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Thứ Năm, 27 tháng 2, 2020
📷 Huyennguyen Maithanh added a new photo
Thứ Hai, 24 tháng 2, 2020
🔔 See Nguyen Jacques's photo tag and other notifications you've missed
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Chủ Nhật, 23 tháng 2, 2020
Tech Book Face Off: Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6 Vs. Metaprogramming Elixir
Since I wasn't quite satisfied with the first Elixir book I read, and I wanted to learn more about this rich, complex programming language, I selected a couple more books to help me explore the more advanced aspects of Elixir. The first selection, Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6 by Dave Thomas, promises to cover all of the major parts of Elixir with a clean, well-written book from the coauthor of the excellent The Pragmatic Programmer. The second selection, Metaprogramming Elixir by Chris McCord, focuses on the ways that a programmer can write code to write code in Elixir, always a fascinating endeavor. Both of these books are again by The Pragmatic Programmers publishing company, since I've been mostly pleased with the books they put out. I might just have another of their books waiting in the wings for a review later this year, but let's take a look at how these two Elixir books stack up.
At the same time that this book is easy to understand, the explanations are concise because Thomas has a lot to cover while keeping his promise of not making the book as long as his Programming Ruby book. He jumps right in with chapters on pattern matching and immutability, two of the main features of Elixir that will be used constantly when programming in it. Then he runs through the basics of the base types and operators in Elixir, as well as anonymous and named functions.
Next, lists and recursion are introduced together since they are inseparable in a functional language, followed by the rest of the compound data types: maps, keyword lists, sets, structs, strings, and binaries. Thomas really brought out the mystique of using lists and recursion here:
With most of the syntax and basic features of Elixir out of the way, we're ready to tackle a non-trivial example project, so Thomas takes us through building a little application that accesses GitHub and builds a table of code repository issues for a given URL. It's a nice project to show off most of what we've learned so far before heading into the more advanced Elixir features. The more advanced features being concurrent programming with multiple processes, OTA, tasks, and agents. This was the stuff that was missing from Learn Functional Programming with Elixir, and it was covered well here. Normally, processes are a heavy-handed solution to the concurrent programming problem, but Thomas explains why Elixir is different:
The last few chapters of the book go into metaprogramming with macros, behaviors, protocols, and writing your own sigils. The one thing I thought suffered a little in this part was the examples. Throughout the book most of the examples were short and sweet, simply to show the syntax and how working code would be written with the newly introduced features, but with metaprogramming it's hard to understand exactly why you would want to use it if the examples are too simple and useless. To get a good understanding of when and why you would use metaprogramming requires a motivated example that shows how some tedious, verbose, ugly code can be transformed into a succinct, dynamic, beautiful piece of code that writes code. That type of example was missing from the metaprogramming section.
Setting aside that one complaint, this book was an excellent overview of Elixir from the basics of the language to the advanced concurrent programming features that make it such a compelling language for modern multi-core processors. If you need to learn Elixir well enough to start writing solid concurrent applications, or even are just curious about an entirely different and powerful way to program, Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6 is definitely worth checking out.
What made the read even quicker was the fact that most of the coding examples were repeated within and between chapters, resulting in a few core examples that were extended multiple times with different metaprogramming features. This method worked great for instruction, since later examples were immediately familiar, even though it tended to pad the page count of the book. If not for the repetition, this book could have been 70 pages or less.
That's not to say it's a bad thing that the book is so short and contains a fair amount of repetition. I found the explanations to be extremely clear and easy to read. The code examples were well thought out and served their purpose in showing how to use all of the metaprogramming features, as good examples should do. Everything fit together nicely, and the chapters had a smooth flow, developing from basic macros into an advanced DSL example.
This development is split into six chapters, starting with an introduction to Elixir macros and the abstract syntax tree (AST). Similar to Lisps, Elixir code is represented as an AST that is accessible at compile time, and it can be easily changed and added to while compiling. With this power comes the tendency to over-engineer, and McCord offers up some clear warnings about overusing it:
Chapter 2 gets into how nearly all of Elixir can be changed and extended with metaprogramming. The core of the language is quite small, and most of the language that's used is implemented with macros already, even the basic if expression. The example in this chapter shows how easy it is to create a unit test library using macros, and McCord takes the opportunity to discuss some metaprogramming best practices:
Chapter 3 shows how to use macros to generate code from data, both through reading from a file and from a web API. Not only is this ability slick as hell, it's highly performant because the code is generated only once at compile time and then during runtime it's all internal function calls—no latency-ridden I/O. The benefits of this approach cannot be emphasized enough:
Metaprogramming Elixir was at the same time complete and accessible. It was short and sweet, and an excellent companion to Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6. It filled in the only real gap in the latter book, and helps give a real appreciation for one of Elixir's best features. Along with pattern matching, immutable functions, and rock-solid concurrent programming, metaprogramming makes Elixir a fascination language for a whole host of modern day back-end programming. These two books will help you get up to speed with this powerful language, and let you have some fun with that new-found power.
 | VS. |  |
Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6
This book is pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. Dave Thomas is an excellent writer who is able to explain difficult programming language concepts with an ease and fluidity that is a joy to read. His writing speaks in a way that feels entirely natural, and he gives the distinct impression of a father explaining how things work to his kids. That's a compliment; I don't mean that he lectures in a patronizing way. I mean that it's comfortable and completely understandable in the same way that your dad showing how to change the tires on a car or how to throw a baseball would be. He's good at it, and his writing flows off the page and into my head almost effortlessly.At the same time that this book is easy to understand, the explanations are concise because Thomas has a lot to cover while keeping his promise of not making the book as long as his Programming Ruby book. He jumps right in with chapters on pattern matching and immutability, two of the main features of Elixir that will be used constantly when programming in it. Then he runs through the basics of the base types and operators in Elixir, as well as anonymous and named functions.
