On the Painting Desk 14

A day earlier as I won`t be at home tomorrow, this week's oversight of the mess that is my painting desk has been taped again.

Now, I didn`t do AT ALL what I planned to do, being diverted to a heap of additional historical reinforcements, but I hope in the coming week to actually get some of the stuff I talk about going.

Well, those Kerns and the Handgunners really should get finished for sure, and I *hope* to progress a bit on the deamonettes.

But then on the other hand, some more goodies for my Irish arrived earlier this week (check back sunday for the Haul Report) and they are needed for the Dux campaign.  I estimate I`ll be playing in that one again in a week or 2 at the earliest, so I have *some* time to do those, but never the less they should be assembled and undercoated at least by next weekend, slotting in between what I have planned.

And those Cultists really need to be started...

What I painted in September 2017

I know, there still are two more days to the month, but as I won`t be home for any one of those, I can close up for this month today.

And it has been a productive month, even though I spend a lot of time playing Final Fantasy with the GF.  It helps when you have to queue for 20+ minutes as a DPS to get some painting done in the meantime...

And no less then 99 figures have been painted this month, the majority of them being 28mm Dark Age warriors plastics by Gripping Beast.  I "discovered" the Army Painter washes for these, something that might not be handy for fantasy, but is great for the job the needs to be done on the basic dressed troops from the era.  They don`t sport flashy colourschemes, so I`m doing the plastics that way to "bulk out" my forces, while spending more time on the metal figures in my good old two-tone style.

The Emperor's Children received some reinforcements as well this month, with the characters, a unit and some more specialised troops to be painted up.  I for one really like how the Terminator Lord turned out in the classic EC scheme.

For Age of Sigmar, I have been boosting my Empire force with two fresh units (or better said, expanding of excisting ones) now that it has to go "solo" in points matches come the General`s Handbook 2017.   They can`t ally with the Dark Elves anymore, so they will become two seperate forces now.

Finally, and just a few days ago, I completed some models for my Future War Commander force as well, in the form of 4 stands of figures to represent a Word Bearers detachment within my Chaos force.

For the coming month, a lot more Dark Age models will be painted mostly, in order to further expand on the Dux front and make sure I got more then enough models for every occassion, boosting my Irish while add it.  I also hope to get some more Empire troops done, and begin finishing units for my Age of Sigmar demon heavy Slaanesh force on the go.

We`ll see what we`ll get done!

Dux Britanniarum

After reading the rules, getting a few games in, losing badly, and now having actually studied the rules, I`ve formed an opinion on this ruleset by Too Fat Lardies.

Dux Britanniarum is a ruleset that allows you to game the last vestiges of the Roman Empire in Britain versus the Saxon invaders, and it`s companion book introduces the Raiders, small nations that are around in the area.

These are the Picts, the Scotti and my beloved Irish (a Dark Age gamers dream army, as they remained unchanged bar perhaps Fianna with Great Axes from this era all the way through the Viking age) as well as a more mounted Romano British army list variant.

Now, the rules in the core are pretty simple, and a single playsheet allows you to game the whole system.  The subtilities are in the use of the Fate cards, special events that can influence the flow of battle.  And it is needed, as while the Romano British have a weaker unit in the form of their Levy compared to the Saxons, the ability to form a Shieldwall and ignore the first kill every round of combat or shooting is immense.

Though perhaps not that gamewinning, as there is also Shock, the effect of your units being engaged and slowly being battered in the battle, and this is a more determining factor in how the overal army fares.  Shock lowers your force`s will to fight, and the amount of dice you roll in every round of close combat, and not even the best of Noble's can keep that flow under the control once the floodgates open.

Now, for a control freaking, defensive line holding player like myself, these rules (well, it IS typical for the era) are a bit of a nightmare, as it favours the bold and the aggressive player if you look at them from afar.  And that sort of playstyle is absolutely not my forte...

There are some (minor) issues with the rules in my opinion, in that the placing of some things in the books isn`t exactly logical.  I think it would have been better that the upgrades you can buy in your "Career Path" (aka, the campaign ladder) would have been placed right after the tables.  Now they are somewhere near the back to see what you can do, and one of them, an Armoury Shop, is even in the raiders book instead.  But once you know where to look for them, it`s okay, just a small nicknack I though was a bit unhandy.

But so far I had great fun playing the rules, and have been painting up a lot of Dark Age models (at last) as a result of them, so yes, I`m happy with obtaining them.

Prison School

A "light novel" adaption consisting of 12 episodes and one OVA, Prison School is one of those purely boyish pleasure series.

A sort of "reversed harem" anime, it`s full of underpants jokes and, well, boobs.

Hachimitsu Academy, one of the strictest girls academies in Tokyo, has decided to admit boys into their system. Kiyoshi Fujino is one of these new boys, but he discovers to his shock that he and his four friends—Takehito "Gakuto" Morokuzu, Shingo Wakamoto, Jouji "Joe" Nezu, and Reiji "Andre" Andou—are the only male students among 1,000 girls.
The draconian laws that are still in place make the school even worse, which punishes even the most minor infractions with a stay in the school's prison. The five boys all commit to voyeurism in the school's bathing area with the perverted philosophy of "all for one, one for all." Their capture and "arrest" by the Underground Student Council causes the five boys to receive an ultimatum: either stay a month in the school's Prison Block or be expelled.

