Assault Dice - Software Review

  I have had this software on my iPad and iPhone for some time now, and realized I had never talked about it.

  Assault dice is available from the App Store for the iPhone and the iPad and it is actually quite a good program.   What is it?  It's a die roller.  It's a monster number of dice roller too.  It lets you save multiple layouts and dice setups so it is very flexible as well.  On my iPad I can roll up to 120 dice at once, so look out Astra Militarum!

  The way it works is relatively simple.  It has a built in tutorial that gets you familiar with the layouts and how to manipulate them. 

  You go to the main menu and open a new layout, then you add dice of the appropriate colors.  After that, it's a simple tap to roll the dice.  The program handles re-rolls easily, if a bit wonkily.  Once you have your dice rolled, you press and hold on a die to highlight all the dice, then you un-hilight the ones you want to keep.  The dice that stay highlighted are re-rolled when you hit the roll button.  At the top of the rolling screen you get a summary of the results making it very handy to count hits.

  Since you can have multiple layouts, you can have particular layouts for specific units.  Since you can add multiple color dice to each layout, you can have them separated by weapon type or whatever you need. You can also add new dice as you go in each layout, so it is very flexible and easy to use in a game situation.  You can also 'trash' dice easily if you go down a few hits due to casualties...

  There is also a scatter die screen with a pretty nice visual reference of the direction.  Kinda cool!

  When all is said and done, it is very handy, well programmed, even if the interface is a little wonky in certain places.

  As a side note, the first version of the program did have a problem on re-rolls, where the dice would hit other dice and change their faces, this has been fixed and it no longer does that, so have no fear.

  The roller is set up for 40k, but it is quite simple to use for other games with D6s as well. 

  Overalll, this one gets an A- from me.  Only because the interface is slightly odd in spots.  But it is very good in all other ways.  I only wish they had a D10 option.

Age of Sigmar App Update - Getting better

  Well, they updated it again.  I have to say it is getting better, marginally. 

  I was going to update the app earlier this week when I purchased the Stormcast Eternals book using the in-app purchase methodology.  Needless to say, it did not work at all.  I could download the book but it would not let me read it.  I was a pit peeved, ok, alot peeved.  But there was an update yesterday that added alot of features and it seems to be coming along... again.

  For starters, the books all work now.  Yay!  All the sourcebooks and battle-tomes and the painting guide are available in the app.  Buying the book unlocks all the warscrolls and material from that book in the appropriate sections.

  What is new is the ability to add the Time of War and Battle-Plans to your "My Battle" listing.  This gives you the ability to have all the rules for your current battle in one place, and easy reference to them.  A big improvement.

  In the reader, it still remembers your place in the book when you close it, and the table of contents allows you to navigate the books better.  It is still not as handy as the pure iBooks version of the books, but it is at least, useful.

  you can also now purchase "battlepacks" which is all the app related content from the particular books.  So if you have the book in some other media type, you can just buy the parts that matter to the game in the app.  Very handy and well done!   A great way to make money on the same content twice!!

  For now, I have to give it a decent enough C+, maybe a B-.  It still has some clunkiness, but I do not see them adding in the functionality of a full ibook reader, that would compete with their iBook sales.

  At least, I can finally say, this is a decent app to pick up and use.  I can recommend it, at last.  Way to improve things, GW.   They must have fired the 8 year old and hired a 15 year old :)

Age of Sigmar App review - update

  Well, they did it, they updated the app so it's only fair that I update my review.

Still lame - but getting better.  Not worth the $$ yet, that's for sure.

So, the fixes that I can see are;

-- In the book section, you don't lose your place every time you open the book.  It used to start you back at page 1 every time you opened or switched back to it.  This was a major bummer.  While the advertisement says this update adds a table of contents, I can only see this table of contents on my iPhone.  It does not work on the iPad.  They also say you can "re-download" the book using a "long press gesture".  No freaking idea what that is, and nothing I seem to try will re-download the book.  So, the book is still pretty much useless for anything other than a quick read of the fluffy bits.
 <Edit - 1752MST - You can get chapters on the iPad version, you just have to delete the app and re-download it, restore your purchases and download the book again.  Crappy programming!> 

-- The new "how to paint" section is actually just an opportunity for you to buy the e-book version of the how to paint Age of Sigmar book.  There is no 'how to paint' section of the program.

