Horus Rising (review - includes spoilers)

My thanks go to Castus for lending me his copy of the book. I must admit, I have mentioned on a few occasions that if I were to get more in to the hobby then the novels would be my likely avenue.

Thoroughly enjoyed the book - it was nice to see the Space Marines with a degree of feeling and emotion. I found some of the time jumps a little bit of a niggle as it read as if Abnett got bored and wanted to move on to the next segment as quickly as he could. But the writing is fast paced and engaging, which suits me perfectly; albeit perhaps too fast a pace!

Not so fond of the Megarachnid as a race, yes, they reek of Tyranids they really do! Was also not overly fond of Garviel Loken as the 'lead' character. I preferred Tarik Torgaddon and Saul Tarvitz. I liked the persona of Horus and the Mournival, they were enjoyable segments in my opinion. A calm, 'caring' and thoughful Horus is not the perspective we see 99.9% of the time, so it was refreshing to read. And you can really get the feel as to how Abaddon started off and how his personality (as we know it) could progress.

Lucius (of 'The Eternal' fame) was a real piece of work and I thought Abnett wrote him well and the Emperor's Children characters as a whole come to think of it.

The segments involving the Interex were a tad uninspiring for me; I found myself portraying them as a bit of a lifeless race and was actually routing for the Warmaster to smash their skulls!

Looking forward to borrowing the next book, Castus!

(read the full discussion - HERE)

Astro Facebook - why?

Why not?

It can be tremendously hard work for a relatively small wargame hobby website to publicise and promote itself across the behemoth of the internet. Utilising every possible media source for exposure becomes a nigh on must to simply 'compete' and become a known, credible entity that people want to spend time with and contribute to.

Facebook allows Astro to tap in to an enormous collective of people that is already established in a single location. The balance of probabilities tells us that there are individuals within the Facebook millions that are looking for Astro, and we simply have to help those people find us - promoting ourselves as much as we can is a great way of doing this.

There are approximately 100-200 members at Astro who consistently use the site across the course of a fortnightly period. There are an additional 200-400 members who use the site on a 'when time affords' basis. I have been told by numerous Astro members that they rely on Astro Facebook to get their daily Astro 'fix' when they don't have the time to trawl the forums seeking hobby items of interest.

We now have Patrick at the helm of the site guiding us across the huge internet ocean. To make this journey as smooth as we possibly can then our best bet is to have all hands on deck and to welcome aboard more hands, so as to bolster our efforts and to make the journey an even more pleasant experience.

Astro has always had a fantastic community spirit, provided by a good-natured and well tempered, eclectic bunch of members who truly enjoy the wargames hobby. Some of the larger hobby communities, for all their vast member databases, just cannot compete with Astro on this front. Take in to account that Astro has an up-to-date member database and not just a billion 'dead' accounts that are never used, it bodes well for any new members who appear at our door wanting their voice to be heard and their miniatures to be seen.

So, if you are an avid user of Facebook, why not guide your gaming friends and community members to our door and get them to 'like' our Facebook page and follows us. You never know, they may find that they become part of our larger community.

Astro's Home on Blogger!

The look is a bit improved and the blog roll is up to date, check out what your favorite people from Astro are doing on their own blogs by checking here first! More improvements will be coming at Astro's official home here on blogger...

Update Three: Forums Up and Running

Honsou and I have finished checking for bugs and we fixed a few already, like not being able to reply to threads! All the important stuff is up and running, UserCP, create new threads and reply to threads. There will be hiccups along the way but for all intensive purposes the site is up and running. Please post up any problems you encounter and we will get them fixed asap.

If you cannot see the 'new' forums right now don't worry, there is nothing wrong with your computer, within the next 24 hours your internet providers will update their DNS and the new site will be available to you shortly.

Thanks for your patience during the move.

Tallarn

Update Two: Database Moved

The database is safe and sound in its new home, and the DNS servers have been updated. Everything is moving along as anticipated. I have the site fully up in test mode and as the DNS information propagates across the internet everything will be back to normal, or as close as Astro ever gets to normal, in 24 hours or less.

For your continued entertainment.

Hopefully everything will be back to normal shortly!

Update One: Forums Down

As everyone can see the forums are down. In moving the database the forums must be frozen, to preserve everyone's data, and then downloaded to a file. In the case of Astro this file is almost 600 MB. Moving this file by conventional means generally goes pretty quickly, except in cases where it is this large - it doesn't work too well. So adders is building and compacting the file and then the fun begins, moving that sucker. Most likely the servers will need to move the file directly using customer support. Once the file is moved we will begin unpacking it into its new home where all the other background files, like forum structure and images, are already waiting. After the database is moved and unpacked adders will repoint the DNS servers to their new home and the information will propagate across routers all over the world in 24 to 48 hours. Hopefully the forum will be back and fully operational by Wednesday morning, keep your fingers crossed! Until then, contemplate all the things you can cover in gold paint to make money:

More updates as we move along!

Tallarn

Astronomican News

As everyone is aware the server move will be happening in the next few weeks. Adders and I are working very closely at this point to ensure a smooth transition. There will be a 24 hour advanced warning given before the database is frozen and moved to its new home. Once that occurs we will have a presence here to aid in the transition and post any news. Additionally Brannick has established a global gmail account so we can use that to communicate updates as well.

Stay tuned for further updates!