If your boyfriend plays War Machine, the store he buys models and books at would be a good place to find other board gamers. Many of them have bulletin boards for people looking to find steady groups.

Fortunately he managed to make good friends at the store we used to go, so sometimes they call him to play which is cool. He spent a fortune on the figures though, and unfortunately I wouldn't say there's a big fandom here compared to some other US states. Say people here mostly play Yu-Gi-Oh! in hobby shops, and that's it. I honestly enjoyed playing War Machine for a while, I kind of like the artistic idea of painting the models and stuff. Somewhere along the line though, I guess I just lost interest also because the figures are too expensive :/

For a while I actually considered buying this game

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_Cus ... Opener.jpg

But then I was told no one would want to play it with me, so I would have spent 100 bucks for nothing. Ugh, still, it looks really neat!

War Machine is too expensive, and nothing about the game stood out to me to justify it the way Warhammer did. As far as Dreadfleet, the models are sick but I heard the game is kind of underwhelming. It's a watered down derivative of a game they really should bring back, Man'OWar. It was a customizable game like Warhammer where you picked your own fleet, where Dreadfleet comes with like 8 models, which you will use to play every game. I don't foresee any expansions coming either. It sucks that GW doesn't support specialist games anymore, that was definitely the highlight of their catalogue for me.

I always kinda hated warmachine as it took gover my old gaming club and I could never get a game of 40k as everyone was playing WM instead. I gave it a go once or twice, but it was too fiddly for my taste, like WWF with robots. I know one of the selling points is that you dont need a lot of models to play, but I found that a negative - I like seeing lots of stuff on the table so playing with 15-20 mini's doesnt cut it for me.

Btw: Anyone had a look at the new 28mm WW2 rules warlord games have just published (Bolt Action)?

Word on the street/internet is it's simple but quite enjoyable. The 28mm lovers are jumping at having a viable alternative to Flames of War.

It's really fun and you can use any model you like. No GW forcing you to use their Space Marine kit, which is nice.

Well if you can use any models you want, I imagine lots pf players will still be buying Flames models. Their catalogue is more extensive than any WWII game I've seen, seriously any goofy motor vehicle the Germans produced in quantity is represented. It would be kinda funny to bring your big ass RC Tiger tank to a game and shoot pellets at and run over your opponents' models, as long as they aren't picky about the scale. "I shot that tank last turn and it's immobilized!" "Well, apparently it isn't."

Except Flames and Bolt Action are in different scales, and I've no idea if it's scalable.

I thought Flames was 28mm? All well my bad.

Flames is 15mm. There is a lot of griping about FOW at the moment. Much the same way as ExNoctemNacimur comments that GW enforces "our models only" policies, the company who makes FOW has done the same. I'm actually quite sympathetic as they are a NZ company with huge hurdles to cross about competing internationally. they have done cool things as far as giving away hard copies of the rules each edition, and the rule system is pretty cool.

HOWEVER: their models are pretty ugly, and the Plastic soldier company is making better product at half the price.

I kinda like the FOW rules, but I hate the scale TBH. I'm used to 28mm, I can paint 28mm, and you get a much less "toy-like" tank at that scale. I might actually buy the BA rulles and see if they can be adapted to ww1 trench raiding scenarios. That way I can use my DKOK miniatures (many of which are conversions of ww1/ww2 minis) and artillery.

In other news, I handed in my last piece of work for the year at uni, and other issues have calmed themselves. My new Iwata airbrush should be arriving soon, and I have a huge stack of minis to paint. Aiming to make a big push on the painting front soon.

The reasoning behind the 15 mm is probably so that the battles can feel more . . . how should I put it . . . "Grand". You can put more models on a table and you can buy them for cheaper.

Yeah, Flames is a company/battalion level game as opposed to platoon plus a tank kind of size of Bolt Action. Battlefront does have some shocking models, though it also has some great ones. The new plastic starter set will probably sell like crazy if the price is right.

I see the logic, but I'm into Apocalypse-sized games at 28mm scale. I realise that not everyone has the patience to batch-paint 200 guardsmen though.

Finally got a group together for NWoD and we've already done 2 sessions! This being one of my first times as a storyteller, I've never noticed how much time it takes to prepare a game, NPC's, dialogue, combat etc. Well, at least my girlfriend is having a fun time playing a lawyer hehe.

