The Wire

On Monday night at 11:00, FX will commence showing all 60 episodes of all five series of The Wire. If you haven't already done so you should check it out. If you have Sky+, go and series link it, now, I'll still be here when you get back...

...done? Cool.

The Wire is ostensibly a crime drama but just as its fellow HBO series, Deadwood, looked like it was a western but was really about society bringing order from chaos, The Wire is really about something else. Its about institutions, about how none of them work the way they should and about the compromises people make to be a part of them. Each season examines a different institution, the first looks at the Baltimore drug trade, whilst obviously focusing on law enforcements institutions as well.

The Wire gives you minimal exposition, many events happen off camera, it has a large ensemble cast and leaves it up to you to work who is who and who is doing what, it doesn't do cliffhangers, it doesn't do big reveals, it doesn't create tension, it doesn't do soap opera or sub-plots. It has no good guys and few bad guys, the characters are about as real as TV allows.

The Wire makes no compromise with its audience. Just as the police who man the surveillance equipment are forced to pay attention and figure it out for themselves, so the audience is forced to do the same.

The term 'great TV' is thrown around to describe brainless entertainment that makes no demands on the viewer. This is what TV is for. TV isn't art.

The Wire isn't great TV. Its a work of art.

It's all downhill from here

I'm officially half-way through 'The Arts Past & Present'. I've completed 4 of the 7 continiuously assessed assignments, there is an End of Course Assessment as well, and 2 of the 4 coursebooks.

The one I've just finished, 'Tradition & Dissent', covered Plato. animals in poetry, post-Reformation Christianity in England, Gothic architecture, the Irish Republican movement and Shostakovich. It was finished with a 1200 word essay on the built heritage of Ireland.

Whilst the previous assignments have been of similar length, they were split into two halves so this is the longest single assignment of the course so far. I've struggled at times to meet the word count in the shorter ones so I had real concerns about this one but in the end I was over by about 60 words (well within the 10% excess I'm allowed) and I actually found this the easiest one to write so far. I think the experience of the previous assignment has left me with a good idea of what is expected in an essay.

I got it back yesterday with a mark of 72, the first time I haven't improved on the previous assignemt's score suggesting I've plateaued somewhat. To be honest, if I can keep all the remaining scores in the 70's I'll still be pretty pleased but I'm going to try and kick things on with the next one and get into the 80's.

Battle Royal

Or 'Clusterf@ck at the GW Corral'

In attempt to break up the monotony of Daemons vs. Orcs & Goblins battles we teamed up this week to take on a joint force of Dwarves & Ogres. We assembled a combined 2500 point army only to find our opponents had only put together a 2000 point army. Some quick surgery got our army down to 2000 and we were on our way.

The Ogre player was new to his army and the Dwarf player was new to the game. For our part we were relearning the game and unlearning the rules which had changed from the last time we played. The game was hectic and fast-paced and had to be curtailed at the end of turn 5 as one player had a train to catch.

Having only 2 hero slots available to me with the army list being split I decided to go with more numbers and added a second unit of Bloodletters. I lined myself up against the bulk of the Ogre army and found myself in the unusual position of holding the line and waiting for my opponent to cross the battlefield which he did a little recklessly.

Flamers are considered one of more (over-)powerful parts of the Daemon army list and this was the first game in which I'd really been able to cut loose with them. They destroyed a unit of Ogres early, wiped out half a unit of Dwarves, half another unit of Ogres and did some serious damage to the Ogre Butcher (magic-user) who was finished off by the Goblin bolt thrower. In return the Flamers weren't so much as scratched.

The carnage caused by the Flamers meant two of my Daemon units had little else to do but mop up. The other unit of Daemons got involved in a large battle with an uber unit of hard Dwarves and the Ogre Tyrant (general). Skirting around the edges was Masque. In previous battles she's died after doing very little but this time she proved a major pain in the ass for the opposition as I figured out how to use the model.

We didn't have time to count victory points but it was pretty clear who the winner was. The Ogre Tyrant was largely wasted fighting Goblins and the Dwarves never really got into the battle. Meanwhile my army was barely scratched barring one of the units of Bloodletters and Iain only really lost Goblins.

It was a fun battle if a bit of a mess and it was also very educational.

The Third Battle

Excuse the lateness of this one but I was down in London all day Wednesday and doing a uni assignment for the rest of the week.

A re-match was had from the previous week so I won't go into great detail. We moved the points up to 1100 which actually turned out to be a pretty awkward number for both of us. I decided after last week that more numbers were needed in my army so I added another 10 Daemonettes and that 3 Flamers and 3 Screamers wasn't enough of either for them to be effective. The Flamers are the only missile weapons in the Daemon army and cost half as much to buy as the Screamers so out were the Screamers and in were 2 more Flamers. The Khorne Herald on a Juggernaut was out and the Daemonette special character, Masque, returned.

