Splintered Light 15mm Wood Elves for HOTT have arrived

And the road to redemption and into 15mm goes on, as yesterday my order for my very first Fantasy miniatures came in.
The models come from Splintered Light Miniatures, and I must say I`m very impressed by the quality of the sculpts. They do require a little flash clean up, mostly around swords and bows but I consider this only normal on such small miniatures. I`ve seen heroic 32s with a lot more work to be done on them...

So I sorted out the models I ordered (a small force deal, a maiden on unicorn and a set of Maiden Guard) and should be able to start building my force around this:

15mm HOTT Sylvanesti



Elven Maiden on Unicorn (Magician)
Hero with Command Group (Hero)
Heroic Characters (Paladin)
Elven Priestess (Cleric)
3 units of Elven Maiden Guard (Spears)
2 units of Swordsmen (Blades)
2 units of Spearmen (Spears)
1 unit of Wood Trolls (Warband)
5 units of Archers (Shooters)

Afterwards, I can expand on some units (more Wood Trolls for one) and add some extra things to it like their newest wood elf models they just released, Elk cavalry definitly is on the list, as is a Treeman and some Faun from the woodland range for a bit of variety in the looks of the force.

Their Blog is also on my blogroll (the fantasy one) so for those intrested, take a peek over there as well, as it features all the new projects being worked on.

Beating Creepy Corridor Andy... The PS3 Masterplan

So our challenge still runs, and is to be untill december, in an effort to get the mostest out of the venerable PS3 and it`s trophees.

He called me a slacker as I trailed behind indefinitly...



3 weeks ago, I was two levels and 3000 points trailing behind, but last week, I managed to bump over him and gain a 1500 points lead up and about at the moment. Having to rest and lie in the couch for weeks tends to have that benefit...

As I stand compared to how he stands...

But now I`m nearing the infamous `level 12`, after which the level gain will be upgraded from 2000 points per level to 8000 points per level, which is... a lot. Most average PSN games have a gain of 300 possible points, the BluRay retail ones clock in at around a 1000 each, and that is if you platinum them.

So I need a Master Plan. A short term one to boot, as the 30th finally is supposed to see the release of the LE Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle at my local Game Mania, which will mean I won`t be playing like anything else until I platinumed that one. I mean, I am a HUGE Saint Seiya otaku (the myth cloth reviews might have been a clue in that direction) and I`ve been looking forward to this ever since it was announced over a year ago.



Unfortunatly, I also need to paint up a lot of stuff still, so this is going to be a real challenge the comming one and a half week to try and get to that level 12, yet get all entries for the LPL done bar the finale (Redoubt... come through will ya).

So the plan will be along these lines:

Step 1: Try each and every game still lying around unplayed for a while to have a look and feel what they are about.

Step 2: Try and finish some of their main story line modes.

Step 3: Grind for the 100% on some of them, as well as for the smaller PSN games with the necessary replays required.

Step 4: Play Saint Seiya ad infinitum...

That should keep me in the lead for at least until the LPL ends this year (first weekend of may FYI) and then battle Andy and his crew (slave labouring bugger, you could have given the kids a seperate account instead of hugging all the glory) on a fair and square playing field.

But even if I loose this challenge... Andy, at least I haven`t been a painting slacker this year NAH

TSA Blood Bowl 2012 League Table

So, the Blood Bowl League is in full swing, and past friday I finally debuted on the pitch. Now and then, I`ll be posting the League table as the standings are at that moment (basically, a few days after a play-day of the Violators, to give the CM a chance to compile results).

The system is as follows for this year: during a period of about 5 - 6 months, coaches can arrange fixtures how they see fit, with the only restriction that you may only play an opponent twice. Think of it as a home and away fixture. A win will grant 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0.

When this period has passed, the top 4 teams will push through to the cross finals, where two random pairings will create the fixtures, and the winners of those games will face each other in the finale to crown the Champion.
The restriction to get to the semi`s though is that teams will have to have played at least 5 matches in order to be able to qualify.

Me personally, I`d be glad if I even could push through to the semi`s, but doubting that. I play with my beloved Dawi Zharr in the League, but must say I always preferred the passing game one can develop with the Sylvanesti. Next time for sure!

So here is the League table as it stands at the moment, in the format of:

Team name (race) [games played] - x points

Teams marked in italics are the ones currently qualifying for the semi finals (aka, the 4 teams with the most points and at least 5 matches - none at this moment as only 6 weeks have passed yet), the bold one is well, mine lol.

