I have a really hard time updating this anymore. Twitter is so much easier to shoot out my random brain farts to the world. lol

Any how I changed the header graphic throughout the entire site. I think it better reflects the focus here at WarGameGuru as well. Because first and foremost I cover miniature models, and miniatures board/skirmish/wargames, and while I loved the graphic with my Warmachine Cygnar with flames on them, I haven't played Warmachine since I started WarGameGuru, and I also haven't reviewed any Warmachine stuff since the first week WarGameGuru was launched.

This hasn't been intentional either, as I'd like to cover Warmachine and Hordes more, and even some 40k stuff from time to time, but it's just easier to work with all of the other companies that I do already, and the new ones I'm bumping into as I move ahead, than it is to deal with Privateer Press and Games Workshop quite frankly.

So I've often looked at that image at the top of my site and wondered why I even have it there, because I haven't covered any Privateer Press stuff since April when I launched the site, and I don't play the game much anymore. My 2nd oldest son is also getting older, and while he still does help me playtest a lot of stuff, he's just not into Warmachine or 40k anymore either.

I'm actually contemplating selling off my Cygnar and Khador armies to raise some extra funds to get my kids some Christmas gifts, because I just don't use them anymore. I really like my Retribution army tho, but even it is doing nothing but collecting dust as well. Plus I have some stuff still in boxes for it un-assembled even.

So it's a hard call. Money is tight, and they're models just sitting around in Army Transports, and in my display case doing no one any good at present. I'm considering selling off my large Ultramarines army too, because it's also collecting dust, and serving no purpose but to take up room in Army Transports and foam trays.

Of course if I do sell them, I'll kick myself in the ass later I'm sure. But is it really worth having a closet full of stuff sitting there collecting dust? I paid good money for all of it, but why keep armies worth of stuff around if you no longer need them right? Come on help convince me to part with these armies I no longer use. It's hard being a collector and gamer both, because you want to tend to hold onto stuff long after it has outlived its usefulness at present.

What would you do?


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I need to stay away from online forums! My virtual stalkers from Frothers are at it again on The Miniatures Page. I have a hard time walking away from a fight too, which is my only weakness when it comes to those trouble makers.

They truly hate me and will do anything to derail any thread my name shows up in. Lately they act like I've done something wrong by not putting a disclaimer in every review I write that the products are provided for free by the companies who make the products. So they go on and on and on about that, as if it has some kind of influence on my thoughts or opinion of any given product.


They also took something I said 5 months ago on TMP and twisted it into something else altogether, and they continue to run around shouting that I threaten negative reviews to companies who refuse to provide me with review samples. And that “Manufacturers should be aware of that" Which is not the case at all, and I've never done that, and I never will. Nor have I ever said that. So I've now made the truth of the matter perfectly clear here at my own site to stifle these lies once and for all.


Anyone with half a brain would know their words to be untrue if they considered who the source was spewing these lies around too... a variety of vile and abrasive Frothers forum members, who live only to take things to the extreme. I can almost envision them as being those guys from the first Harold and Kumar movie who do all the stupid stuff, and keep yelling “extreme” throughout the movie. Except I picture these specific Frothers members as a bunch of overweight 40-something scraggly bearded UK guys with glasses doing it with a British accent.


I've made it clear time and again that every product I review at WarGameGuru is provided free of charge by the company who makes the products. It has to be this way, because it's the only way I can cover the wide variety of products that I do, as frequently as a do, because I'd have to be extremely wealthy if I were to purchase all of these products myself. And I'm not rich, or even close to being rich. Nor is WGG turning a profit yet to have a budget to cover it.


Every magazine I ever worked for online and in-print over the past two decades operated with the same review policy too. Here in North America if a company wants their product reviewed, they provide review samples to that magazine/website, or it doesn't get covered. It's that simple. This isn't a new practice either, things have been done this way for decades before I ever got into writing too.


Granted there might be a few publications that do purchase their own products for review, but you're talking about different industries altogether too. I'm pretty sure food critics buy their own meals, so they don't alarm the establishment that a critic is in the house, and the magazine reimburses them, but they're in a position to cover the bill. The magazines/websites in the entertainment industries like this one that turn a profit are few and far between.


So there's a few exceptions, but I've worked in this industry, the PC games/hardware industry, and the toys/diecast collectibles industry, and review samples were always provided by the companies who make the products in all three industries. I've never known it to be any other way quite honestly.


