Within the next month or so, Jonny P (Zlurpcast’s “Main Guy” and tournament organizer for The Chaos Cup and many other Blood Bowl tournaments) and I are going to be releasing a new professional wrestling-themed podcast called “Shoot Radio.” Jonny has mentioned it a few times on Zlurpcast and some folks have been asking where the first episode is. Fair question! To answer that, a bit of background information is necessary. I first spoke to Jonny as a guest on Zlurpcast to hype my own Blood Bowl tournament (Blingtoof’s Gitbash). The natural course of the conversation diverged to professional wrestling so I e-mailed Jonny and asked him if he wanted to do a pro-wrestling-themed podcast. We’re both fans and we both like podcasting so we decided to give it a go and Jonny came up with the name Shoot Radio which we agreed to use because it was memorable and the domain name was available. The concept of the show is two fans talking about/debating wrestling topics of an evergreen nature. In other words, these discussions are not going to be time-sensitive. We’re not going to be discussing what happened on the latest edition of RAW or Impact. Well, nobody really talks about what happened on Impact but that’s not the point… We’re going to be talking about more timeless topics. For example, as of the writing of this blog entry, we’ve recorded an episode about managers and an episode about finishing moves. Whether you listen to those episodes today or a year from now it won’t matter as we’re intentionally not having time-specific conversations.

So, now to address the question of when episodes will be released. I’ve been what I’ll call a recreational podcaster since 2008 and Jonny’s background is similar in terms of podcasting. In my experience (both first-hand and heard from others) what causes podcasts to “pod-fade” more than anything else is the combination of the pressure of maintaining a regular release schedule and the open-ended nature of podcasts. Since many podcasts do deal with more time-specific information there’s an onus on podcasters to have very short turnaround times on recording, editing, and publishing their shows. This can get very daunting and the pressure from maintaining a regular release schedule can suck the fun out of podcasting in a hurry. As a rule of thumb, in order to do a good editing job on a podcast you can usually count on it taking twice to three times the amount of time to edit an episode than its final length (i.e. a one-hour podcast takes 2-3 hours to produce not including the recording time). So, in reality, producing a 30-60 minute podcast takes about half a conventional work day just to record and produce and that’s not taking into account prep time, either! Jonny and I really want Shoot Radio to stay fun for us so what we’ve decided to do is the following. First off, we’re going to release our shows in ten episode “seasons.” To be clear, we’re not going to be releasing them all at once but we’re going to release one a week for ten weeks. Also, we’re not going to release the first episode until we’ve got five episodes “in the can” (i.e. fully edited and ready to post). This will, essentially, give us a five week buffer so that we have lots of flexibility in terms of recording and editing the rest of the episodes. After the 10th episode of season 1 we’ll take a short break and release the first episode of season 2 when we have five episodes recorded and edited. Lather, rise, repeat (which is an ironic analogy for a show being done by two bald guys). I don’t anticipate the break between seasons being more than a few weeks. Additionally, having a defined beginning and end of a season will allow us to experiment with variations in format for the show.

We’ve registered the Twitter handle @ShootRadio and have both tweeted from it a few times. When the first episode drops it will definitely be announced there and you can be certain that Jonny will mention it on Zlurpcast, as well. You should see the first episode drop by mid-May so keep your eyes peeled, your ears open, and your axe-handles tripled and tune in to Shoot Radio!

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been a World Vision Canada donor for over a decade and they remain one of my favourite charities. On a recent edition of their popular “Marketplace” show (click here to watch the episode on CBC’s website), CBC produced a segment critiquing World Vision for using what’s known as “negative option billing.” Essentially, what that amounts to in World Vision’s case is when there is an increase in the suggested monthly billing amount to sponsor a child donors on automatic withdrawal plans are compelled to pro-actively contact World Vision Canada if they do not wish to have the increase applied to their monthly donation. While CBC did not present any information on Marketplace that was flagrantly inaccurate their reporting was incomplete and lacked certain journalistic integrity as it was clearly steering the viewer to come to a specific conclusion.

