TSA Escalation League 2025: Marienburg Greatswords

 The main hitters of the initial force for the league, this unit of Greatswords is from Warlord's Pike & Shotte Italian Wars line.

While not the uber-combat unit just yet, as they still go without command or heroes, all to be added in future rounds, they are decent at the low points costs.

That is of course if they survive initial contact with the enemy, but as most forces will be small and pretty combat poor hopefully, they might be able to hit hard against anything already armourd like warriors of Chaos, who are hopefully already weakened by my wizard and missile fire by then.

Planning on playing defensively in the early games as such, until the units get to full strength and kitted out, these will be crucial to the battleline as a result, being the hammer where the halberdiers in the force are the anvil.  And compared to the small unit of Halberds, these are heavy infantry granting me the possibility of ranking them two deep.

But for now, they will just have to wait for their additional members and command group, and hopefully hold the ground as they are...

Angel Beats!

 So, time to watch the first anime of the "Noshi has seen them but I haven't" goal of this year.

And that is Angel Beats!, a highschool afterlife series where students end up after suffering trauma and hardship in life.  So, not really my cup of tea, but let's have a look, and it comes highly scored on MAL as well.

 

It is also labelled as one of the "saddest anime ever", though I doubt it would wreck my like You Lie in April did...

Yuzuru Otonasho ends up in this afterlife, suffering from amnesia.  He meets the founder of the Afterlife Battlefront, Yuri Nakamura, who leads an organisation rebelling against whatever God has deviced in this cruel existence.  Their enemy is the student council president, a girl named Angel, who with her supernatural powers is believed to be an associate of God.  Other then the rebels, the afterlife seems filled with fabricated students and teachers, whom Yuri refers to as NPC's.

They undertake several missions even though they question the morality of them at times.  One of their members passes on from the afterlife during a concert after having achieved what she didn't reach in life: satisfaction of her music.  They manage to get Angel demoted from her position, as Yuzuru regains parts of his memory.  Yuzuru learns that Angel's true name is Kanade Tachibana, and he befriends her, remembering more of his past when he is in her presence. 

He helps her make peace with the rebels, and learns the purpose of this afterlife, reinstating as such Angel as the student council president as they help others finally pass on.  But mysterious shadow creatures start appearing, attacking the residents to turn them into NPC's themselves.  Many decide to pass on instead of getting stuck in that limbo, as they discover that the creatures where made to prevent love happening in the afterlife, to prevent it turning into a paradise where no-one would like to pass on from.  

Only five of them now remain, and after a graduation ceremony the others bar Angel and Yuzuru pass on.  He confesses he has fallen in love with her, and wants to stay with her in the afterlife to help others pass on after arriving there, but she moves on herself as she was unable to thank her heart's donor, Yuzuru, in the real life, leaving him behind alone.  Later on, two people resembling them meet in the real world, as in an alternate epilogue Yuzuru becomes the student president, helping others while he waits to see Angel again...

So, it is a sad anime indeed, but as I stated at the beginning, it didn't tear me up like April did.  Never the less, for me it was enjoyable, but not as great as it's MAL score reflected, but that is a matter of taste after all...

 

 

TSA Escalation League 2025: Summon Elemental Spirit

 Okay, so this isn't a model that "needed" to be painted for the League.

But my sorcerer uses the Elementalism school, and it might be he rolls up the Summon Elemental Spirit spell, which uses a 3" template.

Now, just putting a circle on the table is so boring, and as I found a couple Age of Sigmar Endless Spells for cheap I decided to put one on a 3" MDF base and use it as the vortex should I be able to get it into play.

Using the large smoky axe for that reason, I painted it up in windy greys to make it look like a manifestation of windy elements, which goes well with that other spell in the Lore, Wind Blast, for fluffy reasons.

So yeah, a simple yet effective paint job later, and I can cast my spells in style...

Vongalzthag Violators versus Moot's Revenge Blood Bowl match report

 After having to change the date of the fixture, it was time at last for the second game in the TSA Blood Bowl League.

And facing me where the Moot's Revenge, a team of Halflings hoisting around two of the might Treemen!

Under the nice weather conditions, and some Brilliant Coaching from the Halflings, we where ready to take to the pitch, and hopefully some sheer brutality would bring in much needed SPP's for my team after the crushing defeat in the first League game.

