tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85344883773303781382024-03-13T09:33:57.256-07:00Geek Stuff.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-32126519219193259702024-02-09T09:08:00.000-08:002024-02-11T09:39:36.765-08:00My Best New, And Most Played Games Of 2023.<p> </p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Clicking on the game names on this post will take you to their appropriate page on BoardGameGeek.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I'm also going to include some pictures of games that I played in 2023...</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><br /></b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwTX-g9u3mJSggDyNaDFwDmFXqBKNS146gycQHI3ZmSGeZECqzM9xqLaOa7eWzSSF1klV3-SzojLJ8uvi3jtneisKTfEUAeg9orNH05soNCmRdsLJEx8b3J2KbUYGRALn-tEsuaUnvXSG8lsuVZUQXWzTcmAUkIfyADQjHVfpjCVpshXJU8Iv7P1r9B68/s4032/FR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwTX-g9u3mJSggDyNaDFwDmFXqBKNS146gycQHI3ZmSGeZECqzM9xqLaOa7eWzSSF1klV3-SzojLJ8uvi3jtneisKTfEUAeg9orNH05soNCmRdsLJEx8b3J2KbUYGRALn-tEsuaUnvXSG8lsuVZUQXWzTcmAUkIfyADQjHVfpjCVpshXJU8Iv7P1r9B68/w640-h480/FR.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />...for a start, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/199478/flamme-rouge">Flamme Rouge</a>. I actually won this one. Only the second time that I have!<p></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><br /></b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><br /></b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">My Most Played Games in 2023.</span></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>1<sup>st</sup>. 32
plays.</b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/254640/just-one">Just One</a>. I love word games (except for anagrams, I can
rarely do them (unless they come with a clue, then I often do get
them.)), and this is one of the very best. I'm pleased that this tops
this list.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>2<sup>nd</sup>. 23
plays.</b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/329839/so-clover">So Clover!</a><i> </i><span style="font-style: normal;">Another
beautifully elegant word game.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>3<sup>rd</sup>. 20
plays.</b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames">Codenames</a>. In third place, yet another word game!
Again, beautifully designed with simple rules. Always fun.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>4<sup>th</sup>. 19
plays.</b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/206915/tempel-des-schreckens">Tempel Des Schreckens</a>. A favourite at my boardgames
club, Isleworth Board Gamers, which, to be honest, until last year,
I've rarely enjoyed. But I've grown to quite like it of late.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>5<sup>th</sup>. 13
plays.</b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/26884/escalation">Escalation!</a> A classic from prolific games designer, Reiner Knizia. Another game with
a very simple premise, play a card (or set of cards) with a higher
number (or total) than the previous player.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Joint 6<sup>th</sup>
and 7<sup>th</sup>.</b> 10 Plays Each.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/358124/mists-over-carcassonne">Mists Over Carcassonne</a>. A
co-operative version of Carcassonne (one of my favourite games). I've
logged each round played as a separate game, which is why it's made
my top 10. To be honest,I'm not a fan. I love the original but just
don't really see the point of a co-operative version.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/291453/scout">Scout</a>. A great
card game with some interesting mechanics that tickles my numbers
sweet spot.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Joint, 8<sup>th</sup>,
9<sup>th</sup> and 10<sup>th</sup></b>. 7 plays each.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/246192/gizmos">Gizmo<i>s</i></a><i>. </i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
was introduced to this near the end of this year but after repeated
plays still find it fun.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/268864/undaunted-normandy">Undaunted: Normandy</a>. A hybrid of a deck-builder and a wargame, with several different
scenarios to play though.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266192/wingspan">Wingspan</a>. A game
about collecting birds in different habitats and building an
efficient “engine” with them to gain more points than your
opponents.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ljil4OEBcpEhHfT23xfULg4t7S5uL_55SkiICRX_b-0kxX4qmfmDQOIHN4OAi2uOepsYdVnyWkRQ8wh-pTqB6lOU9RhmNNABSBcq5ywrVxzsfyqEfJAYy6LbcEGg38cfL3I7hPQCUXt8Bp7rfvuI_SLGI80ai-SGFff0o8QOGpC2fRNd2LTUIxpNOcw/s4032/20230712_190438.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ljil4OEBcpEhHfT23xfULg4t7S5uL_55SkiICRX_b-0kxX4qmfmDQOIHN4OAi2uOepsYdVnyWkRQ8wh-pTqB6lOU9RhmNNABSBcq5ywrVxzsfyqEfJAYy6LbcEGg38cfL3I7hPQCUXt8Bp7rfvuI_SLGI80ai-SGFff0o8QOGpC2fRNd2LTUIxpNOcw/w480-h640/20230712_190438.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The end of a game of the giant version of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/218129/catch-moon">Catch The Moon</a>.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>My Top 10 of games
that were new to me in 2023. </b>(In reverse order...to up the tension!)</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>10.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/380005/nigoichi">Nigoichi</a>. A clever word game.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>9.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/358284/rome-day">Rome In A Day</a>. A nice, “I cut,
you choose”, territory building game.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>8.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/181235/sator-arepo-tenet-opera-rotas-malleus-maleficarum">Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas, Malleus Maleficarum Edition</a>. I
was after getting hold of a copy of the original version of this many
years ago...but didn't! Luckily, a friend had a copy of this expanded
version to sell, which I snapped up! It's really an abstract strategy
game, with the theme of monks attempting to hold back the forces of
darkness by collecting four books.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>7.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244734/escape-dark-castle-adventure-pack-1-cult-death-kni">Cult Of The Death Knight, expansion for Escape The Dark Castle.</a><b> </b>I really like Escape
The Dark Castle, with its Fighting Fantasy aesthetic. So was pleased
that I was able to pick up the expansions that I didn't yet have, at
UK Games Expo this year.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>6.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296108/terraforming-mars-dice-game">Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game</a>. I haven't played the
original <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/167791/terraforming-mars">Terraforming Mars</a>,
but I have played <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/328871/terraforming-mars-ares-expedition">Terraforming Mars: The Ares Expedition</a>, which is
the version using only cards. I found TM:TDG a lot more fun. And
TM:TAE, was pretty good anyway.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>5.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/137297/rise-augustus">Rise Of Augustus</a>. Fill up your cards with
Legionnaires, as tokens are randomly drawn from a bag, in an attempt
to score victory points. The decisions come as you decide which cards
to assign the Legionnaires to, in an attempt to complete your
objectives.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>4.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/394334/sunrise-lane">Sunrise Lane</a>. A re-theme and update
to the already very good <i>Rondo</i>.
Well, I say re-theme, Rondo didn't really have a theme, but it did
have nice tactile pieces.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>3.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/370444/hard-get">Hard To Get</a>. A very good
co-operative party game where the clue giver has to choose between
two opposite statements in order for their team-mates to eliminate
cards in a tableau, hopefully leading to just one (the correct one), being left.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>2.</b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/347112/secret-identity">Secret Identity</a>. A really clever,
partly co-operative, clue giving/guessing game.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>1. </b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/213099/time-stories-lumen-fidei">Lumen Fidei, a module for T.I.M.E Stories</a>.<b> </b>T.I.M.E Stories is my
favourite board game. So it's not really a surprise to me that this
excellent module for it came out on top. It has an epic story set
around the time of the Crusades. I played it with just one other
person and although we completed it legitimately (albeit with an
absolutely huge minus score), a full player count of four, may have
made it easier.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /><br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANJgp5tT0fBc2riy1bszM_PvHY8xbubiUqIMjnY5whoGq2V6kuZJ-YDT-Ga4-J54GuWeMsLsEqLfJh8wVkBJer0KMYyDt6BcKp_xwMdCQyMMdRRipVU7I9mVNdmI1xLMc_OP1zJeIihndnVg38BDEplqXtQC5FhUV1e1bt_rYwgh7y5bnL1HINto1ucw/s4032/ETDC.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANJgp5tT0fBc2riy1bszM_PvHY8xbubiUqIMjnY5whoGq2V6kuZJ-YDT-Ga4-J54GuWeMsLsEqLfJh8wVkBJer0KMYyDt6BcKp_xwMdCQyMMdRRipVU7I9mVNdmI1xLMc_OP1zJeIihndnVg38BDEplqXtQC5FhUV1e1bt_rYwgh7y5bnL1HINto1ucw/w480-h640/ETDC.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The end of a two-player game of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/227456/escape-dark-castle">Escape The Dark Castle</a> (without the aforementioned expansion). We got to the final boss, the Terror Of The Underworld. But were defeated by his ability to re-roll chapter dice once we'd removed them.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Honourable mentions.
(Games that I liked but that didn't make my Top 10.)</b><br /><br />
</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/366456/my-shelfie">My Shelfie</a>.<br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/343525/seas-havoc">Seas Of Havoc</a>.<br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12495/fire-axe-viking-saga">Fire And Axe: A Viking Saga</a>.<br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/384136/star-trek-away-missions">Star Trek: Away Missions</a>.<br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/368058/wolves">The Wolves</a>.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>The New Game To Me With The Most Entertaining Name.</b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><br /></b></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This award goes to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/361218/galaxy-cat-extension">Galaxy Cat Extension</a>. An average game which has players attempting to build the longest cats whilst attempting to keep them safe from being abducted by aliens!</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Z0_5M5qtIQVdsbbq-di8dzr5-X2thpoZVTj_4VkZOG9ZEvCsHtGHK5VSnuTD6Fm3hCmjdhZlTWn0WbFV3NYqFzk-n6Q2eJnpgpk51hKM6K4wyvhfHUmrxZy4fz2qTrPbAU_HkhxX1_G6PyQztYrAt_ejAV7u7eZ1yrZp_MQ3NtARBSOBbOsRaPxoIyQ/s4032/Board.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Z0_5M5qtIQVdsbbq-di8dzr5-X2thpoZVTj_4VkZOG9ZEvCsHtGHK5VSnuTD6Fm3hCmjdhZlTWn0WbFV3NYqFzk-n6Q2eJnpgpk51hKM6K4wyvhfHUmrxZy4fz2qTrPbAU_HkhxX1_G6PyQztYrAt_ejAV7u7eZ1yrZp_MQ3NtARBSOBbOsRaPxoIyQ/w640-h480/Board.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">My board at the end of a game of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84876/castles-burgundy">The Castles Of Burgundy</a>. I can't remember if I won or not (I doubt it), but I did have a fairly impressive pig farm!</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12_g0RkJv_Uym0FQgLj407rHYlEvZNwFwabfJoismixCBhb62muiUHDdVUQSpR6WP4iYV2GoSOkQPrIvmjqwcjcFIYEWAv34blfU3zD-THKs7k9jcI7HbqhL6VUqHebRCW7ikNuvSVQR5xcTkfDPgYdm8lnL6_noMoJNkU7xN0PoupHDZUa6DLVymahY/s4032/Pigs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12_g0RkJv_Uym0FQgLj407rHYlEvZNwFwabfJoismixCBhb62muiUHDdVUQSpR6WP4iYV2GoSOkQPrIvmjqwcjcFIYEWAv34blfU3zD-THKs7k9jcI7HbqhL6VUqHebRCW7ikNuvSVQR5xcTkfDPgYdm8lnL6_noMoJNkU7xN0PoupHDZUa6DLVymahY/w480-h640/Pigs.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Piggies!</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Best
Convention/Show.</span></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This year, I attended
(in order), UK Games Expo, SELWG, Warfare, and Dragonmeet.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The winner for me
though is UK Games Expo. For my full round-up of it, check out my post on it<i> </i><a href="https://plecogeek.blogspot.com/2023/06/uk-games-expo-2023.html">here</a><i> </i>(or just scroll down to the next post on this blog)<i>.</i></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-24159456816785666062023-06-20T10:49:00.001-07:002023-06-20T10:49:54.714-07:00UK Games Expo 2023<p>On Friday the 2nd of June, 2023, UK Games Expo returned to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlrnbFJH-opj4qGlY7Pfg0yKA4Vwu8osPoOr30WwONkCUE-avfSF0t-wOrCp9KnMFJwHi8z7laTbZ2TWF6gqvLM8amYhEHcuaX5Zz3VuxX1Rygo-hvMi5achqMc1mLDmSuUlIb7RVv--XheAxn3i_uUMF3NofhW9gmDB0LKCCrWz5d9RSYI0PO96E/s4032/20230613_124903.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlrnbFJH-opj4qGlY7Pfg0yKA4Vwu8osPoOr30WwONkCUE-avfSF0t-wOrCp9KnMFJwHi8z7laTbZ2TWF6gqvLM8amYhEHcuaX5Zz3VuxX1Rygo-hvMi5achqMc1mLDmSuUlIb7RVv--XheAxn3i_uUMF3NofhW9gmDB0LKCCrWz5d9RSYI0PO96E/w640-h480/20230613_124903.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>I got myself a ticket for all three days of the event (Friday the 2nd until Sunday the 4th), and travelled there with my friends, Richard and Chris. Richard and I were also to play in The Birmingham Brawl (a competition of the fantasy miniatures wrestling game, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191296/rumbleslam">Rumbleslam</a> from TTCombat), on the 3rd, and three three of us, along with three other friends, were to crew a virtual star ship, in the UK Star Ship Simulator, on the last day of the Expo.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>My friend Ben, had done a sterling job, organising accommodation for 16 of us. The main draws were that it was affordable, available (both things which are difficult to come by in Birmingham during Expo) and had a large room in which we could play games!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>By the time that Chris, Richard and myself arrived on the Thursday afternoon, the gaming was already in full swing. A Game of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156943/saint-petersburg-second-edition">Saint Petersburg</a> swiftly followed. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>After a while, we decamped to the NEC to pick up our tickets, and for those who had items to drop off at the bring-and-buy, to do so.</p><p><span> </span>Those assembled, split into two groups. One of which opted to go and get dinner, while the rest of us found a bar!</p><p><span> </span>After this, we reassembled in the cinema for a preview of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. I hate spoilers, so won't give anything away about the movie.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the film had ended, we returned to our accommodation where, among other things, borrowing extra dice from another game, we had an epic, and very fun, nine-player game of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16747/tumblin-dice">Tumblin' Dice</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3mc5MeVAk5tmlw8cq31_d67lTJAL6CQdKLJvOsLnv0Hi0bvN3pTwA-NAzA4t4ITrWFPb-4INI1DaUoFrVP-sxeIG6Tt5plCPgZ-WnKQSxF47DwEPwb9Q09zryxcW8f2fF3CuO3JcroYV_tZ31L0w_FJ0mHHtUd0JhU7Wn2HOT0SJLx_jKOnH1JA6C/s4032/20230602_000350.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3mc5MeVAk5tmlw8cq31_d67lTJAL6CQdKLJvOsLnv0Hi0bvN3pTwA-NAzA4t4ITrWFPb-4INI1DaUoFrVP-sxeIG6Tt5plCPgZ-WnKQSxF47DwEPwb9Q09zryxcW8f2fF3CuO3JcroYV_tZ31L0w_FJ0mHHtUd0JhU7Wn2HOT0SJLx_jKOnH1JA6C/w480-h640/20230602_000350.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Friday saw the first day of the Expo itself.</p><p> </p><p><span> </span>There were three halls this year, two of which were full of traders and demonstration games, whilst the third was set aside for tournaments and the ever popular bring-and-buy.</p><p> </p><p><span> </span>After having a wander around Hall 2, Richard and I decided to check out the bring-and-buy, as the previously huge queue had somewhat subsided. The bring-and-buy itself was a little overwhelming, a great deal bigger than the last time I attended Expo in 2017.</p><p><span> </span>After over an hour of searching, I managed to find myself a couple of bargains.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTTKdXm5KLVvRLYASBDMLcEb81jPqU9IhcU71-iog7M0ugbfqdn7V93BwTHR4O4ztS1922w0Lrt8JHoffT5eKCAxpPtjDY9oqN5P-THHaXcJXzsjMzbxK9WHjH2ASjyWf4kIuNHJ8-vTI9wsFVN3HJUtKh1bcQylLB9hMnIt6b27Epr9Kgqy3jPWK/s4032/20230602_140008.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTTKdXm5KLVvRLYASBDMLcEb81jPqU9IhcU71-iog7M0ugbfqdn7V93BwTHR4O4ztS1922w0Lrt8JHoffT5eKCAxpPtjDY9oqN5P-THHaXcJXzsjMzbxK9WHjH2ASjyWf4kIuNHJ8-vTI9wsFVN3HJUtKh1bcQylLB9hMnIt6b27Epr9Kgqy3jPWK/w640-h480/20230602_140008.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>After the bring-and-buy (and some lunch), the two of us finished having a look around Hall 2 and moved onto Hall 1.</p><p><br /></p><p>One of the great things about UK Games Expo, is the many demo games that are being hosted.</p><p><span> </span>Pre-empting our forthcoming Rumbleslam tournament, Richard spotted a wrestling themed card game, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/351969/all-time-wrestling">All Time Wrestling</a>, that he was keen to try out. So we gave it a go. The guy demoing the game explained the rules and gave us some useful gameplay tips. Sitting next to us, was a fella named Mohamed, who as it turned out, was none other than the game's designer!</p><p><span> </span>I had also seen a game I wanted to try as I had toyed with the idea of helping to fund the Kickstarter campaign for it, and had watched a game-play video of it. It's called <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/248760/nexus-arena-combat-system">NEXUS: Arena Combat System.</a> The premise of the game is that you're a fight promoter on a star ship, pitting your combatant (known as a helot) against those of the other players. The components are high quality, with all the helots, crates, pillars, and flaming braziers, pre-painted. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_8HHSVBvP-IHMixMmoS3uAKw8Om21cBSuJyuy7jicxAEQkbzrionWWS6Oc2sdMXBZePAHQggXBK_75khTKhLWwX-OI3O1xks-45RhtbxAS-sv2eXV7vU0-4uzCLjqlcfvuoHYwzTXp1ciqGxEKbf3qdj4ZFHlHHQzO70o2Rvh2_1richvdmzhgcI/s4032/20230602_164911.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_8HHSVBvP-IHMixMmoS3uAKw8Om21cBSuJyuy7jicxAEQkbzrionWWS6Oc2sdMXBZePAHQggXBK_75khTKhLWwX-OI3O1xks-45RhtbxAS-sv2eXV7vU0-4uzCLjqlcfvuoHYwzTXp1ciqGxEKbf3qdj4ZFHlHHQzO70o2Rvh2_1richvdmzhgcI/w640-h480/20230602_164911.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>The demo game was fun enough (despite the fact that we didn't get to finish it as the halls closed for the day before any of us (Richard, myself, or the demo guy) had achieved victory), but I in no way thought it was worth the hefty £121 price tag they were asking for it.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the way out, I got Richard to take my photo in front of a huge model of an Ultramarine, Space Marine, Terminator (from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 setting).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNkG3LwJ_3Bd8MeLWUFEhov4QQvUhgUy-hamc8DAKnge29r-MUGXe-BBSIpkuvCCWZA4pQgFiDo-tB5uIrnQG9y3gUX9jZMQcT7YrYMNwszrRHC53cxAzVydJn-sRrFx56sKgpobCrjpQD3eO9nEp2ZSEGaC5ejKqeMZKuLrvnplQzKLTZU-D9o6hs/s4032/20230602_180438.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNkG3LwJ_3Bd8MeLWUFEhov4QQvUhgUy-hamc8DAKnge29r-MUGXe-BBSIpkuvCCWZA4pQgFiDo-tB5uIrnQG9y3gUX9jZMQcT7YrYMNwszrRHC53cxAzVydJn-sRrFx56sKgpobCrjpQD3eO9nEp2ZSEGaC5ejKqeMZKuLrvnplQzKLTZU-D9o6hs/w480-h640/20230602_180438.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p>Friday night saw more gaming back at the accommodation, and Richard, trying to finish painting the models that he was going to use the next day, all the while being distracted by...well, games.</p><p><br /></p><p>Saturday saw Myself and Richard heading straight to Hall 3 to try and find the location of the Birmingham Brawl (the Rumbleslam tournament that we were to play in).</p><p><span> Fortunately, this was on the table to attract our attention!</span><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBf25iJrhWJG5zpn7hV6zj8oPLHMPNi-JVs0tBP1zKTrKCmzs68fVqAL6Zuf7sn_yRqy_x_y_CroWeei8_KGqIKXVrzDeuJUnQ5FkaWowkBPYjK9KB8Xl2-533m_64rKrirPTVEWQAoT9oap8XcT-uu2VxG-TpaJWUbBYypAJ6CxQlLTXOfapCIfbW/s4032/20230603_115934.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBf25iJrhWJG5zpn7hV6zj8oPLHMPNi-JVs0tBP1zKTrKCmzs68fVqAL6Zuf7sn_yRqy_x_y_CroWeei8_KGqIKXVrzDeuJUnQ5FkaWowkBPYjK9KB8Xl2-533m_64rKrirPTVEWQAoT9oap8XcT-uu2VxG-TpaJWUbBYypAJ6CxQlLTXOfapCIfbW/w640-h480/20230603_115934.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />There were sixteen spots in the knockout tournament. However, one person couldn't make it, so the way that the competition was structured, meant that one person would have a bye in their first round and get through to round 2 without having to play in the opening stage.<p></p><p><span> It just so happened that Richard got the bye. I, on the other hand, got knocked out in the first round! I did play a second game though, just for fun, against a guy who had also been knocked out in round 1. (I lost that game too!)</span><br /></p><p><span><span> Here's a picture of my team (albeit a bit blurry).</span><br /></span></p><p><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dHaDg6J4jP0_UjXf887CIa95MCyRzIyQi7tugOcWCejU8qP9IA6uOnNabAnLEsmNkuPusCd9XyHcgmMpl_yMHC4oZdXdzK4AobONDXqXLjREBpY0IK14Qrsqo8LCRIOgTTC8-uaGZNg8HDQIxLMyqalMDW6U0KTreseX-oJ-yiNXvr3SuNkoMDUE/s4032/20230603_114555.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dHaDg6J4jP0_UjXf887CIa95MCyRzIyQi7tugOcWCejU8qP9IA6uOnNabAnLEsmNkuPusCd9XyHcgmMpl_yMHC4oZdXdzK4AobONDXqXLjREBpY0IK14Qrsqo8LCRIOgTTC8-uaGZNg8HDQIxLMyqalMDW6U0KTreseX-oJ-yiNXvr3SuNkoMDUE/w640-h480/20230603_114555.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span>(From left to right: Amazonian Grappler, Treeman, Gravedigger, and Amazonian Brawler.)</span></p><p><span><span> </span>Richard got through to the final, in which some questions about a rule pertaining to his team arose. I won't go into the minutiae of it, I'll just say that Richard was playing the rule exactly as it was written, but that might not have been how the designer of the rule intended it to be used. (We reckoned that an official errata entry would be forthcoming about it.) Richard and his opponent, along with the tournament referee, all came to a mutual agreement about how to proceed however, and in the end, Richard came out victorious.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpt_5rKskLTUvcfxG9l3YHA4d7Nd22zQqFO06vnZGMlGPsPzV34L9DsmNCa9cgHzbl9dX_pZb3eX5cDRdq2He6fn8bBnuk68qk4XhljAIDiL6EUzrmzmhkFbPs3e6mB78Fz1t8O34cWC1U96YYjtxolSLXy-8p2yuy00pHNYfmqpg6t3kVG8bbgNFj/s4032/20230603_140029.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpt_5rKskLTUvcfxG9l3YHA4d7Nd22zQqFO06vnZGMlGPsPzV34L9DsmNCa9cgHzbl9dX_pZb3eX5cDRdq2He6fn8bBnuk68qk4XhljAIDiL6EUzrmzmhkFbPs3e6mB78Fz1t8O34cWC1U96YYjtxolSLXy-8p2yuy00pHNYfmqpg6t3kVG8bbgNFj/w480-h640/20230603_140029.