White Dwarf 483

 

 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. 

 

And the cover shows a League of Votann warrior, as a battle report featuring the space dwarfs is the main headliner.  Yet after the usual community articles, we travel first to Age of Sigmar with a sort of an army selector to help you pick a force that might suit you best.  I still say though, play what you love the look off, not what you think will help your winning chances...

 

It starts off with Flashpoint Rondhol, where Stormcasts will be put against Orruk's as a Waaagh forms, adding a lot of backgorund material for the Flashpoint.  New campaign rules are included for this Flashpoint of course.  In Rules of Emgagement it is about rulestesting, before we get a look at an army of ice themed fyreslayers.  

 

A Warcry article features new material and background for one of the initial warbands, the Corvus Cabal, including quests and the likes.  More Nemesis pointers are then included for deckbuilding in Warhammer Underworlds.

 

Then we move to the 41st millenium for the next big section of the magazine.  Starting with an article of Heroes and Villains in the setting, and paint guides for them.  In the battle report, it is all about tanks, trucks and aliens in a mining setting, with the tiles included in the magazine's inserts.  Maugan Ra is the centre of a painting article, before Flashpoint Nephilim gets some more material including rules to battle inside a Necron tomb.  Kill Team is up with the Engage campaign at the studio, while Horus Heresy gets some attention with bombardment scenario rules and a painting showcase of the Primarchs.

 

So, an issue with nothing that really picked my intrest this time, but heck, it was free...

 

 

Terraformars volume 18 - Yu Sasuga and Kenchi Tachibana

 Time to start ramping up those manga numbers in the second half of the year, and we kick it off with the 18th volume of the excellent Terraformars series.

 

Now, as we are back from Mars and start the "Earth" arc, the volume also starts the chapter numbers again by 1 instead of continuing the 170+ we ended with in volume 17.

 

When a high school boy is about to take a bath with his neighbouring girl, his mom enters the bathroom followed by one of the terraformars.  But before the beast can strike, they are saved by an agent of the private government company Ichi Security, namely Akari and other survivors of the Annex 1 mission.  The roaches thrive better in Earth then Mars conditions, multiplying fast.  Using the brainwaves of the captured beast, they extract a map of the place it hide-out is located.

 

The bugs operate differently though, following a seemingly strict hierarchy now instead of acting on instinct.  Akari goes to the sewer systems under Tokyo, but runs into Saito who together with other thugs runs an operation of organ harvesting of the beasts.  Akari knows him from back in school, and as the terraformars arrive, betrayed by a spy within the group, it turns out Saito had a black market MO operation.  The terraformars still want to catch the second alive, but the two team up to face the beasts.

 

The foreign agents control the monsters by the fungi the chinese also used on Mars, having come to Japan to claim the country as their own to start their domination of the world, their infrastructure and government system allowing them to go relatively under the radar, as 8000 people have already disappeared recently, an event that triggered Ichi Security's attention.  It turns out the first arrived back on Earth 17 years ago and have been preparing ever since.

 

Small strike forces have been send out by the company, facing the beasts that had been send out to cause sabotage acts.  In a flashback, we learn that the cure has been developped, saving Azaki's friend Sakurato.  Saito survived the attack of betrayal, and together they face the horde.

 

A further flashback learns the events that transpired after the Annex 1 survivors returned back to Earth, and that a vaccine was prioritized by Dr Honda to be developped.  But the events that transpired where red taped, even to the family of the fallen crewmembers.  A better drug for the MO had also been developped, allowing one to take the blood of another and increase their power with the other's abilities, as Azaki activates this Chimera Blood Operation to make short work of his enemies.  Another agent, only known as "Samurai Sword" arrives, flooding the tunnel to take down the remaining monsters.  

 

The roaches had also infiltrated Tokyo Tower to cut communications, and are faced by a man called Tatsuhiro Someya.  He had refused the NFL even to volunteer for Ichi Security.  If he had been part of the Annex 1 mission, he would have been actually ranked number 2, with a fighting ability equalling Joseph's.  Facing a huge bear roach hybrid, he turns out to become even stronger at will thanks to his Artificial Transformation and splatters the monster.  

 

As the aftermath of the Annex project is discussed and the rift it caused between the major nations of Earth, the brain patterns of the captured roaches learn that the beasts are actually researching humans now... and the battle for Earth is about to begin!

 

So that's a strong set-up volume for the new arc, and I can't wait to dive into the next volume to see where it will go! 

Dune: Prophecy

 Set 10.000 years before the events of Dennis Villeneuve's Dune and Dune: Part Two, this series hit this year on HBO.

 

The 6 episode long series is based on the novels Great Schools of Dune, from which it draws material but actually takes place after the events in the book.

 

After the end of the Machine Wars, House Harkonnen has fallen from grace with the Imperial Throne, their only trade being whale fur from their icy homeplanet.  The sisters Valya and Tula Harkonnen join and order known as the Sisterhood, which trains Truthsayers for the Imperial Houses.  A young Valya uses her special commanding voice power to kill Dorothea, the successor of the recently died Mother Superior, and ascending to the highest rank of the Sisterhood.

