You know what's awesome? EXTRA LIFE!

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The title say it all, Extra Life is an amount of pure epic awesome that few people can hope to match, and fewer still can surpass.
Look, I know I've been telling you all about Extra Life extensively over the pas few weeks or so, but really it's rather important and amazingly good and awesome. Speaking as someone who knows people who have lost loved one to cancer and having a few friends who have died to cancer myself it's really important to me. I've said it once before, reading about these kids going through what just a difficult and terrible fight it brings tears to my eyes because it's just horrible. I would never wish it anyone, even people I hate I would never wish it on, because no one deserves that I believe.
Here's the link to it again:
https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/default.aspx

I'm also considering doing a live broadcast of my game-playing on Ustream on October 16th, probably from 7am-whenever, who knows what'll happen, I don't.
Join Extra Life, please. That's all I'm asking.
Thank you.

IGN, games, Extra Life, and house keeping

Here's the link to Extra Life and stuff,
https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/m.aspx?i=18371E9314DB588CD
https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/default.aspx

Expendibles and other stuff

SM Characters

No update for a while

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of content for the past week or so. You see I'm moving into my college dorm at Ohio Wesleyan, so I've been rather busy, and will most likely stay busy for a while, at least during this week. I should have some new content up next week though, so stay tuned.

Thanks for understanding.

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Space Marines, which one is right for you?

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I know this is going to be a little old by now, but you know what? I'm still going to talk about the three different Marine Codices, their strengths, weaknesses, fluff and what not. Why? because I have been thinking on a lot on the subject lately and I think that this can help people at least make a choice as to what marine they want to play, because to state the obvious they all have their own different style and play methods. So, without further delay, let's start with the classic Marines.
Regular Marines(AKA Ultramarines)
It's really hard today to walk into a GW store and not see just a lot of regular marine boxes on the shelves, because the Marines(AKA Ultramarines) are the favorites of GW. Let's be honest, when the new marine codex hit, we found it to be pretty good. Why? Because it was the first codex for fifth ed, and as said before the favorite of GW, it was made to be really good in fifth ed, and it is.
Strengths.
Let's start with some obvious stuff, the Marines can be good at almost any style of play. You want a fast biker/rhino army? You can do that. You want an anti-armor/heavy infantry army? You can do that. Or just an all around specialized army, again you can do that. Tactically Marines are very flexible, since you can give them two special weapons, either a special weapon(a Flamer, Melta, or Plasma Gun) or a heavy weapon(a Heavy Bolter, Missile Launcher, Multi-Melta, or Lascannon). Since a ten man Squad can break into two five man squads, each squad can get either of those weapons, and/or the squad Sargent.
All squads have something called "Chapter Tactics" where at any time any squad who is called upon a morale check can choose to pass or fail, and with "And They Shall Know No Fear"(which means they automatically pass regroup tests regardless or normal restrictions) means they are generally pretty good at staying alive in combat.
Marines also have a wide variety of special characters, each does something different to the entire army, depending on the character. Vulkan He'Stan makes Flamers, Meltas and Thunder Hammers better. Pedro Kantor makes the entire army stubborn and makes Sternguard scoring units for the purposes of objective games. So on and so forth.
Weaknesses.
Good at everything means obvious weaknesses. A shooty army will be torn up in assault, easy pray for close combat armies. Close Combat Armies will be shot to death by shooter armies, such as Guard. Just because you can do anything doesn't mean you are good at everything.
Pricy. In fifth ed, boots on the ground means more better army. Space Marines and the characters that do good stuff for the army aren't cheap, so it's more than likely that you'll only get about 50 models on the ground, and chances are that unless those are used correctly that won't win any matches.
Overall.
Good Army list for beginners and a good army for experienced players. The most crucial part about marines in balancing point cost and what the army does.

