Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 Saturday night movie night, and this time it was the new Marvel film (though I miss quit a few in between, I for one haven`t seen the "finale movies" of the previous phase), Shang-Chi.

Now, I must confess, I barely knew the character, and I read A LOT of obscure Marvel B and C lister comics in my days (Excalibur and Alpha Flight where my favorites).

But what Black Panther took from African culture, this does so from the Asian culture.  Shaun (Shang-Chi) is the son of the Mandarin, who lived for centuries thanks to the power of the Ten Rings, and his mother who came from the mythical land of Ta Lo.  But after his mother died, his father, a former crimeboss, returns to his former ways, out to take revenge.

Shang-Chi was trained as a child to become an assassin, and together with his sister he is captured by his dad, who needs their pendants to find the entrance to the lands of Ta Lo.  A voice is informing him his wife is being held captive there, and he plans to use all his means to get her out.  Shang-Chi and his sister, together with stage actor Trevor (Ben kingsley is back after his fake Mandarin from Iron Man) and a creature called Morris, they enter the land and rally the defences to face his father, and learn the truth.

In days of old, soul eating monsters where locked away in the Dark Gate, and they use the voices of beloved ones to lure and free them.  As the Mandarin attacks, and manages to open the gate, Shang-Chi awakens his inner powers.  Together with the Great Protector, a dragon, he manages to overcome the monster that in the process had claimed his father's life and soul.

This is actually a good movie, and to be honest, not even a Marvel movie to my feel (bar that mid-credit scene).  If you take a look at the asian action movies on Netflix, this one could perfectly fit in that category instead, which isn`t critique at all.  On the contrary, I felt it rather refreshing from other movies, a bit like the first Guardians of the Galaxy was in the days.

Not bad for a superhero movie at all, and all the asian legendary creatures in Ta Lo was a nice visual spectacle!

Gundam Breaker Battlogue

 A new series of shorts around battleing with Gunpla, so that's a nice weekly intermezzo for on the bus.

And it is actually a rather fun one.

It begins with the finale of the 13th US championship, when the winner declares he couldn`t do it thanks to his team.  We go to Misa, who's angry at this as he left her behind from the team months ago, and she build her own suit, the Blazing Gundam.  She defeats a pro-player in her first outing, but her suit then get's captured by unknown forces unless she brings the champion, Takuma Nagitsuji, to them.

He intervenes again during a tournament, revealing his ace, the Gundam Barbataurus, to some young and talented people as he captures their GunPla as well.  It seems there is one guy really after the raigning champion, and going to great lengths to humiliate him.

It turns out to be the defeated one from the finale, but as he is about to overpower them even after the intervention of Misa who found a way to break the runner prisons, he summons even more gunpla, piloted by AI of heroes from other series, like Four Murasame from Zeta for example.  The heroes overcome the AI by unleashing the Helios's big weapon, before facing off against the enemy himself... and the champion appearing to aid them!

A fun little series, it's kind of a pity this wasn`t a full series of 12 or 24 full sized episodes, because it has some very nice gunpla designs in them.

Guess a few of them are going on my "want" list ;-)

No Time To Die

 The latest Bond movie, and the final Daniel Craig one, me and Noshi sat down to watch this action movie.

 

And in full Bond tradition, prepare for a couple of seriously hilarious moments between all the fierce action of this generations series of films.

Commander Bond, retired as a 00 agent, is in love with Madeleine, a girl with a mysterious past.  But when he suspects her to have betrayed him and being an agent of Spectre, he leaves her behind after they escaped an ambush.

In the meantime, project Heracles is stolen.  A top secret lab by the british secret service, it was intended to be the ultimate weapon in the fight against crime, containing programmed DNA searching nanobots.  When it is however used to kill all Spectre agents during a gathering in Cuba, it figures that it hasn`t been Blofeld, but someone behind the screens called Safin.  

Bond, meeting the new 007 agent, gets caught in a chase to find the project, after his friend Felix is killed.  Together they figure out it isn`t Madeleine and her daughter (and his!) Mathilde behind it, but they go to Japan to eliminate a genetical farm intend on wiping out the world.  Bond gets poisoned though by Safin, making it impossible for him to ever touch his love and daughter again, and we last see him in the explosions of a rocket strike on the facility.

Now, we can all guess he will survive this of course in some way, but it will be a suprise to see who will take up the James Bond name, and his reinstated call sign of 007, in the next movie.  And so far, nothing has been confirmed who it will be, so that might be a suprise.  Personally, I still hope for Idris Elba to be honest though...

And it comes with a beautiful tribute to the George Lazenby movie...

