Friday Nite-at last!

Last Friday I made it to Legio after 2 weeks of enforced absence. I had Peter and Alvin in tow that day. This time, I didn't play any games, just sat at the hobby table and put together 3 Pz IV for the upcoming Market Garden Campaign.

Having done that, I watched the games played. There was some FoW action going on with Nick and Jason. Peter was fighing it out with Subhan while Alvin and doc was having at it with their orks.

Had to go back early that nite but at least I've satisfied my need for some hobby action. On the home front, I'm busy completing my entry for Iron Painter and Kindred. I plan to have them assembled and primed by early February.

On that note, my Iron Painter entry will consist of the SCARS, namely Command Team Alpha, Squad Nova and Squad Bravo.

Musings-2009:What a Year!

It has come to that, the end times (for the year, at least) and I fondly recall the memories of 2009. So, what happened in 2009?

The greatest moment for me this year was when my little princess was born in February. After 3 and half years of waiting,, my wife and I finally got our first bundle of Joy!

I also started blogging in 2009, insignificantly of course, though I hope to improve on my content and delivery in time.

Through Legio and Wargaming, I met more friendly folks sharing the same passion. At the same time, I finally got to finish my Ork army the way i wanted to. This was no mean feat for me as I was quite restricted in terms of resources and time. Of course, closing on the dateline for SPORE '09' certainly helped in motivating me to pick up the brush and start painting. Alas, it was not meant to be, and real life issues had to take precedence and I had to wave bye-bye to SPORE.

Despite that, the furious activity up to that point certainly aided in preparing the Madz Mob for the Legio League and upcoming RTT.

The Mob took part in Azlan's Arenxis Minoris Campaign, where it remained undefeated, despite being outnumbered at times. It participated in both League Season 2 and 3, where it crushed all comers (most of the times)and ended up winning me 2 Purity Seals, sweet! Of course, having one's arch nemesis absent is a Godsend LoL.

At the Legio RTT, "The Inquisition Wars", the Mob did well enough, losing one battle to World Eaters of AK, and winning the other 2 matches convincingly. Although I'm a bit sad for losing to AK, but the utter carnage we had was a salve to my ego. Truth to tell, it has been a long time since I had that kind of carnage that lasted as it did!LoL. Truly awesome! Multiple units engaged with heroes strutting their stuff, all in one big melee. The lessons learned here is that: never let yourself be charged by multiple units of WE :)

Having the Mob with me all year round, I found out that they're good enough to carry the day, against any opponent, unless of course, lady luck really deserts me. So, for 2010, I'll put them in semi-retirement (pull out in case of emergency) and try to finish my SCARS project.

SCARS is actually a dream I had when I first started IG few years back. With the unveiling of Valkyries, the vision gets better, as are the options. So, 2010 is the year I put my efforts to bring the SCARS into being, and by so doing, pay homage to my fellow camrades/instructors/recruits that I had the privilege of knowing during my stint in the Territorial Army or Wataniah. This time around, I plan to put more effort on the hobby side of things while building the army, taking particular pains to clean the models good before painting them. As for painting, I intend to beg some instruction on the use of airbrush for the valkyries and vehicles and I do intend to bring my painting level up a notch.

Workwise, things seems to go alright wiith me qualifying for my RFP affliate title (that's several moore modules for full RFP title) and with new stuff coming out next year, the insurance industry looks quite promising indeed, at least for me.

Hobby-wise, I've taken the initiative to start a small campaign in Comic's Mart Midvalley. It's called Nimphora VII Campaign and I have 8 players in it (I'm the Organizer, so, not playing). In 2010, I might take a hand in organizing a Mighty Empires campaign in Legio or perhaps a small warhammer fantasy league? Who knows, maybe we'll have another Warhammer Fantasy Tournament too!

Maybe 2010 will get me to play Flames of War again. Previously, my interest for it simply waned as there's not enough people playing, and you do get tired after some time. Another major reason I think is because the Late war era seems to be too chalenging for a German player. some of the historical scenarios are really cool but in a simple pick-up games, it's a very steep uphill battle for my germans, it's just not worth it. Jeff mentioned running Market Garden in 2010. So, I hope that'll kick start some fresh interest in FoW for me.

So, that's it for my ramblings. To all who know me, I wish you well and may the coming year bring betterment to you and yours.

Musings-Legio 3rd Season League Finals

The finals were held on the 19th December 2009 at Legio Malaysia. 4 people qualified for the showdown. Me and Da Madz Mob, Khairul's Saim-Hann, Faizal's IG and a last minute finalist, Igbal and his Alpha Legion.

This season, I entered the League with a sort of lackadaisy attitude of "been there, done that" kind of. Not a winning attitude I know but that's what happened. Maybe having won a purity seal from the previous league made me a little jaded, perhaps?

We gathered at Legio early that day and by 0945, all was present, including Arzmi, who came to watch. The first game started at 1000 with me pairing off with Khairul on a black table and Faizal with Iqbal on a green table.

In my match with Khairul, we played 3 objectives with Pitch Battle deployment. For the first three turns, the eldar were doing fine, whittling bit by bit my orks and making me work hard for the objectives. The lootas, Snikrot and the deffkoptas were dead by then and he had only lost a falcon and some dire avengers.

The battle turned when the nobz took down Eldrad's wave serpent and pinned him! Khairul had to divert his Farseer council to rescue Eldrad and the dire avenger squad he's with from being mauled by the nobz. This took out some significant heat off the 'ard boyz who was securing one of the objectives. The seer council bravely charged the nobz and paid dearly for it. A wave serpent tried to contest one of the objectives but was less than an inch short.

We rolled for another turn but the game ended at the end of turn 5 with the orks holding 2 objectives and the Eldar none.

After a 15 minute break, I faced Faizal's IG army on the snow table. It was fully mechanized with veterans and command squad in 4 chimeras, 3 leman russ and a valkyrie plus 2 squads of stormtroopers. We played a Kill Points Mission with Pitch attle deployment. He had first turn and began to reduce the 'ard boyz. The boyz continued to take casualties as they close on the IG lines. The nbz then led the way, crashing into the IG lines, blowing up 3 tanks in a turn of assault. Snikrot was on a roll that day, blowing up a valkyrie and saw off 2 squads of stormtroopers and parts of a veteran squad.

The IG forces fought valiantly but died where they stood, save for one guy who fled off table. In the end, the orks won for the loss of the deffkoptas. The 'ard boyz were severely cut down to less than 10 boyz.

So, that ends the Madz Mob rampage in the league. Everyone was so much fun to play against and the whole hobby experience has improved tremendously.

What I find funny was that my potential opponents really did their homework and worked hard to defeat me. That's not without mentioning all the "advice" they got from "experts" on how to beat the Mob. Arzmi struck me as peculiar (or is it me?) when he was quite delighted to see me throw out some good-natured taunts at his brother during our game.

Here's hoping that the next season will be as much fun as this season.