Space Wolves.
The army which I and my friends have dubbed "Space Vikings." Space wolves don't follow the same tactics and organization as the regular Marines, but are no less successful on the tabletop and battle field. Space wolves are more of a close quarters army, but are flexible army none-the-less.
Strengths.
Close combat. Wolves are made and designed for close quarters combat. Sure they have regular marines that are similar to the regular codex, but they have equipment to make them ok at shooting but better at assaults. Almost all infantry units, save for one, are geared for close combat. And considering they have "Counter Attack" and "And They Shall Know No Fear" in assaults they are generally able to survive longer.
The amount of close combat units available to the wolves is impressive, from regular Grey Hunters to Blood Claws, from Thunderwolf Cavalry to Wolf Guard. The thing that makes Wolves good at being shot at and assaulted is that they can take either or. They are an army that can lose a flank and win. And a lot of the time they can be dirt cheap, a ten man squad of grey hunters cannot take a heavy weapon, but can take two special weapons, you pay for the first one and take the second one free.
As for special characters and HQ choices, the Space Wolves have the "Hero Hammer" method, since they can take up to four HQs. Two can stuff for the army, while the others are pretty beastly in combat. As usual, all characters of Space Wolves are made for close combat.
Weaknesses.
Space Wolves are for the more experienced players. Putting the right unit where and using it correctly, if not done so, that unit or the army not used correctly will easily fall apart. The wolves can be used by a new player but not to the extent of a more experienced player. It's also widely known that Wolves are a close combat army, so unless they have transports they will get shot to death.
Another problem comes with the "Hero Hammer" method, it's a few good models in return for fewer troops. As said before, boots on the ground count for more than a few good ones. It doesn't matter how good a few models can be, level enough low AP, high strength weapons at them and they will go down easy. Another problem is again cost. These few models are good, yeah, but are generally expensive.
Overall.
Space Wolves are good for a more experienced player who knows who to give what, and who to assault what.

Blood Angels.
The newest Marine codex on the block, Blood Angels are really the doomed heroes of the Space Marines, seeing they carry a curse with them that makes them both insane yet really hard to kill. As I once put it to another player, "The Space wolves are like an axe of sorts, brutal and powerful. The Blood Angels are like a rapier, fast and precise." As lame as that sounds, it's actually kind of true.
Strengths.
Blood Angels are truly elite. They're fast and precise in close combat, and have the chance to be better at it. Blood Angels are fast, assault marines are troops, and their rhinos and razorbacks are fast tanks. Blood Angels also have a nice choice of elites, ranging from librarian Dreadnoughts to priests that give "Feel No Pain" and "Fearless." Easily enough said the Blood angels elite choices are meant to be taken, because they form the backbone of most army lists for Blood Angels, because that's what makes them unique.
Weaknesses.
Once more it comes to cost. Since most Blood Angels players will be tempted to take as many as Elites as possible. But these Elites will cost a lot, so the army will have few boots, going back to that once again. Sure your army will be really good at what it does, but it will roughly be about 25 to thirty models at 1850.
Another problem is using Blood Angels. Like Eldar, you have to know how to use Blood Angels where to put them and so on. I said that Space Wolves could lose a flank and still probably win. If the Blood Angels lose and flank, then the entire army will fall apart. Blood Angels are an army that needs to get the upperhand and keep it.
Overall.
Blood Angels need really to be put into the hands of one who knows how to use them to have them be really good.

5 Reasons to not buy Halo: Reach

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Let's now discuss the "Most anticipated game of the year," Halo: Reach. Frankly, by now people, I would hope, would be done with Halo, everything about it by now would be old, repetitive and stupid. But, no, Bungie has decided to try and breathe live once again into a pretty old and almost dead thing with Halo: Reach. I have to assume that the cocaine bucket was getting pretty low. I'm not going to buy this, and I know I said that for Star Craft 2, but this time I mean it. Let me give you 5 simple reasons why I will not pick up Halo: Reach, ever.
5. I know how it ends. How? Simple, I read the fucking book, The Fall of Reach. In there it tells you everything on how Reach fell, except one thing: Why the fuck is Reach so important? It's a very important battle, and they need to send in almost every single Spartan! That's great. Why? SPOILER, but this is going to end With Master Chief on the Pillar of Autumn in cyro, when they make a lightspeed (Or whatever it's called) jump that makes them find Halo 1, and the rest of the Spartans are stuck on Reach getting their asses handed to them.
4. Stupid. Fucking. Story. Since I have read the story of Reach, I can say that it is one of the most pointless and stupid stories I have ever. Now let me just say this, certain aspects of the Halo universe is quite fun, that's obvious. But this is just stupid, it explains nothing and expands nothing. Oh, but wait! There are now whole teams Spartans! Seriously? That's your selling point for this game? More Spartans? That means nothing to me. It's almost just like saying, "oh look this cheese here? It has more cheese!"
3. Old, out of date multiplayer gameplay. One of the things I like about a gaming series with a multiplayer is progression. We saw that in modern warfare 1&2, and bad company 1&2, the multiplayer expanded and improved. Halo has only ever the 1990's multiplayer style of everyone rushing to the missile launcher. That was great in the 90's, but now everyone has moved on to the newer, better style of gameplay. Not to grenade spaming, because since everyone has shields you need to throw grenade after grenade after grenade, and it just get's fucking tiring.
2. The re-emergence of Halo-Jesus fanboys. Now, once again we will have to deal with the 10-25 year old douche-bag that will not play anything but Halo, think it's the greatest thing ever and think James Cameron copied Halo for Avatar. There's one thing I absolutely hate about online, the 13 year old, high pitch little douche-bag whose balls haven't dropped yet that think they're the shit and stop screaming their asses off in a vain attempt to have the vibrations of their voice have their balls drop. The thing is a lot of them will probably not like Reach as much as the past Halos, but won't admit it because they think the Gods of Bungie will come and beat them up in front of their parent whose basement they've been living in for the past 14 years.
1. No Sargent fucking Johnson. Now, we can all admit that every series has it's share of badasses. For Halo, it was Sargent Johnson. I can easily say that Johnson was one of the biggest badasses I've ever seen. Why is this? Because he was modeled off one of the biggest badasses ever, the gunny. So, Bungie, what are you going to do to one of the most indestructible characters ever? Kill him off? Oh that's a great fucking idea! So you know what Bungie? Fuck your story! Fuck your game! And fuck you for taking out Sargent Johnson!

