The Haul Report 400: let's say it's about 400+ books

 Well well, albeit I didn't upload an episode every week, this means for over 4 years I have been making these Haul Reports for the little blog.

And to kick off this jubileum edition, I have some nice promo material for Warhammer Underworlds that I found through Vinted:

Now to get those warbands painted up so I can put the cards actually onto the table... and hopefully not use to many of those tokens!

Another small parcel that arrived came from AliExpress, as I (finally) ordered that load of 25mm square bases to start building my Wood Elves for The Old World... and then some, like round 100mm to rebase my demon princess of Slaanesh and 50mm squares for various purposes.

 

 

I also obtained "a few" books this period.  My mother-in-law's amateur theatre group was cleaning out their storage, and I had to come and see if there was anything fantasy of scifi that intrested me.  In the end, I already took along about 200 books for me and Noshi, and some for trading, on day 1... resulting in multiple full trunks.

So that is definitly going to be defining my coming weeks of "to do", meaning hobby time needs to be put aside for now and spend off-time on sorting out all the books and which ones to put on my trade page...

On the painting desk 288

 Well, it couldn't last to keep scoring my vows I guess.

Due to circumstances, more of which in a later blogpost in a month or so, I found myself in possession of literally hundreds of used books, and the work they bring.

Add to that the first days of +30 degrees, making it to hot to paint, and the progress stranded to a near stand-still.

 

 

Oh well, let's hope for both cooler weather, and getting through that whole library to sort out!

The halfway mark: the 2024 goals update

 So the year comes to the halfway point, meaning it is time to have a look at some of the goals I've set for myself this year on the hobby front.

And behest any miracles, I can already predict some serious failures coming in for the year.

The smaller Chaos Dwarf side projects, being building a 1000 points Warmaster force as well as a 12 points 15mm HOTT force are going to fall by the wayside.  It's the end of June, and I haven't even started shopping for the models, let alone actually painting something of those goals, so that is going to end up sorely.

The same is happening for the 250 models in 28mm heroic scale for the Chaos Dwarf collection.  Due to being busy painting mostly Underworlds (that goal is going well, with 6 warbands painted so far this year even though I keep adding warbands, raising the target ever higher), my Dawi'Zharr aren't receiving to much attention at the moment.  Only a measly 10 models out of the planned 250 are finished. 

On the other hand, I am going to try and aim to finish the Idoneth, though with the release of the 4th edition of Age of Sigmar next month, the points cost of units will be totally different and the Underworlds warbands will fall out of the lists, so I have no clue how many points I currently have, nor what to paint up for the 2000 points goal, so a better estimation on that front will be for the next update end of september.

So that's the painting part done, how about the other stuff?

 

Well, I can say I am more or less on schedule, perhaps only trailing a bit behind with the backlog anime challenge, having currently viewed 17 out of 85, with a total anime viewing of 28 out of 100 series.  This is mainly due to the fact I have been watching quite some regular series, upping that number to a total of 11 now out of the 20 goal.  The same goes for the movies, now standing at 15 out of 20 after watching some classics recently.

 

 

On the reading front, things however aren't going that well. While I did read a couple of manga, the counter now sits at 8 out of the target 25, but of course the holidays are coming and that is a period I often read a lot.

Meaning I might even push the others numbers higher as well, with at the moment 2 out of 10 (rule)books read, and 6 out of 50 fanzines read from the backlog.  The numbers are higher then the first quarter, but not by a lot... yet.

One goal I did reach already though, a bit traditionally by the half year mark, is to discover 50 new beers.  With the beerfestival in Antwerp last week, it broke the target and now sits at 54 beers.  For the side challenge of Date a Bullet cards, some have been added, and now I'm at 9 obtained from the 19 missing cards.

So, that is the status of the half year mark, With the new Final Fantasy expansion soon arriving, I will either be playing and not painting, or get a paint cramp from the many cutscenes and get a lot finished.  

Time will tell, and I will tell you in september!

Bierpassie Weekend 22nd of june 2024

 It was that time of the year again, the Bierpassie weekend in the centre of Antwerp on the Groenplaats.