This segment was filmed using the age-old Vox Populi method of pseudo-journalism wherein someone armed with complete information approaches people on the street, presents them with incomplete information phrased in a way to goad those same individuals into drawing a certain conclusion, and (of course) only the segments coinciding with the conclusion that CBC wished people to draw make it to air. I’m always surprised at, quite frankly, how foolish some of the feedback that makes it to air is. At around the 28:30 mark of the online video there is a person who criticizes the negative option billing by saying that we live in an age where people don’t open or read their mail. Ostensibly, what this person is saying is that we shouldn’t be accountable for any consequences of not reading our mail, which is absurd. Try using that excuse when you’re called for jury duty or for your annual tax return and see what happens.

Marketplace did not do a satisfactory job of explaining what the implication is to the charity of not using the negative billing tactic. I worked at World Vision Canada from 2004-2007 and recall some of the discussion around the negative billing option during the last increase in suggested monthly donation. World Vision Canada has an uncommonly well-equipped call center. Unlike many companies that out-source their call centres to contracted organizations whose primary incentive is to end calls quickly, World Vision Canada’s call center is managed out of their head office location and is made up almost entirely of World Vision Canada employees (temporary work agencies are used to supplement the workforce during seasonally high call volume periods but those temporary workers are given the same training as employees and are quite often converted to employees). At the time when I was working there, World Vision Canada did research prior to the rate increase and found that the vast majority of those surveyed understood the rationale for increasing the suggested monthly donation and were willing to absorb the increase. Had they not used negative option billing, the amount of extra labour that would have been required in the call center to field calls from donors to opt in to the increase would have necessitated an even larger increase in the suggested monthly donation in order to justify the increased operational expense of deploying additional call center staff. And, had they done so, I’d speculate that Markeplace would have been openly critical of World Vision Canada for not managing their operating resources properly and passing the cost on to the donors.

Something else that Marketplace failed to mention is that these rate increases are only being applied to individuals on automated monthly billing plans. If you are of the temperament that you don’t want to be confronted with the implications of negative option billing there is a very simple solution: take yourself off of automatic withdrawal and mail the charity a cheque every month.

What I find particularly disappointing about this report is that it does not focus on the fact that these increases are 100% optional. World Vision Canada does not disassociate you from your sponsored child if you opt out of any suggested rate increases. This recent increase is the first such increase that World Vision has done in seven years. My local Internet Service Provider and three forms of public transportation that I make regular use of have increased their rates recently (some of them multiple times within the past two years) and I have been given no option to contact them and opt out of these increases. Furthermore, had I requested such an opt-out I would have been considered a fool for even asking. While I definitely support the notion that charities need to be routinely scrutinized to ensure that they are handling their donations responsibly the way in which Marketplace has put together this segment is as contemptible as stopping people on the street and asking them questions like, “Have you stopped beating your wife?” Unfortunately, this report will likely be viewed by many people like the dullard who doesn’t open her mail who will absorb CBC’s report wholesale as truth.

Tonight I played two games to bring my total up to eight for this season of the NaBBLe. Only the top 4 teams will make it into the playoffs now instead of six originally so I need to finish the season strong. My first game was against the Chaos of Razers & Grazers. They were significantly hobbled with only 11 players (including a journeyman) but they were able to take a Wizard and Bloodweiser Babe as inducements. The Wizard came out relatively early but my Chaos Dwarfs held fast and, despite a few knock-downs, did not sustain any bad hits and caged right back up. I managed to pull off an eight-turn grind and went up 1-0 at the end of the first half. I then kicked off and did what I thought was a bang-up job of preserving the shut-out but the 4-AG Beastman pulled a calary unit’s worth of horseshoes out of its posterior to score on turn 8. One of my Dirty Tricks left that player with Really Stupid for the drive. In order to score, the Chaos had to:

• Stand up a Beastman and make two GFI rolls to get into the end zone
• Make a 2+ Really Stupid roll with the 4-AG Beastman
• Dodge into 2 tackle zones (4+)
• Dodge into one tackle zone (3+)
• Dodge into 3 tackle zones (4+)
• Go for it once (2+)
• Dodge into 2 tackle zones (4+)
• Pick up the ball in 2 tackle zones (4+)
• Thrown the ball to the Beastman in the end zone (5+ to be accurate)
• Catch the pass (3+)

He had no re-rolls to do any of this. The odds that it would not succeed were greater than 99.5% and he scored. FML.

