Fafner Dead Aggressor - Heaven and Earth

 Time to watch some more of my Fafner backlog, the excellent mecha anime which I failed to watch all during last year's backlog goal.

But, that doesn't mean I would cast it aside for long, and I sat down and watched this OVA movie, Heaven and Earth.

 

Set around two years after the events of the original series, where the Festum have been defeated and left the world in peace.  Soushi promised Kazuki that he would one day return, but instead stays hidden from his friends on Tatsumiya Island.

 

 

One day a mysterious boy arrives on the island, Misao Kurusu, who may not be entirely human and claims that Soushi has send him, but with his arrival hostilities start up again.  The island becomes the target of a faction of the now fractured Festum forces, who arrive with a carrier with their Mir core aboard.

 

The pilots, the younger ones of the series now full pilots but without experience, and the veterans with their scars are tossed in a fierce battle against the aliens, while a young girl called Miwa might become the new core of the island as she can seemingly talk with the Mir.  

The battle gets desperate, but then Soushi enters the fray through Misao, tipping the balance and preventing the island from falling, the peace of no less then two races riding on their shoulders and bringing a truce back to the island.  

This was a high action movie of an excellent mecha franchise, and it didn't spend to much time on looking back or explaining who is who.  This does mean you will have to have seen the original series in order to be able to get a notion of what happens, as it sets us up for the Exodus series for the anime franchise.

Worth watching if you like high paced mecha anime, and the Fafner story!

Arcane season 2

 First thing I noticed: they added League of Legends to the title.

Second thing: Stromae made his comeback after years of being away from the public eye, and his new song My Meilleure Ennemie has trashed the streaming numbers for 2024, even though it only came out end of november.

The series begins with Jayce and Mel surviving the rocket attack alongside a few other councillors, but Caitlyn's mother is amongst the casualties.  Viktor is mortally wounded, prompting Jayce to fuse the Hexcore with him to save his life.  Pushed by Ambessa, retaliation is planned against Zaun, but the use of Hextech weapons is blocked by Mel.

During an attack at a funeral for the fallen councilors, Renni and her men attack but Ambessa and her Noxian warriors arrive and kill them all.  A taskforce led by Caitlyn is formed to go and capture Jinx and to end the shimmer production.  But in Zaum, there is distrust amongst the Chem-barons, one of them, Smeech, even proposing to hand over Jinx to have their production not disturbed.  Jinx runs into a young orphan, Isha, and they decide to tag along together after she is saved from an ambush by her.  Ekko and Heimerdinger decide to sneak into the Academy to discuss a magical corruption manifesting at the tree in the Firelight's hideout.

Vi is concerned by the aggressive take Caitlyn displays on their mission, as Mel is abducted by a Noxian sorceress cult, the Black Rose, who are linked to Ambessa.  Jayce, Heimerdinger and Ekko discover a "wild rune" in the Hextech vault.  Vi and Cailtyn corner Jinx, but Vi stops Caitlyn shooting at Jinx with the child Isha shielding her, allowing Jinx to escape.  This leads to Ambessa declaring martial law in Piltover.  A force of Piltover and Noxians occupy Zaun, as the series makes a short time jump forward, with Jayce, Heimerdinger and Ekko missing, Caitlyn and Vi having broken up, and Jinx becoming a legend...

Starting a revolt, and encoutering a werewolf hybrid Singed has created in secret, Jinx and Sevika decide to free Zaun from their oppressors.  The beast is none other then Vander, and Jinx goes to seek out Vi who has become a pit fighter after her break-up with Caitlyn.  Singed through identity is deducted by Caitlyn, as Mel finds herself in a Black Rose prison where she is reunited with her thought dead brother Kino.  But he is al illusion, and it causes her latent powers to be manifest.  Jayce, having encountered visions inside the Wild Rune, is released by it and scarred by the experience vows to destroy all Hextech.

Jinx, Vi and Isha take Vander to Viktor's hideout in an effort to have him healed, as Viktor tries to bring his humanity to the fore.  But they are tracked by Ambessa and Caitlyn, and Vi is captured by them.  Ambessa orders Viktor's progress to be reversed, but it is revealed Caitlyn and Vi where in league with each other, as Jayce infiltrates the camp and kills Viktor, provoking a physical backlash of those he healed.  Vander goes berserk, and Isha sacrifices herself to try and stop him.  Ekko and Heimerdinger find themselves in a parallel universe, where Hextech was never invented.  They need to work together with Powder, who never became Jinx in this universe, to create a time-reversal device... and here the awesome song enters the fray.  

