The Death of Silent Hills and Some New Stuff!

The Death of Silent Hills

As most of you know by now, Silent Hills has been cancelled. Let’s take a moment of silence for that…

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This is a few weeks late but since we were out of town camping and work has been insane, this is the first time I have had to sit down and think about what this means. Silent Hills is something that I have been waiting for. I have played Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, and 4 but I have not played the other side games or the ones on Vita or Wii or whichever platform they were on. But Silent Hills gave me hope in an often bleak survival horror genre. P.T. was something that was not only interesting but also scary. It reminded me of the times when I was in college and my best friend and I printed out all the walkthroughs for Silent Hill 1 – 4. We then confiscated a lounge at Pitt, closed all the blinds, turned the lights off, turned the TV up the whole way and made sure we did EVERYTHING in all the games. We would even pick which ending we wanted and tailor for that. There was screaming, laughing, shouting, and general commotion in the room as we beat the games for probably the tenth time each. There were times when the games scared us half to death and that was what I was looking for with the new Silent Hills, those moments that grabbed you and you would laugh about later after you remembered it was just a game.

Now don’t get me wrong there are other great survival horror games out there, the Resident Evil series, Alien: Isolation, Dead Space, ect. But nothing has seemed to not only scare me like a Silent Hill game but also entertain me and keep me coming back for more. I even enjoyed the movies (I know, liking a video game movie is bad…) which hit a lot of the areas I wanted to see in a Silent Hill film. Plus there were some moments where I almost jumped out of my pants!

The moment that I saw P.T. I was super excited because this game felt even bigger and scarier than Silent Hill 2. This gave me hope for the future of survival horror games. Over the weekend we took time to play P.T., with my husband at the reins. There was jumping, yelling, laughing, and all around debauchery while we played. The scares were on point and the environment was great. My only complaint was the puzzles which seemed a bit more difficult than they needed to be and honestly without Googling we probably would have given up! But I get why they were that way, it was a playable trailer not the real game. They were testing expectations and trying to see what the audience thought. All in all, I loved P.T. and I wish Silent Hills was not dead.

What Does it all Mean?

Obviously this news of the cancelation is hard to swallow but we still knew/heard that Konami was going to work on other Silent Hill games which would at least continue the genre. It was a small victory but a victory none-the-less. Then it seemed like Konami took a few steps off the deep end when they announced they would be “pursu[ing] mobile games aggressively.” And also by saying “our main platform will be mobiles.” The CEO of Konami (Hideki Hatakawa) also goes onto say “The success of Power pro especially has motivated us to actively push more of our popular series onto mobile than ever before.” Queue the O.O face from a large portion of the gaming community and enter my brain telling me “well your chance at a new and amazing Silent Hill that is not on a mobile device is now slim to none”…awesome. Now I know that I could be just taking this to the extreme since I love the series, but I feel that Konami just signed Silent Hill death warrant. There is a chance in the far away future that I am wrong, but most of the evidence is leading me down the path of conviction.

I feel that this is a massive blow to the survival horror genre. There are a lot of games that are being labeled as survival horror that are zombie games and do not get me wrong they are fun, but to me they are not as scary as say Silent Hill 2. Even the new Resident Evil games do not have the same feel to me as they once did. I feel they have gone downhill since Resident Evil 4 and that is something hard to say as a self-proclaimed Resident Evil buff. To keep this genre fresh we need to have a game come out that WOWs us. We need something that had the same reaction as P.T. Maybe some of the new horror games coming out this year will help, Soma and Darkwood look promising. It is true that things come in waves so maybe soon our time will come.

How do you feel about the state of the survival horror genre?

New Stuff!

Now it is time for some new stuff! My husband, a friend of ours, and I have decided to start a podcast/website! It is called Geeks and Geeklets: An Adventure Guide to Gaming Parents (www.geeksandgeeklets.com) and is a site devoted to gaming, parenting, and all around geekery. Come join us as we balance our lives as gamers with parenting and as we watch our littles grow up surrounded by geek culture. The website will contain articles, tips & tricks, and eventually a podcast (in the works!). We are up and coming but would love for you to stop by and check things out!

