Names

What is in a name?

When I started out gaming, the first time I have to choose a nick for myself was when I played Diablo.

Then, the name I chose was Pelleon, which was a misspelling of Pellaeon, from Timonthy Zahn's Star Wars Trilogy.

Pelleon was my Paladin. Which was apt, as Pelleon from the book series is a loyal, honourable man. Funny how, the names we use creates for itself its own back-story.

Then I played MageWars, and used Pelleon as my nick also. But in the process, I created a new nick, a new character. JaeRoler.

This gaming nick stuck with me as it was the first name that I created out of thin air.
JaeRoler is a mage. Someone steeped in the arcane arts. I used him elsewhere also, but to me, JaeRoler has always been one that steps around with a field of arcane power.

JaeRoler came with a backstory too. He is a powerful master of the necromantic arts, who was once a general. He was a general in the service of a young queen whose small kingdom faced much threats, from within and without. As events unfold, the queen drew men of calibre to her side and help her defend and expand her rule. These are the 48 of which JaeRoler was one. But dark clouds swirl as the queen became more and more embittered by the continous carnage, until one black day, she delved deep into the forbidden lore and begged for the powers of darkness to aid her.

It would seem that at this point, the 48 would turn against her new demonic form. But 12 of them remained loyal to her. And JaeRoler is one of the 12. As a result, he turned to the dark arts too for their powers and became a necromancer. Although the queen and her 12 loyal generals were finally defeated, JaeRoler's body was never recovered from the carnage and remains to this day, missing.

Another character that I liked to use is Luc'viel, a character I created for my Warhammer games. Luc'viel is a Dark Elf of noble blood, and used as my general commanding my dark elf armies. He is the 3rd son of a baron, and is impetous, desiring to win battles and bring glory to himself, so that he can be made a noble in his own right.

Luc'viel fits in the way I play warhammer. Fast, mobile, hits strong and direct. It was something drilled into me when I played against Daniel's dwarfs. And it stuck.

I also used Luc'viel for my assassin in Ragnarok Online, and in doing so, created the other 2 brothers for him. Luc'varl and Luc'vane.

When I played KoL, i used the name Eman Retcarahc and Ravolyn.
I used Eman nowadays to register for websites bah?

Then I watched Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and got immersed with the generals under Reinhardt.

Of these characters, Mecklinger, Bittenfeld and Steinmetz stood out to me, and to a part Eisenarch. So I used their names when playing WoW.

But all in all, JaeRoler remains the me that I want to be.

What a month....

The month of October is so frigging a mess.

So many things happened in the space of 4 weeks that some things are a bit hard to digest.
I'm looking forward to the end of October. Hopefully November clears some things up.

Life is a freaking roller-coaster ride. There were so many ups and downs, twists and turns.
Sometimes I am left questioning the meaning of life. Sometimes i am left questioning what's the whole bloody point.

Yet no one is to blame for how the things collide. No one can be blamed for how things turned out. Yet people felt hurt. People felt sadness. People cried.

I felt happiness. I felt sadness. I cried. I felt despondent. I felt uneasy. I felt flabbergasted.
I felt speechless. I felt disappointment. I felt despair. I felt hurt. I felt that there's really no point.
I felt that there's really no hope. I felt happy. I felt sad. I felt 'good riddance!'. I felt lost.
I felt worry. I felt at ease. I felt troubled. I felt shock.

In the very end, perhaps the answer was still...



42.

Civ 5 and others

4 games played on Civ 5.

1 game on easy and 3 on normal. What have I learnt? Cultural difficulty cannot be achieved through keeping ur empire small despite the original game design.

A small empire means a small income. A small income means only a small army can be maintained.

And with only a small army, the bigger fishes want to play rough as the incentive is there for them. They have bigger armies, bigger budget surpluses and more tech points per turn, meaning better types of troops.

Playing aggressively militarily makes life in Civ 5 so much easier.

On to other things.

I am not one who believes in the latest gadgets or expensive wallets as regular gifts. Once in a while, I don't mind, but not too often. The biggest gifts I can think of that I can give, is my heart, and a home to call our own. =P

Ode to Chariot

Speed is thy name,
Aggression is thy game.
Cold is the steel,
Lance that pierces through.

Without further ado...

