Rex and other games played.

Friday evening saw a trip down to Snake-eyes in Kernow. The object of the trip was to play REX the prequel to Twilight Imperium (a reskin of the Dune Board game we played about 7 years ago … a bombardment replacing the sandstorms). 

The set up was as below … the production of the game is very good (but then Snake-eyes has had the game for 10 years or so). You can win on your own by controlling 3 strongholds or 4 if in an alliance of 2 or all 5 strongholds if in an alliance of 5. If there is no winner at the end of turn 8 Sol and Hacan have special victory conditions.

The races played were Hacan (Steedo), the Universities of Jol-nar (DK), the Federation of Sol (Tiger-King), Lazax Empire (Snake-eyes) and the Barony of Letnev (me).

The first turn saw Tiger-King made a strange move out of a stronghold to get some influence (this was after I had revealed my intention due to a misunderstanding of moving and deployment…).  I swooped in a took it, I also challenged him for the influence and won (although I couldn’t pick much up as I used too many troops in the battle).

The second turn saw alliances being formed - well one really (as because DK kept talking over me, I played a card which prevented him forming or breaking alliances … which as it turn out was stopped the Tiger-King being in an alliance too), this was myself, Steedo and after some deliberation Snake-eyes. 

As it was this alliance worked out very well as due to the various racial special rules we were able to swap influence between us (I was spending…), Steedo was getting influence back via the Hacan gets the deployment costs (also the half price deployments cost was helpful) and Snake-eyes was getting paid in the strategy card phase, so we could out bid DK and Tiger-king …

So when it came to the battle phase the alliance was able to overwhelm the other two players, giving them a win by the end of turn 2 or 3. There was some question of the game being broken as the engine our alliance had was powerful - but I think this was partly down to the seating positions and order. We were sitting in a row were able move the money within the alliance without having the others interfere with our actions … having said that we were very generous with DK and Tiger-King as they weren’t in Alliance in the game but we did allow them to discuss cards a strategy in private …

So in a shocking turn of events we had finished the main game early … what to do?

3 games of One night werewolf - got all the werewolves!

Then 3 games of Resistance Avalon - a win for the forces of good when I was Merlin, and then 2 wins for the forces of evil (by killing Merlin) when I was a minion of Mordred … 

So I was in the winning team for all 7 games - a good evenings gaming.

All the games I would play again. 

Morts

Cyclades - played

We managed a get together at Steedo’s to play Cyclades - a game set in the myths of Greece as you try and create 3 (mega) metropolises to win (I assume this means dominance over the Greek islands). 

To build a metropolis you need to have built 4 other settlements - Fort, Temple, Port and University. There are other ways of getting metropolis - using Heroes attributes and exchanging 4 philosophers …

The game sets up in a similar way to Catan with troop and ship placement - gaining either priestesses or food. You establish the order and actions by bidding on which God you want - each god gives a different building and soldier/ship/priestess/philosopher/mercenary and the opportunity to buy more or a hero or monster (which could be a play once or a placement on the board (which may need upkeep by sacrificing a priestess).

We played with 5 - Steedo (Red), DK (Yellow), Sylon (Purple), BUR (Green) and myself (Blue). The placement caused a tad of frustration for me as DK took two priestesses meaning that none were available for me. So we ended up closely placed on the islands.

Early game I pick up a monster which allowed me to collect extra food and Jason as a hero. There was much building. DK built some ports - which was very nice of him as I was able to use Jason’s hero power (using opponents ships as if they were mine) - so a quick invasion gave me two ports and blocked DK’s ships. 

The game continued on with other players picking up metropolises - much of the game is a look over there while you do something else somewhere else. DK was struggling to get back into the game … BUR had attacked Sylon and I had stolen one of Steedo’s settlements to get a second metropolis. 

In the final turn I picked Poseidon (who allows to build ships), so I would be able to use Jason’s other hero skill - burn the hero if all of your ships are in play for a metropolis - which is what I did for the win. Apparently Steedo and Sylon had spotted another way I could have gone for the win using Jason’s power to travel to BUR island and steal a university …

So Cyclades was a fun game - I don’t think we scratched the surface of the game play. Certainly the bidding was incredibly civilised - we should have been more challenging to each other. Heroes and monsters was something we didn’t use very much - these can be very powerful. I’m not sure that I will get a win - the others will have leant. 

