Terraformars volume 15 - Yu Sasuga and Kenchi Tachibana

 Time for one of the manga I enjoy immensely, and that is also the reason this jumped forward a lot in the pile of manga still to read.

Because I loved the anime (and Michelle of course), and the books add that extra layer to the story, as well as more story to the series.

All now forced to work together at last, the survivors fight to get to the extraction point.  On Earth, agents are hunting the terraformars that made it back to our planet.

But not all the groups fare well, with Keiji being severly injured facing a terraformar with the same base, the peacock mantis shrimp.  He removes the armguards he is equipped with to be able to use his natural speed and boxing skills better, beating the big beast.

Ivan remembers exactly why he fights, and boosts Marcos as well.  As they run, the rescue ship, the Frontier Spirit, is set to arrive in 9 minutes to drop escape pods.  But a terraformar that fights out of it's own free will and not some instinct blocks their way, and some of the survivors still fall to it.  Only about 20 of the crew of 100 remain from the Annex 1, with the beast in front of them seemingly having hatched onboard the vessel and having access to some gear from the now derelict vessel.

On the other side, Akari and Michelle are forced into one of the escape pods with Eva, as the four remaining division commanders stay behind to face the hordes of beasts closing in on them.  Keiji and Marcos still face the Annex born one, when bombs of the same kind as the day they arrived detonate around them.  They realise the roaches are actually coralling them in, and have been doing this from the moment the expedition arrived on Mars.  But Keiji and his group survive the bombardment, suprising the Annex 1 born leader.  They overcome it, but Kanako gets grieveously injured in the process.

On Earth, the leaders of Japan and the United States have found an ally to send a rescue ship, as those efforts had been blocked by China.  From the Deza Republic, which lies between Germany, Russia and the Roman Federation, they found the possibility to send one as the country isn't part of U-Nasa and it's politics.  So this resulted in Japan covertly building the ship, as the Annex survivors are suprised they are being saved by a private enterprise vessel...

And so this action packed volume comes to a close, with the rescue of the survivors now really close.  How will this pan out, and can the division commanders be saved?

That will be something for next volume!

On the Painting Desk 296

 Well, pressure!

Because next weekend, I have a Spearhead playdate if all goes well, and no way is my Idoneth force going to be finished.

However though, the Morsarr Guard DID get finished, more on them in a later post.  But that still leaves the Thralls to do and the shark, while I probably take an Underworlds character along as a leader stand in for now.

Apart from that, some new projects are added to the desk, as well as the intention to finish some of those long time due.

So let's see how it'll end next weekend, and how far we got!

Warhammer Underworlds battle report: Tapdancing with the Crimson Court

 Another week of Warhammer Underworlds, and this time I got both my games in with the Crimson Court as I keep trying to get a hang of them and their Paths of Prophecy combination for the Benelux Clash II.

 

And so we went to give it a try, and decide wether or not I'll need to do some tinkering still...

 

 

The first game was against Peter and Lady Harrow's Mournflight, sporting the Malevolent Masks.   

 

 

The aristocracy of the night deployed, wondering why their bedlinnen was floating all around at the other side of the table.  I did change my boards for the bands I bring along though, the classic one from the Starterset 2023, which is still legal, is blank on both sides and ideal for objective play.  Which apparently also came up with lol.

 

 

The vampires spread out slightly in the opening phases of the battle, but Gorath drew first "blood" by striking down the Widow Caitha.

The Screaming Maiden occupied the objective I needed to score something this round, with my opening hand being bad and the redraw even more dramatic, wounding her for 2.

 

 Peter scored good passive glory, and after round 1 there was a 6-2 lead on the table for the Mournflight.  No worries though, whack the Maiden and the glory will come in though in droves. 

 

The Lady Harrow herself swoops in, attacking Velas, but the vampire mistress stands firm.  Duvalle entered the fray, pushing the Lady away while the Maiden makes good her escape thanks to a ploy.

The Anguished One attacks Velas, taking down the vampiress though unfortunatly.  This isn't going to plan at all I must say...

Gorath joins the battle, being inspired, and fails to wound the Lady Harrow, keeping her on her last two.

But the Maiden as such is still around, and the ghosts swoop start surrounding the vampires, resulting in a 13-4 lead for the Mournflight after round 2.

Seizing the initiative for the final round, Duvalle charges forward... and misses the Maiden, as Gorath slinks onto the objective.

But he falls to the anguised attacks of the Anguished One, only with the final becoming active Ennais avengening him by taking out the Lady Harrow.

She rose from the dead briefly though through the Masks deck, but her attacks failed to hit Duvalle before she vanished for ever.

In the final activation, Duvalle strikes again against the Maiden, rolling a massive two crits... with the Maiden rolling the same on her defence.  That accursed piece of tablelinnen just didn't want to die!

