Island of Insanity 2019

The ultimate gaming event for Lovecraft fans finally arrived...albeit only just!   Having booked this event back in November, we were very excited on the lead up, playing many board games and peaks of giddiness seeing anything Lovecraft related.  The event was four days on Lundy Island, twelve miles off the coast of Devon, England; a remote island accessible by helicopter, with a tavern, church, castle, lighthouse, scattered ruins and various roaming wildlife... of course, with a vast array of Lovecraftian gaming throughout!  

We had stocked up on various supplies and essentials and were all packed ready to go on Thursday March 14th...then disaster struck!  An email and post from Guy, the organiser of the event informed attendees that he has received a call from the Shore Office that due to the weather conditions it was unlikely that we were going to be able to fly.  Nevertheless, enthusiasm was high and most attendees decided to head down to Hartland and get together anyway.   After over four hours, Belinda and I arrived at the Hart Inn to meet up with Jody and Jon.  Before even coats were off, we had ale in hand and were dealt cards to play Pocket Madness!  A great game and had several runs.  Soon after, Guy arrived with Dave, Stacey and Quentin and soon ended up with a game of Bang! (non-Lovecraftian) before heading to the B&B at Gawlish Farm.

Friday

The wind was high through the night and meant little sleep. The next day during breakfast we were anxiously awaiting a call from Guy on potentially flying out in the afternoon.  Alas, it was not to be.  The plan was then for all attendees to gather at the pub in Hartland Quay and discuss cancelling the event for another time or holding on further.  The thoughts were split but we all needed to meet and discuss various options.  The four of us at Gawlish Farm headed to the Quay and now saw just how severe the weather was.  Waves were crashing angrily against the jagged rocks and wind speed was high, blowing sea foam above the cliffs.  We took a short walk over the cliff tops and down to the sea wall before getting back warm in the pub.   Later, after Guy arrived with the others, plus Rob and Ian, we agreed to play out some games in the pub and stay another night before heading home.  Various games were played: Lovecraft Letter, Cthulhu Fluxx, Miskatonic University and the crazy Mountains of Madness. The latter was absolutely exhausting and a great party game which certainly helped to break the ice.  We were all in quite high spirits due to the fun gaming but then Guy made it even better after getting off a call to state that there was a window of opportunity to fly out in the morning.  He then gave us our welcome packs which were very impressive:  A Cthulhu bag containing an OS map of Lundy, transparent film sheet of the event, a Lovecraft anthology, Lundy Island companion guide, badge, sticker, and rubber tentacle.  Fantastic and definitely went down very well.  Gaming continued before heading back to the B&B and meeting up later at the King's Arms for a social gathering and food.

Saturday

Saturday, and we were off.  Anxious to get to the heliport and finally take-off before the weather deteriorated.  It was our first ride on a chopper and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  I was glad that the visibility was pretty good and the approach being from the south of the Island, so had some great views.  After touching down, we proceeded to Marisco Tavern and promptly grabbed a pint of Old Light ale for a game of Cthulhu Fluxx whilst Belinda played Thunder and Lightning with Phil.

Once the accommodation was ready, we took a journey across fields through such extreme wind and finally arrived at Old Light, a disused lighthouse where we were staying in the attached Lighthouse Worker's cottage.  Next to the lighthouse is Beacon Hill Cemetery, some of the headstones dating back to the 5th century.  We were stating on the upper level and once sorted, headed back to the tavern and a walk to St.Helen's Church.

 

Numerous games were played and social gatherings throughout the day.  The evening saw an eight-player epic game of Cthulhu Wars. Guy led the game and showed us the rules of play as well as running the Black Goat of the Woods faction.  I had Crawling Chaos (Nylarathotep) and did considerably poor.  Nevertheless, an enjoyable game which ran for a couple of hours before having to be paused due to the late hour.

Back at Old Light, we brewed up and sat chatting in the living room before the lights suddenly going out.  We forgot that the generators are shut down through the night, so resumed by candle light before hitting the sack.