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><span>The excuse that I came up with for not winning was that, being a vegan, I couldn't accept a prize that was made, mostly, of leather...and that, being a vegan, I probably wouldn't have been strong enough to lift it anyway!<br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span>After the tournament, we returned to Hall 1, where, among other things, we went to see wrestling fan , and aforementioned designer of All Time Wrestling, Mohammed. He asked us if we'd like to try out the prototype of the second edition of a board game he had designed called <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/294788/conqueror-final-conquest">Conqueror: Final Conquest.</a> We did, and agreed to meet him in the Playtest area the next morning.</span></p><p><br /></p><p>Richard and I wandered around the rest of Hall 1, and, among other things, came across the area of games company Gale Force Nine. A few things caught our eye, including the soon to be released, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/384136/star-trek-away-missions-miniatures-boardgame">Star Trek: Away Missions.</a> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2oGnXyUXB0rNWM7yhjD0ngMuE6yk0sofvvd6kSYeoncw-n2ZI7PIRab7IYtxALzWPNweRuSzIcohpK-anSMEnDrzb5Dohc6xnqLncaDM6q8jKZQC4zOb5g5GYYUMvSepLXU2LIXetZ2Zven1q3G9MPtgJpNPOzVAEugErQueF6VYmsvrogwD-uCUZmo/s4032/20230603_165612.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2oGnXyUXB0rNWM7yhjD0ngMuE6yk0sofvvd6kSYeoncw-n2ZI7PIRab7IYtxALzWPNweRuSzIcohpK-anSMEnDrzb5Dohc6xnqLncaDM6q8jKZQC4zOb5g5GYYUMvSepLXU2LIXetZ2Zven1q3G9MPtgJpNPOzVAEugErQueF6VYmsvrogwD-uCUZmo/w640-h480/20230603_165612.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>I initially didn't like the look of the miniatures in the game, as they had a kind of, what I'd describe as an animation ascetic, with exaggerated features. However, that look worked with the look of the board pieces and the game-play feel.</p><p><span> The core set, themed after The Battle Of Wolf359 (which any Trekkie will know was when a Borg Cube destroyed a Federation fleet on it's way to attack Earth), sees (in one of the game's scenarios) Federation officers, aboard the Enterprise-D, attempting to repel a Borg incursion. One of the players, plays as Commander Riker, Lieutenant Commander Data, Lieutenant Worf (my favourite Star Trek character) and the annoying Commander Shelby. (According to the guy showing us how to play, I wasn't the first person playing a demo that day, that had commented that Shelby was annoying! (Also, while we were playing, a couple wandered over and one of them also, commented the same!)) The other player plays as the dreaded Borg.</span><br /></p><p><span><span> The game is played over three rounds and has players scoring points by achieving objectives that they have on a hand of cards. In addition to these cards, each player also holds cards that may give them an advantage in achieving those objectives.</span><br /></span></p><p><span><span><span> It was fun but (despite there also being a scenario, that has the Enterprise Crew exploring the Borg Cube) I wonder how much replay-ability it might have.</span></span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Sunday saw Richard and myself heading to the Playtest area as soon as we got to the NEC as, at 11, we had an appointment to crew a star ship in the UK Star Ship Simulator!</p><p><br /></p><p>We met up with Mohammed, who took us through the rules of the second edition of his game, Conqueror: Final Conquest.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaHr3Z-aSf04fdmxZCTHeAGc07KPxSXAGhQDQ1TSiQWjLSdk1fWXqcj__LRYInFR4_qCkW-biErWBz71lgk7ax7Yrp2ej8ZeAJSH09yKM01kV_vJu5f_hkVIyfBYWLni6EXS3PiYaOqHLumRxlb2zT1mJrh0nwFbjwDYqou_MO-dSBATvD4BkjP3dnQs/s4032/20230604_103851.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaHr3Z-aSf04fdmxZCTHeAGc07KPxSXAGhQDQ1TSiQWjLSdk1fWXqcj__LRYInFR4_qCkW-biErWBz71lgk7ax7Yrp2ej8ZeAJSH09yKM01kV_vJu5f_hkVIyfBYWLni6EXS3PiYaOqHLumRxlb2zT1mJrh0nwFbjwDYqou_MO-dSBATvD4BkjP3dnQs/w640-h480/20230604_103851.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>The three of us, Richard, Mohammed, and myself played as ancient empires attempting to assert ourselves across Southern Europe and North Africa.</p><p><span> We each started with a hidden objective card. Unfortunately, mine encouraged me to attack Rome. (Richard was playing as the Romans!) My empire, the Carthaginians crossed the sea from North Africa in attack. Unfortunately, by the time I did so (having spent a few turns improving my unit numbers and empire's abilities), Richard had expanded into the south of Italy and South-West into Sicily, and was able to out-flank my advance.</span></p><p><span><span> After my unsuccessful foray into Europe, I decided to swap my objective card for another, mystery one. This one, it turned out, would reward me for expanding across North Africa. Something that I had already started to do!</span><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p>We didn't get to finish the game however, as Richard and I had to rush to The Hilton to, along with four other friends, to crew the Star ship Artemis.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was looking forward to the UK Star Ship Simulator as it was something that had piqued my interest since I first saw it at the UKGE in 2016.</p><p><span> Due to some technical issues, our "ship" was running half an hour late. This, though, allowed us a lengthy discussion as to who would perform which role on the crew. I ended up as captain!</span></p><p><span><span> </span>When we "boarded" The Artemis, we found that there were still some technical issues going on. Only one of the four large screens that, in Star Trek would have made up the main viewer, was working. And Chris, our communications officer had to use a lap top rather that the bespoke console that the other bridge officers had access to.</span><br /></p><p><span><span> I won't give any spoilers as to the content of the scenario, but I will say that we failed our mission!</span></span></p><p><span><span><br /></span></span></p><p><span><span>After this, our crew dispersed, and Richard and myself returned to Hall 1.</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p>We though we'd try out a comic book themed dice manipulation game called <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/324558/kapow-volume-2">Kapow!</a>, from Wise Wizard Games, the company that released the excellent deck-building card games, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147020/star-realms">Star Realms</a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/198994/hero-realms">Hero Realms</a>. We played two games with the "Volume 2" set. Despite the game featuring things that I love (comic book characters and dice (which can be customised and manipulated through gameplay), I was underwhelmed by the game itself.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-954ct_2N3_QJtKojgM4rSJCYrIS5S1fugga86FWq5QJoHCLFtg_6-tjytLd4AVssWUHfTJuLfEn1q9pIGaaVsNBBN9YefK5w25HHVjudcqIBUHHpaQqtAri_Fvg4_nuNENBYwSoj9uT1nGp2Nw3DCpcGCmrmk2OfgsP9VfPfioZ3wy82Mu_9pNJ9yVI/s4032/20230604_125309.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-954ct_2N3_QJtKojgM4rSJCYrIS5S1fugga86FWq5QJoHCLFtg_6-tjytLd4AVssWUHfTJuLfEn1q9pIGaaVsNBBN9YefK5w25HHVjudcqIBUHHpaQqtAri_Fvg4_nuNENBYwSoj9uT1nGp2Nw3DCpcGCmrmk2OfgsP9VfPfioZ3wy82Mu_9pNJ9yVI/w640-h480/20230604_125309.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>One of the Kapow! player boards and screens (with the life counter to the left). It looks more complicated than it actually is.</p><p><br /></p><p>After a bit more shopping and wandering around, we met back up with Chris and headed back to London.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The whole event and "extra-curricular gaming" were great fun. I'm looking forward to going back next year!</p>Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-57732982482353583502023-03-23T20:56:00.002-07:002023-06-20T10:53:20.846-07:00Star Trek The Experience.<p>Way back in 2008, I went to Las Vegas in the USA. Now, while I loved the atmosphere of the place, I don't gamble, so a lot of the entertainment was lost on me. I did however visit The Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon which were both pretty cool. Within Las Vegas itself however, the best thing that I did was visit Star Trek The Experience.</p><p>Star Trek The Experience was an attraction in the Las Vegas Hilton from 1998 to 2008. For loads of information on it you can view the Memory Alpha page for it by following <a href="https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Experience">this link</a>.</p><p>The main part of the attraction were a couple of, well, experiences, that rivalled anything that Disney or Universal Studios have to offer. Obviously, whilst in those you couldn't take pictures (not that I'd have wanted to as I was too busy enjoying them), but hanging around waiting for them to get running, in the Star Trek area, I was able to snap away. So here are some of the pictures that I took that day. (I've had to lighten some of the photos so that the images are actually visible, so apologies for the graininess of some of them.)<br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhglFSnhOtBd0g7LSFWtF4DYf-aixFThGitYHkbd9iVXWj_sR-ZpWSEifPdjYEcLoj3moXyZy8XrliGxPKVYQDVJsTTQ9G1eGCP4BiIhhU_-x61AxQQ1TIYyf3ykHDKfyEF-mQLQTl7dWUBT-qFjrlZu9LmwFRT8pNHxYizVgsG2a_QAAlTpTB_lu/s2272/Enterprise%20front%20view.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2272" data-original-width="1704" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhglFSnhOtBd0g7LSFWtF4DYf-aixFThGitYHkbd9iVXWj_sR-ZpWSEifPdjYEcLoj3moXyZy8XrliGxPKVYQDVJsTTQ9G1eGCP4BiIhhU_-x61AxQQ1TIYyf3ykHDKfyEF-mQLQTl7dWUBT-qFjrlZu9LmwFRT8pNHxYizVgsG2a_QAAlTpTB_lu/w480-h640/Enterprise%20front%20view.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p>The Enterprise NCC-1701, the Constitution Class refit, that first debuted in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hF2r5cGaTr7CnQZLT6cOCv-uYwXWYVOowyJ9QUWzv2Y6dKm7dZZoUuVfSUl1kJPbyNnbw1jPQfg521wbd5WErAzHSnGL901W92QA9996-UrClKbOw2w7Nbi6zFE50ZIwjh9R4X7aEkT5MxWrfv-j8z61baN3xWL60BWjBBgnE04f1MuDHaC1bljQ/s2272/Enterprise%20side%20view%20lightened.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1704" data-original-width="2272" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hF2r5cGaTr7CnQZLT6cOCv-uYwXWYVOowyJ9QUWzv2Y6dKm7dZZoUuVfSUl1kJPbyNnbw1jPQfg521wbd5WErAzHSnGL901W92QA9996-UrClKbOw2w7Nbi6zFE50ZIwjh9R4X7aEkT5MxWrfv-j8z61baN3xWL60BWjBBgnE04f1MuDHaC1bljQ/w640-h480/Enterprise%20side%20view%20lightened.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ9FI9rXrCAfGztbZRzBgSgUxODNchtrpjRd9RmO3GEM8SPNPf9_0BkoN_S2M12NN03sO8ZpjDy4r6EfAcm5DUTy_4BNN2E7Q1TiGvqp0_HJt5dbLnWVGVJojNu7-0ygCMghYXZ75iMaH5MeO-VqgbEStc_D4ajyxYRJv_0I8XXbNXXlQjuceJNQNY/s2272/Enterprise%20D%20lightened.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1704" data-original-width="2272" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ9FI9rXrCAfGztbZRzBgSgUxODNchtrpjRd9RmO3GEM8SPNPf9_0BkoN_S2M12NN03sO8ZpjDy4r6EfAcm5DUTy_4BNN2E7Q1TiGvqp0_HJt5dbLnWVGVJojNu7-0ygCMghYXZ75iMaH5MeO-VqgbEStc_D4ajyxYRJv_0I8XXbNXXlQjuceJNQNY/w640-h480/Enterprise%20D%20lightened.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Picard's Enterprise. The Galaxy Class NCC-1701-D.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Oy_VnnINdHP0w82PF3lbhq7r5Jj3QHarbUBzxoq1cQfPcCoYICTVqzwJunwl0byXIZqXKfKxKOMUyTaazNaLb6gsNW7V2r9DytvPWx6nkh57pVrV7IUSVwiJWlpB8YMBKetKQ6YKmS6OPKsybl-nIK5XEYmIvrsUaOIah38SPMlgmJsgW5l17b3i/s2272/Enterprise%20D%20side%20lightened.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1704" data-original-width="2272" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Oy_VnnINdHP0w82PF3lbhq7r5Jj3QHarbUBzxoq1cQfPcCoYICTVqzwJunwl0byXIZqXKfKxKOMUyTaazNaLb6gsNW7V2r9DytvPWx6nkh57pVrV7IUSVwiJWlpB8YMBKetKQ6YKmS6OPKsybl-nIK5XEYmIvrsUaOIah38SPMlgmJsgW5l17b3i/w640-h480/Enterprise%20D%20side%20lightened.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCvEu51YxlcIRgBoK_3hSDqBmkN-yMknUlIqY7hWmxqDCeHQkOY5sxZxniGlynL_5S_jyVjp-NTq7tcKQvrdbqQh0R0nqyDOwPdgHUyKGmM2xU0XFefrdAw76uj_iLDh-lr17b949XrxzdDEftxBPoI6APM3iwVGJJCGf7KCKAG-q3hlBfxPiUVgn/s2271/Voyager%20lightened%20-%20Copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="2271" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCvEu51YxlcIRgBoK_3hSDqBmkN-yMknUlIqY7hWmxqDCeHQkOY5sxZxniGlynL_5S_jyVjp-NTq7tcKQvrdbqQh0R0nqyDOwPdgHUyKGmM2xU0XFefrdAw76uj_iLDh-lr17b949XrxzdDEftxBPoI6APM3iwVGJJCGf7KCKAG-q3hlBfxPiUVgn/w640-h212/Voyager%20lightened%20-%20Copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Voyager.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFjoWaZhKA6ShY4cezNXb8BEnwK8EbD2pMvWfXcxBQNdGugvqJY8-KXQjJwo79fDAxtQH_d24muZTLgU38CqQp82_IyxOGpT2n7gurWNzWWbIpBOHcrrtgSG-yzuwwA4Uihz5BtqPJ5NaexlBQDRnRs6MSfVIYhnoTadmFPpNfajBt8vNlnJjOu8W/s2272/Klingon.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1704" data-original-width="2272" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFjoWaZhKA6ShY4cezNXb8BEnwK8EbD2pMvWfXcxBQNdGugvqJY8-KXQjJwo79fDAxtQH_d24muZTLgU38CqQp82_IyxOGpT2n7gurWNzWWbIpBOHcrrtgSG-yzuwwA4Uihz5BtqPJ5NaexlBQDRnRs6MSfVIYhnoTadmFPpNfajBt8vNlnJjOu8W/w640-h480/Klingon.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Whilst waiting for the experiences I met a couple of people from the Star Trek universe. One was this Klingon. On hearing my accent he said to me</p><p><span> "You're English! You had a mighty empire...once!"</span></p><p>His profile on the Star Trek The Experience website said that he had travelled back to the 21st Century from a Time Station. (Apparently with the intention of insulting holiday makers.)</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaK1EJxG0CwZiaUY1tax7Dso5iClMVsAn3ZbaDUquDX-8sgUKjGv1APWwO85jaC8NuWesYqnQrUqLF9FUAGSco1cAwXF7RkEiGVe5eFk09bb8McGGxyzDV2MeZ_HWktwqT69woBoLmFlQR7kuGRvZBd4y2cYrNq33fVhKuRuhGB-T1xZAx11ZrYzmE/s2272/Borg.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1704" data-original-width="2272" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaK1EJxG0CwZiaUY1tax7Dso5iClMVsAn3ZbaDUquDX-8sgUKjGv1APWwO85jaC8NuWesYqnQrUqLF9FUAGSco1cAwXF7RkEiGVe5eFk09bb8McGGxyzDV2MeZ_HWktwqT69woBoLmFlQR7kuGRvZBd4y2cYrNq33fVhKuRuhGB-T1xZAx11ZrYzmE/w640-h480/Borg.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>I also met this fellow. A Borg who had been rescued from The Collective and was trying to regain his individuality.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoo0CrjDQEofitCzGt44b-73467tZp3OXmiENxBcl5VB-e6DOIGolo94MmTClxOxMrFBtIwAmiGrzZHA1phZh-N7tSYEGIgKrqqSyAZwQ0X5JMK-6FpkmI2Se7FKW6HdZfYQtxYulL2_LS6-rxZS9OT7VI__vOrIasoMAHJtqI86YvKk64aPFMkiO0/s1996/Borg%20Queen%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="1996" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoo0CrjDQEofitCzGt44b-73467tZp3OXmiENxBcl5VB-e6DOIGolo94MmTClxOxMrFBtIwAmiGrzZHA1phZh-N7tSYEGIgKrqqSyAZwQ0X5JMK-6FpkmI2Se7FKW6HdZfYQtxYulL2_LS6-rxZS9OT7VI__vOrIasoMAHJtqI86YvKk64aPFMkiO0/w640-h224/Borg%20Queen%20(2).jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Talking of The Borg, they also had a prop replica of what was left of one incarnation of The Borg Queen after its demise in Star Trek: First Contact.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw5xsFY9lETg0LnH0Kg5unR-tiOfUrf45oq78hN1rAE-ZGz9lc0wRLHh4xa-GkFOByEzrdBSOb8TFOeycSQdEKYc3541ibT8fzsMC9I5OWZOcd19yrQiiFPlnecC0JPXOJS7Zqw8fqzacpIAjM-T_CKKqLnurOQyN0jDmQhbyuhrdpJ7XchDe5ixbf/s1647/Kahless.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1647" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw5xsFY9lETg0LnH0Kg5unR-tiOfUrf45oq78hN1rAE-ZGz9lc0wRLHh4xa-GkFOByEzrdBSOb8TFOeycSQdEKYc3541ibT8fzsMC9I5OWZOcd19yrQiiFPlnecC0JPXOJS7Zqw8fqzacpIAjM-T_CKKqLnurOQyN0jDmQhbyuhrdpJ7XchDe5ixbf/w640-h308/Kahless.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>And back to the Klingon's, another prop replica. This time the bat'leth known as The Sword Of Kahless.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuo928NZd8zdfY6LWvMF3u5JUfDXjSJKOt5b58wz2e-VxSZMdkq4JkQzTygnMFOyR_Gr4QmgppbJItTdX9HL7xAx5dKWUxSL1Xgm8z3L1MRcpQ0xFz7LpDFyym-Kll7hPatphbAbApK_UWWOMXnDViFc7puyeXFcC4hYz7hRxJyvqLnJVDVe3qt2_W/s2272/Bird%20Of%20Prey.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1704" data-original-width="2272" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuo928NZd8zdfY6LWvMF3u5JUfDXjSJKOt5b58wz2e-VxSZMdkq4JkQzTygnMFOyR_Gr4QmgppbJItTdX9HL7xAx5dKWUxSL1Xgm8z3L1MRcpQ0xFz7LpDFyym-Kll7hPatphbAbApK_UWWOMXnDViFc7puyeXFcC4hYz7hRxJyvqLnJVDVe3qt2_W/w640-h480/Bird%20Of%20Prey.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>And, the Klingon Bird Of Prey.</p>Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-894045218155940022023-01-08T12:31:00.002-08:002023-01-19T09:45:38.018-08:00<p><b style="font-size: 15pt;">Best
And Worst Games Of 2022.</b></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">On
my boardgames club's (Isleworth Boardgamers) forum on Boardgame Geek
(possibly the most exhaustive resource about boardgames on the 'net),
at the end of every year, our members sum up their thoughts on gaming
over the past 12 months, with a focus on new or new to us, games.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Here
are my somewhat rambling thoughts on the subject.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">All
the links in this post will take you to the appropriate page on
Boardgame Geek.</p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-size: large;">Top
Games That I Had My First Play Of In 2022.</b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/285905/marvel-crisis-protocol">Marvel Crisis Protocol.</a></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I bought the core set
of this this in 2020 and have been slowly adding to it with some of
the expansion boxes. I didn't get to play it until last year though.
It is absolutely brilliant. The representations of the characters are
bang on. (I was a huge fan of Heroclix some years ago but somewhat
frustrated with the generic powers and abilities that the characters
in that game possessed. MCP doesn't suffer that problem in the
least.) The game-play is simple to learn but with each character,
comes more complexity with their individual abilities and the way in
which they synergise with each-other. 10/10</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRBsXj3OhqAbA1XBbJlgFz8a_sdzMgyXFX7N7EPB0lkS0oG5M_JuRgwFkLL74bQjoVf8oN74BQzH1TEXQQjXTivLxQ7z0lUOc8z9b57TNKOijIfByqFKKBM-MGXTWDwpWuxAM6-PN_xzmdleH_lpy9bX5eiL77t8GSIWvxQrPVl5VI1IkSkMYbE0_/s4032/Ultron.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRBsXj3OhqAbA1XBbJlgFz8a_sdzMgyXFX7N7EPB0lkS0oG5M_JuRgwFkLL74bQjoVf8oN74BQzH1TEXQQjXTivLxQ7z0lUOc8z9b57TNKOijIfByqFKKBM-MGXTWDwpWuxAM6-PN_xzmdleH_lpy9bX5eiL77t8GSIWvxQrPVl5VI1IkSkMYbE0_/w480-h640/Ultron.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>My, so far, only fully painted character model for MCP - Ultron (from the core set).<br /><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/250467/red-alert-space-fleet-warfare">Red Alert - Space Fleet Warfare.</a></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">A game that I'd been
looking at for years. I was only put off by the rather high price tag
and less than great models. I finally got to play it last year
though. It's great! It is part of the Commands And Colours series by
Richard Borg which include Memoir '44 and Battlelore. The only
downside to it are its rather homogeneous looking starship models.
These do not detract from the game-play however, as each unit (when
deployed on the table) also will have a token with it that gives the
players, at a glance, the details of that unit. 9.5/10 (the point
five off of a full score is only due to the models.)</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxbobz1RL26b4cX0XpRJusOmSK4FS88wrPClh-AGz6ruV4hJ9h31jCIn9hv7-35vjjCP4jlBFH052gC_41ijXH-RpGgDKvk8uFSWwrfBf0uvMqoms59MvA4OJjHNswRL6erJt2sa5G8bhfyXUUeA1H-IIsrJbYFVyBBP4aFYSQ3-7yHTajnhMtS6Fb/s4031/Red%20Alert%20cropped.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2649" data-original-width="4031" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxbobz1RL26b4cX0XpRJusOmSK4FS88wrPClh-AGz6ruV4hJ9h31jCIn9hv7-35vjjCP4jlBFH052gC_41ijXH-RpGgDKvk8uFSWwrfBf0uvMqoms59MvA4OJjHNswRL6erJt2sa5G8bhfyXUUeA1H-IIsrJbYFVyBBP4aFYSQ3-7yHTajnhMtS6Fb/w640-h420/Red%20Alert%20cropped.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>The set up at the start of the second scenario.<br /><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/291453/scout">Scout.</a></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">A lovely little game
from Oink. The theme is totally irrelevant as it's a game about
numbers which tickles my sweet spot. (I want to point out that not
all games about numbers tickle my sweet spot but this one is really
satisfying.) 8/10</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/268864/undaunted-normandy">Undaunted: Normandy.</a></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">A mix of war game and
deck-builder. It shouldn't really work but does, really rather well.
I've only played the first two scenarios so far but am looking
forward to trying them all. You can play as either the U.S. or German
forces and the game's asymmetry allows for even more longevity from a
scenario based game than might otherwise be so if the forces and
objectives involved for both players were identical. 8/10</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Top Game That Was Released In 2022.</b></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/293547/reload">Reload</a><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This game was touted to me as the board game version of Fortnite. I've never played Fortnight but it did look somewhat interesting so I thought I'd give Reload a go. I played in a three-player game and enjoyed it very much. You play as an enhanced human (each of the different characters have a different special ability), competing in a televised death-match on an island that gets more and more dangerous as you advance through the game. Reload has a very innovative scoring mechanism, whereby you add different sized chits to a score-track depending on what achievements you complete during the game. The first payer to fill their track wins. 8/10</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Best
Expansions.</b></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/320115/marvel-crisis-protocol-punisher-taskmaster">Marvel Crisis Protocol. - Punisher And Taskmaster.</a></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This was released in
2020 but I had my first play with The Punisher in 2022. I've not used
Taskmaster yet but The Punisher is incredibly fun. You can gain
“Vengeance Tokens” when an allied character's card is flipped or
they are taken out of action, which can then be used to boost your
attack. Also, You can blow up pieces of scenery, with pre-planted
booby traps, which can damage enemy characters who have wandered too
close. Or just coldly gun down your enemies. All very Frank Castle.
10/10</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/347102/star-wars-outer-rim-unfinished-business">Star Wars: Outer Rim - Unfinished Buisiness.</a></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This gives you more
content for an already awesome game. I played as Jyn Erso from the
brilliant movie, Rogue One. 10/10</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Biggest
Disappointments.</b></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/188758/gladiatores-blood-roses">Gladiatores: Blood For Roses.</a></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I Backed the
Kickstarter for this (twice (the first time funding failed)) and was
so happy when it went into production. I got around to playing it
last year. All the mechanics, on paper, seemed solid, but they just
didn't come together to form a great (much anticipated by me) game.
