not usually a PC gamer - preferring consoles for the lack of having to upgrade once a week to be able to run new releases. I became very good at them - note the DM and 4G can back this up, and I'm not just bragging. For example, holding off in a 2 vs. 1 scenario on Battlefield Vietnam for an hour and a half, and the other team having to napalm me out in the end. Now most of the people I played with did take me seriously, but I did get the occasional comment of "You're good … for a girl." This is the most rage inducing statement that anyone could make to me. I don't see why that should affect my ability to play computer games.

          Ah, I hear you say that was then and this is now. Well this also goes into the game retail industry, and is still ongoing to this day. For example, imagine the total annoyance of this scenario: you are out shopping and find something you want to buy, but whilst you are trying to pay for said item the person serving is talking past you to the person you are with. This has happened to me on more than one occasion buying games, but only ever when the person I am shopping with is a guy. This has even happened when the person I am with has explained the game is for me and I am the one who is going to play it, but they still talked past me to them. This kind of leads me onto another point: this has only happened when I am buying FPS or combat/fighting games. Where as if I am buying an RPG or especially a JRPG I have never had that happen. Is there some sort of unwritten law that its fine for girls to be into some game types and not others? If so, why? I am good at FPS games, and beat 'em up games, though I still can't beat Auros at Soul Calibur - as well as RPGs. This happened recently enough for the game I was buying to be Red Dead Redemption.

          I have to say I have been lucky with pen and paper RPGing, the group I play with, when I get chance, are totally cool with the idea that I am perfectly capable of playing, coming up with plans and kicking ass in most RPG scenarios. Table top war gaming, however, is a different matter. For example I have been told that for Warhammer and 40K that I have "typical girl armies." Again, another rage inducing statement. My armies are chosen because I like the models, background fluff and abilities of said army. For example, the first army I collected was the Sisters of Battle; not because it was a "girl's army" but because I like the idea of battle nuns. I liked the models and thought I could build and play well with them. My choice was that simple. It would be the same incentive guys use to buy their armies; Space Marines, for example, is a typical "guy army."

          So there is my rant, I have tried not to get too wound up. I am sure there are a few girls out there who have similar, or worse experiences, and there are lots of people who take girl gamers seriously. It just seems the industry at large doesn't - games aimed at a female audience is a totally separate rant that I won't start now.