Alien: Rubicon

 Every now and then you just need to watch one of those low-budget, bad acting B-movies, and that is when The Asylum never fails to deliver.

 

Also, this has nothing even vaguely to do with the Alien franchise. 

 

Starting things off, the alien on the poster... not in the movie.  The aliens are nothing more then big flyung spheres that ravage the city. When dr Morrow plans on taking the days of with his kids, he is summoned by the government.  A huge sphere is approaching Earth from the same direction he picked up a signal years ago.

 

But when he and military man Captain Jeffe try to use a laser to tag it, it unleashes a destructive blast, setting course for Washington DC.  The military tries all in it's might to bring the sphere down, but it's offensive and defensive capabilities are to much for the army to handle.  

 

 

Of course, as with low budgets flicks, the solution is often pretty dumb.  Turns out we had a secret weapon in space all along, and the higher up that knew kept his mouth shut while entire cities are ravaged by what in the end only turned out to be a probe, more vessels on their way to our planet...

 

No, this isn't a good movie, but you don't expect more of it after all.  The Asylum are a special case in their productions, in a manner that it is so bad it is good, and yeah well, it's good to watch during the night hours while putting together some figures or hugging the bench on a lazy evening.

 

Watch, but don't have high expectations... 

Star Trek Prodigy season 2

 When a kiddie cartoon is beter then Star Trek Discovery, second cour...

 

And it's no lie, this series that is based around the retrieval of capt Chakotay and breaking timelines is actually great fun... and has some more illumini appear this season.

 

The story takes off about a year after the events of the season 1 finale, as Admiral Janeway recruits our young heroes Dal, Rok Tahk, Jankom Pog, Murf and Zero to join her aboard her new ship, the Voyager A.  They work as cadets though, but soon discover there is a special mission about to happen with a ship called the Infinity to retrieve Janeway's best friend.  

 

On present day Solum, Gwyn struggles with a coup forged by Ascensia, and reunites with the Diviner's younger uncorrupted self and her father to be, Ilthuran.  Dal and his friends, together with a young vulcan called Maj'el, accidentally activate the Infinity and tossed to the future, locked away together with Chakotay.  Gwyn loses the challenge, while the cadets set Chaokotay free and manage to launch the Protostar into the future, hopefully restoring the timeline.  Murf in the meantime is contacted by a stranger...

 

As they take the Infinity through a Borg conduit, they set out to find whoever is being sending messages to both Murf and Gwyn, and start connecting dot's during various adventurous in the quadrant, like a mind control device and a new body for Zero on a Medusan refugee planet.  They arrive at a Time Ziggurat, hidden in a pocket dimension, where they are greeted by Wesley Crusher.  he was the mysterious person sending messages, as the timeline hasn't been restored and theirs is actually dying, slowly invaded by time parasites called The Loom who feast on closing timelines.

 

Wesley reveals the plan to find Chakotay and restore the timeline, sending them off before The Loom take the upperhand, and realises Maj'el is the seventh variable.  They come to a sandy planet, finding a stranded Protostar and Chakotay who apparently has been there for 10 years already since their previous meeting.  They manage to convince him to heal the paradox, and set out making the ship spaceworthy again.  They will need to build a new protocore to return to Voyager though, whom is 3000 light years away.

 

They manage this on a planet of genetically enhanced tribbles, and set off for the rendez-vous, and Zero gets a body looking like her old one, as the new one is breaking down, but improved with more senses.  Ascensia however is still bound on destroying the Federation, and her battleship Rev-1 engages the Protostar and Voyager A.  They are then ordered to Solum, where Wesley is being held captive by Ascensia to make a temporal weapon, the Incursor.  

 

The Protostar crew infiltrates, freeing Wesley and Ilthuran, and the people of Solum rise against Ascensia, triggering the civil war events, but Janeway decides to ignore the Prime Directive and aid the people against the tyrant.  As she launches her fleet against the Federation, as the wormhole is opened to send the Protostar back to where it all began and restoring the time paradox.  As everyone settles back into their normal life, and adding some nice details like Wesley visiting dr Crusher and meeting his infant brother Jack (nice Picard reference here), and the Mars Attack from Picard season 1 takes place, cementing the series in the timeline.  The cadets are field promoted to Ensigns, and Dal realises he is more of a first officer then a captain material, handing command of the ship they received for their training to Gwyn, the Protostar class USS Prodigy.

