A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Board Games - Sea of Legends is an open world adventure game for 1-4 players that uses a companion app to navigate the various quests you’ll explore. This is the third box I’ve painted and this batch has several of the stretch boxes included.
Board Games - Often I get really odd games that I’ve never heard of crossing my painting table, ThreeTale is one of them. The miniatures are a very odd mix of styles that I for the life of me couldn’t figure out what this game is about. Looking it up on Board Game Geek I can see it has a pretty high rating and and interesting description from the publisher:
ThreeТale is a cooperative adventure game for 3 players who choose their fairytale heroes with stories going way back. Each hero has their asymmetric talents. The gameplay’s a combination of variable player powers in the form of virtues, strategic tile placement and a little bit of dice rolling.
As a team, the tree players go through four phases – Prophecy Phase, Past, Present, and Future.
In the Prophecy phase, three scenarios of future doom are mystically revealed, holding hints to help the players draft their heroes. In the Past phase, every hero gets the chance to develop their stats and talents to be mighty enough to save the world from eternal doom. The heroes’ miniatures move through the tile-built board, thus collecting Virtues, Shevitsa and Speed cubes. They also enter Battles, complete Quests and collect Treasures and Artifacts by drawing cards.
Upon completing the Past Phase, the heroes enter the Present, where it is revealed which of the three prophecies will be fulfilled. Then, the Future comes, knocking on the door. Each Future has its own backstory, inhabitants and win condition. What will it take to save the world? Will you battle a mighty enemy, will you aim to gather lots of precious recourses, or will you simply fight for your own survival? Come and see for yourselves…
—description from the designer
Board Games - It seems that I get quite a few games based on video game properties crossing my painting table. It’s interesting that many of them do a decent job pulling mechanics or theme from the source material to create a different experience.
Heroes of Might & Magic does this fairly well, you have a hero that loots town and fights monsters to move through the various adventures included in each expansion box.
Board Games - Sticking with the spooky theme Arkies is a Steampunk Adventure game that takes place in Egypt exploring a forgotten tomb. The game features a large amount of miniatures that were pretty fun to paint.
Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to play this but the description from the publisher is pretty interesting:
History is full of secrets...
As they explore an ancient Egyptian tomb, a team of archaeologists and adventurers stumble upon a mystery that History forgot. To uncover the truth, they will have to delve deeper and deeper in the pyramids, dodging deadly traps and fighting back swathes of monsters running after them. Has the old Pharaoh placed a curse on this expedition? Should some secrets remain untold? This story is now yours to complete...
Arkeis is a cooperative, story-driven, campaign game with minis set among ancient Egyptian ruins.
Each player takes control of an adventurer as they explore a modular board.
Players have up to two actions per turn: search, move, assist an ally or fight one of the numerous dangers waiting for them in the tombs! The results of their actions can be altered by the equipment and character upgrades they earn during the campaign.
They can push their luck at the risk of being cursed or suffering lasting traumas from injuries!
Each character has their own backpack to store their items (and curses) between adventures.
Each scenario has objectives that the players will try to accomplish during the game to earn rewards in the form of key items and upgrades that influence later scenarios.
It will take a team of skilled players to reveal all of Arkeis’s secrets!
Board Games - Euthia is an open world sandbox game that can be played with 1-4 players. It uses a tile system to generate a new world each time you play so you can take your band of heroes and have a new adventure each time. The miniatures are pretty big and decently detailed.
Board Games - The Witcher Board Game. Starting off October with an Image dump of the minis from The Witcher Board Game.
Warhammer 40,000 - Fulgrim has ling been one of my favorite Primarch’s, back in third edition I had a pretty cool force that had sonic weapons on bikes and summoned daemons for melee. I’ve long since parted with the force but the memories from playing it are fond. So much so that I’ve been looking at the current Index to see if I might want to try and recreate my old force.
Sadly this model isn’t usably in 40K proper so it’s going to live on a display shelf with the other Primarchs.
Board Games - Ignite is a weird little battle game where you track damage by sticking swords in the back of the models. These are a super basic paint job just to make them look a little better on the table.
Warhammer 40,000 - Thes Gravis Marines are the latest edition to an Ultramarine force I’ve been painting piecemeal for some time.
Warhammer 40,000 - This Imperial Knight is part of a Space Marine army with a custom color scheme. I’ve painted some Armigers that go with this and they are usually played as allies to a Gravis themed force.
Board Games - Robinson Crusoe is a pretty classic game that has released an Ultimate edition that has some really great miniatures. Each miniature has two identical versions that you use on two different boards during gameplay. There is also a really cool shelter model that stacks up as you improve upon your home base.
Robinson Crusoe - Shelter Model
I haven’t had a chance to play but the description from the manufacturer sounds interesting:
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is a game created by Ignacy Trzewiczek, the author of Stronghold. This time Trzewiczek takes the players to a deserted island, where they'll play the parts of shipwreck survivors confronted by an extraordinary adventure. They'll be faced with the challenges of building a shelter, finding food, fighting wild beasts, and protecting themselves from weather changes. Building walls around their homes, animal domestication, constructing weapons and tools from what they find, and much more await them on the island. The players decide in which direction the game will unfold and – after several in-game weeks of hard work – how their settlement will look. Will they manage to discover the secret of the island in the meantime? Will they find a pirate treasure, or an abandoned village? Will they discover an underground city or a cursed temple at the bottom of a volcano? Answers to these questions lie in hundreds of event cards and hundreds of object and structure cards that can be used during the game...
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is an epic game from Portal. You will build a shelter, palisade, weapons, you will create tools like axes, knives, sacks, you will do everything you can to… to survive. You will have to find food, fight wild beasts, protect yourself from weather changes…
Take the role of one of four characters from the ship crew (cook, carpenter, explorer, or soldier) and face the adventure. Use your determination skills to help your teammates, discuss with them your plan, and put it into practice. Debate, discuss, and work on the best plan you all can make.
