Rings of Power - Episode 4

 Finally a Bit of Action 

As always the look of the show has been excellent but it has been lacking some serious action. And it felt then finally might be about to start to change. As war is coming and a couple of nice fight scenes.

One of the things that Game of Thrones managed so well was big battle scenes but the Rings of Power has struggled to convey the sheer epic-ness of the source material. Given the budget they just couldn't convince me it wasn't a hundred extras in a field. 

Lets be honest Tom Bombadil went much better than may of us had feared. 

Ok so this isn't a glowing review but I have hopes for a grand finale to the season. And unlike House of the Dragon we may get a big battle to end the season. 

Rob 

Babylon 5 - The Mighty Narn War Wachine

 In All Its 2.5D Glory

I was prompted to write this article for three reasons, first there is another attempt to reboot Babylon 5, second, I was reading an article by another blogger, A Terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth ' More StarTrekkin who was starting to build up a Star Trek fleet and it reminded me of my attempts to make cheap Babylon 5 ships. And third I am big fan of Babylon 5. 

I put these ships together about 15-20 years ago (before anything such as a 3D printer) as a quick and cheap way to refight parts of the Narn-Centauri war.  While there were some very nice metal models at the time, but at about £5 per capital ship this made putting on a large game an expensive option. And I always want big battles, which is one of the things that I loved about Babylon 5 was they weren't afraid on a big space battle. These ships were drawn on MS Paint and printed on an inkjet printer. Finally, the paper was stuck onto a medium card and cut out. I didn't want flat models but did want to be able to put a fleet together quickly. So, this was a compromise design. 

They look quite basic by today's standards, but I managed to face off against the Centauri a few times. The biggest issue at the time was the lack of a hex mat so distances etc. had to be measured out which slowed the games down. And the aim was big and reasonably fast space battles in order to fight out a war. 

Heavy cruisers with escorts and fighters

Babylon 5 managed to design some really cool spaceships which were every bit as iconic as its Star Trek competitors. Ships of both the Narn Regime and the Earth Alliance were my favourites. 

It is interesting that both Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9 produced at the same time (late nineties) started the multi-series story arc which is now the norm. But Babylon 5 was always designed as a multi-series story arc whereas Deep Space 9 developed this way.  I remember reading an article by the writers of Deep Space 9 saying that you just couldn't keep writing a story around a space station where everything went back to normal at the end of the episode and there wasn't any long-term consequence to the stories. Whereas in Star Trek - The Next Generation they could always fly away at the end of an episode. 

Season 1 with Commander Jeffery Sinclair

'You talk like a Minbari, commander' A compliment by the Minbari warrior Neroon to commander Sinclair. 

One of the points about Babylon 5 that the writer J. Michael Straczynski said was that he had a plan for every major character including a way to drop them out of the series. Which unfortunately he had to do to the series lead commander Jeffery Sinclair played by Michael O'Hare after the end of the first series. Not that it was known at the time, but he was suffering from a serious mental health condition and had to leave. 

The G'Quan Heavy Cruiser

'How many Centari does it take to screw in a light bulb? One but in the great old days of the Republic, hundreds of servants would screw in a thousand light bulbs at the slightest command!' Londo's joke about the faded glory of the Centari republic. 

Never too many...

Seasons 2 - 5 with captain John Sheridan

Commander Sinclair was replaced by captain Sheridan (centre) who ran through to the end of the series. 

'What's going on? Looks like a Pak'ma'ra ate your cat' Ivanova's life lessons

Frazi Heavy fighter

Size comparison

Londo, Vir and G'Kar in a more relaxed conversation

'Do you think I married them for their personalities? Their personalities could shatter entire planets!' Londo about his wives.

T'Loth Assault cruiser (right) alongside
a G'Quan heavy cruiser. 

Rob 

The Rings of Power - Two Episodes In

The Elephant in the Room 

Like many people by now, I have watched the first two episodes of the Rings of Power last night.  I think it was a cautious start. They got a number of story arcs started and tried to set the scene for the casual watcher. It looked gorgeous and the money spent can be seen on screen. Especially as it wasn’t splashed on a couple big name stars.  Lenny Henry was probably the most well-known face amongst the cast on this side of the pond. 

 

From a design point of view, they echoed most of the same design themes as the films. So, they didn’t look jarring different.  However, the differences were there in the costumes and armour. I particularly liked the look of the dwarves and I suspect the watchtower will appear on a few gaming tables.  

I never quite got the whole design ethos for dwarves in the films, no curves. I think they would need function as much as form. So sometimes a curve is the best shape! And dwarves are supposed to be practical. 

Too be fair it was never going to be a tough sell to me, and I am looking forward to seeing more of this series. But I doubt it has yet convinced the doubters that it was worth the time or the money.  

Anyway now back to the ruffians who are looking to cause mischief in the Shire. 

Rob 

The Rings of Power

 The Rings of Power

I don't normally post about upcoming TV shows. However, this has got be an exception. As a lifelong Tolkien fan, I am definitely looking forward to the new Rings of Power show.  It does look like Amazon is really spending the money and making in count in this new trailer. 

As a wargamer there are as usual a couple of teasers for various battles and all the major players seem to be represented. 

Rob 

Sixteen Years Later Mordred Returns

 Salute 2006 Mordred Painted

Probably one of the longest periods of time to complete one of my duels. I am pleased how they both came out and once again Mark Copplestone's figures paint up well.  

'Come, Father. Let us embrace at last.'

Mordred - Excalibur (1981) 

Mordred played by Robert Addie in the 1981 Excalibur movie, one my favourite early fantasy films (Remember Lord of the Rings is over twenty years away at this point). Incidentally it was directed by John Boorman who wanted to film Lord of the Rings but couldn't get the rights so filmed this instead. Thanks John, a childhood gem. 

I think there is an obvious bit of influence from the film with Mordred's helm on the Salute figure.  

Robert Addie, also played my favourite TV baddie of the eighties - Guy of Gisborne in Robin of Sherwood. He wasn't most dangerous baddie in Robin of Sherwood but he had persistence and could sulk. 

What? He got away again!

The finished shield design. 

I decided the shield was a bit to close to a Union Jack design.
So had to be changed. 

Bruce will stomp anyone. 

The Classic Pose

The Woods - Building a Warband

A Leprechaun Warband for the Woods?

While I get the hang of playing the Woods and deciding what warbands to use, I have decided to mainly use my existing figures. This will give me time to learn the different parts of the rules  and try different force combinations. I did get lucky when I realised I still had one owl left over from Dryads. As they proved handy in the first game.

Rob 

Chaos Beastmen Attack Village

 A.K.A. The Wheel of Time - Episode One

Just watched the first episode of the new Wheel of Time TV series by Amazon. Without giving away too many spoilers there is an attack on a village by group of Trollocs (I can only assume they were going for an amalgamation of Troll and Orc but ended up with something far worse! or maybe the writer was just taking the piss). However, I haven't read the books so I don't know what the official description of Trolloc  in the books is but in the TV series they are real dead-ringers for Chaos beastmen from Warhammer. 

I did try and find a picture of them from the show but couldn't so you will just have to watch it if you want to see what i am talking about.

Definitely NOT Trollocs!

Now I am not entirely sold on this series but if you want to see what chaos beastmen would look like attacking an isolated village then this is a pretty good place to start. Plus, the magic attacks were good as well. 

Rob