Next, lists and recursion are introduced together since they are inseparable in a functional language, followed by the rest of the compound data types: maps, keyword lists, sets, structs, strings, and binaries. Thomas really brought out the mystique of using lists and recursion here:
At this point, part of your brain is telling you to go read today's XKCD—this list stuff can't be useful. Ignore that small voice, just for a second. We're about to do something magical.He goes on to show how easily values can be pulled out of lists using pattern matching, and things progress from there. The main way to process these compound data types with the Enum and Stream modules is covered at this point in the book, and other control flow structures were put off until after the more important declarative programming methods were covered. While if, cond, and case structures are still used in Elixir, they're just not as important as pattern matching and multi-headed functions.
With most of the syntax and basic features of Elixir out of the way, we're ready to tackle a non-trivial example project, so Thomas takes us through building a little application that accesses GitHub and builds a table of code repository issues for a given URL. It's a nice project to show off most of what we've learned so far before heading into the more advanced Elixir features. The more advanced features being concurrent programming with multiple processes, OTA, tasks, and agents. This was the stuff that was missing from Learn Functional Programming with Elixir, and it was covered well here. Normally, processes are a heavy-handed solution to the concurrent programming problem, but Thomas explains why Elixir is different:
[T]he cool thing about Elixir is that you write your code using lots and lots of processes, and each process has its own heap. The data in your application is divvied up between these processes, so each individual heap is much, much smaller than would have been the case if all the data had been in a single heap. As a result, garbage collection runs faster. If a process terminates before its heap becomes full, all its data is discarded—no garbage collection is required.There's an incredible amount of power in the concurrent programming features of Elixir built on the solid foundation of the Erlang VM, and Thomas does a great job of explaining how each of them work and why you would choose to use OTA or agents or tasks in different situations.
The last few chapters of the book go into metaprogramming with macros, behaviors, protocols, and writing your own sigils. The one thing I thought suffered a little in this part was the examples. Throughout the book most of the examples were short and sweet, simply to show the syntax and how working code would be written with the newly introduced features, but with metaprogramming it's hard to understand exactly why you would want to use it if the examples are too simple and useless. To get a good understanding of when and why you would use metaprogramming requires a motivated example that shows how some tedious, verbose, ugly code can be transformed into a succinct, dynamic, beautiful piece of code that writes code. That type of example was missing from the metaprogramming section.
Setting aside that one complaint, this book was an excellent overview of Elixir from the basics of the language to the advanced concurrent programming features that make it such a compelling language for modern multi-core processors. If you need to learn Elixir well enough to start writing solid concurrent applications, or even are just curious about an entirely different and powerful way to program, Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6 is definitely worth checking out.
Metaprogramming Elixir
Whereas Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6 was a general tour of Elixir, this book focused on one specific feature of Elixir: metaprogramming. Luckily, this is the feature that was least well described in Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6, so having an entire book on it proves quite helpful. Metaprogramming Elixir is also a relatively short book, clocking in at just over 100 pages of real material, and it was a quick read.What made the read even quicker was the fact that most of the coding examples were repeated within and between chapters, resulting in a few core examples that were extended multiple times with different metaprogramming features. This method worked great for instruction, since later examples were immediately familiar, even though it tended to pad the page count of the book. If not for the repetition, this book could have been 70 pages or less.
That's not to say it's a bad thing that the book is so short and contains a fair amount of repetition. I found the explanations to be extremely clear and easy to read. The code examples were well thought out and served their purpose in showing how to use all of the metaprogramming features, as good examples should do. Everything fit together nicely, and the chapters had a smooth flow, developing from basic macros into an advanced DSL example.
This development is split into six chapters, starting with an introduction to Elixir macros and the abstract syntax tree (AST). Similar to Lisps, Elixir code is represented as an AST that is accessible at compile time, and it can be easily changed and added to while compiling. With this power comes the tendency to over-engineer, and McCord offers up some clear warnings about overusing it:
It's easy to get caught in our own web of code generation, and many have been bitten by reckless complexity. When taken too far, macros can make programs difficult to debug and reason about. There should always be a clear advantage when we attack problems with metaprogramming. In many cases, standard function definitions are a superior choice if code generation is not required.These warnings are sprinkled throughout the book for the various metaprogramming features. Each feature gives the programmer more power to change code at will, but at the risk of making the code an opaque, untestable maintenance nightmare. The judicious use of metaprogramming can neatly solve otherwise tedious problems, but it should only be used when necessary.
Chapter 2 gets into how nearly all of Elixir can be changed and extended with metaprogramming. The core of the language is quite small, and most of the language that's used is implemented with macros already, even the basic if expression. The example in this chapter shows how easy it is to create a unit test library using macros, and McCord takes the opportunity to discuss some metaprogramming best practices:
This [example] also highlights an effective approach to macros, where the goal is to generate as little code as possible within the caller's context. By proxying to an outside function, we keep the code generation as straightforward as possible. As you'll see later, this approach is pivotal to writing maintainable macros.It also makes it much easier to test the macros, since most of the code will be contained in functions that you can call from tests and see what's going on, instead of trying to posit what all of the generated code looks like.
