Cthulu: Death May Die Core Set Painted

/

Board Games – I feel like I paint a significant amount of Cthulu miniatures. It seems like most every Kickstarter has some variation of everyone’s favorite sleeping god. In this latest batch, I’ve painted up the core set and one expansion for CMON’s Cthulu Death May Die.

This is one of CMON’s massive Kickstarter projects that has multiple expansions as well a gigantic Cthulu statue that will all be crossing my table at some point in the future.

Here’s a summary of the game, which you should be able to track down on Amazon for about $200:

In Cthulhu: Death May Die, inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, you and your fellow players represent investigators in the 1920s who instead of trying to stop the coming of Elder Gods, want to summon those otherworldly beings so that you can put a stop to them permanently. You start the game insane, and while your long-term goal is to shoot Cthulhu in the face, so to speak, at some point during the game you'll probably fail to mitigate your dice rolls properly and your insanity will cause you to do something terrible — or maybe advantageous. Hard to know for sure.

The game has multiple episodes, and each of them has a similar structure of two acts, those being before and after you summon whatever it is you happen to be summoning. If any character dies prior to the summoning, then the game ends and you lose; once the Elder One is on the board, as long as one of you is still alive, you still have a chance to win.

The episodes are all standalone and not contingent on being played in a certain order or with the same players.

Pandemic - Mythos Style

/

Board Games – Pandemic is a classic board game that most serious gamers already have in their collection. Having lived through one for the last few years makes the game a little to real for most people to want to bust out for game night. Pandemic: Cthulu helps to solve that problem by porting over the gameplay to a Mythos Theme. Now rather than trying to control the spread of diseases you’re trying to stop the spread of cults to prevent the rise of a terrible evil entity (Hmmm … maybe it still hits close to home for some). As far as I know this is also the first game to feature miniatures, which I painted up in this latest batch.

Vengeance - The Sabatuers

/

Board Games – Vengeance is a revenge movie themed board game. I’ve already painted a few sets for this game which you can see here. This latest expansion is The Saboteurs which adds some new mechanics and models to the already extensive game.

You want to see those that wronged you dead, but there's no satisfaction in it unless it's your hand that does the deed. The problem is you're not the only one these rats have messed with. Sometimes you have to resort to a bit of shady back-stabbing to ensure others don't rob you of Vengeance's sweet satisfaction.

Saboteurs allows players to hire Saboteurs as part of their pre-fight preparations, and can then plant them in a gang den when other players attempt to assault it.

Vengeance: Saboteurs comes with 16 highly detailed Saboteur miniatures and 16 Saboteur cards. The Vengeance base game is needed to use Vengeance: Saboteurs.

Batman: Gotham City Chronicles

/

Board Games – Batman: Gotham City Chronicles is a board games from Monolith. This is the first batch of miniatures I’ve painted for the game. It looks like a pretty complete representation of the Caped Crusaders mythos. This set is the League of Assassins expansion.

Here’s a summary of the game from the manufacturer:

In Batman: Gotham City Chronicles, one villain faces off against a team of heroes in one of multiple scenarios. Each hero has their own character, and they control this character by spending energy to perform actions (such as Melee and Ranged attacks, defusing bombs...) recovering more or less energy at the beginning of their turn depending on their stance. If the hero gets damaged, energy moves to a wound area, and if they lose all of their energy, then they're out of action for a while to recover their strength. Each hero has differing strengths for their abilities, and these strengths are represented by colored dice with different values; the more energy a hero spends on an ability, the more dice of that color they can roll.

The villain controls a team of henchmen and iconic villains of the Batman universe, and these characters are represented by tiles on their command board, with the characters costing 1, 2, 3, etc. energy to activate as you move left to right down the line. Once a character is activated, they move to the end of the line, boosting their cost to the maximum value should you want to use them again immediately, and decreasing the cost of the other tiles.

The game-play in Batman: Gotham City Chronicles is based on that of Conan, with revisions to character abilities, the addition of two different types of dice (w/ five types total), and a modified two-player set-up, the Versus Mode, in which each player has a command board and their own team of tiles that they can draft, with heroes facing off against villains.

Floating Worlds

/

Board Games – Set in Edo Japan this deck builder is a sequel to Philosophia. While primarily a card based game this has minis to represent the six characters as well as the pagodas you can build.

Rurik: Stone and Blade

/

Board Games: This expansion for Rurik allows you to build epic structures and has three additional modules for the game.

Dune Imperium - Miniature Upgrades

/

Board Games – Dune should have been a bigger hit than it was, coming out on HBO Max and in Theaters at the same time was nice for viewers during the Pandemic, but unfortunately it probably hurt the chances of finishing off a series. But fear not you can live out the experience in the Dune Imperium Board game.

Here’s the description from the manufacturer:

Dune: Imperium is a game that finds inspiration in elements and characters from the Dune legacy, both the new film from Legendary Pictures and the seminal literary series from Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson.

As a leader of one of the Great Houses of the Landsraad, raise your banner and marshal your forces and spies. War is coming, and at the center of the conflict is Arrakis – Dune, the desert planet.

Dune: Imperium uses deck-building to add a hidden-information angle to traditional worker placement.

You start with a unique leader card, as well as deck identical to those of your opponents. As you acquire cards and build your deck, your choices will define your strengths and weaknesses. Cards allow you to send your Agents to certain spaces on the game board, so how your deck evolves affects your strategy. You might become more powerful militarily, able to deploy more troops than your opponents. Or you might acquire cards that give you an edge with the four political factions represented in the game: the Emperor, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, and the Fremen.

