Frostgrave Genie and the Lamp

 The latest figure to be painted for our group's Frostgrave campaign, the second game night scenario (coming soon) is the Genie scenario.

 

So I scrolled through Vinted and found the actual Northstar Military Miniatures one for a bargain.

 

I set out to paint him and his lamp up as such, in order to have him ready.  Now the benefit is that he is pretty simple to paint up, having basically only his skin and pants, while the lamp is basically a golden lamp on a stone pedestal.

 

Of course, I just needed to paint him blue, because Disney hehehe, but I'm not alone in that as he also is painted blue on the official blister picture.  Though to be honest, he looks more like the evil genie from the turn of the century 1001 Nights mini-series.

 

But, he is ready now and willing to wreck our warbands! 

Yuru Camp Specials

 Taking place after the first season, we get treated to a set of 3 short specials of this loveable anime on the BluRay box.

 

Now, don't expect something to flashy though.

 

These short featurettes go about a few different things.  The first, episode 0 as it is called, is actually taking place before Nadeshiko joins the Outdoor Activities Club at school.  The other two are set in the "current" time of the first season, including a camping trip to Australia that turns in quite an adventure.

 

Running between 5 to 12 minutes for each episode, it was a great little in between as I was getting ready to start watching the second and third seasons at last, and strip off some more completions of my MAL.

 

But now, time to move to the next full season, season 2. 

Into the Under-Ekeren IV Warhammer Underworlds tournament report

 The first weekend of august, and that means it is time for the annual Into the Under-Ekeren Warhammer Underworlds tournament!

 

And apart from a Golden Ticket being on the line, I added some twists to the concept for this edition! 

 

Like allowing Legends warbands for "one last dance" or a special price for the player ending highest with a deck that didn't include Blazing Assault, a Signum model sponsored by Winkel Works (and I wouldn't mind actually winning that one, such a cool figure, should I be required to play).  

 

In the end, we numbered 14 players (excluding myself, so I could start doing a lot of prep work for future events, keep your eyes peeled in the near future - or the end slides in my videos), with players of no less then SIX nationalities.  I doubt I would have classified as a seventh, apparently Zubvobwee isn't a recognised planet.

 

As I said, I had a heap of price support ready (the battlemat on the picture was actually sold off, and replaced by a first edition Starter set), sausage rolls and complementary event dice included in the entry fee (which I tried to keep deliberatly low.

 

And with all the announcements done, it was time to get going for five rounds of Warhammer Underworlds!

 

Now, as I don't have any "battle" stories to tell, I will just say some things about the tournament in general.  The level was rather equal on the top tables, with after three rounds quite a few players being on 2-1, and two taking a lead with 3-0.  

 

Valentin and Joep faced off, and in the end it was Joep who took the win, meaning he needed to consolidate in his final round as Glory Differential is my first tie breaker over Glory Total (to discourage pure aggro showings allround at my events).

 

Now, I must say I was actually quite amazed, as only FOUR players brought a deck with Blazing Assault as part of it.  On the same note, the Legendary edition piece worked, as there where also four warbands from the legends sections: two times Ironskull's Boyz, The Eyes of the Nine and The Chosen Axes.

 

One thing particularly noteworthy was that one of my "bar wenches" (thanks for the helping out guys) noted that for a tournament with a Golden Ticket on the line, there was an awful lot of laughter going on all day.  I guess that shows what a lovely little community has been build for the smallest of small games by Games Workshop.

 

But then onwards to the numbers of the event, and let's start with the painting, as that also gives me a good opportunity to show of some warbands (thanks to Johan for all the individual pictures).  Every judge would cast votes for their first, second and third favorite warband.

 

Out of the 14 + 1 warbands (I took the liberty of at least putting my Blood of the Bull on the table, for one as I had nothing to do as everything ran smoothly, but also that way I could make a nice balanced "3 rows of 5" to display the warbands on the table), 12 warbands received votes.  The jury was made up of the 14 players, myself and then the 4 other members present who where there to play Age of Sigmar as the clubhouse was open anyways.  Points where awarded 5 for a first place band, 3 for a second place and 1 for a third place.

 

Unfortunatly, the three players that didn't receive any votes where Joep (Jaws of Itzl), Cyril (Starblood Stalkers) and Quint (The Emberwatch).