When i was a kid, me and my friends liked Yu-Gi-Oh. Why the battle isn't like monsters summoned by the cards and an epic fight? It would be so fucking amazing T T

somehow I ended up on D&D's website last night and now I can't go to target for fear of buying the starter thingy haha

I deceded I was tired of playing on a lacklustre table last weekend. So I went down to the hardware shop and bought some boards and raided the polystyrene the supermarket throws out. Here's how it's turned out so far:

What games do you play on that? The green stuff s'suppose to be water, ya? Looks very cool dude!

Is that for 40K? Pretty sweet, man.

Yeah, it's for 40k. The green stuff is a clear acrylic resin - when you are not catching the glare you can see right through it. Needs another couple of coats though.

Scorn, what did you use to paint the styrene? Doesn't spray paint eat away at the stuff? I remember using it for a project in college where I made a scale replica of an Aztec Pyramid but when I sprayed the thing with spray paint it all melted away...

Well, the thing about the styrene is sorta true and sorta not.

The paint in the cans is not a problem at all - it's the propellant that eats the styrene. So if you have a nice big outside workspace, you can hold the can far enough away from the foam that the propellant does not cause such a problem. But to be sure, I mixed up some watered down PVA glue and brushed it over all the foam before I sprayed it. TBH I'm thinking of mixing up a bucket of aquarium sand and cheap pva and re-coating all those areas to give it a bit of a harder shell. then hauling my compressor and airbrush down the back and re-doing it. There needs to be more texture on the foam parts I think.

Anyways, since we're talking about airbrushes:







these are some shots of the Malcador super-heavy tank I finished recently using the "colour modulation" technique from the DVD's Adam Wilder did for MIG productions.Its a gradiated 3 tone finish along the sides done with the airbrush, followed by a couple of coats of floor polish. Once this dries, you apply streaking effects using oil paints, then a thin wash of oils and white spirit around the rivet heads. Sadly the Chinese knock off website I bought these re-casts from closed down just after I bought the 2 tanks from them. Which is a shame because they had a Warhound Titan on there at a third of the legit price.

When I finish working on my Masters degree I'm thinking about doing a moonlighting online business doing commission painting for people. Could be a nice way to keep pushing my technique without it costing me or having any more miniatures in here than I already have haha.

Has anyone read the new Chaos Space Marine codex?

Hellblazer, John Sunlight, Iggnsthe and myself just managed to beat Glaaki in Arkham Horror! Let me say that I was the best player and did all of the work!

Scorn, those pictures are incredible.

Lies, you guys actually inadvertently cheated, HB told me. Your victory is hollow and meaningless!

Yep. I think it's pretty good - it's not an auto-win codex like Grey Knights was when it came out, but it's a return to the old design philosophy of buying your base usits cheap and then paying through the nose for all the bells and whistles. LOTS of options as far as marks, demonic gifts and wargear. Let me know if there are any specifics you want to know.

I'm more interested in the story fluff - things like a background on a daily life of a servant of Khorne, battle stories, etc.

Also, the new units introduced with the codex are very, very cool. I like the new cultists.

I picked up my old Muchkin game again a little while ago, been a handful of years since I last played.. Now I enjoy it with some friends as a 'beer and pretzels' game, just to have some fun and get drunk. I want to buy an expansion pack or two to mix in some new weird fun - anybody got any experiences with the different expansions? I have the original Munchkin game, the Clerical Error and Unnatural Axe expansions as well as Star Munchkin. I'm thinking that the Lovecraft set could be fun, but I don't think any of the friends I play with have read Lovecraft, so all the references will probably go over their heads.

Anyone know any games like smallworld? Played it recently and loved it. Putting together a game night with a group of people who know nothing about board games and probably cant focus to well (including myself) so I need recs for fast, simple, but stimulating games with some randomizing factors to keep things good and strategic. I already know and love dominion which fits this rec (though it's on the complex side of simple). Any help is greatly appreciated!

I know ghost stories and alien frontier and star trek monopoly as well.

Awesome games, those. I'd recommend the hilariously named Thunderstone (haven't played the expansions, so not sure about them); simple but entertaining mechanics (simpler than either Smallworld or Dominion; have you tried the latter's expansions, btw?). There's also the famously awful/so bad it's good Carcassonne (actually - is it just my friends who think it is that bad, or is that a widely-shared opinion)?; again, quite simple and potentially quick, and somewhat similar in style to the games you mentioned. Both are very easy for newcomers to pick up (including myself, once upon a time).

