Grilled Cheese Tastes Good

So I just found this video on CNN.com about how to cook a grilled cheese correctly. Usually I just skip their fluff-piece videos, but this one caught my eye and I had to watch it. Why? Because I love me a good grilled cheese.

The person puts forth three main rules to a proper grilled cheese sandwich. I was glad to see I was already obeying two of them. They are:

1. Grate the cheese before putting it on the bread. The reason for this, naturally, is to speed the melting process. Cooking a good grilled cheese is really the art of a race between trying to get the cheese melted before the bread burns. This brings us to #2.

2. Always butter the bread. This one I do religiously. Buttered bread will burn slower than non-buttered bread. Additionally, putting the butter in the pan doesn't work quite right. The butter won't be soaked up evenly, and you'll end up with some spots of your bread burned, and some not.

3. Use a non-stick pan. Again, I follow this one too. You want to be able to nab that melted cheese and keep it with the sandwich, and to do that, you need a non-stick, no question.

She also suggests adding a pickle, onions, or an egg with the sandwich to give a nice counter to the taste. I always serve my grilled cheese with a pickle, so I got that covered.

But I tend to add one more thing to my grilled cheese meal. After the sandwich is done (which must be cut diagonally, and in quarters), I fry up a couple of slices of cheese too, one at a time. Let it start melting, then fold it in on itself until you have a bunch of melted cheese with a crispy cheese outside. Mmm... tastes sublime!

I'm not sure I'll try to grate my cheese. I use thin-sliced cheese from the deli counter, which means it melts pretty well already. No need to break it up, I don't think. Though I could cut it into small pieces and go that route. Maybe I'll try that next time...

A Few Good Models

Over the weekend, I finally broke out my modeling and paints for the first time since the flood and Laura and I started painting up a bunch of stuff. Here's what we did this week:

Teddy #2 - painted by me, I stuck some wings on him and whipped him through.


Poltergeist - painted by me, I put a dead skeleton on his base. But wait... what's that? The skeleton has the same red glow-ey eyes as the Poltergeist? Oh no! Crazy magic's about to start!


Teddy #3 - painted by Laura, this one's my favorite. Alice stands in front of him with a bloody butchers knife, ready to lead Teddy to another killing field. -shudder- Creepy.



I also put Jack Daw and the Jackalope together, though neither of them are painted yet. The Dreamer and Lord Chompy Bits have been put on bases, though they're not completed yet (I still have some pumpkins to add to them, once they come in the mail). As a bonus, I'll show you two more pictures...




Also, over the weekend, Dan, Ellen and I headed over to the new Huzzah store. Nice place - a lot of cool little goodies all around. Can't wait to head out there again on Tuesday for some Malifaux fun. It'll be nice to have a place nearby to grab all the stuff I need.

So What Did Happen...?

So what exactly did happen after Star Wars? Why didn't Mark Hamill get any more movie roles? I know he did a lot of voice work, and that's awesome, but did he just want to walk away from movies after the whole Star Wars thing, or did he not get many other offers?

Malifaux: Rising Powers - Neverborn

Quick thoughts about the new Neverborn models. Just got my book yesterday and finally got a chance to look over the finalized rules for everything. A little background on me as a player – I favor Lilith and the Old Hag as my favorites. I actually dislike playing Pandora, mostly because I find her playstyle pretty boring. She does all the heavy lifting, and the rest of the crew just sits around.

Also, I did manage to play this stuff in the beta test, so I have some experience using them. At least in their non-finalized versions. By and large, that experience should carry over.

So, without further adieu, the new models:

Dreamer/Lord Chompy Bits – I love this master. I love the teleportation aspect to him, and the mass movement you can get with him. Being able to have a model on one side of the board suddenly disappear and reappear on the other side of the board is a nice surprise. Good for scenarios as well as you can move your models around as you need to. Lord Chompy Bits is insane in melee, but he’s fragile, so make sure you don’t try to strike the entire opposing army with him. Just hit the outlying pieces, and then disappear again. The Dreamer’s decently well defended if you’re careful with him.

Daydream – The totem for the Dreamer is pretty much what you’d want. He helps get you out of a bind if your burying/unburying mechanic needs a boost. Overall, not absolutely necessary for the Dreamer, but he’s a decent boost. He does have a 12” ranged attack, though, which is something we don’t generally get a lot of in Neverborn.

Collodi and Marionette – I admit I don’t really like our Henchman that much, but mostly because there’s a lack of support for him at the moment. On the other hand, his fluff is awesome and I can’t want to see what the model looks like. The special forces feels like it’s going to be a swarm if the Marionette and Wicked Doll are any indication.

Alp – Our cheap nightmare model to match our Terror Tots and our Sorrows. He’s a nice control piece, not doing a lot of damage but stacking up some nice slow effects.

