It's here... the ULTIMATE PS3 battle

And this year, it's the real deal.  The rules have been made up, the price has been decided.  Now follows 1 year of gaming.  12 months of button bashing.  365 days to earn the ultimate bragging rights!

It's kicking off one day earlier, because of on the one hand we both will have a lot to do today and not much time to play, and on the other hand that way the children can have *something* to do while the families will be gorging down tons of food and sell drunken brabble.

Pitty I don't classify under a 'big child' on those days...


But the rules are simple.  Andy is starting with an 8670 points lead on the PSN network, and we're tracking it through the YourGamerCards (mine is at the bottom of the blog).
The winner is that player (or family to be precise) that gains the most points extra, with a small margin to be called a draw of around 250 points (slightly less then one Network game's full trophy support).  Basically, this bottles down to: if Andy has a 9000 point lead he wins, if the lead has shrunk in the end to 8400 or less I win...

But what is there to win?  FOOD, that other walhalla of the gaming nerd.  The deal is that the losing family organises a dinner party at their home for the winners.  Time to brag during that party... and toss some games in?

Anywyas, I'll be posting updated profiles on this blog about every first sunday of the month give or take calendar requirements.  I also added an extra page to the blog where I'll be updating more frequently to keep a bit more of an oversight mainly for myself.


Gentlemen... start your Dualshock's and press the PS Button NOW!







Yokai_Tomsche

Points: 22.695
Level: 12 - 83%

Platinum Trophies: 3
Gold Trophies: 45
Silver Trophies: 198
Bronze Trophies: 811

Games played: 176
Games Beaten: 22

AnRoDr

Points: 31.365
Level: 13 - 92%

Platinum Trophies: 7
Gold Trophies: 79
Silver Trophies: 246
Bronze Trophies: 1041

Games played: 150
Games Beaten: 15

This means Andy starts the year with a lead of 8670 points

Guess what I'm going to build...

GUNDAMS... in LEGO!!!!!


A friend send me the link to Rebrickable this morning (thanks Scott, you already made 2013 a great year before it started), which contains building plans for all kinds of MOCs (My Own Creations, a term used in Lego for self designed models).

Strolling over the site I discovered the building plans for making iconic Mobile Suits from the Gundam series, namely the

Zaku II

and the GM

I know what parts I'm going to be sorting out for during my january holiday week, and get the remaining missing pieces from the LEGO store in London when going there in february.

These are SO going to be centrepieces in my cabinet!!!

Carddass Saint Seiya Crusade: Asgard and Poseidon

I received my three booster boxes (45 boosters in total) of the newest Saint Seiya expansion this morning, and the sorting has been taken place.

The set takes place in my favorite setting on the one hand, the Asgard (anime only) chapter, and follows through with the Poseidon chapter.  The God Warriors are normal rare cards, but the Poseidon generals are all metallic foils just like the Gold Saints used to be in the Twelve Temples set.

Not to bad a haul as I had the Microcosm ultra rare card in the set, this edition being Poseidon himself, and 3 out of the 6 `gold foil alternate` cards with Seiya, Ikki and Hagen of Merak.

All the commands and unit cards in all four colours are complete as well, bar the green ones where I still miss two Metallic cards, them bein Shiryu in Libra cloth and the Marinas general Krishna of Chrysaor, so that will be a total of 5 missing cards for this set excluding any Buy a Box promos, of which I had two Seiya`s and one Ikki in my three boxes.

Maybe an idea for Wizards of the Coast, to include a Buy a Box promo in each booster box instead of for the first xxx buyers of a set?

May the Brick be With You

Bit of an all lego Star Wars post here, as the holiday season has been good for me on that level.

It all started at the beginning of december, when my girlfriend got me the Star wars advent calender, meaning 24 days of either minifig or minikit goodness, including 2 limited edition minifigs.

My personal favorites in the end are on the first place the `snowman R2-D2`

Second place goes to `Santa Maul`

While for bronze, I`m stuck with a `3-day` tie, on the one hand a Gungan minifig and a Gungan catapult combo, on the other hand the Naboo figures.

Furhter goodness included under the christmas tree two Star Wars books, the `Bouwmeesters` which comes with bricks to build 4 `duels` of a Clone warrior vs a Droid, for which i opted to build the wood battle with a grav-vehicle vs a walker.  Other options where a speeder battle (tempted by that one as well), a mini kit dropship vs droid tank, and a set I didn`t like, being basically minifig versions of the dropship vs tank.

and the Star wars encyclopedia with a limited edition Luke Skywalker in the costume he receives his medal in at the end of A New Hope, having destroyed the Death Star in the battle of Yavin.

