Kickwaiting...

At the start of the year I wrote up a series of goals I'd like to achieve, some of these I am close to attaining, some are as far from fulfilled as they were when I wrote them. One goal falls well and truly into the latter camp, in fact it falls through the latter camp, through the ground the latter camp is pitched on, and is steadily burrowing it's way toward the Earth's core. That goal was to get a percentage of my unplayed games played. There's still time of course, but it seems that many of the Kickstarters I have backed are marching toward fulfillment, and I am pretty sure I am going to end the year with more unplayed games than I began it with.

When I started writing this blog post (last week) I had four Kickstarter games that had not yet hit the Castle, a day later Heavy Gear Blitz arrived, and now I have three. With Tiny Epic Western in the mail, it should soon be two.

Heavy Gear Blitz has arrived, and I am hastily putting together some miniatures in anticipation of a learning game which I will write about once it takes place. The miniatures are great... but more on that later.

Tiny Epic Western, by Gamelyn Games, is the latest iteration of their 'Tiny Epic' series. I heard about this one n the On Board Games podcast. It sounded like a really solid little game with a fun theme, and was very well priced. I'm looking forward to getting it!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past board game, by IDW, is an adventure style game by Kevin Wilson. I've been a big fan of Kevin's games for some time, and my son (and the nostalgic young me) loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I am really looking forward to this, I think it will be a great game, it's packed with fantastic bits, and I think my son and I will have a lot of fun playing it.

The English translation of this French Role Playing Game just looks amazing. I have a real soft spot for prehistory, human evolution and mega-fauna, and the idea of a game set in the time when Neanderthals and Humans lived side-by-side and all these things are intertwined in the theme really tickles me. I love the art and the setting, and am very much excited by the prospect of getting it played. It may be some time off, but that doesn't matter, I have FATE Accelerated, Infinity and Star Trek Adventures to keep me occupied RPG wise in the mean time (and the challenge of organising a time to actually get an RPG in).

Heavy Gear Blitz!

Last night I had just started to put together a blog post about games I had Kickstarted, that I was looking forward to getting... today, the postman made a section of that (future) post irrelevant...

Heavy Gear Blitz has arrived at the Castle!

Heavy Gear was a role-playing game I played a lot in my younger days, it is a game choc full of great setting material, interesting worlds, and wonderful anime style art. Published by Dream Pod 9, the role-playing game originally came with a set of rules for playing out battles with miniatures on the table, Heavy Gear Blitz is an evolution of that system, and focuses purely on the table-top experience.

While it's been around for a while, Heavy Gear Blitz was never a game I really got into, despite my liking of the setting, the miniatures were hard to get hold of, and quite expensive here in Australia. With the new Kickstarter, Dream Pod 9 has produced a set of plastic miniatures, with a very reasonable price point. In fact, the Kickstarter was thoroughly excellent value, providing four starter armies with a good range of miniatures for each. Between my mate Quinton and myself we got two core sets, which means both lots of fantastic miniatures, but also lots of assembly!

The four armies represent core forces of the Heavy Gear universe, I took the Northern Army (Planet: Terra Nova) and the Colonial Expeditionary Force (Planet: Earth), while Quinton took the Southern Army (Planet: Terra Nova), and Caprice (Planet: Caprice).

Everything in bags...

One set of CEF sprues laid out...

Wasting little time, Quinton and I managed to wrangle a quick meet up and doled out the bags and bags of sprues and bits, and went our separate ways with the homework task of reading the rules and putting together a 50 Point force each. Having a look over the sprues I was a little disappointed to see there were some production issues with the plastics (crackling and dimpling on some, mainly the larger Caprice models (something Dream Pod 9 have said will be fixed next run)), and with the fact that all the hex bases are slotted (when none of the miniatures have slots). I was very impressed however with the quality of the miniatures as a whole, the detail is excellent, the casting is sharp and the models look like they will go together very well. The really look great.

