| Random Stuff!

Been meaning to post about a bunch of random stuff. Here we go:

- Saga: Dark Ages: This is a Viking-era minis game that I tricked elzar into picking up. We've only played once so far (in Santa Clara in the middle of an insane rainstorm), but it was fun! Essentially, you field a bunch of Vikings and shit. At the start of your turn, you roll a bunch of fancy dice with weird symbols (different runes and shit) on them. You use the symbols you rolled to pay for the things you want to do on your turn. A lot of the time you'll be using them to activate units of dudes (for example, you can activate an elite unit by paying a die with any symbol, warrior units activate with slightly harder symbols, and your crappy units who lack motivation can only be activated with a rarer set of symbols). But in addition, you can spend dice to activate special abilities from your faction's special list; for example, the Anglo-Danes (my faction) have numerous defensive abilities that you can pay combinations of dice for, the Vikings (elzar's) have more offensively oriented abilities. Fun mechanic overlaying a pretty simple movement/combat system, definitely seemed like a keeper. Hopefully elzar and I will get in another game at ManCon.

- Primer: I've been getting back into painting/building minis after a long dry spell. One of my issues has always been that I really have no backyard (just a TINY shed, on a 6'x6' patio, on an interior courtyard). I can spray prime by clearing out my shed and setting up a booth (which I will probably do tomorrow in fact), but it's a real hassle. So I've been looking into brush-on primers which I believe is brave new territory for this crew. Citadel makes some stuff that I have determined to basically be garbage -- it worked OK on the plastic Saga mini I applied it to, but three coats into a metal Warmachine mini and it's STILL patchy, with very little "tooth" like you get with a standard primer. Since metal Warmachine minis are like 65% of my minis collection, that doesn't work. I poked around on forums to learn what the big kids use and it seems that Liquitex gesso is one of the popular options, so I bought a big bottle of it off Amazon. It should arrive, and I'll keep you all posted on developments as they occur!

- iOS apps: I picked up Monument Valley, which is a very short adventure/puzzle game. It was really pretty and weird and I strongly recommend it.

- Weird anime: I have always liked the anime art style but I've never liked any of the actual shows I've tried watching. Recently for a variety of reasons I watched this show Kill La Kill on Netflix. (Don't Google it at work, it's kinda NSFW.) Anyway I ended up... well, I don't know if I exactly liked the show, but it was fast-paced, bewildering and bizarre things in a way I generally found pleasantly numbing, and it was pretty inventive and entertaining, so I guess I sort of did, although it was occasionally incredibly creepy? The premise is a familiar one: the student council at a Japanese high school is in the process of a fascist takeover of the rest of Japan, empowered by transforming school uniforms. Into this comes a transfer student armed with half of a giant scissor who is looking for answers about the murder of her scientist father. After getting her ass kicked, she returns to the ruins of her father's mansion where she finds a sentient school uniform which forces her to wear it against her will. When the uniform is fueled by drinking her blood, it turns into possibly the most ludicrously skimpy thing ever animated ever but gives her kick ass combat powers. Oh! This perverted looking uniform was made by her father specifically for her and also kind of looks like him. She uses her powers to start kicking ass and taking names at her high school. This is in the first episode and things start getting a lot weirder after that. Quasi-recommended? (Definitely not recommended to elzar.)