In game 2 I took on Tyler’s Skaven. This team had a dreaded one turn score piece with 10 movement, Sprint, and Sure Feet. I received the kick-off and executed a text-book 8 turn grind. Then he managed a one-turn score with 11% odds of success dodging three times through players with Tackle. Then, on the opening kickoff of the second half he managed to score in one turn again with similar odds. In a game where I managed to get a total of sixteen players off the pitch between crowd surfs, knock-outs, and casualties I still had to settle for the 2-2 tie. Tyler was a great sport and a lot of fun to play but Movement 10 Gutter Runners with Sprint are the most annoying player in Blood Bowl.

This past weekend the Canadian Open 2012 Blood Bowl tournament took place at Dueling Grounds in Toronto. Last year I went to this tournament for the first time and came in dead last but I have the excuse of having gone in with Ogres. I’ve made Chaos Dwarves my team of choice for 2012 and this was my first tournament outing with them. The format of the tournament was a typical resurrection-style tournament, 1100 TV build, with a 5-skill pack where one skill could be a Double skill and no player receiving more than one upgrade. I went with the following roster:

• Bull Centaur with Block
• Bull Centaur with Sure Hands
• Chaos Dwarf Blocker with Guard x2
• Chaos Dwarf Blocker with Leader (Double skill)
• Chaos Dwarf Blocker (unaltered) x4
• Hobgoblin (unaltered) x3
• Team Re-roll x2
• Apothecary
• Fan Factor 5
• Assistant Coach
• Cheerleader

I’ve been playing Chaos Dwarves in a local league without a Minotaur and wanted to be able to play a team without a Big Guy. I was also pleasantly surprised at how much money I had left over to spend without purchasing a Minotaur. While it was pointed out to me that I could have just purchased another re-roll with the 70K I spent on Fan Factor, Coaches, and Cheerleaders, my thinking was that I always wanted to have a good chance at winning FAME and, therefore, be less susceptible to kick-off events like Throw a Rock and Pitch Invasion. The Apothecary also got some odd looks as there was no “Apothecaries automatically work” rule in play. While it’s true that I could have picked up an extra Hobgoblin for what I spent on the Apothecary I wanted to have the greatest chance of all my positional players surviving whatever came their way while grinding down my opponent. While I stuck to more defensive skills like Guard as opposed to Claw or Mighty Blow I felt that, if I stayed patient, I could eke out typical 1-0 or 2-1 Chaos Dwarf wins with the team I had.

Game #1 vs. Peter Meers (Vampires)

Pete, the most genuinely nice guy on the tournament scene, and I have played each other twice in the past two tournaments we’ve been at and have gone 1-1. Pete defeated my Underworld with his Skaven at the 2011 Warpstone Cup but my Underworld got their revenge at Blingtoof’s Gitbash against his Orcs so this would be the rubber match. Pete’s team consisted of four Vampires (two with Block, two with Dodge) and eight Thralls (one with Leader, one with Wrestle if I’m remembering correctly). The Vampires are really tough to deal with if you don’t fail Blood Lust rolls and Pete managed to make it through the entire first half without failing any key rolls and positioned his Thralls well so that he didn’t suffer a Vampire leaving the pitch. I was able to crowd-surf one of his Vampires with Dodge, kept him out of the end zone, and scored on turn 8 of the first half by succeeding a key dodge roll with my Bull Centaur to score. Pete came back strong in the second half but the Blood Lust rolls caught up with him. I ended up holding on for the win but if Pete had made the rolls on some key Hypnotic Gaze attempts it could have easily been a tie.

