Norway - A road trip - Part I

We just came back from holidays in Norway, a road trip which started in Romaniemi (Finland), went to the Lofoten Islands and ended back in Romaniemi. The trip was great, with some fantastic moments but also with some down moments. This is, more or less, the story :)

Background 

We were two families with kids. One family was of three members, two adults and a baby girl of 16 months of age; the other family was of four members, two adults, a girl of 4 years and a boy of 2 years old. Both ladies were happily  pregnant.We rented two campers from the company Touring Cars which has branches all over the Scandinavian countries. The reason to take the campers on Romaniemi (Finland) instead of directly on Norway was the price difference. In Norway the high season includes already the first two weeks of June, whereas in Finland only the two last weeks of June are considered high season. Therefore the rental price was around 95€ per day instead of 270€ per day.The campers were Hymer-Ford, of the "capuchine" type, they were not identical but very similar. The main difference was that one was having a permanent bed on the back of the camper whereas the other one was having a living space which could be transformed into a bed. On the middle of the camper there is the main table, which can also be transformed into a bed and then on the front roof, there is the other bed. So, every camper was having three beds, which was more than enough for our needs.The family with the two kids got the camper with the living space on the back site. This configuration reduces the storage space accessible from the outside of the camper, but once the living space in transformed into a bed, gives a lot of space for storage just below the bed. The distance from the bed to the floor of the camper is not so high and a little one falling from there to the ground will suffer only a minor scratch (real case). As the two kids were sharing this bed and the parents were using the upper one, the table in the middle was always open as table, so no modification of the camper was needed on a daily basis.The family with the baby girl got the camper with the permanent bed on the back side. The distance from this bed to the floor of the camper is higher than on the other model, maybe more than one meter (4 feet, even), and there was a indication that the bed was not suitable for a baby between 0 and 6 years, the same applies to the bed on top of the driving seats. So, the whole family shared the bed on the back so that the baby was not able to fall down to the ground. So, in this case the camper was probably oversized for us but still not a big problem.

Route

This here is a image capture of a google map with the relevant points on the trip. As stated, we arrived to Rovaniemi by plane, took the campers and cross into Sweden following the road to Pello (Finland) toward Narvik (Norway). Short of Narwik we went north into the Lofoten. At the Lofoten we visit some places that are not in this picture, but the main path is accurate. In Andenes we stop to take a boat to see the whales (more on that later) and cross towards Senja with the ferry (more on ferries later).

At the end we travel 2108 km at an average speed of 62 km/h, which I think it is quite good.

Practicalities

The Scandinavian countries share a lot of features, such as an amazing landscape, but also differ in a lot of small things which can make you live not so easy.
Currency: Finland is in the Euro-zone and therefore uses Euro as currency. Norway and Sweden on the other hand still have their own national currencies. All the three countries take credit cards and even debit cards, but not everywhere. For example, in Norway, on Henningsvær, we were almost not able to buy dried codfish as the factory was not able to accept cards and we were having not enough cash and the absence of a cash machine (we were told that the closest one was in Svolvær, which was a few kilometres out of our way having passing that city already the previous day).
Gas bottles: the camper uses gas for heating, cooking and for the fridge if you are not plug to the electricity network in a camping area. Our one was equipped with two bottles of around 15 litres each. It is possible to buy gas bottles on any petrol station. However, the connection piece on the top of the bottle differs in each Scandinavian country, so our Finish camper required Finish gas bottles. I was a bit worried that we were going to run out of gas in the middle of Norway, but at the end, we arrived to Rovaniemi without having emptied even one of the two.
Mosquitoes: They say Finland is the country of the thousand lakes, better say the country of the million of mosquitoes. They manage to get inside of the camper even with all windows closed. We were only on Finland upon arrival and prior to our departure, so in total not more than two-three days, but it was enough for us to get devoured by the mosquitoes. Norway, having not so many lakes, but more running water and specially salt water fjords is basically mosquitoes free.
Reindeer: As with the mosquitoes, they are absent from Norway, at least from the Lofoten area, but plenty on the border area between Sweden and Finland. You will find them on the side of the road, walking, crossing or just looking to you. They are look tamed and quiet, but we did try to approach them, just took some pictures from the camper. Other drivers can flash you the lights to indicate you that you are going to find some reindeer on the road ahead of you.
Camper drivers: According to the guy in the rental agency, it is a common custom between the drivers of campers to greet each other on the road. I tried to do every time, but I will say that only three quarters answered, although I also have to say that I was not always the first one to initiate the greeting.
Road: The E10 which we followed is quite narrow. It has two lanes, one in each direction but there is no space on you right further than the lane. Once the lane finished there is a more or less abrupt drop in the terrain. You should picture the road as slightly elevated over the surrounding terrain, so if you drive out of the lane you will fall with the camper maybe a good meter in some places. The main road, E10, is pretty well maintained, however some irregularities and holes are to be expected, as well as the required maintenance works, which in one case, when we were driving towards Å i Lofoten were quite annoying as they were quite extensive and intensive.


