Mansions of Madness

 hi all,

A late post and a very quick one as we go into traditional winter pressures in the NHS and my work/life balance tips toward the work side.

In a fit of complete laziness (and long suffering despair of knowing what I want for xmas and my birthday, which is only 4 days after!), my wife has just let me go mad with some board game companies currently holding a Black Friday event and I must admit I went to town - that town being Innsmouth!

To that I have managed to secure Mansions of Madness base game and 3 of the 5 expansions. For those of you who don't know, MoM is a game produced by Fantasy Flight Games and is a horror type game styled by the works of Lovecraft in a Cthhuluesque setting. It is for 1-5 players playing cooperatively to investigate a series of scenarios that pit them against a sinister cult and it's nefarious minions. The game is run by a free to purchase app and its the app that decides the layouts and obstacles/opponents that you will face and each replay is slightly different, allowing for multiple replays of the same scenario. It also allows for solo play, which is appealing to me due to my awkward hours restricting my access to my games club. Thankfully my wife allowed me take the miniatures from the games early so i can get painting - gotta love that woman!

So far I have only painted the investigators and one of the main antagonists, but they do look splendid!

hope you enjoy

dGG

Western Legends

Hi all and Happy New Year to you all.

I hope you guys got the toys you wished for! I was certainly very lucky, with my family being particularly generous and you lucky people will be seeing that largesse, as I post the minis as they get painted.

First up, this week I painted the minis from the board game Western Legends.  Western Legends by Herve Lemaitre and Kolossal Games is a sandbox game set in the Old West full of cowboys, outlaws, native American Indians and a host of historical figures thrown in to boot. You can play as Billy the kid, Calamity Jane or Geronimo picking from a line-up of 12 characters.

As a sandbox game this is where the fun really begins, on your turn there are just so many options and all of them can support you in working towards becoming the most legendary figure in the Old West. You really can play this as you want to, become the most wanted character or become a marshal chasing down the bad guys arresting them and placing them in jail. Either way you can go into one of the two towns to spend your cash in the general store to buy a mule or a horse to increase your movement or buy and upgrade your weapons which prove your abilities in fights.

The general store also stocks some additional items that you can buy that will provide further bonus actions or abilities. Any upgraded weapons and mounts provide additional legendary points when you get to the end game scoring, so it is well worth spending cash to do this.

In the two towns, Dark Rock and Red Falls, you can play poker; 'Texas hold em' of course, either against any other player who is in the same town or simply against the house. To the winner goes the pot, at least $60, or more if more players ante up the $10. You can also go to the cabaret and pay $30 to catch a show, a drink and gain legendary points. You will also find the sheriff's office and the doctors. Wanted characters will be sent to the Sheriff’s office when arrested by players or the sheriff himself. The Doctor allows you to pay to have all your wounds healed.

Out of town are two goldmines and you can roll the two dice to find gold nuggets, gold dust or gravel. The nuggets can be taken to the bank and exchanged for cash and legendary points. Gold dust provides the gold digger with $10 and there is even a gold dust re-roll face.

You could choose to go to one of the two farms and move the cattle. Here you decide whether to go for valour or infamy. You can choose to wrangle the cattle delivering them to the station to gain the bonus on the reverse of the token and one marshal point, or you can rustle them taking them to the other farm in exchange for one wanted point.

So here are the minis and my paint jobs.

Despite the fact that they are relatively poor sculpts compared to bespoke miniatures, they were quite a lot of fun to paint, so I managed to get through them quite quickly.  They scale to about 25mm so would actually fit most settings and could conceivably be used in TT wargaming, however there are better miniatures out there, so I'm happy to stow these away with the game and use them purely for this.  That said, I'm very tempted to make a larger 3d replica of the board to play at Uncon, when it returns at the end of the year!

hope you enjoy

dGG

U-Boot the board game

hi all

Over the last couple of years I've backed a number of new Kickstarters, mostly smaller campaigns that fulfilled nicely and on time.  Last week, I received the KS that I have been (im)patiently waiting for - I was literally humming as I camped out by my front door!

U-Boot the board game is the brain child of two Polish designers Artur Salwarowski and Bartosz Pluta from Iron Wolf Studios and published by Phalanx Games.  The game is a WW2 submarine simulator and played on a 3d model of a U-Boot alongside a companion app.  This is from the designers themselves...

