Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

if this is a statue of the warboss... why is there a statue of a head on the base? I mean I get it and I totally understand the story (I think its great), just why is there a bronze head. did the warboss cut the head off? and why does the head need retrieval as well... It's just mildly irritating to me. The hut is awesome btw.


One more thought I had for the warboss... can you make him rusting a little bit? I figure since they carry this around everywhere there has to be more wear and tear on the statue. Its not like Orks keep things in mint condition. Plus if you make it more decrepit, it would make it funnier for Orks to be trying to retrieve it. So ya, I vote more wear and tear on the statue.

Oi! Lissen up yoo git! Da Bronz Boss iz one big fing! It'z not a buncha gubbins jus' tossed togevver! Dem humies what made Da Boss gone and put it on a roight solid base! And da head uv da lousy git wot was at Da Boss's feet wen 'e wuz pozin' is immorteelized roight along wiv 'im!

EDIT- Consistent Orkish.

Well, clearly Gitsplitta jumped the gun a bit on feeding the sculptor to his pet squig... or perhaps it was BECAUSE Spot was not included in the statue that the Warboss' ire was tweaked. We'll never know for certain. In any case, an appropriate oomie 'ead was found and placed at the bronze boss's feat in an appropriate tribute to his victory.

Bronze doesn't really rust, it tarnishes green. I did give the statue a green wash after all was said and done, and it is apparent when you hold it in hand, but it is rather subtle. I may come in later and really color up the statue, add greens and browns for age and bird poop and all that. Good suggestion though. Your right, it would look much cruddier given it's likely treatment at the hands of the boyz.

WONDERFUL orkish btw ICB... you can write for me ANY TIME!

Iron_Chaos_Brute wrote:Oi! Lissen up yoo git! Da Bronz Boss iz one big fing! It'z not a buncha gubbins jus' tossed togevver! Dem humies what made Da Boss gone and put it on a roight solid base! And da head uv da lousy git wot was at Da Boss's feet wen 'e wuz pozin' is immorteelized roight along wiv 'im!

EDIT- Consistent Orkish.

I couldn't say it better myself. Well I could, being a human I have much better control on sentence structure and proper pronunciation. If I were an ork I couldn't say it better myself. But I digress, that was heart warming in a wierd way.

Gitsplitta wrote:Bronze doesn't really rust, it tarnishes green.

Obviously, Rust is tarnished Iron.
ooh, didn't see the wash before.

Weathering bronze can look a treat with a light dry-brush of bestial brown, 1:1 dark angel green/swooping hawk turquoise (or whatever the current equivalent is - if you can get MP Deep Bronze Green, all the better), 2:1 turquoise and skull white, and then a final re-drybrush of bronze very, very lighty. Admittedly, that's techincally a verdigris effect, but still, easy and tasty. Also, PP's Brass Balls is lovely as a highlight shade on bronze.

Gone fishin'.

Battle and fishing reports when we return!

Can't wait!

O.K., back home again...

I include a photo of the event for those of you who are curious. We went to Lake Shelbyville in central Illinois to fish for crappie with their grandpa. Photo below...



You'll note the presence of everything necessary for a great fishing trip... fancy boat, professional guide, grandpa (you guess which is which), and kids. Anything missing?? FISH! In spite of this lake's outstanding reputation... we got all but skunked. Gramps caught 2 fish, the rest of us caught butkis! *sigh* At least it was a beautiful spring day, sunny and very warm. Winds were very high (30mph +) all week, so we only got out on the lake the one day. Did some shore fishing the next day but got nuthin' there either.

After Easter (and happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it) I'll begin the "sibling rivalry" battle report. Orks vs. Doom Eagles!

Not ment in an offensive , mean way , but your father looks like Viatnam Tom

Also , two fishes are still two fishes , and they are just an extra . The real treat should be having a blast with you kids and your father

Actually "Vietnam Tom" was the guide... my dad is the guy waving... and we did have a blast. Found lots to do, had a beautiful evening shore fishing yesterday with my kids on this little secluded lake off the big one... no one but us, the herons and some pesky little bluegill and crappie that we fed worms to for a couple of hours. All-in-all a wonderful trip!

Gitsplitta wrote:Actually "Vietnam Tom" was the guide...