Sunday

Sunday morning several of us set out with Guy and Rob as guides on a tour of the southern half of the island.  The sun was shining and whilst still windy, it was a considerably nicer and more pleasant day than we had experienced for some time.  The island has a beautiful coastline; very rugged and jagged granite rocks and a clear blue sea.  We first passed down to Battery Point, down many narrow steps and past an old ruined house to the cannon battery building.  The second stop was along the coast again to an earthquake area, walking through crevasses and dramatic passages through the rocks.   We stopped to spot some puffins, for which the Island is named (in old Viking language), before Guy parted and let Rob lead us over to the eastern coast, past the old ruined hospital, quarry pond and TImekeeper's cottage.  The eastern side was much more sheltered and greater vegetation.  We saw deer, seals and other wildlife easily along the walk.  We eventually emerged at Millcombe House, a victorian manor, before heading to the tavern.   Belinda, myself, Rob, Jon and Phil played Hanabi whilst others played other non-Lovecrafian games, before we headed to the Barn to play Ancient Terrible Things, Miskatonic University and Lovecraft Letter.

The entire weekend was amazing.  We met some new friends, had a good laugh and played some fun new games.  The only downside was that we didn't get to play everything! A lot of the larger boardgames didn't get aired, but there's always next time. An additional day would have been ideal and whilst we managed to get some gaming down on both Thursday and Friday, we maybe lost time in anticipation and travelling around etc.  Regardless, so much fun was had and in a fantastic environment.  

Cthulhu, Lovecraft and other such horrors!

I'm very late to the party on this one!  I'd obviously heard of H.P. Lovecraft but never read any of this works (until recently).  Being an avid gamer, i'd also seen a number of games of different types based on the Cthulhu Mythos by Lovecraft, in particular the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying game and more recently, the board games and card games from Fantasy Flight Games.

Even so, it never appealed greatly, perhaps due to the pulp style and 1920's era setting... or maybe it's an age thing and now I've learnt to appreciate it so much more.   

My first introduction was a visit to my old best friend's place in Spain a few years back, where I had a very light view of the Arkham Horror LCG (card game) and had a quick demonstration of Elder Sign (dice game).  I found myself overly intrigued and thus looked into the games more, ultimately buying Elder Sign initially.   The game is great fun and many games were played, sometimes for an entire Sunday.

...and thus the touch paper had been lit.  Fantasy Flight produce a number of games within this Mythos, under their product line banner of "Arkham Horror Files" and thus I spent around a year collecting all the main games and expansions for Elder Sign, Arkham Horror LCG, Eldritch Horror, Mansions of Madness and he newly released Arkham Horror board game.

It's pretty much the only games I play these days and largely enjoy more than others, perhaps in part to them being cooperative games rather than player vs. player competitive.   I'm loving the flavour and atmosphere of these games and they've grown my interest of the works of Lovecraft and other Cthulhu game publishers.   So much in fact, that later this year i'll be going to a weekend gaming event at Lundy Island purely for Lovecraftian games with like-minded gamers.

Flavour aside, the Fantasy Flight games are absolutely genius design.  Not easy by any means and it's been a very low number of times winning at any of the games.  It's not about the winning of course, as the experience is so great and memorable.  The games often feel sentient in how random events, card flips and dice rolls are so specific in reaction to player decisions and actions that it is seems so uncannily intelligent and thinking!  

All the games are quite different in play style too; with the LCG having a deckbuilding and RPG feel to it, with the added excitement of deluxe expansions having a number of scenarios followed by monthly releases of "Mythos packs" for a new scenario.  Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror are board games, in a global and local setting respectively with many types of card decks and turn sequences to keep it always interesting and evolving.  Mansions of Madness is an interactive dynamic board game which also makes use of a digital app and miniatures, and last but not least, Elder Sign is a dice game and whilst the least flavoured of all the games, is still very enjoyable and can get quite intense.

