The Reaper King is here

~ KimT ~ Leave a comment

So, despite the contious flow of new Magic The Gathering cards which are just begging me to be put to good use, I am still pondering how to build a deck around the Reaper King.

Reaper KingHe has been on my mind for a few years and I recall buying him about a year ago or so along with every other Scarecrow creature I could get my hands on.

Since then I’ve been checking out the internet for Commander decks including the King Himself and as many of his underlings as possible.

During this process I even found that there are plenty of Shapeshifters with changeling who could prove themselves as quite hefty Scarecrows!

Among these are Mirror Entity, Unsettled Mariner, Taurean Mauler, Identity Thief, Irregular Cohort, Graveshifter, Changeling Titan and Chameleon Colossus.

And then of course there’s all the “real” Scarecrows that I am just dying to include: Scarecrone, Thornwatch Scarecrow, Scrapbasket, Scuttlemutt, Rattleblaze Scarecrow. Pili-Pala, Lockjaw Snapper, Heap Doll, Grim Poppet, Antler Skulkin & Wild-Field Scarecrow.

I’ve been looking at The Budget Reaper King Commander and spend hours looking at the synergies and cards used in Reaper King EDH Decks on EDHREC.

One of the cards I’ve been considering is Morophon, the Boundless as it is a Shapeshifter with changeling and it does reduce the cost of any Scarecrow with one of each color mana. But then again – one of each color of mana doesn’t do much when most of the Scarecrows are either artifacts or single color Shapeshifters. So he/she/it is on ice right now.

I’ve settled for the BLINK idea – I want those Scarecrows to blink in and out of the world, putting the Reaper King‘s skill “When another Scarecrow comes into play under your control, destroy target permanent” to maximum use. Plus since the Reaper King is all colors, he will activate the color effects on the Scarecrows in the deck.

As BLINKERs I am looking at putting some of the following cards:

Artifacts: Blood Clock, Skeleton Shard, Crystal Shard and Conjurer’s Closet

Blue Spells: Disappearing Act, Familiar’s Ruse, Essence Flux, Ghostly Flicker, Illusionist’s Stratagem, Paradoxial Outcome, Part the Veil, Rebuild, Release to the Wind, Teferi’s Time Twist, Sunken Hope, Equilibrium & Cunning Evasion

White Spells: Flickerform, Liberate, Long Road Home, Momentary Blink, Justiciar’s Portal, Otherworldly Journey, Acrobatic Maneuver & Eerie Interlude.

Now the next step is to put this deck together and have a first draft ready for the weekend when the boys are dropping by to play some rounds of Commander. I’ll publish a decklist when I have the first one ready.

Oooh, shiny Caps Lock!

~ KimT ~ Leave a comment

So viewing a few more of Eurogamer’s YouTube videos on XCOM2 I found that there is an easy solution to survive the insane and ultra long load sequence after a completed mission.

Just click CAPS LOCK on!

Caps Lock Awesome1

It’s really that simple and it has really helped me from tearing my keyboard apart while waiting for the load to be over – though one could argue it is NOT a load sequence if it can be skipped by pressing a key. But if that is the case – what the heck is it then.

Word of advice – find the right timing to click Caps Lock!  I found that clicking it at the wrong time leads to the full sequence running. I click when the zoom in sequence has reached the point where you have 2 soldiers on both sides of the screen.

I guess CAPS LOCK is king sometimes?

FUCK-YEAH-CAPSLOCK

XCOM2 – A quick fix to the 45 degree camera lock

~ KimT ~ Leave a comment

So as I finally succeed my missions without loosing everyone to the mad rush against the timer – so far all I’ve lost is a sniper and heavy gunner.

The sniper was pretty awesome, the gunner not so much and everyone is replaceable.

I am now looking towards other annoying perks in the game and I’ve never really appreciated the 45 degrees locked camera rotation.

I installed a free camera view MOD which allows sliding left or right using the “Q” and/or “E” key. That works like a charm along with the “G” and “T” zoom functions.

