Of Polish Bits, Nottingham Games And Nineties Goths

Why did no-one tell teenage George about this film?  Why?

 

Saturday was Sister Superior's birthday so I took Friday off work and spent a long weekend mostly dedicated to her.  Her presents included The Craft, a 1996 movie she was very fond of as a young lady but I'd never seen myself.  

I just about managed to avoid mind-cheating on the girlfriend for..... thirty seconds at a time?  Maybe twenty seconds?  Fairuza Balk in particular made focusing on chaste thoughts difficult.....

 

We are the weirdos, mister."

 However, this post isn't just for me to talk about how I thought obscene thoughts about goth girls.  No, it's to talk about two packages which came in the mail for me on Thursday...

One big box delivered on Thursday morning, one little box I had to go to the post office to collect.

On top is a little package from Poland, which we'll open first.  It's a pile of goodies I bought from Spellcrow as part of their online sale.  Buy any four blisters and get one free; buy any six and get two free.  I wanted to pick up their recent guitar sets, so I decided to "get my money's worth" as any true Scotsman would...

The whoel delivery.  Yes, there's nine packs, we'll get to that.

So, let's zoom in on the individual goodies.

Everything you need for your own guitar solo.

First up, we have the Noise Marine friendly bits.  One of the aforementioned guitar packs is here, as well as sonic/steam warrior style Torsos in the middle and Shoulder Pads on the right.  All together it's enough bits to do even more of my beloved Noise Marines, these ones more overtly guitar-y.  Add in the right helmet and I could do a decent ape of the old first ed Noise Marine

Thousand Sons bits.

Next up is a mixed set which I think should work for more Thousand Sons.  The helmets with the Egyptian Anubis-style face mask and Thousand Sons-style raised sections  The bodies and legs, on the other hand, are slightly more Dark Angels-styles with their robes.  I think I could paint a unit up in the fashion of my Thousand Sons sorcerer - deep red armour, bright yellow robes - and it would look quite cool.  If nothing else, all those robes will make for some good additional sorcerers if I want to add some non-Tzeentchian magic users in.

BARGAINS!

Next up is my freebies.  I asked for two more of the guitar kits as my sale bargains, and that's wha tI got - that gives me nine guitars total plus hands to suit.  I also got a random bag of mixed stuff - my previous order to Spellcrow also came with one of these, which I assume are just odds and ends he has left from casting.

CLOSE UP BARGAINS

There's a logic to these items - he's sent me "Changed Legion" Torsos and Legs, Sonic Torsos and Slaaneshi-esque claws and heads so I've not just got random items but items related to what I order.  This is a nice little touch and definitely makes me happy to give my money to Spellcrow.

Now, you may recall a second package up there, one wrapped up in Mantic Games tape.  What could be in there?

Something I paid for half a year ago.

It's the delivery of the first wave of Dreadball Xtreme goods - the "underground sports" variant of Mantic's sci-fi sports board game Dreadball.  The same core engine and premise lie under the hood but differing rules should produce a different experience - one that's more brutal, more confusing and more varied.

To summarise, the key changes are as follows:

• Teams are no longer Mono-Race - they can be mixed and matched.  The Xtreme books has two full race lists plus some miscellaneous aliens and robots you can splash in.
• There are three possible strike zones for each team and two possible places in each zone the strike hex can be.  When you set up you choose a layout which means the table might behave very differently.
• Crates scatter about the game field to block movement and throwing.  You can clamber over some.... but they might explode.

A close up of some of the cardboard/paper goodies

The box is absolutely rammed with goodies for my $100 "" pledge.  A rulebook, board and two sets of counter; two seperate sheets of number transfers, one black digits and one white; a signed print of the rulebook/box cover; fourteen D6 in three different colours; two decks of cards; all the figures for both teams plus all the mercenaries mentioned previously, as well plastic crates & strike hexes.  This is enough to keep you painting and playing for some time, especially once you factor in the interconnectedness of this and Dreadball.

The right and center bags have the crates; the left bag has the misc players. 

I've got plenty of other things to paint of course - and this is before Sister Superior gets me any models for Christmas or my birthday! - but all these toys are threatening to steal my attention from my Hobgoblins.  I must be strong and not succumb to gamer ADHD.....