Also, some of you might know that I run this site as a general gaming blog. Here I talk about other games (other than WoW which is found at sarindre.wordpress.com) I am playing and the joys/struggles of being a gamer mom. Well I will no longer be posting here and will be focusing these posts to the Geeks and Geeklets site. So if you have read and enjoyed The Geeky Mommy, hop on over to Geeks and Geeklets for similar content.

Geeks and Geeklets Contact Info:

Email – geeksandgeeklets@gmail.com

Site – www.geeksandgeeklets.com

Twitter – @ggeeklets

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/geeksandgeeklets

Tumblr – Geeks and Geeklets

Google+ –  Geeks and Geeklets

If you are interested in guest writing, please feel free to email us your post to geeksandgeeklets@gmail.com with the subject “Guest Post.”

Happy Gaming!

Age of Wonders and Why I need just One More Turn…

Hello, my name is Sarindre and I am an addict. You might think that I am addicted to WoW or other video games, but really I can stop playing most video games and even WoW and make sure I get to bed at a good time at night for work in the morning. But turn-based strategy games are my vice. I love them. I used to play Civ 5 all night long. I could not stop. I mean every turn only lasts like a minute or two, why not take just one more? That one turns into two which turns into 10 which turns into you being up until 3 AM and you still have not beaten the campaign!

Age of Wonders 3

Cut to Age of Wonders 3 which was on sale about a week or so ago on Steam. I have never played an Age of Wonders game before but a friend talked my husband and me into trying it. We saw it was only 13$ so we picked it up. Once I logged on, I instantly knew I was hooked. It encompasses all the elements of Civilization 5 that I love and includes great new features. Where I am addicted to doing the Culture victory in Civ 5, in Age of Wonders I am focusing more on war. There is a different learning curve with this game than with Civilization, but once you are able to walk through and figure out the steps, it is easy to follow. One thing I do think that needs improved is the tutorial. I am a hands-on learner and when I am unable to learn all that I need to in a tutorial I get lost and frustrated. Granted Age of Wonders has a great guide that you can search and find pretty much everything you need, which I use all the time. But there are times when there is so much going on that I wish they would have just went over it in the tutorial.

What I enjoy is that fact that the game is hard. It is not so hard where I cannot handle it but there are times when my armies get destroyed by the enemy and I lose the level. The enemies are challenging and the campaign missions and sometimes go astray. But I think once I get it all down, I will be able to do it easily.

We do have a play by email (PBEM) going on right now, my husband, a friend, and me. So far we are only on turn three since we all play at weird times. It is a neat concept though for friends who might work different shifts and still want to play together. I will have to see how it goes as we get farther along.

Civilization 5

Civ 5 was probably my first experience with a turn-based strategy game. My husband was working for a gaming company and was actually a tester on the Mac version. He thought I might like it so I got it and was hooked from the moment it installed. I instantly took to Russia and had a blast dominating the map with culture, which is my go-to win. It really never gets old. I have played the same country on the same map with the same people against me about a hundred times. The only NPC I ever remove is Gandhi because he is mean and will go to war within the first 5 minutes of the game only to have the LARGEST ARMY EVER standing outside of my zones. Not cool Gandhi, not cool.

New Games!

As I have stated before I own a ton of games and have no time to play them. So I figured, let’s add more to this list. Yesterday I bought the BioShock Bundle off Newegg for 10$! It has 1, 2, and Infinite! What an amazing deal. I have really wanted to play all of them again and this will help! I also picked up the Alan Wake deal from Steam. I have never played but I have heard great things. And for 8$ you cannot go wrong!

Happy Gaming!

Dang you Alien: Isolation, Give me the Knowledge to Play Effectively!

On Thursday I decided that since I got past those androids it was time to continue onto mission five. This mission is all about sneaking around an Alien and trying to find a passcode and a key card to get down an elevator. There were some moments that I would spend about 20 minutes in a locker or a small box just to hide from this rampaging Alien. Trust me, he was out for my blood. But I was being super patient. After playing for about an hour and a half, I was finally found in a locker by the Alien and killed. Really I had NO chance since right before the Alien looked into the locker I was in, the game told me to use LS to lean back. Before I even had a chance to try this and hide from the Alien, I was pulled out and killed. Plus, I never found a save point…an hour and a half of progress, all gone… Just saying game, it would have been nice to know this method before I was in this situation so I could have lived. I did quit playing after that on Thursday since it was late, but I was not very happy. I am glad to say that I beat mission five last night and even got a stealth achievement! See, I did learn something! 

