Urban warfare and LOTR

So, I was thinking of what to do for a blog post, so I thought I would do another battle report. I didn't really feel like doing a scenario, so I made two 550 point teams to go head to head. I decided to steer away from the typical open field battleground; I decided that, instead, I would go for a city battle board. So, I pulled out some old "houses" that I made a long time ago, along with some styrofoam blocks that I made into "houses." When I ran out of styrofoam and I still had some empty space, I just threw in some kleenex boxes, leaving a central court open in the middle. Basically, it's a death match. First person to wipe out the opponent wins. Here are the forces:

Good side:
17 High elf warriors with swords.
12 High elf warriors with bows.
6 High elf warriors with shield and spear.
1 High elf captain.
1 High elf with banner.
Gil-Galad

Evil Side:
8 Morannon orcs with sword and shield.
6 Morannon orcs with spear and shield.
6 Morannon orcs with spear.
8 Mordor orcs with sword and shield.
8 Mordor orcs with spear.
4 Mordor orcs with bow.
2 Mordor Uruk-hai.
1 Mordor Troll Chieftan.
1 Orc captain.
Mouth of Sauron.

The board before the forces were deployed:The starting positions: (Good side)
(Evil side)For the first round, everyone moved forward as normally.
The second round was similarly quiet, except for the movement forward of both sides.The third round signaled the turn just before fighting was engaged. The sides moved into close range of each other.On the fourth round, the evil side decided to stay out of combat range in most areas. The elves only managed to get into combat with the troll and several orcs. All three elves attacking the troll were killed, and two other elven archers were killed by the orcs.Both sides clashed into full combat on the fifth round. The evil side gained priority, so they were able to choose their fights. They killed 10 elves, while the good side only took out 3 orcs, while giving the orc captain 2 wounds.
The evil side gained priority again the sixth round, and made the elves pay again by killing 6 elves with only 1 orc dying on the evil side.The good side managed to gain priority the seventh round. They could only kill 3 orcs, while 2 elves fell in return. Gil-Galad managed to win his fight with the troll, but failed to wound. The elven captain took 2 wounds, but managed to survive with the use of his fate, as did the Mouth of Sauron.The good side, now under 50% of their starting force, was required to take courage tests for each model before they moved. Most of them managed to pass their tests, however. Gil-Galad was not able to win his fight against the troll, and received 3 wounds, recovering one with his fate. 4 other elves were killed. Several elves teamed up to finish off the Mouth of Sauron, and one other orc died.The elves started to re-group; since they all passed their tests, they were successful in their movement. Gil-Galad managed to give the troll one wound, while 2 other orcs and 1 elf were killed.
Most of the elves passed their courage tests again; only one orc died, and Gil-Galad was unable to wound the troll.The evil side managed to gain priority again; they surrounded Gil-Galad, and managed to finish him off. The other elves were more fortunate, winning all of their fights and even killing one orc.The evil side once again gained priority, managing to take down one elf. The elves were in good form once again, however, and two more orcs died.The elves were unable to stop the tidal wave of orcs, as 3 elves fell in exchange for only one orc. With 5 elves left for the good side, things seemed impossible.Only one elf died the next turn, while the elven captain and his one follower took down one orc.
The last two elves, isolated by themselves and faced with the troll, failed their courage tests and were cut down by the troll, leaving the elven captain and one elf alive.The good side gained priority again, but, guess what, the elven captain failed his courage test. The orcs managed to get into combat with the lone elf warrior, but he fought them off and took one down.The evil side gained priority and surrounded both remaining elves; the elven captain succumbed to 6 orcs and fell, along with his sidekick, leaving the evil side with an easy victory.So, what exactly went wrong for the good side?
I think it had somewhat to do with 1/3 of the good side being archers, when there really was no opportunity for archery. If those archers had gotten off several volleys at the orcs, things could easily have gone the other way. They did manage to do some damage to the leadership of the orcs, killing the Mouth of Sauron and leaving the orc captain and troll chieftain with only 1 wound each. The orcs' strategy of mobbing the elves worked well, since the elves didn't have nearly enough spearmen to support all their swordsmen, leaving many unprotected. So, basically, the elves need to get their act together :P

Wobbegong

I'm sure none of you have ever heard of a Wobbegong shark. And I didn't really expect you to. Wobbegong sharks are called carpet sharks. The name alone makes me laugh, but when you see the pictures of them, you can't help but like them.
Some information about them:

They are usually found in the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean, mostly around Australia and Indonesia.

