maandag 30 september 2024

Spellcaster issue 3

 Time for some more Frostgrave goodness by the writer, Joseph A. McCullough, in the third issue of Spellcaster.



And that can still be picked up in PDF format over at DriveThru for example.

This time counting 60 pages, the cover tells us the Rangifer is about to make it's return.  This beast, first appearing in Thaw of the Lich Lord, is an undead hating human-reindeer hybrid.  It first looks at their society and why they enter the frozen city for their own goals.

You can create a whole warband of these magnificent creatures now, lead by a Shaman, using the rules presented in the issue.  It even comes with their own personal treasure table and all, as well as a solo campaign for the Rangifer's, Eternal Rest.

In the second article, Friends in Low Places, it tackles those motivated by pure financial gains instead of mystical knowledge.  This means your wizard can gain underworld favours, but these as always come at a price.  

There is a review of the second novel about the setting (I should really see to get these books, they look like a fun read), Oathgold, including a short story by Matt Ward (yeah, that guy from GW).  

Next is an auctioning system that you can include in your Frostgrave campaigns, to get magical items in a bidding war with other warbands.

Ulterior Motives in Ghost Archipelago is an article about how the crews might have other goals apart from finding the Crystal Pool and the cards to use these in your games.

Finally we get a preview at the next (and excellent) game system in development: Rangers of Shadow Deep.  Which reminds me I should really make work of setting up a new campaign for that system and solo around with a Chaos Dwarf inspired warband sometime.

And that is it for yet another fun magazine in what have become some of my favorite games of the past years.

zondag 29 september 2024

The Haul Report 406: buying some collections

 It has been a while, but this past period I obtained some new stuff for the collections.

Starting with new warbands for Underworlds, because yeah, it's not like I haven't have enough of a backlog already.

I picked up no less then two collections in the past week, the first one consisting of a large army of Idoneth for my existing army...

 

... while the second is a huge collection of a player that quit Underworlds.  Including a sealed Nethermaze that I don't have, along with some other stuff for my personal use, as well as some doubles to trade away in my game group.
 
 I also pre-ordered the Chaos Dwarf Hellcannon when the Old World Chaos went online, which I collected in the local Warhammer store.  Because one more big cannon, why not...

I did some content video's on both these lots in the past days, and put them on my YouTube channel as such.


Archonia's MyBox also arrived this period, though it contained only a single volume this time round as I forgot to bundle with some wishlist items to save on shipping d'oh.  Never the less, I will enjoy reading this final volume of the excellent JK Haru isekai series.
 


But back to Underworlds then, to end as we started.  Through Vinted I found some promocards for warbands that I have, so time to pimp the decks a little.
 

 
And more cards, as I traded a double set of Thundrik's promocards for the set of the Dread Pageant and Myari's Purifiers.  Maybe I should shuffle those Lumineth a bit more forward on the painting plans after all...



While I had the Daggok's cards, I managed to pick the warband up second hand for 15 euro, unpainted.

So that was a VERY hefty episode this time round, until the next instalment!  Please do note though, I'm no longer running this on a weekly basis, but will be showing the loot over various length periods, when I have some "volume" gathered.

zaterdag 28 september 2024

On the Painting Desk 298

 Time for another weekly overview, and did we get that Warcry band finished?

The answer unfortunatly is no...

Never the less, I have been making some good progress, with one of the warriors from Hrothgor's already finished bar the basing, and one of the Underworlds Beastgrave terrain pieces.



So that means this week the Horns WILL be finished at last, and I hope to get some serious progress done on the Gnoblars.  While probably doing some work in the meantime on the next scenery piece.

Let's check back next week and see where we ended up!

vrijdag 27 september 2024

Fantasy Anime League: fall 2024

 We are back in the prediction game, and as such hopefully bumping those slacking anime numbers in the final sprint of the year.

 


So after some decent results in the previous seasons, I went for the following selection this season.

From the Restricted list, I got to pick two, and ended up with taking both Bleach and the 5th season of DanMachi from them.  And with both airing in the first week, they could immediatly go to the Active section of my team.

But then came the hard task of selecting the other ones from a list of 63, hoping on some white rabbits to pop out from that list.  I also wanted a good starting line-up this time round, in order to be able to use a quick ace without having to use the restricted ones, and not be forced to swap in week 1 or 2 for the good ones that might begin running later.

Ao no Hako was as such my very first pick, romance anime's tend to do well in general. Another sure shot, though that needed to start on the bench due to airing only in week 2, is the new Dragonball.  But there ended my gut feelings, and now I had to start taking gambles...