  

Quicktime Events and Lacking Information

This sort of game play made me think of other games that put you in this situation or that have quicktime event which this game does have a good many of thought so far they only seem to be ones with minor importance, like removing blocks from doors and the like. Resident Evil 4 is one of the major games that pops into my mind that thrived on quicktime events. I remember the first time I hit a quicktime event in that game I died since it caught me off guard and I was too busy looking at the beautiful graphics. Many of these events determined life or death and of course the one I miss was a certain death for me. God of War is another series that has a lot of quicktime events. 

Now I really wouldn’t call the action given to me in Alien:Isolation a quicktime event since once you learn it you can do it automatically and it was really just informing you how to hide from Aliens. Or the time it tell you how to hold your breath when you are in a locker. I didn’t get the button in time and was killed by an android.  But the moment that it tells you that you can perform this action is very untimely and feels like a quicktime event for me the first time it happens. In fact, it made me wish that I was given more of a tutorial in the beginning. I know this is a survival horror game, but I hate feeling like I was set up to fail. There is a high possibility that the user manual might have said these in it and I didnt read it, which then it would be my fault entirely. However, I feel that the best time to teach a player to hold there breath at least would have been in the cut scene where you see the Alien for the first time. There could have been a better quicktime event to show you the ropes since you did have a moment when you were staggering breathe and the Alien PROBABLY heard you…just saying. 

 

Surprisingly Cool Mechanic

Like I said earlier, Alien: Isolation allows you to hold your breath in a locker or other object where you can hide so the Alien doesn’t hear you. What you do not notice at first is that as you hold your breath you start to die.  The screen flashes red around your edges, and then there are heartbeat noises and what looks like veins. I really enjoy this aspect of the game. Though I wish that I could see my health while I am hiding. This has almost caused my death a few times as I get too low in health!  

All in all I am still enjoying this game so much! I cannot wait to play more tonight, though it will have to be after the Game of Thrones premier!!! So excited! 

This Weekend in Gaming: Feeling the Final Fantasy Love, I Hate Androids, and What is Up with The Evil Within?

This weekend was a long one for me. I had off Good Friday and I took off Monday so I still feel like I am not back in the groove with the work week. Non-gaming wise we had a great few days off with the kids since it was finally nice out! Plus with Easter, there was egg hunting and basket finding galore. We also spent Saturday building a garden box for vegetables that we are going to (attempt) to grow this year. It was even haircut time for the kids and that even went remarkably well. Shocker!

Feeling the Final Fantasy Love

I talked before about playing FF8 and why I do not play FF7. Since it is still about a month until FF10 gets rereleased, I was looking at other Final Fantasy games that I could enjoy. Then I remembered that Final Fantasy Type-0 came out and if you bought it you could play the demo for FF15. SOLD!  I cannot lie, I do get a bit sceptical when it comes to Final Fantasy games (I am looking at you FF10-2 and 13-2) since there are some that are just lackluster for me. Now I did enjoy FF13, though I didn’t play it much and FF12 was Ok too but we decided to take a chance and get Type-0. We ended up downloading it on Saturday (hubby beat Bloodborne but was waiting for a friend to beat the game so they could start NG+ together) and tried it out. Since Type-0 downloaded first, we tried that out. I have to say that I rather enjoy it! The story at first was a bit confusing and you can definitely tell this was in Japanese and they just put English over it since the mouths will move at random times, but for a game that was on the Vita, it is great! The graphic are beautiful and not just in the cut scenes but in gameplay as well. I am also enjoying the combat. The open combat system that Final Fantasy has moved to is great. This time, they allow you to pull in various squad members and when someone dies you can replace them quickly. We are not too far along in the story or missions since we did our common Final Fantasy plan of levelling up all party members to much higher than needed to continue on…opps! At least now we are ready for anything that comes at us.