And we immediatly started with Tothrit Lavafor badly hurting the hopeful lineman Fulrad Butcher.  However, their treeman Thistletrunk took revenge by putting Dievanons in the badly hurt department as well, not so good as the stab skill was great for sliding a knife between halfling shoulders.

As one of my lineman was also KO'd, the hitting game actually swinged towards the Halflings!

But then the game took a serious, and later deciding, twist.  Throwing a team mate across the pitch, the poor halfling landed head first and was knocked out, losing the ball.  This was the signal for the Chaos Dwarfs to start some sheer BRUTALITY and in the span of three turns 3 more halflings where KO'd, while no less then 4 where carried of the field injured.  To add insult to injury, both the treemen rooted themselves into place.

While my Hobgoblin linemen did fumble the ball a bit to pick it up, in the final turn of the half The Dude ran over the line, scoring the 1-0 lead for the Chaos Dwarfs.

 

The second half, with some Brilliant Coaching going my way and my Mascot delivering, actually gave me some good amout of re-rolls.  Though circumstances forced me to use them all up in the first turns of the half however.

The treemen started throwing halflings again, and one crashed into a Hobgoblin of my small cage knocking him out, but the ball remained in my possession.  This allowed Numbers to score the comfortable 2-0 lead, and the Halflings seeing not one of their knocked out players awaken where down to the two big trees and three little brave linemen...

The drive started, and another halfling sailed over perfectly, actually resulting in Meanroot gaining a completion point, before he badly hurt Brazhak ThacoBell moments later.

But the ball carrying halfling failed on his last going for it, crashing to the floor as he tried to dodge my deepfield defenders... and a Chaos Dwarf blocker somehow ended up with the ball.  Quickly passing it towards The Dude, the Hobgoblin set off towards the opponent's end zone.  

But alas, he slipped when going for it on the Chaos Dwarf's last turn, and to add to that he ended with a serious injury that not only makes him miss next game, but also lowered his AV by one.  Guess he has just become that one Hobgoblin to either be benched or be shuffled forward in front of a raging ogre or the likes...

Thotrit Lavafor was elected MVP for the Chaos Dwarfs, while Meanroot took this for the Halflings, and the treasury chest rinkled fantastically, allowing for a new addition to the Violators.  The Raging Trainwreck, a Bull centaur, joins the line-up, even though GW will first have to have them back in stock to order the new style ones and actually paint and bring him along...  

My players gained some skills, Tothrit Lavafor selecting Guard, while Brazhak ThacoBell gained Block.  Numbers rolled randomly for a skill, and got the Sure Hands skill, so he will become a dedicated backfielder for the receiving game!  My dedicated fans also went back up after the drop last time, and with 55k still in the chest we are looking good for more future additions.

A much needed heap of 21 SPP's are indeed obtained this match, and the victory puts me currently in 5th place out of 11, with the first 8 going through to the play offs if they reach the minimum 10 games played, so we are on course.

And that means a slave for the slave regiment will be painted up as well...

TSA Escalation League 2025: Marienburg Halberdiers Regiment

 The beginnings of the first "combat unit" for my Marienburger army in the league, halberds have long been the mainstay weapon of the Empire.

And in my initial 500 points force, I started out as such with a small, command group less, unit of 12.

This gives me a core to expand on, as commands are planned for the second round of the league to be added to the unit.  This also means it isn't labelled as per the rules as a scoring unit, but it will form the backbone of the force in these early days.  Together with a similar unit of Greatswords, they will be the anchor while the small units of missile troops and my wizard hopefully whittle the enemy away and score some bonus points in the league battles.

The regiment is painted like the rest of the force, with a beige main uniform, supported by red and blue sleeves and trousers, to give it that unified look for the force.

In the comming weeks, a command group will be added as that will be part of my second round purchases for the league, and later on they will be expanded with 12 more troops.  That way the unit would become 27 strong, with room for a character to join in the ranks, and get one of the smaller missile troop units as a detachment.

Because halberds, they have been forever the mainstay weapon of the line for The Empire after all.

On the Painting Desk 312

 So, the first series of the new night shift job has passed, and how it influenced my painting time.

Well, first of all, I do have a lot of time to assemble models now, and with time I might even start undercoating them overthere already, but we need to stick stuff together a lot first.

On the painting level itself, we made great progress with the command models for the Escalation league, with the commands for both Halberds and Greatswords finished.