2/10</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/231450/luckys-misadventures">Lucky's Misadventures.</a></b></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The premise is that,
whilst out walking your beloved dog, the eponymous Lucky, he chases a
character called Pumpkin Jack through a portal into a realm know as
Oddtopia. Players attempt to achieve one of three instant win
conditions or amass more points than their opponents by the time the
“Fate Deck” has been played through twice. Another game where the
game-play seems like it will be a lot of fun after reading the rules
but that fails to deliver on that assumption. 1/10</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Best
Convention/Show.</b></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I went to three games
conventions/shows this year <b>SELWG</b> and <b>Warfare</b> (both wargames based)
and <b>Dragonmeet</b> (which combined role-playing, board gaming and a small
amount of miniatures-based gaming.). All were good. Warfare, in
Farnborough maybe due to the novelty value (as it was my first time
going), plus the fact that I was able to pick up loads of boosters
for the now discontinued game TANKS, for just £3 a piece tops this
list. Not to say that SELWG wasn't great fun too. I was able to find
all the paints I needed for various gaming projects, plus the correct
water-slide transfers for my TANKS tanks. Dragonmeet continued to get
bigger (as it has been doing almost yearly since it was taken over by
games company Modiphius) and I got to play the new Terminator
role-playing game from Nightfall Games.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Best Miniatures That I've Painted This Year.</b></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This isn't about my best paint-jobs of the year, but rather about the nicest models out of all the ones I've painted in the last 365 days (which isn't actually that many). This award goes to Otherworld Miniatures' Hob Goblin Warriors. They are metal, which for a start is good in my book, as I much prefer painting metal models over plastic or resin ones, and are just great sculpts. Otherworld Miniatures' models are inspired by early roleplaying games and, just this week, I used my hobgoblins to ambush my players' characters in Port Blacksand in my Advanced Fighting fantasy campaign.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS54oIIDRpLiN7h3PIVzHdJtNU_fjGyN__-7KZaeI3UbiYWy6hLqOUINtlAddOhWvVzMGLMsNjDszLjpADKyfdu-A2TEELfK4kaLj0fw_06D5SKZj0qSKBCFieUmrRD18CRciNt5V47sMcaoe3pGCPAWWdLwlTkfjemZFTGqoF1cueIDtEYCpJ2RtJ/s4032/HGmix.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS54oIIDRpLiN7h3PIVzHdJtNU_fjGyN__-7KZaeI3UbiYWy6hLqOUINtlAddOhWvVzMGLMsNjDszLjpADKyfdu-A2TEELfK4kaLj0fw_06D5SKZj0qSKBCFieUmrRD18CRciNt5V47sMcaoe3pGCPAWWdLwlTkfjemZFTGqoF1cueIDtEYCpJ2RtJ/w640-h480/HGmix.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhreGtKNb_CYscrUEZ9ZrXm2MR4bpx9nDH8Cvj78-L2NR_Qgl5GuFpfOVLI0jI3Irqc6DpEnOGLx18db2YP6p_sShy492ETlfnpI74YBcBCHFvxhzzgV3HxhrTj6_27x50R2I4dqOOBu31CMl7ng3MD5lhoOLa8v25sApI_9Akmnln8UeLkjm-otZuC/s4032/HGarchers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhreGtKNb_CYscrUEZ9ZrXm2MR4bpx9nDH8Cvj78-L2NR_Qgl5GuFpfOVLI0jI3Irqc6DpEnOGLx18db2YP6p_sShy492ETlfnpI74YBcBCHFvxhzzgV3HxhrTj6_27x50R2I4dqOOBu31CMl7ng3MD5lhoOLa8v25sApI_9Akmnln8UeLkjm-otZuC/w480-h640/HGarchers.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfZ-Y_sMNo1PGICkLw9tgrxcuRVbfz5n1IVckjC6T8Sy384rnK_HVDlBdFkYxwHiGoMVYzAYdF4vqYEJbh2BmTnviwfICax8eLAiDF18X3crf7qkM-R0RFzIbMjQwH7JxKvKkJn73cZd7V8go7kvt3Dieyj4zceYJQOy4qlFwS_cvmo-Fxirk47CFX/s4032/HGspears.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfZ-Y_sMNo1PGICkLw9tgrxcuRVbfz5n1IVckjC6T8Sy384rnK_HVDlBdFkYxwHiGoMVYzAYdF4vqYEJbh2BmTnviwfICax8eLAiDF18X3crf7qkM-R0RFzIbMjQwH7JxKvKkJn73cZd7V8go7kvt3Dieyj4zceYJQOy4qlFwS_cvmo-Fxirk47CFX/w640-h480/HGspears.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-41930093546934232902021-10-12T22:27:00.000-07:002021-10-12T22:27:41.005-07:00Dice Quiz.<p>If you've read my previous post, you'll know that, while my Wednesday night games club, Isleworth Board Gamers was on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of our members posted quizzes and such on our BoardGameGeek forum. You might even have had a go at solving the crossword in that blog post. Along with that crossword, on BGG, I posted a quiz entitled "Look At The Dice, Name The Game." I thought I'd repost it here so a wider audience can have a go at it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some of the games are well known, some fairly obscure. Nonetheless, if you guess the game from the picture alone, you get 2 points but if you need to use the clue (looking things up on-line or on <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/">BoardGameGeek</a> at this point is fine), you get 1 point. There are a total of 24 points on offer. I've put all the clues after all the pictures so that you can have a good look at all the dice before you resort to the clues (if indeed you need them). The answers are at the very bottom of this post. Good luck!</p><p><br /></p><p>1.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1zqZiHKt_brMUnjRQkzXFQTp8ZB9T983E29TqnN2jx7RPm38VMY3nY5cvE6cY2vGsyKyFXe3sJ9mCWlj_HDxPjHW-H_htUfimFS1yX0Xfimm4TNnx13yRHdJVZtq5Xc0-3MLH-Wvfa4/s2048/Dice+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1zqZiHKt_brMUnjRQkzXFQTp8ZB9T983E29TqnN2jx7RPm38VMY3nY5cvE6cY2vGsyKyFXe3sJ9mCWlj_HDxPjHW-H_htUfimFS1yX0Xfimm4TNnx13yRHdJVZtq5Xc0-3MLH-Wvfa4/w640-h426/Dice+1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>2.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0p3UDyU_OG9-iv4H_zE1rrHlucdtIByrTXHVUtAb3HRRw153vsJD_M4dI7Klglih1GdehbszsOQnNRjMpTBwTs7qqx4EB0f2VBxHKhfpp5jls49aVj1Xyl5AqDssd2ogBpxE4ANeW54o/s2048/Dice+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0p3UDyU_OG9-iv4H_zE1rrHlucdtIByrTXHVUtAb3HRRw153vsJD_M4dI7Klglih1GdehbszsOQnNRjMpTBwTs7qqx4EB0f2VBxHKhfpp5jls49aVj1Xyl5AqDssd2ogBpxE4ANeW54o/w640-h426/Dice+2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>3.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LTlwCLIS3LATvpnvF-z85JCT9OFT1ddlzMTwMXBTM9nfwAtXhSsaqBZxpSr2rssjoi4Oil_mOpk4rLFkMaCTuoO5DEdJ_R0SlIgsHoRrMZSMz2V3GJzIzuGrfV-IzEey3MUvPvDy0DM/s2048/Dice+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LTlwCLIS3LATvpnvF-z85JCT9OFT1ddlzMTwMXBTM9nfwAtXhSsaqBZxpSr2rssjoi4Oil_mOpk4rLFkMaCTuoO5DEdJ_R0SlIgsHoRrMZSMz2V3GJzIzuGrfV-IzEey3MUvPvDy0DM/w640-h426/Dice+3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>4.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZdt22nEgw49tNxYbf9VJgQchT9CJZCNdME2nmqp7vYvLa4FdPoKZPZLJ63ZyQEYAkV0JqdlaL5qxku80sGoIZi5-LaIz39c2R3qYXpAv8lzQK7WTGQ0JbYneKwKtBRnZdEIW6ir6Mt8w/s2048/Dice+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZdt22nEgw49tNxYbf9VJgQchT9CJZCNdME2nmqp7vYvLa4FdPoKZPZLJ63ZyQEYAkV0JqdlaL5qxku80sGoIZi5-LaIz39c2R3qYXpAv8lzQK7WTGQ0JbYneKwKtBRnZdEIW6ir6Mt8w/w640-h426/Dice+4.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>5.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1shOdfq4Ka4OIfnAZydhZ4pImLY7opR6tvzT8JozA-OfWUgwtWuAe-d5Bjr-j9V5RNTFQJdaPYy-EaZKEPq2hm3IGC0CHdXQVeF7hqi2xyizZnTElLdlSUOhsrN1Fwkyyw5gICdhPWY/s2048/Dice+5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1shOdfq4Ka4OIfnAZydhZ4pImLY7opR6tvzT8JozA-OfWUgwtWuAe-d5Bjr-j9V5RNTFQJdaPYy-EaZKEPq2hm3IGC0CHdXQVeF7hqi2xyizZnTElLdlSUOhsrN1Fwkyyw5gICdhPWY/w640-h426/Dice+5.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>6.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmk0UC90Ty53SYTLTz8k0z2336-UBrY1iCcbNaRa9u4KgQ8GFw87jEXAdUFtF2f2NpUpeX_Q8mu9H4UtntPgq-ZmlDO1UbUhhRyjvqcEfhsO-Fv7z1kd3hXg9Oqp59waPsVPPlJxCSsg/s2048/Dice+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmk0UC90Ty53SYTLTz8k0z2336-UBrY1iCcbNaRa9u4KgQ8GFw87jEXAdUFtF2f2NpUpeX_Q8mu9H4UtntPgq-ZmlDO1UbUhhRyjvqcEfhsO-Fv7z1kd3hXg9Oqp59waPsVPPlJxCSsg/w640-h426/Dice+6.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>7.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVU4-SeswTb2CB-2FUqQvLGG0uyAXchd1ILpwHi-LlYbz36hlVk41btBclP7tus_GoacFIUDWaG5XZrB60fWIpndKcm3Mb8lShM_5VN8hjElJH36JrPNgr4MsSlcBM6aa22Asna8omrgQ/s2048/Dice+7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVU4-SeswTb2CB-2FUqQvLGG0uyAXchd1ILpwHi-LlYbz36hlVk41btBclP7tus_GoacFIUDWaG5XZrB60fWIpndKcm3Mb8lShM_5VN8hjElJH36JrPNgr4MsSlcBM6aa22Asna8omrgQ/w640-h426/Dice+7.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>8.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbchpJ01-szu-qJTxZjp2jumIj4f5WFOXX3ekOpKVcIYlwfHX47bxtzUhHxaQQkv1iWnzUR7f0XLohXOW5ItHmlBoZfdAS-R2kZjVlS5sBRVO7lD0se-lOdNVxOYZn56fbL0-oQMWWGQ/s2048/Dice+8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbchpJ01-szu-qJTxZjp2jumIj4f5WFOXX3ekOpKVcIYlwfHX47bxtzUhHxaQQkv1iWnzUR7f0XLohXOW5ItHmlBoZfdAS-R2kZjVlS5sBRVO7lD0se-lOdNVxOYZn56fbL0-oQMWWGQ/w640-h426/Dice+8.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>9.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrzbc_uR5g8XHBkZLaDfHB9oM4H-573wR2Peu53VSELvLWKqjFmsJgTeWQn5fvAt6FWKM4lrhIzPOg5_t7m9MNmxkrD6b9K8cO2PN9gDQBR6ionRQuRwxxGQHQKdgAmB8Pf-rq_yopka4/s2048/Dice+9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrzbc_uR5g8XHBkZLaDfHB9oM4H-573wR2Peu53VSELvLWKqjFmsJgTeWQn5fvAt6FWKM4lrhIzPOg5_t7m9MNmxkrD6b9K8cO2PN9gDQBR6ionRQuRwxxGQHQKdgAmB8Pf-rq_yopka4/w640-h426/Dice+9.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>10.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu3_ZbzDChiRs_XRasQJqo0aVQUcLVM4YviESHjLymAywQiT5pxk3qUtK7ug4L17bAc9EFlKHg3KcNJy6wck2nlu1uIdLjMDu1ZNRsMCiOLKLX5BR1N1mgIQbHOlkqCzvRlQyghhAISb8/s2048/Dice+10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu3_ZbzDChiRs_XRasQJqo0aVQUcLVM4YviESHjLymAywQiT5pxk3qUtK7ug4L17bAc9EFlKHg3KcNJy6wck2nlu1uIdLjMDu1ZNRsMCiOLKLX5BR1N1mgIQbHOlkqCzvRlQyghhAISb8/w640-h426/Dice+10.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>11.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3EVzACp96W7-x1dgE3Fv0x58DzykO39InvguOk0vM7O7HxazrCrMhaA8N__DhIk2zmjsSfbpBWlEKIvpLOyBJTz5LmtPSTzddC5yYKo40whR34DBqnTQxEhDWs6GphYg50lZzl42VoRo/s2048/Dice+11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3EVzACp96W7-x1dgE3Fv0x58DzykO39InvguOk0vM7O7HxazrCrMhaA8N__DhIk2zmjsSfbpBWlEKIvpLOyBJTz5LmtPSTzddC5yYKo40whR34DBqnTQxEhDWs6GphYg50lZzl42VoRo/w640-h426/Dice+11.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>12.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA_Dm5KRNulvpfcPwwif5NpyHHCqq_ROjFqWnTPbXIAttzoZI4Wg7K5ukUTgWW-A1-A2mWwFESgQmg_uZ7zscus34gfTOrefDa5YuTwVyLahhdVt_NDwkeda_1xDqqPAnos870TsM-cas/s2048/Dice+12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA_Dm5KRNulvpfcPwwif5NpyHHCqq_ROjFqWnTPbXIAttzoZI4Wg7K5ukUTgWW-A1-A2mWwFESgQmg_uZ7zscus34gfTOrefDa5YuTwVyLahhdVt_NDwkeda_1xDqqPAnos870TsM-cas/w640-h426/Dice+12.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>CLUES.</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Board-based World War Two wargame from Days Of Wonder.</p><p>2. Co-operative adventure game from Themeborne Ltd, inspired by Fighting Fantasy Books.</p><p>3. Gladiatorial combat with pre-painted, metal miniatures from em4miniatures.</p><p>4. Word Game by Reiner Knizia from Big Potato Games.</p><p>5. World War Two air combat game from Warlord Games.</p><p>6. Fantasy Flight's hugely successful space combat game that uses the Flightpath System.</p><p>7. Wizkids' less successful space combat game that uses the Flightpath System.</p><p>8. Board-based sci-fi wargame from Braincrack Games.</p><p>9. Steam-powered robots play sport in Privateer Press' Warmachine setting.</p><p>10. Dice-drafting superhero game from Wizkids.</p><p>11. Discontinued fantasy wargame from Fantasy Flight.</p><p>12. Egyptian-themed abstract strategy game from Yay Games.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>ANSWERS.</p><p>1. Memoir '44.</p><p>2. Escape The Dark Castle.</p><p>3. Ludus Gladatorius.</p><p>4. Clickbait.</p><p>5. Blood Red Skies: Battle Of Britain.</p><p>6. Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game.</p><p>7. Star Trek: Attack Wing.</p><p>8. Farsight.</p><p>9. Grind.</p><p>10. Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers Vs X-Men.</p><p>11. Runewars Miniatures Game.</p><p>12. Ominoes.</p>Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-83753514670088950452021-10-12T21:13:00.003-07:002021-10-12T21:13:55.569-07:00Games Crossword.<p>Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my usual Wednesday night board games club went on hiatus. During this time, members kept in touch using our forum on the great website that is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/">BoardGameGeek</a>. Among other things, some of our club members posted quizzes. Inspired by this, I decided to get in on the act and came up with this crossword.</p><p>All the answers relate to games in BoardGameGeek's top 500 except for one which is way doewn the list but fitted so nicely into the grid.</p><p>You will probably need to copy the image below and print it out. Please don't write on your screen with a permanent marker. </p><p>Answers are at the bottom of this post. Enjoy.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrhBFPowtnCC5PEsLxz412v8f5L0XAENocourw0f8pDBZSZRuAqXCnnLPqIOFCCteJe_t-o9qzA0FBlh1pTbhFkjEIfcip0x6vVgeZveRGbMUwRPLWS2NPfOFa-gC-Z57fSahTSsdOvcs/s600/CrosswordBGG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="450" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrhBFPowtnCC5PEsLxz412v8f5L0XAENocourw0f8pDBZSZRuAqXCnnLPqIOFCCteJe_t-o9qzA0FBlh1pTbhFkjEIfcip0x6vVgeZveRGbMUwRPLWS2NPfOFa-gC-Z57fSahTSsdOvcs/w480-h640/CrosswordBGG.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>ACROSS.</p><p>5. Part of a plant which attaches it to the ground and provides water and nourishment. (4)</p><p>7. Lay tiles to help build this walled French city. (11)</p><p>10. See 6 DOWN.</p><p><span style="font-family: times;">13. (And 4 ACROSS) Wizard paladin. (4,6)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />14. Alloy of Copper and Zinc where UK Games Expo was in 2019. (5,10)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />15. (And 9 DOWN and 20 ACROSS) Epic occidental route. (5,7,5)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />18. Joan Of Arc was Maid of here. (7)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />20. See 15 ACROSS.<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />21. (And 17 DOWN) A single thing is all. (4,3)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />22. Abbreviated year of this memorable recreation of the D-Day campaign. (9)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />DOWN.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">1. Grim Reaper's farming implement. (6)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br />2. (And 16 DOWN) Terror in Lovecraftian town. (6,6)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />3. Ready, steady, __. (2)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />4. See 13 ACROSS.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">5. Collect tiles before the sun god stops you. (2)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br />6. (And 10 Across) Making the red planet like Earth. (12,4)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px;" /><br />8. A long time ag in a galaxy far, far away, roll dice to decide your fate. (4,4,7)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">9. See 15 ACROSS.<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br />11. Dark place of safety. (10)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">12. Natural environment of organism. (7)<br style="--tw-backdrop-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-filter: var(--tw-backdrop-blur) var(--tw-backdrop-brightness) var(--tw-backdrop-contrast) var(--tw-backdrop-grayscale) var(--tw-backdrop-hue-rotate) var(--tw-backdrop-invert) var(--tw-backdrop-opacity) var(--tw-backdrop-saturate) var(--tw-backdrop-sepia); --tw-backdrop-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-opacity: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-backdrop-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: var(--gray-200); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br />16. See 2 DOWN.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">17. See 21 ACROSS.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">19. Spanish blue. (4)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">ANSWERS.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p>ACROSS.</p><p>5. Root.</p><p>7. Carcassonne.</p><p>13. Mage Knight.</p><p>14. Brass Birmingham.</p><p>15. Great Western Trail.</p><p>18. Orleans.</p><p>21. Just One.</p><p>22. Forty-Four.</p><p><br /></p><p>DOWN.</p><p>1. Scythe.</p><p>2. Arkham Horror.</p><p>3. Go.</p><p>4. Ra.</p><p>6. Terraforming Mars.</p><p>8. Star Wars Destiny.</p><p>11. Gloomhaven.</p><p>12. Habitat.</p><p>19. Azul.</p>Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-80305231089147953412021-01-02T12:15:00.000-08:002021-01-02T12:15:35.290-08:00DRINK!<p> A cry often shouted by Father Jack Hackett from sitcom Father Ted and a song by pirate metal band, Alestorm.</p><p>In this case however, a photo gallery of all my geeky drinky things!</p><p>I thought up this post on a night I couldn't sleep while I was at UK Games Expo 2016. It's taken me this long to get around to typing it up. I didn't sleep last night either, so this seemed a good opportunity to do it!</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><u>Oi You Mug!</u></h2><div>I have several geeky mugs and mug-type things. Here they are.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><u>Star Wars.</u></h3><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Droids.</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUh2y6O4lSpO9Rjx9OYlPVDtX4EmsoIGPex_sH4Z-HVHzXq6IIJMwNQR2mpqtHWZdR_QlpbL4jriM2nT4aVjzh9V61y_9th_xCdyQuMb5STzjL0i3DMpjKnQ4iSprliS5Q7_aIJbJWNF4/s2048/Droids.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUh2y6O4lSpO9Rjx9OYlPVDtX4EmsoIGPex_sH4Z-HVHzXq6IIJMwNQR2mpqtHWZdR_QlpbL4jriM2nT4aVjzh9V61y_9th_xCdyQuMb5STzjL0i3DMpjKnQ4iSprliS5Q7_aIJbJWNF4/w640-h480/Droids.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>R2-D2 and BB8.</div><div><br /></div><div>The R2 mug came from Forbidden Planet's London Megastore. I don't know if this particular mug is still available but they have plenty of mugs in stock, <a href="https://forbiddenplanet.com/catalog/?q=mugs&page=1">here</a> is Forbidden Planet's mugs page and <a href="https://forbiddenplanet.com/">this</a> is the front page of their website.</div><div>The BB8 mug was a Christmas present from my mum so I don't know where it came from...other than a galaxy far, far away!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Space Slug.</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8SjmKdX-YIaf3AWA1Zeiy49yCHt6AoYupQGVwSwbhIyM05ktRZopQ_mLjxuz8VK-Tzf0XTjqDU2ktq0Kru2MZuoWzi4QeFvcp8FQ1NcSeW3VIxPTms8V1B6WABFt7pCXPI1u6EvUKzA/s2048/Slug.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8SjmKdX-YIaf3AWA1Zeiy49yCHt6AoYupQGVwSwbhIyM05ktRZopQ_mLjxuz8VK-Tzf0XTjqDU2ktq0Kru2MZuoWzi4QeFvcp8FQ1NcSeW3VIxPTms8V1B6WABFt7pCXPI1u6EvUKzA/w480-h640/Slug.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Breathtaking Escape From The Deadly Space Slug.</div><div><br /></div><div>I picked this one up from a shop in The Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. It did and does, continue to make me smile. <a href="https://www.shopdisney.com/parks/walt-disney-world/">Here</a> is the link to where you can buy merchandise from the theme parks.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><u>Marvel.</u></h3><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Stark Industries.</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7pG_si4S5X6JfKKrWeIvnpF9lsgNeJFbpZbRaZ5MnL5Kr35N0z5JjBnsQ_JTDvsKRJ8t5sUEwfD1UchNiZFlwNdjN_0nfuWIGOoQ10zL6IfmH1eqBSz4YFMYX3ERgp-SmkXw7cPf9dr8/s2048/Stark.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7pG_si4S5X6JfKKrWeIvnpF9lsgNeJFbpZbRaZ5MnL5Kr35N0z5JjBnsQ_JTDvsKRJ8t5sUEwfD1UchNiZFlwNdjN_0nfuWIGOoQ10zL6IfmH1eqBSz4YFMYX3ERgp-SmkXw7cPf9dr8/w480-h640/Stark.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>I like the idea that someone who works at Stark Industries might have brought their mug home with them. This also came from Forbidden Planet's London Megastore. See R2-D2 above for the links to their site.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><u>Gaming.</u></h3><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Bugman's.</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezOfgrs0GxCa0J_AZtNZbG4kaOgOrypbFlHDdzPxp9XSBRZ9WMQJ1jaWHIqvU-6_WxtSTuT6rX3I57u9IRmrdk-FRKSdYOv9mx0i5ti53SAkWY7taucMU-MepGS1Uj5wPI5eOlPq66_c/s2048/Bugman%2527s.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezOfgrs0GxCa0J_AZtNZbG4kaOgOrypbFlHDdzPxp9XSBRZ9WMQJ1jaWHIqvU-6_WxtSTuT6rX3I57u9IRmrdk-FRKSdYOv9mx0i5ti53SAkWY7taucMU-MepGS1Uj5wPI5eOlPq66_c/w480-h640/Bugman%2527s.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>This is a lovely chunky mug in the style of an earthenware pint jug. Perfect for drinking strong dwarven ale from. As far as I know, they are only available at Warhammer World - Games Workshop's headquarters in Nottingham in the United Kingdom, which is where I got this one.</div><div>You can read about my trip there by following <a href="https://plecogeek.blogspot.com/2013/02/warhammer-world.html">this link</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Wotan Games.</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKi18y3aG-GR_2-gPb0Q1rvMrweyjSZh9riNxSyZOHNsgoas4fm5s5Tixy0xeEso1lc7UoP9Y-fXLY9zFQlvzE1C5Nks1PIwCdirxJbW5OH8psHHGGLzPeIKJpgrEP-z0r2gOm8U78iCI/s2048/Wotan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKi18y3aG-GR_2-gPb0Q1rvMrweyjSZh9riNxSyZOHNsgoas4fm5s5Tixy0xeEso1lc7UoP9Y-fXLY9zFQlvzE1C5Nks1PIwCdirxJbW5OH8psHHGGLzPeIKJpgrEP-z0r2gOm8U78iCI/w640-h480/Wotan.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>I won these two mugs at two consecutive Dragonmeets (Dragonmeet is an annual table top gaming convention held in West London) from the nice people at Wotan Games for coming first and joint first, playing demos of Camelot: The Build and Camelot: The Court.</div><div><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/138973/camelot-build">Here</a> is the BoardGameGeek link for Camelot: The Build and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/161913/camelot-court">here</a> is the BGG link for Camelot: The Court.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><u>Star Trek.</u></h3><h2 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h2><h3 style="text-align: left;">Beer.</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIpmoloWrzOVxEZqudPo6-6DMeZgvCyE6sRfz-tmIgPV6QnaKZqyMNL6N5vx-MDT_vAhpMerNYf_ugmZP1dNxR8aRo0tIlqm5OP_Dthyphenhyphen62417bqPJVWCum_mIPQJ7xldm0EXabW9T92vI/s2048/Beer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIpmoloWrzOVxEZqudPo6-6DMeZgvCyE6sRfz-tmIgPV6QnaKZqyMNL6N5vx-MDT_vAhpMerNYf_ugmZP1dNxR8aRo0tIlqm5OP_Dthyphenhyphen62417bqPJVWCum_mIPQJ7xldm0EXabW9T92vI/w480-h640/Beer.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Way back in December 2002, I along with two friends, went to Star Trek The Adventure in London's Hyde Park. (<a href="https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Adventure">Here</a> is the Memory Alpha entry for the event.) Among other things, I bought this collectors set of beer. Klingon Export (which really should have been Blood Wine), Ferengi Eelwasser and Romulan Ale.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Shot Glasses.</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4WUdgcMbcaOc3w5I2PkNh6fBEOcc0qtkGXJeoom7WI_9GZnigkIBCxQxHzfmuUqjA1l8hoR-Ma9GjLFCOv8kMtK69LOW1a1AJ0Fs117g40WiqKh1YUMQdAEyJjAYAxFJHb-aQM-pauU/s2048/Shots.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4WUdgcMbcaOc3w5I2PkNh6fBEOcc0qtkGXJeoom7WI_9GZnigkIBCxQxHzfmuUqjA1l8hoR-Ma9GjLFCOv8kMtK69LOW1a1AJ0Fs117g40WiqKh1YUMQdAEyJjAYAxFJHb-aQM-pauU/w640-h480/Shots.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Many years ago, I went to Las Vegas. I loved the atmosphere of the place but not being someone who gambles and being a Trekkie, the highlight for me was Star Trek: The Experience, at the Las Vegas Hilton. (<a href="https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Experience">Here</a> is the attraction's Memory Alpha entry.) In addition to a drinking establishment called Quark's Bar (although sadly not a recreation of its namesake from Deep Space Nine), complete with "replicators", there were two ride-like experiences (which rivalled anything Disney had at the time) and a shop, which was where I purchased this set of shot glasses.</div><div><br /></div><div>TREKKIE TEST: Can you spot the error in the packaging in the above picture?</div><div>Answer at the bottom of this post.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><u>True Blood.</u></h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSo4V7MCwa0MJgZTklf-lN0dHOAgiv0nYsYvcMnxVC_e7H1x9d3aUf3w-Q8eDMJjj_SD6Os_GhZk0JiZmQBgFBwY2H2UWKQ-AVKg_zXXanQSaUf5a4vkCd8AQejB8gfV4bNdPDzlGiWRU/s2048/Blood.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSo4V7MCwa0MJgZTklf-lN0dHOAgiv0nYsYvcMnxVC_e7H1x9d3aUf3w-Q8eDMJjj_SD6Os_GhZk0JiZmQBgFBwY2H2UWKQ-AVKg_zXXanQSaUf5a4vkCd8AQejB8gfV4bNdPDzlGiWRU/w480-h640/Blood.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>I really liked the TV series True Blood. Well, Series 2 anyway! (Series 1 was a bit dull and Series 3 was an over-the-top melodrama!) Series 2 though, great fun. On the strength of that, I bought this fizzy Blood-Orange drink to keep and display. This, like my R2-D2 and Stark Industries mugs, was bought at London's Forbidden Planet Megastore. (To find a link to their website, scroll up to just under the picture featuring the aforementioned R2-D2 mug.)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Answer to the TREKKIE TEST: The Engineering and Science glasses have been put in the packaging in each-other's places.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>If you'd like to see some cool photos, please head over to my photography blog <a href="www.plecopics.blogspot.com">www.plecopics.blogspot.com</a> .</div>Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-53341966585210978912020-01-17T01:22:00.002-08:002020-01-17T01:22:39.663-08:00I recently wrote another short story. This time a Sci-Fi one. I hope you enjoy it.<br />
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
For centuries, The
British Army has used the night as a weapon. Utilising stealth, our
fighters have struck from the darkness to cut the head off of our
enemies.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And so, I find myself
here, in an alien compound, on a distant world. Intelligence had told
us that this was where one of their generals was hunkering down.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This planet is roughly
half-way between Earth and the Diurnal home-world. We have the
advantage here. Due to the fast orbit of the next two planets between
us and this system's sun, the rock that we're on is three quarters of
the time in darkness.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The advantage we have
is that, to all intents and purposes, the Diurnals seem afraid of the
dark! Seriously. The race that, unprovoked, attacked all of our
colonies this side of Deneb, are nyctophobic. All of the battles
that they have instigated across all of the rocks that we've been
fighting them on, have been during the day. When they have been
forced to fight at night, they wear what we have come to call “Glow
Suits”, which mark them out as easy targets.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This compound, our
drones told us, was only lightly defended. Both us and The Diurnals,
our supply chains stretched so thin, lack the resources to build
bunkers or other properly fortified installations here. It is for the
same reason that we have no artillery support, so were having to go
in on foot and do the job ourselves.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So, with the darkness
as our ally, we attacked. With 37 Earth hours 'till sun up, we
entered the compound to no resistance. We found the Diurnals command
centre lit up from the inside. Every where else was dark. With hand
signals, visible due to our night-vision gear, our lieutenant
signalled us to keep moving forward, then surround the building as
planned. We were less that 40 meters away when it happened.