Morts

Exeter Legionary Wargames Show 2026

 Saturday saw some of the collective meet up for a trip to the Legionary show in Exeter - DK and I arrived first and did a perusal of the bring and buy - DK picked up a number of bargains with Undaunted Stalingrad and some Batman Miniatures Game stuff, I picked up some British WW2 stuff in 15mm - might try and paint some (after the dragons and wolf riders and Orks and …).

Then we did a wander around the show.

Above a rather nice Rapid Fire game in 20mm and 2 shots of alternate end to WW2, with the Soviets vs the British. The organiser was quite effusive about the books it was based on … which I can’t remember now. But it looked good. 

Above shows a nice 1672 style game - I can’t recall the rules they were using, but looked nice. At alt 40k game using One Page Rules and I think miniatures - pretty epic. 

Talking of Epic - Jason and the argonauts, Talos, a fleece and a ship - lovely setup using Dragon Rampant. 

Then we have some Frostgrave and DBA.

The peeps at Brethren had a large Hastings game and a couple of small participation games which Snake-eyes, Tiger-King and myself had a go at. It was Celts (me) versus Romans (Tiger-King), in a close run thing … I was let down by some appalling dice rolling as my Celts surrounded the Romans - but failed kill. Curses … I pick up the quick start rules for a couple of quid. Could be good for a quick pick up game. An enjoyable show - good fun with chums. 

This weekend was the big event I have been out on the moor for. I was suffering with a little FOMO not being up there, but I got to go to the show and dismantled the decking - which was rotting in places. So a good use of my time. 

Obviously now I have to put the replacement slab etc in place … next weekend?

Morts

A flying visit and a couple of games

Last week my Bro and Nephew came over for a couple of days from Denmark. Quite a change from frozen to soggy - but apparently it was nice to see some colour. 

We played a game of Raiders of the North Sea - a solid game with clear mechanics and theme. We were playing with the Hall of Heroes expansion. My nephew went for the good crew and raiding the high points monasteries and fortresses - and was doing rather well. I went for the usual (although not always successful), raid harbours and outposts then score the offerings - and getting your crew killed. The expansion’s quests helping out here. My brother was doing a hybrid strategy. As it was although the visitors did pull out to a decent lead, it was not enough to counter the offerings and points from the Valkyrie track - I out Viking-ed the Danes! We also managed a game of the King is Dead, which due to surprising placements was a win to my Brother.

The plan was to visit Dartmoor for a walk but due to some (more) rain that was shelved for a tour of Isca instead. I took then around part of the city walls (Roman, with some rare Saxon repairs in Northernhay gardens), Rougemont castle - where the last witch executions in England took place, Exebridges, the house that moved (which was inspiration for Bree) and the Cathedral. Some of the places my Brother couldn’t ever remember visiting. Exeter could be a spectacular historical city, but has suffered some massive cultural losses - most of which is self inflicted by the city itself (can’t blame too much on the Baedecker blitz).

We also took the opportunity to visit some games shops, were my nephew picked up some Sternguard and I picked up some Sister of Battle (with my Christmas voucher).

For my recent birthday the Danes had got me Trajan Valoris - commander of the custodies - so that will be an interesting painting exercise. The Sisters of Battle will be making a Kill Team squad. 

Speaking of Kill Team - we had a game using the 2018 rule set. A three way fight between Eldar, Nercons and Space Marines (in retrospect I should have read the rules first and then just facilitated the game rather than being part of it). Also needed a better objective … nevermind it was a good game.

My nephew to suffer a lot of combined fire from the Eldar and Nercons - because the Marines were so difficult to kill … that 3+ save was really frustrating for the Eldar Rangers (well me actually) who were hitting, but not damaging. Also me nephew picked figures based on the rule of cool and then didn’t use them as expected - again more guidance here would have been helpful. The game saw the marines shooting a lot and killing the most enemy fighters, But eventually being forced back and becoming broken - the Eldar had the most figures out of action, but due to the vague objectives managed a draw with the Necrons. 

Off the back of this I have picked up the Kill Team 2019 Annual off eBay (typically I got a good offer just after buying one … aggghhh!), as I think I will go back to this edition as it allows more customisation of the teams. 

A good couple of days - I hope the my visitors enjoyed themselves. 

Morts

Ogryn Destroyers for Ad Mech - painted (and played Battlestar).

