Combat Storm Free Download Terrain Building Pack 2

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Back in January we shared information on a new FREE building pack for Combat Storm. We even shared a video tutorial, crafted by Dave Reiter, to show you how to construct the buildings in the pack.

Today I received another e-mail from Dave Reiter, one of the geniuses at Strategy Wave Studios that makes the game, about a new FREE download. You heard that correctly. Combat Storm players and would be players can download the free building pack. This pack lets you make one middle eastern building and two dumpsters crafted in four colors. Print it out a bunch of times and you have a small town.

Before you download the building pack be sure you have Adobe Acrobat Reader as the pack is a pdf file. You can get Acrobat Reader, for FREE, at Adobe Acrobat Reader. I have version 8.1.1 for Mac OS X Leopard and the building pack shows perfectly!

Combat Storm Middle Eastern Building with Dumpsters Combat Storm Building Pack 2 Layout

According to Dave 

In future news, we also have artists currently working on some more new papercraft buildings, as well as some papercraft cars and trucks. I think you guys will really enjoy the vehicles as they really add so much to the battlefield both visually and strategically. Vehicles offer good cover for your squads and really bring street fighting to a whole new level.

New Blog Layout: i3Theme 1.6 Classic (Center Edition)

For almost two years now we’ve been using the same old setup.  All the major content is at the left and all the sidebars are on the right.  We’ve used one sidebar, two sidebars, one sidebar, and finally two sidebars.

After two years change has spread to the CWF Game Cast.  We have adopted the i3Theme 1.6 Classic (Center Edition) as our new official, shiny, and aesthetic layout.  The theme bares an uncanny resemblance to our previous layout, the i3Theme 1.6 Classic (Right Edition), with one major change.  We now feature a left and a right sidebar with the main content in the center.

This is a layout comfortable and familiar to most users and is one of the most requested changes by visitors.  This past July we celebrated our 3rd birthday, under the blog setup, without fanfare.  Changing layouts is a birthday gift from us to all of you.

We believe you fill find the blog more intuitive to use than ever before.  Despite the change you should still fill at home.  We kept as much as possible in the same place and working the same way as before.  You can still rate articles at the top of articles.  You can still find related content at the bottom of a post.  You can still leave comments the way you used to.

This, we hope, will herald some new advances in functionality.  We are unhappy with WordPress’ so called improvements to adding media into posts.  The gallery merely creates a jumbled version of pictures as evidenced by our War at Sea Task Force Picture Gallery (don’t open unless you have broadband).  We like what we see at Battlestar Last Supper ‘Mind’ Photo on my friend’s blog.  Click the picture in that blog post and you’ll see what we mean.  He’s using a plugin called Lightbox to get that to happen.  The official Monsterpocalypse website has a similar setup that we enjoy.  As does the blog of WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and to our knowledge he’s only using the basic gallery setup from WP 2.5.

Some old friends have been removed and some will hopefully return.  Upgrading to WP 2.5 caused a lot of problems and we removed some features to maintain functionality.  One such feature is WP-Polls, which we hope to return in the not too distant future.

In the meantime we’re continuing to provide you with the best gaming content we can.  We’ve been spending a lot of time on War at Sea and its new release Task Force.  Coming around the bend in the beginning of 2009 is Monsterpocalypse.  Plus, there’s always a slew of 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Warmachine, and board gaming news.

War at Sea: Task Force FAQ

Wizards has released an official FAQ for Task Force, which is the new War at Sea release.  The game became available for sale this past Friday and prompted lots of discussion regarding hopeful misprints.

Thankfully Wizards heard the dissent and answered the questions in their document.  We’ve turned their FAQ into a proper pdf file so you can download, print, and use it at your leisure.  This is a document that will be quite helpful to have at hand.  Not everyone checks online for updates and there’s a good chance that at least one member of your gaming group still believes the U-66 has speed 2.