All are highly recommended and i've also thrown some other games into the mix, such as Reign of Cthulhu and have several more lined up as well as pending deliveries of Kickstarters.   Gaahh! Gaming has exploded and certainly shifted from tabletop wargaming to board gaming.

On the Square

History is one of my passions; and (as evident of my druid path), ritual.   My OCD also fuels desires such as process, procedure and organisation.  This all contributes to my finding of a prominent and active pasttime which I have found in the past couple of years.... Freemasonry.

There is obviously much speculation, assumption and opinion on this ancient "secret society" and I've only known a couple of Masons in my life, who never really revealed much or spoke of it.  I always believed it was by invitation only and never had a chance to join, but this has changed in latter years and I thus looked more into this fraternity before ultimately contacting United Grand Lodge of England to express my interest and desire to join.

A couple of months later, I was interviewed, vetted, interviewed again, signed in blood (joke), balloted and approved to join.   Again, a few months later I was initiated into Vulcan Lodge, No.4382 in the Province of Derbyshire, and what an amazing experience it was!  

Since my initiation, I have been very devoted and actively attending the lodge meetings and other visits, as well as social events.  I've met some genuine, friendly, welcoming and generous people during this time and made some good new friends.   In November 2018 I was Raised to the third degree, a Mason Mason, and soon placed into the position of acting Inner Guard.   

Being part of the Lodge has been very interesting, enlightening and often been in awe and amazed at learning some of the history and symbolic aspects of Freemasonry.  I've found many advantages: building confidence, expanding social circles, gaining knowledge, improving memory and reading etc.   Having to recall from memory, passages of text in front of an audience is quite daunting at first, but is so rewarding to be a part of a ritual or ceremony.   I'm truly loving every moment spent in Freemasonry so far.    For this year, I'm looking to move into an assistant officer position of Junior Deacon and join the Royal Arch Chapter.

Certified Druid of the Order

October 2018 saw my completion of the Druid grade in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.  After taking one of the official paths of druidry several years ago and passing the previous two grades, (and after a break period), I finally pushed forward to complete the course and received my (impressive) certificate from the Order.

This felt a great achievement as the course had been long overall and involved a considerable amount of both reading and practical exercises and assessments.  My connection to the earth and pagan beliefs are without question, but the course did help broaden some knowledge and open up other doors of study and research.  As I've blogged previously, I've given a talk on druidry as well as run and participated in several rituals in both small and medium-sized groups.  My personal, solitary journey has been constant, even when groups, groves\coverns have disbanded.  I've never missed a sabbat ritual yet and stay connected in one way or other on a regular basis.

Prior to becoming fully certified, I also visited the south of England earlier that year; at long last taking a beautiful trip to Stonehenge, passing through the lesser known path of the trees and fields, over King's Barrow and finally to the stones.  A wonderful experience and whilst slightly tainted by a large public presence and commercialism, it felt spiritual and special to be at such an ancient and significant location.  This was part of a road trip which also involved visits to Woodhenge, Glastonbury, Old Sarum etc.  The weather was hot and sunny and a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing time.

Tempus Fugit

Many, many years since I posted.  I'm certainly active online on a daily basis but Blogging seems to fall by the wayside, largely due to being so busy and partly due to this blog being totally random and without structure as well as really that it's just for a personal brain dump and not expecting anyone else to read.    ::waffle, waffle::

Still, just a few updates in subsequent blog posts today.

On the whole, the past two-to-three years have been the busiest I've ever been, often without a free evening to myself in a fortnight period.  

General Thoughts

The world has changed massively within such a short space of time.  Even in these few years of silence, my childhood disturbing images of rainforest destruction are now dwarved (that's not to belittle the still ongoing deforestation) by other atrocities of humankind such as the plastic pollution in the oceans, trophy hunting, Asian animal cruelty, the extinction of species such as the rhino etc.   With social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, there's not a day goes by where I'm not affronted by the human blight on our beautiful planet.  Wanton cruelty and meaningless destruction.  Over the past weeks I've begun to "unfollow" and turn off notifications to work towards more of a media blackout.   I'm not going to get all political either, but the past two years have seen destructive people come into power; Trump being very prominent!  Brexit causing such a hatred and divide within the UK; largely caused by citizen's intolerance of immigration and terrorism.  The world is a mess and I can't see it getting any better, sadly.  Bring on the Black Plague and let's "reduce the surplus population".

