Throwing Down the Gauntlet

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Store Review – Gamer's Gauntlet, Clinton Twp. MI 

Gamer's Gauntlet opened earlier this year and it's great to have a game store on Metro Detroit's East Side that has a decent amount of space for gaming. The last few years have been pretty rough with several stores closing up shop, so I'm hoping this signals a change for the area. The last few years of gaming drought in the area have been painful and I've been forced to go to the GW store more times then I care to remember to pick up emergency washes or paints. (Of course 2 out of 3 times they'll be out of Devlan Mud or some other basic color of wash ... really your name's on the product and you can't keep it in stock? Instead you want to try and sell me on some overpriced plastic that I told you six times I have no interest in or get me to pay $10 for a catalog of new releases. Oh wait I'm ranting, back to the point)

The store is located near the corner of M-59 and Heydenreich, this location is ideal for holding events as it's about dead center for players from Flint and Livonia to be able to make the trek out to play in tournaments. 

Currently they have a thriving Magic and Warmachine community as well as a pretty decent turn out for Warhammer events. I'm hoping to developed the Malifaux community at this location, as I know there are lots of players in the area that don't want to make the drive to some of the stores on the West Side. 

They've recently installed several large 4x6 gaming table with a nice set of terrain and there are multiple 4x4 tables for skirmish games. As expected there are also tons of folding tables to accommodate most any type of gaming needs you may have.

As this is a newer store, they are a little light on some games. They have a nice selection of resin terrain, boardgames and comic books. They stock the majority of the Warmachine line and have a good selection of Warhammer products. The owner is also happy to order in anything you might need.

Each time I've been in the store they staff has been extremely helpful and pleasant. (Which honestly isn't something you get at most games stores, where the staff is more then happy to bash each purchase you make). If you're in the area I encourage you to swing by and check them out.

 

A Bit Rusty - Rigor Mortis Perhaps?

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A Bit Rusty - Rigor Mortis Perhaps?

Getting in my first game of the Dead Heat campaign, I made the trek down to RIW hobbies in Livonia. I brought along my swamp board and realized it wasn't really the best fit for the locations of the campaign. Going over the map my opponent (Ben) and I chose to play in location (15) Southern Docks District. It seems like this would be the closest fit for the swamp board i had with me.

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On the painting table ...

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Malifaux – As I'm super excited about the World Wide - Dead Heat campaign, I've decided to switch up my projects and focus on finishing my Malifaux factions. Digging through my boxes I came across a Dead Rider and Night Terrors that I never took out of the box. When book 4 first came out I was a huge fan of the Night Terrors and proxied them with some old GW bats. After I while I stopped using them and had forgot I even had the models. The Dead Rider isn't really a model I find super useful however it looks cool so I need to paint it up and try to find a niche for it.

Putting the models together I found some of the gaps to be to noticeable for my liking, particularly where the wings join the body on the Night Terrors. Using a little green stuff I sculpted some fur to better hide the joins. The rock formations the models attach to the base with are a little weird so it took some work to get them to blend into the cobblestone bases I'm using for all my Resurectionist models. I think with the right colors the rock outcrops could appear to be broken masonry or statues. 

After a quick base coat and simple wash the models are on their way to being tabletop ready. Next step is to flesh out the details and finish them.

Sixth Edition – Is it worth it?

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Warhammer 40K – It's that time once again when GW rolls out a new rule set for Warhammer 40,000. I haven't really been playing the game often so I'm not overly excited about this and looking at the latest rumors the cost of the new book has significantly increased. ($70+ for a core rule book ... really?) Given the quantities I assume they print this book at for worldwide release I'd love to know how they fail to get the cost down to something more reasonable. Rather then digress into a diatribe about GW's pricing policies I'll try and stay on track.

I really enjoyed the 5th edition rules, I found them to be simple and clear cut. That said I think I played maybe 30 games in total over the course of the four years the edition was out. So while I love the 40K universe and am very attached to my armies (which I will finish someday) I'm just not as excited about this release as others are.

