Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These - Kaikou

 One of the anime I still had on my to watch list, and which came into this summer's MAL Challenge Stack, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a remake of the classic series.

 

Updated animation, but just as well a strong story line, Kaikou is the first 12 episode season of the series, so we sat down and enjoy some huge space battles.

 

In 796UC, Reinhard von Lohengramm leads a 20000 storng fleet on an expeditionary mission to engage the combined 2nd, 4th and 6th fleets of the Free Planets Alliance.  Using a blitzkrieg strategy, the 4th and 6th are quickly routed, but the 2nd's command is taken over by Yang Wen-li after it's commander is injured.  Yang Wen-li leads a counterattack that allows them to retreat safely.  After the battle, a flashback shows how the factions came into being, but also what drives the now promoted to fleet admiral Reinhard.

 

Yang's backstory shows how he was a prodigy in the military after a harsh youth, losing his father at age 16 and forced that way in the army to continue his education, and how as a low ranking officer he saved a civilian population from an attack, making use of his fleeing commander as a diversion.  After a memorial service, where his remarks and those of his friend Jessica earn him the anger of a mob of fanatics, he is promoted to Rear Admiral for the newly formed 13th fleet, and his first order is to capture the Empire's fortress of Iserlohn.

 

Jamming the fortress's communications and making a diversionary battle, they infiltrate the fortress and capture it, altering the status quo of power in the Alliance's favour.  Some, like the duke of Castrop, try to seize the moment to get to higher power in the Empire, but is quickly disposed by Reinhard and his subordinate Kircheis, who rises to the rank of vice admiral thanks to his succesfull mission.  But the capture of the fortress makes the politicians of the Alliance overconfident, and they want to force the war further, even though it is economically unsustainable.  A vote passes for an invasion into the Empire territory as a result.

 

A massive war effort is assembled to this goal, as Reinhard is assigned to repel the invasion they had received word off, planning on the Alliance to overstretch itself and then retaliating.   He withdraws resources from planets along the Alliance route, meaning they will have to cater for the civilians as well as carry on the offensive.  Yang Wen-li sees the growing problem, and convinces some of the other commanders that the plan is severly flawed, resulting in the removal of the drafter, Falk.  

 

The Empire's counterattack commences, taking the Alliance on the back foot and severly damaging the 3rd, 7th, 10th and 12th fleets.  The other fleets, thanks to Yang, manage to escape, but the Alliance president refuses to give up the plan, ordering the admirals to gather at the Amritstar Starzone for a final showdown...

 

And so the first season ends, on a dramatic cliffhanger which will mean of course that I'll need to watch the second season pretty soon.  Which I don't mind at all, because this is one lovely series, and ticks a lot of my "intrest boxes": big space battles, grey morality lines, the works... 

 

 

Fire and Jade Spearhead Terrain

 So the second set of Age of Sigmar Spearhead has been released... and I finally painted the scenery pieces from the first one.

 

For some reason, they always skipped the paint line, or be left on the side.

 

But now I sat down and spend some decent attention to them, in order to have them painted up at last!

 

The first one completed was the small section of ruins with the burning brazier, which was also ideal to test out the colourscheme in which I wanted to paint up the whole set.

 

The second one was the other small section, containing the toppled over Stormcast monument.  I painted this one tone darker grey, to create the idea it was carved out of a different stone later then when the original, now ruined, buildings where made.

 

And then we moved to the bigger sections, the first one I painted up was the one with the skeleton bolted to the window frame.

 

Before painting the final section, the one with the large bell hanging in the window frame.

 

The models where great fun to paint, and have some very lovely details on them for sure.  Now to get myself in action to do the new ones from Sand and Bone as well in let's say, about half a year hehehe?

 

The war against the grey, it never ends... 

Hobgoblin Sneaky Gitz

 Well, the Chaos Dwarf force got a serious boost in recent weeks, as this is the second block of troops painted up.

 

The models, 3D prints from the Fabalzel range, make up a 16 strong unit of the scouts for the army, and as I needed 10 of them for the upcoming tournament, I just painted the whole batch. 

 

They really capture the feel of the metals, as Fabelzel does a great job on his creations.  And game wise in The Old World they are excellent skirmishing ambushers, but for some other gamesystems like T9A or older WFB editions they still operate as a rank and filed mob.

 

To that end, I also added a standard bearer, and put them on 20mm squares with an adapter for easiness sake of switching between game systems.