Chapter 3 shows how to use macros to generate code from data, both through reading from a file and from a web API. Not only is this ability slick as hell, it's highly performant because the code is generated only once at compile time and then during runtime it's all internal function calls—no latency-ridden I/O. The benefits of this approach cannot be emphasized enough:
Let sink in for a moment what we just accomplished in 20 lines of code. We hit a remote JSON API over the Internet and embedded the data directly into a module as functions. The API call only happens a single time when the module is compiled. At runtime, we have the GitHub data cached directly within function definitions. While just a fun example, it really shows how Elixir lends itself to extension.The next few chapters round out the book, with chapter 4 focusing on how to test macros, followed by an extended example of writing a DSL to generate HTML code directly from Elixir syntax instead of parsing a template language, and finishing with a short chapter on some final tips, tricks, and warnings on metaprogramming in Elixir.
Metaprogramming Elixir was at the same time complete and accessible. It was short and sweet, and an excellent companion to Programming Elixir ≥ 1.6. It filled in the only real gap in the latter book, and helps give a real appreciation for one of Elixir's best features. Along with pattern matching, immutable functions, and rock-solid concurrent programming, metaprogramming makes Elixir a fascination language for a whole host of modern day back-end programming. These two books will help you get up to speed with this powerful language, and let you have some fun with that new-found power.
Thứ Bảy, 22 tháng 2, 2020
📷 Dien Nguyen added a new photo
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Thứ Sáu, 21 tháng 2, 2020
Thoughts On Super Mario Run: Remix 10 And The Nature Of Rewards
#Nintendo #gamedev #indiedev #SuperMarioRun
In September of 2017, Nintendo released an update to Mario Run which, amongst other things, introduced players to a new way to play, dubbed Remix 10.
Thứ Năm, 20 tháng 2, 2020
You're now friends with 5 others! See their photos, posts and more.
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Pre-Oblivion Wild Speculation For My Factions!
Unless you've been living under a rock, if you're a Warmachine player you know the entire game is about to get shaken up by the Oblivion theme remixes plus a Dynamic Update addressing faction balance is dropping in about a week or so.
We've had a whole ton of spoilers the last two weeks and I've been on a forced break from the game for some time due to work and family life, but I should be clear to start playing again coincidentally around when Oblivion will be dropping.
Since I've got a lot more time to think and listen to podcasts about the game than I have time to get out and play, I figure I'd put my thoughts down to help others pass the time as we all wait for the big release.
My Factions
I've been playing this game since around 2004 or 2005, waaaaay back in MK1. I've played a lot of factions over the years, but right now I have the following: Legion, Trolls, and Convergence. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to play post-Oblivion, though currently I'm leaning heavily towards Convergence as that's what I've been playing the last few months as I can squeeze games in here and there.
I will talk about how each one is shaping up with the spoilers we've got thus far and my feelings about how each is shaping up.
Legion
We've actually got all four themes for Legion spoiled and the development team has stated that they spent the most amount of time fixing Legion's highly segregated themes. I'm of the opinion that most of Warmachine and Hordes power disparity is a function of how much time the very talented dev team gets to spend on any given faction, so Legion getting a lot of the focus for this re-balance is probably going to help them a ton.
They were on the top of the meta for a while when they got a load of attention for Primal Terrors about 1.5 years ago, but they've slowly whittled down. I never played many Ogrun beyond Warspears in MK2 and I played one game of Anamag and while fun it wasn't going to last given how much I'd end up wanting to buy (2x Chosen, 2x Rotwings, and a whole lot of Incubi). Primal Terrors was great because it allowed Hellmouths and the new Ogrun stuff was solid. Oracles used to be the dominant theme, but it has waned somewhat. It at least allowed all beast options, the amazing Battle Engine, but was limited in units. Often you'd see Children of the Dragon played with Thagrosh1 since you could end up with the Legion Super Friends of Character beasts (Typhon, Zurel, and Azreal) and basically no other Nephilim beasts since Nephilim beasts are kinda bad. At least there you could take other Nyss units which were somewhat decent (Raptors). Finally there was Ravens of War which allowed Hellmouths but restricted you to only flying warbeasts which was just rough.
Now all themes allow all non-Character beasts and the otherwise awesome characters are available in other places. With the requisition system you can now play Legion as beast heavy again and still get your free solos, enabling the kind of lists I liked playing in MK2 when I primarily played the faction.
Legion Pro's: Most of what I have is painted and I love the way they look. Themes are wide open and Hellmouths are really insane to play with. Given what I own there does seem to be a good amount of variety in what I could play without requiring a lot of purchases to get there.
Legion Con's: I still will need to buy some new models to play the themes I'd want. While things are certainly better, playing old beast heavy lists appears like it's going to be kind of rough in the current meta since Legion non-Character beasts are still kind of pillow fisted and are still REALLY expensive. Carniveans are awesome beasts, but at 18 points it's hard to justify vs. what you see in warjacks getting played (13-15 point heavies) or in Grymkin (again 13-15 point heavies) that will trade up into Legion beasts. You're also stuck wanting a lot of support beasts to make your other expensive heavies really shine: Naga's and Seraphs aren't that cheap.
What I'm Excited About In Legion: I'd want to play Ravens of War with Hellmouths and put Strider Deathstalkers on the table again, probably with some Raptors. Oracles looks great to use my nicely painted up Throne of Everblight and while I don't like many of the Legion units, I can take as many of the Minions units I want to screen my beasts and do work. I can even see some fun times with Vayl1 in Children of the Dragon sort of like what was played in MK2. There is definitely stuff to explore here, and if I make purchases (Neraphs, Grotesques) there are some really crazy value lists that can be done with casters that may push the trading game in my favor.
Trolls
I played Trolls for a most of my time in MK3, though I was much bigger into them in MK2. We only have spoilers for Kriel Company and Power of Dhunia so far, and community reaction to them has been fairly underwhelming, especially compared to how great Legion has been on their themes.