The game has many options, with Gears (the mechs and main fighting units) able to armed with a variety of weapons. I am still chewing over how I'm going to manage that with my models - magnets seem the obvious option, but some parts may be too small - we shall see. There's always the lazy option of just gluing them, since I have two sets I should be able to build a good variety, and I have never been one to insist that 'what you see is what you get'...

All in all I am hugely excited by Heavy Gear Blitz, from what I have read of the rules they look excellent, and the miniatures (aside from some small issues) look fantastic. I really can't wait to start putting them together and getting them on the table, I think it's going to be a blast. It also has me inspired to dust off my Heavy Gear RPG book... So many games...

Classic BattleLore...

The Command and Colors series of war games, by Richard Borg, are something of a phenomenon, with a core set of well tested mechanisms tuned to cover nearly every period you could think of, from Ancients through to the Napoleonic period, World War I, World War 2, science fiction, and fantasy.

One of my favourites of this game series is BattleLore, originally published back in 2006 by Days of Wonder, and later by Fantasy Flight Games, BattleLore (First Edition) was a fantasy/historical game set during an alternate 100 Years War, with Goblins, Dwarves and other fantasy creatures thrown into the mix for good measure. The cartoonish aesthetic and mingling of fantasy tropes and history was off-putting for some, but to be honest I found it pleasant, and a nice break from the overly serious and too-well-trod generic style that seems to dominate much fantasy game art.

The core system of BattleLore, like all of the Command and Colors games, revolves around activating units on the battlefield by playing cards, the dice system for combat is simple, and the weapons and other special rules provide enough variation to make play tactical and interesting. BattleLore also includes special rules for Lore (or Magic), a system which can have a powerful effect on the game, but is regulated through the managing both your War Council (where you have various Lore Masters: the Commander, Rogue, Warrior Wizard and Cleric), and through the economy of Lore Tokens - which are gained through dice rolls, and for various other things.

BattleLore is a lucky game, you can have the cards and dice swing for and against you, but it is a highly enjoyable game that does reward tactical play. While luck may play some role in how a game falls out, a player's choices still make a big difference in the game results. I find the game tense and engaging, formulating a plan and hoping the enemy doesn't mess it up is a lot of fun.

The Lore system is a fun addition that fits seamlessly in with the rest and manages to add a thematic and enjoyable magic system into the game. Combine this with the War Council, where players can use their points to create a well balanced council, or where they may choose to leave some Lore Masters off and make others more powerful, all of this then flows into the Lore system, and makes the game highly variable.  While set-up can take a little time, it is not long enough to be off-putting, especially for someone used to playing miniatures games.

All in all BattleLore has been a long time favourite of mine, and it has been nice that I have recently been able to dust off my copy as a friend (Quinton) and I play through the scenarios. Currently, we have played through 7 of the scenarios in the base game, and between the dozen expansions or so and the Call to Arms system which lets players create their own scenarios, we have many more to go. 

I haven't played the second edition by Fantasy Flight Games, and to honest I won't be getting it. Not because I don't think it's a good game, but because I have all the fantasy Command and Colors I need in the First Edition (and I prefer the kooky aesthetic). Plus, I think there will be enough Command and Colors around the Castle because...

After this most recent dalliance with the old favourite, Quinton and myself have both decided to grab other games in the series, after much vacillation on my part we have worked out that Quinton will be getting Command and Colors Ancients, a game I have played once before, and a period I am very much a fan of.

For my own part, I was very excited to see GMT announce the P500 (preorder) of Command and Colors Medieval. This game will begin with a focus on the wars between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanid Persians, a choice which has garnered some interesting comment online. While certainly medieval by any historical standard, it is not as iconic of the period as, say, the 100 Years War, or the Scottish Wars of Independence or whatever. Personally, I am very excited by it as it is a period I very much enjoyed hearing about through the 12 Byzantine Emperors podcast, something I think I'm going to have to download again as the release date rolls closer...

OMG (That's On Mini's Games)

Anyone who has been around the board game hobby for some time will be aware of the absolutely thriving community of podcasters, bloggers and the more recent explosion of vlogs that cover game reviews, hobby news, unboxings, how to play tutorials and more.