So I just wanted to make that clear if some of you didn't know the review policy here at WarGameGuru.


I've also counted roughly 55 companies that I've dealt with since I've started WarGameGuru, who have all provided products for review, and none of them can say I've ever threatened them. I will admit, there's a few others out there that have been uncooperative, and some were even quite ignorant, arrogant and nasty with me to boot, but no one ever said this or any industry was made up of ALL professionals either who act in a professional matter 24/7.


Actually one of the companies that was abrasive with me 6+ months ago when I first started WGG works with me today, because they see the value in me covering their products here at WGG, and they know I'll give their products a fair shake. I've simply proven myself to them by the wealth of coverage I continue to offer here, and anyone can see my reviews are in-depth, unbiased and very honest.


The fact of the matter is, this is an industry made up of mostly very small 1-3-man operations, where people wear many hats, and most are people who know ONLY how to run their company, or how to make games or models, but some simply don't have the best people, or Public Relations/Marketing skills. So I've ran into a small number of people who I wished I hadn't met, but I've never taken how I felt personally about anyone out on their companies products either.


Here's a prime example of how I operate under the worst of circumstances. The owner of Pulp City (Morf is his username around the web on various forums) went as far as publishing part of my home address on Frothers while others were making threats to me a few months ago, and I'm a single father with children in the house! That was really nice and professional-like of him right? I think not, and it angered me a lot. He had already sent me some Pulp City models to review at WarGameGuru too.

So not long after he did that, I had to sit down and review his products, and I had every opportunity to get even, IF I were that type of person, but I'm not!


The review was very positive, because the truth of the matter is his companies products turned out to be great models of super-heroes, and everything I said was based on my experience with the Pulp City models, not the way the owner of Pulp City had acted. A close personal friend said to me that I should have thrown the models away and not covered them at all. However I've never asked for a product that I didn't write about as promised, and I'm a man of my word. That's how dedicated I am to providing an honest, unbiased and in-depth review.


The true measure of a man, and I'd go as far as saying a professional, is having the means to set personal feelings aside to get the job done with dignity. He wasn't the first person I ever met who did something cruel or mean spirited to me, and I'm sure he won't be the last. However I think I handled it properly, and with dignity, which is how I roll here at WarGameGuru.

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I know I've said this before, but I've pretty much switched gears to Twitter, however I'll still try and give this section some love at least once a week too..


Well Reaper Savage North has taken up a lot of time this week. I've also had a little slump this week, as my motivation has been at an all time low. What most people don't know about me is that I'm a single father with 4 kids, and I've also had a lot of kid/school events to deal over the duration of this week, because my 9 year old twin girls are cheerleaders. I've also been on an ongoing job search for a new day job, and the economy is shit here in the US, more so in SouthWestern, PA even. So I've been going to a lot of interviews, and doing a lot of searching thro various means (online, in person, etc) while the kiddios have been in school.


I am however still working my way towards starting on WarRocket, Urban War, some terrain from Xmark, Itar's Workshop and a handful of Tengu Models that have arrived in spurts over the past couple of weeks.


I also acquired some Rosemary brushes to review, which I've heard a lot about, as readers kept telling me I should review them. I also have some Micro-Panzer Studios models in the assembly/priming stage at the moment, with the 15mm stuff from them being completed, and I also started to paint some of the newest Freebooter's Fate models, for another review covering the latest models from them. The JR Miniatures 15mm terrain review is nearing completion too, and the HellDorado LOST Starter Set review is also close to done, I'm just in the painting stage atm on it.


So I have a lot on my plate at the moment, and I'm always adding more to it, as that's the only way I'm able to post at the very least 3 articles per week at this point.


Dream Pod 9 and I had planned a lot more Heavy Gear coverage too, but it appears their budget has disappeared for review samples all of a sudden, so I'll probably just cover the eBooks I was given by them initially, and that will be it for Heavy Gear for the time being. That's too bad, but this is how the industry works most of the time. It's completely unpredictable what I end up covering, and when, even if I attempt to plan ahead. At least they were upfront about it and told me, instead of ignoring emails for weeks, and they acted professional about it too. I can't say that about many other companies in this industry. I also know that some are just busy with projects near completion, and what not. I'm not talking about them tho.


