Recent books acquired

(I'll explain where I've been in a follow up) For starters, let's look at some recent book purchases (or gifts).

World War Z of course, Max Brooks' "Oral History Approach" to the Great Zombie War, done in the literary style of BLOOD OF SPAIN (or perhaps more accurately that recent anthology dedicated to the H.G. Wells War of the World event done by various authors) It's not a central narrative, e.g., you won't see one gang of plucky survivors battle for survival as is the subject of MANY zombie films. Instead, Brooks tells the story of a global zombie holocaust through the eyes of many narrators in many places. I'm only just getting into it now but I'm impressed with Brooks writing style and sense of humor to accomodate the sense of dread. I loved his ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE .. and you can look at WORLD WAR Z as a companion piece set in the same milieu, pretty much.


An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories This is not a "trade back" of cartoons, rather a serious attempt to explain some of the modern and post-modern themes that are prevalent in "iconic" fiction such as Sunday Cartoons. The Anthology is edited by Ivan Bruneti of "Schizo" fame but many individual "edgy" comic artists and writers contribute. Ivan Bruneti writes the Introduction and I believe one or two of the "chapters" therein. Most of the material is page after page of post-modern comics illustrating a theme that Bruneti is working on in the chapter (it almost seems that the phrase "chapter" doesn't really fit, actually) Bruneti is a quirky fellow; but he takes the subject matter seriously enough -- I had no idea how cosmic some of these guys could get! One of my favorites is a series of interviews and commentary about PEANUTS written mostly by Art Spiegelman of MAUS fame. There's even a comic of Spiegelman's interview with Schulz with Spiegelman in his usual "Maus" guise and Schulz dressed up as a Charlie Brown character. Charles Schulz, who had been a cartoonist so long his work was part of the backdrop of American culture, had some very interesting points to make about the graphical art itself. You kind of expect the creator of PEANUTS to be conservative (or at least I did) but he was quite insightful. I'm about halfway done with it and I am glad I picked it up using some of my copious Book Store Gift Card boodle I usually get this time of year.




HIGH COTTON by Joe Landsdale. Haven't started it yet. Joe is my favorite East Texas Shitkickin' writer and a past master of the macabre short story art form. This is a short story anthology loaded with some of his more celebrated short stories, including one I've been tracking down for years.




THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS by Barry Straus. another Scholarly look at the great galley battle between the Greeks and Persians The Greek triumph at Salamis stopped the advancing Persians and saved the first democracy in history. It made Athens the dominant city in Greece, gave birth to the Athenian empire, and set the stage for the Age of Pericles. On the Persian side, the battle of Salamis also featured history's first female admiral and sailors from three continents. I've only just creacked it open-- Strauss' prose style is what I would call "spare" but it's still easy enough to follow and a good treatment of the subject.



Tuff Guide to Fantasyland By Diana Wynn-Jones. A very tongue-in-cheek, often hilarious, treatment of all the cliches in fantasy writing done by a very succesful fantasy writer. Who knew she had it in her? I bought this one on Otto's recommendation and don't regret it...

That's what's in my book bag at the moment, and I'm enjoying them tremendously.

Oh dear...

Well, unfortunately Drey was feeling under the weather and I had to take her to Kaiser yesterday, so my big plans to run OPERATION POLAR VENGEANCE will have to wait for a more convenient time (probably next year, dammit). It's a pity, but family comes before hobbies.

The scenario was quite complex, like the first one. This one takes place two years after, when Sam Scrooge-Walton has had time to recover from wounds and build up another polar invasion force. In the meantime, the Pole has seen some changes as well... a bitter, alcoholic Kris Kringle dumps his wife of 200 years for a Santa groupie. The elves are unionized and harder to get motivated now. Santa has instituted the North Pole Defense Force, a force of giant amulatory wooden soldiers, as his personal bodyguard. Sherman is disaffected and querolous, but still loyal at the core. Another elf, Hymie, is contemplating setting up his own toy company and taking several elfs with him when he goes. Professor Marvel in R&D is working on new arms designs.