I Hate Androids

OK so I love Alien Isolation, I really really do. But one thing I do hate: androids. I hate them so much! Why are they so freakishly strong? How do they stop a flying wrench? And please explain how they can see me through walls; I know they don’t have x-ray vision! I am pretty good at sneaking though not from androids. PLUS, I continue to be very good at hiding away in lockers, except when there are androids around and their supersonic ears hear me breathing. Psst game, thanks for telling me about how to hold my breath in the locker right before the android pulled me out of it. Last night I finally got past mission 4 and the annoying androids. It was not done my sneaking or hiding because I feel that there is one section that you cannot sneak by. Let me give you the scenario:

There are about 3-4 androids patrolling this “C” shaped hallway (I marked their paths with red on the map below). They walk back and forth in predefined areas. However there is one section (in the blue box below) where there is an android that just stands there and watches over the stairs/back area. After about 30 tries, since he just stares there and even if you do not move and are hidden he will see you, I got caught and just RAN to the elevator. Luckily androids are slow and couldn’t keep up with me. I am not sure why I didn’t do that the first time…In the next mission I was able to see an Alien! He came out of the rafters and I hid in this little tiny box that would take me personally about 20 minutes to try and get inside and Ripley was in there in about 5 seconds. I am glad that I am finally past the dang androids and I sadly feel I will run into them again.

What is up with The Evil Within?

A few days ago I bought The Evil Within demo. When the game first came out, I was interested in playing it but I heard mixed reviews so I thought I would wait. When I saw that there was a free demo on Steam, I thought, why not. On Sunday night, when I was particularly mad at Alien: Isolation, I fired it up. The cut scene graphics were pretty good and the gameplay graphics were OK, but the first time I was able to take control of my character, I knew I was in trouble. Now, I will be the first to admit that I am not sure if this is my laptop running the game poorly (could be, but I never had any trouble with any other game) or not but man are the controls clunky. The character moves slowly with quick start and stop motions. When trying to turn he was jerky and the camera would swing around wildly. If you want to run you need to push up on the joystick and it is very unresponsive.

Now I have dealt with bad cameras and poor controls in survival horror games before with Resident Evil and Silent Hill series, but this one took the cake. When running from horrible monsters, it is nice to make sure you have complete control over your character especially when the one gets your leg with an unavoidable chainsaw and you are now limping around. The best thing that came out of playing the demo was the following exchange with my husband and I:

I am currently hiding in a locker (one of my strongest gaming traits) since I am being chased by a man with a chainsaw and my leg is all sliced open from or last encounter.

Me – “Do you think his chainsaw will ever run out of gas?”

Hubby – “Not before you run out of blood.”

End Scene

I might try the game again in the next day or two, but I will need to take extra special effort to work on getting the clunky controls down.

What did you play over the weekend?

“This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.”

Find your Rage Stage!

Last night I raged and really I didn’t just rage, I RAGED. I normally do not get mad at games. Sure I am upset in WoW when raid bosses do not go our way, but normally I do not get really frustrated with video games. I see it all the time though when the hubby is playing Dark Souls, Demon Souls, or Bloodborne (really any and all of the souls gaming are rage inducing) so I created the Four Stages of Rage.

Stage 1 – Grumbling

• You have died or failed your objective once. It is annoying but you are pretty sure it will take just one more try and you will complete your objective. You might sigh a little bit or mumble to yourself some minor obscenities but really if you do beat that boss or complete the mission the next try, you knew you could and it is not a really big deal anyway
• Rage factor = 1-3
• Obscenity level = Minor – could be said in a PG movie
• Common quote – “I got this.”

Stage 2 – Posture

• OK so that first time you died, it was fine and it happens to the best of us and you were just learning the fight. But that second and third time were completely uncalled for. If you just sit up and focus you can beat the boss this time. Make that back nice and straight, scoot your butt up closer to the edge of the chair, place your feet firmly on the floor, and if you are playing with a controller, hold it steadily in front of you. Focus and you got this!
• Rage factor = 4-6
• Obscenity level – Mild – You are pushing into a PG13 rating
• Common quote – “You have GOT to be kidding me! I mean c’mon how is that even possible.”