A small sidenote: I was driving the car at 9.07 in the morning, the moment the song actually hit, and heard the radio go all crazy as our elected "Greatest Belgian" made his comeback.  And boy, what a comeback that was!

 

Ekko is returned to his universe, at the cost of Heimerdinger, who vanishes with his fate unknown.  Jayce is transported to a post-apocalyptic world, reuniting with the hooded figure that gave him the runestone when he was a child.  Learning that this future is the result of Viktor's actions, he promises to stop him before being send back by the figure, leading to the events that happened at the sanctuary.  Following the attack, Singed used Vander's remains to save Viktor as Vi confronts Caitlyn about Jinx's arrest.  But as she goes to see her sister she is outsmarted and Jinx escapes.  Mel has become fully embraced by her magical powers, escaping her prison, and encounters Jayce, as they are attacked by an emmisary of Viktor.  Caitlyn finds Vi in the cell, and they reconcile in a sweaty way, I love Vi's back tattoo ;-)

 

 

Ambessa allies with Viktor and they prepare to attack Piltover, as the troops, joined by the Zaunites, hold the line.  Jinx, persuaded from suicide by Ekko, arrive to save the city from falling just in the nick of time, as our heroes face off their enemies.  Caitlyn and Mel face Ambessa, overcoming her at the cost of the eye of the former, while Vi and Jinx face Vander.  Viktor uses his powers as he controls the Wild Rune, but Ekko remains out of the brainwashing grasp thanks to his time device.  He reveals the hooded figure from his past was none other then a future Viktor, who wants to stop the destruction his current version is about to cause.

But Vander remains feral, and Jinx seems to sacrifice herself to finally stop him, as the attack is stopped.  Vi and Caitlyn ponder their future, but Caitlyn suspects Jinx did escape at the final moment, having gone in hiding to break the cycle of violence...

So this was a fantastic series for certain, even though the second is a bit weaker then the first, it still was a stand out production with awesome art.  Go watch this if you haven't, even like me you never played the game more then 2 weeks...

TSA Escalation League 2025: Marienburg Crossbowmen

 More Landsknecht missile troops from Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Italian Wars range with the next unit for my Empire force!

And this time, it is a unit of 10 crossbowmen, providing more firepower to the force in the initial stages.

Like the units before, I painted the models in a beige, blue and red scheme for the city of Marienburg, where my force hails from.  Making it an army that will be without "religious" units like Priests, Knightly Orders and Lectors for example (I guess the only priest they would have is a coinmaster), I want to give it a feel of an army bought instead of trained.  To that end, I will have a core of statetroops, rounded with all kinds of more exotic soldiers like ogres and halflings.

The unit consist of 10 troops, and will go without command in the force, eventually merging into a detachment for a larger unit as will the handgunner units of the army.

And that is the final regiment for the initial 500 points painted up, now to take to the field of battle and start expanding on the army!

 

 

Alien: Romulus

 Now this was one movie I was looking forward to see, as it promised to get back to it's roots, a horror / science fiction setting.

 

 

And it was sort of a love letter to the franchise, as director Fede Alvarez used the wiki pages to get as many references correctly, trying to bridge the gap between the Prometheus prequels and the original movies.

 

And what bigger call back, then a movie that starts aboard the USCSS Nostromo, Ellen Ripley's ill-fated vessel from the very first Alien movie.  Here, a Weyland-Yutani probe recovers a strange cocoon.  Some time later, at the colony world of Jackson's Star, Rain Carradine, recently orphaned, discovers the company has elongated her labour contract without her knowing.  But she wants to go to the planet of Yvaga III, and teams up with her adopted brother Andy, a malfunctioning android reprogrammed by her late father to be her caretaker.

 

Together with Andy, her ex-boyfriend Tyler and his cousin Bjorn, Bjorn's adopted sister Navarro and Tyler's pregnant sister Kay they set out to reach Renassaince, a defunct Weyland-Yutani station that has drifted into orbit.  Here they plan to steal cryostasis equipment to be able to travel the mult-year journey to Yvaga III.  But arriving on the station, they realise the station will crash into the planet's orbital rings within hours, and must make haste.  Andy interfaces with the station to allow them access to the Remus part of the station, but also learns Yvaga III doesn't allow androids, meaning he should stay behind and guilt-ridden Rain.