Did the disaffected, dumped Mrs. Claus go live in a cottage and bake cookies somewhere? Nope. She becomes the "mole" for the Wal*Mart force and leads them into the Internal ring of the NP defense ring through ways only she would know. The scenario starts with TWO large Wal*Mart trucks breaking through the defense ring and smashing into the Toy Factory complex. As Walton has already bribed the U.S. military for a little bit of expensive satelitte time, he has managed an orbital bombardment before his troops arrived. The effect on the factory is devastating. Walton's force is beefed up this time, with far more SWAT and corporate cops then the last time, as well as the Purim Gang, representatives of a competing holiday.

So my prediction would be that it would have been a much bigger bloodbath than last time....

I'm getting one for all my friends...

Annual Christmas Figure Survey UPDATE

Happy Holidays, believers! This is an update to the annual Christmas Holiday figure survey, the first of which was posted LAST YEAR. Most of the information on that post is still accurate. This post will update any existing lines as well as point out any limited release "holiday figures" that companies release in onesies and twosies around this time of year.

For starters, Eureka Miniatures released a bevy of TOY TOWN toy soldiers. These aren't explicitly for Christmas, but they have a magnificent "nutcracker" look to them and I include them in my Holiday themed games.



Eureka did put out a limited edition "Arky" figure (an "Arky" is their trademark logo) with an exagerated Christmas hat, for anyone ordering in the month of December. I couldn't find a picture of this figure.

Toy Town figs Available at both Eureka (AU) and Eureka (US). Ordering policies are on both website's respective shopping cart pages.

SCALE CREEP had this lovely Winter/Christmasy vignette posted on The Miniatures Page as an illustration for a news item. Alas, I cannot find any more details on it on their webpage. Direct any inquiries to Mark at Scale Creep.



Team Frog released "the Baker's Dozen".. Christmas Gingerbread men and a Pilsbury Doughboy leader:



Their order page is HERE.

WARGAME SUPPLY DUMP released a few more figures in their popular Santa Claus Wars line:

Elves "Bernie" and "Mike" (similar to existing elves. One carries a standard, the other a flamethrower).

Dead Snowmen Casualty figures:



and Dougie the anthropomorphic Singing Christmas Tree:



Ordering page is HERE.

Thanks to Jana Wang on TMP, I have discovered the 28mm Nativity Set from MAGISTER MILITUM.



Their page has been down the last three times I tried to get ordering information; I will update this when I can.

AMAZON MINIATURES "Santa Claws Gang" had a few more items and a couple of reindeer added since last year:

(no pictures are on site)

SGF08 Reindeer (2) £2.50
SGF10 Christmas Present Pack £2.50
SGF11 Christmas Poultry £2.25
SGF12 Christmas Provisions £3.00

Amazon's Santa Claws gang can be ordered directly from the catalogue page itself. General ordering policies are located here.

THUNDERBOLT MOUNTAIN had an extremely limited run of a Nativity Scene (lovely work!) but alas, it is already sold out.



Nice to know someone remembered Christmas isn't only about Santa Claus....

THE FOUNDRY has a long term tradition of putting out limited edition holiday figures and this year was no exception.

Spotted on Foundry Web Page:

Christmas Day Scrooge and Tiny Tim!


The Gnome Range from BRIGADE GAMES isn't explicitly a range of Christmas figures, but they certainly fit in a North Pole or Christmas themed game, if you squint. Regardless, there is a Santa Gnome Figure that certainly makes the cut:



Ordering policies on the respective page on the Brigade Games site, under Shopping Cart.

MISSED THESE LAST YEAR

FREEBOOTER's "Clockwork Santa"...



HERESY has an interesting "Fallen Santa" which didn't make the cut last year:



REAPER has their trademark "Sophie" figure that has been "Santafied" in the past:



Note that Reaper has released a variant of this figure (Sophie) for the past five years running. THIS YEAR'S FIGURE is more of a "Winter theme" than a "Christmas theme" miniature, but for most part "Sophie" is sculpted around the holidays. Reaper has a large selection of Angel figures, which sort of fit the theme, too.

You Can Help with the Holiday Figure Survey!