The new season of Arifureta was picked, airing nearly in week 3, because, well, ecchi.  Kimi wa Meido-sama looks fun, and airs at the end of week 1 so that went in the Active group as well.  Maybe not the smartest pick, but a new Ranma 1/2 starts at week 1 as well and purely out of nostalgia I added that to the team as well, rounding out the actives, and I can always swap something else in after all, like above mentioned Dragonball.  Ao no Miburo was my final bench pick, for some reason it drew my attention.

So will this team carry me once again into the top 50%?  Let's find out!


donderdag 26 september 2024

Warhammer Underworlds casual gamenight: Something fishy is going on!

 Okay, so I caved in.  After trying to get myself to play with other warbands, now that the tournament approach I never the less felt the urge to have my little Spinefin back.

And the Crimson Court deck just didn't rock my boat.  Either you drew nothing and where hopelessly smacked, or you drew well and the game was more boring for you then for the opponent even... see the previous games.

So it happened the 20th of september.  I decided to bring Elathain back into the game, this time though taking along the Hungering Parasite instead of the Force of Frost deck.  That also means I have about a month and a maximum of 10 games to fine tune the deck to the sort of steamrolling "WTF is that" deck I love to play.  And Spinefish gives a good option to ping the adjacent damage to with the Parasyted warrior when no enemies are present, due to his constant repositioning.

And considering the other warband I wanted to try out is Cyreni with Force of Frost, as I finally want to try and get this warband to work to my likings, it was basically a night out for the Idoneth Deepkin.  That and the fact with only 1.5 month to go, I still can't decide what I want to play, while others are already finetuning their decks.  It will be one of the Idoneth in any case, as I'm keeping The Dread Pageant for Ekeren, but which one, I have no clue.  Let's see how tonight goes for starters...
 
 
The first game put my Cyreni's Razors against Zondara' Gravebreakers with Hungering Parasyte.   



Both warbands deployed and we where ready for the battle between the ladies.  


Cyreni duly opened with a Hammertide, pinging Cracktomb as a result, but also get that stagger token in play for objectives later on.  
The Gravebreakers started doing what they do best, namely digging up upgrades.  I tried to hold back as long as possible to deny them any possible kill glory to stall their inspiration as such.
 
 Alathyrr charged forward, taking down Pikk and as such hoped the opponent would spend more time for raising this zombie again instead of going on the offensive with the Parasyte.
 
 

 Which he duly did, and the first round ended at a 5-3 lead for the Razors.
 
 In the second turn Toyle came forward, attacking Cephanyr, only to have the squid stagger him and poofing away to safer areas, as Cyreni has infiltrated the opponents territory.
 
 

Cephanyr came back on his steps though, charging and taking out the zombie in one fell swoop of it's tentacles.



As Cyreni unleashed Absaloth's Avelanche, taking a point of damage in the process, all the opponents warriors where hit as well as they kept being bunched together at the back of their territory.
 

 
Ferlain charged Cyreni, but luckily for the Idoneth Tidecaster he missed his attacks.
 
 

Renglaith, having Grievous now that he was inspired, stepped in to protect his leader,  finishing off the werewolf in a swift strike from his Lamari blade.




Alathyrr on the other hand charged forward to Pikk and Cracktomb, and scythed her way through them, taking down Pikk.



Things looked good for the Idoneth, and a 9-5 lead was on the scoreboard.  Not the widest of margins, but seeing how the opponents band had been brought down in numbers I was confident I could hold on to this in the final turn.



That turn however began with Alathyrr being taken down by the undead unfortunatly.



As Cephanyr had charged Zondara, she was forced out of her hiding place and came forward to engage Cyreni in a battle of mystical powers.



But the Tidecaster proved to be the better of the Necromancer, and a Pelagic Blast ended the old crone's reign of fear.



With some more cards to be scored at the end, the Razors netted a 14-6 victory as a result.

So that went rather well, and to be honest I'm only going to switch one objective card out, Rising Threat will be replaced by Snuff Out, which I think might be easier to score with all the 2 damage and 1 ping Hammertide attacks to be honest.



But then the main menu for the night, the return of my beloved Elathain.  Facing him are Skittershank's Clawpack and another Hungering Parasyte, so the little beasties will run abundant in this battle.


I decided to longboard, counting on the Flood Tide mechanic of the warband to be able to cover the needed distance, as my Parasyte latched on to Elathain.  


But Peter played Poisoned Attacks, and this card was a pain as he rolled all the needed hammers.



Fuirann as such was the first to fall to the attacks of the ratmen before she had the chance to do her heroic shennanigans.



The Soulraid began their game of infiltrating the opponents territory, as Tammael began his career of idiot of the evening.  Charging towards Snyp Padpaw, he managed to miss with all his three dice.  The Curse Hungers allowed me to attack again, and miss again (and then to know I had re-rolls on the first dice for stagger due to the Parasyte, but forgot).  