Floodlights blazed on, dazzling our optics. Every one of us ripped
them from our heads. Still partially blind, we saw through watering
eyes, the enemy flood from the building.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now, I'm the only one
left. My platoon mates were all slaughtered.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Instead of being cut
down by the spinning blades that the enemy uses instead of bullets, I
was stunned with some kind of electrical weapon. Now I'm here, bound,
squinting in the bright lights inside the Diurnal's command centre.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The enemy soldiers
have put their rifles down and are taking off their “Glow Suits”.
I've read the intelligence reports on Diurnal physiology, studied
them. It has been part of my job as platoon medic, to brief my
comrades on how best to kill them. But until now I've never seen one
alive. Now they are unarmoured, I see how grotesque and alien the
enemy truly are. They are humanoid, but twice as big as any man I've
ever seen. They have bilateral symmetry, have arms and legs, a torso
and a head. They even have a skeleton, red and bloody-looking, I can
see it through their semi-transparent bodies which seem to be made up
of a kind of pink cytoplasm surrounded by a thick membrane. It's
their faces that unsettle me the most though. No mouths or noses but
tiny little eyes, merely black spheres floating at the front of their
heads.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Seemingly paying me no
attention, they spread out in the room, making space for each-other.
They stretch out their limbs creating as much surface area with their
bodies as they can. They seem to be bathing in the harsh light coming
from the illumination panels that line all the walls and the ceiling
of this place.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A noise comes from the
far end of the room, a door opening I assume. The Diurnals part,
making way for two more which come toward me. Without a word, the new
two each grab one of my armpits and easily lift me. They carry me out
of this room and into the next. As I'm moved through it, I look for
anything that might facilitate my escape. But all I see in the
brightness is a bank of some kind of electronic equipment, until that
is I'm dumped on my knees in front of a bed, the surface of which,
like nearly every surface in this place, is lit.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The Diurnal lying here
seems superficially like the others. Blinking and trying to focus, I
notice that his skeleton is darker though, more of a rusty brown that
a bloody red.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Another of the
creatures comes over to me and thrusts a metallic box near the side
of my head. Low whistles emanate from the Diurnal and an electronic
voice comes out of the device,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“Heal him and you
will be go!”</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now I know why I was
kept alive. The red cross on my uniform marks me out as my platoon's
medic. As alien as the Diurnals are, they understand this.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The Diurnal with the
box gestures at my patient's leg. I see some kind of irregular,
metallic patch on the outside of its membrane. At first I wonder if
it's some kind of bandage covering a wound. As I watch it though, it
begins to vibrate slightly. It does this every now and then and not
in a set pattern. As far as my restraints will allow, I lean forward,
hoping to get a better look at what I now assume is a pathogen, as
alien to the Diurnals, as they are to us. As my shadow falls across
the patch, it stops vibrating. Also, ever so slightly, it seems to
shrink. I blink, thinking that my eyes might be playing tricks on me,
but it is definitely shrinking.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I stay there, not
knowing what to do. My patient shifts its weight and a high-pitched
noise comes out of it. The Diurnal with the box grabs my shoulder and
pulls me back so that I'm no longer blocking it from the light
shining above it.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“I can heal him.”
I say.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The metal box is again
shoved towards me.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“I can heal him. But
not while I am bound.”</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Low pitch whistles
repeat what I have just said in a way that they understand.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
One of the Diurnals
that carried me in moves behind me. Trying to keep my cool, I resist
the urge to turn my head to look at it. I hear some clicks then feel
a release of pressure as my restraints are removed.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Not knowing what to
say next, I mumble. More whistles come from the box. The postures of
the three standing Diurnals in the room changes.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Very slowly, I move my
hand towards the box. I look into it's holder's eyes, attempting to
look earnest. It seems to understand the message that I'm trying to
convey and hands it to me. Without rising from my knees, I hurl the
box at the bank of electronics on the opposite wall. Sparks shower us
but the Diurnals stand motionless. Then the lights go out.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I stand but having
been restrained for, I don't know how long, I loose my balance and
stumble. I fall through the door that I entered this room by. And
then the screaming starts. The same noise that the patient on the bed
made but louder and from all around me. My hand finds something in
the darkness. I recognise it as a Diurnal blade rifle.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I regain my footing
and open fire expending the weapon's entire magazine. I hear thick
liquid sloshing on the floor and feel a viscous wetness on my legs.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Then I see it, a chink
of light. I recognise it as the dim light from this planet's only
moon, visible through a hole in this building's door that I have just
cut with my alien weapon.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I drop the heavy
rifle, sprint for the door and escape into the safety of the night.</div>
<br />Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-3078314959756864102019-10-18T13:24:00.001-07:002024-02-09T09:18:04.953-08:00Tabletop Gaming Live 2019.<h3>
And A few photos from Tabletop Gaming 2018, that I didn't get around to posting until now!</h3>
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Tabletop Gaming Live is a games show run by Tabletop Gaming magazine at Alexandra Palace in London and the weekend of the 28th and 29th of September saw its second year. The event runs over both the Saturday and the Sunday. This year it consisted of a trade hall, and a hall for seminars, tournaments and a well stocked lending library. Last year there was also a room dedicated to demo tables for games but that was missing this time.</div>
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My friend Richard and I attended this year as we did the last. To start with, we had a wander around the trade hall. The trade hall at this event is larger than the one at Dragonmeet but nowhere near the size of the one at UK Games Expo. (If you would like to learn more about those events, scroll down on this blog as I've posted about them both in the past.) We picked up some play mats and health marker coins for Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Champions. (<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/255653/warhammer-age-sigmar-champions-trading-card-game">Here's</a> the Boardgame Geek page for it and <a href="https://www.warhammerchampions.com/">here</a> is the game's official site.) I also picked up a warbands set that I didn't yet own but that Richard had bought the only copy of at Geek&Buy (a convention that I will be blogging about when I've completed this post) the previous weekend.</div>
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We were watching the time however, as we were eager to play in the Kingdomino tournament. Richard had won it on the Sunday of last years show after I urged him to join me in playing in that and the King Of Tokyo tournament (more on this years King Of Tokyo tournament later). He had never played either of the games before but I informed him that both games were very simple to learn and great fun. Now, I'd decided that I'd like to win this years tournament as, nearly all of the times that I've played against Richard (who purchased a copy of the game after his victory last year), I have beaten him! There were a total of 15 players attempting to win the crown this year. On our first game, Richard and I shared a table with another friend. He had not played before but the very nice lady from Blue Orange, who were running the tournament explained to him, the simple rules of the game. The top two scoring players from each table (of which there were four) would go on to the next round. From our table, it was Richard and myself. There were a total of 3 rounds. I didn't get past the second but Richard progressed to the final, in which he achieved a score of 75, the highest that I have ever seen in the game, winning the tournament by just one point!</div>
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Here he is with his prizes, including the giant Kingdomino Meeple that was the real reason I wanted to win this year....I really like Meeples.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_epy-NsNnwwIlh57TF8x0u5Un-nK4f9OUPr52cTEnuzuoTCuKV9pK9QeEj1kP7xo4cm1WHC2PHOXrVP6jX4UxQ8LKnnooxirvlRo5zARtg721cdq3hhmeCRaOAqhUuizGKRjRnMzKL0E/s1600/King+Domino+Richard.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_epy-NsNnwwIlh57TF8x0u5Un-nK4f9OUPr52cTEnuzuoTCuKV9pK9QeEj1kP7xo4cm1WHC2PHOXrVP6jX4UxQ8LKnnooxirvlRo5zARtg721cdq3hhmeCRaOAqhUuizGKRjRnMzKL0E/s640/King+Domino+Richard.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204583/kingdomino">Here</a> is the Boardgame Geek entry for Kingdomino.</div>
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After the tournament, we had another wander around the trade hall. Richard spied a game called Kero that he decided he'd like to try. His favourite genre is post apocalyptic Sci-Fi, and Kero has that type of aesthetic. It is a two-player game and, on your turn, you up-end your kerosene tanker playing piece which contains a kind of hour glass partially filled with brown sand (representing your clans fuel supply), hoping that you can roll a favourable result on up to eight dice before it runs out. If it does run out, your go ends there and you will have to refuel while you opponent attempts to roll a certain result on (usually) all eight dice. The dice rolling isn't as random as it might have just sounded as you get to put aside rolled dice if they land on a result that you want to keep, before re-rolling the rest. Kero features some solid game mechanics and can be played in 30 minutes. However, the whole experience didn't grab me as something I'd want to play often, if at all again. If you'd like more information about it you can check out its BGG entry <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/222219/kero">here</a> .</div>
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At a bit of a loss for what to do next, we thought we'd try out some games from the lending library. It was run by a gaming cafe called Ludoquist. The cafe itself is in Croydon, in South London. I really wanted to try out a game called Red Alert: Space Fleet Warfare by designer, Richard Borg. I am a huge fan of his game Memoir '44, which is a mix of a boardgame and wargame and retells the story of the D-Day campaign from the Second World War. (<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10630/memoir-44">Here</a> is it's page on BGG.) After handing over a deposit of £10 to the very nice and knowledgable, Ludoquist people, we took Red Alert over to the first free table. Perusing the rulebook, I found that Red Alert shared some game mechanics with the aforementioned Memoir '44, a game that Richard, too was familiar with. However, one thing stopped us from playing it....the fact that there were no free tables large enough to hold the HUGE mat that is the playing surface for the game! Anyway, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/250467/red-alert-space-fleet-warfare">here's</a> the BGG entry for Red Alert.</div>
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Returning Red Alert and wondering what else to try to play, I spied Azul: Stained Glass Of Sintra. The original Azul, winner of the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award for 2018, is one of my favourite games. After giving it a go, I came to the conclusion that, in comparison, Azul: Stained Glass Of Sintra doesn't measure up well to its predecessor. It's not a bad game, it's just nowhere near as good. I would play it again, just not very often. As a side note, even the components of A:SGOS feel cheap in comparison. The scoreboard and player boards are made up of nice quality cardboard and the tile bag is as nice as the one in Azul. However, the tower (in which you deposit tiles that "break" (in game terms)) seems flimsy and the tiles themselves, while out of necessity made of plastic, feel cheap when compared to the lovely heavyweight resin tiles in Azul. The most amusing aspect for me, of the game components, came from the fact that the red ones resemble the sore throat sweet, Tunes. You can see this in the picture below.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGvSNHNhnuCwv9NJmqzYuRcea0p68QC4ixdd_tnC2sXLo2ozEM4Fq7oevPMZ0n6i_rIrVcTWYK43yNoS_f-3bGSEmZRrzSkPX7W6kWA5m0ekU3bYgOpv5dVnO6P_pF5_JflbcZvx4rHQ/s1600/Azul+SGOS.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGvSNHNhnuCwv9NJmqzYuRcea0p68QC4ixdd_tnC2sXLo2ozEM4Fq7oevPMZ0n6i_rIrVcTWYK43yNoS_f-3bGSEmZRrzSkPX7W6kWA5m0ekU3bYgOpv5dVnO6P_pF5_JflbcZvx4rHQ/s640/Azul+SGOS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256226/azul-stained-glass-sintra">Here</a> is the BGG link for Azul: Stained Glass Of Sintra;</div>
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And <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230802/azul">here</a> is the one for the original Azul.</div>
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After a sleep, both Richard and I returned for the show's second day.</div>
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We got back to Ally Pally in time for the 11 o'clock tournament, again run by Blue Orange. This time, King Of Tokyo. Last year, after my urging him to join in, Richard had won this tournament too. Nine players took part in the first round, five on one table and four on another, with the top two from each table going through to the final. I came in first on my table and joined Richard in the final, in which, I got knocked out after scoring 14 points of the 20 needed to secure victory, coming in third. Richard got second place.</div>
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On the right in the picture below are my character, Mecha Dragon, along with his player board showing my status at the end of my game in the final, the upgrade card that I had bought during the game and the single energy cube that I had left.</div>
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On the left are my winnings, the Lollybot special character and board and the Zombify upgrade card for KOT and the New York City Defender card for its sister game, King Of New York.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhetAqYCO4ZLgHoouzVYhmYz2cQMwLKxll694FlGgoifRFTay0WhccDDX8XNDtYEVVDIJ27PSvh8XQT-NS2ZqBEULxiBF3ee7hlsMyGs0O3UKyeWPELvKmlMYJV25aOA4sTD6-ohfXmqyI/s1600/King+Of+Tokyo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhetAqYCO4ZLgHoouzVYhmYz2cQMwLKxll694FlGgoifRFTay0WhccDDX8XNDtYEVVDIJ27PSvh8XQT-NS2ZqBEULxiBF3ee7hlsMyGs0O3UKyeWPELvKmlMYJV25aOA4sTD6-ohfXmqyI/s640/King+Of+Tokyo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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After another wander around, Richard and myself sat down to play Magnate:The First City, a game that we had signed up for on the previous day. It was described as a cross between an economic game and a city builder by the guy who would teach us the rules and play along side us. At this point, the terms "economic" and "city-builder" made me think that I would find the next hour and a half quite boring. In fact, I had quite a good time. The 90 minutes flew by and I found the game, intuitive and fun. The game is a bit of a race to build up your properties and then sell them before the market crashes (but you'll not be quite sure when that'll happen). I'm oversimplifying it in the above description. There's a lot more to it but the game-play remains fluid. I squeaked a narrow win. Richard unfortunately gambled on the market not crashing when it did and the game not ending, causing him to come in third.</div>
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The creators will be launching it on Kickstarter soon. You can check it out on their website <a href="https://magnategame.com/">here</a> .</div>
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The pic below is of the city centre at the end of our game.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI62W_i11Cl4gR0_Ws9kndl2fvXu3VqCESodikLn2gJHJry_5Pf00EmhK6PZLlsEreXQlY2yibCTB5xPBLkwYdPfHGw7gJEkywXbFghh9QMVWwqNuwHgv9-uu3aZQETGm0yV5rKBAGoYE/s1600/Magnate.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI62W_i11Cl4gR0_Ws9kndl2fvXu3VqCESodikLn2gJHJry_5Pf00EmhK6PZLlsEreXQlY2yibCTB5xPBLkwYdPfHGw7gJEkywXbFghh9QMVWwqNuwHgv9-uu3aZQETGm0yV5rKBAGoYE/s640/Magnate.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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One of the first games that caught our eye when we entered the trade hall on the Saturday was Joan Of Arc.<br />
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The 16mm scale, or as they call it "Legendary Scale", allows for large (in comparison to the figures), playing areas. The castle in this picture seems a realistic size for the humans in the game.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWM0Mri_rua6vrpuSo0rcCTTJoXW3knV8AiUUfbfvJbcJ9W-3n7i8iUl0IR91e3CA7Bz843-y1QHQHrmmRDS4cGmhYGqnvEVaXwmk7gG3g5R8RrMSI_oRPnNYrPBUpRynblYLN7fQUHP4/s1600/JOA+castle.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWM0Mri_rua6vrpuSo0rcCTTJoXW3knV8AiUUfbfvJbcJ9W-3n7i8iUl0IR91e3CA7Bz843-y1QHQHrmmRDS4cGmhYGqnvEVaXwmk7gG3g5R8RrMSI_oRPnNYrPBUpRynblYLN7fQUHP4/s640/JOA+castle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here's a look at the castle courtyard.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xJjC21dKT77A7RGBl4Xo_OApxmNssVXjGa98PyAalwp2xlQUGhmysxOhMmYa3pktu6ECrKnsebdSIYmYkGwH0oTZi7cgiaCpXOmeUDdq1lEoXf9PO4Qfdv4Eye6TPovsxagdqjeNTTo/s1600/JOA+castle+back.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xJjC21dKT77A7RGBl4Xo_OApxmNssVXjGa98PyAalwp2xlQUGhmysxOhMmYa3pktu6ECrKnsebdSIYmYkGwH0oTZi7cgiaCpXOmeUDdq1lEoXf9PO4Qfdv4Eye6TPovsxagdqjeNTTo/s640/JOA+castle+back.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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On the Sunday, we got to try the game out. There are different ways to play the game including a war-games mode but we played a storied scenario. It involved a contingent of witch hunters arriving at a village to investigate sightings of a werewolf. Richard controlled these fellows while I had control of four villagers, one of whom I secretly chose as the alter-ego of the werewolf at the start of the game. One nice aspect of the scenarios, is that a player can have the characters under their control, undertake conversations with non-player characters, in this case, a witch, who was lurking around on the outskirts of the village, near the hunter's entry point. Richard, as the hunters, did exactly what I expected him to do, which was march in and slaughter everybody. The last of my characters, a young girl, that he picked on, happened to be the one who, by night, would succumb to lycanthropy. In a last ditch attempt to survive, she transformed into her more hirsute self and hightailed it into the woods at the other side of the village. The leader of the hunters (who happened to be riding a horse) abandoned his men and bolted after her. In the last turn of the scenario, he was able to dispatch the were-creature. It was a close run thing though. The game was incredibly fun. The rules are detailed enough to facilitate a beautifully put together narrative without bogging down the game-play. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230791/time-legends-joan-arc">Here</a> is the BGG page for Joan Of Arc.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPILOTsNpZkndtG2mYkMjf0gJKcFXg4uU0xcp9lzblivzD1gZPzdiPU-eOVREJyv4FqZditfLCZmx-T2yHgS2t5RjgadN-mWRQOvLqIob-RFalh7Kna8EA60JlGSVFu_mhgChIca5OhrQ/s1600/JOA+werewolf+board.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPILOTsNpZkndtG2mYkMjf0gJKcFXg4uU0xcp9lzblivzD1gZPzdiPU-eOVREJyv4FqZditfLCZmx-T2yHgS2t5RjgadN-mWRQOvLqIob-RFalh7Kna8EA60JlGSVFu_mhgChIca5OhrQ/s640/JOA+werewolf+board.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The huge hydra model wasn't a part of the scenario described above but the guy who was showing us how to play the game, popped it on the edge of the village set-up just before I took this picture, because he thinks it's cool.</div>
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A closer in look at the village. A blurry werewolf (must be mid transformation) stands with her two wolf companions close as the mounted lord and his men-at-arms enter the village. And there's a hydra too.<br />
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From the hill on which Alexandra Palace stands, you can see great views of London. Here's one of them.</div>
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Alexandra Palace itself is an impressive building and the mast that broadcast the first television programs in Britain, way back in 1936, is sill there. Here are some pics of it.</div>
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I said that I'd include some pictures from the first year of TTGL, 2018, so here they are.<br />
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This was the 2018 enclosure housing the very nice people from Tabletop Gaming Magazine who run the event.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj75ZmjUXQRGmpVMohkQ88Wag_06pWoeuj_ad-Fgmr3kHPidUnZJfivcmWskxk4BZRN2mX1q31xsnRcIX7jcSGqOiyWbBG_6ii7fspONKxcogQvwDhLR4ScUmc2Z-AWC6L_8pm5j9l5Dwk/s1600/ETDC.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj75ZmjUXQRGmpVMohkQ88Wag_06pWoeuj_ad-Fgmr3kHPidUnZJfivcmWskxk4BZRN2mX1q31xsnRcIX7jcSGqOiyWbBG_6ii7fspONKxcogQvwDhLR4ScUmc2Z-AWC6L_8pm5j9l5Dwk/s640/ETDC.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Themeborne Games, the company behind Escape The Dark Castle were there this and last year. Sometime between last years TTGL and this year's, I bought the game. It is very strongly influenced by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy books that originated in the 1980's and were probably my first forays into role-playing. I'm not often a fan of co-operative games but this one is great fun with massive nostalgia value for gamers of my generation. You can find the Boardgame Geek entry for it <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/227456/escape-dark-castle">here.</a><br />
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Japanese company, Oink Games were there both years. They pack some fun games into very small boxes. <a href="https://oinkgms.com/en/">Here</a> is their official website.<br />
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TTCombat were also there both years. At the '18 show, I bought a fair amount of stuff for their fantasy wrestling game Rumbleslam. Pictured here are a studio-painted set of one of the teams I bought, The Cryptborn Nightmares. And yes....the skeleton on the left is wearing a mankini. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191296/rumbleslam">Here</a> is the BGG page for the game.<br />
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Anvil Industry were at the first year's show inviting people to build their own custom miniature from their (then) new multi-part, modular kits. I went for a post-apocalyptic theme and came up with this little fellow.<br />
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And, after a quick paint-job, this is how he looks today.<br />
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There were some big demonstration games happening at the first year's show including one based on Gerry Anderson's cult hit UFO and this one called, The Sands Of Sudan.<br />
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I took this last pic at last years show. Not because I bought the game but just because it amused me. The name of this game is very similar to the name of the T.V. host and former wife of D.J. Fatboy Slim.</div>
Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-9180313390766456672017-12-19T15:28:00.005-08:002018-02-10T21:00:45.915-08:00Best And Worst Games Of 2017 And Other Assorted Ramblings About Games That Were New To Me This Year.<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I do a lot of gaming. Roleplaying, wargaming and board & card gaming. </div>
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One of the clubs I go to is Isleworth Board Gamers. We have a guild on the brilliant website that is Board Game Geek, and every year, the question is floated on our forum about our favourite games of the last year.</div>
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I have many opinions on this subject and I've just spent ages typing out my views for my fellow club members to see. As I spent so long doing it, I thought I'd put it up on my blog too.</div>
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I've included links for the B.G.G. pages for the games that have them under my comments on each so you can check them out for yourself.</div>
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One thing that might confuse you a bit, is who Arthur Cucumber is. I mention him a few times in the post. It is sort of explained but to further elucidate, Mr. Cucumber is my mate Dave. Arthur Cucumber is his B.G.G. username. Also mentioned is Dan...Just Dan. Both are regular I.B.G.ers and friends. As far as I know, Dan has no relation to cucumbers.</div>
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Below is my guild post.</div>
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"Right, I don't have a
top ten really, so prepare for some rambling thoughts.</div>
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Best games of 2017.</div>
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Just the two of them.</div>
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<b>Runewars Miniatures Game</b> I already have two fairly large armies for Mantic's fantasy wargame,
Kings Of War, which is a game that I really like, so when I came
across the Fantasy Flight try out area at Expo this year, I wasn't
initially tempted by this. The models, that I had already seen at
Enfield Gamers, one Saturday when I waddled down there, are really
cool though and as I had intended to play lots of demos at Expo, My
mate Richard (who's an even bigger fan of wargames than me) and I
thought we'd give it a go. The rules are very straight forward and,
after a a quick explanation by a FF demo dude, we were able to play
without any hand holding. The game uses a variation of FF's
Flightpath rules system, first seen in X-Wing The Miniatures Game but
with enough changes to make it really work for a ground-based wargame
with units of infantry, cavalry, heroes and whatever else you might
expect to find on a fantasy battlefield. I didn't buy it there and
then as I was put off by FF's usual hight prices. Fortunately for
Richard and I, we have another friend who really gets into a game,
buys loads for it and then becomes disillusioned with it. This very
kind fellow sold to Richard and myself three copies of the starter
plus a copy of another Runewars game all for the bargain price of £75
each, the cost each of one base set. We had already decided who
would have which army (Undead and Humans come in the starter) so we
were more than happy.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/205907/runewars-miniatures-game">Link here.</a></div>
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<b>DC Comics Deck-Building Game: Heroes Unite. </b>Now, I'll start by
saying that at my core, I am a Marvel fanboy. I love DC Vertigo but,
other than The Flash, really don't have time for the DC Universe.
