I've been doing quite a bit of work on Van Narvadæsi, but on paper it doesn't look like a whole lot. I try to do these things carefully, mulling over a certain implementation of a bit of the grammar for about a week before writing it down and playing with it a little until I'm satisfied. Most of the work lately has been on sentence structure, word order and relative clauses. Rather than list out things, I figured I'd do this update by example. I'll start simple and work my way up.

First, some vocabulary:

• a man
  ito eto
  
• the grass
  ono mata
  
• to stand, present tense
  im suvi
  
• to attack, near-future tense
  em avanso

And now the examples:

• A man stands.
  ito eto zo im suvi.
  -Note the particle zo, which marks the subject (or topic, I haven't quite decided yet).
  
  
• A man is standing.
  ito eto zo im suvi vol.
  -Here the vol particle after the verb denotes the progressive aspect. There are also particles for the habitual and perfective aspects.
  
  
• A man is standing in the grass.
  ono mata gan ito eto zo im suvi vol.
  -Now we insert a prepositional phrase, which is placed before the subject (following the object-subject-verb word order that dominates Van Narvadæsi). Here, gan is an adpositional particle that equates to English's preposition "in."
  
  
• a man who is standing
  ito eto imin suvi vol
  -This turns the phrase into a relative clause that can be used in a sentence as a subject. Notice that the particle im, which represents present tense, has the suffix -in attached, signifying that this is a relative clause.
  
  
• a man who is standing in the grass
  ono mata ganin ito eto go imin suvi vol
  -Adding to the phrase so that you can see the gan particle also receives the -in suffix. Also, notice the particle go. This denotes the subject of a relative clause the same way zo does for an sentence.
  
  
• A man who is standing in the grass will soon attack.
  ono mata ganin ito eto go imin suvi vol zo em avanso.
  -Probably the most complex full sentence I've yet written in Van Narvadæsi. The entire relative clause is used as the subject of the sentence, so it takes the zo particle.

Note: I'm sleepy and this post is long. Proofreading < sleep.

Seven weeks have gone by here and I've only mentioned HBO's Game of Thrones once where as a year ago, if you took a casual stroll through this journal you couldn't help but being assaulted with my numerous frothy-mouthed ravings. Well, I'm still greatly enjoying it, but, yes, the novelty has worn off a little. I still get excited and feel a rush whenever that initial joyous blast of the still amazing theme song kicks in after the recap.

In fact, let me stay there a moment: I am still in awe of what I consider to be one of the best title sequences ever. It ranks up there with the awesome movie tittle sequences of Watchmen, Alien (which, like so much of that movie, it utterly brilliant in it's restraint and subtlety - and I'm still not above criticizing James Cameron for forcibly obliterating all traces of that), Natural Born Killers, Lost Highway (though I am biased towards the combination of T-Rez and Bowie in the music), Raging Bull, and my personal favorite movie titles ever, Se7en (again slight musical bias, but I think it fits so very very amazingly). Likewise, the music composed for it has become as iconic as the theme from The X-Files or, if you'll forgive the jump into video games, The Legend of Zelda. It's so... well, perfect, really; the entire package. The rising of the locations out of the map reflecting, to me, the political machinations and the idea that these are living, breathing locations. By the way, have you noticed that Harrenhal doesn't rise up? It just sits there melted and broken, hinting to it being a place of death. Nice touch.

Anyway, the show itself. Well, what do I actually have to say about it now that I've built all this up? Well... there are a few things I am immediately struck by. One is an almost complete lack of Ser Dontos since episode 11. If D&D are planning on running the Dontos arc of Sansa's story, I thought they would've included him in at least one scene by now (aside from him standing around in the throne room where I didn't even see him on my first couple watchings). I thought D&D did such a wonderful job setting up season 2 in season 1 (better than George did in the book), that this seemed likely. I guess not. At least, however, Lord Beric Dondarrion and the Brotherhood Without Banners have received a mention. I'm also surprised that D&D haven't played up the looming attack on King's Landing. With the condensing of the book into 10 hours and that battle being the climax of the season, I would think they would make a bigger deal of that leading up to. Make it into a TV event, and one you can foreshadow and hype up in the way they couldn't Ned's death last season.