Game #2 vs. Alex (Lizardmen)

Alex and I played a game with pretty much these same teams in the NaBBLe league. My dice were hot that day and I couldn’t help but roll 10s and took out half of his Saurus players. The build he brought this time had a Kroxigor (with Guard), six Sauruses (three with Block), and four Skinks (one with Block). On paper, this was a bad match for him because his Skinks’ Dodge was trumped by my Dwarfs’ Tackle but they also moved twice as fast. My strategy going into this match was to focus on the Skinks and do whatever I could to get them off the pitch; I figured if I took away his ball handlers the rest would more-or-less take care of itself. He managed to get a Skink with the ball free and clear and could have scored but he chose to stall on the goal-line to tie the game at 1. This was a mistake as I had a Blocker within blitz range (after making a 4+ dodge) and I was able to stop the score. I had succeeded in my Skink-bashing mission and caused casualties to three of his Skinks and knocked out the fourth who did not return in the second half. This meant that he began the second half with only seven players to my eleven, all of them having Agility 1. At that point, I figured that I would have a fairly easy time of preventing a score as he would struggle to pick up the ball and I’d be able to tie up his players. Much to my chagrin, he managed to have a Saurus pick up the ball right after the kick-off on the first attempt without a re-roll. I was disappointed but didn’t panic and eventually got the ball carrier surrounded and set up for a two-dice blitz. The result was only a Push/Both Down and I really wanted to pop the ball loose so I spent a re-roll to be rewarded with double skulls. He managed to move downfield some more but, with my player advantage, I blitzed his ball carrier again and got the ball loose but he managed to pick up the ball again with a Saurus without even having to burn a re-roll. He managed to blitz free and score on turn 8 which made the result a tie. This game all came unraveled for me after that initial failed blitz. I can’t help but wonder how it would have turned out if I’d have been a little more patient and not re-rolled for the double skulls.

Game 3 vs. Spazz (Khemri)

It’s worth noting that, with this tournament, Spazz is now ranked with all 24 Blood Bowl teams. This is quite the achievement so congratulations to Spazz on not only having the endurance to complete it but also the painting & modeling acumen to make all 24 teams! Khemri is, quite simply, a team that just befuddles me. Whether on the Cyanide video game or in real life I just haven’t figured out how to deal with them. I just get over-whelmed by their four Tomb Guardians (all of which had Mighty Blow on Spazz’ team) and find myself easily corralled. I got a luck casualty on one of the Tomb Guardians that didn’t regenerate which made things slightly easier to deal with but another double skull block extinguished any hope I had of coming back.

Game 4 vs. Colin (Skaven)

I had finished up day one with a record of 1-1-1 and was determined to run the table and leave the tourney with a winning record. I’d played Colin’s Skaven once before at the 2011 Lakeside Cup but he came with a significantly different team build this time with four Gutter Runners (two with Block, one with Sprint), a Rat Ogre with Block, and a Stormvermin with Kick. The rest were all naked Line Rats with one sub and no Throwers. The first few turns were an unmitigated disaster as he got a Blitz on the opening kick-off with my team receiving. I did leave players back to cover defensively but he still managed to score by turn 3. I had an opportunity to score at the end of the first half and made a costly counting mistake. My Bull Centaur with Sure Hands had the ball and was within six squares of the end zone. I didn’t want to tempt fate and start attempting go-for-it rolls, even with Sure Feet but I failed to notice that one of his Gutter Runners, with some nifty dodging and a couple of go-for-it moves, could mark my ball carrier. This meant that he could have two players on my ball carrier so blitzing off wouldn’t be an option. I tried to dodge away but did not succeed and ended the first half down a touch-down. I then had to kick to him and he scored very quickly again putting me down two scores with only six turns left in the game. On turn 5 things started going my way and I started getting knock-outs and casualties like crazy. I caused casualties to six of his players with blocks and caused a fouling casualty to his Rat Ogre. It was too little too late, however, and I only managed to score one touch-down on the very last game. Despite the unfortunate kick-off results this game was a lot of fun. I feel like I did the best with what I had and only made one tactical error by not noticing the Gutter Runner that marked my ball carrier in the first half which prevented me from scoring. This game also put me at the top of the casualty count.

