Aliens - Another Glorious Day

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Board Games – Many people were sad when the Alien vs. Predator game was canceled when Disney acquired Fox. While it’s a bummer that game went away having another company pick up the license is a very good thing.

AvP was a pretty overly complicated game that missed that sweet spot where fans of the series intersect with fans of boardgames. They tried to rectify that with the one-piece sculpts of the second edition but still had the issue with the average person doesn’t want to invest the time it takes to learn, build paint and play a tabletop miniatures game.

Another Glorious Day in the Corp mixes really nice screen-accurate miniatures with a simpler system that most people could pick-up and play fairly quickly. The hard plastic minis are color coded by faction as assembly is really simple with some plastic cement and clippers.

Star Trek - Borg and Ferengi

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Board Games – I’ve painted up a few of the expansions for Star Trek Ascendency. The technique I’me using is a contrast paint over a silver base. This is a pretty quick way to make the ships look a little better than the plain plastic.

Incursion Second Edition - Weird War II

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Incursion Second Edition - Weird War II

Board Games – Incursion was a great game, the only real issue with the first edition was how expensive it was to get the metal miniatures and the challenges of storing them. I was lucky enough to pick up the core box of the first edition ages ago and finally got my metal set of minis painted when the pandemic began. Its funny that I painted the second edition almost a year later.

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Cyclades - Expansions

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Board Games – Cyclades is a pretty cool board game with a ton of not so great miniatures. I painted the core game up earlier this year and recently had a chance to paint up the first three expansions for the game. Luckily the quality of the miniatures got “better” with each release.

Hades, TItans and Monuments all add new challenges to the game as well as providing options for adding another player.

Fuji Koro - It's like Mine Craft?

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Board Games – Fuji Koro has a unique aesthetic that plays up the blocky look that made my kids ask is this a Mine Craft game? The concept seems pretty cool, collect and craft items before the volcano erupts or the Dragons kill you.

The miniatures were fun to paint, the unique look of them played into a more cartoony look than I typically paint and they had enough texture that I could experiment with contrast paint for some unique metallic effects on the dragons.

Star Trek - More Expansions

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Board Games – Earlier this year I painted up one of the expansions for Star Trek Ascendancy in a test scheme to see if I could efficiently paint up the large number of ships included in each box. In this go round I have two more factions to paint up, the Andronians and Vulcan High Command.

The goal of this project was to keep the player color obvious, make the pawns look more realistic and keep it simple. My solution was to base everything in a brushed silver color with a coat of Contrast paint in the player color. The Vulcans are orange and Andronians are blue.

Blood Rage - 5th Player Expansion

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Board Games – At this point I think I’ve painted all the expansions for Blood Rage and still haven’t painted the core set. This latest project is the 5th player expansion which adds additional components to allow for a fifth player (obviously).

Vikings are always tricky because they’re mostly fur, leather and beards so finding a good mix of browns that work with the player color, in this case green, can be tricky. I achived some additional depth to these brown by using a variety of brown base colors and then applying Contrast paint to bring out the detail. The result is pretty decent.

Marvel United - The Perfect Gift

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Board Games – Earlier this year CMON did a Kickstarter for Marvel United, a chibi style co-op game set in the Marvel Universe. It appears to have been fairly successful and the minis included in the biggest pledge are crazy, sadly I missed the campaign, but I was happy to see the core game hit retail stores this fall.

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The game is pretty simple geared toward new gamers or something light to play while hanging out with friends. Being completely co-op it looks easy to play with kids or people not familiar with more advanced board games. I haven’t had a chance to play the game yet but the few play-throughs I saw on YouTube look fun and easy to understand. If you need a gift for a Marvel fan or something for the family I highly suggest picking this up.

The minis are in a fun chibi-style that remind me a bit of the Marvel Superhero Adventures line from several years back. Those figure were in-line with Imaginext, which I think of as My-First-Action-Figure.

So far I’ve painted up two sets of these models and have thoroughly enjoyed painting them. Using a mix of Citadel Contrast paint and some traditional techniques I quickly got the effect I was looking for. Both of these sets are the Walmart Exclusive versions which include Venom as a hero instead of The Wasp. Back in the 90’s I was a huge fan of the Venom Lethal Protector comics so it’s cool to be able to play him as a hero. If you want to have a more accurate Avengers set you should get the standard retail version to have The Wasp.

Impact Chibi Adventures - Boss Monsters

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Board Games – Ages ago I had backed Impact Miniatures Chibi line of miniatures, at the time I had planned on using them with Super Dungeon Explore and making my own rules. I never got around to that but I did finally get some of the assembled and painted.

I’ve been kicking around so ideas for home-brew rules to use with Super Dungeon Explore, I like the stars and button push mechanics they use and it should be easy enough to come up with something fair that could challenge the heroes without being overpowered. I’m also kicking around creating some missions/adventures that I can run the kids through without trying to play the full game which seems to run long right now.

Red Tiger Clan - Clan Tora

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Board Games – Ninja-All Stars got a bad rap. The weird combat mechanic really killed what was otherwise a beautiful game. Luckily Ninja Division/Sodapop Miniatures is repurposing the Clan boxes with rules for Super Dungeon. I’m patiently waiting for them to release the rules on their site or as a card pack so I can save my ink.

Space Train Robbery - The Law

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Space Train Robbery - The Law

Board Games – Do you like poker dice? Do you like space cowboys? Do you like chibi style anime? Do you like trains? If you answered yes to ALL of these questions then Rail Raiders Infinite is the game for you. If you only answered yes to some of those questions you might like this or you might not.

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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.”