Editors note: I'm fully expecting to get a shit-ton of hate mail from Halo fanboys for publishing this. So, you know what fanboys? Bring the hate mail, I will fully enjoy reading barely put together emails (because I know none of you learned to write) and sending my better arguments back to you to prove you're idiots.
Have a nice day.

Hell, it's about time for review time.

*sigh* Ok, I really wasn't expecting to do this, to be blunt. When the first trailer of this hit about four years ago, I was pretty damn excited. Four years later when it was finally released, all the hype I once had had up and vanished. You see, if a trailer had hit, and then the game had come out maybe next year or so, I would have been fine with that, because that happens all the time, but four years is a long time to wait. So, when the game did hit about a few weeks ago, I just sat back and waited for IGN, Gamespot, Game Informer, and Koutaku to give it the tens it may or may have deserved. But, there was a nagging voice in the back of my head, the part of me that played the hell of the predecessor to this, that urged me time and time again to buy this game. Finally after a couple weeks, I gave in, I swallowed my hatred for the publisher, bought it and popped it in my laptop. True to the developers fashion, it took six hours to install, didn't even get to play it till the next day. But after all that, I have played the game, and finally I can give you my review for Star Craft 2.
Now, disclaimer: I know this game look really good. I know it's almost jaw dropping for the major cinematic cut scenes, and even the regular gameplay. The disclaimer is I can't really talk about it because if I set my laptop to the amazing settings, I would probably have a nuclear meltdown on my hands. My advise is this, there's plenty of videos on the web showcasing the graphics of Star Craft 2, since I can't talk about them, go watch one of those vids, and decide for yourself.
The story picks up four years after the events of the first Star Craft and Brood wars (By my math, one Star Craft year is about 3 of our years, if I'm wrong someone tell me). Both the Zerg and the Protoss have been quiet for all four years, with the occasional pocket of Zerg infestation being discovered every now and then. Jim Raynor has started his own rebel force against his former commander's, Mengsk, new empire known as the dominion. The Dominion has labeled Raynor as an outlaw, and constantly berating the public with propaganda that Raynor is a terrorist. This, of course, has been making Raynor's rebellion quite difficult for the past four years.
The Campaign picks up when Raynor is starting to really push hard to get the Dominion off the world he's on. After that mission a figure from Raynor's past shows up and offers a job to Raynor, attack a Dominion Base, steal some ancient artifact, sell it, and be on their way. Sounds simple, but then again it always SOUNDS simple. Sure enough, after the artifact is prepared for evac, the Zerg show up, everything goes to hell, and it goes from there. Now the campaign has the aspect of choices and consequences, not in terms of the world, but in terms of your units.
Now, the gameplay is really the same as Star Craft. For this sequel, Blizzard decided to play it safe, and well, "If it ain't broke don't fix it." There's nothing wrong with Star Craft's gamplay, it's familiar and it' fun, but a little innovation would have been nice on the battle field. The real innovation comes with upgrading your units. There are permanent upgrades you can purchase at the armory on your ship, these will last throughout the campaign, and are pretty useful. These aren't free, however, but you do get money from the missions you complete, the bulk coming from the main objective, and others coming from side objectives.
Now, the campaign has the choices and consequences aspect, but this, as mentioned above, affects your units. During a mission, you could get a message from someone asking for help in return for some tech that will help you. You could choose to help and get that tech, or leave him be. The result is that you will have that tech for the entire campaign, or never get the chance to get it again. Another way it might happen is you could get two separate messages from warring factions, one will offer you this piece of tech to wipe out the other, the other will offer you a different piece of tech, and so on.
Now this campaign focus's on the Terran (Human) side of things, but in multiplayer all three races are available. Now, if you're worried you'll get your ass handed to you by someone online, worry not. Star Craft 2 has tutorials about the way to use things to your advantage online. Based on your level as well, when you want to play a match against a random opponent, you'll be put against someone in your same level. So, the new guys will be against the new guys, the good guys against the good guys, and the really experienced guys against the really experienced guys. Not to mention there's the Zerg Rush, where you alone or with a buddy take on waves and waves of the Zerg swarm, another version of horde mode.
All in all, I have to say I have really enjoyed Star Craft 2, the amount you get in the set, the campaign, multiplayer, Zerg rush, not to mention the new and improved battlenet and Mac and PC compatible makes it well worth the 60 bucks for the game. It wasn't probably worth the twelve year wait, but worth the four years since the first trailer hit. I can say with confidence that this game is definitely in the running for game of the year.

