3D Settlers of Catan board

At GenCon 2012 my friend Angela and I played the Mayfair Game's 3D Settlers of Catan game.  Angela told me I should make her a similar board.  A month or so later, I decided to give it a try.

Each hex was cut from pink foam insulation board.  I found a hex shape to use as a stencil, traced the hexes on the foam board, then used a foam cutter to cut out each one.   My foam cutter is a cheap one, so this took a while, and smelled quite bad.  You should probably cut the foam outside if possible!

Hex stencil

 

pink foam insulation and foam cutter

Once all the hexes were cut out, I sealed each one with a mix of white glue and water, and then painted the hex its base colour.

brick, wheat, and ore

wood, desert, sheep

Next up was to decide what I wanted for the settlement and city markers.  I wanted each player's city markers to look different as well as be a different colour. I have a number of Hirst Arts molds, so I went through my spare casts.  The settlement and city markers are all flagstone floor tiles, and the city markers are higher and have different tops. I use Lego to make sure the pieces are glued as squarely as possible.

settlement and city marker bases

settlement and city tops drying

Painted each settlement and city marker black, then a heavy drybrush of white. Later on there will be pictures of the finished markers, I wanted them to be very brightly coloured.

The roads are made from big popsicle sticks I bought at a dollar store.  I cut each down to size, and then painted them.

cutting down the popsicle sticks

roads ready to be painted

painted roads

I didn't take many pictures of the resource tiles, but you can see the finished tiles at the end of this post.

Wheat - I stripped the top layer from some corrugated cardboard so it looked like crop rows.  I then glued rows of twine upright so it looked like wheat.  Once that was dry, I cut the twine so it was shorter, then cut the cardboard into sections for each tile.  Glued that to the painted hex.  The dirt around the wheat is used coffee grounds.

wheat and ore drying

nearly finished wheat tiles - just needs a second coat of coffee

Ore - I glued 3 pieces of cut off pink foam insulation to make each mountain.  Once the glue dried I shaped it a bit, and then painted dark grey with progressive drybrush to white.  You can see the unpainted mountains in the picture above.

Desert - beige painted hex covered in two coats of coarse sand bought at a dollar store.

Sheep - green painted hexes covered in two coats of green flock.  I bought a package of plastic sheep at a model railroad store.

Brick - red painted hexes, and hirst arts bricks painted dark red with grey drybrush.

bricks drying

Wood - brown painted hexes, and each tree was made from a Gary Oak twig cut down to size, and topped with moss bought at a craft store.  Gary Oaks are very gnarly, so each "tree" is unique.

cutting the Gary Oak twig

tree ready to assemble

tree completed

The water tiles stumped me for a bit, I didn't want just plain blue painted hexes.  Then I remembered I had some spray coat sealer that eats foam.  I cut the bottom from a starbucks cup and used the remainder of the cup as a spray template. I sprayed the sealer inside the cup so each water tile was eaten away in the center. This also smells a lot, and probably should have been done outside.

water tiles and spray template

  Once they dried, I painted each blue, and then drybrushed light blue and while to highlight the water. Nine of the water tiles needed docks, so I built docks from skewers and wood coffee stirrers. I deliberately made the dock planks uneven. Glued a dock to each water tile, and then added an additional board to make the dock look like it went to the edge of the tile.

inverted bridge, drying

bridge glued to water tile

additional dock plank added to edge

The Robber was made from Hirst Arts - 2 short pillar sections topped with a skull.  The ore and brick 2:1 dock markers were small Hirst Arts bricks - painted red for brick, grey for ore.  The wheat 2:1 marker was a Hirst Arts bag of grain, the wood marker was a small section of twig, and the sheep marker was the end of a Q-Tip.  That one stumped me for a while, wasn't sure how to represent wool!

The rest of this post will be photos of the player pieces and the completed board:

wheat 2:1 marker

brick 2:1 marker

ore 2:1 marker

sheep 2:1 marker

wood 2:1 marker

close up of the Robber and the desert tile

completed board

completed board

Overall I am pretty happy with how this turned out!

