Once again I missed out on the Thursday gaming session as I had a friend over, but with any luck I will be able to drag Lindsey along this week.
The big news really was Salute 2011 which was a great experience. I picked up some free minis, including the gorgeous Orcs that Mantic were handing out. I think they will be the next thing I start to collect once I have caught up on the backlog a little. I met up with a load of friends and we spent most of the day wandering round and seeing what was on offer. I didn't pick up nearly as many things as I'd have liked but I did sell off a LOT of old figures and got some Coat D'Arms paints and some of the lovely Ironclad Miniatures' Grubs (Brits and Yanks) I am hoping to paint them up fairly quickly so that I can justify picking up the others. They are quite a bit larger than the ones Shieldwall did in the past which is a shame as I still have a few of those knocking about.
After Salute on Saturday, there was more gaming to be had in a session of Daring Tales of Adventure on the Sunday, this week we finished of 'The Web of the Spider Cult' and in record time, it looks like the players are starting to really get into the swing of this cinematic role-play style. After we wrapped that up we had a game of Pirate's Cove which was good although I was the player that lost out at the beginning and consequently totally unable to recover finishing in a solid last without ever entering into things despite several bouts of lucky dice rolling.
The painting list has not really changed. I am nearly there with the Dystopian wars ships but the flyers are still untouched. I am also trying to catch up on the varnishing front as there are now a load of figures that have been gloss varnished but not had a matt coat applied over it. Once those are out of the way I am going to try and get the figures for my various boardgames painted up as these are the figures currently seeing the table most often.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Mansions of Obsessive Madness
Thursday's Gaming session saw another two games of Mansions of Madness and it looks like this week coming I will be having a go as keeper! I am looking forward to it but given my total ineptitude with GMing, it could go pretty badly... we'll see.
I have also recently discovered Go. It is a game I have wanted to try for a long time after making the mistake that I am sure a lot of others make of thinking it to be the same as Reversi. Having had a few games on my Android, I already enjoy it a huge amount more than Reversi, there are some really complex interactions possible that surprises me considering how limited similar games like Draughts and Reversi are. It is almost more like Chess or Shogi despite the lack of vaiable piece powers. I think the ability to pass and come back later and the theoretically unlimited pieces make for a more long-term game that has a more strategic element.
On the painting front... not a great deal of progress, I am still working away at my Empire of the Blazing Sun Fleet, I have nearly finished them and if I really knuckled down to it, could probably complete them in an hour or two... so likely it'll take a couple of weeks! What I also keep forgetting is that I have only been painting the ships and the bombers... the flyers are all sitting there primed and unpainted... oh well at least I am making some progress.
I have also recently discovered Go. It is a game I have wanted to try for a long time after making the mistake that I am sure a lot of others make of thinking it to be the same as Reversi. Having had a few games on my Android, I already enjoy it a huge amount more than Reversi, there are some really complex interactions possible that surprises me considering how limited similar games like Draughts and Reversi are. It is almost more like Chess or Shogi despite the lack of vaiable piece powers. I think the ability to pass and come back later and the theoretically unlimited pieces make for a more long-term game that has a more strategic element.
On the painting front... not a great deal of progress, I am still working away at my Empire of the Blazing Sun Fleet, I have nearly finished them and if I really knuckled down to it, could probably complete them in an hour or two... so likely it'll take a couple of weeks! What I also keep forgetting is that I have only been painting the ships and the bombers... the flyers are all sitting there primed and unpainted... oh well at least I am making some progress.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thinning the Lead Mountain
Well it has been a couple of months of bills and poverty. So in light of this, I have been driven to try and purge my collections, hoping to scrape some cash together in time for Salute as there were a few things I had hoped to pick up there. So far I have raised a decent sum on PayPal through eBay and a few listings on Warseer and UKCord. Unfortunately taking the money out of PayPal is stupidly expensive so it is likely to stay there and get spent on eBay or mini sites direct... possibly on BoardGameGuru for Agricola, Thunderstone: Dragonspire or 7 Wonders. Still I have plenty more to sell and will hopefully take a large chunk to Salute's Bring & Buy. If anyone is after Lizardmen (the 1st ed ones), Epic Tyranids/Marines or Imperial Guard stuff (Tanks, Catachans, Storm Troops) then gimme a shout, I will try and get some of the stuff listed on the For Sale blog entry in the coming weeks but time is precious.
