Following my enjoyable playthrough of Alex Kidd in Shinobi World a few weeks ago, I decided to take a go at Sonic the Hedgehog on the Game Gear (Which I think, is the best of the two 8-Bit versions).
Really had a lot of fun and I did this over a few days cause the tiredness is real and I am really struggling to stay awake.
This week I had my birthday, and it wasn’t what I hoped for.
My sister in laws cat went missing, and I have some medical stuff to deal with.
So Fosfos, Emma’s cat went missing on Sunday night and it’s not like her to wander, so Monday Emma was busy leafleting in Blyth where she lives.
Tuesday, Lindsay and Megan went up to help her, but she was still no where to be found, thankfully she returned home at 2am Tuesday and woke up Emma for cuddles.
So that was a huge relief.
Tuesday night we went out for Nando’s for my birthday, which I really enjoyed, haven’t had a Nando’s since the day before the first lockdown and I really enjoyed it.
Present wise, Lindsay and Megan bought me the Evil Comes Prepared expansion for Disney Villainous and the Orruk Warclans Battletome, and I bought myself the Stormcast Eternals Battletome and the Charadon terrain box.
At the weekend we were meant to have some of our nephews staying but Gandalf our arsehole of a rabbit developed an ear infection, so he had to be rushed to the vets and needs hand feeding for a bit, so that was not a good environment for the boys to stay over as they are very active.
He is slowly getting better, but he really does fight us when it comes time to give him his medication.
What I Am Modelling
I started off by painting the Negavolt Cultists and Rogue Psykers for Blackstone Fortress.
After that Megan joined us to play a game of Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, and we managed to close all four gates and save the world from the terror of the Old Ones!
On Thursday #Cans happened, for those not from Newcastle upon Tyne, this was the end of a long running saga, last nearly two years in which the local football club, Newcastle United, my team, were sold.
To give some background, for the past 14 years the club has been owned by Mike Ashley of Sports Direct fame, under whose watch, we have seen the lowest recorded attendances at the stadium since the formation of the Premier League and its expansion, two of the clubs six relegations, and the lowest net investment of any club in its team in Premier League history.
He was not a popular man, he was aloof, rarely spent any money on the team and say an overall decline in all aspects of the club.
To put it bluntly, the squad is threadbare with almost no injury cover, the academy is all but decimated, the training facilities need to be demolished and rebuilt they are in such bad contrition and St James’ Park is Felapp dated and in serious need of maintenance.
The club has been a zombie of the game and in perpetual crisis, within a few months of his arrival, he had sacked two managers and alienated club legends like Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer.
Our ground has become not only potentially the tattiest ground in English football, but has basically become a cheap advertising board for Sports Direct.
So to summarise, the club is glad to see the back of this awful man, and I honestly hope he never sets foot in the city again.
But…
However there is a big but, our new owners are a consortium of the Reuben brothers, who are some of Britains richest men and have actually been investing a lot in the city these past few years. One of the sons, Jamie will sit on the board.
Amanda Stanley owns another 10% and she has been trying to buy the club since early 2017 have fronted a number of bids and put together a few consortiums to try and prise the club out of Ashley’s hands.
She was also a broker in the sale of Manchester City so she has a track record of football wheeling and dealing. And she is relocating her main residence from Dubai to Newcastle so she can be on hand to run the club.
The remaining 80% is owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a state owned investment group that invests the counties oil profits.
That makes us the richest club in the world.
But it also means we are owned by a regime which restricts the lives of women, murders journalists and LGBT folx, and routinely suppressed Shia Muslims and Baha’is.
And of course there is the involvement in Yemen, which to be honest is such a bloody complex situation with no actual good guys that I am not even going to try and explain that one.
We are being used to sports wash, you would have to be a fool to not see that, but frankly, we fans get little choice in the matter.
Are they the idea owners, of course not, but when we look at who else has been allowed to own Premier League clubs, it would be hypocritical to make a special case for Saudi Arabia, after all Manchester City has been own by people with questionable human rights records twice and are also used to sports wash.
The crack is, we fans have a chance to use our club to show the Saudis that they need to change how they do things at home, we can protest their crap during games with chants and signs, and these will be broadcast into the Kingdom for all their citizens to see, and I highly doubt beIN will be in any mood to censor that.
Look I know it’s not perfect, but right now, I am glad to see the back of Ashley, as for the Saudis, that’s something we have to figure out, the club lost its soul long ago, for all the bad they have done, The KSA has given us that back.
