ThreeTale - Fairy Tale Adventures

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Board Games - Often I get really odd games that I’ve never heard of crossing my painting table, ThreeTale is one of them. The miniatures are a very odd mix of styles that I for the life of me couldn’t figure out what this game is about. Looking it up on Board Game Geek I can see it has a pretty high rating and and interesting description from the publisher:

ThreeТale is a cooperative adventure game for 3 players who choose their fairytale heroes with stories going way back. Each hero has their asymmetric talents. The gameplay’s a combination of variable player powers in the form of virtues, strategic tile placement and a little bit of dice rolling.

As a team, the tree players go through four phases – Prophecy Phase, Past, Present, and Future.

In the Prophecy phase, three scenarios of future doom are mystically revealed, holding hints to help the players draft their heroes. In the Past phase, every hero gets the chance to develop their stats and talents to be mighty enough to save the world from eternal doom. The heroes’ miniatures move through the tile-built board, thus collecting Virtues, Shevitsa and Speed cubes. They also enter Battles, complete Quests and collect Treasures and Artifacts by drawing cards.

Upon completing the Past Phase, the heroes enter the Present, where it is revealed which of the three prophecies will be fulfilled. Then, the Future comes, knocking on the door. Each Future has its own backstory, inhabitants and win condition. What will it take to save the world? Will you battle a mighty enemy, will you aim to gather lots of precious recourses, or will you simply fight for your own survival? Come and see for yourselves…

—description from the designer

Heroes of Might & Magic - Board Game

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Board Games - It seems that I get quite a few games based on video game properties crossing my painting table. It’s interesting that many of them do a decent job pulling mechanics or theme from the source material to create a different experience.

Heroes of Might & Magic does this fairly well, you have a hero that loots town and fights monsters to move through the various adventures included in each expansion box.

Arkies - Steampunk Mummies and More

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Board Games - Sticking with the spooky theme Arkies is a Steampunk Adventure game that takes place in Egypt exploring a forgotten tomb. The game features a large amount of miniatures that were pretty fun to paint.

Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to play this but the description from the publisher is pretty interesting:

History is full of secrets...

As they explore an ancient Egyptian tomb, a team of archaeologists and adventurers stumble upon a mystery that History forgot. To uncover the truth, they will have to delve deeper and deeper in the pyramids, dodging deadly traps and fighting back swathes of monsters running after them. Has the old Pharaoh placed a curse on this expedition? Should some secrets remain untold? This story is now yours to complete...

Arkeis is a cooperative, story-driven, campaign game with minis set among ancient Egyptian ruins.
Each player takes control of an adventurer as they explore a modular board.
Players have up to two actions per turn: search, move, assist an ally or fight one of the numerous dangers waiting for them in the tombs! The results of their actions can be altered by the equipment and character upgrades they earn during the campaign.
They can push their luck at the risk of being cursed or suffering lasting traumas from injuries!
Each character has their own backpack to store their items (and curses) between adventures.
Each scenario has objectives that the players will try to accomplish during the game to earn rewards in the form of key items and upgrades that influence later scenarios.

It will take a team of skilled players to reveal all of Arkeis’s secrets!

Euthia: Torment of Resurection

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Board Games - Euthia is an open world sandbox game that can be played with 1-4 players. It uses a tile system to generate a new world each time you play so you can take your band of heroes and have a new adventure each time. The miniatures are pretty big and decently detailed.

Season of The Witcher

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Board Games - The Witcher Board Game. Starting off October with an Image dump of the minis from The Witcher Board Game.

Ignite - Expansions

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Board Games - Ignite is a weird little battle game where you track damage by sticking swords in the back of the models. These are a super basic paint job just to make them look a little better on the table.

ignite dragon

Robinson Crusoe - Ultimate Edition Miniatures

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Board Games - Robinson Crusoe is a pretty classic game that has released an Ultimate edition that has some really great miniatures. Each miniature has two identical versions that you use on two different boards during gameplay. There is also a really cool shelter model that stacks up as you improve upon your home base.

