Warhammer Underworlds tournament report: The Mines of Alost

 So, off we go in edition 2 of Warhammer Underworlds, and we immediatly rushed out of the gates with a tournament and not a single practice game under the belt.

Organised by Nico, it took place in Hermelijn, a gamestore in the city of Aalst (Alost in dialect) on the 18th of january.

And I decided to go hardcore in, with Legacy bands allowed, to have my gaming group pick my warband for me!  I offered them the options of Cyreni's Razors, The Skinnerkin and Garrek's Reavers, as the format would be Rivals, and they picked the following for me:

 

So, I'm coupling those to the Reckless Fury deck then, and we will see how it all goes as I'm setting out for 5 games of best of 1 containing of charging all over the place!  That, and it would mean a pretty straight forward gameplan, as due to the job change I can't attend casual game evening anymore on wednesdays, so I went in with barely any experience in the second edition (aka ZERO)... so it'll rather be a job of defending my top-3 position on T3 then to assault the first place again...  but that also means getting past all of the 8 attendants of the event.  I would be happy if I went 2/3/0 and aimed ambitiously for a 3/2/0.

My first game put me against Wouter, and he brought Cyreni's Razors with the Wrack and Ruin deck.  I just couldn't do that exact amount of damage, and forgot (as I never actually decently read it before the event) to add my extra attack dice after killing someone.  Still, I managed to keep up, but lost in the end on the tiebreaker.  

 

 

Having both scored 12 glory points, he occupied objective 2 and I only controlled objective 1, so a minor loss was my fate.

The second game put me against Tim, who brought the Thricefold Discord with the Reckless Fury deck.  Now, I know this is a top-line warband, but somehow all went smoothly my way, and after the first round he had only his sorceress left versus five inspired, frothing berserkers.

Needless to say it went down quickly and I tabled him by half of round 2, and a 17-7 victory was my part.

It was lunch time then, and we could vote for the best painted models, which was rightfully won by Nico and his Thundrik Profiteers.  Pity though as the TO / reserve player these blokes couldn't actually take to the table today.  I learned there was "glass" to play for, so I joked I would go 3-0 in the afternoon then...

In the first post break game, I faced Peter with Yltari's Guardians, using the Emberguard Sentinels deck.  I imemdiatly one shotted his leader with Saek, and he was on the backfoot from then on, though managed to keep up.  

But as he charged with his last model, the archer, in the final round, I could score all my hand and obtain an 18-15 hardfought victory.

But then came a real beast, in the form of Johan and his Grandfathers Gardeners.  This band has been the talk of the day, with their healing clock and all, coupled to the Wrack and Ruin deck, and having barely even lost a model as such during the whole day.  In an act of sheer brutality, and now knowing from my first game I needed to stay close to them and on the edges with my two "chaff warriors" like Thargor, I actually tabled the followers of Nurgle and scored an 18-11 victory...

This all meant that with the final round now in front, I was the sole leader (thanks to the minor loss of the first game, all others at the top having a regular loss)... and went on to the final table again.

Here I faced Peter (the other one of our Antwerp team) with the Skinnerkin and Pillage and Plunder.  A strange combination in my opinion, as I view the Skinnerkin as a pure aggro warband though, in the same style of Garrek's but a tat less brutal, but with more special tricks on their warscroll.  

 

But even with me flunking some attack rolls here and there, he never could follow the bloodshed of the Khorne crazies, and 18-13 was the result in the end.

So yeah, errrm, okay... I did actually win all three post break games... and as a result also the tournament with my hyper-aggro approach and charge in playstyle.  What makes it a bit special for me is that I was a total noob in this edition (okay, I can draw on years of Underworlds, and decades of wargame experience and insights), AND I did it with the so-called weaker Legacy lists and their generic warscrolls.

So that is a second glass trophy for the cabinet.  Apart from the fun goodies we all received, I also got a 25 euro voucher for the store, and spend this on the Chaos Dwarf card pack for Blood Bowl, something I was going to pick up anyways after the tournament for collection completeness sake.

A fun day, and a great event ran by Nico, and in the end I agreed to Johan's pleas and will be in Halle defending my title from last year.  With the Thorns of the Briar Queen, a band I never played before and have no clue what sort of Nemesis deck to build, but we'll figure something out...

Until then!

The Haul Report 413: very cheap Runewars and Oathmark boxes obtained

 I love Runewars, and I love it even more they throw the boxes at your head for cheap prices.

