Harlequins: Not Sure If Good

Harlequins are decent at best.

I'm just going to come out and say it:  I don't think Harlequins are looking too good from a competitive standpoint.  With the book firmly in hand now, I don't see quite as much value from them compared to Dark Eldar when the army first got teased.

Before I completely put them aside, just note that I think there are a few things that Harlequins bring to the table.  These are few, they're niche, and they're certainly conditional, but I think Harlequins can have some interesting options that no one else can really pull off.  For example, when you look at some of the things that Soaring Spite can do with their Masque Form, you'll know that the army will be able to move 16"+6" and still shoot with 6" Fusion Pistols without penalty for 28" threat range.  This awesomeness simply cannot be ignored.  Similarly, if you take Faolchu's Talon for your Soaring Spite Warlord, you can move an additional 6" in your movement, and when you blow up, nothing happens.  No explosion, no models dying, you just roll out of your drive-by mobile and find another joyride to blow people up in.  This is great and all, but it's also very niche.  Hell, even their big fancy Webway Gate wants me to drop multiple Talos or a fat unit of Grots out of them instead.

So here's where I have problems with the army:  They're melee Horrors.  They're melee-based units that cost a ton but still have the same statline as those little pink dudes.  You have an army of 1W T3 4++ melee Horrors that desperately want to be relevant in a meta filled with resilience and anti-alpha.  Everyone and their mother knows that T3 and 4++ with a single wound just get absolutely murdered by almost any type of shooting and even below-average melee fillers that play much better in attrition simply because of the points.  Harlequins are great if you think that killing MEQ with 3+ for almost 30 points is great.  You know what else is 30 points?  A Grot, and a Grot comes with so much more resilience because a single Grotesque can be T6 with 4 wounds and 4++ with FNP.  Speaking of 4W, this is actually much bigger than people realize.  It takes 2 D2 shots to kill, out of kill scope of D3 weapons, and makes D6 weapons very nervous.  It's pretty much the sweetest spot for being infuriating at 30ppm.  When it comes to bashing in a Marine's face, a Grot does just as much damage but can stay alive much longer vs. almost any kind of shooting and any kind of melee.  In fact, Harlequin melee stopped being relevant ever since stronger alternatives came out:  Genestealers, Grotesques, Dawneagle Shield-Captains, the list goes on and on.  Hell, even Wyches are better for the points if you want a melee option.  Marines are dead easy to kill with any competitive army worth their salt because single-wound that cost a lot are just not cost-effective in today's meta.  Attrition matters and Harlequins play the game the worst out of all the units in the game.  Every other army that wants to be in melee does it better for the cost.  For me, since I play Dark Eldar in a very shooty manner, why bother being in melee if you can shoot them to death from far away?  My T3 5+ AS with an FNP Warrior that cost 6 points is looking a lot more cost-effective next to a 28-point Harlequin with a Fusion Pistol and an Embrace.  You are essentially paying a premium for a luxury that's not needed.

Arguably the best Form in the book.

This brings me to match-up.  In any given competitive setting, you're going to be looking at your local meta or even the greater meta (GTs or national events) and comparing yourself to all the other armies out there.  You have to factor in the fact that Harlequins are not cheap, not in the slightest.  Their unit choices are limited already, but what you pay for is a unit that's not very durable but has a ton of bad match-ups.  If you run into a Tyranid list with a lot of Genestealers for example, you know for the points that you're going to fight an attrition battle that you're not going to like.  If you're fighting a lot of Gaunts, forget about it because you already lost the points game here (anything with Fearless sucks).  God forbid you to run into a unit of Wyches, or even worse, a unit of Grots.  With Meat Mountain being so popular these days, just running into a unit that you're not going to be able to really hurt while still taking assloads of damage in return is going to suck.  The worst part is when you start thinking about this from a points perspective.  Having Harlequins killing cheap fodder units is a waste of time and it's only going to get you shot up afterward and killed.  A canny opponent is just going to spread out his line so he sets up kill zones for your units afterward (why Midnight Sorrow might be pretty decent).  IG carparks are going to be super annoying and so are most armies with cheap armor and plentiful shooting.  I feel very confident with my pure Kabal army vs. any army that takes a decent amount of Harlequins for example.  When you bleed expensive models, your firepower and melee threat goes down a ton.  That's one of the reasons why I prayed to the dice gods that GW was going to give the army -1 To Hit all-around.  Alas, this was not to be.  Instead, you have to pay up the ass in CPs and bet on Psychic powers or other instances to keep your basic stuff alive long enough to be relevant.