If you know of another line of figures with a Christmas theme, please contact me, and I will update this list during the year. If you are a manufacturer with additions to your line, please contact me before December next year and I'll update next time I publish this in Dec 2007.



Thanks to all of my fellow TMPers for their suggestions!

With Sam Raimi at the helm!

Good news in the pulp fiction front. Sam Raimi, the highly capable director of the new Spiderman movie franchise and the older Darkman films, along with, oh, a little film project called THE EVIL DEAD TRILOGY! (Duh) is signed to direct the next incarnation of a movie adaption of the old SHADOW story. As in Lamont Cranston, and the power to cloud men's minds, and Margo Lane, and "Who Knows the Evil that Lurks in the Hearts of Men?", and all that.

FULL STORY HERE



Sam has been hit and miss over the years, obviously hitting quite solidly with Spiderman 1&2 (and by all predictions, 3). And the Evil Dead series, particularly Army of Darkness, well, that's just great fun to watch. Of course, he also was involved in some turkeys, like THE QUICK AND THE DEAD. Frankly I don't care. The source material is well documented and he will have a wealth of good stories to work with. My only concern is that they might try another stupid maneuver like brining the Shadow into a modern setting. Say what you like about the 1994 Alec Baldwin Shadow movie (and much there is to say!) it LOOKED right. The setting, costumes, etc. were just right. The Shadow doesn't work in a modern continuum. Keep him in the 1930s!

Too Late, alas!

I wish Ed Texiera had released this just a wee bit earlier than TWO DAYS BEFORE I WAS RUNNING A CHRISTMAS GAME!! Thanks, Ed!

SANTA CLAUS WARS is derived strongly from other THW systems, notably something called 5150, which I am unfamiliar with. I was considering using their urban warfare/modern rules set as a change of pace this year (TRWNN was marginal at best for last year) but I've gone aheadw with the BLOOD AND SWASH thing. I couldn't switch gears this late in the game.

Still, it's a nice little system and we might run next year's game using these rules, they look very straightforward and tidy, like a lot of TWH stuff. The game is structure specifically for Roger Webb's WARGAME SUPPLY DEPOT Santa line (great Santa and snowmen, not crazy about the elves, see last year's survey at that link), which is a good place to start. My scenario is a bit more complex than the one in the rulebook but it might be able to scale upward.

LINK FOR THE DOWNLOAD You may have to join the THW Yahoogroup to access this file.

Thanks again, Ed, and have a Merry Christmas.

Appended: I took a look at these rules while waiting to get my picture taken for a lab badge today. This ain't no rocket science, and with the exception of the somewhat complex reaction rules, are very playable. I may yet give it a try.

Bad Santa! Bad, bad, BAD..

Just because it's THE MOST SEARCHED FOR ITEM ON THIS BLOG this time of year, here's a reprise of an oldy but goody...



Have yourself a sweet-ass Christmas...

Everyone sing along!

It's beginning to look a lot like fish-men

Lyrics

It's beginning to look a lot like fish-men
Everywhere I go;
From the minute I got to town
And started to look around
I thought these ill-bred people's gillslits showed.
I'm beginning to hear a lot of fish-men
Right outside my door,
As I try to escape in fright
To the moonlit Innsmouth night
I can hear some more.

They speak with guttural croaks and to hear them provokes
A profound desire to flee
Their eyes never blink and quite frankly they stink
Like a carcass washed up from the sea.

I wish I'd paid attention to that crazy drunken man.
He tried to warn me all about old Marsh's Deep One clan.

It's beginning to look a lot like Fish-men
Everywhere I go;
They can dynamite Devil Reef,
but that'll bring no relief,
Y'ha N'thlei is deeper than they know.
I'll continue to see a lot of fish-men
That I guarantee.
For the fish-man I really fear
is the one who's in the mirror
And he looks like me.
He looks just like me.

Download the MP3 here

Now, just the ladies...

The Great Old Ones are coming to town

Lyrics

You'd better watch out; you'd better go hide.
An Elder Sign is needed for this Yuletide.
Great Old Ones are coming to town.

