A Post Apocalyptic View

My last few posts have been all about Gaslands, the post-apocalyptic demolition derby where roll cages and machine guns are minimum requirements for entry. It's a fun game, and I've thoroughly enjoyed messing around with some Hot Wheels cars making them look the part (you can see more here and here). Well the nest two cars are done, I have two more to do next, and then I'll be waiting on some bikes from Ramshackle, after which I'll be done (yeah, that's what I tell myself).

Next is a monster truck and a buggy, after that the bikes, and then... well... I need a war-rig right?

As well as getting the cars done I remembered I had some 4x4 boards sitting in my shed for use with Infinity, and after some careful deliberation (it may have been pure impulse), I decided to paint one up all post-apocalyptic. It was pretty straight forward stuff - a large quantity of cheap brown paint and three quarters of a plastic cup of sand mixed together and then rolled onto a 4x4 board of 3mm MDF (yes, I did mix my Imperials and Metrics in the same sentence...).

Ok, so doubtless a big open space is fun if no-one is about and you can let the car go a bit, but this is Gaslands! I need some things for cars to crash into!

From previous terrain building I had some left over pieces of cork-board floor tiles. I broke them up with the idea of making them into heaps of concrete walls etc - nice and tough objects for the cars to bounce off.

Ripped up bits of cork floor tile, glued together using PVA or white glue...

A black spray undercoat...

We don't need no Jersey Barriers in the POST-Future! No! We smash up Jersey Barriers and pile them up to make POST-Jersey Barriers!

After undercoating, I dry-brushed thickly with a blue-gray craft paint, followed by a light gray, and finally a very light dry-brush with white. They're not the best, I should have gone easier on the light gray step to let the darker tone beneath come through a bit more. But they look reasonable, and were quick to do.

The new cars with the new POST-Jersey barriers...

The board, as well as the various vehicles I have finished so far... I think I need some gates...

By the by, the latest episode of my podcast, On Minis Games is up, and in it we review Gaslands! Oh! If you're interested you can find it here, the link to subscribe can be found on the same page, or you can find us in iTunes...

On Minis Games

On Minis Games is a podcast dedicated to miniature games and gaming, with the odd splash of board gaming thrown in from time to time. I have written a little about it in the past, but haven't mentioned it too much because over the last twelve episodes we've struggled with some technical difficulties, trying to work out why our feed won't validate for iTunes and a few other things.  Up until episode thirteen we weren't in iTunes. All that has changed now, and thanks to the fine work of Erik and Don of On Board Games, our feed is functional, has been validated, and you can subscribe through iTunes, yay! The iTunes link is here.

On Minis Games started thirteen episodes ago, but the latest episode sort of feels like a new beginning. In the latest episode we talk about why we play miniatures games. Some of that talk is about why we like games in general, but we tried to hone in on the couple of reasons we like miniatures games specifically.

Of course, like all games, the best part of miniatures gaming is undoubtedly the social aspect. Being able to hove off time with a friend or three, chat, throw some dice and experience a good story is brilliant. This is true of all forms of table top gaming I think, and why, while I love board games, role playing games and miniatures games, I have never really been captured by electronic gaming.

Mordheim, with some Perry miniatures.

Mordheim, with a Perry miniature and 4Ground terrain.

Aesthetic is a key component of miniature games; they are a visual delight. A table with painted miniatures and good terrain, well, there is nothing quite like it. It's like playing in a diorama, creating a window into that setting or world, and allows the story of what's happening on the table to be realised as much visually as through the game play. For historical games I enjoy researching the force I am collecting, finding out what colours are suitable, and carrying that through with the force.

Badgers and Burrows with Splintered Light minis.

Another aspect that makes miniatures games great is that they provide a sandbox. With a board game the board and pieces come out of the box and there are the parameters. With a miniatures game the rules provide the architecture for how pieces, miniatures, terrain etc, interact, and the players create the specific parameters of each game by choosing the forces they use, the terrain on the table, the scenario they play, and so on. Games are highly variable, and many of the rules sets I enjoy most are thematic and have a strong narrative component.

Dystopian Wars minis, from the old Spartan Games.

Gaslands! With Hotwheels cars and Infinity terrain.

Miniatures gaming is also a hobby, with the collecting, building, painting, basing and all the other aspects that that make it the rich experience it is. Some people will love some of these aspects, others will hate them, but they are there should you choose to indulge. I like painting well enough, but often struggle to finish projects. This is partly due to how I choose to spend my free-time, most of which is spent these days freelance writing for RPGs. More than painting, I love having finished painting. Being able to look at models I know that I painted them, being pleased with the results (for the most part), all of it makes me want to get those pieces on the table. I like having painted, more than I like the painting, but of course to get one, one must do the other!

My painting desk. A mess of unfinished projects.

