May 30 2023

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to May 22-29

No fun pictures or anything, but Dan spent the weekend at Otafest volunteering at his buddies booth in the vendors section selling shirts.  “One of Layne’s standard deals for customers at conventions is that if you play a game with him, you get a percentage off your purchase, so naturally there was a few chances to get some games in. We got in a two player game of Dice Miner, which is a fun little abstract about mining (drafting, really) from a pile of dice shaped as a mountain, as well as getting your friends drunk, or at least giving them beer.  I really enjoyed the game as it fits into my wheelhouse (short, abstract, thinky and clever) really well.  It was apparently a little more cutthroat at 2 players than what Layne is used to, but that could have just been me :wink: We also got in a two player game of Azul Mini today.  This is a great addition to the Azul family really well thought out components that help everything stay in place given it’s mini size.  this one came into stock just last week for $27.99, and we sold out almost immediately, I’m hoping it won’t take too long to get a restock, because it’s going to be one of my favourite games to recommend for the summer camping season.”

In between working on old video game stuff and sorting used warhammer, within the stores dungeon and hidden away from decent society; Cam likes to jam old first person shooters like Doom, Duke Nukem and other look alikes.  “I tend to mostly play older video games in general, as they seem to be much easier to “pick up and go” within an ever dwindling supply of free time. The extent of most of my video-gaming takes place in 20-min to half hour intervals and as such the vast majority of my ps4 games have basically been played through the intro and not much more. When I saw that a 40K themed, retro-style FPS was coming out, my inner 12 year old hit the preorder button without my waking self having much say in the matter.  Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun finally dropped May 23rd and delivers exactly what is promised; an over the top, comically gory, grimdark-doom-clone (and i say that last bit lovingly).  Chainswording things in the face is super satisfying, as well as the gun-play, and you can do cool things like taunt your enemies with litanies of hate.  Did I mention that instead of an armor stat, you have contempt?  The only downside I can see so far is not having a deathmatch/multiplayer mode, but rumor has it that the developers may add such a feature with future updates.  It’s going to be difficult to get much done in the next couple of days to say the least…”

Greg played Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time, which is a co-operative, tower defence type of game, where players use polyominoes to fight off invaders. “Attacking hordes are represented by spaces on square cards and the players ise hero powers and tower cards to attack the hordes, covering squares up and trying to prevent the hordes from moving down the path and causing damage. We played the introductory scenario and didn’t have too much trouble but the second scenario was much closer and we just about managed to win. I believe as you play through the scenarios there are more abilities and rules that get unlocked, making things more challenging but also giving more options.”

After hearing so many customers mention how much they loved Monopoly Deal, even when they didn’t like Monopoly, Renee decided to pick up a copy and check it out. “I’m always looking for quick and fun games to play with the family, especially ones that Christopher will love. Christopher loves the take-that mechanic, something we don’t usually like in our longer strategy games; however in a 15 minute game with very low stakes, the mechanic works well for us and we’re learning to love its chaotic fun. In this game you’re trying to be the first to collect 3 complete sets of properties, which is very difficult when at any time another player can steal properties or have you to pay more rent than you have money thus forcing you to pay in properties. We’ve been playing it quite a bit in the last week and have been having lots of fun!”

May 22 2023

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – May 8-21

Sean finished of some late 17C musketeers. “From the North Star 1672 line. These lads could be Dutch, French, or some weird German state. Mostly the pigments I used were the new Vallejo Game Colours. Top marks on the opacity.”

Renee got the chance to play a 4 player game of Ticket to Ride France. “I’d been wanting to see how this would play with more players competing for the routes, as the map is large enough that with 2 players you can easily stay out of each other’s hair. But now, when you put down a coloured route onto a track, there were 3 other players who had a chance to actually claim it before it was your turn again. That didn’t really happen as much as I had thought it might, however there was another  mechanic that came into play quite a bit that I hadn’t anticipated. Since players are required to put a coloured route onto the map each and every time they take train cards, there are often turns when you are a just randomly picking a route and placing it somewhere. For the 4 and 5 train routes, there is only one of each colour, so there were a couple of times when those routes were on the board, but no one was actually planning on claiming them, so they were never returned to the supply to be selected again. Or inexplicably all 3 of the blue 3 train routes were on the board so I couldn’t use them. As a result, while it wasn’t the specific chaos I was expecting, there was more nonsense that occurred with the extra players. This also made me realize that you could use this mechanic maliciously to block or thwart your opponents. Might have to play it again.”

