Conan - The Barbarian

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Board Games – I’ve painted up several set of miniatures for the various Conan games and have been pretty pleased with the look of most of them. This latest batch is no exception the sculpts are decent and interesting.

Return to the Dark Tower

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Board Games - The 80’s were a crazy time for board games electronic components were all the rage and the big daddy of them all was Milton Bradley’s 1981 Dark Tower. Recently Restoration Games did a Kickstarter to bring this classic back into production with improved components and some amazing miniatures.

Sea of Legends - Purple Box

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Board Games – Pirates are pretty cool, a cartoony looking pirate game with interesting character design and fun illustrations is even cooler. This is an expansion for Sea of Legends which you can read more about here.

The game looks really nice and the miniatures are big, detailed and fun. I have no idea if the game is actually good but according to the Kickstarter it funded in under six hours, which is pretty good I suppose.

Crisis At Steamfall

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Board Games - Crisis At Steamfall is an engine building board game where players attempt to set up a city that will level up their characters. I guess the game was Kickstarted and added an expansion during that process. You can read more about the game here.

Erune - Hero Quest with an App?

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Board Games – Prior to the rerelease of Hero Quest you’d get a similar dungeon crawl every now and then or replacement components to recreate the magic of the original. I guess using modern technology you can attempt to recreate that dungeon crawl with a narrated app. The concept is cool but as I mentioned in my post about Familiar Tale - app based games have the same issue of limited shelf life as the VHS games of old.

Apart from the app “issue” the game looks really cool and having a narrator solves that age old problem of needing a DM that doesn’t get to play with the party. I like the graphic design and box design for this game, everything has a place and they even thought of including boxes to keep track of your character throughput the campaign.

The description from the publisher is pretty good:

Enter the world of Erune and roam through its darkest dungeons... Experience epic quests, fight hordes of monsters and thwart the Master of Shadows' evil plans!

Erune is a Dungeon-Crawler for 1 to 5 players.

Thanks to the mix of a board game with a mobile app, you can talk with your game!

The Spirit of Erune is the privileged companion of your adventures. Guardian of the ancestral knowledge of the world of Erune, it resides in each and everything. Impartial, it does not take part in the conflict between the Adventurers and the Master of Shadows.

The Spirit of Erune is the narrator of your adventure
It allows you to speak with the characters you meet during your adventures.
It punctuates your quests with all kinds of events.
Beware! Your choices have consequences that influence your story!

The Spirit of Erune is a source of knowledge
It will answer all your questions about the rules of the game and the objects of the world of Erune down to the smallest detail.

The Spirit of Erune is luck
It unveils the treasures, the traps and the effects of items among thousands of possibilities!

The Spirit of Erune makes you evolve
It reveals your earnings when you level up, your quest objectives and the winner of the game.

The app is free on iOS and Android but requires an Erune Game Box to be used.

Townsfolk Tussle

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Board Games – I used to love Merry Melodies and the other vintage cartoons, they had such a unique look and feel that feels a bit lost in modern cartoons. Oh course the extreme cartoon violence isn’t there any more either so this game looks to capture some of that lost magic with a co-op boss battle.

I really enjoyed painting these models the cartoony style allowed for some mixing of contrast paint with some more traditional techniques to get the look i was going for.

Here’s the description from the publisher:

After the death of the beloved sheriff of Eureka Springs, Ruffians are coming in droves to take advantage of the defenseless town! It is up to you and your fellow townsfolk to wallop these troublemakers into oblivion. And who knows—if you play your cards right, you may just prove yourself worthy of becoming the new sheriff!

Townsfolk Tussle is a co-op boss battler for 2-5 players. In each game, your goal is to take down four unique Ruffians, each one tougher than the last! You'll build up your townsfolk with gear, explore Eureka Springs, and concoct unique strategies to take down even more unique hoodlums.