Hirst Arts Warlock's House

I chose the Hirst Arts Warlock's House as my first HA build, as I already owned the molds needed to make it.  I had already cast enough blocks to get a good start on this build, and just cast more as needed. I learned so much while building this!! This piece recently went to some friends as a very belated Christmas present.

Here's a few of the lessons I learned:
1) Consistent blocks are very important! When I first started casting blocks I didn't realize how important this was, so I didn't always scrape the molds carefully.  You can sand the blocks once they are dry but it is messy and inconvienent so it's better just to cast them properly. 

2) Use the same casting material for all the blocks. The blocks in this build are 3 different types of plaster (as I got better at casting, and bought better quality materials).  The different materials may react to the paint differently, or (as I experienced) may not hold with the same glue.  There were a few sections of this build that were glued a few times.

3) Do some research online for hints and tips.  The HA forums are an awesome resourse that I carefully read and then apparently ignored.  Silly silly me! Learn from others!

4) Make sure your walls are straight and your corners are square.  This is one tip I did follow - I used lego to brace the corners as the glue dried.  However I didn't realize that as I built each layer of the house the walls were not straight (they looked straight when I was assembling it!)  Once it was all assembled and glued together I noticed that the top was narrower than the bottom.

The build was pretty straightforward - I followed the plans and instructions, building row by row.  One of the things I liked about this one was that it is built to come apart in sections, so you can use it with miniatures. I glued the base to a white foamcore board.  Once all the pieces were glued, I painted them in sections, but following the same pattern - dark grey/blue basecoat, then 3-4 layers of progressively lighter coloured drybrushing (added more white paint each time), and a final coat of almost pure white drybrush. 

The roof was cut from cereal box cardboard.  Knowing I didn't want to spend hours cutting out individual roof tiles, I went to my local craft store and bought a paper punch that more or less made the scalloping pattern I was looking for.  I then punched out about a million rows (more or less) from regular paper, and glued them to the cardboard frame.  After that was all done, I glued the roof to the supports, and then painted it.  The roof was painted blue, then washed in black (a wash is very watered down paint, so it pools in crevesses).  Then a few progressively lighter drybrush coats of blue, and moss added.

I painted the white foamcore board green, then painted a good coat of pva glue and water.  I sprinkled flocking all around, let it dry, then knocked off the excess.  Any bare patches I applied more glue/water and flock.  Around the edge of the building I did a thin row of tiny brown rocks I picked up at a dollar store. 

The moss on the building and roof is a mixture of flock and tea (much tea was consumed during the construction of this building).  I also scattered some tea on the ground cover, to break it up a bit.  Using just the flocking made the ground look unnaturally uniform.

Once the whole thing was painted, I sprayed each piece with a quick coat of Testor's Dull Coat (matt, not glossy - didn't want the piece to look shiney). This should help protect it from light bumps and scratches.

I did make a few changes from the original pattern.  Because my build narrowed as it went up, I couldn't put in the second floor I built.  So I cut it down to half a floor (I guess like a loft?)  I had to glue some additional bracing blocks to support the second floor as it no longer reached wall to wall, but these were a few of the blocks that just wouldn't bind with the glue.  So after much wailing and knashing of teeth I gave up, now this Warlock's house has seriously vaulted ceilings :-) Another change I made was instead of sanding down the roof peak sections, I added small triangle shaped blocks to each "step" to smooth it out.  However, I didn't realize this would make the roof peak sections larger than the plan, so I had to make a larger roof. The last significant change was I didn't build the outside fence - due to (again) my poor planning, there wasn't enough room on the foamcore for this.  I even had to cut small strip of foamcore from a scrap piece and glue it on one side as I didn't center the build on the foamcore.  I promise to plan the next piece better!  :-)

Here are a few photos of the piece.  The only thing I did after taking these photos was to paint the white edge of the foamcore a brown/green mixture. You can see all the photos here.



Completed base with floor tiles, door, and grass.

   


Side tower base.

 



 Side tower middle section.

 


Side tower cap.

 


Main part of house.

 

 


Roof.

 


Assembled, back view.

