The 2025 Goals: first quarter overview

 Time to have a look at the numbers of my goals for this year, as the first three months of the year already flew by.

Now, compared to last year, working night shifts has been a blessing for "viewing goals", especially the anime ones as I watch about a full series a week at times.

This of course leaves open time to watch regular series and movies at home with Noshi, so unlike last year, the numbers are progressing very strongly at this point.

Now, it also in a way count as such for the painting goals, being able to at least glue together all the figures while guarding the fortress at night, this makes that I don't have to spend that time assembling during the valuable little painting hours I have, and can advance on projects at a steady rate as such.

With that in mind, that I took upon me so many ambitious goals for this year, it still is a serious mountain to climb...  But I must admit, progress has been made with rigid planning, as I have a heap of deadlines in the first half of the year for tournament forces.  The main beneficiaries in the first quarter as such have been the Empire, as I am trying to get the whole 2k Escalation League readied before the summer, with the next "urgent" project being the Aeldari Combat Patrol.

So let's have a look at the numbers now then!

Beginning with the most spectacular ones, no less then 13 series have been watched out of the 20 set as a goal.  On a same note, I already saw 9 films out of 20 for the first quarter alone.  Those are pretty good numbers thanks to the new "regime".  

In a similar manner, anime's already stand at 10 anime watched out of the aimed goal of 50, and of those 3 where from the 40 anime series of Noshi that I needed to catch up with still.

On the other hand, the reading for this year hasn't really taken off yet, with 1 manga out of the aimed 30, but 5 books of the 5 planned ones means this goal has actually been reached already in the first quarter, long live night shifts!

But let's move on now to the painted numbers, which are a bit of a mixed bag so far.  

First, let's start with the projects that are currently a bit sidetracked due to tournament and league must paint goals.  The three Lord of the Rings planned armies haven't seen much attention, as these aren't a priority right at the moment.  The Lothlorien force is now at 9 points out of the projected 750, while both the Easterlings and the Rohirrim still need to be started.

In a similar manner, I haven't begun painting (or even doubting I ever will) on the Kill Team Voidscarred Corsairs, nor expanded on the Hedonites of Slaanesh who remain at their 530 / 2000 points starting point.  The same goes for the Moonstone Leshavult, while the Bolt Action Belgians are currently put aside for an Italian army, so they are now at 91 points of the aimed 500.  The Wood Elf force hasn't seen any attention either yet though.  Finally on the put aside list are the Underworlds warbands, though one will soon get decent attention.

However, the Idoneth Deepkin did get a small boost, now standing at 960 points out of 2000 aimed. But then we come to the tournament targets, with the Craftworld Eldar having 0 models painted out of the needed 19 but ready on paint row to begin them unless I lose all intrest on 40k.  In the meantime, the Empire of Man army now stands at 1070 points out of 2000 set as a goal. And in the meantime, I finished a single scenery pieces out of the 5 aimed for.

All that painting does benefit though, as I already played 2 out of the 10 planned tournaments / leagues / campaigns (winning one and ending second in the other), for a total of 18 games of the projected 50 so far.

In the final non wargame related goals, the Beer discovered total is at 26 out of 50, while I explored the culinary pleasures of 3 new frituurs so far this year.

So the goals are progressing smooth to be honest, and the wargame tallies will be shifting strongly as well in the coming quarter I think, as some projects will be finished, meaning I can start working on the other goals.

TSA Escalation League 2025: Pistoliers

 Time for some much needed mobility to the budding army of Marienburg, in the form of a unit of Pistoliers.

 

Fast and agile on the battlefield, they harass enemy flanks while firing their pistols at them. 

Like most of the Empire army I'm building for the Escalation League, they are Warlord Games models, hailing from their Pike and Shotte range, the Cavalry box in this case.  The box contained 12 models so I started with an initial 6 for the round, maybe expanding on them in the campaign's future.

 

Staying true with the Yellow / blue / red Marienburg scheme, I did build the standard as well, even though in this iteration of the game they can only take a champion and a musician, but it just looks better.  Rule of cool you know.

 

 

And so that is another 110 points added to the force, and one of two units that will be expanding the force.  The others that came for that round was a second unit of Handgunners, who will be featured in their own post soon.

 

 

Now to start building the cannons...

The Haul Report 416

 Well, it has been a while since I uploaded another Haul report, as I have been doing it calm on spendings in this particular hobby.

 

Okay, which basically meant I been spending more on my NSFW and Beer hobbies the past weeks, but details.

 

 

However, some items did arrive in this period, starting with this Chaos Dwarf from the Warcry Spire Tyrants set. 

I also received the lucky participant entry from the Chaos Dwarf Online Artisan contest.

 

Warlord Games ran a 15% discount on selected Bolt Action armies, and the Italians where amongst them.  As a result, I picked up some more bits for the army list I'm building for the november tournament. 