I also wanted to talk a bit about the camping places and the places we visited and the activities and so on, but I will do in other posts, otherwise this post will be enormous and I will never finish and publish it.

Say "yes" in Vallejo

Probably I will expand later this post or maybe write another one about the topic and other related phonetic issues, buy for the moment I will try to keep this post short.
The Spanish proper name Vallejo, which happens to be also the name of a quite popular brand of paints is usually mispronounced by English speakers (also by German and Dutch, and in general any speaker of a Germanic language).
The word Vallejo has three syllables: Va-lle-jo
"Va" should be pronounced as the "ba" in Baltimore or in badminton
"lle" should be pronounced like the "ye" in yes and not as "le" in Lex (Luthor)
"jo" there is no close sound for this syllable in English, but people more or less got the idea from other Spanish words like "jamón" or "Jerez" (not only a kind of alcoholic stuff but also the city where it comes from)
The main issue of mispronunciation is on the "lle" syllable, so please don't say "le" in Vallejo, say "ye(s)".

Tau Sept Colours

Following my acquisition of the new Codex for the Tau Empire last weekend I am again in the mood of playing Warhammer 40K and more importantly of painting further my Tau army.

I have some models I got second hand and I just got 12 Fire Warriors more and a Hammerhead with removable and magnetized parts which looks very nice, it is almost assembled and not even primed.

My idea so far is to keep the models which are well painted as I will not be able to do such a good job even if they are either in the usual Tau light brown or in a kind of camo pattern based on grey and green (five metal  Stealth suit models) and try to remove the paint from the others and choose a colour pattern myself. I am still not sure which colour combination I will prefer but for sure not Tau brown, maybe something like the urban colour schema that you can see in the new codex or in the White Dwarf issue 400.

However, one thing that is really important for the Tau, more that the colour schema of the armour is the Sept colour. This colour is present as geometric motives or lines on the armour and is common to all the Tau soldiers from a specific Sept, so it sounds like a good idea to have a list of the colour of each Sept so that you can know which one to use or to choose.

The new Codex includes the colours for some Septs but not for all of them, this is the list I was able to compile so far with the reference where to find the information, the names of the colours are Capitalized as on the source:

1st Sphere

• T'au - White Scar (White Dwarf issue 400); old codex (2006), page 59, Skull White
• Tau'n - new Codex (2013), page 87, dark grey
• D'yanoi - new Codex (2013), page 89,bright blue; old codex (2006), page 59, Ice Blue 
• Bork'an - Sotek Green (White Dwarf issue 400); old codex (2006), page 59, Hawk Turquoise
• Dal'yth - no information available
• Fal'shia - new Codex (2013), page 89, unnamed colour, looks pale yellow
• Vior'la - old codex (2006), page 59, Blood Red 
• Sa'cea - Troll slayer Orange (White Dwarf issue 400); old codex (2006), page 59, Fiery Orange 

2nd Sphere

• Au'taal - new Codex (2013), page 89, bright green; old codex (2006), page 59, Scorpion Green (now Moot Green)
• N'dras - Abbadon Black (White Dwarf issue 400)
• Ke'lshan - new Codex (2013), page 89, yellow; old codex (2006), page 59, Golden Yellow
• Elsy'eir - no information available
• Tash'var - no information available
• Vash'ya - new Codex (2013), page 89, unnamed colour, looks lila or pale purple
• T'olku - new Codex (2013), page 89, unnamed colour, looks emerald green

