zondag 17 maart 2024

Into Mordheim!

 So, a new band has been assembled for Mordheim, using the Black Dwarfs warband rules from Broheim.



And of course, for the newest venture in the lost city, I adopted the paint scheme of my repainted collection.

For the models, I went a bit all over the place with a variety of ranges, adding individualism across the warband that way.

The leader, a Sorcerer, Gornash Flamehand, with a double-handed weapon, is the Forge World LE Daemonsmith, and this gives the model a nice centerpiece position instead of just an anonymous spellcaster in a bigger force.



The other hero of the warband, the Gaolor Darbuk the Sadist, with iron whip, sword, helmet and light armour, is from Miniatures Forge, a resin 3d print.



More prints also make up the three Chaos Dwarf warriors in the warband, with a Lost Kingdom Death Guard as the blunderbuss wielding trooper, and two Fabelzel designs for the normally equipped warriors, all wearing light armour.



Finally three Informants join the fray, in the form of two Fabelzel Hobgoblins, one equipped as a Sneaky Git and one as a regular soldier, and a goblin spear wielding one who is one of the old metal Clan Wars models I still have a mountain off.



This all rounds out the warband on a nice 497gc of the available 500gc to start, and 8 models to go round.  I opted to base them on round bases, as the updated rules and errata no longer force to be based square, and I always thought that a better thing for skirmish games after all.

Now to venture into the city in the future and start collecting slaves and wyrdstone shards!

The Haul Report 392: massive Warhammer Underworlds lot

 Welcome to a truly massive Haul Report this week, as I FINALLY collected the end of sales box from Warhammer Underworlds, which I paid for back in November.

Which doesn`t matter per se except it doesn't count for models bought this year in the War against the Gray on Chaos Dwarfs Online ;-)



But these boxes where all from a store that stopped selling Warhammer, so I send one of my agents in to see if they carried some Underworlds still.  When he came back to me telling they have this and that, I just replied "take everything" and this is the result.

In the meantime, the mystery of the barcodes talked about in the above clip has also been solved.  Apparently stores need to destroy unsold stock they would return, and instead they just cut out the barcodes.  No problem, as all the stuff is either price support or for my own collection anyways, and the two incomplete sets I traded off the sprues in a day.



I also went for another visit to the  Kringloop Wijnegem thrifting store, bringing back mostly books, but some other items as well, so check out this video.

But MORE Underworlds though, as I tracked down the Kainan warband, one of the older bands I really want to add to my collection.  I found it at Promokings and went to collect it this week.



Now this means I will have to record a LOT of unboxing videos of Underworlds the coming days, good fun ahead, and notch up the painting speed to get as many as possible bands finished for this year!

zaterdag 16 maart 2024

On the Painting Desk 273

 Tallyhoo and hail Hashut!

I finally finished my Black Dwarf warband for Mordheim, only 2 months after my self-imposed paintschedule guidelines.

But, putting Final Fantasy aside a bit for the moment, and diving back into watching anime / YouTube and painting, serious progress has been made the past week at last, after weeks of slacking.

As the warband is done, and will be shown one of these days in a seperate clip and blogpost, I started painting on the next project, which is a warband for Warhammer Underworlds: Skaeth's Wild Hunt.



These Kurnothi, so far the ONLY ones in the Age of Sigmar 'universe', came all the way back in the basebox of Beastgrave, the third edition of the game.  Considering we are now in edition 9...

And those have seen a good start as well, with myself aiming to have them at least their first layer, and preferably their second, completely done by next week.  Underworlds will be the majority of painting efforts in the coming weeks and months, as this is a) the only game I am currently playing and b) I got so many warbands, both those I want to play and those I might play sometime.

Check back next week for the progress!

donderdag 14 maart 2024

Warhammer Underworlds Battlereport: Elathain's Soulraid vs Grinkrak's Looncourt

 Yesterday evening I went to the Antwerp player group weekly gathering in Outpost Gamecenters, in an attempt to get some better piloting in for my Soulraid.

Because the tournament where I will be using them is now less then a month away, and I only have so far a single game under the belt with the concotion I brewed from their Rivals deck together with the Force of Frost one.



Facing me where Grinkrak's Looncourt, using their Rivals deck, and with Wouter at the steering wheel.  I never faced this horde of questing gitz, so let's see how we fare against such an overwhelming number of opponents.  His band has a lot more wounds going round on the board, and with myself not having high damage dealers, I hoped that every attack would count.

Setting up the boards, I deployed to mostly one side with the plan being to work through the little guys from one side to the other.  A plan that would quickly stall though...




I started off with Fuirann immediatly charging Pointy Burk, but the little Git dodged critically.  She was in turn charged by Grib, Da Wonkly Lance and immediatly put down.  Not a great start at all.  Surely she is the most expected to die soon model in the warband, but this was really fast...


Spinefin appeared in the middle of his warband, as Duinclaw, injured already by his catapult, wounded Grinkrak himself.  
 


