What I painted in July 2019

As demolitions in the new place continue, paint time remains very limited...

So yes, it has been frantic this month, with the bussiest period of the year at work, and the renovations in the new place, so figure painting... not so mucho

Finally, my beloved force of Rohan has it's battle company painted up, as I finished the 5 models to be able to bring them to the battle.  I still have a long way to go for a full army, but this is a beginning at least...

A second battle company also got finished this month, in the form of the Durin`s Folk list.

But the good side got some more reinforcements as well, as brave Pippin, squire of Gondor, has been finished.

Mordor got some serious reinforcement as well, in the form of Gothmog, warleader at the fields of the Pelennor.

Not that great a turn out understandably, tallying up a modest 13 models for the month.

Rohan vs Last Alliance: Tame the Beast MESBG Battle Companies BatRep

Somewhere in the Westfold, cattle are being slaughtered by an unknown horror.  As the Rohirrim set out to investigate, they soon find that it is a Cave Troll that wanders their lands.  They know they don`t have much hope to defeat it, when suddenly they see black clad warriors and their golden armoured allies appear on the horizon.  A band of the Last Alliance is clearly on the hunt for the beast as well...

After last weeks victory for my Rohan warriors, we decided to play a second, more special scenario: the one with the Cave Troll. In this scenario, not only do you have to kill the troll, you must see that your opponent doesn`t steal your hard work and snatch victory...

As such, we fielded the same bands from last report, Noshi commanding the Last Alliance while I had the Rohirrim under my command...

With the troll deployed in the centre, Noshi opted for the safe route and deployed against her edge.  Knowing I had lousy missile power anyways, the brave men of Rohan went for the more agressive approach and deployed closer, even though that meant the beast would come my way...

Swiftly the mighty beast plowed in the green line, and I began the fight for desperation.  Courageously, all Rohan troops charged in, but the Throwing spears failed to wound the beast, and the first to fall was my captain who had led the charge by example...

Suddenly an elven arrow wizzed past my archer hero.  The Last Alliance attacked the men of Rohan, eager to get all the glory for themselves!  In return, one of the human arrows found it`s mark however, and an elven swordsman fell to the ground.

Besieged now on two sides, the Rohirrim fought in desperation, caught between an anvil and a hammering troll... but they managed to take a single wound of the beast at last.

While one of the men of Numenor was felled, so was another Rohan warrior and I was down to taking break tests.  My archer failed and took the safe route, as the troll smashed another warrior down, leaving only me hero archer on the table now.

Being now the closest, the Troll started it,s assault on the Numenorians, taking one out.  Seeing enough carnage, my last model also fled the table now.

The troll dispatched all that opposed him, and started the hunt now for M16, that infamous Elven archer of Noshi.  I could only hope he would get to it and grant me a draw...

But alas, true to it`s name, it took the elf two turns, and two shots (though the second one used up her Might) and the beast fell down to the floor, an arrow sticking out of it`s throat...

The Last Alliance had overcome the mighty monster they had been hunting in the first place, and grabbed a victory for Noshi!

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

What better type of movie to watch during the summer vacation period then a lovely summer vacation comedy.

No, I'm not talking National Lampoon's...

I'm talking the funny monster animated movies, and already the third in the series, centered around Count Dracula and his friends.

In this movie, a depressed Dracula, still not over the death of his wife, is running his hotel with his daughter and son-in-law.  But he misses something in his life, and Mavis decides to take him and his friends on a cruise in the Bermuda triangle, to see the lost city of Atlantis that is no longer lost...

However, the captain of the ship, on which Dracula has been zinged upon, turns out to be the great-granddaughter of his long lost nemesis, Abraham Von Helsing, bend on destroying all the monsters in the world.  And it turns out ol' Abe is around still as well though...

Unleashing a Kraken by evil music, Dracula is faced to defeat the monster but get's injured instead.  It is is his son-in-law Johnny who saves the day by the power of the Macarena though!

A very enjoyable movie, with some great humour, it alleviated a bit of the heatwave currently burning Belgium to a crisp...

The Haul Report 191

Here we are again with a fresh report on the loots of the week.

And we start of with some lewdness, as my birthday gift from Noshi arrived, in the form of my Meiko Shiraki dakimakura pillow case.

I won't show it ful size, not only because of it's 18+ nature, but also because I keep it packed until we moved.

There where also two parcels from Wayland in the mailbox, the first containing a paint I really needed and a model for Bushido (I plan on him for a 9th Age general) , while the second parcel contained my Scouring of the Shire.

A good week indeed!

On the Painting Desk 104

Heatwave...

With code red for the first time in history being called here, not much has been painted at all.

I did finish some of the mordor orcs bar basing, but that's about it due to the weather.

Let's hope next week gives better temperatures and more brush motivation as such...

Fate / Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works prologue

This is kind of something special to be honest in my year's long anime "career".

This prologue, or episode 0 as it is called, is exactly the same as the very first (double length) episode of the series, only now seen from the viewpoint of Rin instead of Shirou.

So the whole episode tells exactly the same story, with the same events and timetable, ending the moment Lancer runs through Emiya Shirou for being a witness to the Servant battle... only now it is all seen as Rin experienced the first day of the Holy War.