One of my favourite podcasts, a show that I have been a sometimes contributor to, is On Board Games, a show that has grown over the years and now is the flagship podcast of the Inverse Genius media partnership, a group of podcasts that includes On Board Games, On RPGs, Games in Schools and Libraries, the Inverse Genius Podcast, and Room Escape Divas.

Looking over the stable of podcasts that Inverse Genius produces and hosts, there seems to be a gap in my view, with nothing that has an eye toward the miniature games side of the gaming hobby. With a passion both for podcasting and for miniature games, this is a gap I think I'd like to try and cover.

On Minis Games is a podcast idea I have been chatting to Don and Erik about for some time, and we're finally in the position where we are ready to hit record. On Minis Games will be hosted by myself and my good friend Quinton, both of us have more miniatures for more miniatures games than we are ever likely to be able to get to the table, and are passionate about this style of game. We don't plan on covering any specific miniatures game in extreme detail, many games have dedicated podcasts. We're aiming at something more general, a resource for those interested in the hobby, and, hopefully, some entertaining discussion on a variety of miniatures games.

We aim to keep the trademark roundtable in place, with a focus on a specific game or company, or an aspect of the hobby like painting, or terrain building. Our goal is to keep episodes around the 30-50 minute mark, and hopefully this is something we can manage!

Both Quinton and I, (and I hope Don, Erik and the gang) are excited by On Minis Games, and we hope (that some at least) of the listeners and fans of the Inverse Genius stable will be pleased to see this new podcast added to the group. We have much to do yet, with music, a logo and many other little pieces still to get into place, but we are on the march!

If there are any Inverse Genius fans out there who have a view on what they'd like to see a minis games podcast include, please comment here, or drop us an email at onminisgames@gmail.com

1876 - Dystopian Wars and Legions...

Those who have followed this blog for a while will know that I let it stagnate for just over a year in order to work on the Element 270 podcast and blog. One of my absolute favourite miniatures games is Dystopian Wars, by Spartan Games. I started as a passionate blogger, became a podcaster, started working with Spartan on Dystopian Legions, and have since been lucky enough to work with them on a range of their product lines including Firestorm Armada, Firestorm Planetfall, Firestorm Taskforce, Halo Fleet Battles, Dystopian Legions, Dystopian Wars, and Dystopian Wars Fleet Action (you can see what I've worked, including links, on on my Bibliography Page).

While a lot of work was underway in the background at Spartan HQ on Dystopian Wars, including completing the update to the statistics for every major and alliance nation, and the posting of updated backgrounds for every nation, not much was being released in terms of miniatures. This is changing! Spartan has announced and update to the timeline, the release of the Dystopian Wars Scenery Pack, the new (massive) Sturginium Rigs, as well as teasing of a new Kingdom of Britannia Battleship.

On their website they have also been including a range of scenarios, and these can be accesses from the Spartan Downloads page, I had a lot of fun working on these, and I hope people enjoy playing them!

For Dystopian Legions Spartan have announced a change in how the game will be available, and have also been posting some fun additions to the game in terms of a collection of new Supplemental Rules (available from the Spartan Download page), which the playtest group worked on some time ago, and are designed to add some narrative fun to the game. Spartan will also be posting some Legions scenarios... and again, I hope you enjoy playing through them!

All in all I'm excited by what's coming up, for those of you who play Dystopian Wars or Legions, I hope you get a kick out of the scenarios and extras, the design team and playtesters have had a lot of fun putting them together and we hope you enjoy playing them on the table!

Beetle, the classic build-a-beetle game...

I hate to admit I own this game, but really it belongs to the kids, so I will hopefully be judged less harshly in the end-times due to the crime. Published by Hasbro, during that dark period it was manufacturing torture devices for the Spanish-Inquisition, Beetle is also known by a range of other names, which I refuse to look up.

Is this the worst game ever you ask? Yes. Yes it is.

