Hail Hashut! I did it!!!

 There are some of those days that stars align in a certain way, and things just come together.  Even though near the end, midnight oil was required to be burned...

And the 16th of March was such a day...

That day in the morning, I saw that my former wargame club was organising a The 9th Age tournament the last sunday of october, and I half though "maybe I should see for an army and give it a go".

That day during lunch, I received a box of classic metal Clan War figures, the unboxing is on my YouTube, and it had big demons and goblins in it.  My left arm started glowing, and I heard my sacred tattoo whisper "do it, DO IT" and I did.

I started a new a fantasy army for the tournament, and with a new that not only meant painting, but also buying, assembling, learning the way the army must be build... everything.  I never played the game.  I am joining a tournament next week.  But I do have my Warhammer Fantasy knowledge to fall back on, and without wanting to sound aloof, I wasn't to shabby in that game.  People all told me this is just another edition of Warhammer, so I hope I won't be flailed around like a newborn Goblin fanatic...

But, I completed my force, 3.500 points, 115 models, in the limited painting time I had in roughly the past 6 months.

Next target: NOT to finish in last place!  I guess my army list is everything from optimal in the "meta" but I don't care about that part, I played enough games with underdog forces and tend to draw on historical rank and file gaming as well as my WFB experience to try and compensate by placing selected charges and fate that Hashut will bless my dice.

So now to pack it all up in my carry case and march of to war!

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

 So, Bumblebee was an enjoyable movie, probably one of the better instalments in the Bayverse series of our beloved Transformers.

So what will this sequel bring, apart from entering the Maximals into the franchise?

The Maximal homeworld is attacked by the planet eating Unicron, spearheaded by the Terrorcons led by Scourge.  He seeks the Transwarp Key, whoch can open portals through space, in order to consume planets faster.  Apelinq, the leader of the Maximals, sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape with the key though, as they flee to Earth.

On Earth, in 1994, an ex-;ilitary Noah struggles to find a job to support his family, and turns to the theft of a car with his friend.  This Porsche 911 turns out to be the Autobot Mirage though (heresy, they litterally made Jazz into Mirage!), while Elena Wallace, an intern at a museum, starts studying an ancient Eagle statue with strange markings on it.  It accidentally breaks, revealing the Transwarp Key and sending out a signal that is detected by the Autobots Optimus Prime, Arcee and Bumblebee.  

But it also attracted the Terrorcons, and a battle ensues leaving Bumblebee deactivated as they steal the key.  However, this turns out to be only half of it, and when Airazor arrives to help them, they learn the other part is hidden somewhere.   Elena deduces from her studies of the eagle statue it must be in Peru, and the Autobots together with Noah and Elena travel there.  They meet up with Wheeljack and go to the ancient temple but find the key is no longer there.  The Terrorcons attack again, Airazor being corrupted by dark energy from Unicron.  They find the other Maximals, and when Airazor is about to betray them, Optimus Primal, the Maximal leader, deactivates her at her request.

A chaotic battle breaks out, and Scourge obtains the two parts, assembling it atop a volcano and opening a portal for Unicron to journey through.  Scourge gravely wounds Mirage in the battle, and he transforms himself into a powered exo-suit for Noah to help him battle Scourge, while Bumblebee is recovered due to a  large pulse of Energon and rushes to the aid of his friends.  Optimus Prime kills Scourge at last, and destroys the key collapsing the portal and banishing Unicron away again.  

In the aftermath, Elena gets credited by discovering ancient ruins, while Noah, who also repaired Mirage, is approached by an organisation called GI Joe to cover his little brother's medical bills and asked to join the agency as an ally...

So, a nice set-up for a crossover movie at the end, and I actually found this an enjoyable movie again right until the exo-suit moment.   This for me was way over it, and a bit of a pity they ran the story that way to have Noah save all, deducting for me a lot of the whole Transformers "power" as they need a human to battle in essence a heap of grunts...

Still, curious if that cross-over ever comes, it seems fun to have Optimus Prime and The Rock duke it out though.

