Back Testing Decks

Back Testing anything in life is always a good and sure bet. Whether it is stocks, card games or data it is always good to check your strategy. In the World of Warcraft TCG, back testing allows me to see my decks strategy and from there improve upon its weaknesses.



For example, I played myself a game tonight with Bulkas Wildhorn vs. Nathressa Darkstrider. Bulkas's main problem was that he couldn't get out the taurens he wanted because they were too expensive. To boot, Nathresssa was playing cards that allowed her to draw quickly for the blades of azzinoth in her deck as well as protectors such as hovin and her shadowmeld allies.



Ilandre Moonspear- This Ally requires a night elf, which Nathressa is. You can exhaust him to put your hand on the bottom of your deck and then draw that many cards. I had my doubts about this card until I was in the middle of a game- I could use him to search for the remaining sword of azzinoth in my deck. Unlike Bixy, if Ilandre is damaged I can still use him. Having one or two more of him would be nice- I will put it on my hunt list.



Bubula del Kissel- a quick and cheap stealth card. I can also exhaust him to make Nathressa have stealth for the turn, a big advantage when I can only use her cost 1 hero ability once. I need more Bubulas, or perhaps I have 3? I can't remember.



Lose Control- a new card to the drums of war set. This is a dual class ability that can be used in a priest deck or rogue deck. Priests are infamously known as discard decks and masters of hand control- Lose Control randomly discards a card. The cost is very worth it- I need more of this card, one or two more for this deck.



Lolly the Unsuspecting- I thought this card was junk until I brought it into play. Some cards let your opponent choose what to discard, with Lolly you have to discard randomly, adding an element of panic. Lolly can also randomize whether or not an ability hits my hero or one of my multiple allies. This is a huge plus where if a card singles out "target hero or ally" Lolly forces a random choice, possibly protecting my hero.



Tinker Bixy Blue- I like playing Bixy when my opponent is backed into a corner and is afraid of attacking, or he is not able to. I will keep exhausting Bixy to draw a card and help in hand control. If his hero is the only one that can attack and he attacks Bixy- well he just wasted an opportunity to damage my hero.



Mugger's Belt- more hand control later in the game.



Warglaive of Azzinoth- the game seal of the deck- I will kill with these especially with two. I must obtain a second and third set for this deck and I will be hard to beat. Low cost to use, more for the middle of the game, at turn 5-7 I can have the game over with if I am lucky. These cards just friggin' rock.



Order Must be Restored (Quest)- Again to add pressure and help me to draw cards.



Priestess Katianna- a staple elusive character I use. I have 3 or 4 in my deck.



Hovin- with 9 health, he is key to protecting Nathressa when Bulkas or any other warrior/paladin gets in enough allies to overwhelm my hero. Low cost of 3, its an amazing card. When opponents play Hovin, I have Bubula del Kissel to get some damage in while I take out Hovin, OR I will attack with my weakest allies until he blocks the strongest one, sometimes opponents panic and just block one when I unload with the rest. If I am facing three Hovins, sheesh.....



Crown of the Earth- 2 for 1 with Night Elfs. Gotta have this card.



Theres the basic nuts and bolts to my Rogue deck- I want to add some more combo cards and definitely add the blades of azzinoth, however one must remember that the more cards you add, the less chance you will draw what you need....

Back At It with the World of Warcraft TCG

Who would have known that Thanksgiving break could be so.... boring. Its not even Monday and I am already bored out of my mind without some of my gaming buddies. People were reluctant in the group to play World of Warcraft (TCG) when we had Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!, but there are a few inherent problems with both card games when World of Warcraft is brand new out of the bunch.

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a fantastic card game. Strategy is everywhere, games are fun and deckbuilding can be a challenge. There are a few inherent problems with the game, however. Some cards are impossibly hard to get or they are way over priced. I am selling my Dark Armed Dragon I pulled on Ebay simply because tournament players will pay $100+ for it. Some Lightsworn, Gladiator Beast and Teleportation decks can run you up to $500 USD plus, which is ridiculous for the average joe who wants a good deck at an affordable price.

About Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic the Gathering

Although gameplay evolves with Yu-Gi-Oh! (the synchro monsters) there are so many types and attributes that it is inevitable that a class is neglected. Warriors havn't seen a boost since Legacy of Darkness, and I run an effective Command Knight deck. To search for the cards you need means buying singles or going back to booster packs which are out of print- both big hassles unless you are buying up collections, which is a money sink. Magic the Gathering is a fantastic game , but over time it grows stale. WOW TCG adopts many rules from MTG and evolves them.