Robinson Crusoe - Shelter Model

I haven’t had a chance to play but the description from the manufacturer sounds interesting:

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is a game created by Ignacy Trzewiczek, the author of Stronghold. This time Trzewiczek takes the players to a deserted island, where they'll play the parts of shipwreck survivors confronted by an extraordinary adventure. They'll be faced with the challenges of building a shelter, finding food, fighting wild beasts, and protecting themselves from weather changes. Building walls around their homes, animal domestication, constructing weapons and tools from what they find, and much more await them on the island. The players decide in which direction the game will unfold and – after several in-game weeks of hard work – how their settlement will look. Will they manage to discover the secret of the island in the meantime? Will they find a pirate treasure, or an abandoned village? Will they discover an underground city or a cursed temple at the bottom of a volcano? Answers to these questions lie in hundreds of event cards and hundreds of object and structure cards that can be used during the game...
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is an epic game from Portal. You will build a shelter, palisade, weapons, you will create tools like axes, knives, sacks, you will do everything you can to… to survive. You will have to find food, fight wild beasts, protect yourself from weather changes…
Take the role of one of four characters from the ship crew (cook, carpenter, explorer, or soldier) and face the adventure. Use your determination skills to help your teammates, discuss with them your plan, and put it into practice. Debate, discuss, and work on the best plan you all can make.
Search for treasures. Discover mysteries. Follow goals of six different, engaging scenarios. Start by building a big pile of wood and setting it on fire to call for help, and then start new adventures. Become an exorcist on cursed Island. Become a treasure hunter on Volcano Island. Become a rescue team for a young lady who’s stuck on rock island…
Let the adventure live!

Mythwind

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Board Games - Mythwind is a unique adventure board game with some very cute miniatures.

From the publisher:

Mythwind is a cooperative & solo "cozy" board game with unique characters, magical sprites, engaging story and an unending adventure.

During the game, the characters are working together to establish and build a new town in the magical Mythwind Valley. They work to achieve various goals by constructing buildings within the town, adventuring throughout the region, navigating relationships with the mysterious sprites who inhabit the valley, and developing their character-specific professions.

As an open-ended game, Mythwind has no distinct conclusion. Although many players may find a natural end point to their game at the conclusion of the story, players can continue to play the game for as long as they would like over as many game sessions as they wish. As players progress through the game, their town will develop and grow, reacting to changing seasons and to the members of the community over time. Progress made can be easily saved using the provided game trays, which offer a quick and easy solution for both tear-down of the current game and setup of future games.

Tamashi - Cyber Punk

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Board Games - Tamashi is a cyber punk game with a unique look. I tried to paint these in a distinct style that mimicks the look of the board and cards.

From the publisher:

Tamashii is a cyberpunk adventure board game with a post-apocalyptic vibe. Players will struggle to survive and pursue their agendas in two worlds at the same time - the physical one, filled with deadly machines and merciless human survivors, and the virtual one, prowled by tracking software and vicious viruses.

Players will try to achieve their goals on a modular city map. They will find new locations, fight against strong enemies and search for important information and files needed to win the game.

The second part of the game takes action on a virtual map. Here you will try to hack your opponents, unlock special bonuses or get one-time bonuses for completing the sequences.

The game may be played in different scenarios. You might have to cooperate with other players, play against them or even make an alliances with your enemies. But watch every step you take; every conflict, cooperation or alliance might be a double-edged sword.

Twisted Fables

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Board Games - Twisted Fables is a deck builder that combines fairy tales with old-school arcade fighting mechanics. The miniatures are great and the deluxe edition has a pretty amazing art book.

From the publisher:

Twisted Fables is a fast-paced fairy tale fighting game inspired by old-school 2D arcade fighters. In Twisted Fables players take on the roles of beloved heroines from some of history's most famous stories, myths, and legends. Plucked from their traditional settings, these characters have been thrown into a world of cybernetic assassins, magical manipulations, and malevolent darkness. These are not the classic characters you remember, but rather superpowered fables drawn from their own lands to battle across sweeping, bizarre alternate dimensions and realities. What mysterious force has drawn them together? What is the purpose of their war? Only the Weaver of Tales knows for certain.

Driven by deck building, Twisted Fables is a game for two players in 1v1 Mode or four players in 2v2 Mode (available with the separately released 2v2 Upgrade Pack.) In the game, each warrior will strengthen their abilities, learn potent new skills, unlock devastating special powers, and use unique asymmetric strategies to defeat their opponents. Even the same character may display completely different fighting styles depending on her player's decisions. The different specializations a character can choose from not only provide fantastically flexible tactical choices, but also offer one more layer of depth and surprise to this frenetic, frantic fighter. Twisted Fables brings a highly interactive experience to deck builders that you'll want to come back to again and again.

The book is opened. The fables have arisen. Let's begin.

Ignite - Backstabbing Skirmish Game

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Board Games - Ignite is a unique board game that tracks wounds via daggers in the backs of the models.

From the publisher:

Many ages have past since the use of magic broke the world. Since then, the races of Oshos have lived in an unstable peace. Yet as memory slips to myth, and myth slips to legend, the "Great Races" once more begin meddling with magic, and the tainted power corrupts the land yet again. Lava swallows up whole villages and a terrible famine spreads. "Lower" nomadic races begin rising up, pillaging and raiding nearby towns for food. Peace is no longer an option. War is here, and only one race can reign supreme.