The 9th Age: Infernal Dwarves Infernal Warriors

 So we did it, the final unit I needed to paint up for the tournament the 29th of october.

And those are a block of 20 warriors, whom will form the achor of my line.

The models are from Mantic Games in their Abyssal Dwarf range, with some minor converting being done to make a standard bearer and a musician as those aren't in the set as standard.  

Like with the rest of the force, I went for a dark blue and gold colourscheme, which makes it stand out nicely, though once again cursed at the ability to solidly rank up.  That is one thing I look forward for once The Old World arrives: movement trays with space spreaders to make the blocks a bit more open, and 25mm squares for newer units.

I will probably have both my characters join this unit on the field of battle to make it a solid point to hold my line around, even though I have no clue if this is even a good approach... time will tell as for now it is time to start up building fresh experience.

Next up, some more war machines I guess hehehe...

The Haul Report 377

 This week saw the arrival of the last, albeit necessary, addition to the army: the movement trays.

Now I can go and sand, paint and prep them, in order to line up the units for the event and get an easier going for the force on the table.

Made by Sarissa Precision, these MDF trays are rather cheap and very decent, so that's a good stack for me.  of course, I did forget to order a tray for the bull centaurs, but heck, moving one unit loose will be manageable...

So that makes the final needed items for now to get ready for the tournament, let's try and finish them during the coming week and prepare the whole force to pack it up.

 

I also received the MyBox from Archonia, granting some new manga to read.

 

 

So that makes some thrilling adventures in the mind's eye while watching sand dry I guess hehehe...

 

Well, that is it for this week, check back next episode for any additions to the collections!

On the Painting Desk 251

 So, time to do some things "on the side" now that my tournament force is ready for action in two weeks.

And to that end, I took a variety of things to kick off some projects for the not so short future, because no deadlines on them.

One of the things I want to do is start an Age of Sigmar army, and with the 4th edition coming about in 2024 apparently, that means I can calmly paint for now.  I`ll count out an army once I have some serious progress made.

That army will be the Kruleboyz, as I can integrate them into my Ninth Age / 8th Edition with movement tray adapters for the core units to become regular Hobgoblin and slave units.

Talking 8th, I`m going to rebuild my Empire force for that, to have some change from the Chaos Dwarfs in multiplayers, should I be sided with the "good guys" and the Mortar is the first unit for that.  For some reason, most of my forces start with a war machine when doing square based armies...

The Chaos Dwarfs won't be totally forgotten, as I'm also doing a slave ogre at the moment for the Earthshaker and a Naphta Thrower, while one of the older Underworlds warbands is getting the paint treatment as well, because it is about time I start working on all those warbands again.

So a bot of all over the place for now, but we will see how it all fans out over the coming weeks as I`ll be painting without any real planning for a while...

Because for medical reasons, deadlines are a bit out of the way right now.

Tokyo Ghoul Va

 And we have arrived at the T, finally watching the second season of Tokyo Ghoul, the first one finished years ago.

Though I didn't hear much good of this series, especially as it veered way off from the manga, which I must say I didn`t read yet, so no bias on that front.

Ken Kaneki has accepted his fate, becoming a monstrous ghoul, becoming what he has so long resisted to become.  He has joined Aogiri Tree, the very militant arm of ghoul society.  Tensions are rising between the government and the ghouls, as the Comission of Counter Ghoul has intensified it's efforts to purge the ghouls from Tokyo.  An all-out battle takes place between the CCG and the Aogiri led by the One-Eyed Owl, as Touka faces her brother Ayato, getting severly hurt but saved by Kaneki.

Amon receives a new partner in the CCG in the form of Mado's daughter Akira.  When Ayato and Kaneki lead an ambush on a convoy of the CCG, two mysterious ghouls in striped masks intervene.  Amon and Akira visit the special ghoul prison of Cochlea, just as the Aogiri Tree invades it to free the ghouls.  This leaves Kaneki gravely injured, forced to devour ghoul corpses in desperation.  The One-Eyed Owl arrives, taking Ayato and Kaneki with him as the battle dwindles down.