 

Now to work on the next unit, as I've decided to join two 2000 points tournaments in november and december, and I'm going to be adding some fresh units in the process.

 

Because nothing motivates as well to paint as tournament deadlines... 

Finding Nemo: Idoneth Deepkin Soulscryer

 So I finally did it, and painted the "official" general model for my Idoneth spearhead.

 

No longer will the (lovely sculpted) Tidecaster be a stand-in as a result.

 

But now I finally gotten round to painting this sinister scryer up, and (currently) worth 110 points for the army, though it might all change when the new army book for the Idoneth Deepkin arrives later this year.

 

Not that it is anything new, I only had the force around for 2 editions now before I really started working on an Age of Sigmar force, and I admit the Spearhead system for 4th was a serious booster in getting me going.  Now to expand to a full army of at least 2000 points.

 

For the painting I went to the usual colour scheme I have been using for my army so far, and for a bit of a joke I painted the schools around his legs in colours resembling both Nemo and Dory, just beacause I could...

 

Now to start work on a regular unit or two for the force...

 

 

Lord Ipsqueeck's Adventures: Roompot Klein Vink in Arcen

 Hello everyone, and welcome to another vacation report, as I went with mommy and daddy to Arcen this year.

 

We stayed at a resort called Klein Vink, but we also did a lot of excursions, so sit back and enjoy the read!

 

Now, I am going to spoil something already hihi, because I'm small and cute so I can: I commanded daddy to make seperate entries for all those parks we visited, otherwise you'll probably blow up your computer trying to load all the pictures we took! 

 

 

 

So I arrived in the Netherlands, and of course I needed to inspect the garden and the house first, because that is one important job I have to take care off!   And what better way to check a garden to see if there is an ample spot for lunch...

 

 And the mini swimming pool for some cooling down, as there will be some very hot days during this vacation!

 

As we where located near the end of the big park, we rented bikes for the week so daddy could take me to the swimming pool of the park itself.  

 

And to the local frituur for dinner of course, because I got to pick our first evening's meal...

 

Het Aardbeienland

 

 

And then it was time for the first excursion, as we did quite a few.  This was to Het Aardbeienland, telling all about strawberry culture in the region.  It wasn't the greatest of adventures, but I did manage to run around some and add some slides to my counter.  I'll recount my tale from there in a few days!

 

Hertog Jan

 

 

That afternoon after we got back, daddy had to go because he had to do some "investigating journalism and quality control", something he will tell about later on. 

 

Toverland

 

 

 

The monday, we went to a place I like almost as much as The Efteling, namely Toverland where I went to find my inner magic again.  I loved the place last year when we came here for the first time, and had another blast this year of which I'll tell later.  

 

 

Though something must have slipped in daddy's water, because suddenly he courageously went in all the coasters?  Was he drunk from his investigation yesterday or so???

 

Irrland

  

On the tuesday, it would be the hottest day of our week in Arcen, and for that reason we went to Irrland.  Nearby,  it is a park with a lot of playgrounds and water to cool off, which I of course enjoyed to the best.  More on the park in a later post in the coming weeks for certain!

 

Sfeermarkt Arcen

 

On the wednesday, it was a special market in the nearby village of Arcen.  Located near the castle and it's famous castlegardens, we went to have a look around.

 

The market stretched around the city centre, which is located at the borders of the Meuse river.

 

Mommy and daddy found some new boardgames there for their collection as well at a bargain price.

 

While daddy also discovered the local food of Raubkuchen (a potato and onion mash fried with a cheesy crust) and yoghurt-cherry icecream.

 

 And some beer sausages...

 

 Natur- und Tierenpark Bruggen

 

 

Our final excursion, of which I'll give a more detailed recounting soon, was to a small zoo just across the border with Germany.  It was a nice day, warm but not to hot, so it was great to walk around and play in the forested area in a lovely little zoo.  Of the three smaller excursions, not counting Toverland, I loved this the most, even though I ended up with a black eye...

 

Daddy also tried out some geocaching that evening for the first time.  Little did he know that the 1.5 km hidden treasure was in birdflight measured, and he spend almost an hour trying to get his non-terrain bike on a 1 km long loose sand road hihihi.

 

 But so the final evening came to a close, so after enjoying an apple, it was time to lay myself down and do some reflections on another awesome holiday.

 

Thank you mommy and daddy for doing all this stuff for me!  And to all the rest, check back regularly for more detailed stories about my adventures of the past week!!!