Topics

1846

Writing, Poems, AARs, and Stories - The Storyteller's Hall / Are you writing a book?

« on: May 14, 2009, 04:13:49 PM »

I know at least five members of this forum including myself are writing books, so here's a topic to discuss ideas. If you want to post the whole text use a separate thread, but posting an overview, themes, background, extracts, and so on here would be great.

1847

Writing, Poems, AARs, and Stories - The Storyteller's Hall / Reviews Thread

« on: May 14, 2009, 04:11:48 PM »

This will be a thread of book reviews. One post per book, links in post #1.

RATINGS SYSTEM
From + 5 to -5:
5 PORTUGAL EXPLODED
4 Guanacalama!
3 Pangolin!
2 Llama!
1 Worth telling in the Hall
0 Meh, Alpaca
-1 I'd rather watch the Exilian Channel
-2 Send it to the Wibulnibs
-3 Used as kindling in the Jolly Boar
-4 No Marcuses Allowed
-5 One for Muffin Hell...

Review List by Rating:

5 PORTUGAL EXPLODED
4 Guanacalama!
3 Pangolin!
2 Llama!
1 Worth telling in the Hall
0 Meh, Alpaca
-1 I'd rather watch the Exilian Channel
-2 Send it to the Wibulnibs
-3 Used as kindling in the Jolly Boar
-4 No Marcuses Allowed
-5 One for Muffin Hell...
Please submit entries to me or a moderator in the following format;

Title:
Author:
Genre:
Overview:
What you thought (the review basically):

Note: DO NOT give the plot away under any circumstances.

1848

Writing, Poems, AARs, and Stories - The Storyteller's Hall / What are you reading?

« on: May 14, 2009, 04:09:47 PM »

What are you reading atm? Is it good? Would you reccomend it?

1849

Writing, Poems, AARs, and Stories - The Storyteller's Hall / Is epic storytelling dead?

« on: May 12, 2009, 05:11:08 PM »

Most articles and opinion pieces on the art of storytelling sye on thing to modern writers; plot. The focus these days is always on a fast-paced, gripping read that will catch the attention of modern, busy people. Description is cut to a minimum, action and plot are made as fast-paced as possible to pack the book full of thrills.

But does this mean that epic storytelling - the use of language as thing of beauty or an art in itself - is dead? Writers from Homer to Tolkein used beautiful descriptive passages, took time to delve deep into their characters' thoughts and feelings, and used a style of slower storytelling and depiction of scenes which I personally find much more powerful than modern fast thriller novels. However, publishers these days apparently mostly just don't even look at descriptive storytelling.

So what do you think? Do you like books with strong descriptive elements, or do you think that more writing than the plot needs is a fundamentally unnecessary feature in a book?

1850

Announcements! The Town Crier! / Another new feature!

« on: May 02, 2009, 11:31:44 AM »

We have an arcade! The link's next to the search button. It's all fancy and does hiscores and everything!

1851

Announcements! The Town Crier! / Minions!

« on: May 02, 2009, 10:34:08 AM »

You can now give minions to other users, or take them away if you're feeling mean. This more or less works like a reputation system, it's just a trial run for now and if people like it, we'll keep it. Give people minions for good posting or modding.  

1852

Announcements! The Town Crier! / NEW MOUNT AND BLADE ADMIN!

« on: April 30, 2009, 05:27:21 PM »

Darkstar707 is our NEW MOUNT AND BLADE ADMIN, ladles and jellyspoons!

May his days as Despot of Mount and Blade be long and prosperous!

1853

Questions and Suggestions - The High Court / Empire Total War Admin wanted!

« on: April 29, 2009, 06:26:57 PM »

We are at the moment overstretched for staff and have thus decided to advertise the position of Empire; Total War Administrator. This will hopefully be a good task where you can really help build part of this excellent gaming site, but still with quite a lot of autonomy.

The Admin for ETW will need to;
- Actively recruit developing and/or released mods and modders for the site
- Try and start a workable tutorials and workshop section for ETW
- Help kick-start a community of ETW players as well as modders, for discussing the game.
- Have responsiblity for representing Exilian on other ETW sites, such as the Guild, TWC, Modrealms, and TWH
- Improve coverage and recources for ETW modding and gaming across the site.

