Sword Art Online II

 Roight, first let me say something about this series from Noshi's list I just watched.

 

I don't get it how it got lower ratings then the original, unless kiddo brains can't handle real life heavy issues like post-traumatic depression, or a child with AIDS in it's terminal stage.  Guess they all rather live in their dreamworld of OP videogame heroism...

 

Which is, admitted, the biggest gripe as well with this second season, 'God Kirito'. 

 

In a new virutal world game, Gun Gale Online, a star player is killed apparently through an event in the game.  The ministry's division of Virtual Affairs asks Kirito to go in and investigate the threat, as he is one of the SOA Survivors.  In Gun Gale, one of the top players is a sniper girl called Sinon, a shut-in schoolgirl outside the game.  She is however also a target of the ingame assassin that causes the deaths, named Death Gun.

 

Kirito runs into Sinon, and while they don't know each other they connect pretty smoothly as she gives him a tour or the game and the possibilities.  He beats an arcade game to get the credits for a weapon, opting to go for a photon sword (read: a light sabre).  They both register for a large event, the BoB (Bullet of Bullets), and as he runs into Death Gun he recognises him as a member of one of the SOA murderous guild members, the Laughing Coffin.  Death Gun vows to kill Kirito one day, and as Kirito reflects on his past actions against them, Sinon finds him suffering from the trauma.  They run into each other in the finals of their block, but the battle ends in a stalemate.

 

They eventually confront Death Gun, after witnessing him killing another player, and barely escape, but figure out he actually has an accomplice in the real world that does the killing the moment Death Gun takes out a player.  Kirito and Sinon confide in each other about the murders they where forced to commit, and realise that the murderer must be in Sinon's room right now.  They overcome Death Gun eventually, and Kirito arrives right on time at Sinon's place in the real world to prevent her being killed by someone she actually thought was her friend...

 

One month after the events of GGO, the band, now with Sinon having joined them, goes on a quest to retrieve the legendary sword Excalibur.  After going through the instance, Jotunheim, they obtain it, and Kirito adds it to his arsenal.  But in ALO, Asuna encounters a girl called Zekken, who is apparently unbeatable.  She faces her, and afterwards joins her party because they want to beat a level and have their name on the wall of fame as they will not be able to adventure together anymore after winter.  This is because Zekken is actually a girl called Yuuki Konno, and Asuna finds out she is dying from AIDS, an infection from a blood transfusion during labour.  She and her party are all patients in the terminal care unit, and because of her imminent death they wanted to have their names engraved.

 

Using a drone, she can grant Yuuki the joy of attending school for a day, as she never got out of the medical machine, and to go see her old house one last time.  Months later, Asuna receives a message from the hospital, telling her Yuuki is dying and they hook her up into the game one last time.  Here, she passes peacefully away in the game, so all her loved ones can come and see her one last time as per her dying wish...

 

So yeah, while the first half was so and so, that last arc was gutwrenching and made this a very good season in my opinion to be honest.  So bring those tissues if you watch this anime! 

 

 

 

 

The Haul Report 421

 Let's kick off this episode with something I had made over at Etsy...

 

And that is, finally, a dice tray!

 

Sporting the YouTube logo, because that was just something cool I wanted to have done. 

 

I also received a 3D printed full 1000 pts army for Warmaster, and of course those are tiny little Chaos Dwarfs that I'll be painting up. 

 

Another 3D print that came to my door was through Etsy, as I found a nice model to start working off to make my Baggage Train. 

 

Of course, that all makes you very thirsty, so when Untappd had a special discount for the new Kasteelbier, I immediatly ordered some to try out. 

 

More beer also arrived in my bi-monthly delivery of a beer subscription from Frontaal Brewery.

 

Next to arrive, is a Lamassu from the Fabelzel line of models.

 

While I also found a still printed edition of Cutlass, a game of fantasy pirate skirmishers, over on Vinted. 

 

And we got some more boardgames, as during our holiday trip, more on which later this week, we went to a Sfeermarkt in Arcen.  Here we found a vendor of boardgames both new and second hand complete, and picked up Menara new, at a price that basically put in the Saga for free and still be cheaper then the lowest online price. 

 

So that's a nice little pile of additions, and especially with that Cutlass we are going to organise some games next year! 

Touring after the Apocalypse volume 4 - Sakae Saito

 Time to enjoy another volume of this series, and it's mysteries as to why an apocalypse took place to start with...

 

... maybe this fourth volume will offer some more answers, and what Youko's connection is to this all?

 

The girsl travel to the Oarai seaside, sleeping in the abandoned and stranded ferry that used to bring passengers to Hokkaido, as Youko has a vivid dream of how it used to be back in the days.  Strolling around, they find a huge fishtank, still filled and a big, strange creature living inside it, it's own ecosystem having developped over the years.  Returning to the seaside, they enjoy a freshly caught meal while gazing over the ocean.