 

 

But I also did some minor work on side projects for the moment: the Contemptor dreadnought received some little colour, as did one of the Moonstone witches.  But most painting has been done on the Belgian 47mm cannon, just because I felt like painting that this week.  And somewhere in between, I finished a single Lothlorien elven warrior to test the colour scheme for the new army.

 

I just need to make sure not to get sidetracked TO much, as while I'm nearing completion of my second phase of the Escalation League, the army after all isn't even halfway so far.

Avengers Endgame

 Roight, time to watch the conclusion of Thanos's little snap then, in the second finale movie of the MCU wave 3, Endgame from 2019.

And if everyone that died in the first movie, actually stays dead... because... Marvel.

In 2018, 23 days after the disasterous battle, Tony Stark and Nebula are saved in deep space by Captain Marvel, who brings them to the other surviving Avengers.  They located Thanos on an unihabited planet, and want to use the stones to reverse his actions.  But Thanos has seemingly destroyed them, causing Thor to decapitate him in rage.

Jumping five years forward, Ant-Man escapes from the Quantum realm, where he was when the snap happened and he couldn't get back out.  But for him, it have only been 5 hours instead of 5 years.  They theorize the Realm allows time travel, and decide to try and go in the past to retrieve the stones there in order to reverse the snap.  Stark, Banner and Rocket build a time machine, as the latter then go and recruit a depressed and overweight Thor.  Black Widow enlists Hawkeye, who now goes as a vigilante under the name Ronin after his family had been erased.

As the Avengers scatter through time, they go out and seek the Infinity stones at various places in the timeline, knowing that their actions won't change their line, but create alternate timelines instead.  Banner convinces the Ancient One in the past they will return the stones to their location in those realities after they managed to save their own.  In a past incarnation of Asgard, Thor also manages to retrieve Mjolnir, that was destroyed in Infinity Wars.  But when Hawkeye and Black Widow want to retrieve the Soul stone, Natasja sacrifices herself in order for Clint to get the stone.

Using a gauntlet that Stark, Banner and Rocket build, they place the stones in it to undo the snap, as Banner is the most resistant to the radiation it will cause.  But as the disintegration is about to be undone, Thanos of the past arrives with his army to stop them, informed by a switched out Nebula.  But the others all arrive, the Wakanda, the Sorcerers with Strange and Wong, the Ravagers as well as the missing heroes that didn't die in this reality.  Thanos tries to use the stones to reset the universe and create a new one, but Stark prevents this, at the cost of his own life.  But his final snap disintegrates Thanos and his army, saving reality from the mad tyrant.

After the funeral of Tony, the Avengers set out to place the stones back where they belong, but Captain America doesn't return.  They find Steve sitting on a bench a short distance away, aged.  He has chosen to remain in the past and live his days with Peggy Carter instead, and now came to this moment in time to pass his shield on to The Falcon to become the new Captain America in his wake...

And so the saga ends, with four dead heroes in the end to go to the new phase 4: Vision, Black Widow, Iron Man and in a way Gamora, though the latter has been replaced by an alternate reality version.  Not as heavy as it was in the comics, but like Civil War, this was a seriously souped down version in the end...

Worth the watch, but by far not the epic conclusion that the MCU fanboys want us to believe.  They should start reading if you ask me...

Hawkeye

 Time for some more "catching up" in all the so far missed Marvel, Star Wars, DC, etc movies and series...

... and this time, it's my favorite (comics) Avenger, Hawkeye.

 

Well, actually I watched this two weeks to late, as it is a christmas story.  Albeit one in the trend of Die Hard, but heck, details.  

 

During the battle of New York in 2012, a young Kate Bishop witnesses Clint battling the Chitauri, and decides to become a hero like him.  Current day, and Clint spends time with his children for christmas in New York, while Kate is attending a charity auction with her mother Eleanor and her new fiancee Jack, as Kate's father died in the battle back in 2012.  She stumbles upon a black market auction, featuring items recovered from the Avengers Tower, when the Tracksuit Maffia crashes in (personal note: these guys are hilarious).  Jack steals the Ronin sword, as Kate gets her hands on the Ronin suit, defeating the mobsters while wearing it and giving rise to the rumour the Ronin has returned.

