Post Salute 2013 and the Salute Haul

So Salute 2013 has been and gone, and another good year it was. Vast amounts of money was spent on toy soldiers, toy buildings and books about toy soldiers and toy buildings.

First of all the Salute haul. As last year, this year I took part in the Oath that I and a small group of friends started last year, of not buying any new miniatures from the 1st of January, until Salute. So that means I'd managed to save a good bit of money, and of course, had a few things on my list to buy. Needless to say, I bought them all, and then some stuff that wasn't really on the list either.

And this is what it all looks like

Infinity stuff, a good start on a new faction for Bushido, some Japanese scenery from the nice folks at Sarissa, the gorgeous new Dropzone Commander stuff, some 15mm bits and pieces from Antenociti's workshop, counters, scenery and templates for Infinity from MAS, some random figures from Ax Faction, just because, Dreadball season 2 book, the Noble Armada expansion book with a heavy cruiser, some spaceships from White Dragon Games at British indie, the Forge World limited ed Warrior Priest, oh and the Salute figure of course.

I also managed to grab a look at some new things that are particuarly exciting.

For Bushido the game by GCT Studios they had pictures of some of the new models that are coming out in Wave 12 and in the future.

The four painted figures, are the new fisherman for Temple, the Air Kami for Temple, something for Cult, and the Earth Kami for Temple.

At the back the only two you can really make out are the Giant Bat which will be for Savage Wave, and a large wheel with a face in the middle, which will be for Cult.

I also had a flick through their art book that they always bring. I didn't take pictures, as I thought they might not want those all over the place. Needless to say, some nice things coming up for the new faction, Silver Moon, including some Sumo types that are as large as an Oni, and some excellent artwork for all the other factions.

The other exciting news is that there's already artwork being produced for another faction. The faction that looked the most fleshed out so far, with a couple of pieces was the Miyamoto Clan, who are the bear clan that live in the mountains. A shugenja type woman, and a large samurai with a rather large tetsubo. There was also symbols for pirates, the Shi-o, and the Tengu, along with a piece of art for a Tengu, which looked quite cool.

Also news is that they're only a few weeks away from print for the rulebook, which will be nice to finally have in my hands when that gets released. 

Dropzone Commander was looking great as always, and I picked up the new releases for UCM. They were also giving out samples of their new cardstock buildings, with people getting one to take away. I must admit, I'm impressed, with the cardstock being thicker than I thought it would be. While I would love a set of the resin buildings, my budget just can't afford it, so these could be a second best alternative, and £30 to cover a 6 x 4 table, is pretty good really. They also had a new bit of terrain that they were showing off.

Monorai, Monorail

When asked on price, the people behind the stand said that it would be reasonable, and it would come with approximately 2m of track, supports for the track, the train itself, and a scenario booklet to go with it, to allow it to be used. I'm pretty sure I saw Dave talking to BoW about it when I was there, and he mentioned about having troops in the train, and allowing it to move around the battlefield with guys inside. Exciting.

On to gorgeous boards. The first one was the Japanese battle, that was kitted out with Oshiro Model Terrain

  

A great looking board. I love the Oshiro terrain, and I got myself some of the scatter packs, though looking at it I feel it would be sligthly too small for Bushido, so I went with the new MDF terrain from Sarissa. Still, gorgeous stuff.

Next up, the general sci-fi board from Antenociti's workshop

The guy manning the board did say that unfortunately they hadn't managed to get everything finished, but even so it was still looking great. The new modular buildings are looking nice, and they've overcome the problem that put me off buying more when I bought some of the first run of the 15mm buildings. The laser barriers at the side may make it into the store, he was saying the problem is they can't do them with the holes, so they would require to be drilled out by hand. I also told him he needed to make some of the weird aliens that they've got on the board as well.

For a stunning 15mm board, I think the organisers of Salute, the South London Warlords really did it this year.

It was a Hammer's Slammers participation game, which I must admit, I don't know a great deal about, having never read the books, nor do I know what system they were using. Really though, who cares, cause it's a gorgeous looking board. I only wish I had the space, time, and motiviation to do something like this.