 


Assembled, side tower view.






Assembled, front view.

 

Hirst Arts

Last year I discovered Hirst Arts molds, and the nerd crafter in me cried out in joy :-) Many years ago I played tabletop miniature based wargames, and I enjoyed painting the figures and building terrain almost as much as playing the games!  While I don't wargame any more (I'm too cheap to get back into the hobby) I do play in a number of regular pen and paper rpg games, and cool terrain can always add an interesting element to battle scenes.

I bought a couple of Hirst molds with no clear idea of what I wanted to build. So then I bought more :-) My plan now is to build some modular dungeon pieces that can be put together in almost any configuration to match what is needed, and maybe a few buildings for outdoor or village scenes.

I curently own:
#70 Fieldstone Wall Mold
#71 Fieldstone Accessories Mold
#73 6" Round Fieldstone Mold
#77 Fieldstone Octagon Mold
#260 Flagstone Floor Tile Mold

One of my gamer friends has a few molds I don't have, so we have traded a few for a month or so.  I borrowed #281 Cavern Floor Mold and #282 Cavern Floor Accessories, and I really like how different they are from my fieldstone molds...

I am already planning my next purchase (will be sharing an order with the above mentioned gamer friend to save on shipping).  I know for sure I want to get #85 Cavern Accessory Mold because of all the useful things you can make with it - barrels, crates, chests, crystals...so many cool things!!  But what else to get?! Should I stick with the fieldstone line and maybe get a different building? Or expand into another line? So tempted!

Nerd Crafting!

I have 3 nerd crafts that I am attempting to practice regularly this year - gaming miniature painting, gaming terrain building, and making chainmail jewelry. My hope is that by updating this blog with regular photos and updates it will keep me practicing regularly.  A side benefit is that my photography skills may also improve :-)

One of my goals for this year was to paint a minimum of 2 minis a month.  In January I painted one.  I have 2 days left in February, and haven't painted any yet.  Dammit!! So I have to paint 3 minis in the next 2 days, or March's total will be 5.  Here is the 1 mini I painted in January - it's one of the treasure chests from Super Dungeon Explore:

Just before Christmas I ordered some basic chainmail supplies from The Ring Lord. Here is a simple 4-in-1 bracelet I made myself:

I will discuss the piece of terrain I recently completed in it's own post.

Dixit

Dixit is a visually stunning board/card game. The game had been recommended to my gaming group before PAX, but we hadn't had a chance to try it out until recently.

Dixit is for 3-6 players age 8 and up and an average game takes about 30 minutes.

Each turn a player is the Storyteller - they look at the six cards in their hand and come up with a one or more word sentence to describe the card they've chosen. Telling the other players the sentence, the other players then look through the six cards in their hands and choose one that best matches what the Storyteller described. The Storyteller then takes the cards, shuffles them face down and turns them face up on the table. The other players then use a numbered token to choose which card they think was described by the Storyteller.

If everyone or no one chooses the Storyteller's card then the Storyteller gains no points that turn and everyone else scores 2 points. Otherwise, the Storyteller and anyone who chose the correct card scores 3. Players score 1 point each time their card is chosen by another player. Points are tracked on a board by moving coloured rabbits along a marked trail.

The mechanics of the game are simple, but after playing a few rounds we discovered there is a skill you need to develop for this game. You don't want to be too obvious or too vague when describing your card, or you will get no points for that turn (this happened to me a lot!).

I highly recommend this game; it has great re-playability and really gets your imagination going!

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer

Gloom

Gloom is published by Atlas Games, and is a quirky, cheerful and uplifting card game. No, wait, that's not right. Gloom is horrible, depressing and a ton of fun!!

Gloom is a card game for 2-4 players ages 8 and up. The average game takes about an hour. Cards for this game are unique - they are transparent plastic, so when you stack cards you can easily see what effects are still in play.