Batman - Gotham City Chronicles Expansions

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Board Games – Gotham City Chronicles looks like a really interesting game, you’d never know that by looking at the game box which has some really cool art on the front but zero information about what’s in the box on the back. It’s really frustrating and bad packaging design. If I pick up a game box I should be able to flip it over and at a minimum get a description of what in the box with a picture. Sure a nice clean fancy looking box is impressive but years down the road no one’s going to remember what this game is and won’t be able to quickly figure it out at a glance.

It’s a shame really because the miniatures are great and the inside of the boxes are well done, if not a bit space hungry. These expansions are the Batman Inc and Suicide Squad Expansions which are nice sets but to further add to my rant the characters pictured on the box art are not even included in the sets. I’m sure they appear in another box but putting Harley and Dick on the covers when they’re not in the box is a bit annoying.

Familiar Tale - There's an App for That

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Board Games – I don’t know how I feel about combining apps with board games, part of the appeal of a good board game is having everything in one box that you can pick and play after reading through the rules. Age doesn’t matter as everything you need is in the box. When you introduce a media component to the game you’re eventually going to lose a means to access that media. Remember the VHS supported games, DVD or CD guided games, any of these app games that used a no longer supported operating system? I’m not against innovation and it’s cool that publishers are looking at ways to push the definition of where a board game ends and video game begins.

Familiar Tale is on of these app supported games by Plaid Hat Games. The premise seems fun and the miniatures are really cool. You do need to download an app in order to play so there’s that.

Here’s the description from the publisher:

Familiar Tales is a co-operative, deck-building, fantasy adventure for 1-4 players. It's an exciting narrative game in which players take on the roles of a wizard's familiars, entrusted with saving and raising a displaced princess. They must keep her safe from the evil forces that would see her dead, but when it comes to children, it is not enough to merely survive! The familiars know that every choice they make will affect the young one in their care. If they are victorious and the throne is reclaimed, what kind of woman will sit upon it?

Players will explore a massive world through the pages of a fantastical story book filled with branching paths and memorable characters. Fight off enemies, and explore the many nooks and crannies of an enchanted world. Experience a professionally narrated, fully scored, decade-spanning fantasy epic. Easily downloadable for both Mac and Windows, this browser-based app is required to play Familiar Tales. Think of it as an automated game master and storyteller! The app also features a digital, searchable rulebook.

An innovative card play system allows players to level up their familiars by building and customizing their skill decks. Players will use their skill cards to perform all manner of exciting actions throughout their campaign.

Another Bug Hunt?

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Board Games - Aliens seems to have had quite a few games in the market lately. This latest one to cross my table is Alien Bug Hunt by Upper Deck Games. From what I’ve been told the game is ok, but feels a bit like you’re stuck on rails based on the character you choose.

The info from the publisher doesn’t do much to elaborate on gameplay:

Your challenge in Aliens: Bug Hunt is to complete the mission and evacuate the complex because these xenomorphs converging from every direction are heartless, smart, relentless, and hungry.

Pick your favorite character from the movie Aliens, each with a unique ability. Every role is critical as players rely on each other to cover their six and make it out alive. The complex is comprised of thirty different location tiles to create different challenges. Private Hudson might ask whether this is a stand-up fight or just another bug hunt; the real question is who's hunting who?

Another Glorious Day In the Corp - Aliens

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Board Games - I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or if the game is really that good, but this is the third complete set of Aliens: Another Glorious Day in The Corp that I’ve painted. I don’t mind because the miniatures are great and I’m a huge fan of the franchise.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

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Board Games – The Ghostbusters board game by Cryptozoic doesn’t have a tone of miniatures that require paint. Most of the ghosts are cast in transparent plastic so painting them would loose the ghostly effect. I previously had painted my own Kickstarter version of this game which has significantly more models than the retail version. The game feels a bit like Zombicide with a different skin on it so you’re level of enjoyment may vary, however playing through missions that feel like the movie, old cartoon and comic mixed together is pretty fun.

Bloodbourne

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Board Games - Bloodbourne Mergo’s Loft.