Stage 3 – Force

• This is the fourth time you have died and it is crap. Nothing is going your way. First there are about 10 extra guys have to fight. Then the boss pulled out a totally BS ability and killed you in one shot. You squeeze your controller really hard or push the keys on your keyboard with more force than what is needed. You are pretty sure if you would just mash the “X” a bit more than the system would have registered it and you would have hit faster, harder, and wouldn’t have died. Sometimes you shake or tilt the controller and that is sure to help you dodge attacks. Everyone knows the more force you put behind your button mashing the better you do. You will definitely beat the boss now since you are using all of your strength!
• Rage factor – 7-10
• Obscenity level – Medium – You are a PG13 rating and one more F-word and you are going into an R mister!
• Common quote – “This is horseshit! Did you see that? Did you? I see how my abilities just passes right through them and they hit me every time. I was like 40 feet away!”

Stage 4 – Rage Quit

• That is it. You are done. The game is cheating and you are pretty sure there is someone on the other end playing the bosses and laughing at you as you die. You turn off the system before you throw the controller into the screen or bash the monitor with the keyboard. You will have to wait and play until you cool down some. It could be 1/2 an hour or three weeks. But a break is needed for sure.
• Rage factor = Turn it up to 11
• Obscenity level – You are rated R, but some of those words you are using are confusing the MPAA since they are a mix of 2-3 curse words and you might just be banned from theaters.
• Common quote – “Fuck this game.”

Like I said, last night I RAGED. I hit stage four after I died five times to some stupid androids, who cheat and  know where you are at all times no matter how sneaky you are. Oh and they choke the life out of you and no matter how fast you mash the A button you cannot beat them more than once. Plus the jerks grabbed my wrench mid air! Screw that game….I am done….until tonight that is. And tonight those androids will have no idea what is coming.

This Weekend in Gaming: Alien Isolation: Adventures of the Constantly Crouched Gamer

This weekend I got the itch to play new games. Do not get me wrong, I love WoW and I love playing it for hours and hours, but other than playing Civ 5 and some Diablo I have been stuck on WoW for a long time. This is mostly due to the fact that I have very little time to play games anymore (pretty much only when the kids go to bed) so it is just easier to stick with one and WoW is such a big game with so much that I have to do, it just worked out that way where I was spending hours on there. Then my husband got Bloodborne and all this changed…

While I was watching him play I thought about all those games that I wanted to play too: Alien Isolation, Bioshock Infinite, Pillars of Eternity, and about 20 more just on my Steam wishlist. Plus since he was so enthralled playing Bloodborne, I knew it would be hard to drag him onto WoW. So over the weekend I got on Steam, looked at my wishlist, and then added a few more games (it had been awhile).  The next part was the hardest. What should I play? I had a gift card so I knew I could get a few if I liked, but it is better to only stick with one or two so that I really play them and do not just game jump. Also, if I could wait on a few games they could be cheaper at the Steam sale that will hit usually around June (crossing fingers on this one!).

I ended up picking up Resident Evil 5 (only 6 bucks!), Alien Colonial Marines (I know it is a meh game, but it was 3$), Final Fantasy 8 and Alien Isolation since it was on sale for 12.49$! I know most of you are sitting here going “Final Fantasy 8?! Who would buy that? 7 is WAY better!” This is something that I have been told about a million times. But I wouldn’t know that since all the further I have ever gotten in FF7 is when…not to be too spoilery… that thing happens to Aeris and I have actually beaten FF8 a few times, it might be one of my favorite games. Let me take a quick detour and talk about Aeris and how I grew to stop playing FF7. Do NOT read the below paragraph if you do not want to be spoiled about one major thing that happens pretty early on in FF7

The Scene that Ruined FF7 for Me

When I first got a Playstation, many many years ago, I was pretty young and all I would play was Crash Bandicoot and Spyro (in fact I got the first Spyro game in my Easter basket, apparently the bunny is a gamer too). My tastes grew and evolved and finally I picked up FF7 I was so excited! In fact, I was on break from school when I started playing it. Well I ended up loving the game. It felt like I could really get into the world. Cloud was super cool. Tifa was my favorite chick but man I was really good at playing as Aeris. I had her all maxed out and she was just kicking butt. Remember people, I was young; no more than 12 or 13 so naivety comes into play here as well. Well I am playing along, enjoying myself, and in fact, having a merry old time. Then I get to the church scene. Tears….absolute tears. I was in shock. How could a game kill a great character? Plus I spent all my time making her amazing (probably what I am most mad about) just to have to die! That dang Sephiroth (PS – I ended up loving him as a character in the Kingdom Hearts games).