They're making a fist and shaking it twice. 
They're going to hit you naughty or nice. 
Great Old Ones are coming to town. 

They're bringing ugly shoggoths, And horrid Deep Ones too. 
Shub Niggurath is waking up, 
And so is Cthulhu. 

So you'd better watch out, you'd better go 'way, 
Before the big guy comes up from R'lyeh. 
Great Old Ones are coming town.

Download the MP3...

Now, just the dudes!

I'll have a blue Solstice without you...

LYRICS

II'll have a blue solstice, Cthulhu.
I'll be so blue thinking what you'll do.
Sacrifices of red on the blue open sea
Won't mean a thing until you're here with me.

Until your blue nightmares awke me,
And all my blue angels forsake me,
You'll be down in your tomb, in cyclopean gloom
And I'll have a blue, blue blue blue solstice.

(spoken) Oh Cthulhu, baby, c'mon up out of that tomb. 
I can't stop thinking about your huge flabby claws, 
them little wings of yours, that grotesque scaly body, 
and them big ol' tentacles wrapped around me. 
Oh darlin', I can't go on without you.

You'll be down in your tomb in cyclopean gloom
And I'll have a blue, blue blue blue solstice.

Download the MP3...

Disclaimer: Lyrics copyright the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, Music by respective copyright holders. Please check out the VERY SCARY SOLSTICE CD on Lovecraftiana, where you will find many more songs of this disturbing ilk.

Illustration by DrChrissy

Another Great Cliffhanger!

(permission is given to not read this if you don't like BSG. It's fine by me. ALSO! If you haven't seen the show yet, don't read this post

Okay, this was an excellent little cliffhanger, bringing many disparate threads into play until the show resumes broadcast in late January. The Algae Planet is a source of nutrients that several civilians and a few military types are harvesting for the benefit of the food processing machines, and ultimately, the entire fleet (not very tasty stuff, either.. the Chief says it smells wretched and tastes about as good as it smells).

On the personal front the Kara/Lee affair is hot and heavy, which is apparently an ill-kept secret. Lee, it turns out, is the needy one, and Kara the somewhat cavalier one in this relationship. Lee wants them both to get a divorce and get married, kara will have none of that.. it's a sin, don't ye know. So I think they break it off, it's hard to say. As I've predicted before, I still think Sam Anders (at the very least) is in for a short contract, and real soon.

The Chief (in a very neatly played scene, I thought) keeps hearing some sort of subsonic music or message or something, and is drawn into the hills where he discovers a cave, which contains something called the "Temple of Five"-- no coincidence that there are five unknown Cylons, of course, as they want to find this thing called the EYE OF JUPITER which is somewhere in the temple.

Fascinating stuff that thirteenth tribe keep leaving behind, isn't it?

The Cylons are BIG players in this episode, pulling into orbit with four base stars, and then engaging in a bit of a Mexican standoff.. They'll destroy the Galactica and everyone on it, plus everyone on the ground, if they don't hand over the eye. The parlay, with Cylons arriving on the Galactica to negotiate with Baltar in tow, is easily the BEST scene of the show. Lucy Lawless, Eddie Olmos, Michael Hogan, James Callis, Mary McDonnell, and Dean Stockwell play off each other flawlessly. Standouts: Mary McDonnell listening to the traitor Baltar start negotiations, then cutting him off by saying "the less this man says, the better things will go". And Olmos walking up to Lawless (within an inch of her face) and saying "alright, I'm dictating the terms now..." And of course, we can't forget Stockwell saying "Oh, by the way, we'll throw in Baltar.." and looking at the stricken look on Callis' face. Fantastic performances all around. The sardonic grins on Olmos (and especially Hogan as the bitter Colonel Tigh) were great-- "That's an offer worth thinking about".

Of course, Deanna and Baltar are off on their Cylon prophecy goofiness and now think they will only see the Five if they see The Eye of Jupiter... so they engage in deception to land a team of centurions (cutting off the humans on the ground) and then land themselves.

Did I mention they also figured out that the sun of this planet will be going nova in the near future? When Gaeta brings this news, the audience were agreeing with him when he says "what are the odds that Humans and Cylons would both arrive here virtually at the same moment??? (yeah, we were wondering that too, Felix)...