With the immanent arrival of some Danes (who seem to have drifted into 40k via lore videos on YouTube) I managed to get back on the painting wagon with the 3 Mantic Ogres which have been converted into Ad Mech Ogryn Destroyers (might be Breachers but I’m not sure). 

Overall pretty happy with these (will need a wash on the lacing on the back of their legs) - tried to do some chipping on the armour - not sure that it fully worked. Also hoping that the backpacks look ok. The Ad Mech have quite a powerful force - I have to sort the servitors out a bit - I will have 2 units of 10 - one melee focused and one shooty. But quite enjoyed these once I got going. 

On Friday Steedo invited some of the collective over for a game - Snake-eyes game. A stripped down (no expansions of Battlestar Galactica. And a quality experience was had by all as humanity tried to escape the chrome toasters!

As it turned out I was a cylon … I am a poor liar and they sniffed out BUTR quickly to - however, BUTR revealed himself before he was put in the brig - and I revealed myself out of order (see below) but the others were unable to put me back into the brig for a couple of turns, so I used them trying to put humans in the brig … Anyway good bants was had by all and the Cylons won - so say we all. We did spot a problem with how we play the game, in that we don’t give the Cylons enough time to read their card without making it obvious that they are a Cylon - it’s not like you can go back and look at the card again without it being obvious that you’re a Cylon. Next time we play every will have 30 seconds to look at their card (although this was not the reason I was outed as a Cylon).

We then played a few games of Perudo -  or more exactly Davrudo using DK’s house rules … where either the “number of” or “number called” had to increase. We did adapt in the last game so one of the numbers had to increase - so 3 “fives” could be followed by a call of 4 “threes” which seemed to work well. 

Morts

Twilight Imperium 2026 - Thunders Edge Expansion

The annual trip to Kernow for the Collective’s Twilight Imperium game took place, with the latest expansion Thunders Edge. This expansion added some new features - a rift/fracture section of the galaxy, alliances and new factions. Allegedly the expansion should make the game quicker, so Snake-eyes had decided to play to 14 points  … I was not so sure.

We did the usual trip to Strawberry Fields for breakfast and and picked factions, off a dice roll. I picked first - but then had the last pick of the alliance and slice of galaxy.

Morts - The Ral Nel Consortium (orange)

Steedo - The Firmament / The Obsidian (yellow)

Sylon - The Titans of Ul (black)

Snake-eyes - The Arborec (green)

DK - The Deepwrought Scholarate (red)

We then picked alliance factions - where if we conquered their home world we picked up the abilities of that faction hero or commander … can’t remember which.

Below the starting point (approximately noon). Everyone is ready to play … nicely. Surprisingly I managed to get the first breakthrough to find Thunders Edge ( this unlocked at faction specific trait that helped build up action cards in my case), unfortunately I wasted a few rounds not quite getting enough bits to actually win the planet - d’oh. I also revealed the fracture and its access points in my first action … didn’t go there until much later in the game.

Turn 2 - we have some controversy - I checked with another player that I could produce some infantry by activating one system, then pick them up with ship passing through. However on trying to carry this out, was this is not correct. There was then some discussion about if I could carry this out, as I had planned for this over a number of rounds - the decision was that for this game, there would be house rule which would allow this. I appreciated Sylon’s intervention here. 

Sylon and DK were working well together - to be fair DK was refreshing commodities for everyone, although not truly altruistically (as he could get tech and in some cases co-existence. Steedo was trying to work out his complicated faction and Snake-eyes made a run on Mecatol Rex!

Turn 3 - I was on Mecatol Rex - I was feeling a bit stretched. Snake-eyes had moved off after all of his infantry had been “weeded” off (the Arborec are a plant based race, which grow infantry) Mecatol. 

However as the turn ended things were looking ok - I might take the 8 card again to see if I could score a few more points. Sylon’s Titans were a growing power - with DK leaching off co-existing off his advances. 

In the Status part of the turn there was an agenda to be voted on which was FOR, (Against nothing happened)if the Speaker (Snake-eyes) rolled high (there was an issue here) everyone would get a tech upgrade or if he roll low everything in Mecatol Rex was wiped off the board, and every hex around Mecatol had to lose 3 ships. 

Now I expected that any reasonable person would see that voting against was the RIGHT thing to do - however the rest of the collective are obviously not reasonable. This coupled with Snake-eyes inability to roll high when he should meant that I lost the ships, mechs, pds, and infantry in the insert. Basically I was shafted! To quote Hudson in Aliens  “Game over man!”.