Warhammer Underworlds SOLO BatRep: Besieged: Zarbag's Gitz vs Fomoroid Crusher

 Over a year since the last game in this three scenario series, and more then half a year after I finally painted up the Fomoroid Crusher, I`m ready to complete the scenario series with my brave (cough) goblin band.

Or how quantity is a quality in itself...

So to that end, they ventured into the Beastgrave again, and faced the hulking monster in the thrid and final scenario, Besieged.  the goblins have found the lair of the beast, and now he is trying to escape from the dimunitive critters.

Using the solo rules that where available last year, the Fomoroid is "rules driven", reacting according to a table, while the gobbos only have their upgrades deck available.  As a refresher, it is played on a single board, so without further ado, let's get going with the deployment!

 

 

The Fomoroid Crusher needs to start on one small side, and cross the board to the exit the furthest away.  Zarbag's Gitz deploy to do as much damage as possible as soon as possible, hopefully then relying on it's archers and Zarbag himself to finish the beast off...

 

Turn 1

 

The Crusher begins by charging Prog, and squashes him immediatly, Bonekrakka in retaliation tries to bite him but fails, and in the Power Step both squigs are suicidally pushed against the monster.  

The Crusher smashes poor Bonekrakka, but a Fungal Blessing does 1 damage to the beast as Gobbaluk misses his attack, before he is also taken out.  Ironically, Redknap loses a stray arrow, wounding the monster for a second point of damage.  Only 8 to go, but both the damage dealer squigs are already out...

As the beast charges and takes out Drizgit, Snirk charges without activating his fanatic ability.  He can't push him back anyways, so would only end up wounding himself more then the beast, but the gamble fails as both roll a crit on their attack and defense.

Turn 2

That spelled disaster for Snirk, who is flattened by the Breaker action (3 auto damage is criplling against goblins) and the Gitz now down to their ranged fighters.  Zarbag plays Madcap Mushrooms on himself in order to get a free upgrade with Vindictive Glare.

But as the Formoroid makes a double move, he comes within a single hex of escaping, so the only thing to do is for the goblins to make suicide attacks, and unfortunatly not enough are around to do all the damage required to take it out.

Dibbz does so duly, and while Zarbag inspires due to the Crusher being so close to the exit, no damage is done before the poor archer is flattened.  Zarbag charges in as well, but meets the same fate as Redknap gets inspired.

Turn 3

Stikkit then gets the suicide run duty, but he is beaten to a pulp as well.  To add to that, this causes the Fomoroid to inspire but luckily Redknap is out of range of his Hurling reaction.  

With all the goblins bar Redknap now a greasy green smear, the Fomoroid exits his lair, having taken care of the pesky intruders in a devastating manner...

Ouch, Breaker really is a huge problem for low hit point warbands, as they all get insta-killed from the go by it's 3 damage automatically.  This means it is basically charge, attack, die for anyone in this band, and hope that along the way you do enough damage, which failed miserably this game.  Heck, pure on attacks, only a single point of damage was caused, the other point coming from a card.

But that concludes the scenario series, and Zarbag's Gitz where rather unsuccesfull with two losses versus a single win in the series.  Now they will go to "retirement shelf" as I`m going to switch the band for the one I HOPE to be able to play in some events during 2022, namely the Slaaneshi band The Dread Pageant.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid season 2

 So we are back for more hilarious adventures of Miss Kobayashi, her dragon maid Tohru, and a slate of other dragons that settled in our world.

And after enjoying the first season, I was curious on how the story would continue, as Tohru keeps trying to get the romantic intrest of her mistress.

It all starts with the arrival of Ilulu, Tohru's biggest rival from her world and right below her in power.  While she turns Kobayashi into a guy to see how she would react to Tohru then, the two dragons show off.  Tohru, with the help of Elma, defeats Ilulu, and as a result the dragon joins the clique as she wants to learn more about the appeal of our world to her kindred.

As Ilulu tries to find her place in the human world, we also learn more about the relationship between Tohru and Elma, and how close they actually are without realising it.  But I must say, the episode where Kanna and her classmates go ghost hunting has changed the way I imagine fairies once and for all...

 

The series, with the episode where an angry Kanna ends up in Manhattan and foils a mafia kidnapping there, focusses on the interaction between the various dragons mostly, more then on their love for Kobayashi like season 1 did, and this makes it all a refreshing view.  Especially when Kobayashi learns the motivations of Tohru and why she came to our world is a fantastic episode.

 

 

So while perhaps less slapstick moments then the first season, season 2 definitly is worth the watch as well!

Wayland Games: Christmas Battleboxes promotion

 Wayland Games is running a nice 5% dicount on the today released battleboxes for GW, so you might want to check them out!

And if you do so, feel free to use THIS link, it helps this little affiliate in all his hobby needs...

