More House of Cards: looking for...

Cards I`m LOOKING for for my own collection include the following ENGLISH games:

1. Knights of the Zodiac (all bar one of the Promotional Cards and 6 cards remaining from the Mythological Forces set)

2. Gundam MS War (bar the OZ corps starter box)

3. Gundam War 

4. SD Gundam War

Just drop me a line if you have some of those (for the Zodiac cards, check out my TCO link at the bottom of this blog, it look`s like a playing card) and even which cards you look for (I have for example 8000+ Magic cards and 4000+ WoW cards to trade away), or how much you want for them and we can certainly work something out...

Tourist Tips for Geeks: Outpost Gamecenter Antwerp

While I was sitting at the bar last sunday in what I can classify as my `regular pub` *yes, it has a fully licensed bar* I was suddenly hit by the idea... what if I made a semi-regular series of gaming / hobby places I visit.

The general idea might be then that if YOU'RE visiting Antwerp or it`s surroundings one day, you might want to visit one of these places to catch a game or search for a missing piece in your hobby collection.

So as the idea sprang there, the first `tourist tip for geeks` is as such the Outpost Gamecenter Antwerp, often referred to as just `Den Outpost` or even `OP`.

I went to Werner, the storeowner, and asked if he would mind if he would take some pictures and he didn't mind, so let`s have a look at the store:

The mailbox betrays the old name, Gamelink, but the rest is the same facade as long as memory serves, the OP.  Werner`s vision he once told me was that he wanted to do `something` with games, and that something has grown out to three stores now, one in Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels.

Here is their website with webstore and all.

Entering the store you`ll see a true walhalla of gaming cards, catering all the `large` series but also smaller, more obscure games.

The store also caters a large selection of boardgames as well as accessories like comics, binders, sleeves, game collectables like statuettes and the likes.

Turning around you see the other side of the hobby, the cybercafe boasting a huge array of ultramodern computers

In order to use the computers, you register an account that is usable in all stores of Outpost, and it starts at 3.75 / hour and deminishes the longer you use them.

A staircase leads to the basement where the tournaments are held:

This area is about as large as the store upstairs and can seat (cramped) around 150 players or 'roomy enough' 100 players.

So that is the first of the tourist trips I can recommend, maybe I'll see you there one day!

GPT Moscow 2012... my first ever top-8

Okay, so a strange turn of events, sheer luck and a low turn-out due to the GPQ Eindhoven, Tomorrowland and the first decent sunny sunday of this year`s summer made it happen that I found myself sitting on the finals table for the Top-8 Draft.

The played format today for the Grand Prix Trials in Antwerp to win byes for the GP Moscow was Sealed, and the top-8 did an additional draft with only prices to be gained there being 3 / 2 / 1 round byes for the top three. 

I played the sealed with a White / Blue deck, which I was lucky to get Ajani in but nothing much else, this awesome Planeswalker card actually won me the second round.

For the Draft I went to `money drafting`, picking all rares, foils and uncommons that came by.  Of the 8 players in the Draft, three where actually going to Moscow, and as I played a mate of mine in the KO phase I `threw` the game.  Not that I would have won anyways, but heck.

So not a bad day, as I scored the booster price support for spot 8 in the Swiss phase, and 3 boosters draft, meaning I actually registry fee / booster costs broke perfectly even this time round.

The final result ended in an overall 6th spot, not to shabby for my first games in the M2013 set, and who knows, one day someday I might score some other decent result, though I doubt I`ll ever get to the results `palmares` of my warhammer days lol.

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth: Fenrir of Alioth

Alioth Epsilon Fenrir is one of seven Warriors Gods of Asgard in the series Saint Seiya of Masami Kurumada .


Fenrir was a member of one of the most powerful and rich families in Asgard. One day, when he and his family went hunting, they were attacked by a bear. Helped by wolves and abandoned by humans, he started to live with wolves adopting their life style and deeply hating humans. Later, he was chosen by Hilda as the Epsilon God Warrior. He died fighting against Shiryu when an avalanche fell over him and his wolves.
Named after the Norse mythical wolf Fenrir, who will swallow Odin during Ragnarok. His armor also resembles the wolf

Background source: Saint Seiya Wiki

Fenrir is the latest of my God Warriors to be collected, leaving only Mime and Bud to go, along with the supporting characters of Hilda and Seiya in the Odin robe.

As with the rest of the series, the God Cloth is of an exceptional quality, with beautiful vibrant and correct coloring down to the shiny Odin Gem in his waistpiece, and comes with the option of an open or a closed mask.