Harlequins are points-prohibitive.  If you take them, you won't have a lot of anything else.  If you want to run them in any meaningful way, you will take them as a Battalion.  You will already need multiple HQs to get the most of your army like the Shadowseer and Troupe Master, and Troupes just naturally fill in the rest of the core choices.  The difficult part here is getting into a points zone where you can still be relevant and be a threat to the enemy without costing an arm and a leg.  It's not just the points that matter here, it's about being relevant and a threat to the enemy.  What I mean by this is that you need to pack anti-tank in any competitive list as well as being a threat in melee because that's what you're taking Harlequins for.  The army, in general, is bi-polar.  If you want them to be a strong AT threat, you take Fusion Pistols.  If you want them to be a big melee threat, you mix up Caress and Embrace.  The problem is that they both go on the same model and when that model dies, he takes both of those upgrades with him.  Some people argue saying that you can take them stock, or leave specials off them as extra wounds, but why the hell would you do that?  If you're just looking at a few models that can do damage, Wyches can fill that role for much cheaper.  Unfortunately, you have this current situation where both ranged and melee special weapons cost a good deal of points on an already expensive model to begin. This is why the attrition factor sucks so much for this army.  It's not very durable and every model lost feels like chunks out of the army's total strength compared to other armies.  Hell, most would agree with me when I say that Soaring Spite is arguably the best Form right now for Harlequins, but what people talk about but don't consider is how many points a boat filled with Fusion Pistol Troupes really are.  If you want to decrease the cost by removing Fusion Pistols, you lose out on the Form's benefits.  You cut the melee weapons and you're now a glorified Wych.  Grats.  More importantly, for how many points you're spending trying to make this clusterfuck work, you're also taking away points from allies who can possibly perform the same role better.  Case in point, you can buy an entire Black Heart Spearhead for less than 500 points if you just want something to shoot.

Too much, too little.

So what am I getting at here?  It means that if you put a lot of points into Harlequins, you need them to be a decent standalone force.  But if you need them to be standalone, in the fact that you need your points to also equate out to the ability to kill tanks and infantry, then you're simply increasing the cost of each Troupe unit.  Taking a deeper dive:  For 500 points, I can buy a Black Heart Spearhead with 3x Ravagers with Dissies on all of them.  What do Dissies do?  They can pretty much wreck anything because this buys the army 27 BS3+ S5 AP-3 D2 shots that can threaten GEQ, MEQ, multi-wound, single-wound, high-armor, whatever, you name it.  This is just from shooting because you're not counting access to Agents of Vect, Living Muse, Cunning, or FNP on all your vehicles.  You put 500 points into a Harlequin force and what do you get?  You do the math and get back to me with exactly what firepower you have in shooting and in melee and see if the numbers pay off for you.  First, you need to be a certain distance from the enemy to threaten them with AT Fusion Pistols, then you need to be in combat to get the most out of them.  To get in, you have to brave the Overwatch, hope none of your 28 point models die, roll to get in, and then you can really shine.  You have to play much cleaner, much more precise and pray for some good ol' dice rolls because there's a lot that can go wrong.  With Grots, you just push models forward and results happen.  With Ravagers, it's the same thing, but you don't need to commit because you're 36" away from your target.  With Harlequins, it's all risk, and I hate risk.  And so do most competitive players.