 
With Elathain stuck against Grib, who also dodged critically, Tammael threw his harpoon and took down the opposing leader.  Moments later, a "ping damage" power card brought down Duinclaw, and the first round ended with two of mine out of action versus only a single git, and a 3-3 score on the board.


Inspired now, the Idoneth tried to go for the score, but the next to fall to Da Wobly Lance was Tammael.  This squig riding knight was turning out to become a serious issue!  
 


Luckily Ealthain made short work now of Burk, resulting in Tammael returning from the dead.  Finally, the little knight was brought down due to a harpoon to the belly though, as Elathain in the meantime had become a large fighter who takes one less damage thanks to upgrade cards.
 

The balance in numbers down was as such restored for a bit, but the Soulraid was trailing 8 to 7 now on the crusading gitz...
 

Even though I assaulted his power deck with Fury of the Storm in the third round, Tammael was killed (again) by Skolko and Pronk, the catapult causing serious havoc against my low wound warriors.  
 
Luckily Elathain took down another of the smaller gitz with Snorbo da Spore, and the thrall returned once again.



I had to do some serious thinking now, with Tammael quickly dispatching Pokin' Snark, but I needed to score my objectives to try and pull off a win.  I passed an activation to discard Break the Ice, and got Frozen Fate in return, so it might still be doable.


Using my last activation, as I went second in the final turn, I ran Tammael next to Pokin' Snark, allowing me to score said Frozen Fate in the end phase, as well as Dead or Doomed for three juicy points.


This all tallied up in the end for a 14-11 victory for the Soulraid, something I never expected after how horrible turn 1 went... but thanks to Tammeal's return mechanic (he came back twice after being killed) I actually outnumbered the Gitz at the end.

A close fought game, I did decide to change some things in my deck afterwards.  Break the Ice went out due to the low reliabilty of both getting it, and doing that first damage with my low defences.  Instead I have taken Smothered Memories, as with three milling cards in the deck I should be able to score this forcing my opponent to discard.  I also took out the four upgrades revolving around gathering Ice tokens, as this is to circumstantial to get some extra defences on one of two models, instead opting to take cards from Elathain's own Rivals deck, like Lurelight (more card discarding!).

Okay, so it has morphed from a mixed deck now to a Rivals deck smoothed out with a little Force of Frost, but I hope to get back next week and try that out then.



dinsdag 12 maart 2024

Warhammer Underworlds Deathgorge rulebook

 We have come a long way since the 4 page rules included in Shadespire, like what now, 7 years ago?



As in the latest core box, Deathgorge, we got a nice and glossy rules book, counting 64 pages.  Still small for a GW game, but never the less quite a growth over those years.

Though it is not at all dry rules to remember, the engine still is the same, it just has some nice fine-tuning and more diagrams as before, so let's have a look at the book.
 
The Lore
 
Located in the realm of Ghur, the Deathgorge was once a domain of the Orruk's, where mighty armies where defeated.  But when the Ogor's drove them out, it became infected with the curse of Everwinter.  Rumours of mythical artifacts, covered in a strange amber residue as if gorged up by some huge beast, have attracted many adventurers to the place.   It's halls are full of dark grandeur, slain monsters and warriors frozen in the eternal ice, their souls ready to be harvested in hundred meter high stalactites.
 
These artifacts are rumoured to be from the ancient settlement of Anbarra, where in the Age of Myth Gorkamorka and Sigmar duelled to a stalemate in 12 days, destroying all around them.  As Drakatoa, the Living Avelanche, fled from the scene after having Gorkamorka pulled out of him, it is said it brought along all the artifacts that ended up in the Deathgorge.  
 

 
It also tells the lore of the warbands included in the set, the Slaaneshi Thricefold Discord band of demons, and the Idoneth Deepkin of Cyreni's Razors accompanied by their squid.  The former are a trio of Heralds of Slaanesh, who can't stand each other.  They have been send to the Deathgorge to claim 666 souls in order to be redeemed.  The latter, led by Cyreni of the Abyss, is an Idoneth expedition to gather souls, led by a Tidecaster proficient in handling icy waters.
 
 Introduction

Basically, well, an Introduction to the Underworlds game, telling what is what included in the game and the things you need.  This section covers the basics, like how to read the cards, what the symbols mean, what Insipre is, the usual.

The Rules

Then we move on to of course the most important part of a rulebook, namely how one should actually play the game.  Now, Underworlds is rather unique in the Games Workshop family in that it combines three types of games into one: a miniature game, a board game and a cardbuilder game.  While this might sound daunting, it is actually pretty straight forward, especially as the Rivals format allows for play straight out of the box.
 

 
The core mechanics are still about 4 pages, with all the other pages taken up by special rules and abilities, and diagrams explaining the said actions in detail.  You have three turns of 4 subphases each, during which a couple of steps are taken.  This at first glance large sequence is handily printed on the back of the rulebook in a flowchart, and once you tried the game one or two times, it comes pretty naturally.
 

 
It also contains the explanations for the special abilities weapons and the likes might have, like Ensnare or Cleave, and superactions like Charge that combine two actions into one  (but usually at a cost).