So the Mexican Standof is tested by Deanna and Adama calls her bluff by filling his launch tubes with nukes, readying himself to blast the temple (and the shore party) to atoms. A great place to end it...

So far, season three has lived up to expectations, boasting three great shows and a number of good ones. Even the bad ones are beat most prime time viewing by a country mile, so I'm happy with the efforts of Mssrs. Moore, Eick and company to date.

A fascinating game mechanic

I had heard.. somewhere.. perhaps on Yog Radio, about a new indie-press roleplaying game called DREAD that features a solitary mechanic for resolving difficulties. You play Jenga. That's right, the block stacking game. Apparently (and I don't know for certain, I don't have the game), you assign a task a difficulty level and rate it by number of blocks. If you pull the blocks and the tower stays up, you pass the test. It seems cumbersome for something like combat, but it does sound as if it would create an almost palpable sense of . dread.



Finally! Something to DO with those old Jenga sets. I might incorporate something like it for non-combat actions, just for fun. Remember my spinning tops in the Sergeant Slaughter in Bun-Bun Land game? This sounds very similar to me!

Hey Thomas!

If you want to navigate around in here, it's pretty easy.

On the left side, check out Blog Archive. Posts are sorted by year, month, and then by post. See?



But to get on to the SOMME PROJECT.

(note: Nigel Clarke, who owns World War I, found time to correct a couple of mistakes in the ensuing narrative. His corrections are marked in RED).

I know of some great sources for 28mm + scale French, German and English figures for the Somme Battle. Most people associate the British, not the French, with that battle (because of Kitchner Haig and the "Pals Brigades Battalions, and losing an entire generation of young men in one battle).

First of all there's BRIGADE GAMES, run by my friend, Lon Weiss:

Here's the WORLD WAR ONE FRENCH that he had made



Lon is primarily a vendor, and he sells RENEGADE FIGURES. They make slightly bigger World War One figures for British, French, and Germans. They are gorgeous.



Last, I'm running a kind of private Intranet at hotspur.mobstop.com if you want to park those rules where you can get a playtest team to look at them.

I'd love to see your rules at some point!

I was bummed that I missed Oktoberfest...

Now... not so much!

Lego Chariots

I've found an interesting site about miniatures and chariot racing last night when I was googling for "track layouts". HERE is "Jacob Sparre's" Lego project page where he demonstrates how to build an ancient Roman Circus using Lego. It looks fantastic.





Obviously many of these drawing are 3D renderings using a tool called "LDraw" which is a Lego Designer/CAD package. Jacob's files for creating the Lego Circus Maximus are HERE.

The parent program, LDRAW, can be downloaded on the LDRAW HOME PAGE. Yes, it's free.

Jacob probably didn't mean to play games with his chariots, but I see potential here, especially married to my latest design, FAST SHUFFLE COMBAT CHARIOTS.

Creepy.

Have you been catching a miniseries called THE LOST ROOM on SF TV, starring Peter Kraus from SIX FEET UNDER?



I Tivoed it out of interest, and have been watching it avidly.. it's a delightfully original and creepy premise for a story. In a cheap hotel sometime back in 1961, "something apocolyptic happened". The objects of the occupant of that room (and the occupant himeself) have gained intrinsic power all their own. For instance, the hotel room key now can unlock ANY door in the universe, including doors long distances away (it's a handy thing to unlock a door in Arizona and walk out into New York city for instance). In the story, there are organizations like cults that have sprung up seeking and cataloguing these objects. The Peter Krause character looses his daughter in a room of that hotel and she gets sucked into ... somewhere else. The rest of the series is Kraus maneuvering amongst these societies collecitng the artifacts and trying to utilize them to get back his daughter. The story is a decent framing device for displaying the occult powers of the mundane objects in the show. It's a fascinating idea and hopefully it might become a series pilot at some point. Good work, SFTV.