3rd Sphere

• Ksi'm'yen - no information available
• Fi'rios - new Codex (2013), page 87, unnamed colour, looks very pale green-grey

Update:

from the link provided in the comments by anonymous:

For the Great Good - Tau first two battles

In a previous post I told you about my new second hand Tau army, today I will speak about their two first battles or glorious defeats :)
The first one saw only infantry involved as we are trying to get the rules step by step. My opponent got a starter set and was having the Space Marines ready for the game. There were two squads, a big one with several Space Marines, one of them armed with a nasty heavy weapon and blast effect, and a second one of 5 guys in Terminator armour (2+ saves).
For the Tau I was fielding two Fire teams (each with 12 soldiers) and a 12 members Kroot unit.
We did not check for the balance of points as our intention was to try the rules and see how the game mechanics worked, winning or losing or any army points consideration were left aside. Although we were pretty sure that the Tau were "under pointed".
Anyway, we set up a table on the long, so that the Tau were pretty far away from the Space Marines and were able to enjoy the 30" range of the Pulse rifles, however the one Space Marine with the heavy weapon with range 36" also got some Kroots dead.
The good thing was my initial great rolling as the Tau Fire Teams managed to kill 3 of the 5 guys in Terminator army in the two first rounds of the game.
The Game, by the way, was decided to be played on 4 rounds, with a central primary objective worth 3 points and as secondary objective were First Blood (1 point) and Line Breaker (1 point).
All the Tau were in the back basically all the game shooting from the distance and trying to stop the guys in Terminator armour who were advancing towards the central primary objective. The rest of the Space Marine forces started the game in a corner inside a ruined building, out of their weapons range (except for the mentioned 36" heavy one) and were "tasted" by the Tau pulse rifles, but later moved carefully outside of the ruins and under cover of a chemical reactor and some walls tried to move towards the primary objective. The Tau were waiting for them and the first one that showed his ugly face from behind the chemical reactor is still looking for the insides of his skull on the battlefield. The rest just hunker down behind the cover and let the guys in the Terminator armour control the central objective.
The Tau were not able to get clear fire lines to the two surviving Terminator armour guys and were trying to maneuver into a better firing position, that leaded to the dead of more Kroots who actually managed to fail a Morale test and Fall Back out of the board and giving the Space Marine player the First Blood secondary objective.
At the end of round four, the guys in Terminator armour were still there, controlling the primary objective and  not scared at all of the fire of the Pulse rifles.

The second battle was against an Ork army. This time we agreed on 500 points and at least a vehicle to try the rules further.
The Ork fielded a kind of open truck, a unit with three bikes, a heavy unit with three guys and a very impressive leader again in 2+ armour and a normal unit full of orks (a lot of them).
For the Tau I field a Hammerhead with the Rail Gun configuration, a five members stealth team, all of the with the Burst Cannon, a unit of 12 Kroots (they should have been 14 o 15 to be close to 500 points but I forgot to check the number of Kroot on my bag and I was short of points again...) and a team of 10 Fire warriors with Pulse rifles.
This time we used the long side of the table for deployment, so we were having only 4" to deploy and the central 24" as battle field.
Again I lost the roll to see who decided to start the game and I deployed first, which upon reading now again the rules should have made me the first one in activate my units but actually my opponent deployed after em and activate before me... Well, next time :)
Anyway, I deployed the Hammerhead in the left corner, behind a very low hill, the Fire team on the right corner, behind a slightly higher hill, the Kroot to the left of the Fire team, just behind a broken wall (forgot they were able to infiltrate...)
My opponent deployed the normal ork unit in front of the Fire team and the rest of his troops mainly on my left side, so in front of the Hammerhead.
I deployed the Stealth Team in the open, in front of a container, to the left of the Kroot and a bit deeper into the battlefield. I was counting on the 4+ save given by the stealth armour.
The battle field was having an impassable swamp in the centre of the table, some wall, a container of each deployment side (from the AT-43 game), a chemical reactor close to the hill on my right, the one with the Fire team and a ruined building also on that side, but on my opponent deployment zone.
Primary objective with 3 points was controlling the reactor, secondary objective again First Blood and Line Breaker.
This time we decided to have variable game length, so rolling on the 5th and 6th turns and ending on the 7th the latests.
The heavy orks started inside of the open truck which was also a transporter but it was not able to move more than 6" to be able to disembark the orks, so my opponent was a bit disappointed with that. Anyway the truck moved around the container on his deployment zone a disembark the heavy orks who moved closer to the central swamp. The bikers joined them there and the normal orks tried to approach the chemical reactor. As the frontal armour of the Hammerhead was impenetrable to their fire weapons nothing serious happen to it, however the stealth team in the open lost one member (bad roll in the save and good rolls in the attack)
The Fire team moved on top of the hill and fired upon the normal orks, the Kroots moved also to the left to have a good view of the same orks and fired also against them, together they kill enough to force a morale check, but they past it.
The stealth team jumped on top of the container and got one of the bikers but the hammerhead was not able to get any one of the heavy orks. As in the first game, those 2+ armours were a problem for the Tau.
In the next round, the ork bikers and the heavy orks killed two more stealth guys, the remaining Tau failed the morale test, and fall back and eventually left the field, again First Blood for my opponent,
The hammerhead was again not able to score any casualty to the enemy, but the Kroot and the Fire warrior finally decimated the ork unit, leaving only two guys to fall back. They managed, however in the next round to regroup with a double one (!!)
The biker managed to get close to the hammerhead and assault and destroy it with four penetrating hits.
After that I was ready to concede the game as no one of my troops was able to stop the heavy orks, but we play a turn more, wherein my Kroot moved to be able to fire a half range against the heavys but without any success.
The counter attack of the heavys killed enough Kroot to made them fall back and the bikers were able to approach the Fire team on the hill.
This time my opponent was convinced of the Tau defeat and we finish the game.