We moved onto a full-sized, 6'x4' board. Iain was insistent that hills be placed on both sides and I let him have it as he didn't have one last week for his missile troops. I decided to funnel all my troops on one half of the board to see if it would compress the game or leave me too far away to effectively kill everything. Iain believes he suckered me into thinking he would try and defend the hill opposite.

The first 4 turns were a series of outrageous bad luck for me beginning with the very shooting of the game, wherein 10 Orcs needing a 6 to hit and 4+ to wound with me having a 5+ save, killed two of my Daemonettes. Throughout these 4 turns I made just 2 of my ward saves, including for the Masque who saves on a 3+. The result was my army, and my Daemonettes in particular, was decimated by the time it got across the board. The situation wasn't helped by a single pesky Goblin hero taking advantage of the Hatred rules to force my Bloodletters to chase it for a turn, diverting them from areas where they could do real damage.

I got some of it back in turn 5. What remained of my Daemonettes found itself in combat with a large unit of Orcs, including the Orc general mounted on a boar. Despite being down to just two models and being significantly outnumbered, judicious use of a magic standard meant I won the combat and broke the unit, forcing it to run out of the game.

In the end I just couldn't do enough damage in the 6 turns to overcome the weight of numbers. I think reducing the number of Heralds and introducing more troops with the points I save so I can have more units which in turn will help me spread out across the board more and not be so disadvantaged in depoyment. With Iain having so many extra units he has been able to pick and choose who fights who.

Next week has the possibility of teaming up with my erstwhile nemesis to take on a joint Dwarf & Ogre force with a combined 2500 point army. Going over the 2000 point limit opens up some of the more abusive elements of the Daemon army but sadly I don't have the models to take advantage of it.

The Second Battle

A reduced group this week as Andrew couldn't make it and Graham got stuck in a seminar leaving just Iain and myself. He had managed to get his Orc & Goblin army glued together and partially painted so battle was joined with my Daemons. Iain is by far the most experienced of our group at Warhammer so I expected a much tougher battle than last weeks. No disrespect intended to Andrew who, I believe, was having his very first stab at the game.

Despite this I wanted to try out my Khorne Juggernaut, which I'd painstakingly glued together, even though it wouldn't make for the most effective build for my army. To make room for it in my army list I dropped the Masque special character and my Battle Standard. The Daemon army needs to march itself across the battlefield as quickly as possible so I expected to be slowed down by expendabe models blocking my march moves by placing themselves within 8'' of my units so I gave my large unit of Bloodletters a standard which allowed them to march anyway.

I also expected the weaker units of Goblins to either respond to charge into combat by either shooting or running away so I gave my unit of Daemonettes a standard that forced whoever they charged to hold and enter battle. The Bloodletters hit hard, so I wanted them in combat with the Orcs, the Daemons hit often, so I wanted them in battle with the Goblins.

Once again I lost both the rolls to determine who began deploying their army first and to choose who went first. Last week, Andrew and myself were able to deploy comfortably on a 3'x4' board. This week we used a 4'x4' board, which is the recommended size for a battle of 1000 points. Even then, Iain struggle to fit all his forces on which consisted of, from memory -

A Troll
A unit of Goblins on Giant Spiders
A large unit of Orcs with hand weapons and shields
Two units of Goblins with bows
One unit of Goblins with hand weapons
A unit of Orcs with bows
A Goblin Shaman
Two Bolt Throwers

Dwarves have no magic and are the kings of anti-magic, which meant taking a wizard against them was a waste of time. This week I wanted to at least see how the magic system worked so upgraded my Slaanesh Herald to a Lvl1 wizard. As it turned out, throughout the entire game we only managed to cast one spell successfully and it had no effect on the game. I suspect magic will become more of a factor as the battles get bigger.

O&G suffer from Animosity, this forces them to roll a D6 for most of their units at the start of each turn. On a 1 the unit can't do anything this turn as they fight and squabble amongst themselves, on a 6 they get a free D6'' move towards the enemy. The Spider-Riders got a 1 in the first turn which held them up. The Troll got itself into cover which slowed down my Daemonettes and Juggernaut. In fact, it would be a feature of the game that everything I had planned for occured but to the wrong unit.

The Bloodletters never got march-blocked whilst almost everything else did. No-one needed to run away from the Daemonettes but they did from the Juggernaut and Bloodletters. A failed charge from the Juggernaut to a unit of Goblins due to them fleeing left it exposed to a charge from the Orcs. It comfortably out-fought the unit but lost combat resolution due to weight of numbers and Daemonic Instability took care of the rest.

The Flamers took two turns to get rid of the Troll when really they should have only taken one. The Bloodletters destroyed a couple of units of Goblins and a Bolt Thrower but couldn't get close enough to get into combat with the Orcs. The Daemonettes were slowed down sufficiently for the Orcs to get into combat with them. Even then and despite being outnumbered two-to-one, the Daemonettes whittled away the Orcs and my General killed his in combat.