Ah well , he still looks like him though .

gretar wrote:Not ment in an offensive , mean way , but your father looks like Viatnam Tom

Also , two fishes are still two fishes , and they are just an extra . The real treat should be having a blast with you kids and your father

very true. But I want to see some minis!
ot but: I got my 1000 post! I'm so glad it was on such an inspiring and awesome thread!

looks like a great trip! But I agree, Orks vs. Doom Eagles. I am placing bets on both!

I think the Doom Eagles have the advantage because they are piloted by thing 1, who is older and more experienced (+1 point DE)
I also think that the Orks are going to get a lot of help from Dad cause he likes them more (+1 Orks)

In my limited view of who will win, I place $5 on both. So I can't really lose

gretar wrote:Not ment in an offensive , mean way , but your father looks like Viatnam Tom

Also , two fishes are still two fishes , and they are just an extra . The real treat should be having a blast with you kids and your father

It's still fish, there is no such word as fishes.
I'll put money on the orks WAAAAGHH!!!

Hello everyone. Been promising you a battle report... so here goes.

It will unfold over the next several days as I get things written, get pictures edited & the game finishes. As I begin this, the actual game is on turn 5, so while I welcome suggestions to improve things, keep in mind that the current circumstances are pretty well set. Also keep in mind that I gave both my boys a lot of freedom to choose the army they wanted, pick their own strategies, set their own deployment and play their own games. Yes, I helped them both out with the rules and did give my little one hints and suggestions along the way... but he largely ignored them... LOL... and I let him do it of course because I want them both to gain confidence and a measure of independence. It's worth saying from the outset that what's gone wrong for my youngest (Thing 2) has had little to do with his chosen army or strategy, and everything to do with my eldest (Thing 1) rolling out-of-his-shorts for the first 2 turns while the youngest couldn't make a roll to save his life.

Back Story:
Doom Eagles: On the eve of a major mechanized engagement between the forces of the Imperium and several ork tribes united under a Waaaagh, the Doom Eagles have been sent to reclaim a badly damaged Bane Blade tank abandoned the day before which CnC believes can be put back into fighting trim to play a pivitol role in the upcoming battle.. They also must rescue a fallen comrade, trapped beneath some rubble while covering the flank of the retreating Imperial Guard.
Bad Moons: While surveying his mob’s preparation for the battle, Warboss Oozegob Gitsplitta noticed that his beloved statue, “da Bronze Boss” had once again gone walk-a-bout. “Ow do it keep doin’ dat?” he wondered. “Dunno.” answered the Gitsplitta. “Best send da boyz fer it den… bad omen not ‘ta ‘ave it fer da bat’le.” Just as he was about to bellow orders to his boyz, an agitated wierdboy approached him. “Dey’z alwayz dat way…” he thought. Apparently Great Gobbo’s “Spook Utt”, which the wierdboyz use to help focus their power before a battle, had once again phased out of existence, rephrasing in again somewhere else. “Not good.” said the Gitsplitta. “No.” agreed the Warboss. With a roar Oozegob issued orders for the scouts to be sent out, and the boyz to prepare for a recovery mission. There was no way the mob would fight the main oomie army without it’s treasured icons.

Scenario:
4x6 table, DOW deployment (9"), 2000 pts, reserves, etc. (standard rules)
1 command counter was given to each player which could be assigned to an infantry unit, making it a "scoring unit"
Objectives:
Marines: Primary (Baneblade, 5 pts), Secondary (Rescue, 3 pts), ork tanks/dreds destroyed (2 pt), other units (1 pt)
Orks: Primary (Bronze Boss, 5 pts), Secondary (Spook ‘Utt, 3 pts), marine tanks/dreds destroyed (2 pt), other units (1 pt)

I weighted the VP’s to favor killing heavy machinery as it would be more critical in the following battle, however I think there are still too many VPs awarded for killing units in comparison to the objectives. In retrospect, I think I should have assigned points in the following manner… primary obj (5 pts), secondary obj (2 pts), tanks/dreds destroyed (1 pt). That keeps the focus on the objectives as there would be only 4/3 VPs available (respectively) from kill points.
I’d placed the two marine objectives on the Doom Eagle’s left, with the Rescue objective in their corner and the Bane Blade more towards the center close to the orks deployment zone. I did the same thing for the Bad Moons, placing their two objectives on the ork left and in the same relative positions. My thought was that both would load up their deployment on the half of the table that was in line with their objectives, could move forward to secure the objectives and then wheel to try and drive the opponent off of one of their objectives, probably the primary since that would be closer. That was the idea anyway…

Here's the table.