The rumours about the psychic disciplines and other similarities to the latest edition of fantasy seem like they could be interesting if done right. I think I'll wait until the actual product is out and reviewed before I jump back on this bandwagon again. 

 

Summer of Malifaux – World Wide Campaign

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Malifaux – Details were released today for a World Wide Summer Campaign - Dead Heat. I'm looking forward to this as I fondly remember campaigns from other systems. Not only does it get the community on the same page but it also encourages playing a ton of games with a set goal and potential reward.

I'm hoping to get a pretty significant group of players participating in the event all summer long. I'll continue to post updates as they happen.

It looks like each area is going to be worth a point value which will effect the campaign results. As posted on the Wyrd Forum here.

There also appears to be quite a bit of coordination with several podcasts to provide updates.

On the painting table ... CCC

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MERCS – Having completed my Kemvar models, the next step in my plan for 2012 is to finish off the CCC Yellow Jackets for MERCS. For this one I picked up a Kabuki Bug Hunter as I really don't like the Demo Model. I detailed the conversion previously. (WOW it's really been a year ... that's just crazy)

Again this project is fairly simple. I put down all the base colors and shades when I was getting these ready to use on the table. While they look pretty good as is some detail work with get them to the point where I'll be satisfied enough to seal them and call the project done.

Since I'm changing factions I cleared off my painting table and repopulate it with the color I'd chosen for the Yellowjackets. I'm hoping to have these finished by the weekend.

Time to Kill – App Review

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Elder Sign: Omens – As a fan of the Cthulu mythos I was excited to see that Fantasy Flight made an app version of the Elder Sign dice game. I really like their games set in the Mythos but it can be difficult to find opponents willing to sit down for several hours to grinds through a board game. The card game is really fun however it's difficult to squeeze into game nights as it's only two player.

For about $5 you can download this great little game for your iphone (and ipad as well I think). The graphics are beautiful like most Fantasy Flight products and the sound quality is pretty good. 

To start the game you choose which monster you want to face. The three choices match up to easy, regular and hard modes essentially. Then you choose four investigators, from a large selection of characters, each of which provides different in game benefits. 

The game requires you to "solve" mysteries or play through stories. Much like the Cthulu card game these are based on Lovecraft's work and are tied to the mythos. in order to beat a story you have to "roll" dice to generate the correct symbols. Digitally this feels a little more like random chance (yes I know there's not a skill to rolling dice–but physically doing something gives the semblance of control) but the different colors of "dice" have different probabilities of getting a certain symbol. By matching the correct symbols you defeat the story and unlock a new one. Once you've collected the correct number of elder signs you win the game. If all your characters go insane, die or the monster collects the right number of doom symbols before you collect your signs you lose.

The first couple of playthroughs this felt really random and I lost horribly. Once I figured out what the character abilities actually did the game made much more sense and I felt like I could exert more control over what happens. The trick is collecting the right bonus items to help make the difficult "rolls" easier. Also character selection plays a role in this as some characters get bonus dice, free re-rolls or can solve multiple "cases" in a story. 

For the money this is a pretty fun game that you can play solo or pass and play with friends. I like it better than some of the random finger sliding games available for the iphone as it feels like you did something when you finish the game.

 

Crunchy or Smooth - What flavor of RPG fits you?

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Rogue Trader – Having played through the starter adventure for Rogue Trader, I feel like I have a decent grasp of the system. It seems to me that the system provides enough details to play as a cruchy numbers game, while still being fun if you play fast and loose.

Having talked with my player group it seems that most of them like the looser style I used and they prefer to play out the story rather than worry about how to work the system and make their characters god (for now at least). Although it seems that everyone's having fun, I can't help but have this nagging feeling that some of the players want a more crunchy game and they've focused their character to take advantage of the raw numbers.

It seems to me that I can just ignore this nagging feeling and continue to plug away as I have been and the group should still have fun. Or should I make more of an effort to play up the crunchy number aspect of the game?