Personally, I love what was done in Kriel Company, allowing all beasts to be taken means you can play with Maulers to make your shooting beasts into melee threats again. That's a big deal IMO as many of my MK3 lists were based around a Bomber + Mauler battlegroup and it always performed very well for me.
The downside in Kriel Company is that it doesn't appear the Dynamic Update is fixing much of anything with the Troll shooting units, which are all just underwhelming for their points. Highwaymen are a beautiful unit, but at Range 8 on their guns, for a shooting-only unit, is just...sad. Grim2 could do some work with them, maybe Gunny or a few other casters but from what I found out is that other factions can shoot you before you get to shoot them and Troll shooting units are at best DEF 13 ARM 16 under the stone. That's not very hard to kill with guns.
The biggest winners in Kriel Company are the Battle Engines. The War Wagon is bonkers and the Hooch Hauler may have some synergies to help unlock some lists. I can certainly see playing with Battlegroup heavy lists and Battle Engines in Kriel Company going forward, with maybe a few casters supporting some ranged units to do some other work. The theme also grants Marked Target to solos, which can really be interesting given how many sprays we can take in theme and how many Whelps can be fit into lists.
Power of Dhunia looks the same as it was frankly. but now with 8 point Runeshaper units and Dhunia Archons can be taken in theme which can really help with fury management with Shepherds Call (remove 1 fury point from each beast within 3").
Currently I'm hoping that the next round of Dynamic Updates hits the Troll ranged units, and we have some hope for really cool Riot Quest solos in the Pyg Tanks and Boomhowler2. Heck with Boomhowler1's unit becoming Partisan Trolls, they may show up in more lists if they see a points drop and/or a RAT buff.
Storm in the North and Band of Heroes haven't been spoiled yet, though we do know that Rok is in Storm in the North, which means Doomshaper2 can play in that theme and get access to PacMan'ing Rok and not have to worry about meeting free points quotas with the new system.
Troll Pro's: Personally, I own a crap ton of Trolls, nearly the entire faction due to picking up bits for cheap as other players left the faction. Currently Trolls aren't seeing much play, but I think they have a lot more going for them than people are currently letting on. With the potential RAT buffs from Marked Target in Kriel Company, plus what can be done with Dhunia Archon's, I can see possibly playing Ragnor with an army of gun based lights that can be made to hit like heavies with Rage and Pulverizer. You can get Ice Trolls thrown weapons upwards of PS19 or 20 and fit the fury management to really go all out.
Troll Con's: Unfortunately Trolls suffer from having to play a Mauler and our best ranged beast, the Bomber, is 19 points. Things are just kind of expensive in the faction and we lack native or easy access to Pathfinder on our beasts, and in general Troll lists need a lot of support. On a personal note, while I have a lot of Trolls, not nearly as much of it is painted and what I was painting I was trying to get up to a high standard. The models don't lend themselves to painting up quickly either which hurts my motivation. It's just not clear Trolls will be particularly strong after the update AND if I swapped to playing them again it'd be a lot of hobby time to get them painted.
What I'm Excited About In Trolls: I am weirdly drawn to a bunch of casters in the faction that are considered just bad: Grissel1 with War Wagons look like it can be just insane. Horgle2 can finally take the mix of beasts and infantry to play the kind of list he'd want. I already mentioned Ragnor1 and using lights to shoot things and then trade up massively due to stacking strength buffs. Grim2 could possibly do the same thing and even support infantry, ditto for Gunny. None of it may end up being particularly meta defining, but it sure looks fun as hell.
Convergence
With only two themes in faction and one of them spoiled already, it's odd that I'm left looking at CoC as the faction poised to come out of this update possibly the strongest of what I own.
Destruction Initiative's changes were reacted to fairly negatively by the community, though I don't share their opinion. We lost 2" of extra deployment and the Requisition changes mean that we will not be casually getting 4 sets of 3 servitors easily for free. Nearly every DI list I've run has had 12 shield guards and I'd be lying if I said that Attunement and Elimination servitors haven't won me games via flare on a caster or doing that last point of damage to a heavy in a zone.
That said, being able to take 3x ADO's for a requisition slot and taking an Optifex Directive unit for another slot is also great. I can pay the equivalent points for more servitors if I want, or I can downgrade "useful" servitors to Accretion servitors, where I can spend 6 points to get 9 shield guards that can also do repair. As it is, I'm ambivalent about the changes, mostly because the requisition changes mean that unless I'm playing casters who want to run TEP's, I may not want to be playing in DI as much anymore.
My hopes and dreams are riding on Clockwork Legion. Being able to play battlegroup heavy lists with a small screen of possibly recurring infantry seems strong. At a minimum, if I'm not running TEP's and can live without the shield guards, being able to take Frustrum Locus's dispel guns to supplement our usual jack based lists appears to be a great option. Given that what I think could be the biggest factor for us has yet to be spoiled, there is a massive amount of potential or let down here.
Privateer Press has said that the Dynamic Update was mainly to look at factions that didn't go through CID in MK3, and Convergence is one of those factions that didn't really get a proper CID. As such we may finally see fixes to our units, and points drops on our heavy vectors, and at least we'll most certainly see points drops on our Colossal's which will really help out.
The main thing that scares me is that since PP also announced that CoC was going to be the next big set of new releases once all of Oblivion's massive amount of new models gets out, it may mean that they're saving working on the faction when that CID comes around in upwards of 4 months. Conversely, some of the worst performing units in the game are in Convergence, so there is some hope we get tweaks to help out.
There are worries and potential for the theme to be big. We're almost certainly losing advanced move, and one of the theme benefits they have to keep is making Enigma Foundries FA: 4 so that the list can actually function. Keeping vengeance on our medium based units can be a big deal, especially if they fix said units. They're so close to possibly being good in a few builds. If we get a new release that hands out pathfinder, the theme will REALLY open up to infantry being usable besides just Aurora and Axis, with maybe Lucant.
