Reign of Cthulhu Investigator Miniatures

"The Federal government made a strange and secret investigation of certain conditions in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth."

The Shadow Over Innsmout, H. P. Lovecraft

The squade of investigatiors are primed and ready to solve the next Lovecraft mystery. I purchased these miniatures so that I might have something to stand next to a structure once it has been completed. The figures average approximately 38mm tall, that is from the crown of their heads to the bottom of their bases.

It seems the 38mm figures for O-gauge model railroading might just work out, although they do seem to be a bit chunky.

Tales of Lost Isles

“The Ghost Archipelago, a vast island chain that is covered with ruins of ancient and other worldly civilizations, has reappeared after centuries, to the far reaches of the Southern Ocean.”

Tales of Lost Isles is a collection of short stories giving one several scenarios and ideas to use with the Tales of Lost Isles war game.

The Cardboard Republic’s Risk Variants and Solo Game Play

Judging from where this bookmark is located in my list of bookmarks I found this site some time ago. What I was originally searching for is any ones guess, however having found what looked like an interesting resource, and I saved the bookmark.

Although I just started to explore this site in earnest, I came upon two topics that are near-and-dear to me. They are the board game “Risk” and Solo board games.

Variant Risk

This page list three different variants of Risk; Vendetta or otherwise known as Assassin, or Paranoia. Vendetta takes two of revised versions missions and applies them to everyone. This variant is said to shorten a five player game down to two hours.

The second variant allows one to accumulate territory cards past the usual five card maximum. That is to say you can cash them in at a more appropriate time when the number of armies issued is at an all-time high.

The third and last Risk variant mentioned is One World Dominion, which includes a PDF for a print and play version of Risk. One World Dominion includes its own set of Territory cards, and its own set of rules and situations. This variant looks like a very interesting and might prove to be quite challenging to play.

One World Dominion, Territory Card

Solo Edition: The Appeal of Single Player Board Games

This page lists three board games that include either rules for or components for playing solo. The three listed board games that include solo versions are: Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm, Arkham Horror, and Ascension: Storm of Souls. Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm includes a miniature game board for solo play.

Histrofigs 18mm Hero’s

Here are six 18mm unique zombie hunters. These like the remainder of the zombies will be used to replace a set of cardboard zombies that accompanied print and play board game. They should make the game more interesting.

Last Stand at Surbiton

Last Stand at Surbiton is a sequel to 1871: The Battle of Dorking, formally from Draken Games. The situation is desperate for the demoralized British forces; however Surbiton, a nominally defend-able position, is their last attempt to check the Imperil German forces from sacking London.

To get you in the mood you might want to read The Invasion by William Le Queux which envisions Britain being invaded by Germany.

The Battle of Dorking

The Battle of Dorking is the first “print and play” game I purchased. The Battle of Dorking is a fictional battle between German imperial forces and a mostly vagabond lot of English citizens and soldiers in Victorian England in the year of 1871. The game features 38 pages of rules, counters, statistic tables, and a large map (two pages). There are 20 pages of rules and the remainder of the booklet includes back-end details.

Les Petits Pirates

One of the six maps

Les Petits Pirates was created by GGJ Games and was an entry in the 2016 PnP Game Design contest. This print and play board game is for one to four players. Players are pirates and command three ships. Their mission is gather resources and gold while trying to prevent their opponents from doing the same.

There are three distinct phases of the game, an Action Selection, Action Assignment, and Resolution phase. Players will continue to play until one player has collected and buried 20 Gold.

There six five by eight inch maps to choose from, including one that is space themed (perhaps you can come-up with something more suitable than gold for this game.)

You will need to supply four dice per player, three of which are used to represent three ships and tokens for gold pieces. I had actually considered using 1/2000 scale ships, which might be a little too large for the five by eight inch playing map. We will see!

Risk 2210 AD Battle Report

My brother and I played our first game of Risk 2210 AD the other day. Although it is basically played like the classic Risk board game, Risk 2210 AD adds some complexity to the game play. In addition, the game board has been updated and there two other types of territories that players can strive for. One such includes its own game board. Like the main game board, the moon board is broken into sectors and territories.

What makes this edition unique is its inclusion of commanders and command cards. These cards, especially, add the complexity I had mentioned to the game; more about these cards in a later post.

Since I was the one who introduced the game and was the one who made sure that the rules were being followed, I did not have my whole focus on the goal of winning and my brother beat my soundly.

My brother quickly got the upper hand by establishing a presence on the moon and in the sea colonies, while I was strapped by the play of my brothers command cards which limited my actions

Four Yo-Kai Watch Game Tokens

This is my second Yo-Kai Watch related post. I recently came across the four of these game tokens. They are from Yo-Kai Watch Monopoly. Yo-Kai Watch Monopoly is for little kids and these Yo-Kai Watch tokens are Yo-Kai Watch characters.

These game tokens are made from a hard plastic and stand approximately two inches tall. The characters are (from left to right):
Jibanyan, Komajiro, Komasan, and Whisper.