Beware though, I actually bled during assembly of this model!!!

The underarm pieces have some darn sharp edges, and when you struggle to `click` on the fists, a common issue with new cloth models, I managed to pierce the skin on my fingers with those extensions.  All credits to Bandai, at least they didn`t snap off hehehe.

Another nice addition to the cloth is the inclusion of Buddy, Fenrir`s companion wolf and guardian angel during his youth, a nice touch to a nice robe from a very nice range of Myth Cloths!

Just a few more of the recent additions to add, and then i`ll do an oversight of the clothes I have in my cabinet so far, but now... back to the painting table!

Hobgoblin Backstabber conversion

Sneaky Gits must be about my most favorite unit of the Chaos Dwarf army alongside the Earthshaker and the Blunderbuss warriors, especcially in the 'old days' with their limitless lapping round and poisonous attacks special rules.

The trick was to make sure they didn`t break on the first round (hello nearby general) and then you could throw in a literally bucket of attack dice who with luck could circumvent the S/ T roll, making those pulcky little snitches even a threat to high armoured elite troops (okay, cavalry with their 1+ / 2+ save might have been pushing your luck, but elite infantry like Chaos Warriors certainly where toast), scrapping their rank bonus as an additional, well, bonus...

Currently working on a block of these blokes again, I decided to do a simple conversion to represent their unit champion, called a `Backstabber` in the Hobgoblins army book, and based upon a simple hobgob warrior.

The weapon was swapped with a huge plastic knife from the Marauder set I believe (dunno, been around in the bitz box for years) and a cut short chaos warrior cloak (the one with the fur interior)

With some `camouflage painting` this guy should soon be ready to lead the sneaky devils on the field of battle, even though the LoA list makes them `just` two hand weapon hobgoblin warriors (booh hiss) but they can still be themselves in either Ravening Hordes or the fan-made Hobgoblin book (hoozaah).

Goliath and Wonderman

A quick post, but it shows I`m still painting these days, albeit at very, very irregular intervals to show stuff.  Painting leagues and social life makes it all a bit more planned wise, as well as the preperations for a Mordheim campaign that starts 2013.  

And I might even stick to my promise to myself to actually prepare something in advance for the LPL next year (yeah right, as if) hehehe

Anyways the recent addition to my forces for Superhero gaming, which sadly we ain`t doing at all (blame the Creepy Corridor, damn you kung-fu Andy) are two of the members of the Avengers, Goliath (who was killed in the Civil War by the Thor android) and actor / superhero Wonderman.

I`m in a bit of a superhero paint craze in the few moments that I got spare between the entries for the Brush Slave League, so you`ll see some more over the comming weeks.  Heroclix models are a blessing to paint in between as they don`t even need a cleaning and an undercoat, just a color by color overpaint with a highlight and a rebasing, and they are good to go for being man-handled on the gaming table.

Golden Hat 17: War Machines

And so another Golden Hat painting competition has passed at Chaos Dwarfs Online, and what an awesome round it was, the theme being War Machines.

Now mind you, I did enter but I realise all to well that the level of workmanship is far above mine, so I`m doing that one with the olympic thought in mind, just like with most online leagues and such.

Here are the brave winners:

1st place: Skink

I also casted one of my three votes on this entry, the red is so lively and vibrant, yet deepish in tone

2nd place: Engra1980

The competition had quit a few `beast / war machine` hybrids in it, this one wasn`t on my list but it is a very nice piece of work with the lava drooling et all

3rd place: Bolg

An awesome scratchbuild Hellcannon, though once again I didn`t vote on this one

On which ones did I vote?  Well, apart from Skink`s entry, I voted on these two entries:

There is something that draws me to this entry, can`t really put my finger on it exactly, but I liked it from the first moment

Another of the beast / cannon hybrids, this one took my liking due to it`s `natural` feel, as if it just had materialized out of the lava.

You can see all entries on the link provided at the beginning of this post by the way...


Oh, and my entry?  No idea if it even got any votes, but it definitly was the smallest of all entrants hehehehe

Saint Seiya Myth Cloths: Shaka of Virgo and Camus of Aquarius

No less then two Gold Saints have swelled my ranks lately, and even though they are starting to show their age compared to the latest releases (Marin!) they still make for great lookers in my cabinet.

This is a short post as I`m swamped in work as well as doing the final hands (okay, final being relative, I estimate a months work left at least) on setting up my TCO account to complete three card games near my heart, more of that later on.

