Hi guys! Sue here again with an update on what the staff have been up to for the past month, and it’s been an active month! We have a wide variety this month including a couple of miniatures, a bunch of board games and even an update from a D&D campaign!
Miniature Painting and Games
Kris painted one of my favorite Warhammer 40k models, Saint Celestine. Here’s what he said about it:
“I painted some Sisters of Battle for a friend I am meeting up with at Adepticon this year. He wants to use them in the 40k event he is playing at, so in true tournament tradition, even though I have had them for a year, I only started painting them at the last minute! 
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I finished my first Heroquest figures from the relaunched Heroquest Game. Originally, I wasn’t going to get this game because they didn’t partner with Games Workshop again, but after looking into it, it looks like they have tried to be pretty faithful to the source material, even consulting with at least one of the original story tellers. Even with their expansions they are trying to expand on ideas that were on the table but didn’t make it into any games because the original Heroquest was cancelled too soon. I really think they’ve done a nice job creating an immersive feel and an interesting world. I always thought that the furniture helped sell the idea that you really are in a dungeon. I’m looking forward to playing this game later this year when a few more things have been painted.
Board Games
Renee played a bunch of super fun looking board games. Here’s what she had to say about them”
“Spots is a fantastic dice game that we’ve been playing a bunch. You roll dice that you place on your dogs, trying to complete them. However, any dice that you are unable to allocate to one of your dogs, you have to bury in your yard. But watch out because if the total of the dice in your yard ever goes above 7, you have to discard all your dice and start from scratch! What makes this game shine is the use of tricks. Tricks determine how many dice you get the roll and additional conditions about using or discarding the dice. The game comes with a big selection of tricks to select to use each game and strategic selection of tricks is the key to the game.”
“The box of Super Mega Lucky Box caught my attention immediately so when I looked it up and found it described as bingo for the “That’s So Clever” set I knew I had to get it. The gameplay is super simple, you reveal a number card and everyone crosses off one instance of that number on their ‘bingo cards’, unlocking bonus moves when you complete a row or column. This creates turns where crossing off one number starts a chain reaction where you get to cross of 5 or more numbers in a row. You have some good choices between selecting cards, as well as choosing which numbers to cross off to try and complete cards quickly and set off chain reactions. But at its base it’s just fun and we found ourselves playing it over and over again.”
“Meadow is a nature themed card game with a very interesting drafting mechanism. You have drafting tokens which you place along the board to select the 1, 2, 3, or 4 card in from your selection point. So as the slots get filled up around the board, your options change. The cards themselves can be terrain cards to create the foundation of your meadow, animal cards that you place in stacks on top of the terrain or pictures and souvenirs you collect along your path. The cards have symbol requirements which you must have in your meadow, however when you place them you must cover one of the requirements. Ensuring the balance of symbols in your meadow for future card placement is key. We really enjoyed this the first time we played it and have played it again since. We like the gameplay which feels unique and appreciate that it can be played in less than an hour. It’s also very pretty.”
“Earth is another fantastic nature themed game with a card engine focus that had both Jenn and I loving it immediately. On your turn you pick one of four actions which all players get to perform simultaneously with you getting a slightly stronger version of the action. Which brings me to the first thing I love about this game – no downtime – everyone is playing on every turn. The main mechanic in this game is playing cards to a 4 x 4 grid in your play area, creating a fun little engine of cascading actions. Which is the second thing I love about this game – bonus actions – each turn you trigger the bonus actions on your cards, resolving them in order on the grid. This allows you to create runs where you get bonus resources which you can then spend to trigger more bonus actions getting you more cards, resources, stuff! On the cards themselves you get points for having certain cards in their row or adjacent to them, points for placing sprouts, points for building canopies as well as in game bonuses. This game is fantastic for folks that like games where each time you play you get to solve the puzzle of how to make the best engine out of the cards you’ve drawn.”
“I played some Robo Rally with Christopher and Jenn and we had a great time. In this game you program your robot to execute a series of actions on the board, avoiding obstacles, making use of potentially helpful conveyor belts and trying to beat your opponents though a series of numbered gates. The premise is simple enough; from your hand of cards select 5 actions to execute in order in the next round. However chaos ensues when you each take turns executing these actions because the other robots’ actions may end up spoiling your perfectly planned route! And even when that doesn’t happen, if you fail to take into account the results of the obstacles on the board, you may find yourself suddenly travelling down a conveyor belt away from your goal! This game was immediately fun and has us laughing both with joy and in frustration at the results of our programs. The game comes with a bunch of different boards and scenarios to set up ranging from easy to insane, as well as tips on how to build your own scenarios. Great for kids that are interested in robots and programming as well as players of all ages that like strategically chaotic games.”
Chad played the hot new game Wyrmspan. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“Much to my surprise this is a fun and beautiful game, Ive enjoyed the artwork, of a staggering 183 unique dragons spread between adult Dragons and Dragon Hatchlings. The mechanics weren’t confusing and the rules took me, (a very bad game learner) no time at all to understand. The game was so fun time flew by and I felt it was too short.
Your objective is to build a dragon sanctuary by exploring and excavating caves, enticing dragons to live in your caves and gather resources and gain victory points, there’s so much incredible content in such a normal sized box this will be one of our obsessive repeat games for sure! “
Bronwyn played and really enjoyed Cosmoctopus. Here’s her review:
“You know that feeling when you open a new game and the play it like 3 times in a row sharing it with all your friends? Yeah that was this game. It has such a fun theme – praying to our overlord, the great Cosmoctopus! You are growing your cult and creating an engine to get all 8 tentacles first in order to win… Or nine in one case. There are many paths to victory and you need to be adaptable on your plans as it can be expensive to get to the space you want. I felt the playtime was similar between both the 2 and 4 player games. You get enough time to think about your cards with more people to it evens out. You have cards with powerful immediate effects, cards that make stuff cheaper or let you gather more resources. You can also gain constellations: They guarantee a tentacle but take time to gather the right resources.…”
RPGs
Bronwyn is playing one of my favorite D&D Campaigns, the Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Here’s her update:
“My partner Sean has been itching to get into Dming, and this month he took the dive with The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Our first session we just decided on our characters and did one little practice fight to teach our first timer. She chose a fairy barbarian and truly enjoyed smashing everything she could… Strawberry was making jam. We’ve also got a gnome druid named Bud who has played once before. I decided to troll Sean and name my tabaxi artificer Bubbling Beaker Hazy Brine – Or Bubs for short. Bud and Bubs will be up to good I’m sure. One of our players is normally a DM and chose to be a half Elf Warlock named Finnigan (which messes with Sean since we play another d&d game with a Finry). While not a typical party I think we have the skills we need to make it…. Or atleast make it interesting. After we finished I convinced them to play Cosmoctopus too! Like I said I was addicted.”
“The next session Sean took our group of friends on an adventure filled with New Zealand accents and laughs. My Tabaxi artificer used her powers to make a rock smell like poop. That combined with our disguised warlock in clown make up proved as enough of a distraction for me to make it inside and steal what we needed. We ended the session successfully – although I wish we hadn’t felt the missions time crunch to spend time exploring more of the carnival! After everyone left, Sean says he feels like he just wrote an exam! All the studying and only half of it being used. I’m sure other DMs can relate.”
Closing Thoughts
We had a really nice variety of games this month and it looks like everyone had a great time! See you again next month!
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