Game 5 vs. Dave (Norse)

Ordinarily Norse are one of those tournament teams that I dread facing but this time I had a team with almost as much Block so I felt pretty confident. Additionally, with a team of almost all AV 7 I was hopeful that I could repeat the last game’s casualty-fest and at least walk away with that trophy. If I could describe this game in one word it would be heart-braking. On the very first block of the game I rolled double skulls which was definitely a portent of things to come. Dave scored on the opening drive and I wasn’t able to respond with a touch-down but I was able to crowd-surf both of his blodging Catchers, both of which were killed by the crowd. On his turn 6 of the first half he caused a casualty to one of my Chaos Dwarf Blockers which I saved with the Apothecary but, on the very next block, he did the same thing to one of my other Chaos Dwarf Blockers with Guard. Down 1-0 at the start of the second half I received the kick and faced my third blitz of the tournament. I recovered the ball in the hands of one of my Bull Centaurs and had him in and amongst a scrum of players. Circumstances prevented me from getting him caged completely but I thought, at the very least, the ball would be in a precarious position if it came free. Dave then blitzed in with his Berserker, the ball landed on the berserker who caught it in two tackle zones, then dodged out and succeeded two go-for-it rolls to effectively get away without any real threat of being blitzed and scored shortly thereafter which effectively marked the end of the game apart from a few turns of shoving to go for more casualties. I walked away from that game profoundly frustrated. I did get two extremely lucky crowd casualties so I can’t sit here and say that I “couldn’t catch a break.” Blood Bowl is a game where you tend to win by making your opponent roll as many dice as possible which I was able to do but Dave kept rolling 3+ consistently and got Kapows on every one-die block I forced him to make. But, for every fat middle of a distribution curve there are tapered ends and I know which one I wound up on in this game.

Final Thoughts

Laurent and Alex did a great job running this tournament and it was a lot of fun. I’m just quite disappointed with how I fared. If I’m being completely honest with myself I feel like I deserved a B or B+ in terms of my tactics employed but I wound up in the bottom quartile in terms of tournament placement. What really stings is that this is the second or third tournament where I lost out on the Most Casualties trophy by one. The next tournament on the schedule is Q’ermitt and I’d planned to take Chaos Dwarfs again but I may go back to my Underworld as I just seem to have some mystical connection with them and they just work better when I play them than they should.

So here are some facts… On February 6th, 2012, Fantasy Flight Games announced that they were, essentially, going back to the drawing board with the Star Wars Living Card Game. Some period of time before that, Fantasy Flight made Star Wars-themed card sleeves available to retailers for a very short period of time. Per some information I received from Fantasy Flight’s customer service department, “Retailers have a very limited window to order the sleeves due to the nature that there is a very limited run of them.”

What comes next is my opinion on this situation. One of my local retailers made me aware of this interesting timing of events and he made it clear that he felt deceived by Fantasy Flight and I can’t say that I blame him. To be entirely fair to FF, I’m sure they were required to order these sleeves far in advance from their manufacturer and, no doubt, wanted to time the sale of the sleeves to be right around the release date of the card game. I’ll commend FF for going back to the drawing board if they didn’t think that their game was ready for prime time. Many other gaming companies would not do the same, particularly with a license as lucrative as Star Wars. What I find contemptible is that it appears (underscore “appears”) that Fantasy Flight let these card sleeves hit the street with the knowledge that their Star Wars card game would be delayed the better part of a year and left the retailers holding the bag. I’m sure this was, from their perspective the right business decision, particularly from a cash-flow perspective, but in terms of public relations there’s only one apt description: JERK MOVE.

I’ve asked Fantasy Flight if they were aware that the game was going to be delayed when they made the sleeves available to retailers. I’ll post their answer here if/when I get one. The cynic in me, however, can’t envision a scenario where FF didn’t know that the game was being delayed when they sold retailers the sleeves. If that is the case I’m really disappointed in Fantasy Flight. For a company that creates such great products and, from my perspective, has always engaged in fair dealings it’s an unpleasant surprise.