Bar that, I`m also involved at the moment in various painting competitions and can`t show the entries off as long as those rounds are going, but I promise to at least show off two repainted Heroclix figures tomorrow morning.

Shaka of Virgo is also known as the man closest to God, or even as the Little Buddha.  Without a doubt the most powerful of the Gold Saints, he manages to defeat and destroy about two dozen of Hades`s Spectres in one blow, a serious feat!

He is ultimately, and as later revealed, on purpose, killed by three fallen Gold knights in a scheme to reach the Underworld by forcing them to use the forbidden attack of the Saints, the Athena Acclamation

The model comes with a pedestal to pose Shaka in his signature meditation move as seen above.

The second Gold saint is the master of all the Ice saints, Camus.  In the magna he is the direct teacher of Hyoga, in the anime the Crystal saint is placed `between` them, but the Cygnus saint reveres him.  Not on the side of the Pope, Camus sole purpose when the Bronze saints mount the Twelve Palaces is by teaching Hyoga to become strong enough to save Athena.  First he encases the Cygnus saint in the Libra house, but later he is defeated by his young pupil when Hyoga copies and masters the ultimate ice attack, the Aurora Execution, nearly perishing himself in the absolute zero of the environment.

The model also comes with a Hyoga head, as the Cygnus swan will donn the cloth of Aquarius often afterwards, and will become the next Aquarius gold saint, though the Omega series still has to confirm this onscreen.

Hyoga scenic base

A bit of a special thingy I have gotten my hands on recently, namely a special, unofficial, scenic base for the bronze Cygbus saint, Hyoga.

Hard to find and bloody expensive, I managed to snatch one of eBay for less then 50 dollars because it had a snapped off wing.  No problem for a wargamer, as the material of the statuette is the go around polystone material, which is easily superglued, especcially with a `clean` break like this one, and a bit of skull white later the crack is barely visible.

Only reason that it can be seen on the picture is because, well, the camera intensifies and contrasts it all a bit, but it looks awesome in my cabinet.

You also don`t want to drop this thing on your foot, it weighs about 4 kilo`s...

Al`eeha, Hashut's Chosen - Brush Slave League round 5

So, another month of the painting contest gone by, and a second victory claimed, as seen here.  This round was a bonus round, and the theme was `Commander and Attendants`.

I turned to the models mostly from the heritage I posted about a few months earlier, the collection of Hashut`s Chosen, and picked her conversion of a female sorcerer, patched it up with some green stuff and a new weapon, and a fresh paintjob.  As ger attendants, the first was her Bull Centaur hero conversion made from Archaon`s horse and a Minotaur, detailed with some 40k pieces like a door for a shield and such.
The second, the musician, was a Zonk-cast.  This is a very special set of models that I posess, as it seemed the caster is a scammer picking on forums as a modus operandi to supply to moderators and `famous` collectors, then takes orders and payment to never deliver, so be aware if you see this person on forums!!!  The whole discussion is still to be found somewhere on the CDO forum, just do a quick search for it but don`t be taken aghast... it seemed to be pretty ugly and I kiss my hands I`m apparently considered a `famous collector`.

So here are some more pictures of the models:

Al`eeha, Hashut`s Chosen

Minotaur Hero / Bodyguard

`Zonk-cast` Musician

 

Is this art?

Something completely different for once.  One of the things that relaxes my mind incredibly is a trip to the local Zoo in Antwerp.  Normally, as a membership holder, I hop in there for half an hour when it`s busy at work, as my office is located 500 meters or so from the zoo to clear my mind during lunch.

Today I went there with the lad and my girlfriend, her parents, her sister and the two (and a half, as it`s still in the tummy) kids.  Rainy weather but heck, the peace and quiet is great to load up the batteries and I took some snapshots with my cellphone:

Yes, I love owls, they have always been my favourite animal.

When it rains, whatever spot is great to hide from it, even when your a duck...

Hobgoblin Kharash Unit

When I first downloaded the unofficial Warhammer Armies: Hobgoblins army book, one of the units I definitly wanted to include in the budding force was a large block of Kharash, or slave units.  Planned for the 500 point tournament last week, I failed to complete the army in time, but that doesn`t mean I`m not going to keep building one.

There are better fates in life then being caught in a slave raid by a Hobgoblin tribe.  Tens of thousands of slaves are labored to death in the fields of the Eastern Steppes, and they are the lucky ones.  Many are traded off to the Dawi Zharr to toil in the forges of Zharr Nagrund and end up as sacrifices to Hashut very soonish. 
But when the tribes go to war, they gather all their slaves together in large blocks and herd them onto the enemy lines, to soak up the enemies missile fire and confuse their ranks, in an utter disregard of life.  Think a bit of `Operation Follow the blackie` from the South Park movie...

