Kill Time

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6 minutes

I ain’t changed a bit. What a fricking nerd..

1994 vs 2021

Been a whole lotta nerd shit this week. Went round my mates on Monday to get the “killzone plastictown” underway ready for the box set arriving. Scrimbad has since been sending me regular updates from the paint table.

I’m really excited for this new version of Kill Team.

2018’s Kill Team (KT18) Second Edition was basically 40k lite. It had a solid ruleset and made for an interesting small scale game, I played it a bit but the folks I played with were in north london and by the time I joined the group were basically operating their own fork of the game to cover all the house rules.

Following the inclusion of Combat Patrol in 40k 9th edition last(?) year, KT18 felt a little redundant as a product line. Apart from the whole: Buy one box of 20 models and get going. A fact that I know is a tantalising prospect for some of the 30something geeks that I will be attempting to convince at the BBQ I’m going to later today.

Its main competitor is Stargrave which given its model agnostic ruleset is a slightly different beast.

I did a first pass on KT21’s rulebook last night and it’s a whole different game. Alternate model activations and proper tit-4-tat melee combat. It seems like Games Workshop have tried to create the best 40k skirmish game it could. I have the core rulebook for Necromunda but I’ve never played it, KT21 feels a happy mid point between that and 40k. No where near as simulation heavy as the gang war game, and way more detailed than KT18’s 40k lite.

One small thing: GW’s decision to use symbols – ▲, ●, ■, and ⬟ – for distances corresponding to 1, 2, 3, and 6 inches in the ruleset is baffling. I’m going to need play a bunch of games to get my head around it. Luckily, I’m going to be playing KT21 regularly now. Once fluent in the games Mechanics and Grammars, it’s apparently about 3 games in 2 hours. Which seems like a lot of fun and way cheeper than going to the pub.

Going round friends houses to play this fortnightly also has the added bonus that the only awkward social interactions I’ll need to deal will be my own and my friends.

*slaps top of box* You can fit so much value in this thing.

We are considering setting up a stand alone hobby blog to document all our games, and possibly post our own custom scenarios and house rules. I have a whole lot of chaos cultists on sprues that are crying out for a set of rules.


I’m having some issues related to my chronic disability. I’ve been on the waiting list for an outpatients procedure at the local Hospital for nearly a month and no letter yet. I’m going to ring my consultants office next week to see if it can be expedited at all. I’ve been uncomfortable since June.


Permanently Moved

The Prompt in Interactive Fiction and AI Art

Sketching out some ideas around the relation between the shared indistinguishable surface of interactive fiction games and using GAN’s to create art.
What comes out when I put this thing in? 

Thanks to the folks who sent through kind messages about last weeks episode. Really appreciated each of them, motivational.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

  • I owe people emails, and replies. I’m so so sorry, despite appearances above, I have some stuff going on.
  • Salvaged 5k words of writing I did in 2019 have been staring at it since
  • A post tomorrow, but i’m going to be on panel at Futurecon next week, and Ars Electronica later in September.

Dipping the Stacks

The Life-Changing Magic Of Having “Good Parents”

Sometimes well-meaning, generally good parents still minimise their children’s emotions. “We can be dismissive of children’s emotions because they seem childish — we have our adult way of doing things and we think we’re more evolved,”

The surprising story behind the making of ‘Captain Planet’ | Grist

“Captain Planet!” he allegedly exclaimed to Pyle. When she asked who that was, he responded, “That’s your problem.”

The Truth Behind the Amazon Mystery Seeds From China – The Atlantic

It was hardly surprising that the station, upon hearing that a local man had not only planted mystery seeds but now had fully grown plants laden with mystery fruit

J.R.R. Tolkien 1964 interview (Subtitles) – YouTube

J.R.R. Tolkien interviewed by Denys Gueroult for BBC in 1964 (released 1971).

Genvid raises $113M for massive interactive live events like Project Raven | VentureBeat

Instead of being a game that you’re playing by yourself, it’s with millions of other people concurrently live.

Reading

I finished reading some Warhammer this week. Dead Sky, Black Sun by Graham McNeill. I started reading it in early July, back to back after finishing book #2 in the series “Warriors of Ultramar”. The Ultramarines series is supposed to be a fan favourite, but I have a suspicion that this fact might have more to do with the books being published in 2003 than anything else.

Still reading a chapter of ‘Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail” before bed. Like I said last week, It’s a wonderful book about writing. Full of stuff I wish I’d known when I was a kid.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Sugar Horse – The Live Long After

I tagged Sugar Horse – The Live Long After in my pinboard as ‘Doom’. But listening to it this week from front to back, it’s certainly more than that. Tracks like The Great British Death Cult drop in and out of melodic segments intercut with heavy riffs sent though what sounds like a Boss Metal Zone MT-2. Kinda reminding me of Romeo is Bleeding or something. Then theres atmospheric build tracks like Phil Spector In Hell. The title track The Live Long After sounds like a heavy version of Band of Horses – The Great Salt Lake with its reverb drenched vocals.

Then there’s tracks like Shouting Judas At Bob Dylan..

Doomy, groove. Love it.

james grew – Postscripts EP

james grew is a 3 piece Midwestern Emo band from LA. They sound like its 1999.

EP opener ‘at least you got away’ is a driving mathy punk track with some amazing little licks. Vocals remind me a bit of Pop Unknown occasionally. Points added for the ‘gaps’ love that shit.

It’s just a really solid all round Emo EP. At times Sunny Day, American Football, and Gloria Record. Charming and solid. I bet they have unpredictable live versions of these songs.

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3 responses to “Kill Time”

  1. […] week I had my first full game of Kill Team. I should be playing it every two weeks now on the regs and I can’t […]

  2. […] I personally prefer narrative gaming. I have done so ever since my first game of Warhammer back in 1994.  […]

  3. […] wrote about my initial impressions of ruleset last year. Having got all the basic mechanics out the way previously it meant that we could get down to the […]

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