I think Defu and YC wants to see my new list. So here it is :

Lvl 4 Supreme Sorceress (Shadow)
Dispel Scroll

DE Noble Heavy Armour / Shield / Sea Dragon Cloak / Lance / Cold One
DE Noble Heavy Armour / Shield / Sea Dragon Cloak / Lance / Cold One
De Noble Heavy Armour / Shield / Sea Dragon Cloak / Crimson Death / Dark Pegasus

(Cold One Noble is 1+ AS, 0+ against shooting. DP Noble is 2+ AS, 1+ against shooting)

12 Dark Elf Xbx with Musician (for free reform)
11 Dark Elf Xbx with Musician

5 Dark Riders with Xbx
5 Dark Riders with Xbx
5 Dark Riders with Xbx

5 Cold One Knights Full Command
5 Cold One Knights Full Command
3 Cold One Chariots

2 Hydras


I used to run Lord on Cold One, Death Star CoK, support CoK, 3 Dark Riders and 2 Hydras.
This list is a hark back to that list, but without the Lord and Death Star.

Each Noble is now leading his own CoK unit, providing the threat on 2 sides. Concentrated fire can destroy each CoK unit but it buys time for the other to come up.

The addition of 3 Chariots to the list now that the S7 auto-explode is gone adds so much more tactical flexibility to this list as compared to my old list. I used to run Hydra Banner for its +1 attack to my front rank, which is an extra 5 attacks on S6. Now I trade that for S5 impact hits.

So what if Hydra's breath weapon is a 1-shot only now? I never did use the Hydra for its breath weapon. It's still my combat goddess. 7 S5 Eternal Hatred attacks. It may only be I2 so I smell lots of Purple Suns headed its way.

One of the most interesting part of this list is the Dark Pegasus Noble. He can fulfil many roles and is considered an extra to my army list. If he dies, no big deal. But he provides a very real threat to various people, and this is taught to me by Defu.

Sunglasses anyone?

Another slew of battles

I played 2 games yesterday, 1 against Yanxian's Slann and 1 against Defu's HE.

For the first battle, it roughly went like this, Slann managed to pull DE lvl 4 Supreme Sorc down into the Dwellers Below and nullified DE magic. DE Cold One Knights and 1 Cold One Chariot could only kill the skink priest and some skinks on top of the Stegadon, but could not bring the beast down. Counter charges by the Slann infantry block killed off the left flank. The right flank, the Cold One Chariots and Cold One Knights managed to deal some heavy damage to the Slann infantry block but cold-blooded rules allowed the Slann infantry to stay the fight.

After the Slann Mage-Priest dominated magic, it was game over for the Dark Elf.

What have I learnt from this battle?

Spearelf Infantry Blocks are useless as anything threatening but extra power dice for a Supreme Sorceress with a Sacrifical Dagger. Not enough oomph in them to carry the day against S4T4 Slanns. Perhaps against Goblins or Empire with their equal T3.

Chariots do work. Most of the damage I dealt came from my Chariots and their impact hits that smashed into infantry blocks. Against any other poorer infantry blocks, they would have carried the day. I could have broken the right flank Slann Infantry too if I did not roll double 2s for a 3+ armour save for my Cold One Knights. Those 2 combat res meant that I could not carry the right flank too and could have made the battle closer than it ended. But such are the whims of the dice gods.

I cannot out-magic the Slann Mage-Priest. Not with so many extra abilities and items. Metal hasn't made its impact on the game as I had hoped it would. I won't go so far as condemning the lore itself to the dustheap though. I do believe that it has its uses, just not against someone who outmagicked me.

The 2nd game against Defu proved my original thesis.

CHARIOTS ROCKS. BIG TIME.

He brought 7 Chariots (2 White-lions and 5 Tiranoc) against my 3 Chariots and the results showed.

The game ended fast and the main action occured between the Chariots charging each side wildly. T5 Chariots taking S5 impact hits will also die. When the dust settled and my chariots were left lying crumbled, the infantry blocks were swiftly dealt with.

Book of Hoeth wasn't as much a big threat as those 7 Chariots running wild amongst T3 5+AS infantry blocks.

In the end, massive infantry blocks still wasn't my style. It's probably a call for me to return to my roots. The roots hammered into my playstyle by Daniel, the fast mobile army of multiple Dark Riders and Cold One Knights running wild.

A lvl 4 Supreme Sorceress is still necessary though as her +4 to dispel is necessary to counter an opponent's wizard. But I'm beginning to feel that against races that are better in the magicks than Dark Elf (or possibly just that Book and the oversized toad), I'm better off treating her as a scroll caddy and put my faith in good old steel.

But hey, if YC decides to bring his Skaven or Vampires into the field, she might become important again.

On a sidenote, my new list is out.

To be a better man

I need to be, I have to be.