Deep in the Nightmare of Mensis sits the towering structure known as Mergo’s Loft, and at its apex resides its namesake master. Who, or what, exactly is Mergo is beyond mortal minds to comprehend, but his host of deadly attendants will strike down any who would approach their master. In this new Campaign, players will first need to discover a way to access this otherworldly place and, once there, discover the means to slay the unslayable. —description from the publisher

Shadows of Brimstone - Cthulu and Gold

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Board Games – Shadows of Brimstone is one of those games that keeps pumping out additional content. Some of the extra stuff are simple model or character boxes that add miniatures and some simple rules while others are big box expansions with a significant amount of extra content.

This batch of models include some prospector characters as well as a larger eldar being you might encounter in a cave.

Tall Tales - Fearsome Wilderness

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Board Games – I never thought I’d be painting an anthropomormic Babe the Blue Ox, but here we are. Fearsome Wilderness is a weird game. These are the five miniatures that came in the core box, but I guess the game came with STL files to be able to print all the monsters and components so you’re not putting these nice looking models on a fairly empty board with wood blocks representing all the adventures detailed in the hardcover rulebook.

Summary from BGG:

Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed and friends have 12 weeks to prepare for winter in the epic struggle of human versus nature. In this cooperative, dice-rolling campaign game for 1-4 players, the heroes work together to battle fearsome critters and the oncoming cold to gather and build everything they'll need to survive. Roll dice to plant and chop trees, gather food and water, and fend off critters and nightmares. Move your figures within the wilderness, gather and haul wood and stone to build your log cabin and other amenities. Gain and manage both good and bad conditions to your mind and body. Complete your goals and explore the mystery of the fearsome wilderness.

Core Space - Fully Painted

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Board Games – I vaguely remember seeing the campaign for Core Space and thinking, wow that’s some pretty amazing terrain, then seeing was cardboard and moving on. Well now that I’ve painted all the miniatures for the game and had a chance to see the terrain in person I’m pretty impressed.

Here’s a basic summary:

Core Space is a science fiction miniatures board game. Each player takes control of a band of Traders trying to make a living in a dangerous galaxy, all the while hunted by the Purge, a semi-sentient race of humanoid machines whose sole task is to harvest worlds.

A game of Core Space takes place on a detailed 3D board. Your Traders must explore the area, fulfil their objectives, salvage what they can and then escape back to their ship, spending their earnings on desperately-needed repairs. The exciting campaign system will track your crew from game to game, developing their skills, upgrading their equipment and telling their story.

Company of Heroes - WWII Board Game

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Board Games – WWII is such a popular topic for gamers of all types. This latest batch of minis are a few expansions for the board game from Bad Crow Games based on a video game by Relic/Sega.

Here’s a summary from the manufacturer:

"Company of Heroes", the World War 2 board wargame, is based on the video game from Relic/Sega. It closely captures the choices, tactics and mission strategies of the videogame. In teams, or as individuals, players will maneuver units and battle for control points to collect manpower, munitions and fuel. Players spend these resources to construct new buildings, purchase units and upgrade abilities, eventually unlocking the powerful end-game units of their nation. To win, players will either attempt to collect enough victory points before their opponent does or totally annihilate the enemy's base.

-user summary

A board-wargame 'port' that attempts to capture the strategy, choices and fun of the beloved video games. Players maneuver units from one of four factions to secure resource points, grow their economy, unlock buildings and purchase and upgrade new units. Player's eventually unleash their team's powerful end game forces to help secure enough victory points or annihilate the enemy base buildings to win.

From fog of war, utilizing cover and buildings, flanking armor, spotting, combining multi-unit tactics, veteran upgrades, deciding what units to purchase and what buildings to unlock; this project distills many elements we fans love about Company of Heroes into a streamlined board wargame experience.

This game involves squad level tactical movement but also focuses heavily on securing, collecting and spending resources to purchase new buildings, units and upgrades.

-description from publisher