Now the end is nigh for those pesky aliens trying to hide themselves in the corners of the 45 degrees locked camera rotation!

 

A couple of LEGO themed lamps

~ KimT ~ Leave a comment

So recently one of my colleagues invited the entire LCE department in Billund to a workshop where we were to build LEGO lamps as a creative challenge.

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I managed to get one lamp build, though I’ll admit that the 30min to 1hour we had scheduled was not even remotely close to being enough – which lead to more work at me in the evening. But I do believe it was worth it!

A few days later I was inspired to do another lamp and I chose to work in grey (dark and light), black and white. I think it turned out pretty well – at least I am more than happy with my work – considering that I haven’t build anything for more than 5 years.

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Both lamps have a base made from 2 layers of plates to keep the build from sliding and sitting on top of the lampe instead of around it!

XCOM 2 – it’s happening all over!

~ KimT ~ Leave a comment

So with the February 5th launch of the most recent chapter in the X-Com chronicles – XCOM 2, I’ve been somewhat in heaven.
I’ve always been a fan of the XCOM universe and I recall playing the UFO: Enemy Unknown on my first Sony Playstation (before it was rebranded as PSOne).
I even bought a mouse to be able to play the game as intended instead of the joypad controller.
Fascinating – long, tedious but still fantastic.
I am a true fan of turn based gaming with research and experienced soldiers being key characteristics along with a solid story line – the whole “1 person shooter”-thing is not me.
I’ll take turn based action and role playing games like Baldur’s Gate any day!

I’ve been waiting for XCOM 2 for what seems like forever and I even bought the prelaunch game to be sure I could play on February 5th.
Sadly my internet provider did some sort of update to the router for our fibernet and that lead to downloads being disabled or prevented – at least it took me a couple of days of trial and error to find the issue and reset the router and rebuild the internet connection properly.

Anyways, I’ve been playing heavily ever since and now some 20+ hours into 3 games I have a few comments on the game.

I HATE THE TIMER MISSIONS!
Which I can see that I am not alone in – there’s been more than a few disliking comments towards the idea of having a turn based game with tactics as key.
When the tactics are ruined by having to rush through the mission to get it done in 8-12 turns – which is utter madness.
Give us 15 rounds and then instead of failing missions, just drop more and more enemies.

Luckily there is a good fix in the “disable timers” MOC that I have installed as my solution.
It fixes it, but also takes the edge of the missions – a solution could be to go with the other timer MOD that adds 4 rounds instead of disabling the timer.

More great insights and comments can be found here at Eurogamer.
(Just search for XCOM)

More to come on XCOM2 with camerarotation and other useful MODs.

Back again – A New Hope

~ KimT ~ Leave a comment

So it has been a while since I posted anything here and with a “total views” at 181, not many will notice it.
But everything has to start somewhere and this is just that.
A New Start.

Let’s kick start this with a couple of fun Star Wars related links.
First off is a round of fail Star Wars cosplay costumes that are actually ok, despite the fails!
Nuff said – look and judge yourself
Star Wars Cosplay

Next is a friggin’ awesome Star Wars fan fiction music video
All About That Base

Enjoy

Yeeeessiiiir!

~ KimT ~ Leave a comment

I did it! I managed to get the job I applied for 3 months ago.
It’s been a long and bumpy road, but I ended up getting the job.
I have no idea how many (or few) applied for the job, all that counts for me is that I’ll be starting a new career as Community Coordinator with LEGO in Billund when April comes.

I’m thrilled to finally join my hobby and work – it’ll cost me some of my most precious doings – for example the staff position at Eurobricks.
But I knew that would be a consequence since I thought about applying for the job.

Now I’m ‘there’ and I have to hand over a few torches – which will surely prove a good thing. New blood is always a good thing along with a fresh perspective.

Good luck to all EB staffers and welcome to all the other AFOLs out there that I’m getting to know now.