The last time I posed about GoT, I complained about Littlefinger, Ros and Asha, all three of which have been completely absent since then. I hope this trend continues when it comes to Ros, and I'm glad they at least kept Littlefinger in the picture for some of the season. He was almost a no-show in the second book. I'm also glad they've backed off on him for the past few episodes. There's no need to vilianize him further. As for Asha, well, her time to shine will come and I sincerely hope the actress really steps up her game in the future. When it comes to seasons 5+, we need to be able to root for her at her Queensmoot. Of course her role has dimished slightly because in the show they are really playing up the "strong women" theme. There are more clear strong women in the show where as in the novels, the reader is able to question those strengths much more. (For example, Cat being much more sympathetic in the show and much more flaky in the books.) As has been mentioned elsewhere (can't remember but likely on APoIaF), there may not need to be a Queen of Thorns character in the show because they've already established Margery as that badass headstrong take-charge playing-the-game female Tyrell.

Across the Narrow Sea, I pretty much feel about Dany's story the same way I felt about it in the book, but even more so here. I didn't care much about her until she entered the House of the Undying. In the book, however, I did care about Quarth. It was a curious, interesting place filled with mystery. I think they've attempted to generate that mystery in the show, but it hasn't worked for me. I don't give a shit what's so valuable in Xaro Xhohan Daxos' vault.

Quarth doesn't feel real to me in the show the way King's Landing or Winterfel does. Perhaps they went a little too Mediterranean in the design of King's Landing because it looks so much like Quarth, or Quarth looks so much like King's Landing. In the show we get none of the political machinations that were in the book. There's no bribing of the Pureborn and their squabbles over power with the Tourmaline Brotherhood and Guild of Spicers. Not that I really blame D&D for this. If anything this problem simply hightlights what's wrong with HBO giving this season only ten hours as well as D&D's decision to condense A Clash of Kings into a single season.

Which is something I've been thinking about: could this have worked if it were stretched over multiple seasons? I think it's possible. It certainly would've given us many more delicious character moments and room to breathe and simply exist in this world. They would've been able to incorporate much more. Perhaps they could've pushed back Renly's death, built him up more and had that as the season's climax. That's spreading the source material pretty thin, I admit, but it's interesting to think about at least. Of course if they would've done that, then they could have set up the appearance of "Renly's ghost" later, which I'm doubtful they'll do.

All in all, though, I think this has been a strong season. Dinklage continues to be amazing, as does Alfie Allen and really the rest of the cast. Pissed Irri died, though. She was a great presence in the show. With so many Dothraki gone, I guess we won't give much of the language anymore. That's a bummer, but it does mean David Peterson can get to work on Valyrian! I wonder if we'll get the various flavors of it as Dany moves along Slaver's Bay. Probably not, but getting it at all will be a dream come true for me.

P.S. It's early Saturday morning and already I can say I've had a curious weekend. I'll probably say more about this on Sunday/Monday. Also, I've been... sigh... playing the new Game of Thrones RPG on PC and I have a bit to say about it, so that's likely coming as well.

Had one of the worst weekends of my life. I'm not going to say much about it other than it was like being a freshman in high school all over again. The way people looked at me and talked to me... I had hoped that the world had moved beyond such things, but I was so terribly terribly wrong. I am and will always be an outcast. It's a little comforting in some ways. I'd prefer to be an outcast than to be a part of that.

The job search has proven futile. Big surprise. No one wants to hire me, and I can't say I blame them. A 28-year-old with no real job experience and no contacts to speak of? I wouldn't hire me either. Tensions with the rents are at an all-time high. I am genuinely afraid something very bad is going to happen. This house is a time bomb.