This post is just weird. There's no way Thunderstone is simpler than Dominion, the game is exactly the same mechanics as Dominion PLUS other stuff added. And Smallworld is even simpler than either of those I would say. Also, Carcassonne is widely regarded as a classic; your friends are nuts.

John, another classic that might suit your needs is Settlers of Catan. It's a game of building and resource management, with a randomized map, and relatively quick. It only supports 3 or 4 players though, so that's a bit annoying if you're just two, or a larger group (there are expansions that allow the game to support 2-6 though). There's also a 2-player card game version, which is pretty cool but a bit more complex.

A very cool co-op game is Pandemic, in which you race around the globe trying to put an end to some epidemic diseases. It can be quite hard, depending on the cards you draw, but not as unforgiving as Ghost Stories. The base game is 2-4 players, which is increased to 2-5 with the (excellent) expansion.

@ J_S: I have nothing to add, but I will say that I also love Smallworld. It's definitely one of my favourites. I second Settlers of Catan and Pandemic too. Pandemic in particular being quite fun.

How come this is the first I'm hearing of a board game group? Sonofabitch. I have Touch of Evil with all the expansions, same with Illuminati. If you're gonna buy Smallworld get the underground version. And yall better not be playing on weeknights!

And re: the Munchkin question, just be aware that all the expansions are just different ways of saying +1-5 and so on, with little variation to actual game mechanics.

Censored by the Inquisition.



As a Space Wolves player, the thing that scares me the most is that new flyer. On the other hand, a group of Grey Hunters got charged by a Maulerfiend only to totally laugh in his face using kraks.

I wish they'd release the new codexes a little more frequently. I'm thinking of picking up Orks if and when they get a 6th edition update.

What about a good old classic Risk? Classic.

Everything else has been mentioned as Smallworld, Carcassone and Settlers of Catan... have played other games as well, but I find Smallworld one of the most simple, yet fun games I have played. Love it.

OK, so colour spray is ridiculously handy. The DM threw us against several encounters yesterday, and I ended up using colour spray (my character is a gnome sorcerer, btw) in most of them, twice in one. The first time I used it was against a Cockatrice, which we discovered can turn people to stone, so I took no chances and went to stun it. Well, with it's low AC, everyone landed in some fantastic hits and it didn't survive a single round. Then later we were set upon by 9 orcs. They were knocking lumps out of us and I waited until a couple had gathered around my character and let fly with the gay spray. Both were unconscious for 4 rounds (I think they lasted half of that), so in one go, two were out of the fight, and I caught a third in the next round, mean while the cleric had healed everyone and buffed the rogue who started cutting through everything, and insta-killing floored orcs, the druid had a sphere of flame constantly crushing and burning one orc, had trapped several others with entangle, and her cat had tripped up and was killing another.

For relevance, our party is all at level 3.

Hmmm, I'd disagree; I found Thunderstone to be far, far easier to keep track of than Dominion. I guess, though, that this might be because I found the narrative concept of the former to be more engaging, and more intuitive - honestly, I'm more the monster-fighting type than a land-gathering strategist; while I love games involving the latter, too, there comes a time when I just wanna go out and slay something.


Yeah, I figured that. For some reason, the notion that Carcassonne is terrible was just this generally accepted idea among the group of people who introduced me to boardgames/RPGs; the older, wiser ones would pass this down to the newbies, and no one ever really explained why (nor, come to think of it, did anyone explain why we nonetheless spent/spend many long, drunken nights playing it).

Yeah, I think it's silly to say that Thunderstone is simpler than Dominion, when HB got Thunderstone, we already knew how to play the game because it has the same dynamics but it also involves a much more involved administration of your deck with the different characters and weapons/inventory that you can get. Perhaps that the goal of Thunderstone is clearer (explore the dungeon, kill that boss) but I think "winning" the game is meh, you win if you killed the most monsters and when the boss is dead, you can actually kill the boss and lose the game, it just doesn't feel right to me. In dominion, you win when you conquered the most regions (victory points). I don't know, a dungeon exploring game should be cooperative, like Hero Quest or a game like Arkham Horror.

Yeah, co-op dungeon games are certainly more fun; Arkham Horror will always be one of my all-time favourites. I guess it's just me who thinks Thunderstone is relatively simple, at least more so than Dominion. Hmmm.