That said, this game is great. I've played a number of deck builders
over the years since Dominion and this is by far my favourite. This
version features what some would call b-list DC characters (Arthur
Cucumber (David H) calls them the Z-Listers, but I think that that is
a bit cruel.) . Also in the series is the a-list set with Superman,
Batman, The Flash, ect., and A two-player Batman Vs Joker game. All
are great fun but this one is by far my favourite. I've seen it on
sale at a proper games shop for (I think) £30. Mr. Cucumber informed
me that he found it in TK Maxx for a Tenner. Although he has a copy
and I play games with him several times a week and reckon I could
persuade him to bring it along often, I like it so much that I
tracked down and bought my own copy.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/142852/dc-comics-deck-building-game-heroes-unite">Link here.</a></div>
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Worst game of the year.</div>
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<b>Lewis And Clark.</b> This game is terrible. I have gone off of euros this year. I still
like some but others seem to me to be a collection of boring maths
equations held together by an artificially applied theme. Lewis And
Clark is tedious and infuriating. Just when you think you've made
some progress along the river, you find that you haven't managed your
cards and resources well enough and your base-camp position pulls you
back, sometimes further than where you started. Just awful.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/140620/lewis-clark">Link here.</a></div>
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Best two-player games.</div>
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Other than the
aforementioned Runewars Miniatures Game and the DC Deck-building Game
Rivals Batman Vs The Joker.</div>
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<b>Schotten Totten.</b> It's one by Reiner Knizia. I think
the copy my friend has is a german edition. Each player attempts, by
laying sets of cards, to win possession of standing stones. Different
card combinations have different values. There is some second
guessing your opponent and pushing your luck, hoping that they don't
have the cards you need or just a better combo. The position in which
you play your cards matters as, you can win by gaining control of a
certain number of stones, or by a smaller number as long as they are
all next to each other.<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/372/schotten-totten">Link here.</a></div>
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<b>Blue Moon.</b> Another one from Mr. Knizia. With a number of themed decks of cards
included in the base set, choosing one, you try to trump your
opponent by playing cards with a higher number to gain the favour of
dragons. Fairly simple to play, with a mathematical basis (Reiner was
a maths professor as well as being a games designer.), different
types of card with additional values and game effects can be added to
the characters played in an attempt to gain victory. Really fun.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9446/blue-moon">Link here.</a></div>
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A couple of fun, easy
to learn games that I've only played once and hadn't seen before they
tuned up at I.B.G. in the last couple of weeks but that I really
like.</div>
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<b>Azul.</b> This game plays as well as it looks. A game about building a mosaic
shouldn't really be this much fun but it is. Lovely tactile,
Bakerlite (so Arthur Cucumber told me) pieces and simple but tactical
mechanics. I really enjoyed it.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230802/azul">Link here.</a></div>
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<b>Ominoes.</b> A game that Dan picked up at
Dragonmeet at the beginning of December. Roll dice (I love dice.),
move dice (I really do love dice.), place dice (Have I said how much
I love dice?), score points. Great fun with a nice looking ancient
Egyptian theme.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/195484/ominoes">Link here.</a><br />
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Game with the best
theme.</div>
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<b>Incursion.</b> Diesel power armoured U.S. soldiers infiltrating The Rock Of
Gibraltar defended by Nazi black-science experiments during the
Second World War. What's not to love about this? The game-play is
very similar to Games Workshop's Space Hulk. I've only played the
fist scenario, which is very basic but..I love the theme. Arthur
Cucumber (who owns this game) said I might as well play Space Hulk.
However, I'm pretty disillusioned with G.W. at present and, after
spending a fair bit of money on Space Hulk 3rd Edition when it came
out, found that it wasn't as fun as I remembered when I played an
earlier edition in a G.W. store many years ago.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameversion/57637/first-edition">Link here.</a></div>
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Game with the worst
theme.</div>
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<b>Viticulture.</b> Seriously? A game about owning a vineyard and making wine? This is a
truly terrible theme. Mr. Cucumber has told me about some of the
aspects of the game-play and it sounds a little better than I
envisioned. But it's a euro and it's about wine making.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128621/viticulture">Link here.</a></div>
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Biggest disappointment.</div>
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<b>T.I.M.E Stories: The Marcy Case.</b> T.I.M.E Stories is my favourite game. I've played the scenario that
came with the base set and the A Prophecy Of Dragons module, both of
which I loved. Set in 1992 and with an audio cassette on the box
cover, I expected The Marcy Case to have a strong element of
investigation and Grunge. It didn't. I was disappointed. I won't tell
you what it did have, as exploring the mysteries of the T.I.M.E
Stories scenarios is part of the fun. I will say that it featured a
theme that a lot of people really like but that has never done it for
me.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180585/time-stories-marcy-case">Link here.</a></div>
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Game that I'm most
looking forward to being launched on Kickstarter.</div>
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<b>Gladitores: Blood For Roses.</b> At Dragonmeet this year, I played one phase of this (I think) five
phase game. You pick your gladiator and enter the arena to do battle.
You might not want to win though, as at the beginning of the phase
you may have opted to play a card that gives you more points if
another gladiator wins, and who you may have secretly bet on, instead
opting to weaken the other fighters so that your nominee
wins...That's what I did in the round I played. Of course, you may
have played a card that gives you more points if your gladiator does
win the current battle. There are five strategy card, one of which
you play at the beginning of each phase (battle) of the game which
will help you shape your strategy. The combat is fast and fun,
card-driven, with each player having a partially customised deck to
start with, along with a choice of three different decks to pick
cards from as each battle progresses. I will be regularly checking
Kickstarter so I don't miss out on this.</div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/188758/gladiatores">Link here.</a></div>
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Best wind-up of David H
(Arthur Cucumber) about a game.</div>
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I sent Dave the
following by text message earlier in the year.</div>
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"I got a game in a
charity shop today. It looks like the sorta Euro I take the pee out
of though. It's called Corn Law and has loads of cubes. I've read the
rules already. You plant and harvest (it takes two turns to do this)
corn (yellow cubes). You then can spend a turn baking it into bread
(white cubes). You can sell the harvested corn or made bread to the
market. You also need to employ farmers and bakers (brown cubes and
red cubes). One lot of harvested corn can be split into three for
replanting to yield more corn two turns later. There is variability
in how many townspeople there are to buy the corn and bread (which is
worth a lot more than corn but will spoil if left for more than two
turns) and how many you can employ. The corn law bit comes from the
fact that you start with a certain amount of corn and can split
harvested corn to grow more but you can also buy in, from abroad,
expensive foreign corn. It looks really dry but was only £3.99. Do
you want to try it out tomorrow?"</div>
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Dave replied with
something along the lines of,</div>
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"That sounds like
a game I'd really like to try."</div>
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Oh how I chortled to
myself. I'd thought up the driest Euro I could think of and wanted to
see if Dave would fall for it. He did. I worry about him though as
now he's suggested I should launch it on Kickstarter. Yep, that's
just what we need, another dry cube-pusher. But at least I know Dave
would pledge."</div>
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In case you're interested, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/">here</a> is the Board Game Geek front page. </div>
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And <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/guild/728">here</a> is the page for our guild, so that you can check out other member's views on this year's new games. Some of which contradict mine.</div>
Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-78376523691270722542017-07-08T18:47:00.002-07:002017-07-08T18:47:57.396-07:00The LEGO Shop In Leicester Square.Now, I was in two minds about whether to write this post on my blog. Part of me said that LEGO isn't geeky enough to feature here. Just after Christmas last year though (Boxing Day I think but I could be wrong), there was a documentary about the new LEGO shop in Leicester Square in London. One of the people on the show has such a huge LEGO collection that he has bought a second house to store it all in. He even has labelled draws containing each type of brick. He is as much of a geek about LEGO as any one I've ever met is of Star Trek or comic books and I think he is awesome. Add to this that LEGO produce their own Star Wars, and Marvel and D.C. Superhero ranges and I think that it qualifies this post to go on this blog.<br />
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I went to the Leicester Square LEGO shop in the run up to Christmas Day last year and I can tell you that it is brilliant. It is (as I learnt on the aforementioned documentary) the biggest LEGO shop in the world. I had to queue for about ten minutes to get inside as they only allow a certain number of people in at a time so it doesn't get too crowded. While you are queuing though, you are greeted by a giant minifigure of The Queen on a Tube Train. I took a picture of it as it amused me.<br />
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There are several other London themed decorations around the shop such as this huge Elizabeth'Tower...<br />
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...complete with a naughty judge throwing a cream pie at a policeman at its base.<br />
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They also have this massive mosaic of London around the stairwell.<br />
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You can get a mosaic of yourself made from LEGO with their Mosaic Maker booth. It looks like an I.D. photo booth but after paying £99 and waiting about ten minutes, you get all the bricks and instructions needed to put together a digitised picture of yourself.<br />
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I couldn't make a blog post about LEGO without at least one LEGO Star Wars picture. This is a close up of a great set. It features the duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Emperor's throne room from The Return Of The Jedi. Palpatine watches on, force lightening playing between his hands. I nearly bought this kit. I just don't really have room to display it though and it is so cool that leaving it in a box would be a crime.<br />
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I seem to remember at Christmas, as a child, every year, Noel Edmonds would do some kind of Christmas special. While queuing to get in to The Lego Store, I saw the below image in the window. I don't know if the person who designed it deliberately made the minifigure look like Noel but with that beard and hair, and that jumper, for me, it couldn't be anyone else.<br />
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<br />Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-38287509805921874072017-07-07T20:03:00.000-07:002017-07-07T20:03:15.727-07:00Star Wars At Disney World.Cool things from theme parks part 1. <br />
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I was fortunate enough to be able to go back to Disney World in Florida last year and with the release of The Force Awakens, the place has gone Star Wars crazy. I'm pretty late in writing this post. Some of my friends asked me just after I got back if I would be putting my holiday photos up on my blog. That's not really what this blog is about, it's for geeky stuff, but as this holiday included loads of that sort of thing, I guess I am after all. For the first time on my blog, I'll be posting some pictures of myself. So if you're looking at them and thinking "Who is that fat geek?"...well...er...I've just told you, It's me.<br />
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There is a Star Wars presence in all of the parks and hotels that I saw, with at least one shop in each selling Star Wars merchandise. However, the main focus of the Star Wars goodness is at Hollywood Studios. Starting in the early afternoon and at half-hour intervals until mid-afternoon, on the main stage at the back of the park, there is a show. There are huge LED screens showing scenes from the films, rousing music and characters coming out for the audience's delight. Here are some pictures from it.<br />
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Captain Phasma and two First Order Storm troopers.<br />
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The bad guys, boo!<br />
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A closer look at Boba Fett.<br />
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Chewy with his arms raised in triumph.<br />
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There has been a Star Wars ride at Hollywood Studios for many years. Called Star Tours, it has you flying in a shuttle through the Star Wars galaxy. New locations were added a few years ago featuring content from the prequels (urrgh) and, more recently, content from The Force Awakens.<br />
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While queuing for the ride you can see R2-D2...<br />
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...and C3-PO.<br />
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Outside the ride there is a huge AT-AT. I estimate that it is about a quarter of the size of a "real" one. despite this it is still impressive.<br />
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Also outside the ride, they have a speeder bike. Here's a pic of me sitting on it.<br />
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A new attraction in Hollywood Studios is a gallery of models, costumes and prop replicas from the films. Here are a load of photos of them...for no other reason than that they're cool.<br />
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First up...some ships.<br />
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The super-fast A-Wing.<br />
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The heavily armed B-Wing.<br />
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Workhorse of the Rebel fleet, the Y-Wing.<br />
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The ubiquitous TIE Fighter.<br />
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The Millennium Falcon as it appeared in The Force Awakens.<br />
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Some costume.<br />
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An X-Wing pilot's flight suit.<br />
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First Order Flame Trooper armour.<br />
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Some imperial helmets.<br />
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From left to right...Clone Trooper, Storm Trooper, AT-AT Driver, First Order Storm Trooper.<br />
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And.<br />
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Han's blaster.<br />
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The exhibition also had two genuine props from the films. Here are two pictures of a speeder bike that was actually used in Return Of The Jedi.<br />
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I didn't get to sit on this one though.<br />
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The other prop from the films that they had was Anakin's pod racer from The Phantom Menace. I took a picture of it but as I hate the prequels, I'm not going to include it on this blog.<br />
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There was also a shop attached to the gallery. Here a a few things from it.<br />
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A Han Solo costume. This was on sale for $725.<br />
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An imperial officers uniform. Not quite as expensive as the Han Solo costume above but still £650.<br />
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These were well out of my price range but I did buy myself a Storm Trooper officer's cap.<br />
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Two statues and me. On the left, a First Order Storm Trooper. On the right, a life size Boba Fett based on the original Kenner action figure.<br />
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A set of Storm Trooper armour and me again.<br />
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Every now and then in Hollywood Studios you can find First Order Storm Troopers marching about. There may be a whole squad of them led by Captain Phasma, or, as in this case, just two of them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEOpSnizwUJyymoHYV8pM2AQvQ1-3cB48DPBxP7CjOrOnG7wFAGsqavOesxSNG9exgNsdwWg50BMZvIgC5Deh753rBtN60xpJF38a-B0lkT05N2sonT-qSMGIkqn-YvsXvA_jdJT9enDg/s1600/FP1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEOpSnizwUJyymoHYV8pM2AQvQ1-3cB48DPBxP7CjOrOnG7wFAGsqavOesxSNG9exgNsdwWg50BMZvIgC5Deh753rBtN60xpJF38a-B0lkT05N2sonT-qSMGIkqn-YvsXvA_jdJT9enDg/s640/FP1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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They generally get up to no good, menacing people and suchlike.<br />
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Now, the picture below is a bit blurry but is important in telling this story. A family had left their child's buggy in the courtyard buggy parking area while they went to have a look around, maybe meet Chewbacca inside one of the buildings. Tied to the buggy was a BB-8 balloon. One of the Storm trooper thought it would be a good idea to poke it with the business end of his blaster rifle.<br />
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The balloon burst. The watching crowd went "Oooooooh."<br />
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I love this picture. This is the Storm Trooper that just popped the balloon. I imagine the cast member in the armour thinking "I've just ruined a kid's day." and "I've probably lost my job too."<br />
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If you're a Star Wars fan and get the chance, go to Disney World. If you're not a Star Wars fan go anyway. There is so much awesome stuff to do there.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-5039418626725967282017-06-09T18:33:00.000-07:002017-06-13T19:54:49.753-07:00UK Games Expo 2017Yep, I went again this year.<br />
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Accompanying me were my friends Alex and Richard, along with Richard's dad Graham.<br />
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Last year, Alex and I stayed in the Premier Inn in the grounds of the National Exhibition Centre. This year however on the same weekend as the Expo, Take That were playing concerts in the Genting arena which is also in the NEC. This meant that the Premier Inn had roughly tripled their prices compared to last year making it prohibitively expensive to stay there. So instead, we joined Richard and Graham at a caravan park just down the road and slept in the awning of Graham's caravan.<br />
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Last year, Alex, Richard and myself had played in two tournaments. The first was the Star Trek Attack Wing nationals, the second, the DreadBall European Open.<br />
Wizkids (the company that produces Star Trek Attack Wing) had decided to not have the national competitions for their games at the Expo this year, instead they will be holding them at an event exclusively for their games later in the year. This will be at a store and gaming venue Called Fan Boy 3 in Manchester. <a href="http://www.fanboy3.co.uk/">Here</a> is Fan Boy 3's website. And <a href="http://win.wizkids.com/wp/2017-wizkids-u-k-national-championship/">Here</a> is the info about the national competitions for Wizkids games that will be held there.<br />
Mantic (the company that created DreadBall) are in the process of changing over to the second edition of their Sci-Fi sports game so, as with S.T.A.W., no tournament for it at the Expo this year.<br />
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Thursday night came and, what were we going to do? Play a game of course. Richard has recently gotten into a game called Rumbleslam. It's a fantasy themed wrestling game with characters as diverse as humans, undead, reptile men and pixies. Graham is not a gamer but was willing to join the rest of us. Richard, who owns the game and, as a completist, was to pick up all the models that he didn't already own first thing in the trade hall on Friday Morning, instructed the rest of us how to play. I took a team of two dark elves from a team called the Twisted Shadows plus another dark elf special character called Phage (Richard told me she was based on a WWE wrestler called Paige. (Many of the characters in this game are based on real wrestlers.)) and a human special character called Caria.<br />
Here's a picture of Phage in front of her stat card.<br />
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The four of us played a royal rumble, having first 1000 Dosh (the name given in the game to the points you have to purchase each character with) to spend on our team. In the end, it was non-gamer Graham that triumphed having three characters, out of his starting five, left in the ring after all others had been eliminated. The game is really fun. A lot more than I expected it would be. I was even considering buying a team for it. The thing that put me off is the sculpting of the characters. With the exception of the dark elves and the humans, they are, in my opinion, terrible. I get that the design of them are meant to convey as sense of fun but their cartoony look really puts me off. If, however, you like that look, I recommend Rumbleslam. <a href="https://ttcombat.com/collections/rumbleslam">Here</a> is the TTCombat page for the game.<br />
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On Friday morning, the trade hall opened to the general public at 11. The four of us were in a few minutes after. It proved an expensive day for me. Not even having made it around the entire place, I still managed to shell out a load of money on this lot.<br />
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<b>Geek Battle.</b> The bring-and-buy didn't, to me, seem to offer many great deals this year. I did however, manage to find this quiz game for geeks for a paultry two pounds. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/135431/geek-battle-game-extreme-geekdom">Here</a> is its Boardgame Geek entry.<br />
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<b>Fina Prime.</b> I had never picked up this Vidiian ship for Star Trek Attack Wing due to it being so ugly. But at less that half the standard retail price I couldn't resist. BGG page for it <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/165106/star-trek-attack-wing-fina-prime-expansion-pack">here</a>.<br />
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<b>Event exclusive Carnevale miniature.</b> I fell in love with the look of the Venice set skirmish game Carnevale as soon as I first saw it. So muich so that when the Kickstarter for the Second Edition of the game went live, I pledged. Unfortunately, after the Kickstarter Campaign ended, Vesper On, the company the created it, went bust. Luckily a retailer and games producer, The Troll Trader, bought the licence. TTT have released a whole load of new sculpts for the characters from the game. I don't like these nearly as much as the original Vesper On sculpts though, so am really glad that I own a load of them from the Kickstarter that i did. Anyway, the Expo exclusive miniature is a Capadocian. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/114504/carnevale/versions">Here</a> is the BGG page for the original version of the game.<br />
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<b>Metal D20.</b> I have just started playing in a campaign of Alternity with my Monday Night roleplaying group and I thought that this die would add to the experience.<br />
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<b>T.I.M.E Stories base game and The Marcy Case expansion.</b> T.I.M.E Stories is my favorite game. A friend of mine borrowed the base game and the Prophecy Of Dragons secnario expansion from a friend of his. We, along with two other friends (one of which is the aforementioned Alex) played through them. The game is co-operative, with the players undertaking an adventure as T.I.M.E agents jumping into bodies of people throughout time and the multiverse fixing problems to protect humanity. The four of us are going to split the cost of this base set and scenario equally between us. As you can only play each secnario once to success, we plan to sell these on after we have completed them. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/114504/carnevale/versions">Here</a> is the BGG entry for the base game. I really recommend this game.<br />
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<b>Scythe.</b> I first saw this at the Expo last year. It is a euro game with great looking components set in an alternate 1920s. The BGG page for it can be found <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/169786/scythe">here</a>.<br />
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<b>Fighting Fantasy books.</b> I wanted a new copy of Forest Of Doom as my old copy is buried away somewhere in the storage area of my loft. I found the Fighting fantasy stall, complete with Ian Livingston (who, along with Steve Jackson created the series) doing signings. I picked up a copy and told the salesman that I'd like to buy it. It was on sale for £4.99. He offered me a deal, Forest Of Doom plus three other Fighting Fantasy books, all signed by Ian for just ten pounds. I took the offer.<br />
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Here is a better look at the four books that I bought.<br />
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Steve told us that, when the trade hall closes, he would be doing a talk on his top ten games. We went and watched. One that he chose was Diplomacy. On his recommendation, on Sunday, Richard picked up a copy for just four pounds from a stall in the trade hall.<br />
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Friday Night and it was time for us to partake in the first of the two roleplaying sessions that we had booked for the expo. I had been wanting to play Call Of Cthulu for a long time and a this was my opportunity. Call Of Cthulu is a roleplaying game named after one of and based of the works of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. We were going to play the recently released Seventh Edition. The scenario saw us as teenage boy scouts from the town of Arkham, going out into the woods for a weekend of fun. At some point during the first night, two of our fellow scouts were abducted from the campsite without any alarm being raised until morning. After the discovery, our characters set out on a hunt for the missing boys. We found the fist one, flayed, up a tree! Our scout master left to get some help from the local authorities. On foot though, as the distributor cap from the only vehicle at the camp had been removed. Later, arming ourselves with whatever we could find (luckily there were some rifles in the campsite's hut but very few bullets), we went to find the other missing boy. We found this poor fellow quite a way from camp, up a steep hill, again in the branches of a tree, but encased in a cocoon made of branches. Further examination showed us that his heart had been replaced with another, smaller branch cocoon which contained the heart of a small animal. Suitably freaked out, our characters returned to camp. Expecting some kind of monster to attack, we hid in the basement recreation room of the hut. We were attacked. Not by a single monster though but by five of them. Strange wooden "Wicker Children". A seige ensued with us narrowly managing to best the tree creatures but not before I accidently manged to shoot another player's scout in the back whilst trying to defend the stairway that lead to the basement. After this, a secret door was discovered that lead to a small room conatining a table with an old tattered manuscript on it. Reading this opened up a doorway to another dimension. Going through, we were faced with a magician and his Byakhee (a nasty winged monstrosity). We were somehow able to defeat them though and escape back to our world.<br />
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Saturday saw us looking around the rest of the trade hall, buying more stuff and Richard and I trying out a game of the recently release wargame Runewars (more on that below).<br />
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Here is what I bought on the Saturday.<br />
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<b>Lobotomy.</b> The premise and look of this game captured my imagination. You play as an inmate of a psychiatric hospital attempting to escape. Due to your delusions, the staff that are trying to stop you, appear a monsters and mundane objects as wonderous artifacts. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173805/lobotomy">Here</a> is the Boardgame Geek page for it.<br />
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<b>Star Wars Rebellion.</b> I first saw this at Expo last year and was considering buying it then. I wanted to try it out before buying it but the two tables in Fantasy Flight's (the game's publishers) area that had it on were occupied. I watched a woman and her son play it for a while though and got enough of a sense of the game play to satisfy myself that I would like it. BGG entry for it <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/187645/star-wars-rebellion">here</a>.<br />
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<b>AVP Upgrade Pack.</b> As I mentioned in my previous blog post (Dragonmeet 2016), I recently purchased a copy of AVP. It hadn't been out very long until Prodos, the people who made the game, released a second edition. I guess that there must have been a lot wrong with the rules for the need to do this. (I don't know for sure though as I haven't actually played it yet.) Fortunately, for those of us who bought the original, they also released an upgrade pack which conatins the second edition rules plus new tokens. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/149896/alien-vs-predator-hunt-begins">Here's</a> the link to the BGG page for the original version of the game.<br />
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<b>Hero Realms.</b> This is a deck builder by the same people that created Star Realms. My friend Dave was saying, before I went to Expo, how much he wanted to get this game. So I bought him a copy for his Christmas present. Don't worry about him seeing this blog and the surprise being spoilt though as when I gave it to him, I made him unwrap it so that he wouldn't go out out and buy a second copy between now and Christmas Day. He's not going to play it until after Christmas though. You can find the BGG entry for Hero Realms <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/198994/hero-realms">here</a>.<br />
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I first saw the Runewars Miniatures Game at wargames club, Enfield Gamers, when I popped in one Saturday. I was initially put off by the miniatures that, unpainted, looked a bit toy-like to me. An additional thing that put me off were the "strange cardboard dialy things" that sat behind each unit.<br />
At Expo, Richard and I thought we'd have a go however. Painted, the models actually look pretty good. And the "strange cardboard dialy things"? They are actually a really innovative way to order your units. Now I play Star Trek Attack Wing (a lot) and X-Wing The Miniatures game (very little). A feature that both of these games have in common is an orders dial. At the beginning of each round of these two games, for each of your units on the battlefield, you set an order on their dial for them to complete in their activation. I first saw this system in X-Wing The Miniatures Game which was produced by Fantasy Flight. One of the co-publishers of the Runewars Miniatures Game is Fantasy Flight. A difference in the dial ordering system of this compared to X-Wing and Attack Wing is that for each unit, you have two dials. These two dials, among other things, determine when a unit will act, how far and in which direction it will move and how it will attack. The movement system is also similar to X-Wing and Attack Wing in that when you move a unit, you place, on the table top, a template with one end touching that unit and move the unit so that it ends up in contact with the other end.<br />