I'm undone by the kindness of strangers

I'm a sucker for random acts of kindness. As reported in this earlier post, Boardgamegeek.com took the Secret Santa program initiated by Tom Vasel in 2005 and has institutionalized it. More than 500 people participated this year, including myself. Here's how it works: BGG has always had a "wish list" of boardgames that a registered user can maintain as a sort of note to yoursel about things you are looking for. OTHER BGG users can see that list as well-- it facilitates trading, which is a key element of BGG. This year, Aldie added in some code that allowed Secret Santa volunteers to view your wish list, select something from it (or choose your own thing) and send it to the address provided.

I got notice that I had a "sectet santa victim" and sent one of her wish list choices to her right away. I chose something midrange in price and easy to get. Well, today, I got MY Thought Hammer box from MY secret santa. Inside was a sumptious gift. MY santa sent me not one but two things-- either one of which would have been generous.

First off is THE DUNWICH HORROR EXPANSION to ARKHAM HORROR.



Arkham Horror is a complex, theme-rich boardgame set in the H.P. Lovecraft universe. I own FFG's version which is a vast improvement over the original game published by Chaosium. Dunwich Horror adds the Wilbur Whately element to the original game-- basically the village of Dunwich from the DUNWICH HORROR, with tons of new monsters and a few new great old ones.

Next up is expansion set for DESCENT called Well of Souls. This adds more dungeon tiles, and more monsters and treasures to the basic game.



I've been thinking about getting these for a long time, I'm stunned that my Secret Santa was so generous.

Puttin' on the Ritz in Paradise

Peter Boyle, the ascerbic, misogynistic father on the hit show EVERYONE LOVES RAYMOND but more famous to ME as the misunderstood monster in the classic comedy YOUNG FRANKNSTEIN, has passed away at age 71.



Keep stomping around heaven in those size 15 lead monster boots, Peter. We all will miss you and I will say a prayer for your famiy.

Related Story.

"He's NOT alive......!"

NORTHOP 2006: Return to the Pole*

As some of you might remember from next year, Harry Morris and I ran a Christmas game for our TNGG club at the Game Parlor, Chantilly Va. I really enjoyed that one and wanted to put together a sequel of sorts. So here it is, NORTHOP 2006: Return to the Pole*.

As you might recall, last years' game ended with a decisive North Pole victory due to Sam Walton underestimating his opponents in an uncharacteristic fashion. This year, he hopes to put that behind him by doubling his forces and bringing in the Chanukah Gang as Allies. Walton's primary target will be taking out Santa's toy factory with ancilliary targets of taking as many presents with him when the raiding force exfiltrates (industrial espionage, of course)

Design Notes:

We will likely be changing from TRWNN (which worked after a fashion but proved to be somewhat unbalanced) to BLOOD AND SWASH, heavily converted. Here are some conversion and scenario notes for next week.

NORTHOP 2006: RETURN TO THE POLE*

Walt has:

For the North Pole Force:

Several Armed Elves from the Amazon line
A decent (unarmed) painted Father Christmas (acts like a leader)
2 Mounties (reserve figs.. they have rifles)
Professor Marvel and the Naughty Elf (controlling snowmen)
A couple of unpainted Copplestone evil snowmen
more Elves from Amazon (recent purchase)
About a squad (12 figs maybe) of the new Eureka toy soldiers, unpainted
A Horde (dozens) of gingerbread people, wielding candy canes


For the Wal*Mart Force:
Two squads unpainted hassidic gunmen (The Channukah Gang)
TWO Wal*Mart trucks this year
One large batch (approx 20 figs) "Longshoremen's Union" figures

Terrain:

Many many gingerbread houses (ceramic)
miscelaneous presents and such
some hills


Harry has:

For the North Pole Force:

Evil Snowmen from Copplestone
Teddy Bear troops?
Santa with a bazooka
2 "Bumbles" or abominable snowmen, from the Rudolph show (souveniers).

For the Wal*Mart Force:

About three squads (maybe four) of SWAT figures, in different colors.

Terrain:

A nice white felt groundcloth with sparklies in it.
Some christmas packages in scale.
A nice large Ruined Factory
Diverse little hills and snowbanks, styrofoam

Steve Gibson has:

The new glacier terrain bits from Heroscape
(more SWAT Guys?)

