National Treasure: Edge of History

 Time for some innocent adventuring with this Disney+ series, starring a still very good looking Catherina Zeta-Jones.

In the style of the movies of the same name or Indiana Jones movies when they didn't involve aliens or timetravel, this is just that, some good fun.

When a treasure hunter called Raphael Rios uncovers an artifact, he sends his family into hiding before a man called Salazar kills him in Mexico.  In the present day, his daughter Jess lives in Baton Rouge as someone still awaiting her citizen papers, with her friends Tasha, Oren and Ethan.  During a locker cleanup at her storage job, she comes along the belongings of former FBI agent and hero Peter Sadusky, and goes to visit him.  He notices her necklace and asks her to visit his estranged grandson Liam.  While a woman named Billie unsuccesfully send some fake agents to ask for the necklace, Jess and Tasha decipher the picture and find a puzzle box in Sadusky's Freemason lodge.

Oren is taken hostage by Billie, who wants the box, as it contains pieces of a map.  Meeting up with Liam again, he shows her a hidden office room in his grandfather's house, containing a paper written by Jess's mom.  It turns out that the story of La Malinche, a so called traitor working for Cortes, was actually the founder of a secret society called the Daughters of the Plumed Serpent.  They hid cultural treasures from the spaniards, and one box was kept by each of the Inca, Mayan and Aztec civilisations.  They go search for an audio clue in Graceland.

At Sadusky's wake, and with the help of famous archeology podcaster Riley Poole (linking the series to the movies), they find out the next clue is at the Louisiana governor's mansion, a diary of a dog, while an interested FBI agent in the case, a young agent called Ross, finds that Sadusky has been poisoned.  Billie and Jess team up, trying to convince her she was actual an acquintance of Jess's mother.  Jess sees through this though, and their journey brings them to the Alamo.  Here Jess deducts the Alamo well does not refer to the fortress, but to the original place in Mexico where the name came from.

Billie frames Jess for Sadusky's murder, but Ross isn't convinced, believing more is at hand.  Liam teams up with Myles, his grandfather's caretaker but actually an agent of Billie tasked with keeping an eye on the old man.  He can't live with the path Billie has taken, and as Jess finds out the man in a mexican jail called Salazar is actually her father, having avoided death.  Breaking him out, they set to the Devil's Swamp as they resolve the puzzle for being a star map.  Here all sides come to a confrontation, but it is Jess and her group that discovers the truth of Malinche, as Billie and the rest of her group working to destroy treasures to keep the now going without interference of discoveries from the past.

So this was a fun little treasure hunt series, though it had a bit of a dip of pace in the middle episodes focussing more on teenage relation issues.  Never the less, it's a bit of a pity the series got cancelled even with fine ratings, but that is something Disney+ just does for no apparent reason, just ask poor Willow...

Buddy Daddies

 Time for some light-hearted, fun anime this time round, or so we hoped when we selected it from our immense MAL Plan to Watch list as the next series to go through.

Centering around a formed family of two hitmen and a little girl that accidentally ends up with them, as they assassinated her father, and Kazuki telling her he is actually her dad to protect her from the truth.

Kazuki is a con artist while his roommate and partner in crime Rei is a hitman.  Steered by their handler Kyutaro, as a 4-year old girl called Miri intervenes accidentally in their latest job.  They find out their target was her actual father, after Kazuki had told her he was it to save her.  Never having met her dad, she believes him and stays with the two hitmen.  Kazuki goes in search of her real mother, but when he tracks her down she is a down-on-her-luck backroom bar singer, who hates her daughter for being always happy.

Kazuki and Rei decide to keep Miri with them, as they need to mingle their job with parenthood, something they know next to nothing about.  Rei also starts bonding with Miri, as he held this off due to his own abusive childhood, and the two become her Papa's.  They find a daycare for her, allowing them to do their job (more or less) still while she is at school, though this also needs some adapting from Kazuki to have her blend in and make friends.  But once settled, she is happy at the daycare, and they decorate a spare room into a real room for Miri.

When babysitting her, Kyutaro quickly realises the two are becoming attached to the girl, but doesn't mind as long as it doesn't interfere with their work.  Karin, the former sister-in-law of Kazuki, comes to visit to return all the money he has been sending her, but in the meantime Miri develops a fever leaving Rei in a panic attack, but he pulls through on helping her.  Rei is summoned by his father, a the head of a major crime organisation who wants his son to become his successor.  But a job he does for his father leaves him disgusted instead.