And lastly it's Twilight Miniatures

  

I love the wacky world that Mike has come up with, with it's leanings towards Jim Henson Dark Crystal muppets and all that kinda thing. The figures are superbly sculpted, and he's got such an imagination. I always make time to go and talk to Mike every year, cause I enjoy catching up. And every year, even though it's a game that I hardly ever play, he always manages to sell more figures to me, as I just really love them. One of the other guys at the club has bought stuff as well now, so we might get some more games in. 

Anyways, that was my Salute. I'm sure I missed half a million things as always, but I never find the time to see every board, every figure and all the other stuff, and get in buying stuff. Still, that's the joy of reading everyone elses experiences. 

Hope you had fun if you went, and thanks for reading. 

Deals, Deals, Deals...Summer Sales

So right now there is some great deals going on, and thought I'd write a quick article in case people were unaware of them.

Ground Zero Games

Ground Zero Games are having their summer sale, which sees everything in their store at 15% off. Yes that's right everything. The sale lasts till midnight on Monday the 11th of July, so you've got a bit of time, but I wouldn't leave it too long.

Ground Zero Games online store

So you can get yourself a Full Thrust fleet, some of their 15mm models, or some of their great scenery. I may be tempted to get some of the little add-on bits for buildings for my recently acquired GameCraft MDF buildings. And speaking of GameCraft Miniatures...

 GameCraft Miniatures

GameCraft miniatures are having a 4th of July weekend sale. Until the 4th of July, all their merchandise is at 20% off, as if it wasn't already good value. So why not go over their and get some great scenery to use on all that Ground Zero Games stuff you just bought.

GameCraft Miniatures shop

Or if you want to use that scenery for a different purpose why not head on over to

Critical Mass Games

Critical Mass Games are having their summer sale as well, with 20% off everything in their store until the 22nd of July, so that's a good deal of time to mull over some purchases. I've always fancied some of their scenery, and I think one of those Otilium refineries would go nicely with what I've just purchased.

And last but not least

Dream Pod 9

Dream Pod 9 have just declared the summer blitz to push Heavy Gear, their game of mecha combat.

To start with, their offering up the rules books for Heavy Gear for free. Yes that's right for free. To get them head on over to DriveThruRPG and simply download. Free, gratis, etc etc.

Locked and Loaded 1.1

Field Manual - Core Rulebook

Essentially the field manual replaces Locked and Loaded as the core rulebook, though Locked and Loaded is still required as it has all the army lists in it (unless you play one of the later armies).

And if that wasn't enough, they've listened to people about the game being a bit expensive to get into and they've launched some summer blitz packs. Now these packs are truly epic, and make for a great start. For example the Northern Starter Pack comes with

1 x Northern General Purpose Squad (DP9-9021, $43.50)
1 x Northern Strike Squad (DP9-9024, $44.50)
1 x Northern Fire Support Squad (DP9-9027, $53.75)
1 x Northern Recon Squad (DP9-9045, $43.50)
1 x Northern Infantry Platoon (DP9-9035, $23.00)
1 x Heavy Gear Blitz! - Field Manual Rulebook 60 pages black & white digest size book (DP9-9997h, $10.00)
1 x Heavy Gear Blitz! - Field Manual Rulebook Full Color ebook (DP9-9997 ebook, Free)
1 x Locked & Loaded Full Color ebook including Northern Army Lists (DP9-9996 ebook, Free)

Which costs $150 and ends up saving you $68.25, which I think is a pretty damn good deal for such fine quality merchandise. There is also a southern pack as well for those people who prefer the southern states.

Frankly, even if you're not sure about the game, I would urge you to download the rulebooks and give it a look, as frankly at the end of the day it's going to cost you nothing. Even if you pick it up later, you'll lose nothing by checking the rules out now, and hopefully you'll find yourself as enthralled by the setting as I was.

Hope these have been some use.

Mecha Ace out.  

Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don't...

So a couple of things happened this week in gaming. Well a lot of things happened, but I'm going to focus on a couple that have particular interest to me.

It was announced this weekend that the game Robotech Battles that was in the works and I talked about in this post has not got the green light from Palladium and Harmony Gold. John Paulson of Paulson games was told that he would not be used for the project. On the robotech battles facebook page, it was announced that apparently the numbers do not add up, and that while the project may be viable in the future, they would not be using his company. I think this is a great shame considering the amount of work he put into this game, both with starting the rules, and with some of the great prototype figures he produced. I can only feel that Palladium or Harmony Gold, or both, have dropped the ball on this on, and instead seem happy to just let the licence sit there and do nothing.