Richard and I only got in the first two turns of a game as we started pretty near to the closing time of the trade hall. We played together, taking half of the undead army each, against two other guys.<br />
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This is how our battle line looked at the start of the game complete with "strange cardboard dialy things".<br />
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At the end of the second round's movement phase, our armies had made contact. I had managed to outflank the golem unit with my wormy thing and had been able to pivot to hit it in the side.<br />
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Runewars Miniatures Game comes with two starter armies, undead and humans. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/205907/runewars-miniatures-game">Here</a> is the Boardgame Geek page for it.<br />
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Here are a two more pictures from the table that Richard and I played on. At one end was an open battlefield for games and the other, a ruined castle display with...<br />
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...humans sneaking into the sewers underneath...<br />
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...to rid it of the vile undead occupation.<br />
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When the trade hall closed, we decided to head back to the caravan. We began a game of Spartacus Blood And Treachery ( Boardgame Geek page for it <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128671/spartacus-game-blood-treachery">here</a>) which, co-incidentally, I had bought on the bring-and-buy at last years Games Expo. We only had time for me to give a rules explanation (Alex and Richard had played before but Graham hadn't) and get in the first three phases of the first turn of the game before we realised that we had to head to The Hilton for our second roleplaying session of the weekend, a game of Only War.<br />
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Upon entering the room in which our roleplaying session was to take place, we were confronted by this man.<br />
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In this picture he is in an action pose but when we walked into the room, he was standing, motionless and silent. he gestured for us to take our seats. Our games master had another persona, that of Commisar Havelock Von Havelock III (Jnr.). The commisar gave us our briefing, after which our games master would, at times slip back into this persona, mainly to execute us with his Nerf gun. Execution in this game wasn't the end though. We were playing as cloned Imperial Guardsmen from the dead world of Krieg and we had six clones each. Only War is a roleplaying game set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe. The story goes that Krieg had been invaded by the forces of Chaos and, unable to wrest control of it back from them, the powers that be decided to nuke the entire planet. The population now live underground, their only contribution to the Imperium Of Man, soldiers.<br />
Our mission was to infiltrate a starship of unrecognised design that had recently appeared from warpspace. A squad of Deathwatch Space Marines had already boarded but contact had been lost with them. Being somewhat expendable, we were to be sent over to find out what had happened to them. We shuttled over and were greeted by a servitor. It offered us refreshments and told us that "Honoured Guests" (the Space Marines we assumed) had gone to watch "the show". We were now invited to do the same. Richard, who was currently playing the Sergeant, declined this offer and instead ordered us to open fire. We made short work of the servitor and the two gun servitors that arrived soon after. Another servitor, just like the first, appeared and offered us the same as his predecessor. Again the Sergeant declined. We did some exploring and discovered that the ship was a pleasure liner. To move the plot forward, I had my character disobey the spirit of the sergeant's orders and go and watch the show. I was presented with a convincing hologram of the (now catatonic) Emperor Of Mankind, ordering his troops to stand down as the galaxy was now at peace. With this, a previously unseen, by me, and badly injured Deathwatch Space Marine stood up, bellowing with rage and opened fire on the holographic image. As I kept my head down, gun servitors entered the room. The marine was subdued and taken, by way of a trapdoor lift in the stage of the auditorium, to the bowels of the ship. I reported back to the rest of the squad. It appeared that the ship had been lost in the warp for millennia and that the message may indeed be genuine. With the galaxy now at war, this must have seemed as anathema to the genetically enhanced Space Marines that viewed the message before me. Our squad bundled into the stage lift in an attempt to find and rescue the Space Marine and, hopefully, discover what had happened to his squad mates. The lift wasn't designed for a whole squad of guardsmen to use at the same time though and one of our number was crushed to death. However, he was soon replaced by a new clone teleported in. Down the lift shaft, we discovered the Space Marine being moved, via conveyor belt, through a number of operating theatres. In each one, a portion of his genetic enhancement was removed. In the final chamber, the marine's geneseed (the reproductive organ that allows more Space Marines to be created) was removed and stored away. We followed the marine on the last part of his journey as he was deposited in one of the liner's passenger cabins. We looked in neighbouring cabins and found the other members of his squad, also stripped of their enhancements, were being kept. It was at this point that we discovered that radio communications to outside of the ship were being blocked. We found a way to contact the outside though. From a section of the ship containing an infinity pool set against a huge transparent plasteel bubble, we could see the Deathwatch Space Marine's Strike Cruiser. I waded out into the water and, using my lamp pack, signaled with Morse Code in an attempt to get a response. Moments later, a marine in boarding armour floated out of an airlock on the cruiser. I reported our findings and asked for instructions. We were told to retrieve the gene seeds and if possible rescue the marines. Failing that, we were to destroy the ship. We found our way back to the final operating theatre and attempted to access the part of the wall that the gene seeds had disappeared into. Using a newly teleported in Multi-melta (a powerful weapon that "cooks" its target with microwaves), Richard (now the heavy gunner) created a hole in the wall. At the same time, one of our number was able to use an instrument panel to call up the gene seeds. Between the damage caused by the Multi-melta and us fumbling when trying to catch the marine organs from a damaged robotic arm, we only managed to retrieve two of them. Not fully realising that, after an hour, we were going to be teleported out of the ship, we made our way to the engine room to destroy the ship. After we got there, the realisation did hit us, but Richard decided to perform a TPK anyway (a TPK is a Total Party Kill and usually happens when one of the players in a group does something particularly stupid). Richard had his character throw a Krak Grenade into the ship's fusion reactor...T...P...K.<br />
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On Sunday, we got to the trade hall pretty late. We just had time for a last quick look around the bring-and-buy and for me to buy this.<br />
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Yep, another module for T.I.M.E stories. I thought that while it was available for a good price, I may as well get it.<br />
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We then rushed over to The Hilton for Knightmare Live. Knightmare was a great kids television show in the early '90s that I have very fond memories of. Knightmare live is a comedy stage show version of it. Actors portray characters such as Treguard and Lord Fear and have members of the audience up on stage to attempt a quest to retrieve a magical item. I really recommend this show and, in case you do go and see it, will not be giving any spoilers away. One bit that did amuse me though that I can say (as it will change with every performance) was when Lord Fear asked the audience what things they are afraid of. One guy shouted out<br />
"Fluff...seriously, fluff."<br />
To which Lord Fear replied<br />
"Have you looked in your belly button recently?"<br />
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Afer the show, we had a drink in the Hilton's bar before heading back to the caravan site.<br />
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We finished our game of Spartacus and then went on to play Cards Against Humanity (Boardgame Geek page <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50381/cards-against-humanity">here</a>.)<br />
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Here are a few other cool pictures from the Expo.<br />
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There were a number of cosplayers at Expo and they had their own corner of the trade hall. They don't only make costumes but props too. Here is a fun Jawa in a miniature sand crawler...<br />
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...and a rather excellent BB8 style droid.<br />
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Wotan Games were there with their rather cool bus. I had intended to try out their re-release of War Of The Nine Realms but didn't get around to it.<br />
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The Mystery Machine. We first saw it in one of the car parks outside the Expo. Then we saw it at our campsite. Then again in one of the Expo car parks. Were the Scooby Gang following us?Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-18463848559498840122017-03-18T20:07:00.002-07:002017-03-18T20:07:20.589-07:00Dragonmeet 2016.Saturday the 3rd of December last year was Dragonmeet 2016. It's a gaming convention that I go to every year and I always try to drag along at least a few of my friends for company. This year, I managed to convince four of my best buddies, Alex, Richard, Drak and Dave to come. We managed to get a discounted group ticket for £40 which would let six of us in. With a spare ticket, I asked around and managed to palm the last place off to a friend called Dan from Isleworth Boardgamers, a club which Dave and I go to every Wednesday night and to which Alex occasionally puts in an appearance. (If you're ever in Isleworth on a Wednesday night and have a passion for board games, you're more than welcome to join us. We meet every week at the London Apprentice pub by the River Thames. We also have a guild on Boargame Geek. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/guild/728">Here</a> is the link to our page. If you feel a bit shy about just turning up, why not send us a message first?) To my surprise, another of my best friends, Jess turned up with Richard.<br />
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Dan had brought his young son along and as soon as the doors opened, the pair shot off fairly rapidly. One of the games they played that day was a "giant" version of Thunderbirds. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/160610/thunderbirds">Here</a> is a link to the Boardgame Geek page for the regular sized version.<br />
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One of the first places Dave and I headed was the Leisure Games stall as, at the last couple of Dragonmeets, we'd gotten some great bargains from their discount shelves. Leisure games is what's known to gamers as a FLGS (Friendly Local Games Shop). It's located in Finchley, North London. They also have a webstore, <a href="https://leisuregames.com/">Here</a> is a link to it. Unfortunately, this time we were unable to find any bargains from them that tickled our fancies. Dave loves a bargain game (he has found many corkers in charity shops) and after loosing track of him, I found him again at the bring-and-buy tables. I hadn't intended to buy much, at this convention but I found an almost brand new copy of AVP: The Hunt Begins (<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/149896/alien-vs-predator-hunt-begins">Here's</a> the Boardgame Geek page for it.) with all components present and unused. I'd been looking at this game on my trips to Wayland Games (a brilliant discount wargames shop and gaming centre <a href="http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/">Here's</a> the link to their webshop.) for several months but was put off by the high price tag. It was on the bring-and-buy for £50 however and I couldn't resist buying it.<br />
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I met back up with Alex, Richard and Jess and, at some point, it dawned on us that we hadn't signed up for any of the drop in role playing sessions that Dragonmeet is famous for. By the time we got to the sign up sheets, there weren't many slots available. However, we found a game that we could all fit into that sounded fun. It was described as having similarities to the TV shows, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Supernatural. More on Monster Of The Week later.<br />
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HATE (Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts) is a gaming club that meets in Hackney, North East London. I've gone up there a couple of times for various events but Richard is a regular attendee. While Dave and Drak went off to try out some new games, Richard convinced those of us left to try out a game called Frostgrave that the HATE guys were demoing. Frostgrave has a player controlling a group of adventurers, lead by a wizard, around a ruined frozen city. Richard had convinced me with his sheer enthusiasm for it, at the beginning of last year, to buy the core rulebook but I had yet to actually have a game. I'd read the rules though so half knew what I was doing.<br />
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Below is the awesome Frostgrave table that HATE had brought along for the day. (The pint of beer isn't part of the scenery.)<br />
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It was decided that Jess and Richard would team up against myself and Alex. The winners would be the first team to get a certain number of treasures off of the edges of the playing area. However, Alex and I soon decided that it was every man for himself and that we'd just as happily fight each other as we would Richard and Jess.<br />
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Alex had a team of what can only be described as "pig-orcs" and first blood went to his crossbowman, who sniped my wizard, wounding him badly. Below is a picture of the nefarious neer-do-well.<br />
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The look of Alex's models reminded me of the orcs from the 1980's Dungeons And Dragons cartoon series. here's a picture for comparison.<br />
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Alex's crossbowman didn't last long though, as my archer took him out in one shot. I'd previously tried to zap him with a blast from my wizard, an elementalist, but I was unable to roll high enough to cast the powerful spell that I was going for.<br />
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Jess' wizard was the type known in Frostgrave as a "witch". Here it is, along with one of its henchmen, closing in on my warband.<br />
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She then sent her barbarian in to finish my wizard off.<br />
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All the while, Jess, Alex and I were fighting, sneaky Richard, snuck around and snuck off of the table the required amount of treasures for him and Jess to win the game.<br />
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There are obvious comparisons to draw between Frostgrave and the 1999 Games Workshop game Mordheim. You run a warband around a ruined city, gaining experience for your characters, making them more able, sometimes having them suffer injuries or dying altogether, in the hunt for treasure and glory. I've played Mordheim and now Frostgrave and agree with what one of the HATE guys said about them both. He said "If Mordheim is VHS, then Frostgrave is Blu-Ray!". If you'd like to have a further look into both games, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3565/mordheim-city-damned">here</a> is the Boardgame geek page for Mordheim and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/177354/frostgrave">here</a> is the page for Frostgrave.<br />
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After a quick lunch, the remnants of which we took with us, it was time for Alex, Jess, Richard and myself to go to our role playing session.<br />
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The game was Monster Of The Week. <a href="https://rpggeek.com/rpg/17708/monster-week">Here</a> is the RPG Geek entry for it. The ruleset for this game is known as the Apocalypse World Engine and was first used in (funnily enough) Apocalypse World. A number of games using this system have been published since its origin.<br />
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Our games master was Robin and we were also joined by a guy called Angel. Robin gave us each a choice of character. I went for The Initiate, a religious warrior whose organisation has fought against The Darkness since time began. Our character sheets were incomplete. The incompleteness wasn't, in this case, a bad thing as Robin had left us with a few options to finish off and customise our characters.<br />
Now, before I tell you the story of our game, a roll-call of our characters:<br />
Myself - Kayvan, A holy warrior skilled in the use ancient weaponry;<br />
Alex - Xeno, an Illithid who was trying to make up for his monstrous ways;<br />
Richard - Eric Bay, an agent of a shadowy organisation;<br />
Jess - Nia Chase, a strange telepathic little girl;<br />
Angel - Valefar, an unsanctioned angel who had decided to ally himself with my character.<br />
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I (Kayvan) was woken up in the early hour of the morning and instructed to check on an old associate of mine. The team assembled at the address of my associate where we found blood, a hole in the side of her house and a smell of gas. We followed a trail from her house, into the woods behind and found her remains.<br />
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(Now the next bit is somewhat fuzzy in my mind as Dragonmeet was at the beginning of December and I'm writing this in March...and I have a terrible memory. So I apologise to anyone who was there if I get any of the details wrong.) The team split up, some heading to a barbecue and the rest of us to a biker bar. Violence had ensued at the barbecue and, at the biker bar, myself, Valefar and Xeno encountered a powerful monstrous beast. We were able to hurt it enough that it dissapated, but not without it wounding me. At both the barbecue and the bar, there were also strange smelling burgers being cooked.<br />
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I remembered the legend of the Wendigo, a North American monster that some say can be summoned by the eating of human flesh. It turned out I was spot on! The burgers had once been people!<br />
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Doing some research and using our NPC (non-player character) contacts, we discovered that the way to banish a Wendigo was to perform a ritual once employed by Native Americans. It wasn't as simple as just researching and then performing the ritual though, as we needed an authentic ritual mask.<br />
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We contacted the local Native American tribe then journeyed to their casino. Nia, being a little girl wasn't allowed in as the rest of us were, so I suggested that she waited in the ball pit in the children's play area. Big mistake. Our team met with the tribe elder and got advice about the ritual. We were told that we couldn't have their genuine ritual mask as it was an ancient relic of the tribe but replicas were available in the gift shop. Meanwhile, at the ball pit, a pair of small brothers were being mean to Nia. Overreacting grossly, she let off a psychic blast at one of the boys, flinging him back, giving him a nosebleed and damaging his brain. Things had degenerated into a mess. It was at this point that Valefar began attempting to convince me to steal the genuine ritual mask that was in a glass display case near to the "Ball Pit Incident". He wasn't sanctioned by my church and was not acting in an angelic manner and it was at this point that I realised that he might not be an angel after all but something much more sinister. I declined but after what Nia did and the fact that Valefar then unfurled his liquid metal wings, smashed the display case and grabbed the mask, our team made a swift exit.<br />
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At another location, we prepared to enact the ritual. To banish the Wendigo, we first had to summon it however. That part was the easiest. Staying alive while we completed the banishment part was far trickier. We did though and we sent the monster back to whichever nether-realm it came from.<br />
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After the game, there was time for a quick last look around the trade hall. I made a last minute impulse buy. I bought a game by Fantasy Flight based on Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe, called Forbidden Stars. (<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/175155/forbidden-stars">Here</a> is its Boardgame Geek page.) I'd liked the look of this game since I first saw it in 2015, the year of it's release but like the aforementioned AVP that I had got at a bargain price from the Bring And Buy earlier in the day, I had been put off by its high price. I managed to find it on a stall for the discounted price of £74. Yes, it's a lot of money but Fantasy Flight had recently lost the license to produce games base on GWs intellectual properties so it wouldn't be getting a reprint. Prices for the game had already began to increase. There had been a copy on the bring and buy for £85. Using his phone, Richard checked Amazon and found that, on there too, the price had jumped to £85. I'd wanted to try out the game before buying it but believing that I was very unlikely to again find it this cheaply and on Richard's recommendation (he had played it several times) I made the purchase.<br />
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After the trade hall closed, Richard, Jess and I headed to the bar area. (Our other friends had headed home.) This was where the raffle was to be drawn, the traditional Dragonmeet charity auction was to be held and where a new thing for Dragonmeet, the geek pub quiz would be. To our glee, one of our friends, Drak won an item in the raffle. I explained that he had gone home so was invited to chose a prize for him out of those that were left. I selected a reprint of a boardgame that Dave had mentioned a few times that he remembered from his youth, Escape From Colditz. <a href="https://ospreypublishing.com/escape-from-colditz">Here</a> is Osprey games' official site for it. During the auction, Richard, Jess and I unboxed my copy of Forbidden Stars. I was eager to see the components and was not dissapointed. As with every Fantasy Flight game that I have seen, the various parts were of a very high standard. After the auction, a table of about 12 next to us were playing a card game unfamiliar to me. For some reason at various points, they were making loud, squeeky animal noises. It was irritating. Then Jess went to a nearby supermarket to grab some dinner. She came back just before the quiz started and informed us that she was going to try and sleep on a couple of the now vacant tables near to the bar area. She often cat-naps. She had a load of bags with her and I decided that, if asked by a Dragonmeet or hotel official if she was with Richard and I, I would reply "No, I think she's just some kind of hobo that wandered in off the street.". Richard and I did OK at the quiz, we were joined part way through by a couple who gave us their help and we came just above midway in the scoring. Annoyingly, the "Animal Squeekers" with their 12-member quiz team won.<br />
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I always have a great time at Dragonmeet and this year was no exception.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-85532587124328628842016-12-12T22:35:00.001-08:002016-12-12T22:35:14.570-08:00Cool Star Wars stuff at Gatwick Airport.I went to Italy (my favourite European country) for a week at the end of last month. I flew from Gatwick Airport. As I sat down in the departure lounge my attention was immediately grabbed by the HUGE advert for Star Wars: Rogue One that I was now facing. It consisted of a bunch of stormtroopers on the left of it, the title of the film in the middle (just in case you've been living under a rock in the desert and didn't already know what the advert was for) and,on the right, the heroes running to meet the 'troopers. It was awesome. A beautiful graphic and massive, I estimated it to be about 35 to 40 feet high.<br />
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Here is a picture of the left part with the aforementioned stormtroopers and the Death Star in the background.<br />
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And the good guys.<br />
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They also had some Star Wars merchandise for sale in the main duty free shop. In the pic below, in front of the giant Lego figures, are the range of Star Wars scents that I assume, by their names and box designs, came out to coincide with the release of The Force Awakens. I use the term "scents" rather than "aftershaves" and/or "Perfumes" as, after having a sniff of each one, I was unable to tell if they were intended for wear by men or women. Unfortunately, they weren't particularly nice either.<br />
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They also had, for sale, some large Lego kits with a fair chunk off of the R.R.P. due to them being duty free.<br />
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And outside the shop, these. Giant versions of the original Kenner action figures.<br />
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All in all, very cool.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-72280531001758662112016-11-18T21:36:00.002-08:002016-11-18T21:36:57.268-08:00Movie Prop Exhibition.OK. So I've been a bit slow in getting this post written. Way back in October 2014, there was a movie prop and costume exhibition (to be followed by an auction) at the Vue cinema in the Westfield shopping centre in Shepheard's Bush, London. As I live just down the road from there, it seemed like a good place to go along to with my camera.<br />
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I actually went there twice. Firstly, with my friends, Alex and Dave. That evening, we didn't get to see the exhibition as the gallery was closed for a private viewing. Grumble. So I went back alone as the guys couldn't make it again due to work commitments and other reasons.<br />
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I took lots of photos. Way to many to put on this blog. So I've included some of my favourites.<br />
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<h2>
Star Wars.</h2>
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If you're a fan of Star Wars, you'll recognise these Death Star gun towers.<br />
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This is a helmet belonging to an Imperial Biker Scout from Return Of The Jedi.<br />
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In very bad condition but extremely cool, these are the actual gloves worn by Anthony Daniels when he played C-3PO.<br />
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Aliens.</h2>
My all time favourite film.<br />
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The head of the Alien Queen puppet as designed by (in my opinion) the greatest movie creature designer of them all, Stan Winston. (Among others, he also designed the Predator and the T-800 Endoskeleton from The Terminator.)<br />
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The Fifth Element.</h2>
A very good film by Luc Besson with great performances by Bruce Willis, Mila Jovovich, Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker.<br />
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The helmeted head of a Mondoshawan, the shambling aliens that you see in the temple at the beginning of the film.<br />
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Starship Troopers.</h2>
Now, I didn't really like this film. I like other Paul Verhoeven movies such as Robocop and Total Recall but I never really got on with Starship Troopers.<br />
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I've included this picture though, as this model, of the starship Rodger Young, is so impressive. It's beautifully detailed and approximately 10' long. The detailing even includes damage from a plasma bug blast on the bow.<br />
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Excalibur.</h2>
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A film of Arthurian Legend based on Thomas Malory's, Le Morte d'Arthur. Now, my friend Jess loves the movie King Arthur starring Clive Owen and hates Excalibur. I have exactly the opposite opinion. I love the epic majesty of the John Boorman's film and think that King Arthur is a steaming pile of poo. Jess doesn't read my blog but now I've written this, she probably will and then leave a comment telling me what an idiot I am!</div>
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Above, Gabriel Byrne's Uther Pendragon armour.</div>
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Below, Robert Addie's Mortdred armour.</div>
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When watching the film, you would be convinced that the armour therein was genuine metal plate. However, on inspecting it, albeit through a glass display case, I found that it seems to be made of fibreglass.</div>
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Star Trek.</h2>
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We've had some Star Wars props, so now it's time for some Star Trek ones.</div>
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These are the mag boots worn by the assassin of Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country. On the left you can see a Next Generation tricorder...</div>
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...and here's a better look at it.</div>
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Right, this costume is important. It's a Star Fleet cadet uniform from the first J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot. The return to the original crew (albeit played by younger actors) is supposedly brought about by a Romulan mining ship passing through a quantum singularity and appearing at the time of James T. Kirk's birth. Supposedly, the timeline has been altered and we are to accept this new status quo as cannon. However, you will notice that the uniform has the familiar Star Fleet arrowhead decoration on the collar. In the Original Series, every Star Fleet ship had its own insignia, The arrowhead belonged to The Enterprise. It was adopted by the time of The Next Generation by Star Fleet as a whole, in recognition of the original crew's service. As this cadet uniform comes from a time before even the NCC-1701 Enterprise had been launched (the uniforms in Enterprise with Scott Bakula didn't have the arrowhead), one can only assume that the Abrams Trekverse is an alternate reality altogether and the Prime Universe (from Enterprise through to the end of Voyager) still exists.</div>
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<h2>
Farscape.</h2>
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One of my all time favourite shows. Absolutely brilliant.</div>
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This is the costume of one of the evil Skarran royal family.</div>
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For Alex.</h2>
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These next two pictures are for Alex, one of my friends who originally came with me to see the exhibition when it was closed for the aforementioned private viewing. I'm pretty sure he's seen them before but I thought I'd put them on here nonetheless.</div>
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This is Marty McFly's hoverboard from Back To The Future Part II along with Biff's Sports Almanac.</div>
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Denny Peters' space suit from Event horizon.</div>
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The Coolest Prop In The Whole Exhibition.</h2>
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From Highlander (Real fans will say that there is only one movie), The Kurgan's sword.</div>
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Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-24966989114111007042016-08-25T18:49:00.001-07:002016-08-25T18:49:14.265-07:00Painting Kings Of War Dwarves.A while ago, I wrote a post about when Ronnie Renton (the main man behind Mantic) and his Pathfinders came to wargames club H.A.T.E and I tried out their Kings Of War fantasy battle game. Just before that, I had bought some models for the game and, every now and then since, I have been assembling the dwarves from the sets. Last Sunday, I decided it was time to start painting them.<br />
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Here are the little fellas all ready to be spray undercoated. I've Blu-Taced them onto old slats from louvre doors. These "spray sticks" allow me to move the models about while I spray the undercoat on to them. This allows for better coverage than if I'd placed them on a piece of newspaper on the floor or on a table.<br />
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Here they are sprayed up and drying. Luckily, it was a very hot day on Sunday and it took a very small amount of time for the undercoat to dry. I used Games Workshop's Skull White spray as I had half a can of it left. I prefer other manufacturers paints to GW's but it sufficed. It has a slightly rough texture when dry which allows brush applied paints to stick to it well.<br />
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These are the paints (other than the aforementioned spray undercoat) that I used on one of the Dwarves (yep, just one, more on that later). I used a mix of Games Workshop, Coat d'arms, Vallejo (Game Colour and Model Colour) and The Army Painter paints.<br />