As you can see the deployment zones and objectives are marked. Since the Bane Blade was so big the actual "objective" was a hatch on top of the turret. There is a large fluid transfer junction in the center of the table with rubble walls and ruins scattered around. Generally I prefer fewer larger, more realistic sized terrain pieces but these scattered pieces seem to be the standard, including at our local shop so I want with it. Perspective aside, the two armies objectives are basically in the same relative positions. The table doesn't quite look that plywoody in person... camera flash does it no justice... though I have been researching some options for improving it's look, but for now, it was quick and cheap, and if it gets messed up (the kids paint their figures, do homework, etc on it) you can just spray paint over the mess and you're good to go!

Oooh! i want to see this battle report! I bet your a massive inspiration to your kids.

@million, sorry i just had to put what you said in my sig. I almost wet myself.

good idea to have the tablefor multipurpose, i need too get a battlemat or gameboard or make a board cos when at home i just use the table -brown oak wood (i think)- and it looks rubbish!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Good idea to have the tablefor multipurpose, i need too get a battlemat or gameboard or make a board cos when at home i just use the table -brown oak wood (i think)- and it looks rubbish!

The Armies:
This was Thing 1’s introduction to army builder. I showed him how to select units, add members and pick wargear… he pretty much did the rest. Thing 2 told me what units he wanted to play with and I just filled out the list around it. Sorry about the quality of the photo’s, I oversimplified them a bit to save on size. You’ll note that both armies are rather motley as some of the Doom Eagle vehicles are still in Mantis Warrior colors and the orks are using a couple of my beloved Epicast vehicles that I just picked up on the web & haven’t had time to convert and re-paint yet.

Doom Eagles (2000 pts exactly)
HQ: Librarian w/ jump pack, force dome, machine curse, epistolary
HQ: Chaplain
Elite: Terminators (10)
Elite: Techmarine w/ Servitor + plasma cannon
Troop: Tac Squad (10), rhino, flamer, missile launcher
Troop: Scout Squad (5), missile launcher, Sgt. Telion
FA: Vanguard Veteran Squad (10) w/ 3 plas pistols & relic blade
FA: Attack Bikes (2) w/ multi-meltas
Hvy: Predator (2 las cannons, autocannon turret)
Hvy: Vindicator
Hvy: Whirlwind



Bad Moons (2000 pts exactly)
HQ: Grazghkull Thraka
HQ: Old Zogwort
Elite: Burnas (7) + mekboy w/ CMB
Elite: Nobs (8) + painboy & orderly in trukk, 3 PK, 3 BC, ‘eavy armor
Troop: Slugga Boyz (10) + nob w/PK in trukk
Troop: Slugga Boyz (29) + nob w/PK & 3 BS
FA: Deffkopta w buzzsaw, twin-linked RL
FA: Deffkopta, twin-linked RL
FA: Deffkopta, twin-linked RL
Hvy: Deff Dred w/ 3 CCW & skorcha
Hvy: Battlewagon w 2 BS, 2 RL & Zzap Gun, ‘ard case, armor plates, rigger
Hvy: Battlewagon w/ 2 BS, Killkannon, ‘ard case, armor plates, rigger




Again please keep in mind that I specifically did not meddle too much with the kid's choices... as they both seemed like solid, balanced lists I let them take the lead with very little modification on my part. I did help Thing 2 a bit, but everything out there is something he picked... I just helped with numbers and war gear.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
I thought it would be interesting to "interview" each boy to see what their thoughts were on strategy once they'd seen the table and listened to the rules. Here's what I came up with...

Thing 1 (Doom Eagles)
Does not feel that the Baneblade is attainable by a scoring unit, so will capture the secondary objective and try to deny orks their primary obj & win in kill pts. Command counter is given to the terminators... not exactly certain why. Tac squad in rhino will drive forward into ork center. The Vanguard assault squad will move to the bane blade with the attack bikes in support. The two ordinance weapons will eliminate the ork killkannon and flama squad/Zogwort. Termies and dred move into cover and forward through ruins.