On the painting table ... Kemvar

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MERCS – After prepping my station, I sat down and evaluated the Kemvar minis I have to finish. This projects is pretty simple because most of the base colors and shading have already been laid out when I was supper geeked about this game last year. Of course I just got them into table top condition so I could use them. 

Now that I'm not carting around the models back and forth to the game store I want to get them into a final state. During the transport they experienced some minor wear since I don't seal unfinished models. 

Step one is to touch up any bare areas with some brush on primer. Even with minor repairs if you don't put down primer the paint doesn't adhere properly and you'll be fixing the same problem down the road. Years of experience have taught me to do it right the first time.

Luckily there wasn't much repair work needed for these so I could jump right into doing the final details and highlights. 

After the paint dried on the final details I finished the bases. For these models I used my 30mm Rock Bases after adding some flock and vegetation I feel like these are a good representation of the jungles in Brazil. For MERCS I decided to based each faction based on their location on the Globe. Usually I like to keep my bases consistent throughout a line (ie skull bases for all Helldorado, desert bases for 40K to match my primary table etc) but for this game I think unique bases for each Megacon makes more sense.

Loose ends ... someday I'll finish

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As of late I've been unable to complete my hobby projects. I'm not sure if it's because I don't have the same amount of time to devote to painting and modeling or if it's because I'm not currently planning mini games on a weekly basis. I'm still doing plenty of modeling, but I'm not felling the drive to complete the projects.

The halfway mark for 2012 is rapidly approaching and I feel the need to take some time to reevaluate the hobby projects that carried over from 2011 and that I started in 2012. 

Downtown Malifaux – I started this overly ambitious project last year. After months of casting and gluing I got the base of the board done and into a playable state. However the goal is to build a set of buildings with balconies and stairway to add multiple levels to the board. In it's current state the board is playable and fun, however once the additional elements are completed it should be phenomenal.

Steps to complete:

  • Build storefront, create a mold for windows, cast railings
  • Learn to use airbrush to finish paint
  • Develop a magnet system to attach buidlings to the base (needs to allow for repositioning and has to hold buildings in place during the game.
  • Create small obstructions and stacks of crates etc. 
  • Possibly investigate lighting options
  • Finish painting and converting the train

Miscellaneous Malifaux – Being overly ambitious and under motivated I'm sitting on a ton of models that need to be painted to completion. My goal is to complete my existing Resurectionists force before the end of the year and to add just enough to my Guild force for larger demo games.

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Helldorado Bloodfalls – This is another overly ambitious project that I started last year. The base is essentially done, just needing some minor highlights and a good layer of sealant. However I need to finish painting the skull piles and build additional elements for the terraforming phase of the game. 

Steps to complete:

  • Paint skull piles
  • Build small obstructions, and other elements
  • Review Terraforming Rules again, build elements to match 

Miscellaneous Helldorado – I really like this game but it seems like Cipher may have bitten off more than they can chew. There are still a ton of models that haven't be released yet and it's difficult to generate a buzz about the game without having the product available. I have a Demon and Saracen force that I want to finsh painting, if I can squeeze it in the Westerner force as well I'd be happy. For this game I think I'll hit the 200 points for a faction and be done. 

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MERCS – I really like this game. Unfortunately my regular gaming group aren't fans, and the group I used to play with is just over an hour away. Currently I'm not able to swing that drive for a Tuesday game night so it seems unlikely I'll get to do much with this in the near future. 

Steps to complete:

  • Finishing painting Kemvar and CCC forces
  • Airbrush and detail Zuzzy Mat
  • Build gentleman's club for dockyard themed terrain set
  • Paint and detail shipping containers
  • Design and build modular chainlink fence system

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Rogue Trader/Inquisimunda – I started building models without really having a solid purpose other than they looked cool and could be used to represent characters in the role-playing game. I still have some modeling to do to complete the building process, but I need to have a direction to go wit them before I move forward with the project. 