 

 

As Tyler and Bjorn try to find the cryostasis fluid, they unintentionally trigger a lockdown as several facehuggers are released.  Rain decides to upgrade Andy with the chip of the damaged science android they found nearby, in order for Andy to bypass the security measures of the systems.  But this chip shifts Andy's loyalty from Rain to the company, causing Navarro to be impregnated by a facehugger.  They reactivate the science android, called Rook, to learn what is going on at the station.  The cocoon apparantly contained the xenomorph that killed the Nostromo crew, and they tried to bio-engineer the facehuggers.  However, the Xenomorph escaped, massacring most of the crew either in the normal gruesome ways or by decompression as the killed beast's acidic blood ate through the hull.

 

Thinking Andy might kill Navarro, he flees with her towards Kay on their vessel.  But onboard, a chestburster breaks out of Navarro, and as Bjorn tries to wound it with a baton, he is killed himself by the acid spraying out of it.  The adrift vessel crashes into the cargo bay of the Romulus section, causing the orbital decay to increase as the beast quickly gestates to it's adult form.  Kay escapes into Romulus hunted by the beast, as Rain and Tyler try to save her, but Andy refuses to open the door and they watch her being taken away by the beast.

 

 

Rook instructs Andy to recover a compound called Z-01, harvested from facehuggers to adapt and rewrite DNA.  The company intends to use it to create the perfect human, as Rain and Tyler arm themselves with Pulse Rifles.  They discover a xenomorph nest, where they rescue the badly hurt Kay.  They are attacked by hordes of xenomorphs and facehuggers, and Tyler sacrifices himself to protect Rain and Kay as Andy is incapacitated, until Rain can remove Rook's chip.  Disabling the station's gravity, they manage to kill a lot of the beasts, and they barely escape with their ship as the station starts crashing into the rings.

 

As they prepare for their trip to Yvaga III though, Kay gives birth to a human-xenomorph hybrid as a result of her being injected with the Z-01 to help her heal.  It kills Kay, before Rain can eject it into the rings.  She records an audiolog and enters cryostasis, hopefull of reaching their destination alive...

 

So this was a good film harking back to the original (okay, the hybrid finale was a bit more meuh for me) and the atmosphere that movie invoked back in the days.  Surely worth the look if you like your xenomorph vs desperate people movies!

Warhammer Underworlds tournament report: The Mines of Alost

 So, off we go in edition 2 of Warhammer Underworlds, and we immediatly rushed out of the gates with a tournament and not a single practice game under the belt.

Organised by Nico, it took place in Hermelijn, a gamestore in the city of Aalst (Alost in dialect) on the 18th of january.

And I decided to go hardcore in, with Legacy bands allowed, to have my gaming group pick my warband for me!  I offered them the options of Cyreni's Razors, The Skinnerkin and Garrek's Reavers, as the format would be Rivals, and they picked the following for me:

 

So, I'm coupling those to the Reckless Fury deck then, and we will see how it all goes as I'm setting out for 5 games of best of 1 containing of charging all over the place!  That, and it would mean a pretty straight forward gameplan, as due to the job change I can't attend casual game evening anymore on wednesdays, so I went in with barely any experience in the second edition (aka ZERO)... so it'll rather be a job of defending my top-3 position on T3 then to assault the first place again...  but that also means getting past all of the 8 attendants of the event.  I would be happy if I went 2/3/0 and aimed ambitiously for a 3/2/0.

My first game put me against Wouter, and he brought Cyreni's Razors with the Wrack and Ruin deck.  I just couldn't do that exact amount of damage, and forgot (as I never actually decently read it before the event) to add my extra attack dice after killing someone.  Still, I managed to keep up, but lost in the end on the tiebreaker.  

 

 

Having both scored 12 glory points, he occupied objective 2 and I only controlled objective 1, so a minor loss was my fate.

The second game put me against Tim, who brought the Thricefold Discord with the Reckless Fury deck.  Now, I know this is a top-line warband, but somehow all went smoothly my way, and after the first round he had only his sorceress left versus five inspired, frothing berserkers.