I promptly stopped playing FF7 and (I will never forget this) my aunt took me to Hollywood Video and I rented FF8 and immediately fell in love with it. I bought it when the rental was up! And soon after I then started moving to my favorite genre survival horror and picked up Resident Evil and Silent Hill. I know I should have kept playing, and I wish I could tell my 12 year old self that but I can play it now on Steam and it is on my wishlist!

Back to the non-spoilers!

So I played RE5 first since like I said I love the Resident Evil games. I have played this game before, we bought it on PS3 a long time ago, got kinda far and it was just OK. But I thought I would give it another chance. I tried playing it on my laptop and for some reason I just could not get the controls down. I have never played a game like this on a computer. Most of my computer gaming knowledge is WoW, Starcraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Vampire: Bloodlines, and other games like that. But playing a survival horror like this threw me for a loop and I really could not get it down. The next day I went and picked up an Xbox 360 controller and it really helped a lot. Boy could I tell a difference, I was actually killing zombies!

Next, I gave FF8 a go since it was only a 1 gig download! It was as I remembered it, well except as I was sitting there playing I would look up and see Bloodborne on the TV and weep. Oh how far we have come in all these years with graphics. Such a major change! It runs very well on the PC though and the controller works perfectly.

Alien Isolation: Adventures of the Constantly Crouched Gamer (might have minor spoilers)

What I really wanted to play though was a game I had not tried out before, Alien Isolation. After it downloaded I jumped right into it! I am a HUGE fan of the Alien games and the movies. (New Alien movie yay!!!!!!!) I really enjoyed the Alien Trilogy game on the Playstation, though Alien Resurrection was pretty good too. I was hoping that Alien Isolation took the route of those games (great story and in-depth game) and was not so much like the AvP games. When I started the game at first, I thought I woke up in a deserted ship and I moved so slowly, expecting an Alien to pop out at any turn. But that didn’t happen and I finally ran into some of the crew. Once you get over to the other ship is when things get really freaky. The music is beautiful and so are the graphics. But at every turn I was jumping or gasping at some noise. And once I found out you could crouch, I perpetually moved in a couching motion. One thing I am enjoying about the game (and I am only probably about 3.5 hours into it) is the scare factor. I have not even seen an Alien yet but my heart is still racing and I am taking my time since I have no weapons!

Oh and I accidently used my last flare….ok all my flares…This is my one major complaint so far, and I might just be missing something. Once you bring up your little menu and you have an item that can be equipped, ie a flare or your med kit, you cannot unequip it! So I had the flares equipped since I went into the menu and they magically appeared and I had no idea I even had one equipped when I hit the X button on the controller and it lit up instantly. Crap. “Ok,” I thought, “I will never do that again”…until 5 minutes later when I tapped the X button again by accident. Say goodbye to flare number 2. Then about 45 minutes later…say goodbye to flare number 3….yes I used ALL THREE flares I had by accident. UGH. I am lucky that I cannot use the medkits just by tapping the button (you have to hold it down) or else I would be out of them too.

Other than that minor issue, I love this game! It is scary, thrilling, and it is building up the fear factor! Pile that on top of not even seeing an Alien yet, it is great. The humans are scary and always trying to kill me which was something I was not expecting. What happened to ‘let’s all get along before we are killed by a giant Alien’? I am going to keep playing this in the evenings and will keep you posted on the progress!

This looks safe…

Here is the scene from Sunday at our household: Bloodborne on the TV, WoW on the laptop (had to check my garrisons before bed!) and Twiching a Super Smash Brother Tourney on the iPad. Total Nerdom.

“Game over, man. Game over!”

Warhammer Fun!

