Weekender XLBS: Ultimate Gaming Rooms and the Return of Alien
February 22, 2015 by dignity
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Happy Sunday to all and DeadDave
And to you, told you id have a lay in lol.
That’s not much of a lay in DeadDave but you are an honourable man who is true to his word. However, if you really are a FW whore, does that mean you’ll be getting one of the new shadow “we need sh1t loads of big guns on this bitch!” Tanks? Or does your honour and integrity not stretch that far???
Oh bugger! I just looked at the stormhammer feed, you truly are a FW master!!
Mwahahahaha!
Boom
Happy Sunday!
Justin really needs to grasp the concept that there are people out there, in the real world, that are different from himself! I think he may have experienced a ‘paradigm shift’ when discussing reading rates with Lloyd.
You ‘boys’ really need to read some more history of modern wargaming from writers such as Donald Featherstone, Terrence Wise, Charles Grant etc. This may broaden your understanding of why games today are like they are, they have their roots firmly based in the innovative ideas from early pioneers such as these. It would seem like your only experience of ‘old timers’ wargamers would be people like Rick Priestley!
Happy gaming, there is a whole raft of material out there to be discovered.
Damn Right!
PS, welcome to our hobby!
The first film in the series of Alien films was, Alien! The second, Aliens! The rest just milked the theme a tad.
good show.
what I do for hobby time is i paint on the sofa, I bring down a tea tray with a few models and a few paints. that way I can still be kinda social with the missus and get some hobby stuff done
Love a good (or even great!) Gundam kit. I tend to only assemble them, and then it’s mainly the 1/144 or 1/100 kits (which can still be insanely detailed). I have had a 1/60 PG Strike Gundam kit sitting around that I am, frankly, mildly terrified to even try and build….
I do distinctly remember that when I was getting into GW in the early 90’s my proxy for a Blood Angel Dreadnaught was a Zaku kit I brought in Hong Kong 🙂
Happy Sunday -I suffer from the same as Justin i’ll give any game system a go (okay it will take a lot to get me into 40K)
I think a game that John should try is one that was talked about
Dropzone Commander. Its still tanks etc so its not a far cry from WW2 but the vehicles are pretty self explanatory in their own right. Its a small scale game something John would be use to if he has painted Flames of War.
Good call. I tried DZC for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and it was great. It has a nice modern feel to it – both the setting and the rules. It’s got cool war machines which should appeal to @johnlyons, but they play very differently to WWII. The rules are very well written, fast and tight, and have an interesting alternating mechanic which will appeal if you like the Bolt Action activation system.
And of course, you’ll have other people to play it with, and there’s the potential for gaming tables to look really, really cool.
‘Predator 2’ was the one in the City, I think what Justin is talking about was ‘Predators’
i really like being able to start my Sundays with XLBS, just wanted to say Hi to the community and a big thank you to the Guys at BoW. Just completed my break from gaming and over the last few months I’ve jumped back into Flames of War, 40 K, Kings of War, Dread Ball and Mars Attacks…. so like I say loving the content but it is very bad for the old bank balance!
Making time for hobby is a challenge with kids I have 3 range from 15 down to 5 work full time and moonlight as the taxi of Dad so know just how hard it can be. However nothing is quite as sweet as getting your game on.
Oh and Warmachine, X wing, Descent etc, etc
Prometheus I just wish had not focused so much on trying to tie itself back to Alien. I liked the idea of seeing another story set in this universe, seperate from the Xenomorph’s story.
As far as bringing back Hicks, it’s not outside the realms of possibility that it wasn’t actually Hicks in Alien 3. Not like they’ve not got form on cloning…
Sad to say the way I read Rubicon took me three hours to burn through…
Try Relic Knights, John. You’ll find it a massively different experience compared to the games you mention you’ve played. Or make Justin happy and play Warmachine :).
I thought Relic Knights would be a good one to. But there might not be that many players around.