So for the third year in a row, it was time to discover a whole lot of new brews!

And this year, I also booked a hotel in the city, even if it was only 5 kilometres from my front door.  No stress, breakfast, and just some rest and relaxation... or hangover recovery.  While not a heatwave as the past two years (luckily), the weather was cosy and welcome, only with a short shower around 18.30.

And there was great live music with Peper&Zout, who brings dixieland covers of famous pop and rock numbers.

Armed with a list of beers I wanted to try out, and the booklet there, me and Noshi went on the tasting trip.  And a free book as we bought so many beer tokens in one go, though this year we did leave our tasting glasses behind, we already have four.

I will give a short comment about some of the beers we tried, and the occassional picture, as we both alternated drafts and in the end I had tried a total of 13 totally new beers for my Untappd. And already completing my year goal of trying out 50 new beers by the halfway mark.

Palm 8 Horsepower (8%) - Brouwerij Palm: strong blond with a hint of orange, a good drinker to start with.

Mort Subite Juicy Crime of Passion (7.2%) - Brouwerij Alken Maes: you could smell the passion fruit above the glass

 

Paranoia (5.6%) - Brouwerij Huyghe: a real freshner

Floris Cactus (4%) - Brouwerij Huyghe: everyone wanted to try the green beer, it was horrible tasting like cheap lemonade.  For me the worst of the whole day.

Haeseveld Strong Blond (7.9%) - Brouwerij Huyghe: has a banana touch that tasted well

 

Delirium Red (8%) - Brouwerij Huyghe

Floris Framboos (3.6%) - Brouwerij Huyghe: far better then the above cactus beer

Averbode Extra (4.8%) - Brouwerij Huyghe

Hommelbier Fresh Harvest 2024 (7.5%) - Leroy: I love the Hommelbeer, and every year I want to try the new harvest limited edition

 

Cuvee Watou Rouge (8.5%) - Leroy: a strong, cherries and raspberries beer

Liefmans on the Rocks (5%) - Brouwerij Liefmans

Liefmans Kriek Brut (6.8%) - Brouwerij Liefmans

Vrijwit - T'Ij (5.2%) - Duvel Moortgat: this new one was superfresh, for me probably even the best of the day that I drank.

 

Achel Singel (5%) - Brouwerij Achel: a great pilsner like beer with extra hoppy touch, it was launched at the event and I liked it.

Timmermans Lambicus Kriek Black Pepper (4%) - Anthony Martin Group - a special cookie this one, with the fruit and spices duelling in your mouth.

Tipsy Gold (7.5%) - Gebr. Hermans: my silver medal of the day, a lovely touch of honey to a bitter beer.

 

Boscoli (3.5%) - Brouwerij Het Anker: a tasty fruit beer

Tete de Mort Red (8.1%) - Brasserie de Bocq: freshening red beer with a whole lot of fruits in it.

 

Tete de Mort Double IPA (8.4%) - Brasserie de Bocq: antother new beer at the event, and Noshi bought me some nice merchandise from the stand as well.

 

 

Filou Olympic Games 2024 (8.5%) - Brouwerij Vanhonsebrouck: specially made for the olympic year

 

Kasteel Rubus Framboise (7%) - Brouwerij Vanhonsebrouck: it remains one of the better fruit beers on the Belgian market.

Tarot Noir (8%) - Brouwerij Lindemans: Made on the basis of forest berries, this is a very juicy, good beer.

Amd so that are all the beers we have been trying and tasting, as well as meeting old reliables.  We also met a group of dutchmen for some nice chatting and around 22.00hrs we returned direction hotel, though with a stop at the restaurant / bar of a friend of ours for a little nightcap.

Next year, the event will be taking place in a new, modernised Tradefare building in Antwerp, and to be honest, I'm not sold on the idea of having it inside.  Surely it can provide cover from rain, but I fear as we always had sunny weather this period it would be to hot inside.

Rebel Moon 2 - The Scargiver

 Well, I wasn't to much of a fan of the first movie, feeling it to big a Star wars (which it was intended to be) on a budget.

But never the less, we sat down for part 2, with expectations that could only get bettered...

