Warhammer The Old World tournament: Border Patrol at Ekeren

 Awright, so after all I do get an The Old World tournament in this year, and it is a fun little small force affair.

 

Border Patrol at Ekeren is a tournament for small 500 point forces, with some additional rules in the rulespack involving army building to prevent min / max builds a bit.

 

Characters and units may not exceed 150 points, only a single character with 25 points of magic items can be taken, 0-X units per 1000 points become 0-1 choices, you need two units minimum not counting swarms or war machines etc, max 2 Core of the same choice and 1 time for each special or rare unit... those are the biggest things in a nutshell.

 

And that required some serious puzzling, as the Chaos Dwarfs aren't cheap, and as such I could only bring small units of around 10 Dawi Zharr every time to remain within the points limit.   

 

The Army

 

 

Rothgar Obsidianbeard, Infernal Seneschal with  Darkforged Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield and Hellshard 

 

11 Infernal Guards with Heavy Armour, Shield and full command group

 

10 Infernal Guards with Fireglaives, Heavy Armour

 

12 Hobgoblin Cutthroats with Shield, Champion and Standard Bearer

 

10 Sneaky Gitz

 

So that made up exactly 500 points, and got me 4 units, though limited rank bonusses due to well, expensive Dawi Zharr.  The plan will be to get the combat unit with the Seneschal up fast, supported by the Hobgoblins.  In the meantime the Gitz and the Fireglaives will need to harass and knock off hopefully one or two ranks from the opposing main combat unit before the warriors hit home... 

 

Now to see how the mighty Dawi Zharr would fare on this 4 round event!

 

Game 1 vs Dwarfs

 

We kicked off the tournament with a kin war against our misguided brethren, commanded by Novogord, who is actually one of my YouTube followers, how cool is that!  The battle went rather one sided due to an heroic result of my Hobgoblins, they where charged on the flank by his scouts, both sides missed all their attacks, and somehow he managed to fail his break test to leg it off the table, collapsing his flank.

 

This resulted in the Hobgoblins managing to flank his solid combat units that my warriors where tanking at the time, and the game ended in a 20-0 victory for the Chaos Dwarfs as the Dwarfs where eliminated and all objectives taken by the forces of Hashut. 

 

Game 2 vs Orcs and Goblins

 

For my second game, I faced Tsjagatai and his horde of Orcs and Goblins.  It was as one sided though as the first game, except it went in the other direction this time, my warriors and lord holding on to prevent being tabled myself this time.

 

 I missed most of my attacks, while he barely missed anything, and as my armour refused to help me, it quickly went downhill and a 2-18 defeat was my part. 

 

Game 3 vs Bretonnia

 

In the third game I stood across the plains to face TankyGabri and his Bretonnians.  I managed to "hold" his lance with my warriors after they charged over my Hobgoblins, my Sneaky Gitz and Fireglaives handling his infantry.  

 

 

When the Fireglaives then managed to charge his lance in the back arc, and a hefty -6 CR was his part destroying the last remnant of his army, the battle was won and a 19-1 victory was obtained. 

 

Game 4 vs Beastmen

 

Facing the TO in the last round, this was a bit of a special case battle.  We came in a situation that only got resolved hours later after flicking through rulebooks and all, and Steven was also the judge so he was called away at times.  

 

 

In the end, the battle ended in a draw as time just ran out.  We also decided to do some tinkering with this final scenario should it be included in smaller events again in the future after the feedback of the players.

 

The Result 

 

Well, incredibly, I somehow managed to end up in second place, in part due to the huge amount of points I raked in by tabling my opponents in my two wins.  This all put me on 2 / 1 / 1 with 66 points, including 15 bonus points for having the force painted, paid on time etc etc, ending only behind the Orcs and Goblin player that totally deleted me in round 2.

 

In third place came ChaosLord with his Chaos Warriors force, and so the trophies had all been handed out to the brave men, women and indistinguishable creatures brave enough to patrol the borders of Ekeren, in a very cosy and fun event.

 

Onwards to edition 2, these are good fun to get a feel in for some Old World (before the event, I had played a mighty 3 games, 2 of which where 500pts test games for the scenario's), as I wasn't by far the only one present that used this event to have a go at the rules and all.

 

Big thumbs up to Steven to organise this event, and until next edition! 