You can read all about it at his blog robotech battles blog

Keep flying...

There'll always be a place in my heart for Robotech. It's what exposed me to anime and giant robots and started my love of both, and I was genuinely quite excited when I saw this game, and the miniatures it was producing. I reckon that dream will just have to wait a while longer unfortunately.

In other happier news this weekend the the website for Hawk Wargames new game Dropzone Commander went live. I would suggest you all rush over and check it out.

Hawk Wargames

It's a 10mm massed battle game, that has the premise that a lot of the time your forces are being deployed by Dropships (the name is a big clue to this). No more just lining up your forces (though I'm sure there will still be an element to that).

Frankly the pictures of these miniatures look gorgeous, and to those people that saw them in the resin at Salute can testify, they are still just as gorgeous.

I've prattled on about Dropzone Commander a couple of times now, probably cause I think it's worth. You had difficulty getting near the stand, and I think Dave has the next big thing in gaming on his hands. The prices are a bit higher than the rest of the 10mm crowd, and you're looking at £68 for a starter army (which is about the smallest game size), though I worked it out for the UCM army (as they're who I'm interested in) and it saves me £14.50 over buying the bits individually, which is good, and the rulebook is £15 which in this day and age is hardly expensive. So yes a bit pricey, but still reasonably in line with them. Frankly though, if you want nice miniatures, and these are very nice miniatures, you pay a bit more money. Same with Infinity, same with Mercs, and a whole load of other games that charge more for their figures.

Along with the miniatures, he's also releasing a line of scenery in the future, that will be modular double-sided tiles. So you can assemble them in anyway you desire. I think it's a great idea, and looking at some of the dioramas he's created with very little beyond his own figures and the scenery he's made it'll look gorgeous.

The United Colonies of Man on parade

The alien Scourge swarm through the streets of an abandoned core world city

The alien Shaltari invade in force

This and various others show what excellent work he has done, pretty much single handedly. I for one will be getting some.

I would suggest you go to the website and read up on the background that he's created for this, and if you're like me will be left wanting to know more. Speaking to him at Salute, I was very pleased when he said he whole heartedly believes in letting people know who they're fighting with, who the enemy is and why they're fighting.

And if you are still intrigued after that, the man himself will be on Facebook chat on Monday the 11th from 9am till 9pm on Hawk Wargames facebook page to answer questions regarding the rules, the game and anything else I imagine. I might pop on myself.

Mecha Ace out. 

Heavy Gear battle report

Well horribly late is better than not at all right?

Anyways, last Tuesday, the forces of North and South joined up against the evil tyrannical grasp of Earth and the Colonial Expeditionary Force (CEF). Or what this means is myself and my friend LeadLegion teamed up against another mutual friend for a game of Heavy Gear. I'll say right now this took a while, as not only is it on a club night, so there's a bit of chat with people you only see once a week, there's also the fact that neither myself or the other player (the regulars of the game technically) get many games in, so it was a bit of "how do you do that again?". Also it was LeadLegion's first game. Still he'd read the rules and that helped.

Anyways force composition comprised the following.

North:
1 Fire support squad, comprising 2 Grizzlys, 2 Hunters and 1 Jaguar.
1 Strike Squad, comprising 3 Jaguars and 2 Hunters
1 Mammoth Strider

South:
1 General Purpose squad, comprising 3 Jaegars and 1 Black Mamba (they were the honour guard)
1 General Purpose squad, comprising 3 Jaegars and 1 Command Jaegar
1 Fire support squad, comprising 3 Spitting Cobras and 1 Jaegar
1 Infantry Squad

CEF:
1 GREL Platoon in HPC-64s (Hover APCs basically)
1 Light tank squadron comprising 2 LHT-71s
1 Heavy Tank squadron comprising 1 HT-68 and 2 HT-72s

Now, I had found out our opponents army list in the day (as we'd all worked them out in advance, so we started chatting during the day), and was suitably terrified of the fact he had 3 Heavy tanks. Still, we decided to sacrifice our lives dearly in service to Terra Nova, and began set up, after choosing objectives and support.

The set up.

The initial set-up, the guy on the right is the CEF player. 