The story begins with Kora and the surviving warriors settling on Veldt, believing she had killed Admiral Noble in the events of the previous movie.  But Aris, the soldier that turned sides, informs the Dreadnought will arrive in five days.  They join the farmers to get the grain ready as well as building up the defences and training them to resist the coming invasion.

As Kora and Gunnar give in to their feelings towards each other, she tells him of her role in the assassination of young princess Issa, and how her adopted father Balisarius then tried to frame her for it all.  When the dreadnought arrives, they learn Noble survived and they start landing troops on Veldt.  He has send forces to capture the women and children, but these are protected by Nemesis who gives her life to keep them safe.  Kora wants to surrender to Noble to keep the village safe, but Gunnar, realising it is a rouse, gives the signal for the villagers to attack.

Titus and Tarak lead the villagers in stopping the first wave, but soon more troops appear, only stopping them with the help of "Jimmy".  Kora and Gunnar fly to the Dreadnought and infiltrate it, intend on destroying it.  They place explosives, destroying the massive vessel before it can wipe out the village, but in their retreat they encounter Noble who shoots Gunnar.  Kora duels with him, but as she is about to be overpowered the wounded Gunnar intervenes, and as they trap Noble in a hatch before striking him down, they make their escape.

On the planet the villagers celebrate as they see the Dreadnought crashing to the surface, but Gunnar succumbs to his injuries, dying in Kora's arms.  During the funeral, Titus reveals to Kora that Issa is still alive and hiding, and the assembled group declares to find her and reinstall her on the throne, desposing of Balisarius.

Okay, so this movie was one big battle basically, with some nice action scenes (the "lightsaber" combat between Nemesis and the elite troops was awesome) but I stil ain't to sold on the execution of the whole franchise.  The story is good (it would have been a far better Star Wars indeed then Mary-Sue Rey's rubbish) but it shows that it is made with a far smaller budget.  

Yet, I will watch the finale when it comes out eventually, as this one has redeemed my liking to it more then the first part had smashed up.  Though that finale is rumoured to become a two part movie.

White Dwarf issue 500

 Last month, I bought the celebratory issue of White Dwarf, my first issue in a very, VERY long time.

The reason?  Not per se because of collectable value or such.

No, because they also released a special model of the White Dwarf, and his rules for Underworlds (he can be used in any Age of Sigmar setting game system) and cards came with this magazine.

But of course, I took a flick and a read through it as well.

To be honest, I don't think I'll be buying the magazine often anymore, as I lost all intrest in the 40k setting years ago.  This of course means half the magazine is ruled out for intrest, but if the articles look fun, I might pick up a copy left or right still though.

But for now, unless it has something Underworlds related with cards included, the magazine isn't to high on my shopping priorities, it will depend when AoS 4 comes out if I'll pick up some issues for all the new material by then.

On the Painting Desk 287

 So, another very busy week passed by, and did we score the goals we had set ourselves in the previous episode?

Why yes we did, and then some!

So let's have a look at the status of the paint desk, and talk about the goals for next week:

Let's see if it will remain as succesfull as the past two episodes!

Make My Day

 Next on my backlog challenge list: Make My Day, a science-fiction horror series created for Netflix.

Counting 8 episodes, this is set on the prison planet Coldfoot, and unfortunatly features heavy CGI drawing, something I'm not a fan off, especially as this looks like a video game cutscene and not a proper anime.

On the prison planet, humans are forced to mine Sig, a mineral that improves quality back on Earth as it can be used for a lot of things.  Criminals are brought there under the false pretence of cohabitation with the regular civilisations, but this is a lie as they are oppressed by their overseers.  

But one day something goes wrong in "The Cauldron" as the mine is called, and the guards are send in to battle what is causing the trouble in there.  Jim, one of the new guards, sees strangely mutilated corpses on their way there, as they go look for survivors in what is said to have been only a cave-in.  They discover the cave-in opened paths into a whole system, and set out to look.  They come across a sort of hatchery, before something drags Jim off.  He finds the remnants of the previous team, as well as a survivor... and the monsters awakened by the mining efforts.