‘Rubicon’ by Tom Holland is one of my favourite narrative history books; it’s the type of book I always have a copy of to dip into wherever I am. I can also recommend ‘Persian Fire’ by the same author. If you’re after a more detailed approach to the Roman legions may I suggest ‘The Epitome of Military Science’ written by Vegetius (Publius Flavius Vegitius Renatus). The text was written past the Roman cultural highpoint but gives an insight into training, equipping and utilising the legions. It’s not quite a Roman Sun Tzu but is still a great historical source.
Never called my painting space a hobby lab before.
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Still got some work to do in my garage to turn it into a cool games room!
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Finding time for my hobby has always been a struggle. My ex-wife was a hobbyists so finding time when I was married was really easy, we use to paint and game at the same time. These days my other half/fiance has no interest in the hobby, in fact she refers to my collection as my junk. So a way round this was to create a small painting station in the bedroom, and a TV in there so I can paint whilst she watches TV in bed. I also find that other real life aspects impact on my hobby time such as work, being a teacher means I bring home marking. So some weeks I get no hobby time.
Happy sunday – with regard to the varnish thing – I found several recommending this tip, I have not tried it but friends have and it works – basically olive oil painted on, wipe down, and rinse with cold water:
http://entiago-projectmental.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/frosted-terror.html
I loved this episode.
Especially looking forward to the Try Something New series ^_^ I have aaaaaalways wanted to try RPGs, but there are also a ton of things I’ve never tried because I’m quite the noob!
I think John should totally try Warmachine! It’s small, fast and fun!
Happy Sunday!
@bintykins, not sure if you have a setting preference but 5th edition start box is probably a great way to go in terms of a starter rpg experience – and about £15 quid. Just need a few players, and none really need to be that experienced.
Oh thank you very much! I have no preferences at all, I am ready to be schooled! 5th Ed is D&D right? <- see that's how noob! 😀
Oh yeah, that would have been helpful information – D&D, that more me failing at being helpful. Should give a basic idea as to the rpg experience, then its finding a setting and system that suits you and your group 🙂 Sure lots here can help with different systems as well.
5e D&D is a good starting point with basic rules available as a free download. The hardest thing to find is a good group as different groups have different styles and motivations! Do you want to focus on mechanics and tactical play or more story telling? its a bid adventure thats for sure but a great addition to anyones list of hobbies.
Aw thanks for the replies! Hmmm, I hadn’t thought too far ahead but now you ask, I think story telling? I think the familiarity of D&D is appealing to me as a beginner. I’ll have to post in my local gaming club and see if I can find a group!
Been fan of RPG since junior school, I’d recommend it to anyone pick a genre and a game style and you can find a game that matches plus lots of opportunities for one shot games on goggle hang outs. I can recommend loads of different games!
I am leaning towards Warmachine. It’s something ive looked at for quite a while and never given a real go before. 🙂
Doooooo it!
I have exactly the same problem, Lloyd. I work from home and my office / dungeon is also my painting and hobby space. So at 6pm or so when I have been looking at all the stuff that needs assembling and painting for the last 9 hours or so, I go into the house to fulfill my social obligations and once the kids are in bed at 8.30 or so, I am always torn between spending time with the wife in front of the TV or sneaking back out to do some painting but inevitably I do the former and get frustrated because I’m not doing the latter 😀
In the end I purchased a paint tray and although I can’t do a lot of painting while sitting on the sofa (I also adopted a painter’s hunch in order to steady my hands) it is good enough for preparing and assembling miniatures, or perhaps painting the base coat on large or simple minis. To do anthying more than that, I have to wait for an occasion where the rest of the family have gone out for the day lol
Yes @dracs finally someone else agrees with me that the pred is the better alien 🙂 and @dignity i agree that avp is good, brings back memories of the orginal avp computer game. But then i enjoy all the prea movies bar predators some good ideas on different hunting styles but a rubbish film. Id recommend Preadator concrete jungle its a brilliant game for the ps2. And if you ever do a boot camp for avp put my name down.
So, you’re looking for a new wargaming challenge eh?
How about dabbling in one of the newer narrative skirmish wargaming sets like In Her Majesty’s Name? It has all the lovely imperial British flavour, what-ho chaps!, mixed with a thread of Victorian Science Fiction.