Wednesday night Pathfinder is really starting to fall apart. People have dropped out and other have come in so much that the group is nothing like what it started as and I honestly don't really like most of the people in the group now. Of the seven players who were there last night, I only liked two of them. Everyone else seems like they are more concerned with inside jokes and who can "out geek" everyone else. It was tiring and I kept trying to push the group forward so stuff could actually get done.

What's worse is that this campaign was supposed to end this week, but the guy who is going to run the next one has to work the next few weeks so it seems this game is going to get dragged out even longer. I'm considering bailing, finding another group and preferably another game. I can only stand generic fantasy for so long. I wish I were more confident in my game-running abilities. Then I'd get an L5R or Vampire: The Masquerade game going.

No writing.. another surprise. Some conlangery, though, and I have been thinking about how Altræali politics work. This has been largely spurred by me listening to the audiobook of Imperium by Robert Harris. It's the first of a trilogy of historical fiction about Cicero. I've previously gained a lot of inspiration for Altræa from ancient Rome, and this book had doubled that. While reading this, I've started to realize how I want to tackle some of the political stuff I want to do. Nebulous ideas slowly beginning to coagulate. It helps that the book itself is really good, though I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone reading this.

In video games, I've still been enjoying Tera. I've been careful, however, not to go too hardcore into it the way I did Rift and SWTOR. I think that's part of what killed those games for me, just playing them too damn much in such a short amount of time. If there has ever been an MMO I feel like I could recommend here, it would be Tera, and that's for the combat alone. It's much more action- and skill-based than the wholly uninteresting WoW-style combat. Speaking of which, the Elder Scrolls Online game has been announced and it looks like it's going to be another WoW-clone with a thin TES skin stretched over it. They say the game has been in development since 2007, well, from what's been revealed so far, it sounds like the game is stuck in 2007. It's a little heartbreaking.

One of the few good things to come out of this past weekend was that, as thanks for helping him move out of his college dorm, my nephew bought Tales of Graces f for me. I'm not very far into the game, but I have a love/hate relationship with it. I really want to love it, but things are holding me back. First was the first "chapter" of the game which took place when the main characters were around 11 years old. The voice acting and plot was so grating to me. When that chapter ended and the game jumped forward until the characters were in their late teens, I was on the verge of giving the game up completely.

The combat system is good, and it's mainly what I like most about the game. However, I don't like it as much as I liked the Tales of Symphonia battle system. It just doesn't feel as tight and I don't feel like I'm as in control as much even when using the "manual" setting. None of the characters have really grabbed me yet, too. Again, unlike Symphonia where I was almost immediately interested. I dunno, I'll reserve judgement on it until I'm further in. Given my lack of funds right now, I'll probably be playing this game for quite a while simply because it's all I'll have. Could be worse, though.

P.S. Watching the Varus champion spotlight makes me want to play LoL again.

Finished up Lost last night. I liked it alright, more than I thought I would. I nearly gave up on it during seasons 4 and 5, but I'm glad I stuck around because season 6 ended up being great. Ben, Hugo, Charlie, Locke, Sun & Jin are what kept me around. Them and Faraday when he showed up. Walkabout, The Long Con, Some Like it Hoth, Ab Aeterno, and Across the Sea are among my favorite episodes, but I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot. Totally called where Hugo's plot went in The End. Fishing around for another show to watch of Netflix before bed.

Been listening to the audiobook of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. That book... hrm. It's interesting but... there really isn't much story in it. It's just "this happened.... and then this happened... and then this happened..." with little connecting threads other than the premise. I'm about 3/4ths of the way through it and there still isn't a solid through-line of plot or a central conflict. Hopefully the movie will be better.

