On Tour to the Frituur 21: 'T Kartoffeltje in Lichtaart

 When we returned from our Halloween adventure in Bobbejaanland, it was time for something to eat and what better then a good Belgian frituur.

 

And the first one we came across was 'T Kartoffeltje.

 

Located in Lichtaart (Kasterlee), this place has a nice parking venue as well, so that was an added bonus.  

 

The inside is spacious with ample seating area, has a huge menu to pick from, and is operated by some very friendly chinese people.  They even bring the food to your table, AND give metal forks, very handy for what I had ordered.

 

Our Order

 

Well, we where two, and we where hungry, so we had a serious order.  Noshi took a mini fries, a playboy (a larger sized smoked cervela) and a ragouzzi, while I had a normal fries with beefstew on top, and a boulet special.  Some sauces in the form of mayonaisse and cold curry (lovely big pots btw) and some cokes for drinks and we still only paid 29.30, so price wise this place was perfect.

 

The fries where really well baked and the beefstew, fresh made, was delicious.  The other snacks where baked "as they should", so nothing at all to remark.  And it came really swift as well.

 

Conclusion

 

A very fine, accidental discovery for certain, and if you are in the area definitly a recommendation to check out.  Like, after a trip to Bobbejaanland for example, as it's only a 10 minute drive away (basically two corners and a straigth).

 

As such, I'm giving it an 8.5 out of 10, it just is a solid, good place for a snack!

 

And now to find one last place I haven't been yet, to round out the year and obtain the goal of discovering 10 new frituurs! 

Helsmiths of Hashut War Despot

 New range of models, same trusted colourscheme!

 

So with the revamped Chaos Dwarfs now making their appearance in Age of Sigmar, of course I needed to have "some" launch boxes.  

 

And to try out my standard blue and gold colourscheme on them, I assembled and painted the Despot as the first model, who will also become the Spearhead general of course.

 

For all the gemstones he has locked in in his beard, I went for a jade green look, while opting to have the "demonic parts" of his weapons being fiery instead, not to fond of the greenish hue the official studio models have.  It also gives a good off set colour, which will be especially nice for the bigger models in the range like the artillery or the demon engine Dominators with all their flamework.

 

So I like they are quite robust models, compared to the fiddly diddly bits my Idoneth sport, and now to proceed to get the Spearhead finished before hopefully the end of the year.

 

Hashut has returned! 

Scratchbuilding a Space Dust terrain piece for starship games

 Today I'm making a simple, yet effective piece of terrain for my space game battles, in te form of a space dust cloud piece.

 

Now, google space dust, and it comes in a lot of forms and clouds in our universe, so there is no right or wrong way to go about this thing.

 

So I settles on wanting to make a spiral formed piece of cloud, that can be treated as impassable or hazardous "terrain" on the tabletop.  And you need next to nothing to create it.

 

So apart from paints, what did I use? 

 

An old CD, which you often find at the end of garage sales in the "free" boxes.  Doesn't matter who is on it, but a small tip, put the shiny side downwards, the imprinted label takes paints better.

 

PVA glue and a paperclip: because you need to stick sand to the cd

 

Sand and a teaspoon: to sprinkle the sand on the CD

 

The process

 

As I said, it is a really simple piece of terrain to make.  You put down the CD flat, with the label up as mentioned before.

Then, using the PVA, I drew a spiral, "flattening" the thicker layered glue parts with the paperclip.

 

Next up, I sprinkled sand with the teaspoon over the glue, before tapping off any excess not stuck in the PVA. 

 

And that is it for the actual building of the piece, so leave it all to dry for 24 to 48 hours, and then move on to...

 

The painting

 

 It is space, so of course it needs to be against a black backdrop.  For that, and as I don't want to use my expensive wargame paints, I used hobbycrafts Acryll paints, in my case from the Talens "Amsterdam" range.  These cost about 3 euro for such a big tube, and lasts you a lot of terrain pieces to undercoat.

Once all that is dry, I wanted to make my spiralling dust a mixture of pinkish purples and light blues.  Now this is done with hobby paints, and a first layer of three was painted on the sandy parts.

 

After those, a heavy (be carefull not to rub the sand off) drybrush was done on the whole spiral, and as it's floating around dust, don't worry if some overlaps.  Heck, it makes it even look better.