These Gorillataurs were the models that made me want to do up a Chaos Dwarf team with this range of figures. Obviously, these figures will be the Bull Centaurs. I’ve always found the GW Bull Centaur figure to be really annoying because it’s meant to be mounted on a horse base and is really problematic when the board gets crowded. Additionally, $30 for one? Go sit on a biscuit, GW. The Gorillataurs fit nicely on a 25mm base but still look distinctly centaur-ish.

On today’s show, in a bit of a role reversal, wapcaplets has the chance to speak with none other than Anglax. Also, in the Expanded Horizons segment, we talk about Quarriors and Panic Station. Finally, don’t forget to enter the “Make a Monument of Yourself” contest to win a free custom CN Tower figure!

Links:

• Contest: Make a Monument of Yourself
• Panic Station: Official Site | BGG.com page
• Quarriors: Official Site | BGG.com page
• Click here to download the MP3 of this show

I’ve decided to make Chaos Dwarfs my focused team for Blood Bowl this year. I’m doing up a team using Impact’s Siringit team for their “Elfball” game for my models. I had already purchased these before I’d seen the Volmarian miniatures that Greebo made and, truth be told, if I’d known both existed before I bought my Siringit I’d have gone for the other but the Siringit are still really cool miniatures. I’m using a variety of figures for the Chaos Dwarf Blockers and have painted one of the two Hippo Defenders that will be taking the pitch:

This is the second model I’ve had where, once the matte spray varnish was applied, that the paint “crackled.” It’s almost like air got under the paint and gave the paint (particularly the gray for the skin) a shriveled look. Seeing as it’s a hippo the effect doesn’t look bad but I just wonder what causes it. I did spray it in the garage when it was pretty cold. Overall, though, I was pleased with the results. I’ll post pictures of one of the Gorillataurs that I’m using as Bull Centaurs next.

• Twitter has jumped the shark for me. This account will be delorted shortly. #

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Earlier this year I ditched my Facebook account because the signal-to-noise ratio was just unacceptable. Today I came to more-or-less the same conclusion about Twitter and mothballed my account. Today I actually got in an argument with someone over Twitter. Nothing too scandalous (it was about public transportation) but when I basically got told to shut up I asked myself, “Why am I wasting time shouting into a vacuum.” Yeah, I know… that probably describes 90% or more of online discourse but it still feels like a new discovery ever time it happens. Even without today’s proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back I was finding Twitter less and less useful. Of course, that’s inevitable once services like it become popular and the every goofball with a smart phone can tweet every time he/she breaks wind. I’d have to cite the following quantitative reasons for ditching Twitter (in no particular order):

1. Habitual Re-Tweeters: While the concept of sharing information is germane to Twitter I’m floored by the number of people who re-tweet what someone else says 5-10 times more often than they tweet a thought of their own, even if it is just to…
2. Tweeting Your Lunch: I’ve tweeted pictures of food when I’ve made something out of the ordinary but I do not understand the fascination people have with tweeting a picture of every cup of Starbucks or every Big Mac they eat. I understand and acknowledge that most of what people tweet is of little consequence but taking the time to preserve photographic evidence of the most mundane occurrences is just weird. Honestly, it’s just one step away from tweeting pictures of what one leaves in the toilet so I’m bailing before it gets to that.
3. Dogs That Tweet: I’ll use this as a metaphor for any tweets by someone or something that could not tweet. Whether it’s your pet, a movie character, someone long dead, or an angry/sad/cranky version of a celebrity these accounts are just wastes of time. The self-evident solution would be to not follow these accounts but the people in point #1 make dogs that tweet hard to ignore.
4. Full On Spam: I sometimes wish I was unethical enough to be able to stomach making money by creating fake Twitter accounts with stock photos of attractive women that tweet out links to phishing sites and/or link farms. Being able to make money off of the kind of people that would fall for that just seems like something that should be allowed under a writ of “two wrongs make a right.”

So that’s it. After about four years and 5,000 tweets I’m checking out.