Stygia and Airbrush Practice

I've been busy this week trying to finish off as couple of projects.
Firstly I have now painted everything in the Stygia expansion of the Conan Miniatures game.  I've got the quality of the sculpts whilst not ground breaking are very serviceable and not bad considering they are made of a softer plastic than say the gripping beast or warlord plastic figures.  The scorpions were a bit fiddly to do as they had to be removed from the base to allow the base to be textured and painted and then re-fixed, just a bit time consuming.  If you look at the giant scorpion you can see my first attempt on the claws of fading black on the tips into red and then into the body, a bit ham fisted but I wasn't to sad as this was my first attempt.



 


 

 

Evil Thoth Amon, the bad guy
 



The Hero from the Sytgian set, I always find shades of blue difficult to do.





Smaller scorpions, there are 10 of these bad boys in the set



Oh good grief, how shit am I at keeping this blog up to date?
There has been a lot going on at the moment, not least my poor old dad being poorly and requiring a hospital stay, which has been stressful, time consuming to the point that my gaming has had to take a back seat for a day or two.
In between I have still managed to get plenty of painting projects in and a couple of more local war gaming shows in.  I was impressed by the growth and improvements in the Peterborough war game show in September and at the opposite end of the scale was sad at how the change of venue for the Derby (not in Derby) war game show had spoiled what was once one of my favourite shows.

New purchase wise I have snagged a copy of the reprint of the board game Glass Road, and whilst only having played a learn the rules games and a solo play I can see there is potential there for a great game.  The game is recognisable as a game by the designer Uwe Rosenberg at a country mile away, with elements that feel a little like Caverna and that idea of trying to solve the puzzle of building an engine to earn points.  I suspect with the card playing aspect it will have some great interaction with 3 players and up.

To aid in my figure and model painting I also recently invested a small fortune in and air brush and compressor set supplied by the very helpful people at Barwell Bodyworks.  I was a little frightened of it at first, but slowly with practice am becoming more efficient.  Its been great for under coating models and have noticed it gives a more even and finer coat which doesn't mask or smother details on the figures and for painting larger areas of bases and buildings it has been a great help.  I'm now moving on to more detailed work like pre shading, keep an eye out for forthcoming results.  Also if you buy an air brush don't forget to buy plenty of the cleaning agent, you'll get through more than you think.

The last few months have been more than difficult as I suddenly lost one of my oldest gaming buddies who suffered a heart attack whilst on holiday.  It was a sudden shock for all family and friends and I was amazed at the strength of his son, my god son during the whole thing, he proved himself to be an outstanding young man.  I was tasked with sorting through all the gaming related things, some which were sold to raise funds for the family.  It was a difficult job and very emotional and brought back some happy memories of time we had spent together painting figures, role playing and generally being a bit geeky before it was fashionable.  There was one item which my god son wanted me to have, it was a certificate awarded to my friend by myself for the untimely death of his character during a Call of Cthulhu roleplaying campaign I ran back in the early 1990's, this item is framed and will serve as a happy reminder of what good friends and what good times we can have playing games.

All the best

MDF Japanese torri gate being constructed, a new bit of scenery for Test of Honour the samurai skirmish game

Completed torri gate, airbrushed in no time, pretty pleased with how it looks

28/32mm Dr Who Sea Devils for the skirmish game produced by warlord.  Mixture of airbrush and traditional brush work on these bad boys

Glass Road board game, a nice game with solid components but at nearly £60 what kind of fool would buy it?   Oh I did!



 

Games Day #4

This weekend just past saw me hosting (I must add with the help of my wife and some other keen group members) the 4th all day open games day event for the Northants Board and Card Gamers Collective.   I always get very worried leading up to these events, and seem to only focus on the things that can go wrong, but it never fails to be a good day with lots of people having fun.
This time we ended up with around 40 people, most of whom stayed for the entire day, its great to see a mix of age groups and gender all have a great time.  As for games being played it was once again a mixture of light weight family games, co-operative, more advanced designer type games and social deduction family games.
The pace of the day was a bit busy at the beginning with everyone turning up and I like to make sure that people are introduced and comfortable but when things slowed down a little I managed to get a game of Imhotep played and a few rounds of love letter.
I'm awaiting feed back from the group but with the exception of someone managing to get themselves locked in to the car park I feel it went well and look forward to the next one.

Not really had much time to think about blogging this week.  I'm hosting the 4th Games Day event for the Northants Board and Card Gamers Collective and the run up to this take a bit of time just making sure everything is set and in place.
As any one who knows me will tell you, I do tend to whittle and think of worst case scenarios so there is a big list of stuff that makes me anxious before these event.  I really want it to be fun for all who turn up, inclusive for everyone and to spread the word of what fun gaming can bring.
I've made a list of things that worry me, in no particular order...

• The event letting us down and not arriving to open up
• No one turning up and the event being a total flop
• People not enjoying themselves and not wanting to come again
• A drink being spilt on some ones game
• Some one getting so upset they flip a table

To be fair at the previous events none of this has ever happened so I suspect my worries may be founded only on my over active imagination.