 

 

 

 

Fantasy Anime League Fall 2025

 Hot off the trail of the decent result I scored in the Summer 2025 FAL, we move on to the Fall edition.

 

Because of course, more badges!

 

So that brings us of course first and foremost to the selection of this seasons anime's, in the hopes we find a white horse somewhere amongst them!

 

Of the three restricted series, I went for the final season of My Hero Academia, because I think this send-off is going to boom immensely.

 

But then it was selecting the other anime's of the season, and deciding a possible "cycle" for bringing in benched ones to score some additional aces, what worked great in the summer edition I must say, thanks to about everything of my big guys reaching the limits rather smooth and sequentially.

 

For the other 4 of my starting line-up, I went with Tomodachi,  Saigo ni Hitotsu, Watashi wo Tabetai and finally the second season of Ranma 1/2.  

 

 On the bench, mostly to take into account that they will start in week 2, I put the third season of Gintanama, My Status as an Assassin and my wild guess, which starts only end of october: Disney Twisted Wonderland.  This was a big gamble, but for some reason I feel it is going to yield big time in the final phase of the League.

 

So, let's see how it will go! 

Fantasy Anime League Summer 2025 edition: the results

 So the dust settles, and a 13 week long battle to predict the anime of the 2025 summer season has passed once again.

 

But how did we fare this time round?

 

 

Well, we ended in the top 7 % for the season, 

  

My anime selection obtained the following places in the end on the rankings, with my main line all ending in the top 5, while all the others did their part by cycling in, grabbing an ace, and cycling out:

 

Sakamoto Days part 2: ended up in the fifth place

Rising of the Shield Hero season 4: A 9th place for my main bencher

Dr Stone Science Future part 2: ended on the bench with the cycling at the end, but came 4th

The Fragrant Flowers: The best of season anime, landing the top spot

Gachiakuta: a 2nd place for this one

The Summer Hikaru Died: 3rd place put this in for another solid end

Rent-a-Girlfriend season 4: low performing at 24th

Reincarnated as a Vending Machine season 2: my worst pick at 30 but did it's part

 

So this all came about by the results of the weekly scores, whom evolved as followed:

 

Week 1: 43901 pts, 2026th place

Week 2: 263169 pts, 1338th place, succesfully aced The Fragrant Flowers

Week 3: 597527 pts, 2214th place, switched Rent-a-Girlfriend for Dr Stone

Week 4: 838965 pts, 1419th place, switched Vending Machine for Sakamoto Days, succesfully aced Sakamoto Days

Week 5: 1137407 pts, 1544th place 

Week 6: 1319743 pts, 1604th place 

Week 7: 1760681 pts, 1719 th place 

Week 8: 1927676 pts, 1764 th place 

Week 9: 2363740 pts, 1305 th place, swapped Dr Stone for Rent-Girlfriend, succesfully aced Rent-a-Girlfriend 

Week 10: 2782559 pts, 1275 th place, swapped Rent-a-Girlfriend for Vending Machine, succesfully aced Vending Machine 

Week 11: 3084011 pts, 992 th place, wild card swap Vending for Shield Hero, succesfully aced Shield Hero

Week 12: 3431809 pts, 1127 th place

Week 13: 4355822 pts, 1525 th place 

 

So, a very decent result, not in the least helped by the fact I managed to have my bench score on aces, thanks to my regulars all rather quickly going over the treshold. 

Lord Ipsqueeck's Adventures: To Plopsastation Antwerp with Nina

 If all those amusement parks I did during the summer holiday weren't enough, we ended the last weekend of august with another one!

 

Plopsa Indoor Station Antwerp is a cosy little themepark with about a dozen attractions, and there are some great fun ones there for sure.

 

And I didn't go alone with mommy and daddy!  As we took the tram to the park, which is about 5 kilometres from our home, we would meet up with my friend Nina for a bit of good fun.

 

And we began with the bouncing frogs of the Bumba Molen, always a good place to start.

 

I also did the Smurfs darkride where you zap the screens with magic, and being nice and early I was best of the day at least for the morning hihi.

 

 

After that, we did the funhouse of Tolembeek, and played some in the ball bath and indoor play adventure course.

 

We all went on the carrousel next, me making sure mommy wouldn't fall off, being the gentleman that I am.

