Board Game Night: Hanabi and Sushi Go

We played a couple of different card based games recently, Hanabi, by Antoine Bauza and Sushi Go by Phil Walker-Harding.

Hanabi 

We played on 4th of November, so Hanabi was very appropriate. It's a cooperative game involving a group of firework manufacturers putting on a display.

Unfortunately, all the labels have been lost, so we have to rely on clues from each other, and hope to get the display ready before an oncoming storm.

This works by each player having a hand of five cards, but players never see their own hands. All the other players do, and this is how they can give hints. The cards are one of five colours (white, red, blue, yellow and green) and one of five numbers. The fireworks must be built up in numerical order, and there can only be one of each colour.

On their turn, players can give a hint to another player by telling them which of their cards are a particular colour or number, or discard one of their own cards, or play one of their cards. The number of hints are limited, but can be bought back by discarding, and playing a wrong card brings the storm closer.

We played a couple of games, scoring 14 the first time, and 18 the second, out of a maximum of 25.

Endgame, apparently this score is 'Excellent; the crowd are delighted'

A great fun game, with a straight forward mechanic, but requiring a good bit of thought (and, apparently, a better short term memory than I possess). 

Definitely A tier.

Sushi Go

A fast, fun card game where the object is to build a meal over three rounds, making sure you have enough puddings at the end of course.

We've played Sushi Go quite a few times now, and it's a good one to have handy to fill in ten to twenty minutes at the end of an evening.

This was my first experience of 'pick and pass', where the players swap hands each turn. Thus you know what each hand is after a while, and strategies can be built around denying players cards that might benefit them.

Some dishes are worth points on their own, some are worth more in combinations, and some require other cards.

Puddings are played through all three rounds, but are only applied at the very end, gaining or loosing points for having most or least puddings.

While I don't like Sushi, I really enjoy this game. Part of this is the speed of play, there always seems to be time to squeeze in a quick game. Partly for this reason it earns a solid A.

Two good A tier games*. Hanabi is great for getting the mind working. Sushi Go for a quick game.

Both games are available from various online retailers, and at least one chain of UK booksellers stocks Shushi Go.

*Don't let that put you off, both are very highly recommended, but they don't quite provide the gaming experience that I get from, say, Moon.

ORCTOBER - Challenge Compete (Just)

At the beginning of October I set myself the challenge of painting up 500 points of orcs for Fantastic Battles using my old 6mm Irregular Miniatures collection.  Bodvoc agreed to join in with elves, as he has quite a few.

To make it easy on myself I chose to use my already painted minis and see if they were worth salvaging.  With a bit of a wash and some extra highlighting they turned out fine.  

I did have a bit of a setback with the samples I tried first.  When I last showed them they had had an initial wash to deal with the rather bright and flat painting.  

But then I gave them my standard 'orc wash' of 50:50 Army Painter Soft tone and Strong tone washes.  This gave a far darker effect than I was looking for, but a bit more highlighting helped rescue them.

As I was working through my already painted stuff, I knew that I wasn't going to produce a particularly effective army.  I was able to look at most of the painted stuff and see how I could use it, giving me something I can add to in the future.

The Finished Army 

So here it is, my 6mm orc force.  Using the traits I'm experimenting with, it works out at 673 points.  This is, of course, subject to change as I try them in battle.

Characters, the larger 20mm diameter base is the Warlord, the middle sized base (actually a button) are is a captain on wolf, and the single minis are two rogues, one orc and one warg.

Warriors, these five companies are made up of strips and part strips from the orc command, archers, warriors and spearmen.

Wolves, these two companies are wolves I painted ages ago.  Their strips are wider than most of the infantry, so have been cut up to allow repositioning and to provide the lone warg 'rogue'. I now paint my wolves/wargs much darker using a palette of greys, as seen in my 10mm LotR Mordor army.  I may repaint these at a later date (this is also why I didn't get the wolf riders ready, I wasn't sure if I should repaint the wolves.

Artillery, these companies were previously painted, I simply gave them a wash and added a few highlights. I do want to revisit these to add some ammunition (boulders and giant bolts) to the bases.

Chariots, one of these four companies was already painted.  I retouched the paintwork and painted up the other three from scratch, can you tell which one was the original?

Trolls, these were painted up from scratch, and are done more in the style of my larger scale minis.  They have a lot of character, and I can't decide what the little orc riding the trolls' shoulders is doing.  Is that helmet some sort of control device?  I have to admit that the reason I did these was to garner some easy points in the challenge.

Terrain Too

The challenge included producing a piece of themed terrain.  I struggled with this, partly because 6mm themed terrain doesn't always work well when the minis are based in companies.  Forts with battlements look odd with a 25mm wide wall walk.  I'm also short of any 6mm terrain, so it seemed a bit indulgent to work on something that only one army would get to use.

But then another root through my box of 6mm stuff turned up 4 huts.  I'd painted these years ago, but I've completely repainted them and they'll do nicely as an orc village.  I haven't based them yet as I want some slightly bigger bases to add a bit of extra decoration, like looted standards and other trophies. 

