Lord Ipsqueeck's Adventures: Toverland

 Heyhey everyone, and welcome to my second excursion during our holidays, and that is to the awesome Toverland!

 

Because I need to find my inner magic of course! 

 

We arrived nice and early, and after checking if I could get the sword out of the stone, we went to my favorite ride of the whole park.

 

 

Merlin's Quest, an enjoyable boatride with a nice little darkride part to it.

 

 

And while daddy went to try Pixarus, I could ride it again with mommy for some more boating goodness.

  

 

Next, we went to the Garden Tour, where the lovely bees all worked hard in the garden of the wizard Merlin.

  

I also loved the new Karatari show that was performed in the park, the music was awesome and the ladies danced fantastically.

 

Then it was time for some more boat fun, as I went in the Tolly Molly.

  

But that was just the appetizer, as Djenga River had barely any waiting line, so we could go in three times in a row for a good soaking.  Well, mommy and daddy at least, I was nice and dry!

  

We went for a quick snack as it was past midday, before moving on.

  

The park also an indoor section, with a beautifull carrousel.

  

It also has the fun turning cups, something I love to do almost as much as water rides...

  

... and a small indoor coaster that totally messed up my hair!

  

I was getting a bit tired by then from the adventures, so mommy and daddy tried out some of the wilder rides, but that flamethrower show on the roof of Troy was mighty to behold!

  

All that was left to do was grab some dinner, and some desert as the sun started to settle on the park and it was time to return to our vacation home.  Another highly fun visit to this park, and I look forward returning to it next year for sure!

 

Because you can't have enough Merlin's Quest in your life after all! 

 

White Dwarf 494

 

 Time to have another look at an issue of the Games Workshop in home magazine, White Dwarf.

 

At the beginning of the year, at the Aalst Underworlds tournament, I obtained a nice stack of older magazines for nought, and been flicking through them on and off.

 

Now, let's have a look through it after reading them, and have some opinions.  I do say, I am not into the whole 40k universe thing for years, so those won't be getting to much attention on my part for the reading, but the things that caught my intrest I read of course. 

 

The cover features a space marine, and a show off the freebies included with this "enveloppe packed" issue.

 

So we first get the community material, and then we get the Bunker section with special scenarios for the Slidercrown Campaign, suitable for both Warcry and Age of Sigmar, and how it is going in the studio campaign.  Next we also have the scenario's of the month for both 40k and AoS, but also a new Warhammer Quest: Cursed City scenario.  Other material includes for example an article of mastering the shooting phase in 40k.

 

Moving on to the dedicated section for 40k, starting with the Raptors for background and rules.  A battle report is played out between the Death Guard and the Blood Angels, as next the Eavy Metal team tackles Aeldari Corsairs.

 

Moving to the Age of Sigmar, we first get a battlepack for the Slidecrown campaign for small-scale battles with a lot of scenario's.  Next we go to the Tales of Four Gamers and see how their armies are evolving, together with some paint schedule recipies they used.  A battlepack generator is also included in the Mortal Realms section to bring variety to the games.  

After getting some lore and background articles, we move to Warcry to bring four warbands from Underworlds Nethermaze to the game, very intresting article I must say.

 

Legion Imperialis is featured with an article on the Founding Legions, before going to the Underhive for an in-house war at House Escher.

 

This was an intresting issue, as I like the Slidecrown articles, even though we now moved to another edition.  But nothing stops you from hauling over campaign settings to a new edition after all... and the Underworlds warbands are always fun to use in other games.

 

 

Touring After The Apocalypse volume 5 - Sakae Saito

 In this fifth book of the highly enjoyable series, we remain almost all the time in the Kusatsu region of Japan.

 

And the reason?  Because that mysterious boy that saved Youko last volume lives there.

 

He cares for her together with Airi as they where close saving her from the inhalation of volcanic gas nearby Mount Asama.  She has remained passed out for no less then 3 days, and learns upon regaining consciousness that the boy is called Eight, an android that restored the Onsen center.  He had awoken there 5 years ago, and is curious where the humans are now.  As he and Airi go collect the motorcycle, they talk about concepts like "friendship", but during the trip Airi gets the car stuck, and sees how Eight can replace damaged parts of his body.

 

On a food collecting trip, they try to lear Eight on how to sing, and to find enjoyment from a hot spring.  Youko discloses she never met onee-chan face-to-face, always communicating through the Touringgram app.  As they ask Eight to join them on their roadtrip, he tells them he can't leave due to the regeneration pod of his, while he asks in return if they wouldn't consider staying with him instead.