A Host of Characters: The Han Psyche

“Yet, did not even brilliant scientists frequently exhibit the same lack of logic back in the Twentieth Century? Did not the historians, the philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome show themselves to be the same shrewd observers as those of succeeding centuries, the same masters of the logical and slaves of the illogical?

After all, I reflected, man makes little progress within himself. Through succeeding generations he piles up those resources which he possesses outside of himself, the tools of his hands, and the warehouses of knowledge for his brain, whether they be parchment manuscripts, printed book, or electronorecordographs. For the rest he is born today, as in ancient Greece, with a blank brain, and struggles through to his grave, with a more or less beclouded understanding, and with distinct limitations to what we used to call his "think tank."

THIS particular reflection of mine proved unpopular with them, for it stabbed their vanity, and neither my prestige nor the novelty of the idea was sufficient salve. These Hans for centuries had believed and taught their children that they were a super-race, a race of destiny. Destined to Whom, for What, was not so clear to them; but nevertheless destined to "elevate" humanity to some sort of super-plane. Yet through these same centuries they had been busily engaged in the extermination of "weaklings," whom, by their very persecutions, they had turned into "super men," now rising in mighty wrath to destroy them; and in reducing themselves to the depths of softening vice and flabby moral fiber. Is it strange that they looked at me in amazed wonder when I laughed outright in the midst of some of their most serious speculations?”

The Airlords of Han, by Philip Francis Nowlan

A Host of Characters: The Han Physiology

"The Han looked little like the Mongolians of the Twentieth Century, except for their slant eyes and round heads. The characteristic of the high cheek bones appeared to have been bred out of them, as were those of the relatively short legs and the muddy yellow skin. To call them yellow was more figurative than literal. Their skins were whiter than those of our own weather-tanned forest men. Nevertheless, their pigmentation was peculiar, and what there was of it looked more like a pale orange tint than the ruddiness of the Caucasian. They were well formed, but rather undersized and soft-looking, small-muscled and smooth-skinned, like young girls. Their features were finely chiseled, eyes beady, and nose slightly aquiline.

They were uniformed, not in close-fitting green or other shades of protective coloring, such as the unobtrusive gray of the Jersey Beaches or the leadened russet of the autumn uniforms of our people. Instead they wore loose fitting jackets of some silky material, and loose knee pants. This particular command had been equipped with form-moulded boots of some soft material that reached above the knee under their pants. They wore circular hats with small crowns and wide rims. Their loose jackets were belted at the waist, and they carried for weapons each man a knife, a short double-edged sword and what I took to be a form of magazine rocket gun. It was a rather bulky affair, short-barrelled, and with a pistol grip. It was obviously intended to be fired either from the waist position or from some sort of support, like the old machine guns. It looked, in fact, like a rather small edition of the Twentieth Century arm.

And have I mentioned the color of their uniforms? Their circular hats and pants were a bright yellow; their coats a flaming scarlet. What targets they were."

The Airlords of Han, by Philip Francis Nowlan

The Airlords of Han

View plate and operator

I have been reading science fiction novels lately. My readings started off with The Misplaced Battleship, by Harry Harrison; Plaque Ship, Andre Norton; The Thing in the Attic, James Blish and I just completed The Airlords of Han, by Philip Francis Nowlan. All of these texts were originally found in Pulp magazines. As you know I have made multiple posts on SCIFI topics.

These stories will give me fodder when playing SCIFI RPG’s or board games. Please look through the posts and see if you can find anything that might help you out.

The Airlords of Han, by Philip Francis Nowlan; Illustrated by FRANK R. PAUL

Two Games fit for the Season

I am a little late getting this to post and had wanted to make this post well before Christmas, but with only two days past Christmas day I feel that this post is still within the reason.

Santa and Goblin War

This map and counter game was first featured in Draken Games Catalog #6 and now is available in Draken’s Mini-Game Compendium. The Santa and Goblin War game is two-page print and play game, which includes 48 counters, about a page of instructions, and a full page map (playing board). The Santa and Goblin War game is a game where Elf and Goblin slog it out with snowballs. That’s right, no death here, just time for a “hot bath and hot coco”.

There are three different types of units for each faction. For the Elf’s there are Elves, Elves on reindeer, and Polar bears as elite units. The Goblin faction includes Goblins, Goblins on wolves, and Evil snowmen. These units are represented on the counters. The counters include movement and break values for each unit and the map includes terrain elements for woods, hills, river, bridge, and Santa House. These elements effect the movement values.

Santa and Goblin War game is a turn based game works on a point system, which is calculated after ten rounds. Points are award to the faction who controls the different sectors on the map after the tenth round.

Sleigh Wars: Xmas Mayhem

Sleigh Wars was first published back in 1985. I had been looking for the download link for my Sink the Bismarck post. I entered the link into my browsers address-bar and instead of getting the Sink the Bismarck game I was led the Sleigh Wars game. Someone realized their mistake and pointed the link back to the correct file. I have tried to find a link for this game, but to no avail. Under the odd circumstances in which this game was acquired I thought that I must make a post and review the game.