A Taskforce is being prepared by the CCG to take out the One-Eyed Owl for good, as Amon and Akira get to know each other better.  Yoshimura tells Kaneki about the One-Eyed Owl, who is actually his child Eto, birthed from a human mother he loved greatly.  The CCG prepares for an assault on Anteiku, having discovered the identity of the One-Eyed Owl, and despite the danger Touka and Kaneki head towards the battle, where Yoshimura is impersonating as the Owl, who is defeated after a long and intense battle before the real One-Eyed owl appears.

The CCG is driven into a corner, but as the strongest investigators join the battle, Owl is forced to consume the body of Yoshimura.  But he later regurgitates a still alive Yoshimura as Hide is trying to make coffee for the wounded Kaneki.  The latter thinks of happier times in the cafe, as Hide collapses from bloodloss suffered in the battle, mortally wounded passing away in Kaneki's arms.  Carrying his body in his arms, he goes to the CCG, facing Arima.  The next morning, Kaneki, Hide and Amon have vanished along with the other CCG members, leaving only an unharmed Arima...

So this was an action packed horror series, and it was okay to watch.  Not knowing the manga story and the changes made to it might have helped indeed, as while I read the critiques, I couldn't compare.  This leaves Re and some specials to watch in the series, but that will probably be something for next year or so...

The Bureau of Magical Things season 2

 So what if this an australian youth series, the first season was good entertainment.

And as such, Noshi and me sat down after enjoying the Witcher's third season for some lighter evening watching.

Now, this season has a large overarcing story, that involves intrigue, mystery and the end of all magic... but for some reason compared to the first season, it didn't really clicque with me this year.  It just seemed acting had taken a notch back, and it all felt just, well, not okay.

It all starts with Darra infiltrating a magical warehouse in Bangkok, as he learned stories about the Temple of the Purple Lotus which houses a fantastic artefact, and he wants to find the key's to unlock it.  This causes Kyra to be teleported to him, and she recovers the very first key as it comes to her from within a strange cobra statue.  They both decide to keep it a secret from their friends as they investigate it further.

They soon discover though that the Purple Lotus was created by a wizard named Vannak, and researched by a Tri-Ling called Sorenssen.  The Tri-Ling culture had been wiped out by the Elves and Faeries, and the Lotus would end their magic once and for all.  When searching for the keys, Kyra brings professor Maxwell in a hard place, and he is forced to resign as the head of the school, being replaced by the archeologist Apinya.

She wants to find out more about the keys, and forces Kyra to delve ever deeper in visions, at the risk of Kyra herself.  When the students manage to finally obtain the third key and activate it, the magic of the Elves and Faeries start going out of control, revealing to the world that humans are not alone.

They do manage to stop the Lotus thanks to Kyra though, but now they need to learn to co-exist in a new world, where magic does exist.

Okay, so it was still an innocent youth series and good for an episode or 2 after a hard working day, but it had issues as I mentioned above.  I would say, see the first season and relax with it, but only get to the second one if you really like.

Level 1 Demon Lord and the One Room Hero

 Awright, a comedy / fantasy series hit the summer season, and me and Noshi sat down to watch it.

The trailer gave me some Jahy vibe, so let's see if it is indeed any good like that series was.

A decade ago, the great demon lord was defeated by Max the hero and his companions, but vows to return one day and have his vengeance.  Now, returned a bit to early in the body of a small demon girl, she seeks out the hero that defeated her, only to find him a wash-out living in a one room appartment.  After the lord had been defeated, the world didn't need heroes, and Max was cast aside.  The demon lord takes it upon herself to bring him back to his former glory however.

As she lives with him, taking the guise of a sexy schoolgirl to follow him outside, she realises how low he has (been forced to) fallen.  When her secretary Zenia appears, she and Max get off on the wrong foot as Zenia can`t take alcohol well at all, but she does decide to move in next door to keep an eye on her evil overlord.