May 8 2023

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – May 1-7

Sue painted up a newer WizKids pre-primed D&D 2 pack – Locathah & Seal. “I think this might be the first seal miniature that WizKids has made for D&D. I immediately thought of the Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign, as seals are mentioned and there is a stat block in the appendix for them. The seal is one of the easiest miniatures I have ever painted. I don’t usually re-prime the pre-primed minis, but in this case I re-primed him with Vallejo Grey primer. Then I painted his eyes and nose, and I gave him a little white patch on the collar to make him a little more interesting, did the base and then used a very thinned down (w/Lamhain Medium) black shade over the whole thing. I did pretty much the same thing for the locathah. Once dry, I added white dots to the black eyes to make them a little more lively. Note: If you are painting the locathah, I recommend painting the inside of the shield first as it is a hard to reach area.”

Renee and her family got in a few games of Steam Up. “I picked this up because I knew the super cute steamers and little dim sum pieces would interest Christopher and it worked because he saw me and Jenn playing it and asked to play it as well. This is a nice light drafting game with a couple of neat mechanics. The dim sum steamers are on a rotating board, which is divided into players’ feasting zones, so one of the elements is turning the board to either move steamers into your zone or out of your opponents’ zones. The dim sum you buy, you place on your unique player board, earning points and bonuses in different ways. There are 12 different characters to play as, so quite a bit of variety there. It’s definitely a lighter game, but with the player interaction and a whole deck of Fortune cards with different abilities and actions, there is enough to keep us engaged.”

Renee and Jenn played the 2 player Horror themed Escape Room box. “We really enjoyed The Little Girl scenario, it had some challenging and ultimately very satisfying puzzles. The House by The Lake was a bit gorier and while there were still some really clever and fun puzzles, we weren’t huge fans of the story. We have no idea why these ones were labeled as 2 player, since we almost always do our escape room games with 2 players, it seemed just like the others. We aren’t horror fans so we aren’t really the target audience, but we still really enjoyed the game.”

May 1 2023

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – April 24-30

Perhaps because of the warm weather it was a quiet week for our staff, but Greg and his group did get in another game in their Roll Player Adventures campaign. “We managed to get together to play the final scenario of the campaign. Multiple rifts to other dimensions are open and there is a fight for dominance among the three different factions. We had to make a final choice as to which faction we were supporting, and we came up against some of the major characters in the storyline. Ultimately,  we were able to secure the rifts for the Starlit Door and advance the plans of that cult ahead of the other factions.”

Apr 24 2023

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – April 17-23

Sue painted up He-Man and Skeletor from CMON’s boardgame Masters of the Universe: Clash for Eternia. “One thing that’s really nice about the original Masters of the Universe line is that they have simple paint jobs and most characters are only comprised of about 4 colors. Skeletor, is a very basic paint job. I used Luxion Purple Contrast Paint and did all the purple parts first as they are the darkest and would be the hardest to clean up if I got them in the wrong place on the other colors. I used Skeleton Horde Contrast Paint for Skeletor’s face, and Frostheart Contrast Paint for Skeletor’s body. I figured Frostheart was appropriate as Skeletor frequently mentions his heart, or lack thereof. One thing about these models is that Contrast Paint is best on models with lots of detail and not too many flat or mostly flat surfaces. Since these guys are all bodybuilders, I found that the Contrast Paint would sometimes pool in a way I wasn’t in love with, mostly on the legs. This can easily be fixed by waiting for the model to dry and mixing the Contrast Paint with the color underneath on your palette and painting over any parts where the Contrast Paint pooled weird. I did this for Skeletor’s legs and I thought it worked pretty well. I was, admittedly, too lazy to mix up a color for He-Man’s legs, and the rest of his muscles, so I used Kislev Flesh over the Guilliman Flesh Contrast Paint. It’s a close match but not exact. I used my favorite brown – Gore Grunta Fur Contrast Paint – for He-Man’s loincloth and boots. I did use a hobby knife to remove them from their bases before I even primed them. They are a similar scale to D&D miniatures and I wanted to have the option to display them with my D&D miniatures.”

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Apr 20 2023

Crowdfunding Update: 4/20/2023

Things have been very busy on the Crowdfunding front at Sentry Box for the last couple of months.

This is just a highlight on some of the campaigns we have recently backed, as well as a some of the items that we are still looking forward to arriving.

Upcoming Campaigns:
I don’t have a lot to say about any of these, as they haven’t launched as of this writing, but here is a list of games that we will tentatively be creating retail pledges for, if available.

AHOTNIKhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ahotnik/ahotnik
APEX LEGENDS: THE BOARD GAMEhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/glasscannonunplugged/apex-legends-the-board-game
CITIES OF VENUShttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tinrobot/cities-of-venus
CYSMIC | A RACE FOR SURVIVAL DURING SEISMIC ARMAGEDDONhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starreachgames/cysmic-a-race-for-survival-during-seismic-armageddon
DEAD CELLS: THE ROGUE-LITE BOARD GAMEhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scorpionmasque/dead-cells-the-rogue-lite-board-game
ENDEAVOUR: DEEP SEAhttps://gamefound.com/projects/age-of-gaming/endeavor-deep-sea
FEUD: THE SEER’S PROPHECYhttps://www.mindgate-studios.com/feud
NEMESIS: RETALIATIONhttps://gamefound.com/projects/awaken-realms/nemesis-retaliation
CARSON CITY BIG BOXhttps://gamefound.com/projects/quined-games/carson-city-big-box

Current Campaign Highlights:

Santorini Co-op & Deluxe Pantheon Edition:

From BGG:

NOTE: Pantheon Edition includes all material from the Golden Fleece expansion, as well as every promo card and many new cards. A lot of cards are revamped, reworked, and rebalanced.

Santorini is an accessible strategy game, simple enough for an elementary school classroom while aiming to provide gameplay depth and content for hardcore gamers to explore, the rules are simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:

1. Move – move one of your builders into a neighboring space. You may move your Builder Pawn on the same level, step-up one level, or step down any number of levels.

2. Build – Then construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level, place a dome instead, removing that space from play.

3. Winning the game – If either of your builders reaches the third level, you win.

Also: Variable player powers – Santorini features variable player powers layered over an otherwise abstract game, with many thematic god and hero powers that fundamentally change the way the game is played.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roxley/santorini-pantheon-edition-and-the-riddle-of-the-sphinx

Fractured Sky:

From BGG:

Fractured Sky by IV Studios is a game of deduction, sneaky strategy, and resource management set on a fantastical island. Players lead their kingdom in the hunt for shards of fractured falling stars, which are rumored to grant wishes to those that can amass enough of them. 

Using airships, players send their armies to regions with the star shards, but finding those is not always easy and hiring seers to predict their falls can be worth the investment. Over time, players will increase their presence on the island, placing permanent buildings to give them advantages like extra resources or increasing the size of their troop numbers.

Only one wish will be granted, so who will amass the most shards before the final star falls?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ivstudios/fractured-sky

Zombicide: White Death

From BGG:

Winter is upon us and its dark and cruel night brings forth dreadful menaces, worse than frostbite…

Zombicide Medieval Fantasy is back!

With new survivors, new zombies, new setting, and new rules!

Scale the great walls to your advantage…and much more.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/zombicide-white-death

Past Campaigns:

Marvel United: Multiverse:
This was a smash hit with our Crowdfunding Group on Facebook and is the single largest campaign that I have personally overlooked in my time at The Box.

A total of 28 different SKU’s have been placed into our system, with around 250 total preorders taken.  We closed our pledge manager for this campaign last week and are not eagerly waiting for it to be delivered early 2024.

We still have limited space for preorders on this one, so if you are looking to adding some multiverse chaos to your games of Marvel United, don’t hesitate to reach out to the store and we will help you out.  The only catch is that because our order numbers have already been committed, there is a possibility we may collect more preorders than we have allocated inventory, but that should only be a problem on a handful of SKUs, so don’t hesitate to ask.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/marvel-united-multiverse

Maple Valley / Creature Comforts reprint:

This was another very successful campaign that we were involved in and are expecting delivery just in time for Christmas this year.  The exciting part of this one, is that at the last minute KTBG announced that there would be an additional game for sale called Diced Veggies, and that if people committed to it through the preorder process, it would be delivered at the same time, for no additional shipping charges.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kidstablebg/creature-comforts-maple-valley

Reasons to Crowdfund through Sentry Box:

  • We take the risk and speculation out of Crowdfunding because we don’t require you to place a deposit or pay for your purchase up front.
  • When your preorder arrives instore, we will place it on hold for you for 7 days.
  • You pay $0 shipping. We cover all shipping charges for you.
  • If you change your mind, you can cancel your preorder at any time.
  • We offer you double rewards points on all preorders.

How to place an order:

  • Call the store at (403) 245-2121.
  • Message us on Facebook, Instagram.
  • Email orders@sentrybox.com.
  • Drop by the store and say hi!

How to get me to look at a project:

  • Email crowdfunding@sentrybox.com.
  • Mention the project in the group and include a link if possible.

Join our Crowdfunding Community on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/861325685151430