 

In 12th place, with 3 points (1x 2nd), Simon with Rippa's Snarlfangs

In 11th place, with 4 points (1x 2nd, 1x 3rd) Neo with Ironskulls Boyz

 

In shared 9th place, with 5 points, (both 1x 2nd and 2x 3rd) where Valentin with Ironskulls Boyz and Johan with The Shadeborn

In 8th place, also with 5 points (1x 1st) was Wouter with The Chosen Axes 

In 7th place, with 10 points (2x 1st) was Luba with Thorns of the Briar Queen

 

In 6th place, with 11 points (2x 1st, 1x 3rd) was your loveable TO with Blood of the Bull.  They where all warned in front, if I would have 0 points, I would blame them all for not appreciating the effort running the event!!!!

 

In shared 4th place, both with 12 points (both 4x 2nd) where Peter with Starblood Stalkers and Wesley with The Crimson Court

 

In third place, with 16 points (1x 1st, 3x 2nd, 5x 3rd) was Michael with Ylthari's Guardians

 

In second place, with 30 points (4x 1st, 2x 2nd, 4x 3rd) was Nico with Eyes of the Nine

 

But winning best painted by a landslide of 55 points, due to the level being so high a lot of the bands "stole" points from each other, but this one kept scoring consistently - receiving 15 times a vote out of 19 casts - (9x 1st, 2x 2nd, 4x 3rd) was Wim with Thanatek's Tithe.

 

And that meant after the painting scores where announced, it was time to get to the piece de la piece.  So here is the full results of the tournament, including warband, deck and points!

 

1. Joep Nijssen - Jaws of Itzl - RR / CtC - 4/1 - 84 Glory, + 29

2. Valentin Hornik - Ironskulls Boyz - BA / DS - 4/1 - 89 Glory, +28

3. Cyril Deneux - Starblood Stalkers - ES / PP - 4/1 - 97 Glory, +27

 

4. Luba K - Thorns of the Briar Queen - DS / EoK - 3/2 - 74 Glory, +23

 

 

5. Michael Kislyi - Ylthari's Guardians - CtC / WR - 3/2 - 74 Glory, +11

 

6. Wim Bellemans - Thanatek's Tithe - CtC / PP - 3/2 - 69 Glory, +10

7. Neo Hornik - Ironskulls Boyz - BA / DS - 3/2 - 73 Glory, +4

8. Quint Van Druten - The Emberwatch - PP / RF - 2/3 - 84 Glory, + 9

9. Nico Van den Winckel - The Eyes of the Nine - WR / PP - 2/3 - 71 Glory, -2

10. Simon Conticello - Rippa's Snarlfangs - RF / DS - 2/3 - 68 Glory, -3

 

 

11. Johan De Ryck - The Shadeborn - BA / RS - 2/3 - 68 Glory, -15

12. Peter Vanden Bossche - Starblood Stalkers - ES / PP - 2/3 - 47 Glory, -25

 

11. Wouter Beckers - The Chosen Axes - DS / HG - 1/4 - 53 Glory, -23

12. Wesley De Vos - The Crimson Court - BA / CtC - 0/5 - 34 Glory, -73

 

That meant that for the special prices, Wesley took the set of Faction Death dice for scoring the least amount of glory points during the day, Valentin took the Dreadfane box for ending highest with a Legends warband and Joep grabbed the 3d printed model for highest ranking warband not playing Blazing Assault.  

 

And so it came to an end.  I think everyone had a good time, from experienced tournament winners to a guy that played like his first game ever, after he had driven 16 hours back home from holidays... guess 3 weeks with wife and kids was enough for him.

 

What will the future bring?  No matter how Underworlds progresses, wether or not it keeps existing, there will be a new edition next year, but more on that in due time! 

 

Blood Bowl Match report: Only Fangs versus Swift as Lead

 The downside of not having played for almost 3 months is that some teams have caught up, and even passed, in skills, yet due to me not having any Miss Next Game players still are lower in TV.

  

And that is today against, well, the second hardest hitting team in the League after Only Fangs at time of writing, Swift as Lead, a Dwarf team with a Steamroller to boot.

 

So the prime targets for the claws is to take out the two with Guard, then survive long enough with my key players to have it being send off... meaning that I'll keep the minotaur, Sabrina Sabok, out of it's way until then hopefully. OR I bring Grashnak Blackhoof and give that Steamroller two things to think about...

