The days seem to be flying by and the end of the year is looming. As you would expect at this time of year a whole range of things that aren’t about 30mm high are jostling for my attention, so hobby output has slowed quite considerably. Instead of painting I’m spending the odd moments between various deadlines thinking about potential hobby goals for the new year.
This had led to me being temporarily diverted from the halflings (a change is a good as rest and all that) to return to my wargaming spirit faction – the ratkin. Over the last year, I’ve been messing around with hackpaw heavy lists – will they be very competitive? Don’t care – hackpaws are awesome. The only downside is that I need about five or six regiments of the verminous beast riders. Rather excitingly, at the back of the cupboard I found some Oathmark goblin wolf riders. I really like Oathmark plastics because they are very simple to put together and the wolves in the kit can be quickly painted. This has resulted in is a couple of proxy units I can put towards the army, which I can always replaced in the future if I really enjoy playing it.
Proxy hackpaws reminding me I need to buy black paint…So much toothy cuteness:)
I’ve also done a little bit of rebasing of what I already have, and the units are starting to come together, although I still have at least three models to complete before I’m ready to put them on the table. The reduced amount of time has focused my mind a bit on what other quick jobs I can get done. One of those jobs has been to finally get some decimators rebased to make a full regiment.
It’s one thing painting a regiment, it’s another finding the time to base it.
I have to admit I love my Abyssal Dwarfs, but for some reason always find myself shying away from them for games. Maybe there’s a new year’s resolution in there somewhere? Who knows.
So that’s it from me for the year on the hobby front, although I’m hoping to publish a new short story on The Wizard’s Bookshelf in the coming days.
So, with that I’ll wish you a merry Christmas, happy holidays and all the best.
It’s been a whilst since I’ve written one of these. Loads of reasons why not, so I’m not going to dwell, but I really wanted to put pen to paper for this event because it’s the first event this year that I took my beloved rats too, and I had an absolute ball of a time.
Going to tournaments this year has been, as aways, a great experience. I want to give a massive thanks to everyone who’s run an event I’ve attended. Having started running tournaments I now know the work that goes into it. The odd thing about this year though is that it’s the first year I haven’t played Ratkin (at an event).
The reason has something to do with the army changes that were made in 3rd, but definitely not the ones you might be thinking if you’re familiar with the changes. I think it’s important to say this because this is not a moan about losing Blight or Slave regiments. Truth be told I really like the new (well not so much anymore) ratkin list. It’s made them super interesting to play, and whilst I haven’t brought them to tournaments this year, I’ve played a casual game with them every month or so to see if I could find a list I’d enjoy taking to a tournament.
To be clear, I’m not a top player. I lack the cold consideration and in game cool to be one of those. Units tend to make it into my army because I like the look of them, or their fluff, or they don’t require much painting. Never because of how efficient they are, or even because I have a particular role in mind for them outside of taking up points. That being said, I do want to try and hold my own at tournaments and a little progression is not unwelcome. It’s for this reason I stopped playing rats at events at the end of 2021, because I didn’t feel I understood the army well enough to build a list I could enjoy playing and make progress with.
Whilst I wasn’t feeling so good about rats, the verminous villains were doing brilliantly in the hands of others. What was awesome to see was the range of different winning lists that were out there, shooting ones, MSU ones and horde ones; this made me realise it was me… not the rats. So, after a lot of faffing around I settled on a list I was excited about, and just about made it through a couple of test games.
The event
Slay Bells was at the impressive Poole hobby store Entoyment. We played 1995 points and there was a choice of chariot special characters. I went for a killy one that had Clock of Death amongst its abilities. My list was:
Skud
Mother Cryza
The Tangle
Warchief with Vicious Aura and Axe of the Giant Slayer
3 regiments of Shock Troops with Plague Pots
Horde of Warriors with Plague Pot
Regiment of Hackpaws with J Boots
Troop of Hackpaws
2 regiments of Vermintide
Mutant Rat Fiend
The games
Game 1 vs Northern Alliance
Scenario – Push
The Northern Alliance army was a bit of a two of everything affair. Two regiments of huscarls, two hordes of ice elementals, two regiments of ice gladestalkers, two troops of tundra wolves and two lords on frostfangs. The Northern Alliance spread out in a solid line with the Frost Fang Lords together on my left opposite my fast-moving units.