When you play Gloom you control the fate of a family of misfits and weirdoes. Your goal is simple: you want your family members to suffer the worst tragedies possible before they die. Some examples of the tragedies are Distressed by Dysentery and Terrified by Topiary. These modifiers have negative point values and lower your Self Worth, and you want each member of the family to have the lowest possible Self Worth before they die. The problem is your opponents are trying to lower their Self Worth, and raise yours - by playing modifiers that cheer you up and have positive point values (such as Wondrously Well Wed or Delighted by Ducklings).

The game ends the instant an entire family is eliminated. Each player then counts the visible points on each of their dead family members to determine the winner - the one with the lowest total score.

There are a few other types of cards as well, some that block effects, some which have immediate or ongoing special effects, etc.

I played Gloom at VCon and had fun. Adding to the atmosphere, each player should contribute an element of storytelling as they play - explain how Cousin Mordecai The Red-Headed Stepchild was Pierced by Porcupines!

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer

Elmer

I'm not sure what possessed me to buy the Elmer graphic novel - I have a vague recollection of seeing listed somewhere as a "must read" but I rarely agree with those lists. :-) I was in my Friendly Local Comic Book Store the other day to buy the MouseGuard Legends of the Guard graphic novel when I spotted a copy of Elmer on the shelf. I took a quick glace at it and decided what the hell.

Elmer was created by Gerry Alanguilan, and is a thought provoking story - what if one day chickens developed human-like consciousness and the ability to speak? The chickens then push to get rights as the newest members of the human race. The story starts after the chickens have been granted rights, and is told as a family drama/coming of age story.

It sounds like an odd concept, but I really recommend reading Elmer. I found the story to be very engrossing - how would you feel or react if something that was a food source suddenly became sentient and had the ability to talk? What about those who make their living off this food source?

Originally posted on Pretty Gamer

Forbidden Island

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to capture the four sacred treasures hidden on Forbidden Island. But wait, there's more! The ancient mystical empire that hid the treasures also designed the Island to sink if intruders ever came to Forbidden Island. Will you and your team be the first to enter Forbidden Island, find the treasures, and make it out alive!?

(*dramatic music*)

Forbidden Island is a cooperative boardgame for 2 to 4 players ages 10 and up, and an average game takes about 30 minutes to play.

The game comes in a cool metal box containing:

• 28 Treasure cards (these are good)
• 24 Flood cards (these are bad)
• 6 Adventurer cards (these are the roles of the Adventurers)
• 24 island tiles (these are the areas of the Island)
• 6 pawns (these are the Adventurers)
• 4 treasure figurines (The Earth Stone, The Statue of the Wind, The Crystal of Fire, and The Ocean's Chalice)
• 1 water meter
• 1 water level marker
• Rules of play

Forbidden Island is similar to Pandemic, but simpler. The object of the game is to keep Forbidden Island afloat long enough to capture the four treasures and escape via helicopter from Fools' Landing.

After you shuffle the island tiles and lay them out, each player takes a random Adventurer card. The Adventurer card tells you what role you will be playing (Explorer, Pilot, Engineer, Diver, Messenger or Navigator). Each role has a special ability that gives an advantage in the game. Take a moment to look at the island tiles - these will indicate where each Adventurer starts the game, and where each Treasure can be captured.

Each player's turn consists of three things:
1) Take up to 3 actions. Your actions can be a combination of these standard actions (note that your Adventurer card may allow you to do additional actions):

• Move
• Shore Up - if a section of the Island is flooded, this action flips the tile back to normal
• Give a Treasure card - give a Treasure card to another player
• Capture a Treasure - discard 4 matching Treasure cards if your pawn is on the corresponding tile

2) Draw 2 Treasure deck cards. There are 5 of each Treasure card in the deck, as well as 2 types Special Action cards and the Evil Waters Rise! cards. Drawing a Waters Rise! card causes the Water Level marker to move up the Water Meter, which will cause more of the Island to flood each turn (this is bad).

3) Draw Flood cards equal to the water level. Each Flood card is a tile location - so if that location is normal, you flip it over to indicate it is flooded. If that location is already flooded, then that location sinks and is out of the game.

You win the game by collecting all four treasures and getting all the Adventurers back to Fools' Landing.