The boys are incarcerated in the Prison Block together and Kiyoshi is overwhelmed by the discovery that all the other boys are masochists that revel in the punishments handed to them by their attractive but vicious supervisors.

And to be honest, the "second in command" of the girls, huge bossomed Meiko, is mightily attractive indeed.  I`m grabbing me a statuette of her for sure ;-)

While this series is not my regular cup of anime coffee, being more of a Mecha anime fan, I did have good fun watching it due to the absurdity of some of the jokes.  Okay, the whole "pee incident" with Hana was pure puberly stuff, but nevertheless, even that was well executed.

The animations are gorgeous, and then I`m not talking the "qualities" of the girls, but the overal toning of the figures, and the characters devellop actually rather well over the course of the series.

So if you are looking for some boyish fun, Prison School isn`t a bad pick at all...

Dux Britanniarum / SAGA Odds and Ends

Apart from the 6mil earlier, today some more models had their varnish dried, and it are some odds and ends for my Dark Ages forces.

As I`m slowly completing my first box of the Gripping Beast plastic dark age warriors, I had 12 models left on sprue after completing the models for my Dux army.

So I decided to firstly expand both a hand weapon and shield, as well as a spear and shield, unit from 6 to 8 models.  This "covers all bases" in case of getting additional warriors in Dux, as well as make them a full point of SAGA each as they will bolster my ranks of Irish as Bonnachts, the basic 8 man warrior unit of the force.

Now, the other thingie I painted are "crow counters" for Dux.  One of the mistakes I made the past game, was mixing up my 2 Nobles (my Lord is based bigger, being from the SAGA starter).  Now in future games, I can solve this by either putting a piece of paper next to them, or a dice or something, but neither was visually appealing to me.

I did however have about a dozen 28mm crows still lying around from years ago, back then purchased to serve as scenery pieces and the likes.  Instead, I opted to make them into counters numbering 1 to 4 (the amount of birds on a base), to put next to the Nobles in their units.  This makes it a bit better looking, and I opted for additional markers in case of Mercenaries etc joining my forces during the campaign...

Now the only thing left to do for the first box is the final 8 models, who will all become slinger armed Kerns to make up another point of SAGA...

FWC 6mm Word Bearers detachment

Part of adding a bit of variation to my 6mm Chaos force for Future War Commander, and the far future plan of getting 4 Legions onto the table in 40k as well, I finished (at last) my Word Bearers group.

Now, fluffwise they rely on the demonic, the degenerate and the cultist to form the fodder of their forces, so I tried to emulate this in the bases.

I went for the core of a commander and a troop of Marines, rounded out with a section of Beastmen, and one of Guardsmen who will serve as cultists. 

Now purely ruleswise, this makes not the least of differences in the rules, as they will have to be played as regular Troops anyways, but it does add some visual variety to the force and can give some nice input for storytelling on top.

Next for FWC, I plan to add some Rhino`s to the Emperor`s Children for fast transportation over the tabletop...

The Haul Report 100

The 100th episode of my weekly colelction gatherings is upon me, and thanks for bearing with me all that time!

Though it isn`t really a spectacular issue this week...

The first thing I purchased is what I call a "bare essential" in the form of 100 metal plates of 25x25 mm.  These are the ones you often see (mostly on my Emperor's Children) under their bases, and serve to be able to transport the models in magnetfoil covered plastic boxes.  This causes less shifting then when just using tissues and the likes, and is easier for larger models then to "pluck out" to many compartments in my KR foams.

The second score of the week was a cheap set of Noise Marines from eBay, consisting of a Doom Siren, a Blastmaster and a Sonic Gun.  They will form the core of the first squad I`m building for them, but they will be needing some serious cover up work and the likes.

Well, that`s it for this week, and until the next time!

Ghost in the Shell

No, not the fantastic anime, but rater the hard received live action movie staring Scarlett Johansson.

But is all this flak necessary?

The story follows in large lines the source material, with Major being the fusion of a human brain into an enhanced cybernetic body.  She works for the anti-terrorist unit Section 9, but she also suffers from hallucinations, called glitches.
However, it soon turns out that these aren`t programming mistakes at all, but her human brain trying to recreate her past, which is totally something else from the stories she has been told about how she came to be...

Now, okay, there is the white-washing thing, something Hollywood is receiving a lot of critique for the past years (and ironically, the Japanese themselves didn`t get the controversy).  But what about the movie itself?
Visually, it`s a stunner, looking like a cleaned-up remaster with Tokyo influences of Blade Runner.  The android / human mixture looks convincing as well, so on that point we are good.

The story? Sure, it isn`t half bad at all if you want to watch a sci-fi movie as relaxation, just like me and the GF did with this flick.  But if you have seen the original anime material, well, it makes it a bit harder to watch it without drawing comparissons.  But if you haven`t, this film is actually good fun.