As Miri competes in the daycare's sports event, her mother reappears, wanting to spend some time with her daughter before she will die of throat cancer.  It turns out Kyutaro needed to call her, as Rei's dad had threatened to either kill Miri or his son ascends his place.  They take Miri on a last day of fun activities before returning her to her mother, but learn Rei's dad send an assassin anyways.  Kazuki rushes there, finding her mother fatally wounded but managing to save Miri.  Kazuki wants to send her to a safe orphanage, but Rei stops him, vowing he will solve this.

They go to the Organisation, where they take out the prime assassin before Rei confronts his father, crippling his own arm so he can never be a hitman again and allowed to walk out.  Reaching Miri's daycare christmas party just in time, they decide to change their life.  Ten years later, they run a diner together as Miri goes to high school, living happily with her two Papa's.

Darn, this was one good series, and highly enjoyable.  Miri immediatly grabs you with her personality, and the reformation of two criminals into father's is a very lovely journey to watch.  Definitly highly recommeded anime!

Vongalazthag Violators versus Greedy GrabberZ Blood Bowl match report

 Time for the next League game, and it'll be a tough one.

Because the rating of these rats is almost 300 points higher then mine, and they sit in a second place at the moment in the League.

So, that meant I needed a plan, and that plan would be... pure sneaky brutality!

While the Blockers and some Hobgobs will have to try and hold the front against a Rat Ogre amongst other beasties, it is in the outfield that I want to make a massacre, by keeping a defence with the Bull Centaur for smashing anything coming through, and the Flamesmiths and Stabberz to take down ball carriers without needing to block.  In an ideal world, I'll spend the first half of the game hospitalizing half his team, and go for the win in the second half.  Or that's the plan at least...

... because even with the Inducement of a Biased Referee (furthermore I got a Weather Wizard, a Keg and an Assistant), my first block of the game came double skulls, meaning out went my re-roll.

 

 

Never the less, my Hobgoblin Numbers managed to pick up the ball as my Bull Centaur The Raging Trainwreck was trough his lines.  All he needed to do was make a dodge and give a short pass, and off we would be. 

 

Only to fail the first roll immediatly, and with that re-roll already used up...

 

 

The Skaven immediatly swarmed the ball with their immens speed, and a Gutter Runner set off towards the End Zone. 

Only to put the 1-0 already onto the scoreboard in a razorsharp counter.

 

 As the lines formed again, the Violators went immediatly to the job of bowling some rats over. 

 

But somehow my 2 dice block The Raging Trainwreck managed to roll my second double skull versus a measly lineman, and instead of breaking open his line, our attack went sour for the second time in a row.

 

We did manage to push the Rat Ogre down near the sidelines (magically morphing it into a tiny rat for ease of laying it down), and prepared to foul the big beast before the Gutter Runners broke through. 

 

Which those rocket powered vermin immediatly did of course, we just couldn't hold the rushing speedsters back.

 

 

The fouling on the Rat Ogre didn't take the beast of the field, as one of my Blockers, Arsham Hallvar was shoved into the crowd, without harm though. 

 

And so the same Gutter Runner as before scored the 2-0, and we had a half to put things right, or bash around trying.

 

Setting up for the second half, as I needed to kick, my Sure Hands hobgoblin Numbers was substituted for another one, Duey, whom was then duly send off due to the result on the kick-off table.  Shortest game ever for poor Duey... he never got to show is lack of talent.

The rats started to force a way over the side of the field, the Gutter Runners sneaking through once more.  I in the meantime had already managed another double skull, so that would be another half without re-rolls sigh.

 

As one of the Hobgoblins, Huey, was KO'd, I was actually now at a serious numerical disadvantage, and the rats began to push back my line of scrimmage due to sheer numbers. 

As the Gutter Runner neared the end line once again for a hattrick, the center became a big pile-up of Bull Centaurs and Rat Ogres...

 

... before the Gutter Runner completed his hattrick with the third touchdown of the evening. 

We set up for another drive, and we where starting to get the numbers due to players being knocked out and all.  We might even try to score at least one goal now, or do some serious hurting for some star player points.

 

Which we had already been doing, with a lineman and a Gutter Runner injured, while another Gutter Runner had been cleanly killed.

 

 The blue wall set up before the rodents, eager to start knocking them down. 

But yet for some reason and a lot of dodges one of the remaining Gutter Runners got through, and we surrounded him immediatly.

 

 

Even then, those pesky rodents are terrible, he actually managed to escape the enclosure, putting the 4-0 on the scoreboard!  The Skaven didn't fail... a... single... dodge roll tonight.  Not even needing their skills re-roll.  For that same matter, neither did they fail any pass, catch or pick up rolls bar one (which he succesfully re-rolled) while my Hobgobs couldn't even manage a simple handover.

