BrikWars News

Brickshelf gone for good?

Copied over from the Brothers Brick LEGO Blog:

Whether you host your own images there or not, Brickshelf is one of the cornerstones of the online LEGO community. As many of you visiting this blog will have noticed, none of the images hosted on Brickshelf are currently working, and if you've been to Brickshelf.com in the last few hours, you will have seen the following text - and nothing else - on the home page:

"Brickshelf has discontinued operation. We apologize for any inconvenience."

They follow up with links to discussions across the Lego fan community, since this caught even the most insidey of insiders by complete surprise.

As always, the vipers and trolls who've come to dominate dialogue over at Lugnet jumped at the chance to spew out their trademark backbiting and venom* - but in the absence of any official comment from Brickshelf, their negativity's started to bleed over into the other communities of more legitimate Lego fans. What will happen? What's going on? No one knows. All I know over here is that it means that more than half of this site's links broke overnight. Everybody try and be patient until we get a clearer picture of what's actually going on.

	The Brothers Brick: Brickshelf gone for good?
	Brickshelf.com: Brickshelf has discontinued operation

* - footnote: yes, of course I recognize how retarded it is to backbite backbiters for backbiting. This is the kind of thing that never stops being funny to me, despite the opinion of the rest of the civilized world.

Sosuke vs the Karate Triplets

My schedule's been packed lately, but I'd be completely derelict in my duty if I didn't make a note here about the fact that BrickArms just released a giant pile of new weapons that are simply unbelievable. You'll all be especially excited to hear that we can finally get some minifig-compatible grenades.

Or, you would be excited to hear that, if that's what I were here to tell you about. But the real reason I'm posting is because I want every one of you to go watch this clip on YouTube before it gets taken down. Merely witnessing it will make every one of you a better BrikWars player. It's a quick clip from Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, and and it may represent the finest grenade-based attack of all time.

	YouTube: Sosuke vs the Karate Triplets
	BrickArms, the Modern Minifig Armory

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Sosuke is a religious adherent to the Rule of Fudge.

New Artwork: The Horse

One more quick piece of desktop artwork for your enjoyment - this time it's the Horse, prancing through showers of flower blossoms without a care in the world. He's a little more life-affirming than you may have come to expect from BrikWars art, but his passenger is much more in line with the usual fare.

The horse and the gryphon rider painting from the last post are the subjects of two cards for the upcoming Horses chapter. The Horse is a new unit, while the Rider is just an alternate version of the Pilot with whom you're all already familiar.

	The Horse (1600x1200, 294k)
	More desktop backgrounds on the Downloads page
	Stat card: The Horse
	Stat card: The Rider (alternate version of The Pilot)
	More stat cards on the Supplements page

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What's the skill roll for prancing among posies? This horse seems to have scored a critical success.

Happy New Year

Happy 2007 everybody!

I was listening to the AllAboutMiniatures podcast today, and someone wrote in to say that BrikWars is the Wargames Unlimited group's single best game. All right! We're number one!

Although on closer inspection I don't really think we're a Wargames Unlimited game, I'm happy to accept the accolade.

Meanwhile, over on Classic-Castle.com, Fryslayer has put up a new chapter in what's becoming a series of comic-book style battle writeups, this time for "Attack of the Spiders."

Lastly, I've got a new desktop graphic for everyone! This one's a gryphon rider I painted up for an in-the-works mini-chapter on horses and other steeds.

	The All About Miniatures Podcast
	Wargames Unlimited
	Fryslayer's post to Classic-Castle.com: "BrikWars - Attack of the Spiders"
	"Attack of the Spiders" BrickShelf gallery
	The Gyphon Rider (1280x1024, 180k)
	More desktop backgrounds on the Downloads page

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Who remembers Buckbeak? I hope we get to see the gryphon elements reused in future sets someday.

Night Elf

I got a surprise package from Hong Kong last week - Red Bean (from the Minifig Customization Network and BrickForge) sent a custom minifig of the night elf pictured on BrikWars' Scout card. Sweet! So I've dressed her up nice with a Dementor cloak and a BrickForge longbow and snapped a photo for a Scout card alternate version.

