Making things fit!

Just an image to show that my Butchers are ready to travel! 

And I only had to make two small cuts to the foam for Boar to fit.

Now all I need to do is print out the new season three cards!

Finishing off two skirmish games!

Quick image dump for my finished models for Dark age and Guildball (though I do need to pick up Veteran Brisket at some point from Dark Sphere, I guess they will hold on to it for a while?)

More upgrades for CCoA!

Just a quick image of another set of upgrades for Car Cults of the Apocalypse!

Joining BGG!

Yeah, so I broke and decided to create an Account and add my game list to Board Game Geek, but I do have a good reason! I have set myself a few challenges for the next year.

Challenge 1 - To play every game I own at least once over the course of the year! Then if I haven't played it I have a good long think about whether I really need to keep it.

Challenge 2 - Rate each of the games after I pay them to give me a list of my favourite games. The reasoning behind this is that I often forget I have played a game or how much fun I had and was wondering if having a list like this might help me organise my games days in 2017 bit better (Tail Feathers/Ashes/Dark Moon I'm looking at you!).

Challenge 3 - create a list of games I want to get to help me plan my purchases better and avoid the over excited purchasing I seem to get into then not play that game for ages (Tail Feathers/Ashes/Dark Moon I'm looking at you!).

Here is a link to my list if you wanted to laugh at my initial ratings for the games I can remember playing recently. And no I won't be adding games I have played but don't own, that feels too much like having a second job (Though I do like the idea of making an ELF account that we can all add too...?).

See you soon at CrimboCon!

Buying cars!

Just a quick image of the cars I picked up today at the Entertainer:

Yes that's right the one at the front is the Batmobile!

Other than the van at the back they were £1 - £1.50 each (Van was £3.50, but I wanted something chunkier!) and they have an even better deal that I hadn't seen until after I bought these which was random-ish packs of 5 for £6.60. All I need now are a few hours, some plastic card, lots of old 40k bits, super glue and some paint, then I shall have enough models for a full themed play test.

PS these aren't 1:64 scale, I think they are 1:50-ish so may have to change that in the rules but we'll work it out as we go!

It happened!

2nd edition of Vast: The Crystal Caverns now on Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2074786394/vast-the-crystal-caverns-second-printing-with-mini

I think they've undersold the importance of the rules changes a bit and gone for the "oooh look new minis and roles and stuff" factor. Especially with this heavily debatable sentence!

"We listened to your suggestions and made the second-printing rulebook and aids even better."

Still, it's good news and tempting stuff...

Further adventures in sleeving.

Just a quick post to bring a sad/happy story of my adventures in sleeving! I bought over 2000 sleeves for protecting the my card and dice treasures and this time I invested in Ultimate Guard as they have always been great to us at Essen. So I was really disappointed when four of the packs of standard sleeves were the wrong size (too big, small and unsealed!). I managed to find uses for most but ended up with two packs I just couldn't use so will get a refund from Dark Sphere, but I also sent a message to Ultimate Guard to tell them of the issue and explain that for the last four years were as a group had really valued their brand due to the service at Essen and quality of product. Well, two weeks went by and no reply which wasn't wholly unexpected but disappointing, then came a very apologetic email from Lukas at Ultimate Guard saying they were really upset that the products had been so bad and that they hadn't replied that they wanted to send me replacement sleeves and a free product. So of course I was really grateful and asked for some standard deck boxes or (being really cheeky) this:

Add caption

And they only went and sent me one! How awesome, given that they could have just sent the standard 'we're so sorry' message. The moral of the story is always tell the manufacturer as well as the store and you might just get a double benefit!

Creating Engines, Upgrades and names.

A quick image dump for the first batch of Engines and upgrade cards for those that may wish to start making up some cars.

Oh and the working title for the game is Cult Cars of The Apocalypse!

Missions and an example car

Here are the three main missions I came up with and an example of the way a car would be plaid out.

This is a pretty beefy car as it would use up 17 of the Cult's available 30 AZ, that said drop the mines and Armour and you have a pretty quick and nimble gun truck at only 10 AZ, but it would take damage pretty quickly!