A lot of this stuff got picked up from a Friend's where I had stored it while in Uni. There was a shocking amount of stuff that I didn't even realise I had and the worst part is that I know there is still a lot more knocking about somewhere, I will have to try and hunt it out as I am sure I have a load of IG Praetorians that should fetch a fair chunk of change. Whilst over there on Saturday sorting all this stuff out, we also got a game of Cardcassonne and Thunderstone played which was good as I am pretty keen on both of them. Thunderstone is a game that I am enjoying more every time I play. I liked Dominion a lot, but the more I play Thunderstone, the more Dominion's lack of theme bothers me.
Last Thursday saw another game of Mansions of Madness. To be honest it was a little frustrating as throughout the game it felt as if we (the investigators) had no chance of winning. The Bio-Sample victory conditions effectively prevent players from winning by simply being practically impossible to stop. I am hoping that this coming Thursday we can play a game where this is not a victory condition to see if it makes the game more achievable than the first two times I have played.
A lot of this stuff got picked up from a Friend's where I had stored it while in Uni. There was a shocking amount of stuff that I didn't even realise I had and the worst part is that I know there is still a lot more knocking about somewhere, I will have to try and hunt it out as I am sure I have a load of IG Praetorians that should fetch a fair chunk of change. Whilst over there on Saturday sorting all this stuff out, we also got a game of Cardcassonne and Thunderstone played which was good as I am pretty keen on both of them. Thunderstone is a game that I am enjoying more every time I play. I liked Dominion a lot, but the more I play Thunderstone, the more Dominion's lack of theme bothers me.
Last Thursday saw another game of Mansions of Madness. To be honest it was a little frustrating as throughout the game it felt as if we (the investigators) had no chance of winning. The Bio-Sample victory conditions effectively prevent players from winning by simply being practically impossible to stop. I am hoping that this coming Thursday we can play a game where this is not a victory condition to see if it makes the game more achievable than the first two times I have played.
- Raggy, signing out
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Shogun and Agricola
Well the last week has been a bit manic, but has had a healthy amount of gaming mixed in. I was able to make it to Epsom and got a chance at long last to get a game of Shogun. I have to say I enjoyed it a great deal.
The game is an interesting light block wargame. The 'cube tower' works well both mechanically and thematically, although there can be issues with it being knocked. There are rules to handle this but for the most part it is better to keep the tower on a separate table to minimise the possibility. The game is a lot simpler than it initially appeared to be. We took a little while to get going as we were all new to the game but we quickly worked it out and once we had got in the swing of things, the game moved along at a fair pace. This is a very thinky game, there are a lot of elements that need considering and planning, however the mechanics are simple and quick to learn.
Saturday saw my RPG group get back around the table for the first time in a looong time for what was only the third instalment of our supposedly fortnightly gaming session. We played the first half of our first full length adventures. Whilst waiting for everyone to arrive, we sat down to a not-so-quick game of Dominion using the Seaside deck mixed in with the base game. I got my ass handed to me coming last by quite a margin.
The Daring Tales of Adventure game itself went a lot more smoothly I felt than previous games seemed to. I think this is mostly due to me becoming a little more adept at running an RPG. I would like to get to a stage where eventually I will be able to run a game at a convention but I suspect that is still a couple of years away. The adventure saw the gang confronted by some Aztec cult that seems to be trying to perpetrate some insidious scheme...
The breakdown of the adventures into Acts and Scenes gave us a clear point to break for the day but we managed to finish earlier than we had expected so I was able to persuade the others into a game of Agricola before heading home. Agricola is a game that has received a HUGE amount of press, mostly good from the board gaming community, it quickly ascended the ranks of BGG to first place shortly after release and although it has now fallen a couple of notches, it is still firmly in the top 10. Almost since release I have been dying to try it out and I finally got my chance! I was not disappointed.