Needless to say it went down quickly and I tabled him by half of round 2, and a 17-7 victory was my part.

It was lunch time then, and we could vote for the best painted models, which was rightfully won by Nico and his Thundrik Profiteers.  Pity though as the TO / reserve player these blokes couldn't actually take to the table today.  I learned there was "glass" to play for, so I joked I would go 3-0 in the afternoon then...

In the first post break game, I faced Peter with Yltari's Guardians, using the Emberguard Sentinels deck.  I imemdiatly one shotted his leader with Saek, and he was on the backfoot from then on, though managed to keep up.  

But as he charged with his last model, the archer, in the final round, I could score all my hand and obtain an 18-15 hardfought victory.

But then came a real beast, in the form of Johan and his Grandfathers Gardeners.  This band has been the talk of the day, with their healing clock and all, coupled to the Wrack and Ruin deck, and having barely even lost a model as such during the whole day.  In an act of sheer brutality, and now knowing from my first game I needed to stay close to them and on the edges with my two "chaff warriors" like Thargor, I actually tabled the followers of Nurgle and scored an 18-11 victory...

This all meant that with the final round now in front, I was the sole leader (thanks to the minor loss of the first game, all others at the top having a regular loss)... and went on to the final table again.

Here I faced Peter (the other one of our Antwerp team) with the Skinnerkin and Pillage and Plunder.  A strange combination in my opinion, as I view the Skinnerkin as a pure aggro warband though, in the same style of Garrek's but a tat less brutal, but with more special tricks on their warscroll.  

 

But even with me flunking some attack rolls here and there, he never could follow the bloodshed of the Khorne crazies, and 18-13 was the result in the end.

So yeah, errrm, okay... I did actually win all three post break games... and as a result also the tournament with my hyper-aggro approach and charge in playstyle.  What makes it a bit special for me is that I was a total noob in this edition (okay, I can draw on years of Underworlds, and decades of wargame experience and insights), AND I did it with the so-called weaker Legacy lists and their generic warscrolls.

So that is a second glass trophy for the cabinet.  Apart from the fun goodies we all received, I also got a 25 euro voucher for the store, and spend this on the Chaos Dwarf card pack for Blood Bowl, something I was going to pick up anyways after the tournament for collection completeness sake.

A fun day, and a great event ran by Nico, and in the end I agreed to Johan's pleas and will be in Halle defending my title from last year.  With the Thorns of the Briar Queen, a band I never played before and have no clue what sort of Nemesis deck to build, but we'll figure something out...

Until then!

The Haul Report 413: very cheap Runewars and Oathmark boxes obtained

 I love Runewars, and I love it even more they throw the boxes at your head for cheap prices.

Like at the Underworlds tournament in Aalst last week, where I got these boxes from Nico for cheap.

The lot contained 12 boxes, and I paid 60 euro for them.  Now, for five of them I don't have a use, so they will probably end up on my trade page for more budget (the Heavy Crossbows, Hawthorne, Oathsworn Cavalry, Carrion Lancers and Waigar command).  But the other ones will all find a use in either my Empire force or as models for solo games, while the two boxes of Rune Golems will go in my Chaos Dwarf army as more K'daai.

 

  

And as it was at a tournament where I recieved it, which I duly went on to win, I also obtained some participation gifts, a trophy, and used my 1st place voucher to get the Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarf cards.

 

 

And the store had whole piles of free White Dwarf magazines to just take along, so that's some nice reading to come. 

I also picked up some Vallejo paints while there...

But those weren't the only pile of boxes I obtained this period.  From a fellow TSA member, I got 6 boxes of Orc Infantry from the Oathmark line.  Now, one of those are for my own Chaos Dwarf force, the others I'm having a look at wether to keep a second one, or trade them for other infantry boxes that I might need.  And at 18 euro a box, who am I to complain after all?

Making use of the Whispel gardencentre post-christmas sale, I got a few small addition to my Efteling collection, in order to round out the small shelf, and paying 40% off the price.

Some more reinforcing came in for my Idoneth, as I obtained an Akhelian Taskmaster through Vinted in the past period.

I also grabbed this blister of Frostgrave beasties from Vinted, always nice to have once I return to the frozen city later this year.

From Games Workshop, my pre-order arrived, with the Arcane Journal of the Empire of Man now in my possession.