Combining this all together, we get a force that looks like this:

NORTH POLE FORCE:

Santa (Commanding) Santa can move independently or stop and command any North Pole Force on the board, including the beasts and snowmen.
Sherman, Lead Elf and Executive Officer (Commands , 9" radius)

About 15 Armed Elves. Each Elf can command up to 3 stands of gingerpeople previously dormant (not commanded this turn) Gingerpeople stands. Once a gingerperson stand is commanded, a bead is placed upon it to show that.

Professor Marvel, Naughty Elf and the Evil Snowmen. The Professor commands Snowmen to do things in his turn. He can move and command up to 4" radius. Naughty Elf (a girl) can beguile once a turn, which means the opposing unit rolls versus save or loses an action this turn. She works in tandem with the professor.

Mounties: two Canadian Mounties, 1 mounted and 1 not. Both with rifles. Use as reserve.
Bumbles: Abombinable Snowmen toys. Large Beserk Melee beasts. can be commanded by Santa, Sherman, and Professor Marvel. Use as reserve.

The Ginger Horde: Dozens of stands of gingerpeople, in single, double and triple stands. They wield melee weapons only and have to be controlled by elves or Santa.

Toy Soldier Platoon: Act like ordinary unit, but don't take morale checks for unit losses (other than leader).

Teddy Bear Unit: Act like ordinary unit, but they ignore the first hit of the game.

WAL*MART FORCE:

Leader: Ebenezer Walton
Captain Diaz: Executive Officer.

Grey Squad: About 5-7 guys with modern weapons.
White Squad: Ditto
Blue Squad: DItto

We may need more of these.

Longshoreman thugs. About 15 to 20 gangs of melee thugs. Can be split into two groups if neccesary.

Conversion Notes for Blood and Swash:

Changing Character Labels

Swashbuckler = Mythic Hero
Hero = Hero
Swordsman = Veteran
Man-at-Arms = Stooge
New Category = Drone
New Category = Berserker

A Drone has stats similar to the other categories, but has to be directed by OTHER characters to take actions.
E.G., Gingerbread people

A Berserker requires a controller.. but when it isn't being controlled it can act in a random (often vicious) manner.

Characters:

Good Guys

Santa: Mythic Hero
Sherman: Hero
All the Elves: Hero
Professor Marvel: Veteran
Wooden Soldiers: Veterans
Teddy Bears: Veterans
Naughty Elf: Veteran
Mounties: Hero and Veteran
Bumbles: Berserker
Snowmen: Drone
Gingerbread Men: Drones

Bad Guys

Ebenezer Walton: Mythic Hero
Captain Diaz: Hero
All the SWAT guys: Hero
Longshoremen: Veteran
The Chanukah Gang: Veteran + Hero



Battleplan: One factor that hampered Wal*Mart's progress last year was the terrain stopping the truck outside of the village. Walton has doubled the trucks, and plans on penetrating as far into the perimeter of NPV before deploying his teams. IT should be interesting, and a lot bloodier for the Santa side!

* ..

NOTE: Steve rightly pointed out that NORTHOP 06 didn't sound macho enough, so we're changing this to OPERATON POLAR VENGEANCE: The Battle of the Factories

Now that's action... and pathos

Spoiler Alert, as Usual.. Big Time!
The recent episode of BSG marked a return to form for the show, featuring action, incredible danger, death, and mayhem. Whereas last week's show was a minimalist exploration into character, this week's show was space opera at its finest.

One of the elements of plot that we all assume is going on is that the rag-tag fleet has some way of generating new food from some form of biomass conversion process-- hydroponics, synthetic food conversion, recycling, or some other oh-gee-whiz device. For once, the writers talk about the infrastructure behind feeding 47000 people, trapped on ships, flying around in space. The situation is dire. The food converter whizbang device has been contaminated, and the whole fleet food supply is in desperate shape. Naturally this calls for a nearly suicidal plan with little chance of success. A planet is found that is teaming with algae required to feed the food processing plants. The only problem is that it's behind some sort of hideous radiation cloud and a trip through the cloud is almost lethal.