Their name comes from the Australian aboriginal word wobbegong, which means "shaggy beard." I can see why they named them that.

They use camouflage to hide on the bottom of the ocean. Their "shaggy beards" are the growths around their mouth that make them seem like a place of refuge for creatures like crabs and stuff, which wander into their mouths and are eaten for dinner. They also use their camouflage to attack unsuspecting small fish passing by.

They eat mainly at night and eat things such as fishes, crayfish, crabs, and octopuses.

They are not dangerous to humans unless provoked (like stepped on).

Though they don't look it, they are actually pretty flexible.

Most Wobbegong sharks grow to be 7 feet.

Some people keep the smaller species of Wobbegong sharks in aquariums, since smaller ones only grow to be 6 feet.

According to Wikipedia, they are known to "consume tankmates, even rather large ones."

Choices

Since it's "officially summer" now, I have a bit more free time, seeing as how I'm only doing Biology and Pre-Calculus for school over the summer. So apparently I have more free time to do something with this blog of mine. However, I guess before I start posting all sorts of stuff, I should probably ask what you all would like to hear me gab about. For instance, I could post about anything from what I'm doing in school, to random posts about animals I like, to music, sports, myself, anything you can imagine. So what do you want to hear about?

Mudskippers

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would share some about one of my favorite animals. I'm sure most of you have never heard of a mudskipper. They're extremely cool little animals that are like frogs in that they live partly in and out of water. They can be found all through Indonesia, Africa, and in the Indian Ocean. I believe there are 34 different species of mudskippers. They primarily live on mud flats (as their name implies). They have really long and sharp teeth for being so small. What's even cooler about them is that when they're digging their burrows, they dig with their mouths and take the dirt out in their mouths and use it to make a wall around their burrows. You can actually get them as pets, although the setup is a bit expensive. They're the only pet fish that you can take out of the tank and play with without killing them.

Evolutionists might say, "Hey! Here's the missing link between fish and land animals! Obviously, a fish had a random mutation that changed its DNA and gave it lungs so it decided to start getting out on land. And then since it survived better on land, it had more kids, so the kids started getting better at breathing!" Yeah...right.

Picture:

Spring

It's sort of spring here now. It was still winter on Saturday, when we had an inch or two of snow. The next day it was spring again, and yesterday we had yet another spring thunderstorm. It only lasted 10-15 minutes, but it got everything suitably wet and it got the cats suitably scared out of their wits. Here are pictures from the past week or two:
Hail

Pictures of the thunderstorm this past Monday.
And guess what, we're supposed to get more today.

So...

So I was a bit bored and I decided to use Keith P.'s technique to make a wallpaper in Gimp. And I discovered how much fun it can be. Here are some samples (not full size):If you have Gimp and are wondering how in the world I did it, it's really quite simple. Just go to Filters>Render. I used the Fractal Explorer and Nature>Flame to create these wallpapers. Of course you have to add a sun too just to make it look cool.

Yep, I've got it too.

Like everyone else I know, as of this morning, I have: sore throat, cough, runny nose, headache, no energy, grumbly stomach. And today also happens to be the next to last biology class before the exam on Monday. I don't know if I'll be able to go or not.

As for why I haven't posted in a while, it's because of the usual excuse of being too busy. With my biology class at OSU, things are a bit hectic. My Mom wants me to take 2 of the practice exams every day to get ready for the exam on Monday. And then the Labs take up some time too. No dissections; the subjects of our experiments so far have been: cardboard squares, clay balls, mice (really nice mice; I tried to convince Mommy we should get some, but it didn't go over well), crickets, and Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. The Cockroaches are called Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (That's just too much fun to type) because they come from Madagascar, and they have holes in their abdomen that they expel air out of to make a hissing noise. The two cockroaches we used didn't hiss, but another group had some more feisty ones. And no, we didn't kill any of them. We would have gotten an F on the lab if we killed a mouse, 10 points taken off for a cockroach, and 2 for a cricket.

Oh, and our new cat (she's really still a kitten) is completely crazy. She can never sit still while sitting in your lap, and after about 5 minutes of sitting with you, she'll attempt to bite you. Like I said, she's crazy. And her name is Annie, for those who didn't know that.