"Thank you very much for purchasing U-BOOT The Board Game. When we started this project, we set ourselves a goal: to create the first ever tabletop submarine simulator. A game that would let players experience World War II submarine warfare like no other game before it. One that would explore various aspects of living and fighting at sea, from dwelling inside an iron coffin to playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the enemy.

Now, after a lot of hard work and research, we are proud to present a game that redefines submarine board gaming, featuring true to life navigation, visual identification of targets, and many other elements that you probably haven’t seen in a board game yet. This might seem daunting, but rest assured: the game comes with everything you need to become a U-boat ace in no time.

Firstly, a separate Tactical Guide booklet. It lays out the most important dos and don’ts without getting into unnecessary detail, so you should quickly get an idea of how to conduct combat. Secondly, player aids that summarize the most important information for each role and, lastly, online videos that teach you how to play. All of these will help you understand the basics quickly. Once you do that, the rest will come with experience.

And the experience that U-BOOT can deliver is truly unique. Approaching targets without getting detected, lining up perfect torpedo shots, and sneaking away from the escorts’ counterattack… Or getting pounded by relentless depth charge attacks. This game has it all and much more, so if you wish to savor it to the fullest, be serious about your training. Trust us: it will be worth it."

Artur Salwarowski & Bartosz Pluta

I don't think I could have stated it any better!  What I can tell you is that this is the literally the best board game I've ever played. It is immersive, tense, exciting and extremely entertaining, a fantastic simulator that will only get better as the app develops and more missions get added, graphics improve and extra touches come into play.  Even better, you can play it solo (up to 4) and it works perfectly, so I can get my fix whenever I want!!

the contents of the box, well some of them...

the boat getting worked up!

what a massive foot print!

those amazing resin pieces

I backed the game with a fairly high pledge because I wanted the resin tokens and interior detail that just make the game pop. I've managed to paint the interior work but none of the other bits yet...

below is the navigator equipment, which is my favourite role.  You have a tactical map for when the action gets hot and the boat is submerged.  Using the attack wheel, the navigator can plot attack vectors for the capt to launch his salvos.

The Navigator passes on the information to the First Officer, who inputs it into the companion app and updates the TDC. He then relays the info to the Capt for orders.

the video below was from my first training mission, a single unescorted freighter to practice on.  Normally there are escort ships for these groups and the covert stalk, launch and subsequent evasion makes for thrilling game play. 

at the end of each mission you get your rating.  There are a few single missions and a campaign mode which I'm yet to try but will be starting real soon.  More missions will be added to the app as it gets more developed and I'm really hoping they will eventually add "Wolfpack" type scenarios where you can link in with other players via the app. 

anyway, that's my initial thoughts on this game, i'm sure as I play through the missions more posts will follow. Next week will be post Uncon so I'll let you know how that went, of course anyone in the Kent area who fancies a weekend filled with amazing gaming and maybe even crewing up with me for a game of this awesome simulator then pop on down to Broadstairs and say hi

https://unconuk.co.uk/

hope you enjoy

dGG

EQUORUM SUDORUM SANGUINIS

Hi all

Ok, I have been teasing you a little bit by hinting around a new game that I've been developing, but it's about time I let you guys in on it.

So, for a little while now I've been part of a board gaming group, which has really engaged my interest in modern board games.  Like war-games, MBGs involve a ton of strategic thinking, planning and well crafted execution in order to win the games, plus they're loads of fun to play - definitely my cup of tea! I've also been using it as an opportunity to bridge the gap between the two genres in an effort to gather more recruits to the Nerd Herd.  Anyway, while I am really, really, REALLY enjoying the games there is or rather was a little itch in my soul that needed scratching.

Now people who know me, know that the two things I love about wargames are Dragons (oh hell yeah, I love me some dragons!!!) and the other thing is Chariots...

I love chariots, I wanted them in every army I've ever owned, even the Dwarf ones!  I can imagine the creak of leather and wood, the scream of the horses and the rolling thunder of wheels.  I wanted to game with them, I wanted to experience the roar of the crowd, the wild abandonment of the teams, the smells that fill the Hippodrome! I wanted something that immersed me into those ancient games of Rome.