 

And as they set out to learn the ropes and explore new planets while the body of the fleet is facing the events that transpire in Picard, the series comes to a close in what was a great and fun run, well worth checking out! 

Stumblefoot Gargant

 The list of Regiments of Renown that the Idoneth Deepkin can take is pretty short...

 

... but they can take a drunken giant!

 

Consisting of a single "standard" Gargant, the RoR adds some fun to the force, and as I had a couple of them from the Spearhead box for use in other gamesystems, this one was the last one I had left (though the first one actually painted up). 

 

Not that he will be an integral part of the army I have in mind, but I will use him in the League next year for no other reason then that he can vomit over opponents.

 

And that's always something to look forward to! 

 

 

Touring after the Apocalypse volume 6 - Sakae Saito

 After the events of volume 5, it's time to see how the girls go on with their roadtrip through a ravaged, post-apocalyptic Japan.

 

And until now, we still don't know what happened, or if there are any other humans around bar Youko...

 

Following the Ororon line, there is a flashback of the girls in the shelter, right before they set out into the world.  They attend online classes, and Youko is scolded while Airi is commended for healthy living habbits.  And then they receive the Serow, and the door is opened to leave the shelter...

 

Back in the present day of their journey, they travel to Iwaki, where they want to visit the Ammonite center.  Here they go out to dig up some fossils themselves, but Youko also wants to see if they can find Inassie, a mysterious monster rumoured to live in Lake Inawashiro.  Once they arrived at the lake, they look for a boat to repair.

 

After "shopping" in a hardware store, they repair two small boats to set out on the lake.  Youko falls asleep while trying out hers, dreaming of how the lake used to be, and now she actually seems to talk to someone in her dream, which is a new experience for her.  Her line catches bait, dragging her along as Airi sets out in pursuit in a pedalo boat.  It turns out to be a huge fish, but as it breaks surface, Inassie appears and snatches it away, leaving the girls with the big head of the fish to grill.  At the campfire, they reflect the encounter, but never see the beast again, though shadows under the water surface hint at a wholy different story...

 

Their journey continues, taking them in the direction of Aizu and Nagaoka.  Stopping at a roadside station in Aizu, they find some flares in abandoned cars and decide to make their own fireworks festival in Nagaoka.  Driving through the paddyfields, making them decide to forage for some rice based food, Youko tries sake for the first time, resulting in her passing out very, very drunk.  "Luckily" immortalised by Airi on a video on their cellphone.  Later she gets a vision of the festival, and as they find a truck filled with fireworks set it up to launch it.  But only a single arrow actually works, but this draws the attention of a fighter jet...

 

Who is piloting this, where does it come from?  Hopefully we get some answers in volume 7! 

White Dwarf 495

 

 Time to have another look at an issue of the Games Workshop in home magazine, White Dwarf.

 

At the beginning of the year, at the Aalst Underworlds tournament, I obtained a nice stack of older magazines for nought, and been flicking through them on and off.

 

Now, let's have a look through it after reading them, and have some opinions.  I do say, I am not into the whole 40k universe thing for years, so those won't be getting to much attention on my part for the reading, but the things that caught my intrest I read of course. 

 

A nice mean looking Tyranid on the cover, as the fourth Tyranid war has arrived.

 

After passing through the community pages, Worlds of Warhammer tells us where the languages of the AoS factions come from.  As we enter the Bunker, the Slidecrown Sundering campaign continues, together with the usual scenarios of the month.  Kill Team gets a special set of rules, and cards that are included, about jungle warfare.

 

It begins with Age of Sigmar this month, and the battleplan for the Slidecrown campaign together with a set of narrative scenarios.  Next, we take a look at the magics of both Order and Destruction, while the Dawnbringer Crusade arrives in Warcry with new Cities of Sigmar rules.

 

Jumping to 40k, after the instalment of A Tale of Four Warlords, and some boarding action material, we turn to the cover material.  The Fourth Tyranid War as arrived, and a lot of lore and a look back at the beasties through the ages is presented.  A painting gallery of Space Marines follows after the tons of Tyranid material, as is a set of diorama's.  Finally, some Necromunda material as the oldest of enemies, House Goliath and House Orlock, face off against each other.