This is not steampunk, as it maintains a strong grip on the history, attitudes and culture of the actual late 19th century. To this has been added those what-ifs proposed by Jules Verne, H.G Wells, H. Rider-Haggard and their colleagues. For a diehard historical wargamer, this can form the bridge between history and the fantastical.
If you are interested let me know and I shall send you all three books in PDF form.
Cheers,
Craig
PS: This is the gaming minnow that nonetheless won a nomination in last year’s gaming awards against such giants as Malifaux.
Lloyd, start reading on a tablet 😉
Happy Sunday!
John, you should try SAGA.
alien film thing the plot looks very close to alien colonial marines video game , hicks is alive in it and back on lv428 the wayland crop are experimenting with the space ship , in the game you actually go inside the ship ,
so i am now wondering if the art is actually concept art for the game or for another game such as a planned follow up to colonial marines .
happy gaming guys
Sweet sweet Rubicon
Maybe they’re just doing a remake of the Aliens storyline. Keep Alien and Aliens, then go off and do something cool.
I loved the tech in District 9 and Elysium (especially the Chemrail guns), so you know that that side of things should be solid.
When I get that frosting affect from matt spray I just give the model a brush with GW’s lahmian medium and problem fixed.
Prometheus was absolute crap. We need a sequel like we need a boot to the head.
Pompey – Roman general and rival during the Roman civil wars defeated by Julius Caesar.
Rubicon is a really good book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt a lot. Get reading Lloyd, or consider audible.com audio books since you have eyesight problems.
Rome as a fancy looking place only started during the reign of Augustus, who famously said he found Rome a city of wood and left it a city of marble.
I believe that @johnlyons should be playing MERCs! Any tool may do the tactical job you need, but some tools may just do it slightly better. Plus you have a synergy to get the best out of your MERCs megacon.
The aliens movie is supposedly set between Aliens &Alien3. I would like to know how they will write this, as in the early stages of Alien3, Rippley does an autopsy on hicks and newt,( hicks died when he was impaled by a support strut through the cryo tube when the EEV crashed on Fury 161)
@dignity, a book series you should read (to really annoy @johnlyoms) is “Fox on the Rhine”, “Fox on the Front”, which is an alternate WW2 by Douglas Niles & Michael Dobson. Partial spoiler alert, Imagine Rommel & Patton fighting side by side against Himmler then against Stalin!
best sequel ever = Bourne Supremacy -> Bourne Ultimatum
I’ve given up with mat sprays, all makes are rubbish with this problem. Now gloss spray to protect and then brush on matt.
See that’s what I thought for a long time too. But still, Tamiya and Humbrol are the better of the lot in my experience. Army painter Anti-shine is great too. But the issue is shaking the can right and making sure you don’t spray in a cold environment.
The new Alien movie I hope just disregards Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Following on from where Aliens ended. Its a trend these days in Hollywood to completely scrap whats happened before in movie franchises and do a reboot, Spider Man, X-Men, The Hulk etc. A lot of time has passed since the Alien movies so the general audience wont be even as remotely invested in those movies as I am, being born in the 70s, and Id be more than happy for the new producers to just go “heres what we think should of happened after Aliens”. Job done, happy days.
Prometheus…Ugh, dont even get me started, what a stupid movie filled with even stupider characters doing verry stupid things.
Prodos have said that AvP the board game will also translate into a proper tabletop wargame with rules verry similar to Warzone.
P.S….I love my man cave!
Prometheus is a better watch the second time around. BY that point you’ve realised that it’s not going to tie in that closely with the original alien films, and you can enjoy it for the film it is. For me that’s what annoyed me when I first watched it, that it does not explain how the ship got to LV426, you are supposed to just extrapolate that at some point one of the Engineers Bio-weapon research ships had a similar accident with similar material and thats where it ended up.
Alien 3 also sets the canon that the look of a xenomorph can and is affected by the DNA of it’s host. This theme is taken further in the two AvP films with the Predlien even if you thought it was dumb.
Horse archer is actually historically accurate. Please see this for reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk
That video is total hogwash.
Please don’t leave us hanging. Can you please explain why and perhaps post a link to a counter essay. It’s always great to learn new things.
