Thursday 30 December 2010

Big beasts

I don't do politics here, and definitely not party politics, but this post at Gene Expression hits above the belt. Can it be true?

If it is, I have a funny feeling I'm so conservative I'm actually liberal. Which is to say I'm so liberal I'm conservative. The spectrum's really a colour wheel after all. If not a sphere. Or a hypersphere.

We are large, we contain multitudes.

Word association then. Politics. Political animal. Monster. That's where this is going.

Classic comic action at Diversions of the Groovy Kind - the making and unmaking of a monster. Not zany enough? Monster Brains put up a post yesterday featuring some creatures that may not quite conform to our conventions of beauty. A Field Guide to Doomsday has never-ending mutants, some of which are even - dare I say it - cuddly. The caterpig for instance, which loves to eat. I feel a certain affinity.

Titans were monsters, right? Well, who really knows. They might have been monstrous; we do know them as powerful. And they will clash. Which brings us more or less neatly into Epic-scale titans, and there are some classics from the early days on show at Confessions of a 40k addict - there's a Warlord, a brace of Warhounds and a Reaver.

Want one for 40K? You must know about the Forge World options. What's that you say? You've got the stunning skill with plasticard of an Eldar long on the path? Try this then, also via Confessions. Cyborg Trucker's been there and has plenty of advice too. One cool idea is fighting over and in them, an option for roleplayers and even Killzoners.

You can come out from behind the sofa now.

8 comments:

Bartender said...

Have a very Happy New Year! Your writings tyle is very witty! I loved Epic with Imperial Guard tanks versus genestealers!

Anonymous said...

I'll just trot out the old "correlation does not imply causation" and leave it at that.

I do like those monster illustrations at Monster Brains. They're rather beautiful. I think they appeal to the zoologist in me ... I did always dream of being a xenobiologist.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Paul´s Bods said...

Keep the musings coming mate :-)
Happy new year
Paul

Porky said...

Happy New Year to you too!

@ Bartender - Thanks - I got lucky with the material I think! Epic is just fantastic. I have such good memories and it lives on in the imagination for the scope of what was possible. For me the imperial tanks, and especially the superheavies, have never looked as good as they did on an Epic battlefield. And of course the system played a huge part in making the older factions what they are today, not least the Tyranids. As for the pairing off, how about genestealers in imperial tanks? Now that would be something else.

@ Rachel - It's definitely good fun - if frustrating - to read that kind of article and find the holes. I think journos are more like bloggers than not, and that worries me. As for being a xenobiologist, there's still plenty of time - demand could yet leap. Then again, it might be an issue less of study than exchange. Like Fox, I want to believe, and I do see the numbers as being on side. Both subjects - fallibility and aliens - were also mentioned here re The BFG, one of those children's books I re-read this year.

@ Paul's Bods - No danger of the musings running out - that you can count on! It's just as much a fact as all of us orbiting the sun once a year.

Game Master Rob Adams said...

I loved playing Epic. Now we use Epic figured for Dirtside II.

Martin said...

Ah, those titans certainly bring out some memories. Space Marine was my introduction to miniature wargaming back in the early nineties and I had quite a few Warlords, Reavers and Warhounds in my collection. Good times, good times...

Porky said...

@ ArmChairGeneral & Martin - I'd like to believe that if the decision-makers at GW saw the love there is still, they'd re-release and get behind it, with a range approaching the variety of the Space Marine / Titan Legions era. Something along the lines of the support for The Lord of the Rings as the third system. Unfortunately it seems the wind is blowing the other way. With army size in 40K increasing, Forge World adapting old Epic ideas and adding new, and the new codices including ever larger models, there's really no space at the moment for a 6mm system. Until there is, Dirtside II sounds like a good recommendation.

Porky said...

I see your point.

We've had 40K slowly moving in the direction of Epic over many years and there's a big space opening up at the skirmish end. Also, making the bigger war machines mainstream starts an arms race which marginalises the average trooper, in the imagination at least. It's audacious though. Look at what we pay for a superheavy these days compared with the early 90s.

For me 40K is stretched a little too thin. I'd rather have an official, supported skirmish game that builds on Killzone, and Epic doing Apocalypse properly.