CoC Pro's: All of the potential changes mentioned above is probably too much to hope for in this update cycle, but any combination of those changes could really make the faction strong and if recurring infantry is able to make it to the table and work - things really would look up for CoC. The Void Archon will also really help the list in terms of hitting power and infantry clearing. I also own basically the entire faction thanks to trading away the last vestiges of my GW mini's from almost over a decade ago and since they paint up so fast, I have about 85% of the faction fully painted already. That's a huge boon for wanting to keep going with the faction I'm currently most excited to put on the table as is.
CoC Con's: If Clockwork Legions gets minimal updates and next to no points drops on our heavies, the faction is probably going to continue to struggle. I've played into Circle and Skorne at a recent Steamroller and...it is not pretty. Both factions seem to oddly be getting buffs in some of their spoiled themes, so if not enough changes Convergence could be stuck having uphill battles into a lot of the current meta.
What I'm Excited About In CoC: The Void Archon alone opens up the faction a lot in either theme, bringing Dark Shroud to the faction and a really strong spray. Conservators can possibly really shine here bringing shield guards for Enigma Foundries and with a Void Archon to buff damage we could be looking at 12 Point high MAT PS19 heavies to trade up with. Aurora may actually end up playable with some of these changes. Lucant certainly will like having them around, and Axis will love having a persistent damage buff to go out when necessary. I have this weird desire to play Syntherion and the requisition options for him only make his list better (he wants ADO's real bad), and points drops on the Axiom or Conflux will help those lists as well. At worst in a few months CoC is getting a whole new slew of releases and that will be amazing!
Closing Thoughts
Regardless of which way I go with what to play, I love what PP is doing with the game. It's been hard enough not being able to play in the current meta, and I'm really lucky that my schedule opens up in August and September to get games again with this incredible set of changes. Each day at work it's always fun to hit refresh at random breaks throughout the day to see what new things have been spoiled. Now I'm just stuck waiting around for the Clockwork Legions Insider we were told is coming to drop...
We've had a whole ton of spoilers the last two weeks and I've been on a forced break from the game for some time due to work and family life, but I should be clear to start playing again coincidentally around when Oblivion will be dropping.
Since I've got a lot more time to think and listen to podcasts about the game than I have time to get out and play, I figure I'd put my thoughts down to help others pass the time as we all wait for the big release.
My Factions
I've been playing this game since around 2004 or 2005, waaaaay back in MK1. I've played a lot of factions over the years, but right now I have the following: Legion, Trolls, and Convergence. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to play post-Oblivion, though currently I'm leaning heavily towards Convergence as that's what I've been playing the last few months as I can squeeze games in here and there.
I will talk about how each one is shaping up with the spoilers we've got thus far and my feelings about how each is shaping up.
Legion
We've actually got all four themes for Legion spoiled and the development team has stated that they spent the most amount of time fixing Legion's highly segregated themes. I'm of the opinion that most of Warmachine and Hordes power disparity is a function of how much time the very talented dev team gets to spend on any given faction, so Legion getting a lot of the focus for this re-balance is probably going to help them a ton.
They were on the top of the meta for a while when they got a load of attention for Primal Terrors about 1.5 years ago, but they've slowly whittled down. I never played many Ogrun beyond Warspears in MK2 and I played one game of Anamag and while fun it wasn't going to last given how much I'd end up wanting to buy (2x Chosen, 2x Rotwings, and a whole lot of Incubi). Primal Terrors was great because it allowed Hellmouths and the new Ogrun stuff was solid. Oracles used to be the dominant theme, but it has waned somewhat. It at least allowed all beast options, the amazing Battle Engine, but was limited in units. Often you'd see Children of the Dragon played with Thagrosh1 since you could end up with the Legion Super Friends of Character beasts (Typhon, Zurel, and Azreal) and basically no other Nephilim beasts since Nephilim beasts are kinda bad. At least there you could take other Nyss units which were somewhat decent (Raptors). Finally there was Ravens of War which allowed Hellmouths but restricted you to only flying warbeasts which was just rough.
Now all themes allow all non-Character beasts and the otherwise awesome characters are available in other places. With the requisition system you can now play Legion as beast heavy again and still get your free solos, enabling the kind of lists I liked playing in MK2 when I primarily played the faction.
Legion Pro's: Most of what I have is painted and I love the way they look. Themes are wide open and Hellmouths are really insane to play with. Given what I own there does seem to be a good amount of variety in what I could play without requiring a lot of purchases to get there.
Legion Con's: I still will need to buy some new models to play the themes I'd want. While things are certainly better, playing old beast heavy lists appears like it's going to be kind of rough in the current meta since Legion non-Character beasts are still kind of pillow fisted and are still REALLY expensive. Carniveans are awesome beasts, but at 18 points it's hard to justify vs. what you see in warjacks getting played (13-15 point heavies) or in Grymkin (again 13-15 point heavies) that will trade up into Legion beasts. You're also stuck wanting a lot of support beasts to make your other expensive heavies really shine: Naga's and Seraphs aren't that cheap.
What I'm Excited About In Legion: I'd want to play Ravens of War with Hellmouths and put Strider Deathstalkers on the table again, probably with some Raptors. Oracles looks great to use my nicely painted up Throne of Everblight and while I don't like many of the Legion units, I can take as many of the Minions units I want to screen my beasts and do work. I can even see some fun times with Vayl1 in Children of the Dragon sort of like what was played in MK2. There is definitely stuff to explore here, and if I make purchases (Neraphs, Grotesques) there are some really crazy value lists that can be done with casters that may push the trading game in my favor.