But these human shields are also great opportunities for doing something with excess models in your collection.  When I first tried to decide what to use, I was looking at a bag of 75+ Foundry Dark Age models and a heap of Curtsey`s chinese troops I still have lying around.  However, considering their `value` I soon decided against that and keep those models aside to trade off left or right.
Then I found some old 4th edition metal zombies (8 or so) and saw an idea... if I `camouflage painted` those models, in which the wounds and all where painted over as normal flesh, one would see ot zombies, but very scruffy, unhealthy looking humans.

And I can keep my hordes of greenskins to make the still traditional Ravening Hordes list `slave troops` of Orcs and Goblins.

I also had a set of 30 Mantic zombies from the not to be planned Superhero campaign, which left with Creepy Corridor Andy to places unknown, and the bulk of the force was decided upon.  It was about to be numbering 50 models strong, knocking me only back 100 points and not causing Panic in Hobgoblin units when they fled, ideal sacrificial blocks in other words.

Filling up the unit with some unit fillers, the first of two 50 man units as such was created.  For the second one I`m slow and steadily adding models to it, as I build that one using a model each time of the opponent beaten by my Chaos Dwarfs (in whatever game I field them, being it WFB, BB, HOTT or something else) since 2012, so currently it numbers 7 models (out of 6 WFB and 6 BB games).

For the unit fillers, I in the end placed three in them, namely an Ogre they caught on a raid somewhere, an old Shadow Lands `Spirit of Man` and a certain yellow rodent that farts electricity... and I so wanted to include Pikachu in my forces one way or another for sheer annoyance factor for my opponents hehehe.

15mm K`daai and Destroyer

One of the project I`m still wanting to complete this year is a 24 points force for use in Hordes of the Things, in scale 15mm.  The iniatial wood elf plan was exchanged for a force of my one true love, the Chaos Dwarfs, and since then I`ve been scouring and ordering from various manufacturers for suitable models in (evil) dwarven ranges.

Not a simple task, and the force will also host a substantial part of greenskin slaves to bulk out and because those models are far more frequent to find then suitable dwai zharr, but the first models I painted up and based today are the K`daai and their Destroyer equivalent, which will be used as a Behemoth and a set of monsters (the large troll etc entry in the HOTT book).

The K`daai, of which I based two on a single base, are fire genies from the Magister Militum range, while the Destroyer is a fire elemental from 15mm.co.uk, both aquired at past Salute.

The Great Tournament for Small Armies

And so the first of July is upon us, and the Great Tournament for Small Armies at the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp has taken place.


Organised by Patrick of Nelson`s Revenge, the set up was to have a relaxed afternoon and battling it out with small forces of 500 points.  As told in the posts of earlier this week, I entered with a Chaos Dwarf force from the Ravening Hordes list, and you know what they say about old foxes...

Victory conditions where simple, with 3 / 1 / 0 points for win / draw / loss, and VPs for tie-breakers.  No additional points where awarded for massacres and all, as in those small scale fast paced battles one break test decides as good as the whole game with no retaliation possible.

In the end, 12 participants turned up, as with the start of the holidays and the first decent weather in months in Belgium, half a dozen had family matters to attend.

Round 1: Hannes - Orcs and Goblins

Facing me in the first round are the goblin horde of Hannes, numbering over 100 models consisting of a unit of goblin archers, two large hordes of night goblins, a level 1 shaman, a goblin hero and a battle standard bearer.  No problem, if I tackle this tactically, me tremble will keep the army from charging before turn 4 and hopefully the blunderbusses will decimate the units below fighting ability.

The plan worked perfectly, losing only the cannon after a redirected charge.  The warriors broke one of the large blocks, and the busses decimated the one with the characters in, but not breaking them unfortunatly in the end or it would be an even bigger win.

Result: 120 - 110 victory


Round 2: Kenneth - Chaos Dwarfs

Intresting here, as it would mean a battle between the Legion list vs the Ravening list.  We played to a gentlemen`s agreement, as Chaos Dwarfs are about the only race in the Warhammer world out to dominate the rest of the Old World instead of scheming and backstabbing each other, and in this spirit the battle was fought.
The special scenario meant this was the round where lots of VPs could be gained as a slain general meant another additional 100 VPs and units yielded an extra +50%, and result near the 1000 VPs rolled in.
He fielded a small block of 10 warriors, a block of 10 Fireglaives, a Demonsmith and the Helshrieker Missile Launcher.

