Celt Armoured Cavalry

I have painted up the Celt Armoured Cavalry - 3 Renegade (Essex horses) and 3 Victrix. 

Still some experimenting with various speed and contrast paints. 

Generally quite happy - probably not as quick as I would like - hand painting the shields is a bit of a pain - geometric and knotty aren’t that easy to get right. 

The tartan/stripey experiment isn’t quite there yet. I need to remember what brown speed paint I am using for wood colour. 

I have assembled the rest of the Celt infantry to be stuck on sticks for undercoating. I suppose I should assemble the rest of the army too …

Morts 

Snake-eyes Half-Century Twilight Imperium

This weekend was Snake-eyes’ 50th Birthday celebration - so the collective (sans Cylon) who apparently had better things to do with the day) gathered and played Twilight Imperium (twice within a month). We were trying for an early start (therefore an early finish - Snake-eyes was saying late afternoon … but we knew that wasn’t going to happen, but it did appear briefly that it might). 

At 10am (after sausage baps) we were ready to go - the races were:

Steedo - The Clan of Saar (Black).
Snake-eyes - The Nekro Virus (Red).

Tiger-King - The Nomad (Pink).
Morts - The L1Z1X Mindnet (Blue).

DK - The Titans of Ul (Purple).

Tiger-King had asked to keep the Nomad, as he wanted to get his head around them, the rest of us rolled off - but in the end I kept from the last game L1Z1X, as it gave more space around the table. This left our two most successful players (DK and Steedo) with apparently the two most successful races in the game.

The starting places …

Steedo made an early attempt on Mecatol Rex and a very quick lead - I was struggling with gaining command tokens, mainly because DK kept taking the strategy card.

Below the scores at 14:00 - DK and Snake-eyes trying to keep up with Steedo on 7 points. 

DK had made a run on Mecatol Rex and forced out Steedo - and was complaining that no one else was stopping Steedo … but I think DK wasn’t quite getting the fact that Tiger-King and myself were so far behind, our interventions wouldn’t improve our game position … if you lose it doesn’t really matter who wins - although letting Steedo win two games in succession wouldn’t be great.

My move on Mecatol, using the hero ability …

Mecatol is mine … any I have some points in the bag … in fact moved into 3rd just a point behind the leaders … we had some fun with agendas, by voting for the leader to get points … but with joint leaders, they got nothing  - Ha ha. However, during an agenda phase a law was passed which led to a key part on someone’s victory - this was down to Tiger-King, deciding that rather than hamstring DK’s faction ability with structures, he would stop myself, Steedo and Snake-eyes getting a little boost off riders we had played …

In the final turn, the game had moved to preventing DK winning as the first two 2 point public objectives revealed were about having a certain number of structures in play … which was DK’s faction ability and he could score … I launched an assault on DK’s home system … but unfortunately DK’s structure’s did for me … although I did manage to rebuild some. Then Tiger-King made a speculative attack on Steed, who had been quiet for the last few hours … much to Steedo’s annoyance … “I’m not the threat” … however this attack was perfectly justified as Steedo had lined up a possible winning plan … this sort of deviousness is Steedo’s MO, so a good call.

But it was not to be … my efforts came to nought and DK was able to claim the win.

The final scores:

1st DK - 10 points

2nd Steedo - 8 points

3rd Morts - 7 points 

4th Snake-eyes - 6 points 

5th Tiger-King - 5 points 

A deserved win, although a bit lucky win the 2 point objectives to DK - Steedo, so close. A much improved game and attention from Tiger-King. I could have taken DK’s home world, I might have been able to snatch a victory … and hopefully a good day for Snake-eyes the birthday boy!

Morts

Almost Giant Killing …

Due to a bit of luck I managed to snag a last minute ticket to watch the mighty Grecians (18th in league one - which is the 3rd tier of English football) play Forest (4th in the premier league). And what a cracking evening I had.