Steps to complete: 

  • Develop a plan for what these represent
  • Re-read the Inquisimunda mods for Necromunda, be sure I have a dedicated group
  • Prime and paint

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Incursion – I built and primed the German starter force for this game. I'm planning on picking up the Allied starter at some point as well. I really like the game but as it's a two player only it very rarely gets time on the table. Which is a shame considering how much fun it is. 

Steps to complete:

  • Finish painting the Germans i have
  • Build, prime and paint the German Zombies I picked up from Mantic
  • Pick-up Allied starter

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Random 40K 

Twilight Ravens – My ongoing project to complete a full company of Space Marines hasn't seen much progress. I was on a roll during the Badab War campaign we did and then interest petered off for 40K. I'm dreading the release of a new edition of the game as it tends to invalidate the choices made with the previous version. Luckily the fluff and basic configurations of Space Marines has remained fairly consistent so perhaps I'll get back into this project later this year.

Steps to complete: 

  • Paint and detail remaining squads of Marines, vehicles etc
  • Finish buildings squad leader options

Space Ship Interior – During our Badab War campaign I started building a space ship interior. I wasn't exactly sure the best way to create a functional maze and just made it up as I went along. Since it wasn't ready in time for that portion of the campaign we used my Malifaux Sewer board in it's place. Recently Forgeworld has released Zone Mortalis and it's given me new inspiration on how to do this project properly. 

Steps to complete:

  • Cut existing MDF down to 12"x12" squares
  • Reexamine the grid system to be sure it's flexible enough
  • Build new wall sections to fit Alpha, Beta and Gamma patterns

Slaanesh Daemons – This project has been on the back burner for a long time. (At one point I had them completed and won some awards at local events for best painted. Like a jackass I decided that I could do a better job and stripped them down.) I'm not a huge fan of an all daemon army as it's pretty unreliable. But the look of them is amazing on the table and I'd love to complete this project someday. Perhaps is the rumours of allies in 6th edition are true I'll be able to use my old chaos marine force again (uggh that means another huge project to finish)

 

Soul Drinkers ... A review of sorts

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Way back in 2002, I picked up a 40K novel called Soul Drinker, by Ben Counter. I was amazed at how great the book was and couldn't wait for the more tales of this space marine chapter. Two years later the follow up Bleeding Chalice was released and continued the intriguing tales of this Chapter that turns from the Imperium of Man. The series continued over the next few years with the sixth and supposedly final book being released this year.

Over the course of the books the trials and tribulations of this chapter (that strays from the light only to seek redemption after realizing the trickery that led them down the wrong path) are detailed in action packed stories that leave you wanting more.

I'm not going to do a full recap of the books but in summary, Sarpedon, leds his chapter in conflict against the Adeptus Mechanicus, which leads to a chapter war. Becoming renegades they continue to fight with their own agenda eventually being tracked down and captured.

The sixth book, Phalanx picks up after that capture and attempts to tie up all the loose ends of the book. While I enjoyed the book, it really felt like the author was rushing through to tie up all the plot hooks he planted in the other novels. For people who don't like loose ends you'll be satisfied.

Some of the resolutions seemd to be a case of, "these are my characters, I'm ending this so there's no way anyone else can pick up the torch." Which is understandable, when the Gotrek and Feliz books continued under a different author, they didn't quite have the same magic as the older stories. 

Book Review – Know No Fear

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Warhammer 40K – I just finished reading the two latest books from the Horus Heresy series. Deliverance Lost and Know No Fear. Both were excellent reads and continue the detailed exploration of the pivotal events that shaped the Warhammer 40K universe as we know it today.

Deliverance Lost explores the actions of Corax, primarch of the Raven Guard Legion after the dropsite massacre. While I enjoyed the book, it left me feeling a bit let down. Most of the other Legion specific books go into great detail about the practices and culture of the Legion. This book focused almost solely on Corax's single minded quest to rebuild his legion to get back into the fight.