 

Thirty years later she arranges for the Imperial Heiress, Ynez Corrino, to mary with 9-year old Pruwet Richese to stabilize both their bloodline and their control over Arrakis.  A soldier named Desmond Hart, survivor of an ambush at Arrakis and said to have been swallowed by Shai-Halud himself, arrives at the palace, causing the Turthsayer Kasha to experience disturbing visions.  Desmond, after meeting with the Emperor, uses a power to immolate both Pruwet in the Palace, as well as Kasha on the farr off homeworld of the Sisterhood.   

 

Valya, who has a hatred for the House Atreides for events in their youths, and her sister Tula killed a whole hunting party in the past in vengeance.  During that time, Valya had been introduced to Mother Superior's Raquella's greatest work, a thinking machine of forbidden machinery that stores a DNA database to influence the course of the future.  Add odds with Dorothea to become the next Mother Superior, she knows she must keep this hidden from the more zealous stretch of the order Dorothea leads.

 

As the students at the school all suffer the same nightmares, Valya becomes the Harkonnen's Truthsayer while Desmond pleads with the Emperor to remove the witches from the Landsraad all together, to no avail.  Keiran and the rebels want to assassinate the Landsraad, but Valya plans to save the Emperor and turn the Atreides over to rise the House standing again.  As Harrow Harkonnen is invited by various houses to induct the Emperor in the murder of Pruwet Richese, Desmond intervenes at the last moment revealing the whole plot before Valya's plan is set in motion and executing the conspirators during the Landsraad meeting using his special powers with Emperor Javicco's approval.

 

He makes Desmond his Bashar, the leader of an elite regiment to wade out any conspiritors to the throne.  Sister Francesca, the old lover of Javicco and mother of the prince Constantine, arrives to have her imprint on the Emperor turn the tables a bit to Valya's benefit once more.  In the school, Lila, who had went into coma during the Agony, is revived by Tula and shows the personality of Mother Raquella, her ancestor.  This allows her to isolate the virus that killed Pruwet and Kasha, and they start working on a way to counter the manner Desmond can activate this.  Keiran is uncovered by Constantine and taken into custody by Desmond, as Valya learns Desmond has Atreides and Harkonnen blood, being the result of Tula's romance with Orry Atreides during the hunting party.

 

Lila awakens once again, but it is Dorothea that has taken her over now, and she reveals the murder of herself and her followers all those years ago.  Tula has left for the Imperial Palace to try and stop Desmond, as Valya breaks out Ynez and Keiran from prison, to flee to Arrakis instead as the Emperor and Francesca are killed...

 

So not to bad a series at all, and it adds to the mystique of the movies.  It has been confrmed for a second season, so I guess we'll have to see how it goes from here with the Sisterhood in turmoil and the Empire without a crowned leader... 

 

 

 

 

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road

The 2023 Christmas Special of Doctor Who, this is also the very first adventure of the 15th Doctor, portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa.

 

Normally the Doctor tends to regenerate at the end of a series, but in this case the 13th Doctor ended the previous season, and the 15th began the new.  And the 14th?  For that you need to have a look at the 60th Anniversary specials!

 

This christmas special, featuring the first real outing of the 15th Doctor, focusses on him meeting his new companion, Ruby Sunday, an orphan who lives with her adoptive mother Carla and grandmother Cherry.  She was abandoned at the church on Ruby Road, hence where her name came from, and is looking to find her birth parents to no avail.  A new baby arrives at her fostermom's, Lulubelle, but is kidnapped by goblins.

 

Ruby chases them over the roof, with the Doctor also in pursuit and meeting her as such as they board the goblin airship.  When the baby is about to be offered to the Goblin King, who feeds on babies and causes back luck on those around, but after saving them a crack appears in the ceiling of Ruby's house causing a change in her foster mom's personality and no-one recollecting Ruby.  The Doctor realises the goblins must have gone back in time to kill baby Ruby, and saves her in the past, impaling the Goblin King in doing so.

 

He brings baby Ruby to a church on Ruby Road, to ensure the parson finds her, and setting the timeline right again.  Together with Ruby, they step into the TARDIS of to new adventures.

 

So a fun intro to the new characters, with a very catchy Goblin jazzband singing about their plans for babies, it was definitly a great fun special.

 

On the Painting Desk 336

 Another week of blistering heat has gone by, and yet I managed to do some decent painting this week.

 

First and foremost, the Slaanesh Shardspeaker has been completed, the first step of doing the Hedonites spearhead force.

 

But then I suddenly decided to switch over the items on the painting desk.  During the way to hot week, I did an "undercoat day", in which I have been, well, undercoating a variety of things.  And this resulted in me deciding to do some other units first after all, namely a block of Oathmark orcs that will serve as Hobgoblins for my Chaos Dwarfs, and be included in the army list for a 500pts tournament end of august, as well as a set of Sneaky Gitz.  I am going to do the models I need to finish for the tournament first, then afterwards paint up the remainder of the units to get them all hopefully done by the end of july.