 

Unfortunatly, barely anything picked an intrest from my part this volume, except for the Slidecrown scenario of the month... guess that happens with monthly magazines after all.

 

 

Wagtails Gaming Club Halle Warhammer Underworlds IV tournament report

 Time for the last Underworlds tournament of the year, and it is back to Halle for this one.

 

Same organiser, different venue and as such a new name.

 

But still, after losing the previous edition there on a dice roll by my opponent in the finale, I had some things to rectify.  Add to that Spitewood and the new warbands are now in full swing, so it would also be a lot of new things to learn before the tournament and some serious puzzling to do. 

 

And what better band for that then my beloved Elathain, now that he has returned with Spitewood.  Using a deck made from Pillage and Plunder coupled to Deadly Synergies, I didn't get to much "training time" in, but I just have faith in My Boi to carry the day with the aid of GOAT Spinefin and model of the year Duinclaw.  As well as the sheer annoying Fuirann and Tammael to cause some ruckus, though I admit having had immensely busy weeks at work, my brain wasn't present at all and that with a deck that requires some serious thinking...

 

So let's get ready for 5 games of Underworlds to round out the year!  

 

But first things first, the Exiled Dead are not worthy to join tournaments overhere.  We had two players bringing them along, and both forgot their models at home!  The first one, Vincent, replaced them with some Blood Bowl figures, while Peter Broeck quickly needed to assemble the models he had sold to Thibaud right at the entrance to the event... I'm not going to war with those two hehehehe...

 

  

As the players all gathered at the very cosy new venue for the Halle tournament, we received our participation goodies, which where a voucher of 15% from their sponsor TopToys, which I turned in during the day to order the Age of Sigmar Idoneth Deepkin manifestations, and a sheet of WarCry tokens.  For the warband spread, we had two each of the Wurmspat, the Jaws of Itzl and the Exiled Dead, while both Idoneth Deepkin warbands in the form of Elathain and Cyreni where present once.  Furthermore, the field contained one each of the Thorns of the Briar Queen, Skittershank's Clawpack, Zarbag's Gitz and Kamandora's Blades.

 

 

And then we moved to the tables as the first round was about to start.  I was paired against the youngest player in the room, Neo, who had joined his father for some games.  He had brought the Wurmspat with Blazing Assault / Reckless Fury.  This was already going to be a serious uphill battle, but unfortunatly he managed to roll any shields when he was attacked (he managed to reduce damage a single time during the whole game) and a bit of lack of knowledge of the cards I could have (moving off a treasure token in his last activation of round 1, allowing me to score a quick Strip the Realm) meant it went fairly one sided, the Soulraid taking home a 24-6 victory.

 

This meant that for the second round, I would be facing his dad, and well known player Valentin.  he fielded The Jaws of Itzl with Pillage and Plunder coupled to Blazing Assault, so another uphill game was on my plate.  I can call in excuses like having 9 upgrades in hand and not a single surge in my opening hands, even with mulligans, but he is just a very, very good player and I was soundly beaten.  I could somehow hold up during the first round, but it soon went downhill after that as I failed to save and my models quickly melted as snow to the sun, being tabled by turn 2's end and a well deserved 8-23 defeat was my part.

 

We reached the lunch break at that point, and it was time for the voting for best painted, as well as enjoy the lovely pumpkin soup and croques provided by Timmeke.  Still a pity he quit playing Underworlds though, always liked playing the guy.   

 

 

 

 

The warbands where all lined up for judging by the participants, and people casted three votes, worth 5 - 3 - 1 points each.

Here are most of the warbands (well, not the two Exiled Dead for reasons mentioned above), nor are the top three results of the painting already shared.  For those, you will have to stick around to the end of this little event report, because I am evil like that!

 

With the voting all done and the foodstuffsies chomped down, it was time to settle back down and have a go at the third round, and I faced a new face at the events: Nicolas from the Manneken Dice club and his Thorns of the Briar Queen, using Edge of the Knife and Blazing Assault.  I knew what this warband could do, as I had also eyed them to take them along actually today (I love that mugging mechanic), while he was taken a back by an opening move where I moved Elathain backwards, allowing Spinefin to push onto two objectives and start the delving works very swiftly.  It became a massacre though, as all my attacks went through, and I scored a huge 27 (I can reach a maximum of 28 glory if I table my opponent, score all my objectives and stand 3 turns on the Aqua Ghyranis token) versus 9 victory.

