29 October 2006
Long Update
It was nice getting another hour of sleep this morning, though I still have clocks to fix...!
Anyway, lots of stuff going up today. Finish up the Space Marine cards for Epic, the Brakiri Fleet for ACTA, and added some old pictures to the Gallery, from my first convention in California, KublaCon 2004. This was a big deal for me as I got to meet the creator of Epic Armageddon, Jervis Johnson, and had him sign my rulebook...he was an active participant in a demo that day and was suitably impressed by the epic army cards I'd done way back then...
The rest of those pictures are of a mega battle that was held that year. The organizer (sorry I forget his name!) had pre-made army lists and minis for everyone to use, and gave each player a random card to determine which side they were on - good or bad! You couldn't reveal your faction until you got within 15cm of someone else. The entire scenario centered around controlling a warpgate in the middle of the table (which looked remarkably like a Stargate Portal...) which you either wanted to defend or destroy...so in turn 1 I took my force of space marines, teleported and drop-podded into close assault, and took out the gate. So basically I beat and broke the scenario. Let this be a lesson - playtest and check your victory conditions!
Anyway, most of the pictures came out way too dark and I've had to seriously manipulate them to make anything visible...remember to use your flash indoors!
Chernobyl
26 October 2006
Short Update
Lots of driving the other day, probably put about 250 miles on the state van driving up to the Sierras and back. Got some cool pictures though, while I was getting the van fueled up at the Kyburz Maintenance Station. Mountains are very photogenic!
So, a couple of things to add to the website today...a page of Upgrade Cards for the Space Marines, and two sheets of ships for the Brakiri Syndicracy's fleet. Enjoy!
Chernobyl
24 October 2006
Getting out of the Office
On occasion I get to do something cool in my job, which is get out of the office - I like getting out into the field to check things out on the highways where I work. Unfortunately, tomorrow that means getting up early to check out something that's a good three hours from my office! Ah, such is life.
Couple updates today, I've uploaded the entire Early Earth Alliance ACTA card set; hopefully there are fewer misprints than in previous updates. I've also gotten some positive feedback on the Epic cards I posted earlier, so I'm going to barrel ahead in this manner and as such I've added the remaining Formation cards for the Space Marines.
I saw Flags of our Fathers Sunday afternoon. Man, that's a sad movie. Very very good, exceptionally well done; being a navy guy I loved the scenes showing the battleships pounding the heck out of Iwo Jima (great CGI effects!!!) but the story overall is a tragedy really; both in the horrible battles (very Saving Private Ryan-ish) and sort of in the absurdity of what the "flag-men" went through for the good of the war effort.
Gotta go now...just saw the opening to tonight's "Heroes" episode....WOW!
Chernobyl
22 October 2006
An Epic Task
Well it's been a long time coming but I'm in the progress of working on some Epic cards again...I've done 3 sheets (9 formations) of Space Marines so far but I'd like some feedback on the new layout before I proceed any further. If you're an Epic player please take a look and send an email with your thoughts.
And I'm going to head down to Roseville to see another "Epic Task", Flags of our Fathers, a WWII film set at the battle of Iwo Jima - looks to be a great film. I recently saw a show titled "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" on the History Channel the other day, which was a pretty heroic WWII naval engagement. This has gotten me interested in Mongoose's new game "Victory at Sea" which a naval combat game obviously set in World War Two. The rules are related to A Call to Arms, so if you're familiar then the rules ought to be quick to learn, and the game itself should be a quick play. I'll put that on my list for later this year. Check out the preview pdf at Mongoose Publishing.
Chernobyl
20 October 2006
Nike Arrival
If you haven't seen the thread on the mongoose forums regarding Prelude's awesome looking scratchbuild that turned into a resin model for limited production, check it out. I was one of the first to order some, and just got my two models in the mail today. They're going to be a great looking couple of ships when I get through with them! It started as a project to make his own version of the Nemesis Advanced Destroyer, but has since evolved into the ship it was intended to be, the Nike Battlecruiser. The models are for sale here and you can read the original material here. Prelude's efforts are inspiring other high quality scratchbuilds based on other fan material, as well! Perhaps we'll see some resin casts of these as well? Only time will tell.
Flags of our Fathers opens today also. This is is a movie I WILL make the time to see this weekend. Clint Eastwood is simply "the man."