You will need to put at least 1hr a week into this I would think. You will need to be able to work efficiently and independently, and a knowledge of modding would be useful but is not a requirement. Contributing to the site yourself, and being an active and effective member, is also very much part of the job - the more you can do, the more other people have to build on.

All applicants please;
a) Get an Exilian account
b) Post here with your credentials, why you would like the post, and so on.

Don't write joke applications please, and only sign up if you are willing to commit yourself to the job for at least the next 2-3 months.

The applicants will be chosen by a vote of the citizen-class members of Exilian. There will be 1 weeks for applications, and then a 1 week vote, after which the successful candidate will be able to start the job.

Many thanks,

The Exilian Staff

1854

Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Who said it?

« on: April 27, 2009, 06:28:29 PM »

Post a quote, guess who said it, first correct guesser posts another quote. can be from RL, a book, or whatever. If it's from a book the character's name is needed.

I shall begin;

"I'm a great believer in luck - and I find the harder I work, the more of it I have."

1855

General Chatter - The Boozer / Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day

« on: April 21, 2009, 06:57:22 PM »

This year Yom Hashoah, the day Jews remeber the Holocaust, will be on April 21, 2009.


DEATH TOLL
Jews: 6 million
----- Also ----
Russians: 2

1856

Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Flags and countries

« on: April 19, 2009, 10:49:36 AM »

Thread split for country discussion.

1857

Raiders and Traders / Suggestions

« on: April 19, 2009, 09:12:03 AM »

Please put all your suggestions and ideas here, whther small tweaks or big new additions that could be made.

1858

Mount and Blade Discussion - Sargoth Town Square / Could someone add some faction info...

« on: April 18, 2009, 11:27:41 AM »

... on the wiki?

It'd be good to have some full faction descriptions and generally more fleshed-out stuff on there.

http://exilian.wikia.com/wiki/Mount_%26_Blade

1859

History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library / Your perfect army

« on: April 18, 2009, 11:19:48 AM »

You have 10,000 men, in the pre-gunpowder era. What, in your opinion, is the best way to equip them to defeat any other given force of the same size?

1860

Tabletop Games - The Game Room / Chaos Dwarf Tactica

« on: April 11, 2009, 04:30:00 PM »

The Chaos Dwarfs are often underestimated as an army. However, unlike most current armies they are a well balanced, effective, and challenging force to play if usedd right, and offer far more playstyle options than any other race (with the possible exception of the Empire and maybe Dogs of War).

Army Composition
The armies of the Chaos Dwarfs have excellent candidates for all the main roles on a battlefield. The following combos are excellent;

Infantry force
Relying on combat infantry, Chaos Dwarf warriors are excellent at taking the hits. Don't bother with Great Weapons, your stregnth is in the armour save and toughness departments. Don't go without a BSB, you will need every advantage in CR against those pesky undead or enemy heavy hitters. The bulk of you force should be Hobgoblins - I tend not to bother with light armour bu shields, standards and musicians are a must - in blocks of 30 or so. Cheap, soak up the hits like anything, a banner of slavery is vital for this though. With Dwarfs and hobbos providing a tarpit, you can use orcs, Sneaky Gits, or smaller hobbo units to provide the flank/rear charges you need for CR.

Balanced force
Tarpit forms the centre of this army as above, or the other option is to cut down on hobbos in favour of a small elite force of CD warriors. A small durable infantry force can be backed up by an excellent ranged or manouverable backup; Hobgoblin archers should never be underestimated, at 5pts a shot a couple of units of 10 can whittle down the enemy's lighter armoured cavalry and human infantry very nicely. Volume of shots is the key. Bull Centaurs too are a fine choice, but make certain you have houseruled that they use weapons as infantry - this was clearly the intended rule (they don't get the +1AS for cavalry), but the wording is so poor it doen't actually take effect per the normal rules. Addition handweapon is the way to go, chew up anything from enemy block infantry to serious hitters such as the Stegadon. The speed is nice as well, allowing you to get flank/rear charges in. A few Wolfriders make awesome march blockers, and finally never go ANYWHERE withot your Earthshaker. You will die to gunlines in droves if you don't have one, trust me.

To be continued...