Part of the hobby aspect of miniature gaming is assembling and painting up your models for the battlefield. This requires all manner of hobby supplies. From clippers and files to glue and paint pots, having a dedicated area to work on your miniatures goes a long way to enjoying the process and makes organizing your supplies easier.
Now, this area can be as simple as a desktop or portion of the kitchen table. Even a shoe box and box top can make a great painting area. The point is to have a space where you can work on your models from start to finish that makes this a fun and rewarding project for you. For me, it is a corner table in my soon-to-be game room. Now, wherever your place is, the most important advice I can give on its location is make sure it is well lit. To me, lighting is one of the more crucial aspects of assembling and, more importantly, painting miniatures. Proper lighting allows you to see the miniatures better, see the colors sufficiently, and to overall see what you doing. It can be disheartening to have worked on a model to completion and bring it outside and then you notice a paint blemish, piece of flash, or mold line that you thought you got got rid of. My light set up consists of the room light, a desk lamp, and a third light the extends over my back shoulder. As you can see from the photos, I prefer the desk lamp to be higher than most, as I like that lamp to provide the most light. The shoulder lamp helps fill in any shadow areas as I move the model around. Combined the lights really define how accurate my color hues are. This is why I use white bowls as my paint palettes. I can see what the paint color truly is.
I also find having ample area to work handy. I know I am not the norm, but having space to put boxes, trays, primer boxes, etc. is very helpful when trying to manage several models at once. I often have many projects going at once (which explains why I have some many incomplete armies!) and the space help me keep them, organized. (Where are Lassider's Lizardmen, I wonder? :-)
With our upcoming Warmachine/Hordes campaign soon approaching, I will be assembling and painting a small Blindwater Congregation army to plunder the land of Firecanium and slaughter my opponents. More on that campaign later, but I will document my progress with this army here on the Dojo. So here are the beginning models ready for assembly. Check back to see how it turns out!
Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise....
Like many folks of a certain age, many a night was spent watching the original Star Trek t.v. show. I was just a young boy then, but the show has left a lifetime impression on me. This impression was solidified when the Star Trek franchise made the jump from television to film, riding the wave of science fiction movies of the late 1970's and early 80's. Seeing the Enterprise on the big screen was cooler than cool, and still is to this day. I remember fondly playing with my Start Trek action figures on the bridge of the Enterprise (anyone else remember these Megoo toys?) and getting a bed spread that was full of space ships and laser blasts and space stations. Of course, Star Wars was an influence as well (that is a whole other topic!) but there is no denying that Star Trek had become part of my science fiction DNA.
The Star Trek Universe has since become an iconic part of Americana. Star Trek has spawned an industry of licensing, encompassing movies, books, cartoons, toys and (among other things)...video games. As video games keep pace with technology, the scope of what these games offer has also increased. Building on the success of other MMO's, Cryptic Studios has boldly gone where no game company has gone before and developed Star Trek Online. This is the first and only officially licensed Star Trek MMO and, to borrow a line from a certain Science Officer, I find it "Fascinating".
Canonically, Star Trek Online is in a unique position. Working closely with Paramount, who has rebooted the film franchise by setting the movies in an alternate timeline, Cryptc lets STO players continue the storyline from where the reboot movie takes off (I think this is a very cool thing to do, as it puts the "original" Star Trek timeline in the hands of the fans. Very cool indeed). Romulus and Remus have been destroyed. Both of these empires are struggling to gain a foothold and rebuild. The Klingons are moving to take back whole sectors of space they claim are rightfully theirs. The Dominion are rebuilding. A new threat from Fluidic Space has emerged. And on top of it all, The Borg are back, once more. The Federation is at war on multiple fronts, fighting hard to reestablish peace across the galaxy.
Star Trek Online is a unique MMO in that it allows players to play in two modes. There is a Space mode, which allows players to captain starships, explore uncharted space, and engage in space combat. There is also the Ground mode, which allows players to go on Away Missions, dock at space stations (such as Deep Space Nine) and beam down to planets or onto other vessels. This makes for some dynamic and engaging game play. It also presents players with a unique challenge. By this, I mean your character is not just one person, say as in World of Warcraft. Rather, it is a combination of your Captain character, your class, your starship and your Bridge Officers. All of these combined make up what and how you play STO.