With a Minotaur added to the Blood Bowl team, I ordered one from Etsy and promptly received two of the mighty beasts.

 

 

Now that I game my printer to my brother-in-law, and he will do some printing for me, the first one already arrived: the freebie Rohan house from Conquest Creations. I just gave (aka dumped) my 100s of files for 28mm fantasy scenery on his drive, and he van print whatever he feels like.  I'll just be happily suprised whenever a batch comes my way...

 

 

 

And we also received the first pins and booklets for the expanding of the Efteling collection, about which I posted earlier this week... 

When I went to play the Underworlds tournament last weekend, I discovered a dusky box of Star Trek Attack Wing under the cellar stairs.  I went up to ask if they where still for sale (I wanted that Pasteur for my Federation fleet) and the store owner offered me them at 2.00 euro a blister / blind box.  I took all 19 of them of course, and would see back home which ones I could use, and he rounded down to 30 euro for the whole lot.  After a quick check, I could also use 6 of the blind boxes for my personal fleets (Federation, Ferengi and Cardassia), so I'll go over those in detail in the coming weeks, the rest I'll probably trade around with.

 

So a nice haul for sure this week round!

Blood Bowl match report: Vongalazthag Violators versus Wood Babes

 My next feature in the TSA s3 Blood Bowl league, and opposing me are the crazy women of the Amazon team, the Wood Babes.

 After having survived the top-3 teams onslaught, even though it was a goal deficit of 10 vs 0, it is time to start the League in earnest.

 

And the first team on my path upwards, as I was currently holding the 9th spot in the league, was the dodge all around Amazon team that currently held 4th place, 3 points in front of me and a rating of 1160.

 

 

With two Strength 4's, but now I'm bringing a Minotaur to the party myself, and it is time to start saving for the second Bull Centaur to replace The Dude, a hobgoblin with AV 7 now, the only lasting injury those top teams made on me.  I certainly mangled them harder though...

 

But enough of the past, let's get ourselves back in that top-8 for the qualifications! My roster stood complete at 16 players, while the amazons could bring 11 of their roster, and induced forthe addition of Estelle La Veneaux, a Star Player.  Surely this would allow us to score some good casualties and obtain a heap of Star Player Points for the league.

 

The goal was to try and obtain some points on the Blockers, to get them Tackle for the game in two weaks against the dodgeing elves of the Elfheim Union...

 

 The game started with the Violators kicking off, and immediatly lose one of their Blockers, Ragnoth Karadras, being knocked out.  Little did we know, but he wouldn't return for the rest of the match anymore and a sign of things to come...

 

 

Of course, the ball fell right in the hands of one of the Amazon ladies during the kick-off, so the Amazons could start setting up their push over my flank.

 

 

My Minotaur veered up, blitzing one of the ladies as well into the knocked out box, but the ball slowly progressed over my side and I didn't manage to put anyone on the flank to the floor, the Wood Babes scoring a completed pass in the advance.

 

 

My line however kept being knocked to the floor, and soon the ball carrier was behind my lines.  

Stalling a bit on the line, we had one more or less decent turn pushing and flooring his team, but no casualties where scored.  Choosing safety, he scored the 1-0 quickly to prevent any serious damage to his team in the final turns of the half.

 

 

Both sides set up again for the a short drive, but the kick-off table smiled on me and gave me an additional turn as the tracker was pushed back 1 turn.

 

 

 Numbers collected the ball, threw an accurate pass to The Raging Trainwreck... and he duly let the ball fall to the floor while he had an open route in front of him...

 

 

To add insult to injury, Hot Milky Nipples double skulled himself down, and got a serious injury in the process, resulting in him missing the next game.  So much for my big guy debut, one KO and that was it.

 

 The Amazons swamped a flamesmith, yet with a +8 foul managed to put my Flamesmith only face down as the half ended.

 

 

The second half was kicked off, and the ball balanced on the edge of my end zone, of course not going over the line to have it being handed to a player of my choice.

 

 

The initial scrimmage saw some pushing and knocking over on both side, but no real hole was formed. 

 

 

And the fast ladies rushed over to poor numbers even before he got a chance to pass the ball he had just collected...

 

 

 As the Amazons started flooding around the lines, we had to try and close the holes wherever they appeared, and this seemingly was just about everywhere.

 

 

 And of course, the ball ended up with the Amazons, now behind my lines in big numbers...

 

 

 Well, at least I knocked out one of his ladies for small comfort as she carried the ball, the one and only KO caused by a stabber in the whole game. 

A whole battle for the ball was held as it scattered, and I had a 50% chance it would land on one of my guys, so the ball fell next to his players.

