Board Game Weekend

Just back from a delightful, if chilly, weekend with the brother. Oddly, we hadn't scheduled any of our usual miniature games, mostly as I was on the train so transporting the necessaries was an issue.

Instead we busted out some board games. The first actually being a miniatures game: Angels 20. Dogfighting with pre-painted 1:150 planes. Its actually really good, a notch or two easier than Wings of War/Glory, but really fun and quick to play through. I liked the hex-based movement and the alternating turn order mean you had to predict where an opponent would end up to line up your shots. Although similar to many Pre-painted plastics, (the rules are almost identical to War at Sea), we agreed it is visually an tactical superior to all the others we've dabbled in.

 We got three games in a couple of hours. So I'd recommend it for something you can pick up and play or for less experienced gamers. Gharak has changed the flight stands to be telescopic, (read more in one of his rare blog posts), which looked ace and meant you could easily tell the altitude level of each plane. 

This poor German fighter actually survived unscathed

Next up was Caylus, a relatively complex Euro game. The theme was building a town and castle and competing for royal favour. It reminded me a lot of Agricola a it has similar man-placement and resource mechanisms. I found it less frustrating than Agricola, I think because you have 6 meeples rather than 2. But I think Agricola is perhaps a slightly better game, due to the challenge (and resulting satisfaction) and the choice of card decks perhaps making it more replayable.

Looks complicated, but surprisingly easy to pick up. 

Finally, a quick one from my collection: Braggart. A quick, humorous card game where you compete to make the most impressive boast of fantasy-world achievements. The art on the cards is good quality and the 'Liar' feature adds fun sabotage to turn great boasts into something quite bizarre and oft hilarious. 

One of my...less impressive feats

Id recommend it fr something quick and fun, but as all of these things I think the replay value is limited. I think D&D players would enjoy it in particular, perfect to start and evening off (or write some quick back story!)

All in all a fun weekend's gaming. At Christmas we hope to resurrect an old
project: side-stepping our Pulp game to a couple of quick weird World War scenarios. The best bit is I've already got all the minis for that and most of them are painted! 

Living History and a few finds

I was in Peterborough this weekend, when they just happened to be a heritage festival in the cathedral grounds. It was pretty vast and completely free. Plenty of groups had pitched up camp, including good contingents of Romans, Vikings/Saxons, ECW and WWII reenactors. Poorest turnout was the Napoleonics - a pitiful two redcoats, compared to the 30 or so from the Sealed Knot doing ECW, including this gaggle demonstrating their musketry.

While wandering about town I found these in The Works (a UK discount store): two die cast vehicles from the recent Tron movie. I figured a quick repaint and they would make good non-military hover vehicles for 15mm SciFi.

They also had the board game 'Ponte del Diavolo' for £8, which I snapped up. There were a handful of Rio Grande board games and this seemed to be the best of the bunch. It filled a niche in the collection, a two-player area control game with a Venetian theme. We played a few games last night and it seems like a good filler game with quality wooden pieces, at a price you cant argue with, really.

Got some more playtests of Aegeus in the evening too, I'll post my snaps later, looking better already with my Minoans painted up.

Free? Really?!

To the board gamers out there, I learned from a recent Dice Tower Podcast that there is a free App for Dominion available on i-devices (not sure about Android). Although not official, its continuing existence on the App store suggests it is sanctioned in some way. But yes...it's free. Pretty good deal, huh? I've stayed away from App versions of Board Games I own because I'm very reluctant to pay for something twice.

Having tried the App out today it plays just like core set Dominion, with decent computer AI opponents and an option for online play. Unlike the free web version which also exists, it actually uses the official Dominion artwork, which makes it much more appealing visually. Downsides are that the interface could do with a polish and I have had it crash mid-game. But heck, its free.

Although popular, Dominion does take a little picking up due to the variety of ways of winning and the dramatic differences from game to game caused by the different setups available. So although there is a tutorial I do imagine the App will be pretty baffling to the newcomer. But if you're a board gamer and enjoy card or Euro games, you may well enjoy this medieval-themed combination if the two, which focuses on players each constructing themselves a deck of cards which represents their kingdom. It really is a clever game and well worth a look. And of course, buying the core set rather than just getting the App means you reward the creators of this fine game.

Busy busy (and not in a gaming way!)

Oops, no post for a fortnight. Reason being I'm gearing up to move house over the next fortnight, including lots of decorating and cleaning to do. I'm also moving posts within my job, which I'm excited about. It will be a busy month and so I doubt I'll get any painting in.

Having said that, I have managed to tidy up a few loose ends on the painting front, finishing the WWII bits I grabbed at Salute, including a beastly Churchill Crocodile. I also knocked out a new, as-yet unnamed pulp companion for when we pick that up again. Pics when I get chance. Finally, some progress on a small unit of Nap Spanish light infantry, though time is up to get them finished.

I also got a very enjoyable evening of board games in last night, before packing them all up tonight! We busted open a new one I picked up by accident (honest! Story another time perhaps) called The Speicherstadt. A neat simple little auction game, which mixed concepts from a few Euro games I've played before.

Anyway, all the best to my readers, apologies in advance for the upcoming quiet period.

C&C final turn

To follow up, one turn before our opponents conceded defeat.

A run of three cards allowed us to smash the centre, spearheaded by the elite Guard Grenadiers. At this point, we were 5-1 up on VPs and the French withdrew in some disarray. To be fair, the dice gods were in our favour, allowing the bold central move to come off. The left fared worse, you can just see French Hussars harrying our flank.

I recommend C&C, if you accept it is slightly abstracted version of Naps, which is fine by me! I prefer it to Memoir, partly for being much more colourful.

Commands and Colours

Over the weekend I got a game of this Napoleonic board game I'd heard good things about. Thoroughly enjoyed it, the game played out in under 2 hours including setup. We played in pairs, a novice and someone who had played before. I think we had the advantage as I am a fan of Memoir 44, which C&C is a more detailed version of.

The initial setup, my Brits and Portuguese face the French rearguard holding the central hill.