I won the first turn and moved everything forward as fast as I could. Although there was a reasonable amount of shooting, the strategic use of a hill and a plague pot meant it was fairly limited and my army made contact fully intact. Scud and the hackpaws shut down the left flank temporarily whilst my infantry made short work of the right flank. The shock troop regiments really came into their own here setting up multi charges to smash a whole in the line, which then allowed them to steal flanks.
By turn 5 I had all the tokens. Two were on a shock troop regiment in my opponent’s half and three were on a shock troop regiment in my half. Unfortunately, a troop of tundra wolves had snuck to the back of my half and the regiment carry three tokens found itself between the wolves and a frostfang lord. The wolves had three wounds on them, and the Tangle was nearby. The shock troops turned to face the lord and dropped their plague pot. The Tangle took aim at the wolves and completely missed with eleven fireballs. Even with the shock troops ready to take a double charge I still wasn’t worried because the three tokens in my half were only worth three points… way to completely miss read the scenario! Naturally enough the shock troops disappeared, and the lord took the tokens – now worth six points because he was in his opponent’s half!
Despite my stupidity I was really happy with this game because I really did throw it away. There were a number of things I could have done from turn 4 to protect my token carriers and simply failed to do. It was a weirdly promising start to the day.
Game 2 vs Orcs
Scenario – Invade
I was a little unsettled going into this game because Orcs are a faction I find a bit of a challenge to play against because there always seems to be so many of them. This list had Gak, my least favourite hero, a horde of great ax and a legion of ax amongst it’s ranks and I was worried it would turn into a very one sided grind. Fortunately, the dice were with me. My lightning bolts managed to waver Gak in the first turn which helped my fast units get a good position. Scud managed to one shot the two regiments of gore riders, both with front charges, one after the other. The hackpaw regiment got an early flank on a troll horde and took them out, whilst the shock troops managed their usual shenanigans with a bloody flank and front charge on the great ax horde. Finally, the rats mobbed the legion leaving a godspeaker feeling quite alone.
The dice were very much with me this game gifting the rats a win.
Game 3 vs Ogres
Scenario – Control
I found myself facing a shooty MSU ogre list, which is a great army for this scenario. The list featured some allied ice gladestalkers and a theign on frostfang, alongside Nom, two warlocks, three ogre regiments, two shooter sergeants, a shooter horde and two shield breaker hordes.
I really didn’t know what to do against this army and I fluffed my deployment, putting Scud behind a regiment of shock troops because I ran out of space. I did manage to win first turn and pushed everything forward as far as I could. The ogres shot pretty much everything at the mutant rat fiend which managed to survive, however my deployment error with Scud quickly became apparent. He was meant to be chasing down the ice gladestalkers. When the gladestalkers wound something, they reduce its speed by one. Because of this and because Scud had started a bit back from the front of the deployment zone he didn’t get into the archers until turn 3, slowing down his potential for carnage.
The ogres pretty much dominated the table with steady shooting and a load of units I found it hard to put damage on, and slowly my rats dissolved.
I think its fair to say this game was always going to be challenging, but my error with Scud, combined with an early double one (of three in this game) which meant an ogre regiment with 17 damage on it didn’t leave the table, really didn’t help my cause. Despite getting tabled I really enjoyed the game and took some valuable learnings from it about shooting.
I take no small amount of cheer from the fact that the Northern Alliance army went on to win the event, whilst the Ogres came in second!
All in all, it was a really fun day, very well run, in a great location, made all the better for taking the rats.
Thoughts on the list
I’m genuinely happy with how my list performed. Although it’s taken a while, and a lot of experimentation, to find an army that I find enjoyable and feels like a good foundation to build on for next year. The shock troop regiments are the real engine of the army, they are surprisingly resilient, seem to easily pick up flanks, and work really well with the Mutant Rat Fiend. Cryza is an absolute legend and Scud is just Scud.
One of the questions I did want to answer was how hackpaws would work without the Caterpillar Potion as we head into next year. I think I’ll be using them primarily to support Scud on multi-charges with the newly polished J boots.