With the deck stalling for objectives I could score, while the Masks deck ran smoothly, a logical 17-7 defeat was as such my fate...

For the second game, I came up against Wouter and his Thricefold Discord with Toxic Terror.

And they deployed hyper aggresively!  Luckily I had a decent opening hand this time, so if I could withstand the onslaught, I could go chasing objectives.

 

Ennais is immediatly wounded for two in the Discords opening moves, but together with a Quicksilver Advance and his own move, he retreats to safer spaces.  Like an objective marker in the back of the Discord's territory.  If they want to finish him, they will need to split up!

Duvalle however is not so lucky, being one-shotted by the big Vexmor in one go, ouch.  

But I scored well this turn, and I had a 4-1 lead after round 1 as a result.

At the opening of the second turn, Gorath, aided by some boosting from power cards, smacked down Lascivyr with his huge maul.

Using some slinks, and his defiance upgrade that allows him to be pushed after dealing damage, he moved out of range from Vexmor, only assailable now from the 1 damage ping of Vashtiss.

The second round ended, and the lead of the Vampires remained, now standing at 8-5.

In the final round, Vashtiss came closer to assault Gorath, but he survived the ordeal.  

And duly moved away as Velas came into the fray to try and wound the demons, pushing the sorceress of the objective.  

Velas is smacked down by Vexmor... but Undying Evil saves her and she remains in the game, to the frustration of Wouter.

 

 With the rest of my turn being drawing cards and moving Gorath onto the objective, it all ends with a 15-11 victory for the Crimson Court.

 

Okay, so this second game was all but rock 'n roll, as I am learning to resist my urge to charge in, and focus on moving around instead.  It worked, helped by cards that now came better then in the first game.

 

I'm still not 100% confident in the warband / deck combo, even considering to swap in Rimelocked Relics, but I guess I'm going to bite the bullet.  This combo could go as easily 6-0 as 0-6, so we'll see what it'll be in the Netherlands, but in the former result my opponent will have frustrating games, sorry in advance!

Bexim's Bazaar issue 6

 In this magazine review, we are having a look at the 6th issue of Bexim's Bazaar, labelled "the Gaming Crafter's Magazine" it can be found on DriveThru RPG.

Published back in june 2019, this magazine focusses on creating adventures and ideas for your roleplaying games, and check out Realmsmith on YouTube for more content.

It starts with the editorial, which looks back on the first half year of the magazine since it's creation.  It's writer, the TabletopEngineer on YouTube, also creates some awesome content for Frostgrave and such there, and is one of the channels I follow with great intrest.  It has a section enxt of letters to the editor, as well as what sort of submissions they are looking for to include in the game.

In Gorwder's tent, some new cards for universal use are presented for easy print and use in games, while Treana's Tent offers a table of fun items for your adventurers to roll on, containing for example a scribbled notebook with gibberish.  Some more in character adds and store advertisements are then included for those "getting the feel" moments of the magazine.

In Show us your craft, people are sharing pictures of their work in progress projects to up their roleplaying tables.  Kev's lounge presents you with some paper miniatures for those not skilled in building and painting actual models, and they look good I must say.  Next is a tutorial on how to build block walls yourself using XPS foam.

Next is something I really like, the Legend of the Grimoire Principalia is a 10 part solo campaign for Frostgrave, and this issue contains the fourth instalment in the series, The Forgotten.  It takes place on a cemetery, and digging up stuff is the thing to do.  Though not everyone is happy with your efforts, least those trying to sleep under the soil...

We then get some more hobby related articles, like how to order paints on your desk in the Garret's Table of Tinkering article.  Nothing new for veteran wargamers, but handy for those just dabbling into the hobby.  

The Arcane Vault is a mini-adventure, a quick quest for that little bit of time you might have in between, and A Swift Survey is another short stand-alone scenario in which you ascend up a tower.  More fun stand alone games come in the Chase game of urchins chasing their quarry like a thief that stole their toy rock.  

Next we have a review of the paper terrain by Fat Dragon, the second part of the The Docks set, and with all the templates included so you can build it yourself out of the magazine.  Great addition if you ask me for sure.

The Gnoblogg wandering monster is included as a freebie as a new addition to your games, before we turn to a short story of the Magical Menagerie.  A review of the skirmish wargame Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse is next up, as well as an article on how to attract new players for your games.

And those are the contents of this mighty 100 page magazine, definitly worth checking out!

On Tour to the Frituur part 7: Frites Affair in Center Parcs Het Meerdal

 During our holiday half of august, we resided in the Het Meerdal parc of Center Parcs.

And of course, that meant a visit to the local frituur, Frites Affair, located in the Aqua Dome of the parc.