With only two games and a very imperfect knowledge of the rules I can not say a lot about the future performance of the Tau. I need to learn my army before I can talk or criticize it with any rigour, but one think is clear, I need to field people able to hit 2+ armour with a certain amount of dices To Hit. The Hammerhead has an Armour Piercing (AP) of 1 but it is "only" a Heavy 1 weapon, so basically you roll one dice against a unit of 4 heavys and will Hit one with a 3+ (Balistic Skill is 4 for the Hammerhead). This does not sound to me a too much, it is like flipping a coin. After that you need to Wound but the enemy can save (Cover, for example).
Reading the Tau codex I was thinking about the plasma rifle with AP 2, 24" range and rapid, which will roll two dice below 12", but for that I will need to field Crisis battlesuits.
Also the Stealth teams can field a Fusion Blaster, AP 1 and range 12".
Don't know yet, need to re-read the rules again and see what can be done.
Now, I see the Hammerhead as too short on To Hit dices but again, I still need to learn how my army works.
More soon....

Star Wars X-Wing Miniature Game - Unboxed and 1st impressions review

Well, after listening to the d6generation podcast I was were enthusiastic about this new game, so I ordered the basic core box and this is what I found inside :)

Three very nice ships: two Tie fighters and one X-wing. Contrary to what I was told, the material allows for deformations of the models and actually the X-Wing four cannons are not perfectly straight but I can life with it.
The ships are supposed to fit into a plastic peg which goes into the base. Those pegs are cylindrical and with the corresponding holes for the fitting, which are not round but have wedge shape so that the pegs do not rotate when mounted. This translate in that the ships can also not rotate over the base.
This should no be a problem BUT the X-Wing is not perfectly aligned with the orthogonal position, so any person will instinctively try to fix it right by turning (when we try the game, after assembling the ships it was precisely that what my friend and opponent for the game tried). Luckily he knows how delicate this join points / pieces are and did it carefully and realized his error on time, but imagine the opposite and you have a broken ships or peg. The second is not so much of an issue, the first, well...
I think this is a particular bad design point of the ships, which on the other hand look very nice and detailed.
I do not see the need of a fixed peg which can not rotate. I think this complicated the components without offering any substantial advantages

Further components:

 And all the pieces on the table :)