 

A final, light and heavily contrasting drybrush was done, to give a good sense of deepness to the whole dust spiral.

 

So that's the spiral done, now to work a bit on the black to prevent it from being dull and boring.  This was done by adding some small patches of a very dark blue on it, and then some white dots to represent the stars out there.

 

All that was left was a coat of varnish, again using a relatively cheap hobbycraft satin varnish, to give it a bit of shine, and the whole terrain piece was finished.

 

Not counting the drytime of the glue and the varnish, this is a fun little project that can be undertaken in about half a day of work, and it gives some nice detail to your spacetable...

 

Hope you liked this little tutorial! 

Alice in Borderland season 3

 Let's get one thing straight from the get-go: I hate it when it's called "the Japanese answer to Squid Game", not only is the television series actually older, we won't even talk about the comics it is based from...

 

No, this stems more from the movie classic Battle Royale... google it, watch it, enjoy!

 

 The third season numbers 6 episodes of about an hour in length, and deals with events five years after the meteor strike.  Arisu is interviewed by professor Ryuji Matsuyama, who is obsessed with the afterlife, and investigating the existence of Borderland.  Arisu and Usagi have married in this time, as Ryuji is brought to the edge of Borderland through a lethal seminar game.

 

Usagi has a flashback about their time in Borderland before disappearing, as Arisu is approached by Ann who still remembers the events.  Whe he finds Usagi and Ryuji in a coma, he is brought back to the game land with the help of Ann and knows he needs to face the final card of the deck, the Joker.  Joining with a group of survivors of the first game he must play, he goes in search of Usago, but the games are different now as they are steered to the next one instead of having a choice of game and difficulty.  

 

Joined by Rei during a zombie game, the team of Arisu encounters Usagi and Ryiju briefly during a runaway train game.  During the semi-final games, both groups lose members of their team, before meeting in a maze like game, which predicts their final lives as an outcome.  If they choose wrong, points are deducted and reaching 0 means instant death after a final movie of how their life played out.  

 

Arisu is forced to stay behind in the final room, making him the actual winner as Tokyo starts flooding on the outside, as he is met by Banda, a citizen who wants him to join their ranks.  Arisu rejects and breaks out to help the others as Borderlands starts to fall apart.  Banda is killed when he wants to shoot Arisu for rejecting him by a Watchman, who reveals the Joker is not a person but merely a symbol, and reveals a bigger disaster is coming then the meteor strike.  Arisu still chooses life and leaves with Usagi, as well as all the other survivors except Ryuji who picked death after coming to see how wrong his actions where.

 

Some time later, as Usagi is expecting their baby and Arisu interviews other survivors of the previous Borderlands games, giving some closure to where they where and what they have been up to without really remembering the events that transpired.  The news warns about multiple earthquakes taking place all over Earth, as we see some american clients in a diner stateside, served by a waitress called Alice...

 

And so the series ends, with the possibility of a fourth one.  Which I hope they make, but don't change it to an american action series though... only time, and Netflix, will tell I guess... 

Owari no Seraph

 The next of the list from Noshi's anime list that I haven't watched yet, as we are doing a serious end sprint to this goal.

 

Though I can already say, I won't be making it.  Not enough days in the year left anymore hehehe...

 

Based of the manga with the same name, Owari no Seraph (or Seraph of the End in english) is a post-apocalyptic vampire hunting series.  An unknown virus has killed the world population except for children younger then 13 years, and left those at the mercy of vampires.  Yu and Mika are residing in the orphanage in the vampire capital Sanguinem, but the children are killed by the vampire Ferid Bathory, Yu being the only survivor.  During his escape, he meets Guren Ichinose.

 

The series jumps forward four years, and Yu has joined the Imperial Demon Army, eager to join the Moon Demon Company that is tasked with hunting and killing the vampires, led by Guren.  He meets fellow recruits Shinoa and Yoichi, and after they help in holding off a vampire attack on the school, they are invited for recruitment training.  During training, they learn that Yu is possessed by a demon inside.

 

Mika is revealed to be alive, but has been turned into a vampire by Krul Tepes, who is assembling the vampires to declare war on humanity.  In the meantime, Yu, Yoichi and Shiho obtain their Crused Gear, demon powered weapons capable of defeating vampires and destroying them, and join the Moon Demon Company.  By saving a young girl and her orphanage, they learn where the vampires are amassing, and leave for the front lines.