Trolls
I played Trolls for a most of my time in MK3, though I was much bigger into them in MK2. We only have spoilers for Kriel Company and Power of Dhunia so far, and community reaction to them has been fairly underwhelming, especially compared to how great Legion has been on their themes.
Personally, I love what was done in Kriel Company, allowing all beasts to be taken means you can play with Maulers to make your shooting beasts into melee threats again. That's a big deal IMO as many of my MK3 lists were based around a Bomber + Mauler battlegroup and it always performed very well for me.
The downside in Kriel Company is that it doesn't appear the Dynamic Update is fixing much of anything with the Troll shooting units, which are all just underwhelming for their points. Highwaymen are a beautiful unit, but at Range 8 on their guns, for a shooting-only unit, is just...sad. Grim2 could do some work with them, maybe Gunny or a few other casters but from what I found out is that other factions can shoot you before you get to shoot them and Troll shooting units are at best DEF 13 ARM 16 under the stone. That's not very hard to kill with guns.
The biggest winners in Kriel Company are the Battle Engines. The War Wagon is bonkers and the Hooch Hauler may have some synergies to help unlock some lists. I can certainly see playing with Battlegroup heavy lists and Battle Engines in Kriel Company going forward, with maybe a few casters supporting some ranged units to do some other work. The theme also grants Marked Target to solos, which can really be interesting given how many sprays we can take in theme and how many Whelps can be fit into lists.
Power of Dhunia looks the same as it was frankly. but now with 8 point Runeshaper units and Dhunia Archons can be taken in theme which can really help with fury management with Shepherds Call (remove 1 fury point from each beast within 3").
Currently I'm hoping that the next round of Dynamic Updates hits the Troll ranged units, and we have some hope for really cool Riot Quest solos in the Pyg Tanks and Boomhowler2. Heck with Boomhowler1's unit becoming Partisan Trolls, they may show up in more lists if they see a points drop and/or a RAT buff.
Storm in the North and Band of Heroes haven't been spoiled yet, though we do know that Rok is in Storm in the North, which means Doomshaper2 can play in that theme and get access to PacMan'ing Rok and not have to worry about meeting free points quotas with the new system.
Troll Pro's: Personally, I own a crap ton of Trolls, nearly the entire faction due to picking up bits for cheap as other players left the faction. Currently Trolls aren't seeing much play, but I think they have a lot more going for them than people are currently letting on. With the potential RAT buffs from Marked Target in Kriel Company, plus what can be done with Dhunia Archon's, I can see possibly playing Ragnor with an army of gun based lights that can be made to hit like heavies with Rage and Pulverizer. You can get Ice Trolls thrown weapons upwards of PS19 or 20 and fit the fury management to really go all out.
Troll Con's: Unfortunately Trolls suffer from having to play a Mauler and our best ranged beast, the Bomber, is 19 points. Things are just kind of expensive in the faction and we lack native or easy access to Pathfinder on our beasts, and in general Troll lists need a lot of support. On a personal note, while I have a lot of Trolls, not nearly as much of it is painted and what I was painting I was trying to get up to a high standard. The models don't lend themselves to painting up quickly either which hurts my motivation. It's just not clear Trolls will be particularly strong after the update AND if I swapped to playing them again it'd be a lot of hobby time to get them painted.
What I'm Excited About In Trolls: I am weirdly drawn to a bunch of casters in the faction that are considered just bad: Grissel1 with War Wagons look like it can be just insane. Horgle2 can finally take the mix of beasts and infantry to play the kind of list he'd want. I already mentioned Ragnor1 and using lights to shoot things and then trade up massively due to stacking strength buffs. Grim2 could possibly do the same thing and even support infantry, ditto for Gunny. None of it may end up being particularly meta defining, but it sure looks fun as hell.
Convergence
With only two themes in faction and one of them spoiled already, it's odd that I'm left looking at CoC as the faction poised to come out of this update possibly the strongest of what I own.
Destruction Initiative's changes were reacted to fairly negatively by the community, though I don't share their opinion. We lost 2" of extra deployment and the Requisition changes mean that we will not be casually getting 4 sets of 3 servitors easily for free. Nearly every DI list I've run has had 12 shield guards and I'd be lying if I said that Attunement and Elimination servitors haven't won me games via flare on a caster or doing that last point of damage to a heavy in a zone.
That said, being able to take 3x ADO's for a requisition slot and taking an Optifex Directive unit for another slot is also great. I can pay the equivalent points for more servitors if I want, or I can downgrade "useful" servitors to Accretion servitors, where I can spend 6 points to get 9 shield guards that can also do repair. As it is, I'm ambivalent about the changes, mostly because the requisition changes mean that unless I'm playing casters who want to run TEP's, I may not want to be playing in DI as much anymore.
My hopes and dreams are riding on Clockwork Legion. Being able to play battlegroup heavy lists with a small screen of possibly recurring infantry seems strong. At a minimum, if I'm not running TEP's and can live without the shield guards, being able to take Frustrum Locus's dispel guns to supplement our usual jack based lists appears to be a great option. Given that what I think could be the biggest factor for us has yet to be spoiled, there is a massive amount of potential or let down here.
Privateer Press has said that the Dynamic Update was mainly to look at factions that didn't go through CID in MK3, and Convergence is one of those factions that didn't really get a proper CID. As such we may finally see fixes to our units, and points drops on our heavy vectors, and at least we'll most certainly see points drops on our Colossal's which will really help out.