Many companies in this industry will tell you they're sending stuff, and then never reply to emails, or blow you off for weeks on end, only then to make up some lame excuse when they finally reply, which to me is totally unprofessional. However in this industry, who said it was made up of professionals to begin with? There's a few out there, but not as many as you'd think.


Quite a few of these companies are made up of no more than a guy like you, me, or the average douchebag up the street who has an attitude, and thinks he's better than everyone. You never know which of the three you'll end up with either, because most are quite small operations with no more than 3-4 people running the show. Some even just one.


I could write a really juicy book called “if you only knew the half of it”, when it comes to dealing with companies in this industry. lol I think that's what I've had the hardest time with in this industry.

I came from the PC gaming/hardware industry where almost all of the companies have dedicated PR people, and some even outside PR firms handling review samples, setting up interviews with the developers, and they are just truly professional people, with professional attitudes and temperaments. Granted I met my share of douche-bags in that industry as well, but it wasn't nearly as many as I've found in the tabletop/miniatures gaming industry.


So the most stressful part of running WarGameGuru has been dealing with some of the companies in this industry in general. Although I will say this, I have more and more companies emailing me asking me to review their products, than I have to email anyone asking them to review product X, Z, or Y now. It's nice to finally be recognized like that, and to be at that level of awareness by many companies in the industry.


Things are changing and getting a little easier, but even a few of them have made promises and nothing ever showed up, which is why I don't announce what I'm planning to cover very often, unless I have the items in hand first. I've been burned too many times in the past by companies claiming they sent, or are sending something. These days I'll believe it when I see it up close and personal. One thing is certain, everything about this industry from this side of it is completely unpredictable. That's the only constant.

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Wow is has been forever since I touched this blog. I've seen using Twitter instead lately.

Any how, I've been digging deep into Heavy Gear lately, and I'm impressed with what I'm seeing. I knew of the game over a decade ago when the PC games were released, but never really had the opportunity to dig into the actual tabletop game until recently.

Dream Pod Nine offers a wealth of background info, covering the universe fluff and all quite in-depth. I can't say it's as in-depth as what GW has in place for 40k, but there's definitely A LOT of stuff to read if you're the type looking for rich and engrossing background info and stories.

The production quality of their stuff is up there too with the best of them. I've only seen the new starter set models so far, but what I'm seeing is quite impressive as well. Thier stuff is 10mm-12mm in scale, and I've always been a BattleTech/Mechwarrior fan, so it's not hard to like the Gears in Heavy Gear, as the scale is very different, but both are giant robots with big guns. That's about where the similarities end tho. BattleMechs are as big as 100 tons, where as Gears are no larger than 18 tons.

So back to work on Heavy Gear, and I also have some big plans to cover more Heavy Gear, and some BattleTech stuff in the near future, as my grand plan comes together. I'm also looking into covering more 15mm sci-fi scale stuff, since there's so much of it out there anymore.

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At one time you couldn't tell me there was a single band in the entire world that was better than Iron Maiden. In my early teens, I was totally awe-struck and fascinated by Iron Maiden. It wasn't just the music, but it was the album covers too. Their mascot Eddie was awesome, and the art was amazing on each and every album. Iron Maiden was even the very first concert I went to back in the early 80s.

Times have changed, and album art is less important. These days a teenage kid with a copy of Photoshop can come up with something album cover worthy anymore in 30 minutes or less. It's sad, but it's almost a lost art form, because in the 60s, 70s and 80s the album cover art is partially what sold the album.

First impressions meant a lot, and back then with only a handful of radio stations around, and no internet and the means to heist music without paying for it, all you really had to judge an album on was the cover art. If you were into heavy metal, there was pretty limited radio-play too, so the cover was pretty much what sold most albums in the early metal years.

I happened upon the Iron Maiden website earlier today, because I heard there's a new video out from their new album called The Final Frontier. There are some bands that can get away with making good music 20+-30+ years later, but sadly Iron Maiden isn't one of them. Granted I've heard and seen some recent concert footage, and when they play the old stuff they do sound great, but the new music just sucks, and it's sad to see that they don't have enough common sense to have walked away on a high note.

To me Iron Maiden would have ended on a high note had they walked away in the early 90s, because they just haven't released anything that's anything like the early stuff that put them on the map since then. As a touring band, if they simply toured and played the old stuff, I could see that doing well, but to keep releasing crap after crap alum as they have for the past 15+ years now is pointless, and quite frankly embarrassing.