One happy big little child here hehehe...

Seasonal Greetings!

Ferocity in 15mm - Brush Slave League season 2

The second season of the Brush Slave League has started following in the immediate wake of the first year.  I was drawn in a threeway battle, and lost deservedly with a 11 / 6 / 6 score, as can be seen here.


The reason is pretty simple, the entry just didn`t work out and I couldn`t find the spare time to create a new one.  I went for 15mm Boar Centaurs by Splintered Light Miniatures, but my traditional basing manner dominated the paintjobs to much for comfort.

Next round onwards it`ll be almost all anime for all remaining rounds, curious how that is going to work out :-)

A Magically Year

Season Three has ended for the Planeswalker Points system of the Magic the Gathering sanctioned play, and that means it has been one year now that I`ve been playing more or less competitive.

And dind`t do TO shabby for a rookie, with a best result being a Top-8 placing in the GPT Moskou back in september.

At the moment, I collected 210 lifetime points (a few where from a pre-release / release chain right before the first season of 2012 started running, didn`t follow my progress back then nor played anything else then the releases) and 165 Yearly points.

Now, for someone of my `level`, the Seasonal points at best can get you a single buy in a GP, IF I manage to get 400 of them in a single Season (a season lasting 3 months), and 300 Yearly points qualifies you to be allowed to compete in the World Tour Qualifiers.

The scond will be more manageable the the first though, but I`ll go down fighting if need be...

During the first season, which ran from 26/12/2011 until 01/04/2012 I collected 26 points, not placing me in the top 20.000 of Europe and putting me in spot 558 out of 1346 in Belgium.

Second season, running from 02/04/2012 until 19/08/2012 yielded me a gain of 93 points, jumping me into the top 20.000 in Europe on spot 14.151 and in Belgium to place 401 out of 1537.  This was mainly thanks to the heavily attended Outpost Open in Antwerp with his Sealed and Legacy formats, which had a x3 multiplier and I attended the whole weekend.

Season 3, which has just ended after running from 20/08/2012 until past sunday, the 16/12/2012, hoisted another 72 points, good for spot 16.700 out of 20.000 in Europe and 349 out of 1374 within the national boundaries overhere.

As you can see, the turn-around of about 33% game wins (and considering those points are gathered by actually only competing in 29 events, of which 3 or 4 where only `Casual` format) I`m actually rather proud of how I brought it all off this year.

On into the next season, and let`s see if we can get at least the Yearly Points up from 165 to 300 before March 2013...

Lego Pirates of the Carribean - 3rd Platinum Trophy!

And so I finally achieved my THIRD platinum trophy for the Playstation 3, not bad *kuch* for a game system I now have exactly 3 years in my home...  At this rate, it's going to take about 170 years to platinum all my games, provided I don't get any new ones (fat chance!)

The honour of number 3 goes to the Lego Pirates of the Carribean game, and it's a bit of a special place in my heart game these days... it is the solemn reason I'm 'back' into the whole Lego thing as one could have seen in my Blogposts the past few weeks.

Here is a rough chronological turn of events:

September 2012: I bought a Playstation 3 for use over at my GFs appartment, to be able to do something with the Little One together in the evenings, and to be able to have ,ore 'ideas' when people ask what he likes for his birthday.
He also received the Pirates game from my niece for his birthday, so enter the adventures of Jack Sparrow in Brickland.

Now, the munchkin is still putting his feet one next to the other in gaming land, so soon the question arose if I could finish the game for him so he could play everything on Free Play, and select Blackbeard.  At first I was all sceptical about those Lego games, but they proved great fun and really funny, that I happily obliged to this.  One 10 hour gaming marathon later, this all had been done.

After that of course, he wanted Davy Jones...

So the grinding for studs (basically, the lego game coinage system) began and unlocking the red bricks for stud multipliers.  By the time this was achieved, I was at over 60 percent of the game completion and trophies, and opted to go for the platinum.

By that time, those little bricks also had me all in their cluthces again, and the BrickMania Lego event I posted about a while ago locked the pact with the studheaded devil.