About World of Warcraft (TCG)

Hype may be up for the card game this holiday season due in thanks to the release of the expansion "Wrath of the Lich King" for the actual World of Warcraft MMORPG. The card game just recently had the Drums of War set released and I have been digging my mince pies into it to see what the set contains.

From other sources and my own, it seems I have gotten a lot of good Druid cards, Tauren cards (I can finally finish that Bulkas Wildhorn deck), and especially great Rogue cards. I don't have enough of then yet but Vengeful Gladiator's Vestments is a killer along with Tinker Bixy Blues and Crown of the Earths that I run in my deck. My rogue deck focuses as a control deck along with an overwhelming force of cheap, effective elusive allies such as Priestess Katianna and Bubula del Kissel (with Bubula, if my Hero is ready to strike with weapons it will not be a pretty sight).

In short, I am not providing my opponent with many choices, especially if he gets a bad hand. I have a Paladin deck, but the only way it will be effective against my Rogue is if it can get out its weapons early and do some cheap damage along with some cheap protectors. Stealth, in this situation can be a ...... Mage would probably be an issue with all the arcane effects that can be fired off- I am building an undead mage right now that focuses on fire damage and direct damage.

Some of the most fun playing the WOW TCG is versus raid decks. I had friends play against Illidan (The Betrayer) and it can be very challenging. The first time I played the deck without knowing how to work it properly and they got to the Illidari Council before I killed them. The second time they got to the Betrayer and I killed them- stategically this was a fun game, I went after the Paladin that could heal himself, then the priest (healer), the warrior, the hunter and then the warlock. I think their weakness was that they didn't have enough cards to heal themselves, and not enough hand control to get rid of one of my abilities that forbade healing. The third time they got to the 4th boss and I turned them all into ghosts (and won).

The Control Pad- Lets Talk Collections

This is one of those game stores that you won't forget if you are a nostalgic gamer like me. Located in Freemansburg, PA this game store specializes in selling, trading and buying old games and some new ones. This isn't a gamestop but it's not your bazaar market either- there are a plethora of NES, SNES, N64, Dreamcast and PS1 games for sale. Today I picked up Mario Bros 3, Dr. Mario and Gundam Battle Assault 2.


I like to collect things, so you could call me a collector. A collector has a passion for something and begins collecting items of that sort. A baseball card collector probably likes baseball, collects baseball cards and I am sure he collects autographed balls. There is a central theme here- the collector likes baseball. I currently have a collection of:

• Eastern Swords (small)


• 1/35 Scale Military Vehicles/Armor collection ( I build and detail myself)


• 1/350 Model Ship Collection


• NES, SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, DC, GCN and WII collection. I am collecting older NES games and I am at a system and 5 games (Mario Bros, Mario Bros 3, Dr. Mario, F-15 Strike Eagle II, Ninja Gaiden which is HARD)

so I collect models and games- there is a certain fascination to playing card games and table top games that I have. Warhammer 40k is way too expensive for me to maintain so I enjoy the Mechwarrior RPG by Whizkids. I am a card collector as well- but I use them more for play than anything- I play Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic the Gathering and the World of Warcraft TCG. Card games offer a lot of versatility and strategies to build decks.

Deck building is a lot of fun for me and I like building different decks to play opponents with. Unfortunately not everyone on campus likes WOW or Mechwarrior so I am left out in the cold playing by myself or with others that use my collection. Everyone would rather spend money on games "they know" people play on campus, MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Not venturing to try new games will lead to a stale hobby and metagame.

The gaming crew on campus will play Brawl, Mortal Combat or Soul Caliber 4- they get stale after 3 months straight of play. There is also tension between competitive players who whine when things don't go there way and those who look down on them. This phenomena is destroying the guild on campus. Because I don't like to create enemies, and although I reserve my opinions I choose not to get involved due to some problems with both parties- the guild itself and the competitive players. Folks, getting worked up over a game by yelling, threatening and storming out of a room warrants serious therapy. At the same time, gossip ruins lives. I hope the competitive players and the guild, respectively understand this that we are all acting like a bunch of sissies (well, you guys are!).