Sleigh Wars is a print and play board game that can be played by two to four players. A four player game is recommended. The PDF includes a large game board that is printed from two separate pages, five player aids, and a set of counters representing movement, some of the weapons, presents to be delivered, and four sleighs. In addition, there are two pages of game rules. There are three tables featuring crash rules, weapons and combat, and range modifier attributes. Sleigh Wars and offers multiple weapons systems such as a Turkey Cannon, Xmascette, Lasers, Brandy Flamer, Snowstormer and a "Christmas pudding Bomb". The game can also be played with 3-D movement rules. The object is to deliver six presents to six homes before your opponents do.

D&D Legend of Drizzt-Goblin War Band

The three goblin miniatures are from the D&D Legend of Drizzt board game. From left to right we have the archer, the cutter, and the champion. The board game includes the following components: 40 plastic heroes and monsters, 32 sheets of interlocking card-stock dungeon tiles, 22 sheets of interlocking card-stock dungeon edge tiles, 200 encounter cards and treasure cards, numerous misc. tokens, a Rule-book, Scenario book, and a 20-sided die.

Grinnah of Goblin Town

Grinnah with his whip ready for Thorin Oakenshield.

Grinnah was a Goblin, of Goblin Town, who worked as an interrogator for the Goblin King. “He appeared to be a significant member of the Goblin Army, as he directly reports to the Great Goblin.”

This War Games Factory miniature is approximately 28mm tall and is cast of what seems like polystyrene. He sort of reminds me some sort of insect. This miniature is from the Wargame Factories Hobbit Escape From Goblin Town Board Game.

Flatline Games Holloween Expansion

Flatline Games has made a special Print and Play Halloween Special expansion for their very popular Dragon Rage board game available. A quote from back story reads: “a devious necromancer has enchanted a chariot of pumpkins from an unsuspecting vegetables merchant.”

A three page PDF includes statistics and properties for this expansion in English and what I assume is Spanish and a page of counters.

Halloween Special Expansion Counters (the actual counters are somewhat larger than those depicted here.)

Coin Age a Print and Play Board Game

Coin Age is a micro-sized, (about a size of a credit card) board game for two players. Players must supply four US dimes, three pennies, two nickels, and one quarter each. The game uses these coins to determine one of the four prescribed actions (place, pay, move, or capture).

The one-page Coin Age PDF contains game rules and a two-sided map. Coins are used instead of counters and can be stacked on the map.  Depending on a player’s coin slap (the number of heads or tails) he might come up with decides on how he might proceed. There is an out-comes table included within the rules that identifies what actions are available to the player. The game ends when a player plays his last coin or when the last empty space on the map has been filled.   

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• Taluva Coin Age Maps (Six Alternate Maps)
• Fan Created Coin Age Maps
• PNP Coin Stickers Official PNP Coin Stickers:
  “The Royal Kingdom of Heads" or "The People's Republic of Tails"
  

Risk Godstorm Edition Deity Divine Powers

The divine powers have the following powers that can be used when a player chooses to play one of their gods.

God	Divine Powers
God of Dealth	"When the god of death attack, opposing armies do not go back to the Underworld, but are placed with the defenders players reserve armies instead."
Goddess of Magic	"When the goddess of magic attacks or defends reroll all 1's"
God of the Sky	"When the God of the sky is in godwar, roll an additional die."
God of War	"When the god of war attacks, he wins all ties."

Risk Godstorm Edition Game Miniature Deities

One of the first decisions you must make, that is after you choose the four plague lands, in the Risk Godstorm Edition board game is to choose the pantheon you want to use during the game. Each faction, (Babylonians, Celts, Egyptians, Greeks, Norse) has its own set of gods. There are gods of war, death, the sky and a goddess of magic.

Peoples	God of Death	Goddess of Magic	God of the Sky	God of War
Babylonians	Druaga	Ishtar	Marduk	Gilgamesh
Celts	Arawn	Brigid	Lugh	Nuaoa
Egyptians	Osiris	Isis	Ra	Set
Greeks	Hades	Hekate	Zeus	Ares
Norse	Loki	Freya	Ooin	Thor

Players roll one die and the highest rolls picks the pantheon of their choice. You keep rolling until every player has had a chance to pick a pantheon.

Other Risk Editions

I have been playing Risk for thirty-five years. Once you have played Risk as many times as I have you tire of it and look for other alternatives. You look for something with a different twist and some sophistication.

Other than the French and Brazilian editions, there are fifteen or so licensed editions of Risk. Well there are separate lists of Risk versions and editions. One list the fifteen while the other lists 26 different versions and editions.

Lately I have been researching three other editions of Risk for possible purchases. They are: Risk Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition, Risk Godstorm Edition, and the Risk 2210 A.D. Edition. In addition to these three licensed editions there are a few expansions that look rather interesting.