Sunday, January 31, 2021

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Friday, January 29, 2021

According to BBC ...

According to BBC and their abomination of a show called Troy: Fall of a City from 2018, this is an accurate portrayal of Achilles and Zeus. 

What I find most offensive is the fact there exist some classical philologists who actually defend such disrespect of the original source material.

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Diogenes the Cynic

Recently Heroforge released a number of new lamplights which inspired me to try and make a model of Diogenes the Cynic.

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

A picture is worth a thousand words

 "A few final thoughts: The United States of America is the greatest country in the history of civilization," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and added a painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), by Emanuel Leutze.

Considering the times we live in, and recent popularisation of crossing the Rubicon it is impossible to escape the symbolism. But just to make sure. from Infogalactic:

"George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, which occurred on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, was the first move in a surprise attack organized by George Washington against the Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey on the morning of December 26. Planned in partial secrecy, Washington led a column of Continental Army troops across the icy Delaware River in a logistically challenging and dangerous operation. Other planned crossings in support of the operation were either called off or ineffective, but this did not prevent Washington from surprising and defeating the troops of Johann Rall quartered in Trenton. "

Emphasis mine.

What a time to be alive!

Monday, January 18, 2021

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Get Crying Suns, while it's still free


This is not so much a review, as it is my impressions of the game while still playing it. That said, the game is currently free on Epic Store, and I can't recommend grabbing it hard enough.

What I like about the game so much is that the gameplay itself is part of the story. It's a semi-randomly generated universe in which you slowly keep uncovering its secrets.

This is the official description:

"When FTL meets Foundation... and Dune

Crying Suns is a tactical rogue-lite that puts you in the role of a space fleet commander as you explore a mysteriously fallen empire.

In this story rich experience inspired by Dune and Foundation, each successful run will uncover the truth about the Empire... and yourself as well."

To me, the story looks like a cross between John C. Wright's Superluminary trilogy and Johan Kalsi's Foundation.

In certain ways it reminds me of Endless Space with that difference that more emphasis is on the story than strategic micro/macro managing of your resources, economy, influence etc.

And the game is beautiful, and so is the music in it.

So, if you play computer, or for that matter mobile games, like Space Opera or Military Sci-Fi, I urge you to go get the game while it's free. It'll remain free one more day until January 14th, 2021 at 5 PM (CET I presume). If you're late, it is still worth the purchase in my opinion.

Monday, January 11, 2021

Paladin IV/12

Continuing with my personal crusade in honour of twelve peers of Charlemagne, today we have on display 4th of the 12 paladins I decided to create in Heroforge.

Since I started doing this, I came up with a set of rules every paladin I create must adhere to. These rules are:

  1. Paladin must have a cross
  2. Paladin must have a book
  3. Paladin must have a sword, spear, mace or any other knightly weapon
  4. No more than two items of the same armour set can be used on the same paladin
  5. No armour piece can be used more than once across all 12 paladins
  6. Weapons and shields can be duplicated across the 12 characters
  7. Armour, weapons and shields used should strive toward realism
  8. The models should be human in look and size
  9. Paladin should wear a ring

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Book list 2020

Five stars

The World Armada, John C. Wright

The Space Vampires, John C. Wright

Dune, Frank Herbert

The Man Who Was Thursday; A Nightmare, G.K. Chesterton


Four stars

The LawDog Files, D. LawDog

The LawDog Files: African Adventures, D. LawDog

Potovati z Orwellom, Jože Biščak

Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism, James Burnham

Solomon Kane: The Right Hand of Doom, Robert E. Howard

Ship of Fools: An Anthology of Learned Nonsense about Primitive Society, C.R. Hallpike

Shadows in The Moonlight, Robert E. Howard

Three stars

Flying Sparks, Jon Del Arroz

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 1, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 2, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 3, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 4, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 5, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 6, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 7, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 8, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 9, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 10, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 11, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 12, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 13, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 14, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 15, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 16, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 17, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 18, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 19, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 20, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 21, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 22, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 23, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 24, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 25, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 26, Lucky Old Cat

Jordanetics: A Journey Into the Mind of Humanity's Greatest Thinker, Vox Day

Prisoners of Darkness, Jason Anspach & Nick Cole


Two stars

Lonestar: Heart of the Hero, Mike S. Miller


One star

War Crimes, Christie Golden

Catch-22, Joseph Heller

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Jason, Leader of the Argonauts

After Heroforge released a new shoulder armour that looks like ram's head but is for some unknown reason called "ox head" I got inspired to try and make a model of Jason, the leader of Argonauts who was on a quest for a golden fleece.

Monday, January 4, 2021

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Greedfall review


Recently I finished playing Greedfall, and all in all I must say the game was a very enjoyable experience.

For anyone who ever played any other Spiders game, there will be a sense of a certain familiarity. The developers didn't try to reinvent the wheel with Greedfall, it's more like the game is culmination of a hard work on various RPG games in the past decade. The design of the skill tree in particular harkens back to Technomancer released in 2016.

What sets it apart from all the other fantasy RPGs is in my view its setting. Certainly, nowadays any and every game is special, unique, and different than all other that came before. And in most cases when it comes to RPGs, they are all the same bland of medieval-ish fantasy.