You lose the game if:

• You don't manage to collect all four treasures (those tiles sink before you collect the treasure)
• Fools' Landing sinks
• Any player is on an tile that sinks and there are no adjacent tile to swim to
• The water level reaches the skull and crossbones.

Scott Kurtz wrote a PVP comic about Forbidden Island, and Gabe from Penny Arcade had tweeted about the game. I finally had a chance to demo the game at PAX and it was a blast. We had an epic 5 person game with the woman who was running the demo, and we barely won.

I recommend picking this one up - the rules are pretty straight forward, the game is pretty inexpensive, and it could be a good gateway game to encourage your non-gamer friends to become cooler :-)

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer

Revolution!

Revolution! is a board game in which you're secretly bidding against your opponents to control territory and gain the support of the masses. Revolution! is produced by Steve Jackson games, is for 3-4 players and a game lasts about an hour.

The board consists of the seven areas of town and a support track running around the edge of the board. The goal is to have the most support at the end of the game. Each area of town holds a number of influence cubes, at the end the player with the most cubes in an area has control of it and gains the associated support.

Each player gets their own Bid Board and screen. You place your bids on the Bid Board while it's protected by the screen, when everyone is ready the screens are lifted to reveal the bids. The Bid Board has twelve spaces that represent influential people who will assist you on that round, if you win that bid! There are three types of tokens used to bid - Force, Blackmail and Gold.

A round of play goes through four stages:

1) Espionage - Since the town is full of spies, everyone knows what resources everyone else has. At the beginning of the round the players must show the tokens they are starting with.

2) Bidding - Secretly place tokens on your Bid Board behind the screen. You can place a maximum of six bids and you must use all your tokens. One Force token will beat any amount of Blackmail or Gold. One Blackmail token will beat any amount of Gold. Some people cannot be forced or blackmailed.

3) Resolution - All players lift their screens to reveal their bids. Bids are resolved in the same order every time - starting at the top left of the Bid Board (the General) and working down to the bottom right (the Mercenary). If you're the only player to bid on that person then you win and receive whatever benefit is listed. If two or more players bid on the same person then the player with the highest bid wins. If the bids are tied or no one bids on a person then that benefit doesn't occur this round. After the bids are resolved return tokens used in that bid to the bank.
Winning a bid provides a benefit. If the person grants support then move your scoring token around the track on the edge of the board. If the person grants tokens (Force, Blackmail or Gold) then get those tokens from the bank and place them aside until the next round. If the person grants influence then place one of your influence cubes in the specified location on the board.

4) Patronage - After all bids have been resolved check the number of tokens each player has. If they have less than five then take gold tokens from the bank to bring them back up to five tokens. You can only get Force and Blackmail tokens from winning bids. After this phase a new round begins.

The game ends when all the influence spaces on the board are full. Players then score support from the areas they control and from the tokens in their hands. To control an area you don't need to have the majority of the influence spaces, just the most. The winner is the player with the most support.

We were introduced to this game at VCon while waiting to play something else. There's a fair amount of strategy and trying to second-guess your opponents, you want to try to predict where and how much your opponents will be bidding. The game play is simple, but the strategy really adds a level of complexity.

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer

Poo!

Who wants to play Poo?! Wait, where are you all going?!

Poo is a fun, fast paced card game for 2-8 players ages 8 and up, and takes less than 15 minutes to play.

It's quite the intellectual game. Here is the basic concept: Each player is a monkey, and you fling poo and mess with each other until only 1 monkey remains. I am fairly certain no poo or monkeys were actually harmed in the making of this game.

The game play is pretty straight forward. Start the game with 5 cards each. At the start of your turn you draw a card into your hand. You can then play a card from your hand - usually to fling poo at another monkey or to clean yourself off. Outside of your turn you can use cards to defend yourself from incoming poo or foil the other monkey trying to fling poo. After you play a card, draw another card from the pile. Different cards cause (or remove) different amounts of poo, and when you reach 15 points of poo you are out of the game.