Been playing quite a bit of Tera and I'm really enjoying it. I hit level 20 yesterday and tonight I grouped up to run through the first dungeon, which was a blast. If someone could merge Star Wars: The Old Republic's story content with the combat of Tera and the open sandboxyness of EVE Online, it would be my ultimate MMO. It's nice to be playing an MMO where I'm not just constantly watching my cooldowns. In Tera, I'm more concerned about the positioning of the enemies and watching for tells to their attacks. I play the beserker class, which is a high burst damage class and one of the two classes that have a block ability (as opposed to dodging). The 'zerker's heavy hitting skills are all charge attacks, so there's that Monster Hunter-esque element of timing and predicting where the enemy will be when my axe falls. The best parts of Tera however are the fact that my character is a pudgy little badgercatbear thing weilding a giant axe and spamming the "neigh and rear" sound effect/animation while on my horse is the new Kennen's laugh. Also been playing Dead Space. Really wish I would've played it sooner. The environment and the general look and feel of the game are what I love the most. It also helps that it's just damn fun, too.

Considering going to the midnight Avengers premier. I miss going to midnight showings. Last one I went to was I think for Predators, which is probably a good reason why I haven't been to one since.

Here are some examples of how noun phrases work in Van Narvadæsi. First, similarly to English, articles are required for nouns. In English, for example you say "the swan drifted across the lake" and not "swan drifted across lake." It's the same for Van Narvadæsi.

• ono sora
  the cat
  
• ino sora
  a cat

If it is a plural noun, the article and noun must agree.

• onosi soræsi
  the cats
• inosi soræsi
  a [group of] cats

If there are modifiers to the noun, such as adjectives or a possessive noun, they come after.

• ono sora vatoli
  the black cat
  
• ono sora na kania
  mother's cat

It should be noted here, that there isn't really a category of words in the language that are specifically adjectives. To create and adjective, the suffix -li is used. Alternatively, a noun-compound can be used.

• ono vatosora
  the black cat
  

When multiple adjectives are to be attributed to a noun, noun-compounds or adjective-compounds can be used.

• ono vatosora unzoli
  ono sora vatounzoli
  the old black cat

Generally, noun-compounds are used for the more defining features of the noun.

• ono vatosora unzoli
  the black cat that is old
• ono unzosora vatoli
  the old cat that is black
• ono sora vatounzoli
  the cat that is black and old

Some of these conventions are changing in the "low" version of Van Narvadæsi that the commoners speak, and many new authors are using the changes to rebel against the status quo of "high" or "proper" Van Narvadæsi. That, however, is something for another post.

You know those days... you go through the day alright and then it comes to the end and you're dead tired and you sit down and then it hits you like the Hogwarts Express and all you can say is "fuck..... that was a really fucking awesome day"? Well, that's the day I had today. It was a full 12-hour day of almost nothing but offline gaming at Firefly and it was fucking glorious. I took Katelyn to Pokemon league but I only ended up playing one PKMN match (which was against Katelyn). While most of PKMN was going on, I was getting taught HeroClix, which is a collectible miniatures game. I had played it before, many years ago when it first started. My nephew Drew had brought it to my house and I thought it was okay. They've added so much since then and expanded the game greatly while also streamlining some stuff I thought was kinda dumb before. I like the game alright. Nothing I'd spend money on, though I am tempted to buy one or two of the Halo-themed booster packs just so I can pit Master Chief against Captain America (and probably pretend that Master Chief is Samus). Also, if I can find someone selling the HeroClix of Squirrel Girl, I'd be all over that.

I also got to play an EPIC game of Commands & Colors Ancients: Epic Ancients. We played a 3v3 game on like a five foot long board replicating the battle between Scipio Africanus' Roman army and Hannibal's Carthaginians. Really fun, great system, we won massively. Then I played Last Night On Earth and I got to be the zombies this time along with another Firefly regular and we brought in another victory, though this one was closer than the C&C one, but we were able to turn one of the players into a Hero zombie, so even if we lost, I would've considered it a victory. After that I played Fiasco which... is much more of a social improv event than it is a game. Kinda hard to explain, but it's super crazy and fun, though I'm pretty poor at improv stuff, so dot dot dot. I think I'll stick with games where I can sit and think for a moment.

