Final Fantasy VI - Playstation 3

A little gem of the past I found on the Playstation Store, the classic, SNES era (!!!!!) 32 bit graphics Final Fantasy VI or FF6 for short. Since the beginning of June, it is now available on PSN as a PSOne classic game, costing 9.99 euros.



This is the game in the series that generally is regarded as the best of them all, followed by FF7 which had, for back then, revolutionary graphics. But here you are, sitting behind your expensive television set and PS console... playing a 20 year old game with 3 decades old graphic styles... and your enjoying it big time.



Final Fantasy VI (ファイナルファンタジーVI Fainaru Fantajī Shikkusu?) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix), released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Final Fantasy series. Set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story focuses on a group of rebels as they seek to overthrow an imperial dictatorship. The game features fourteen permanent playable characters, the most of any game in the main series.



This game also introduced Kefka into the lore of FF, by some regarded as the coolest bad guy of them all, though I personally am more of a Sephiroth fan on that point though. On the good guys side, your getting Terra though, and Locke, as your headliner main characters in a quest to overthrow the Emperor Gestahl.



Further changes back then from previous incarnations in the franchise, is that the setting changed from a pure medieval style to a more steampunkish era, but the combat and all still remains true to it`s predecessors by using menu`s, and the travel modes of the world have remained the same as well. And yes, you have Chocobo`s in the game, and the huge cactus monster guy.



Finally, the re-release has the improved (PS One) extra cut scene movies in the beginning and at the end of the game. I enjoyed the blast from my gaming past, and sometimes, you can tell a classic by the fact they keep re-releasing it by popular demand in this era. With PC`s and Consoles having so much power and graphic styles, these really old games shine through by the one thing that actually only matters in no matter what videogame... gameplay!

Ciao Ciao!

Breaking News: ACW mega weekend at TSA 2012

Just in, fresh from the press

In 2012 the TSA megabattle for the American Civil War is going to be...

* drums roll on the sounds of the Union marching bands *

Battle of Stones River!!!!




Putting the Army of the Cumberland of Rosecrans against the Army of Tennessee under Bragg against each other, the battle lasted from the 31st of december 1862 till the 2nd of january 1863.
Fought in the Western Theatre near Murfreesboro in 'middle' Tennessee, the battle was considered a Union victory when Bragg withdraw, in the knowledge that more Union reinforcements where underway.

I'm going to ask for the command of James S. Negley, especcially his First Brigade consisting of Tennessee regiments (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th) sounds funny and intriguing to take on a whole army of their fellow statesmen.


The exact date of the battle still has to be announced (calendars have to be checked for holidays and such), but this going to be it.


Now only to find suitable banners for the Tennessee Union regiments, as most you bump in online are banners for the Confederate regiments...

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth review #12: Alberich of Megrez

A while ago, I filled out my top - 5 of cloths from Saint Seiya in on a sticky over at the excellent and friendly english languaged SS forum; intrested people can find that on http://saintseiyafan.com/Forum/ and mine in the end looked like this:

1. Steed Sleipnir (Hagen of Merak)
2. Amethyst Goblin (Alberich of Megrez)
3. Cancer cloth ( though give me Manigoldo in the armour over Deathmask any day)
4. Cygnus, first anime vrsion cloth (due to the blue white contrast)
5. Unicorn (again, the helmed anime version of Jabu)

I like the Asgard designs, and now it is only logical that I finaly got me greedy little paws on the Amethyst Goblin.

In the anime, Alberich is the 'emminence grise' at the court of Hilda, and the one man who knows what actually goes on with the Nibelungen ring and the control Poseidon exorts over the princess as a result, due to the fact that he was an accidental witness to the event. And he plans on using that for his own dark scemes of world domination!

His great inteligence also results in his fighting style, preferring to trap his enemies rather then fighting an honourable combat, for what is honour to a dead man in his opinion. However, should this fail, he also has the terrible power of nature under his command, including a flaming crystal sword.



So on to the cloth then. First thing of notice is the colour of the cloth, a very vibrant, clean sapphire blue and a realy lovely colour. I work in the high valuables sector and believeme, for a sapphire of that intens blue, a lot of money exchanges hands. Never mind a rare blue diamond... Really beautful!

The cloth itself is a tat simpler in design then most of the full encompassing Asgard clothes, most noticeably in it's lack of upper arm pieces. This reflects in my opinion it's wearers preference for underhand fighting over the physical bruise fest of getting in closely. Think of him like Tyrion Lannister from A Game of Thrones in a way.

The hair, another 'win or lose' point in most Myth cloths is perfectly done with no visible seems once the headpiece is on, though the head piece itself isn't the easiest around to fit, small tip is to detach the head for a moment when you assemble it.

The model comes with a crystal sword and flames you can put over it to turn it into the burning blade het wields, but I went for the pose of the crossed arms. On the back of the box he leans against a tree nonchalantly in that pose, but laws of gravity and such being what they are, this would only be obtainable by using the stands from Bandai. Still, kinda like it when ones signature pose is not one of combat so cross armed it was hehehe.