 

 

 A shame, as I had created an opening on the side, and all it had required was jsut grabbing a scattering ball and we would have had a chance to go for the equalizer.

 

 

The girls picked up the ball, and started moving away from my players.

 

 

In the process, my stabber Dievanons was also seriously injured and would miss next game as well, a bit of a sour loss, perhaps more then the Minotaur, even if they didn't perform this game.

 

 Desperately trying to hold of the crazed bitches off, it looked grim for my defenders, though i must say my Hobgoblins did a better job in blocking this game then my actual blockers.

 

 

 Knowing I couldn't reach him decently, his strength 4 ball carrier waited at the line with the ball.

 

 

 A last moment desperate attempt was undertaken to get to him, but there where to many ladies blocking the routes to get there unfortunatly.

 

 

And while a brave hobgoblin did his best, he was ultimately knocked over and he scored the 2-0.

 

 

 So I had one more turn before the match ended, and lined up to at least massacre the three linewoman in front of me.

 

 

 The kick off table smiled on me, and I could move up players... only to have the very first block come up double skulls, ending it all...

 

 

Well, that went really disastrous, not counting the MVP, which rightly went to that one player that actually had scored points in the game, I managed a single casualty.  The Stabba's, versus armour 8, managed to get through only three times, with 1 KO as a result.  The Flamesmith's only toasted themselves of didn't do anything.  That means my 4 players that could circumvent his dodge around failed miserably.  Add to that I barely got through his armour, failed every receive of a catch or attempt to dodge, and it quickly becomes a terrible game for the team.  

 

 

In every league or campaign, you have that one game where your dice brick-out totally, and I hope this was my turn for that.  I shuffled back to spot 8, but will automatically lose that next week when I'm not having a game.  Hopefully the game in two weeks against the Elven Union will prove the start of the ressurgence, but this unforseen loss will mean I fear I'll have to play for it until the very end to qualify for the play-offs as the points gap starts to grow... 

But on the plusside, I know what to do: get more re-rolls for the team, as just a single one isn't cutting it with all my bandle handle fumbling shennanigans...

 

 

On the Painting Desk 323

 So, another deadline scratched off, and one failed though...

 

But at least we have the Minotaur readied to get on the table yesterday.

 

In a few days as such, you can see how he faired on his debut game, against a bunch of crazed Amazonian women.

 

 

That also means I can start looking forward to some next projects I want to do, just need to select a couple first and start loading up on the painting desk once again, but I think it'll be a couple of Slaanesh for either Underworlds or for Spearhead.  Just gimme a few days to make up my mind...

 

See you again next week with a slightly more filled up desk!

Fantasy Anime League Spring 2025: the team

 So, time for another fantasy league of picking the anime's of the upcoming season.

 

And while I doubt I can recreate the excellent result of the previous season where I went inside the top 300, we will never the less do our best to select a competitive selection.

 

That means of course not only picking the estimated top series, but also to have a look at which series start airing when, and "connecting the dots" on that level to be able to score consistently, including a solid bench to fill in should one end or start later, let alone drop off in ratings for being crap stuff.

 

 

Only a single one could be picked from the Restricted list, numbering 3 this time round, and I picked  I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out on my Level from them, putting them on Active as they start airing in week one.

 

My Hero Academia Vigilante was a no-brainer choice, and another Active from the get-go.  My other three Active picks consisted of Lazarus, The Beginning After the End, and finally Please Put Them On Takamine-san because, ecchi...

 

 For my bench, I opted for Yandere Dark Elf, because ecchi hehehe, The Shiunji Family Children and finally Summer Pockets.

 

So, a bit of a mixed bag, and let's see how we will fare in the coming weeks of the prediction challenge!

 

 

 

 

Blood Bowl 2020 Rulebook

 A game I have been enjoying a lot (again) lately is the current incarnation of Blood Bowl, officially called the Official Rules, but is commonly known as the BB2020 rules after the year of it's release.

 

 

And which can be found in the second season core box of the edition.

 

The book follows the traditional Games Workshop lay-out of rulebooks, starting with the lore, then the rules, additional rules and match styles, and more of that fun stuff like Star Players.  The lore kicks off with the history of the game and how the Old World got to invent the noble game of fantasy football.  But like any succefull sport, eventually corruption and corporations got more and more of a hold, resulting in the eventual collapse of the governing sports body, the NAF.

 

In the aftermath, new leagues where formed, and while various sub sets of organisatorial rules existed, they all came down to the loveable game of beating your opponent to a pulp, and if bothered, actually score a touchdown here and there.  

 

 

We take a look at the layout of the pitch and the dug-outs, and move to the core rules of the game.  Grid driven, it explains movement, but also how to block (aka, attack) your opponents players, with a good risk of your own players getting bowled over if Nuffle, the god of Blood Bowl, doesn't favor you.  Every player has 16 turns in a half, and a game consists of 2 halves.  A regular match of Blood Bowl tends to take between 2 to 3 hours in my experience, so that is a good evening filling game.