Between all this, I picked up the core rule book for Savage Worlds, a role-playing game system. This is a generic system that can be adapted to any setting, genre, etc. Usually I don't like generic RPG systems. I hate GURPS with a passion, and many of the other ones I've tried (like Burning Wheel) have really fallen flat for me. Savage Worlds, however, excites me greatly and I'm already toying with ideas for custom settings including one inspired by Monster Hunter and another by Altraea. Actually, they both take place in Ivaria. The MonHun one focuses on the Vojari Wilds, an area far to the East (and a little North) of Altraea. Vojari is a region that has reached mythical status. It is said to be the "Womb of Humanity" and that all civilizations can trace their lineage back to Vojari. It is also said that Vojari is where the world's Great Beasts fled to when Man took over. The game I'm formulating doesn't seek to represent the truth of Vojari, but is instead more inspired by legends that have come out of there.

P.S. I like what I've played of Tera so far.
P.P.S Considering some changes to the Altraeali alphabet. Partially inspired by the Thai alphabet (which I just discovered a few minutes ago). Also making "sketches" of two more languages.

Still feeling pretty sour, though it's mainly a mental thing now. I've been scattered, my attention all over the place and refusing to focus on what needs to be focused on. I'm trying to get up the courage and energy to start Job Hunt #894. I wish I knew some people or something that would help me from defaulting to just blanketing the area with applications. But I don't so oh well. The other day Zach asked me "so how is college going?" Ugh...

I'm pretty positive on season two of Game of Thrones so far. I loved episode one, but had some pretty serious nerd rage on episode two. It didn't really hit me until my second viewing of it. The added character of Ros continues to be a point of loathing for me. As was said on APoIaF recently:
-Larry "they killed mah nigga Ned!" Williams: That scene with Ros, was it in the book?
-Mimi "hot enough to melt the wall" Miéville: No.
-Larry: Then why the FUCK was that in my episode?

The worst part about that scene for me, though, was the continuing clear villainization of Littlefinger. I get D&D wanting to give Aidan Gillen more screen time. I'm all for that. I love the character and the actor wholeheartedly. I just think they are going about it the wrong way. And hell, I was even a defender of that infamous "sexsposition" scene in the first season in which Littlefinger was giving his life's story to Ros. I understood that even though it was improbable for Littlefinger to EVER tell ANYONE what he told Ros, a scene like that needed to happen due to the medium of television where we can't simply be told such backstory as can be done in prose. I'm getting the feeling like I'm going to have to separate "book Littlefinger" from "show Littlefinger" the way I separate "book Snape" and "movie Snape."

I have similar feelings with their portrayal of Margery Tyrell. I felt like she was "sauced up" for HBO. Some things about her character have been made a little too clear, just as they had with Littlefinger. Can't say I object with her choice in clothing, though.

I like the actress who plays Asha well enough, but I don't really like the way she's portraying her. It's very lifeless and detached when she should be a character full of (my) spunk and fire. It reminds me of Jessica Martin's portrayal of Samus in Other M. I get what she's going for, but it's just not working for me. Who is working for me, though, is Gwendoline Christie as Brienne. Love love love love love so far. Another perfect casting, and I'm eagerly awaiting her journey playing out on screen.

A lot of people really liked the scenes with Theon in episode three. I thought they were okay, but then I have never been able to muster any enthusiasm for Theon as a character. He's interesting, but I'm not interested. Despite that, I did think they portrayed the culture of the Ironborn quite well. Also, I LOVE how Tyrion's ruse to seek out the untrustworthy was written, shot, and edited. Masterful work there.

What else beside GoT? I've started painting my Hordes miniatures. I'm basically done with my four little Shredders, almost done with my two Stingers, almost done with my Shepherd and very very slowly working on two of my warlocks. My two large warbeasts and one of the warlocks remain untouched. I've really enjoyed painting them. I was very scared to start, and I've made many mistakes, but I'm getting better. My Battlefoam bag is coming in this week, which rounds out everything I need to transport my army and play, so hopefully I'll be able to get in a game or two this coming Saturday.