The Spider-Riders closed in from one side of the Daemonettes and the Orc archers from the other. I dropped my Screamers in front of the Orcs to slow them down and mean that to get to combat, Iain would have make three Ld rolls. Needing to beat 6 and 7 twice on 2D6, Iain made all three rolls and the game was won on that. The Daemonettes were whittled away and the Bloodletters were too far away to do anything about it.

We didn't calculate the Victory Points but it was agreed a narrow victory went to Iain. He had more models left, although mine being more expensive points-wise that was closer than it looked. He controlled one quarter of the board, we each captured a standard and killed the other's General.

So what did I learn?

Deploying later and more often allowed Iain to create favourable match-ups. When the game started I should have redirected my troops, even if it meant taking longer to get there.

I need more troops against an army with a lot of models. Even though Daemons are as tough as nails you don't get a lot of them and they can only do so much damage each. Another 10 Daemonettes would have been a big help.

Screamers are of limited value in a smaller points game. They are good for hustling the opponent but in a small game I could have replaced them with another 7 Daemonettes.

Or with three more Flamers. Flamers are powerful and 6 would be much better than 3.

I used up a lot of points on Juggernaut and making the Herald a wizard and those points could have been much better used on more models. Though, to be fair, I knew that going in. I used them as much to experiment as for their effectiveness.

Orcs & Goblins seem a competitive army at low points value battles. Their Goblin Fanatics can cause carnage and the Bolt Throwers are cheap and powerful. They are a bit random and things can go wrong for them and I know Iain was concerned about this going in but as it played out their randomness on the whole benefited Iain and this battle and I think it probably would do on average.

At higher points values as the stronger magic, characters and rare units come into play I think O&G would get less and less powerful.

Battle Report

The first battle is in the books.

Our small group convened at Games Workshop, Newcastle this evening for our inaugral battle. Intentionally a small scale affair to help get to grips with the rules and how our armies work, I took on Andrew's Dwarves with my Daemons of Chaos in a 1000 point battle.

We signed in downstairs and ascended the spiral staircase of Doom to the upper floor gaming room. A cramped and virtually windowless affair with that geek aroma hanging in the air. It did have boards and scenery and we were able to grab the last one available.

My army was largely dictated to me by the models I own. I do have a Bloodletter mounted on a Juggernaut but when coming to assemble it last night I found I would need to file down a section to attach the neck to the body so that was out. The only model I wound up not using was Skulltaker, a Bloodletter special character who is mean in a hand-to-hand challenge but I passed over in favour of a Herald of Khorne.

The army list demanded at least two core units and these went on a unit of 19 Bloodletters led by said Herald of Khorne. The presence of the Herald bestowed Hatred on the unit of Bloodletters and his ability to carry the Battle Standard were what swung it over Skulltaker. The Battle Standard I chose added D3 to combat resolution and I rounded the character off by giving it the Armour of Khorne (for a 3+ save) and a further ability that allowed him to re-roll failed rolls to wound in the first round of combat.

The second core unit went on 9 Daemonettes led by a Herald of Slaanesh who bestowed the Always Strikes First ability on the rest of the unit. I gave the Herald the Siren Song ability which could be used to force an enemy unit to charge into combat. I planned to use it on a unit of missile troops who otherwise would get to fire off a shot each if I charged them. I upgraded one Daemonette to a standard bearer and gave it the Banner of Ecstasy which meant the first break test they were forced to take would be done on their unmodified Leadership. I finished by upgrading one Daemonette to an Alluress which gave it an extra attack.

I was allowed two special choices but only actually own one, three Screamers of Tzeentch to be precise. These are flying discs who deliver a S5 hit each to a unit as they fly over it. They can change direction as they fly to deliver hits to as many units as possible.

My one rare choice went on three Flamers of Tzeentch, the only missile troops available in the army list. They each fire D6 S4 hits up to a range of 18''

Finally, for my general I choose the Daemonette special character, Masque. A relatively cheap option at just 90 points. Masque is fairly weak but her 3+ ward save (essentially an unmodified save against everything) meant she was best placed to be able to survive out of a unit. In fact, she can't join any units. Her special ability allows her to target an enemy unit in each magic phase and force it to lose D3 from either Leadership or Movement for the remainder of the turn. With Dwarves having the highest base Ld of any army in the game I hoped to increase my chances of them failing a Fear test. Every model in my army causing Fear.

I lost the deployment roll and had to begin deploying my army first. I placed my Screamers behind a rock to the right of the table, Masque in the centre with the two core units either side and the Flamers behind the Daemonettes. The plan was to march the Flamers behind them and then move the Daemonettes to one side and allow them to open fire.