 

I opted for the second, as that seemed fun and chaotic.  This meant he had a mountain of petty cash though, which he spend on 3 Cheerleaders, 3 Prayers to Nuffle (extra SP for completions, one guy getting pro, and the trapdoors are active), a Team Mascot, a Bribe, a Dodgy Ref and Josef Bugman himself coaching the team).  Adding to the game, it would be played in Pouring Rain, something we would love to have here actually...

 

The Dwarfs opted to receive, and both teams drew to the line of scrimmage and get the game going, ready for some serious mayhem as we both fielded the hardest hitting teams of the League at current.  And with Sabrina Sabok and his star Blitzer vying for the most casualties honor... 

 

 

 

And it began not that great, with one of my beastwomen immediatly been knocked out cold.  Now, as would be a thing during the whole game, no matter how many block dice he threw, he would always have at least one pow result... only a single time did he get double skulls, but each and every block for the rest of the match, my teammembers spend time down on the floor... 

 

 

He started out the slugfest of "who could make the most casualties" (apparently, it was said this game also included a ball it seems), his Blitzer Badly Hurting Cat Coxx, while his Deathroller knocked Sabrina Sabok into the injuries box, only to have her pumped full of stimulants by the Apothecary and get her back on the pitch as soon as possible.

 

Not to be outdone though, Only Fangs replied with badly hurting two of his linemen in return, courtesy of Katty West and Grashnak Blackhoof himself.  The pitch was starting to look quite empty though...

 

 

Soon after, Val Steele was injured as well though by his star Slayer, and his runner had picked up the ball, breaking through towards the end zone to try and score at the very end.  Sabien DeMonia though had hung back just for this eventuallity, and while she bowled him over, her claws didn't get through the armour, something that was my fate for almost the entire match by the way.

  

The teams went to the half time as such with a 0-0 score, but Only Fangs was one player up now, numbering 11 to 10 to get the drive going.  By the way, the linewoman at the back right in this picture was moved one to the left for legal deployment after the picture was taken.

 

 

The half started immediatly with an angry Sabrina Sabok injuring one his Troll Slayers, because that feud with his Blitzer... 

 

His other Blitzer though replied, badly hurting Sofi VonDoom as Only Fangs kept the ball behind their lines, trying to form a corridor on their right flank to get it through.

 

 

 

This was actually a distraction, as they wanted to run over on the other side once most of the dwarves had been pulled aside, but his Runner stopped the attempt right at the end. But I had to lure his star Troll Slayer into the middle to have a fair go at the breakthrough, and he had a LOT of needed re-rolling to be done to get the Runner there... and then of course took her down on a single blockdice...

  

Sabrina Sabok put another notch on her casualty tally, smashing his second Troll Slayer into the injury box as well.  It looked all like a fair game, it would be sheer impossible to still score, so it would remain 0-0, and we kept badly hurting each other so no miss next games or so, and grabbing the 3+ casualty points each as we both had scored 4 by now.

  

But never underestimate the ferocity of women!  Not content on this perfect draw for both teams, Abella Danger threw a last turn block on his lineman with tackle, punching her nailed fingers through his eye sockets and instantly killing him right before the referee brought the slugfest to an end...

 

So, three points for both teams in the League ranking, with 2 for a draw and one bonus for the amount of casualties.  I can definitly live with that, as after months of not playing and other teams catching up, this meant I can consolidate my play off spot some more.

 

Most Viewed Pornstar

 

And then the crowd went to elect their star of the game, picking Raven Black for her valiant, but ultimately stopped, attempt at scoring in the closing stages of the game, and obtaining Block as a result.

 

So, this leaves me in a good place to face the other armoured tincans team of the League, the Chaos Dwarfs, in two weeks.  While I won't have that much use for my claws with his 4 Iron-hard Skin blockers and pile of Hobgoblins, we are both on the same number of points.  Except he has more matches played, so if I can draw or win that one, I'm mathematically assured of qualification and can start saving players from the risks of getting injured (looking at that Snotling team after him with 2 pump wagons, 2 trolls, morg'n'thorg and more of that muscled shennanigans).  It also means I can start selecting more Beastly Women for the MVP points, and get them to obtain Block with the eye of the teams that come after the Chaos Dwarfs, being a stunty team and two vampire teams where my claws are of less use anyways. 

 

But most importantly, Sabina took a further two casualty lead on his Blitzer in the chase of that particular League honour...