I know it has to be hard to walk away for them, because there's all new fans too now thanks to the Internet. But after 15+ years of crap albums, and trying to recapture that style and thunder of the earlier albums, without success, maybe it's time to adapt, and try something different? I watched the new video earlier, and while the video was really kick-ass, it's too bad that the song it was made for wasn't.

I also hate what they did with Eddie too, it looks nothing like Eddie anymore. My point is, if you're going to change Eddie, maybe it's time to quite trying to sound like Maiden from the 80s in 2010 with the new stuff too, and grow a pair and try something new already. Go all the way, adapt and change the music to suit the time we live in now as well, because that sound they had before, can't be reproduced today outside of those old songs. That lightning isn't striking again.

They're yet to write new songs that have the impact of Aces High, The Trooper, Run to the Hills, Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter and all the classic Maiden stuff. I can't think of a single Modern Classic from Maiden either.

Sorry I'm ranting now, but this really bothered me, because some bands can still manage to write a song or two, and can be considered right up there with the stuff they did in the 70s or 80s, but Maiden just isn't one of them. And it's painful to see a band that meant so much to me at one time, now still at it, making asses out of themselves with such crap that isn't even Maiden-worthy. After watching the Anvil story on VH1, I just see Iron Maiden as the Anvil that made it, but doesn't realize how bad they really suck now, and don't have the common sense enough to give up.
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I just finished up a review of some more Freebooter's Fate minis, and decided to take a group photo of my existing Crews for Freebooter's Fate, with the new additions included. My Pirate Crew is a little weak looking, since I never finished up painting the deck-hands, and some of the little details on the Capt. I really need to get the new deck-hands too, they're 10x nicer than the original ones.

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My Goblin Pirate Crew on the other hand is quite strong. At present I'm only missing Ulgat the new Leader model, and the rat smashing little fella, plus I heard there's a Limited Edition model that's only available from Conventions.
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The Imperial Armada isn't my first choice, but it's slowly turning into a nice little crew too. I still need to finish up painting some details on Captain Morgan there, like the cannon balls he's standing on, and some odds and ends on the Arquebrusiers. Is it me, or does that guy look like Captain Morgan from the rum bottle, minus a fancy hat? lol
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Sorry, but I didn't bother taking new pics of the Brotherhood, since there's more than enough photos of those in the article I did on the Brotherhood.

Enjoy!
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It's another busy week here at the Guru homestead. School starts one week later now, booooooo. It appears the school had some crazy mold issue to deal with, so school starts one week later now as they address it. Which means one more week in solo dad hell. What most people don't know is that I'm a single parent with 4 kids. Getting through summer alone around here is a test in patience, on a daily basis! lol

It's nice having little extra hands around though, especially when testing new games out, because I have extra little opponents to dominate, or to pummel me into submission. You'd be surprised how many times my twin daughters have ganged up on me in a game of Flames of War, Fear and Faith, Warmachine, and the like, giggling and smiling the whole time as they get great dice roll after dice roll. Although you don't want to be anywhere near them when those dice aren't on their side. Haha.

Anyway, the new MERCS Minis models review should be up next week, along with a review of the new Army Painter Warpaints - Wagaming Starter Paint Set. The long awaited review of Taban Miniatures Eden is near complete, and a review of some of the models from Soda Pop Miniatures will likely make it online next week as well.

There's also another Freebooter's Fate model review in the works, and just today some of the new Mantic Games dwarfs arrived. I also have some 15mm WWII themed terrain from JR Miniatures to finish up for a review, and the board game Incursion from Grindhouse Games showed up earlier in the week. Not to mention I'm still working on some new stuff from Micro-Art as well.

So there's still a lot on my plate, and I'm working my way through it all. And as always, there's a lot more projects currently in the works. 



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It has been a busy past few weeks again. I've been poking around with Zynvaded this week, and that review is just about done now. If all goes as planned it will be posted on Monday. I can't stress enough how cool those sculpts are. They really have character, and I love the whole four-armed bug-alien motif.

The bear that was the In Focus Reaper profile article is finally done, but there's another one in the works now covering Warlord. So keep an eye on the site for a rather in-depth look at Warlord from Reaper before long too.