A few months ago, maybe about six, my husband got into Warhammer. Some guys at his work wanted to play and he finally broke down and did. After the first time he went to play, he loved it and he would not stop talking about it. He created a Chaos army and started to buy pieces for it. Eventually he wore me down and for Christmas he ended up getting me some Warhammer figures. I started with the Wood Elves since I love elves and reading their abilities and looking at their figures they were my favorite. I ended up building an army which includes:

• Spellweaver x 1 – 295
  • Channeling Staff
  • Crown of Command
  • Elven Steed
• Spellsinger x 1 – 155
  • Dispell Scroll
  • Elven Steed
• Glade Guard x 36 (three groups of 12) – 210 per group
  • Lord’s Bowman (one in each group)
• Dryads x 18 – 208
  • Branch Nymph
• Sisters of the Thorn x 10 – 290
  • Handmaiden of the Thorn
  • Steed of Isha
• Treeman x 1 – 245
• Waywatchers x 16 (two groups of 8) – 170 per group
  • Waywatcher Sentinel (one in each group)
• Wardancers x 15 (three groups of 5) – 85 per group
  • Bladesinger (one in each group)

Total points – 2418

I got a good bit of the ones I needed but I still need more! Plus, I have over half of them built but have not painted any of them yet. There are some great pieces in this army and I am learning how to have them work together to be effective. I end up putting Spellweaver and Spellsinger with the Sisters of the Thorn and I try to have them get behind the army I am facing to attack with their spears from behind. Since the Waywatchers can be placed anywhere because of the scout ability, I try to have them place last and flank the army I am facing.  They end of doing a ridiculous amount of damage if I can keep them away from melee.

I have played against only two different armies so far: Chaos and Trolls. I ended up beating the Trolls but they did give me some trouble. Having played the Chaos army about 15 times I can say I have only beat them probably about two times…yes just two. The Chaos army is a beast! I know that as elves I need to keep a distance, keep shooting, and really roll well, but sometimes lady luck is not on my side. If the Chaos army gets in melee range with me, it is over. Plus he runs with the Demon Price which is the MOST annoying character of all time. I mean I hate it to my core. I think it comes with a secret cheat code to win the game automatically, but that is just my opinion. We have not played in a bit since we have been WoWing it up, but we will need to again here soon. Here are two pictures of what I have put together so far. 

 

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

Well Hello There!

Hello all! Long time no see. You might wonder where I have been but this blog is called Geeky Mommy, so I bet you can guess! That’s right; I have been busy being a mom to a 4 year old girl (Remy) and a 1 year old boy (Logan), oh and an 8 month old puppy (Thor) who is probably a bigger baby than the children combined. I also went back and finished my MBA and now work as a Business Analyst, which I love! We bought a house in June in the school district we really wanted to be in and we plan on making the attic a play/game room this spring and into fall probably.

On the geeky side of my life I have been playing WoW again (and writing my WoW blog) and it has been my primary game. I have also played Hearthstone, Diablo 3, Civ 5 (amazing still to this day), and Portal 2. My husband and I even were dabbling in table top role playing games again with friends which systems included World of Darkness and a system that a friend made up. Board games have also made a big appearance in our lives where we have been playing Dominion, Thunderstone and others. We have also played some more Magic and finally got into Warhammer (wood elves for me of course). Plus I have read a massive amount of books and seen an equally massive amount of movies. Some of these items I will be talking about in the next few weeks.

I am looking forward to talking about books, movies, games, and babies!

I am starting up ending with a movie quote again! Do you know this movie title? – “My mommy always said there were no monsters – no real ones – but there are.”

PS – notice anything geeky about the names of our kids?

Korn Countdown – Day 8

Today I would like to talk about a song that not only is with Jonathan Davis, but is also with another good band, Orgy. The song is “Revival” and let me tell you it can rock your socks off! The low growl in the voice and the rock/techno music make this song just a whole mess of happy! Orgy / JD – Revival

Korn Countdown – Day 7

Day 7 of the Korn countdown belongs to the song System from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack! I loved this movie since Jonathan Davis sang all of the songs and because Stuart Townsend is awesome. Though I will agree it was weird to see his voice come out of someone else’s mouth! Check it out here – Korn – System