	Scout Card (Alternate Version)
	The Minifig Customization Network
	BrickForge custom minifig accessories

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What I wouldn't give for the ability to print custom metallic-gold decals like these!

Mechaton Goes Gold

This month Vincent Baker released one of my very favorite brick-based games as a professional product - Mechaton is a game that's impossible to not love, combining battling Lego mechs with some very clever and elegant dice mechanics.

Unfortunately the Lumpley Games site seems to be in some kind of transition state between discussing the esoterics of the game and actually trying to sell it, so it's not completely easy to find all the relevant material just yet. I've gone through and collected good links here so you can connect the dots.

	Lumpley Games
	The original MechaTon rules PDFs
	A Mechaton play report between Vincent, J, and Emily
	"MECHATON: GIANT FIGHTY ROBOTS" for sale at the Lumpley Games online store

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Giant Fighty Robots! Who can resist their fighty allure?

Catching Up

The Christmas rush has still got me working ninety- and hundred-hour weeks, so I've gotten behind on answering e-mails. The one question that's piling up more and more in my inbox is about when and whether BrikWars will have a print or PDF version ready for Christmas.

The short answer is, probably not - I don't have enough free hours in the next month to do all the necessary print layout work, and all the badgering of Wayne that I expect to make a part of that process. (Did I say badgering? I meant "consulting"). But I thought I'd talk about the plans currently in the works. I've laid out a list of the main bullet points and posted them to the Frappr forum.

Also, Fryslayer made a post on Classic-Castle.com a few months ago about custom wargaming banners. These have been the topic of much behind-the-scenes discussion over here, especially as an attractive way to show unit stats or even as special Squad-buffing equipment items.

	Plans for the BW2005 PDF on the Frappr Forums
	Fryslaer's War Gaming Banners on Classic-Castle.com

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Fryslayer's First Company Archers, Vanguard, and Castle Guard banners for the Black Falcons army

The Bricks Only Wargame

Here's something I've been hoping to see someone try, a wargame using nothing but bricks, from dice to rulers to stat sheets. Alban NANTY has just announced his Bricks-Only Wargame on the Classic-Castle forums, and it's played from top to bottom with Lego elements.

	The Bricks Only Wargame
	Banban's announcement on the Classic-Castle forums

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It's all about the bricks - even the BOW logo is made out of Lego elements.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody!

I just got back home from a month of traveling, and what a month! It kicked off with NWBrickCon in Seattle, where BrickArms was showing off their new MP5 and PSG1 sniper rifle. I got a pile of the new items from BrickForge (formerly Red Bean Studio) right at about the same time; I'll post further news and photos of all of these when I get a spare minute.

Ben Fleskes was up at the con doing demos of his new Lego strategy game - he hasn't made any public announcement about it yet, but I from my play-through it was pretty cool indeed; I'm keeping an eye on his website for any news. I also had the chance to catch a quick lunch with Stephen Fisher while I was up there, who's managed to beat me at every BrikWar I've played against him in the last five years or more.

Unfortunately anyone in my line of work knows that November's the heaviest workload of the year, so it may be a little while before I have time to put up posts and photos for everything that's going on lately - which means there's also not a lot of hope for a printable PDF by Christmas this year; apologies to everyone who's been asking. But keep your fingers crossed, you never know when I might suddenly get a free week off for Thanksgiving or something.

	New guns on BrickArms.com
	Lots and lots of new stuff going on at BrickForge
	Ben Fleskes' site has no info about any new strategy game... yet

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Happy Halloween!

And happy birthday BrikWars! BrikWars turns 11 today. Spoooooky!

Little Armory Brings Out the Big Guns

Just a few months ago, brickfans looking for modern weaponry for their minifigs were out of luck. Then, in the space of a few weeks, we suddenly had new weapons coming in from all directions - and now we suffer from what is almost an embarrassment of riches.