There are 5 types of cards in the game:

- Poo: these cause poo points to your opponents. Some target 1 opponent, others target multiple opponents. Eg: King Kong Poo, The Big One

- Defense: these can be played outside of your turn as an opponent is about to fling poo on you, and stops or redirects any poo points that would have been given to you. Eg: Block, Dodge

- Mishap: these can be played outside of your turn as an opponent is about to fling poo on you, and causes a negative effect to the poo flinger. Eg: Just a Fart, Cramp

- Clean: these are played during your turn to remove poo points from you Eg: Found a Towel, Sharing the Love

- Event: these are played during your turn, and have an effect on the game. Eg: Zookeeper Turns on the Hose, Escaped Tiger

While clearly aimed at a younger audience, this game is a blast for adults as well. There is very little strategy involved, but you can add a social aspect by ganging up on a particular player or trying to protect a player. We played a couple games of Poo on the ferry ride home from PAX.

I was going to wrap up by saying this is a fun quick game that could be played anywhere, but I don't think you should ever play with poo at the dining room table.

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer

Munchkin

SETTING:

A stark room with a single light over the table. Four people sit around the table, clutching cards in their hands and warily watching each other. There are a number of cards and a single d10 in front of each person. The room has a palatable sense of tension.

Player 1:

I choose to fight the Large Angry Chicken.

Player 2:

Now it's a Humongous Large Angry Chicken!

Player 3:

Ha! Now it's an Ancient Humongous Large Angry Chicken! Take that!

Player 4:

I will help you for all the treasure cards. If you say no, I'll play a Wandering Monster and guarantee you loose the combat.

Player 1:

*sighs* I hate you all.

Have you ever played Munchkin? I think it's one of the most well known geeky card games out there. The text on the box neatly sums up the goal of the game: Kill The Monsters - Steal The Treasure - Stab Your Buddy.

In the basic game (there are a number of other sets that I will discuss in future articles) you and your buddies are Dungeon Explorers and you're competing with each other to kill monsters and grab magic items. The first player to Level 10 wins the game - so do your best to screw your buddies and stop them from gaining levels!

Munchkin really is a ton of fun. Reading through the rules the first time can be confusing, I think it is best to just sit down with some friends and start playing a few games.

There are two decks of cards in the game - Door cards and Treasure cards.

Door cards are:

• Monsters (eg. Gelatinous Octahedron or *shudder* Lawyers)
• Monster modifiers (eg. Ancient or Baby)
• Character classes (eg. Cleric, Thief )
• Character races (eg. Dwarf, Elf)
• Curses (eg. Chicken on Your Head, Duck of Doom)

Treasure Cards are:

• Items (eg. Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment, Pantyhose of Giant Strength)
• Potions (eg. Potion of Halitosis, Flaming Poison Potion)
• other treasures (eg. Go Up a Level)

Each turn goes through a sequence of actions. First you Kick Down The Door (drawing a door card). If it's a monster, then you can choose to fight it or try and run away. If it's a curse then it takes effect immediately. If you didn't fight a monster, then you can choose to Look For Trouble by playing and fighting a monster from your hand. If you didn't meet a monster at all that turn you can then Loot The Room and draw a Door card into your hand. Defeating a monster will net you level(s) and treasure.

Combat is the best part of this game. Each monster has a level, and to see if you can defeat the monster you add up your level and any bonuses from items in play. If your total is greater than the monster's level then you win! But wait, there's more! Once you decide to fight a monster your buddies get 2.6 seconds to decide if they will try and screw you over. They can play Monster Enhancers (making the monster stronger), items, curses, anything they can to make it so you loose the fight. This can get pretty nasty. :-)

If you can't beat the monster, you're allowed to ask for help - one other player can choose to assist you (adding their level and item bonuses to yours). But why would they help you? They are trying to win! You often have to sweeten the deal by offering some or all of the treasure cards to get them to help you.

There's a great Munchkin Flowchart available to guide you through the game.

Take the time to read each card as it comes into play, the cards are pretty damn funny and the artwork just adds to it all! In the case of a conflict between the rules and what the card says, the card always wins.

Remember - cheating is not only allowed, it's expected!