If you are free on Sunday 19th March 2017 and in the Wellingborough area please feel free to pop in and see what is happening, you will be made welcome.  For further details check out the website at www.gamesday.moonfruit.com

Fields of Green - A Review

Suggested 2-4 players, duration around 45 minutes

This review looks at Artipia Games new offering 'Fields of Green', designed by Vangelis Bagiartakis.  This is a re-theme of their previous game 'Among the Stars', which I have never played or seen out of the box, so will draw no comparisons during this review.  Fields of Green was recently rolled off the Kickstarter wagon into my eagerly waiting hands.  I was tempted to seed this review with lots of farm related puns, but have decided against that.  Alright, no more puns.

So the basic premise of this game sees you taking the role of a farmer (refreshingly a modern farmer and not one of the medieval themes which seem so prevalent), starting with just a silo for food storage and a water tower to keep your available water supply safely contained.  During the next 4 years (a year is 1 complete round of the game, not a real year!) you will draft and place tiles from those available to expand and create your farm, these tiles continue to be passed and drafted between the players in this manner until you reach the harvest phase.  During the harvest phase you must water fields (adhering to the range rules based on tile location of water towers to the fields), grow grain, pay to activate livestock and work towards gaining victory.
Finally after the 4 years are complete you tally up victory points awarded by victory point yielding areas, tokens gained, money and farm locations or added equipment that give added points, as normally happen the one with the most wins.

First impression on arrival was that the cover art whilst thematic does not scream dynamic game and probably will only grab the interest of tractor fans or euro game devotees who are not swayed by art work.  The tiles are good quality card stock and my Kickstarted copy came with sleeves for the tiles which really help with the shuffling. 
The cardboard insert folded inside the box was torn and damaged.  I understand this had been a common problem for which Artipia were offering replacements, I just threw mine away as I don't keep useless folded card inserts that take up valuable box space. 
The wooden resources are nice, although the shape of the water tokens are a little fiddly to pick up if you have fat clumsy fingers. 
The card tokens and markers punched out easily, my only gripe would be the method of printing the coins and victory star tokens adds a top clear layer of very thin plastic which seems to separate or delaminate and I stuck this back in place with a bit of PVA glue.  The coins are fine but I think I will probably replace mine with some of those nice metal Viticulture coins which would suit the task very well. 
The rule book is clear and concise, with practical illustrations and left you in no doubt on how to play the game.  I wish more rule books were up to this standard.

Turn by turn game play is smooth and reminiscent of the drafting process in 7 wonders, as you learn the game and get a deeper understanding of the strategy drafting becomes increasingly important, making sure you pick for your benefit whilst trying to prevent opponents getting good tiles.  There is always an option in the drafting process to discard cards by using a market place action to gain money or buy more silos or water towers, this is a great safety valve mechanism.
The tiles when placed offer both instant effects, end of game victory point opportunities and actions which will occur in the harvest phase at the end of the drafting rounds.  There are multiple combinations to build, some creating food, some requiring food to give money or victory points and others that give benefits based on positioning and adjacent field types.  In addition you many also gain equipment cards which are attached to appropriate locations allowing you to generally giving some kind of boost or exception from standard rule.

I have now played this at 2, 3 and 4 player count and think it probably shines at 3 and 4 players but with the altered drafting rules for 2 players it is certainly very playable but I would suggest doesn't do justice to the interaction and enjoyment of a 3 or 4 player drafting round.  The game sequence is intuitive and there is very little in game iconography, so it is fairly easy for new players to get to grips with.  There can be multiple actions to take during the harvest phase, so this can be a little slow towards the end of the game as you try and work out the order in which to activate your farm tiles for best results.  You will need a bit of table space to play, this game can be a bit of a table hog and requires a reasonable amount of space for each players farm to be laid out on the table top, but does have that satisfying feeling of building and developing your own creation.  The game can be a little 'thinky' as the farms grow and you try and optimise your harvest action phase, but take your time and enjoy the interaction between the various tile actions and you will have a great time.

A good solid drafting, tile placement and engine building game, theme works well with the game to give an enjoyable experience with the feel of farm building.  Rated this a stable 7/10
Link to Board Game Geek Entry

I have decided to start a blog related to my gaming activities.  I'm not really sure who will read it or how regular it will be, but its an idea I've been toying with for a while.
So for those of you who may not know, I've been playing wargames, model making, playing table top games and role playing for around about the last 35 years on and off. 
My first introduction was in to wargaming was using Airfix plastics and simple rules sets from the local library which then developed in to role playing and now modern board and card games.  Its always been something I've enjoyed.
I'm no expert but am interested in all things history, mythology and tend to know a little more about fictional worlds such as Middle Earth, Westeros, Arkham and The Hyborian Age than I do about the real world.
As well as still painting toy soldiers, I try and play games of some type at least two or three times a week and admin. the Northants Board and Card Gamers Collective facebook page...link here
https://www.facebook.com/groups/northantsboardandcardgamerscollective/

I'll try and make my blog interesting, tell you about what I've been playing and show you my current painting and model making projects.
If you're free on the 19th March 2017 and would like to come and play some board and card games then check out the Northants Board and Card Gamers Collectives Games Day #4 in Wellingborough.  Link to Games Day #4

Mobile Phone Test

This is the second blog test from my mobile phone.  Will it work?

The Blog Is Born

This is just my first attempt at making a blog post, lets see how it goes.