So this weekend I went for an all outer and both yesterday afternoon and this morning I gamed as hell to get it all done, realising the goal just under half an hour ago!

The conclusion?  The Lego games ARE great fun, the next platinum target is the Lord of the Rings variant, while toggling between the Harry Potter years 1-4 overhere to unlock all free plays as well.  And I got the DC and other Harry Potter lying at the ready as well hehehe.

Now only to get the Indiana Jones 2 and Star Wars 3 Lego games, and I have the full collection of Lego Trophy supported games to battle and brick lay my way in the PS3 challenge next year!

2013... The Goals

One more week of work to go before the christmas holiday period, and slowly it is time to round off the year, as not much will be moving on the goals of 2012 anymore before then.

Looking back, it hasn't been to shabby on the set goals, even though I EPICALLY failed on the paint more then buy level, I still managed to paint over 450 figures this year.  Now, with the change of hobby focus, there won't be much of a painting job going on in 2013, and the aim is set at a modest 150 models, which should take me through the current season of the Brush Slave League, finish some of my Chaos Dwarf units, and get most of my Gundam models repainted at last.

I'm still having the jury decide if I'll be participating in the next edition of the Lead Painter's League, but truth to be told, with TWO Magic Grand Prix on the schedule in 2013 and the good intentions of taking my game up a step and get more competitive, I'm doubting I'll be painting towards deadlines at all.

So what will 2013 bring for me?  It will be a year of Walking Planes, Laying Legos, Bashing Buttons and Painting Anime.

Walking Planes

The main goal for 2013 is getting my Magic game up.  With now almost one year of playing in the sanctioned scene, I have a very decent turn around of 33%, but for 2013 I would love to take that upwards to the 50%+ mark.  To that end, I'm going to compete more regularly in various formats, and with my wargame club drop out, this means first and foremost attend as much Friday Night Magic events as I can, topped by the (pre-)Release events and Gamedays.
The big trips this year are the Grand Prix London and the Grand Prix Antwerpen, together with the Pro Tour Qualifier San Diego in Antwerp and hopefully to get 300 Yearly points for the invitation to the World Tour.

With Magic, compared to wargaming, being almost a self sustaining hobby in costs (yes, I kept the numbers this year, thrust me) and way less effort in storing and 'preparing', it's needless to say this will be the big one.

The goal for 2013 is to reach Planeswalker Level 30, as I'm currently at 19.

Laying Legos

So how will the closet space be filled up then?  Well, mostly by the venerable toys of Lego.  I can play with these blocks together with the Little Munchkin, and am going to sort out all my blocks of 20 odd years ago, download the building plans of those sets gone by and well, generally have a good time and 'family quality time' instead of hiding in a corner being in an isolated hobby.

It won't be a goal in itself, but expect some posts to pass by over the months as I am restoring old sets on the one hand, and yes I admit, will be buying the odd little ones for display on the other hand.

Bashing Buttons

2013 will also see the all official, all real this time Playstation challenge between me and Andy.  Running for 363 days, you'll get the explanation of what it is going to be and what the 'prize' will be on the 2nd of january.

Bar that, my aim for 2013 is to get to level 15 on the PS profile (feel free to add me to your friends, my name on the Playstation Network is Yokai_Tomsche), as I'm currently 2/3s through level 12.  That means a grand total of 40000 points will be needed, about as many as I currently have. 

I'm just counting on my posse to help me out a bit, just like Andy has his crew to advance in the points.

All Things Anime

The final goal is to paint 150 models.  Most of them will be Anime models, as well, that is what I have most.  Now I'm going to try to get as much BSL rounds done with anime models as well, but IF I decide to enter the LPL, it will be a 10 rounder of only japanese style figures, even if this means not getting bonus points.  If I don't enter it; I'll still have a lot to paint after all ;-)

This will also include all the model kiyts I'm going to build and paint (hopefully), project Gundanium hasn't been buried, it's just on the backburner for now ;-)

And just remember this name: Phoenix...



Of course, all of the above is providing the Maya's have it all wrong...

Looking for the Holy Grail

Everyone wargamer, collector or hobbyist has it.  That one miniature you keep looking for for years on end, and that keeps eluding your grasp.  You search eBay on an almost daily basis, have half a dozen more or less relevant site searches stored and mailing you any finds it comes upon, and troll forums in the vain hope of getting that one particular model.  And after you find this usually rare `chase`, `collectors edition` or `limited edition` model... you`ll be starting the whole cycle again with the next model you want...