 

Airi tells Eight she and Youko will always stick together, but Youko wants to keep travelling in the end, wanting to journey back to the shelter and find a solution for Eight.  Eight however decides he needs to put Youko in suspended animation, as Airi makes a discovery near a hotspring.  Eight was originally a mass-produced infiltrator weapon, designed to kill humans.  He shuts down his emotional thinking, attacking Youko but is obliterated by Airi.  But just at that moment, Mount Asama seems to start erupting...

 

Eight tells them the bigger problem is Mount Shirane, which also is on the verge of eruption with a power witnessed only once in millenia, and urges them to get away as far as possible.  He locks himself in to prevent the girls from losing time saving him.  As the volcano erupts, he reflects on his directives... only to awaken away from the volcano with the girls.  They ride off singing until Eight stops functioning, burrowing him in the countryside after he discovered the concept of "fun".

 

In a small town, they find a bike store and manage to restore the motorcycle, before being off again to their next destination...

 

And so yet another small tip is lifted of the veil that covers the apocalypse and what happened, as it seemingly involved androids.  Let's wait for the next instalment and see if we get to learn some more then... 

 

 

 

 

Jurassic World Rebirth

 Dinosaurs and Scarlett Johansson, what more does one want in a movie!

 

And so we sat down for the latest instalment of the Jurassic Park franchise, 32 years after the original arrived and changed a generation.

 

 On the Ile Saint-Hubert, InGen is operating a secret lab back in 2008, trying to make mutations of dinosaurs to keep the populace intrested in the beasts.  Of course, thanks to a Snickers wrapper (yeah, there is a lot of product placement in this film), security fails and the killing starts.  Forward to 2025, and the dinosaurs now living in the wild since the conclusion of the previous trilogy are dying out, as out climate has changed so much it doesn't suit them anymore to survive.  

 

Around the equator, they can survive, making this no travel zones.  Krebs, an executive at ParkerGenix pharmaceuticals, recruits Zora Bennett.  She is a mercenary, and together with dr Loomis is tasked to retrieve biomaterial samples from the largest land, sea and air surviving dinosaurs to create a cure for heart disease.  Zora calls in her friends Kincaid, Leclerc, Nina and Atwater, and the group sets out to the Ile Saint-Hubert for the hunt.

 

However, near the no travel zone, Reuben Delgado, his daughters Isabella and Teresa, and the later's boyfriend Xavier are ambushed by a Mosasaurus, tilting their boat.  They are rescued by the team, but their boat is attacked as well and forced aground on the island.  Krebs throws Teresa overboard to prevent her calling for help during the attack, but the family reunites on the shores and set out to the abandoned compound they where told about.  

 

Awaiting a rescue helicopter that Zora hired, they set out to gather the other samples on the island in the meantime, and while suffering losses, they manage to reunite with the Delgado's at the basecamp to await the rescue, the family having escaped a Tyrannosaurus attack.  When Teresa reveals what Krebs had tried to do, he holds them all at gunpoint and stealing the samples.

 

The rescue is destroyed by a huge six limbed beast called a Distortus Rex, and it also devours Krebs.  Chased by Mutadons, a genetically engineered flying Raptor type, they get to a boat, Kincaid drawing off the huge Distortus Rex to let the others escape.  Kincaid escaped the beast though, rejoining the others who agree on releasing to medication without patent, to help millions instead of making millions...

 

So, to get back to my opening question: a lot.  Like fun moments (I sniggled twice, usually due to Xavier) which you had in the previous movies.  Or some cool moments, which also where missing in this film, it just felt like it had been seen before so far.  I did like how you could visually see this was another T-rex then our "hero" from the previous movies, and the Raptors where relegated to a cameo that showed them past their peak.

 

Unfortunatly, 'past the peak' might be a good term of this beloved franchise as well, the movie just didn't do anything for me to be honest, not even my darling Scarlett could save it sadly enough... 

Blood Bowl match report: Vongalazthag Violators versus Sint Job Sweaters

 Roight, so I only have a maximum of 3 games to go before my available League playtime is over, so every match is a finale now and points must be obtained.

 

And the first of these games is against the Nurgle team, where bar the Halflings I scored my only League point with a draw in our first encounter.  At least now I have my Minotaur available, who was injured last time, though if that is any benefit...

