July 2008 Archives

At Origins this year, I picked up a copy of Song of Blades and Heroes, a fantasy miniatures game from Ganesha Games, who are, as the name implies, based in Italy... Er, right, anyway, the wonders of globalization aside, they were nominated for an Origins Award this year for Best Miniatures Game, so I figured I'd give them a look (sadly they were beaten out by Classic Battletech for the award).

I'm quite glad I did. It's an excellent set of skirmish rules with a surprising degree of depth crammed into a small page count. The rules are simple and game play moves quickly, but there a number of troop options and they can interact in interesting ways, which makes for an enjoyable game. Even better, the author has released the point system used to generate unit costs on the game's Yahoo group, so you can stat up any figure in your collection if you'd like.

Which brings us to today's post. Over the weekend, I decided to cobble together a point calculator and warband builder in JavaScript. Why? Because I was bored. Reasonably happy with the end result, I uploaded it to the Yahoo group for the game. Apparently the author of the game liked it enough to submit it to the news queues at The Miniatures Page and Tabletop Gaming News. No, it's not the world peace prize or anything like that, but it's kind of cool to have people think something you wrote was useful.

On this day 39 years ago, men from the planet Earth set foot on another celestial body for the first time in human history.

Somewhat depressingly, that means this December we will mark the 36th anniversary of the last time in human history men from the planet Earth ever set foot on another celestial body.

The Telegraph: 'Have-a-go heroes' get legal right to defend themselves

Home owners and "have-a go-heroes" have for the first time been given the legal right to defend themselves against burglars and muggers free from fear of prosecution.

They will be able to use force against criminals who break into their homes or attack them in the street without worrying that "heat of the moment" misjudgements could see them brought before the courts.

As much crap as I have given the U.K. over such folly as banning swords and fire extinguishers, I figured it was only fair to note when they get something right. So, congratulations. Perhaps they are finally beginning to reverse the erosion of the basic right to self defense that's been taking place for decades over there.