Such depressing thoughts aside, life is good.  Daily happiness, never bored and feeling quite fulfilled.

Upcoming blog entries for a few contributors to those feelings...

Codex:Tau Empire - A quick review

I'd wanted to get this review done many months ago, as the current 6th edition Codex:Tau Empire has been out almost a year!   So firstly, on the aesthetics: As expected, great presentation and artwork throughout the book.  Raymond Swanland has done a nice cover image of an XV8-02 Commander (although i'd have preferred a Fire Warrior on the cover, personally), and the page edge art is very Tau style and fitting.

The background section is pretty nice, and covers usual aspects of Tau society and tactics, notable battles, Sept advancements, maps etc.  so all quite comprehensive and enjoyable to read through.

Onto the actual gaming content and army lists... to be honest, I was expecting a lot more and my initial impressions were disappointing and a feeling of being downtrodden when looking back at the last few army codicies.  So i'll cover the army list from a few aspects:  New units\models and changed units\weapons.  I've also done a comparison against the previous version of the Codex just to see where the army improves or gets nerfed (on paper, not necessarily on the gaming table).

New models

Firstly, it has to be said that sadly, one of the biggest complains of Tau players is the awful box design of the XV8 Crisis Suits has not been addressed by Games Workshop.  This was a perfect opportunity to redesign these models and give them a more sleek and rounded design, more akin to the Forge World battlesuit variants.

Razorshark\Sun Shark - Going by per my previous wishlist from some time ago, this was quite disappointing.  A new flyer kit builds both the Razorshark Fighter and Sun Shark Bomber.  Both very visually similar and in my opinion doesn't convey the Tau design style at all.  They look more like Imperial aircraft than Tau, with the standard aeroplane shape and wings.  4/10

XV88 Broadside Battlesuits - A much bulkier model than the previous version.  However, the twin-linked railgun has been replaced with a single Heavy Rail Rifle.  The kit also makes both Rail Rifle and High-Yield Missile Pod variants.  Quite a nice model, comes on a 60mm base, but all a bit unnecessary.

XV08-02 Enforcer Crisis Suit -  A larger variant of the XV8 for Commander\HQ.   Better than the standard crisis suit and a single pose without conversion.  Nothing special, really.

Fireblade - Quite a nice model, good armour detail and a reasonable pose.

Darkstrider - Again a nice model and pose and good to see an additional character into the army.  A bit annoying to be a HQ choice and plug into a Fire Warrior or Pathfinder unit, however, when other armies have characters which are unit upgrades. 

Longstrike - An upgrade character model which enhances a Hammerhead; using a new type of suit, more skin to Shadowsun, so looks quite high-tech and sleek.  The tact that Longstrike is placed in the turret goes against the background of him being hard-wired into the Hammerhead, but the pose isn't too bad.

XV-104 Riptide Battlesuit - This model stands out as the best of the bunch, easily.  At time of release, it was the largest standard 40K model GW had released (soon superceeded by the Eldar Wraithknight).  A good pose and great looking weaponry.  The whole model has quite a good design; the only gripe I have (backed up by GW with some weak background explanation) is the tiny head being out of proportion - the Forge World XV-107 variant gladly rectifies that :-) )

Unit, Weapon and Rules Changes

Naturally, there were a number of places I jumped to and was looking out for...all of which were sadly disappointing.  I still can't believe that they had now changed the Kroot Rifle from Rapid Fire to Assault! ARGH!  No characters or upgrades to change XV8's from Elite to Troop units.  No jetbikes, no new battlesuit units, no new vehicles, sadly.