Great show guys, as always. 🙂 I especially like the Alien discussion. Although I would definitely put Alien 3 far, far above Alien Resurrection. I fully realize I may be in the minority on this. Alien (original) is definitely the best, as the original. Aliens is great, albeit a totally different type of movie (as Sam says). Alien 3 gets a lot of crap, but I honestly think it’s way underrated. IMHO, it’s one of the best ones. The perfect ending to a trilogy, complete with Ripley’s original sign off message from the Nostromo and the computer flashing . . . “END OF TRANSMISSION.”
All AVP movies are . . . well . . . trash. I honestly don’t know how many there even are. I gave up on this vomitous excuse of a franchise long, long ago. Adrian Brody as some kind of badass? Really? REALLY? You’re not embarrassed, studio producer? You actually show your face to your family at Christmas? You haven’t drunk yourself to death behind a Hollywood dumpster somewhere?
Predator is a classic, Predator 2 . . . not so much.
Prometheus . . . I don’t know. It looks great, but some of the characters are soooo stupid, a typical symptom of lazy screenwriting. But I honestly don’t know if its good, I think I actually missed something. It’s either great, deep, and complex . . . or nonsensical.
Sam’s article on trying new things in gaming is great. If you haven’t already, check it out. 😀
great show today guys
The old AVP games were pretty darn good (the most recent one was horrid though, I found).
As for managing time VS home. Lloyd mentioned not wanting to paint on a painting station type thing in your lap, which is fair enough. What I do is do my model assembly / moldline removing on a cardboard box on my lap while watching TV. I then do any actual painting while I’m at the table.
Happy Sunday guys and what a great hobby Sunday I had!
Had the girlfriend over so obviously wanted to spend time with her, but i have a FoW British Rifle Company who aren’t going to paint themselves. So I set us up in my study, her with her tablet and myself with my minis and I put on the first season of HBO’s Rome and she really got into it. Don’t think she’s quite into it enough to be your Roman opponent yet @lloyd!
Hope you all had a good as a weekend as I did 🙂
Happy Sunday!
Going out of my comfort zone regarding gaming, I should try out something Historical… does 30k count? 😉
In the “trying something new” department, some friends at the gaming club are getting me into Fun Forge’s “Quantum” board game. Not usually a board game guy, or a sci-fi gamer. But this little game is actually a lot of fun and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it. 😀
Well I am a guy that started with Warhammer Fantasy Skaven army. Next I jumped into Warmachine Cygnar and BOLT Action Germans and Americans. I do have a collection of X-wing Miniatures and the rule book to Infinity. I like trying out new games. In the past I was into RPG but now it’s boardgames and miniatures.
btw. Alien movies are one of the best movies I have ever seen. The amount of fear of Predator movies equals 0.
Great show as always!
Since my husband has opened a whole new world of RPG’s and Wargaming to me – our house has turned into our hobby space….Shelves of Buildings for our new tables we are building together….mini’s, gaming books, paints etc etc…..I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We are working on a table for Dust. I am learning so much from him and he is allowing me to do a lot of the work while being patient 🙂 I will be posting pictures in the Hobby forum when we are complete.
Thank you for making our Sunday complete 🙂
I did try using a small foldaway table but found that I really missed my hobby (daylight) lights,
and you also have the issue of your stuff invading the house. These days I try and contain my self to the spare room.
I used AK heavy chipping, AK engine oil and MIG Rust pigments on my SSU
now on ebay if anyone is interested.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Painted-Dust-Studio-Dust-Tactics-SSU-Spetsnaz-Battlegroup-Box-/221698099093?
The first thing i though of when I heard you say gundam style JOHN. Lol
Love the model john by the way.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=gundam+style+song&qpvt=gundam+style+song&FORM=VDRE#view=detail&mid=23066A3E36391B64A51023066A3E36391B64A510
great show people the alien films loved (1&2) 3,4, not so much 5 is ok loved the predator films and predators as well the AVP films well they were ok I suppose to a degree.
I’d love to see John give “Strange Aeons” a try. It’s very non-WW2.
http://strange-aeons.ca/sa/
one of the best show you ever did guys – congrats!
oh yea – my man cave ( corner in kitchen ) http://miniaturesconversion.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/man-cave.html
how to do attachments or insert pictures here?
