The Great Wall - Fully Painted

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Board Games - I love when a game has unique miniatures for the workers of each faction. It make a huge difference in being able to identify your pieces and makes worker placement feel more realistic.

From the publisher:

The Great Wall is a new asymmetric worker/soldier placement game with engine building themes and a twist in form of a constantly attacking AI (Mongolian Horde) that requires players to sometimes cooperate in order to defeat it. This is a new major board game from Awaken Realms.

Players will control ancient clans in China trying to defend against invading Mongolian hordes and build a Great Wall. While every player will want to win (by earning VP = Honor) they also need to sometimes cooperate to defend against the hordes. Each clan will be asymmetric through its chosen Leader (resource production/starting resources/starting workers and units) and this asymmetry will increase as the game progresses (players will hire Advisors with unique skills, often creating unique engines).

In The Great Wall, the players take the role of Generals defending the Wall against the Mongol Horde. The game is played over a series of turns called Years, each divided into 4 parts called Seasons.

During Spring, new barbaric hordes invade the fields in front of the Great Wall and prepare to launch their assault. Summer is the time when generals prepare for the assault and mobilize their forces. During Fall, players take their turns, playing Command cards, resolving their effects and Activating Locations to gain various benefits. In Winter, the last layer of Defense is activated, then, the hordes try to assault the Walls.

During the course of the game, players will create their own unique engines based on their clan strength as well as interact with other players during all phases of the game, trying to get the most Honor points, which can be gained in a lot of different ways.

At the end of the game, the player with the most Honor wins.

Nightmare Cathedral - Painted

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Board Games - This games features some incredible art and the minis are very creepy. I only painted the enemy figures because the player pieces looked fine in their base color and it didn’t seem worth the extra effort to shade them.

From the publisher:

Nightmare Cathedral prominently features the haunting artwork by the late polish surrealist painter and sculptor Zdzisław Beksiński.

Nightmare Cathedral is a strategy game for 1–4 players, where victory is gained by controlling the map, managing resources, following objectives and selecting when to engage in fast and furious conflicts to gain strategic advantage. Over the course of the game, you will perform actions — and follow the actions of other players — to produce units, build fortifications, maneuver around the map, and spend your followers to climb the ritual track. Throughout the game, a haunting Cathedral will grow in the center of the board, and once it is completed, you will face — and gain the ability to control! — the physical manifestations of nightmares that are released upon the world. Nightmare Cathedral is a game of both strategy and tactics, where finding clever ways to follow your objectives and combining different strategies is the ultimate route to victory.

The Last Kingdom

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Board Games - Games based on popular TV shows can be iffy, sometimes all the money is spent on the licensing and not enough is spent on actual design and development. Based on the Board Game Geek scores that’s not the case with The Last Kingdom.

Description from publisher:

The Last Kingdom Board Game is game of war and politics for 2-5 players by renowned designer John D Clair that's based on the Netflix series The Last Kingdom.

In this world, the kingdoms of Britain are at war. Many have already fallen to the invading Danes, leaving the great kingdom of Wessex standing alone and defiant under the command of King Alfred. You are one of the great commanders and politicians in this war-torn land known today as England. Both Saxon and Dane armies openly battle for dominance, and it is up to you to title the scales of power. To claim these lands, you will need to tread a dangerous path between both sides of the conflict. Will you betray your allies for power? What part will you play in the birth of a new nation, and will you ultimately rule it all?

The Last Kingdom Board Game plays over the course of two rounds during which players will perform actions to command armies to shape the course of the war. Your allegiance to the Saxons or the Danes can be firm or fickle, and your score will reflect not just your prowess in battle, but your political skill in maneuvering the competing forces of Britain.

Each of the ten leaders offers unique benefits to your strategy and provides special cards to start your hand. At the start of each round, players complete their hand by drafting cards from a deck specific to that round, then the war begins in one of the five regions. Players take turns playing cards to command Saxon or Dane armies, gaining affinity with the different factions, or positioning their heroes and leaders to shift the tides of war. Players also have access to a rotating market of actions that are available to everyone.

Alternatively, players may choose to not act on their turn and instead pass to see what moves their opponents make.

Once all players have passed consecutively, the war in the current region will be decided by the strengths of the Saxon and Dane armies battling there. Players gain victory points if they are aligned with the winning faction and based on their level of affinity. The focus of the war then moves to the next region, and the battle continues.

After the fate of each of the five regions has been decided, the round ends. After two rounds of play, the player who has accrued the most points wins.

Castles of Burgundy - Deluxe Edition

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Board Games - Castles of Burgundy released a super premium deluxe version of the classic game with some updated components. These are the miniatures from that release.

Necrons - Feeling a Little Blue

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Warhammer 40,000 - A client asked me to paint this batch up to match a force he bought out of a second hand bin. It’s a weird scheme that looks really different from any Necrons I’ve painted previously. He also had some random Imperial models that needed to be added to his other forces.

