Hannibal Rising

Not wargame related but I recently finished reading Hannibal Rising and though I'd post some comments about it.

Be warned, I fully discuss the book so if you haven't read it then feel free to skip this post.

The Wikipedia link above has a succinct description of the plot of the book. Suffice it to say that the book serves as a way for Harris to explore and ultimately rationalise the behaviour or his iconic character Hannibal Lector. Lector, we are told, develops into a monster in reaction to the murder and cannibalisation of his younger sister during WWII. Hannibal and his sister are the sole remaining members of his family left after a Stuka bomber and a T-34 explode outside the family hunting lodge killing everyone except the two children.

They are found by a roving band of German Freiwillig volunteers that are now marauding around the country-side eating everything and one they find.

At one point Harris infers that Lector may have participated in the eating of his sister and that it is his attempt to cover-up this memory that leads him to track down and kill the men who ate her. Sadly this is not pursued and we are left with a rather hollow story that seeks to almost exonerate Lector's later behaviour by having his victims be evil men who are deserving of death.

This doesn't jibe with how the character later develops. Lector is a monster that kills and eats a musician in Red Dragon for playing out of tune. Hardly a man worth death in any rational context. There is no way to see how this malevolent creature in the later books and films, the man who attempts to kill Will Graham and his family by directing the attention of a serial killer towards them.

The later Lector is a more traditional violent sociopath. And the Lector in Hannibal Rising is almost heroic. How are we to resolve this incongruity? In Hannibal Rising Inspector Popil correctly identifies Hannibal as not having a human core, of being an "other" who will kill again and again but Harris seems loathe to paint Lector in the colours of his particular pathology.

Harris does, I think, like Hannibal Lector too much. And he is therefore unwilling to cast the character as the inhuman sociopath that he is.

Its telling that in the acknowledgements Harris lists no books on violent behaviour. Nothing similar to Lonnie Athens and his work on the development of violent criminal behavior. After his violent experiences in the war there is nothing that appears to push Hannibal from being a shattered victim of violence to someone who actively participates in it himself. There also appears to be little to explain Lector's subsequent cannibalism unless Lector actually does participate in eating his sister. A thread, again, left unexplored.

Hannibal Rising is an interesting read but only as an action-adventure novel. Lector's experience in this book is almost no different than any 'action hero" except that ultimately he enjoys the killing that he does. As an exploration of Lector's subsequent behaviour as an adult is is lacking. Harris should have read fewer books about post-war France and more books about the development of violent sociopathic behaviour and the book would have been better. That and perhaps develop some detachment from the Lector character to allow him to explore the development of Lector more realistically.

Winterguard army

Jamie came over Thursday might and we both tried out new Warmachine casters in our armies. Jamie tried Goreshade with his Cryx force and I tried Vlad. For the first time I might add. In addition I also added the Wingetguard UA and WA as well as Kell Balloch.

Jamie's Cryx force was a horde of troops (Revenant crew, McThralls, Bile Thralls, Bloat Thrall and two Pistol Wraiths) with only two bonejacks. My Khador army had the typical Destroyer and Juggernaut and then a full Winteguard unit with the UA and WA. I added Kell Balloch to this army.

Kell once again made back his points by sniping the Revenant Quartermaster in the first turn. The Winterguard UA really transforms the unit. The Grapeshot ability is incredible against a horde or Cryx troops and the hasten ability combined with the grapeshot makes it easy to strip troops from a unit before they charge.

This was also the first game with Vlad and I found him to be a lot simpler to use than Sorcha. Blood of Kings turns him into a melee beast and Signs and Portents makes the army far more effective and saves you having to spend focus to boost 7+ to hit rolls in order to increase your odds of hitting.

All in all a fun game even with both Jamie and myself making some "beginner" mistakes using these new Warcasters.

Rocketeer and Kell Balloch

Pawel came over last night with his Menoth army and I managed to get my first game in using the Khador Rocketeer and Kell Balloch. The Rocketeer was caught in a Sandblast spell and wiped out before it could really do anything but Kell was amazing. He took out four Zealots and four Knights Errant on his own. Mind you, he was almost taken out by a single mis-tossed Zealot grenade as well so while he is quite good at shooting he can be removed almost casually.

Hopefully I will be able to get another game in tonight as I have assemble the Winterguard UA and Vlad. This will be the first time I have actually played any caster other than Sorcha.

Flames of War action

I managed to drop into Strategies Games & Hobbies last night for a game of Flames of War against Sandy and his US Mechanised Infantry.

A fun game but I am getting rather tired of fighting against US Mechanised Infantry armies. Especially since most of them appear to be decidedly similar to one another. Not any fault on the part of players really, its just that there are some very good American units and you'd be quite daft not to take them.

Zach recently picked up Americans as well and much to my horror has picked a Mechanised Rifle Company.

Maybe I can convince him to field them as an infantry company?

On the plus side I am actually quite intrigued by the Festung Europa book. Zach is building a Late War American list and the options for the Germans in that book look interesting enough to try out.

As of late...

Its been a bit quiet here recently. I've not only been busy with work, and writing for TGN but I have also been quite busy starting my own online miniature retailing endeavour.

The site isn't ready to go yet but I've started a blog for the store and I'll be hopefully updating that as the business creeps towards its opening date.

The current log jam is an application for an export certificate from Canada Revenue but once that is done I should be able to order miniatures and open the site officially.

Gamers are viral

The entire wargaming experience is often viral in nature. Zach was over last night for a small Flames of War demo and he mentioned that he had picked up and American Motorized Company and the new Festung Europa book. I had, until last night, been rather reticent about getting involved in the entire Late War period and so hadn't picked the book up and wasn't intending to do so.

Now that Zach is going to be gaming using the Late War books I immediately though to grab a copy myself and then realised that he had "infected" me with a new gaming genre.

And it seems as if a lot of gaming is often like that. You catch a "bug" from a friend or group of friends who play a particular game or genre and then the next thing you know you're buying Festung Europa.

Well at least Darren will be happy to get another sale :-)

Starship Battles updates

Based on some player feedback I have made some changes to the add-on rules for Star wars Starship Battles. Oddly enough one of the primary changes reflects the rules for ACTA.

Thanks to Calico Bill from TMP and his gaming group for their suggestions