Their next stop is Nikko, along the Irohazaka winding roads, which contains no less then 48 hairpins and stunning views.  After visiting a waterfall and the Nikko Toshigu shrine, they move on, but Airi thinks she hears a high pitched sound.  Their journey leads to the Yoshimi Hundred Caves, and the apparent source of the sound.  Airi wakes at night, witnessing an abandoned car driving off a cliff, pebbles rising into the air and a mysterious black orb appearing.

The orb follows her, swallowing her right before she reaches the caves and transporting her to outer space.  From here, she can see Earth, before waking up.  Thinking she experienced a vision, believing aliens visited the caves 1500 years ago to build them with the help of primitive humans.  They climb to the top, seeing a UFO take off, apparently communicating to Airi they should be back at this location in 100 years.

 

In Ogano, Youko has another dream in which she visits the Oshiko biker shrine and it's many biker related places, dreaming of fresh pork cutlets, but waking up she finds Airo made bento in some of the typical gas tank boxes from the city.  As they stay near Shirakaba lake, they make preparations to travel the Venus Line.  This road is said to have fantastic views, but a thick fog descended and made the journey dangerous.

Instead, they decide to climb Mount Mitsunime to enjoy a fantastic sea cloud view, before going to Karuizawa Station, where Japan's biggest shopping mall was located.  In here they go scavenging, enjoying some cosplaying while doing so, but then an earthquake is felt.  They go on, and barely escape a build up of volcanic gass, Youko passing out.  As Airi tries to drag her to safety, a car approaches, and the person stepping out stating the rumours are true, and there is still a human left...

 

And so the book ends, with more mystery, because not only who is this person, but as we know Airi is an android, what does he mean by "a" human left?  Let's hope volume 5 will lift some more tips of the veil of the things going on behind this seemingly innocent road trip story...

Warhammer Underworlds casual evening 13th of august 2025

 As the group set out tonight for some casual Underworlds and Spearhead gaming, I managed to join in for some games as I have holidays, huzzah!

 

And that also meant I could play more then a single game this time around!

 

I opted to debut my "Chaos Dwarf advance raiders" of Da Kunnin' Krew, on which I told some more yesterday.  The idea behind it and the very shaky deck I build for it can as such by found in that post, but needless to say I expected my behind to be handed over to me twicefold as I need to get used to the band, and a deck build with fluff instead of efficiency in mind.  But sometimes, it is just a fresh breath of NOT having to tune a deck to the finest.  

 

Beer and pretzel time, here we come! 

 

The first game put me against Wim with The Emberwatch, rocking the Blazing Asaault combined with Emberstone Sentinels.  

 

Both warbands deployed, and the Emberwatch immediatly went out the gates with Ardorn taking down Gikkit before the poor goblin well and truly knew it was game night.  

 

The Krew started to delve around, Torka not afraid of making his hands dirty.

 

The brute was assaulted by Farasa, as Krookgrin tried to kneecap Ardorn in return to no avail, Shank occupying himself with digging holes as well.

 

One thing with my deck combination, the board will be cluttered with a lot of tokens lol... as Mannok entered the fray, but missed.  

 

The first turn ended with a 5-6 lead for The Emberwatch, though I did manage to score Unrelenting Massacre in this first turn.

 

In an effort to push Ardorn of the objective he held, the Kunnin' Krew ganged up on the leader of the warband, wounding him and pushing him off, and as a result they all inspired.  

 

Using some sneaky tactics, the Krew started to relocate to the other side of the board, the Emberwatch trailing them however.

 

 The battle turned into something of a running game, but the Orruks somehow managed to keep missing their attacks and barely any damage was done against the well-armoured Storncast Eternals.

 

 This resulted in them extending their lead to 8 vs 10, but we where still holding on, that's something I guess...

 

 But that was soon to end, as Farasa knocked Mannok out of contention.  I really needed that first turn here to have a bit of a chance, but alas.

 

With Torka once more missing Yurik, this wasn't the way we where to go to push them off treasure tokens and score some objectives...

 

 And as a result, Torka was dispatched by the crossbow wielding warrior, the bolt striking him in the slid of his armour at the neck area.

 

Krookgrin saw his moment of heroics, as he was the center of attention, surrounded by The Emberwatch.  I guess they where looking for a good deal on some used, rusted down daggers or so?

 

Yet somehow the Hobgrot lived to tell the tale, but to no avail as Da Kunnin' Krew lost 11 to 17 against these mighty sacred warriors.

 

 So, holidays, and that means I got a second game in, and this would be against Wouter and The Emberwatch, running Reckless Fury with Coutndown to Cataclysm.  Seems the posterboys of the Embergard edition are everywhere these days.

 

They deployed all to one flank, as the treasure tokens where placed off to the right mostly, meaning it would become a huge scrapfest over on that side.