Not so in the bid for Dawi Zharr domination.  We both lost exactly 5 models, each losing 2 missile troops due to firing at each other (his Fireglaives being neutralised most of the battle by the tremble).  He lost a further 3 due to moving into the Venemous Ticket, I due to the magic that caused his smith to lose a level and forget his only spell, Fireball.

Nothing died, no points where scored, and the two Chaos Dwarf forces where ex aquo at 4 points and +10 VPs total both.  Only two forces at that point still had the full score, and as those had to face each other to decide the winner, if we both won the podium would be filled by... the rarest army in the history of Warhammer tournaments!

Result: 0 - 0 draw

Round 3: Kristof - High Elves

The clubs top player as my final opponent, this would be hard... he fielded a small unit of 5 Swordmasters, a unit of Phoenix guard with hero and a unit of Sea Guard.  But no wizard, so this battle would be a feast of Fireballs I hoped

The initial stage saw the Swordmasters all wiped out bar one and the fire of Earthshaker and Blunderbusses reduce to Phoenix Guard to a single rank.  Then I was charged by both these units, and managed to lose the combat by one, even with my ranks... and broke!  Luckily the Phoenix Guard didn`t catch me or it would all have been over, even though I had killed the last Swordsmaster so he only had a single pursuer unit!

I rallied and a 3d6 Irresistible Fireball and a Blunderbuss volley reduced my sorcerer to a level 0 powerless mage, but his more importantly his Phoenix Guard to just the hero and the standard bearer.  I decided NOT to try and kill the last Guard, as that way they could only rally on double one and as such the hero was dragged of the field. 

The last unit hasn`t been a thread as they only managed to losen one volley while not trembling by the `shaker, and had been reduced to only 5 models.  Unfortunatly the scenario special rule of capturing a frog (the red base) eluded me by 1 inch for a further 150 VPs.

Result: 456 - 0 victory

Unit of the Tournament: no doubt my Earthshaker.  The mighty gun might have only killed 5 models over the whole tournament, the good old earthquake effect made sure I wasn`t charged early on, was virtually free of opposing missile fire and the one war machine I did face only fired 3 out of 6 turns when not caught in the aftershake.

I learned the plan worked, the other Chaos Dwarf player had also won his game, and even though he beat me on amount of VP`s, this meant Hashut claimed spots 2 AND 3 of the tournament.

Allow me now to present the full results of the day

Prices where there for the first three finishers, the painting competitition best painted army (not included in the grand total) and a red lantern for the player managing to end last.

First off, the artistic side of things, the Painting competition, inwhich a maximum of 110 points could have been earned

1. Jo - Dwarves: 100 points

2. Tomsche - Chaos Dwarfs: 93 points

3. Kristof - High Elves: 86 points

4. Kenneth - Dark Elves: 85 points

5. David - Halflings: 84 points

5. Yannis - Orcs and Goblins: 84 points

7. Mike - Skaven: 80 points

8. Hannes - Orcs and Goblins: 79 points

9. Lily - Night Goblins: 75 points

10. Sven - Norse: 68 points

11. Patrick - Demons of Chaos: 68 points

12. Kenneth - Chaos Dwarfs: 30 points

And then, the final results of the tournament itself:

1. Sven - Norse: 3w, 0d, 0l: 9 pts, 2250 VPs

2. Kenneth - Chaos Dwarfs: 2w, 1d, 0l: 7pts, 730 VPs

3. Tomsche - Chaos Dwarfs: 2w, 1d, 0l: 7pts, 576 VPs

4. Mike - Skaven: 2w, 0d, 1l: 6pts, 1388 VPs
5. David - Halflings: 2w, 0d, 1l: 6pts, 630 VPs
6. Hannes - Orcs and Goblins: 1w, 0d, 2l: 3pts, 1228 VPs
7. Patrick - Demons of Chaos: 1w, 0d, 2l: 3pts, 661 VPs
8. Kenneth - Dark Elves: 1w, 0d, 2l: 3pts, 626 VPs
9. Kristof - High Elves: 1w, 0d, 2l: 3pts, 521 VPs
10. Yannis - Orcs and Goblins: 1w, 0d, 2l: 3pts, 410 VPs
11. Jo - Dwarves: 1w, 0d, 2l: 3pts, 396 VPs

12. Lily - Night Goblins: 0w, 0d, 3l: 0pts, 221 VPs

And so a nice and succesful tournament drew to a close, and it really was a joy to play in.  Great work Pat, and a nice plume for your hat with this one!