Challenge: 9.5
Graphics:9.3
Atmosphere:9.0
Sound:9.1
Storyline:9.2
Overall:9.2

Extra Life

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Today, rather than all other days, I'm going to talk to you all about something rather important. What is that you ask? Simple. Sarcastic Gamer's Extra Life charity event. Last year I participated in this event, without a team, and raised over $400 for this event, in total the charity raised over $150,000. Now you ask another question, "What is Extra Life?"
The answer to that is once again simple. Extra Life is a charity event by gamers (Like myself) that is a 24 hour gaming marathon, which people sponsor you by the hour. What are you raising money for? All the money that you are sponsored goes directly towards pediatric cancer research, helping kids in the fight of their lives against cancer. In my opinion, a noble charity.
Last year I was able to raise $400 for Extra Life, and this year I'm aiming higher. So really this post is a call to raise money for Extra Life, in anyway you can. If you don't want to game, simply donate money, a dollar an hour is $24. If you can't donate, but have a console and are willing to game, send me an e-mail and we could possibly work together on a team, or start your own. If you can't game or donate, spread the word to your friends, your family or the internet, any way helps.
If you want to donate to me, hears the link to my donation page,
https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/m.aspx?i=18371E9314DB588CD

All around the net, people are rallying to Extra Life. IGN, Gamespot, Sarcastic Gamer, Gamer Tag Radio, and many more are stepping up to help kids in the fight of their lives, won't you?

Caestus Assault Ram > Land Raider

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Yesterday, I posted a piece about my thoughts what's been going on for the past week and a half or so, and I put in a little piece about something called the Caestus Assault Ram. After giving it some thought, I can say that I really like the Assault Ram. Why? Because for what you get at the amount of points for it, it's well worth it. I'd wager, and do believe, that the C.A.R. (coincidence in the abbreviation?) is a much better choice than the Land Raider.
Let's start with points. The average Land Raider comes out to about 250 points (Land Raider=250 pts; Land Raider Crusader=250 pts; Land Raider Redeemer w/multi-melta=250 pts), while a Caestus Ram comes out to about 235 (245 with frag launchers when carrying terminators). So, yes the Ram is cheaper, but what do you get for those points that make it better than the Land Raider? Good question, keep reading.
Let's talk, for a moment, mobility. The Raider is not a fast tank, therefore it can only move 12 inches max. And, let's face it's a pretty big target, most firepower is going to go in it, if it was more mobile, it would be worth the points, because it could get it's cargo in close combat faster, but it can't. The Ram can move 36 inches a turn, so not only will it disclose it's cargo faster, it will count as obscured and get a 4+ cover save, so it will most likely survive longer in comparison to the Raider. And it will get this save more often rather than the once from smoke launchers. So it's fast and probably more likely to survive.
Speaking of survivability, one thing the Raider is susceptible to is melta weapons. If a melta gun is within 6 inches, they'll have a better chance of damaging the Raider. The Ram is immune to the second melta die, meaning even if it's one inch away from the Ram it will only ever roll one die. And with AV 13, 13, 11, that would be pretty difficult.
Now onto transport capacity. In terms of regular models, the Crusader wins, with 16 normal marines and 8 terminators. The Redeemer is second with 12 normal models, 6 terminators (I prefer the Redeemer version of the Raider). And the normal Raider is last with 10 marines and 5 terminators. The Ram can transport ten models. Now what so special about ten models? Simple, it means ten models. 10 marines, or ten terminators. This is pretty nifty, as ten terminators can be a frightening thing.
So that's my thoughts on the Caestus Assault Ram, if you want to check it out for yourselves, here's the link to the PDF on forge world,

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/c/caestus.pdf

Enjoy,
yours,
57

Really? New content a week?