-- You can now buy individual war-scrolls that you don't have unlocked from the book purchases.  Again, this is freaking annoying, since if you buy the hard cover or e-version, you have no way to tell the app and unlock them in the app unless you pay for it again.  Worthless ass money-grubbing.  But at least you can buy all the scrolls for 99 cents each.  <what a freaking joke>

-- The rules section works now.  Wow, it took weeks to un-f%&k up a 4 page pdf?  The 8 year old programmer must have gotten to that page in the objective-c programming book.

  So, where before I gave this an F-minus for shitty execution and crappy programming, I will upgrade it to an D-plus for shitty execution and crappy programming, but some fixes.

  I must still advise you to run away from this garbage.  Perhaps I should clarify, run away from purchasing books on this garbage.  Having the rules and scrolls is pretty handy overall though, so it is worth the download.

  Also, I was asked to clarify where I came from on this, so I should say that I use a couple of things for my opinion.  First, the utility of the enhanced editions of the 40k codexes.  Second, the Privateer press digital rulebooks and their War-Room apps, both of which are pretty damned decent apps overall.  Lastly, I have programmed in almost every major language since high-school (in 1982).  So, that's where it all comes from.

  See ya soon!!

Age of Sigmar IOS App = junk

  Folks, you know me as the GW apologist, I freely admit it.  But I'm here today to warn you off downloading the app and then buying the book in the Age of Sigmar app for IOS.  It's just not ready yet.  In fact, it's waaaay not ready.  It seems to work ok on the phone, but the iPad version is just junk. 

  Here is the review I gave it on iTunes  (a 1 star review)

Wow, is this ever lame.  Free app, sure, but you get nothing for that. You spend the $50.00 for the book and guess what?  It's useless!  No bookmarks, no annotations, nothing to make it even remotely useful. Free rules?  Not hardly. My copy has not ever displayed the rules, not once. This is bad programming and money-grubbing to the extreme. Run, do not walk, away from this loser.  Spend your $50 on the real book.

   When you spend the $50+ for the book, you get a crappy copy of the book that does not even have the layout done correctly.  The typeface is incorrect and you get a lot of blending and overtyping, especially on the headings.  You cannot bookmark it, annotate it or anything.  Hell, it does not even have a table of contents to go to different parts.  You have to MANUALLY flip through the thing to get to pages you want.  Forget flipping back and forth through the scenarios.  The "rules" icon does not work, and never has for me.  (It does work on the phone though, just not the ipad version).

  It does load up and display the data sheets for your units, and allows you to flag sheets for the game your playing, so that is cool, but this app is not done and not ready.  There is no way to flip through your data sheets, you have to close one and open another.  It's as if they had a programmer slap this thing out in 30 minutes and then forgot about it.  Pure drivel.  

  Just remember, these are my experiences and ymmv.  The iPhone app seems to work decently, but I use the iPad app, and that is my choice of platforms. (old eyes don't like phone screens... lol)  I expected something on the order of the enhanced Codices from 40k and got junk. <sigh>

  So, take this as you see fit..

Software Report: PaintMyMinis A+

  Every once in a while, you find an app that you never thought you needed, but the minute you see it, you say... Why didn't I have that before???  PaintMyMinis from Scriblab Products is just that software!

  If you have painted minis for any length of time, you probably have a small art book, a notepad or some collection of notes that shows you just how you mixed that awesome color for your favorite mini.  You make those notes so that you can go back and duplicate the effect or color any time you need to.  Well, PaintMyMinis is that book, except that it resides on your iPhone, and it becomes your notebook on steroids, with some serious awesomesauce thrown in.


  What does it do, you ask?  Very good, you're paying attention!

  It allows you to make annotations, record paint mixtures, record the layers you use on a particular mini or group and way more than that too.  You can even use the app to help you determine the color scheme for your army, squad or single mini, it has a built in color wheel...  It does so many things that you never realized would be helpful, that it is WAY worth the $2.99 price tag!  Right now, it's on the apple app store, there is no other version I know of.

  The interface takes some getting used to, so I highly suggest going through the tutorial on the website and readying the manual, also on the website here.  Once you get the idea of how the author uses the different steps/layers, it becomes very easy to define your basecoat, layers, highlights, washes and the like.  Entering the information for your paints and washes is laborious the first time, but once it is in there, you can use it all the time.  If you use the full range of Citadel, Reaper and Valejo and badger (and so on...) paints, you're in for a treat :)  But once they are in there, you can define your own mixtures, define layers, make custom washes to your hearts content.  Oh, and you can do some other GREAT things like export your formulas to share with friends (or paste into a notebook??) AND... this is cool, you can export labels for your newly created formulations of washes, paints and use those to label the jars you keep all over the place.  How handy is that????

