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Words escape me.

A New Hope and a New Project

I was a boy when the original STAR WARS appeared in theaters across America like many people it changed my life. My family trooped to see it 6 times during its original run. (I know if I keep dating myself like this I won't convince people I'm in my 20s the way some of my readers can.) Then in the late 80s some friends of mine at West End Games produced the STAR WARS RPG which I got involved in as a playtester. Then West End Games produced the STAR WARS MINIATURES GAME and the idea of STAR WARS wargaming just clicked! Then THE PHANTOM MENACE came out killing my desire for STAR WARS gaming. But yesterday while I was home sick all day surfing the net I saw a battle for Hoth wargame using the old West End rules played at a recent convention. And my love of STAR WARS gaming has been rekindled! Now I lost my West End miniatures in a move a long time ago so it will take me some time to build a STAR WARS collection once funds permit. So stay tuned readers!

Brief Update

Image from the Empire of the Dead Requiem Compendium

This is a brief update as I'm currently as sick as a dog and I survived a brutal winter only to fall sick just before summer. Its not surprising really since the weather has suddenly changed from 80F to 52F in a matter of days. So naturally I've done nothing on the hobby front at all. I have however thrown in the towel and opened a FaceBook page as several of you have notice. I've even been roped into a couple of FB groups by Simon! FB has seemed a little daunting at first I've got 49? FB friends in a week, most from the blogging community. Recently I've learned that all I need do to be a good FB citizen is post pictures of cats. Fortunately I have cats and can take pictures of them so my FB citizenship is assured. So including my blogs, my new FB page and my forum posts I'm very well represented on the net. I am kidterminal on The Lead Adventure Forum and also kidterminal on One Ring.

Requiem Compendium Factions for a General Campaign Corrected

The EOTD Requiem Compendium introduces 16 new factions or faction specialization to Empire of the Dead. These factions fall into five main categories, many of them will actually fall into more than one. These broad categories are; Faction Leader is a Special Named Character, Many Special Rules, Underpowered, Don’t Fit with Campaign Rules and Campaign Ready. Of all 16 of these new factions IMO only three factions; the Special Branch, The Tong and the Imperial Explorers Club are robust enough to play in a general campaign competing against any of the 4 original EOTD factions. Here is a list of the compendium factions with notes on which are faction specializations. 

1 Special Branch

2 Great Detective

3 Criminal Gang

4 Street Gang (Criminal Gang Faction Specialization)

5 Tong (Criminal Gang Faction Specialization)

6 Criminal Mastermind (Criminal Gang Faction Specialization)

7 Nemesis Criminals

8 Dracula

9 Vampire Slayers

10 Captain Nemo

11 Jerusalem Clickers

12 Order of the Garter (Gentlemen’s Club Faction Specialization)

13 Imperial Explorers Club (Gentlemen’s Club Faction Specialization) 

14 Bedlam Brotherhood

15 Union of the Snake (Gentlemen’s Club Faction Specialization)

The five categories explained:

1)     Faction Leader is a Special Named Character- This faction is lead by a special character like Captain Nemo, Dracula or The Great Detective and there is no indication in the rules detailing what happens to the faction if this character is killed in a campaign.

2)     Many Special Rules- All the models in this faction even the subordinates have their own individual special rules. I feel that this can bog down play trying to remember all these rules.

3)     Underpowered- Simply put they aren’t able to fight werewolves, vampires or heavily armed gentlemen.

4)     Don’t Fit with Campaign Rules- The mechanics of this faction are incompatible with the campaign rules.

5)     Campaign Ready- Self explanatory.

Here is the faction list again with each category that faction fits into noted.

1 Special Branch Campaign Ready

2 Great Detective Faction Leader is a Special Named Character Underpowered

3 Criminal Gang Underpowered

4 Street Gang Underpowered

5 Tong Campaign Ready

6 Criminal Mastermind Underpowered

7 Nemesis Criminals Faction Leader is a Special Named Character Underpowered

8 Dracula Faction Leader is a Special Named Character

9 Vampire Slayers Faction Leader is a Special Named Character Many Special Rules Underpowered

10 Captain Nemo Faction Leader is a Special Named Character

11 Jerusalem Clickers Don’t Fit with Campaign Rules

12 Order of the Garter Faction Leader is a Special Named Character 

13 Imperial Explorers Club Campaign Ready

14 Bedlam Brotherhood Faction Leader is a Special Named Character Many Special Rules Underpowered

15 Union of the Snake Faction Leader is a Special Named Character

So IMO Requiem adds three factions to the campaign pool giving EOTD a total of 7 campaign playable factions not a bad number IMO.

Selling Some Terrain

 I made this board some years back its a 4'x4' made of 4 2'x2' 1'' foam tiles.As you can see its a valley of sorts with cliffs around it. I made a number of trees and bushes to go with it see pictures below. This board appeared in the Infinity tournament during the War Store Weekend in NJ a few years ago. I'm looking to sell it to make space for my London board. What do you think I should ask for it?

During the Infinity Tournament.

First Impressions EOTD Requiem

This is a beautifully illustrated supplement, jammed packed with sketches and color paintings by Andy Cooper.
 
What you get;

Factions & character profiles for numerous Gothic/Victorian books, Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo, Dracula, Van Helsing.

Criminal Factions

Alternate Gentleman's Clubs

Special Branch Police Faction

As well as two novel special rule driven factions (The Bedlam Brotherhood & The Clickers)

The Vehicle Rules
Profiles for ALL the special characters currently available in EOTD 


For the KS Backers
This edition has stats for all the figures released in the KS which is a nice bonus. All of these KS special edition figures have interesting back stories which suggest they are earmarked for EOTD stories/books some time in the future.

The Cons;
There are many typos in this document which suggests that the original KS sections haven't been updated since the original KS release. So all the issues KS backers pointed to since last year remain unaddressed.

EOTD Requiem Compendium Rules now availible for purchase.

The finial version of the EOTD Requiem PDF has been release to all KS backers and now for the first time they are available for purchase by the general public. They can now be purchased here.
One of the most important additions to this version in my view is this warning clarifying the author's intent in regards to the Gothic book characters factions.

A generous Gent & the Captain

A generous gentleman gifted me a Zerboz Captain America. Zerboz is I believe a now discontinued Marvel toy series of pre-painted rubber 1" inch Marvel superheroes.

He is very close to the classic Captain America look.

Her is the Zerboz next to a Revell 1/72nd scale US paratrooper for size comparison. He's a little large but then the Captain's a big guy. Please not the Zerboz are made of rubber so I used Milliput to help affix him to the magnetic base.