Ignite is a dueling deckbuilder where players battle miniatures across a variably built board. Each player has 3 units of their chosen race, each with its own asymmetrical race ability.

Each unit has 3 hit points. When your unit takes a point of damage you insert a dagger into the back of the miniature. The player who inflicts the last point of damage keeps the unit as a trophy. Whoever has the most trophies at the end of the game wins.

Each card in your hand can be played for its honor value (allowing you to buy more cards) or for its battle effect (affecting your units and cards). Knowing when to battle and when to invest is incredibly important.

In the middle of the board is the bazaar. While one of your units is here it may sell a card. Selling a card allows you to trash it (removing it permanently from your deck) and gain honor equal to its original cost, allowing you to buy more powerful cards. The bazaar is powerful, but also dangerous as your opponents are often right there next to you.

There are 4 special types of terrain inIgniteand you'll have to choose how best to use them.

  • Village: Allows you to purchase a card, but a successful attack against you will do additional damage.

  • Forest: Protects you from ranged attacks, but fire attacks will spread through the entire forest.

  • Water: Necessary for certain powerful spells, but freeze and lightning attacks will spread through the entire body of water.

  • Lava: If you are pushed into lava, your unit immediately dies.

In Ignite there is a strength and weakness to everything. Invest too early in powerful magic attacks, and you won't have any honor to purchase more valuable equipment when you need it. Invest in bows and arrows to gain a range advantage over the enemy, but remember, you can only shoot arrows if you also have a bow in your hand. Prefer getting up close and personal with melee weapons? Just be sure you have mounts available to bring your unit within striking distance.

Ignite comes from our love of deckbuilders. The main complaints against deckbuilders are that they (1) have minimal player interaction, playing a lot like solitaire (2) have an anti-climactic end-game (3) often feel the same after a few games. We built a deckbuilder where negotiation, alliance-making, and begging were legitimate strategies. Where the end of the game is the most exciting part. And where you will never play the same game twice (between the asymmetric race abilities, variably built board, and incredibly varied weapons, items, and spells).

Redwood - A Game of Picture Taking

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Board Games - Redwood is a unique spatial awareness game in which you are a photographer trying to capture the perfect picture of wildlife.

From the publisher:

Redwood is a game of movement estimations and angle of view where players have to take pictures of wild animals to compose the most beautiful panorama. The game is for 1 to 4 players, ages 10+ and the games last about 45-60 min.

During their turn, each player will have to choose between different movements and their angle of view (materialized by real plastic elements) to catch the animals in the picture (without disturbing them).

Collecting animals and decorative elements earn victory points.

During the game, new conditions for earning points will appear.

The game ends after 5 turns and players will be rewarded if they meet certain conditions to earn more points.

Pest - Fighting the Plague

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Board Games - Pest features some really cool Plague Doctor miniatures.

Description from publisher:

Our once great Empire was struck by a devastating plague… will you answer the call to save it?

Once standing tall and great, we now need to rediscover and rebuild our fallen cities. There are still survivors among the ruins – we must take them in our care and cure them. In order to stay ahead of the plague, we must implement new inventions and technologies. Our influence will expand as we rebuild, but the plague will still lurk in the shadows, ready to strike when we least expect it. Once it does, it will be difficult to adapt, but we will survive. In addition to the procurement of important resources, our imperative will be to get the plague under control.

In Pest, players slip into the roles of leaders of the ruling houses of a once great empire that was struck by a cataclysmic plague. The plague has left much of the empire in ruins, so now it is up to the players to restore it to its former glory.

Pest is played in 6 rounds. Each round before players take their turn, a plague card will be revealed which shows how the plague will spread in that round. On their turn, players will be able to select among many actions on their player board using a unique action selection system. Thus, players will be able to move their containment team on the board, quarantine and cure infected people, rebuild, assign workers, harvest for resources, and more.

As their house influence grows, players will be able to play more actions, generate more resources, and house more people. This will bring forth new technological advancements which are much needed to get the plague under control.

The game ends after the 6 round is over and players count their final amount of Renown (victory points). The player with the most Renown is the winner and declared the savior of the empire!

The Isofarian Guard

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Board Games – Narrative solo games can be pretty intense, The Isofarian Guard lives up to this it’s a massive box with miniatures and quest books. The miniatures are unique as each one has two models joined together.

From the publisher:
The Isofarian Guard is a solo/co-op narrative driven adventure board game for 1-2 players.