An interesting point about Coat d'arms. They are the guys who produced the original Games Workshop paints before they changed to a different manufacturer.<br />
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After the undercoat had dried, I painted all the parts of the model that would eventually be metallic with The Army Painter, Matt Black. These parts are, the armour which would eventually be painted with GW Mithril Silver, and the dwarf's hammer's head and adornments, buckles, ect. which would be finished with Vallejo Model Colour Brass. I wanted a gold-like colour but thought that actual gold paint would make the hammer heads look like gold bars and bronze paint was more a colour for Chaos/Abyssal (the bad guys) Dwarves. Luckily, I found this lovely Brass paint which sat between the two.<br />
The undershirt and trousers of the dwarf, I painted with Coat d'arms, Light Blue. His tabard with Game Colour, Royal Purple.<br />
All the leather parts, I painted with Coat d'arms Leather Brown.<br />
And the wooden shaft of the hammer Coat d'arms Chestnut Brown.<br />
I used a mix of these two browns for the Dwarf's beard.<br />
For the Dwarves face, I used Game Colour, Cadmiun Skin which was recommended to me by my friend Andy. I had originally bought some Formula P3 (designed for Privateer Press' War Machine miniatures), Khardic Flesh paint for them but decided that with the rest of the colour scheme I had chosen, a lighter flesh colour would be more suitable. It won't go to waste though as I plan to use it on my Hasslefree Grymns.<br />
I finished the model off by painting the base Intermediate Green, with Model Colour paint.<br />
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Here he is in all his painted glory. I will admit, it's not the best painted miniature that you will ever see. My ambition in miniature painting outstrips my ability. I am a perfectionist in most things that I do but at painting models, I am not very good, which usually leads to some degree of frustration.<br />
There is s lot more detail on the model than can be seen in this picture. In all, it took me two to three hours to do just this one guy. I'm hoping that one of my friends will help me out and do some of the painting of the army for me.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-71979934976475904672016-06-24T18:24:00.001-07:002016-06-24T18:24:20.816-07:00UK Games Expo 2016.The 3rd to the 5th of June this year was UK Games Expo 2016 at the Birmingham NEC.<br />
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Living in London, Birmingham seemed a long way to go for a convention. My friend Richard though, who had gone to the 2014 and 2015 shows, really wanted me to join him, and after his enthusiastic descriptions of the shenanigans to be had there, I was sold. Without much persuasion, I was also able to rope our friend Alex in.</div>
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Richard was to stay at a campsite with his dad and step-mum, 10 minutes drive from the convention centre. That left Alex and I to find our accommodation. Using the wonderful resource that is the internet, I first looked at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole where the gaming sessions were to take place. That was well out of my and Alex's price range. Looking at the map, I saw that there was a Travelodge near by, so I took a look at their website. Still pretty pricey. Then on the map, I spotted a Premier Inn. A twin room there for a night would cost us only £35. The Travelodge would be nearly three times as expensive and the Hilton, which would be the most convenient, was more than four times the cost. It turned out the Premier Inn was modernly furnished, clean and comfortable, and the staff were friendly and helpful. If I had one complaint about it, it was that Lenny Henry wasn't there to check us in personally.</div>
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Using the Expo's website, we were able to pre-book our activities for the long weekend. For the Friday, we booked places in the Star Trek Attack Wing National Championship during the day, followed by a roleplaying session that night. Saturday, in the day, we were to play in the DreadBall European Open Championship, followed again by a roleplaying session at night. Sunday, we kept free for a wander around the trade hall and a chance to pick up any last minute bargains.</div>
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Alex and I arrived at our hotel on the Thursday afternoon. We both had a good meal there before heading to the Hilton to meet Richard and another friend, Chris, who were playing in one of the convention rooms which had been set aside for open gaming. Unfortunately, due to the rather expensive parking charges at the Hilton, I was only able to pop in and say hello before Alex and I headed back to the Premier Inn.</div>
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Friday though was when the real fun began.</div>
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Alex and I decided to walk to the Hilton and the trade hall, which was located next to it. It only took us about 30 minutes, so soon we had picked up our packs of tickets for the weekend.</div>
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One of the first things that I did was have a look at the bring and buy. A chance to get some bargains I thought. I got a bit carried away and soon had purchased three games. Here's a pic of them. Ignore for now, Waste Knights (more on that later).</div>
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Sushi Go! was to be a present for my friend Dave who, having played it at our Wednesday night boardgames club Isleworth Boardgamers (find our Boardgame Geek page <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/guild/728">here</a>), fell in love with it. It was to be his Christmas present. I ended up giving it to him a week after I got back from the Expo as I was worried that he might go out and buy it before December. I told him this and he replied that he might well have done so. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/133473/sushi-go">Here's</a> the Boardgame Geek page for it. I payed £10.50 for it, brand new and still shrink-wrapped. I assumed that, as it was on the bring and buy, it would be a good price. However, looking around the trade hall on the Sunday, I found it on a stall for 50p less!</div>
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A Duel Betwixt Us just looked fun. A game of dueling Victorian Gentlemen for two players. I managed to pick it up for £15. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/145943/duel-betwixt-us">Here</a> is the BGG page for it.</div>
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And Spartacus. A Gale Force Nine (they're the people who made it) representative enthused to myself, Alex and Dave about it at a Dragonmeet a couple of years ago. It looked like the sort of game I'd really enjoy and I'd wanted to buy it since. It was there for £5 less that it's RRP of £25, so I grabbed it. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128671/spartacus-game-blood-treachery">Here's</a> the BGG link to its page.<br />
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So then...to the first of the planned games. The Star Trek Attack Wing Nationals. A tournament of battling starships. Less said about my performance in this the better I think. I thought I'd try something new. I took some advice from Alex and, with his help, put together a fleet consisting of two heavy hitters with a support ship that would provide a "buff" to them. It went pretty badly for me. Out of the players that stayed to the end of the tournament (two people quit for various reasons), I came second from last. Richard did better than me, Alex even better, but Chris made it to the final four playoffs. He ended up coming third overall. Popular in the tournament were mines and fighters. I even took two sets of mines for the first time ever. Fighters, which in my opinion, were the most overpowered "ships" in the game, are now a lot less survivable due to a fair amount of anti-fighter cards that came with the blind booster ships from the recent Wizkids Organised Play events. I was able to employ some Ferengi anti-fighter technology to great effect in one of my games.<br />
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After this, it was time for some lunch and a rest. Then on to our first roleplaying session of the weekend. Agents Of D.I.C.E. (think agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), using the Squadron U.K. rules. (<a href="https://rpggeek.com/rpg/1446/squadron-uk">Here</a> is the game's R.P.G. Geek entry.) When choosing our roleplaying sessions, Richard had asked me to select ones with fairly easy to pick up rules as his dad, a non-roleplayer, would be joining he, Alex and myself. I read up a bit on Squadron U.K. before booking our roleplaying tickets and thought that it would suit. Unfortunately, Richard's dad had hurt his back setting up camp where they were staying and, thus, was unable to join us. We asked Chris if he would like the ticket and he accepted.<br />
The game was great fun. A mysterious trail led us to the base of a shapeshifting alien in an abandoned London underground station. Our G.M., Kevin, used the terrain of the station brilliantly. Alex's character(s) died twice, sort of. Using his telepathic powers, he reached out with his mind into the beast's, which with its dying breath (it had been shot and hit by hand grenade explosions a fair bit), pushed its consciousness into Alex's characters body and attempted to make its escape. Alex, now playing the alien, exited the station and made it to one of the vehicles outside. However, our heroes caught up to him and were able to finish him off.<br />
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The final battle was brought even more to life with a map, miniatures and terrain elements. This is a picture of what went down. Yup, the big gorilla thing is the alien's true form.<br />
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Saturday saw Richard, Alex and I playing in the DreadBall European Open. I hadn't played DreadBall for about a year and not in a tournament for about three so was feeling rather rusty and hoping I could remember the rules.<br />
For the games, each player was allowed a basic team from one of the rulebooks plus 20 million credits of extras - M.V.P.'s, coaching, dice, cards, skills and extra players. Both Richard and I chose Corporation teams with the set up from the Season 2 book plus an extra Guard and one card. Alex took his Veer-Myn (giant anthropormorphic space rats to you and me or "my Ratties" to Alex) plus the Most Valuable Player, Reek Rolat A.K.A. "Payback".<br />
My first game was against a Mechanite team. These robots had along with them, the M.V.P., Grak, who beat the tar out of my team. This, along with the good stats and many skills of the 'bots, lead to me getting a landslide defeat. I also partially blame my terrible dice luck for the entirety of this match. My guys got in the strike zones a couple of times only to miss. Not that I want to take any credit away from my opponent, he was good. My second game was against a lady who I'd played at the first Mantic Bowl a few years ago. She was also running a Corporation team using the build from the Season 2 book. After all the turns of the game had been exhausted, I came out ahead, but not by much. My dice luck had changed half way through this match. My third game was against an Orx And Goblin team. While the greenskins surrounded my players and busied themselves eating them (okay, so the DreadBall rules don't actually allow a player to eat another but when my guys were taken off as casualties for the rest of the game, it seemed right for the narrative that they had been eaten), the strike zones were left open enough for me to score and gain a landslide victory. My fourth game saw my Corporation players up against a bunch of Convicts. The degenerates beat my guys but not by a landslide. My opponent had terrible dice luck but prevailed.<br />
With two defeats and two victories, I finished about midway down the table, beating Alex and Richard. Alex, before this tournament had only ever played three games of DreadBall and, in this competition had achieved his first ever win. I was surprised that Richard didn't do better than me though as I generally think that he is a better player. All players got an art print signed by Ronnie Renton, the main man behind Mantic (the company that produces DreadBall), and an exclusive M.V.P. model. The runner up also got a trophy, while the tournament winner, also got a trophy and the pitch that he won his final game of the competition on. I also got something extra. I was awarded the most sporting award.<br />
Here's a picture of my certificate.<br />
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Saturday night was time for another roleplaying session. This time G.U.R.P.S. Steampunk. G.U.R.P.S. is an acronym that stands for General Universal Role-Playing System. It is produced by Steve Jackson (the American one) Games. <a href="https://rpggeek.com/rpgfamily/333/gurps">Here's</a> the R.P.G. Geek link for the G.U.R.P.S. family of games. It turned out that our Games Master was none other than Phil Masters who had written G.U.R.P.S. Discworld. He knows his G.U.R.P.S..<br />
We each were given a choice of 250 point characters to play. 250 points in G.U.R.P.S. character creation will give you a very capable character with good skills and abilities. I played a "reformed" master cat-burgler who had been coerced into working for Her Majesty's Government in return for not going to prison.<br />
After tangling with some clockwork cyborgs, our adventure lead us to a tiny island off of the coast of Scotland where we uncovered an arms-dealing conspiracy and foul alchemical experimentation. It was all immense fun.<br />
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On Sunday, it was time to look round the trade hall. It was a bit overwhelming, with many many traders and participation games.<br />
I was interested in a game called Waste Knights (You can see a picture of the side of the box in the second picture in this post. I said I'd get back to it.). It is set in a post-apocalyptic Australia. Alex and I got a run-through of the rules of the basic game which has players competing to complete missions to score points that will count towards victory. Unfortunately we only had enough time to have one turn each at it as I had to run off and grab any unsold items that, earlier in the weekend, I had put on the bring and buy, plus any money that I had made. The taster I had of the game though was enough. I was sold on it and I bought a copy. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/174260/waste-knights">Here's</a> its B.G.G. profile and the <a href="http://wasteknights.com/">official website</a> for the game.<br />
I had put six blind booster Star Trek Attack Wing ships plus one prize ship (all doubles to me) on the bring and buy. Unfortunately, I only managed to sell one, Borg Scout Cube 255. The bring and buy at Expo is all run with an electronic point of sales system. You have to log your items in via the Expo website. I had failed to do this before I left home but was able to use Richard's tablet, on the Friday night, to do so. When you take your items to the bring and buy, you get a sticker with a bar code to put on each one. The stickers cost £1 for every ten (rounding up) and ten percent of the money that is taken for the items sold goes to charity. (I'm unsure if the ticket money also goes to charity or if it just covers costs). On the way out I bumped into one of the guys that had quit the Star Trek Attack Wing National on the Friday. He had, in his hands, his unsold, second hand copy of the Terminator Genisys starter set. Now, if you've read the post previous to this one on this blog, you'll know that I gave quite an unfavourable review to that game. However at this year's Salute, I found a great deal for it. The fact that I like a bargain and the theme (I love the first two films) won me over. I haven't played it again since Dragonmeet but having now read the full rules, it seems a better game than I gave it credit for. Anyway, the owner of the unsold starter set made me an offer. He would trade it to me for three of my unsold blind boosters. That worked for me. We both came away happy.<br />
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After the trade hall closed, Richard, Alex and I went for some lunch. The food that the Hilton was selling was, as you might expect from a Hilton, pretty pricey. However, for the convention, in the Hilton's car park, there were a number of tents selling all sorts of world foods. I'm a pretty fussy eater, but I found some of the dishes to my tastes. While I ate pizza, Richard and Alex proceeded to play Star Realms. (B.G.G. page <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147020/star-realms">here</a>.) Richard has the ap and has logged several hours of play on it. He had now just bought the base set and as many expansions as he could find. They got through their first game, but during their second, we were told by a manager that the hotel was not allowing games to be played in the bar areas. Okay, fine, so we left the bar and moved to one of the rooms that had been set aside for gaming. We'll have a few hours in here we thought. Unfortunately, the hotel had decided that, come 5pm, they would close these rooms. "Once their [the Hilton's] cash cow's gone, they're not interested!" said Alex at one point. It really did feel like that.<br />
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Our taste for gaming not satisfied though we headed to the campsite that Richard had been staying at. It was a lovely site and we sat outside, moving into his dad's caravan only when it got pretty cold. All in all, Richard, his dad, step-mum, Alex and I must have played about 5 hours of Cards Against Humanity. (<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50381/cards-against-humanity">Here's</a> its B.G.G. page.)<br />
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The Expo was great fun and I definitely plan to attend next year. I might even do better in the Star Trek Attack Wing National if it's held there again. Then maybe I won't.</div>
Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-2308455945216526222015-12-15T20:33:00.001-08:002015-12-15T20:33:45.193-08:00Dragonmeet 2015Saturday the 5th of December was Dragonmeet 2015.<br />
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I, along with my friends, Richard, Alex, Dave and Drak decided to go. All of us, with the exception of Drak, turned up about an hour and fifteen minutes before the doors opened. We hadn't expected to stand quite that long in the cold as, last year, the organisers let us in an hour early to shelter from the elements. It was a good job that we did turn up so early as Alex, Richard and I had decided that we wanted to get a couple of roleplaying sessions in during the event. Apparently, many people who didn't turn up as early as us and who were someway further back down the queue complained because the sign up sheets for the R.P.G.s were full by the time they got to them in the foyer. We signed up for two sessions, the first, set to begin at 2pm was called Twisty Tales, Star Wars Episode 6.5.; The second, planned for an 8pm start, was a Sci-Fi, Cthulu combination, the premise being that we (the player-characters), wake up on a star ship travelling through space with no idea of our identities or how we got there. Revelations would come, along with (it being a Cthuluesque game) horror.<br />
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Before all that though, it was time to have a look at the bring and buy tables, the Trade Hall and the demonstration games room. Dave and Drak (who turned up sometime later) were not interested in roleplaying at the event and had decided instead that they wanted to play some demo games. Dave was particularly interested in trying out some new releases that had made their debuts at this years Essen Spiel (Europe's most influential board and card game convention)<br />
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I had brought along all of my Advanced Fighting Fantasy rulebooks (which I had purchased at a couple of previous Dragonmeets) as Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, the guys who created Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy (among other things) were going to be doing a signing. They kindly signed my entire collecton.<br />
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Over the last two Dragonmeets, more miniature gaming (think toy soldiers and tiny starships) has been showcased. One game that had a demo table this year, was Terminator Genisys (yep, that's how the movie people spelled it). I first came across this game in Darksphere (a great discount wargaming shop) several months ago. I was immediately put off by the theme.<br />
To be fair, I haven't seen the film but the original is my second favourite film of all time (after another James Cameron classic Aliens) and I also very much like the second one.<br />
The third film, eurgh, don't get me started, was just terrible, I mean, really bad and an insult to what had come before. It doesn't sting my mind so much now though, as in the first two episodes of the brilliant series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, everything that happened in the film was erased from the Terminator timeline by the use of time travel.<br />
The fourth film in the series, Terminator Salvation, was watchable but out of continuity with the rest of the franchise. However, near the end of Season 2 of T:T.S.C.C., the writers had begun to play around with alternate timelines. This is where I think the show really started to loose its way after a meandering second season as a whole. Another thing about Terminator Salvation, Christian Bale was a terrible John Connor. Terrible.<br />
So, the theme had put me off of the game. Also, looking at the back of the box to see the game components, I was less than enticed. The models appeared crudely sculpted and the paper play mat and flimsy looking cardboard terrain just looked cheap. And with a price-tag of £56, even with Darksphere discounting it from £70, it just appeared to me to be a pretty bad deal. The only thing that appealed to me was the limited edition Kyle Reese figure that was included in the box. Kyle is one of my favourite movie heroes and was played by my favourite actor, Michael Biehn.<br />
I wanted to have a closer look though so Richard and I wandered over to the demo table. I found that I had been wrong about the quality of the model sculpts. They are actually nice and detailed and look pretty good. I think Riverhorse (the people that make the game) need to get a new photographer or printers or whoever it is that had made the models pictured on the back of their game's box look so rubbish. Richard suggested we try out a game and I agreed. Being such a Kyle Reese fan, I had to take the Human resistance fighters, including the man himself, which left Richard with the T-800s. The game is very simple for a wargame/skirmish game. After playing two rounds overseen by the nice guy from Riverhorse who was instructing us how to play, we picked up the basics and were able to play with very little additional help. I beat Richard (I must admit that I had some lucky dice rolls) but he satisfied himself by killing Kyle.<br />
River Horse's slogan is "Sophistication Through Simplicity". I'm afraid I found the game a bit too light and simple to keep me interested though. Later in the day, Richard did buy the rulebook for £20. And, just before starting to write this blog post, I shelled out a fair bit of money on some of the models from River Horse's website. I just had to have the Kyle Reese and I'm a sucker for limited edition stuff. So I guess that I will end up playing it. <a href="http://www.riverhorse.eu/">Here's</a> the link to the River Horse website if you fancy taking a look.<br />
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I bought three games at Dragonmeet this year and only one of them did I pay full price for.<br />
That one is called They Come Unseen. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/177725/they-come-unseen">Here</a> is it's Boardgame Geek page. It's set during The Cold War and sees N.A.T.O. submarines attempting to carry out secret missions while evading Soviet destroyers which are trying to hunt them down. It was designed by a former Royal Navy commander who served aboard a number of subs during The Cold War.<br />
Leisure Games were again at the convention and, as last year, they had a discount shelf. They had some amazing bargains and, for less than half the original price, I picked up a copy of Grind. It is a Science-Fantasy sports game made by Privateer Press and features warjacks from their popular skirmish game Warmachine. Warjacks are magic imbued steam powered robots controlled by a warcaster, a soldier-sorcerer and in Warmachine they are deployed on the battlefield. In Grind, they are the players. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34152/grind">Here</a> is the B.G.G. page for Grind and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4741/warmachine">here</a> is the one for Warmachine .<br />
The third game I bought, which I picked up really cheaply from the bring and buy, is called Asteroyds ( I can only assume that the name "Asteroids" already was copyrighted, maybe by the 1980's arcade game). <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65200/asteroyds">Here's</a> it's B.G.G. page. I first played this at my Wednesday night boardgames club, Isleworth Boardgamers, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/guild/728">here's</a> our B.G.G. guild address. If you're ever in West London on a Wednesday evening and enjoy board and card games, feel free to join us, all the info of how to, is on the guild page. There are a number of different modes of play in Asteroyds, as yet I have only played the first, a race scenario. Players each have a tiny spaceship which they must navigate around an area filled with asteroids, viewing pods, and which is surrounded by more rock. Sound pretty simple right? Well it would be but for the fact that the asteroids keep moving. Dice rolls determine where they move and you get to see these but the rocks aren't moved to their new positions until after the players have programmed their ships' next five or six maneuvers, oh and they only get fifty seconds in which to do this. It will furrow your brow but it's great fun.<br />
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After some lunch, Alex, Richard and I went to our Twisty Tales Star Wars roleplaying session. We had a bit of trouble finding the room it was to be held in at first as the games master had had to request a bigger table and was moved to the Pathfinder Room. (Pathfinder is a D20 System fantasy roleplaying game.) He still wasn't entirely happy with the table we ended up on as he had been promised one twice the size. The reason he needed such a large table was that he had an absolute load of Star Wars Lego which he was to set up as a Tatooine thoroughfare.<br />
Here is just a small section of it. (I apologise about the blurriness of the picture but I only had my phone on hand to capture it.)<br />
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We had to wait for about half an hour for our G.M., Dicey Dave (a great name for a G.M.) to set the table up, but the scene that awaited us was worth it.<br />
After Dicey Dave and Myself, Richard, Alex and the other players were seated around the table we had another delay before the game itself started. At every other roleplaying session I've taken part in at Dragonmeets over the years, the players have been given a choice of pre-generated characters to choose from and play. This time, all we had to choose from were six archetypes, which we then had to customise ourselves. We got to choose the race, appearance, abilities, flaws and a whole host of other bits and bobs to really make the characters our own. I chose, The Force Warrior and made him a former Imperial Sith who had fallen on hard times since the fall of the Empire. After this, we had each to tick, from a three page list, two plot elements that we wanted to see in the game. We then discussed further what the scenario might be. The character creation and plot choices took about an hour but when the game actually started, the real fun began.<br />
We, the players, had decided that we would be working for the Black Sun Syndicate, a criminal organisation in opposition to the Hutts. We had been sent to Tatooine to retrieve a force power enhancing crystal for our bosses. Our first stop was a cantina (the front of which can be seen in the above picture), as one of our number was to meet a contact there who could provide us with useful information. After bribing our way past the Gamorrean guards, we got in. All of us except for our Jawa. Jawas were only allowed in this particular cantina as unwilling participants in games of Toss The Jawa. While most of the party were retrieving the info, my character, Calix and Alex's character, another fully dark Sith (who's name I can't remember) decided to pick a fight with two Jedi in a side room. Echoing Episode four, we used the previously chosen plot element "He doesn't like you.". The pair we picked on looked very much like Old Ben Kenobi and a young Luke Skywalker but, as this adventure was set 20 years after the end of Episode 6, it turned out that it was in fact Old Luke and his young apprentice. Old Luke attempted to use a Jedi mind trick to pacify me but I had chosen the "Immune to mental Force powers" move (moves in this game are a character's unique skills and abilities). With our lightsabers, Alex's character cut Old Luke in half up the middle and I cut his apprentice in half laterally.<br />
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Here's a nice picture of my character with his victim.<br />
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The information lead us to a Gungan who knew the whereabouts of the crystal. Unfortunately for us and him, he was due to be executed by the Pizza The Hutt (yes, I know it's a cheesy name for a Hutt (and from Spaceballs) but I didn't choose it) that day. The plot element "The Gungan must die" was triggered. We had to act fast.<br />
Our team located and infiltrated the facility where the Gungan was being tortured and was due to be executed. After entering, Alex and my character's hung back. Using The Force, Alex psionically plucked the location of the crystal from the Gungan's mind, then activating the plot hook "There is a traitor among us", we set the alarms off and ran, leaving the rest of the party to die at the hand of the Hutts. I was the one who, in the preparation stages of the session had ticked "There is a traitor among us" and had pretty much decided at that point that, if the opportunity presented itself, it would be me. At the point our characters had gotten to the facility, Alex and I had begun muttering among ourselves and had formulated the plan to stitch up the rest of the party and take the prize for ourselves. I had also decided that, if I could, I would stitch up Alex and attempt to be the sole claimant of the Force crystal. Please don't think to harshly of me. After all, I was playing a Sith and, as it turned out, Alex was thinking the same.<br />
We had found out that the crystal was in a safety deposit box in a casino across town. We bribed our way in. Rolling spectacularly highly on a test we got to the crystal which split in two, giving us a functioning piece each. Trouble then came our way. Our former associates, who we had left to die, had survived, reached our location and had alerted the casino's Wookie guards to our presence. Faced with a group of Wookies, Alex decided to betray me and using a wall walk move, ran over and past them leaving me to fight them alone. Again, rolling spectacularly and aided by a move that meant I didn't suffer any penalties when fighting up to nine opponents, I disarmed and then cut down half of their number. The high dice roll meant that I was then able to dictate what happened next. I decided that the surviving hairballs had become demoralised at the sight of their comrade's deaths and would run away. I was about to make my exit when the rest of the party turned up. They demanded that I hand over the crystal. That wasn't going to happen. Playing some of the flaws that I had taken for Calix at character creation, those being, quick to anger, reckless, violent bloodlust, and very arrogant, a fight with my former comrades was inevitable. First, the pesky Jawa fired his bazooka at me. Using my lightsaber, I deflected the bolt back on to him, nearly killing him. My early success wasn't to last however. With two opponents armed with blasters and Richard's character who had a lightsaber of his own to face, I was outnumbered and met an end on Richard's character's blade.<br />
All the other characters made it off of Tatooine. Calix had died but playing him true to his flaws, I had had great fun. I rarely play an evil character in roleplaying games unless forced into it but Calix was very entertaining. At the end of the game, the players who's characters had survived got to make one last dice roll to determine how those character's lives would turn out. A couple of the players rolled badly and this meant that their characters didn't meet with success in the long run. As a bonus, as my character had died, I was allowed to embellish this. I made it just a little bit worse for them.<br />
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I didn't get an un-blurry picture of the main floor in the cantina but it did have a Gungan's head on a spike.<br />
In the picture below, you can see a bag of pawns. Each player was given two large ones to start the game with. These could each be spent to add an extra die to a two six-sided dice roll. In addition to this, each time we roleplayed one of our flaws for the first time, we received a small pawn. These could be spent to add one point to a dice roll, for instance turning a roll of seven into a result of eight.<br />
the most important thing in the picture below though is the Gungan in the Sarlacc Pit.<br />
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Pizza The Hutt and his court.<br />
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A side room of the cantina. The thing that looks like a Malteser is actually Han Solo's head. Look, he's got his blaster out and Greedo hasn't. Proof...Han drew first.<br />
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Wait...What?...Wrong franchise.<br />