But there is one thing, and it pains me to say.  Scarlett.  Gorgeous Scarlett.  This movie isn`t her strongest performance to say the least, making Major look more like a walking automaton then an enhance cybernetic uberweapon.

But all in all, it`s rather alright, and definitly not as bad as a lot of "connaisseurs" out there make it out to be. 

On the Painting Desk 13

Another week gone by, and truth to be told, I haven`t done that much painting wise.

It just was a very "happy" week, and then I`m not camping behind the brushes x-D

But never the less, that doesn`t mean I still got a heap of things going.  I`m currently awaiting a few orders, but after that I`m (trying to) go on a buying break until Crisis is upon us, the first weekend of november.

I hope to grab myself some new inserts for my KR case, as well as some odds and ends to tune my Dark Ages collection mostly, so I`m potting up budget at the moment to that end.

Let`s just hope I get some things finished by next week at least x-D

Vortigern`s Punitive Campaign - Dux Britanniarum AAR

My first Raid tonight in the Dux Britanniarum campaign, and as there was some player reshuffling earlier this week, I ended up facing my previous liege.

Clustfeinad, Legatus of Glouvia, had enough of the catholic faith that had been forced upon him.  After witnessing a heap of Pagan ladies dance naked around tthe may tree, he decided that paganism might be the more intresting religion in the lands, and he duly packed up his belongings and moved west.

Here he found lands that by some obscure right actually belonged to him, the provinces of Duffed and Glywysing, and he decided to move his seat there.  Wiccan rituals aplenty, which where far more enjoyable then the masses he needed to attend before.

However, his previous ruler, Vortigern, didn`t see it that way, and was spreading words of insult about Clustfeinad, how he had been bewitched and sold his soul to the devil.  And as such, a raid was launched upon the lands of his former lord...

Okay, so that was the fluff, the real reason was that I took over the lands of a player who dropped out instead as the campaign wasn`t to far in.  And that player had a raid planned against my former lord, so so be it, I would take over that fight.

When I looked at the forces for a Village raid I had to do, I knew I had at best a chance to force a draw.  Not only was my target the furthest it could be, he had hired a band of Saxons and a group of raiders as mercenaries, making it so that I would face an Elites regiment for each of my Levy, and was outnumbered an additional Warrior band as well.  Those odds are sheer impossible to scale, so my only hope was to get looting asap and hopefully escape more or less intact.

My forces moved two moves forwards, the third free move cancelled by my opponent having a watchtower.  He also send his vanguard, consisting of his Lord and elites, to try and intercept my troops.

My main force turned to face the deployment of the enemy, in order to try and hold them up in combat.

Raiders storm forward towards my line.

Soon the mighty Saxon troupe is engaged with my Warriors and Levy troops, a combat I am glad I survived for a single turn to buy more time.

My mostly Levy formed regiment moves to intercept the troops hunting my elites and Lord who are looting the village.

Even though they manage to do this, they are soon thrown back by the better classed forces, shattering my hopes of any victory and lowering my Morale to dangerous levels.

Clustfeinad and his Elites do manage to obtain a heap of gold, now I need to ransack a second house and get off the table... and pray for a miracle that my regiments, or what was left of them, would hold on just a bit longer.

Unfortunatly they don`t, and as my Morale drops to 0, my hopes are dashed and a heavy defeat is my fate.

I lost with a score of 7, resulting in Heavy casualties and making my Levy unavailable in the campaign for the coming three months.  That means I`m going to be forced to hire mercenary troops to have some sort of battle force on the table in the nearby future, and an excuse to paint up some more varied troops as well hehehe.

Dark Age Spearmen with Shield

I haven`t gotten much paintwork in the past week, as I chose to spend some very good quality time with the girlfriend, but in between I did manage to paint a small unit.

And it was with a deadline, as I varnished them this morning, and they have to be on the battlefield tonight...

A rather basic and multipurpose unit, these are 6 plastic Gripping Beast warriors, armed with a spear and protected by a shield.  They will serve in Dux as a Levy unit, until one gets upgraded to Warrior status, in which case that will be them.

And they`ll be expanded over time with two additional models for starters, to make them SAGA ready as well...

And now, let`s pack them up so they are ready to fight for glory and honour this evening!

En route to becoming the Dux

Okay, just kidding, but suddenly I find myself in a bigger territory area in the TSA Dux Campaign.

Well, it`s not because of good gaming or big victories, as I`ll be going to battle for the first time in the campaign coming friday.

What happened is that one of the players that co-controlled the green area of the map, had to drop out of the campaign.  But as he had a fairly large region to protect, it couldn`t just been given to the other player, as that would make it to big a commitment, requiring almost weekly games and more.

So enter that quiet little province of Glouvia in the red area, the one without even a big town on it, aka me.  The campaignmaster asked if I would "take over" the green zones, and my province would be as such absorbed into the Powys area of my former liege Glenn.

Okay, I don`t mind, and a free Watchtower as compensation is always handy.  All I got to do now is adapt the paperwork a bit friday with the CM, and ironically slap around Glenn as that was the planned Raid of the previous green player. 

That`s going to give a nice story for the aar, no matter what the outcome...