In other news, I've started wok on the Epic are of the website, you'll see a very minor improvement now, but I'm going to see how much of the Space Marine cards I can knock out this weekend. Stay tuned, and have a great weekend.
Chernobyl
18 October 2006
Gallery Open
I've stated adding some pictures to the Gallery page. To start, we've got some fine examples of my Epic painting. All of the Titans were done several years ago while I was in the Navy, the Imperial Guard and the Space marine Landing Craft are of course more recent. If you have some pictures you'd like me to post here drop me a line.
16 October 2006
Now I'm There!
There! I finally have my PC set up to where I can work on the website again. I found my last bit of adobe software to install and recovered the Babylon 5 and other fonts I needed for the cards. And as such, I've posted 3 fixed pages of cards, the errors on which were spotted by the eagle-eyed Davesaint. They are the Prefect/Centurion, the Dargan, and the Vorchat cards in the Centauri list. Thanks for keeping me straight guys. Your input is what makes this site and Mongoose's game great.
If you're not watching Heroes on NBC, you should. The show is really getting good! Me and some co-workers really get into this show, just like we did for ABC's "Lost"...
14 October 2006
Getting there...
Well, I've been spending the better part of last night (except for watching Battlestar Galactica) and Installing software on my new computer and recovering information from my old one. Lots of things can't be recovered as simply as hooking up the old hard drive and cutting and pasting files. Fonts have to be installed, email accounts have to be set up again, I had to remember the settings for publishing this website...It will be few days before this system is as functionally up to speed as my old system, but right now let me tell you it works a lot better. I'll be able to do substantial work again on things when I get finished with the installation of everything, but as I said, it will be a couple days. Some of the software CD's are being troublesome to track down...
Prelude_to_war from the mongoose forums has posted some really awesome pictures of his latest endeavor, creating a resin ship from a 3D model posted online by someone else. It looks really great, and if you haven't seen it yet you really should. I'm hoping to make a special ACTA card for it and have some other art here on the site celebrating the accomplishment. He's also selling a limited run of these and if you're interested you should definitely pick up one. I have two on the way already...
Chernobyl
12 October 2006
Cards and Frikkin' Cables
To those of you who haven't heard, I'm building a new PC rig for myself (current system is getting rather unreliable) and I thought I'd take a moment to post some thoughts on my new build. Many new computers come with handy USB and Firewire ports on the front the machine; they're great for plugging in things like a mouse, card readers, and other external devices like hard drives or CD/DVD drives. There's a fairly prolific demand for aftermarket "media bays" as I call them. These bays usually install in a 5.25" drive bay in your computer, and have nice built in things those card readers, mic/headphone jacks, USB/Firewire ports, and some include features like fan controllers or temperature sensors.
I pickup one by Logisys, called a Multipurpose Deluxe Panel. I got it in Silver to match my aluminum case. And while the panel may eventually work great, let me tell you the documentation absolutely stinks (to put it politely) and the cables are horrid. Every one of those I/O on the front panel has a cable to connect to the motherboard. The cable usually has 8 conductors or so but it varies, and they're pretty industry standard as to has they're arranged on the motherboard. Typically, all 8 of these wires go into 1 plug but if they cheap out on the cable, what you get is a set of individual plugs that are much more fragile and a pain to connect properly, even more so if your motherboard doesn't document which pin connection is which within the group. I had to use an old cable that was labeled properly to figure which was which. And then one of the wires broke. Asstards.
In other news, I've posted 2 fixed cards that makes corrections to the Narn G'Tal Command Cruiser (Heavy Laser and E-Mine AD) and Ka'Tan Escort Destroyer (Medium Laser AD and improper firing arc.) Thanks to the eagle-eyed Hans Olo! Enjoy!
Chernobyl
10 October 2006
A little movie review today. I took a break from my studying Monday to go catch a film, and I like caper films and cop movies too. Some of my favorites are Heat, Copland, Bullitt, Heist, and The Score, just to name a few. Departed isn't quite a caper film, but it is a cop movie and a bit of a mob movie as well. Its got a top notch cast; with Nicholson, DeCaprio, and Damon delivering very good performances each. Given the roles I usually see Damon and DeCaprio in, to me it seems they're cast opposite their usual roles. I also like Walhberg and Sheen (big West Wing fan!) and wish they could have had more screen time. There is some graphic violence, and certainly some language, but I thought it was a great move and am putting it on my list of DVDs to buy in the future. Check it out, you won't be disappointed!