 

On the other hand, this also means my Stabberz will be most of their time on the bench, they don't really have much to contribute versus the armour 9 and 10 of the opponent, so better keep them out of harms way and use regular, expendable Hobgoblins.  The Flamesmiths will try to fireball over the Bloaters, as he has a lot of S4 and S5 in his team, especially with the Horns on the Pestigors as well, who I'll be trying to take out as soon as possible to reduce his ball handling.

 

As I currently have slipped to 9th again do to results from other games, I really should try and at least get a draw out of this match, or do the required bonus feats for an even better result, as I need one big time!  And it isn't helped by the fact he has 210k of inducements, which he spend on Hakflem, so that might become an issue.

 

The teams took to the pitch, and we would be receiving, ready to do some serious pummeling from the get go. 

 

Only to have a Blitz against us, and a small hole already open on one flank as a result.

 

 But using unbridled violence, we began the dismantling of the Nurgle team, and Hot Milky Nipples KO'd the rotspawn, Vladimir Putain.

 

Numbers picked up the ball in the backfield, as the bull centaurs started to push through on the flank in concert.

 

 But a Pestigor got through, smacking the poor Hobgoblin over and causing him to drop the ball.

 

Which of course scattered right in the beasts hands.

 

And moments later, the 1-0 was already on the scoreboard, though Bhende Bourbach had taken one of the Rotters out of the game.

 

Setting up again, Hakflem now appeared on the pitch, te Rotspawn remaining in the KO box.

 

The ball went as high as it could, but Numbers managed to capture it, right on the edge of the field.

 

The Violators started their drive, bashing through the lines of the Nurgle followers, Numbers being brought into a cage to try and advance.

 

But at those moments, you can count on Hot Milky Nipples to start failing his Unrelenting Fury, and remain down instead of blitzing and opening the gap... 

 

The Raging Trainwreck tried to have the flanks changed, as the others pushed further on into the lines. 

 

A hole opened, but it would be hard pressed to reach the opponents end zone in the still remaining time of the first half. 

 

He pushed on alone, a Rotter, JD Vance, in his way which he failed to bowl over unfortunatly. 

 

Hakflem also rushed to the side, and together they engaged the Bull Centaur.  He would need to blitz and dodge to get the equalizer in... which he didn't succeed in doing, ending the first half.

 

Setting up for the second half, again the Nurgle team now rolled the defensive get a go first thing, goddammit.

 

He repositioned some of his players as a result, and the Violators prepared to hunt any infiltrators into their half.   

 

With Hakflem in possession of the ball, they aimed to come over my left flank, pushing over Cochones Grande to make a passage.

 

A big brawl erupted on that side, and a second Rotter was taken off the field.  One more casualty to go and at least I would score that extra league point for the all important classification.

 

But using it's superior speed, Hakflem turned the flanks, moving to the other side with the ball.

 

 Ragnoth Karadras tried to intercept him though

 

But the ratman dodged away from his effort, scoring the 2-0.  

 

 We set up again, and no way, he got the defensive repositioning now on the kick off table.  That's three "extra parts of turns" on 4 kick off table results... and the Rotspawn had awakened from KO as well.

 

 Hakflem shot through my line, but in a bout of poetic justice fell over on the rush.

 

Bhende Bourbach had enough of the Rotspawn though, and with the aid of his teammates landed a mighty blow on the beast, injuring it after it failed it Regeneration, saddling it up with a niggling injury. 

 

With the ball loose after Bob lost it earlier,  a scrimmage broke out around it.

 

Unable to score, The Raging Trainwreck picked it up, passed it to Grande Cochones on a natural 6, and that one actually caught it as well even with the Disturbing Pressence in front of him... so my Bull Centaurs do what my Hobgoblins flunk all the time: pass a ball.

 

But we lost, 2-0, and funnily enough we had scored more Star Player Points then the Nurgle team, Bhende accounting for no less then 3 casualties by himself... 

 

Picking up a ball on a 3+ is hard, but breaking armour 9 and 10, easy peasy as you could see on the injury box of the Nurgle team, while I ended up with only 1 KO'd hobgoblin and one miss next match stabber in the whole affair...

 

But, at least we had that additional point, meaning I jump back to the 8th place with 20 points at the moment.  My closest follower is playing next week, against the Elven Union team, so I'll probably drop down again.  But in the penultimate match I'll be playing in the League, on the 3rd of october, I'm facing the lizardmen in what will be the decider for that final spot in all probability.