Like at the Underworlds tournament in Aalst last week, where I got these boxes from Nico for cheap.

The lot contained 12 boxes, and I paid 60 euro for them.  Now, for five of them I don't have a use, so they will probably end up on my trade page for more budget (the Heavy Crossbows, Hawthorne, Oathsworn Cavalry, Carrion Lancers and Waigar command).  But the other ones will all find a use in either my Empire force or as models for solo games, while the two boxes of Rune Golems will go in my Chaos Dwarf army as more K'daai.

 

  

And as it was at a tournament where I recieved it, which I duly went on to win, I also obtained some participation gifts, a trophy, and used my 1st place voucher to get the Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarf cards.

 

 

And the store had whole piles of free White Dwarf magazines to just take along, so that's some nice reading to come. 

I also picked up some Vallejo paints while there...

But those weren't the only pile of boxes I obtained this period.  From a fellow TSA member, I got 6 boxes of Orc Infantry from the Oathmark line.  Now, one of those are for my own Chaos Dwarf force, the others I'm having a look at wether to keep a second one, or trade them for other infantry boxes that I might need.  And at 18 euro a box, who am I to complain after all?

Making use of the Whispel gardencentre post-christmas sale, I got a few small addition to my Efteling collection, in order to round out the small shelf, and paying 40% off the price.

Some more reinforcing came in for my Idoneth, as I obtained an Akhelian Taskmaster through Vinted in the past period.

I also grabbed this blister of Frostgrave beasties from Vinted, always nice to have once I return to the frozen city later this year.

From Games Workshop, my pre-order arrived, with the Arcane Journal of the Empire of Man now in my possession.

 

 

And to round it all off, I found a fantastic deal for a sealed Blood Bowl box and an additional team for it on Facebook, I'll definitly keep the humans but now at least I have the rulebook and markers.  The pitch, well, that is still in debate. 

The final little arrival this week are some movement tray / base adapters from Forges of Nuln on Etsy, and far better suited then the ones I once bought from Sarissa I must admit.  Now to paint them up and get the army ready for a tournament in april!

So that is a very impressive pile of fresh figures, and certainly will give me some more assembling occupation over at the office...

Grendizer U

 Giant Robot Grendizer, or as we Europeans tend to call it, Goldorak, is back!

So of course there wasn't a single strain of hair on my head that refused to watch this, as soon as it aired, I dug in!

This is more then nostalgia, this is one of the Club Dorothee anime's that formed my childhood and personal tastes as I was a kid.

 

And this is produced and directed by, hold your mecha-hat, the creators of: Code Geass, The Witch from Mercury, SEED Destiny and Neon Genesis Evangelion!!!!!!!

 

Duke Fleed is a survivor of planet Fleed, escaped to Earth as a young man.  Here he is raised by Dr Umon as his adoptive son, Daisuke Umon.  But when King Vega and his army approach to conquer Earth, he and his friends decide to fight back using the mightiest weapon at his disposal, the almighty Grendizer. 

As soon as he is found, others try to catch him with Dr Hell's minions, but he is saved by Sayaka and Koji Kabuto in another big robot, the Mazinger Z.  Daisuke starts remembering his past as the alarms go off, and what happened to his planet and family.  He returns to the crash site, retrieving the Grendizer.  Koji tries to defend from the invaders in the Mazinger Z, but Earth weaponry is  barely sufficient against the large numbers.  When a large enemy mecha engages, he meets his match and is pushed back, but in a reckless move manages to stop it never the less.  

But more arrive, causing Daisuke to activate the Grendizer as the Mazinger is smahed apart.  Making short work of the enemy robots, he freezes in the control room of Grendizer, remembering shards of his past and panicking.  He takes off, with Koji stowed away inside the flying saucer.  But the enemy leader, Commader Gandal, has tracked him down to Earth.  He tells Koji what he remembers, that everyone is dead including princess Rubina.  

When Paris is under attack by the Vega forces by his old rival Kasado, he takes Grendizer and in his rage attacks the civilians as well and accidentally killing Rubina, sending him so far over the edge he destroyed the whole planet.  Koji and Fleet find a cave with old writings and an idol to Grendizer.  Koji promises to keep Fleet under control should he lose control again as they fly towards the enemy.  He faces Kasado, as a huge reinforcement fleet arrives to hold Grendizer back.  He overcomes Kasado, only just regaining his composure from killing him and stopping a huge orbital weapon.