1st impressions

The rules:
They come in two sections. Basic and Advance rules. The basic rules are really basic. I would not play with only them, they are too simple and the game offers nothing in terms of excitement or tactics at this level.
The advanced rules are a bit more complex but not very good. I will explain.
The ships can not collide with each other. The movement is performed using templates which fit into the base of the ships and it is very fluid and easy, however if two ship bases overlap at the final position of the ship moving, nothing really happens except that the moving ship "breaks" and stays just before the other ship, in base contact and they can not declare themselves in attack.
On the other hand, there are rules for obstacles, such as asteroids, whereas if you fly through the obstacle (the template overlaps with the obstacle) or you finish your movement in the obstacle, the moving ship get an attack of 1 dice.
The reasoning for the non-collision of ships is that the space is 3D and big enough for the ships to maneuver so that they do not collide, this reasoning seems not to apply to the obstacles.
I see the point of the obstacles as an interesting feature of the game (and needed) but then, why limit it to other obstacles and not extend that also to ships.
Maybe I would like to ramp with my Tie fighter the insidious X-Wing. But, this is alas not possible with the actual set of rules.
Also, the game is supposed  to represent 3D combat, however the rules are totally 2D. There is no indication of different levels of altitude, so all the ships are flying on the same plane.
I know this game is based on the previous Wings of Glory, but I cannot recall if that game was having altitude rules. If not, why no one bothered including them here ? If yes, why they removed them?
I know that it is very difficult to represent 3D on a 2D board, but this game not even tries to do that, it just ignores it.

The Core box:
Not enough. Just so simple. The box is 30 €, it is true, but with three ships it feels a bit short. We got the impression that at least another core set would be needed to start to enjoy the game and to see some tactical challenges.

The Missions:
We play the first mission, the escort of the Senator twice, changing sides.
The scenario is very neat in terms of winning of losing it, as the movement of the Senator ship and the attack of the Tie fighter are borderline in terms of who will win. Actually in our game, the Rebel won once and the Imperial the other.
However, the X-Wing which escorts the Senator is pointless. It has more shields and hull that the Tie fighters, so it is very difficult for the Imperial player to destroy and for what reason? The objective of the scenario is clear, destroy the Senator ship. So, the Imperial player will launch both Tie fighters against the Senator and disregard the X-Wing.
If the X-Wing makes a wrong turn it would be out of game as it takes ages for it to turn back into the combat and obviously, the Senator ship would not wait for it as two Tie fighters are just pounding on him.
So, basically the Senator runs forwards at maximum speed and the X-Wing try to destroy the Tie fighters which by ignoring him can concentrate fire on the real target.
If the X-Wing destroys a Tie fighter and being honest, he can do one Tie fighter per turn with a bit of luck, nothing really serious happens. At the end of the turn, the Imperial player gets another Tie fighter as reinforcements coming from his boardgame side which is the same side the Senator has to go.
So, think about this, the Senator is running towards the direction from which one the Imperial reinforcements are coming !
Therefore if the Rebel destroy a Tie Fighter, another exactly equal appears in a better position as it would be directly in front of the target to destroy.
Now, tell me, why will the Rebel player try to destroy Tie fighters ? Just to avoid two of them firing to the Senator, yes, point given, but that would only be so if the X-Wing manages to destroy one Tie fighter, each and every round.

The second mission is Lucke Skywalker trapped inside of an asteroid field waiting for four complete round before being able to activate his hyperdrive and scape in the fifth round.
At the beginning I was very excited because we were using some of the characters from the movies with better stats, but it does not matter if you are playing with the core set.
In the first mission, the Tie fighters are on the hands of Academy pilots which are both equal and with pilot skill lower than the Red Squadron pilot of the Rebel player. So Imperial moves first and attack last.
In this mission, the Imperial have again two pilots with pilot skill lower than the Rebel pilot, only difference being that the imperial pilots have different skills and one goes before the other, but again both go before the Rebel pilot and attack after.
Yeap, true, they have special skills and so, but it feels a bit too short again.

My final impression ?
Well, I am disappointed. The reviews I read and specially the podcast crew, they were all very excited about the game, the rules, the scenarios and so on, and maybe they are right, maybe the game is great, but with the Core set you do not feel it so, or at least, I do not feel it so.
But, even if I would have two core sets, two advance Tie fighters and one Y-Wing, the 2D rules would be the same and I cannot see me expending around 100 € in miniatures for a rule set which is below optimum.
Maybe if there would be a More Advance Rules, then maybe...