Welcome to Isofar, a wild land severe in its beauty. The Isofarian people take great pride in their ability to flourish among the hostile wildlife and cruel elements of their mountainous home. As a member of the Isofarian guard, life is never dull. You try to keep the peace among your fellow Isofarians (a never-ending job), as well as deal with constant threats from the aggressive Falmund Empire to the south.

But now, the old patterns are shifting. New forces are at work that will challenge the very underpinnings of reality. You will guide eight different Isofarian Guards throughout 5 interweaving campaigns as they deal with a power that threatens not only Isofar, but the entire world.

In The Isofarian Guard, you will travel throughout the cities and wildernesses of Isofar on a beautifully illustrated world map, fight off enemies using a unique and highly customizable battle system, and use your wits to talk your way out of sticky situations. As you forge important alliances, opportunities will arise for you to craft stronger gear, gain new powers, and step into the destiny you were called to.

Hybris - Greek Gods

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Board Games – Hybris: Disordered Cosmos is a worker placement game that combines Greek Myth with a Digital Utopia.

From the publisher:
Hybris is a boardgame of worker placement, opportunity and development. For 2 – 4 players for game session around 120 minutes. A solo mode will be included during the Kickstarter campaign.

Primodials Gods have fallen. Hunted, captured and tortured by their children, Chronos and his congeners are nothing but remnants of an ancient world. Era of Olympians has just begun. After aeons of fightings, a new order is established. Zeus, his brothers and sisters took the dominion of the heavens and the mortals world. Now they are trying to organize themselves to share the remaining realms and know who will be the new ruler.

But Olympians are not yet real gods, they must evolve, activate the spark that will turn them into a true god even if their current strength is colossal. Moreover, they must establish their domination in the realm of mortals, and to do this, use the essence of their father: the Aegis. This energy comes directly from the Primordials themselves who are captured and chained in the underworld. With this energy, Olympians can meet the expectations of the largest cities in Ancient Greece by deploying the most beautiful and promising technologies.

Play your god to build technologies, accomplishing quest, fight heroes, upgrade your Divinity Sparkle and win the game by unlocking all your Divine Enhancements or by victory points in the 6th Age turn.

Anno Domino 1666 - Expansion

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Board Games – 1666 is a skirmish board game where player battle using a variety of factions. These two are one of the expansions for the game.

From the publisher:
It is the year of our Lord 1666. Emperor Leopold is dead. The election looms. European monarchs send their envoys to Vienna to participate. But the struggle for the Empire's future takes place not only at the noble courts. In Vienna's slums and alleys swashbucklers, musketeers and thugs wage a secret war on behalf of their powerful superiors.

Anno Domini 1666 is a tactical adventure miniatures game in which two players pit their bands against each other in order to achieve specific goals defined by a scenario. The game takes place on boards depicting 17th-century Vienna with a grid overlay. Dice rolls are replaced by cards either played from a player's hand, or drawn blindly from a deck. A scenario's objectives may include defeating the opponents in combat, but also stealing a valuable object or breaking out a hostage, among others.

The theme and characters of the game are based on real-world history, historical novels (such as Three Musketeers) but also feature magic, alchemy, wizards and fantastical creatures. The participating factions are the Poles, the French, the Ottomans and the evil sect Broken Cross. They can get help from the Vienna locals (thugs, urchins, merchants) and famous mercenaries. The process of building a band is fast and streamlined thanks to a draft system.

Kilforth - Fully Painted

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Board Games – Kilforth is a fantasy card game that produced a set of miniatures for the characters featured in it.

From the publisher:
Gloom of Kilforth is a card game of high fantasy with a Gothic edge, playable in 1-3 hours, where 1-4 players, working individually or together, must take their humble adventurers on a journey through a dark world of magic and peril. They will visit strange places, stranger people and overcome powerful enemies in their mission to discover mysterious artefacts and mystical Spells. Players follow their Hero’s tale from modest beginnings through an epic story to an exciting climactic battle for the fate of the world. Gloom of Kilforth takes about 45 minutes per player to play.

Gargoyles - Fully Painted

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Board Games - Gargoyles was part of the Disney Afternoon in the 1990’s it was a pretty cool cartoon that was supposed to be appeal to a more male demographic like the films the studio released in the time period (Altantis, Treasure Planet etc) it didn’t really work as intended but the films and shows of this time have a pretty solid cult following.

Battle for Eternia - Wrath of Snake Mountain

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Board Games - I don’t think I ever owned any of the Snake Men from the Masters of the Universe, they came out toward the end of the series and I think I had changed my focus to G.I. Joe and video games by then.I remember them from the TV Show and the various commercials.