Which Wolf

A little plug for XL Zone 2022 charity game day coming up on Saturday, September 17th. One of the games we have going is an Alpha Strike table run by Austin Ramsay. You can get more info at www.extra-life.org/participant/palladion and follow along on Twitter or Facebook for event updates.

Continuing with Wolf’s Dragoons are the leaders of the famed mercenary group all the way up to 3073 during the Jihad.

Miniatures Painted by Les Mandeville

Jaime Wolf is the enigmatic leader of the Dragoons. He is depicted in several novels and game supplements–looking a lot like Sean Connery in The Hunt for Red October in some of them. He was an easy–if somewhat predictable–choice for Wolf’s Dragoons imagery. His Archer is one of the more recognizable in the lore and I have made comments about it in a previous post.

The more important thing I wanted in this piece was to depict Maeve Wolf, Jaime’s clone. She has no illustrations I can find and the only real description is that she bears a strong resemblance to Jaime. So what does that actually look like…?

Wolf by A.E. Coggon

I have worked with Alexandra Coggon before on a couple of projects and she is always accommodating and great to work with. My main question to her was whether she had experience with ‘Mechs. As you can see, she knocked those out of the park. The preview sketches Alex provided were simply amazing. You will see more of her work in future KB Presents projects.

The Thunderbolt is just an awesome–oops, wording–Heavy ‘Mech. The 5S model of 3025 has 13 tons of armor, a decent LRM, Large Laser, triple Medium Lasers, and a few other small fry weapons. The problem, as usual, is the heat sinks. I prefer the 5SE version associated with the Eridani Light Horse, removes the small weapons, adds jumpers and heat sinks. It looks great as well: big, blocky, and mean. My only concern is the cockpit placement. Neurohelmets are supposed to take the MechWarrior’s sense of balance to help the ‘Mech, but how would your sense of balance be if your head was not centered on your body and neck?

Until next time MechWarriors!

XL Zone 2022

On Saturday, September 17th we are holding a game day to raise money for SickKids and Extra Life. You can get more information from the site. What I wanted to talk about was why this charity and cause.

In the early days of webcomics, well before I had children, Penny Arcade had a cause they created called Child’s Play. It was a way for gamers to give back and help children and it really touched me how a little bit of publicity and good will in the gaming community could be a force of good. Fast forward a decade or more and I heard about Extra Life. I have always believed that early exposure to games (in my case D&D and other RPGs) is extremely beneficial for children–I have no proof, just a gut feeling. Extra Life allowed people to raise money for local children’s hospitals, money going right back into the community where they live. My mother worked at SickKids for over 10 years and I remember being very young and showing up at a telethon with my sister to try and help out however we could. I did not understand it then, but I do now.

As I got to speaking to the people around me and hearing their stories about Extra Life and SickKids–like Mike Street’s story about his daughter–I knew that I had an opportunity to help. Maybe some of it is selfish, I have two children that would benefit should anything happen to them and they need the hospital’s help, but also to give a chance for other children to attend a game day instead of only seeing things remotely.

Information about the event is available at www.extra-life.org/participant/palladion, along with game schedules and donation information. Doors open early and games begin at 11:00 AM. Please join us, there are a few surprises in store…!