The start of turn 3 or 4 … doesn’t matter, what was the point of continuing to play … the others had fighters to sacrifice to the hideous and nefarious action they had chosen to enact … DK was on Mecatol. Snake-eyes was fungally growing dreadnoughts and Steedo was doing his usual … “don’t look at me, I’m not a threat”. 

I was not a threat - just trying to rebuild. 

Mid game scoring - DK opening up a bit of a lead. This was after 6 hours of play - 14 seems a long way off. 

Losing track of turns - Sylon and Snake-eyes have clashed over Mecatol and are both weakened for a bit - DK has started building a monument - a victory point after three turns … but could become more, so was protecting than. Steedo’s faction had done its swappy thing and shockingly he was spreading across the board. I was working on recovering from the underhand backstabbing I had been in the receiving end of…

At this point Sylon and myself were out over the running for a win or top 3 placing - DK was 2 points away from victory, so Snake-eyes and Steedo went in full “stop the win” mode. 

Steedo when for removing DK’s planets (the earlier house rule then worked against DK much to his annoyance), while Snake-eyes tried to remove DK’s legendary planet in the fracture which was worth a victory point. Sylon made a run on Mecatol and took it , while I took a planet (and victory point) in the fracture - which was nice. 

DK was just having to bat off the attacks as he had a target on his back. 

We had some more controversy, where DK didn’t hear when Steedo ask for the secondary action to get a secret agenda - DK couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to pick one from the deck. The reasoning was that we had picked in order. If DK had picked first (which he should have) it would have changed the agendas for the rest of us (the one I had would have gone to Snake-eyes and it suited his faction). 

Back to the game and Snake-eyes managed to roll high and managed to wrestle the planet off DK - who was 1 point short of victory (22:40 to 00:50 off the photo time stamps) … would we play another round?

Then in the status phase the monument received another commodity, which increased it to 2 victory points and DK won! 

So after all of Steedo and Snake-eyes efforts DK’s victory had been inevitable from 2240 …

It was over after 13 hours (much to Sylon’s and my relief as we had been out of the running for about 3 or 4 hours).

End of game score board.

Congratulations to DK on a hard fought win!

A quality but long day - I definitely think that we need to stick with 10 points - a big thanks to Snake-eyes for hosting and a lovely curry and DK for driving Steedo, Sylon and Myself down to Kernow. 

Morts

Happy Christmas one and all - Sub Terra played

 So Christmas 2025 has happened and the New Year is coming. Not much to report on the making and painting side of things (I have started some Confrontation Goblins and nearly finished a Drakon rider … but haven’t). 

The collective managed to get together last week for a game at Board in Isca, and good fun was had by all. Sylon picked the game, was pretty much ideal for a couple of hours in a board game cafe. 

Sub Terra is a tile placement game set in a cave system, created as you go by picking tiles (strangely enough). You take the roles of various cavers trying to get out before the event cards do. You have to avoid “cave ins”, floods, gas, ledgers, slides and horrors. We played on easy mode and ignored some advice given by the cafe manager as he explained the rules. Which was being followed in the top picture here early game.

The game played fairly quickly with minimal errors (but obviously some) on our part. You had 2 action points to play in a turn which could be spent in various ways - scouting, moving, exploring (which was a combination of the previous two but you had to go into the new tile), healing or a character ability. We managed to tidy up a real flood when DK knocked out Steedo’s beer … Steedo took the spillage remarkably well. The turns go character actions, horrors actions (I think we might have been doing something wrong because there weren’t any…), flip hazard card - could trigger flooding, “cave ins” or horrors etc. The bottom picture shows the end game as Tiger-King, Snake-eyes and Sylon won the race to find the exit tile with DK, Steedo and myself on the other side of the system … should have left DK’s Leader (who no one had followed) by himself … flashbacks to the 2018 UK Games Expo where Dk “wandered” off … Although 3 cavers out was a win for the party. 

So a pretty tight game which I think non-gamers would play and enjoy. Also time limited. Issues - the contrast on the tiles between the path and walls is difficult to see and the game can spread a bit on the table. However Sub Terra 2 is out and has dealt with these issues (although the setting is different ish). 

Anyway a good little game - enjoyed it. 

We then managed a couple of games of Coup - nice to play again. 