Black Blood Shaman – The Nephilim sorcerer type. Makes growing a little easier by getting a bit more blood, and can use spells to boost your other Nephilim. Also, he’s a graverobber and can fuel his own spells with corpses as well as blood. I like him a lot, and look forward to trying him in Lilith lists.

Coppelius – This guy’s just fun on a bun. A solid 10 wound model (though 9 stones) who can cause Willpower checks whenever he steals someone’s eye. Which he does a lot. He has a spell that essentially creates a check or the opponent falls back. He gets an eye if he does that. Whenever he gets an eye, living models within 3” must WP check or fall back. If anyone loses a Moral Duel within 4” of him, they take 3 wounds in addition to falling back. A whole wonderful chain of terror. Oh, and he’s terrifying.

Insidious Madness – Another ranged attack for Neverborn, but again with little damage. More slow-stuff though. He can make people who are falling back have to continue to test against WP in order to rally rather than automatically doing it. Things need to succeed in WP duels when attacking it or they get penalties. It can target WP instead of DF with its weapon. All in all, a great model for Pandora to stack in more WP checks, and not that expensive either.

Lelu – One of the two Nephilim siblings, this guy’s essentially a vampire. He can bite you and heal what damage he deals. He deals 2 damage to a single model around him at the close phase, no resist. He’s got poisoned claws and is a really solid fighter.

Lilitu – The sister of the pair, she’s got Lure and 4” reach. She’s kinda the opposite of her brother. She can heal a single model that starts within 2” of her 2 wounds. She can summon a Lelu out of another Nephilim, similar to Lelu summoning another Lilitu out of another Nephilim (and some blood). They both start dying pretty quickly if there’s not their counterpart on the table.

Nekima, the Dark Sibling – Ah, Malifaux’s Revenge. Clocking in at 13 soulstones, I think we’ve found the most expensive model in the game, and man, she’s good. Not quite as much damage as a Mature, but more reach and more abilities to stack off your other Nephilim. Makes it easier to Grow and Mature, heals nearby Nephilim, carries a greatsword, is Instinctual and a Melee Expert, and has a trigger going off every time she hits with her weapon. Plus, the art is just really cool.

Stitched Together – These guys are a lot of fun. They’re a decent price, and can really help with card advantage if you’re willing to risk a little. Ditch a card and there’s a chance your opponent will have to ditch one while you draw two. Got an okay damage spell too. Probably better to use that than his melee weapon most times given he’s better at casting and has a better range with it.

Wicked Doll – A replacement for Voodoo Dolls if you like. Plus, it doesn’t ditch any Voodoo Dolls or other Wicked Dolls you’ve got out there if you summon it. Overall it’s hard to hit but easy to kill, and has a few fun tricks. It can summon more of itself if it kills anything, and can blow up to do a little damage to something near it. For a free summon, it’s probably worth it.

So that’s all I have for the moment. I’d love to hear if anyone else has any thoughts on these guys.

Three Computer Games

I've been having a blast with Mass Effect 2 recently, and got to thinking about which of my three more recent roleplaying games I liked the most. So here are the contestants:


Fallout 3 - This was the first one I played recently. A post-apocalyptic world, sandbox-style game. Great theme, great graphics, and all around good time. Have to stop an evil massive group and figure out a way to help bring life back to the DC region.


Dragon Age - Next came the Dragon Age series. Classic fantasy setting with a wide-open character creation. You can move through a very vivid storyline making choices that will determine things like who is king, all while fighting massive dragons in a huge war against evil.


Mass Effect 2 - The most recent one on the block. I realize I'm about a half a year behind on this one, but I figured I'd try a sci-fi bend to the roleplaying game, and I'm glad I did. Large cast of characters, learning all about their back stories, all while dealing with a sci-fi/horror/conspiracy plot that keeps you on your toes.

So which is best? Well, each one has their own benefits and drawbacks.

Genre. What can I say? I love post-apocalyptic worlds. They're dismal, depressing, and all around good fun. I'd give the nod to Fallout 3 here. When it comes to Sci Fi or Fantasy, I'm really pretty flexible. I like them both at different times. Once I've played enough fantasy, I want a switch, and vice versa. I can't really favor either one over the other.

Gameplay. All three games are so vastly different here. Fallout 3 is a pure first person shooter. Dragon Age is a squad-based tactical battle map. Mass Effect is a combination of the two, controlling your squad as you go through a shooter-style game. Overall, I liked Dragon Age the best with Mass Effect 2 coming in second. I guess I just like the tactical gameplay more in the long run.

Main Storyline. Okay, here's there's really no contest. Mass Effect 2 takes it easily. Part of this could be the freshness of the game, but I don't think that's it at all. There are tons of sidequests, and each time the main story advances, it feels right and escalates. I see twists and turns blindsiding me all the time. Dragon Age comes in second here, with Fallout 3 taking the last place.

