Worst Customer Experience of my Life.

Today I went into Time masters to fix a problem I had with a miniature (battletech Goliath mech). I went in to see Bob sitting behind the counter so I addressed him. “Bob I was in last night and picked up a miniature and it was missing some parts, mind if I go over and gab the other one off the rack to show you the missing part?” I said as I pasted the counter. Bob didn’t really respond much cause there’s not much to say till I talk to him some more. I bought the mini over to the counter and looked inside and saw that there were only 2 missile pods just like the one I have at home. I point this out to Bob and said “Well on the web site it shows the mech with 6 of those.” To which Bob responded in a “talking to a ten year old voice “Well there’s is one of three things wrong here A The package is wrong, B the web site is wrong or C both are wrong, what do you want ME to do? “Well could you call the vendor or something?” I said thinking of what I would do for a member at my place of work Costco. “What do you think I can just call a vender about any of the thousands of items I carry here?” Bob says as his voice gets louder “I don’t even know what you’re talking about, so I can’t fix your problem! Why don’t you email the makers of this and ask them yourself!” At this point in time I’m pissed cause I don’t like the fact that his voice loud and condescending and I’m trying to stay calm and keep my voice even and low. Then I say, “Ok, so look you want me to contact the vender and ask about this cause I don’t know how you usually hand this.” trying to clam him down and clarify but he interrupts me after I say the word contact and says “I would give you the parts if *finger stabbing the package* they where in there but ether A the package is wrong, B the web site is wrong or C both are wrong, what do you want ME to do make them for you right now?” This is the point I have decided that I’m done talking about the stupid $10 mini and want to deal with the fact that I don’t like his tone. I’m about to tell Bob “I’m having a bad customer experience right now cause your not listing to me and I don’t like your tone man, so I’m going to go away and forget I talked to you at all today and take your advice and call the company myself.” I got as far “now” before he repeats his last statement louder and slower like I’m a special needs kid. Then I just say “OK Fine Bob see ya” as I turn my back he starts into the same line again. I was walking down the stairs and heard the poor kid working with Bob say “He was just trying….”Bob cuts him off with “What do you want me to do make one for him?”

No Bob I don’t want you to ever do anything for me again.

Chris Hurley

P.S Just to make this 100% clear I will never return to that shop.

FWC Battletech

In the last few weeks Chris U. and I (Chris H.) have been playing Future War Commander. I have found this to be a awesome gaming system, it's everything I wanted from Classic Battletech without accounting. Over the next little while I'll be writing here as sort of after action report. The campaign is from the jihad hot spots books. Sorry for the lack of picture but there will in the future (haha).

A news paper report in which a mechwarrior talks with a reporter about his time with Johnson's Heavy 7th. A unit in the pay of a private sector, which seen heavy action in the Jihad.

Well back in the beginning it seem pretty normal stuff. I mean normal for a heavy mech lance (Johnson's Heavy 7th is a unit of over 55 ton Battlemechs). The first mission I did with the 7th was a hit on a Wobi planet, course we didn't know it then. We hit a big warehouse park, maybe destroying 4 or 5 of them (warehouses). I was riding Red Dawn back then a archer, big missile mech, god I loved that mech, best A/C in the unit never went above 35C in the cockpit. Well the op (operation) was going very well till the Wobi's showed up and started throwing around alot of fire power, we got most of them but they hit alot of the apartment high rises. The boss(Mr. Jack Johnson) was pissed cause the downed his new toy, a Loki, which he got from a guy who couldn't pay out on a contract we did for him, some duke I think.

(It is at this time I would like to put in that there is no record of a Word of Blake unit moving to the area to fight the 7th. I have how ever dug up recorders of a score of deaths from a local militia unit the day after this operation happened. On side note all the dead militia lived in the town and worked for the company which owned the warehouses.)

The next mission was literally in the middle of nowhere. It was a guard duty of a mining base. It was kinda sweet all we did was get payed and laid for a few months until some jack ass pirates showed up. The F'ing Balls on those guys trying to get at the mining base by running straight though our little resort. Luckily for us Kathy the com tech had lost all her cash the nigh before at poker, so she had bet 8 hours over time to the boss, and lost. Kathy don't drink so she heard the Pirates chatting over the the air about killing us on the way in to the base, as we where still hung over. Mack our bushwacker jock was not to pleased about getting put out of his bed, he figured he would pop out of the woods smoke the command truck and the 2 or 3 light mechs pirate usually used then go back to bed. Well we all just got in position around the resort when Mack busts out of some trees the pirate command unit was planning on hiding in, we could almost smell the shit from the 1/2 K away. You see the Command unit didn't see Mack till it was almost to late, but Mack didn't see the Marauder II ether. It opened up on him just as he kicked the command truck and pop went the escape pod raising almost as fast as Mr. Johnson's blood pressure. Well we slagged the rest of the pirates after the Marauder popped Mr. Johnson's Loki, almost giving him a brain aneurysm from the repair cost.

Thus ended the first night of gaming.

Things have been a little slow of late - between moving, starting a new job, and everything else going on, there's been little time or motivation for geeking. I found out recently, however, that the local game store is getting a Flames of War scene together, and I've decided to jump on board. Below are the first fruits of the project:


T-34/85 platoon:



Close-ups:





FMB

Space Hulk!

There is so little happening from a hobby perspective in my life right now, leaving aside the usual imaginings of any committed wargamer, that I have just got to post last night's introduction to GW's latest regurgitation, the 3rd edition of Space Hulk. In short, nice components, nice gaming miniatures, and simple rules which I learnt the essentials of in about 3 minutes.