 

The rules for drafting your standard team are then explained, which is basically your "army roster" that you create.  But there is more to a game then a field and two army lists, as various results on random tables influence your game: the weather table, the kick-off table, any prayers to Nuffle, and inducements all add to the fun, and give benefits to the underdog teams in Leagues.  Once all that is out of the way, we take a look at the actions happening during a team's turn, which lasts until either all players have activated on your team, or something went wrong, causing a turn-over.  The eventual goal is to score more touchdowns as your opponent, either by beating his line up, dodge through it with nimble models, or even throw one of your teammates over their heads and hope he doesn't land on his...

 

 

Next is the whole post-game sequence, where you earn your winnings, tally your scored Star Player points for any advancements and skill gains (for Leagues, whom are the hard of the game for the full experience), and add or replace new players.  The skills list, which is quite extensive, is then looked at in the book.  The next set that is regarded are Inducements, bonusses for teams that are out classed in team rating from their opponent, granting access to one match hirelings, wizards, and more of the exotic stuff.

 

Talking Leagues, that is the whole next section of the rulebook, on how to set them up and run them.  Of course, you can ahve one-offs called Exhibition Play, either with fresh basic teams or your league team.

 

 

Then we get the teams listings, at how they stood at the time of release of the rules.  That means most teams are playable just by having the book, while others released later can be found in their Spike magazine supplement or Blood Bowl almanac books.  The same goes for Star Players, while a lot of these later released also have their rules for free download on Warhammer community.

 

And there we have it, an overview of the rulesbook of the most noblest of sports, Blood Bowl, a great fun game and one you will love for not taking itself to seriously!

Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture

 Based on the incredible popular and good Code Geass (though that seemed to boom years after I watched it initially), last year brought us Roze of the Recapture.

Playing out in 4 acts of 3 episodes each, it details the brothers Roze and Ash, two mercenary fighters.

The brothers arrive in Hokkaido to aid with the recapture and free the Seven Shining Stars leader Kensei Kuroto, who is being held with others at an internment camp.  Ash is a skilled pilot, who has a unique Nightmare frame at his disposal, and quickly manages to dispatch the enemy frames.  But Roze hides a secret even from his brother, as he is actually princess Sakuya Sumeragi, the legal heir to the throne.

They launch an attack on a heavily guarded prison camp where Sakuya's body double and childhood friend, Sakura, is being held, who has taken on her role to protect her.  While they manage to break her out, she is eventually recaptured.  But with Kuroto back in command and Roze's tactical plans, the Seven Shining Stars are now strong enough to start an uprising against the local authorities.  But after the death of Calis al Britannia, Sakura ascends the throne.

With the arrival of the skyfortress Damocles above Hokkaido, the Seven Shining Stars are joined by the Black Knights and together they manage to bring the huge fortress down, crashing it to the ground, as Sakuya's decoy identity is discovered, but kept secret out of loyalty to the family.  Roze brings a visit to the orphanage where Ash and his real brother where raised.  She learns he was adopted by Norland, who trained them as assassins.  But his brother was weak, and in the end Norland killed him before Ash's eyes, leading to Ash being imprisoned and meeting Sakuya's father.

After escaping he met Sakuya, who used her geass on him to make him protect her, but while struck by guild she is captured by Christoph, one of Norland's henchmen, and imprisoned.  He plans to experiment on her with her geass, as the Neo Britannian Army attacks the groups hide-out, resulting in their leaders sacrificing themselves to allow them to escape.  As Ash faces the cyborg Arnold, a ghost from his past, his geass is dispelled, and infuriated he charges Christoph's lab to get her out and wanting to kill her herself for her deceit.

He decides to spare her though, and to work with her to free Hokkaido, following a promise he made her father.  But then Norland unleashes Loki's, large robotic machines killing all humans in sight, and causing the Black Knights and others to band together and fight the machines worldwide.  This allows for a window for Ash and Sakuya to free Sakura, and they discover the truth of whom Norland really is, a clone of her grandfather Charles zi Britannia to preserve his mind.  He escapes using his own Knightmare frame, and Ash and Sakuya face up to him.

Initially outmatched, Ash asks Sakuya to reinstate the geass in order to prevent him from hesitating.  Combining their strenghts, they finally take down Norland, but in doing so Ash gives up his own life in order to allow Sakuya to live.  She decides to ascend the throne now herself, but not before using her geass on herself to prevent her from ever uttering words again, as the rest of the Shining Stars settle into more normal lives.

It was a good series, with some awesome action scenes and a good story.  While not as great as the original, I still enjoyed it a lot and think it a worthy spin-off of the series, so go check it out!