 

During the battle, Mika attacks and injures Guren just as Yu arrives.  Yu hesitates to finish Mika, as Ferid lures Guren and Yu away, but seeing his friends in danger he loses control of his powers, slaughtering vampires all around.  Mika protects Shinoa, and she manages to calm Yu down, and the battle is delayed in a stalemate.  Mika allies himself partly with the humans, as both sides prepare for the final confrontation.

 

A high action packed series, and I must say I love the animation style of the characters.  A good one, and now onwards to the second season to see where this all will lead to! 

 

 

Fog on the Ekeren-downs I tournament report

 Time to try and get another game running at the club, and this event was all about Middle-earth.

 

 

A small scale affair to "test the waters", I set the points at 500 with maximal 1 Hero of the highest level allowed.  

 

As I was the reserve player, and need time for book keeping as well between round, I prepared myself an army consisting of (part of) The Fellowship, because 6 models play faster then 40... so Aragorn (with bow), Legolas, Gimli, Boromir (with shield), Merry and Pippin came along with me.

 

  

Now, the event itself had a nice 8 seats filled out of the 12 I made available, including myself as the reserve player as we had some last moment cancellations and no-shows, something inert at organising events.

 

Oh well, that means apart from second breakfast, there was third breakfast as well... 

 

 

And as such, the tables set up, pairings where guided to prevent people of the same gaming group facing in round 1, and off we went for 3 games of Middle-earth!

 

 My first game, the for me impossible Domination, saw me face The Easterlings of Tim (yes, I made a deployment mistake here, corrected in the following games as it would have actually helped me had I deployed correctly) led by Amdur.  Who with his special rule was bad news for Aragorn and Boromir.  This resulted in a 17-4 defeat on my part.

 

  

In the other games, the Easterlings drew against the Expedition in the East, Thranduil defeated Thorin's Company, and Angmar bit the dust against the Balrog. 

  

The second round put me against Mats and his Expedition to the East in the Fog of War scenario, and this was a far closer affair, as he found his treasure, and barely escaped by half an inch of losing his targetted scenery piece, making it a 10-6 defeat for the Fellowship.

  

  

 

Other results this round saw both Easterling forces fail, respectively against Thranduil and against the Balrog, while Thorin's Company went under versus Angmar.

 

In the final round, I faced "support crew" Andy and his Thorin's Company.  Both had only 6 models (well, technically I had 4, as I kept the hobbits far away) in a bout of To the Death.  But Aragorn proved to be the better swordsman over Thorin, and in the end I won 18 to 3, saving some grace...

  

   

 

In a civil war, Tim's Easterlings defeated Heikki's, the Expedition to the East lost to the forces of Angmar and Thranduil had to recognise his superior in the Balrog. 

 

As the dust settled over the fields of battle, it was time for the awards ceremony, and here are the full results.

 

1. Glenn - Moria - 9 points, 42 VP's

  

2. Sam - Angmar - 6 points, 32 VP's

 

3. Tim - Easterlings - 6 points, 30 VP's

4. Niels - Thranduil - 6 points, 29 VP's

 

5. Mats - Expedition - 4 points, 24 VP's, and winner of the Participation Raffle, which he handed to Niels 

6. Tomsche - Fellowship - 3 points, 28 VP's

7. Heikki - Easterlings - 1 point, 10 VP's

 

8. Andy - Thorin's - 0 points, 5 VP's, and winner of the Wooden Spoon price.

 

We also had all participants vote on best painted, and the result here was pretty overwhelming.  Out of a maximum to be had of 14 points, Heikki scored 11 points, and was a clear winner.

 

To give an idea, second place only managed 3 points (meaning the field was pretty close together on a painting level for the rest), and was shared by 3 people: Niels, Mats and myself.

  

 

But so the day ended with a happy crowd and a cozy little tournament, and my job was done to introduce the club to the wonderfull game of MESBG... or was it...

 

BECAUSE, of course, peer pressure.  We wanted to pass the torch to organise a second edition next year, but I understand you need to be a special kind of cookie to want to run tournaments.  Okay, in the case of Andy we are talking a big box of special cookies.  But while I at first didn't have plans, I let myself be convinced and as such:

 

See you there! 

 

Disclaimer: thanks to the participants that shared pictures in the event group, I happily used them for some more eyecandy in the report.