Pre-game

The upsizing for the Car Wars has been ticking along fine.
- Have vehicles - check.
- Upsized Turning Key - check.
- Figures if needed - check.
- Familiar with rules - let's say check.
We still have to make some record sheets, the bunkers, and maybe another turning key. We're definately on track to being fine with this one.

Upsizing the Circus Imperium board has been delayed until I can devote more time to doing it properly.

Upsizing RoboRally however, is going a bit slower. I have finally cut the bases, but have still to upsize any of the robots yet. I finally started one last night.
I have also finally figured out how to upsize the board with minimal effort. I had been wondering if I would just have to tape it out, but this should work fine.
It could still be touch and go on this one. The robots probably won't be too detailed, but I should be able to bang out some playable versions tonight and tomorrow.

It'll probably be a long night tonight.

Deathrace

So we saw Deathrace last night. I know I only have 4 days left to finish before Wincon 2008 but it was worth the diversion. Especially since one of the games I am upsizing is the Car Wars 5th Edition.

The movie is a remake of Deathrace 2000. The original was from 1975 and was pretty campy - but still good fun. They updated the origanal as a bit more gritty but it still kept the flavor of driving cars with weapons mounted on them. All in all, it was what we were looking for when we went to go see it. Sadly, Robert LaSardo has too small a role and dies as seen in the trailer.

Car Wars was made back in 1981 based on movies like Deathrace 2000. The new Deathrace has very much a Car Wars feel to it.

bondo spill

So, last night I noticed a colored liquid by the laundry. I quickly checked and was relieved to see that it wasn’t the sewer backing up. When I went to wipe it up, I noticed the honey-like texture. That’s when I realized what it was.

The can of fiberglass resin I had since I was working on the car about 6 years ago had leaked across the cupboard it was in and partially across the floor. It took almost an hour to clean up this sticky mess. Which wouldn’t have been too bad except I was checking the laundry before going to bed.

vital Idol

When we were at Sir Tim’s social, we had won the door prize – tickets to see Def Leppard. We’re not really big fans but the opening act was Styx so we thought it might be fun to go see them. The tour got delayed due to illness and the added a date at the end of the Canadian tour but Styx wasn’t able to make it. Instead they had Billy Idol step in as the opening act.

Shan’s a big punk fan so we were really looking forward to this. We had supper next door at the Tavern United – very nice wings. Shan didn’t like the chips but I thought they were fine.
They did a pat down at the doors to the MTS Centre. They didn’t check the small of my back and even though they bumped my camera in my jacket, they didn’t look at it. We felt soo safe. Maybe I just don’t look dangerous anymore.

For a 52 year old, Billy still is full of energy. His part of the concert was great. He’s still in pretty good shape. He played for just over an hour and covered all his big hits.
Def Leppard was good too. I recognized about half their songs and Shan actually recalled one. We cut out a bit after 10 and they played on to about 11.

All in all – a great night.

Star Wars - The Clone Wars

I’ve heard about some critics not liking the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated film. Well too bad for all those Siskelians but we saw it last night and it can be summed up in my son’s comment, “I don’t want it to end.”

This, like all the films in the Star Wars franchise, is mainly aimed at kids. If you can’t access that part of you anymore, don’t blame it on the films for pointing it out. We thought it was great. The action was good – the clones died in great numbers. The padawan, the Hutts, the droids; none of them bothered us. It was nice to see some of the other ships represented – my son was able to pick a few out from the Starship Battle game.

The animation is a little stylized – not quite the Disney-esque look most people who haven’t been exposed to anime expect. But the costuming possibilities definitely ensue. We’re totally looking forward to the series.

Wincon 2008 projects

So, I’ve set the games for Wincon 2008.
I’m probably being a bit ambitious at this point. I have about two solid weeks left and quite a fair amount of upsizing work left. We do have a few evenings being eaten up by life but I should be okay.
If I should run out of time, I can scale down some of the events, but I am looking to upsize Car Wars, RoboRally, and Rules With No Name. If, by some freak occurrence, everything goes well, I’ll see about upgrading the arena for Circus Imperium as well.

I’ll keep you posted.

New computer – hellgate benchmark

Shan thinks it’s amusing that I’m basing the requirements of a new computer as to whether or not one can play Hellgate on it. Especially since we don’t even have the game yet (and even more so in light of their current troubles).

I had ordered a laptop through our internet provider – an HP CQ50-109CA but had to cancel my order when they changed the model to a HP CQ50-100CA. The difference?The 109 has 3 GB ram and a 250 GB hard drive while the 100 only has 2 GB ram and a 160 GB hard drive.
Considering we haven’t filled our current 20 GB hard drive, both would probably be fine, but I’m thinking of the long term value - espically since it's a three year contract through them.

Horrorclix – sets only

With the success of the Heroclix line (and Mage Knight before it), Wizkids had spilled off their clix idea to MechWarrior, and Crimson Skies. They also came out with a horror themed line called Horrorclix.
I picked up the first two expansions, HorrorClix and The Lab but didn’t get and Freakshow yet. They came out with another expansion, Nightmare, but it sounds like they will not be making more expansions but that any new products they do come out with will just be the small licensed packs – like the Aliens VS Predator, Hellboy, or the Freddy VS Jason pack.

In some ways I’ll be sad to see the line end – but it will make it easier to catch up with the figures.

Fly the Crimson Skies

I never did get into the old xbox game or even the old FASA board game. I do remember seeing the big board at Gencon with the planes flying through the city – it looked cool but I never had a chance to try it.

When Wizkids re-released the game as part of their clix lines, I became an envoy for that as well. I ran both the tournaments and tried to push the game as much as I could but it faded. I picked up all the sets when they came out and extras when Gord was clearing house of them. I keep trying to expose it to my friends and those that play do like it.
I’m still toying with upsizing it and have recently gotten back into the mythos.

The website with all the backstory had fallen off the web – but a mirror now seems to be back up:
http://firedrake.org/roger/csarchive/index.htm

It’s another alternate history that holds together well politically and game-wise. It seems like they really put quite a bit of thought into the ramifications and how they would affect people, politics, companies, and technology. It’s all fluff behind the actual game, but it’s nicely done.

Gasthaus-gutenberger

Last month we were at the Holiday Inn Airport for Shan’s dad’s 70th birthday party. The kids really liked the pool and the huge ball pit/play structure.

For dinner on Saturday night, we went to a German restaurant, Gasthaus-Gutenberger. We has some reservations as the last authentic German restaurant we had been in was over a decade ago back in Milwaukee during GenCon when we were the Canadian National Director for the Highlander CCG and Thunder Castle was having a thank you dinner. The food then was heavy and fattening and Troy drank a boot of beer. So we were expecting expensive, heavy food.
This time we were quite pleasantly surprised. I had the Jaeger Schnitzel (a breaded pork cutlet with fresh mushrooms with gravy) and was very impressed. It came with a purple cabbage side dish that was fabulous.

The staff was very accommodating and handled the large table of 26 with aplomb. We were waiting on by a shorter, quiet efficient waiter and a Shannon-Elizabeth-looking waitress. They also had an accordionist softly playing to accompany diner.

We heartily recommend it to others. Check out the menu, so you have an idea of prices, but it was definitely worth it.
http://www.gasthaus-gutenberger.com/

Kill / Live / Twinkle

Instead of using glass beads or the counters supplied, I came up with these in the dollar store. We use green for live, red for kill, and yellow for twinkle. They are plastic grapes from the dollar store. They fit nicely in these small holders that we use as trays. These trays have the advantage that, once a fairy dies, the figure can be easily replaced with the tray of meat as it is the same size as the base.