While it was nice to have the two paragraphs from the Raven Guard Index Astrates covered in more detail, I still feel like the story falls into the trap of these are the sneaky marines that do hit and run, they don't talk about what goes on.

In my mind the the real stars of the show are the Alpha Legion, the villians of this tale. We get to see more of their inner working in this book and see what drives them. I don't want to go into to much detail to spoil the surprises and plot twists. 

Know No Fear details the attack on Cath by the Word Bearers Legion. This is my favorite book in the series so far. Dan Abnett does a great job refecting the confusion caused by the attack with his writing style. The snippets of information remind me of the news casts during the 9/11 attacks and make the book very hard to put down.

Rather then focusing on one character throughout as most of the other books have done, Know No Fear jumps around telling the tale from multiple viewpoints and focuing on the scale of the conflict. 

This book filled in the gaps for me on why GW's poster boy marines weren't directly involved in most of the Heresy background material. From what I can remember there was a small blurb or two about the Ultramarines being sent to the far reaches of the galaxy and unable to reach Terra. This book explains exactly why they couldn't make it, and hints at the beginings of the Codex Astrates.

Mechanically Inclined

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Rogue Trader – I'm continuing my quest to build up a rogues gallery of models to use in the Rogue Trader RPG I'm running. I found some unique models to represent Tech Priests and Explorators in the Iron Brotherhood line from Microarts Studios. Shipping was pretty quick considering they're coming from Poland, and the models arrived well packed in a sturdy box.

Opening them up the models had a fair amount of flash and getting the arms to fit was tricky. However getting things from a small boutique shop it's to be expected to have some extra clean up. On the tracked model which was resin there are a few minor bubbles that I should be able to fill of minimize their appearance. The metal models are pretty crisp with good detail. The remind me of better quality early Citadel minis. Minor gripe about the arms on the models with rifles, the ball joints don't line up and require a bit of bending to get a solid join. 

Not content with the look of most of the minis straight of of the box I'm doing some conversion work to make them fit with the look I'm trying to achieve. I'm most exciting about the tracked unit as I have been meaning to create a heavy weapons trooper for my team of adventurers. Going through my bitz box I was able to find some Tau gattling guns which I mounted to either arm. I added some pieces from the Cities of Death models to build a generator unit on the back and will add some cabling to tie it into the guns. I figure creating a generic looking gun mount will allow it to be flexible and count as whatever the team decides it needs at the moment.

The basic troopers with rifles are great out of the box. Aside from the minor issue with the arms I just had to pin them to the base and clean some minor mold lines. I think these will count as Tech Guard or generic Explorators. 

The other models came with some oddly shaped mechanical arms. I'm not really feeling them and am in search of some bitz to give each of these models more character. I feel one of them at least needs a servo arm and or Mechandrites. 

Working in the Big Easy

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Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Emerge conference in New Orleans. This doesn't really have anything to do with my hobby site but more to do with my real job. However the trip was pretty fun and I feel the need to share. Also at the conference I was able to meet some print buyers from various game manufacturers.

Essentially the conference was set up to showcase a variety of print vendors as well as provide some interesting keynote speaches revolving around branding.

The coolest part of the conference was the Mardi Gras parade to wrap up. We basically shut down the downtown area during rush hour to treck from the Hyat Regency to the House of Blues in a caravan of 19 floats with 3 marching bands. I doubt I'll ever have an experieince like that again.

Nemisises, Nemisii ...something like that

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Rogue Trader – Continuing on the 40K kick I've been on I've been building more models. Some of these could be used as NPCs on the my Players Groups vessel and the others will represent a Rogue's Gallery or recurring villain.