I've just received a shipment of Little Armory's new military weapons (along with the long-awaited release of their medieval Great Helm), close on the heels of BrickArms' similar assortment a few weeks earlier. The Little Armory molds are as awesome and detailed as I've come to expect, no surprises there; but now that we've suddenly got multiple options, which guns are the better buy?

I've set the two lines up for photos and side-by-side comparison over on the forum; it's worth a look if you're at all interested in staging any kind of modern minifig combat.

	Little Armory Toys Inc.
	BrickArms L.L.C.
	Modern Firearms Review on the BrikWars Frappr Forum

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Now you not only get to have an M4 carbine - you get to choose your favorite style of M4 carbine. We've entered a BrikWars golden age!

Scout Card

Ninjas got you down?

The Scout unit has an uncanny knack for spotting traps, hazards, and Stealthy opponents - as well as performing targeting support to help your ranged units take down tricky foes.

Sorry the stat cards are coming out so slowly - I'm not suffering from any lack of unit ideas (there are still plenty of classics from the 2001 roster to burn through, for instance), it's a matter of finding time in the schedule to do the artwork. I haven't solved that little problem just yet, but I luckily just found an old illustration of a Dusk Elf lying around on my hard drive that makes a nice portrait for the new Scout card.

	Stat Cards
	The Scout

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Ninja, please.

Classic Castle Battles

A couple of guys on the Classic-Castle forums have started posting their battle reports comic-book style. Sibley's using the standard BrikWars rules, while Fryslayer uses a homebrew variant geared to the more serious wargamer entitled, appropriately enough, Fryslayer's Medieval War Gaming System.

	Fryslayer's battle galleries
	Sibley's battle
	Fryslayer's Medieval War Gaming System, posted to the Classic-Castle forums

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Check out some great work with custom graphics on Fryslayer's cloaks and banners.

Viking Chess

Looks like LEGO is going for army-builder sets in a big way this year, likely related to the surprise success of last year's Knights' Kingdom chess set even despite the replacement of the white team with the somewhat less-inspiring color of Barbie blue.

The medieval lines this year have already shown unabashed nods to the army-builder crowds, with the Knights' Kingdom "Battle at the Pass" set and the Vikings even more up-front "Army of Vikings," which is good news for BrikWars fans. But they've just also announced the upcoming show-stopper of army-builder sets: this year's chess set is Vikings themed, and this time they decided to go with both sides being awesome instead of just the one.

	LEGO Vikings Chess Set
	LEGO Army of Vikings with Heavy Artillery Wagon
	LEGO Battle at the Pass

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When it comes to pillaging chessboards, Vikings are way better than a bunch of pastel-colored footie-pajamas-wearing crossbowmen.

Illusionary Craft

I haven't had a lot of time to post lately, so a bunch of links have been piling up in my slush file. Today I was checking out one of them, a freshly-released brick wargame entitled "BATTLE!"

BATTLE! is a pretty straightforward medieval-army game, with a little more realism than most of the other brick games in the genre. I was interested to see that the game is part of a larger site called Illusionary Craft, with LEGO models, battle photos, and an attached blog covering not only questions about the game but also part customizing and reviews of LEGO sets.

The site looks like it's pretty new, but even in the early stages of development it's still worth a visit.

	BATTLE!
	Illusionary Craft

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This hungry alien will be happy to welcome you to Illusionary Craft.

BrickArms

There's been quite a bit going on the last couple of weeks, although I haven't had time to post. BrikWars got a full review on All Games Considered a few weeks ago, much to my surprise - please ignore anything they say about chapter eight. I deny all knowledge of how they might think that it's missing.

In unrelated news, a new custom-parts shop has opened up to answer the unfilled need for minifig-compatible modern and WWII firearm elements. And they're high-quality bits, too; I just got a big batch delivered and I'm loving the designs. Check out the new offerings from BrickArms.com.

	All Games Considered
	BrickArms, the Modern Minifig Armory

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These minifigs have been waiting a long time for weapons like this!