Looking around in the BG world, there is a dearth of these types of games. Sure there are a couple and some even look a bit good, not great, not eye catching but decent and Oh I was so tempted just to pick something off the shelf, already made and good to go.....but..... Naw, they just didn't grab me, they just didn't make me reach for my ever pressed wallet and part with the cash.  I didn't want to compromise on one of my favourite parts of wargaming, it's why I usually steer clear of games involving Dragons.  So what was I going to do? give up? NEVER!  I did what I usually do, make it myself....

and "Blood Sweat & Horses" was born.

Obviously, it's never as simple as that, tbh the current version of the game barely resembles the original that I knocked up, but the core of the idea is there and I'm rather proud of what we have acheived so far.  You'll notice I say we, because I include the core of playtesters that have been kindly helping me to develop the game, without their help I would have a mildly amusing but simple game - with their help it has turned into a bloody epic game that is fast becoming something that I'm very happy with. 

Anyway, what have we got so far? so far we have a very visual game (it is mine after all ;-P) that looks like a miniatures game but plays like a board game.  Coming from a wargamer background I added too much dice based action that relied on good rolling rather than firm strategy, with the help of my board gaming chums - chiefly Darius and Jess, with help from Jayde, Paul and Stefan we have largely eliminated the luck factor and instead introduced rules that reward good, sound strategy.  Still a way to go but boy are we getting there, with every session we play!

Here's where I started - miniatures (obviously! I am a wargamer after all...). The game doesn't need miniatures and you can quite easily use standees for the pieces, in fact during early play testing we used WW2 motorcycle couriers with playdoh helmets...

The chariots are from Irregular miniatures, when I emailed them to see if I could get some chariots from them that were slightly off books, the chap - Ian, was amazing in his help, putting together an order that used Roman gladiators and fantasy chariots to come up with pieces that really worked and were sooooo cheap -  I bought 6! I also bought some fantasy versions for future variants.

perfect!

After sourcing the minis, I set about designing a track.  Now I had to decide whether I wanted to do a classic oval or the Dark Future type disappearing track.  I must say I do love the classics! Out came the blue foam and I starting drawing. 

Once I had the track all marked out, I used a pencil and carved the lines on as well as Roman numerals to denote the lane numbers as well as modifiers for cornering as a visual aid.  Then I mixed up some textured paint and started painting

This was the basic board. At this point the base mechanics of the game was starting to ferment in my brain.  I started with an engine based around activation cards, where players chose from a limited deck of actions and placed them in an order of 4 activation slots.  This way they would have to predict their next 4 moves in advance and simultaneously reveal them and play out a turn.  the idea behind this was for the players to think strategically and to represent the difficulty in controlling a team of horses pulling a small wooden platform!

This was the second play test, with a board rather than the WW2 minis and Dark Future track.  The playing cards correspond to a type of action.

It was enjoyed by all ( I hope) and some really good suggestions started to pile in, particularly on how we can keep everybody engaged in the race at all times.  So time to add a new layer of complexity then....

The Priority Tracker, is a way of players changing the order that turns are played and added another strategic layer to the game.

Event cards that could be purchased throughout the game by performing "exciting actions" such as cornering on the inner lanes or throwing javelins! These cards can modify the performance of your chariot or allow you to affect other players...

some cool dice from Warlord add a lovely touch to the theme

The Priority tracker sits in the middle, along with the event cards as a focal point for the players.

However players were finding their chariots in pieces, with them out of the game it became a bit boring for them and they would drift away....not having that! So we introduced the "Pit Stop" rules.

a little more decoration...

A bit of tidying around the player boards, that they use to keep track of speed, damage and "Favours"

This is more or less the finished board, I might add things later on but in all honesty I don't want to think people will enjoy the visuals more than the game itself.  Anyway I added some traps and obstacles for the players to interact with or inflict on each other

this was the fourth play test and probably the most constructive with loads of adjustments and rule changes. Yes it slowed the game down but wow! they are going to add a terrific depth to the challenges.  My favourite quote of the night - "I felt engaged in the game, the whole time even when it wasn't my go!"

So there we have it, a game in development.  Plans for it include, professionally made up cards (on order), more play testing and then.... Well I hope then, maybe to put it out as a "print and play" to see if anyone is interested in the game.  If they do great, if not then at least we're having fun!

Spero te Fruar

(hope you enjoy)

dGG