Mythic Battles - Titans

Board Games - Titans is an expansion for Mythic Battles featuring some really large monsters.

Victim - The Cursed Forest and Asylum

Board Games – Victim is a pretty cool looking game that has similar mechanics to House of Haunted Hill. Halfway through the game a player becomes the monster and the game changes dramatically. The components for this game are pretty robust and the minis have a anime feel to them.

From the Manufacturer:

Victim, a horror board game that lets players help each other to find a way out by cooperatively completing defined missions, is for 2-6 people with about 40-90 minutes of playtime. Each player will receive a different character with a different skill such as an ability to be good at navigation, searching, healing and decoding. Players need to brainstorm to wisely divide duties to each other and find a way out in a specific time.

In the middle of the game, there will be one player to be possessed by the evil and the mission of that possessed player will become to eliminate other players or blocking the way out instead. Therefore, remaining players have to team up to overcome obstacles and try their best to get out of the forest in the end.

Dark Ages - Epic Adventure

Board Games – Dark Ages is a 4X game set in the well, Dark Ages. It has many unique miniatures representing resources, military might and unique locations.

From the Manufacturer:

Dark Ages is a historically-based civilization-building game that features an innovative action selection mechanism. As long as your action markers remain on the board, you may be able to gain secondary bonus actions whenever you or another player repeat the action.

While Dark Ages features objectives commonly found in 4X games — encouraging you to explore nearby regions, expand your territory, exploit the resources, and exterminate your opponents — it does so featuring several Euro-centric mechanisms. Collect resources from lands under your control, using them to build up your cities and fortifications. Some building types provide several ways for you to gain important in-game advantages, while others enhance your military strength or simply score you victory points. As you expand your territory, you will lay claim to noble titles, acquire new technologies, and train your military units. Each region and leader offer asymmetrical choices with their unique abilities.


Runaljod - Vikings Throwing Bones

Board Games – I’ve painted lots of Viking games over the last year or so, Runaljod is the newest addition to that list. The game seems pretty interesting based on the designers description:

Runaljod is a miniatures game with a new innovative mechanics, based on throwing the runes to manage your actions. The position on the runes when they fall on the board will show you the actions that you can perform in this turn, like: activate your own character special ability, explore new areas or even count on the gods' power. To activate the enemies we provide you with an intelligent deck that will show you the actions performed by the enemies on that turn. In Runaljod your objective is to destroy the mythological creatures that where released by unknown forces, and only the most brave heroes will be chosen by the gods to fulfill such a hard duty.

Embrace the god´s blessing, trust in the power of the runes, and make your path to glory in the halls of Valhalla!

Mythic Battles - Poseidon

Board Games – Poseidon is a seafaring expansion for Mythic Battles.

Mythic Battles - Corthina

Board Games – Flying gorilla playable with Conan and Mythic Battles.

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Masters of Night

Board GamesMasters of Night is a Vampire themed game set in which you play as a vampire arriving in a new city and need to take control to survive.

The minis are pretty standard board game quality with just enough detail to look cool but not quite enough to make a showpiece.

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Valhalla - A Different Kind of Wargame

Board Games – Usually the point of a war game is to destroy your opponent, Valhalla turns that around and wants your warriors to fall in glorious combat.

This isn’t a miniatures game, isn’t a pretty pure board game with some large miniatures for certain scenarios. The sculpts are nice and add some atmosphere to the game.

Here’s some info from the manufacturer:

The end is coming and greatest warriors are standing to fight. To die in glory and reach Valhalla.

Valhalla is a card game with dice placement mechanics. Each player takes role of a Jarl who builds a team of warriors and equips them to fight. In battles player roll dice to activate warriors and play special tactic cards. The winning party sends their activated warriors to Valhalla, and whoever has the most points at the end, wins the game.

The game puts a classical "war game" concept on its head. In Valhalla the goal is to win a battle and send winning warriors to Valhalla.

Custom dice add randomness and excitement to the game, and wide variety of Jarls, warriors and battle tactics ensure great replayability.



The Edge: Dawnfall - Father of the Sun

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Board Games – I never really understood the draw of deck-building/miniature games it always seemed to me that the two concepts don’t mesh well together. Awaken Realms is challenging that belief with The Edge: Dawnfall.

From the manufacturer:

The Edge: Dawnfall is a dynamic, miniature and card battle game with elements of territory control (gathering crystals) as well as campaign play. Each player controls unique units with special abilities that can be enchanted with special spell or progress cards.

Players win the game in solo or co-op mode by completing plot conditions of the scenario, or in the competitive skirmish mode by gaining advantage of 7 Victory Points. The game is set in the original post-apocalyptic universe of The Edge and features 6 factions with very different backstories, game styles and aesthetics.

I haven’t had a chance to paint the core game yet but if this expansion is any indication this game is very cool.