Also, the FAQ is already there and a lot of people apparently were discussing what my opponent in the game calls "millimetre discussions". That is, when you start arguing about the relative position of a ship based on an accuracy which is far beyond the experimental error of the game.
You are moving not so heavy items over card board templates with your hands !
Of course it is not possible to make machine precision movements. Of course, it would be never possible to move a ship in a crowded area of the board without disturbing the others, specially when the template has to go over those other ships.
Therefore I found funny that one of the FAQ was about how to use the range ruler, if its broadness was used for the measurement or not, so that you can add one or two more millimetres to the arch of fire of the ship. I find this ridiculous.
In the first game we play, after two movements, there was one situation where a Tie fighter was dubiously able to fire against the X-Wing. My proposal was to use a dice, my opponent says, "no, too much dices is no good, we will give the advantage to the attacker always". We could also have given the advantage to the defender. That is not the point, the point is that some people need a ruling about one millimetre (!?)
Anyway, it was not my intention to criticise anyone.
Coming back to the game.
It is a nice game, but with several shortcomings. The rules could be better and it looks like just an excuse to collect Star Wars miniatures. This last is not so bad if you are a Fan boy (which I am) but still.
Maybe I am just tired of investing money in games to which I never play...


Update: I almost forgot, I was so in a disappointed mood and maybe a bit depressed too that I just decided to invest my money in people instead of in plastic and so I visited the Extra Life Charity Event under the sponsoring from Craig Gallant (from d6generation). Here the link just in case you decide to give away some money to help some Children's Hospitals:
http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=34681

Landing Pad for 28mm - Final Update

Well, after some time without doing anything more on that project I think I am done with it :)
I mean, I do not intend to add more details.
As you can see in the picture, I painted two pairs of landing lights, two greens for the front, the approaching face and two reds for the back side of the landing pad.
The size is 23cm x 17 cm (9" x 6.7") which fits quite nicely with my Tau Devilfish and the two escorting drones ;)
Hope you like it.

Tau Army unboxed !

Yesterday I just got my new, second hand Tau army. How can an item be new and second hand at the same time ? Quite simple. I never had a Tau army, nor anything from Warhammer 40k, only long time ago I was the owner for a short time of a starter set of Warhammer Fantasy, I think to remember that it was the 3rd Edition, but maybe I am wrong.

Anyway, with the 6th Edition of Warhammer 40k recently released and after bothering and yammering all my gamer friends, finally some of them are decided to try to play a short of campaign of Warhammer 40k.

The only problem was that we were not in the possession of any army, except for two guys, each of them with an ork army.

In a previous life, exactly when I got the starter set of the Warhammer Fantasy I was talking about, the Tau were released by 40k, and I remember my thinking how nice they were.

However, I never played with my starter set of Fantasy and some time after that I just tried once the 40k but not really my thing at the time.

A lot of things happened since those times. I played AT-43 and developed an itching for painting scenery. So far I have not painted any figures, only a vehicle and some walls and similar stuff (some of then are in this blog somewhere to see).

So, I decided to get a Tau army from the web, a second hand, assembled and painted. Therefore, new for me, old for the guy selling it :)

On ebay I found a pretty big army by a decent price and luckily for me I was the only one bidding, so I got it without too much trouble.

The army arrived just yesterday :)

In a huge box with a lot of protection material :)

However three models were broken during the transport :( but were easy to fix :)

Unluckily one of the metal sniper drones is missing :) and the seller so far did not reacted to me :(

However, a whole five members stealth team was included which was not in the pictures on ebay :)

So, in general terms I think we (me and the seller) are even.

Now, to the pictures: 

On the back, the stealth team, on the right some drones, half of them very nice painted the other half open  to my experiments :)

The two sniper teams, each with an observer and in theory three drones, but as said, one is missing. Also the Ethereal with the base on which it was needed to glue him back.

The Fire teams, 24 members, although two of them seem to be scouts or pathfinders or something different. Some are nice finished, others again open to my unskilled experimentation :) 

An the three vehicles. Nice painted. The Devilfish in the left allows for the back door to be open so that you can see the inside of the transport bay. Great detail.

Now we only need to read the rules and try them out. More (I hope) in next posts :)