This is currently mine, a soft plastic gashapon `bottlecap` figure of Saint Seiya.  It was the chase model of the second series of models, the set with all the Poseidon generals, and features the sexy Miss Shaina and Kiki, guarding the golden Libra cloth.

I have the full series, I have the original first series inclusing it`s rare chase model, but I keep missing out on this one for two years now.

The models are ideal for repainting and use in wargaming, as I did earlier this year with the March of the Gold Saints in the Lead Painters League and the Mordheim battle report featuring the Bronze Saints.

So if anyone has one lying around he wants to part with, OR can point me to a website they frequent where they still sell her, please, please drop me a line.

Many thanks!

Draida Bay adventure report

The Goblin army has seized control of Draida Bay, cutting off supplies to the region.  You must take a stand against the Goblins, but can you defeat the powerful Goblin General and take his Crystal of Deflection?

Tonight me and the Little Munchkin decided to try out the first of the Lego Heroica games I bought myself last week, Draida Bay.

Lego Heroica is in essence a dungeon crawl style game, with a gaming board of Legos and this one, the first and smallest of the 5 sets so far released is the introduction to the game system.

I took control of the yellow Barbarian model, while Munchkin took the red Wizard model.  The box is for 2 players age 7 or up and takes around 5 to 10 minutes to play through.

The adventure started with the Wizard going straight forward from the boat and engaging the first of the 5 Strength 1 Goblins on the heroes path, while the warrior took the 'upwards' path if you look at the picture above to engage another one.

Munchkin managed to defeat his opponent at the expense of a life point, while I got wounded and thrown back by my opponent.  At the expense of a second wound loss, I defeated the Goblin the turn after.

The Wizard then thundered into the room with two Goblins and defeated both of them, and grabbing the red healing potion.  The Barbarian swiftly dispatched the Goblin by the waterfall, and both heroes advanced towards the Goblin general for the great show down.

Which ended in a total anti-climax as Munchkin rolled a Heroica Shield for his movement, allowing him to defeat one monster opponent within a 4 square range and even behind covers.  One sizzling wizardry fireball later, Munchkin had defeated the general and secured victory.

I was severly beaten by the little one.  I lost 2 life points and scored 2 goblins, while he only lost a single point, scored 3 goblins, the goblin general and stored the healing potion...

Someday next week I suspect where going to venture into Nathuz, when the girlfriend also joins in as we'll be needing a third hero for the adventure...

Golden Hat XVIII: Hobgoblins

Another edition of the Golden Hat has passed by, and this time the theme was Hobgoblins in all colours and tastes.

Now, I cannot say on which entries I voted, because I have been so busy lately... that I actually forgot to vote *shame on me*

My entry didn't get into the top three prizes, but here it is again in glorious technicolour

For full results and all the entries on parade, just surf to the frontpage of Chaos Dwarfs Online and enjoy the biscuits :-)

Belgian Legacy Cup 2012 Finals

Past sunday the finals of a series of Legacy tournaments in Belgium took place here in Berchem, Antwerp.

The Belgian Legacy Cup is a tournament series of 5 tournaments and a finale, with a nice price support, the winner taking home this coveted trophy containing all the Revised Edition dual lands, and the title of champion.

Unfortunatly, the system of byes to be gained in the previous tournaments meant that there where no sanctioned DCI points to be gained (I only read that the morning before leaving to the event when checking what the exact housenumber of the venue was), and the finals contained 84 players.

This meant a STAGGERING 7 rounds plus the top-8 would be played, meaning that you could easily be playing there till around 2100 hrs if you managed to go to the finale.

Of course, the Tournament sponsor, The Brassman, had a trade stand present, with lots of nice finds in them for democratic prices.

I took along my mono green `Blitzkrieg` deck, but was hampered by mana flood all day!  With 20 Forests on 60 cards, and searching out extra ones with Nature`s Lore, this was completely against all odds of statistics, and the one round in a match I managed to win was when my deck actually did what it was supposed to do (13 damage Groundbreaker + Old Kroza + Giant Growth out of nothing on turn 3 for example thanks to 3 forests and 2 Llanowar Elves) it hot hard and scared opponents.  Not that I would have gotten to the finals or so, but I would have been less grumbling afterwards.  Maybe I should buy a book about how to shuffle cards or so lol.