This is objectively the worst game in the history of games. Spin the spinner and whoever manages to get all the beetle parts (body first ) before someone at the table pretends to get a water and poisons themselves, sets the building on fire or dies of malnutrition is declared the winner.

478,942 Spins later and I still don't have a Beetle body.

It is an exercise in patience, as players outwardly participate in the endless game play while secretly plotting to hide or destroy the game so it may never hit the table again. It is mathematically possible to play this game until the heat-death of the universe, with no-one managing to score a victory. I like to pretend there's an apocalyptic meteor strike part way into this game, flip the table and kick pieces under the fridge until the kids agree we can't continue.

Victory in my group is managing to pull a bait-and-switch on any child suggesting we should play this game, if this isn't successful, we all lose.

Tempus Fugit

Sitting here staring at the blank screen, thinking about all the blog posts I had planned to write by now I realise it's been more than a month since I last posted something, a month and a half in fact.

I had certainly intended to write more, reviews of games I had played, games I was looking at, the book I am reading. I had the topics for half a dozen posts, but life got busy, as life does, and time flies.

In the last month and a half things have certainly been busy, professionally and personally. My mother passed away, and while I won't write about it now, if I ever do, I should add that she was a singular woman who instilled in me a passion for reading, for games, for information, for curiosity and creativity, the last two perhaps the most important. It is in the arrogance of young adulthood that you convince yourself you are a self-made person, and for me at least, it was the loss of my mother that reminded me how truly formative our parents are.

The Castle has also been wracked by plague, with child and adult alike hacking at their lungs with unabating coughs and fevers running rampant.

Work has kept my hands from idleness, as a teacher and as a writer. For the latter I have had chapters for the Infinity Role Playing Game's Core Rule Book (by Modiphius) to write and review (so far I've worked on the Concillium, O-12 and PanOceania chapters), characters and adversaries to stat out and describe, short biographies to create and more. I have also been proofing the upcoming Achtung! Cthulhu Skirmish Game (also by Modiphius and based on the Legions game from Spartan), and have been working with Spartan Games on upcoming things. All of this has been immense fun, but left me short on time for blogging, painting, playing and reading.

Writing of reading, I am, at the moment, working my way slowly through Ancillary Justice, by Ann Lecke. A Hugo and Nebula Award winning book, I am only a little way through. I have to be honest and say that it has only partially grabbed me, though unfolding events are drawing me closer. Part of a trilogy of books, I am looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds.

Gaming wise, I have played a few games here and there, some of which I'll cover below. The most enjoyable of the games I have played in the last couple of months are:

Playing the first mission in HeroQuest with my son, who had a blast. A simple but highly enjoyable dungeon romp that goes to show nostalgia isn't always the reason games of yesteryear seem so good.

Playing through a thoroughly disastrous campaign of Dux Britanniarum, in which my Saxon Lord has done little but prove his ineptitude and the poor judgement of his men in selecting him as leader. This game is absolutely brilliant, as much for what happens outside the game table as for what happens on it.

I've also been thoroughly enjoying Infinity the miniatures game, by Corvus Belli (upon which the RPG is based). This game is a lot of fun, and full of little storied moments.

The best new game I've played has been Morels, a funny little set-collection game about gathering fungi. An odd theme, but a rather enjoyable two-player game that moves quicker than you think it might.

The best of my older games that has hit the table, and one I haven't played in some time, was Shadows Over Camelot. Shadows is a co-operative game where the players, as knights of the Round Table must attempt to win various quests to both stave off disaster and gain enough 'white swords' to claim victory against the forces of evil. There may also be a traitor, of course, and in this game there was, and he won with a brutal twist just as things seemed like they may turn for the better at the end.


What's upcoming?

Well, I am planning on getting a group together, in some form or another, to play some Fate. I've never played this RPG before, but I like the look of it a lot and it should be good fun.

I also have some 15mm Chariots I have put together for a game called Fastvs Fvrivs, by Ganesha Games, and I'm very much looking forward to getting them on the table!



Well, that's enough, probably far too much. I am hoping to come back to some of these games and things and write about them in a touch more detail, but for now this will suffice.