 

 

And to round it all off, I found a fantastic deal for a sealed Blood Bowl box and an additional team for it on Facebook, I'll definitly keep the humans but now at least I have the rulebook and markers.  The pitch, well, that is still in debate. 

The final little arrival this week are some movement tray / base adapters from Forges of Nuln on Etsy, and far better suited then the ones I once bought from Sarissa I must admit.  Now to paint them up and get the army ready for a tournament in april!

So that is a very impressive pile of fresh figures, and certainly will give me some more assembling occupation over at the office...

Grendizer U

 Giant Robot Grendizer, or as we Europeans tend to call it, Goldorak, is back!

So of course there wasn't a single strain of hair on my head that refused to watch this, as soon as it aired, I dug in!

This is more then nostalgia, this is one of the Club Dorothee anime's that formed my childhood and personal tastes as I was a kid.

 

And this is produced and directed by, hold your mecha-hat, the creators of: Code Geass, The Witch from Mercury, SEED Destiny and Neon Genesis Evangelion!!!!!!!

 

Duke Fleed is a survivor of planet Fleed, escaped to Earth as a young man.  Here he is raised by Dr Umon as his adoptive son, Daisuke Umon.  But when King Vega and his army approach to conquer Earth, he and his friends decide to fight back using the mightiest weapon at his disposal, the almighty Grendizer. 

As soon as he is found, others try to catch him with Dr Hell's minions, but he is saved by Sayaka and Koji Kabuto in another big robot, the Mazinger Z.  Daisuke starts remembering his past as the alarms go off, and what happened to his planet and family.  He returns to the crash site, retrieving the Grendizer.  Koji tries to defend from the invaders in the Mazinger Z, but Earth weaponry is  barely sufficient against the large numbers.  When a large enemy mecha engages, he meets his match and is pushed back, but in a reckless move manages to stop it never the less.  

But more arrive, causing Daisuke to activate the Grendizer as the Mazinger is smahed apart.  Making short work of the enemy robots, he freezes in the control room of Grendizer, remembering shards of his past and panicking.  He takes off, with Koji stowed away inside the flying saucer.  But the enemy leader, Commader Gandal, has tracked him down to Earth.  He tells Koji what he remembers, that everyone is dead including princess Rubina.  

When Paris is under attack by the Vega forces by his old rival Kasado, he takes Grendizer and in his rage attacks the civilians as well and accidentally killing Rubina, sending him so far over the edge he destroyed the whole planet.  Koji and Fleet find a cave with old writings and an idol to Grendizer.  Koji promises to keep Fleet under control should he lose control again as they fly towards the enemy.  He faces Kasado, as a huge reinforcement fleet arrives to hold Grendizer back.  He overcomes Kasado, only just regaining his composure from killing him and stopping a huge orbital weapon.

He returns to the base of the Mazinger Z, meeting with the professor and his team.  Daisuke comforts Koji for his heavily damaged robot, as Kasado asks for his escape with Naida, as he tells them why the Great Vega, a being of legend, is set out to obtain Grendizer.  Naida crashed on Earth, Daisuke recognizing her.  While Sayaka is suspicious, Koji sees no harm in Naida and Daisuke spending all their time together.  But Naida tries to assassinate him, only saved by Hikaru arriving.

As Naida fights the Vega mind control, but they force her to continue her mission.  She confronts Daisuke, attacking him and wounding him as the Vega fleet returns with a massive ship.  Naida is stopped at the last moment after confronting Daisuke and the crimes she blames him for back on Planet Fleed.  Daisuke stops her, but the mind control device tortures her, but her memories break her free.  As Daisuke falls unconscious from the stabwounds, Naida wants to sacrifices herself to stop the Vega vessel, and telling him on the radio that Rubina is still alive before blowing herself up with the enemy vessel.  

Vega troops try to arrest Maria Grace Fleed, but she escapes their clutches, joining up with Daisuke and Koji.  During a shopping trip, a saucer has tracked Fleed, guided on by a shapeshifting secret agent of the Vega forces.  Kasado breaks from his jail, but runs into Hikaru.  The intelligence agent confronts Maria, but is accidentally trampled by the monster saucer, just as Grendizer arrives and takes it out.  Rubina swears in orbit to Tirona that she will personally end Duke Fleed, her ex-fiancee.