Also, I've order the last components of the new PC I'm building, should be here this week...Hopefully I'll have it up and running soon. I had to repair my windows XP installation for like the bajillionth time this year, and its getting to be a major pain. Just downloading the updates takes about 5 or 6 restarts. Hopefully, the new clean hard drive and a clean OS along with some more modern hardware will give me a respite from the constant Blue Screens f Death I keep getting.
Also, another typo was found on the Narn G'Quan cards which doubled the Heavy Laser Cannon to 6AD when in fact it should have been 3AD. Sorry guys! anybody wanna be an editor? The fixed cards are now posted. Thanks Hans Olo!
Chernobyl
8 October 2006
Happy Birthday!
Today is my little brother's birthday! He shares a birthday with good company: Frank Herbert (Dune Novels), The Rev. Jesse Jackson (yes that Jesse Jackson), Chevy Chase (Vacation movies, SNL), Capt. Dale Dye (Col. Sink of Band of Brothers), Sarah Purcell (Real People TV show), Sigourney Weaver (Aliens film franchise), Darrell Hammond (SNL), Stephanie Zimbalist (Remington Steele), Emily Proctor (The West Wing, CSI: Miami), Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, the new Bourne movies), Kristanna Løken (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), and Nick Cannon (Drumline), among others. Back in Florida, he works as an animator for video games, and has done some work on EA Sports Madden football series, and I think a Superman game as well. I hope he and his wife had a wonderful 1st anniversary last month and have many more. Anyway, Happy Birthday Glenn!
One of my expensive (works for free), trained (plays the game occasionally) inspectors (guy from the mongoose forums) Captain Smirk discovered a typo on the Ka'Toc card I posted yesterday; I'd inadvertently transposed the Double Damage and Triple Damage traits of it's Heavy Laser Cannon and Mag Gun. The fixed card page has been uploaded.
Chernobyl
7 October 2006
A new fleet
Well, I guess the Narn were closer to 50% than 30%. I've uploaded all of the ACTA cards for the Narn fleet, including the two new ships from Armageddon, the Ka'Bin'Tak and the G'Vrahn. These new ships are pretty burly and are a great addition to the Narn. My next task will be adding the Earth Alliance SFOS pdf to the archive, after I get through auditing it. I might be able to get this done by Monday, since I've got a 3-day weekend. Yay, Columbus Day! Hope you are enjoying the weekend as well. Talk to you later.
Chernobyl
5 October 2006
"Armagedden It..."
Got my hot copy of Babylon 5: Armageddon last night at my friendly local game shop...Its chock full of the usual ships, scenarios, FAQ, rule updates, rule additions, and is generally something you NEED to get if you're a player of ACTA! :) So, I've added the Adira and Liati cards to the Centauri fleet, which should finish it for a while unless something comes up. Oh wait, something did. I've been told of another Centauri card that needed fixing, the Secundus. Apparently, it tired to disguise itself as a Tertius but was caught by Silvereye from the Mongoose Forums, who quickly reported the imposter. SO, that card is now corrected and updated. Also, in response to request that I'm not moving fast enough (got to eat and sleep sometime folks) on the ACTA cards I've posted a link to the link page, which directs you to the old "Fleets of A Sky Full of Stars" page. If you need older SFOS sheets, they're still there. In time, these single page files will be consolidated into corrected, fleet file PDFs.
My immediate work plan schedule is this: Narn Fleet cards (currently about 30% done), audit a SFOS archive PDF, open the Epic: Armageddon part of the site by posting a set of army cards there, and then come back to ACTA Cards. Likely an EA fleet and then a LoNAW fleet. I have no deadlines for any of this as its spare time but I thought I'd give a heads up. That will probably keep me busy until the end of November or later.
Chernobyl
3 October 2006
New Art, New page...
I got a new submission for ACTA art today, Burger and Captain Kermmin from the Mongoose forums responded to my requests for some ships for the other fleets and so I now have a Drazi page in the ACTA section. They were both good, but I liked the angle on Burger's better. BZ to Burger! For those of you who don't know, BZ stands for Bravo Zulu, in the Naval tradition, meaning "job well done!"
