31 October 2009

Rats and Romans

Romans

I took my Late Republican Roman army of Pompus Magnus out for the first time today, and faced a Rise of Macedon army.

It would probably be most Roman of me to blame my horrible defeat on the rash allied German cavalry. They rolled a 1 on their warband test to surge forward, charged a unit of slingers (who fired & fled out of range) and opened themselves up to an ugly charge from the Macedonian heavy cav.

In fact, that sounds good. Lets blame it on the unreliable barbarians and end further discussion at that.

More battle experience is definitely required. The troops also require a whole lot o' paint for morale to improve. Everyone knows painted figures do better. Most of my army is still being painted, so I'm sure they will do better in future games, as I make progress on the painting front.



Rats

Back in fantasy land, the Skaven army book comes out in another week or two here in the US. I'm already plotting and scheming to put Clan All-Out-of-Bubblegum back into action. I think the core of my army will remain the same: hordes of chittering and squeeking vermin. But there will be a few changes.

First is the appeal of a Grey Seer. Possibly on a Bell. I used to take a Warlord 99% of the time using the old book, but I think the new book makes the seer much more appealing than before.

Second are the rare slots. I used to run army with either no rare choices, or sometimes I would use the DoW giant as an excuse to field a Clan Moulder monstrosity. The new book, conveniently, gives me an actual monstrosity to field right out of the Skaven book. For now I will continue to use my "giant" as a Hellpit Abomination, but I plan on sculpting up a new, more mutated beastie ASAP.







The other rare options also look good. The catapult thingie is the one that first appeals to me. However, the wheel (dumb as the concept is) and the WLC are also decent looking. I'm certain I will be experimenting & switching things around for a while.

Back to the special options for the army, I'm stumpped. The plague monks continue to look decent, especially with the new rules for the priest and the Plague Furnace. But the tunnel teams with poison weapons have jumped up in price so much that I think they will go from a standard item in my list to something I rarely take. I'm bitter about the jezzails losing their skirmish formation. They already suffered at the hands of more maneuverable troops, like flying terror beasts, fast cav, and many other "war machine hunters." This is going to hurt them more.

Towards the end of my use of the old book a year and a half (or two) ago, I was learning to appreciate the Poisoned Wind Globadiers again, mainly because of their decent performance in the 'Ard Boyz tournament against some of the heavy stuff (like Steam Tanks.) But now that they are no longer core options, I'm not sure about using them. On the other hand, I'm still not thrilled with many of the other special options, so those slots may be open after all.

As far as the weapon teams, the first two that seem appealing to me are the Warpfire Throwers, which I've used through all editions of the game in spite of the fact that they've sucked, and/or they've been more likely to cause damage to my own troops. But I feel this time they're due for some success! I also like the look of the Mortar thing. The Ratling guns will probably be staying in storage. Not certain about the others, I need to review their rules in depth.

That's about it for now, until I get to read the book in depth. But I plan on doing a little bit of new painting for the rats, so expect to see some pics over the next few months.

29 October 2009

Marauders 09 - Day 2, Game 5

Marienburgers vs. George's Tomb Kings

Last game pits me against another BREWS local. For the final battle it's capture the flag, with the flag & it's surrounding bog on the far side of a pond from me.




The TK have, from foreground (at the river) to background... 3 ushabti, tomb king plus chariots, tomb guard, casket on the edge of the hill, archers, skeleton warriors, and some chariots and the tomb prince on the far flank, behind the woods. (Trust me, those are woods.) The scorpion that only looks like it is sitting on the bridge is actually somewhere below the surface, in the vicinity of the rear of the pikemen on the hill.

Marienburg had, from for to aft... pistoliers, knights, pegasus captain, cannon, pikemen on the hill, swordsmen, helblaster parked opposite the objective, more swordsmen, knights, and a cannon to hit the chariots as the filter through the bottleneck on the flank.







Two turns in +/-. On the far flank the prince sacrifices his ride to save the chariot unit from the cannon. He then strolls into the woods and kills the crew. Knights move up to hold off the chariots. Everyone else moves forard. Even the helblaster, since the sissy undead are staying outside of range. The pistoliers run up, blast an ushabti, then flee behind the knights. They even rallied the following turn! First time all weekend they did what they're supposed to.

Other than the distant chariots and the ushabti, the undead just sort of hang out, shoot a bit, cast a few incantations.