His old companion, the cleric Fred, wants him to join the army again.  Their third companion of the old days, the warrior Leo, is leading an army that is threatening the Kingdom, and he wants Max to help stop him.  Maou wants to couple him on a demon girl like Zenia or another of her servants, but when she changes into her secret identity she and Max seem to crush on each other.

As Max rebukes her offer to become one of her minions, he decides to become a PooCuber and make money by the heaps, which he fails to do so.  Maou takes a livestream for him, but the video ends up being blocked due to sexual explicit content... but later during a shopping trip, they meet two of Leo's subordinates (and we see that Max still has some of his edge), inviting them to Gamma Republic.  Under temporarily influence of Maou, they make the journey.

 

Max and Maou go to observe the battle at the frontlines, when they see Leo intervene.  He turns the tide of battle before spotting them and giving chase, as Max manages to hold him of long enough for them to escape back home.  Zenia tries to infiltrate the Magic Bureau when she is caught by Fred and interrogated.  But Fred himself is being played by the Third Minister Lord Grimms to be pulled into the war. 

Fred tries to force Max to join the war, but knowing he wouldn't agree did a strong laxative in his sake.  Fred goes to Gamma Republic himself to confront Leo, instigated by Lord Grimms manipulations.  As Leo and Fred engage in an epic duel, a flashback shows the time Yuria joined their party.  Maou, at the cost of injuring and revealing herself, convinces Max to interfere, and while bested at first he takes the others down thanks to a candy he saved from Yuria.  He pleas for peace, so his friends don`t have to fight anymore...

 

His plea works, and peace is restored between the countries, the Gamma republic becoming and autonomous province of the Kingdom.  Grimms is revealed for embezzlement, and Fred takes his place on the council.  And with peace in place, the heroes can finally take a rest as their journey ends.

 

Okay, so, Madkid opening theme, WIN.  But apart from that, this was a highly enjoyable series that pulled some serious laughs out of me.  This was a good series and one I will fondly remember, and not only for Zenia...

 

 

Voltron season 7

 A longer season this time for the Netflix reboot of the legendary Lion robot and his paladins.

Numbering 13 episodes, that is about double of season 6 which counted only 7 episodes.

 

The season starts with the group, having to abandon the castle and travel in the lions alone with their passengers and pets, being accidentally minituarized.  They manage to revert the effects, and travel to a base that once belonged to the Paladins, but while abandoned they come under attack.  Stuck far from home, and in a perilious situation, Coran is the one hope they have to get out. 

Together with some unlikely allies, they get out, but find themselves suddenly trapped in a strange gameshow with more on the line then simple prizes.  But this turns out to actually be a strong interdimensional being, testing their worth.  Stuck in the void of space, they find their resolve as a team agin, and allowing them to form Voltron once again.  Jumping through an energy field, they arrive back in our milky way.

But Earth has been attacked and overrun by the Gal'Ra, even though under the guidance of Pitch's dad they tried to prepare to no avail.  But as Earth is being run over, the paladin's arrive.  They join the battle to save Earth from being annihilated, but they have been betrayed and the enemy was waiting for them.  This results in Voltron being severly hit, and the paladins captured.  As a result, Shiro launches earth's final hope, the Atlas.  A massive battleship retroengineered from Althean technology, it allows them together with Voltron to drive off the invaders.

 

 

But the Gal'ra unleash their planet shattering device, so while the lions and the Atlas do their best to hold it off, Shiro infiltrates the enemy command ship to destroy the weapon from within.   He confronts the enemy lord on the falling command vessel, as the lions try to avoid it crashing in an inhabited area.  Together with Keith he finally ends the reign, as a meteor seems crashing towards Earth.  This turns out to be a huge Gal`ra robot suit, causing Voltron to reveal another weapon in it's arsenal... but is defeated never the less.  And then Shiro unleashes the full power of the crystal from the former Lion castle, causing the Atlas to transform in a gigantic robot itself.

So this was a good season, especially the second part was really tense when the battle came to earth, and very enjoyable to watch.

Now all that remains of the reboot is the final 8th season...