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer

Defenders of the Realm

I had some friends over the other night and we played our first game of Defenders of the Realm. I had first heard of this game a few months ago, and had been wanting to try it. I picked up a copy at PAX, and couldn't wait to play it.

Defenders of the Realm is a fantasy based co-operative board game, for 1-4 players ages 13 and up. An average game takes about 2 hours. As a co-operative game, the players work together to a common goal - the game has similar mechanics as Arkham Horror, if you are familiar with that game. The art for the game is all done by Larry Elmore, and it is awesome!

Each player takes the role of a Hero (Cleric, Dwarf, Eagle Rider, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, or Wizard) and you must defend the King and save the lands from the Evil Bad Guys (Balazarg, Gorgutt, Sapphire, and Varkolak)

The game comes in a large box with a ton of stuff:

• Rulebook
• 24" x 30" Game Board
• 8 Hero Character Cards
• 8 Hero Miniatures
• 4 General Character Cards
• 4 General Miniatures
• 100 Minions [25 Black (Varkolak’s Undead) 25 Blue (Sapphire’s Dragonkin) 25 Red (Balazarg’s Demons) 25 Green (Gorgutt’s Orcs)]
• War Status Board
• Deck of 56 Darkness Spreads Cards (these are used to spread the Bad Guys around the world)
• Deck of 96 Hero Cards (these are multipurpose cards that are used with actions
• Deck of 24 Quest Cards (these are side quests that get that reward the Heros)
• 12 Tainted Crystals
• 5 Magic Gate Tokens
• 12 Dice -3 per color (Black, Blue, Red, Green)
• 7 Status Tokens (War Status, 4 General Wound Markers, 2 Eagle Rider Status)
• 42 Life Tokens

The miniatures are plastic, but I think I might paint the Heros and the Generals to make them look even cooler.

Each players turn is comprised of 3 phases:

• Daytime - player takes a number of actions equal to their number of Life Tokens. Actions are movement, using a special skill, listening for rumours at an inn, building a magic gate, healing the land, healing wounds, engaging enemy minons in combat, or engaging enemy Generals in combat.
• Evening - player draws 2 Hero cards to their hand
• Night - badness happens!! This is the time when the Bad Guys advance and Try to Take Over the World.

Players win the game by defeating all 4 generals. Players loose the game if any of the following occur:

• any of the 4 generals move into Monarch City
• if a Darkness Spreads Card identifies minions to be placed on the board and you do not have enough minions to meet the requirements of the card
• the last of the 12 Tainted Crystals is added to the board
• if 5 enemy minions are in Monarch City at any time
  

My friends and I had a fun time playing this game. I think the first run through is a bit slower as you are refering back to the rulebook a lot, but as you become familiar with the rules it will go faster.

Yes, we won our game, but it was close. We were so focused on defeating the minions and Generals, we sort of forgot about the Taint spreading across the world. I think we were at 11 Taint crystals (12 looses the game) when we defeated the last General!

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer

Thunderstone

Thunderstone is a fantasy-themed deck building card game from Alderac Entertainment Group. It is for 1 to 5 players, ages 12 and up, and the average game takes about an hour. That's right - this game has solo rules.

The base game comes with over 500 cards and the goal is to build your deck with stronger and stronger heroes and better weapons and gear to defeat the monsters until you finally claim the Thunderstone. There are three expansion sets for the game as well (Doomgate Legion, Dragonspire, and Wrath of the Elements).

The setup for the game can take a while at first, until you get used to it. Learn from my error - the cards come in groupings so don't mix them up. :-) Once you get a handle on the setup and sort the cards properly, setup becomes much quicker.

You don't use all the cards in every game. To determine what will be in the game, you use the special randomizer cards - there are randomizer cards for each type of Hero cards, Village cards, and Monster cards. To start, find the monster cards that match what you picked from the randomizer - shuffle these together to form the Dungeon Deck. Count off 10 of these, shuffle in the special Thunderstone Card, and put them on the bottom of the pile. Leave space beside the Dungeon Deck for the 3 ranks of Monsters to defeat.