I have enjoyed games since I was 3 years old (so 17 years then!). I had an NES with Mario Bros, Dr. Mario and Mario Bros 3. I have purchased another NES (grandmother lost the original one?) and I am enjoying all these fantastic oldies. I loved the PS1 as well, I added Treasures of the Deep, Musashi, Blast Chamber and Coolboarders 2 to my collection. I want to track down Armored Core and Armored Core: Project Phantasma. At one point I had both of these games. Unfortunately the Genesis is packed away somewhere and I recovered my SNES, but no cords, games or game pads.

Perhaps your thing is anime figurines- books, keychains, water guns, airsoft guns, pictures, newspaper pictures, articles, anything can be collected and shared.

On the Home Stretch, Goofing Off Time Soon

The M3 Lee, US Medium Tank Mk 1 is my next target to complete after the Panzerkampfwagon II (Panzer II) and the M113 ACAV. Since I would like to see if I can add scratchbuilding materials to the Lee, I may finish it in conjunction with the ACAV, but paint it a different color. I said I wanted a desert sand color but honestly I don't know what I want- right now is not the time to fret over it.

I'm on the home stretch with the hardest semester of my College career. I made it home this weekend to prepare my room for re-habitation, after the end of next week it will be a week long Thanksgiving break.

I look at my models now and see that I could have vastly improved on them- but they are my initial creations that got me here. I am building a 1/35 Military Vehicles collection; currently the collections contains one German vehicle, one American vehicle, two american armor, one israeli armor and in the near future another american armor (japanese markings) and two future german armors. Caking my M41 Walker Bulldog with mud probably would have been a good idea- it looks like it came right off the factory line, but my Merkava looks used. Likewise, it is impressive to see the size of the Bulldog and Merkava side by side in the same scale.


I think I also want to start a small aircraft "wings" collection of aircraft I like. I need to finish a 1/48 F-14 Tomcat, but I am finding that 1/48 is too large for me and I would like to go smaller, say 1/72. These "collections" of models can take up a lot of room- I have three tamiya 1/350 ships built and they take an entire shelf! I am starting a 1/700 ships collection as I have multiple waterline dioramas. My USS Yorktown needs to be finished and the USS North Carolina, USS Washington and a DD-445 Fletcher all need to be completed. Currently, I am in the 1/35 vehicles collection phase, where I build any armor or vehicle of interest. I am interested in collecting israeli vehicles and armor- they bought a lot of tanks from Britain and America and made modifications to them. It will be my job to research those modifications and scratchbuild a solution.

As a side note, I enjoy the military channel's broadcast of Tank Overhaul and Tank Restoration programs. I get to look at the restoration of a tank but also learn the history of it. Perhaps this is what has driven me to collect a 1/35 collection: I can't have the real thing but I can have 1/35th of the real thing! It is a joy to build models, but it also takes a knack and fascination for what you are building- I love history.

With scratchbuilding, I am beginning to appreciate the simplicity of adding extra details to take a model a little bit further. I want to invest in photo-etch parts, and I will probably begin ordering photo-etch sets this summer when I have more time to dedicate to models. My F-117 Nighthawk, completed last year needs to be secured to its base and the cockpit secured to the aircraft. I need to fix my SBD-5 Dauntless so that the landing gears are no longer wobbly. I have a lot of fixes to implement, and the good news is that my stockpile is winding down. Who knows how long it will take me to complete everything?

Project Vulcan

The EBS-25 "Vulcan" is a new nerf gun released by Hasbro for the holiday season. Folks are buying them up and playing with them, however as they wish to modify them they are neglecting basic ingenuity and elementary physics. Let's investigate.

Belt Modding and Problems to Overcome
Many people find that they can combine multiple belts and feed it through the gun. As you increase each link in the belt, the mass of the belt increases. When you lay the belt across the ground and flat, a normal force acts on the belt and some slight friction. When you "dangle" the belt from the ground, the torque in the belt feeder must work to overcome the extra weight pulling down. In short, if you want to dangle a longer belt, you need to increase the torque on the belt feeder.

Rate of Fire Modifications

While we are increasing torque we might as well increase the rate of fire. To do this you can either replace the motor with a higher voltage one OR do some work to remove the resistance of the belt feeder to rotation (moment of inertia?). The idea is to not have the belt feeder rotate freely (it will reject the belt) but to increase the torque (turning power) on the belt feeder and to have the motor turn faster. In addition to this, changing the spring constant "k" in the plunger mechanism as well as the number of turns "n" and distance "l" will yield a larger displacement of air, thus greater range.