He returns to the base of the Mazinger Z, meeting with the professor and his team.  Daisuke comforts Koji for his heavily damaged robot, as Kasado asks for his escape with Naida, as he tells them why the Great Vega, a being of legend, is set out to obtain Grendizer.  Naida crashed on Earth, Daisuke recognizing her.  While Sayaka is suspicious, Koji sees no harm in Naida and Daisuke spending all their time together.  But Naida tries to assassinate him, only saved by Hikaru arriving.

As Naida fights the Vega mind control, but they force her to continue her mission.  She confronts Daisuke, attacking him and wounding him as the Vega fleet returns with a massive ship.  Naida is stopped at the last moment after confronting Daisuke and the crimes she blames him for back on Planet Fleed.  Daisuke stops her, but the mind control device tortures her, but her memories break her free.  As Daisuke falls unconscious from the stabwounds, Naida wants to sacrifices herself to stop the Vega vessel, and telling him on the radio that Rubina is still alive before blowing herself up with the enemy vessel.  

Vega troops try to arrest Maria Grace Fleed, but she escapes their clutches, joining up with Daisuke and Koji.  During a shopping trip, a saucer has tracked Fleed, guided on by a shapeshifting secret agent of the Vega forces.  Kasado breaks from his jail, but runs into Hikaru.  The intelligence agent confronts Maria, but is accidentally trampled by the monster saucer, just as Grendizer arrives and takes it out.  Rubina swears in orbit to Tirona that she will personally end Duke Fleed, her ex-fiancee.

Duke tells Maria he came to see Earth as his second home, and why he shares Grendizer's secrets with them.  Tirona herself lands on Earth for an attack, but gives the inhabitants of Tromso the chance to evacuate as Rubina ordered that no people of Earth should be caught in the crossfire to capture Grendizer.  He tells the story what happened to her, and as he holds back she briefly bests him and Grendizer.  He almost convinces her when a strange vessel intervenes, as Rubina reveals herself to Daisuke, retrieving Tirona and withdrawing from the battle with her.  

In the prophecy cave, they notice strange runes depicting auxiliary vessels for Grendizer.  Hikaro calls Maria to her, asking her the same question if she is good or bad.  Duke engages a large monster in Grendizer, forced to fight underwater, where he is at a disadvantage against the beast created with aquatic specifics.  Maria finds the cave with the additional vehicles, called Spazer's.  Forcing Kasado, he and Maria come to Duke's aid, defeating the monster.  

Porfessor Umon build a new Mazinger, about a tenfold so strong as the original thanks to Daisuke and Grendizer.  Sayaka also gets to test her Spazer, as Rubina uses a saucer monster to send a message to Daisuke to meet in private.  But the Vega forces shadow her to see if she will betray them.  Blaki and his agents attack, trying to take Rubina and her aid out as well, but Koji and the others intervene.  But Rubina takes her leave.  Daisuke is imprisoned by the professor for meeting the enemy though, but when the Vega forces attack their base, the Spazers of Maria and sayaka are the line of defence.  Blaki and the Vega forces assault the base, infiltrating it.  Kasado joins the battle, and as Daisuke is freed out of his cell, he launches in Grendizer.  Tirona though is waiting for him, to continue their duel from before.  Kasado though wants his revenge, attacking Grendizer and finally getting to pilot it.  Koji launches in the new Mazinger to aid the Spazers, as Kasado is stopped by Hikaro, who banishes him as he tries to attack Daisuke even after he reaches him the hand.

Rubina confronts Daisuke and later discusses it with Tirona, realising he didn't kill the king and queen.  She sends a message to daisuke to arrange a place for their wedding ceremony.  He marries her, but then it turns out to be Tirona instead, who wanted to prove he was unworthy for her sister.  In the meantime, as Berlin is destroyed, the others want to take Mazinger in orbit, something that can be achieved Hikaro tells them by combining the three Spazers.  

Together with Grendizer they launch into space, where the Vega forces are planning to use a solar flare to destroy Earth.  On top of the Vega Cannon, a huge spacestation, the battle begins.  In the station, Daisuke confronts Rubina and Tirona.  Rubina takes a shot from Blaki that was meant for Daisuke, and as she dies in his arms amidst a field of roses she finally has Tirona admit she loves Daisuke as well.  