The sluglike creatures dispatch quickly of the rescuers, as they are immune to gunfire, the bullets absorbed in their slimy bodies.  The few survivors escape the mine, but the slugs are coming out as well, causing a grave danger to all planet inhabitants as they are seemingly immortal.

 

 

Realising they must evacuate, the prison is being assaulted by the beasts, resulting in a huge massacre under both the guards and the prisoners.  As the situation gets desperate, Jim must choose between his life or that of all the others, and picks the former, but hesitating the captain flies off, escaping with a small flyer before blowing up the launch bay.  He reunites with the convict he saved earlier, Walter, as they deduct the beasts are after the Sig ore.  

Together they look for a way to escape, but Jim wants to return to the mine to try and kill the beasts before they kill everything on the planet.  Fleeing the surface, they find the situation the same everywhere, including his family who had waited for him in vain.  He finds Marnie though, pregnant, and as more troops arrive including his captain they try to flee and get a ship off planet.  Walker manages to pick them up with other survivors, but they don't know where to go.

They learn the creatures where discovered about a month ago by the survey team, which reached the same conclusions as Jim about the beasts.  Considered a hero when arriving in dr Hadson's research lab, Jim is ambushed by captain Bark in the toilets.  Beaten and locked up, he is let out by others and saves dr Hadson from one of the beasts.  He makes his way to the city command to warn them from the upcoming danger, learning what Walter's crimes are as he asks for his parole in return.

Finding Walter beat up in jail, but set free, they meet the initial scientist, Boyd, who wrote about the beasts upon their discovery.  They form a plan to retrieve the hurt doctor and Marnie, then make it to the shuttle.  But arriving there, they learn Hadson has betrayed them, as there was no spot on the shuttle for them in the first place.  But just at that moment, Marnie's water breaks.  While the baby brings a brief moment of relief, 

A piece of an orbital tanker comes crashing down, the Swarm being brought on board for study, but as they learn from Bark this went hideously wrong.  Now the only place left they can go is the mass-driver of the Sig refinery.  Even though Hadson's assistant tries to betray them once again, they overcome the odds.  As the Swarm swoops over the refinery in search of the Sig stored there, they escape with a shuttle through the mass-driver, stored in a container.  Walter names the baby Kou as a thanks for them redeeming him, as giant beasts burst from the surface the moment they are about to launch, giving them an escape window and leaving the planet behind.

Well, unfortunatly this series didn't have much going for it.  The story is far from unique, but the fact the sacrifices are telegraphed from miles away and the betrayal's are done by minor side characters, it doesn't really deliver a punch at those moments.  And as I said before, the rather horrible CGI doesn't offer any redeeming factors either.  Oh, and the "horror" factor is totally absent by the way...

 

 

Warhammer Underworlds Wintermaw rulebook

 A new seasonal box for Warhammer Underworlds, so that means a new rulebook to go with it.

But I must say, I will be only talking the non-rules this time!

Wait what, a new ruleset, yet you won't talk about the rules section?  Yes well, the reasoning for that is really simple.  First off, it is the second book in the current cycle, which started out with Deathgorge.  The second reason is that only one tiny rulechange has been made: when you want to cycle an objective card during your power step, you can now draw one first, and then choose which one you discard, including the just drawn objective.  Before you first discarded and then drew, so this gives a tiny bit more flexibility to prevent getting stuck with an even more unplayable card.  But all the other rules remain the same as a result, so not much to talk about that part as such in this 64 page long book.

After having braved the icy land of Deathgorge in the realm of Ghur, the daring adventureres now go deeper inside.  And that deeper inside is the Wintermaw, a chasm where adolescent rimewyrms start making their trek to other lands, and the curse of Everwinter tries to hatch on and spread over the whole continent.  It is said they want to merge with the biggest wirm of all, the godbeast Fangathrak.  Should the beast be corrupted by the Everwinter, this would be disasterous for the continent and even the plane of Ghur.

But the Wintermaw is also home to the Hungering Parasyte (think Aliens facehugger), which is also the name of the excellent aggro universal deck included in this box, while the other, Rimewyrm Bity, is more of a board manipulation deck.  The parasyte is from a time before the mortals came, a living amber that hatches on to anyone daring to enter it's territory.  