  This app really does so much, I can only touch the surface.  Suffice to say that is great app, made by a painter for other painters!  Check it out, for less than the price of a pot of GW paint, you can buy a tool that you will have for life!  This is really a great tool, and you won't regret it!! 

  After the jump I'll have screenies (Stolen from the website!) and some thoughts about the program's functions.

Hobby Management - Project Tracking Spreadsheet

  Ok, so I was listening to the video-cast from WGConsortium last night, and they were talking about how they stayed on track with their hobby work commitments.  Made me start thinking about the spreadsheet I use to track my stuff, so I thought I might share the sheet I made.

  It's real easy to use, and be warned, it has no protections or cell locking, so you can mess up the format pretty easily.  Luckily, that’s not really a big deal.  It's just a tool I use to keep me on track of where I am on any particular project or task.


Here are the columns and how they all work;

Unit = The name of the unit I need to work on.

Index = The number of the fig from the squad (10 space marines would get #s 1 thru 10)

Loadout / Notes = I use this column to keep notes on the weapons each fig gets if it is not to be magnetized or anything else I need to remember.

The next 8 columns are the check off area.  They use conditional formating in Excel to go from red to green if you type anything but a space while the cell is highlighted.  This is how I get the 'bar graph' effect that shows me with a quick glance where I am.

The columns are;

Built - is it built and ready for the next step?
Magnet - Is it magnetized (if necessary)?
Primed - Is it primed yet?
Basecoat - Base coat applied yet?
Painted - Painted is the big time eater :)
Based - is it all based up and ready to go?
Detailed - are all the final details done? (Clearcoat, clean up, bits added)
Complete - Ok, all done now!

To use these columns, you can enter any character (except a space) and the cell will change from red to green.  If you decide to go back, just highlight the cell and hit delete, it goes red again.

The last three columns are rarely used, but they are for

Due Date - Really?  Hobby Deadlines... I hate that
Estimated Time - How long do I think it will take, in hours
Actual Time - How long did it really take... lol.  I use this to modify my guesses in the future.

  So there it is, pretty simple, but it works for me, and it might for you.  Who knows?  I'll just leave it out there and you decide it it's useful or crap.  Feel free to change it however you like, it all free.

The link to the file...  Blank Build and Paint Plan (xlsx)

And a filled out one for example...  Eldar Build and Plan


Hope you like it and see ya soon.

iPad Software: Quartermaster

  I just recently purchased Quartermaster for the iPad.  I had tried it a few times in the past, but never really considered it.  This time I tried to actually use it to build a list and went through all it's features.  I have to say, it's pretty darn good.

  First off - It is not Army Builder or even Battlescribe.  It will not prompt you through to make a completely legal and certified tournament list.  If you are not sure if certain combinations of weapons/effects can be used, you will need the codex by your side. 

  That said, if you know what you are doing, and do not want/need your hand held during the list building process, this is a GREAT portable list builder.  You get all the options and none of the overhead.

  To start, you have to get the program, here are the links;

Quartermaster Web Site Link

iTunes direct link

  Then you will need Templates.  Templates are the files used by the program to generate the lists and all the assorted options that come with those lists.  You can either download the Template files or make them yourself.  I'm a lazy bugger, so I downloaded them.  There is a great site for them here;

QM Templates website for Quartermaster Template Files

  Keep in mind, the template files are separate from the program for the same reasons that they are separate for Army Builder and such, Intellectual property/copyright/oh bugger off rules.  It's not a problem with the program or the software, it's just the silly rules we live by.
 
  Now that you have everything installed, build lists to your hearts content.  It really is as simple as tapping to add the unit, then tap the unit's name to add options to it (like Force Swords and Heavy Bolters and Lascannons, oh my!)  From the main screen, you will see a listing of all your lists built so far (or the two demo lists that come pre-made).  AT the top right is all the menu items.  YOu can edit the templates (or add your own) from here.  The Star button is nice, it allows you to designate favorite lists which are then moved up the screen to be at the top for easy access.  The blue + button makes a new list.  It does not ask for point limits or what rulesets you will be using.  That is up to you.  It does keep a running total of your list points though.