There are a number of other things specific to miniatures games that draw me to this style of gaming. We talk about them on the podcast, which you should definitely check out and subscribe to!

Here is the link, and thankfully, you can also now find us on iTunes!

Hobby Goals for 2018

With my writing goals outlined, it is time to turn to my hobby...

Last year I had a variety of hobby goals, some of them I achieved, others I did not. This year I'm going to try and push a few things (like the podcast), and be a little more circumspect about others (game designs).

100 Unique Games

This is a goal I have had for the past couple of years, and have managed to accomplish. I'm not listing this one because I think it will be an easy victory, but because sometimes it makes me pause when I'm picking a game to play, and ask myself whether I wouldn't rather trying something I haven't played for a while. Usually the results are good - with new games arriving on a too regular basis it's good to try and get some of the older ones off the shelf as well. For those of you on Boardgamegeek.com, I am tracking the games I play throughout the year in a geeklist which can be found here.

Role Playing

Last year we managed to play with relative regularity, and this is something I'd love to continue into 2018. I have plans to continue the Symbaroum campaign we're currently playing. When that comes to a close (in a couple of adventures hence), I might shift to a different game system and setting for a while, and come back later in the year. Currently I'm looking Heavy Gear, Mythic Battles RPG, Feng Shui, and a couple of others. I have loved getting my role playing hat back on the last few years, and really hope this is something we can keep consistent with throughout 2018.

Miniature Painting

I had lofty goals last year, and managed to get nothing done. This year I hope to... well, to do something. I would ideally like to paint my Chronicles of Anyaral figures, Heavy Gear force, Yu Jing Infinity Force and my 15mm Gauls for Sword and Spear... but I know I won't be that productive. I would settle for just one of those. I think I am going to try first for the Chronicles of Anyaral. I love the look of the minis, and it's something my son and I could do together. Beyond that... who can say.

Minis Playing

The last miniatures game I played was Infinity, some months ago. [aghast intake of breath]. Yes, shame. There are a couple of games I'd really love to get to the table with some regularity this year: Sharp Practice, because it is one of my all time favourites, Dux Britanniarum, for the same reason. Sword and Spear, Kings of War, Chronicles of Anyaral (with my son), Infinity, and Kings of War Vanguard - which should be arrived from the Kickstarter later this year. Fingers crossed we manage some consistency with this. We shall see...

Gaming with the Family

Kids games...

Some classics my wife and I love...

Playing regular games (by which I mean almost every night) with my kids, and playing regular games with my wife. One: It's great bonding time, something nice to do as a family. Two: My wife and I used to play games all the time, and life got in the way. I would love to get games back to the table with the ones I love, it's social, enjoyable, and a great activity to slot into an evening before bed-time (or after the kids are in bed, for my wife and I).

ShepparCon

Last year was the inaugural year for our local game convention. I am part of the committee, though what my role is remains a mystery to all involved, myself included. Nonetheless, and thanks mainly to the leadership of our fearless commander-in-chief Karl, as well as those on the committee who did things (Nath, Matt, Will et al), it was a resounding success. This year we hope to increase numbers and generally improve on the whole event. If you're an Aussie - come along and have a great time. You can find the website with information here.

Podcasting

Well, I'll be honest. 2017 was a bit of a let down. Quinton and I had intended to get On Minis Games rolling, and life interceded. We didn't manage it. This year we're hoping to do what we hoped for last year - 2 episodes a month. We already have two recorded, the first of which will hopefully be soon. You can find information about our podcast (including the RSS link) here. We'll be covering mainly miniature games, with a sprinkling of RPGs and Boardgames as well...



Well, that about rounds out my hobby related goals for 2018. Looking back, I think it is more than enough to keep me occupied. Fingers crossed I managed to tick a few more of these goals off than last year!

Looking Back - Hobby Goals

At the beginning of each year I set myself various goals, for some areas - like my writing goals, the idea is to challenge myself to achieve various things. For some areas - like my hobby goals, it's to vary things as much as it is to challenge myself. At the start of 2017 I wrote up some hobby goals, they focused on playing a variety of board games, getting some role playing done, painting and modeling, podcasting and game design. The results were a mixed bag...

Board Games Played...

Like 2016, in 2017 I set the goal of playing 100 different board games. Half way through the year this seemed an easy goal to crack, but for whatever reason, I only managed to cross the line in December. It's been an interesting year, my gamer group has moved from playing miniatures games almost exclusively to playing mostly board games, and for the first time in years I feel like I am moving back into the sort of awareness and familiarity with the industry I had when I was more heavily involved in it. I have certainly played more recently published games this year than in the previous few years, and most of this has to do with two factors - my kids becoming old enough to play more games, and my gamer group choosing to play more board games.