Generalizations

I would love to play with this neat little gizmo, but alas and alack the guns are $39.99 MSRP. I would rather purchase the $20 mechanical rifle and increase the range. Auto is great, but sometimes a simpler non-motor mechanism is much better.

MCAV M113 Scratchbuilding

Lets look at some scratchbuilding.


I have been reluctant up to this point to scratchbuild, but it looks so easy and its so tempting to add some details to my MCAV! This kit SCREAMS scratchbuild! I am reconstructing the rear hatches so that the door can open and close easily for viewing pleasure. The side electrical panels now have music wire for wire casings so that the viewer can appeciate the detail went into the interior.

This is an angle of the view I want folks to appreciate. Above I am cutting stock tubing (3/32") that will serve as the new hinges. Metal wire for hinges in the long term is much more viable and sturdy compared to the wear plastic will get from the original model. The center of the tubing will be cut and re-used later (I would like to re-use it on this tank, if not another project). Holes were drilled with a pin vice on the inner electrical components to insert the musical wire.

A better shot of cutting the stock. The ends of the stock visable from the left and right views will be filled with putty and sanded. I am looking into getting heat shrink tubing that can fit into the shaft ( a tight fit will ensure quality and durability down the road) but I am not against using other materials such as small amounts of tape. I'm not sure if they make heat shrink tubing the size of the inner diameter (unknown dimension), but I will try and come up with some more ideas for a unique solution- Preferably a rubber solution, I am trying to create friction without making it hard to open or close the door. Perhaps wax? the kind used in orthidontics?

Drilling holes with a pin vice.

Lets Look at the M113 ACAV

Here is my plan with the MCAV: I would like to leave the doors and hatches in such a way that you can open and close them, yet they will remain in a closed position. I want the engine block and drive shaft parts seperate so that the viewer can appreciate the innards of the vehicle. I want to do detail inside the ACAV but not seal it off to where you can't see it, thats why I want the doors to open and close. Some tubing and proper shaft sizes should do the trick.

Working on the wheel assemblies. Previously I assembled the wheels, then painted them. This time I will paint the wheels and then assemble them. This keeps paint off my hands and allows me to paint more accurately.

A view of one of the trees. This MCAV screams to be modified, and this will be my first model that uses a wide selection of scratchbuilt materials. I would use photo etch, but I don't have the time to locate some, and at a later date if I re-acquire this kit, then I will most certainly photoetch it.

Comparison in size to the Israeli Merkava Mk II.

I want to display the engine block and drive pieces seperately so the viewer of the model can appreciate the innards of the MCAV. I will have to dremel (remove) and then sand and/or fill the area to get it flat.

An overview of the MCAV kit. Not all pieces are displayed.

M113 ACAV

After the Vietnam War the United States sold many of its old M113 ACAVs, and Israel acquired quite a few of them. They still use the M113 today because it is such a great utility vehicle for multiple applications. The M113 has a modular design that allows it to be used a troop or equipment carrier. During the Vietnam War it was suseptible to mines, and even more so today it is vulnerable to IEDs (even with upgrades). Wikipedia does a good job describing more about the M113: I am still researching it as well. This fall and winter I am dedicated to building some Isareli vehicles- there isn't any particular reason except that they are very interesting designs. The Merkava is an original- but many vehicles in the Isareli forces were purchased from other countries. Although the Israelis still do this, the fact that they must rely on old technology is changing rapidly.

I would like to do this ACAV as if it were part of the Isareli Army, meaning that I will have to discard American decals and attempt to find some Isareli markings. If I can't, there isn't any harm in not applying decals- it is a challenge for any modeler to hide the filmy surface of a decal when applied, especially when weathering is nearby. If I only had a small team of 1/35 humans to paint the decals for me....

Requested- Track 02 Gundam Battle Assault (Z Gundam)

I was egged on to add this, so here you guys go! This is the intro to Z Gundam coupled with the theme song put into Gundam Battle Assault (PS1) for the anime. I will put up Track 03 (ZZ Gundam) soon. Enjoy!

So Who Got My Money this Year?