Leagues of Votan - Playable Again?

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Warhammer 40,000 - Leagues of Votan were in a weird place with the initial Index10th Edition release. However the recent updates and balance data slate seems to have moved them into a playable state.

Tenth Edition Additions - CSM and Space Marines

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Warhamer 40,000 - Now that tenth edition is actually here and evolving as a system many players are looking to add some units to their existing forces. Terminators and Inceptors are solid choices to bring a bit more survivability to a force.

Ork-tober 2023

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Warhammer 40,000 - Happy Ork-tober! I painted these earlier this year but have been seriously behind in posting here with my various projects. This project was a pretty simple paint scheme to make some dirty rusty Orks. I used a variety of contrast paints to give them varied skin tones and to block in the base colors before rusting everything up to make it look grimey.

Final Girl Season 2 - Fully Painted

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Board Games - It’s rare for a game to come out as purely solo play. Probably rarer still for it to be as successful as Final Girl by Van Ryder Game. Right now they’re wrapping up the Kickstarter for Season 3 so it made sense for me to try and finish painting the second season ASAP.

Most of this was painted with contrast paint over a dry-brushed base layer.

Much like the first season these miniatures are pretty small, but they have a decent amount of detail. I’m really happy with how everything turned out.


Scarface 1920 - Fully Painted

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Board Games - There are some genres of board games that are overdone. I mean how many times do you really want to rebuild Rome, fight zombies or build a railroad? One genre that there aren’t enough games about is the 1920’s the era of Al Capone it seems like something that would be overdone but I can’t actually remember another game I’ve painted or played that deals with gangsters expanding their bootlegging empire.

Scarface 1920’s is a combination work placement / deck builder with some really nice components. Each player gang has unique sculpts for the various gangsters, their vehicles and buildings. The components alone make this worth considering.

The publishers description is a little vague, but sounds interesting:

You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot further with a smile and a gun.” -Al Capone

Chicago in the Roaring 20s. Prohibition has made liquor business illegal and now criminal gangs operate in the underworld to try and take control of the city. Blood, influence, power, and money add up to a dangerous mix on the streets.

In Scarface 1920 you will lead a gang of mobsters aiming to rule Chicago during the Dry Era (1920-33). To succeed you will have to rule every inch in gangland, expand your racketeering, run bootlegging operations, bribe the city officials, and make sure the coppers are on your side.

Scarface 1920 blends worker placement with deck-building mechanics in a game where you will have to recruit new associates, break new deals, fill the streets of Chicago with your thugs, enhance your headquarters —and do some dirty jobs along the way.

Every gang has a distinct set of abilities embodied in their boss, and in every game you will be able to choose a different path to victory. However, in this turf war you will have to confront other rival gangs that share an identical goal: growing their criminal empire. But they are not the only challenge you will face —Eliot Ness and his Feds are out to get you too!

Shogun no Katana - Fully Painted

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Board Games - Shogun no Katana is a worker placement game that focuses on gathering supplies to make swords. It’s one of those games that could easily get away with using just meoples, but the miniatures add flavor to the game and make it feel more immersive.

In addition to the player worker families there are several characters that will visit the village and provide more options in game play. The miniatures aren’t super detailed but they do a good job representing the various jobs of the family.

The description from the manufacturer sounds promising:

Shogun no Katana is a strategic Eurogame that will transport you to the magical atmosphere of feudal Japan. Use your workers to choose which swords to make, among those requested by the powerful local Daimyo. Collect resources to improve your craft, and request your artists to create breathtaking decorations. Have your family members admitted to the most strategic rooms of the Shogun’s palace to obtain the privileges of their rank. And finally, create the most beautiful SHOGUN NO KATANA!

You will have to manage your Forge wisely, as crafting Katanas will be the real beating heart of the game. The original and innovative sword-making mechanism allows you to activate an entire row or column to work on different Katanas at the same time. Each player has its own forge where all the katana crafting will take place.

During the game you will obtain resources, either by visiting the market, the palace among other places. By activating a row or column you can add resources to all matching Katanas, moving them accordingly on the grid. But be careful! Having a lot of Katanas on the grid means that you can accomplish more with fewer actions, but it also increases the risk of them hindering each other. You will have to build your engine cleverly to maximize your turns.

Prepping for 10th - Word Bearers

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Warhammer - 40,000 - Word Bearers are a pretty cool force, way back in 3rd edition I had a force that I loved playing being able to summon daemons mid-game was really fun. Since then they’ve had a bit of an up and down in regards to their rules feeling like the story describes them. Between 3rd and the 8th edition codexes many rules variations were attempted but nothing was really inspiring. The current 9th edition book finally really captures the feel of each of the traitor legions and the crusade rules let you take that to the next level. It’s really a shame that Games Workshop finally nailed a good Chaos Space Marine book and is invalidating it this summer with the release of 10th edition. Hopefully some of that flavor can come through in the new edition because what has been released as far as how the game works looks promising. I personally have really enjoyed 9th edition mostly because the narrative crusade rules don’t really suffer from the ups and downs of the rapid rules changes that attempted to balance out the matched play tournament scene.