The Other Stuff
 
Once the rules section is finished, there are some additional rules for multi-player games, as well as the various formats that can be played.  Generally though, you will either be playing Rivals (using either the warbands pre-constructed deck or one of the Universal pre-constructed decks), or Nemesis, which combines a Universal deck with your bands stack into a single deck for some tailored deckbuilding.
There is also a 4 page glossary of the rules with short explanations and references to the pages in question, and finally the flow chart I talked about above.
 

 
The whole rulebook is smooth, glossy thick paper like most Games Workshop products, with a lot of gorgeous artwork.  One can say a lot of things about GW, but never that their rulebooks aren't decently made.

So yes, give this game a try, you can also freely print the rulebook from the Warhammer Community download section under Underworlds, so no need to actually get the box, though you will need it for the counters and boards though if you don't have someone already playing the game.



zondag 10 maart 2024

On the Painting Desk 272

 Another week with minimal progress, and not because I don't feel like painting or so.

It is just so busy, I'm even starting to get behind on watching anime as well.

And that isn't even for Final Fantasy either, because I barely logged in the past fortnight.  But here the very modest result of the week, 2 tones on the daemonsmith and that's it...



Hopefully better in the coming week, as I really need to get into gear harder!

See you next weekend for any possible progress.

zaterdag 9 maart 2024

The Haul Report 391: Man-O-War!!!

 Some more Underworlds this week in our little loot report, with extra boards to game on!

As I missed out on the Gnarlwood cycle (I'll make up for it in due time), I was scrolling through Vinted for some warbands and whot-nots for Underworlds as I came upon these.



The boards of Gnarlwood, sold seperatly, for only 7 euro, so I picked them up for some variety sake to game on.



In other things, I also grabbed these classics for a great bargain, though I admit I have gotten these pure for flipping purposes in order to get either the Chaos Dwarf vessels or missing Underworlds warbands that I like.

And there is much more on the way, as next episode, amongst others, a lot of Underworlds will be collected!

vrijdag 8 maart 2024

Asumi-chan is intrested in Lesbian Brothels volume 2 - Kuro Itsuki

 Next on the reading list for this year it is time for a "Men of culture" book.



And that is, little innocent Asumi exploring the world of escorts more, in the hopes of finding her crush again and bringing her back into her life.

Unknowingly having booked her high school crush and goal of her bookings, it is Mai who recognizes her and starts getting all nervous for the appointment, as they both blame themselves it turned out in a let-down when they tried that first kiss all those years ago.  

But that means she has to work as well to keep her brothel visits paid, and at her job in the catcafe, a special school girl event takes place.  But as she is getting overworked, she comes down with a fever and has to cancel her appointment.  As she goes back to the website for a re-booking, it turns out the girl, whom is actually Mai, is full for the coming weeks.  Instead she books Serina, an experienced girl that shows her great pleasure, and due to their get together decides not to retire from the job.

Later she learns her senpai not only knows Serina, but that she herself once briefly worked in a brothel.  Deciding to try the sites specials, she tries a threesome with two girls she had already met before.  Here she gains new experiences, like watching to people making love for the first time before being drawn in herself.  And as such, gaining an experience not even her senpai ever had.



When they are discussing it, they find a keychain of an anime figure, and soon after a girl comes to look for it, Asumi inviting her to go see the new movie.  The girl, Nanao, is rather shy though.  They have a fun night out, and Asumi befirends her.  But when she returns home, she sees on the brothel app that one of the girls, Iroha, offers a cosplay service as she loved the movie as well, resulting in Asumi booking her.  Though their passionate evening makes it difficult for her to see the movie a second time without reliving her cosplay adventure...

And so the second volume comes to an end with a short bonus story of a young Azumi and Mai having a sleepover, and we gear up for the next instalment.


dinsdag 5 maart 2024

Ao no Exorcist Kuro No Iede

 This OVA is set between the first and second season of Blue Exorcist, taking it from the viewpoint of Kuro.



Thinking Rin is on purpose tormenting her with to hot food and all, Kuro decides to go look for another master.

With situations resulting in miscommunication as the brothers can't understand her "meow speak"  she goes outside and see if she can finds a better master then Rin, or his brother who wanted to force her to go to the litterbox... which she considers below her as she is not an ordinary pet.
 
Roaming the streets, she finds one of Rin's friends, Izumo, as well as his other classmates in a quest for food.  Kuro even discover already the true identity of Shura, who still tries to hide it, but still doesn't get a meal out of it.
 
His moral at a low, he misses Shiro, trying to remember how to get there on his own and getting totally lost.   After tacking a hike on the back of a motorcycle, Kuro goes to the trainstation and towards Shiro.  He runs into a little girl who promises her dad to feed Kuro everyday, but as she wants to dress him up he runs away from her as well.  



Wandering through the rain at night, he finally arrives at Shiro's grave, seeing his spirit and telling her complaints about Rin to him.  He promises Shiro he will take care of Rin, and as he wants to return he spots Rin who has been following him all the time, keeping an eye on him.

This was a fun OVA, with a lot of cameo appearances from all the characters of the season, down to the supermarket lady, and not a bad watch if you like the series.