You know what else is risky?  Conditional effects.  When you look at Harlequins, almost everything in the army requires you to be within 6", roll something to enable (Veiled Path), cast a psychic power, drop multiple Strategems across multiple phases, or something else.  Most of these things can fail to bad luck, some can be outright countered (Vect, Denied), and others can be counter-played sufficiently to really take the wind out of your sails.  The best counter to melee-oriented armies is proper spacing and understanding threat range and averages.  A good player with solid understanding of melee threat range and bubble-wraps will be murderous to Harlequins.  In general, the army is almost too much fluff and not enough consistency when it comes to a lot of their army mechanics and that is a huge risk to competitive players looking to win a GT.  The variables are already great, with matchups and different strength of schedules and players, so you don't need more randomness.  It's almost like you're playing Orks, but you're trying to build a competitive army so you took Eldar or Dark Eldar allies and they're all looking at you like WTF, you took up half of my army points?  A common theme within competitive armies is that they're consistent in their performance.  Just look at some of the discussions around Harlequins being a competitive threat.  It always starts with:  Oh first you take this, then you do this, then you cast this, then you play this Strategem, and then you shoot and lel you embark back in your transport!  Yeah, that's nice, but I play Prophets of Flesh and my entire army has 4++.  That's what consistency looks like and that's why it wins games.  That's why Meat Mountain is doing so much work right now.  That is until people figure out how to beat it.

There is a mild saving grace for the army though, is that they're Battle Brothers with both Dark Eldar and Eldar.  I would say that both of these armies are very competitive with a multitude of unit options.  Eldar arguably has the best psykers (Doom, Jinx) in the game, Shining Spears, Dark Reapers, Wave Serpents, and both the Hemlock and Crimson Hunter Exarch are insane.  Dark Eldar can run Meat Mountain down your throat and cost-effective Kabal units, Ravager Spearheads, Agents of Vect, and CP manipulation up the wazoo.  There is a lot of good stuff in both of these armies, but ultimately it comes down to the points question all over again.  Is Harlequins competitive enough to share the same points as these armies here if you're trying to build competitive?  Only time will tell.  Personally, I think the best Harlequin lists will be the ones mixed with either Eldar or Dark Eldar.  Cegorach knows that I've been trying to make it work.

I really hope I made some solid points here.  Don't get me wrong, I own a ton of the little fuckers and I love them to death, but they're definitely more of a fluffy choice than a competitive choice for me.  There are just too many good unit choices out there that makes army building with them difficult.  I know, I've been trying to design a good army list with Harlequins/DE and/or Eldar for the last couple of days and it's mind-boggling.  When I have something good, I'll show it off.

Toy Soldiers, Part 1: Ronin

Seven samurai, painted and ready to fight!

British publisher Osprey has long been a staple in wargaming circles for their long line of excellent books on military history, covering armies, weapons, and battles throughout history with an eye towards the kind of detail that tabletop miniatures players would want for their games. More recently they've started putting out a series of rule books for miniatures wargaming. For the most part these are stand-alone books that don't come in a box with a bunch of figures, or require the purchase of specific packs of miniatures and accompanying stat cards and tokens. Rather, they are designed to evoke a particular historical period or fictional genre, and the players are free to use whatever miniatures they wish.

Having taken the plunge into miniatures gaming with games like 7TV, Doctor Who: Exterminate!, and Mythic Battles: Pantheon, I wanted to find a samurai themed game to indulge my love of Kurosawa movies, and Ronin: Skirmish Wargames in the age of the Samurai looked like just the thing, although it was another year after buying the rulebook before I got around to buying and painting enough samurai miniatures to play the game with.

After assembling some suitable terrain (mostly of the print-and-play, cut-and-assemble variety) we finally set up to play a game, a simple "defend the bridge" scenario with bloodthirsty bandits on one side and noble Koryu (sword fighting teachers and students) on the other.

The game aims for a "cinematic" style of combat, and does some interesting things that other games of this type don't really do. A game where the majority of the combat will be hand-to-hand could be quite dull -- once the figures have been moved into position, it could quickly devolve into die rolls back and forth, but Ronin opts for something different.