Creating a Car Game

Whilst over Will's at the weekend he mentioned a desire to play a skirmish game with Mad Max-esque car models, probably made from match box cars converted up and painted. Having looked at those available he had found that none of them played the way, without grids etc. So I started thinking about creating a rules set and here is my first set of notes. Let me know if it sounds like something you could get behind and I will start mocking up the cards.

Channel Artwork

So just a quick post to show what I have been fiddling with to keep my digital skills from getting super rusty.

Special prize at CrimboCon for the person who makes the best word from those letters!

This is the banner design for the ELF Geek Network, what I hope will be the home for any video and audio content we may create as a group geeks. The idea is it will give each person their own branded meeple for any content they create. I may have missed some people or people may not get/like their theme... feel free to make your own and send it to me.

Anyway, step one complete!
PS Yes Will your colour is taken from House Greyjoys coat of arms!

Going through my gaming cupboard.

As part of putting together ideas and designs for the ELF Geek Network (more on this another time) I decided I should get together an accurate catalogue of the games I own (so this doesn't include the games I'm storing for others!) and if you had asked me to guess the number of games I would have been way under. But that doesn't mean Amanda has a point when she says I have too many! 

Organising old trading cards!

Having done lots of reorganising due to Raef's arrival I found all my old trading cards from my teenage years. So I thought it was about time I organised them properly!

Not only Spidey, not only my favourite artist Mark Bagley but most of the make up a 3x3 picture!

Descenting!

Mainly an image dump but another three quests down for Trenloe and Master Thorn (mainly Trenloe due to Thorn being useless!).

Yep that's right, I got knocked over in the first round...

Putting together Guildball models.

Just an image to show what I put together today. Hopefully get them undercoated tomorrow as the weather should finally be okay to spray out side!

Until 25th November I'm up to date with the Butchers! Just need to paint them.

Playing games on Halloween!

Taking advantage of days off Rob and I had a day of new(ish) games.

Thinking about designing games.

It's that time of year (month/week/day?) that my mind turns to trying to come up with a set of rules for a Sci-Fi game that would allow people to play with any companies models, much like Kings of War. I have been inspired by playing and watching Dark Age and Guild Ball so went back to my previous idea and looked at a way of making a set of rules which would work at both the kill team size game (or Dark Age like) and at your army scale (40k as we remember and love it). these rules I will present another time but here I have for you the missions!

Having a bad day with Mayday Games

A quick hobby update with a sad ending.

Gaming at the Spiel!

Here is Will's Essen report:

First up the image dump then Will'\s report!

Dark Ageing!

Just some photos of my models so far:

Last photos UPDATED

More Essen pics

Photos from Essen so far

Playing with bad dice!

It was about time we broke out KoW and try out Mansions of Madness 2nd edition, but with the great job FFG did with the Descent app could lightning really strike twice?

What happened to the tedious Euro posts?

Oh, wait, those were mine.

Well, it's mostly because I quickly ran out of games to talk about! It was a pretty tricky niche I carved myself: games that look somewhat boring but have a much wider appeal than you'd think, that I've played enough to talk about at some length. I might plop the occasional one down in future when I come across something worthy.

Something I figure I can do a bit more frequently is Gaming Tales - particularly noteworthy games described in as much detail as I can manage. I've found a real appreciation for games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Cosmic Encounter lately, which is partly why the Through the Desert series dried up hohoho! Anyway, I think these games will lend themselves well to telling some stories. Fingers crossed!

P.S. it's been a while since we had an ELF meetup eh? ;)

Playing Vast!

So with the summer holidays beginning to draw to a close Nic, Rob and I thought we would take advantage of a free day and play one of Nic's recent Kickstarted games Vast. A dungeon based game where each player has completely different rules and are all working towards different victory conditions. Sounds confusing? Not once you have given the double sided rules sheets a perusal a couple of times!

Learning new games!

Took an opportunity to play a few new games today with Rob and Nic!

Getting armies finished.

Just an image dump of my oh so nearly finished Ogre army. Just one unit of Shooters left to paint before I have all 2000pts ready!

Kicking balls and taking names!

Will, Rich and I took advantage of the summer holidays arrival to get a few games of GuildBall in! WARNING: this is quite the image dump!

Making new gaming docks.