Or alternatively, use the banner at the top of this blog to navigate to their website, which also features tons of other items with lovely discounts on them!

 

Happy shopping!

Dynasty Warriors

 Saturday night, movie night and this time Noshi and me selected Dynasty Warriors on Netflix.

This 2021 Hong Kong production is based on the game franchise by Koei Tecmo of the same name, and a game I really enjoyed as I kind a like musou games.

The sotry starts with the "Three Brothers" coming to the aid of Dong Zhuo as he and his troops of the Han Dynasty are about to be overwhelmed by the Yellow Turban rebels.  Victorious, they return again to their lives, but Dong Zhuo places a coup, ousting the child emperor and taking the throne as Chancellor.

This leads to the collapse of the Han Dynasty, but by it's last threats a cavalry general, Cao Cao, vows to make it his mission to assassinate Dong Zhuo.  He nearly succeeds, but fleeing from the scene, he is forced to form an alliance to defeat the army.  He bands together 18 warlords, all bringing their forces, and the Three Brothers join his cause.

Of course, the enemy isn`t silent either, and gains followers like the mighty Lu Bu to do his bidding.  All out war errupts, and while the capital is freed and Dong Zhuo retreats, the lands are still in turmoil.  The seperate warlords consolidate their posisitions as we learn from a meeting between Liu Bei and Cao Cao a few years after the battle, and the time of the Three Kingdoms is about to start!

 

 

But of course, this leads to the question, can Hong Kong do better jobs adapting video games then Hollywood?  Well, I feel for this particular movie, no.  While you have game favorites like Lu Bu, Cao Cao or Zhang Fei well represented in special effects and attacks, the movie felt to spung out and long winded for me.  Which is an odd thing to say for a 2 hour ride full of action sequences to be honest.

So yeah, it was fun for the over the top combat sequences and effects, but it definitly wasn`t the best thing coming out of asian cinema we saw this year...

Love and Monsters

 An accidental, yet fun discovery on Netflix, Love and Monsters is an action comedy movie from 2020.

It's like a post apocalyptic thing, but in a bizarre way.

When an asteroid on collision with Earth is shot down by missiles, the chemical fall out results in insects and such being mutated in gigantic beasts, slaying 95% of humanity in a year.

The survivors are forced to hide in bunkers underground, scattered all around.  Joel, seperated from his childhood sweatheart Aimee, one day makes contact with her by radio.  Being the weak guy in his colony, he never the less decides to make the 7 day journey over the surface to find her.

On his trip, he meets a dog, Boy, that accompanies him, and a couple of survivors that teach him valuable lessons for out in the wild.  With renewed determination, he sets on until he is finally reunited.  But just as he arrives, it seems a captain and his crew where going to help evacuate them.  They are pirates however, and Joel and Aimee manage to overcome them thanks to what Joel learned in the wild.

He returns to his own colony afterwards, and spreads his knowledge over the radio, so that humanity steps out of hiding and travel to a mysterious land in the mountains, rumoured to be free of monsters...

A really weird take on apocalyptic movies, this was never the less an enjoyable, if not great, movie for a lazy evening on the couch.

MechaTop DLC 1: Challenge Game Mode

 The first of the so far released three small expansions for MechaTop, and downloadable through their webstore.

 

 

And this first volume, a 22 page sized PDF, handles about gaming in Challenge mode.

 

Challenge mode can be seen a bit as your online gaming arcade and the likes, in that it puts three difficulty levels, being Easy, Normal and Hard into play.  The game itself consists of a Stage 1, Stage 2 and Final Boss encounter for example for easy, and each player notes down the scores they obtained.

 

Yes, and it can be played SOLO as well with the solo card deck, a great thing I find personally to play, being like the only anime nutter in my group.

 

The games are progressive, meaning you can do a few things with your force between stages, but repairing isn`t one of them.  This means some thought has to be put in the battles, as going in all guns blazing might decimate you by the time you reach the finale... if you even get that far... 

The harder the level you choose, the bigger the points pool you can have (Normal for example has the standard 1800 points score) BUT also the more scenarios you need to survive.  In the earlier stages, you have a serious point advantage, but this gradually diminishes, and at the final level it's equal points... but you can already have lost some forces and as a result might actually be at a disadvantage by then!

The first scenarios are usually pretty basic, fighting off some generic war machines, before confronting ever bigger and stronger opponents and mecha.  The booklet as such contains all the scenarios for all the levels and the needed forces.  And at the end of the trail, it's a matter of who got the furthest and scored the most points... simple and effective!

I for one will certainly undertake the Easy one once I 3d printed some planes and tanks in my 1/400 scale gaming, and will report back on those soonish!