For anyone particularly interested, the Geeklist on Boardgamegeek where I maintained the list of the unique games I have been playing can be found here.

It's no surprise that the games I have played the most over the course of the year are games my kids have enjoyed. So far this year the most played games with the family have been...

Zitternix is a dexterity game, much like pick up sticks. You roll the dice and remove the stick matching the colour you rolled. The blue, red and yellow sticks are worth 3, 2 and 1 point respectively. It's a fun game that plays very easily. My daughter, 2, could play this with little trouble, and often requested it. Well worth looking up if you're after a quick and enjoyable game for the family.

Spooky Stairs is a roll and move game with some serious differences. If you roll a ghost, one of the Ghost pieces is placed over the top of a player piece, meaning you must remember which one is yours. Add to this the rule that if you roll a ghost you may switch the positions of two ghosts, and the game is a surprising and enjoyable memory game. Some arguments and tears were shed over being 'ghosted' and 'swapped' - but for all the pain at the time, these little moments are where we learn to be good losers and gracious winners. Again, a really enjoyable game.

Slamwich is essentially snap with a few twists. My kids love it mainly for the food aspect. My daughter always like to repeat the name of every, single, piece of food represented on every, single, card played. But is rather cute and amusing. Another solid game.

My youngest took the 'Muncher' card a little too literally it seems.

Machi Koro is a fun little dice rolling game. You build up a little town, roll the dice and activate and use the powers on any buildings matching the number you rolled. It plays quickly and my son absolutely adored this game, which meant it hit the table with fair frequency. Well worth looking up as a slightly more complex family game to those above.

One of my greatest pleasures this year has been reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to my son. It started with whining about how much he was sure he'd hate the book, and by the time the Dursleys were hiding out in a hut on a rock and Hagrid was banging on the door, he was well and truly hooked. He loved the book, and we're currently reading Chamber of Secrets, which is great. For Christmas one of the newest games to be added to our shelves was this: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle. A deck building game with the Harry Potter theme.

I'm usually wary of games that have such a big licence, they tend to be fairly ordinary. But this one is absolute gold. The deck building aspect is neat, and the 'game' includes 7 games - each adding in aspects from the books as they move through the series. The game starts simply, but becomes more challenging, complex and interesting as the different 'games' and their suite of additional cards, pieces and rules are added in. A very solid game we have already played quite a lot over the last few days.


The best new-to-me games I have played are all quite different from one another. A real-time game, an epic story laden miniatures board game and a tight euro game with a theme I adore.

Eye for an Eye is a game that is planned to hit Kickstarter next year I believe. I was lucky enough to get the chance to play it with the designers Ben and Shae, at Shepparcon - a local gaming convention. I had an absolute blast. If someone had asked me whether a real time miniatures game was likely to be any good, I would have flat out said 'no'. This game, however, proves me wrong. Each player has warrior, and rolls dice to place on their warrior cards which may then be spent to move, change facing, attack, defend and use special powers. It is frantic, with everyone rolling, placing and spending dice as break-neck speed, and, most impressively, it works. I had a lot of fun with this, and I thoroughly recommend keeping an eye out for the Kickstarter when it comes.

Mythic Battles: Pantheon. My friend Quinton kickstarted this, and wow, what a lot of boxes, cardboard, card stock and plastic. Having played now the intro scenario, a story scenario, a co-op scenario, and a drafting battle between three players all I can say is that the game is easy to play, and a lot of fun. The choices are many, and the game is tense. But the rules are easy enough to handle that it all just works and works smoothly. I really enjoyed playing this, and I am looking forward to playing more!

I could have gone multiple ways with the last of the three, X-Com, Rex: Final Days of Empire, Red 7 and others were all contenders for the last of the three. In the end I have run with Terraforming Mars. This is a dyed in the wool euro game, with multiple paths to victory and a very solid game engine. I really love the theme, but the game play itself lives up to the hype that has surrounded this game since release. It is highly enjoyable, tense and engaging. So, Terraforming Mars rounds out my top three new-to-me board games of 2017.


Miniatures games are long and involved enough that I won't attempt to do a top three for the year. What I will do is my pick of the games I have played this year, and a couple of honourable mentions.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the best miniature game I have played this year, and quite possibly one my my favourite miniatures games of all time, is Sharp Practice, from TooFatLardies.

This game breathes the theme, it is such an enjoyable and story laden experience that every game has been an absolute joy to play. I never thought I would be interested in gaming the Napoleonic Period, or any other black powder era, but here I am. This game, quite simply, is phenomenal. The staccato beat to each player's turn perfectly echoes the theme of the period, the leadership and activation rules are tense and thought provoking. All in all this is a wonderful game, and I thoroughly recommend checking it out.