 

 

 So with three turns to go, once again we set up and got going.  The opening drive immediatly KO'd three more Skaven, on a 9, so so very close to more injuries.  But that also meant they where safe from injury in the closing stages as a result.

 

The raging Trainwreck had an opening and the time to score at least the honour saving goal, with nothing between him and the end zone... only to fail the hand-over.

 

 

And so the lines pushed each other a little, but nothing more happened except the hobgoblins picking up the ball and FINALLY making a pass, but fell 1 turn short.  I probably would have failed the going for it anyways though as I saw how the game went.

 

Adding insult to injury, his Rat Ogre (which actually was kept rather ok out of the game) became MVP, while on my side Arsham Hallvar, a Blocker, received the award.  Still, I managed to get 85k of income and my Fan Factor remained the same, so that was nice.  That Minotaur is coming close to join the ranks now, IF GW would like to release their official model.  I'll probably start converting one up just in case soon I guess...

 

I did obtain a bunch of skills (I love rolling random skills for some reason) , with The Dude gaining Fend and Dievanons gaining Wrestle (might be handy against Block skilled runners).  Two of my Blockers got Pile Driver for some more dirty play, while another Blocker obtained Juggernaut.  All in all, the team came out better, and somehow still hangs on in 8th place of the League and the qualifiers.

 

Should I manage to keep that spot after next week's outmatched game again, and with the three top teams they having passed on the calendar, I might actually start grabbing League points and qualify at least for the play-offs, though keeping 5 teams behind me won't be to easy a task...

 

 

 

 

On the Painting Desk 319

 So we have been painting away at the next round of the Escalation League, as my next game is up in 3 weeks.

 

That means the Handgunners and the Pistoliers need to be finished by then...

 

Now, taking into account that I'm having a couple of tournaments lined up as well in the coming period, the paint time is a bit cut down, and I'll have to squeeze it in when possible.  But for this week, progress was okay with the Pistoliers at least.

 

 

Once they and the Handgunners are done, the next round sees me needing only 8 models to finish, with both cannons, and allows some breathing room for the Marienburg army at least... only to have that spend on some other urgent models to finish with the Emmissary and the Soulscryer.

 

Let's see how far we get next week...

Arcane Journal: Empire of Man

 Arcane Journal's are like smaller scale army books for The Old World, as they supplement the relevant army list book for your force.

 

 

So inside you won't find the full army list, as the Grand Army or "general" rules are in Forces of Fantasy / Ravening Hordes relevantly, but fluff out your army of choice instead with extra rules.

 

The Journal comes as a 48-page soft cover book, following the line of high quality publications with gorgeous art and pictures as usual from Games Workshop.  You can say a lot about their craze to sell books, but the products ARE top notch in design.

 

 

The first part of the book contains all the lore for the era of the The Old World, with the Empire still fractioned after the times of the Three Emperors, and it's Elector Counts still vying for dominance.  Yet it also shows how the nation comes together as one against a common enemy like a waaagh or a Chaos invasion.  This also shows with a historical scenario right before we get the lovely picture pages.

 

The second part of the book is the "juicy stuff", first with two specialised Armies of Infamy: The City-State of Nuln list which is all about blackpowder weapons, and the Knightly Orders which center around (malleable) knightly forces of heavy armed knights.

 

 

Following these two army lists, we get the new special characters, including the Grandmaster of the Knights Panther inspired in the early 90s artwork by John Blanche, the new units to use in your army like Road Wardens, and the list of Empire of Man specific magical items.

 

So a nice little addition to your forces of the Empire, and while non of the Infamy lists are really overpowered, they add a good flavour to a thematic army, especially to try out in some casual plays.

The Secret Kingdom

 Saturday evening movie time with Noshi, and recently we fell upon The Secret Kingdom.

A little fantasy movie that looks promising from the description, this australian made movie is one of those innocent young adventure flavour movies.

Taking place in Australia in the 1960's, Peter is a 12 year old with some strange habbits.  His family moves to a spooky little house in the countryside, after losing their main residence.  But the very first night in the house, the floor rips open, swallowing Peter and his younger sister Verity.

They arrive in a land inhabited by Pangolin, and they hail Peter as the prophetised king.  What follows is a journey to get home, in which Peter and Verity must solve riddles, while trying to escape from a mysterious evil being called The Shroud.  This takes them along various locations, and they meet a dragon who joins them on their quest.

But this dragon actually turns out to be the reason of evil, and as Peter comes to terms with what actually happened to Verity, who died years ago and the cause of his strange quirks as he faces this trauma, he manages to overcome The Shroud.  This was a mental defence he had installed himself, but hampered him in his daily life as a result.  Verity remains behind in the Underlands as the new queen of the Pangolin, as Peter returns to his home.