The Terra Novan forces set up on the right hand side in the above picture, while the CEF were on the left. The Heavy Tanks were set up in the middle, with the HT-68 off to the left of his side (up in the top left in the picture). His light tanks were also deployed in the centre, while his HPC-64s were deployed behind the large hill in the bottom left. His GRELs were already out.

Our forces were deployed, with the Northern strike squad in the right hand side (top right of the picture), the fire support squad infiltrating into the woods (bottom of the picture) and the mammoth taking up position in the small town in the centre. And yes none of my stuff is painted. LeadLegion pretty much had all his painted just to show off. Swine

Southern forces had the two general purpose squads deployed on the right hand side (top right) while the fire support squad were just the other side of the river from the town. The infantry were deployed in the town. Then battle commenced.

Turn 1:
We got the initiative, and instantly began pouring fire into his heavy tanks as much as possible. LeadLegions fire support squad opened up on the HT-68, and managed to damage it, removing it's sturdy box (basically ablative armour). So would begin the long process of wittling the tanks down. His tanks moved up, and began opening fire, heavy particle cannons blazing trails, and managed to cause damage to the southern fire support team. Meanwhile eventually his HPC-64s started moving towards the town, round the hill. My fire support squad emerged from the woods, and began laying down rocket pod fire on them, damaging one and destroying another. My Mammoth also joined in pouring fire into the HT-68, lightly damaging it.

The most important part of this turn when both sides decided to call in a lot of support, intending to try and cause massive damage. We locked two heavy artillery bombardments onto the position of his HT-72, as they'd managed to log jam themselves between the bridge and the buildings. A medium bombardment was called in against the HPC-64s, while the CEF player called in a heavy bombardment against my Mammoth.

And it was a result. Another one of the HPC-64s went up in a ball of flame. The 2 HT-72s suffered damaged, though not enough to adversely affect them greatly, one of them losing its sturdy box, and the other suffering light damage.

My Mammoth managed to lose it's 2 sturdy boxes, and suffer light damage, so took quite a beating, but thankfully kept going.

Turn 2:

Cunningly I decided to take the photo from the other table end, so it's all reversed now.

Our opponent got the initiative, and started moving his heavy tanks again. Reaction fire from my strike squad, and LeadLegions fire support squad, managed to finally destroy the damaged HT-68, which ditched in the middle field, while his HT-72s took to the river and began doleing out punishment, reducing the southern fire support squad to 1 Jaegar.

My fire support squad, emerged further from the woods and pounded the HPC-64s with further rocket fire, destroying not only the whole squadron, but the army commander with it (this is important, as it means he no longer has access to command points for re-rolls and activating things out of sequence etc). Cheered by this victory we began the slow march forward.

His LHT-71s had advanced up the river and began scanning the bridge (one of his objectives). They then nipped behind our lines and began dishing out punishment. However, we weren't without return fire, with my Mammoth opening fire on them, while both of LeadLegions general purpose squad moved to allow his rocket pods to get shots in, which eventually destroyed one, and damaged the other.

Unfortunately we had to call it a night at that. It had taken a long time to set up, with deciding objectives, support points etc, so I think next time we play we're going to sort it out by e-mail prior to the game to save us time. Also we weren't clued up on the rules which didn't help.

Technically the Terra Novan forces won, as we had completed more of our objectives, that of certain key gear squadrons surviving. However had we played longer the CEF player would've garnered points by having his LHT-71s leave the table with the recon data.

Still, it was a great game. There's talk of getting a game over the Easter weekend were we can take more time over it, and play it out. And next time I'll take more photos. Promise. I seem to have landed the role, as LeadLegion isn't allowed to handle his wife's camera, due to him perpetually dropping things.

Apologies for the slight sketchiness of the details. I'll maybe try and take brief notes, though it's difficult to do, and get a game in during the say 3 to 3.5 hours we get in a club night, depending on how long it takes to eat and chat.

Thanks for looking.

Black Talon Primary Insertion Team finished

Not often I get to use that phrase, only another 4 gears and about 40 little mens to go and I can have a fully painted faction. Still hopefully I shall keep going, the blog is inspiring me to do more, as are comments left by people.

So here they are.

Eagle trooper with a heavy autocannon/light grenade launcher

Another Eagle trooper with a heavy autocannon/light grenade launcher

Eagle trooper with a gatling laser cannon and chainsword

Group shot, with the previously painted Owl C3

I've taken these shots (bar the Owl) before varnishing them, as I've noticed the varnish, even though I use a coat of gloss, then a coat of matt, it's still giving a bit of shine which I don't want when photographing them.