Honourable mentions:

I have a box of 15mm Gauls I have been meaning to paint and base... perhaps 2018. I bought them specifically for Sword and Spear. This game is very good, with simple, tight game mechanisms and a really interesting activation system it is well worth looking at if you are after an Ancients game!

My son picked this game for the lovely miniatures. I am hoping to get some paint on them in the coming year. The aesthetic is wonderfully charming and the game rules are simple and story laden. Highly enjoyable all together!

On the miniature related goal front, one of my goals for the year was to assemble a bunch of terrain and get things painted. I did manage to assemble some terrain, and a collection of models for Kings of War, but the painting was an abject failure. I don't think I painted a single thing. Perhaps next year will offer better prospects on this front!

The last game playing related goal for 2017 was about role playing. Over the year we've played a few different systems on and off, but without a doubt the best and longest running in 2017 has been our Symbaroum campaign. I really enjoy this game, and if you're keen you can check out my review here. The art is amazing, and the system is easy enough that it doesn't get in the way of the story at all. Thoroughly enjoyable! I am looking forward to continuing the campaign into 2018!

The last two goals I had for 2017 revolved around the podcast On Minis Games and getting some games designed of my own. On both fronts I have done far less than I wanted to, and must count these goals as failed. Hopefully I'll come back to both in 2018, more on that in another post perhaps. The key reason I didn't get to them is because of the freelance work I have been doing, so I need to look at how I structure my time to see what else I can fit in. Hopefully both these missed goals are something I'll come back to.


Overall I have been very happy with the year, sure I didn't paint, design or podcast as much as I had hoped. But I have been playing and enjoying more board games, I've been role playing more, and hey - you can't do everything!

Ramblings...

It's been a little while since I last ventured to the castle cabinet to compose a post, the grounds have needed tending, and the smaller members of the castle staff have required attention. Much has happened in the meantime, however, games have been purchased and played, events run and plans made.

A few weeks ago the inaugural Shepparcon took place, a board game convention in my humble town, and was a smashing success. It was a lot of fun to be a part of the organising committee, and while my contributions were limited, the rest of the crew did a fantastic job. We had close to 90 people come through over the course of the weekend, and much gaming was had by all. The event may well be the subject of a future post, but suffice to say I had a blast. Some of the standout games I managed to play included Eye for an Eye (a prototype of the highest quality), Santorini, and Red 7.

Eye for an Eye is, in some ways, a bizarre game. It's a real-time miniatures game - something I would have considered impossible, but the frantic rolling of action dice, the placement of the dice, and the spending of said dice to move, attack, defend and perform other actions was a huge amount of fun.  Ben Boersma, the designer, is an Australian with several other games to his name. Eye for an Eye is set in his Occulite universe, and is an absolute blast to play. A game that conceptually I thought could not possibly work, Eye for an Eye is, instead, a raucous roller coaster of silly fun. I will certainly be getting a copy when it makes its way into production. If you're interested, you can get the print and play version here.

Santorini is a lovely looking game that ran quickly, had a simple rules set and was easy to play, for those reasons it was highly enjoyable. Some might argue it is very much a poster child of form over function, but the nice pieces really do make the game that little bit more fun.

Red 7 is a strange card game, at the end of every one of your turns you need to be winning, and you do that by playing cards in front of you to match the rule, or by modifying the rule (or both). It's one of those games where every turn you survive you feel like you've managed to do something clever, it was an excellent game, and one I'll be chasing up.

All in all Shepparcon was a success, and we're very much looking forward to what next year will bring. I'm sure the Con is going to grow, and it will be fantastic to be a part of that.

On the podcast front I have been decidedly slack, it's been tough to coordinate a recording time, but finally we have a new episode up (and plans to record another very soon). The latest episode of the On Minis Games podcast can be found here. We talk about Drop Fleet Commander, Drop Zone Commander, Kings of War, and a multitude of Kickstarters.

Lastly, I have been making slow plans to get my RPG group back playing, for a while our games centered around testing adventures for the upcoming Infinity RPG, and I want to take a break from that and try something different. My shelves are over stocked with a variety of games I either haven't played in a long time or ever, so it was to those I went looking. Being the vacillating type, I am still swinging between two options, but I think I have managed to sort out in my mind what I want to run.

I think we'll play through a few short campaigns of 3-5 adventures each, across a couple of different game systems. To begin with I think we'll run with Symbaroum, which is a dark and strange fantasy setting with gorgeous art. The setting is excellent (and very evocative), and the game system seems interesting enough - so we might kick off with that.

The other game I am looking at is Heavy Gear. Heavy Gear is an old favourite of mine, so I am most definitely looking forward to playing it again. I have the second edition rules set, as well as the third edition SilCore set. After some research I think we'll run with the second edition rules, though we may pull a few tweaks from the SilCore rules as well. We'll see how we go!