A good evening and nice to catch up with the collective before Christmas. 

Christmas has been and Santa has brought me the 5th Edition of Talisman and a £20 GW voucher to spend …

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and best wishes for the new year!

Morts 

Games in and out ….

So Osprey games send out a Black Friday offer, which a bargain in it! Imperium Classics for about £15 including postage. I had looked at this in the Orcs Nest a week or so ago, so it was snapped up.

What it’s arrived has caused an issue with space on the shelf … so I am looking at Kill Team here …

So I have to decide to see if I can sell the 1st edition (two books on the left) or 2nd edition …

GW has produced a new edition of Kill Team in the last 12 months, which I haven’t picked up. As I understood it the new edition has limited teams which you have to buy. 

2nd edition was based on fire teams which were a little bit of a pain to be honest - the 1st edition was very flexible, with the ability to pick what was in core book - the single expansion I have does have rules for most of the primaris space marine models.  The rules are more like Warhammer 40k from 2019 (I don’t know what edition of 40k that was). So currently i’m leaning towards keeping 1st edition (old expansions would also probably be cheaper on eBay). 

Will discuss with the collective moving forward on this plan. 

Morts

DK’s Birthday Bash! Some games played.

DK has crept a little closer the retirement … a bit ahead of me at least. Snake-eyes kindly said that he would host a get together and play some games. DK had chosen John Company and Res Arcana - all new to us.

The day started as usual with a full English breakfast to ready us for a long days gaming in Kernow. 

John Company

First up in the scheduled games was John Company - a game of the East Indian Company exploiting the subcontinent. Now there is a little controversy about this game due the subject matter, but actually I think the game does deal with the fact that the British Empire was not planned, but haphazardly created by individuals trying to make a fast buck, these people were ruthless and did not care who or what they exploited to achieve their objectives - definitely the bad guys. 

Now having watched a play through of this game I did not have high expectations - it looked too complicated and fussy to play. 

The basics of the game are to run the EIC to make money and skim-off money to get family members into luxurious retirements - the key way of getting victory points. To do this you have to get family members into roles across the company - chairman, director of trade, ships, president of Bombay or Madras and writers and army commanders and officers. The game is a mixture of cooperative and tactically trying to get one over your colleagues.

We cracked on - took on debt on the company and set about exploiting the population of India. We conquered two of the presidency’s … unfortunately we didn’t expect a major uprising … which closed off all the Indian markets and wrecked the company’s reputation! 

So possibly in under an hour we had managed to lose the game in less than one turn … there was much shock and laughter at our incompetence - basically when in battle we used all the sepoys, so we were unable to defend against the uprising. But this was a good thing, as we were up for trying the game again, it had been fun and we had done some good learning. I think Snake-eyes win with zero points.

So the second attempt started and it was a jolly good effort. Steedo started scoring points by retiring family members. However, by the end of turn 4 out of 5 DK had taken a good lead - so we had moved into trying to hobbling him (getting him to agree to be president of Bombay, but not providing any money, ships or troops, making the presidency pointless), while at the same time pushing our own agendas. I had managed to get myself into a reasonable position - chairman of the company, president of Bengal and most of the company’s officers in the army. Into the final turn we were doing well the company had plenty of money, we had won some battles and exhausted our troops again … and in the final India Events phase we pulled the uprising card again and “tanked” the company’s reputation again and lost again! We really shouldn’t have, but we did. 

We did the scoring and DK won with 16, Steedo 11, me 6 and Snake-eyes 4. If we hadn’t have wrecked the company I would have scored more, because I had a fair number of family members on the board (and some decent retirements lined up) - board members are negative points if the company fails.

I enjoyed the game much more than I thought and would play again.

Heat

We then moved on to play heat - a card driven racing car game. If you can count cards it would help a lot. It has some interesting mechanics about adding or taking “heat” out of the engine - cards to gum up your hand. There are “adrenaline” cards which gum up your hand but you can’t get them out of your hand. 

This was a fun game which I have to say was a depth change from John Company - I was struggling to get the card counting right and was in last place most of the game. DK was first across the line and the winner. Snake-eyes, Steedo and I all passed the first line in the same turn (in that order) - to break ties it is the player who is furthest over the finish line. And although Snake-eyes was first over, Steedo went further and then in a shock I went further still - 2 place to me!

After a rather nice buffalo chicken roll and chocolate cake from Snake-eyes we tried a game of Res Arcana.