Andrew placed 14 missile troops(Thunderers) in a line across the centre, a cannon to his left with some elite combat troops (Longbeards) and a couple of characters in front of them and a Slayer over the other side. He had a unit of Miners which come on the board during the game.

I then also lost the roll to see who chooses who goes first, Andrew deferred to allow me to march into range of his missile troops. My army being almost all close combat I had little choice but to do so.

I started by moving my Screamers the maximum 20'' straight up the board, I had planned to then fly them over the Longbeards and the Thunderers the next turn. I moved all my other troops straight up the board but ran into a little bit of a problem. The Daemonettes wound up right into front of a wooded area. After consulting the rules it turned out moving them through it would be a lot slower than I had thought.

The Dwarves are the kings of anti-magic, especially in small games, so I didn't bother with any so that was the end of my turn.

In moving the Screamers up the board I had taken them into charge range of the Longbeards and Andrew duly charged. The Slayer moved forward and everyone else stood still for the shooting phase. The cannon shot through my Bloodletters, hitting 4 and killing 2. The cannon would normally have made mincemeat of all 4 but Daemons have a ward save of 5+ and I made two of the rolls. Concerned about what the Masque could do, Andrew unloaded with all 14 of his Thunderers against her. He did 4 wounds meaning I would only have roll two 3+ on four dice for her to survive. I got three 1's and my general was dead.

The Screamers are great for moving around the board doing damage, they are cack in close combat. Two of them were killed, the third made its ward save but I was still left to take a break test. After each round of combat, each side totals up its combat resolution total, comprising of the number of wounds they did, +1 if they outnumber the enemy, +1 if they have a standard and/or Battle Standard, +1 for each complete rank after the first to a maximum of 3. They then take a Ld test modified down by how much they lost the combat by. I lost by 5, a Screamers' Ld is 7. that meant I needed to roll a 2 or less on 2D6.

Digressing for a second. Break tests in Warhammer are the deadliest part of the game. Even a tooled up unit of mega-troops can only do so much damage in a round of combat. If a unit breaks and is either caught by a pursuing enemy or runs off the board it is completely destroyed, no matter how powerful it is.

Daemons are a little different, they don't run. Instead, if they fail a break test they lose a wound for each point they fail it by. Screamers have one wound. If I rolled any higher than a 2 the Screamer would be dead. My only consolation was I had rolled an extraordinary number of 1's to this point. I did again. I got the 2 I needed and the Longbeards were stuck in combat with the Screamer.

This set them up for a flank charge from my Bloodletters.

I had to move my Daemonettes sideways to get them out of the way of my Flamers who moved towards the Slayer. The Daemonettes were left off to the left edge of the board away from any action. The Flamers didn't do so well and only managed to take 1 of the Slayer's 2 wounds.

The Thane with the unit Longbeards was forced to challenge my Herald of Khorne to hand-to-hand combat. Having charged I got to hit first, having Hatred I got to re-roll misses, I also re-rolled failed wound rolls and with a Strength of 6 I nullified the Thane's armour save. It was a short fight. The Bloodletters did a little damage, the Screamer even got a kill in before being destrroyed. I won the combat by 5. Even with a Ld of 9 the Dwarves were going to struggle to pass this break test. They didn't and ran off the board and the Bloodletters ran off after them.

This was double-trouble for Andrew who could not then fire his cannon at them in the next turn. He charged his Slayer at the Flamers who elected to stand and shoot and they chargrilled him. I'm not sure Andrew knew they could do this. He tried to bring on the Miners but failed the roll. All his missile fire went on the Flamers and two of them were killed. As I prepared to bring the Bloodletters on the board at the start of my third turn, Andrew decided discretion was the better part of valour and conceded as I'd made it across the board and he had only missile troops left.

So what did I learn?

Be more careful about lining up behind terrain. The Daemonettes were my fastest moving troops but got bogged down in the woods. The cover the terrain gives me is not worth the trade-off.

Big units are good. Daemonic Instabiltity (the name for a Daemons break test) is a problem. A large unit who hits first has a good chance of winning combat, as I found with my Bloodletters. They can also afford to take some casualties as they cross the board.

Keep the Screamers out of charge range. I didn't to get them quite so close to the Longbeards and they wound up being almost completely neutered.

For Andrew I think he took to the board with too few troops and probably should have concentrated his missile troops on the Daemonettes and Bloodletters rather than the Masque. At least that's how I saw it. Andrew may see it differently.

w0-and indeed-0t

'I've received back my second marked assignment which came in at 65%. An improvement over the previous the assignment's 59% but I'm a lot less confident about the third assignment, which went in on Friday'

I clearly should have more confidence in myself. I've just got assignment three back in which I got 70 for an essay on owls in poetry and 80 for an essay on the Dalai Lama, combining for an overall score of 75.

It would be fair to say I'm pretty pleased with this.