Ninja All-Stars - Arashikage Clan

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Board Games - Storm Shadow was my favorite ninja as a kid. The white color scheme with that sweet red tattoo just fed my imagination. I know I already painted up the mini boss based on Storm Shadow but I really wanted a full clan of white ninjas.

In Super Dungeon Explore the Elemental Shrine Ninjas are just OK. They can get cool abilities and with forward thinking the Console can make some pretty nasty groups for the Heroes to battle. However their limited attacks make it hard to put a significant hurt on the Heroes once they’re powered up with a few loot cards. I need to try a few more combinations to see what works best, but so far they’re pretty easy for a solid party to take out.

These models look great on the swamp side of the Von Drake Manor boards. the white really pops on the dark backgrounds. I was also able to get some paint on the shrines with this batch. The glow effect I did isn’t the greatest but on the dark boards they look pretty cool.

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The three Ronin I squeezed in are the ghost from the Ring, Lone Wolf and Cub and a Birdman Sabotuer (I call him the Seahawk for obvious reason, haha).

Ninja All-Stars - Reptile Clan

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Ninja All-Stars - Reptile Clan

Board Games – Mortal Kombat has a pretty amazing history, one of the things I’ve enjoyed with some of the more recent games are the Krypts that let you unlock history of the game, alternate costumes and concept art. It’s cool when a game has backstory and hidden easter eggs. When it was in the arcade I remember watching people try to unlock Reptile and battle against the green color swapped ninja.

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Pet Parade - Arcadia Quest Gets Wild

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Board Games – When a game is as cute as Arcadia Quest it’s hard to push that envelope without feeling like more of the same. So how do you turn up the cuteness to 11? Well you add pets, super deformed looking little pets.

Other chibi games also have gone down the Pet Parade (and failed to deliver so far) but CMON has a huge box of cute little friends for you guild of heroes to adventure with. Also pictured here are a bunch of Orcs and goblins that I don’t think were part of the Pets box but they came in this batch.

Ninja All-Stars - Scorpion Clan

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Ninja All-Stars - Scorpion Clan

Board Games – I’ve written about Ninja All-Stars quite a bit, I love the miniatures and the look of the game. The dice mechanic still bugs me but the fact that I can use these in Super Dungeon Explore helps make up for that. I’ve been painting up all the minis in my collection of games from Sodapop Miniature/Ninja Division because my kids are finally old enough to enjoy the game and I have a reason to paint up these cute little miniatures.

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Is it like Yatzee?

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Board Games – Rome and Roll is a dice rolling game that has you build Rome. I’m still not sure why it has miniatures other than the fact they’re cool and represent characters in the game.

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Here’s a summary:

“Rome & Roll is a heavy roll-and-write board game by Dávid Turczi and Nick Shaw in which 1-4 players compete to craft an empire. Draft from a pool of custom dice to collect resources, construct the town, and organize armies. Political alliances, the colonies, and even the Gods all have a part to play. Imperii Gloria!

• Draft the dice to match your needs: roll, draw, and win!
• Play one of seven unique character classes, ranging from merchants to military leaders, with a wealth of different strategies to deploy.
• Take advantage of four possible scoring avenues: construct buildings, trade resources, conquer unruly colonies, and renovate the Roman road network.
• Make political alliances and call on the Gods.
• Raise armies and invade settlements as far afield as Egypt and Spain.
• Build roads and manage unruly provinces.”

Cyclades - Fear the Wrath of the Gods

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Cyclades - Fear the Wrath of the Gods

Board Games – With control/auction games you often get a mix of components. Many have meoples or wood blocks but more recently many have opted for molded plastic minis. Most of these games have tiny figures that look cool covering beautiful boards, but the solid color plastic takes you out of the immersive experience promised by the game.

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Masmora and Arcadia Quest - Another Batch Done

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Board Games – Arcadia Quest is a PvP game, Masmora is a dungeon crawl. So if you love Chibi style miniatures and find yourself needing to play alone Masmorra has a single player mode. This batch features the Kickstarter exclusive hero pack and a selection of random heroes.

What Is Best In Life?

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What Is Best In Life?

Board Games – The sword and sorcery genre began with Conan the Barbarian and his exploits in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, Marvel Comics began publishing his exploits in 1970 and everyone’s favorite action hero took on the roll in 1982. In 2016 Monolith released a board game base on Robert Howard’s original works.

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Ghost Stories in a Golden Age - Tang Garden Expansions

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Board Games – Tang Garden has several expansions, in this batch I’ve painted up Ghost Stories and Golden Age. Both expansions introduce new characters and gameplay mechanics to make the garden building game even more interesting.

Devil Island: Clan Ika - Feeling a Bit Salty

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Devil Island: Clan Ika - Feeling a Bit Salty

Super Dungeon Explore – Chibi Ninjas are just amazing. Several years ago Sodapop/Ninja Division released Ninja All-Stars the game was beautifully designed with amazing miniatures and had a ton of potential. There was even a pretty decent campaign system that would allow you to run a league of ninjas competing for the top prize.

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Schooling Future Explorers - Dungeonology

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Board Games – Have you ever wondered how a monster manual was created, is this something you need a formal education for? Well Dungeonology by Ludus Magnus Studio seeks to answer that question. You play the role of a teacher at an exclusive academy that needs to complete a thesis on a local monster. Taking a gaggle of students with you questing through a perilous dungeon hoping to glean enough information to right that award winning paper.

It’s a clever concept that is even more clever in its execution. I don’t have a ton of time to play board games like this but after watching the play throughs and painting up the models I really want to add it to my collection. I won’t droan on about the amazing components masterful box organization or beautiful miniatures you can see that by checking of the games official page.

The character models are comically detailed to perfectly match the art on their cards. I really liked the molded bases that give the impression of actually exploring a dungeon. These were really fun to paint. In addition to the amazing characters you get a ton on student pawns. These are really cute in their simple sculpts and by putting some paint on them I think it really added to the look. Because these are just resource cubes they need to look really similar to remain functional. I guess the expansions might add additional colors of “bad” students so I kept the colors simple. For variety I tried to have a variety of skin tones on the students to make them look unique. I think the effect is really nice.

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Hard City - An Ode to B-movies

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Hard City - An Ode to B-movies

Board Games – As a kid my mom worked two jobs and waitressing on the weekends meant we got to spend a lot of time with my grandparents. Living in the country I never had cable so those weekends with my grandparents meant I could binge on all the TV I never had a chance to watch at home. Because my mom would pick us up really late at night I could usually stay up late watching garbage on basic cable.

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