The game kicked of and to be honest I thought that City might be in for a long night (which it turned out to be), as Argyle had beaten Liverpool on Sunday, so Forest might want to avoid another Devon banana skin. Anyway after about 6 minutes City scored - the home fan went wild … I did think was to too early…

And sure enough Forest pulled it level after about 10 minutes, the n they went ahead at 37 minutes… the giant killing dream was fading…

But wait the tale isn’t over yet … 6 minutes into the second half the Grecians were level! Game on. It was frantic stuff, Exe trying to catch Forest on the break and nearly managing it just before the final whistle for full time. But also having to defend and block deep against faster, fitter and more skilled players. 

At the death of full time Exe had a debutant sent off for a straight red (a poor tackle by all accounts) and a clash with the Exe keeper laid out a Forest striker for 10 minutes. But Exe held on for extra time.

Extra time was tough as the 10 man Exeter team held off Forest from scoring for another 30 minutes.

We were onto penalties - my first (and probably only) penalty shootout at a ground. The Exe captain stepped up and scored the first penalty … unfortunately the next 2 Exe players missed theirs and Forest didn’t miss any. 

Forest go through 4-2 on penalties.

But the Grecians can hold their heads high, as they took a team 54 places higher than them all the way - a brilliant evening!

Morts 

A hat-rick out on the Moor.

Not much doing on the painting or gaming sides things - I have made some progress on the Celt cavalry, but not much as I have also been applying for jobs. My contract ends fairly soon, and there has been much talk of an extension, but not sign of it becoming a reality. 

However I have managed 3 weekends on the bounce out on the moor. Below shows the walk 3 weeks ago,  from Wilsworthy to Row. TL - High Wilhayes from Wilsworthy. BL - flitter up to Hare Tor. TR - Yes and High Wilhayes from Kitty. BR - Yes and High Wilhayes from Dinger.

A fortnight ago it was my birthday and Thing 1 (whose birthday is a couple days before mine), got me a night in a hotel on the moor (this was partly to get me and the good lady out of the house, so she could have friends over). Obviously I plan a couple of little walks. The Saturday saw a circular walk from Manaton, over Hayne Down to Jay’s Grave, to Easdon Down back to Manaton via Luckdon and Manaton Rocks. 

Below, TL - the rocks up to HayneDown. BL/TR - more rocks on the top of Hayne Down. BR - Bowerman’s Nose, the named rocks on Hayne Down. 

Below, TL - Jay’s or Kitty Jay’s grave (sorry here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay's_Grave). TR - the trig point at Whooping Rock on Easdon Down. The views from here were great even on a cloudy day. BL - the view of HayTor and Hound. BR - Easdon Tor (I think). A really nice walk - although the good lady wasn’t to pleased with the climb over Manaton rocks at the end. 

After a cracking breakfast at, we made for Mardon Down. The top to pictures attempt to show Giant’s Grave. The remains of a burrow, unfortunately in the 18th or 19th century its stones were taken to be used a road foundations. BL - the Headless Cross - but I have no idea if it ever had a head. BR - the view over to an overcast Haytor and Hound Tor. 

Yesterday saw a trip to Haytor vale (but I didn’t take a picture of Haytor, up close). Top show Bonehill Rocks in the fog. Bottom is part of Hound Tor - still in the fog. 

Left show the rocks as you leave Hound Tor medieval village heading down to Becca Brook. TR the rather pretty footbridge over the brook. BR - some rather nice mossy stones at the bottom of Black Hill.

So three quality weekends and 4 walks out on the moor. The last one was interesting as it was very foggy and navigating was a challenge. 

I also a got the following for my birthday, which was nice. Thing 2, got me the Celts and the rules, my brother the FW190 (always thought it was a cool plane). Steedo very kindly got me Perudo (I will have to make sure I get the rules right - I don’t want a DK moment). The good lady got me a Garmin watch so I can measure my walks, activities and sleep - eek.  

 

I plan to build the FW190 before my brother comes over in July - nice to have a target to miss. 

Of to look at jobs now.  Oh joy - not!

Morts