The main thing that scares me is that since PP also announced that CoC was going to be the next big set of new releases once all of Oblivion's massive amount of new models gets out, it may mean that they're saving working on the faction when that CID comes around in upwards of 4 months. Conversely, some of the worst performing units in the game are in Convergence, so there is some hope we get tweaks to help out.
There are worries and potential for the theme to be big. We're almost certainly losing advanced move, and one of the theme benefits they have to keep is making Enigma Foundries FA: 4 so that the list can actually function. Keeping vengeance on our medium based units can be a big deal, especially if they fix said units. They're so close to possibly being good in a few builds. If we get a new release that hands out pathfinder, the theme will REALLY open up to infantry being usable besides just Aurora and Axis, with maybe Lucant.
CoC Pro's: All of the potential changes mentioned above is probably too much to hope for in this update cycle, but any combination of those changes could really make the faction strong and if recurring infantry is able to make it to the table and work - things really would look up for CoC. The Void Archon will also really help the list in terms of hitting power and infantry clearing. I also own basically the entire faction thanks to trading away the last vestiges of my GW mini's from almost over a decade ago and since they paint up so fast, I have about 85% of the faction fully painted already. That's a huge boon for wanting to keep going with the faction I'm currently most excited to put on the table as is.
CoC Con's: If Clockwork Legions gets minimal updates and next to no points drops on our heavies, the faction is probably going to continue to struggle. I've played into Circle and Skorne at a recent Steamroller and...it is not pretty. Both factions seem to oddly be getting buffs in some of their spoiled themes, so if not enough changes Convergence could be stuck having uphill battles into a lot of the current meta.
What I'm Excited About In CoC: The Void Archon alone opens up the faction a lot in either theme, bringing Dark Shroud to the faction and a really strong spray. Conservators can possibly really shine here bringing shield guards for Enigma Foundries and with a Void Archon to buff damage we could be looking at 12 Point high MAT PS19 heavies to trade up with. Aurora may actually end up playable with some of these changes. Lucant certainly will like having them around, and Axis will love having a persistent damage buff to go out when necessary. I have this weird desire to play Syntherion and the requisition options for him only make his list better (he wants ADO's real bad), and points drops on the Axiom or Conflux will help those lists as well. At worst in a few months CoC is getting a whole new slew of releases and that will be amazing!
Closing Thoughts
Regardless of which way I go with what to play, I love what PP is doing with the game. It's been hard enough not being able to play in the current meta, and I'm really lucky that my schedule opens up in August and September to get games again with this incredible set of changes. Each day at work it's always fun to hit refresh at random breaks throughout the day to see what new things have been spoiled. Now I'm just stuck waiting around for the Clockwork Legions Insider we were told is coming to drop...
Your Virtue Has Now Been Signaled
As you might have heard, someone on the internet said something stupid and prejudiced. I know, shock and horror! How could this be?
Did I mention this is the internet? Stupid and prejudiced is kind of the internet's brand.
Specifically, Bob Bledsaw II wrote something nasty about Jews and also that black music appropriated by Elvis is pretty good.
I don't know him, but I've heard of him. And, of course, I know of Judge's Guild, but I've never used their products. If there's no chance of it having come from an LSD fever-dream, I'm just not interested.
Predictably, many are coming out of the woodwork to condemn what he said. That's fine. I condemn it, too. Just like when I condemn it from the mouths or twitter accounts of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and similar progressives.
But what came as a surprise is this - it wasn't the radical left or woke police or social justice warriors who are trying to "out" this old guy as a horrible bigot who must be shunned without any means of supporting himself or his family. No, it was the neutral-ground fence-sitters, the moderates, the centrists, mild mannered conservatives, and those who don't want to get involved in politics.
Just a year ago, a popular OSR bartender disowned probably the only trans-person he's ever been in close contact with. And I've received cold stares and silence from many quarters of the community. But I'm not going to stop being me, just as I'm not going to stop pointing out hypocrisy.
So, what have we learned from our moral superiors, the political leftists who've tried to deplatform, demonetize, and cancel everyone that deviates from woke scripture, anyone who doesn't pass the litmus test of egalitarian brother and sisterhood, all who stand in the way of intersectional workers of the world uniting?
That it's better to accuse and punish others than to look inward and try make better choices for ourselves.
You change views by discussing them openly, not beating people over the head merely for holding them.
And then you get comments like anti-semitism is merely talking to their OSR base or that President Trump ushered in a new era of racism, anti-semitism, sexism, homo and trans-phobia, etc. That, too, is bullshit. Trump has been more pro-Jew and pro-Israel than any President in memory.
I honestly thought we were better than that. We don't need to virtue signal because, as we all know, that currency is vastly over-inflated, its stock doomed to plummet until 1,000 digital back-pats can only afford you a crust of Democratic Socialist bread.
If you want to stop buying this product or stop promoting that designer, more power to you. It's a free country, you can do what you want with your dollars and time. Just don't ask me to sign my name to some blacklist or join the outrage mob or help you force some dude with a terrible worldview from attending an RPG convention.
VS
p.s. We'll be discussing the issue this Sunday on Inappropriate Characters.
Thứ Tư, 19 tháng 2, 2020
Ep 34: Top Faves With Dave Goes Digital Is Live!
Ep 34: Top Faves with Dave goes digital
https://soundcloud.com/user-989538417/ep-34-top-faves-with-dave-goes-digital
Dave Tubbs, Nick Nerthery and I talk about military-themed video games.
Join the conversation at https://theveteranwargamer.blogspot.com, email theveteranwargamer@gmail.com, Twitter @veteranwargamer
Follow Dave on Twitter! @FrmrSldrFgtPlyr
Try Audible for your free audiobook credit by going to http://audibletrial.com/tvwg
New Segment - Stump Jay! Dave's attempt to stump Jay took 308 milliseconds to solve.