First up is the rival rouge trader. This is based off a Reaper model with some minimal weapon swaps. I think the modified plasma pistol/gun comes off as pretty lethal. I armed him with a Xenos blade which to me screams bad guy or at the very least morally flexible. To accompany this villain I created twin combat servitors each wielding a plasma pistol and chain blade. If you had vast sums of money and resources at your expense would you really have a walking corpse that looks the part as a body guard? I think not which is why these servitors are modeled after some favorite servants/mistresses that wronged the trader in some way.

The next model can double as a house agent or another trader if need be. I really like the model as it came stock and didn't do any modifications. The watch/compass fots so well with the naval feel I wanted.

I found the Chronoscope Crime boss to be a great fit as well with minor weapon swaps he can play a variety of potential "boss" characters or a brawny member of the crew.

For the Rogue Trader I chose a Privateer Press model and made a weapon swap. The look an feel of these fit really well with the piratey/naval look portrayed in the Rogue Trader books.

The mechanic doesn't really fit in with the established Mechanicus fluff and I see her more as a technosavant maybe a psyker with and affinity for machines. Or a random rouge fixer. In some of the Necromunda fluff there's reference to all types of individuals in the underhive so it makes sense that real mechanics might exist.

I really need to track down some guitar wire to finish these off, unfortunately all the music stores  near me have closed up shop. 

 

Special Guest Painter

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Malifaux – Today I'd like to take a moment to share my daughter's WIP Collette Crew for Malifaux. After reading through Book 2 she insisted on getting the showgirls to paint, not only did she like the back story but she also really liked the models. Of course not wanting to discourage any interest in gaming I picked them up for her.

After I assembled and primed them (she's 12 and slightly accident prone so x-acto blades are out of the question right now), she set to work picking out a color pallet for her crew. This time around she really wanted my opinion and suggestions on technique, which was a proud moment for me to be able to share the secrets of a washing and highlighting with her. 

So far I think the crew is looking really good and I'm impressed with the color choices she made, as I never would have thought to go in that direction.

On the modeling table ...

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Incursion – Having finished the base sculpts I was working on I've assembled the German Starter box of models for Incursion. The models went together easily and there was very little flash and mold lines to clean up on the models in my box.

Hans was probably the most difficult of the models. The pipes require some bending to get them to fit properly, and a rather delicate. Also the ball joint on his harpoon arm didn't really have an obvious attachment point so it took a bit of trial and error to get the arm properly mounted. 

Both Greta and Ilsa have extremely delicate legs so removing the tabs from them took some time and patience. I was impressed with the join for Ilsa's arm as it fit perfectly in the hole and required no additional drilling. 

I'm looking forward to painting these models up. I need to prime them and the weather has been uncooporative as of late. usually I'd just go to the garage to prime them but with a baby in the house I'm concerned about the fumes wafting in. 

Crewing a Rogue Trader Vessel

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Rogue Trader – I recently spent some time creating models for my upcoming Rogue Trader Campaign. While it's not necessary to have miniatures to represent the crew and the various NPCs they might encounter, I think it will add to the experience. I also might reuse the models if I can convince my group to try out Inquisimunda. I've been following this thread in the background for a long time and think the idea of playing Necromunda with characters you generate like a RPG sounds like a ton of fun. Of course you have to have a group in the right mindset and someone to act as a GM, but it might be the natural progression of the game I'm running.

Digging through my bits box I was able to find some suitable bits and pieces to make some characters. I've found the Empire Range from GW has plenty to work with for the base of these types of characters. I also have a hefty collection of Necromunda models that I could draw from to build what I need.

First up is the Navigator, I used the Empire Battle wizard as a base and added a different head and some other techy bits. I'm happy with the results so far and need to do quite a bit more work on the paint job. Blue is the color typically associate with psykers in the 40K universe so I stuck with the traditional scheme.

Next is the Void Master, this was just a simple weapon swap with the Underhive Scum model. I've always liked the character of the model, just looking at him you can easily imagine how his life took a downward turn. He seems to have just enough of a mean streak to make an effective Voidmaster.