The first mission in the rules provided in the box is Suicide Run. A Space Marine terminator squad has to destroy a control room to prevent the Tyranid genestealers on the space hulk from exiting it via functioning lifeboats located on same that are controlled from that room. The room can only be destroyed by the flamer armed terminator. The Marine player has to accomplish this or fail. Killing the flamer dude is a win for the tyranid player.

This first picture shows the gameboard after turn 2. There are four genestealer blip markers on the board, one being hidden behind the door at 12:00 o'clock. The Terminator sergeant is leading the way. He is dead hard, but genestealers are dangerous critters in their own right. The rearmost terminator is on overwatch to deal with trouble from behind, the worst kind.In the next picture, the stealers are revealed. The tyranid player did not move blip markers again for the rest of the mission.
In this next picture you will note the absence of the Sergeant. Yes, torn to little pieces after his pistol jammed. One of the great risks for a Marine player is a jammed storm bolter on overwatch as it does lead to unpleasantness. One of the main effects of the death of the Sergeant was to expose his companion bearing the Flamer to unwanted attentions as can be seen below.
The Flamer Marine was able to ward off the genestealers for a while, but on his last firing he was unable to kill the closest of three genestealers he shot at (he rolled a 1 on his to wound roll) which allowed the confrontation below to occur. Genestealers get three attack dice againt the one attack back of this particular Marine. Victory to the Cult!


Final thoughts: this is a very well produced game. It has to be said that this particular mission was not particularly riveting from a gaming perspective. As well, I am in my 5th decade on this planet and I did not play first edition Space Hulk back in the day (25 or so years ago). So I don't have the nostalgia that playing it in my late teens/early twenties would bring to the table today, and I guess it just wasn't that exciting from a gaming perspective. I don't mean to damn it with faint praise. I'll pick the game up if there are any copies left in the MSRP range and it's not too much trouble, but if I can't get it I won't lose any sleep. I am going to paint up a couple of squads of my OOP Deathwing terminators for the next time I play against my friend.

Seen this?

Hi,

Wyrd minis, who produce some pretty cool stuff, have just come out with a skirmish game. Sounds cool.

http://www.wyrd-games.net/shop/product.php?productid=16237&cat=0&page=1&featured

M.

I had an itch . . .

Hi,

Long time no post. For a variety of reasons, geek progress of late has been glacial. I did, hoever, have a somewhat atavistic urge to paint something old school. Test mini is below:



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FMB

Saturday 23rd of May

Games to be played are Warmachine and 40k.

Cost: $5.00
Place: St. Mark's Anglican Church, Logy Bay Road
Time: 9:45 - 4:15

The two main rules that guide all JSG events:

1. All models must be fully-painted; no exceptions
2. Gentlemanly conduct at all times; no exceptions

I'm looking forward it, as I'm sure are the rest of the participants. Any changes or necessary clarifications will be posted here.

WH Fantasy ..6mm?

Would it work in 6mm? I think it could be cool to try and some rules would need changing. Does 1 inch to 1cm work? I'd do goblins or orks for fun and maybe a empire army.


Hurley

First Gaming Day - April 25th

You heard it here first folks... the JS gamers will be hosting games about once a month starting this Saturday, April 25th. There will be two events going on. First of all, Ken, Marc, Chris H., and I will be playing a Warmachine Mk II tournament. On the other side of the room, our guests (i.e. guys Chris H. will be introducing us to) will be along to play some Warhammer 40k. I hope that this will result in some cross-pollination and lay the groundwork for a larger gaming group in the St. John's area.

The vitals so far:
Cost: $5.00-$6.00 each
Place: St. Mark's Anglican Church, Logy Bay Road
Time: 9:45 - 4:15
Attendees: by invite only, no spectators at this point (sorry)

The two main rules that guide all JSG events:

1. All models must be fully-painted; no exceptions
2. Gentlemanly conduct at all times; no exceptions

I'm looking forward it, as I'm sure are the rest of the participants. Any changes or necessary clarifications will be posted here.

Later,
JET

Humena-humena! and other things . . .

So, got in my first game of warmachine in what, a year (?), last night. Turns out there's a small game shop in Town where people game on Tuesdays. Seems like a decent crowd, small but dedicated, and I had myself a grand old time. Played a three way 350 game, running Gaspy. Took Hoarluk out, and it came down to Gaspy vs. Rhyas. I could have played cat and mouse all night, but we were running out of time, so went barrelling in, and took a 9 dice Blight cloud from a forsaken. Ouch.

Tried out the Cankerwor, last night, he's fantastico. Ate a carnivian. Gaspy did his usual thing, shish-kebabing a Blitzer. Got to introduce some Stalkers to the wonderful world of Bile Thrall purges. All and all, a fun time.

I've been pouring over the Mk. II rules (well, the cards anyway), and still feeling iffy. It's hard to divorce the new stuff from what it used to be, and there are some changes that I just don't get. When you approach things strictly in terms of Mk II, the faction seems fine, but it's hard to forget that most of the changes seem to involve not just simplification, but a downgrade in power. I just don't see Cankerworm Mk II eating a Carnivean the way he did last night for eg., and it makes me sad.

Everything seems more . . . direct, but at the cost of giddy entertainment. Stalker's a key example. They took the price way down, made it effective as an assassin vs. more than just warcasters, but took away leap. Why? Leap was FUN. It was what made stalkers fun to play. A number of spells across the warcasters have been homogenized, typically to a less powerfull level. Why? The whole point of warcasters is that they are ridiculously powerful, relative to other models.

What I'd really like to see is some sort of discussion explaining the overal rationale behind the changes they made. At a minimum, it will help me understand why decisions were made.

I'm going to try and get some Mk II games in, maybe next week, but for now, still feeling sad panda-ish.

Tonight

What's on the menu?

They are done.

Well guys make up a list, I got my new toys done. If I'm not wrong in my math it's 420.