As far as weaponry goes, the Ion technology has been beefed up; so as well as standard shots, Ion weapons can be overcharged (adding +1 S) and Nova-charaged (for the Riptide, adding +2 S and large blast, etc.)  Pathfinders are also allowed (up to 3 per unit) Ion Rifles as well as Rail Rifles.   Another welcome change is Burst Cannons being increased from 3 to 4 shots, Rail Rifles going to AP1 and being Rapid Fire.  Pulse Carbines are now Assault 2 and Kroot Rifles can take Sniper shots.  

On the subject of Kroot, this is probably the area which I am most annoyed at.  As well as the ridiculous stats for the Kroot Rifle, the actual Kroot Carnivores and Kroot Hounds have been reduced from Strength 4 to 3; so the Tau's only unit for any chance in close combat have been screwed over! Krootox also got hit by a point drop in Toughness and Attacks.   I just can't understand why GW would decrease so much for a single unit. 

Gun Drone Squadrons have increased in size from a maximum of 8 to 12 and can take any mix of Shield, Gun and Marker drones, and Pathfinders from 8 to 10 (as mentioned previously, allowing up to 3 special weapons from Rail Rifle and Ion Rifle, but now also having new drones (Pulse Accelerator Drone (increases Pulse weapon range by 6"), Grav-Inhibitor Drone (decreases enemy charge distance) and Recon Drone (homing beacon and positional relay)).  Both Pathfinders and Fire Warriors also decrease 1 point cost per model and include Photon Grenades as standard.

One of the significant changes to the army is a new rule entitlted Supporting Fire: This allows most units within 6" of another to fire Overwatch charges to the enemy which is charging that unit.  So gives a chance to certainlt thin down the number of models charging and possibly causing the charge to fail, depending on the angle and position of the firing units.

Ethereals and Fireblades can add an extra shot to the units they join.     Ethereals now also have a choice of four powers each turn, called Invocation of the Elements).
Drones can now use the BS of a model which joins the unit and has a Drone Controller.   Sniper Drone unit marksmen now have BS5 and have a Drone Controller as standard; thus all Sniper Drones are shooting at BS5 with the new Longshot Pulse Rifle (48" Rapid Fire, Sniper).

Longstrike is a great upgrade (at a mere 50 points) to a Hammerhead; giving BS5 and the ability to fire on Overwatch numerous times a turn.

So the big new model\unit is the XV104 Riptide, which can be equipped with the Ion Accelerator or Heavy Burst Cannon.  Both are fantastic weapons, and with the Riptides high wounds, strength, toughness and 2+ save, it can be a formidable unit.  The Riptide also has a Nova-Reactor which must be rolled for and one of the four powers chosen before use (there is also a danger of rolling a 1 and wounding the Riptide!); this can allow a Nova-charge to be used on a weapon, a Ripple Fire effect (roll twice) on the secondary weapon, a large boost move or a shield boost.

Farsight Enclaves

Now this is more like it and I had predicted this would be an upgrade before it was announced :-D   So at last, Farsight is plugged back into the Tau Empire as a detachment as well as being able to be fielded as a stand-alone army.  One of the rules which was "missing" from the main codex is included here, which allows XV8 Crisis Teams to be taken as Troop choices.   There are some restrictions on units which can't be taken, such as Ethereals (understandably) but one of the best additions of the codex is the inclusion of "The Eight" as HQ, which consists of named characters made up of a Riptide, XV88, XV8-02 and XV8 suits.   There are a number of upgrades to the army too, such as the Earth-Caste Pilot Array, which further enchance the army.  Overall, a worthy and impressive book; nice rules, great background section and presentation.  I was disappointed, however, that having read the digital version prior to getting the hardcopy, that the rules and stats had been removed from the latter!


Conclusion

So overall, quite a good update to the book and very pleased to see the Farsight Enclaves supplement.   Having played a number of games, the Tau Empire stand up well in battle and still have the edge on weapon range and punch.   They've lost any chance at close combat and Kroot are pretty useless, but some of the upgrades allow greater range of fire as well as inhibiting enemy charges.