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Unfortunately, we didn't get our evening roleplaying session in. Unbeknownst to us, it had been moved to a 4pm start. As we were messing around on Tatooine then, there's no way we could have made it. It was a bit disappointing but as the Star Wars game had been so great, easily one of my top two roleplaying sessions at all the Dragonmeets I have attended, it was okay.<br />
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I'm already looking forward to next year.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-33164316404808524872015-08-28T19:39:00.000-07:002015-08-28T19:39:36.877-07:00Kings Of War at H.A.T.E..On Tuesday the 13th of this month, I headed to H.A.T.E.. H.A.T.E. stands for Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts and is a very busy and lively, weekly wargames club. The main game played there is Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000, although when I went, there were a couple of games of G.W.'s Bloodbowl, a game of Forbidden Stars from Fantasy Flight (the company that has the licence to produce boardgames based on GW's intellectual properties) and a couple of games of Infinity also going on. I was there for another game entirely though. Ronnie Renton, head honcho of Mantic, a fairly new wargames company and a couple of Mantic's Pathfinders (Pathfinders are Mantic's demonstration team) came down to show off some of their games.<br />
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Ronnie was demoing Dungeon Saga but I was interested in trying out a proper game of Mantic's fantasy battle game, Kings of War. I say "a proper game" as I had, with my friend Richard, played it once before using GW movement trays with paper notes on each, saying which represented what type of unit. Richard had brought his G.W. Warhammer Fantasy Battle Dark Elves to use in a game. I believe that Mantic began as a company that provided affordable fantasy miniatures that could be used in other army level fantasy wargames. By "other", most people that I have spoken to about it think that this meant Warhammer. Along with the main rules for Kings Of War, Mantic now provide free to download army construction rules on their website so that you can use many armies that you might have bought to play Warhammer, in Kings Of War.<br />
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I was to play my friend Alex. We were told the rules and assisted by a great Pathfinder called John. A decent guy who had previously worked for G.W. but had left due to the way that they treat their customers, something that I can totally understand. He provided two armies for Alex and I to use (pictures below), Undead and Abyssal Dwarves. I opted to use the Undead as I already had a sizable army of them, albeit unbuilt and unpainted, and had more on the way due to the Kings Of War Second Edition Kickstarter that I had helped to fund. (Kickstarter is a crowd funding website). That left Alex with the Abyssal Dwarves. The game is very easy to learn, fluid, fast and fun. With a couple of lucky shots from my catapults, I quickly gained the upper hand over Alex. He managed to recover from his early losses however and, although the game was close, managed to beat me in the end.<br />
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I really do recommend Kings Of War. Compared to many other wargames, it is ridiculously cheap to get into. In Mantic's Spring Sale last year, I was able to buy the Mhorgoth Rising box set (dwarves vs undead, luckily the two armies that I wanted) for just £29.99. That is 95 troops and two war machines for less than half the price of G.W.'s starter set for Age Of Sigmar which only has 47 models in it. (At least, I think it's 47. I just counted the models in the picture on the G.W. website and the models appear very small on my monitor.) And it's fun.<br />
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Now, pictures.<br />
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As I've done on this blog before, I apologise about the bad quality of these pictures. They were taken on my phone and all the ones of the undead were when the battery was low enough that the flash wouldn't fire.<br />
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These are Ghouls. I really like the way that Pathfinder John has painted them. At Salute this year (the countries biggest Wargames fair) I bought some light but vivid blue paint for mine as I wanted them to look like the White Walkers from Game Of Thrones. Seeing these guys though has given me second thoughts about my planned colour scheme.<br />
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Skeletons. Seeing these models unbuilt and unpainted on their sprues, I wasn't too sure whether I liked them or not. However, seeing them built and painted in front of me made my mind up. they are great miniatures.<br />
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Zombies. As with the Ghouls and Skeletons, the faces on these guys are great.<br />
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Two Balefire Catapults, the artillery of the Undead army.<br />
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This is Mhorgoth The Faceless, a special character for the Undead army. A really nice model.<br />
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After firing a couple of shots from my catapults at them, my Skeletons engage Alex's Abysal Dwarf Halfbreeds.<br />
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Not content with just playing, I've recently finished building all the Dwarves from my Mhorgoth Rising set. They are really nice kits to put together, simple but with lots of scope for variation between individual models.<br />
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Here is the front line for my Ironclad. It features a leader a musician, a standard bearer and two normal troops. The musician and standard bearer are not used as upgrades for a unit in the second edition of Kings Of War, but if I ever want to use the models to play Warhammer, they will come in very handy.<br />
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Finally my Dwarf Cannoneer who I call Ramrod. The picture isn't great but you might be able to make out the tankard I've stuck onto his base. I like the idea of a drunken dwarf in charge of a cannon.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-81929953339480404652015-05-29T18:24:00.001-07:002015-05-29T18:24:14.147-07:00Assassinorum Execution Force.Games Workshop recently released a new limited edition board game, Assassinorum Execution Force.<br />
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The so-called limited edition nature of it may be a bit of a fib though. In 2009 I shelled out a fair bit of money for the limited 3rd edition of Space Hulk. I was very pleased to have gotten it before it sold out. I had fond memories of the game from when I used to frequent Games Workshop Ealing and the components are lovely. Last year, 2014, GW re-released it, identical but for a few extra components, as 4th Edition. I did feel a bit cheated.<br />
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Here's a look at the boards with a few of the included unpainted minis and box for A.E.F..<br />
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The board components are heavy weight and well printed with nice graphics. The models consist of standard Warhammer 40,000 models, a load of Chaos Cultists, some Chaos Space Marines, a Chaos Sorcerer, a Chaos Familiar and the four new Imperial Assassin models which, I've been told, will only be available with this game. You also get a card for each assassin which details their powers and abilities, some dice and plenty of tokens to keep track of various game elements.<br />
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This is a rather blurry picture of the four assassins on their starting spaces (they can be put on these spaces in any order). From left to right we have the Eversor (a combat-drug fueled close-quarters monster), the Callidus (a shape-shifting stealth specialist), the Culexus (anti-psyker) and the Vindicare (a sniper). These models can be used in the Warhammer 40,000 wargame. However, 40K uses true line-of-sight rules. If you can see a targeted model from the viewpoint of a model firing a ranged weapon at it, you can hit it (assuming you roll a high enough number on your dice). The Eversor and Callidus models have scenery pieces as part of them that would quite significantly increase the visibility of it on a 40K battlefield making them much more visible and, thus, vunerable.<br />
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The object of the game is to infiltrate a captured Imperial facility and assassinate a Chaos Sorcerer before he can complete a dark ritual.<br />
One to four players can take on the roles of the assassins whilst another player fields the Chaos side.<br />
There are four large board sections included with the game. The first three go together to form the main part of the facility. The last piece represents the inner sanctum of the Chaos Sorcerer. To get to this last section, the assassins must work their way through the main facility exploring rooms until they find their primary objectives, a teleportation platform and the platform's control room. The main board has many areas on it which represent unexplored rooms. When an assassin gets to a doorway of one of these, a stack of smaller board tiles are shuffled and one chosen at random. This smaller board tile is then placed on the main board in the room space and shows what the assassin has found. This usually turns out to be a number of Chaos Cultists but just might be one of the two aforementioned primary objective rooms. In the game that I played, these two turned up as the antepenultimate and penultimate rooms and, so weakened was my force of assassins, that I was unable to make it to the Sorcerer's sanctum and slay him. This revealing of rooms reminded me happily of my very first foray into a GW game, Hero Quest, which was co-produced with MB Games.<br />
Choas Cultist patrol the board in a semi-random way until an Assassin comes into their line of sight at which time their controlling player can use them to take more direct action. Patrolling models move a number of squares equal to the roll on a six-sided die (as do the Assassins). During this move, they may land on a square with an arrow or arrows on it. In the case of a single arrow, they will continue in its direction. In the case of more than one arrow, a die roll will determine which way they go. These aspects of the game remind me somewhat of a game I read about on Boardgame Geek a while ago called Nuns On The Run, in which senior clergy attempt to track down novices who have escaped their rooms in the middle of the night and are roaming the abbey in which they live.<br />
A.E.F. also contains a deck of cards that feature random events that may help or hinder a player. One or more of these cards are revealed at the beginning of a turn.<br />
The Assassins each have a unique set of abilities that really capture the flavour of their rulesets from 40K. The most amusing of which, I found, is the Eversor's Bio Meltdown, which sees him exploding, damaging those around him when he looses his last point of health.<br />
As the Imperial player, it doesn't pay to dawdle. There are only a fixed number of turns in which to find the primary objective rooms, teleport into the Sorcerer's inner sanctum and kill him, before he completes his ritual and you loose.<br />
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This is a picture from near the end of the game that I played. My last surviving assassin, my Eversor, faces a conga-line of death in the form of many cultists and a Chaos Space Marine (in the bottom right hand corner).<br />
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My verdict.<br />
It's a fun game but definitely not worth the hefty £75 price tag as I think you would only play it a couple of times (once as the assassins and once as the Chaos force) every six months or so.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-28469386677201514242015-05-25T19:59:00.000-07:002015-05-25T19:59:39.030-07:00Salute 2015.Saturday the 27th of April this year was Salute 2015.<div>
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Salute is the country's biggest wargames show and I try to go every year. It features a ton of traders plying their wares, a handful of participation games and some beautifully put together display tables.</div>
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I don't have a great deal to say about this years event but I thought I'd share some pictures from it with you.</div>
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You get a few cosplayers turning up. This first picture is of a Blood Angels Space Marine and a Cadian Imperial Guardswoman. They are from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 wargame.</div>
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This second picture is of some Star Wars Stormtroopers who, I think, call themselves the 105th after a platoon first mentioned in a suppliment to Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game called Wretched Hives Of Scum And Villainy. A dad decided that it would make a cute picture to have his little girl snapped with the Troopers. One of them decided it would be funny to mime shooting her teddy bear.</div>
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Whilst approaching the queue for a Salute several years ago, these minions of The Emperor saw that I was wearing my Rebel Alliance t-shirt and arrested me. They searched my bag for contraband before sending me on my way. If only I'd had my light sabre with me, they wouldn't have gotten away with it.</div>
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As I mentioned above, you get to see some truly beautiful display table at this event. Here's one of my favourites form this year.</div>
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Apologies for the blurriness but I only had my phone camera to take photos with. This is an amazingly detailed pirate town. I don't know what game, if any, it was showcasing but I thought it was beautifully done.</div>
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Here's a closer look showing more of the detail.</div>
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Another nautical themed table. Again, beautifully done. And again, I don't know what game for.</div>
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Dropzone Commander is a fairly new game (about three years old I think) by Hawk Wargames. It has some very nice miniatures and is, I've been told, very fun to play. The thing that put me off of it though was the price. It has come down with the change from resin to plastic miniatures for some of its range though.</div>
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This picture is of a huge spaceship that is in scale to the 10mm wargame. Along it's side are openings containing dropships that are actual game pieces.</div>
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Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-35931657841337358472015-05-16T10:45:00.001-07:002015-05-16T10:45:28.719-07:00Tabletop Day 2015 and Dungeons And Dragons Attack Wing.The 11th of April was this years Tabletop Day, so off I trotted to The Wayland Games Centre (formally, Tabletop Nation)<br />
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I took my camera along, as when I had gone in 2013, there had been loads of demonstration games going on featuring lovely looking miniatures and I thought I'd get some great pictures. I was mistaken. There was but one demo table there on the day which consisted of a couple of participation games of a new title called Guild Ball and the opportunity to buy it. I was pretty disappointed. Guild Ball is a fantasy football game. The models are nice enough but it didn't really appeal to me.<br />
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Fortunately, I had other things to do.<br />
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I had travelled with my best mate, Richard (if you scroll down a bit on this blog, you will see a picture of him asleep on a train) and he was to run a couple of Attack Wing tournaments, Star Trek and the newish Dungeons And Dragons. Now, I didn't really fancy the D&D game. I already owned a load of stuff for Star Trek Attack Wing and some for the X-Wing Miniatures Game which is very similar. I didn't need, so I thought, another game using the Flightpath System. Also, having looked at the D&D Attack Wing minis in their blister packs and boxes, I thought that they looked cheap, rather like kid's toys and way overpriced. So, we played the Star Trek Tournament and it was, as it always is, great fun. Then came time for the D&D. I hadn't intended to play in this tournament. However, with the lack of participation demo games going on and the offer to borrow whatever models I needed from Richard (he has bought every release for this and the Star Trek games), I thought, why not.<br />
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I had thought the models, when in their packets, cheap looking and childish. But once they were on the table, I understood...They are awesome in a totally over-the-top way. Compared to Star Trek Attack Wing and X-Wing models, they are huge, but all the better for being so. They don't have great build quality but they are just fun.<br />
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Below is a picture of the force that I chose to use.<br />
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It consists of a Frost Giant, a Stone Giant and a Red Dragon. I didn't know how well they would do compared to other stuff in the game, but I liked them so that's what I went with.<br />
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It turned out that they didn't do too well at all. The combination of my lack of experience (this tournament being my first three games) and the not really knowing how to use these models to their best (is that the same thing?), meant that I lost all three games. It was fun though, my favourite moment being when my Red Dragon breathed a cone of fire on three of Richard's Gargoyles, killing them.<br />
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The winning build consisted of a Silver and a Gold Dragon. Here it is.<br />
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They made a pretty formidable pair. They were run, one dragon each by two of the Star Trek regulars, Mike and David (who had, as I, not originally intended to play in the D&D). I think these models were also borrowed from Richard. We had been taking the previous Star Trek tournament quite seriously. The D&D though was played with a more relaxed attitude and thus, for me anyway, was more fun. Mike had decided that his dragon, the gold one, was called Steve and came from Lisbon. Why? I don't know.<br />
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I have since bought into the game. I bought a starter set very cheaply from Richard (who had bought a second after turning up at Dark Sphere (another awesome discount gaming shop) to play in a tournament and finding that he had left his original one at home). I have added to my collection with prize dragons (As with Star Trek Attack Wing, you can win cool limited edition gaming pieces by taking part in Organised Play events at participating retailers) and from the second tournament that I played in's blind boxed model. The current group of tournaments (which will continue running over the next few months) feature a blind boxed game piece. The official rules are that you have 90 Legion Points (that's what Wizkids (the company that produces the game) have called the build points in this system) to create your force, then an additional 30 points to add to it from the model and cards in the randomly allocated box. This is the same as in the recent Star Trek Attack Wing "The Collective" and "Resistance Is Futile" Borg tournament campaigns. Also, as with each of the aforementioned Star Trek campaigns, there are five models to collect. The ones for D&D are a Human Paladin, a Human Fire Wizard, a Wood Elf Druid, a Human Ranger and a Half-Black Dragon Fighter (the most notable feature of which is that it has a tail).<br />
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I am really enjoying this game. I'm taking it a lot less seriously (the models help with this) as I have Star Trek Attack wing in the past and am thus finding it more rewarding.<br />
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One more thing...Tiamat. If you know a bit about Dungeons And Dragons, you've probably heard of Tiamat, the queen and mother of evil dragons in this setting. Wizkids have already released a model for her. Here she is in all her multi-headed glory.<br />
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I actually think it's a horrible model and at around £40 (that's the very cheapest I could find it), I won't be buying one. But I thought you might like to see it anyway.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-4987477305310453582013-10-26T15:40:00.004-07:002013-10-26T15:40:54.646-07:00Star Trek Attack Wing, Dominion War Organised Play Tournaments.Star Trek Attack Wing is a wargame made by WizKids (the guys that gave us Heroclix, Mechwarrior: Dark Age and Quarriors, to name just a few). The main game mechanics, known as the Flightpath System, are licensed from Fantasy Flight and appeared in FF's X-Wing game (you can scroll down to see some pretty pictures from that). X-Wing is quite a simple game, albeit with enough depth to keep it interesting. Attack Wing is just that little bit more complex than X-Wing, with more options, upgrades (crew, weapons, tech and abilities) and card combinations for a player to use. I hadn't planned on getting in to this game as I already had the quite similar X-Wing and, and this being the main reason, unlike X-Wing, the ships aren't to scale. I gave it a couple of plays though, when a friend, Richard (scroll down to see a picture of him asleep on a train) had bought the core set and a few boosters, and despite the similarities, it did feel a fair bit different than X-Wing. A couple of things swung it for me though. When at SELWG (An annual wargames trade fair and convention run by the South East London Warlords) a few weeks ago, Richard alerted my attention to a stall that was selling Attack Wing starter sets for R.R.P. (£25) but with the free addition of a Khan Sing (KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!) GenCon exclusive card and token set. Richard then brought Ebay up on his phone which showed that Khan and associated tokens were selling for £50. I'm a sucker for a bargain and love limited release and special edition stuff. As Richard said: I "got the card half price and a free starter set.". It is my love for the aforementioned rare bits and bobs though, that really swung me to my decision to get into the game however. Games stores around the country are currently running a series of linked narrative tournaments based on The Dominion War from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. And, yes, at these tournaments there is the chance to come away with limited special edition goodies.<br />
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So, today saw me (without having had any sleep the night before I might add) arriving at Waterloo Station in London at the bright and early time of 8 a.m. where I was greeted by the site of a number of cosplayers. Richard, who I met there, then informed me that this weekend was ComiCon at Excell in London's Docklands. I was a bit miffed. I'd have loved to go to ComiCon but had somehow completely missed all advertising or mention of when it was on. Anyway, Richard had put our names down for two tournaments (in one day) at a games shop (called The Games Shop) in Aldershot (about an hour's travel by train from Waterloo). I had thought I'd missed out on the first month's organised play in the narrative campaign, what with getting into the game rather late. Fortunately, The Games Shop was running both of the first two month's organised play tournaments on one day, a while after other venues had moved past the first.<br />
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The tournaments each consisted of 3 games with players pairing off to fight each-other. The scenario for the games in the first tournament featured the Bajoran Wormhole, a self replicating minefield, and a Cardassian Nor Class space station that could in the course of the game be boarded and controlled. (If you watched DS9, you'll be familiar with these things.) The object of the game was simply to destroy your opponents fleet. I did badly to begin with and lost my first two games. I restored a bit of glory however, by winning my third when my opponent zoomed his ships forward to take control of the space station, into which I poured an entire rounds worth of shooting (ignoring his ships) thereby destroying it and killing most of his crew who had beamed over to it. After that, his ships, bereft of a quality crew, were easy pickings. The tournaments both had their full compliment of 12 players. Due to my early losses, I managed to only come in a poor 9th place earning me the rank of Lieutenant as far as the rankings went.<br />
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After lunch, it was time for the second tournament. The scenario for this one featured a planet in the centre of the table surrounded by four orbital gun platforms which would attack the closest ships that were within their ranges. It was representative of the attack by The Federation and it's allies on the Dominion ship yards in the Chin'toka System (also from DS9). The victory condition was again to wipe out the opposite players fleet.Unlike the previous scenario, I had had a practice game of this one at Enfield Gamers a couple of weeks ago. My fleet (with the exception of a difference of one card that I switched from the first tournament) had in fact been built to play this scenario. I hadn't even read the first tournament's scenario until about 5 a.m. this morning. I do tend to leave things to the last minute. If I had been more prepared, I may have built a fleet better suited to the first scenario for those games. This time I met with success. I wiped out my opponents fleets in every game, only losing the original Enterprise in two of them. I netted a maximum 300 points which propelled me into first place and the rank of Admiral. After my poor performance in the mornings tournament, I really expected to do about as well as I had then. After two wins in the afternoon's games though, I smelt blood and was hungry for a win.<br />
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It was a very fun day with a good level of sportsmanship from the players. I came away with a bundle of limited edition stuff, most notably a B'rel Class Klingon Bird Of Prey.<br />
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I'm off again tomorrow, to Darksphere (another games shop) at Waterloo to play the second round tournament again. I had intended to shift around my fleet list a bit and maybe add in some of the new upgrades that I won today. However, I couldn't fit any of them in without removing what I see as very effective parts of my fleet build. I'll just have to see how it goes.<br />
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I didn't take any pictures today as I was just too engrossed in the games to do so. So here are a few from my very first pair of games against Richard a couple of months ago at Finchley Games Club.<br />
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The first fleet I took. The correct captains for the ships.<br />
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And my upgrade cards for the above fleet. Still the right crew for the ships.<br />
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Tribble tokens. Remember...Klingons hate Tribbles and Tribbles hate Klingons.<br />
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Oh dear. A pile of Tribbles on a Klingon ship.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8534488377330378138.post-28043936797408831492013-06-20T18:12:00.000-07:002013-06-20T18:12:04.041-07:00Mantic Open day.Well, it's taken me a while to get round to writing this post considering the Mantic Open day was back on the 11th of May. But don't worry about it too much as I have lots of pretty pictures to show you (and a couple of my friend Richard too).<br />
Mantic, for those of you that don't know, are a wargames company. They currently have three games out, Warpath, a 28mm science fiction tabletop wargame, Kings Of War, a 28mm fantasy tabletop Wargame, and DreadBall, a sci-fi sportsgame, also with 28mm figures. (There is also the forthcoming Deadzone, a sci-fi skirmisher set in the Warpath universe, the Kickstarter of which has just finished. More on that later.) It was DreadBall that took me to the open day as there was to be the first ever Mantic Bowl.<br />
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This was the set up for the first of my four DreadBall games of the day. My team, the Plecostomus Knights (in grey and purple) faced off against my best friend Richard's team, Beer Money.</div>
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Here he is also taking a picture of the set up. Now I had only ever beaten Richard once, at another tournament. It wasn't a great victory as he was attempting to gain the "Most Violent Team" award and was forsaking scoring for beating up his opponent's teams. It was an award that he did indeed get that day. At the end of the game pictured, I had lost by a landslide. Richard scored seven points in a very short time. In fact, we were the first pair to finish.<br />
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In my second game of the day I played against the only female coach in the tournament. I was lucky to win that game by a landslide. I had lost my first game but after winning this one, it meant that I might not be placed very low in the eventual rankings for the tournament.<br />
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In my third and fourth games, I was drawn against the same coach. He had a very nicely painted robot team. This is them in the above picture at the start of my third game. In DreadBall, each player usually fulfills one of three roles, striker, jack or guard. The coach of a robot team can spend an action to shift the role of a player from one to another, thus changing what it is able to do on the pitch. As all the models in a DreadBall team have to be numbered and there are different models for each role, a coach of a robot team could end up buying several packs of models. Quite a few coaches, including my opponent, have gotten around this by gluing magnets to the bases of their models then sticking player numbers to those magnets which can then be removed and stuck onto a different model of an appropriate type when that player's role changes. A few have even done what my opponent had and written the numbers in binary. A very nice touch I thought.<br />
This third game was very to-and-fro, with neither of us really gaining the upper hand for most of it. One of us would score followed by our opponent pulling the points back his way. We ran out of time to complete all the rushes of the game. There was one rush left at the end and it was my turn. I was ahead in points, only needing three more for a landslide victory. I was confident that I would have gotten it if only I had had two minutes more to complete the rush. Thwarted.<br />
My fourth and final game in the tournament as I have already mentioned was against the same coach. Somehow, this time, I managed to get a landslide victory quite early on.<br />
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Other than the Mantic Bowl, there were several other things going on. There was a huge Warpath game, a shop, previews of forthcoming models, alpha-testing of Deadzone and the above pictured massive game of Kings Of War.<br />
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Talking of Kings Of War and previews of unreleased models, her is a picture of a trio of werewolves. These creatures will become part of the undead army for the game.<br />
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And these models at the front in blue seem to be a type of nun flagellant. They are for the as yet unreleased human army for Kings Of War. On the right in the same colours are Human knights.<br />
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Keeping on with the Kings Of War previews for the moment, this steam-powered, choppy, grindy wagon thingy is to be crewed by goblins for the greenskins army. It reminds me of the thing that chased Sarah through a tunnel in Labyrinth.<br />
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More previews? Why not? These guys are the Terratons, a Season Three team for DreadBall. They are based on Ankylosaurus, which happen to be my favorite dinosaurs.<br />
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One more from the display cabinet now. This guy is from the Rebs faction for Deadzone.<br />
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And talking of which...<br />
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This is a second generation for the Plague faction. This and the next two pictures are from the lovely looking Deadzone diorama the Mantic had provided for us to dribble over.<br />
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This fellow here is an Enforcer, one of the Co-Prosperity Sphere's finest soldiers.<br />
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Two Enforcers take cover behind a barricade while their captain strides towards a first generation and three third generations from the Plague faction.<br />
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After a fairly tiring day (we'd had to get up around 4am to get the train to Nottingham), Richard and I had to decide what we were going to do for dinner. Being in Nottingham, we thought, "Why not go to Warhammer World?"<br />
The restaurant wasn't open to the general public (it had been set up as a buffet for players of a Warhammer tournament that was happening in the gaming hall) so we got food in Bugmans, Warhammer World's dwarf themed pub.<br />
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In the carpark at Warhammer World, they have a lifesize Rhino APC. Apparently, it even drives. Very cool.<br />
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And they have huge Imperial Aquilla on a couple of their buildings.<br />
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After a hard day geeking out, Richard falls asleep on the train home.Plecohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09429731558318354193noreply@blogger.com0