I dropped after 3 rounds as I was then officially out of the running for the top spots, and decided to go home and spend the afternoon hopping around to family with the household as I couldn`t pick up some DCI points anyhow, but it was great fun and I`m going to snatch along one or two tournaments in the next edition.  I like the Legacy format, but I am going to tinker with my deck to transform it from mono green to red/green and include some minor burn spell power.  I had it three times this tournament to bring down my opponent to 3 or less damage, only to have the deck stall then and him being able to recover and Jace / Deathrite Shaman me into oblivion.

This was the decklist I took:

Creatures:
4x Groundbreaker
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Primal Forcemage
4x Timbermare
4x Uktabi Drake
4x Yavimaya Ants

Spells:
4x Giant Growth
4x Might of Old Krosa
4x Nature`s Lore
4x Worldly Tutor

Lands:
20 Forests

The idea is pretty simple, play a Forest and an Elf on turn one (mulligan if needed to get that in the opening hand), then do hit and runs each turn before the opponent can build a decent defense or start his Storm.

In hindsight, even with changing out Hickory Woodlots (lands that cycle) for the Worldly Tutors, it was the mana flood that took away any hopes.  Now I`m planning to tinker with the deck by tossing out 6 Forests, 2 Primal Forcemages (they will do anything to counter this guy anyways), 2 Yavimaya Ants (to slow) and 2 Nature Lore`s (with dropping to 14 basic and 4 dual lands, it`s unlikely I need to search more forests, and I need only 5 mana tops uberhaubt to let the deck do his thing each turn).

In will come 4 of the new pain dual lands from Gatecrash (released start of february 2013), namely the Boros` one, Stomping Grounds (green / red dual), whom I suspect will become a highly popular one for all those aggro decks out there, I imagine Thragtusk / Red decks showing up everywhere now, 4 Lightning Bolts (for those last few burns, and why I`m putting in the dual lands to start with) and 4 Berserks, making the beasties smack in much harder.

We`ll see what that gives next year!

Ciao ciao.

Magic GP is comming to my Backyard

So it is happening, a Grand Prix comming to Antwerp in 2013.

During season 3 of the next year, the 26th and 27th of October to be precise, there will be a Grand Prix of Magic the Gathering right here in Antwerp, I am SO going to compete in that one!

The Format will be MODERN, so I have about 10 months to practice and refine with a deck, in order to not look like a complete idiot on it.

Full Magic GP tournament dates are found here

Lego Heroica

Well, yet another Lego post on this bloggytyblog.  The local toystore had a sale in the Lego boardgames department, and I snatched up two of the Lego Heroica `boardgames` to have a go at with the little munchkin.

These are small scale fantasy dungeoncrawl style adventure games, and the smaller one, Bay of Draida, is a 2-player game with an estimated time of about 10 minutes.

The second one, Caverns of Nathuz, is for 2 to 3 players (so yes honey, your drafted) with an estimated time of 20 minutes.

The fun part is that you `build` the game board first and then, well, go off adventuring.  Haven`t played them yet, but at a total price of 12.50 euros for BOTH the sets, I guess one can`t have been off the mark to far.  Worst case scenario, I`ll have some reserve blocks lol.

And now I`m off to bed, because I have a whole weekend of Magic Tournaments to attend...

The Arrival of Gandalf

Well, that good Holy Man in the form of myself brought me a nice little set of Legos.  Don`t get me wrong, I`m not going to stack up my man-cave full of Lego kits, but some small `iconic` sets will be joining my cabinets.

From the new range of Lord of the Rings Lego, I kind of liked the little wagon, and it is one of the earliest images we got to see in the historical trilogy of Jackson, so I happily spend the euros to add this to my `geekiness` collection yesterday.

Numbering only 80 something pieces it`s not to big, and perhaps not the most easiest of Lego kits to assemble taking into account the `target audience`, it none the less is a pretty little thing standing now in the glass cabinets.

1000th PS3 Trophy

A milestone in the Playstation 3 career, as I finally grabbed my 1000th trophy accomplishment.

One could ALMOST say I aimed to take that one on purpose as number 1000... oh wait... I did

So the lucky number is...

Great!... Where are we going?

A trophy you get to complete the meeting at Rivendell in Lego: Lord of the Rings to form the Fellowship of the Ring.

Almost to planned to be an unplanned achievement teeheeheee