Next, we look into the background of the new warbands from this box, one, the Skinnerkin which appeal A LOT to me, as they are, like me by schooling, cooks and chefs.  The other ones, the crazed lightning sturck nutcases of the Brethren of the Bolt aren't really my cup of tea so those will end at the far end of the "to paint" row for Underworlds I fear.

The Skinnerkin came to the Wintermaw led by Grisella Tenderhook to look for the best and finest of adventurers... in order to capture them and make them a main-course at the Summercourt.  On the other hand, the Brethren of the Bolt all believe they are carrying out Sigmar's will, as they have been struck by lightning.  They think the Wintermaw was openened by one of his divine bolts, and together with a wide variety of fanatical zealots they enter it to cleanse it of corruption.

And that is the lore of the newest expansion for the excellent Warhammer Underworlds.  I won't be delving in the rules as I said before, but it is worth getting this box for the very good universal decks, apparently a thing in the Deathgorge / Wintermaw cycle.  

And, cooks!

Warning Order issue 1 - Summer 2000

 The first magazine published by Wasatch Front Gaming Society, it is a fanzine that will be published quarterly featuring the games and era's the historical group played at that time.

It features a lot of short articles, and then some beefier ones, for this first edition.

 

It doesn't really features a cover or such, diving straight into the action as a sort of newsletter / club magazine style that was prelevalent during the period.  If your curiosity is tickled, a quick google will bring you to the club page where you can download those older issues.

Splattered amongst it are short reviews of movies, both in theatre and on DVD like Galdiator, Patton and the likes.  But it opens up with an article on Warfare in the age of Discovery, which features four "semi periods" in the rule set.  It also has list for source material and of course figures to be obtained.

After a mixture of short reviews on books, miniatures and more, the biggest article is a battle report for Command Decision 3: Berlin - Seelowe Highway.  This comes with descriptions of the action in the various phases, as well as with coloured maps of the unit movements.

We then get a bit more of the short reviews as well as a few links and guides for the games they play and enjoy.

So that was it for the first Warning Order issue, intresting for sure but sometimes the articles where a tat to short to my liking, looking more like a gathering of announcements from an old TV guide.  But I have many more and so we can see how this magazine evolves over time hopefully.

See you back soon for issue 2!

Into the Under-Ekeren tournament report

 Hello everyone, today a tournament report from the other side of the fence!

Because last sunday, the 16th of june, I organised the first ever Warhammer Underworlds tournament over at my local club, the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp.

I had this planned from before Covid hit, and now that life settled down, I found time (and motivation) to do so as such, with the chosen format the Rivals set.

Using T3 to sign up, 8 players gathered to explore the depths of Under-Ekeren... and vie for glory!

I managed to source price support (for the winner, the best painted warband, and the band with the LEAST glory points), had memento's for all the players printed up, and as such we where ready to go!

 

As the TO, I didn't know beforehand if I would be needed to play in the event, and as such I went for the most recent of warbands, the Skinnerkin from Wintermaw.  Whom due to circumstances hadn't been played before in the three weeks between finishing them like a madman and the event itself.  I had no illusions anyway to hold on to my current first place on the T3 ranking, and this would be an easy to play warband allowing me to focus on running the event instead of being busy trying to reach the top spots.

 

Was I required to play: Yes, and so we where eight.

 

The event then itself, after enough of my blabbering!

 

The participants:

 

Tomsche - Skinnerkin

 

 

Nico - Storm of Celestus

 

Michael - Eyes of the Nine

 

Vincent - Starblood Stalkers

 

Philip - Sons of Velmont

 

Johan - Griselle's Arenai

 

Peter - Zondara's Gravebreakers

 

 

Wouter - Grishnak's Looncourt

 

 

So that led to the first round, and the following pairings and results

 

 

Johan loses to Wouter 2-16

 

Tomsche wins from Vincent 11-6

 

Michael wins from Nico 13-7

 

Peter wins from Philip 16-11

 

In this first round, due to circumstances of the past weeks, I had as such to face the Starblood Stalkers without any experience of my band and deck.  Yet somehow I did manage to pull off an 11-6 win, mainly thanks to some lucky hits quickly taking down his Saurus warrior.