Just one image to say look what I made!

Three more coming right up, I am going to move to the bannerless logo as I really like the clearer die and wolves.

Now I wonder what other games might need some player docks?

Pushing through the new game barrier.

A quick run down on three new games Will and I tried out at the weekend (oh, alright two and a half, I know Black Plague isn't really new but with all the add ons it was pretty much!).  No reviews as yet as they all need a thorough playing before judgement can be dispensed, but it is always great to get the basics (and inevitable errors) out the way.

Through the Desert #8 - Falling Sky

Something a bit different for this week. A wargame! And one I just played today. GMT offers quite a selection of niche, heavy, long wargames heavily garnished with historical flavour.

I should add that these probably aren't wargames in the sense you're used to. There's very few dice to be chucked, and (fittingly for my column) you'll think it looks pretty darn Euro-y, but there's not a Victory Point in sight. Anyway, this particular title is about the struggles between the Roman Empire and the various gallic tribes around 50 BC.

Painting more Guild ball teams!

Disclaimer: This is a guest post for Will.
A quick post to show people the new Union team on the block! The idea is they are a team that people can use to play the game before they commit to a team of their own and a way to allow people who have nearly a team or the minimum to make a team to be able to mix things up and try different tactics.

At this rate there will be one of every model painted in no time!

Nearly finishing Guildball models!

Quick image dump of my, so close to finished I can taste varnish, Guild ball Team.

Kickin' Balls

Hi Folks!

Met up with Will last night for our first full game of Guild Ball and thought I'd share it with ya'll.
This wont be a true blow-by-blow match report as I honestly cant recall each and every turn. But i'll give an overview and my thoughts on the game proper.
(photos are courtesy of Will)

Through the Desert #7 - El Grande

Back with a pretty late entry - I think I'll have to keep this to a fortnightly blogging otherwise I'll soon run out of games!

This is the oldest one I've covered so far, but is still considered by many to be the granddaddy of area control games. It's 1995's El Grande, for 2-5 players.

Guildball progress

Just a couple of images of the progress I made today on my Guildball team.

Mice, Mystics and Guildball!

Just a quick image dump to update on some gaming fun!

New Games - Good Times

Hola!

So we got through a fair number of new games on Saturday (well, new for me anyway)
So felt like doing ya'll a little write up.

Through the Desert #6 - Tzolk'in

Thought I'd throw this one out there as I currently have it down as my favourite game! There's no real hidden surprises with this one though - it looks like a Euro and it certainly is Euro through-and-through. This is Tzolk'in.

Through the Desert Special - UK Games Expo

I did question whether or not to do this, considering most of you were there! But I figured even for those that were you might be interested in my take on what was hands-down the best UKGE I've been to yet :)

Disclaimer: I didn't take anywhere near enough pictures, so these have all been shamelessly pilfered from BGG.

Through the Desert #5 - Food Chain Magnate

Holy on-schedule blog post, Batman!

Confession time: I have an ulterior motive for posting this one. It's the UK Games Expo next week (eeee!) and I'm looking to get this bad boy played at least once. Behold Food Chain Magnate:

Expanding the Cityscape

Hola!

I thought i'd share a little update as to how my little corner of Gotham is coming along.

I've added an apartment building (with PVC skylight!) and some other odds and sods.

Through the Desert #4 - Keyflower

In a new twist for my bloggings, I'm going to briefly cover a game a few of us ELFs just played a couple of days ago. One of my personal favourites: Keyflower!

Building a Cityscape - a TT Combat Review

Howdy ELFers,

Having decided to branch out into the Batman Miniatures Game, the first thing to do is obviously pick up a crew.
Having already done that, the second most important thing to do is get some terrain together. (whatsat? get the rules? eh. eventually.)
Tom and I played a practice game using various bits of terrain from our various other game systems, but it really doesnt work quite as well as a spectacle when you've got Robin Bat-clawing his way on top of an imperial bastion.

So i did a bit of hunting around and found a few different online stores that make suitable modern day city terrain, one the really jumped out was TT Combat.
Their stuff looked very good, had a good selection and was considerably cheaper than most other stores. So i took the plunge and picked up a small order to test the water.