Eventually the king and his chariots get off an incantation that gets them the charge into the pikemen. The "extra banner" on the pikemen is the fortune from my fortune cookie at lunch time. It says something like, "Your success will astonish everyone." After the first four games, I needed all the supportive talk I could get. Unfortunately, it was a big let down. The arch lector challenges, ends up locked in combat with the champion and can't wound him. The pikemen almost all hit. Then I throw a bucket of 1, 2, and 3s and only manage a single wound on the chariots. The chariots kill a few pikemen, mostly with impact hits. Undead lose by a little, but distribute the wounds efficiently.







Over the next two turns the combat becomes a mess. My knights charge the chariots flank. The ushabti charge the knights flank. The scorpion finally shows up (4th turn?) and charges the back of the pikemen, which pretty much seals their doom. I managed to kill two of the chariots, and get the king down to just a single wound. But I couldn't seal the deal. I broke and that was the end of it. The undead pursued into my cannons and the wizard skulking behind the hill. The swordsmen then had their flank exposed.

In the distance, the chariots run over the knights like a speedbump. A very soft and shallow speedbump. The swordsmen on the far side of the pond are yet another let down. Even with a detachment swinging in on the flank (and quickly reduced to less than US5) they can barely manage to win combats against skeleton swordsmen. I think I killed like 2 of them by the end of the game... while the prince was slowly approaching from the woods.





Maybe it's because they had the advantage of defending a hill.

:/




The game ended in yet another hideous defead for Marienburg. I finished somewhere in the bottom third of the standings. The only thing keeping me off the very bottom were the soft scores. My painting got me Best Painted, which came with a gift card. I used that to pay for the majority of a Fortified Manor terrain set, which I had been eyeying for the past year or so. Too bad the tournament wasn't a month later, otherwise I would have used it on Skaven! It's about time to go back to the army that is my true calling!

26 October 2009

Pets, Painitng

I realized I hadn't posted (that I recall) the obligatory pet photo. I'm actually constantly on the lookout for shepherd & husky miniatures so I can paint up figures for her. Such a sucker for a cute face. She's half shepherd (where she gets most of her color) and half husky (where she get her two colored eyes, curly tail, and love for the snow.)


We also have a cockatiel (crazy, obsessed stalker of the dog) and a leopard gecko (inherited from friends, anti-social, we mainly feed her crickets and she just hides.)


I love both cats and dogs. And most other animals. Because of my living situation, I was "a cat person" for a long time, and would, in fact, have cats sitting on my lap as I painted figures. Ra, "my girlfriend," as my ex would semi-jealously call her, would even swat a bit a the paint brushes as I pained. On occasion.

Sasha, the sheperd/husky in the above pic, sometimes will sit in the back room with me while I paint, but she will exhale deeply, sighing as I pay more attention to the toy soldiers then her, and mope out of the room. Usually it's not a 100% bad thing, because if she's out of site of the bird, he's usually screeching like an enraged harpy if he can't see her (as would be the case in the back room...)

25 October 2009

Alien Flu

I've been sick most of the week, and needed a break from painting for a few days anyway. So I've been posting my battle reports and going through some other photos from the trip to Dayton.

I've also been watching the Alien(s) marathon on AMC. They're showing the 4 films in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of the first Alien film. Very enjoyable.

Between this and a recent browsing of some 40k stuff, I've been tempted (though resisting, so far) to jump back in after many years away. Bugs, of course.

Marauders 09 - Day 2, Game 4

Marienburg vs. Taras' Dogs of War


First game of the second day the match ups were posted and I discovered I was playing a fellow Team BREWS member. Burning River Electric Warhammer Studs. Or something like that. At least the "Burning River" and "Warhammer" parts are right. In any case, it's our tournament team name for the local game store (Recess Games) group. I was ready to go, in spite of a slight hangover and a little less sleep than I had planned.




Side photos this time. Marienburg on the left, Dogs of War on the right.

The filthy Dogs of War had, from the bottom of the pic, to the top... Golfags Ogres, Lv. 4 Mage, Marksmen, Mengil Manhide's DE guys, Vespero's Vendetta, two units of pistol armed duelists, a Lv 2 Mage, Volands Venetors, Paymaster on a horse, one galloper gun (has moved up behind the skull), and the RoR halflings whose name I currently forget, and another lv. 2 mage.