The really interesting one for me was the Warchief with the fury aura. Having the aura and inspiring in one package is really useful. I had envisaged using him to ground flyers, hence the slayer axe, but not a single flyer was fought against. More than that I think his primary role commits him to hanging around the infantry rather than chasing angry flapping beasties around the table. Consequently, the one change I’m going to make is to use the fifteen points for his axe on a plague pot for the hackpaw regiment. With so much shooting around pots are now even more useful than ever, and if the regiment is going to be hanging around with Scud their nerve will generally be 14/16 which will make them a lot more survivable – that’s the theory leastways! It won’t be long until I find out with Staines of Blood just around the corner in January.
After another couple of weeks of labouring away with the little people I’m at that stage where my army is starting to look like it might just one day be an army. My first flying dog is fully based and ready for action. I’m excited about this because he’s one of my favourite models from Northumbrian Tin Soldier and he’s set to play a starring role in the army.
As well as the flying doggo I’m also making inroads into the infantry with something that could be mistaken for a horde ready for the table. I have to admit I’m finding the halfling sprue a bit of a pain because whilst the models are lovely, the weapon ratio is a bit of a pain. The sprue has 10 infantry and 5 cavalry models; however the weapons options are a bit restrictive as you have the bits to do 10 melee weapon options and 10 shooting options. It means that everyone can get a weapon, but if you’re not interested in the shooting options well you have a bit of a shortfall. All that means I have a bit of a concern how far towards my final army my current sprues will be able to stretch – obviously it’s not the end of the world but it would have been fab if there could have been enough arm options to allow all models to have melee weapons.
With progress being made the army’s narrative is starting to take shape as well. The Mushroom Muster will be a valiant band of heroes who risk everything to gather rare Yellow Cap fungi. The Yellow Caps only appear as the winter snows begin to melt and they must team up with gnomic guides and their sniffer toads to ensure they bring back the real deal. I’m excited.
And finally rat news. After a year of mainly heading off to tournaments with Basileans the rats are off to Poole to play the Slay Bells event. I’m really looking forward to getting them on the table and I might even manage a bit of a review. There is a special character which is a chariot. I certainly haven’t put the effort in that some people have but I have given my Impaler an extra crewrat to fulfil the special character role, and it’s the perfect excuse to give this lovely looking model a run out.
Things have been progressing nicely in the cupboard of dreams where the backlog is stashed. It’s hard to believe I’m now 20 weeks into trying to clear my wardrobe of unpainted minis, but it’s happening! A few things have made their way onto Ebay, but not so much that I believe I’m actually making serious headway.
Am I on track to have no backlog by the middle of next year? Who knows, but I’m finding a new appreciation for what I’m uncovering and wanting to include more of my favourite models in my Kings of War armies, since they are the most likely to make it to the table at the moment.
One collection in particular look on course to find some openings in my halfling army, which is leading it down a particularly fun route. I mentioned in a past post that the little fellas would be supported by a number of giant toads, but plans are now in motion to expand recruitment, a theme has been decided, and a backstory is being considered. To that end this week’s hobby output sees the basing of my Sauceror on Aralez and the completion of my first regiment of Braves. I’m looking forward to rolling this basing out across the whole army and seriously considering whether it will become my entry for the next Birmingham bull-themed event.
In other news, the rats are being hailed once more as the champions of the wardrobe. After almost a year of messing around with Basileans I’ve decided I want to have a few months giving my vermin some TLC, and much needed exercise. Last week I added another Shock Troop regiment and on Sunday I took a new list out against an Undead army with the Shambling Blight formation at its core (together with Barkskin and tonnes of healing). The scenario was dominate, which was great for the Undead player, not so much for me! However, the rats scraped a victory in the sixth turn by destroying one of the zombie legions. A fun game, but wow, that formation is strong.
That’s it for this week. The new hobby total is 68 models completed, so still a little way to go.
This week started with a visit to Birmingham for my penultimate tournament of the year. The Bullrun was organised by the ever-lovely Steve Hildrew, and it was a hugely enjoyable day out. I took my Basileans, having settled on a list that I thought would be interesting to play, and be a little different to the Knights and Angels list I’ve had a measure of success with. My list included:
Sisterhood Scouts Regiments (3)
Gur Panther Troop
Sisterhood Chariot Regiment
Elohi Horde with Celestial Fury and The Wine of Elvenkind
Elohi Horde with The Brew of Strength
Dictator with Wings of the Honeymaize
Ur Elohi
Julius
Rather excitingly my first game was against Mark Cunningham’s Rat Slave list. I really like the Slave army and have been really excited to see two very good UK players leading them to victory after victory in tournaments. Having drafted in a load of shooting I thought this would be quite a good match up. Unfortunately, I managed to make a couple of mistakes before the game even really began and Mark quickly capitalised on them. Despite it being a loss it was great to play a list I’ve been really intrigued by.