The Green Bay Hooligans (Humans) [3] - 9 points
The Violent Kneecappers(Orcs) [3] - 6 points
The Mummy Road Show (returns)(Undead)[4] - 6 points
The Bloodweiser Bunnies (Amazon) [3] - 5 points

Feet of Flames(Halflings) [4] - 4 points
Vongalazthag Violators(Dawi Zharr) [1] - 3 points
The Bad Bay Hackers (Human) [1] - 1 points
Oinky`s Nutkickaz(Goblins) [2] - 0 points
Green Powah (Orcs) [2] - 0 points
Sylvania Sunbathers (Vampire Counts) [1] - 0 points

H.A.T.E (Dark Elves) [0] - 0 points
The Green and Red Lightnings (Dwarf) [0] - 0 points
Queen Helga's Double D Dwarfettes (Dwarf) [0] - 0 points
Da Mad Hakkaz (Orcs) [0] - 0 points


Hercules joins the team



Kef`fin Hobo, better known as Hercules to his... erm... well I won`t call them friends, as Hobgoblins aren`t to big on those things, has joined the ranks of the Vongalazthag Violators in a bit for gaining a semi final ticket.
Dwarf Vha`Dur, the headcoach of the Violators, says he is very pleased with the signing as this gives him another greatly appreciated and highly praised player, specialised in being expendable, for his team.

Brotherhood of Mutants - Lead Painter`s League round 2

Another week of LPL gone by, and one hell of a trashing did I get this week. Where Alpha Flight last year was my biggest win so far, this one is the biggest defeat, scrounging just over a measly 10% of the votes.



And a well deserved trashing it was to boot, as you can see Elysium64`s entry here, a great set-up and I love all those natural flowing brown colours, so you won`t hear any word of me from not fair of undeserved loss, I got my ass handed over twice already, and I can perfectly live with that.

I just HOPE Redoubt will get my order issue sorted out soonish, `cause I will need each and every bonus point this year to avoid the last place on the leaderboard... because I don`t see how I`ll manage to scrounge a win if this level of quality is being kept in the LPL this year.

Saint Seiya Omega

Just a quickie, the new trailer for the new, comming in april, Saint Seiya series.



Doesn`t look half bad even though it is understandably for a younger audience, as it`s original fans (like me) are well passed 30 in the meantime.

And yes, that IS Pegasus Seiya as the new Gold Sagitarius saint.

Aparently, it is sold to France as well, so i might actually be able to catch it quickly on the tele.

Vongalazthag Violators 2 - The Mummy Roadshow (Returns) 0

Okay, my first match of the TSA Blood Bowl League 2012, and we had to take on an Undead team with already 3 wins and a loss under it`s belt, granting them already a nice array of skills and me an inducement of 120k... good for an extra re-roll.

But what was more, the team was coached by The Nemesis himself. High stakes for a first game.

It started all sour, when his first block by a mummy landed a Dawi with a smashed hip, causing him to miss next match and reducing his movement by 1. Okay, could live with that.



But that was about it for the dead blokes, sheer luck (on my side) and fumbling ball pick uppers (on his side), made that the game was played for 3/4ths of the match on his half of the field.

My Bull Centaur Thunder Hoof thrudged through his line in the first time scoring the 1 - 0 and did that again with his companion centaur in the second, then stalling for 4 turns to let time pass and send some of his players to the KO box and letting the track marker slide along.

Other highlight: Bob. Twice in a row he smacked a Mummy down on his own with double defender downs, before on the third heroic attempt getting knocked over and badly hurt. Valiant Bob, star of the team.

But with one turn to go, I scored the second goal again with Thunder Hoof (leaving him with a Block skill after the match) and secured a 2 - 0 win, something even a small Riot couldn`t change anymore.



At the end I had one serious injured dawi, 2 badly hurt Hobgoblins and one goblin KO, while he had a wight that regenrated from a serious injury and 3 KO`s. He hit harder, we played faster. And recruted the mighty Hercules with the wins afterwards (aka, a fifth Hobgoblin) so we`re with twelve for the next match when I need to miss one Dawi.

One odd thing I noticed though... dwarf blockers go down and get armour beaten on average every two blocks (luckily, mostly stuns), while Hobgoblins dance from high strength blocks like pretty ballerina`s. Time to recruit them to the full 8 to complete the roster and annoy the hell out of my opponents with that bunch of sneaky gitz.

Not to bad a campaign start then, and the first points are in. And we came out rather unscathed to boot, a hugh bonus for a starting team, now rated 107 as even more fans flocked to the team.

Special thanks also to Lunamaria Hawke, my excellent re-roll counter lass aka mascot.
And thats another victory chalked up versus `The Nemesis`, now scoring 2-1 in my favor teeheehee...

Stargrunt 15mm OUDF Utility Vehicle

So, apart from those previously mentioned entries for the LPL, I finally started painting 15mm SciFi for Tomorrow`s War. Well, after the hospital period of the past month, finally began painting again per se, but well, that was an unexpected major setback on paint row schedule, but we`ll catch up to it.

This is a nice little vehicle from Ground Zero games (GZG for short), and though it has military value 0 I still wanted to have one for my budding OUDF forces. Someone has to transport the barbeque along on campaigns anyways... or provide a quick taxi on the opentopped flatbed if needed ;)





I must say, I really enjoy painting this scale, it lends well to the style I normally handle yet forgives it better then the larger 28mm cousins, so indeed the light has been seen.

