Preparing for Benelux Clash IV

 A friday night at the club, days before the second Golden Ticket event of three here in Flanders.  

 

Now, as I am already qualified, we decided to use this evening to help Tom out with tuning his band and deck in the hopes to propel a second TSA bloke to Barcelona.

 

I brought my most recent brew, Myari's Purifiers using Nexus of Power and Hunting Grounds, which will also be the combination I will be playing coming sunday for a stressless tournament for once.  Tom played Ironsoul's Condemnors, with the Blazing Assault / Raging Slayers combo.  That meant some heavy hitting would be coming my way, something my aelves aren't to fond off.

 

Both warbands deployed, and the Condemnors came in deep to be able to charge as soon as possible.

 

Which Tavian immediatly did, wounding Bahannar with a swing of his hammer. 

 

Brodus followed suit, but he missed Myari.  Senaela had snuck behind the Condmenors to try and score some early glory though.

 

But that plan soon broke apart, as Bahannar was struck again and quickly fell in the game against the overwhelming amount of hits the Stormcast deal out.

 

Brodus soon followed the lead of Ironsoul, and Senaela was smacked to the side as well, her broken body falling to the floor after a swing of the huge hammer.

 

This resulted in an already immense lead for the Condemnors of 3 versus 10!

 

In the second round, Ailenn was forced to go in deep in enemy territory, in the hopes of salvaging some objectives.

 

But the lumbering Eternals started to quickly close in on her, Brodus saving himself along the way on a Stand Fast not helping the cause.

 

Tavian in the meantime finished Myari off, leaving the swordmistress in a very dire situation. 

 

The second round ended at 5 to 15 still with the advantage to Ironsoul, and a single wound aelf now had to make sure to salvage the situation against the three warriors.

 

She neutralised the Ironsoul threat with Poor Footing, but that still left two of them near her.

 

 But as she couldn't take any of them down, had to resort to retreating to safe places instead.

  

A final opportunity presented herself as she defended against a swing from Tavian, her reposte taking down the big bloke in return.

 

But it was to little to late, and as Ironsoul glided onto the Aqua Ghyranis token, the game ended with a 9-19 defeat for the Purifiers.  At least I did outscore them in that final round after a whole series of whiffed attacks and defences that came up on Flanked and Surrounded results!

 

We sat down for a second game to try and get some more finetuning in for the Condemnors, and try some things pointed out during the first game to get them as sharp (hmmm, sharp hammers, whut) as possible for sunday.

 

Both bands deployed again for the rematch.

 

 Ironsoul immediatly charged forward, looking for a fight after her success in the first game.

 

 Soon joined by Tavian, as they looked to gang up on my token holders, as Ailenn and Senaela missed their attacks to try and wound Brodus a bit.

 

Brodus took out his revenge on the archer, slamming her to the side for the second game in a row. 

 

Never the less, the Purifiers kept steady, and a 3-3 was on the board after the first round.

 

But yet again, Bahannar failed all his defence rolls, and as soon as round 2 was underway the noble aelf fell to the combined might of Ironsoul and Tavian.

 

 Myari tried attacking Brodus, but failed to hit and as such to inspire.

 

 Ailenn had run to the back to hold the Aqua token, or be pushed and heal thanks to her upgrade, forcing Brodus to get into the outfield again.  The gamble paid off as she defended and healed, the round ending on 8-9.

 

But it all went down big time in the third round, with Myari falling to the counter attacking Brodus on Wings of War, and Ailenn taken out the next activation after missing yet another attack.  Allowing him to score Annihilation, the game still ended on a staggering 9-18 defeat.

 

So, as expected, the deck plays okay for a chill tournament, but can't stand up to the pure aggression of BARS or BADS, partly due to the frailty of the aelves and the being outscored race Blazing Assault causes in games.  It didn't help that I rolled a real trainload of Flanked and Surrounded, had I been playing Deadly Synergies, he would have been tabled twice before activation 3 or so lol.

 

But, we're happy where we are with the band and deck, and look forward to a stressless sunday, cheering on the boys in their chase for a Golden Ticket. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lord Ipsqueeck's Adventures: Planckendael

 Listen up fans and followers, for I have been to another adventure!

 

And with the first nice weather days of spring upon us, we took the car to Planckendael zoo nearby Mechelen.

 

 And I didn't went alone with my regular retainers, nono, Moeke and my nieces (and their servant adults) also came along for a day of watching beasties.

 

The first thing of note, there is now that huge bamboo tower at the reworked entrance to the park.  But I wasn't allowed to climb upon it...

 

The park is huge, giving me ample opportunity to stretch my legs, running all around the world from Asia over Oceania to America and further!

 

With spring, that also meant the Stork's are returning, as the park has a lot of nests, being a recognised breeding ground for the big birds.

 

 And all along the walking routes, there are obstacle courses to try out!

 

 They even had tiny tiny baby "kuif makaak" monkeys.  Yeah, that is from the same general family as Punch, but another variation of the species.

 

The otters had lunchtime, which had fish on the menu.  Did you know I also like fish a lot, especially with mashed potatoes and spinach!

  

 

 

There where as always a lot of animals to admire, and they seemed to enjoy the first days of sun as well, as many where out and roaming.

  

 

And some... less active hehehe... guess their clock is still on Australian time. 

  

 

Like these two cuties, the Capibara and the Mara, the latter also having a young one in their enclosure!

  

I thought I also saw Ribbi, but it turned out to be a flock of normal Flamingo's instead!

  

And after a trip by the bonobo monkeys in their refreshed environment, it was time to head home once more for a well deserved rest! 

 

Until next time for more adventures!!! 

 

 

 

Babylon 5 ACTA: Hyperion Pulse Cruiser

 Remeber how I told that near the end of the ACTA lifespan, models where made for the various Hyperion variants, especially present in the Earth Alliance "early" list?

 

Well, this is one of those, the Pulse Cruiser.

 

A Raid level variant, this vessel focusses on the twin-linked pulse cannons, making away with the beam cannons.  So this makes it a nice close-in brawler, for as much as the venerable workhorses of the fleet are suited to that.  Think of them of a "light" version of the Nova Dreadnought, lighter surivability, less guns, but more agility.

 

The sculpt itself is the regular Hyperion where the control tower and the tubes at the botton of the central part have been removed, and instead a large disc, the pulse generator, rests on the top of the front section. 

 

And this vessel also means I obtained my goal of painting 5 points of raid up again for A Call to Arms.  I will use it in a Middle Age EA fleet as the Assault variant to distinguish it from the others in the list, and giving me a nice compact force as a result. 

 

Now to start preparations on scenery and such for the Warfleets battle day! 

The Haul Report 433

 Time for some more swag, and we had the first Underworlds tournament, and Golden Ticket qualifier, on the 8th of march.

 

And first of all, I won that Golden Ticket, so off to Barcelona it'll be - the hotel is already booked as I write this and my entry confirmed by Games Workshop!

 

But we also got some nice warscroll sized sleeves, that is handy stuff!

 

Apart from that, I bought a Wrack from Johan, and he brought along my Manifestations that I bought with coupon from the Halle event past december.

 

And then there was the loot for winning the actual tournament as well! 

 

One thing that wasn't Warhammer though, is that the costume I'll be wearing on an Angels and Demons party in two weeks arrived, and which will form the basis of the character I am going to build: a priest that is going to convert all those bare-chested women with holy water (aka, tequilla). 

 

So that is a pretty awesome stack of aelven and Underworlds stuff for moi, and a nice set for the pile to boot.  Until the next one, which will be post Benelux Clash 4!

 

Though I don't expect to grab yet another Embergard trophy there at all...