Thing 2 (Bad Moons)
*lots of enthusiastic pointing and gesticulating and sound effects from the 6-year-old* In essence… the command squad and burnas will press hard on the left flank. The two battlewagons and lootas will hold the center and shoot. The lootas have a command counter and will secure the secondary objective). The ork right flank will advance and try and take out the assault squad while the truk boyz move to the primary objective. Deff kopta’s are in reserve for tank killing duty & objective contesting.


Deployment

As you can see, my clever idea of "They'll move onto their own objectives and then wheel to face their opponent." theory pretty much died before turn 1. The marines deployed heavily on their right flank, away from their own objectives, freed by the "we don't need no stinkin' primary objective" battle strategy... while the orks deployed more-or-less as I'd envisioned (granted Thing 2 had a little guidance from me, so it was self-fulfilling prophecy). Both boys did grok the the idea of sitting a scoring unit on the secondary objective, though Thing 1 would have been better off with his scouts on the objective and his tac squad free to roam.

Can you you show us bigger pics of the individual units?

It might be kinda sad that I am watching this with the interest of the Superbowl. I am very excited to see how this all plays out. The Orks look good in yellow by the way, I wouldn't mind seeing a few more pictures of them on the blog!

Sure... orks first.

I get a lot of orks off the net, most painted decently but they're not really "mine" until I give 'em a good goin' over. So here are a couple of photo's of things that I feel are mine, either painted from scratch or significantly re-painted.

Da Boyz... and yes, there's a Santa ork & grot in there. There's a story to go along with that (of course). Real reason is I finished painting the mob on Christmas day and decided to recognize the occasion.



Really proud about the job I did on the lootas, took forever (have a full squad of 15)... but the figs are so 3-dimensional that a 2-d photo never does them justice. Dred turned out nice too, used an old Skorcha turret for the burna arm.


Slowly converting this old Epicast Bowel Burna into a proper Bad Moon battle wagon. Took a lot of fiddling to get the tone of the yellow right, but I think I've got it. Once it's all painted, I'll add painted on details and weathering.

Wow, awesome stuff. Must have been really fun. As for your warbosses, even with my low GS skill, I managed to make a sweet conversion with mine. I cut off the head and gun arm, before placing the head on an GS neck so he was looking down the length of his klaw. The gun arm was Green stuffed so it swung out horizontally, just out of line with the klaw. He resembled Grotsnik when done.

I'm pretty sure you could do something better than that one of the spare Bosses, if you put your mind to it.

Now the marines...

Since you've already seen photo's of the assault marines & termies, I'll skip to the units you haven't seen...

Commanders, painted and given to my son by the friend who got me into 40k all those years ago...


A quick re-paint of some of my cheap, old Mantis Warrior scouts. Didn't realize until I took the photo how bad the faces were... will have to fix that. Camo cloaks are made out of masking tape and look just fine.


My son's paint job... work in progress, though the right bike is closer to finished than the left.


Predator painted by my son, and a quick re-paint of a Mantis Warrior rhino done by me. That poor rhino is on it's 4th paint job... and there's evidence of each one still visible (though mostly from underneath). Kind of my own version of "living history".


I don't include photo's of the Mantis Warrior equipment as it'll all eventually be re-painted anyway.

Hope that suffices... GS

Im sure its based on "what I have" but on an objective heavy game id take more then 2 troop choices.

I agree, but I wanted them to have the freedom to choose the troops they wanted to play. Since Thing 1 pretty much abandoned the concept of playing for the objectives from the get-go, I guess it didn't really matter for him at least. I have the write-ups done, late tonight I'll work on the photo's and should have the whole report posted by 11ish (CST).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I know I promised the battle report tonight but I forgot to e-mail myself the narrative... however, I've uploaded all the photos (they should be better than the past ones so you can see the detail & zoom in a bit) and will load the whole thing up tomorrow morning. Again, sorry for the misfire.

Finally, the long-awaited... much anticipated battle report, in it's entirety...