Next up, the infantry and some vehicles for an OUDF patrol, then some Critical Mass Khanates, Aliens and Critters for the scifi part. Got that Carthage army I showed earlier today to do as well, and my fantasy force of Wood Elves for HOTT is in the mail from Splintered Light, apart from the still to finish ACW goes Irish VSF that I started in last years LPL and then... didn`t continue on in any way.

So much to do, so little time to do it ;)

15mm Carthage

Okay, so now that I have decided to `go` for 15mm for bigger games (or as some have commented, `finally saw the light`) one of the first things on the shopping list was an ancients army.

Now, you seem to have either one or two choices, mainly a horde army of barbarians with a lot of natural colour tones, or the Roman legions which feature a lot of red, both basically rather boring to paint the umpteenth model of.

So I reduced the list to some of the more `mixed` armies, or colourful ones, like Dacians, Carthaginians, Byzantines etc... Only criteria needed to be that they had to have fought in the (larger) mediterenean / middle east theatre, as this is the geographic region most gamers tend to collect forces in.

The final choice fell on Hannibal`s alpinists, aka the Carthaginian army with a lot of spanish troops and Gaul allies. Now, I must admit, the fact that I could get a force of them from the Strategia E Tattica range through North Star Miniatures bargain bin deals (less then 20 pounds for 15 packs) helped tote the balance as well.



This deal has some elephants, some Cathage command and cavalry and this all supported by Celtiberean (spanish) troops, some Gauls, Lybian light infantry and Balearic slingers. Nice and varied colours and troops which makes the prospect of monotonous painting non-existant.

BTW, for the fast ones, he has a Fall of Rome deal up in the Bargain bin for 11 pounds at the moment.

Which brings us to the dilemma

How to base the buggers?

I`ve been doing some reading and a lot of drooling around on other blogs and forums, and it seems that most played rules for 15mm are either Fields of Glory or Impetus, but both use different basing methods.

In the end, I decided to use 4 by 2 cm bases and field them Warmaster Ancients style, with three models per `ranked` infantry per base and two models for lighter troops like archers and skirmishers.

This allows me in about 80% of the cases from both rulesets above to `combine` the elements in the required size. FoG for example has 4 by 2 as the standard for medium and light troops, while Impetus uses 8 by a variant of 2 for most units. So by shuffling them together, I should be able to make most units perfectly base sized legal. Easy.

And the fact I have a couple hundred 4 by 2s from the Magister Militum rangeb helps as well of course...

So after the first scifi models for Tomorrows War are painted (some are, but I can`t show them already due to the Lead Painter`s League) I`m going to prepare my force to journey over the alps and into Italy...

... all the while playing my battlesong:

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth review #34: Harpy Valentine

Been a while since I did one of these, but at 50 - 100 euros average for a Myth cloth, one does not shop them as candy in the candy store.
This morning, my newest aquisition fell in my postbox (well, actually it was delivered at an ungodly early hour, the courier ringing me awake. Must be Hades`s doing...).

Valentine of the Harpy is one of Hades 108 Specters, awoken to wage the Holy War upon the (few remaining) Saints of Athena. One of the four Specters apart from the Judges of Hell to be reknowned for their power, Valentine seems to be the one in charge of bringing fallen enemies to the icy prison of Cocytus.

However, when he disposed of Seiya here and tried to take the Athena cloth from the Pegasus saint, who then went on to defeat the Harpy spectre by igniting and focussing all of his Cosmo in a single kick, shattering the surplice.

So with the model being the latest of the releases by Bandai / Tamashii and conveniently released on valentine`s day, here is my take on it.



The model itself is a fairly straightforward build, with not to much difference between the object and armour modes in jiggling parts around. As most cloths, the leg, arm and chest parts are die cast, the smaller pieces are cast in plastic.

The pity part, not due to the model again but due to `moi`, is that without one of the Bandai stands it is rather impossible to pose him in his signature 'Greed of Life' attack. The weight of the wings is to heavy for this if you spread them open, and he tends to topple backwards then, so I just posed him in a normal position.

The face is great! Valentine has that slight insane edge to him if you see him in the Seiya battle, and one of the two possible faces has him with mouth open and a rather scary look in his eyes. The other face shows him as cocky as he comes across being amongst the stronger of the spectres.

Colouring then. I think Bandai did a swell job on this one, apart from my eternal debate with myself about the actual colour of a surplice, as the model has a rich blueish purple hue and doesn`t look to different from the box presented model.

All in all, a great model and certainly worth it`s money, even though I`m not a spectre fan (I`ll take the God Warriors any day, thank you...), and I`m gonna credit this one with a nice and juicy 4.5 out of 5 stars!


Oh, one small note to Bandai though, you might want to look over your japanese / english translation team...