I am on hold with tech support now. I might go pick up some ink soon anyway (I will need it soon enough, I am sure). I will let you know how things go.

New set of cartridges on the way, due sometime toward the end of next week. At this point, I am content, but we shall if that fixes things. The current cartridges ARE dated for 2008, though, so it is likely that was the issue...

Went to Mantic, to see what they had aside from the grab bags that interested me - they have a fair number of rather nice armies, but I am well set in that regard. (They need to come out with more stuff....)

Then I went to the GW site, to see what they had, going over to the Ultimate area... then I went back to Mantic. The GW assortment this year was just plain sad - the only thing that interested me was a piece of terrain - they didn't even have deals for any of the armies that I play. (Vampire Counts, Empire, Dwarfs, and while I don't play them I could likely field orcs - I use the figures for both wargames and RPG.)

The armies from Mantic are just plain more bang for my buck. I can get an army twice the size, complete with an army transport bag, for less. More and more of my Warhammer armies are made up of Mantic, Avatars of War, and Gamezone, pretty much in that order. And the newest edition of Warhammer is not exactly shaking my world. So, that is two editions of the game itself that did not thrill me, I fear that I am done with it. Too bad, I had been playing it since the eighties.

Ah well.

I handed off the humungous dragon commission today, had the money to spend, and found nothing to spend it on.... I must be growing old.

As an aside - why the heck don't people get me their lists of things that they want, either to have me paint so they can give them as presents, or as presents for themselves? Chris, over in The Other Portland just told me that what he wants is more of the Collegium Magicka I gave as presents a few years ago.... Would have been nice to know, oh, a month ago, or so. I can still do it, but I am painting an orc army as a commission, an orx army (Warpath) to paint (also on commission), plus I still have presents of my own to paint and deliver

It ain't easy being one of Santa's dwarfs....



The Auld Grump, grump grump, grumble....

We're having holiday specials on our Dungeon Crawler card game.

For an interesting perspective on where most of the Black Friday spending went:

40% off various papers from Epson. I didn't go to the site to see what was excluded but I'll list the code below, I'm sure there is something people can use.

FROSTY40

Reaper Miniatures is giving away a free mini with every order of $25 or more. But all the free minis are out of production limited editions....

Today's was a post-apocalyptic Sophie from 2007.

On the 18th is a figure that I have been trying to get for a while - Bourbon St. Sophie. I intend to use her in a steampunk game.


As befits 19th C. Bourbon Street, Sophie is a lady of negotiable virtue....

They are also having a 25% off sale for a 'build your own paintset' - 54 or 108 colors. I intend this to be my '$25 or more'. Reaper is my second favorite brand of paint, second only to Valejo.

The Auld Grump

has a sale going on some Good Old Games - I can recommend a bunch of them.

Alpha Centauri, Master of Orion, Master of Magic, Gabriel Knight, Zork, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Ultima, Fallout 1 and 2.... Graphics may be dated (or in the case of Zork - what graphics?) but the games are still good.

The Auld Grump

If you like Master of Magic, get Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. It's truly the spiritual successor to that great old game. It's also only at GOG.

I can't seem to find a craft robo for cheap enough to warrant purchasing it. , but they have been out of stock for a while now. I have been trying eBay, but they routinely sell for ~$200 for used ones and ~$250 for new. I want one SO bad!

Just to put things in perspective--the wholesale price before retail markup for these machines is anywhere from $165 up to around $195, depending on quantity ordered. That's how much it costs for the retailer to buy before reselling them to customers.

$200 for a new-in-box machine is a pretty good deal at only 66% of MSRP, especially if shipping is included. Anything less than $200 for a new-in-box machine is an awesome deal and comparatively rarer.

I wouldn't pay $200 for an used one unless it was a supremely convenient opportunity (like a local buy) and if I knew for a fact that it was in good mechanical order.

Yeah, I managed to pick up one on ebay new in box several weeks ago for only about $225. Once I noticed that no retailer had any left, I figured I'd better jump on that one--and I had to sit and watch it the last 5 minutes to make sure someone didn't jump in there at the last second and outbid me. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that I was bidding against other cardstock modellers since that model has been the most used for our hobby, either. It's too bad the new Silhouette model isn't compatible right up front.

And the Steam sale begins! Enjoy.

Mantic is having an after Holidays on their Mega-Armies. $150 US, also include the rules for their fantasy wargame Kings of War.

Of use to Dungeon Masters -

Malak's Endless Hordes (Undead)

1 x Metal Mounted Vampire Lord
10 x Plastic Resin Undead Revenant Knights with Command
40 x Plastic Undead Skeletons with Command Group
20 x Plastic Undead Revenant with Command Group
40 x Plastic Undead Ghoul
30 x Plastic Undead Zombies
1 x Plastic Undead Balefire Catapult with Crew



Mantic zombies and ghouls have already become a fixture in my games, the skellies see use as well, and the cavalry is very nice.

Garlak's Barbarous Horde (Orcs)

1 x Metal Orc Krudger on Gore
10 x Plastic Resin Gore Riders with Command Group
20 x Plastic Orc Greatax with Command Group
20 x Plastic/Metal Orc Morax with Command Group
45 x Plastic Orc Ax with Command Group



For the most part your choices in weapons are axes, great axes, and moraxes (pronounced 'more axes!' in case you wondered - dual wielded axes).

The Auld Grump

Lol. At least the guy is honest.

RPGNow currently has a $12 on some good games - FantasyCraft, Spycraft, Mouse Guard (I seem to recall someone here being interested in that), The Laundry (Call of Cthulhu meets Bureaucracy... based on the stories of Mr. Charles Stross), Witch Hunter, and others.

Only three days left on the sale.

The Auld Grump