Res Arcana

This is a resource collecting and buying game with some deck management - so not usually my thing. You take on the role of a mage and have to get 10 points, from places, monuments and points on your cards - another solid win for DK. I finally managed to get my head around the game towards the end when I realised that I had bought the dragon, the dragon bridal and dragon lair in the wrong order … perhaps next time I should study the cards in more detail.

A good day’s gaming and hopefully DK enjoyed his birthday (and his 3 bottles of lambrini … I have no idea how he can stomach that stuff).

Morts 

A game and a little painting …

I was discussing my lack of motivation with Steedo, so he organised a game around his last week. We played a game of Raiders of the North Sea, with Hall of Heroes expansion.

Another good game - a win for Steedo. I think I need to start a new strategy … the Valkyrie, raiding harbours and visiting the longhouse doesn’t seem to be working … 

I have re done the flesh tones on these - I didn’t like the speed paint. Much happier with these faces. 

I also sorted out the shields (they were the only 2 of the unit with plain shields and I picked up the new winged ones ages ago) on these elves swordsmen and replaced the axe on the leader with a sword (well top of a lance). The plan was to base 6 of these up on 60mm squares … but I am now thinking 25mm rounds and sabots again … aaagggghhhh!

I need to make a decision on the basing 

Brass - Birmingham played

So last week Steedo invited, DK, Snake-eyes and my good self over for a game. He had chosen to play Brass Birmingham - which I hadn’t played, but the others had (Snake-eyes only once). I watched a play through video, so had some handle of the rules. Now I’ll be honest I am slightly scared by the Industrial Revolution, having studied (in the loosest sense of the word) Social and Economic History 1700 to 1900 for my O levels, the textbook for which had one paragraph on the Napoleonic Wars (stating that income tax was introduced as a temporary measure to paid for fighting the Frenchies) … needless to say my lazy and uninterested self did not get the grade that I should have (also not helped by my poor spelling etc, so amply demonstrated in this blog). So to be honest the thought of a game based on it has not been that appealing.

The rules are fairly simple but the strategy is complex - when do you take a loan to build things … but it reduces your income. Then what to build - mills, ironworks, potteries or manufacturing … all with their pros and cons … and must not forget the breweries (which are essential for the railway phase). These all have to be connected up by your network - canals in the first phase of the game and railways in the second (final) phase. The scoring happens at the end of each phase and is mainly done via your network to any factory. Off course this is where the trade offs occur and the blocking off towns. 

At the end of the canal phase I was 2nd, behind Steedo, but ahead of DK and Snake-eyes. The final scoring gave the victory to Steedo , who was chased hard by DK (who had lost - forget to pick up cards …), myself in 3rd, with Snake-eyes in 4th. In retrospect my strategy for building an impressive network to score points was let down by not building the right type of industry in the rail phase - more mills next time (manufacturing, doesn’t score many points on the network …note for next time) and breweries. 

So an interesting game, with nice production which I would play again (knowing are organisation a couple of years … so I will have forgotten how to play and what the strategy is …). 

In other gaming related news I pick up my own copy of fantastic battles - so plan to sort of the collection soon. 

Morts 

UK GamesExpo 2025

So the collective (Snake-eyes, Steedo, Tiger-King and my good self) had an expedition to UK Games Expo this weekend - my first visit since 2018 … I was planning to go last year, but was unwell on the day. 

The day started with a mighty Toby breakfast by the Gloucester cheese rolling hill - which was only last week. They’re onto the show - which seems busier than I remember it! Actually a lot busier to be honest - bloody people in the way. There was also more stalls selling peripheral items … t shirts, hats, mead … fudge etc. some of which was very nice … but I am too tight and also I don’t feel the need to advertise my nerdiness anymore than I do. 

I didn’t go with anything in mind this year - possibly the Hobgoblin rules, which I would have bought last year … but this year I just didn’t feel the need … possibly Midgard and DBF causing the pause and the fact that I haven’t played a fantasy game for quite awhile … over a year at least I reckon. I did pick up the free quick start rules for Hobgoblin and A billion Stars from the Planet Smasher stand. But got them damp in my bag …

On the way in I saw Alessio Cavatore (of Warhammer/Kings of War writing fame) on the Mantic/River Horse stand and was going to go over and speak to him about the Labyrinth/Dark Crystal games, when he called over and went to speak with Jevis Johnson (writer of Bloodbowl) … I thought I would try and catch  him again later, but there was so much to see and people in the way that by the time I passed by again … he was nowhere to be seen - so I missed out on a selfie. 