At the start of a hand-to-hand battle, each player secretly chooses a number of tokens based on the experience level of his characters. There are two different tokens to choose from: attack or defense. Once the die rolling starts, these tokens can be spent to improve a character's chance of attacking or defending successfully. What this amounts to is that players are forced to choose whether they want to focus on defense, attack, or try to balance out the two.

As with most games of this type, ranged attackers have the huge advantage of being able to attack from a distance (and in this game they get to attack first), but the game balances that by giving them fewer opportunities to increase their chance of hitting, and it also takes into account the slow reload times of ranged weapons from this time period.

Games are scenario based, usually with a specific goal for one side or the other rather than just "run to the middle and fight," and the game does a good job of allowing for narrative actions like looting bodies and picking up objects. It also has a whole system covering morale and the idea that if the fight is going badly, the troops might start running away.

We really enjoyed the game, and my only complaint isn't really a flaw in the game but an element that could be seen by many as a plus. The game doesn't come with pre-made character cards like its more commercial cousins tend to. Players are given example character types, with options for different weapons and abilities. Character stats are then copied onto a simple roster form for use during play. It works fine and is well suited to this style of game, but at the same time (and this is a very superficial criticism) it's an element of the game that is dry and uninteresting. Additionally, the hand writing and pre-game decision making makes it more difficult to just jump in and start playing, which means we won't get this game to the table very often.

Rating: 3 (out of 5) A great game system that works fine as-is, but could benefit from some more lavish support materials and a shorter prep time.

• Ronin: Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai official website
• Ronin: Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai on BoardGameGeek

Scum Free Download

Scum - is an upcoming multiplayer online survival video game, developed by Croatian studio Gamepires, produced by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital. The game is described as a prison riot survival game.

New world's unquenchable need for entertainment has turned towards bloodlust as entertainment behemoth TEC1 is set to premiere season two of its television sensation SCUM. This new season moves the contest from the rugged, enclosed indoor arenas to the lush forests, rolling fields, and rugged terrains of TEC1''s own private SCUM Island. Both fan favorites and new prisoners will clash in a ruthless war of survival while battling for the support of viewers, producers, plus corporate sponsors for fame, gifts, a chance of life after death.

..:: Purchase the game here and support the developers ::..

1. FEATURES OF THE GAME

• Featuring Complex system to allow players to go as deep as they choose into the management of their character.
• Explore 144 sq km of epic terrain landscape that includes dense Forests, picturesque beaches and serene fields.
• Players can delve into the Minutia of the survival experience through their character's metabolism, inertia & more.
• Plus survive with up to 64 Players per server with the option to rent your own server right from the in-game menu.
• Featureset and gameplay will continually expand to include more advanced mechanics, more variety in gameplay.

Game is updated to latest version

2. GAMEPLAY AND SCREENSHOTS

3. DOWNLOAD GAME:

♢ Click or choose only one button below to download this game.
♢ View detailed instructions for downloading and installing the game here.
♢ Use 7-Zip to extract RAR, ZIP and ISO files. Install PowerISO to mount ISO files.

SCUM [UPDATED TO v0.1.17.9119 + MULTi3 LANGUAGES] - DOWNLOAD LINKS

      

PASSWORD FOR THE GAME

Unlock with password: pcgamesrealm

4. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS GAME

➤ Download the game by clicking on the button link provided above.

➤ Download the game on the host site and turn off your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid errors.

➤ Once the download has been finished or completed, locate or go to that file.

➤ To open .iso file, use PowerISO and run the setup as admin then install the game on your PC.

➤ Once the installation process is complete, run the game's exe as admin and you can now play the game.

➤ Congratulations! You can now play this game for free on your PC.

➤ Note: If you like this video game, please buy it and support the developers of this game.

Temporarily disable your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid file corruption & false positive detections.

5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
(Your PC must at least have the equivalent or higher specs in order to run this game.)

• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 8 | Windows 7 | 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4430 | AMD FX-6300 or any faster processor for better experience
• Memory: at least 8GB System RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 20GB free HDD Space
• Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 2GB | AMD Radeon R7 370 2GB or better graphics

Supported Language: English, French, and German language are available and supported for this video game.
If you have any questions or encountered broken links, please do not hesitate to comment below. :D

VC 1012, M.A.D.!