Other items in my review cue include the new MERCS Minis models, the latest from Quantum Gothic, some Soda Pop Miniatures models, some of the Undead Pirates from Ron & Bones, the latest from Micro-Art Studios, and the long awaited review of the skirmish game from Taban Miniatures called Eden. There's still some PC game stuff in the works, but I keep getting sidetracked with new releases from Gen Con.

If all goes as planed I'll be taking a look at the revamped HellDorado from Cipher too, which aside from Zynvaded was one of the the other coolest looking titles released at Gen Con. The original HellDorado is a French game, and Cipher has repacked many of the models into new Starter sets for each faction, with English starter rules. They also have an English stand alone rulebook coming soon as well. There's also a bunch of other stuff in the works as usual.

I've also been watching Star Trek Voyager on DVD from Season 1 through Season 7. I'm up to Season 6 now, and I can't believe that I didn't think this was cool when it was on TV originally. There's a variety of episodes with Harry Kim and Tom Paris going to the holo-deck playing out a fictional Flash Gordon-like adventure called Captain Proton. Those are some of my favorite episodes, and they even go to black and white to play those segments out.
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I've neglected this blog for a few weeks now. Sorry guys! I've been busy pushing through my cue of review materials. I've also been enjoying some PC titles in between all the tabletop coverage. I have reviews in the works of quite a few new PC titles at the moment, I just need to quit playing long enough to write the reviews.

With Gen Con over with, the industry can now begin to shift back to normal operations too. You can look forward to quite a few new product reviews in the coming months, as there's quite a few interesting developments from Gen Con.

A few titles really caught my eye. Earth Reborn, ZynVaded and Cipher's US release of HellDorado all look really promising. Wizkids StarTrek Clix sounds like a winner, but only time will tell. The models look nice, but it remains to be seen if they can deliver a game of space combat that will work and offer compelling gameplay.

MERCS Minis is also gearing up to release their rulebook, cards and maps for their own skirmish game utilizing the existing utterly amazing MERCS Minis models. There's more factions in the works too, two of which were just released the USCR and FCC. They just released the basic rules for the game via their website too. These rules are what they used to demo the game at Gen Con with, so with these rules and the card decks you can buy direct from them you too can get started with MERCS now!

MERCS Minis Basic Rules

The new Mantic Games ruleset sounds really promising too, as it's being developed and written by non other than Alessio Cavatore, who used to write rules for Games Workshop. They plan to release an amazing starter set this fall with Dwarves versus the Undead, complete with the new rulebook. So the coming months are quite promising. Now if only this wicked hot summer would end already, I swear I can't remember the last time it was this hot, this consistently.

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Scam alert! 07/22/2010
 
I don't normally comment on stuff like this, but I think this is worth mentioning. Miniwargaming.com is running a promotion. They'll give you a FREE set of $15 rare earth magnets, all you have to do is pay shipping. This deal is only for the next 24 hours, and they pumped out multiple emails to promote it.

That's where it sure looks like the scam part of the deal kicks in. I added the magnets to my cart, and used the freemagnets10 coupon code, then proceeded to checkout. The shipping options here to the US, from Canada is $9.99 for 2-4 week delivery, or $24.99 for some express service to get the package in 1-3 weeks! Wow. How stupid do they think people are? It doesn't cost that much for normal shipping for a package THAT small. To put things into perspective, a single BIC cigarette lighter takes up more space than 100 of those magnets!

They claim the FREE deal is a thank you for the 30,000 YouTube subscriber milestone they hit. I'm sorry, but when is ripping people off for shipping 50 or 100 tiny rare Earth magnets for $10 a thank you to me, or anyone else? Miniwargaming.com is clearly overcharging for shipping, to make up for giving the magnets away for free. And they'll make their money. If even 5,000 people jumped on this promotion, they're making some good money due to jacking the shipping up.

Also they're asking $15 for 100 super tiny, or 50 small rare earth magnets. Any moron with a web browser can punch rare earth magnets into Google, and bring up a handful of sites to buy these from for a fraction of the cost too . The first hit on Google brings up http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com. There I can get 200 of the same magnets for $8.99.

I always thought that Miniwargaming.com had some decent videos, and they give away some neat stuff at times, but I've lost any respect I had for them after this magnet fiasco/scam they're pulling. It's only good for 24-hours too, so that's a nice way to make a quick buck. Nice job Miniwargaming.com. Thank you so much for trying to rip me off!

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