Players can choose from one of three Officer roles: tactical, science, or engineering. These correspond to DPS, Healing, and Tanking, respectively. There are also corresponding starships one can captain: Cruisers, Escorts, and Science vessels. Your Bridge Officers man the various stations on the Bridge, each bringing a unique set of skills that they may use at each station, depending upon their rank. You begin the game as an Ensign and can advance all the way up to Vice Admiral (1-51). Every ten levels grants you access to different Tier starships as well as the ability to promote members of your crew. These Tier ships provide more console slots for various gear upgrades. Of course, the higher the Tier ship, the more powerful it is.
There are many different mission types in STO. From patrolling sector space or engaging enemy contacts to exploring uncharted systems or engaging in diplomatic missions that require the player to "think" their way through to a solution. My favorite are the Episodes. Episodes are missions that follow a storyline and develop very much like a Star Trek t.v. episode. These Episodes further the continuity of Star Trek along and are usually a mix of diplomacy, space combat, and Away Missions.
In addition, there are PVP zones, material gathering, item crafting, accolades, titles, Fleet Actions, Task Forces, and other such odds and ends that add to the immersive experience that is Star Trek Online. And for me, that is one of the more entertaining aspects of STO. The immersion and total sense that you are a part of the Star Trek story, not simply watching it unfold on t.v. or on a movie screen. This is further punctuated by certain parts of the game being voiced by Leonard Nimoy, Zachary Quinto, and Chase Masterson.
Now, it is by no means a perfect game. I still think it has a few things that could be made better (at times Ground combat does feel a little clunky). Fortunately, Cryptic is aware of them and is diligent in gathering player feedback and makes changes where appropriate. Indeed, after a year of being out, it feels much more polished and vastly improved than when the game first went live. I was lucky enough to have been in closed beta testing, and the improvements over the year are quite noticeable. I can only hope that Cryptic continues to further innovate and update STO in the future.
So if you have ever wanted to sit in the Captain's chair of a starship and warp into space, Star Trek Online is your chance to "make it so".
Now that the dust from the chaos that was the 2010 Holiday Season has finally settled, I can now focus some attention back to The Dojo. Last year was a roller coaster of gaming goodness, I can only imagine what is in store for 2011. From the few industry rumors I have heard so far, this year looks very promising for all types of gamers. But before I get into what is in store, let me first give a quick round up of what has happened since my last post.
(<--Jason fielding Lord Carver and his Farrow army for the first time at Big Easy!)
Traditionally, my gaming club goes on hiatus during the holidays. It is just too difficult to coordinate with every one's schedules with all of the holiday preparation, celebration, and aftermath. So we have not met for Game Night in quite some time. We have put our D&D campaign on hold until we get some group dynamics worked out. I for one was sad to do this, but I can see the wisdom in doing so. I love the new edition of D&D and I hope we can pick it up again this year. In the months that have past we lost a local game store, but gained a new one here on the North Shore. I am working on creating a game room of my own, but that is a slow process. I now own a gaming table that originally hails from one of the game stores here, which is fortunate. So once the room is set up, it will give us one additional place to play and that is a good thing.
Presently, we are beginning to set some things in motion to kick off our 2011 gaming. We now have a new game store to play at, Big Easy Comics, located here in Mandeville. I'll cover Big Easy in more detail in a later post, but Steve and Tracey have been very gracious and accommodating for us and we are very thankful for their willingness in hosting our games. Warhammer 40k seems to be the game of choice there now, with a tournament scheduled in March. Friday nights are shaping up to be the best day to get some games in there, as we can stay waaaay late if we need to. Roman has plans for a Warmachine/Hordes campaign of his own creation that we will participate in throughout the year. He is also hosting Game Nights at The Cave once again, with the first one to be all about board games. Namely Puerto Rico and Power Grid in particular. I am looking forward to playing a few new board games, too. I would like to give the new version of Tannhauser a go. Jason and I are looking into two new game systems: Freebooter's Fate and Dystopian Wars. They both look promising, but we are committed to playing what we have now first, so look for more scoop on those games later in the year.
So for now, we are getting things going with a new game shop, several new players (which is always a good thing) and planning ahead to get our game on. With multiple things going on, it should not be difficult to get a game of something in, somewhere.
For Thunder Dojo, I am setting the ambitious goal of writing three articles a month. This may not sound like a lot, but it is all I can comfortably handle at the moment. So check back here a few times a month and see what nuggets of gaming awesome I have come up with!