So we tried to be methodical going around to “streets”, but we kept losing people as we were wandering. I  saw the Wotan Games stand and recalled the War of the Nine Realms game I had wanted to play the last time I was at GamesExpo - so I gathered up the team and managed to get a demo game (pictures on the right above). We all like the game which had a lot of nuance and re-playability, although simple mechanics, I was tempted - but the card standies should really be miniatures and Snake-eyes though it a bit pricey at £40 (with miniatures this would have been fine but £20-£25 as it was packaged seemed a fairer price). 

We continued the wandering and I was the first to purchase an item - some tufts (partly because DK had predicted it, and because they would be useful). Snake-eyes picked a very nice Norse/Cthulhu based RPG - I was tempted by zone wars by the same maker … I saw some miniatures for the Escape from New York game, which I was tempted by because it a good film and sound track, but as Snake-eyes already has it … but he needed the miniatures so picked them up and I asked if he could have the President mini free … this ploy worked.

I had a good chat with the Battlesystems man about Maladum - which looked really good. A tempting dungeon crawler (Heroquest on steroids as Steedo described it), but as I have tried and failed with Dungeon Saga and and am still crawling through Blackstone Fortress … A visit to the Open Pages Rules stand had a good conversation (add in what you want) and a free min - I had definitely going to try out the rules soon, for use with the WH40k stuff. 

With an hour to go before closing we played a couple of rounds of Arkham Horror (picture on the left), this was a nice intuitive game of more Cthulhu madness, with elements which reminded us of pandemic and Raiders of the North Sea - so go in fact that Steedo headed off the Zatu to order a copy … 

I did fail on the purchase front only managing £5 of tufts - pitiful compared to Snake-eyes and Steedo spend … but I didn’t really go there with any plan of what to buy (I also have a mantic kickstarter to arrive that I haven’t told the better half about).

A cracking day out with some good banter in the car and a big thanks to Snake-eyes for driving us all there and back - top man. 

Morts

Game of Thrones - a revisit to the Westeros board game.

Good Friday saw the collective heading over to Steedo’s for another crack at the Iron Throne - and copious beige snacks to fur up the arteries. I had brought some timers over to at least keep people thinking about getting a move on … after the last game.

The factions were;

Steedo - Lannister 

Sylon - Stark

DK - Greyjoy

Snake-eyes - Tyrell

BND - Martell

Morts - Baratheon 

Starting positions, below. BND and I set up a non-aggression pack of sorts … we would move East, he would take on the Tyrells and I would support … the Lannisters and the Greyjoys did the same building up their forces. The Tyrells felt threatened and launched the first attack on  the Martells and lost. And the Starks wandered around the north collecting stuff, but we’re just left alone .

Below about an hour or so into the game - I had managed to take the lead … just one castle or stronghold for the win, but I don’t have the armies available. Steedo and DK have build large forces, but not used them. Although Steedo’s Lannisters were given a bloody nose by my Baratheons … take take Tywin. In the south after swatting away the Tyrells on land the Martells were under pressure at sea … I had supported the Martells the best I could, raiding and winning a battle against the Tyrells. DK’s Greyjoys were building forces, but not being very aggressive. Meanwhile the Starks had moved on the Eyrie. And were worrying close to my strongholds. 

The final moments below - the Lannisters had moved against the Greyjoys and had left themselves open to counter attacks by myself, so close. Unfortunately the Greyjoys managed to capture a couple of Lannister strongholds including Casterly Rock. Steedo was not Tywin … meanwhile Sylon’s Starks …

Attacked a Greyjoy stronghold and was able to make a move on either Kings Landing or another of the Baratheon strongholds - I was able to reinforce Kings Landing, but the other stronghold fell to the rampaging Northerners and the Game of Thrones was over with a win to Sylon’s Starks. 

A good game by Sylon (I think the total game time was around 4 hours - which is about right). We didn’t quite get the wildings rules quite right and the muster cards didn’t come out as we would have liked - I certainly felt very stretched and thin over the game. 

The key to winning is being able to take two two strongholds in one turn.

A pleasant diversion - a thanks to Steedo for hosting. 

Morts. 