Next up was Richard Luke with his filthy Basileans (I jest of course) … yes, he won! Despite the outcome it was a really enjoyable game. I really like Rich’s list because it’s a great mix of units, rather than the sort of Angel and (insert unit name) spam lists I tend to end up bringing to the table.
By the time the third game rolled around I was feeling a little tired and hoping that the final game would involve far less thinking than the first two had. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. My opponent had brought a really beautifully painted forces of nature army consisting of loads of defence 5 and 6 units. The terrain restricted my lines of sight for shooting, and to make matters worse (for me) the scenario definitely favoured his army. This would have been a major thinking game on my part, had my brain been up to the job. It was not. Suffice to say that Nature triumphed, and I watched my army get dismantled. It was over pretty quickly, which did leave time for a good chat over a cup of tea, which was a pretty decent end to the day.
Despite failing to make a dent in the score board I did win another flying doggy in the raffle, and beautifully hand-finished wooden spoon. Not to mention having three great games with three lovely people I haven’t played before.
All in all, it was a great day. Looking back on it all I’m actually quite happy with my list and I see loads of potential for it. However, the event reminded me that one of the things I love most about Kings of War is that every element of the game has its nuances and needs a little practice to really get your head around. In my case I was using a reasonable chunk of shooting with a really manoeuvrable, punchy, nimble, flying unit that I haven’t really got my head around – more practice is undoubtedly required.
So, the flushes of tournament day excitement have receded and I’m considering my next hobby moves. After a few months of dancing around the edges with my rats I’ve decided that the time has come to reconnect. I’m not sure how long it will last, but my plans are to go back to vermin for an event or two. In order to do that I think I need another Shock Troop regiment. So, I dug around in the magic cupboard and found some of my old GW stormvermin and given them a refresh, which I’ve decided counts towards the overall hobby number.
I can’t help but think I need more banners in my army.
In addition, and inspired by having another winged Alverez, I have moved the needle forward on my halflings and managed to complete another 10 braves (bringing the total to 13). Not bad for a week’s work.
A few weeks ago, I started going through my cupboards, dragging everything out, and trying to get on top of my backlog. It’s been kind of fun so far, but this week it became useful…
I’ve been wrestling with a new Basilean list for a tournament next week in an attempt to field a lot more infantry than usual. After a few iterations (and really bad losses in test games) I now have a list that does have more infantry (although this is starting from a base of a single individual, with the Wings of Honeymaize), but also required a Sisterhood chariot regiment (which I didn’t have). Wanting to spend no money I had a wandered through the steaming piles of backlog and came across a GW set that would get me far enough towards a suitable proxy.
Now the kit in question is one of my absolute, all-time favs. Also, I wanted to include one of my fav Mantic models, the new(ish) abbess on foot. I love having her in my lists, although she usually represents a priest. Because it was a case of fav model meets fav model, with the potential for a diorama style multi-base, my imagination started off twenty to the dozen. Soon I had amassed a pile of all sorts of additional models that could be added to the scene, and a backstory had been written (in my head).
It was going to be EPIC… until reality interrupted and reminded me, I simply didn’t have enough time. My plans were redrawn. I’m not going to go too much into what I had in mind because I really want to see if I can build it as it’s absolutely in the spirit of my current mission. So, I’ll just show you what I’ve got so far… only time will tell if I actually manage to revisit a perfectly serviceable regiment?
Time flies when you’re having fun, also when you start a new job and have to run around the south of England for… reasons.
The last few weeks have been just a little on the busy side and it’s resulted in a fair few trips to the best of all the service stations (Reading, natch). All in all life is pretty sweet. Painting hobby has taken something of a back seat, but I have now completed all my outstanding Abyssal Dwarfs and can field an entire horde of Decimators, so the odd win is on-going.
In addition to finishing off my plastics I also painted up a very fetching new addition to my Basilean army (the one in the middle with the big pointy stick). “But that’s not a Basilean,” I imagine you’re currently screaming at your screen.