Maori Wars Empress Miniatures - http://www.empressminiatures.com/page11.htm
Emu Wars Eureka Miniatures - http://www.eurekamin.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=131&products_id=13353
SCW Empress - http://www.empressminiatures.com/page9.htm
Top Faves
Myth: The Fallen Lords - http://projectmagma.net/what/
Gog - https://www.gog.com/
Wolfenstein 3D - http://3d.wolfenstein.com/game_NA.php
Starcraft: Brood War - https://starcraft.com/en-us/
War Thunder - https://warthunder.com/en
Wolfpack - https://www.emuparadise.me/Abandonware_Games/WolfPack_(1990)(NovaLogic)/95670
UBoot Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phalanxgames/uboot-the-board-game
Captain Sonar - https://www.asmodee.us/en/games/captain-sonar/
Red November - https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/red-november/
Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far - https://www.gog.com/promo/20180206_launch_promo_close_combat
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter - https://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/ghost-recon-advanced-warfighter/39276
Axis & Allies CD - http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2268
Company of Heroes - http://www.companyofheroes.com/
Dawn of War - https://www.dawnofwar.com/
Halo - https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us
Halo Fleet Battles - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176936/halo-fleet-battles-fall-reach
Diplomacy Play By Email - http://www.playdiplomacy.com/
Junta - https://www.alderacsite.com/junta/
Call of Duty: World at War - http://store.steampowered.com/app/10090/Call_of_Duty_World_at_War/
Total War - https://www.totalwar.com/
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway - http://store.steampowered.com/app/15390/Brothers_in_Arms_Hells_Highway/
Nick's Article - http://www.offdutygamers.com/2010/01/brothers-in-arms-hell%E2%80%99s-highway-good-enough-to-be-a-training-aid/
Music courtesy bensound.com. Recorded with zencastr.com. Edited with Audacity. Make your town beautiful; get a haircut.
https://soundcloud.com/user-989538417/ep-34-top-faves-with-dave-goes-digital
Dave Tubbs, Nick Nerthery and I talk about military-themed video games.
Join the conversation at https://theveteranwargamer.blogspot.com, email theveteranwargamer@gmail.com, Twitter @veteranwargamer
Follow Dave on Twitter! @FrmrSldrFgtPlyr
Try Audible for your free audiobook credit by going to http://audibletrial.com/tvwg
New Segment - Stump Jay! Dave's attempt to stump Jay took 308 milliseconds to solve.
Maori Wars Empress Miniatures - http://www.empressminiatures.com/page11.htm
Emu Wars Eureka Miniatures - http://www.eurekamin.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=131&products_id=13353
SCW Empress - http://www.empressminiatures.com/page9.htm
Top Faves
Myth: The Fallen Lords - http://projectmagma.net/what/
Gog - https://www.gog.com/
Wolfenstein 3D - http://3d.wolfenstein.com/game_NA.php
Starcraft: Brood War - https://starcraft.com/en-us/
War Thunder - https://warthunder.com/en
Wolfpack - https://www.emuparadise.me/Abandonware_Games/WolfPack_(1990)(NovaLogic)/95670
UBoot Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phalanxgames/uboot-the-board-game
Captain Sonar - https://www.asmodee.us/en/games/captain-sonar/
Red November - https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/red-november/
Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far - https://www.gog.com/promo/20180206_launch_promo_close_combat
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter - https://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/ghost-recon-advanced-warfighter/39276
Axis & Allies CD - http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2268
Company of Heroes - http://www.companyofheroes.com/
Dawn of War - https://www.dawnofwar.com/
Halo - https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us
Halo Fleet Battles - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176936/halo-fleet-battles-fall-reach
Diplomacy Play By Email - http://www.playdiplomacy.com/
Junta - https://www.alderacsite.com/junta/
Call of Duty: World at War - http://store.steampowered.com/app/10090/Call_of_Duty_World_at_War/
Total War - https://www.totalwar.com/
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway - http://store.steampowered.com/app/15390/Brothers_in_Arms_Hells_Highway/
Nick's Article - http://www.offdutygamers.com/2010/01/brothers-in-arms-hell%E2%80%99s-highway-good-enough-to-be-a-training-aid/
Music courtesy bensound.com. Recorded with zencastr.com. Edited with Audacity. Make your town beautiful; get a haircut.
Keio Flying Squadron 2 (Saturn)
| Developer: | Victor | | | Release Date: | 1996 | | | Systems: | Saturn |
This week on Super Adventures, I'm writing about more Keio Flying Squadron! The alien bunny girl adventures continue.
The first Keio Flying Squadron is a shoot 'em up on the Sega Mega CD that by some miracle got a release in Europe and America. I already showed that one off last week. Then Keio Flying Squadron 2 came out three years later on the Sega Saturn and somehow also got translated to English, though I'm not sure it ever made it to the US. Finally there was a side-story party game on the PlayStation called 蘭未ちゃんの大江戸すごろく慶応遊撃隊外伝. That one never made it out of Japan.
Out of curiosity I checked the Japanese version of Keio 2 and it turns out that the title text completely obscures the background in the original game as well. Someone spent ages drawing that!
Here's some more exciting trivia for you: Victor Entertainment got out of game development in 1996 so this is one of the last games they ever made. I'd tell you about their other games, but I've never heard of most of them. Banana, ROM² Karaoke, UltraBox 5-gō... oh Legendary Axe, that sounds familiar. I have no idea what it is, but I recognise the name.
Read on »
Thứ Ba, 18 tháng 2, 2020
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Chủ Nhật, 16 tháng 2, 2020
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