Chernobyl
2 October 2006
Figures...
While I was working on the Narn cards late last night I discovered a typo on a couple of the Centauri Darkner/Amar card weapon lines (Doubel Damage -> Double Damage). I've posted a fixed card. Be sure and let me know if YOU find some, I'm trying to stay more on top of quality control than previously.
Chernobyl
1 October 2006
Welcome!
Welcome to Epicarmycard V3.0!!!
For those who have visited my site before, you'll see a lot of familiar material here. For those who haven't, a brief introduction. Basically, this site is a fan-run site for games I play - miniatures games and role-playing games. You'll find material for Epic: Armageddon, in the form of Epic Army Cards (the website's namesake); for Babylon 5: A Call to Arms, in the form of "War Machine"-style cards, reference sheets, printable 2D playing terrain, scenarios, etc.; for Babylon 5: The Role-playing Game (2nd Edition), in the form of character sheets; galleries of things I've painted over the years; handy links; and anything else I can think of that's worthwhile for gamers like you and me.
I began this site about a year and a half ago with one thing in mind, supporting my favorite game of all time, Epic. I've been playing Epic for maybe a decade and a half, and have watched it go through many incarnations. I first played it in Idaho while going through some Navy training; back then it was called Space Marine. Since then it has been known as Titan Legions, Epic 40K, and now called Epic: Armageddon. The latest edition of the rules is probably the best I've ever played, incorporating many of the best features of previous versions. But I felt it was missing something, and the army organization lent itself quite well to what I had in mind, which was the return of the army cards! Space Marine and Titan Legions had durable cards for use in building your army and scoring, was a really neat feature that pretty much hooked me into the game. So I began a project to adapt the army lists from the book into a new set of cards. It was a long road, but eventually I created card sets for most every officially released army. However, changes within Games Workshop's organization have basically brought further development of this game to a standstill - canceling "Fanatic" magazine, staffing cutbacks at Specialist Games, and drastically cutting back support of the miniatures line, all played a part in my desire to find a new game to play.
Enter Mongoose Publishing, and one of my favorite Sci-Fi TV shows, Babylon 5. As I understand it, "A Call to Arms" was originally intended to be a side game for their role-playing game based on the TV show. However, its popularity soon took off within the gaming community, and it became much more than originally planned. While still a niche game (as most naval battle or space battle games tend to be; I think it takes a different kind of gamer to like a fleet rather than an army) it offers an extremely wide variety of play; a greater variety of forces than most game systems (18 different fleets at last count), custom campaigns, historical campaigns, tournament-style play, huge engagements at War and Armageddon priority or limited actions at Patrol and Skirmish priorities, company support, and most importantly - an active and vibrant worldwide gaming community.
I've been working on this site quite intensively for the last month or so, in order to give the place a new look and make it easier to navigate, in time for the release of Babylon 5: Armageddon from Mongoose Publishing, an expansion book for Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (Revised Edition). Actually, to book was originally intended to be released back in September, but was delayed due to issues at the printers. This book should add some GREAT features to the game system, Including new rules and rule updates, new fleet lists, FAQ, new ships, and of course, a new "Priority Level", Armageddon!
So, enough rambling. Browse through the site, check out the new stuff, and drop me a line if you like anything, or have any suggestions. Thanks for visiting.
Chernobyl
1 October 2006
Status for Opening
I've corrected some entries to the Minbari Tournament PDF in the archive, as well as the Drazi. I haven't audited them entirely yet though. The only active fleet list in the card section is the Centauri, I'm waiting on the Armageddon book to complete it. If any ships in the Centauri fleet change stats from SFOS, they will need to be corrected; these cards were made assuming the SFOS stats prevail. Some of the other fleet pages are active but do not yet have cards. Some are not active yet, because I'm hoping to get some more donated art for the ships.
On the Epic front, I'm going to re-format all of the PDFs. None of those pages are active yet. Stay tuned.
Currently, I'm working on the Narn fleet cards. I was hoping to have them complete for this but it wasn't not to be. They'll be posted soon; I'm about halfway through the fleet at the moment. After that, I'm going to work on re-posting one of the Epic armies.
Chernobyl