I plan to use the Shepherd and one of my Shredders in the next Pathfinder game I play. My character there will be a summoner, so I'll use the Shredder as the eidolon. I originally wanted to play a summoner/bard combo, but after reading up on summoners, it became pretty clear to me that multiclassing was out of the question. Their eidolons need all the points they can get to keep up with the Joneses, so even one or two levels as a bard would take away a lot.

In the video game front, I've been waiting impatiently for the launch of TERA. I didn't get into any of the beta tests, but I'm quite excited for the game. I hope it will scratch an itch by putting Monster Hunter-ish combat into an MMO environment. I've also tried out a bunch of free-to-play MMOs and MOBAs, and I've had quite a laugh at discovering just how bad each one is. The worst offender was Warhammer: Wrath of Heroes. It is claimed that BioWare developed this game, but clearly it was done by BioWare's third string... or perhaps the third string's eight-year-old cousins.

One game I was pleasantly surprised by, however, was Black Prophecy. It's kind of a action-oriented EVE Online, but without any of the ambition that EVE has. While I can't really recommend playing it seriously, it has been fun to toy around with for a couple days, and it's pretty darn good for a free-to-play game.

In the good games I've played lately, there are two. One is an oldie. I bought the HD release of Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, the first of the Jak & Daxter games. I was again reminded of how much I loved the 3D platformers of that era. I never did play any of the Jak & Daxter games during their original releases, but I've been having a blast going through this one now. Playing Jak makes me want to replay Vexx.

The other game is new, but it's very much rooted in the old. It's Legend of Grimrock, and it's an old school first-person dungeon crawler born anew. It takes clear inspiration for the nearly dead genre of games like Wizardry, Eye of the Beholder and The Shadow of Yserbius. Not that anyone reading this would know what those were. They are games where you make a party of adventurers and then are thrown in a dungeon which you explore in a first-person view with grid-based movement, fighting monsters and discovering secrets. The DS actually saw a few of these games on it, mainly with the Etrian Odyssey series as well as my favorite DS game of all time, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. Legend of Grimrock is a great joy to play. It is mechanically simple yet allows for depth and exploration of those mechanisms, and it has been so much fun exploring the many levels.

I'm now on season 4 of Lost. I really enjoyed season 3 despite a rocky start. Mainly because of the character of Ben. Meh, this has gone on long enough and I'm getting tired, so...

You know when you're so excited by something, you have trouble thinking about other things? Well, that's how I feel about Warmachine right now. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was introduced to this miniature war game this past Saturday, and I took home with me the quick start rules. I read them that night, and as I did, I had one of those "lightbulb" moments. Everything I experienced in my introduction scenario made much more sense and I instantly saw the uniqueness and beauty of this game system. I haven't been able to think about much else, so I'm going to use this post to vent a little and attempt to describe why I'm so excited by Warmachine and Hordes.

First off, Warmachine and Hordes are two parts of the same game. They are variations on the same system and are 100% compatible. Basically, Warmachine includes the more technologically advanced factions who use big steam-powered machines called Warjacks controlled by sorcerer-soldiers called Warcasters. Hordes, on the other hand, is where you will find the more tribal or "primal" forces such as the trollkin who use Warbeasts psychically controlled by Warlocks.

The Warcasters and Warlocks are all-important. They are like the Summoners of Summoner Wars in that they can be very powerful, but if they go down, that's game over. They also kind of remind me of champions in League of Legends because they are not generic units, but named characters. Each Warcaster and Warlock has their own set of stats, their own special abilities, strengths and weaknesses. They have their own personality and they can work differently with the other troops. In fact, one of the great things about Warmachine and Hordes is that you can play with the exact same troops twice in a row but switch out the Warcaster/Warlock and it will have a completely different feel. This allows the game a lot of flexibility.

The primary difference between Warmachine and Hordes is how the Warcasters and Warlocks interact with their troops. The Warcasters in Warmachine generate "focus" which works similarly to mana in many other games. Each turn, they have a certain amount of focus available to them, and they can transfer focus to their Warjacks, who can in turn use it to boost their abilities, make extra attacks, etc. Warcasters can also use focus to cast spells.

