The King

Posted on by tjkopena

Unrequested TV recommendation: Netflix’s The King is exceptional. A number of major characters and relationships are given decidedly non-traditional backgrounds and story arcs, and a number of anachronistic beliefs and sentiments. But it’s a very good, modernized, concise reenvisioning of Shakespeare’s Henriad.

The costuming and world appropriately mix majesty (the Dauphin’s subtle, elegant armor; the fields of France) with mud and grit (Henry’s grime covered battle visage; the slums of Eastcheap). The English royal robes and the scenes in which they appear speak of royalty and wealth while also not letting you forget that this is the dark, dirty, shabby, sickly, violent middle ages.

The action is also very well done and balanced. Siege catapults light the night sky in beautiful arcs of fire. Ranks of armored knights advance shining in the sun. But it’s also down to earth. Heroes twirl their swords with presumably anachronistic flair and some seriously videogame-inspired posing. The actual fighting though immediately descends into men scrabbling in the dirt and mud, simply clubbing each other with mailed fists and looking for any kind of purchase or advantage in contests of brute power rather than elegance.

The Dauphin.

The language and dialog is also fantastic. It feels thoroughly Shakespearean while actually being short and modern. A couple exchanges, phrases, and speeches I could have sworn were drawn from actual Shakespeare, but they’re not.

Most importantly, the characters and themes are great. Kings’ madnesses as foils for each other. Inertia, misunderstanding, and deceit propelling forward conflict the top leaders don’t actually want. The role of family, and particularly of fathers and sons, in driving this costly period of history. Characters checked and morphed by their advisors and events. There’s a lot to mine afterward.

I can understand people being offput or even aghast at many of the changes in plot and characters from the typical take on them, as well as the several out-of-period mindsets. But I think The King is both very entertaining to watch and has a lot going on underneath.

The King.

Infinity Spring League: Rnd 1

Posted on by tjkopena

Toward the start of the game.

Played my first game as Druze Bayram Security on Friday, in my Infinity league match against Lovell. It was fun playing something different after fielding solely Shock Army the past 9 months. On the downside, I was busier than expected last week and barely prepped models—the last one I needed got glued to its base literally the moment Lovell arrived. I haven’t fielded unpainted models in a long time, and gave up a lot of soft points for it.

Partly to limit prep time and partly for awesome, I took an Anaconda backed by a Druze & Brawler fireteam, plus cheap bots for orders and domination points. Lovell did pretty much the same thing with his Spiral Corps, creating a Kiel-Saan versus Anaconda slugfest. I played first and was able to use the terrain to alternate between the Anaconda and the Druze team taking down targets threatening the other as they moved up board. I got a little too cautious in the final showdown with the Kiel-Saan and didn’t move units far enough up to reach Lovell’s DZ, but still claimed a Druze victory.

Other thoughts:

  • I don’t usually think much of one point upgrades, but Fatality 1 (both the Druze Shock Teams and the Anaconda TAG have this) mattered a bunch of times. A Combi-Rifle in a fireteam with an X-Visor and Fatality 1 is a very good weapon on RECON+ boards.
  • However, it’s tough to make good RECON+ lists with Druze. They don’t have enough cheap options to generate orders. Military Orders is probably in the same spot now that they don’t have Fusiliers.
  • One criteria for evaluating and guiding terrain setup that often gets overlooked but is especially important in domination missions is ensuring there are paths for 40mm and 55mm bases to move around.
  • The game was a good reminder that HI and TAGs are tough, but not that tough. They still can’t stand in the open without getting quickly whittled down even by small arms, which the Kiel-Saan was reminded of forcefully.

Always fun playing Lovell, and I was pumped to finally get Druze on the table after they’d been sitting on my shelf for sixteen months… Looking forward to prepping more models for Round 2!

List for Round 1.