Search for treasures. Discover mysteries. Follow goals of six different, engaging scenarios. Start by building a big pile of wood and setting it on fire to call for help, and then start new adventures. Become an exorcist on cursed Island. Become a treasure hunter on Volcano Island. Become a rescue team for a young lady who’s stuck on rock island…
Let the adventure live!
Legacy of Thracks - The Awakening is an Euro-Ameri hybrid, competitive, epic fantasy game with unique semi-coop elements.
You control one of the clan Heroes (Warrior, Mage, Engineer) and your goal is to reach the legendary city of Dimara in 9 days, otherwise, the Shadows fulfill their destiny and destroy the world. Or control the Shadow Hero, and prevent the others from entering Dimara. Besides your Hero, there are Lost Souls, who you can control. But be careful because other players can move them too.
During your journey, hire Lost Souls to bring hidden crystals to the surface and collect relics. Use these crystals to complete secret quests and overcome magical barriers. Move your Hero and capture villages to take special advantages, build roads or capture a Fortress to increase your glory, or capture Castles to increase your income. Fight with other Heroes in the right moments, and via Portals surprise them in critical situations! Take specific actions to improve your Hero's special skills and use them wisely.
And don't forget: time is running out, and sometimes you need to make sacrifices together with other clan Heroes to slow down the Shadow!
Board Games - Senjutsu The Battle for Japan.
Senjutsu is a 1-4 Player Samurai Duelling Game with slick Deck Construction mechanics, simultaneous reveal combat and beautiful miniatures from a panel of sculptors. Control 1 of 4 fearsome Samurai, warriors bound to the Bushido Code, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and motivations.
Using Senjutsu's Deck Construction Mechanics, forge a unique deck of devastating attacks, powerful blocks, timely mediations, and dynamic special moves. The intuitive card-classifying system makes forging your Samurai’s Ability Deck easy.
The Core Box includes dozens of different Ability Cards to shape your chosen Samurai's fighting style. There are thousands of possible deck combinations available,
Gameplay Summary:
Position your Samurai on the Battlefield.
Draw a hand of Ability Cards from your 40 Card Ability Deck.
Choose an Ability Card to use and place it facedown with the opponent's card.
Reveal the cards simultaneously and check the initiatives.
Resolve the card and its effects.
Any Samurai who takes 5 wounds will fall... leaving the vanquisher victorious.
Board Games - I think I finally finished painting all of Great Wall, this last batch was the stretch goals and fifth player expansion.
From the Publisher:
The dawn of a new age approaches and we stand at the precipice. The unbridled power of nature awakens something within. Mysteries demand to be explored and the results are not always what we expect. Creepy creatures, dangerous devices, precarious potions, CoLaboratory Incorporated provides a shared laboratory space that is the perfect home for your and your outlandish creations.
Build interesting devices that open new possibilities. Brew potions that grant you fantastic on-demand abilities. Create strange monsters and earn great renown. All while keeping an eye on your fellow scientist and their minions. Scientists bring research into the lab to use on their experiments but they are not the only ones who benefit. Occupy a space adjacent to the research dice held by any minion and you can use it for your own creations.
Collect monster, device, or potion dice to generate more research that can be used on your creations.
Expand the laboratory giving everyone new opportunities.
With each new creation, your collection grows and the placement of each creation in your grid can create new opportunities or gain more renown. Once a player builds their 12th creation the end of the game is triggered and the player with the most renown (points) wins.
CoLab worker and dice placement game with dice collection. Players compete to gain the most renown through building monster, device, or potion cards over the course of the game. Each turn you send a minion to a tower space to gather resources or return a minion. Your minions also hold your resource dice. This resource can be used by players at either adjacent laboratory location. Then you place your player miniature on a laboratory location and either put the adjacent minions to work collecting more resources or build cards according to what is available at that lab. As the game progresses the board expands giving new opportunities for all players who visit that location.
Build a wide variety of monsters, potions, and devices or focus on one type to gain the most renown and win the game.
CoLab employs a series of '“take this”' mechanics where players provide resources, minions, or other opportunities to their opponents in exchange for resources or points. Balancing how much you give away with the opportunities your opponents may create is the real trick to becoming the most renowned scientist in CoLab.
Board Games - After watching Frozen Empire I was able to convince my wife and kids to try out the Ghostbusters board game I got ages ago. When I originally back the game the kids were to young to play so it found its way onto my shelf and finally saw some table time during a Ghostbusters weekend earlier this year,
Warhammer 40,000 - Another batch of Necrons extra models from the box set.
Warhammer 40,000 - Another Ghazkill, I think this is the fourth time I painted him.
Board Games - I painted up all the models for Destiny a while back, with the big storage box some additional models needed to be painted.
Board Games - Mythwind is a unique adventure board game with some very cute miniatures.
From the publisher:
Mythwind is a cooperative & solo "cozy" board game with unique characters, magical sprites, engaging story and an unending adventure.
During the game, the characters are working together to establish and build a new town in the magical Mythwind Valley. They work to achieve various goals by constructing buildings within the town, adventuring throughout the region, navigating relationships with the mysterious sprites who inhabit the valley, and developing their character-specific professions.
As an open-ended game, Mythwind has no distinct conclusion. Although many players may find a natural end point to their game at the conclusion of the story, players can continue to play the game for as long as they would like over as many game sessions as they wish. As players progress through the game, their town will develop and grow, reacting to changing seasons and to the members of the community over time. Progress made can be easily saved using the provided game trays, which offer a quick and easy solution for both tear-down of the current game and setup of future games.