The forces in Hordes use a different mechanism called "fury." Instead of the Warlocks giving their Warbeasts fury, it works the other way around. When a Warbeast boosts its abilities or use special attacks, instead of using focus, they generate points of fury. The more fury they have on them, the more likely they are to "frenzy" which means they attack the unit closest to them even if it's friendly. However, a Warlock can siphon fury off his Warbeasts to use for his own abilities and spells.

The difference between the way focus and fury works means that a Warmachine army needs a slightly different mindset to play compared to a Hordes army. Warmachine is more about resource management with the player deciding where to allocate focus for that turn. Hordes, on the other hand, is more about risk management. When playing with a Hordes army, you need to judge how far you want to push your Warbeasts. Push them hard and they might do a lot of damage, but that means they are more likely to frenzy and turn on your own troops.

In my opinion one of the best things about Warmachine and Hordes is the unit cards. Each unit is represented on the battlefield by a model like any other mini wargame, but they also have a card like the ones shown below:

Those are images of the front and part of the back of the cards for a Warjack and Warbeast, and those tell you everything you need to know about that unit to play the game. You don't have to memorize stuff or continuously look up tables and stats from a book or scratch piece of paper like in Warhammer.

At the top of the card is the unit's name and stats. Down along the right are the attacks it can make. On the bottom left is where you record its damage, and this is something else I love about Warmachine and Hordes. In Warhammer 40K, for example, when a unit takes damage that doesn't kill it, it continues fighting exactly as it did when completely healthy. That's not the case in Warmachine. After you determine how many points of damage is inflicted, you roll a die to determine where it was inflicted, and the unit can be crippled in different ways because of that damage. If you look at the Warjack's damage grid, you will notice that some of the squares are marked: L for left arm, R for right arm, H for head, C for cortex, M for movement and A for Arc Node.

If all of the boxes for the left arm are damaged, for example, then that jack can no longer use its left arm attack. Cripple its cortex and it can no longer receive focus from the Warcaster. Warbeasts are slightly different, but operate on similar principles. They have "life spirals" that work similarly. For example, if you cripple the "body arm" of their spiral, they roll less dice on damage rolls. I found that these cards were great to play with. Once you knew how to read them, you can just glance at a card and instantly know what you can do with that unit. There are other options like charging and grapples that are available to all units, but everything unit-specific is listed on the card.

The actual number-crunching mechanisms of the game is very straightforward as well. When you make an attack, you roll two six-sided dice, add your result to your unit's MAT (melee attack) or RAT (ranged attack). If the result is equal to or greater than the opponent's DEF (defense), then the attack hits. Then you roll two dice again and add the attack's POW (for a ranged attack) or P+S (POW plus STRenght, for a melee attack). Subtract the opponent's ARM (armor) from that roll and that's how many points of damage is inflicted. You aren't rolling huge handfuls of dice like in Warhammer 40K, which, to be honest, I kind of miss. I get a kick out of rolling a lot of dice, and this system has more math in it, but it's manageable and with the cards, is easier to keep track of.

There is of course a lot that I'm leaving out here. As with any wargame, terrain plays a big part. Higher elevation gives you better line of sight, some terrain features can provide cover or concealment, etc. I also haven't talked about all the cool factions you can play as from the Soviet-kitch of the Khador or the zealous Protectorate to the druids and werewolves of the Circle of Ouroboros and the defiled denizens of the Legion of Everblight. For me, though, the real strength of Warmachine and Hordes is the interactions between the units, especially with the various Warcasters and Warlocks. Warmachine and Hordes also strikes me as a much more tactical game than Warhammer 40K. In 40K, I often felt like most of my choices boiled down to "do I rush in for melee or do I stand back and shoot." Yes, yes, that is an oversimplification, but it was true for me. With Warmachine and Hordes, I've only looked at the quick start rules and some of the sample cards and I can already see awesome possibilities. It also helps that it's a much less expensive game than 40K, so I'm more likely to be able to try out some of those possibilities.