What, me worry? Not when I have M.A.D. from U.S.Games as this episode's game! Hoo boy. I hope you enjoy the episode. Next up is Robin Hood by Xonox. If you have any feedback for that game, please send it to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by March 8th. Thanks so much for listening!

M.A.D. on Random Terrain
John Hall's website
Interview with John Hall by Sean Fitzgerald 
No Swear Gamer 426 - M.A.D.
No Swear Gamer M.A.D. gameplay footage
Get Matt's Repro Freeway patch on eBay

Uclan Games Design Students In Global Games Jam 2020!

What a truly awesome bunch of students and Alumni we have!
They've all worked really hard together in groups over the whole weekend for long hours and they've now completed the Global Game Jam 2020.

The Global Game Jam 2020 started on Fri 31st Jan in all sites around the world, and this year's theme is...

Repair
The theme reveal clip at the end of the GGJ20 keynote video showed objects in various states of repair, breaking and repairing buildings and pots, repairing relationships, and plants repairing themselves.

See the theme video.

You can see the UCLan Game Jam link here.

https://globalgamejam.org/2020/jam-sites/university-central-lancashire

Lewis Wright, who organised the event at UCLan with Simon Ashcroft said, 'Everyone smashed it out of the park, cleanest game jam I've been a part of. Every group had fun and a working game by the end of it.'

They recorded all of the games that were shown at the end, including the game dev ones as a comparison. They're gonna make a show-reel out of them for us all to see on the YouTube channel.

They even tidied the studio room before they left. Time for some well deserved sleep for them all. Wish I could have joined them this year as the comradery and sense of fun was evident as always as we watched them working away via Twitch TV. ☺️

So proud of you all!

Article 19-42, Short Film, Review And Interview

Article 19-42 is a suspense drama set in a future dystopian society. We are seeing could be our everyday world. But it raises questions on what we are willing to do on multiple levels.

Article 19-42 reminded me of some of the older classic sci-fi movies I love because of the current setting and the questions they raise.

Article 19-42 was screened at the 2019 FilmQuest film festival (website). It was nominated for Best Foreign Film (from Luxembourg).

I recommend Article 19-42 for fans of science fiction that raise questions about today by looking through a lens of what the near future may be like.

Synopsis: In a dystopian world, Julie and Thomas cross the Northern forest in their 4x4, the atmosphere is heavy. As they leave the main road, they are met by an unwelcoming man. He was obviously waiting for them, they give him a sum of money. Together they continue deeper into the woods.

Julien Becker is the writer and director of Article 19-42. He shared what inspired him to become a filmmaker and make the film. He also tells what else he is working on and what he likes to do in his spare time.

What was the inspiration for Article 19-42?

Having children in this crazy world is probably what inspired me. I think we tend to forget what is really important, like loving, sharing.

What project(s) do you have coming up you're excited about?

I have several feature projects lying on the table, but they all need plenty of work. They are all pretty much sci-fi or fantasy, so they all excite me, but I need to focus and work hard!

What was your early inspiration for pursuing a career in film?

I grew up in the 80s and got inspired by all this great movies Stranger Things is doing a tribute. When we were 12–14 years old my cousin Jonathan and I already wanted to do movies. At that time I was amazed by special effects and for some months I was dreaming of becoming a makeup artist or working for one day for ILM. At around 15–16 my father got me into photography and I later I actually started my career as a photographer. But my love for the craft of cinema never left me, so in 2010 I've founded a production company with Gwenael Francois and here we are.

 

What would be your dream project?

An independent film, powerful script and stunning visuals, well I guess a lot of directors are striving for these. It would definitely be sci-fi or fantasy. It would have a bold, mind-blowing statement, without being cheesy.

What are some of your favorite pastimes when not working on a movie?

Watching movies and trying to do some music.

What is one of your favorite movies and why?