 

 

That brought us to the fourth game of the day, and another "oompf" warband and deck: Zarbag's Gitz piloted by Thibaud with a combination of Pillage and Plunder and Emberstone Sentinels.  Now honestly, I'm not a fan of that combination, though I completely get it why hordes play it, but the Pillage part helped out as he flipped tokens around as well.  It was a hard fought battle, but especially the second turn with all my Ensnare wrecked havoc in his lines, and while I allowed him to score his Strip the Realm as well instead of denying it in the final round (for the event, it was glory scored vs glory differential as first tie-breaker), I managed a good 24-19 victory.

 

This meant I currently was in joined second place behind Valentin, but only 2 glory points short.  

But unfortunatly, the picture of the set-up I took was totally blurred and unusable... probably the kicking in of sleep depravation of the busy workweek and weekend... 

So I needed to win this final game big, and hope Valentin dropped the ball to pull off a suprise last minute overtake.  My opponent was Wouter, and his Jaws of Itzl fielding Pillage and Plunder together with Wrack and Ruin.  The game went on rather equally, but I was forced to focus in the final round just once to many to get my own Strip the Realm and as such couldn't deny his, and I was defeated 21-22 in the end.  It didn't help that I couldn't manage a single save even with three dice against only two offensive successes to score Got Your Back from round 1 onwards or the game would have swung my way.  Not that it mattered, because Valentin won his game and as such the event, but I did overtake him still on scored glory as he won modestly against Peter Broeck and his Exiled Dead.

 

And so the battles came to a close, and with Valentin, who had defeated whatever Belgium could throw at him, as the rightful victor of the event.

 

In second place came Wouter with a 4-1 record, while I still ended up on the podium though with My Boi Elathain thanks to the massive amount of 104 glory scored in the whole group of players going 3-2, so it still was a decent result in the end even though the Jaws proved to be my undoing today.   

Elite aggro, it is going to be an issue with the band, but that is nothing new and it had a reason they are high up there in my "urgh" list together with the Grymwatch and the Exiled Dead with their raising mechanics.  Take into account that Nico and the Razors came fourth today, and it was truly a tourmanent dominated first by the Seraphon, then followed by the Idoneth Deepkin before everything else...

 

So let's get back to the painting results then as promised!  In third place, Philip came with his Kamandora crazies, while second place was taken by Nico and Cyreni's Razors.  

 

But the best painted was grabbed by Thibaud, and his Zarbag's Gitz.

 

And so the tournament ended... apart from one special price.  Apparently the community without me knowing had created a special price for me, as "Best Belgian Underworlds Player in 2025" or "Slaanesh's Favorite Little Bitch" and made me this special T-shirt (here modelled by Johan) of Hrothgorn in a metal festival style, listing the victories from this year (well, they where a bit premature in that they had already added this one as well, but hey, thanks for the vote of confidence) as a sort of "tour agenda".  Really, really thank you for this fella's, and I'll wear it with pride when I get to the Hrothgorn Challenge for 2026! 

 

And so we end the year with 8 tournaments of Underworlds played, of which I won 4, scored a second and third place podium, and two fifth places, not to shabby and it'll be sheer impossible to do better next year, but we can only try! 

 

And of course thanks to Johan for the additional picture material as always! 

Akhelian Taskmaster

 Time to paint up some Idoneth to end the year with, even though we won't reach the goal anymore normally.

 

But next year, I'm actually going to field them in a League I'll be running, as well as the occassional AoS event probably.

 

While I'm a Chaos Dwarf at heart and soul, there is something with the Idoneth Deepkin that just checks my boxes, hence why I also prefer to play both Elathain's Soulhunt and Cyreni's Razors so much in Underworlds, the aquatic aelven look just is so unique and fun.

 

Well, apart from the fragile, fiddly bits to assemble, but meh...

 

And the latest addition to the army is an Akhelian Taskmaster, which also received it's own unique "Ghyran" warscroll this year with the General's Handbook.  Looking like a true alpha male with his barechest uniform, and his impressive bident.  He is also accompanied by a nasty looking fish, ready to bite at those approaching it's master...

 

A fun model to paint for sure, and now to see if we can do one or two final additions to the Idoneth force in the remaining weeks of the year...