I've cut back this year on model related things- to put it exactly, a 297% cutback. I spent 297% less this year on goodies then I did last year, holding a job with more pay and working the same amount of time this year. This indicated that my hobbies have indeed been hit by the economic recession. I spent a whopping total of $1,232.55 last year on everything from kits to paints. This year, I spent a skinny $328.81. The most expensive items were reference material and higher cost tanks such as the Merkava and Panther Tamiya Models. On the plus side, more of my money went to American suppliers this year as they captured the percent as shown above.

Critical Errors

I am getting critical errors with the blog- so there will be some bugs on the webpage. Please be patient with me. Thanks-

Rob

Tamiya 1-35 Panzerkampfwagon II (Panzer II)

Again I didn't find too many articles on this tank on the internet, so I figured I would add some detail to the lack of detail that exists on the Panzerkampfwagon II model.


Initial Impressions
This tank is tiny! I had wondered why the germans made such a tiny tank until I looked up the history of the Panzer II. This tank was partly responsible for the invasion of Poland that kicked off WWII and also this was one of the first tanks developed near the beginning of World War II. This thing is roughly the height of a horse, probably just a little taller.


Construction
The panzerkampfwagon was a one evening project in terms of assembly. Today I did some sanding around the turret and hull area to get rid of some nip marks. There are also some peg holes I won't be using, so I need to fill those up as well, mainly around the headlight area. Like a dodo, I joined the tracks together like they were supposed to go, except I forgot to clean my soldering iron before heating the plastic- which means there is shiny flux embedded in the rubber, and it will be impossible to remove safely. The solution? I'm gonna paint the tracks black and call that area mud (lol).


Detail
There isn't an exquisite amount of detail on this panzer, again it looks like I have been buying re-issues of all the older kits. Still, the Panzer II here has room for improvement- if I had all the time in the world and a proper career then I would order after-market parts and install them (photo-etch). But I digress- I will use pieces from other models past and see where it goes. I chose a Panzer Gray as the paint color (for obvious reasons), yet I completely forgot that they actually made a "Panzer" Gray. I'll go back and take a look at the wheels to see if they actually need a black rim that will be weathered. Where the Merkava was a desert beast, the Panzerkampfwagon will be subject to mud and rust.

Lets Talk Models

Like I'm not broke already, I went out to the Hobbystore the other day and purchased some reference material. Lately I have been getting into armor modeling and enjoying it thoroughly. I picked up this reference book as shown above that I would like to discuss.

I would recommend this book as great starter book to the beginner who needs or wants to have the fundmental techniques at hand for model building. As model builders we learn visually, however the book does provide good explanations as to what is going on in the pictures. In fact, they spelled out what dry brushing was to me, and I didn't know exactly what it meant, and now I do. One thing that really helps is the 1000+ photos in the book of some really fantastic models. I learn by seeing, and the encyclopedia does well.

This encyclopedia probably is not for the more advanced modeler- it is a bare bones encyclopedia that gives candid and clear explanations to photo etching, weathering, painting, air brushing and care, scratchbuilding and working with small parts. If I already knew about photo-etch and airbrushes, why did I buy the book? I want to formally get into using photo-etching and an airbrush, I am just about ready to advance my model building to another level. Compressor please..... then I can get started.

For Once I Am Obsessed With Finishing

Hooooooooooo....... Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I cannot wait to get that sand painted and pebbles added. This tank needs justice done to the base. I am very pleased with this Merkava because I attained the level of depth and color that I wanted. Best part of the tank is that I gave the tank a "sunbaked" look, and it was by accident! All of this was done without an airbrush, I wonder what crap I can pull with one... I better go learn how to use one.

I broke out the pastels tonight and tried a new brush designed for weathering. That brush is one of the single best $2.70 purhases I have ever made. Instead of scraping the pastels with a toothpick and then applying the dust, I took the pastel and did a little careful scraping, then I dusted in the pastels. I have a large amount of control, and more importantly if the weathering is too much it can be removed with water. I weathered the wheels and almost died with passion- I obtained depth and the wheels looked realistic!

I also went for the tracks. I then brought out subtle details such as the vents and the tank is very eye popping. My only regret is not going back and adding tubing for exhaust pipes, but that is something I can return to do. I am debating on adding decals at this time- The film will show up with the weathering. I am very happy with the results of my Merkava, and it is somewhat sad to move onto the next project, like all of my projects have been like.