Now, of course we knew this would be a bit more expensive then a regular frituur, but bear with me.  For one, the parc itself was mighty expensive, even compared to other parcs we visited in the previous years, resulting in us often cooking and having a beer at the bungalow instead of going out for dinner in the central hub of the parc (19 euro for a basic pizza Tonno comes to mind...).

 

 

The venue had a nice amount of seating, but mind you as holidays in the Netherlands where winding down as we where there, it was not as busy as it would be say half of july, so no idea of the placing would be sufficient then.

My Order

I took one of their hamburger menu's, which contained a double patty burger, a portion of fries, mayonaise / satay sauce and a 40cl cup of Pepsi.  And this knocked me back 16.95, which I actually found okay for a Center Parcs place, you don't pay much less here for a same style menu in McDonalds, Quick or Burger King.

 

 

The burger was okay, nothing to fancy, but the fries where excellent.  Baked in the style with still some of the potato skin on them, they where well done and crunchy, as can be attested here as well by my junior assistant reviewer.

Conclusion

While the rest of the eating and drinking places in the parc where exhuberantly expensive, the Frites Affair was actually decently priced compared to them.  Still not cheap mind you, but it looked like the best price / quality point in the parc.  As the fries where so good, I give it a few points extra to offset the pricing, and will rate this as such with a 6 out of 10. 

So, another place visited, now let's see where my adventures will carry me next.  I'd say it is time for something local and normal again next time, but one never knows where the stomach might lead!

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime volume 13 - Fuse and Taiki Kawakami

 Time to revisit the adventures of our favorite blue slime, Rimuru, and his budding nation of Tempest.

While the anime is already far beyond this volume, never the less it is a joy to read, and not only for the Veldora point of view always at the end of the books.

Returning to Tempest after his fight with Hinata in the previous volume, he finds the fallen people of the attack that occured during his absence.  He holds council with his confidantes to assess the situation, learning that Falmuth and the Western Holy Church are in league to subdue him.  They will return with an army to do just that in a week time.

Both Gobzo and Shion are amongst the fallen, as his rage increases making him don the mask of magic resistance again that he got from Shizu.  Kaval and his band arrive to help, bearing news of how there is a very slim chance of reviving the dead.  Eren tells him the tale of the dragon princess and her killed baby dragon, Rimuru deducting this is how Milim came into being a demon lord as she had to seal the essence of the now out of control ressurected Chaos dragon.

In order for Rimuru to succeed in bringing the fallen back, he will have to ascend to the status of demon lord first, requiring the souls of ten thousand humans.  But he also must decide what to do with Mjurran, who was send in as the trigger for the attack on the city.

He learns she is loyal to Clayman, but that this is in a forced way as he had her heart exchanged with an artificial spying device.  He replaces this device to prevent further espionage before unfolding the plan he has come up with.  All pieces now sorted, he reveals he is also actually an otherworlder reincarnated into this world as a slime.  Apologizing for the events that happened as he feels responsible for the events due to the rules he had installed concerning humans.  But his comrades forgive and understand this, and soon a new policy is been formed by him and the council.

Rimuru discloses he will face the invading army by himself, thrusting in his companions to take out the devices that erect the barrier over the city...

And so the battle is about to commence as Rimuru now seeks the status of demon lord in order to bring the fallen back.  Let's see in volume 14 how this unfolds!

On the Painting Desk 295

 Here we are again, the fruits of a week of painting efforts labour.

Though most of the effort will have to go to the Idoneth now, I need to try and finish at least my Spearhead units by the 22nd, a sheer impossible mission.

Especially considering the coming week will be busy, losing the weekend out due to sorting some massive loots, on which more in a future haul report.

Nevertheless, I hope to have the Morsarr finished by next week bar basing, and the remainder of the figures needed assembled and at least primed, so it will be heavy the coming days.

Check back next week to see how it progresses!

Warhammer Underworlds casual evening: training time

 Past thursday I managed to get to the Outpost in Antwerp for some games of Warhammer Underworlds, bringing my Dread Pageant and the Crimson Court to the table.

With the intention of trying out some things for the tournaments in november, Peter was facing me with two of his brews for some battling in the Underworlds as such.

For the first game, my Dread Pageant with Rimewyrm Bite would face the cursed lovers of Zondara's Gravebreakers, who had Seismic Shock added to their cardpool.  A band I had a hard time against in the past, I planned on going for Ferlain first as he is the hardest hitting one of the two, and I wanted to bring him down before he could inspire.

The boards where placed and both warbands deployed.

The first to take the fight to the Gravebreakers was Slakeslash, his wild swings wounding Ferlain.  But as Vasillac joined the fight, he missed and failed to bring the werewolf down.

 

 

Glisette also tried to take the beast out, but she as well failed to do so as such, this was a bummer and Ferlain wounded Slakeslash in return, but never the less the first round ended with a 4-0 lead for the Dread Pageant.