A great model definitly worth buying in order to add to your collections, just for the gorgeous colouring of the armour alone makes it worth a lot over certain other cloths.
It's a fat 5 out of 5 for this coth from me, and that isn't only for the fact that I just like the character in the anime!

Insanity, a blessing

So... what is going on in those dusty offices of the Society? Wat is all that not pure wargaming stuff that pops up recently on what is in essence a blog founded to ramble on about the adventures of a band of 'italian' explorers in Pulp settings?

Nothing special!

The fact is, we play to few Pulp games in recent times to run a fuly dedicated blog about it, and for me, wargaming encompasses more aspects then just the painting and shoving around of little toy soldiers. I don't mean that the hobby is too small, I just mean to say that, well, for me personally al of my hobby is related to each other in some way.

Anime, videogames... they ARE all welcome sources of inspiration for a hobbyist, and being a bit of a person that lives his hobby (heck, some say I just live that way) in very extreme al or nothing phases. Maybe a slight touch of schizophrenia?



Expect the comming months to see a fresh increase though in wargaming, the traditional 'post Salute burn out' has passed, the anticipation for Crisis is starting to pop up, so the brushes are slowly but surely taken up again at full production speed. Those armies aren't going to paint themselves after all.

Starting soonish, I'm going to start making posts of two upcomming projects at TSA, the first being the project Gundanium! which will debut at the smaller wargame shows in 2012 as a 'side demo' to the normal bigger TSA game.
The second one is a new attempt at running a 6mm Future War Commander campaign, kind of a follow up, though smaller scaled, of the previous one. In this, the aliens are launching a last ditch all or nothing effort to capture Earth, after the failed assault from last time. Smaller in scale, stricter in rules to lend more towards a 'real' wargames campaign then a 'cater for all occassional commers' format with a 'do as you want' system... cause that fell through big time on the last effort.



So what else can we be expecting then?

Well; depending on what scrolls are getting uncovered in the obscure labyrinths of the mind, you can expect the remaining three installations of the Regiment of a Month and it's conclusion of course. There will be the Myth cloth reviews as well as the 'cool things' unearthed in the archeological expeditions of the Society, random ramblings about the hobby and picture reports of the shows I go to. But there will also be some coverage of the other aspects of my hobbies, like anime and playstation material



all in an effort to raise the quality of the blog a little. Not that it is ever going to be a must be place for wargamers, but if I can create just even one post of intrest to one person (apart from myself LOL) then in a way I have succeeded.

Other things to pop up a tat more aremy efforts into the arty farty thingies, some small pieces of fiction I have written somewhere about something before it dies off from not being touched (no you perverts, not THAT thing!!!!!) and some reports on a step I have finally dare to take... to enter the world of cosplaying!



So welcome to the al new, all fresh, still the same Society!

Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3

So, the benefit of having a PC down... your Playstation 3 (finally) gets some game loving instead of living a life of a BlueRay player.



The game was released here in europe the 19th of july, and I bought it for the occassional game, it being Gundams and all. Two pc-less weeks, and I'm far over the 100+ in game hours; hunting trophees and levelling all kinds of pilots and developping all sorts of Mobile Suits.



The great thing is, you can put (after a while) your favorite characters in your most loved suits, resulting in me toting around Lunamaria Hawke in the Strike Freedom most of the time. A babe in a gorgeous suit, what else would one want.



The game itself is like the other Dynasty Warriors, a hack and slash game, but due to the nature of mobile suits, the dash and shooting functions play a tad bigger role in here then in the other DW games. You can't expect for example the Heavyarms Kai to rush in with his combat knife, nor would anyone be impressed by the firepower of the back up vulcans of the Master Gundam.




Koeiwariors.co.uk is a great site for more of the DW series, and it has a preview of the upcomming Saint Seiya DW style game... happy times ahead!

Magic the Gathering: Here we go again!

It's been nearly 15 years since I played this game, Homelands being the last of the series I bought (that was from the Ice Age block, between 4th and 5th edition for those around that long) and then I quitted the whole shaboodle

But just as Bucky comes back from the grave, so apparently does ones love for Magic. When I uttered it as TSA, it appeared several others there where toying with the idea of playing it again, and past friday I played for the first time in ages. And got soundly beaten.

I bought a single box of New Phyrexia, and barely managed to scratch a deck of blue and artifacts; with way to many of the latter and to much land together for my tastes.

I always played Blue. I love it's irritating playstyle (according to some, it fits me like a glove... *sick*) of Counterspells, Unsummons, Power Sinks and the likes, blocking off the opponent till I get enough mana going to summon my heavy hitter flyers like back then in the days where Air Elementals, Mahamoti Djinn's etc.

For the second game, again vs black, I had been trading some 20 or so cards around from our doubles, and had some more of the irritating factor in the 'deck to be soonish', resulting in a win.