Turn 1: SM go first
Doom Eagle command, realizing that they have no units capable of freeing their pinned brother marine from the rubble in the area, issues orders to have Tactical Squad Kappa proceed as quickly as possible to the secondary objective, while the predator on the left flank moved towards the center. The terminators with Chaplain Norton and dreadnaught move forward though the rubble to blunt the ork assault on the right with the scouts providing cover with their missile launcher The vanguard assault squad and attack bikes move cautiously forward, not wishing to be overrun by an early Waaaagh. Marine shooting phase goes extremely well, they destroy the center (yellow) battlewagon with vindicator fire, kill 6 slugga boys with the whirlwind, the psycher uses machine curse to take out one of the CCW on the dred, and the center trukk loses it’s big shoota.
Bad Moons move forward aggressively, undaunted by the space marine’s devastating opening salvo. The nob trukk and burnas move up on the left, while the mob and deff dred advance in the center. The boyz trukk makes a mad dash down the middle toward the bosses statue, their primary objective for the day. The orkish guns awake into a blaze of dakka… in retrospect, it appears that the orks might have loaded extra powder into their weapons instead of actual bullets, for when the shooting phase was over, one attack bike had one wound… that was it.


Turn 2:
Doom Eagles continue to advance on the right flank through cover. The left and center both stay pat and opt for maximum shooting capability instead of taking ground. For the second turn in a row, the marine shooting phase is devastating. Doom Eagle attack bikes point their meltas ad the deff dred, superheating the fuel tanks and causing a massive explosion that turns a near-by slugga boy into lumpy cinder. The whirlwind salvo deviates into an area that is even more favorable than the place it was aimed at, killing 9 more slugga boys. Autocannon fire from the predator blows up central trukk and the resulting explosion kills half the squad inside who rout (eventually) off the table. A round from the vindicator knocks the big shoota off the other ork trukk and a hail of bolter fire from the terminators wipes out most of the lootas (but they pass their morale test). Everything shooty for the Doom Eagles has worked insanely well, most shots hit & wound, templates only deviate to better locations, armor penetration rolls nearly always penetrate, damage rolls are high (3 or better). Of course with no effective saving throws the orks just die by the dozen.
Bad Moons are in a sad state, having lost roughly 60% of their forces without causing a single casualty of their own. Two of the deffkoptas arrive for the orks, one from each flank. Shooting does nothing but a buzzsaw armed kopta takes the autocannon off the pred & shakes & stuns it. Graz & Co charge forward into the dred and smoke it, then consolidate into cover behind the terminators. The killacannon on the last remaining battlewagon lands perfectly in the middle of the tank/tech marine cluster in the Doom Eagle center, but fails to have any effect on either the whirlwind or vindicator’s side armor or the tech marine and only wounds the servitor (who dies). Zogrot zapps himself, taking a wound and pinning his squad of burnas in the open.


Turn 3:
I must mention that at this point, I’m playing the orks. My poor little 6-year-old has been great up to this point, but he just can’t take the beating anymore and loses interest in the game. I don’t blame him, don’t yell at him… the game has been no fun for him since the first shot (which blew up his battlewagon), so I let him go. I’m a stubborn SOB though and feel the need to try and make a game of it for my son’s sake. My thought is to take out as many 2 VP vehicles as possible with the deffkoptas, get the empty, gunless truck across the table so it can contest the marine’s “Rescue” objective (counting on the truck being a low priority target) and hide everything else & shoot at the vanguard squad… hoping to survive with my own secondary objective. Probably can’t win, but I might be able to make it close. This was also a lesson for my eldest son, who has a tendency to give up the minute things start to go badly… I wanted him to see that in spite of all outward appearances, if you keep thinking and fighting you might just have a chance to make things interesting.

Doom Eagles are now moving aggressively forward on the left flank, and the terminators respond to the threat posed by the nobs on the right. For the first time, a marine ordinance templates misses, both of them did actually. The vanguard assault squad wipes out the remaining boyz mob (takes both assault phases) but takes 2 casualties in the process. The terminators assault and destroy Grazghul and nobs but lose 2 (should have lost four or five but Thing 1 made 5 of 7 invulnerable saves) then consolidate into cover.
Bad Moons need help, and they get it. The last deffkopta arrives and comes in from the left. The surviving battlewagon moves cruising speed into corner, yielding the opportunity to shoot to make sure it doesn’t get assaulted by the vanguard. Surviving (nob) truck moves flat out towards the vindicator. The lootas forgo shooting to move into the ruin in front of the secondary objective, which should block them from LOS while securing the objective. Shooting from two deffkoptas blows up the whirlwind and immobilizes vindicator. Shooting from other deffkopta takes out the lascannon on predator & the following buzzsaw assault stuns and shakes it again. On a high note… Zogrot uses his special power to turn the Doom Eagle Chaplain, Brother Norton… into a squig… so…. Brother Squignorton I guess… A small measure of justice at least. (I did have Thing 2 make this roll, so at least he had the satisfaction of squigifying one of the marine commanders.)