Duke tells Maria he came to see Earth as his second home, and why he shares Grendizer's secrets with them.  Tirona herself lands on Earth for an attack, but gives the inhabitants of Tromso the chance to evacuate as Rubina ordered that no people of Earth should be caught in the crossfire to capture Grendizer.  He tells the story what happened to her, and as he holds back she briefly bests him and Grendizer.  He almost convinces her when a strange vessel intervenes, as Rubina reveals herself to Daisuke, retrieving Tirona and withdrawing from the battle with her.  

In the prophecy cave, they notice strange runes depicting auxiliary vessels for Grendizer.  Hikaro calls Maria to her, asking her the same question if she is good or bad.  Duke engages a large monster in Grendizer, forced to fight underwater, where he is at a disadvantage against the beast created with aquatic specifics.  Maria finds the cave with the additional vehicles, called Spazer's.  Forcing Kasado, he and Maria come to Duke's aid, defeating the monster.  

Porfessor Umon build a new Mazinger, about a tenfold so strong as the original thanks to Daisuke and Grendizer.  Sayaka also gets to test her Spazer, as Rubina uses a saucer monster to send a message to Daisuke to meet in private.  But the Vega forces shadow her to see if she will betray them.  Blaki and his agents attack, trying to take Rubina and her aid out as well, but Koji and the others intervene.  But Rubina takes her leave.  Daisuke is imprisoned by the professor for meeting the enemy though, but when the Vega forces attack their base, the Spazers of Maria and sayaka are the line of defence.  Blaki and the Vega forces assault the base, infiltrating it.  Kasado joins the battle, and as Daisuke is freed out of his cell, he launches in Grendizer.  Tirona though is waiting for him, to continue their duel from before.  Kasado though wants his revenge, attacking Grendizer and finally getting to pilot it.  Koji launches in the new Mazinger to aid the Spazers, as Kasado is stopped by Hikaro, who banishes him as he tries to attack Daisuke even after he reaches him the hand.

Rubina confronts Daisuke and later discusses it with Tirona, realising he didn't kill the king and queen.  She sends a message to daisuke to arrange a place for their wedding ceremony.  He marries her, but then it turns out to be Tirona instead, who wanted to prove he was unworthy for her sister.  In the meantime, as Berlin is destroyed, the others want to take Mazinger in orbit, something that can be achieved Hikaro tells them by combining the three Spazers.  

Together with Grendizer they launch into space, where the Vega forces are planning to use a solar flare to destroy Earth.  On top of the Vega Cannon, a huge spacestation, the battle begins.  In the station, Daisuke confronts Rubina and Tirona.  Rubina takes a shot from Blaki that was meant for Daisuke, and as she dies in his arms amidst a field of roses she finally has Tirona admit she loves Daisuke as well.  

 

 

This causes Daisuke to go in rage, unleashing the destructive power of Grendizer like what happened when he accidentally destroyed his homeworld.  The Vega Cannon is destroyed and crashes into the moon, but Daisuke keeps fighting on.  This means Koji and the others need to stop him before his wrath destroys Earth and even the universe.  

 

Koji manages to reach out to him, as he is heart broken inside the cockpit of Grendizer, cradleing Rubina's body.  He cools down, and breaks the destructive cycle of Grendizer.   Together, they destroy the Vega mothership once and for all, driving them off and saving Earth.

Okay, so while this was not the best of mecha anime around, as for that there was to much filler, it was pure nostalgia and great to see Goldorak back on the screen in a modern touched up style.  So if you, like me, grew up with Club Dorothee, this is a MUST watch!!!!

On the Painting Desk 313

 Okay, this glue at night, paint in the evening is working.

And this week, I completed some nice little additions to the collection once again.  

First off, the Lothlorien Elf spearman has been based up, and the Imperial Noble has been finished as well, so that is already some good progress.  But I also painted up the 3d printed ruin shown in the clip of last week, which with some craft paints and a good drybrush is basically an afternoon job.

And thus we started on fresh deadlines, the first being the Sneaky Gitz making a reappearance here.  I gave myself up for a tournament in march, and I'm taking them along.  In the same lines, the 10 additional Blunderbuss troops will bolster my existing unit.  For the Escalation League, a unit of 6 Pistoliers will join the ranks to add some movement to the force.

Time to brush like a madman in the coming weeks!

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...