Okay, so the special effects are average, and the story at times drags a bit to much in dialogues.  But while you can't expect the next The Neverending Story or the likes from this little film, it wasn't all that bad as some reviews make it appear to be.  It is what it is, a non-high budget, fantasy themed journey of a young boy with a trauma.

Enjoyable for a lazy evening, nothing more, nothing less to be honest as such...

The substitute Bull Centaur

 Well, Games Workshop still hasn't made additional copies of their Bull Centaurs for Blood Bowl, so it was time to make a stand-in.

 

Because the 28th of february I have a game going, and the newest addition to the Vongalazthag Violators needs to be on the pitch.

 

 

To that end, I took one of the heaps of 3D printed Fabelzel Bull Centaurs in my bits box, and moving aside other paint projects went to prepare him.  That meant clipping of his weapons and put him on a suitable round base.

 

 

He also got the painting crash course, in order to get him ready to take to the pitch as swift as possible ("swift" might be relative for a massive chunk of armoured Dwarf and Bull hybrid), but The Raging Trainwreck is ready for the game until I get my hands on the official ones to go with the team.

 

 

Now to just pummel those Skaven whom are hundreds of rating points above me into the pitch!

TSA Escalation League 2025: Round 2 - The Oldest of Enemies

 Time for the second round of the campaign, and my Marienburg army faced their oldest of enemies, the Orcs and Goblins Tribes.

As Patrick had lost his first game, this meant I had a very slight points bonus compared to the Greenskins, and my "mighty" force of 740 points now had been reinforced with a new general, commands for the rank and file units, and a crazed Doomseeker joining the fray.

Opposing me, the greenskins brought the following horde to the battle, and I had a 35 points bonus as my opponent Patrick had drawn on bonus objectives in the first round, so numbered only 705 points.  The green horde at the other side of the table contained a General on Boar and his righthand, a level 3 Goblin Shaman.  A big block of Night Goblins harbouring 3 Fanatics, a block of Orc Archers, 5 Boar Riders and 5 Black Orcs made up the ranks of the army.

 

 

The scenario was a Flank Attack, with the League secondary objective being Hold the Ground, for getting scoring units near the statue on the hill in the middle of the field.

 

  The Empire force deployed on one flank around a forest, with the Halberdiers and Doomseeker making use of the flanking deployment.  The Greenskins all remained together though...

 

 

The first casualties fell to some shooting in the first round, with two Black Orcs falling to crossbowbolts, while one handgunner was taken down by the Archers.

 

 

 But in the second turn the lines started to close, as I moved the Halberdiers near the objective in the hopes they would survive the initial charge and score a point for the secondary target.  

 

 

The Boars where hit by the Summon Elemental Spirit, taking two of the slavering beastriders down.

 

 

 But with the Doomseeker unable to charge due to a Hex, the remaining boars crashed into the Halberdier unit.  The Champion challenged the Boar rider champion, but fell to the savage warrior, but somehow the unit held on for dear life.

 

 

As the small Black Orc unit was shot down by the Empire missile troops, the Halberdiers went above and beyond, actually taking down two more boar riders.

 

 

 But then the fickle Spirit moved through the combat, thinning the ranks but also taking down the last boar rider, while wounding the Doomseeker who still was wandering around aimlessly.  

The general then crashed into the weakened Halberdiers unit, who somehow still managed to bravely remain, after the beast had ran first into the Doomseeker and taking her down.  Yeah, she was pretty useless...

But with the Halberdiers holding on, and the Greatswords and General getting near the objective, the secondary would certainly be mine this game, as he only had his general left as a scoring unit.   

The Night Goblins joined the melee, and now the Halberdiers where finally taken down, breaking from the fight and allowing the opponent to pursue.

 

 

 This left the general ready to charge the crossbows in my turn, and from within stand and shoot range, so this looked grim for the missile troops.

 

 

 As he crashed in, the somehow still surviving, but battered archers thundered into the flank of the Greatswords.  I totally fumbled almost all attacks, then fled a full 3 inch.  So exit the general and the elite warriors, as well as any possible chance of grabbing a victory, certainly after the three fanatics had crashed through the unit as well.

 

 

The crossbowmen held on though,  and after retreating the general decided to go for a squishier target with the Wizard.  Yet the old man somehow avoided injury, even though he couldn't take down the orc either.  

But the battle was fought, and the savage orcs stood victorious over the ranks of Marienburg.  The total end result was 685 versus 321, but I did obtain the bonus points for the secondary objective.  That means the force will see some expanding to 960 points for the next round, and the last one without my beloved cannons...

 

But the reality is, Marienburg is being invaded from all sides!