I do have a few issues with the game, the cost for the contents seems a little steep, especially as (In my mind) the game needs ani/vegi/meeples to make the game really playable. Getting these additional componenets effectively doubles the game from expensive to ludicrously expensive with an RRP of £100 for the base game and relevant expansion (note: it isn't the only expansion! The others are also carrying fairly hefty price tags). The game also breaks down with five players making it unweildy and slow unless all players are very familiar with the game. I suspect that even 4 player games can become frustratingly slow. Yet despite of these issues, I am seriously considering picking it up. I really like this game and would love to try it as a two player game with the missus who is a big Harvest Moon fan and I think the limits to what can be done in a stage would carry a similar appeal along with the theme being reasonably well implemented.
Not much progress on the painting front, done a little work on the Empire of the Blazing Sun ships and I am pretty chuffed with the way they are turning out. I expect I will get them pretty well finished by the end of the week, but then there is the varnishing which I will be able to do this weekend if the weather holds. I have also been tackling horses and zombies but neither with much enthusiasm. I think it is safe to say that I am now zombied out and I have never enjoyed painting horses.
Well that's it from me for this week.
The game is an interesting light block wargame. The 'cube tower' works well both mechanically and thematically, although there can be issues with it being knocked. There are rules to handle this but for the most part it is better to keep the tower on a separate table to minimise the possibility. The game is a lot simpler than it initially appeared to be. We took a little while to get going as we were all new to the game but we quickly worked it out and once we had got in the swing of things, the game moved along at a fair pace. This is a very thinky game, there are a lot of elements that need considering and planning, however the mechanics are simple and quick to learn.
Saturday saw my RPG group get back around the table for the first time in a looong time for what was only the third instalment of our supposedly fortnightly gaming session. We played the first half of our first full length adventures. Whilst waiting for everyone to arrive, we sat down to a not-so-quick game of Dominion using the Seaside deck mixed in with the base game. I got my ass handed to me coming last by quite a margin.
The Daring Tales of Adventure game itself went a lot more smoothly I felt than previous games seemed to. I think this is mostly due to me becoming a little more adept at running an RPG. I would like to get to a stage where eventually I will be able to run a game at a convention but I suspect that is still a couple of years away. The adventure saw the gang confronted by some Aztec cult that seems to be trying to perpetrate some insidious scheme...
The breakdown of the adventures into Acts and Scenes gave us a clear point to break for the day but we managed to finish earlier than we had expected so I was able to persuade the others into a game of Agricola before heading home. Agricola is a game that has received a HUGE amount of press, mostly good from the board gaming community, it quickly ascended the ranks of BGG to first place shortly after release and although it has now fallen a couple of notches, it is still firmly in the top 10. Almost since release I have been dying to try it out and I finally got my chance! I was not disappointed.
I do have a few issues with the game, the cost for the contents seems a little steep, especially as (In my mind) the game needs ani/vegi/meeples to make the game really playable. Getting these additional componenets effectively doubles the game from expensive to ludicrously expensive with an RRP of £100 for the base game and relevant expansion (note: it isn't the only expansion! The others are also carrying fairly hefty price tags). The game also breaks down with five players making it unweildy and slow unless all players are very familiar with the game. I suspect that even 4 player games can become frustratingly slow. Yet despite of these issues, I am seriously considering picking it up. I really like this game and would love to try it as a two player game with the missus who is a big Harvest Moon fan and I think the limits to what can be done in a stage would carry a similar appeal along with the theme being reasonably well implemented.
Not much progress on the painting front, done a little work on the Empire of the Blazing Sun ships and I am pretty chuffed with the way they are turning out. I expect I will get them pretty well finished by the end of the week, but then there is the varnishing which I will be able to do this weekend if the weather holds. I have also been tackling horses and zombies but neither with much enthusiasm. I think it is safe to say that I am now zombied out and I have never enjoyed painting horses.
Well that's it from me for this week.
- Raggy, signing out
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Back home but not much...