While we could say go to War at Sea Task Force FAQ and read the pdf (you need the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader) that wouldn’t be much of a blog article.  I know you, the reader, come here for more than my sparkling personality and superior gaming intellect.  Yes, I am jesting.  But seriously you enjoy, at least I pretend you do, my analysis and thoughts on the gaming issues at hand.

Some of the entries I knew about last week, say Thursday (after I opened several of my cases) or Friday but most people did not.  Richard Baker, lead game designer for War at Sea, announced a few of them on the official, read horrendous, Gleemax WoTC forum.  Most, however, of the entries are new.

I strongly believe that several of the entries are unnecessary expenditures of time and energy on WotC’s end.  For example of course the Jean Bart, the bane of my existence, only has one turret.  If it was supposed to have more than one then everyone who pulled one, or in my case many, would have more turrets.  At bare minimum we’d be able to compare with other gamers and see that our Jean Bart was the only one with a single turret.

The question relating to the SM.79 is yet another space waster.  The Advanced Rules book specifically states that patrol bombers cannot base on a carrier.  More exactly it says that “carriers can only base Fighters, Dive Bombers, and Torpedo Bombers (p. 31 Advanced Rules book).

Luckily most of the questions are very good and the answers very helpful.  In particular the two dealing with smoke screens provide an answer to many questions.  I’ve been entrenched in a debate on the very issue all weekend long and at last the answer is at our fingertips.  Wizards has backpedaled and said that the rules for the Lay Smoke Screen SA from Set 1 is the way to handle it.

Other entries are helpful, and in my opinion should have been addressed before the release, but the star goes to solving the smoke screen confusion.

War at Sea Scenario: In Harm’s Way

On Saturday last we discussed the 1st official War at Sea Scenario by Wizards of the Coast.  Action Deferred: The Battle of Cape Teulada pitted the British versus the Italians in the Med Sea. Before that we shared the scenario Lions, Tigers, and Bears: The Battle at the North Cape. This time we have the 2nd official scenario to share with all you War at Sea fans. The scenario is titled In Harm’s Way: The Battle of Sunda Strait.

We found this, and the first, scenario in response to a comment made by Dane in the Lions, Tigers, and Bears article. For a long time we’ve said that reader participation makes this blog excel and Dane’s comment is yet another example. He prompted us to do the legwork resulting in our sharing two more great War at Sea scenarios.

Firstly, there are some required equipment that you will need to play this scenario. Take a gander at the list below to make sure you have everything.

  1. Maps. Use Battle Map 6 from page 6 of the Advanced Rules Book.
  2. Scenario Rules. Download them, read them (you need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader), and print them.
  3. Ships and Planes. Allies take 1 USS Baltimore, 1 HMAS Sydney, and 1 HMS Javelin (reinforcements). Axis take 3 Kinai Maru, 1 Jintsu, up to 5 Yukikaze, 2 Myoko (reinforcements), and 1 Yukikaze (reinforcements).
  4. Dice, tokens, and other standard accouterments.
The scenario depicts a Japanese invasion of Borneo and a combined American, Australian, and Dutch force trying to prevent the invasion. Whichever player has the highest VPs at the game’s end is the winner.  Points are scored differently for each side.  The Allies get 4VPs for each Kinau Maru crippled, 8VP for each one sunk.  They also get 2VPs for each crippled Japanese DD and 4 for each one sunk.  Lastly, they get 2VPs for each crippled Japanese cruiser (Jintsu and Myoko) and the full points cost for sinking cruisers.

The Axis get 1.5 times the point value of every sunk Allied ship.  They also get 12VPs for each Kinau Maru that is not crippled or sunk by the end of game.  The game ends when there are no longer vessels of one side remaining.

There are other special rules dealing with Unloading Transports (Kinai Marus cannot move), Battle Shock (severe movement restrictions for the IJN), Night Surprise (a remedy for Battle Shock) and of course reinforcements. Looking at the house rules we advise against using them because the official WAS Rules Clarifications and special abilities for models in Task Force adopt some of those house rules.

Be sure to check back for more War at Sea Scenarios.