 

For round 2, the following matches where fought out

 

 Wouter wins from Peter 13-11

 

Tomsche wins from Michael 14-12

 

Vincent loses to Nico 11-14

 

Philip wins from Johan 13-10

 

Facing Michael, who brought a Hungering Parasyte Eyes of the Nine, this was certainly a match up that I haven't faced in a very long time.  But unfortunatly for them, the Eyes aren't on par with Ephilim though, and as he scored not that simple, my band was just a bit more consistent and a 14-12 victory went in the books for the Skinnerkin.

 

After these two rounds, we had a short break for lunch with hot dogs, while the other attendees in the venue, aka the players of the The Old World battle day as well as the barcrew got to cast their votes.

 

 

The painting results as such where as follows, yielding Philip a nice box of Rippa's Snarlfangs as a prize.

1. Philip

2. Nico

3. Vincent

4. Michael

5. Johan

5. Peter

7. Wouter

8. Tomsche

And with all that taken care off, it was time to polish the blades again and spit on the dice, as we went into round 3.

Tomsche wins from Wouter 14-10

 

 Peter wins from Michael 14-13

 

Philip wins from Nico 10-9

 

Vincent wins from Johan 17-14

 

Joined in the lead with Wouter, this was one of those games where things went smoothly.  Even though my warband was reduced to only miss Tenderhook, the scoring kept going solid and I managed to put down a 14-10 win against the horde of gitz.

Which brings us to the final round, and no less then 4 players where still in the running for the victory of the tournament, while the other 4 all had the chance to enter dead last!  Everything was to play for!

Peter wins from Tomsche 19-16

 

 

Wouter wins from Philip 17-10

Vincent draws with Michael 13-13

Nico wins from Johan 12-11

 

 

So, I am battling for the win, and like in Halle, Peter was my opponent.  But now the pressure was on me, as even though I had the points lead, I needed to draw or win once again, because Peter had already scored more glory then me, even with a loss on his tally.  I managed to score my personal best of 16 points, but still it was not to be as Zondara went all the way up to 19 and wiped out my whole band.  Key was both Sedric (twice in a row) and Kretch missing the attacks that would have taken down all his zombies and would have allowed me to take on the lovers, not helped by a play mistake that I didn't pay attention to an upgrade on Kretch that reduces damage by one.  Oh well, that happens.

And so when the dust settled, 3 players came to a total of 9 points, meaning the glory points would have to bring the decision.  In this, Peter scored the most, followed by Wouter with a measly 3 points difference.  I ended up 3rd myself, trailing the winner by 5 points.

The full result:

1. Peter

2. Wouter

3. Tomsche

4. Nico

5. Philip

6. Michael

7. Vincent 

8. Johan

Johan won the price for ending last, a set of Wurmspat dice, which was a bit of a suprise for the Arenai with Breakneck Slaughter.  But if you keep failing to roll those dodges on defence, the ladies are very, very fragile unfortunatly.

But it was Peter who took the main price home in the form of a Direchasm core box, and as he told later, his very first tournament win ever after a train of 2nd and 3rd places.  Well deserved as he piloted the Zondara's Gravebreakers very solidly the past weeks, and it payed dividents.

I want to thank all that came along for the great day and making it worth my effort to organise this little event.  I've been talking with Johan, the Halle organiser, and we aim to do one tournament for each season, with spring and autumn taking place in Halle, and Summer and Winter will be in Antwerp.  Peter is already thinking of running one himself, and of course TSA is happy to have the clubhouse used as a venue as all present where impressed by our little clubhouse, the space and the parking it offers for the games.

A special thanks to everyone for the additional pictures I could use in this report, as between paperwork and playing, picture rounds weren't that easy to do.  And to Heikki and Karen for making sure all the throats where kept moist and the bellies filled.

 

So, that's it for the first Underworlds tournament ran at the TSA clubhouse, and we will be back!