In the second turn, Vasillac, wounded Zondara, and she was pinged by a card as well for some more damage.  With 6 wounds now on the table, the Pageant inspired.

With their stats bettered, Slakeslash now took out Ferlain at last, but in retaliation Zondara kept pummeling my leader, and the noble Vasillac fell to the swoops of the old crone.

Glisette rushed into the whole enemy warband, and her scything attack actually wounded everyone, allowing me to score as well for being faced by two or more enemies.

The second round ended, and the Dread Pageant had extended their lead to a comfortable 10-3.

In the beginning of the third turn, brave Glisette was taken down however, and while Zondara kept healing herself slowly, Hadzu took some potshots at the zombies, finishing Toyle.  This was a playmistake on my part though, I should have taken Cracktomb out instead as the other two zombies had already moved and would not be able to Exhume as such anymore.

Zondara keeps seeking vengeance though for her fallen lover, and now the archer is taken down by her, while her minions are slowly returning to the field of battle.

But Slakeslash decided enough was enough, and he brought the lovers together again... in the afterlife.  The Dread Pageant scored a solid 15-6 win as a result, and honestly I had a good feeling about the warband / deck combo as I never really felt like I was really under pressure, even with not so great attack rolls. There is music in this combination, even though it might be a cacaphony of screams and moans...

For the second game, my Path of Prophecy Crimson Court would face The Skinnerkin and the Voidcursed deck.  I'm still trying to get the hang of this combination, but I will be taking them to Rotterdam for the Benelux Clash so better get some mileage going with them.

Disclaimer: we made some grave play error in this game, allowing the Carnskyr to much mobility (we oversaw the line "once per turn" on the Refashioned Priorities upgrade) until well into the 2nd round, by what time he had a serious effect on the game taking out Duvall early by allowing him to be pushed into a lethal hex and pushing Ennais of an objective I could score, only one could have actually been done.  We decided to keep on playing though, but it might have swung the battle a little, even though failing about 4 out of every 5 attacks didn't help the Soulblight either...

The boards where laid down, and both warbands deployed for the battle.

Vellas immediatly went forward, wounding Gristla fast for a bloody start, but also to put herself on objective number 2.  

But even with her Mirror Duellist upgrade, she was taken down by both the leader of Skinnerkin and the Carnskyr unfortunatly.

Prince Duvalle infiltrated the battlefield then to also reclaim objective 2, but was pushed off by the passing man-bat after he failed to hit Gristla and possibly take her out.  Young Master Kretch assaulted him in return, and pushing him into the lethal hex the royal leader fell.

Ennais had moved onto objective 3 to score that, but a swooping Carnskyr (here the mistake came into play as said above) pushed him back off from it as the Flensemaster pushed him again after attacking and into the lethal hex, making him down to one and allowing Peter to score the objective of having one of my foes vunerable as Ennais had been Voidcursed.  

 

This is as such the sequence the card had a huge influence as the Carnskyr moved a second time through his upgrade: Ennais was pushed of objective 3 denying me to score, while the push from the Flensemaster could now put me into the lethal hex, adding one more would to my vampire, and allowing him to score himself.  But that is what these training nights are for, and with two vampires down I was already looking at a huge 9-1 lead for the Skinnerkin.

In the second round, Ennais tried an assassination run on Gristla, a bit of a hail mary move, but like all my vampires, he missed his attack.  The Bloodthirsted vampire was then extracted using a move card to safer areas.

Gorath engages in combat with both Pewdrig and Young Master Kretch, and he succesfully hits both of them, wounding each one twice.  And he actually survives all the returning attacks with a single wound remaining...

In his final activation he takes down the flensemaster, and if he survives the Carnskyr attack, he can actually inspire!

Which he does, but the vampires still looked to a 12-3 chase, and I couldn't even imagine how to make up for 9 points in a single round (another disclaimer, Peter forgot to mark the wounds on Kretch).

 

So into the third round, and Peter immediatly took down Ennais with the Carnskyr, while Gorath used Vile Transference to heal himself and transferring the wound to Kretch, taking him out.

As a result, the Carnskyr flew over to Gorath to get him out of his larder, but the vampire swung his mighty mace and finally the F16 was taken out.

Only able to advance a bit onto the table, but unable to score anything, The Skinnerkin booked an 18-9 victory, and even though the result might have been a bit different, I think I just would have lost with a few points less difference in all honesty.

But so ends another fun night of trying out warbands.  The coming weeks if I get to play, you will see these combinations keep popping up though, as I really need to get as much mileage in as possible, especially with the Crimson Court.  We'll see where the games will takes us on the road to "Novemament month" in 8 weeks... which will be sooner then expected, because time does those things to you, even when a vampire.