Hangover Thursday: Trooper Ale

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head?  I drank enough last weekend that I figured I’d let my liver have a break this week.  So my head is nice and clear this morning.  I am very excited because I’ve found out about Trooper Ale.  Trooper Ale is a collaboration between Robinson brewery and the band Iron Maiden.  Iron Maiden was a huge part of my life during middle and high school.  It still makes me smile every time I see Eddy, the band’s mascot.
 

Trooper Ale is supposed to start showing up in America sometime in August.  The British Ale is already being sold in Europe and is selling extremely well.  They managed to sell a million pints in the first 8 weeks that it was available.  Sweden sold 20,000 bottles on the first day.  There is a long list of US distributers that are going to be picking Trooper up, so make sure to ask about it at your favorite beer store.

Relic

This past weekend I spent quite a bit of time playing Fantasy Flight Game’s board game Relic.  Relic takes place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and sends players exploring the galaxy.  The game is the 40K version of the fantasy game Talisman.  Relic takes Talisman’s rules and improves upon them.  The game retails for 60 dollars, but the game is full of detailed playing pieces, counters, and about 12 trees worth of cards.  Seriously, they’re smaller than playing cards but there are a ton of them.
 

At the start of the game each player picks one of the game’s characters.  Each character has different starting stats and special abilities.  The game is Empire-centric so choices run from things like a Space Marine Captain to a Ratling Sniper.  A final objective is set in the middle of the board that determines what it takes to actually win the game.  In addition to the final objective each player is dealt a mission card, giving them a smaller objective to achieve.
 

 

At that point the players start moving around the board.  Each card drawn gives them a chance to fight an enemy, gain equipment, or even gain followers.  Kill six points worth of bad guys and you gain a level.  Leveling increases your stats and could have other rewards.  Finish three missions and gain a Relic.  Relics are very powerful equipment cards.  It can be a very, very long game.  Because it is so reliant on cards, it can also be a very random game.   That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun though.  Laughing at the misfortune of your opponents might be the best part of the game.  If you like your board games a little more complicated I recommend you check it out, I know it is something that I’ll be adding to my collection soon.

Hands On: Space Hulk

This weekend Brandon and I were in Memphis for Games Workshop’s convention, Games Day.  I’ve been very excited about Full Control’s version of Space Hulk.  Space Hulk was a board game originally released in 1989.  It borrows heavily from the paranoia and endless hallways in Alien.  You control a squad of Blood Angel Terminators as they investigate ancient ships or asteroids.  Hidden in all of those corridors are Genestealers, four armed xenos that would love to devour the Blood Angels.  It’s a very difficult game but it’s also very fun.

 

Full Control had demo stations set up and I jumped into the first seat I saw available.  There were a number of small demos to choose from, but as soon as the person running the demo said the second mission had the flame thrower I knew I had to try it.  The flamer is very, very satisfying.  From what I saw, the game is also pretty clunky.  During the game I was playing I had to break down a malfunctioning door.  I walked my marine up to the door and hit the button to swing my power fist.  I looked at the screen in confusion.  Did I hit the door?  Did I miss?  After two or three hits the door did break open, but until then I wasn’t sure my actions affecting anything. 

 

It is entirely possible that there is some form of dialogue box that was hidden during the demos.  I only got a few minutes with the game instead of going through all the tutorials so it is very likely I am missing something.  Cyanide’s version of Blood Bowl hid all of the good stuff too, but it is possible for players to display all the rolls behind the game’s animations.  I’m hoping Space Hulk will do the same.  The game is currently up for pre-order on Steam for 29.99 and the mobile version will be following at a later date.  Expect multiplayer and the ability to create your own levels.  I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to, but the game is still a pre-order for me.

Games Day 2013

Dear Internet,

By the time you read this I’ll already be gone.  I’m taking Brandon with me. 

Actually the two of us are going to hang out at Games Day in Memphis.  Hopefully there will be plenty of cool things that we can report back on, but if it is anything like last year we’ll probably just wander around and get really drunk.

 

If you’re going to the convention and see us stumbling through the halls make sure to say hello.  I won’t have the Stoutheart Brewers with me.  I thought about it, but I don’t remember seeing any Blood Bowl taking place last year.

James Bond Lotus Submarine

James Bond has had a lot of famous cars.  My personal favorite will always be the white Lotus Esprit used in “The Spy Who Loved Me.”  The car meets an explosive end during an early scene in one of my favorite Bond movies, “For Your Eyes Only.”  At that point it is replaced with a red Lotus, but there was something about the look of the white one that I loved.  And that was before it turned into a submarine.  On September 8^th the submarine version of the Lotus will be auctioned off by RM Auctions.

 

The Lotus submarine is expected to go for close to a million dollars.  While it wasn’t the only car used in the underwater shots it was the most important one.  When Bond drives his car under water the Lotus’ wheels retracted (that was one car) and then fins extended out of the wheel wells (that was another car).  The car up for auction is the third underwater car, the one that actually drove.  The Lotus sub didn’t actually keep water out, so the person really driving it during the filming had to wear full scuba gear.  It also doesn’t convert.  Despite its looks it’s strictly an underwater vehicle. 

The craziest thing about the story is the owner of the car bought it in a storage locker auction way back in 1989.  He paid 100 dollars for it. 

Gwar: “Madness at the Core of Time”

Gwar has just released the first song from their upcoming album Battle Maximus.  The song is called “Madness at the Core of Time” and the full album will be available on September 17^th.  Battle Maximus will be the band’s first album since the death of Cory Smoot, aka Flattus Maximus.  While Cory was the last of a long line of people to play the role, he played the role the longest.  The band decided to retire the character with Cory’s passing.  In the Gwar mythology Flattus has taken a spaceship and returned to “Planet Home”.

New guitarist Brent Purgason (formerly of Cannibal Corpse) debuts on this album as Pustulus Maximus.  Pustulus is supposed to be Flattus’ cousin.  Long time on-again, off-again band member Casey Orr will not be returning as Beefcake the Mighty; instead Beefcake will be portrayed by Jamison Land.  Orr has left Gwar for other projects in the past and always returned, so I hope this leave is temporary as well.

Shark Week at Cold Stone

One of the things I love about my birthday is that it falls either during or very close to Discovery Channel’s shark week.  This year it will be starting on August 4^th.  I complain that every year Discovery is losing their focus on conservation and that they need to showcase more sharks than just the great white, but then I prove myself to be a giant hypocrite and watch every second of new programming regards of what it is about.  I’m a weak person and I can’t deny the chance to watch sharks (other weaknesses include Komodo Dragons, non-cartoon Tasmanian Devils, and fire).



This year Discovery channel and Cold Stone Creamery have come up with the perfect treat to eat while watching Shark Week.  They’ve frozen buckets of chum and dipped them into…no that’s not right at all.  Actually they’re taking blue sweet cream ice cream, mixing it with graham cracker pie crust, and adding gummy sharks.  In the even bigger cake form they’ve added devil’s food cake and Oreo cookies to the mix.  I haven’t tried either of these yet, but they probably taste a whole lot better than a bucket of chum.  Here's hoping that there is a good special on hammerheads this year, because that'd make a pretty cool birthday present for me.