My opponent then switched to the one kind of deck I always had, still have, and probably always will have issues with: a Green critter deck, the rate it churns out small creatures is to much for my counters (especcially with the deck not having enough of them yet to my personal tastes) to keep up with, nibbling me to death unless I get a lucky starting hand and he gets a bad draw. In three games, that happenned once. Still, a 2 out of 5 ain't to bad for an old, rusty, out of shape Planeswalker working his way back up.

Or for a reference to those around REALLY longtime: the House of Bolk is on the warpath again.

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth review #11: Aiakos of Garuda

Let me start this one off with a pop quiz question:

What is the colour of a Surplice?

In the various sources, so far we see a lot of different colourings: the manga looks a bit flat black and greyish; the Hades chapter goes to a shiny black with a metallic purple; the Lost Canvas tends to lean to a plain black colouring while the model itself co,es in a sort of dark metallic, smoked grey...

Now, apart from that, let me state one thing clearly. I don't like the 108 evil stars or Specters even a tiny bit. I think them highly overrated, as they tend to die in whole troops together even though to be rumoured to be all scary and dangerous. Aiolia whacks a dozen with a single attack... and that was peanuts to the attack Shaka pulled on them.

They are no match for the Gold Saints; who in the Hades Sanctuary arc and the Lost Canvas storyline aren't pulling their punches anymore. I think we can safely say Seiya and his companions got off easy in their assault on the Sanctuary.

The Three Judges, or the supreme warriors of Hades don't rock my boat either; but being a collector, it is only logically to collect them in the end, and when one gets in promotion prizings, I buy it... like the Garuda.



Of the three judges, I kinda like this one the most though. He has this cool attack where he nonchalantly draws a cross on the ground where his victim will come crashing down, and I posed him as such with the rising hand for the Garuda Flap atack. A Garuda being btw a mythological half humn, half eagle like creature.

The cloth is a very bulky and heavy set, with all kinds of spikey bits and horney extensions. It assembles smoothly, and the wings that attach to the back of the chestpiece make it look even more big and fearsome.

It follows the regular assembling of robe in 4 parts that gets secured in place by the metal chestpiece; the legs are extendable to compensate for the 'mannequin' being longer legged then the haunched pose the object is in, and the claws on the feet are casted on the toetips instad of being plastic click on pieces.

The model comes with two hairpieces that fit under the helmet, one which shows his eyes, and one that errm, well, doesn't.

All in all, it isn't a bad model, but just not my cup of tea. Had it not been cheap to order, this is one of those blokes standing in the back of the queu of the shopiing list, but in an effort to rate it objectively, let's give it somewhere beween 2.5 and 3 on a 5 point scale. That's the benefit of getting to review things from your own private collection, I can say when I like a model or when it's crap after all... and I don't like this bloke much.

ciao ciao

Regiment a Month 3: X marks the spot

A week late... even though the models where finished a week early...

But the pc issues aren't reslved yet, stil struggling at the moment with IP recognising issues, but at least I have 'ol blacky' back and can access my files, so I can upload the pictures now through my laptop.

Last month was a bit of a downer in the project; seeing not to much action in the participants corners, but hopefully round 3 will smack some of them back in action

My regiment this month is a bunch of repainted Marvel heroclix models of various X men, just for those days we get Supersystem up and running.



Drawn from various series and eras, these blokes will hopefully help out mutant kind against all commers.



Led by Professor X, the field teams are usually led by Cylops and Jean Grey on the one hand, and Storm and Wolverine on the other in the times we still spoke of X-men Blue and X-men Gold



However, with the aftermath of the House of M, Prof X was left depowered and the school's new principal became Emma Frost; former White Queen of the Helfire Club. Still in the ranks is good ol' Rogue, while Syrin, daughter of Irish born and currently deceased x-man Bashee, recently joined up with X-Factor Investigations



And some odds and ends for the team: Karma; tinkerer supreme Forge; Psylocke, here still in her armoured suit before she was merged with Kwannon to become the oriental babe we all drool over today; Multiple Man Jamie Maddrox and the latest uniform incarnation of Tabitha 'Boom-Boom' Smith


That's the entry for this month, since 6mm is getting a kick start soonish, next month will see a full tank regiment and support for my 'Celestial Being' force in Future War Commander

Ciao Ciao

Still Down

Just a short update on the absence of web-ness... live from the 'back up' laptop

I haven't forgotten regiment of the month, in fact the regiment stands painted in my cbinet for 2 weeks now and the pictures are on my PC... which still is at the store for a repair of the network card and some upgrades (more hard disks, a nezer 3d card etc etc etc)... for 10 days straight now.

They also have received explicit instructions not to format the bugger ;)


I hope that she'll be back after the weekend, as I got a lot of things to upload apart from regiment round 3, like more Cloths I received, a heap of toys I digged up and the game that finally started me to get playing on my Paystation 3, Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3.

Hopefully, 'till soonish!