From forground to background, the righteous army of Marienburg had... knights, a cannon, volley gun and another cannon in the woods, swordsmen & detachments, pikemen, swordsmen & detachmetns wiht a unit of knights in front, pegasus behind the giant skull (a lot of those around this part of the Warhammer world, it seems,) and pistoliers.

That last bit was sort of screwed up. I should have made sure the knights were going after the hobbits, the pistoliers were bound to get shot to pieces. I don't remember the order of placement at this time.



Marienburgers move up in response to the slow advance of the DoW. The pegasus tries to casket away a spell from the (relative) safty of the volcano. Pistoliers and knights move up to threaten the galloper gun but deny any flank shots. In the foreground, we wait for the ogres to move up, taking shots with the cannon while we wait. (First shot takes out Golfag himself.)





Hobbits move up, shoot the crap out of the pistoliers. The mob of skirmishers in the center advances slowly, ogres decide they don't like being shot, so begin to advance more enthusiastically. Mengil's Dark Elves and the Marksmen start to inflict heavy casualties on the swordsmen in the foreground.




As the pistoliers do what they do best (run off the battlefield) and the nasty hobbitses round the volcano, the pegasus decides it's time to seek safty elsewhere. (I think I actually fled from a charge - not sure from whom.) The knights in the center make a charge to chase away some skirmishers, which sends Mengils DE's running as well. The knights pursue into Voland's Venetors to try to drop their numbers before the infantry line hits. The last ogre in the foreground runs over the knights. The cannon disappears after I miscas, resulting the DoW mage getting a free casting of Pit of Shades.




There's a little gap betwen the last pic and this one... In the foreground, the last ogre has been ventilated by the volley gun. The DoW mage has jumped (Steed of Shadows?) behind the woods looking for a good casting spot. The action is happening in the center, around the skull. The DoW skirmishers rally and start moving back trough the woods. The pikemen charge & finish off Mengils, but the pursuit leaves their flank dangling in the eyes of the distant Venators. In order for the Venators to charge, the duelists in their way have to charge the swordsmen near the giant skull. The pikemen flee, becoming the largest point value (inadvertant) bait & flee unit I've ever used. The failed charge of the Venators leaves their flank open to a pursuit move by the swordsmen unit, who break them on the next round of combat. The Pike rally the next turn as well. The swordsmen in the forgreoun (behind the pike, in the pic) never make it to the Marksmen, continuing to eat crossbow bolts until there's three guys left at the end of the game.



The game ends in a draw. My record is now 1-2-1. My hope is to get one more win, so I can at least end with a 2-2-1 record. Luckilly, I figure with a record as bad as mine so far, my third game will be against a real loser. Maybe even that guy in yellow at the top of the last photo. ;P


.



21 October 2009

Marauders 09 - Day 1, Game 3

Marienburg vs. Matt's Lizardmen



From left to right, the Lizards had... Saurus cav, skinks, spikeydinos, krox, terradons and a terradon hero, carnosaur with hero, two units of skinks, and salamanders behind them. In the woods in the center are som chameleons.

From left to right, Marienburg had... Knights with pistoliers behind, pikemen, two cannons and a volley gun on the hill, swordsmen and detachments, with a pegasus hero hiding behind them, and on the other side of the pond, the other set of swordmen & their detachments.

My opponent had apparently rolled his spells either before the tournament or while I wasn't looking. Something I would have normally been a bit miffed about. However, I stole (& cast) the best spell right away (Comet) so I guess it all worked out. (See below.)




This is a couple turns into the game. On the left my pistoliers have run their usual mission -- leave the table as soon as possible. I don't know, I might have just marched them right off the table edge. They were just that good the entire tournament. Again, the killed nothing. Maybe a lone saurus cav. I don't recall. The knights pass in front of the pike, who try to swing left to engage the saurus and hopefully bottleneck them in in next to the terrain. They got stuck moving through it, so were already slowed down.