 

 And almost immediatly I lost my slugger, Torka, to the combined attacks of the Stormcasts, while having done no damage in return as he missed Farasa (this would become a thing in this game).

 

The Krew spread out, delving all over the place in order to be able to score Broken Prospects in the end phase.

 

Yet this also meant they became vunerable, and Gikkit was taken down by Farasa while trying to defend his feature token. 

 

The Emberwatch scored crazily this first round, taking a 5 to 10 lead after the opening blows had been struck.

 

 But then it was time for the first of six acts of Mannok the incompetent, who had Gloryseeker equipped but failed to find any.  He missed Farasa as he could have taken her out, and not inspiring as a result either.

 

 In the ensuing melee, Krookgrin was taken down by Yurik sadly.

 

Mannok then duly went on to miss Farasa again, who had received, oh irony, a damage from Krookgrin's dying Outburst.   Mannok attacked her again and, you guessed it, then missed Farasa with his two hammers.  Maybe I should have gone after the uninspired, vunerable Yurik I hear you say, but she was the bigger threat and if I would like, hit, would take her out in one go...

 

 But the game was going avalanche style downwards due to his misses, the Emberwatch now on a 7 to 20 lead.  I COULD swing it around still, he had 7 glory from his models on the table and I had 7 glory in hand, but then each and every attack would need to hit and both Farasa and Yurik taken down as good as immediatly...

 

But old Mannok proved why his overseers send him out in the wilds in the hope not to hear from him again, as he kept missing the Stormcasts, and was outshone by Shank who pushed Ardorn of the treasure with a simple net throw...

 

 And while Mannok eventually didn't, out of petty perhaps, fell to the blows of Farasa after having missed his attacks no less then 6 times (and by miss, really miss, he only had to make a save roll once which he duly did of course), Da Kunnin' Krew was obliterated by 10 to 22 by Sigmar's finest.  Ouch...

 

Well, that didn't go to well, yet somehow I was very happy with the outcomes.  Surely, I could have scored some more in the second game had Mannok decided to actually hit something, but would have lost still I think.  But in defeat, the best lessons are learned.

 

This deck for one is to learn the Pillage deck, one I never played actually before while it is so popular, and as the Blood of the Bull is said to work around delving, is a deck I want to try cards out from.  I already have some cards on the "must use" list, but also a nice stack on the "better burn them then sleeve" pile.

 

A second thing I took away from these games is that Pillage and Plunder paired with Reckless Fury works counterproductive.  On the one hand you want to just move and delve, but on the other hand you want to charge into the opposing half, but hauling stagger tokens along isn't that great for aggro play.  It gives you two angles, something I usually like, but they are not having any synergy though so not the best combo.

 

Added to the fact I opted, fluff wise, to take all cheap, preferably free, upgrades gave me a stack of not to handy, often doing more of the same, tools to boost my band with, and things like the charge token giver are great for Unrelenting Massacre, but quit useless for the rest though.

 

Dirty Tricks is good fun, but bar creating a comical, tension moment doesn't do that much, both time my opponents picked the right card and you need three in hand to be able to use it as well, so it tends to be early in a round and not at the crunch times at the end to try and score those bigger end of round objectives.

 

But, it was good fun, and some valuable information has been gained for Hashut's arrival to the Underworld.  Now to get these guys and this deck actually to the Mines of Alost half of september, in what will be a very laid back, stressless event for once.

 

And this evening took me over my year goal of playing at least 50 games (these where games 50 and 51), so to celebrate, it was time for a good chicken durum with garlic sauce! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warhammer Underworlds: Da Kunnin' Krew

 Time for the most recent warband for Warhammer Underworlds to be painted up, and it's a bunch of Orruk slavers, Da Kunnin' Krew.

 

Now, it isn't a top of the line band in the game, but it has Krookgrin, a Hobgoblin!

 

So it was nor more then fitting to paint them up in the colours of my Chaos Dwarf force, including my lave themed bases I use for that collection.  We all know the Chaos Dwarfs use enslaved greenskins as their agents, and the Hobgoblins are usually around to keep an eye on the matter as most trusted vassals for the Dawi'Zharr.  So far that a Dawi'Zharr trusts anybody of course.

 

To add some flavour to this fluff idea, I build a deck far from optimal, with all 0 upgrades available as you don't invest in expendables, as well as picking the two most suited decks, even though their is not an ounce of synergy between them: Pillage and Plunder because that fits Chaos Dwarf raiding parties, and Reckless Fury because of it's flaming bull art.

 

 

 

 

The models all are painted as my army, because that fits nicely and was the whole idea as I daid above, and this resulted in adding some nice contrasting magma with the large sculpted bases "flat areas".

 

And so Da Kunnin' Krew won't take up space on my Underworlds warbands collection shelf, but join the ranks of the Chaos Dwarf shelf as a result!  And let's see how they fare at the next tournament I attend, half of september...

 

For Hashut!