Next you set up the Village. There are the four types of Basic cards that are used in every game of Thunderstone - Militia, Torch, Iron Rations, and Dagger. Additionally there are the Village cards chosen by the randomizer cards. Do NOT shuffle the Village cards - each type is put on the table in its own pile.

Last thing to set up are the Heroes - for each class of Hero there are 3 levels, and each is piled with the level 3 cards on the bottom and the level 1 cards on top.

To start, each player draws 6 Militia cards, 2 Dagger cards, 2 Iron Ration cards, and 2 Torch cards. Shuffle these together and draw 6 cards to form your hand. The remaining 6 cards stay face down as your Party Deck. As you play the game you discard cards into your discard pile and work through your Party Deck. Only once the Party Deck is gone do you shuffle the discard pile and place it face down to form your Party Deck. Each time you purchase cards or defeat monsters the cards go into your discard pile, so the deck gets bigger all the time. In some circumstances cards are destroyed - so they go into a separate pile and are not shuffled back into your Party Deck.

On your turn you have 3 options - you can Visit the Village, Enter the Dungeon, or Rest:

1) If you Visit the Village you reveal you hand, count up the amount of gold you have (indicated on the cards in your hand) and can purchase one card with a value up to the amount of gold you have. You can buy items, weapons, spells, or heroes. Anything you buy goes into your discard pile. If you have enough experience points, you can also choose to level up any or all of the Hero cards in your hand. At the end of your turn you discard all cards in your hand (whether you used them or not) and draw 6 new cards from your Party deck.

2) If you Enter the Dungeon you reveal your hand, declare what monster you are attacking, and resolve the combat. If you defeat the monster you put that card in your discard pile. Shift the monster cards on the table to fill empty ranks from the Dungeon Deck (ie if you defeated the monster in Rank 2, move the monster from Rank 3 to Rank 2, and draw a new monster card and place it in Rank 3). At the end of your turn you discard all cards in your hand (whether you used them or not) and draw 6 new cards from your Party deck.

3) If you choose to Rest you may Destroy one card from your hand (remove it from the game, it does not go in your discard pile). At the end of your turn you discard all cards in your hand (whether you used them or not) and draw 6 new cards from your Party deck.

The game continues until a player has collected the Thunderstone or the Thunderstone moves to Rank 1 of the Dungeon because a monster was not defeated. Each player then counts the amount of Victory Points they have (not all cards have Victory Point values) and the player with the highest total wins.

Overall the game is a ton of fun. There are a few suggestions I would make - I think the pictures on the Hero cards should be different for each level so you can easily see what level it is (eg perhaps older, or better equipment). I think the biggest challenge of this game is keeping the cards in order :-)

I would highly recommend this game to anyone who has played Dominion or Ascension, or anyone looking to get into a non-collectible card game.

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer

Cthulhu Dice

Cthulhu Dice is a quick dice and token game from Steve Jackson Games – makers of some of my favourite games! The game is for 2-6 players and most games last 5-10 minutes. The game comes with a big custom 12 side die, 18 glass tokens, and the rule sheet. At this point there are 6 colour variants on the cool Cthulhu die:

Black	Green	Glow in the dark die
Yellow	Purple	Glow in the dark ink

Like most games of this sort, the mechanics themselves are quite simple and straight forward. Each player starts with 3 sanity tokens. The attacking player (the Caster) chooses who to attack (the Victim) and rolls the die. Deal with the result (see below) and then the Victim gets to respond by rolling the die and dealing with the result. The die is then passed to the next player and the sequence repeats. The game ends when only 1 player has any sanity left at the end of a turn. If no one has any sanity left, then Cthulhu wins!

The die has 5 different symbols on it, each with a different effect:

	Yellow Sign – your target loses 1 Sanity to Cthulhu (put Sanity token in the middle of the table)
	Tentacle – Caster takes 1 Sanity from the Victim (no matter who rolled it)
	Elder Sign – you gain 1 Sanity from Cthulhu
	Cthulhu – everyone loses 1 Sanity to Cthulhu
	Eye – Choose any result above

This game (similar to Zombie Dice) is a great game to play when you have a few minutes to kill.

Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!!

Originally posted at Pretty Gamer