 

That means the Knives of the Crone are put aside for a while now, as I've also been working on the ruins, the Belgian mortar and well, two very special blokes for Blood Bowl...

 

So check back next week to see how far I've gotten on the big unit of greenskins! 

Warhammer Underworlds: Myari's Purifiers

 The second warband we painted for Underworlds this year, and as many know, I love playing Aelves in the game.

 

As a result, I finally started working on the Lumineth warband in the game, who have been in my cabinet for ages, ever since the release of the Direchasm core-box.

 

The warband is often seen as a perfect alrounder, which is both it's greatest strength and biggest weakness.  You have in this edition Myari, who used to be a wizard but now is a support character with the removal of magic dice in the game. 

 

Bahannar is a bruiser, while his combat buddy Ailenn is a more precise striking swordmaster.  Finally, Senaela is probably the best ranged attacker in the game system with her immense range and her Impeccable Aim skill. 

 

 

The trick with the warband is that they each have an Aetherquartz stone at the beginning, and these give them a seperate buff each as long as you don't use it to make a re-roll of any dice in an attack or defence roll... and the fact all bar Ailenn have reach on their weapon profiles can keep you out of a hard spot. 

I build a first deck for them, using the Emberstone Sentinels together with Burning Assault, which is revolving around Myari doing the own half stuff while Ailenn infiltrates, supported by the archer.  Bahannar, the tank of the party, will get the free role to aid where needed...

 

 

Or at least, that is the initial plan, let's bring them to the table a few times and see how they go, with the plans of taking them to Mines of Alost 3 in september to go for that hattrick...

Fantasy Anime League Summer 2025 edition

 Starting back to back wth the spring edition, where I ended in the top 26%, the summer league kicked off for predicting the anime of the season.

 

And I aimed at doing at least one percent better then previous season.

 

However, I will start on the backburner, as all the possible top ranking series I selected only start airing from week 2 onwards.  This means I can only start filtering them in using my swaps during weeks 2, 3 and 4 and this can cost some serious points.  Apart from that, I will also have to chose wisely which one to bring in, in the hopes of being able to score with the Ace for each of them while doing so...

 

These hopefully heavy hitters are as such Sakamoto Days part 2, the fourth season of The Rising of the Shield Hero and the second part of Dr Stone Science Future, especially that first one gives me a potential high scorer.

 

That also means I'll be starting out in week one with an eclectic mix of anime and genre's, of which I believe The Fragrant Flowers and Gachiakuta might be sleepers who will hopefully rise pretty high in the points.  I then selected The Summer Hikaru Died as well as the 4th season of Rent-a-Girlfriend to form the bulk, with Reincarnated as a Vending Machine getting a spot just because I thought the first season was hilarious!

 

So let's see how they all perform in the coming 13 weeks, and if the top 25% will be obtainable this time round! 

 

 

 

 

Babylon 5 ACTA: Hyperion Cruiser

 The first model to return to the venerable A Call to Arms gamesystem has been painted, and what else could that be then the mainstay of a Dawn of the 3rd Age Earth Alliance fleet, the venerable Hyperion Cruiser.

 

A solid all rounder at Raid level, these vessels are the literal backbone of the EA fleet, workhorses like the Excelsior class is in Star Trek.

 

Armed with the needed medium ranged guns and boresight lasers, it also comes with a flight of Aurora Starfuries, excellent little dogfighters in the game and pretty iconic for the show.   

 

As everything is measured base to base for fighter flights, it doesn't really matter how you make them up, and I re-opted like in the old days to put them by the two's on a round base.  The huge hexagons from Fleet Action are just to unwieldy, and as they are cast in metal weigh a ton that can damage paintjobs in transport otherwise.

 

The Hyperion itself has been painted now in a light grey compared to inked metal I used to do all those years ago, to get some more joy out of working on them and it just looks better in my opinion now, as my paint style has evolved as well over all those years.

 

Now to start working on the rest of the fleet as well and get a game in somewhere during the summerbreak period... 

Den Teerling issue 17

 Every once in a while I remember to take along the free "gazette" our club produces, a great work by Arno with the help of guest writers.

 

And this time, we are having a quick look at the 10 page logn issue 17, which was released recently in May.

 

The main story is the third part of the life of Napoleon, inspired to rectify the fairy tale the Napoleon movie turned out to be.  It takes a look specifically this time at Eylan and his divorce.  The next article is a game review of the Battle of Hagerstown, a massive ACW game held at the club premises a while ago.

 

The Silver Bayonet then gets some attention, with an article that takes a look at this most excellent Frostgrave inspired Napoleonics game.  The final big article is a look at the Andor series, which recently got it's fantastic second season as well.  Rounding out with a puzzle contest and a comic, this was a fun little read once again, and some intresting topics for yours truly.

 

Keep up the good work blokes!