Elathain scored for being a leader in friendly territory, but the Skaven had taken a 3-6 lead now.

 


In the second turn, Elathain was besieged on all sides by the Skaven, and even though he managed to heal himself, he was still taken down by a flurry of attacks.  tammael had in the meantime missed Snyp again with 2 dice on hammers and re-rolls... before the rat simply walked off.



Finally Tammael took down Snyd, but only after re-rolls, meaning he had spend 14 (!!!!!!) attack dice before finally hitting.  Had he just taken him out immediatly, things might have been different but now all went downhill.
Especially as he himself was then taken out as a result on the first attack, to add injury to irony...


With only Duinclaw and Spinefin remaining, I had to struggle through the hopeless third round with a 7-13 deficit, and in the knowledge he had a lot of easy to score cards still having to come as we played both the Parasyte.



Duinclaw tried valiantly, but failed to take out Kreep Kinwhisper, and was in return taken out by the net throwing rat.  As a result, a crushing 8-20 deafeat was my part...

Does this mean I need to bring Elathain back to the drawing board?  No, not necessarily, as this game was hampered by Tammael's amateuristic combat skills.  But it does mean I won't be taking this combination to Benelux Clash II though, it needs far more finetuning and practice then I'll be able to run in a month of time, especially combined with the Dread Pageant that I want to keep using until Ekeren as well.

So, with about a month to go, that means there are still two candidates for the tournament: either the frustrating Crimson Court with Path of Prophecy, or Cyreni's Razors with Force of Frost.  Let's see if I can get a game or two in with both those bands before making the final decision and then spend the final games before the tournament to finetune the piloting with the picked warband...

Choices, choices, choices...








woensdag 25 september 2024

A Spearhead gaming day with the friends

 So, following up on the Spearhead try-out day with friends from a few weeks ago, we did another such get together past sunday.



And this time, I had a fully painted Spearhead with me, albeit Elathain himself did stand in as the leader, as the Soulscryer is the only model I hadn't finished up yet (read: not even assembled).
 
But that means I was ready to face a random opponent, as we where with a nice lot of 6 for the games.  The plan was 2 games of Spearhead, while I had a Underworlds Rivals format game lined up as well against Philip, who wanted to try out his newly finished warband.
 

But first things first, Spearhead!  For this battle I faced Peter and his Ossiarch Bonereapers, and in order to prepare for the rather big force with a heavy hitting monster, I picked the Ethersea Predators to heal my cavalry, and Mind Flare for some protection for my general. 


We deployed on the straight line, and as I suspected he would pick the first turn, I kept rather back.  My movement will be able to cover most of the terrain anyways.  



The Bonereapers started moving forward, ready to collect their tithes to Nagash.  


The lines closed, but my Morsarr Guard bypassed all enemy forces to go and claim the objective on the other end of the table, which they need to do without using a Fight ability.  



The Mortisan Soulreaper however is charged by a unit of Namarti Thralls, as well as by the ferocious Allopex, and torn assunder swiftly.


On the flank, the other unit of Thralls becomes engaged with the unit of Mortek Guard, joined by my Soulscryer.
And so the first turn ended with a 7-4 lead for the Idoneth Deepkin who managed to score all their cards as well as the Ghyran twist.


Starting the second turn, the Kavalos Deathriders approached the troops in the center.


Where they wouldn't need to face the Allopex, as the beast is shot down by the Gothizzar Harvester's Death's Head Maw.  



The Kavalos Deathriders then charge in, duly eliminating the Thrall unit, but not before they managed to take the Harvester, who had already received damage in the previous turn from the shark's harpoon launcher, down.
On the other flank, the general and the other Namarti unit keep fighting it out with the Mortek Guard.
 
 In my turn, the Namarti returned and aided by the fact it was Flood Tide managed to join the Morsarr Guard in charging the Bonereapers cavalry. 


After a flurry of electrical blasts, flashing swords and savagely snapping eels, only a single wounded rider remained.  The scoreboard went to 11-7 for the Idoneth after the second turn.


At the start of the third turn, the second unit of Mortek Guard appeared on the battlefield at my tableedge.  


With the Deathriders also eliminated, I had the speed in my third turn, albeit not the big numbers anymore, a single Deathrider returning as reinforcements as the Thralls engaged the Mortek Guard and the Morsarr Guard swooped around to take objectives.  The result was a lead that extended now to 18-13 for the Idoneth.



In the final turn, the Deathrider gave chase to the remaining Thralls and my general, but while he took down both Thralls, the general remained unscathed before taking out the lone rider himself in the combat.
 
 
In my turn, the Namarti reappeared and together with the Morsarr Guard charged the last remaining Mortek Guards, taking them all out and nailing an impressive 24-14 victory for the raiders from the oceans.
 