Calm yourself, no-one’s mentioned the withdrawl changes for at least three minutes. Allow me to explain. I did my first doubles tournament earlier in the year and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, I, and The Lazy Pirate, headed off to Hemel Hempstead for another session, courtesy of the Kings of Herts. At both events I’ve fielded my Basileans and have taken to adding models representing friendly forces to my own ranks. This Northumbrian Tin Soldier mini was added to one of my Elohi hordes.
The event itself was of the excellent standard expected from the Kings team and we managed a healthy 5th with our Dwarf and Basilean combo. We had a narrow loss to the Moonrakers in the first round before grabbing some well fought wins in the second and third games. A special mention goes to the final scenario which was written by Mark Cunningham and was absolutely cracking, I’ll probably be giving it a run out at Tree Thugging in February.
With the doubles out the way I’ve started thinking about what I’m going to take to the Birmingham Bullrun, part deux, on 4th November. I’ve decided as I’m snapping away wildly at the heals of the current incumbent of the Basilean’s first in faction to take Basileans (stranger things have not happened, but they might). After a lot of thought I’ve decided I want to take a more infantry-based army. I’m currently putting a new list through its paces, and pretty much losing at every available opportunity. There is now only one more trial game to go, the list has become sillier, the spear horde that has been charged and waivered in 100% of its test games has been dropped, and Julius (who I really didn’t want to take) is being called up from the dug-out. I guess it’s a case of only time doing the telling now.
Spear horde prepares to be waivered by a troll regiment…
Finally, I just wanted to share a couple of snaps of my lovely Genestealer Cult army that I waved off in the post the other day. It’s the first time I’ve actually sold on a full army. It’s been in the cupboard for quite sometime and used a grand total of 3 times, make of that what you will. Whilst this is a predominantly Kings of War blog it is a wholly and completely hobby blog, so I thought I’d share a few picks for the last time.
Now I need to dust off my diary and work out when I’ll next be able to lift a brush.
This week has been, well, erm… interesting. I took my ratkin out against the mighty undead on Sunday night. I wasn’t expecting a win as I’m still very much trying to get my head around the army once again, but I also wasn’t expecting the table to collapse somewhere around turn 4!
In fairness to my opponent, by that stage the game was going firmly his way after a lucky shot from a Balefire Catapult took out my Tangle in turn 2 and my front line was wavered in turn 3 (which would have been fine had the Tangle and its Aura of Fury still been alive). I was very fairly and squarely out played by the time the ground literally disappeared from under my rats’ feet. Once it was established that the few breakages could be easily glued back into place, it was time to retreat to my lair and plan my next assault on the world above.
A legion is born…
The list I played on Sunday gave me a chance to try out a Vermintide Legion and Birthing Daughter. As with so many Ratkin units neither of these are outstandingly great individually, but together they are quite interesting. The Birthing Daughter has a Strider Aura for trashy units like Vermintide, and the Legion has no less than 36 attacks (albeit with Melee 5). In addition, the unit has movement 6, nimble and D3 wild charge (made more interesting by giving the unit Brew of Haste), all of which presents reasonable opportunities for shenanigans. Of course, the 240mm by 80mm base does mean any shenanigans must be carefully considered in advance!
Its first outing proved to be rather disappointing, which was entirely down to me. Despite that though I have the bits to make up a Legion (having used a very sparce proxy for the game) and have decided to give them another go, maybe they’ll play better if they look better. This has also helped reduce my backlog by another 13 models.
Will this lot ever make it to the Ribbit Rumble?
And finally… the toads. I am slowly adding to my Halflings. I have a bit of a theme I want to explore with this army which means I’ll be bringing in a number of non-Mantic models. The first of these additions are 4 battle toads who will be added to various multi-bases for a bit of character.
The toads bring the week’s total painted up to 17 and gives a year-to-date total of 31.
This week I’ve managed to sneak in 2 games and I’m feeling pretty damn smug about it! On Tuesday I took a Basilean force, consisting of predominantly foot troops, into battle against the Trident Realms. It was a really close fought game and the Basileans just about claimed the day. My spear horde had a good run, taking a Coral Giant and horde of Water Elementals off the table, before bringing their unit strength in to claim the dominate circle. The stars of the show though were the three regiments of Sisterhood Scouts. Very much cast in the Gladestalker mould these ladies saw off a regiment of Tidal Swarm, a horde of Water Elementals, a Thuul Mythican, and harassed a Coral Giant. What’s more two regiments survived to tell the tale.