My knights took some hits from the porcupine dino things but stuck around. Swordsmen in the center got a flank charge on the krox, chased them off and made the bad decision to pursue into the porcupines. My first thought was that it would be the best way to get into combat -- I wouldn't have to suffer through the stand & fire, and I'd get my ranks, hit them in the flank, etc. I failed to cause a wound, got bogged down in combat, which allowed the Stegadon to flank me. Previously I had been nailing it with cannons for a couple turns, but didn't do anything to it due to hitting skink crew and the 5+ ward save abillity. My Captain on the pegasus did stick around and steal spells with the Casket of Sorcery, though. In fact, combined with a misfire, by turn 3 the skink shaman had no spells left to cast.

Lizard birds soon took down my artillery anyway. I got a chance to blast at them with the helblaster but failed miserably. One died from the unit of 3, but that might have actually been from the cannon crew in combat. (!)

On the right, my knigts round the ruins and head towards the salamanders. My second group of swordsmen get charged by the carnosaur. He does very few wounds, and in exchange I actually wounded the beast. He loses combat but makes his break test. Over the next couple turns that is repeated, including my getting a flank charge. I was beating him by 3 and 4 points of combat res, but he made his break test every*single*time. Very frustrating.





More of the same. My pegasus lead the cav on a wild... uh, pegasus chase. The steggie busts through the swordsmen and into the knights. The pikemen brace for combat. My artillery crew still getting munched. I think the helblaster finally took down the unit of terradons. On the right the swordsmen vs. the king of the jungle grinds away... he's still passing break tests.










And here we are at the end. The steggie avoids the pike, in spite of my friendly neighbors telling my opponent that he's got nothing to fear from them. In the meantime, the razordons blast away at them. The pegasus takes off, leaving the saurus cav in the lurch and trying to avoide becoming a better target for the razordons. On the right, the salamanders are finished off, and my sworsmen continue to get worn down. Had the game gon a few more turns, they would have eventually broke due to diminishing numbers. As it was, I think I had to make a break test the last round of combat. At least I made my break test, too!


Essentially my swordsmen lost it for me. Had I broke the razordons in combat like I should have, I could have got out of the way of the steggie. It was a move with a risk, but only a small one considering I was starting with a big combat res advantage. You have to take some risks, especially when you've got a decent advantage. I got caught, though. On the right, I was getting lucky in wounding the carnosaur a couple times (3 or 4 wounds by the end of the game!) and he was rolling poorly to wound me. So I was winning combats, fairly significantly for a few turns. I just couldn't get the break (literally) I needed to seal it. A cannon hit on the steggie that actually did something would have helped, too.

So Day 1 ended with a massively frustrating game. Little did I know what Day 2 had in store for me. Bur first...





Saturday Night


Friday night we met up with friends for dinner. We were tired from driving around a lot, and spotted an Outback Steakhouse and it sounded like comfort food. Normally we try to get to local places when out of town, but Outback was just too tempting.

So Saturday night we met up with another friend who lives in the area. We met her at Therapy Cafe, downtown. The food was OK. The drinks were pretty good. Excellent, if the number of manhattans I downed is any measure. It was Salsa night, which combined with a long day, a happy belly, and a few strong drinks, resulted in me dancing like a fool. Presumably. I'm not sure, I have no measure since I don't know anything about salsa dancing, which is why my assumption immediately goes to "like a fool." I just tried to follow along with the people around me. We were, apparently, doing it "like back in Honduras" the DJ announced, as he announced one song. My fiance and I had loads of fun with it though, so that's all that matters. I've got to admit, I loved the music. She was looking up local salsa lessons yesterday. :D

So it was a long day and late night for me. Perfect preparation for an early morning checkout and return to gaming.

20 October 2009

Marauders 09 - Day 1, Game 2

Marienburg vs. Alex's Ogre Kingdoms



Ogres had, from left to right, gnoblar trappers, 2 units of three bulls, a unit of two ledbelchers, a unit of three ironguts and a tyrant, all behind the hill. In the center were more trappers in the ruined house, flanked by 2 hunters with their kitties, and 2 units of three bulls. Behind the hill on the right were 2 units of three yeti, two more leadbelchers, three bulls and three ironguts.


Marienburg had, from left to right, pistoliers, knights, 2 cannons and a volley gun on the hill, two wizards hiding behind it. In the center were the pike, then both sets of swordsmen with their detachments. On the far end was a lonely unit of 5 doomed knights.