The Arch-Militant was also a simple head and weapon swap. I used the old model of Iron Hand Straken and snipped off the head and plasma pistol. The replacement head is from the Empire Flagellates set. The player who created the character insists on playing an insane raging psychopath, so I figured given him an iron mask made sense. That way he can bite anybody.

For the Seneschal I used the old Imperial Missionary Body and swapped out the arms and backpack. For this character I see him as running errands for the captain and keeping track of the shipping dockets. Rather than doing a data slate I thought a book was more characterful. I positioned the arm so It looks like he's running and firing behind him.

The fiery Missionary was interesting to build. I used the Flagellate body as a base and added a flamer and the book I snipped off another model. I like how creepy the final model looks, definitely not someone you want to get in discussion about the merits of Xenos tech with.

I also made a generic Voidfarer model. I imagine this will be an NPC that sets the seeds of each adventure in motion. I used a Tau body for the suit and added a grizzled head with an ancient looking gun. Holding a map seems to be the best way to start a quest so that's what he's holding.

I still have to find some models for the Rogue Trader, Explorator and some rivals but I might find more inspiration in my bitz box. 

Let's Pretend!

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Rogue Trader – I've finally read through the full rulebook and am preparing to GM for the first time. In preparation I've listened to numerous play sessions and have read through the various prepared adventures. I'm hoping the game will run smoothly, but I'm a bit nervous about my player group and them jumping to far from the story. Making stuff up on the fly shouldn't be to hard but I really want to use all the material I have.

The other night I got the group together to build their characters. I really like the origin path system as it easily gives the characters a backstory. I had the players start with their career and work backwards. Most of the players just did what sounded cool without reading the stat modifiers. It was easy to do as a group because I could just read off the modifiers after everyone drew their path.

After everyone was done with the basic character stats we have: Rogue Trader, noble born from a failing Dynasty; an Explorator on the run form the law; a trigger happy Navigator; a Seneshal manservant; an angry imperial guard deserter as the Voidmaster; a xenophobic Missionary; and a bat-shit crazy Ex-Militant. 

This should be fun. If you want to learn more about the system check out this link.

Family Game Night

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Boardgames – Over the weekend I brought back our regular family game day. This time around in an effort to reduce arguments about what we should play I came up with a system. To start each family member writes their name on two slips of paper and puts them in a hat (or any other vessel). The person whose name is drawn throws out their slip and gets to pick the game. The winner of that game puts an additional slip of paper with their name into the hat. My hope is that by using this system we'll be able to play more games and and improve the variety of the games we do play.

This week my daughter won the first pick, so we played Master Detective Clue. This was the shortest game of Clue I've ever played, as my wife got lucky with her first guess and solved it after only 3 turns. Because the game was so short we decided to draw again to play another game.

This time around my wife won the draw and spent a while at the shelves. Eventually she came back with a game called Titanic. I didn't even know we owned this game and was surprised to see that the components were still in the original sealed baggies. Looking it over I wasn't thrilled with the components and the idea of a game based on Titanic from 1998, made me cringe.

I was however pleasantly surprised, the game has some interesting mechanics. The beginning of the game forces players to run around collecting their belongings before they can move on to the next area of the board. It's somewhat frustrating as you have to have an exact die roll to enter any of the areas where you can purchase your items (passport, room key, life vest, health card, and belongings). If a player lands on the same space as another player they have to give up a gossip card (similar to Chance cards in Monopoly) and if one player has a health card and the other doesn't they get infected and lose the card. I liked the attempt at simulating passengers bustling about on the lower decks.

Once you've collected all your stuff you move on to first class. This part of the game is a bit of a depature as it plays just like Life from this point on. Roll the dice, move do what the space says, repeat. Interestingly their are plenty of spaces that force you back to the begining unless you have a bellhop token (basically a get out of jail card). Eventually you make it to the lifeboats and win the game.

While it wasn't ground breaking or super innovative the game was fun to play. It probably helped that the trailers for Titanic 3D started over the weekend. As the 100 year anniversary of the tragedy is next month.