Another busy week with the folks at The Sentry Box with lots of games, Sue providing insights into her painting projects and books being read.
Greg, Kris and Gord attended the Asmoday event held on Monday by Asmodee Canada which meant they got to play some games that evening. Greg reports on the following:
Get Packing: A spatial game of trying to fit a number of components into your suitcase in the quickest time. It looked like a kids game but it’s quite difficult so it’s more for people who like puzzly games.
Dragon’s Breath: A cute game with a bit of a dexterity element but is mostly about trying to guess which coloured gems will fall when the next ice ring is lifted.
Fruit Ninja: Combo Party: A card drafting, push your luck, speed game. An unusual combination that didn’t really do it for me.
Mesozooic: I only got a quick demo of the first round but it’s a timed game of trying to maneuver your grid of cards into specific orders or combinations to score points. The first round was very simplistic but hopefully the further rounds add some meat, and it does have nice artwork.
Gord played Keyforge, giving Kris another opportunity to crush a co-worker; Gord enjoyed it none-the-less, “I normally don’t play card games but I love the idea behind this. Every deck is different but non-collectible. No two decks the same though they may be close. Kris crushed me in our demo game. I think both of us are going to end up buying a starter and a box of 12 decks to give some variety. This is going to be huge when it releases in October (I think). The price of $15 for a complete deck makes entry and continued play very inexpensive. If you get bored with the deck, just buy another. I see all sorts of used deck sales as an option for the store rather than single cards as in Magic.”
Kris played Timeline: Events, “Never played a timeline before but we got one for free from Asmoday…Tried it out an whilst it was initially really fun, it quickly got repetitive with only 55 cards in the pack. I can see us playing it with Evie once she is a bit older and getting some of the other ones as well as it is cheap enough that it does not feel like it is poor value.” He also played S’Quarrels again, “Gill still won even with my dad taking a huge early lead. It’s a fun game that is really light and easy to learn and teach but not really a challenge to play until a Quarrel happens.”
Renee got to play a 4 player game of Clank, “After a few 2 player games I really appreciated the increased player interaction and the fact that the dragon attacks more frequently, which both make it more of a challenge and for me, more fun.” She also played Monday Game Night favourite Tichu, “My team started with a large deficit, but it evened out and was very close for most of the game before we took the win. My second time playing this team card game and I can see why it is so popular. It is quite strategic for what might be described as essentially a trick taking game.”
Sue did some more painting and continues to share some great tips, “I painted these cute (but deadly) little Zorbos & the Chultan zombies from the D&D Tomb of Annihilation board game today. I primed them all with the Citadel colour primer, Zandri Dust. Then I painted the faces and fur onto the Zorbos, keeping the skin Zandri Dust. I used Golthor brown for the fur, Bugman’s Glow and Dryad Bark for the noses, and the black air paint for the eyes. Although I did not use an air brush, I like the consistency of the air paints for painting faces. Then I applied a brown wash. I used the Agrax Earthshade for the 2 on the left, and Strong Tone for the one on the right. All with a hint of Lahmian Medium for good measure. For the zombies, I kept their clothes the Zandri Dust colour, and painted the skin Rhinox Hide, Mournfang Brown, and Mechanicus Standard Grey. Then I applied a brown wash, (black over the Mechanicus Standard Grey), with some Lahmian Medium mixed in for the lighter colours. I used the white air paint for the zombie eyes. After they were all finished, I sprayed them all with Dull Coat. I was able to finish all these miniatures in a single sitting. The Zandri Dust primer was a real time saver!”
Gord got in some reading this week with Farnham’s Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein and The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, or as he says, “Something old, something new. Something borrowed, something blue. This weeks books. Both were very enjoyable reads.”
This Friday on the livestream Greg and Renee played Yspahan, about which Renee says, “It was my first play of this quick light game that involves my favourite mechanic – dice rolling! The dice roll determines the available actions and weight of those actions which meant that you had to be somewhat flexible in your strategy. It was a close game, but only between Greg and Jeff; I definitely would make some different decisions next time.” Greg adds, “This to me is one of those relaxing games that I’m happy to play and enjoy whenever. It’s 12 years old now, which in the current cult of the new is ancient, but I like to get it to the table at least once a year.”
Greg also played more Busy, Busy Airport (now available in store!) and was crushed by his 3 year old daughter Alex and Ganz Schön Clever where he squeaked a win over Tracy 186-183.
Amanda got Zombicide: Black Plague to the table, “Finally played this game with more players (4), I still really enjoy this dungeon crawling game however with more players there was more down time and with a player in our group that isn’t heavily invested in board games she was a little board. I would keep this zombie killing game to 2-3 players but still one of my favorite games.” She also played, with a few of us, the XXL floor version of Tsuro that we currently have at the store, “It’s a neat tile placement game, fun and simple I would add it as a filler game. I like that it can be up to 8 players and it’s a quick 15-20 min game.” The regular version is on one of our demo tables this month.
She also borrowed the Pathfinder Goblins! Graphic novels from Sue, “This is a great graphic novel easy to read and funny I had lots of chuckle to myself moments!
My favorite story was about the magic pig !!! Super cute! If you want to know what happened you’ll have to pick up a copy!”
Sue finished our week with some more painting:
I painted up this Wizkids D&D pre-primed Gnome Druid today. Fairly easy miniature to paint.. But that’s typical of the Wizkids miniatures. I really like the gnome miniatures in this range. I think they have a lot of character.
Despite being a Druid, I wanted to give her a bold look. So I gave her a bright green dress, and dark red hair and lips. For her face, I used a very dark brown for her eye makeup, then I drew a white line over top (with the Citadel white air paint), and used the same dark brown to draw a dot for the eye. I did her eye make up, brows, and lipstick prior to doing the flesh wash on her face so I could do any touch ups before the wash. The only thing I did after the wash was the eye whites and pupils. I used a Citadel Layer Small brush for the eyes because it had a really great point on it. I would ordinarily use a smaller fine detail brush for a face. For her spell effect, I used a yellow wash. I have used the orange wash in the past for a spell effect, and in my opinion the orange wash looks better.
PS – She’s supposed to be wearing leg wraps with exposed feet and not boots, which I didn’t notice until after I had painted the boots on. Although, I would have preferred the exposed toes, I kept it the way it was as I was afraid I would lose the detail of the toes if I painted too many layers because they are so small
And that’s what we’ve been doing this week!
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