My foray with the rats was considerably less successful, however, this was expected, and it was just as fun. Ratkin are my favourite faction in Kings, but my move from second to third edition has been… extended. Over the past year I’ve been keeping an eye of Simon Brand’s progress with the little bundles of cuteness. This has categorically proven that rats are most definitely a strong army, and they don’t rely on any spam builds to deliver those knock out blows. Of course that doesn’t mean I’m expecting the same results, but with a little practice I might be able to get the odd win in.
This week’s game saw them pitched against the mighty Rift Forged Orcs. I hate playing orcs purely because they just look, and play, like a massive slab of green aggression. I decided to give a mixed arms, MSU army a whirl and whilst I came in a solid second I was happy enough with the army performance. This is definitely the start of the journey and I’m looking forward to making some progress (hopefully).
And finally, how’s that pile of painting going? Well, I managed to get another 7 models completed. 5 Sisterhood Scout kit bashes and two test models for my Paladin Foot Guards. Not sure what the plan for next week is yet, but there will be rats on the table on Sunday.
This week sees the Sisterhood Scout regiments completed and the foot paladins started… I’ll leave you to guess how many regiments of those are in the cupboard!
I hope everyone at the UK Clash of Kings has an absolutely fantastic weekend. I have so many great memories from last year at Cardiff, and hope to do another one in the not too distant future.
It’s been a very busy week all in all. I started the week on Saturday (for the sake of argument let’s just go with it) hosting an 18 person Kings of War Tournament in Bristol. It was the second event I’ve hosted and went swimmingly. I’m settling into my tournament organiser role quite well now and really looking forward to getting stuck in again next year.
I already have two Kings of War events booked in for 2023 (February and July) and look forward to opening the doors to them. What’s especially great about the events is seeing so many people from the local Bristol King’s scene in attendance. Bristol has a number of regular players (and the occasional one with an unhealthy relationship with Soulflayers*) so it seemed a shame for there not to be events in the town, especially after Matt James stepped back from running them after the pandemic having built up a number of successful tournaments over the last five years or so.
After a very busy Saturday, the best way to unwind seemed to be by having a go at Black Seas. This is the Warlord Games navel system that Mantic’s Armada is based on. Armada is making some waves (oh yeah) at our club so I thought this would be a great way of checking out some of the mechanics to see if it’s something I would consider jumping into.
To be honest I’ve never really gotten excited about vehicle type games, whether it’s boats, planes, or tanks. I don’t know why, it’s just a me thing. Sadly, Black Seas didn’t ignite any sparks (even though I thought the tiny boats were pretty cute). However, whilst I don’t see any little ships in my immediate future, I get why people are enjoying the game. Yes, there are a number of differences between Black Seas and Armada, but the core of the rule’s engine is the same and frankly rules wise there was nothing to fault. It played smoothly, it was quick to get the hang of, and there is clearly considerable depth. If you like boats, I would definitely recommend giving it (and/or Armada) a try.
But what of the pile – I hear literally no ask (which is to be expected because I am in an empty room as I type). Well, this week I managed to complete 7 archers for my Basileans. Having had it pointed out to me by an elf player (because I am that short sighted) that Sisterhood scouts are very similar to Gladestalkers (very probably after making some disparaging remarks about a certain flavour of Elven scouts) I am now firmly of the belief that multiple regiments are the way forward. I’ve brought two to the table and had great success, so an extra regiment can only improve things further (right, maybe another three).
A new regiment is founded… if only they weren’t irregular.
The only issue with this is securing the models. I have a handful of the official models and am bulking the rest out with men-at-arms kit bashed with Oathmark human archer arms. I’m definitely looking forward to giving these an outing next week against some fishy foes.
In addition to the 7 painted models getting their completion I have also managed to off load a few books I no longer need – so there is a tiny bit of space starting to be seen in the cupboard. I’ve also decided that this column needs some sort of tally, which I will start this week, just to see what sort of impact I’m actually having. So, on that basis I will leave you with my best wishes for a great weekend and the number 7.
The Wizard's Bookshelf 