Unlike many deck-building games, you don’t play your entire hand in one turn. Instead, you draw a hand of cards at the start of every round and alternate with other players, taking one Agent turn at a time (playing one card to send one of your Agents to the game board). When it’s your turn and you have no more Agents to place, you’ll take a Reveal turn, revealing the rest of your cards, which will provide Persuasion and Swords. Persuasion is used to acquire more cards, and Swords help your troops fight for the current round’s rewards as shown on the revealed Conflict card.

Defeat your rivals in combat, shrewdly navigate the political factions, and acquire precious cards. The Spice Must Flow to lead your House to victory!

Board with a Vengeance

/

Board Games – Kill Bill was a great homage to the classic revenge flicks of the 70’s and 80’s. Vengeance is a board game that takes you through a similar homage. With a ton of unique plastic miniatures and a giant box of board locations you can play through a variety of story lines to see if your character can get revenge against the criminals that wronged them.

Final Girl Season One - Fully Painted

/

Board Games – Final Girl is a unique Solo Only board game inspired by cult horror classics. The system utilizes a unique VHS case that has each “Story” you can mix and match components of each story to create a unique scenario. The game has been reviewed very highly and currently is running a Kickstarter for a second season, if you like horror movies or solo games this is probably worth backing.

The miniatures are on the small scale but it doesn’t take much effort to add some contrast paint over a base coat and have some decent looking models.

Mad Max Inspired - Hybrid Board Game

/

Board Games – Waste Knights is a unique game set in a Mad Max style apocalypse. The minis are pretty detailed for a boardgame and about the same size as Zombicide or other similar games.

To paint these up I started with a basic Khaki basecoat followed up with contrast colors to match the minis to the character sheets.


From the Publisher:

Waste Knights: Second Edition is a post-apocalyptic game of adventure and survival for 1-4 players inspired by cult classics of the post-apo movies and set in dystopian Australia destroyed by experiments of a powerful corporation. Each player becomes a rugged hero, travelling through the wasteland, facing unnatural weather and enemies forged in long-forgotten laboratories as well as experiencing adventures full of dramatic choices and disturbing characters.

The game is adventure-based, with each Adventure branching out into a number of Plots revealed depending on the players’ narrative choices. Each plot offers unique game mechanics and stories that can be found in the Book of Tales – some of them are keyed to a particular adventure, some are generic, but all enable the players to immerse themselves in the setting and make decisions that change the world around them.

Each knight (player) has 2 actions at their disposal, which basically enable them to travel around the continent in their Vehicle, explore the area for ever-dwindling Resources (Fuel, Ammo, Meds), or camp in order to repair their Gear and heal Wounds or Radiation. Each adventure additionally offers a number of unique Plot Actions that let the players affect the story and fulfill their goals.

However, the heart of the game are stories. Each playthrough is based on an adventure found in the Guide. Some of them are co-op, others competitive, others still may end with the players grouping around different factions and forced to fight their former friends. The construction of each adventure offers lots of narrative choices guaranteeing high replayability and encompasses unique setup elements so that the basic game can be prepared quickly and the players can focus on the plot, not the rules.

Western Legends - 3D Tokens Fully Painted

/

Board Games – Western Legends is a cool game set in the Old West. The game has some cardboard pieces that represent the various locations you can explore in the game. This batch is for the upgrade tokens that take the flat cardboard and make a 3D representation. To keep this simple I matched the colors for the tokens while adding a bit of old west flair.

Ghostbusters - Board Game Painted Up

/
Ghostbusters - Board Game Painted Up

Board Games – Several years ago the Ghostbusters board game was on Kickstarter. When I finally got it in hand I played it once and put the game on the shelf. It’s not because the game was bad but more so because the game is involved and unless you want to play solo getting people dedicated to playing through a boar game campaign is hard.

Read More

Middara - JRPG Board Game

/

Board Games - Have you ever wanted to play an epic JRPG style game analog? If so Middara is the game for you. Tons of miniatures, massive rulebooks, cards galore this game is an epic quest in a box.

Here’s the description from the manufacturer:

Middara is a 1-4 player cooperative choose-your-own-adventure style miniatures board game. Players assume the role of a party of adventurers in an ultra-modern fantasy setting that exists alongside our very own Earth. During the game, players will experience an in depth, fully narrative-driven adventure that contains over 90 hours of content. Throughout the narrative you and three of your friends will confront real decisions that change the course of the story and its outcome.

Players will face many dangerous adversaries throughout the story and will take part in heated combat with these foes.Middarafeatures an innovative, dice based combat system for these encounters. Based on their equipment and abilities, players will have access to unique two-dice combinations that will increase their attack and damage potential in a variety of ways. In addition to numbers, dice have a particular set of symbols on each face that can be spent according to players currently equipped weapons and abilities. With nine different types of dice, over 110 unique abilities and 150 unique pieces of equipment the possibilities for different character builds are endless.

What makes Middara so compelling is that the outcomes of story decisions and encounters have far-reaching effects that determine how the story moves and resolves. Friends and family might get killed, or they may survive. Maybe the players avoid some problems entirely, only to be faced with a whole new challenge.

Gameplay Features:

  • Narrative-driven campaign that contains over 90 hours of content.

  • Unique dice-based success system featuring multiple dice that players can upgrade throughout the campaign.

  • 36 modular map tiles representing different locations in the world, such as magical forests, caves, and swamps!

  • A.I. controlled monsters, NPCs, challenges, traps, and other narrative-driven obstacles.

  • Campaign character progression via a point buy system allowing players to ditch traditional classes and instead focus on building the character they want to play.

  • Over 110 unique Disciplines and over 150 unique pieces of equipment.

  • Stand alone scenarios for when you aren't playing with your campaign group, or even when you are!

AD_Middera_25.jpg

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.

AD_MythicBattles_Corthina_05.jpg