Well after having spent far too long stuck at my parent's place looking after my mum, I have finally made it back to relative normalcy. Thursday night I went along to the Epsom Games Club for the first time in far too long and sat down to my first game of Mansions of Madness, the new product by Fantasy Flight Games. The first thing to say about it is that the characters are taken from Arkham Horror and I LOVE it when they do this for games in the same setting, it really helps ease you into the system even if the rules are quite different (as is the case here). There are some rules questions here and there that has demanded a fair amount of errata on the FFG site. Overall this is a great light RPG, with cluedo elements, and tonnes of theme.
Following on from that I was back at Epsom for the Saturday session for March. This was a bit of a mixed bag. I arrived late but was able to join a game of Olympus, a game I hadn't heard of before but a lot of fun. I wasn't even close to winning but really felt like I knew what I was working toward. In future I would know to pay a little more attention to how others are developing. This was followed by a game of Dominant Species... never again. I am not a fan of long games as a rule but this one was intolerable, nothing in the mechanics seemed to demand a game as long as it was and the amount the game changes between two of your actions makes any attempt at planning prior to your next action futile, which all doesn't do anything to help with my biggest bugbear: AP... and this game oozed it out of half the players dragging a long game out even further.
On the miniature front... as last night was the first I spent at home, the workstation hasn't changed much since last I showed it, but I have made a little progress, my Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet has started to take colour... turquoise:
The battleship is even getting magnetised turrets:
The ships are looking very flat at the moment but will be getting a bit more to them I hope, I am rubbish with drybrushing... wetbrushing in this case. I will be going over the whole lot with a very slight copper coating before painting decks and details and the like.
I have also painted up my next batch of militia a little more:
Not that you can make out ANYthing from these horrendously shoddy photos but flesh is getting done and I am hoping to move onto the metal tomorrow... if I can escape the 'rents (Going again tonight...)
And overall:
Thursday will see me back at Epsom Games Club and hopefully I will be playing Shogun at long last! It is a game I have been dying to play since I first heard about it, shortly after it's release.
Following on from that I was back at Epsom for the Saturday session for March. This was a bit of a mixed bag. I arrived late but was able to join a game of Olympus, a game I hadn't heard of before but a lot of fun. I wasn't even close to winning but really felt like I knew what I was working toward. In future I would know to pay a little more attention to how others are developing. This was followed by a game of Dominant Species... never again. I am not a fan of long games as a rule but this one was intolerable, nothing in the mechanics seemed to demand a game as long as it was and the amount the game changes between two of your actions makes any attempt at planning prior to your next action futile, which all doesn't do anything to help with my biggest bugbear: AP... and this game oozed it out of half the players dragging a long game out even further.
On the miniature front... as last night was the first I spent at home, the workstation hasn't changed much since last I showed it, but I have made a little progress, my Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet has started to take colour... turquoise:
The battleship is even getting magnetised turrets:
The ships are looking very flat at the moment but will be getting a bit more to them I hope, I am rubbish with drybrushing... wetbrushing in this case. I will be going over the whole lot with a very slight copper coating before painting decks and details and the like.
I have also painted up my next batch of militia a little more:
Not that you can make out ANYthing from these horrendously shoddy photos but flesh is getting done and I am hoping to move onto the metal tomorrow... if I can escape the 'rents (Going again tonight...)
And overall:
Thursday will see me back at Epsom Games Club and hopefully I will be playing Shogun at long last! It is a game I have been dying to play since I first heard about it, shortly after it's release.
- Raggy, signing out
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Stuck at the 'rents place
Yup not much gaming or painting or fun of any sort been happening what with one thing and another, mostly Sutton Council trying to screw me. So why am I posting? Well I decided it was time to take some more snaps of the old painting station to show folks:
Well I hope you enjoyed your visit to my painting station, I am off to the Espom Gaming Club tonight so hopefully some tales of new and exciting games to follow shortly!
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| The gaming station in all it's glory... lots going on here! |
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| Militia!!! - And what is that turquoise paint for? |
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| Zombies!!! Yep I am slowly working my way through the hordes, these are the last of the metal monsters |
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| And these are the majority of the plastic zombies |
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| Finally we have a few Steeds to bulk out my Knights of the Silver Skull. The horse on the left is a painted example. All my previous steeds were black (I'm lazy) so these new ones will have a little more colour variety to mix it up a bit... it's gonna take forever! |
- Raggy, signing out
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