Anyway this Word Bearers force was created as a crusade force with a focus on playing boarding actions. It has been converted from the Horus Heresy line and has a really unique look. All the crusade advancements have been focused on making them more daemonic and it’s really flavorful. Also being on the receiving end of some pretty nasty loses it is also very good.

Grab Bag of Miscellaneous Miniatures

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Board Games - So many board games have miniatures sometimes I really don’t have a ton to say about the games of mini so I figured doing a Miscellaneous post with a bunch of random stuff I recently painted would make sense.

First up is Caral, This is a game about building pyramids that has nice meoples and really had no need for acutal miniatures other than to milk stretch goals.

Next up is another Journeys in Middle Earth Expansion, I posted about how I feel regarding app based games previously so nothing new to say here.

Maximum Apocalypse has a few expansions this one adds a few new survivors.

Finally Taelmoor is another app based game that needed to have a single miniature to represent the party? I don’t know the model is ok? But probably unnecessary.

Oh yeah if your haven’t heard 10th Edition Warhammer 40,000 comes out this summer so get your armies painted and ready while you wait.







Knight Tales - Fully Painted

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Board Games - Knight Tales has some pretty nice miniatures.

In Knight Tales, 1-4 players stand against hordes of monsters and must cooperatively or semi-cooperatively defend a remote village for three days and three nights.

Knight Tales is a great mix of genres; character-building, set-collection, a tower defence mechanism with a puzzly twist, as well as the possibility to fulfill daily quests and gain renown make each game a truly unique experience.

A wide diversity of interacting monster effects, a clever system of spending fatigue, losing health and unleashing wrath as well as a doom mechanism that empowers the bosses triggering their own deck of tactic cards unfolds into a challenging puzzle that you will need to solve in order to be victorious.

Europa Universalis - Painted

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Board Games - To be honest 4X games are not my favorite. Europa Universalis is a monster of a 4X game that lets six players play through 300 years of history.

If that sounds interesting to you these miniatures are of decent quality and painted up quickly with contrast paints.

Hunters AD 2114 - Painted

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Board Games - Hunters AD 2114 seems very much like a take-off on the Terminator. You’re hunting the machines that have taken over the world after the apocalypse.

The miniatures are decent. I’m not a fan of square bases but I suppose they work for this style of game. This is another game that I used the white drybrush of grey to create depth before finishing with contrast paints. The technique is great for board games, but for more detailed figures I’d need to add some layering and additional shading to be happy with the results.

Here’s the description from the publisher:
The Hunters is a cooperative miniatures board game for 1-4 players. Become a machine hunter and face the enemies in a brutal post-apocalyptic world.

Players become the Hunters of machines that wander between human settlements and together hunt dangerous enemies. Each mission, taking from 30 to 90 minutes, requires an adequate choice of gear and tactics. The players can also lay deadly traps and prepare ambushes. A day and night system is used in the game which has a significant impact on the choice of equipment and enemies' action abilities.

At the end of each mission players gain experience points, allowing them to reach new levels of training and be better prepared for survival in the hostile world. The most precious prize, though, is the remains of the defeated machines used to construct the hunters' gear.

All the missions combine into an outstanding campaign during which the players will have to make tough choices influencing their future fate. Each time they will be able to make different decisions, allowing every mission to be an exceptional experience full of new emotions.

Dungeonology Expansions - Painted

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Board Games - Dungeonology is a really nice game with beautiful components. This project is for a few expansions that were recently released that add some new monsters and scholars to the game.

Definance - Infinity as a Board Game?

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Board Games - Defiance is a dungeon crawler set in the Infinity Universe. It’s a little strange because metal miniatures don’t typically go over well with the board game crowd, but these are really nice.

Description:

A Dungeon Crawler game by CORVUS BELLI based on the Infinity Universe.
A group of heroes has been commissioned up by the human nations to stop an imminent offensive by the Combined Army. Embarked in the Defiance, the heroes of the Human Sphere must fight against an alien invader in a suicide mission with the sole objective of saving humanity. Infinity Defiance is a dungeon crawler with high quality metal miniatures that are compatible with Infinity.

At the beginning of the Round, you build the Initiative deck which will determine the order in which the enemy units will be activated. Each enemy Unit will draw a card from the AI deck and every Enemy in that Unit will attempt to perform, in order, the actions the card indicates - up to a maximum of 2 actions.

Each time you make a roll, you will obtain a series of symbols from the dice. Equipment cards, Software cards, Specialty cards, and enemies, may spend those symbols to apply Effects via Switches.

As the Campaign advances, Characters may improve their combat skills through Specialty cards, which will allow you to choose the specialty best suited to your playing style or personal preferences.

—description from the publisher