Here are some of the results!

And another thing!

So there was recently a Kickstarter for a gaming bag called the Game Canopy. It looked awesome but worked out at around £100 once you factored in shipping to the UK. However, a pro tip has started making its way around the interwebs: the carry cases for Cajons (those percussion instruments that are basically wooden boxes you sit on) are perfect for carrying a sizeable bunch of board games! Many of them are padded and the dimensions are excellent for big box games. I took the plunge and bought this one for £25:

It's pretty heavy when loaded to the brim but it's rugged, has some comfy straps and beats just about anything else I could find if you're looking to lug around more than a couple of big box games. I'll be testing this out in the coming weeks!

Through the Desert #3 - Viticulture

Skipped a week as I forgot to do this last week! The last two posts have covered a couple of brain burners so let's look at something a bit lighter today, but still very Euro ;) 

Games older and newer!

With the release of the new Descent app and Will's purchase of Ghost Stories we felt it was a good opportunity to test run them and play some Kings of War!

Kings of War unit

Just a quick image update to show off my new unit for Kings of War:

They are going to use the chariot rules but I just really liked the beast look.

The base is a bit sparse but I may add extra bits later on once I have finished the rest of the army.

I really like the contrast between the matt varnish and the blood for the blood god paint.

I do sort of wish I had bought a second box to put three on the base but then maybe it would have been too crowded

I have also been playing around with the laser cutter to try to make some wound counters:

Pretty simple construction but it is only mk1

I have made the gap a little deeper on the other separated counter to make the number easier to read.

Through the Desert #2 - Glass Road

I enjoyed writing Wednesday's review so much that I'm doing this one early! But it's just to set up for a regular Sunday column, so long as they don't get deleted ;)

As alluded in last week's comments, I'm steering this series towards the broader direction of games that appear to be aimed at cube-fondling Eurogamers yet might appeal to a broader audience. This time I'll be taking a look at Glass Road. I had this on my initial list of games to cover and the fact I got to play it this morning is another reason I'm writing this up!

Through the Desert #1 - Imperial

I thought I'd start writing the odd report of the heavier - and often dry - Euro stuff I try. It might nudge you towards games you'd never have given a second look based on their appearance ;)

So to kick this off here's Imperial, which I tried for the first time on Monday. It's a slightly older one (by modern standards) that plays 2-6 warmongering number crunchers.

Another KoW unit.

Just a quick pic of my latest unit. I really need to get the painting done but making models is just so much fun!

I didn't like the Ogre riders for two main reasons. First they made the models a lot taller than I needed so would need larger foam. Secondly the GW Ogres wouldn't match the Mantic Ogres aesthetic. It definitely didn't have anything to do with making them quicker to paint!

Some quick modelling

Just a super quick image update on my KoW Goblin Scout Cav unit conversions for my two troops units (which I can put together for a regiment if I find they are just far too weak. I need them to give me a 20" charge threat for shooting/artillery units (oh the pain that was my last game against Will's ridiculously fast Abyssal Dwarf army!).

I only had four whole spiders kicking around as I had cut the legs off all the others when I was putting together my Nids (I have a new plan for them which I shall reveal in a future post!) I then remembered I had some left overs from the Araknarok spider models and boom, these were born. Should be quick to paint too!

Finishing Ogres!

I have finally finished painting half of my Ogre army so prepare for the image dump!

Visiting Paradice games cafe!

Given that it has now been open a month it seemed time to pay a visit to Charlie's new investment in Bromley!

Making progress on painting Ogres.

Just a quick image update for how I am getting on with painting my Ogres.

Painting Ogres!

Just a quick image dump to show how my progress with my Ogres is coming. 

Playing with Christmas presents!

With the cold of January biting deep I thought it might be nice to get a couple of the new games to the table that we had received over Christmas. Rob brought along Machi Koro and I really wanted to try out my new copy of exploding kittens.

Playing KoW, Ashes and Xenoshyft!

A quick picture dump of the games played yesterday including visual examples of my tactical blunders!

Getting to know Armada and Ashes!

A quick image dump of some games Rich and I looked at. It was really good to finally play Armada at it's full potential and get Ashes out as it has been winking at me since Essen!