Quite a simple paintjob really, and I think that helped keep me going with them. These are now pretty much finished, though I still need to varnish the Eagle troopers, and think I may invest in some transfers for them. I'm also thinking of adding some grass tufts to the bases to make it look a bit less just straight desert and add a bit something extra in.

Looking forward to using these guys now in a game of Heavy Gear sometime, and I also have plans to use them as large powered armour for 15mm Tomorrow's war as well.

Thanks for looking.

Robotech Battles. Turns out dreams do come true

And who could say no??

So imagine my excitement, when during doing a quick check of the usual geek sites I frequent in the morning to see what's happening, I find out that somebody has approached Palladium about the production of a Robotech miniatures games.

Now for me this is a big thing, Robotech is what got me into anime and mecha, when I first saw it as a early teenager. To me it was amazing, as while other sci-fi shows that were live action were working with small budgets and the limited technology of the time, here was something that showed giant transforming robots, fighting aliens and massive spaceships. What's not to love.

The game is based on the aforementioned anime series (which in itself is an adaptation of the Japanese series Super Dimensional Fortress Macross) and tells the story of the newly fledged RDF, who are Earth's military, against an invasion by the Zentraedi, a race of giant green humanoid aliens. To counter this threat, Earth has developed the Veritech from the technology found when the Macross crashed into planet Earth, while it is being repaired and returned to service. The Veritech fighter allows the pilot to switch from Fighter mode, to Battloid mode (giant robot) and Guardian mode (a hybrid between the two) at will, and as the situation demands.

Anyways, enough of my waffle, here's a picture of two of the miniatures.

One of the human walkers, developed before Veritech fighters, and a Zentraedi Battlepod

From what I know it's going to be a 1/285 scale game, and they currently have a set of playtest rules that are available from their blog

Robotech Battles blog

They've also got a presence on Facebook, which shows a lot more pictures that have been put regarding models and 3D renders that have been carried out for future models. From what I know they've approached Palladium with both these and the current ruleset, with the intent on producing a miniature game, and I believe this has been met somewhat favourably.

Their facebook page, were they are keeping people up to date is here

Robotech Miniatures

I'm really hoping this goes ahead, as Robotech is a big memory for me, as mentioned it introduced to this whole thing of anime and mecha and all those things. All I can do is recommend you check them out and hopefully it'll go ahead and get produced. I've already warned my wife that if it does, I may end up filling our flat with tiny Veritech fighters.

Oh and one more thing, just to see if this can be the next dream to come true

Cause I can dream right...

Painted Black Talon and WIP Arc Fleet

Well painting and all things modelling related has been a bit slow this week. Mostly due to due to in real life problems like work etc. I honestly can't say whether it'll speed up anymore either, as Mass Effect 3 arrived on Saturday, so I'm going to start playing my way through that pretty soon, once more immersing myself in the wonderful world BioWare have created.

Anyways, onto what has been achieved. I've finished the test gear for my Black Talons for Heavy Gear Blitz. I wanted to do one as I had a pretty solid idea of the colour scheme involved, but wanted to make sure it was okay before I just went on and painted everything in that colour. Now I am sure, I'm already starting work on the other members of the Primary Insertion Team, while the Operational Assistance Team (the heavy hitters) are being assembled to receive the same treatment.

An Owl C3 with a medium rifle, the leader of my Primary Insertion Team.

I wanted to go for a black colour scheme, to keep with the whole stealth idea, though decided to do the cloth muffling around the joints a light grey, and to throw a small amount of red at the shoulders and knees, along with some metal to give it a bit of colour and provide some contrast. The base is done to look like desert, to show the Terra Novan desert/wasteland. I may add some grass tufts to it though, to make it a bit more lively.

And just to prove they haven't been forgotten about in all this.

3 Arc Fleet, one NCO and two missile launcher troops

Some Arc Fleet troops from Critical Mass. They've received the base colours and they've been washed. They've now just awaiting the blue highlight and painting the gun and visor basically. Then another three will take their place on the pots.

Shall try and post more pics soon, if I can be pulled away from the Xbox.

