Out of our Element: X-Wing Miniatures Game

Hello dear readers and welcome to our new page tag which is designed to cover all non-40k related gaming. For our intro series, I'll be taking a look at one of the newest games to be making a splash in the miniatures gaming community: X-Wing! According to a recent poll over on BoLS, this game came in second among the top 5 minis games, right behind 40k (top spot) and ahead of WM/H. For a game that's not even turned 2 yet, that's pretty impressive. Add to that the fact that Havoc is the biggest Star Wars junkie I know and a few locals had already gotten into it and recommended it, and I figured I'd cash in some of my points at GPB and grab the starter as the no risk investment in the start up was a no brainer. Hit the break for my full review!

The Eternal Crusade: Founders Unleashed

Hey everyone, welcome back to Rites of Battle.  While we always love you guys showing up to read our prattling 'ons, today I wanted to let you guys know that another site across the internet, formed in the shadows of the warp itself, has birthed into life a new creation in the Grim Dark.  BEhavior has launched their founders program for the Eternal Crusade, slated for sometime next year.

The program is basically the players' chance to pre-order the game, as well as save some character and guild names, and even load up on some extra in-game goodies.  While the selection of races and the unique factions within them are still pretty limited (sadly no Black Templar in there), it's shaping up the be a fantastic core to what will be a first in the Grim Darkness.

For those of you interested in checking it out for yourself, or even signing up, follow this link.  As a Founder myself, I am trying to do my part to get new faces who may be interested in checking it out on board.

Link to Eternal Crusade

With this slated for next year, as well as the Lord Inquisitor fan-movie coming in the next year or two (link to an awesome video for those who missed it), and not to mention the new found life form 7th edition, this is a great era indeed for the Grim Dark.  Almost as though the Golden Age of Wonder has returned.

I'll look forward to seeing you guys around the next corner, and hopefully soon I will have the next installment of the Tru-Scale codex.  Until then...

Cheers!

The Last Hurrah of 6th: 5/17 & 5/18 Tournament Reports

Hello hello hello readers, I come today with a jubilant and triumphant spring in my step, for I bear news of the last gasp of 6th edition. With it comes reports from each side of the rules, both as a player and as an event organizer. So, with that in mind, we will begin a chronological progression, first with Bloomington's monthly throwdown, with me as a player, and then to Columbus's first tournament in over a year, which I orchestrated. Hit the break for the full details.

Forging a Narrative: Gimic or Constructive Design?

Hello everyone, Godfrey here.  Today I will take a short break from working on my Tru-Scale project and talk about one of the games more infamous taglines.  While many people use the term "Forge a Narrative" as a failing on the part of GW by accusing it as being a cop-out from the design team, others find it to be a doorway to making the game something more than most others out there.

While there are more than certainly aspects of the game which are made worse by this philosophy of design, it should be noted that there are also a lot of possibilities out there for non-competitive play which are made more accessible thanks to this.  With the advent of the new edition, things have really opened up on this front.  So lets take a look at some of the openings brought about by some of the additions or alterations which came about with 7th, and study just what about them is making the game a better system, both narratively and mechanically, or just abuse-able  gimics.

Heresy in the Library - Night Lords Omnibus

Greetings good people and welcome back! Trooper here with another installment of "Heresy in the Library", where I review Black Library publications and let you, the reader at the other end of the data-slate, know how it is! Up for review is the newly released omnibus for a not so new series. Night Lords: The Omnibus is Black Library's collection of the Night Lords series of books into one gigantic tome. There isn't much new, but for fans it will be a treat to revisit the prophet of the eighth legion. So sit back, grab some amasec, and enjoy my review of Night Lords: The Omnibus.

Lex Verum Astartes III: Chapter Tactics & Warlord Traits

Hello again everyone, and welcome back.  Last time we got started looking at the Army Special rules for my Tru-Scale Space Marines project.  I am most assuredly pleased with how the army's structure is working out, and though I still have many more months of work before I can complete this fan-made codex and it's supplementary installments, I am excited to keep working on it.  With each finished section I find myself getting ideas and making plans for future installments.  This may be one of the larger single entries of the series, as in order to complete this one, I had to delve into a lot of finer details for many a Chapter.

While I didn't quite make it to the Allies Matrix, I am very pleased with what I finished for you this time.  The army now has a complete set of Chapter Tactics as well as a Warlord Table (which players gets to choose from instead of rolling on... Go Marines!)  While the Chapter Tactics share the same name as the normal Space Marines, the effects are often different.  I had a lot of fun working to get these to fit the flavor of each Chapter.  As for the ally rules, I may simply use the same ones as Games Workshop Marines, since it seems a little more restrictive on Imperial / Non-Imperial alliances.  But without further delay, here's the rest of the Army Special Rules for Codex: Verum Astartes.