She is cornered by the Tracksuit Maffia who followed her, but Clint intervenes and saves her.  But her appartment is destroyed by them, and the suit is left behind as they escape to Kate's aunt place who is abroad.  Clint gets the suit back at a LARP event, as Kate tries to convince her mom there is something shady about Jack.  But later she and Clint are captured by the Maffia and their leader Maya Lopez interrogates them, Clint loosing his hearing aid in the process.  After escaping, Kate convinces Clint to aid her uncover the secrets of Jack.  But her mother asks him to keep Kate safe, to which he agrees.

Kate deducts that Clint is actually the Ronin, as they discover that Jack seems to be the CEO of a money laundry company for the Tracksuit Maffia, getting him arrested.  As they go after Lopez, Clint is attacked by the new Black Widow, Yelena, who blames him for the death of her "sister" Natasja.

Yelena meets Kate, telling her she is hired to kill Clint, who faces Lopez himself in the Ronin suit, telling her it was a set-up that got her father killed and her vendetta is based on lies.  Yelena texts Kate, telling it was her mother that hired her to kill Clint, and a movieclip of her mother meeting with non other then The Kingpin, who has her in his power.  Clint and Kate make a move to save her mother, but learn that Eleanor was behind it all, and used Jack as an unknowing scapegoat for her cover-up.  In the final confrontation, Kate holds her own against the Kingpin, as Yelena spares Clint after learning the truth of Natasja's sacrifice to save humanity.

Back with his family, Kate is invited along to have christmas as her mother is arrested, and he burns the Ronin suit once and for all, passing on the monicker Hawkeye to Kate...

Now, this was an excellent series, and one I enjoyed the most so far of the MCU series I've seen.  Though this might also have to do with the fact Hawkeye (comic and MCU version) was my favorite Avenger, so I might be a little biased on that front.

Avengers: Infinity War

 What do you mean, late to the party????

It's only been what, 6.5 years since this blockbuster came out?  But finally I'm catching up on all the Star Wars, Marvel and other franchise movies and series, for no toher reason then, well, catching up...

Having aquired one of the Infinity stones, Thanos attack the Asgardian refugee ship, killing Loki and Heimdall in the process and beating up the Hulk.  He extracts the Space stone from the Tesseract as a dying Heimdall teleports Hulk to Earth to warn them of Thanos's coming.  Reverting to his Banner form, he warns Strange and Wong of the impeding danger to all life, as Thanos wants to snap out 50% of all life.

Recruiting Tony Stark, two of Thanos's lieutenants arrive to get the Time stone from Strange, causing Spider-Man to come help out as well.  Unable to obtain the Time stone, they leave in their ship with Stark and Spidey stowing away in it.  The Guardians of the Galaxy respond to the mayday of the Asgardian vessel, finding a wounded Thor.  They travel to Knowhere as they suspect Thanos going there to get the Reality stone, whom the Collector possesses.  

While the Guardians go there, Thor goes with Rocket and Groot to seek out the Dwarf king and forge the battleaxe Stormbreaker.  On Knowledge, the other Guardians arrive to late, Thanos having obtained the stone and kidnapping Gamora.  She discloses the location of the Soul stone to save her sister Nebula from torture.  But Thanos sacrifices Gamora, the one thing he truly loved, to obtain the Soul stone.

Wanda and Vision are ambushed by Thanos's forces to retrieve the Mind stone from the android, but are saved by Captain America, Black Widow and the Falcon, taking them to Banner and War Machine in the Avengers Compound.  They travel to Wakanda to find a way of removing the stone from Vision without killing him.  Stark and Spider-Man save the captured Strange, but as Strange views multiple dimensions, there is only one where the Avengers win.  Thanos appears, and they engage him, formulated a plan to remove the gauntlet from him.  But as Star-Lord learns of Gamora's death, his enrage causes the plan to fail, and Strange willingly offers his Time stone to save Stark's life.

Thanos's army then invades Wakanda, as the Avengers, Black Panther, Winter Soldier and the Wakanda troops mount a defence, in the hope that Shuri gets to extract the stone first so Wanda can destroy it.  Thor, Rocket and Groot appear to help out, and manage to rout the army, but Shuri cannot extract the stone before the arrival of the mad Titan himself, Thanos.  He reaches Vision and takes the stone, killing him, after he used the Time stone to undo Wanda destroying it.  Thor wounds Thanos, but he escapes as he makes the snap of his fingers, disintegrating half of all life in the universe...

And so the first instalment ends, with half of the heroes now gone, including Nick Fury who did manage to send out a strange signal on a special pager before disappearing.  Time to move on to the second film, and see how it all turns out in the end!