I am conflicted, I doubt it will ever sit easy with me, but my club is more than the ground, players, infrastructure and owners, it’s the fans, and we must remember that owners come and go, but the fans are what make the club.
This weekend we took a trip to North Wales to see two of our polycule members, Paul and Mary get married.
On our way to Wales we stopped in Manchester, where we visited Fanboy 3, Travelling Man and Warhammer, whilst the girls called into their favourite tea shop, Bird and Blend.
We then had lunch at Home Sweet Home, as recommended by David Salisbury of Fanboy 3 fame, and I had a beautiful chicken in a basket with an amazing gravy.
Paul loves trains, potentially in a slightly worrying amount. And unsurprisingly they got married at a heritage railway, but all the way over in Wales.
It was a lovely day and full of lots of fun, the food was quite nice too and I had a lovely bit of Welsh lamb.
We stayed quite a bit away so couldn’t stay the whole night but it was so much fun. it was Steampunk themed so I dressed up as a steampunk engineer.
On Saturday we out on a trip to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, and I murdered any attempt to pronounce the name of the place.
Played a bit of Halo 3: ODST which I forgot had such an amazing soundtrack.
I also played a bit more State of Decay 2, and I think this is something I will come back to, I only played it for the GamePass Quest, but found myself really enjoying it.
But I was playing it over cloud gaming on a 3G signal so it was very laggy and a bit rubbish.
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
We played a fair few games whilst away on holiday in North Wales, starting with Munchkin Steampunk.
I published a battle report, done differently to my others, this one has focused solely on the games narrative rather than getting fussy about dice roles etc.
It’s very rough but I am headed in the right direction at last.
What I Am Backing
Rawr! Velociraptor! was funded and as we said we backed just for the greatest hits album and I look forward to getting that.
In trying to do battle reports, I have lost sight of what I wanted to achieve, and thus I have decided to go back to basics and focus on what I want to do, which is concentrate on the narrative aspect.
So here is a report from my Crusade battle report from a game I played on Tuesday, its simple, and just looks at the game itself and not each individual dice roll.
I really should have wrote a proper script rather than just notes, but I will for next time!
So we think the reason I am feeling crummy, is a change in medication for my diabetes.
To be honest though, I am gonna try and tough it out, this new medication has some real positives, it’s reduced a personal issue which was causing a lot of pain, and it’s got me feeling like I have a healthy relationship with food for the first time in a long time.
The disadvantages are that my tummy has been a bit topsy turvey, and I am having eggy burps.
I have asked the doctor if we can reduce the dose slightly, so I shall see what they say.
What Am I Modeling
I started by finishing off the Necron Canoptek Wraiths, which actually completes the resolution to paint 2000 points of Necrons this year!
The first unit is armed with Transdimensional Beamers.
I then painted up three Crypt Flayers, a Crypt Infernal and a Crypt Haunter Courtier, which leaves me with just a Aberrant Ghoul King on a Royal Terrorgheist to paint for this army.
Magos Macrotek Enginseer & Sevo-Automata x 4 (if I can find it!)
Thousand Sons Terminators x 5 & Ahriman
Blackstone Fortress Rogue Psykers x 3 & Negavolt Cultists x 6
Stormcast Eternals Judicators x 10
Ork Nobz x 6, Painboy & Warboss
Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10
Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank x 2
Blackstone Fortress Spindle Drones x 6 & Guardian Drones x 2
Phase 1 Clone Troopers x 22
Ork Shokjump Dragster
What I Am Reading
Not a sausage actually.
But I did finish listening to the Godblight audiobook, and really enjoyed it, some interesting plot points that the Black Library can build upon.
What Video Games Am I Playing
I played through Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, a game I got for my 8th birthday, leant to my friend Simon and never saw again.
But I played it though emulation on Retroarch, and you can see that video below.
I also completed Halo 3, and I kinda wish that 343 Industries would remaster this game as it looks so much worse than the anniversary version of Halo 2.
And I have just tonight started on Halo 3 ODST, which is a beautiful game.
The second part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series
Each issue I will bring you a fully painted White Dwarf style battle report.
In this second episode, we see the Blood Ravens Primaris Lieutenant attempting to prevent the Necron Warriors from escaping and activating a Canoptek Plasmacyte which in turn can awaken the Destroyer cults.
Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the noble warriors of the Imperium.
I then began work on a Fire Raptor for the Heresy Death Guard, I have had this model for so long, originally it was intended for the Space Wolves, but plans changed.