Turn 4:
Doom Eagles continue to press their advantage in infantry. The terminators advance on the nearest deffkopta, assaulting and killing it while on the other flank, the vanguard move aggressively towards the last concentration of orks in the corner of the board. The Doom Eagle psycher knocks out the last remaining heavy ork gun, the killakannon on the battlewagon. Luckily for the orks, all other shooting fails to either hit or wound, including two multi-melta shots from the attack bikes on the deffkopta w/ buzzsaw.
Bad Moons are finally able to kill the predator with a bazzsaw assaulting deffkopta and stun Vindicator with shooting and assault from the other deffkopta. The battlewagon, Zogwort, mek and lootas all shoot at assault squad, killing only one marine. This was the pivotal failure in the end game. If the shooting had significantly damaged the vanguard, the orks might have held out with Zoggy to stay in the game… but with a cherry veteran assault squad piling in, there was little hope left for da boyz. Meanwhile, the empty, weaponless ork truck meandered ever closer to the marine secondary objective, unmolested…


Turn 5:
Doom Eagles actually don’t have much to do at this point as there are only a handful of orks left on the table. The two attack bikes move up and slag the deffkopta with buzzsaw, the terminators and Squignorton move towards the last deffkopta and shred it with storm bolter fire. The vanguard and librarian wipe out Zoggy and burnas in close combat.
Bad Moons are determined to see this through, at least to the end of the turn to see if the game ends. The trukk makes a mad dash towards the marine objective, tank shocking the attack bikes on the way. The bikes decide not to death-or-glory, and FAIL their morale… keep in mind that they’re only about 8” from their own table edge at this point. Could be an easy VP for the orks….. no…. they only fall back 4”. But, the truck does get to the marine objective, contesting it.


At this point, the whole thing hinges on a single die roll. Yes the orks have lost, but if the game ends right here it might be worth counting up the points… Thing 1 rolls…. once again, no love for the orks… the game continues. Looking at the immediate demise of two of the 3 remaining ork units (truck would be taken out by attack bikes and tac squad in rhino, lootas by the vanguard)… the orks finally call it quits… but can gain some measure of solace in knowing they were fighting and scheming up to the very end.

Epilogue:
“That went better than we could have hoped.” said the Doom Eagle Librarian to Tac Sergeant Valus.
“Yes Sir, the orks just never recovered from our opening salvo… it was just a mop-up operation after that.”
“The bane blade?”
“Forge Master Darius reports that it will be up and running within the hour Sir.”
“Praise the Emperor for his favor sergeant, may tomorrow go as well.”
“Praise indeed Sir.”
---
“Sergeant.”
“Yes Sir?”
“Brother Norton just peed on my leg…”
“I’ll take care of it Sir.”


*KA-POW!!!*


“Thank you sergeant.”
“No problem Sir.”

-finis-

A small measure of justice...


At this point, I make note of the fact that I have not laid a brush on one of my own figures since I started this blog. As I have tournaments to prepare for, I need a bit of time to actually do work, rather than just blogging about it. When Thing 1 finishes re-doing the terminator squad, I'll post the results so you can see the fruit of his labors based on your advice. I'm not closing the door on conversation of course... more than happy to do that, just saying it'll be a bit before I do another major post as they take a lot of work and I have other things that need doing. Cheers! - GS

Awesome battle report! I loved it when you showed Thing 1 to never give up, even in the face of impossible odds. You're a good dad.

agreed

Thanks guys. It was interesting to walk the kids through my blog post last night... Thing-1 was very curious to read my "take" on things. The review made Thing-2 sad again (I read it to him), but he'd bounced back by the end of the night and was talking about the next game. All good!