On the "Hotlist" – Nemesis Board Game

On the "Hotlist" – Nemesis Board Game

Board Games – Often I’m a bit behind with the “hotness” when it comes to board game projects. I imagine for some players, they want to confirm a game is good/enjoyable before having it painted. While other players will have massive back-logs of games they want painted just on principle that a painted game is more fun to play than an unpainted one. (A concept I whole-heartedly endorse)

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REVIEW - Jungle Cruise - Board Game

Jungle Cruise is a really nice looking game!

Jungle Cruise is a really nice looking game!

Board Games – I’ve always loved the Jungle Cruise, the idea of exploring the jungle always stuck in my head as something really cool when I was a kid. Indian Jone, Romancing the Stone and all the rest of the films of the genre really stuck with me. I remember my first trip to Disney riding this at night as one of the last rides we did, I was probably in about third grade and at the time I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

It looses a bit of the magic as an adult but it still holds a place in my heart. The recently released film looks like fun and I can’t wait to see it. Earlier this year my wife and kids gave me the Jungle Cruise: Board Game as a gift. The game is based solely on the ride and not the film property.

First off the game is beautiful, the components are sturdy, well designed and cohesive. I was super excited to get this game out of the box a try it. I own Jaws which was made by the same company and really love the look and feel of that game as well as the mechanics of play.

My first play-through was a two-player game and it became apparent very quickly that this game s more of a roll and go experience. Very few of your decisions in the game matter. You have a bunch of things to do, move around passengers, search for clues, choose your speed, pick the dangers and roll to avoid them . Ultimately it comes down to who gets to the end first with the most “chosen” passengers.

The game is thematic and full of the terrible jokes from the ride, it’s not strategic and is almost completely luck based. For me the theme is strong enough that this will make it out to themed game night every now and then or just as a simple game that gets the family around the table.

Shadows of Brimstone - More Expansions

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Board Games – I’m sure I’ve said it before but Shadows of Brimstone reminds me of RIFTS/GURPS, in so much as it appears to be a mis-mash of any crazy thing you could imagine happening. I’ve painted aliens, cowboys, natives, crazy monsters and space stuff so it was no surprise when a dinosaur, rock people and rats made their way to my table.

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I honestly have never played the game or read a ton about it, but the models are all decent quality hard plastic that have just enough detail to make painting quick and simple.

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Gloomhaven - Jaws of the Lion

Board Games - Gloomhaven is a massive game and it’s popularity has spawned several expansions. Jaws of the Lion seems to be more of a “prequel” geared toward a casual crowd.

Hardened mercenaries working together to achieved their goals, is the way the game is billed.

Dark Souls - Expansions Fully Painted

Board Games – Dark Souls is a project I’ve been working on off and on for some time now. I’ve finally been able to finish up all the expansions for the game.

This last batch includes the Last Giant, Gaping Dragon, Black Dragon, Explorers, Phantoms and Adventurers and the Iron Keep.

Marvel United - Kickstarter Exclusives Part Two

Board Games – Now that things are getting back to “normal” in my part of the world we’ve been able to resume a weekly game night with another couple. Our go to game is Marvel United we’ve played several games each night and have yet to tire of it.

The game is really fun and the cooperative nature means you can easily have a whole group of people around the tale giving input about how you can beat the villain. So even though the adults are playing the game it’s easy enough for the kids to jump in and figure out what’s going on. It’s rare to have a game that flips this easily and still keeps both groups entertained.

I’ve been using a mix of Contrast Paint and traditional techniques on these Chibi miniature and am really loving the results.

Yet Another Glorious Day In the Corp

Board Games – Another Glorious Day In The Corp is starting to feel like Groundhog Day. This board game is proving to be very popular among my clients, which is great because I love the property and the minis are well done.

Galaxy Hunters

Board Game – Galaxy Hunters is a giant robot game by IDW Games. The premiss is you play as a bounty hunting pilot working for a mega corporation collecting resources to gain fortune and fame.

I haven’t had a chance to play but the game looks really nice. High quality components, large scale models and a ton of cardboard in a nice box organizer make it look really nice.

Catapult Kingdoms - War for the Floor

Board Games – When I was a kid I owned Crossbows and Catapults, it was a cool game that had you shot hard plastic pucks at your opponent with rubber band powered siege engines. The look was very barbarian fantasy looking and the game was very fun. When I saw Catapult Kingdoms on Kickstarter it immediately brought back memories of that older game. The look is very cartoony and the components are vastly superior to the originals.

This project was the entire all-in package which has the core game, 2 expansions, a viking ship, and a volcano. I didn’t paint the individual castle components but focused on a simple paint job to bring the cartoony components to life. I’m happy with the end result and double sealed the parts to help stand up to the abuse they’ll get having rubber balls shot at them over and over.

Walking Dead - The Board Game

Board Games – I used to be a huge fan of the Walking Dead, however once I cut the cable cord I lost touch with the AMC series. Painting this board game was a bit of nostalgia as the characters are from the early seasons of the show. While not the same quality as the other miniature games based on the property these sculpts are easily recognizable as the characters from the show.

I stuck with a pretty basic paint job to get these quickly painted to a tabletop standard. I decided to stick with a duplicate paint job on the duplicate sculpts in this box since they’re pretty basic looking.