Really ? Prometheus is that bad for you ? I know many parts of the acting are really silly and the script has brutally dumb phrases… but having the Engineers are so interesting and having a complete view of why Aliens exist and who maybe created all races in the entire universe is just mindblowing! I really want a sequel that goes forward tell us more about them and what happen to them and the war in general they were dealing.
Also, H.R.GIGER give them the 100% ok to do that so is freaking cannon and this movie has tons of scenes from the original artwork. Anyway i hope the move forward what i would hate to see is some kind of prequel or completely do a paralel story.
About having Hobby Time best solution is having good space in front of your desktop pc and play turn base games while you paint, that way you can stroke and slash models at the same time 😉 . But yeah… is a heavy issue that lucky my family gets what i do because it was a way to “play games outside from the PC” which was the main reason for me. In the end is all about not being narrow mind about what you like and try to do other stuff but at least 2 a week sit and do some heavy work aside from the occational basecoating, drybrushing, washing and other easy stuff that doesn’t require a lot of time and concentration.
I’m surprised given John’s love of tanks that no one’s managed to get him to dip his toes into Battletech, The newer Alpha Strike rules are designed for faster play but somehow I envision him getting a kick out of things like ammo explosions and cockpit breaches from the original more detailed rules.
Hello all… so here’s my gaming and hobby setup : )
I made this video in 2013…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dM95GUklkg
hope you enjoy
thanks
I think those ‘Pulp City’ miniatures are stunning…..I might give that a go! D.x
I am a Warhammer Fantasy fan but I am going to give Infinity a go I did think about 40K but it is too much of a investment to do two GW games at once, having looked at the videos on Infinity here on Beasts Of War I am going to give it a go. It is going to take some getting use to not moving huge blocks of troops around and to a faster skirmish system.
I’m lucky, my girlfriend enjoys painting and playing with me. But even when she feels like watching a movie or read, or etc., we have our living room set up so that I can paint at my desk and still be close to her, we can watch tv in the same space, each of us half watching, half doing our own thing, so basically doing 3 things together at the same time 🙂
With regard to hobby and family, there is a balance that I try and get, by painting in the same room as my other half is. Now she is not completely out of the hobby. She happily plays rpgs, and so appreciates the minis for those games. But it can be antisocial, but in our current flat, the flat is open plan, so the dining table and living room run into each other, and so I can see the TV and chat to her as I paint etc. Now of course I draw her into the process, because sometimes I need another opinion on paint schemes and so forth, and she can help with that. Of course that doesn’t stop me getting shouted for doing too much.
So really I paint for 2 or 3 evenings, and game for 1 or 2 evenings, with rpgs being the more frequent thing. However, moving back to the UK and living in the city centre should mean I can game and not annoy her (I am not a massive fan of gaming in stores all the time).
@lloyd I, too, have a partner that is not at all involved in the hobby. Making time after work, and settling children, and “responsible adult” duties for hobby is difficult. Until recently I had a table on wheels (designed as a notebook computer table) that I could roll into position when I was sitting on my bed at the end of the day. So I could sit and chat with my partner, and get some painting on. Then the wheels broke 🙁
John, I once had a whole Warmaster army end up with the “frosted” look due to a bad can of matte varnish. What I was told by a friend who was a professional painter at the time saved the army.
Get a can of mineral spirits and a spray bottle, on the finest setting [largest cloud of spray] spray the model with it, and then leave it alone with out touching it for 12-24 hours. The MS will strip the varnish, but not the paint. This will leave you to be able to reapply a new coat of varnish.
Pretty much what I told John in a pm. In his case a frosted spot could have been treated using a cotton bud and some ethanol.
As far as getting John to try something roleplaying-flavoured — Night Witches came out recently, and that’s set during WWII? You play as Russian female pilots bombing the Germans with whatever you can manage to convince Command et al. to give you, or whatever you can scrounge. Based on the Apocalypse World engine, it can be pretty brutal, depending on how it’s run.
Or there’s the whole “Very British Civil War” movement; perhaps that would be an interesting sidestep. 🙂