Side Storylines. Again, no contest, though this time Fallout 3 takes first with Mass Effect 2 sitting in second. I'm counting all the side missions for each character as "side storylines" since you technically do not need to complete them to continue. Though why wouldn't you want to?

Enemies. It's a tough one to call here. If I'm talking about single enemies, it's hard to talk trash about a dragon. If I'm talking about massed enemies, I think the ones from Fallout 3 will win out. I'll just call it a draw there and put Mass Effect at the end.

Overall. Well, sitting back and taking stock of the three games, I'm going to have to rank them as such:

Fallout 3 takes first for a lot of reasons, though primarily for the theme and the sandbox way it plays. Everything about the game was great, from the music to the atmosphere. I really felt like I was there.

Mass Effect 2 takes second, this one mostly for the characters in the game. They each have such vast and deep stories to them that keeps me wanting to learn more about the world. Plus its main quest missions come across quite unsettling. From the derelict space ship to the attack on the colony, all good times.

Dragon Age takes third, and that should not be a knock on the game. All three of these are top shelf. Dragon Age has a great interface, being able to control an entire group of four very easily, all with vastly different abilities. The storyline is good, but I feel like the game lacks deep characters and interesting side missions.

Anywho, that's my take. Hope you enjoyed.

GenCon Goodies

So Dan and Ellen got back from GenCon yesterday and I rushed over after work to pick up my new goodies. Take a look:



That's the new Tannhauser rulebook, revised with all the goodies, on the left. Hopefully I'll get a chance to read through it all and it will all make sense and I'll be able to give it a whirl.

All the rest of the stuff in Malifaux-related. The new book on the right (which clocks in about 50 pages more than the first book), the Primordial Magic, Lord Chompy Bits - Nightmare Version (which is, evidently, about twice as big as the Mature Nephilim, the largest model for Malifaux I currently have), Miss Pack (the promo nurse), and the Jackalope. Good stuff all around! I'm very excited about putting them all together. Unfortunately, my glue dried up in my month-plus of non-use, so I need to get another thing of it.

Here's the Lord Chompy Bits all opened up. It came with two bags - one for the LCB parts, and the other for the Dreamer parts. Guess which is which.



Thanks Dan and Ellen for being my ninja shoppers this year! I appreciate it! Can't wait to try out the board games you guys got - especially that one with the hunters and shadows. That one sounds great!

A New Game

Yesterday on the way home from work, I decided to stop by Best Buy to pick up a new game. I had been running through my fifth or sixth game of Civ IV, which usually means it's time to pick up something different to play. I did a little research and narrowed down my choices to two: Mass Effect 2 or StarCraft 2.

In the end, I decided I was going to pick up ME2. I never really liked the original StarCraft that much, though I think that largely had to do with the fact that I was playing it back before I had played many computer games, and never really understood how it worked. Every game went the same: I got hosed by the rush. It got boring, so I put it away.

Besides, Mass Effect 2 sounded much more my type of game. A single-player story that you run through, meeting characters, and playing in a large world. You know, the Fallout 3, Dragon Age type of game.

It helped that, when I got to Best Buy, they had no more copies of StarCraft 2 that weren't the $100 massive box filled with stuff I didn't need.



So I broke out the game last night. I never played the first one, so I'm a little fuzzy on the plot, but I'm filling in details as I go through the story. And man, it's fun! I've only played through a couple of the basic missions so far, grabbing two new characters for my team, but already I can see just how many are out there for me to find. Even moreso than Dragon Age, I'm enjoying talking to the characters. The conversation options are much more dynamic.

Top that off with one of my favorite features. A lot of games try to push the "good" or "evil" track onto characters, letting their decisions influence what they can do in the game. ME2 takes it another step. During the course of the game, you gain "Paragon" and "Renegade" points based on your choices. Then, during cutscenes, depending on if you've got enough of the particular points saved up, you can cause the scene to move in a different direction by clicking your mouse when the option comes up.

So, for example, there's one part where I'm trying to help a guy get free of a bunch of thugs. We're perched up on a building and he sees several of them coming across the bridge. He hands me the sniper rifle so I can see through the scope. Normal cut scene is that I just look and hand it back to him. But if I have enough Renegade points, I can choose instead to squeeze the trigger and knock off one of the bigger bad guys before the fight starts.

Clearly I'm playing for Renegade at the moment. I've already decked a reported on television because I didn't like the interview, and stuck a knife in the back of a thug whose group I had infultrated when I learned he was trying to skew the fight against the side I was going to betray them to.

The fights are fun too. Pretty simple, all said and done, but it has a fun part where you can drop into cover and use stuff around you to keep hidden, lean out and fire. My favorite tactic so far is using my sniper rifle, keeping hidden, then popping out, taking aim and blowing someone's head off before ducking back into cover. Ha!

I'm hoping the game keeps up as fun as it has been so far. We'll see, though...