Podcast Reviews, From Start to Now: Screaming Heretic

If I want to be honest for these podcast reviews, and I suppose I should be, I would have to say that Screaming Heretic is, so far, my least favorite of the three that I have listened to.

It’s similar in style to The Overlords; it’s funny, gregarious and focuses more on hobbying and fluff than tournament play and strategy. The hosts are enthusiastic and clearly enjoy the hobby, even if one of the hosts might not do anything to actively participate in the hobby; like painting, playing or building models.

In all honesty, I have to say that my dissatisfaction with Screaming Heretic might have to do with a personality clash more than anything. There were times that I laughed harder than I ever did listening to any other podcast. I picked up a lot of great hobby tips and a lot of relevant and interesting tidbits regarding other miniature and tabletop games. I love Joe’s enthusiasm for every aspect for the hobby and I even love the more bitter and cynical flavor that Chaos Dave and C Swizzy bring to the ‘cast.

I would have to say that Screaming Heretic feels very much like a clique that I’m not a part of. They go to the hip parties and reference in-jokes with people I don’t know and hang out with writers and game designers and I always feel like I’m on the outside looking in, rather than a part of the group like I did with other podcasts. There’s also a tendency for the ‘cast to go right off the rails and while it can go to interesting places or hilarious places, most of the time it’s just an express train to Inane-ville. I think with a tighter focus, Screaming Heretic could quickly eclipse the other podcasts I currently listen to.

This is probably just my inferiority complex rearing its ugly head. Like I said, it’s a solid hobby-based podcast that appealed to me on a lot of levels. I especially loved their review of the Forgeworld Horus Heresy rulebook and their examination of the fluff. And I love their cuss-word based approach to Warhammer 40K and the fun they have is infectious.

They’ve definitely earned a place in my regular podcast rotation and I give it five Chaos Dave Snide Remarks.

-D-

Previous Podcast Reviews, from Start to Now:

The Overlords

The 11th Company

Podcast Reviews, From Start to Now: The Overlords

I don’t think I could have picked a podcast more different than The 11th Company in terms of tone, focus and accents. The Overlords is both a gaming group and a podcast coming out of London. The cast has rotated a fair amount in the three years that they’ve been online, but, for the most part, it’s been Jon and Steve holding the reins, with folks like Dagmire, Ciaran, Shagga, Mark, Jason, Steve #1, Sarah, Sam, Teras, Skew, Dean and many, many more hopping in front of the mike before disappearing for several episodes and then reappearing again.

The Overlords cover a broad range of topics from Black Library Books (and talking with Black Library authors like Sarah Cawkwell, Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden and Gav Thorpe) to fluff and narrative  forging to tabletop tactics to the various specialist games that surround Warhammer 40K to slide whistles. In fact, if a subject happens to be connected to 40K, no matter how loosely, there’s a good bet that The Overlords will talk about it.

Listening to all of their episodes is interesting in that you can see a very definite trend toward more: more jingles, more guests, more contests, more people in the studio, more hours, more and more and more! And then…the build-up stopped. Now,very rarely are there more than three people on the cast talking at a time. There are only introductory jingles for the hosts and the guests and not for every segment. As a whole, the podcast has been slimmed down and is much trimmer and, while I am a little sad that it’s not as…ah, zany as it used to be, I think their podcast has hit a proper stride. It’s more focused, taut and ready for action.

With Steve’s departure a few episodes back (which was depressing, as was the absence of all the rabbiting at the end of each episode), Jon and Jason are in charge now and, with the exception of new jingles and a new singing voice gracing the airwaves, it’s much as it always has been: lots of laughs and lots of general 40K discussion.

If you’re interested in 40K in all its various forms, if you love the Black Library and modeling and painting and if you love to listen to people who clearly enjoy the hobby more than should be legal, check out The Overlords.

I give it Five Dagmire Innuendos, A Ciaran Wail of Dismay and Ten Jasons Laughing.

-D-

Previous Podcast Reviews, From Start to Finish:

The 11th Company

Links:

The Overlords Website

The Overlords Facebook Page

Study Session

I have a confession to make: I haven’t gotten past the assault rules in the rule book.

I’ve never been great at rule books and instructions. Once I hit the second sentence explaining, in detail, the minutia behind how to do something, my eyes start to glaze over and I find my attention wandering. I much prefer to learn by doing. Unfortunately, seeing as how I don’t have a standing army, that’s going to be pretty hard for me to do.

Today, I settled onto the couch, hellbent on getting through at least the assault section, but midway through the bit about a model charging through difficult terrain I flipped to the back of the book and began to read about the Imperium instead. I flipped some more and read the bits about Orks. Did some writing on the computer. Made some lunch while listening to The Overlords (Good podcast. At least, two years ago it was. Still in 2011 at the moment.). And now it’s 8:30 and all I really know about assault is that I think the Roll to Hit, Roll to Wound mechanic is absolutely absurd.

I want someone to explain why those two rolls can’t be reduced to a single roll, with the defending model taking an armor save after a successful hit to see if they take a wound. You can get rid of the toughness stat completely. In Dungeons and Dragons the two rolls make sense because the second roll determines how much damage the critter takes, not whether it takes a wound or not. Since the number of wounds in 40K is pre-determined, can’t they just make it a single roll to hit?

Anyway, I’m assuming I’m missing something. Hell, I haven’t even finished the rule book.

Hopefully, by the time I’ve finished building a playable army, I’ll have waded through the rules. And my Codex, which I’ve at least skimmed through once or twice AND printed out the FAQ from Games Workshop.

Oh, other new players, you’ll find that if your codex hasn’t been updated since Sixth Edition has come out that Games Workshop has released a FAQ that corrects and amends the rules in your codex. Go here to find your codex’s corrections.

Tomorrow, I’ll try and put up a painting guide on my new genestealers.

-D-