Early in the game. The race is on. On the right, my pistoliers run up and shoot at... someone. I forget who. Doesn't matter, they missed with everything (as usual.) The ogres advance fast, over and arround the hill. My knigts move up to discourage them from rushing my artillery. The big Empire Guns blast away at a hunter and some kitties, killing some of both. Empire pegasus flys behind the leadbelchers and bulls near the skull terrain, but the captain gets blased off his mount and the pegasus sits their wimpering the rest of the game. On the right side, ogres again, advance fast. My knights move up to stall as best as they can.







On the far left, the pistoliers still try to dance around and shoot but fail to wound anything and end up running off the table after getting shot up for a couple turns by the tyrant's handguns. Again. Worthless bastards. The knights pursue after beating some bulls, and charge the ironguts on the hill. The tyrant out of the shot on the left) catches the first of several cannon balls, taking only a single wound. Not much happeneing in the ceneter. I try to move around to the bulls before my right can be overrun. My knights on the right charge & pursue more bulls, landing about 1/2" in front of a group of yeti.






Pic of the left flank.




Not sure I remember what happened here. I think my knights fled combat, then rallied and charged the ironguts, while the bulls who previously landed on my knights flank got shot to pieces by a cannon. Volley gun finished off the kitties. Around the skill, my swordsmen finally engage the bulls on teh left side, but just around the skull from them, the other swordsmen get multi-charged by ironguts and leadbelchers and break. My knights on the right are eaten by yeti. Not sated, the yeti bear down on the archers hiding in the ruins.




Hard to see in this pic, but my knights beat the ironguts on the left and pursued into the ruins where they were ambushed by gnoblars. No problem, right? We've got all this armour... so one would think. The tyrant starts pressuring the artillery, even after catching another cannonball for another two wounds. The volley gun kills the leadbelchers on the left. In the center the pike continue to run in cirles looking for an oppnent. Anyone. Really. The swordsmen on the right rally and put up one last fight at the table's edge. Archers are eaten by more ravenous yeti.






This is around the end of the game. Here are the gnoblars running out of time to get to the artillery after they kicked the knights asses. No, I couldn't kill any of them. Yes, they killed knights, beat them in combat and ran them down. My artillery mops up a bit, finally taking down the tyrant with a third cannonball. ANother cannon shot takes out a unit of yeti, and bowmen finish off the last leadbelcher with a lucky shot. I think one last cannon shot took down the second hunter, as well.




Game ended in a victory for me. Still it was a tense (in a fun way) game. I felt the pressure on my flanks all game, especially around the artillery (who really won the game for me). Half my infantry spent a lot of the game looking for a way to get into combat.

19 October 2009

Marauders 09 - Day 1, Game 1

Marienburg vs. Jim's Goblins



From left to right the green menace had something along the lines of: snotlings, bolter, giant, archers, NG archers, bolter, catapult, doom diver, spider riders with spider hero behind the woods, NG with shaman lord, NG archers, gobbo spear, chariot, NG with BSB, squid hoppers. Somewhere I think there was another shaman. Or maybe a hero. I forget. I was a bit scatter brained all weekend.

From left to right, the shining light of Manann had: knights (out of photo), cannons, swordsmen with sword and archer detachments, pikemen with AL on horse, vollygun, cannon, swordsmen with sword and archer detachments, pegasus captain with casket, pistoliers, knights (out of photo.)

The scenario cards played were capture the flag and pitched battle. I was the one who played capture the flag, thinking that gobbo infantry is soft and easily panicked. I figured with all of my infantry and the volley gun trained on the center, I could just stall and even lose on the flanks (as long as I did it slowly) and get all my points dead center.


So with that in mind, here you see the first turn. You can see I only inched up in the center, moving archers out to draw out fanatics. The pegasus moved forward, hoping to get safely behind enemy lines and work the Casket of Sorcery an the big shaman, and possibly start hitting the war machines if my cannons couldn't take them down. Which they couldn't. I was consistently about 1/8" away from hitting them, much to my frustration.

On the near flank I moved my knights up to block my end of the bottleneck by the woods. Fighting snotlings would be stupid. Allowing the giant on my flank double stupid. But if I could just sit there and make him wait for me, that would be fine with me, too.

On the far flank I did something similar. I moved my pistoliers up to shoot at squig hoppers, with plans to flee from a charge, leaving the knights behind them to countercharge. (Assuming they didn't blow any panic tests.)

That all fell apart when my pistoliers killed just one hopper, then ran only 4" from the charge and were destroyed.