The fleet has to make four trips through (for reasons they aren't that clear about). Most of the civilians are cooped up in the Galactica's hold to take advantage of its shielding. And it is there that Kat (aka Louanne Katraine), the crusty, bohemian rival to Starbuck, meets a blast from her past. It's her old boyfriend (and fellow drug runner), Enzo. And Enzo is hungry and looking for the meal ticket that Kat represents. Surprise, it turns out that "Kat" isn't Kat after all. She's a young woman named Sasha, a former trucker and drug runner. When civilization packed it in after the Cylon attack, she saw a natural opportunity to turn her life around, and assumed the name of a recently deceased pilot. Now Enzo will reveal that to the Colonials if she doesn't feed him. Alas, she doen't have anyh food either.

Meanwhile, Deanna and Baltar openly discuss some of the loopy suicide-ressurection antics she has gotten up to lately. Baltar has some sort of status with the Cylons now, apparently from being the meat in the Number 6/Number 8 sandwich he sleeps in every night. Baltar has apparently won her confidence and she openly discusses having seen "the Other Five" cylons we haven't seen in the show yet. Apparently she can see them in the intervening time between death and resurrection, but can't remember them when she wakes up.. this bit was typically confusing and felt tacked on.

Back at the fleet, the ships make the four incredibly harrowing trips through the radiation belt, and this is the best part of the show.. we haven't seen an episode this tense and relentless since "33" back in the first season. The palpable feeling of exhaustion is well acted by all participants.. standout performances from Jaimie Barber playing a near-babbling exhausted Apollo trying to debrief pilots, and Eddie Olmos and Michael Hogan sharing a quiet moment of near-hysteria as they laugh over a trifle. The hands down best performance, in my opinion, was given by Lucian Carro as Kat.. caught between a rock and a hard place, she makes a terrible sacrifice and emerges an unlikely hero.. alas, this is also her death knell.

I realize that a show that depicts dangers this harrowing probably demands some sacrifice of a character, but I was pretty bummed that they killed off Kat like this. She was a great little ensemble character and she added a lot of tension with Starbuck. The show will miss her.

This episode rates up there with "33" and "Exodus part 2" for rock em sock em action, and I loved it. It probably used up the effects budget or two episodes, but it was definitely worth it. Well done, Ron Moore!

The Pageant of Peace and National Christmas Tree

We went downtown to catch the annual Pageant of Peace on the Ellipse in front of the White House today. Drey spotted an open parking spot in the oncoming lane and executed a perfect bootlegger turn on Constitution Ave. That's my girl..



On the way (at 18th and Constitution), I had to ponder... who the heck is Jose Artigas? Oh! That's him...
Man, that guy got around.



Garrett says: "Hey look, Dad! This Gatorade bottle costs 3 dollars!"



George??? Laura?? Are you home??? Wooo Hoo! Sorry to barge in like this...



There's a group of smaller "state" trees that have been clustered around the big Kahuna from time immemorial. Each state decorates their own tree with thematic ornaments. Various civic or educational institutions provide the ornaments. In Virginia, my state, it's usually an elementary school. Last year's ornaments were made by a school in Springfield (about five miles from here). I would consider it quite an honor, myself.



One of the features of the Pageant of Peace is how local train enthusiast clubs drop by and set up G-scale rail layouts around the Big Kahuna. This year's layout wasn't as complicated as the ones in the past. I wonder if the lads are getting old.





And here's the Big Kahuna.. didn't get the stats on this beast, but it was hay-yuge...



And here it is, all lit up in its Sunday go to meeting suit...







Here's the mighty Virginia tree. Decorated by the good folks at an elementary school down in the Tidewater area, I think.





Given how cold it was, one tradition of the Pageant was very much appreciated.. the gigantic Mutant Yule Log, make that a Yule tree...





Woo hoo! No kidding it was this high!



Nodody's stealing this baby Jesus..



It started getting freezing out; and as we will be back tomorrow for Annie to perform with the Girl Scouts, we bid the Pageant farewell...



Merry Christmas, everyone!