Exquisite Turmoil

I have been trying to think about designs for my Bretonnian standards for several days now, and I have sadly come to the conclusion that I really just don’t have the skills needed to paint a border that would be up to my standards. In exploring other ideas, I have decided that I would like to use embroidered (cross-stitched, whatever you prefer to call it) banners. Not only do they seem suitably Bretonnian, but I also feel like they will add a feminine touch to my army. My army doesn’t have to scream “I belong to a woman”, I don’t need pink painted knights or anything, but I do like to advertise my femininity in at least some small margin. An embroidered banner seems a very classy way to do so, to me. My only problem, now, is settling on the design that I would like to use. Each unit will, of course, receive it’s own standard so I will eventually be using several designs but I do have to start with one.. and, of course, it may turn out that I absolutely suck at embroidery, or that I don’t like how the cloth banners end up looking with the plastic models. In either case, it would make it a complete waste of money to have purchased the materials to create several banners when I end up not using them at all.

Therefore, I am searching for opinions on which banner to use (as my starting piece). I am including all of the ones that I have selected as possibilities in this post in the hopes that I will get some opinions. I am very torn about the banner for a few reasons. Firstly, I feel that all of the ones that I have selected are excellent candidates, but for different reasons. The men on horses are,
quite obviously, good choices because they are warlike and encompass the equine nature of the Bretonnian forces.

Bretonnian lore, however, is very romanticized and as they are loosely based off of French forces, one could assume that Bretonnian men are very passionate and would easily be led to war with thoughts of a woman occupying their minds. For that reason, I can easily see Bretonnian forces displaying great courage and being inspired by the presence of a beautiful woman on their battle standard. Anyway, any opinions on this matter would be very much appreciated.

No, really, I am. I suck at blogging.

We did go in and down Nalorakk (bear) and Akil’zon (eagle) on our first night in ZA. The following week we went back (unfortunately without a full three hours to play, due to the need to finish up Kara) and killed them both again. And theeeeeeen.. the guild broke up.

Most of the blame can be laid on Dan and me, since our play time dropped pretty radically. With us not on (meaning no healers on) people had to PUG healers to run 5-mans and just stopped logging on, really. And signing up for raids. Bothers me a little since we were only missing for like a week, and we both still did all of the guild farming that week. Anyway, AoC came out and I was having fun messing with that, had to play some WAR beta and all of that, but mostly.. been painting. I’d been losing interest in WoW for a few weeks anyway, but was pretty much making myself log on, but as soon as we started painting again it was kind of just like.. fuck it.

Then Deuce left the guild (leaving us pretty in the lurch since he was one of our two tanks). I mean, Dan could have tanked on his war np, he’s got the gear, but then it leaves us a healer short. Anyway, we made the executive decision to just disband and allow people to go to other guilds. Basically everyone who raided with us is well geared enough to get grabbed up by any T4 guild, and a lot of’em could go to any T5 guild they wanted as well. I rather imagine that the officer core (and no, not from lootwhoring, just from playing more) could go to a T6 guild. Dan and I have, however, decided to just quit. We *know* we’d be leaving WoW for WAR when it releases anyway, so what’s the point in dragging out the inevitable? I’d rather just paint up my army.

I have a whopping.. one Bretonnian knight finished at this point. I scrapped the old model with a finished horse and a pair of legs. I’m just not ready for NMM, methinks. I like the model I’ve completed (mostly, I know he could look better but I don’t know how to do it) and I’m working on a new one. He’s finished up to — horse and uh.. one leg. Maybe I’ll finish his other leg and his torso tomorrow :o

Anyway, there’s the crappy me update of uh.. the month.. at the rate I blog at.

I’m feeling quite happy today. Dan and I have been being very careful with our diet and exercise lately (blame me, want to look extra good when everyone comes out for the big birthday party in August) and, of course, he drops like 5 lbs a day x.x And I.. yanno.. gain weight. Anyway, this morning I was down two lbs from my starting weight (which puts me at 132, for those who are curious to know.. because anyone but Dan reads this :p).

I am planning a delicious feast tonight — we’ll start off with a chilled yogurt soup (with fruit and mustard seeds) and follow it up with lamb kebabs and a dish of spiced garbanzo beans, and then we’ll end the whole meal with some yummy rice pudding. Depending on how much I love the foods, I may or may not post recipes.

In addition to food and weight loss, the guild is doing spectacularly. Last week we downed Netherspite on our first true attempt at him (we attempted him the week before and the instance servers crashed and booted us all out, so I don’t really count that as an attempt). We then proceeded up to Prince and killed him on our second try at him. After that we headed on down to Nightbane (considered by most to be the true boss of Karazhan) and kicked his ass on the first try. Then, this week, we proved it wasn’t a fluke and downed all of them again. Nightbane posed a little bit more trouble this week, but he still went down.

We are also going to make a go at Zul’Aman on Monday (provided we get signups) and see if we can’t down the bear boss. A lot of people seem to have a negative feeling about it, but I’m about 95% certain that the bear *will* die on Monday. After we wipe the floor with his face, we’ll move on to the eagle boss. This will be a bit more iffy (and I hope to god that everyone reads the strat that Dan posted on the forums) as the fight requires a lot of movement and attention to detail. If everyone can keep their acts together, though, I think we’ll be seeing more loot from Zul’Aman ^_^