That's tough, there are so many with different reasons to love them... I would say The Matrix, I was 20 when I saw it and it was like a punch in the face. The story was awesome, it was masterfully directed, it was visually so innovative. We had never seen anything like that before.

Oh wait, sounds like a dream project to me!

You can find out more about Article 19-42 on

IMDb (link)

Facebook (link)

You can also watch the trailer on YouTube (link).

I'm working at keeping my material free of subscription charges by supplementing costs by being an Amazon Associate and having advertising appear. I earn a fee when people make purchases of qualified products from Amazon when they enter the site from a link on Guild Master Gaming and when people click on an ad. If you do either, thank you.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

I have articles being published by others and you can find most of them on Guild Master Gaming on Facebookand Twitter(@GuildMstrGmng).

Tech Books I Will Read Again

I have read a crap-ton of technical books, mostly on software, but some either more general or hardware related so I felt the need to generalize the genre to "technical" books. If you've been following my blog for the last year, you'll agree that especially recently, my reading rate has been arguably excessive. I'm reaching a point where I'd like to slow down and focus on some other things in my free time, but I'm also reflecting on all of the great and not-so-great tech books I've read. One of the defining factors in whether I think a tech book is excellent versus merely good is if I have the urge to read it again. (For anyone wondering, there is no distinction needed for the bad tech books.) This feeling might happen right after I finish it, or even while I'm reading it the first time. It also might take a while to percolate and rise back to the surface as a book I want to go back to. The bottom line is, a mark of a great tech book is that it's worth revisiting, so what follows is a list of tech books I've read that I thought were so great that I'm going to read them again.

Object Oriented Design Heuristics 

This is a completely underrated book about software design, not in the sense that it gets poor reviews, because it doesn't, but it's not a very well-known book for how great it is. Other software design books, specifically Design Patterns, the notorious GoF book, steals all of the oxygen in the room, but I strongly prefer Object-Oriented Design Heuristics. While GoF is heavily prescriptive and mechanical in how it lays out the design patterns to use when writing software, OODH digs into the guidelines and rules-of-thumb that lie underneath those patterns. Instead of attempting to memorize a couple dozen patterns and their various applications, the reader learns why certain ways of organizing code work and naturally make the code easier to understand, debug, and change. It teaches fundamental concepts instead of lists of tools, and in the end knowing the fundamentals is much more valuable. In addition to being able to derive the tools you need without needing to remember them all, you can apply the fundamentals to new situations and invent new tools when the ones you have don't fully meet the requirements. The fundamentals are always worth revisiting.

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

The Pragmatic Programmer was a shoe-in for this list. It is the definition of short and sweet for a programming book, and every piece of advice contained within it is pure gold. So many concepts that I use every day are contained in these pages. DRY. Tracer bullets. The Broken Window Theory. It's all in here, and now there's the 20th anniversary edition. It's the perfect excuse to go back and read it again for the first time. 

Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

Clean Code has a fair amount of overlap with the previous two books, but there's plenty that's unique in here and Robert C. Martin is such a great writer that it's worth it to reread this book, too. This book was surprisingly engaging for how deep it went into the minutiae of writing code. Like Object-Oriented Design Heuristics, it lays out guidelines and heuristics for writing better code, but it focuses a bit more on the specifics of how to name variables, structure functions, and write comments. It may veer more into the list-of-tools arena, but Martin reasons about everything nicely and it just seems to work for me in a way that GoF doesn't. It's always good to periodically refresh the concepts behind writing clean code.

Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#

This book covers much more ground than any of the previous three books, and it is subsequently much longer than any of them. It weaves together the topics listed on the cover quite well throughout the book, driving many of the chapters with simple, instructive examples. This book is where the SOLID design principles are laid out, along with a review of most of the standard patterns in GoF. Where this book does things better than the prescriptive GoF is in how the pattern discussions are example-driven and grounded in the design principles covered earlier in the book. The flow is so much better, and the reader comes away with a great understanding of why the patterns work, when to use them, and how to apply them appropriately.

Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering

This is such a quick, sharp, and relevant read, that it's definitely worth a reread every now and again. You won't agree with every one of Robert Glass' facts and fallacies, (when does anyone agree with everything in a software engineering book?) but they will make you think and rethink your assumptions, which is always valuable for growth as a developer. 

The Little Schemer and The Seasoned Schemer

These gems were such a joy to read the first time, there's no way they were not going to make this list. The quirky humor and self-guided Q&A format work perfectly. I can't think of a better way to refresh my basic programming skills with Scheme, and rewrite a Scheme interpreter, than to reread these books. Scheme is essentially a fundamental programming language, so in addition to these books being great to go back to, Scheme is a great language to go back to and polish up any rusty programming skills.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

While SICP is the polar opposite of The Little Schemer and The Seasoned Schemer, it's just as good for learning and reviewing Scheme and programming fundamentals. Most introductory programming books are not worth revisiting because they tend to focus on language syntax and mechanics, but that's not true here. Scheme doesn't have much syntax to begin with, so SICP goes deep into fundamental programming concepts and, well, how to structure programs. It goes so deep that it's probably only worth revisiting the first three of its five chapters (how often do you need to review how to build a register machine simulator?), but that still presents a challenging and valuable exercise.

Eloquent Ruby

If I had to pick a favorite language, it would be Ruby, and this book exemplifies why. Everything needed to write beautiful Ruby programs is contained in here, and it has none of the boring cruft of an introductory programming language book. Russ Olsen is also an excellent technical writer, so the book is an enjoyable and easy read. This is how all intermediate-to-expert level programming books should be, and it makes it a pleasure to refresh those Ruby programming skills.

Confident Ruby: 32 Patterns for Joyful Coding

This book is like an up-to-date version of Object-Oriented Design Heuristics for Ruby. It's a quick, enjoyable read, with Avdi Grimm writing in an approachable, conversational style. The content is superb, detailing the best ways to write Ruby methods that have a definitive purpose without stumbling over edge cases that often weaken code. It's a great book for reviewing how to write clean, concise, purposeful code, and it would probably work for any programmer, not just the Rubyists out there.

Rails Antipatterns: Best Practice Ruby on Rails Refactoring

The books on this list are here because they offer timeless advice, and this book is no different. It may seem like it's specifically about Ruby on Rails 3 programming, but the methods of refactoring the example antipatterns covered in the book—and why those antipatterns are bad in the first place—extend well beyond Rails. Bad code sucks for the same reasons no matter which programming language it's written in, and clean code shines in any language for the same reasons. It just so happens that Ruby and Rails are such pleasant vehicles for learning how to write clean code, and this book in particular uses a great style of showing how not to write code and how to fix that ugly code that was written before learning all of this great advice. 

HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites

This is hands-down the most beautiful technical book I've ever read, and after looking through it, it becomes obvious that this is the best way to present the HTML and CSS syntax. These are the languages of visual design for the web, after all, so it makes sense to show how all of the tags and attributes work with full color pictures and diagrams on every page. It's especially helpful when showing the differences between borders, padding, and margins in CSS, but really most HTML tags and CSS attributes translate well to this kind of presentation. It's also quick to page through every once in a while, and such an enjoyable experience that it's worth doing multiple times.

Don't Make Me Think (Revisited)

This book was an easy addition to this list, partly because I already have read it twice. It was just as good the second time around when the updated version came out. Don't Make Me Think (Revisited) is packed with examples of both the right way and the wrong way to design websites, but mostly the right way. Steve Krug has a quick wit and the full color page layouts are great to look through for ideas. All of this makes the book a fast, easy read so there's no excuse to not refresh your knowledge on website design best practices.

Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations, and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

This is another set of books that's easy to kick back with and peruse at your leisure, this time with a focus on how to display information in a way that makes insights jump off the page. These books are full of excellent advice and ideas on how to present information in charts, diagrams, and pictures so that the relevant information is clear and obvious instead of confusing and obfuscated. How data is represented is as important as the quality of the data itself, and reviewing these books will help drive your imagination to show that data in the best light for consumption and the spread of ideas.

Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information Into Insight

I enjoyed this book way more than I was expecting to. John Foreman has a great sense of humor that really comes through in his writing, and he's able to take a normally dry topic and make it, dare I say, entertaining. He runs through a bunch of data science algorithms using real data and everyone's favorite spreadsheet program, Excel. Really. He develops all of these algorithms in Excel, and yes I meant entertaining. It's not a typo. A spreadsheet is actually a natural fit for learning about these algorithms because you can see every step in the process all laid out before you in black and white. It was so good, I'm planning to read the book again the next time I need a refresher course on K-Means Clustering or regression models. 

Data Science From Scratch: First Principles With Python

This is another great book about data science that teaches the reader how to implement a number of data science algorithms and supported with an excellently dry wit. Instead of using Excel as Data Smart did, this time we're doing everything in Python. More than anything, rereading this book would be for the sake of deliberate practice. It's great for practicing programming, problem solving, and algorithmic knowledge because the book is building up data science from first principles. The more comfortable you are with the fundamentals, the easier everything else gets.

Python Machine Learning

Okay, it may start to be feeling like this list is getting a little data science and machine learning heavy, but there's a reason for that. These are great books for developing analytical thinking and problem solving skills in the context of programming. Most programming books are either introductory books that aren't worth reading again once you know the language, or they're programming craftsmanship books—like the first part of this list—that are definitely worth reading, but don't flex the analytical parts of your brain much. These machine learning books do work your analytical brain more, and that goes for Python Machine Learning, too.

Professional CUDA C Programming

I found multiprocessor parallel programming with CUDA to be fascinating, and this was the best of the three books I read on the subject. It was well organized and understandable with nice, clear writing on a complex topic. It will be excellent practice to work through this book again.

The Annotated Turing

If we're going to talk about the fundamentals, we can't get more fundamental than Alan Turing's paper on computability. Charles Petzold did an amazing job parsing out Turing's paper and making it accessible to more people. This is still a challenging read, but incredibly rewarding and thought provoking. Of all the books on this list, this book will be the one that I get the most out of with a second reading. The topics covered here are so deep and subtle that it would be foolish to think that one reading would be enough to absorb everything sufficiently. I'm looking forward to another round with this book in the near future.

Notable Omissions

People may notice some popular programming books missing from this list. First, I'll say that this is my list, and I'm not making any apologies for it. Wanting to read a book more than once is some of the highest praise I'll give for a book. Reading a book a second time is a rare occurrence. There are so many potential other good books out there yet to be read! Having said that, here are a few books I purposely didn't include.

Code Complete, I felt was too long and dry for my tastes. I much preferred Pragmatic Programmer, Clean Code, and Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#, and between the three of those books the same topics were covered in a more enjoyable way and even in less pages!

Refactoring was just a slog to get through. I thought it was worse than GoF in its itemized drudgery. Much of the same material is present in other books on the list, but those books teach the reasons and motivations behind good refactorings without listing them out ad nauseum.

Introduction to Algorithms maybe should have been on the list because I did read this book twice, but the second time was such an exercise in tedium with not much reward that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than aspiring CS professors. There have got to be more accessible algorithms books out there to brush up on this subject.

Seven Languages in Seven Weeks is a book that I would put on any best tech book list because it's an excellent book that's definitely worth a read, but probably only once. I don't have much desire to read it or any of the other Seven in Seven Weeks books again, even though I thoroughly enjoyed them all on the first read.

Well, there you have it. A complete list of tech books that were so good that I'm planning to read them again. They all have a common thread running through them in that they teach the fundamentals of whatever topic they're covering, and they do it really well. The fundamentals are extremely important in any field, and it's worthwhile to constantly revisit them and refresh your skills. Doing that with books that are engaging and enjoyable to read makes the whole process that much easier, and that is another defining characteristic of the books on this list. I imagine I'll add a few more books over time, but probably not too many. It's a rare thing to find a tech book worth reading multiple times.