 

 

This causes Daisuke to go in rage, unleashing the destructive power of Grendizer like what happened when he accidentally destroyed his homeworld.  The Vega Cannon is destroyed and crashes into the moon, but Daisuke keeps fighting on.  This means Koji and the others need to stop him before his wrath destroys Earth and even the universe.  

 

Koji manages to reach out to him, as he is heart broken inside the cockpit of Grendizer, cradleing Rubina's body.  He cools down, and breaks the destructive cycle of Grendizer.   Together, they destroy the Vega mothership once and for all, driving them off and saving Earth.

Okay, so while this was not the best of mecha anime around, as for that there was to much filler, it was pure nostalgia and great to see Goldorak back on the screen in a modern touched up style.  So if you, like me, grew up with Club Dorothee, this is a MUST watch!!!!

On the Painting Desk 313

 Okay, this glue at night, paint in the evening is working.

And this week, I completed some nice little additions to the collection once again.  

First off, the Lothlorien Elf spearman has been based up, and the Imperial Noble has been finished as well, so that is already some good progress.  But I also painted up the 3d printed ruin shown in the clip of last week, which with some craft paints and a good drybrush is basically an afternoon job.

And thus we started on fresh deadlines, the first being the Sneaky Gitz making a reappearance here.  I gave myself up for a tournament in march, and I'm taking them along.  In the same lines, the 10 additional Blunderbuss troops will bolster my existing unit.  For the Escalation League, a unit of 6 Pistoliers will join the ranks to add some movement to the force.

Time to brush like a madman in the coming weeks!

TSA Escalation League 2025: Marienburg Greatswords

 The main hitters of the initial force for the league, this unit of Greatswords is from Warlord's Pike & Shotte Italian Wars line.

While not the uber-combat unit just yet, as they still go without command or heroes, all to be added in future rounds, they are decent at the low points costs.

That is of course if they survive initial contact with the enemy, but as most forces will be small and pretty combat poor hopefully, they might be able to hit hard against anything already armourd like warriors of Chaos, who are hopefully already weakened by my wizard and missile fire by then.

Planning on playing defensively in the early games as such, until the units get to full strength and kitted out, these will be crucial to the battleline as a result, being the hammer where the halberdiers in the force are the anvil.  And compared to the small unit of Halberds, these are heavy infantry granting me the possibility of ranking them two deep.

But for now, they will just have to wait for their additional members and command group, and hopefully hold the ground as they are...

Angel Beats!

 So, time to watch the first anime of the "Noshi has seen them but I haven't" goal of this year.

And that is Angel Beats!, a highschool afterlife series where students end up after suffering trauma and hardship in life.  So, not really my cup of tea, but let's have a look, and it comes highly scored on MAL as well.

 

It is also labelled as one of the "saddest anime ever", though I doubt it would wreck my like You Lie in April did...

Yuzuru Otonasho ends up in this afterlife, suffering from amnesia.  He meets the founder of the Afterlife Battlefront, Yuri Nakamura, who leads an organisation rebelling against whatever God has deviced in this cruel existence.  Their enemy is the student council president, a girl named Angel, who with her supernatural powers is believed to be an associate of God.  Other then the rebels, the afterlife seems filled with fabricated students and teachers, whom Yuri refers to as NPC's.

They undertake several missions even though they question the morality of them at times.  One of their members passes on from the afterlife during a concert after having achieved what she didn't reach in life: satisfaction of her music.  They manage to get Angel demoted from her position, as Yuzuru regains parts of his memory.  Yuzuru learns that Angel's true name is Kanade Tachibana, and he befriends her, remembering more of his past when he is in her presence. 

He helps her make peace with the rebels, and learns the purpose of this afterlife, reinstating as such Angel as the student council president as they help others finally pass on.  But mysterious shadow creatures start appearing, attacking the residents to turn them into NPC's themselves.  Many decide to pass on instead of getting stuck in that limbo, as they discover that the creatures where made to prevent love happening in the afterlife, to prevent it turning into a paradise where no-one would like to pass on from.  

Only five of them now remain, and after a graduation ceremony the others bar Angel and Yuzuru pass on.  He confesses he has fallen in love with her, and wants to stay with her in the afterlife to help others pass on after arriving there, but she moves on herself as she was unable to thank her heart's donor, Yuzuru, in the real life, leaving him behind alone.  Later on, two people resembling them meet in the real world, as in an alternate epilogue Yuzuru becomes the student president, helping others while he waits to see Angel again...