Wow, has it really come to a post a week?
I feel like one of those webcomics that only post their shit once a week just to build suspense. I feel that as a blogger, 40k player, and gamer I should be up to the task of doing more on this blog, but somehow it's always at the back of my mind not really playing a part. Which is rather unfortunate, since stuff really happens around me that I have something to say about.
Well, I can tell you, stuff has been happening, new, old, worthless and exciting stuff. So on this day I pledge to do more on this blog, not just for myself, but for you people, because really that's what it's about, giving you people the thoughts and entertainment you not only want but deserve. On that note lets get to it.
Let's start with tournies. So July 25th was a tournament day at my local game store, a kill-teams tournament with rules the T.O. had been working on for weeks. This tournament is significant because it's most likely my last at this store for a while. For my kill-team I opted to use a Space Wolves venerable Dreadnought, and he worked pretty well at killing things. How well you ask? Well, each player at the end of the tournament tallied up how many of the G.M's. squads they killed, most got about four or five. I got 24. Really, it came down to the third round(out of four) where the GM was able to immobilize the Dreadnought and assault it in close combat, seeing that he was next to a spawning pool, they just kept coming and coming. To hit they needed a 4+ on a regular die, and to harm the Dreadnought they needed a 6. So at the end of the third round I was up to 19 kills, and I have to say it was one of the most fun and funny rounds I've ever been in.

Going in order of what happened a very important and big game hit soon after that tournament, Star Craft 2. To put it bluntly, I didn't get the game, nor will I get it. One reason I will not is, if you read my earlier post, Blizzard works with Activision and I absolutely refuse to support Activision in any way. Another reason, the bigger reason is that after waiting four years for this, I was no longer hyped or looking forward to the game. FOUR YEARS. The first trailer hit when I was a freshmen in high school, and I was excited then I agreed with the guy, "Hell, it's about time." And if it hit like a year or so after that trailer, I'd be fine with it, but four years is a long time to wait for a game. So no, Star Craft 2, you're probably going to be good, but I'm not going to put 60 bucks down for you.

So, going to 40k, I was browsing the forge world site when I came across experiment rules for something called the Caestus assault ram(see pic above), and it's pretty interesting. The armor value for the front and side armor is 13, rear is ten; It's a fast skimmer tank, can move 36 inches all out, is immune to two melta dice, with an 18 inch small blast melta gun, is an assault vehicle with ten models; all for the price of 235 points. Now ten models may seem to be a small amount, but when it says ten models, it means ten models, terminators count as one model, so you can have ten terminators in this thing, which can be pretty nifty.
So here's a list I was thinking about with this thing,

Wolf Lord-170 pts
*Thunder Wolf-45 pts
*Power Weapon-15 pts
*Wolftooth Necklace-10 pts

Canis Wolfborn-185 pts

10 Wolf Guard-481 pts
*2 Power Weapons-20 pts
*Power Fist-20 pts
*2 Storm Bolter-6 pts
*Caestus Ram-235 pts

4 Thunder Wolf Cav.-200 pts
4 Thunder Wolf Cav.-200 pts

10 Grey Hunters-220 pts
*Power Fist-25pts
*2 Plasma Guns-10pts/free
*Drop Pod-35 pts

10 Grey Hunters-215 pts
*Power Fist-25 pts
*Melta Gun-5 pts
*Plasma Gun-free
*Drop Pod-35 pts

6 Long Fangs-175 pts
*Heavy Bolter-5 pts
*Missile Launcher-10 pts
*Plasma Cannon-20 pts
*2 Lascannons-50 pts

So, what's the orientation for this list? Simple, close range fire fights and assaults. I'm a huge fan of Thunder Wolves, so I have no intention of giving those up, but I felt that regular wolf guard don't get much love, so what better way to use them then in a 36 inch a turn tank which they could assault out of with 39 attacks on the charge, 8 being power weapon attacks, 3 being power fist attacks. I needed some Anti-tank, so I put in a long fang squad with 2 lascannons, as well as some nasty fire-power for the Grey hunters, as anyone who knows me knows I prefer Grey hunters over Blood claws. I'm pretty sure this list can tear through most infantry pretty easily if use correctly.

Anyway, that's it for now, check back later for some more content hopefully.
Yours,
57