 

We rode flying bikes, going to great heights as we pedalled as crazy to achieve this.

 

Nina then got herself made up as a cat while I went to look around a bit with daddy.

 

And then we ended the day where we started, in the Bumba Molen of course.

 

And so we had a little fun trip to the amusement park, for a fun half day out!  I always love it when mommy and daddy take me here I must say, it is some good fun... 

K-Pop Demon Hunters

 I'm hip, I'm cool, I watched the hype that is amongst the youth these days, K-Pop Demon Hunters...

 

An american production riding on the high of K-pop music these days (bands like BTS being all the thing it seems), it's basically humans hunting demons and catchy music.

 

Long ago, demons prayed on humans, the demons ruled by Gwi-Ma.  Three women became the first demon hunters, and this has passed on through the generations, sealing demons away with the power of their singing behind a barrier called the Honmoon.

 

Current day, these hunters are the K-pop girl group Kuntr/x, comprised of Rumi, Mira and Zoey, guided by Celine.  The latter is a former hunter that raised Rumi, who has a secret demonic heritage only Celine knows about.  Another K-pop group, the boysband Saja Boys, are actually working for Gwi-Ma, led by their singer Jinu.  Jinu serves Gwi-Ma after his gift of a singing voice helped his family out of poverty over 400 years ago.  The plan works, as the Honmoon weakens and more souls are stolen by demons.

 

During a concert at the Idol Awards, Rumi's marks are exposed to her fellow bandmembers, but she manages to break the trance Gwi-Ma has placed over them by stopping the performance from the Saja Boys.  A repentant Jinu sacrifices himself to save Rumi from Gwi-Ma, and they manage to restore the Honmoon, and reconciles with Mira and Zoey.

 

Okay, so it wasn't actually bad at all, and the music is catchy.  But I admit, I am getting to old for these sorts of movies... 

Lord Ipsqueeck's Adventures: Natur- und Tierpark Bruggen

 Hello everyone to the tale of my fourth and final excursion during my recent holidays in Arcen, the Netherlands.

 

And this time, we went to a little zoo, about 20 kilometres across the border with Germany, in Bruggen.

 

Now, first off, buy the tickets in advance, they are on Social Deal and save you a nice dime on the entrance, and be sure to download the tickets as in the woods, the internet might be shaky!

 

 The park also has several little attractions, some free and some costing a euro, like the arcades and this swinging mill.  We saw that in action, and it was downright scary to be honest, I didn't go on that one!

 

 It also has a donkey handing out little gifts, and then there was this guy...

 

Mommy and daddy couldn't agree, daddy thought it a "Holle Bolle Gijs from the Aldi" while mommy said it looks like Mr Trump (she has a point there, I'm in camp mommy on this one).

 

 The central open area has a nice big playground, as has the surrounding woodland with swings, a termite climbing place and more.  These where good fun, though I bumped onto a rope and ended up with a black eye as a result near the end of the day, oops, but true warriors shrug that off like a fly!

 

 The zoo itself is all around the playground, and has some cute and fun animals to have a look at.  You could also buy special foodsticks for the herbivores like the goats and such, and feed them, which I did myself as well.

 

It also has some animals you can't feed of course, like the nosebears.

 

 

 

 

They had a snakehouse, featuring quite a nice collection of reptiles... and icky hissing cockroaches.

 

This buffalo was inpressive, and my daddy was chanting a strange song about a bloke called Hashut when he saw the animal, weird fellow my daddy.

 

Satan's little goat was also present by the way in the park.

 

Some more animals where around, resting in the park, or having lunch like these "exploding butt cavia's" according to my mommy.  She thinks they had chili to eat the day before...

 

Of course, we needed to have lunch itself, and the bistro wasn't expensive at all for some fries and burgers.

 

But of course, no day can end without adding some slides to my counter.

 

The park also used to have a monorail going round the playground, but the permission has been expired and after 50 years it is now out of service unfortunatly.

 

Add to it all some bag slides and more, and this was a fun little adventure we had.

 

 

Mommy and daddy thought it a great fun day as well, and these little zoo's are good fun to look around, the Korsak wolves taking their intrest in particular as we haven't seen those in the zoo's we normally visit.

 

So definitly worth a visit if you are in the area, drop by whenever you have the chance!