Heavy Gear Blitz and more Critical Mass

Managed to get some more work done over the weekend on some projects, namely finishing up the last of the Augment suits for my slowly building Arc Fleet force from Critical Mass, and also managed to finally put together my Primary Insertion Team for the Black Talon force for Heavy Gear Blitz.

So here we go then. From Critical Mass Games, some Augment suits. I've shown the lasers before, but I jazzed them up a bit, so thought I'd post new pics.

Augment suits armed with laser cannons

Augment suits armed with plasma cannons

These will be placed on a base of 3 figures, with one regular figure and two specialist figures per base. I decided as well that the lasers and plasma cannons needed something a bit extra, given they were special weapons, so decided to give them a bit of colour on the guns. It will also save a lot of peering at figures with black guns, trying to work out whether that's a laser cannon or a plasma cannon on the tabletop.

I must say, I'm really impressed with these figures as well. Until I saw these figs, I'd always kinda brushed 15mm aside as not having much detail etc, but these are really nice. The only one I'm not incredibly keen on is the Plasma cannon on the far right, as he has a bit of a knockity-knees pose.

Anyways, on to part two, my Black Talons for Heavy Gear Blitz, from Dream Pod 9

Black Talon Primary Insertion Team

Assembled these guys at the weekend, which took a lot longer than expected due to my superglue being more like water that eventually sets. For those interested, that's an Eagle trooper with a heavy autocannon/light grenade launcher, an Owl C3 with a medium rifle and satellite uplink, another Eagle, this time with a gatling laser cannon and chainsword (all Eagles have these, just he's got his in hand to dish out some close quarters fighting) and another Eagle with again a HAC/LGL.

The plan for these is (and this has already begun) undercoat black, drybrush with dark sea green to bring out the edges, cloth covering at articulation points a light grey and then some panels either a darker grey or a dark red, I haven't decided yet. All the optics etc will be done a green colour. Hopefully I'll get these guys up in painted glory in a while.

Giant robot games and "The Oath"

Well as mentioned there would in fact be giant robots in this blog, cause ever since I saw my first episode of Robotech many moons ago, I've had a soft spot in my heart for them. Eventually I found Battletech and enjoyed it for a time, but I found the rules too complicated, with the mechs being likened the titans they were meant to be and taking an age to fell. Also I was never entirely sold on the design aesthetic of the miniatures, being too boxy and clunky looking for my tastes.

Then one day, upon a visit to my FLGS I happened upon the Heavy Gear rulebook. I saved up my money, bought it and never looked back.

Set in the far future, on the colony world of Terra Nova, Heavy Gear pits two polar nations, The Confederated Northern City States and the Southern Republic (or North and South) against each other, along with several independant city states. To add something else into the mix the Colonial Expeditionary Force from Earth has come forth, wanting to reclaim Earth's formerly abandoned colony worlds for the resources they hold.

Produced by Dream Pod 9 I feel it's a game worth a look. While 12mm in scale, I shall admit it's more expensive than you may think, due to the price of the miniatures which are slightly higher than average, and also the fact it concentrates on Gears (the slang name for the giant robots, developed on Terra Nova initially for labour purposes), therefore you end up playing a 12mm game with effectively 28mm miniatures. Still I feel they would work well for other things, I intend to shoehorn them in as large scale powered armour suits along with some GZG troops I intend to buy for Tomorrow's war.

At the same time, DP9 have recently come out with a nice range of game specific scenery as seen below

Badlands outpost

Wind turbine

 These, along with various others in their range allow you to assemble small settlements that are typically found in the badlands, the equatorial desert no-mans land that separates the two powers. And since DP9 are currently doing offers right now I might pick some up. Again some due to having doors etc are specific to a 12mm setting, while others such as the wind turbine are probably more useful for well any setting. It could be a massive turbine in 6mm to a small rooftop turbine in 28mm. They also do a good line of stone heads in an Easter Island style.

And now on to the other part of this post. The Oath. Myself and 3 other members of my local gaming club are travelling to Salute this year, and we've all taken an oath to work our way through our backlog of miniatures and not to buy anymore figures till then. So far I've managed quite nicely. I'll have a bit of catching up to do but I'm thinking of getting some of this scenery as they're currently doing an offer. So really my opinion is that scenery doesn't count as figures. It's used to enhance the game. At least that's what I'll tell myself to quiet my conscience.