On the gobbo magic phase in turn 2, those far knights, the pegasus, and several other units suffered massively to magic, such as the never-ending Gork's Warpath (or whatever it's called)



Further progress. Further magic and artillery death on my side. I failed every dispell roll by rolling exactly 1 lower than I needed.

I start to move forward. The standoff on the near flank continues.




The snotlings eventually move forward, blocking the giant. I figure I can at least clog that up wiht my knights. I failed to damage them, was charged by the giant, destroyed, etc. Moving up the line, my swordsmen slip past a lone fanatic, charge the archers, easily defeat them, hit the spider riders that moved over to cover the artillery. They hold, I get counter charged by a big block of archers on the flank. They destroy me. My pikemen are depleated by magic and artillery. In the distance a boatload of fanatics are released, turning the battlefield into a mess of a traffic jam with my swordsmen stuck waiting around. Eventually a couple fanatics pass through them and mess them up pretty badly.



End o' the game. My few remianing pike mop up the few remaining spider riders. My general lives. I thought I took down the giant with a cannon shot, but maybe that's after this photo was taken. He had one wound left by the time he was coming around my deployment zone. Otherwise most of what's left are my characters and artillery. Devastation for the Marienburgers.

That's par for the course, though. It wouldn't be an Indy GT if I didn't lose the first game. So I was OK with that. Even if the massacre was exceedingly one sided.

Marauders 09 - Day 1 - More Photos

A few more miscellaneous photos from Day 1 at Marauders. The first two are photos of games in progress at the tables next to me. I just snapped a quick shot because the armies and tables looked too good not to take a photo.





Recently I was, um... "researching" 40k rules and army books online. I gave up on 40k in 3rd edition, but I still occasionally feel the temptation. Recently I was feeling the temptation for bugs. That temptation was increased after seeing a nice sized army in a glass case at the store that hosted the tournament:






Speaking of the store that hosted the tournament, I should probably give them a plug. They're in Kettering, Ohio. The Krystal Keep. Nice folks, nice store. Plenty of gaming room, piles of terrain and tables.

Marauders Mayhem 09 - Day 1

My fiancé and I headed down to Dayton Thursday after work. We have friends in the area, so last year (my first Marauders tournament) and again this year, we decided to make a long weekend of the trip. We headed down a day early this time. I wanted to see the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum (more of that in a future entry!) and she had an audition in Columbus Friday afternoon.



Thursday Disaster

Disaster struck, however, about an hour into our trip, heading south from Cleveland. It was dark and someone left their bumper stretched across the center lane of the highway. We ran right over it. The tires were OK, as was the front skirt, below the bumper. But the plastic wheel well on the passenger side, which continues up the underside of the body to the front bumper/skirt (protects the wiper fluid reservoir, etc.) was torn apart and dragging on the ground. The whel rubbed the inside/front of the wheel well liner and shredded it pretty bad. I attempted to just stuff everything in place, jamming it into the frame, out of the way & off the road, but that only held a few miles. But at least it got us closer to civilization.

At the next exit we scrounged around the gas station. I was looking for anything with which to tie up the plastic shield. They had very little. My options seemed to be dental floss, bandage tape, or buying a phone charger or set of headphones and cutting them up for the wire. I was ready to try the bandage, when the clerk suggested the Walmart down the street. In the mean time I took a knife and cut some of the dangling, shredded bits off the liner. At the Walmart we got some cable ties which did the trick and are still holding everything together today. I take the car in to look for a replacement liner tomorrow morning.

The next day I noticed that the lower body trim on the passenger side was also missing. It seems to have been held on with about 7 or 8 plastic clips, several of which are missing, many of the remaining are broken.

The thing that pisses me off is that this is my fiancé's first nice car. We bought it just a few months ago, after she graduated from college. She's been very excited about having a new car, and one that's not a POS beater. So I'm hoping I can find the body replacement cheap enough to get it taken care of in the near future. But with the holidays & our wedding coming up, we're already trying to watch our money. :/


Friday

I will talk about Friday in a future entry.



Marauders Day 1, the pre-game show

Below are photos I took Saturday morning, during the pre-tournament voting for "General's Choice." I forgot to change some of the camera settings from the day before, so a lot of the pics didn't come out as nice as I'd like. Many didn't come out well at all, so this is only a fraction of the photos.