Nexus Ops - Played

DK brought a copy of Nexus Ops over to the Boy Next Door (BND) for us to  try. I had managed to watch the play through link on YouTube, so I sort of had an idea of what was happening for once. 

DK had done his usual very good paint job (git) on a game which doesn’t actually need painting. The board set up is randomly placed tiles for terrain effects, then randomly placed explore tokens on top of those. The 3 base tiles for each faction (which are the same) are placed equally around the board. 

The aim of the game is to get 12 victory points, but winning battles (1 point each) and scoring secret objectives (1 to 3 points), which you pick up after fighting a battle. The game makes you fight. 

To get the units to fight the battles, you have to mine (the values in the yellow triangles). 

A rush in the first few rounds to pick up mines, purchase units and fight a few battles. I took an early lead as the player who started last get more money to buy stuff - BND seemed to think that going first didn’t make up for getting 6 less money. 

I also managed to get a 3 point secret objective, by sacrificing one of my dragon things to kill an opponents dragon …

My final 13 points and the win - after an initial early lead, the others were catching me up by taking my mines (revenue), while I had been spending on expensive dragons … and each battle they won gained them more points … narrowing my lead. But I was able to hold on. 

Certainty I would play again - thanks for bringing it out for a lay DK and thanks to BND for the pork pie. 

Morts

Snake-eyes Half-Century Twilight Imperium

This weekend was Snake-eyes’ 50th Birthday celebration - so the collective (sans Cylon) who apparently had better things to do with the day) gathered and played Twilight Imperium (twice within a month). We were trying for an early start (therefore an early finish - Snake-eyes was saying late afternoon … but we knew that wasn’t going to happen, but it did appear briefly that it might). 

At 10am (after sausage baps) we were ready to go - the races were:

Steedo - The Clan of Saar (Black).
Snake-eyes - The Nekro Virus (Red).

Tiger-King - The Nomad (Pink).
Morts - The L1Z1X Mindnet (Blue).

DK - The Titans of Ul (Purple).

Tiger-King had asked to keep the Nomad, as he wanted to get his head around them, the rest of us rolled off - but in the end I kept from the last game L1Z1X, as it gave more space around the table. This left our two most successful players (DK and Steedo) with apparently the two most successful races in the game.

The starting places …

Steedo made an early attempt on Mecatol Rex and a very quick lead - I was struggling with gaining command tokens, mainly because DK kept taking the strategy card.

Below the scores at 14:00 - DK and Snake-eyes trying to keep up with Steedo on 7 points. 

DK had made a run on Mecatol Rex and forced out Steedo - and was complaining that no one else was stopping Steedo … but I think DK wasn’t quite getting the fact that Tiger-King and myself were so far behind, our interventions wouldn’t improve our game position … if you lose it doesn’t really matter who wins - although letting Steedo win two games in succession wouldn’t be great.

My move on Mecatol, using the hero ability …

Mecatol is mine … any I have some points in the bag … in fact moved into 3rd just a point behind the leaders … we had some fun with agendas, by voting for the leader to get points … but with joint leaders, they got nothing  - Ha ha. However, during an agenda phase a law was passed which led to a key part on someone’s victory - this was down to Tiger-King, deciding that rather than hamstring DK’s faction ability with structures, he would stop myself, Steedo and Snake-eyes getting a little boost off riders we had played …

In the final turn, the game had moved to preventing DK winning as the first two 2 point public objectives revealed were about having a certain number of structures in play … which was DK’s faction ability and he could score … I launched an assault on DK’s home system … but unfortunately DK’s structure’s did for me … although I did manage to rebuild some. Then Tiger-King made a speculative attack on Steed, who had been quiet for the last few hours … much to Steedo’s annoyance … “I’m not the threat” … however this attack was perfectly justified as Steedo had lined up a possible winning plan … this sort of deviousness is Steedo’s MO, so a good call.

But it was not to be … my efforts came to nought and DK was able to claim the win.

The final scores:

1st DK - 10 points

2nd Steedo - 8 points

3rd Morts - 7 points 

4th Snake-eyes - 6 points 

5th Tiger-King - 5 points 

A deserved win, although a bit lucky win the 2 point objectives to DK - Steedo, so close. A much improved game and attention from Tiger-King. I could have taken DK’s home world, I might have been able to snatch a victory … and hopefully a good day for Snake-eyes the birthday boy!

Morts