A battle hard fought even though the result shows differently, but mostly thanks to the speed of the Eels.  I kept them out of combat for 2 out of the 4 rounds, even though they hit really hard, just to have them secure objectives and rake in the points.
 

 
 For the second game, I faced Vincent and his Sylvaneth force, including a mighty treeman I just did not want to engage in combat.  I lack anything to seriously try and take it down, and if I did commit would cost me a big portion of my army for perhaps minimal gains if the dice went bad.



I hoped as such to be able to use my higher speed and shennanigans to be able to strike where I want, and hopefully score the points all around the field as both forces faced off against each other.




The Allopex and Morsarr Guard immediatly went for the alpha strike on the Tree-Revenants, in order for said quick scoring, wiping out the entire unit.  But the Hunters piled into them as the treeman caused some damage.




The Tree-Revenants reappeared close to my general though who went out to grab an objective, as the first round ended 5-5.




In the second turn, the advance of the Sylvaneth began, the huge tree lumbering forward.  The Namarti survived combat with the Kurnoth Hunters, as the Allopex bit one in pieces.


However, no longer protected by the Mind Flare, the general was torn assunder by the Revenants on the far flank, as for the most part it was a game of movement and the score went to 9-8 lead for the Idoneth, as both armies kept punching holes in the air.



As the Thrall went to try and capture an objective in the third turn, the Allopex finally took down the last of the Hunters, and the score now went to 15-15, while I couldn't get much benefit of my High Tide, units moving to score objectives mostly.


So it all came down to the last turn and the battle tactics card that could be drawn, added with a twist that granted an extra VP for controlling the large terrain piece in the opponent's territory.  Vincent scored solid, and so in my turn the infantry had to cover all flanks, while it would come down to the Allopex.  He needed to use a Fight ability without dying itself, and take out enough Revenants to control the terrain piece, and I would bag the game at the last moment.


And then duly rolled a double 1 for the charge... thus ending the game with a 19-21 defeat in a darn tactical game this time round.  
 
So that was two fun games of Spearhead this afternoon, one win and one loss is nice enough for me.  I keep getting a better handle of the Deepkin, and often not going for the attack "just yet" to score the cards while trying to run around my opponent.  I also now tried both deployment methods (today and a few weeks ago) and if given the choice in future game, it will always be the diagonal deployment with these guys, to allow the "funnel effect" for them to start the soulhunt out of a deployment corner instead of the spreading out that happened twice today.
 

But there was more to come after dinner, as Philip had painted up his newest Underworlds warband and was looking for a Rivals game to give them a first try out.  So Zarbag Gitz stepped (well, scurried) up to the challenge!
 
 


 Both warbands deployed, cards where drawn and off we went to try and bite some Stormcast in their ankles!


Xandire herself was immediatly besieged by Drizgit, who was assisted by his two Squigs, and smacked for two damage.
 

  Her warband came to her aid, and took down poor Bonekrakka, but Gobbaluk immediatly avenged his matey and bit off Xandire's face in a storm of teeth and bouncing muscle.
 
 But the poor little, innocent squig was then himself picked to pieces by Taros, the bird being inspired and with Grievous doing some serious hurting pecking attacks.   



The first round ended with the Gitz leading 4-3 as the opponent hadn't entered my territory just yet, allowing me to score that glory point for Squalid Lair.



In the second turn, lord chromedome aka Dhoraz Giant-Fell scythed around with his hammer, and luckily I had protected Snirk with a card to make him untargetable, as the other little Gitz weren't so lucky.


Snirk survived as such, but was getting surrounded at all sides, but luckily he had failed his attack and would be inspired come turn 3.


There wasn't that much happening for the rest of the round though even if I managed to ping and wound Dhoraz for two, and breaking his card that saved one wound along the way, and the score went to an impressive 6-9 lead for Xandire.


But turn 3 brought "The Snirk Moment" as the Fanatic set off at a wheeling round of utter destruction.  I rolled luckily with the chain, and managed to hit Dhoraz THREE times, killing him, but also scoring Obliterated (with an inspired Snirk for additional glory), Malicious Kill (as he had 2 upgrades) and Not So Tall Now, netting an impressive 5 glory in one crazed exploit of insane gobbo power.



The surviving Stormcast, Stormrider, and his bird went after my netter, though the brave Git managed to wound the huge warrior first for one point of damage before being stomped in the groud... by Talos.


But it was to no avail for the Stormcast, as I kept my 2 objectives secure for Gitz Everywhere, and scoring some more glory as such for a 14-11 victory in the end.

And thus ended a fun afternoon / evening of Age of Sigmar fun-ness, and it was time to return a la casa.  Now to unpack my models and get ready to upgrade my forces and warbands some more for the next playdate!