This gives the whole prologue a pretty cool feeling to be honest, because even if you have seen it, it is completemy different yet more the same.  I know that sounds confuzzling, but I guess you have to experience that for yourself.

And it offers a great insight into Rin's motivations for the war, and how she ended up wih Archer...

The Time of the Orc has Come

Mighty Gothmog, disfigured Gothmog.

In charge of the armies of Mordor on the Fields of Pellenor, this orc is a true master of battle in the mesbg game.

And as such a great model to join my forces of Mordor in their bid of domination over Middle-Earth.

The model adds a hefty boost to my Mordor total with 130 points, and some well needed leadership to the feeble ranks of Morannon and Mordor orcs as a result.

Let the world tremble!

MESBG De Kolonisten Turnhout Tournament 21st of July 2019

It's the national holiday, and as Noshi is out on a birthday picnick, I enlisted to play my first ever Lord the Rings tournament ever.

While I played the system since it came out in 2001, organised events where rare back then as the sytem then would have you take along both a Good and an Evil army.

Then I learned about the Flemish Hobbit League last year, and now finally had the chance to join in the fun.

Now, for this first step into the waters, it also happened to be a special event of sorts, in that you didn't have to bring an army.  Instead, you would be assigned one at random, provided by the organisers, and you have to play the event with that force.

The tournament clocked out at 17 participants, with the TO jumping in to fill the 18th spot, so that's a nice turn-out.
I got assigned the forces of Lothlorien, so time to look at what I actually have at my disposal:

Two warbands, the smaller one led by Haldir consisted of 7 Wood Elf Archers, and a large one led by Celeborn and consisting of 4 swordsmen and 11 spearmen.

With this force I am going into battle for 3 rounds, and the scenarios will be Domination, Hold Ground and To the Death respectively.  I was going in with low ambitions, not suffering 3 Major Loss results would be all I aimed for in this event, as first of all it's all new for me, and second of all, I barely played half the armies in the game so far... let alone have a clue of the special rules for armies and characters.  Add to that that when me and Noshi play, we so far only used Might to modify our rolls, so all those actions are fresh as well and I just want to see them in action...

So hop on the bus for a trip to Turnhout armed with rulebooks and dice, and let's see how we fared:

Game 1: Domination vs Jasper with the Serpent Horde

Okay, so opening up for my first ever tournament of MESBG, I'm faced by Jasper, current leader in the Flemish Hobbit League and his horde of Haradrim.  Sulaman, a Hasharin, some Watchers and Merchant Guard, Raiders, and a whole lot of basic warriors.

I opted to place Haldir on a ruin on my right to pour arrow after arrow into his basic troops, putting down quite a nice number before the group was overrun by the Hasharin and watchers.  In the centre, Celeborn and his troops withstood the cavalry charge, putting all the riders out of action in two turns.

The Haradrim force broke and started to take tests, but in the end they could keep on to enough objectives to pull a draw, as the battle ended when he fell to 25%.  I killed to fast it seemed, because if I would have been able to kill one model less, he would probably have run from other objectives.

Still, I was happy, I wouldn't end the tournament with a big 0 behind my name, instead starting off with a 6 - 6 draw against a very nice opponent.

And then it was time for Second Breakfast...

Game 2: To the Death vs Mertijn with Mordor

Crap... Morannon Orcs led by Gothmog and the Mouth of Sauron.  While his force was only nominally bigger then mine, those S4, D6 spearsupported orcs aren't that great a prospect for my Elves.

I decided to go for a more aggressive approach, and commit all in, and that even resulted over the course of battle for a lonely spearmen to cause two wounds on Gothmog.  While it hung in the balance for a long time, my higher Fight saving me a lot but failing to wound, I suddenly lost 5 elves in a single round, causing my band to go to broken.

I failed to kill either one last Orc or even Gothmog when Celeborn flunked his attacks in the last turn (though surviving unscathed) to keep the damage under control, and a 1 - 7 Heavy Loss was my fate.

Game 3: Hold Ground vs Kasper with The Fiefdoms

Facing the Fiefdoms led by Imrahil and his shiny knights, we had random deployment for this game.  The Fiefdoms promptly arrived, while it took a whole 3 for Haldir and even 4 turns for Celeborn to even show up.

But Celeborn did show up in the right place, flanking his Knights and Rangers.  Calling a Heroic Move in the next turn, and winning the roll off against his counter, the elves charged in and made short work of the outnumbered cavalry.

In the centre, Haldir had depleted the infantry a bit, and then went in for combat.  How much the luck failed me in the battle vs the Morannon's, so good the dice fell in this game, as his force broke, ending the game and Haldir and his archers even outnumbered his infantry around the objective.

This gave me a 8 - 0 Heavy Win, and that at the loss of a single Elven spearman.

So right, that all tallies up to 6 tournament points,and a score of 15 VP gained versus 13 lost, almost the perfect average scored tournament.  And as such, I ended 9th, a result I'm very happy with for a first ever.

And here are some more pictures of the day!

All participants also received a small paticipation price, and that consisted of this beautiful FHL dice, which will go with my collection of LOTR dice for sure.

It was a great and fun day, and I got to meet some nice people.  This is a very sweet community for sure, and we also made some arrangements for... ooops, can't tell yet, but watch this place!