So, it is a sad anime indeed, but as I stated at the beginning, it didn't tear me up like April did.  Never the less, for me it was enjoyable, but not as great as it's MAL score reflected, but that is a matter of taste after all...

 

 

TSA Escalation League 2025: Summon Elemental Spirit

 Okay, so this isn't a model that "needed" to be painted for the League.

But my sorcerer uses the Elementalism school, and it might be he rolls up the Summon Elemental Spirit spell, which uses a 3" template.

Now, just putting a circle on the table is so boring, and as I found a couple Age of Sigmar Endless Spells for cheap I decided to put one on a 3" MDF base and use it as the vortex should I be able to get it into play.

Using the large smoky axe for that reason, I painted it up in windy greys to make it look like a manifestation of windy elements, which goes well with that other spell in the Lore, Wind Blast, for fluffy reasons.

So yeah, a simple yet effective paint job later, and I can cast my spells in style...

Vongalzthag Violators versus Moot's Revenge Blood Bowl match report

 After having to change the date of the fixture, it was time at last for the second game in the TSA Blood Bowl League.

And facing me where the Moot's Revenge, a team of Halflings hoisting around two of the might Treemen!

Under the nice weather conditions, and some Brilliant Coaching from the Halflings, we where ready to take to the pitch, and hopefully some sheer brutality would bring in much needed SPP's for my team after the crushing defeat in the first League game.

And we immediatly started with Tothrit Lavafor badly hurting the hopeful lineman Fulrad Butcher.  However, their treeman Thistletrunk took revenge by putting Dievanons in the badly hurt department as well, not so good as the stab skill was great for sliding a knife between halfling shoulders.

As one of my lineman was also KO'd, the hitting game actually swinged towards the Halflings!

But then the game took a serious, and later deciding, twist.  Throwing a team mate across the pitch, the poor halfling landed head first and was knocked out, losing the ball.  This was the signal for the Chaos Dwarfs to start some sheer BRUTALITY and in the span of three turns 3 more halflings where KO'd, while no less then 4 where carried of the field injured.  To add insult to injury, both the treemen rooted themselves into place.

While my Hobgoblin linemen did fumble the ball a bit to pick it up, in the final turn of the half The Dude ran over the line, scoring the 1-0 lead for the Chaos Dwarfs.

 

The second half, with some Brilliant Coaching going my way and my Mascot delivering, actually gave me some good amout of re-rolls.  Though circumstances forced me to use them all up in the first turns of the half however.

The treemen started throwing halflings again, and one crashed into a Hobgoblin of my small cage knocking him out, but the ball remained in my possession.  This allowed Numbers to score the comfortable 2-0 lead, and the Halflings seeing not one of their knocked out players awaken where down to the two big trees and three little brave linemen...

The drive started, and another halfling sailed over perfectly, actually resulting in Meanroot gaining a completion point, before he badly hurt Brazhak ThacoBell moments later.

But the ball carrying halfling failed on his last going for it, crashing to the floor as he tried to dodge my deepfield defenders... and a Chaos Dwarf blocker somehow ended up with the ball.  Quickly passing it towards The Dude, the Hobgoblin set off towards the opponent's end zone.  

But alas, he slipped when going for it on the Chaos Dwarf's last turn, and to add to that he ended with a serious injury that not only makes him miss next game, but also lowered his AV by one.  Guess he has just become that one Hobgoblin to either be benched or be shuffled forward in front of a raging ogre or the likes...

Thotrit Lavafor was elected MVP for the Chaos Dwarfs, while Meanroot took this for the Halflings, and the treasury chest rinkled fantastically, allowing for a new addition to the Violators.  The Raging Trainwreck, a Bull centaur, joins the line-up, even though GW will first have to have them back in stock to order the new style ones and actually paint and bring him along...  

My players gained some skills, Tothrit Lavafor selecting Guard, while Brazhak ThacoBell gained Block.  Numbers rolled randomly for a skill, and got the Sure Hands skill, so he will become a dedicated backfielder for the receiving game!  My dedicated fans also went back up after the drop last time, and with 55k still in the chest we are looking good for more future additions.

A much needed heap of 21 SPP's are indeed obtained this match, and the victory puts me currently in 5th place out of 11, with the first 8 going through to the play offs if they reach the minimum 10 games played, so we are on course.

And that means a slave for the slave regiment will be painted up as well...