Future Additions?

Initially I planned to rescue some orc archers for a company of bows, but I decided to include them in small numbers among the warriors to represent the irregular nature of the orcs and explain the minor short range shooting attack they have.  I will rescue more of the archers and base up some dedicated companies of bows.  I also have a couple of companies of wolf riders which I never finished, they will have to wait for now.

I've also got some of the Man-Orc range, which make suitably impressive 'elite'.  None of these are painted yet, but they'll make great Formed Companies of slightly better quality troops, and I can take advantage of the different weapons options rather than just lumping lots of different types in an irregular company.

I've got a lot of 6mm goblins which are already painted. When I did my dwarves I also based these up as an opposing force. While they are well enough painted, the strips are difficult to cut up to give an irregular look. I'm not sure if they should be a separate army or a part of the orc army.

So that's another Orctober challenge done, and it's got me well on my way to having another Fantastic Battles army. It also makes inroads into the Lead Mountain and helps me decide what to keep and what to move on. Like the dwarves, I'll probably aim for 1000 points, perhaps with a few options. I've certainly got sufficient 6mm fantasy stuff for this, and I've several more armies to start too.

If you want to see how Bodvoc did, his elves are on his blog.

Trying Warlords of Erehwon. - Again

If you read my earlier post about my first ever game of Warlords or Erehwon, you may have gained the impression that I didn't like the rules.

Well, I was prepared to give them a second go, so Bodvoc drove down with some of his lovely Old School goblins to tackle a portion of my Severed Hand orcs.

Last game I felt overwhelmed with the options and all the different things going on, so I deliberately went for a small 500 point battle with straightforward goals and, on my side at least, no magic.

The background, briefly, was that the goblin leader, Kruk the Destroyer, urged on by his wizard, Gurk, decided to take advantage of the orcs' drubbing at the hands of the dwarves last time. Hopefully they would be weaker and easily beaten.

The field of battle (yes, lots of Middle Earth terrain, it's what I had to hand)

The Opening Stages

The battle began with both sides running forward to gain ground. The orc spears were so enthusiastic that they exhausted themselves.

The advance then slowed slightly, and the orc archers took up position (nicely exposed in the open, despite the ruins close by).

Goblins filled one of the woods and picked their way through.

The orc spears rested, but under the stern eye of Hagar Sheol they got ready for the coming action.

The orcs amass behind their hideous totem 

What's that coming over the hill, is it a monstrous goblin horde?

The two sides advance

Orc archers train their bows on a wood full of goblins 

The Middle Phase

As the goblin bows prepared to shoot, the orc archers snatched the advantage and loosed first. The goblins were better shots though, and killed two orcs for the loss of only one goblin.

On the other flank, a unit of goblins charged into the orc spears. One fell to a well thrown spear, which tipped the balance in the subsequent melee. As the remaining goblins staggered back, the orcs wiped them out.

The Goblin Guard then tried to finish off the depleted orc spears, but the larger unit of orc warriors were waiting for just such an opportunity, and smashed into them part way. Despite the Guard being elite, they were still only goblins, and the orc warriors killed all but their leader. Having taken some casualties, they decided not to press the fight, a decision they would later regret.

In response, Gurk gestured wildly, waved his arms and pointed at the warriors - to no effect.

(At this point I tried to use Hagar to Rally and remove the pins on the remaining orc spears, however, on close reading of the rules, it appears that this only works if the allied unit is actually Routing).

The orc spears then tried to rally, but despite being under the watchful eye of Hagar Sheol, they ended up Down again.

The End

The goblin bows continued to shoot at the remaining orc archers, killing two more, the remaining orc fled the scene.

The orc warriors charged into the goblin wizard, killing his ferocious pet Gobble-dogs. But they pulled down two of the orcs, and, with their earlier casualties, the orcs broke.

Hagar managed to stop their rout, but that stopped him participating in a fight.

Gurk's magic was more effective this time, and Grashak Kra was struck with doubt and fear. Kruk tried to take advantage of this, but Grashak retreated, and Kruk stayed his charge, snorting in disgust.

The orc spears remain hunkered down.

Kruk then charged the orc warriors, but they gave better than they got, and the goblins withdrew. 

The goblin bows turned their attention on poor Grashak Kra, felling him.

Hagar decided it was time he took a hand, charging Kruk and his depleted bodyguard. The frenzied orcs chopped their way through the bodyguard and gave Kruk pause. The two warchiefs snarled and prepared to continue their duel, but each, perhaps, saw something in the others' eyes. They lowered their weapons and nodded at each other with new-found respect. Why waste greenskin blood when they had mutual enemies?

The remains of the orc archers 

Wizard bashing, though surprisingly less effective than I thought it was going to be

After Battle Musings

Well, what a difference. I deliberately set out to try and learn the game and try and get some understanding of what tactics to use.

I'd say I succeeded, and had a great fun game too. Sadly, time ran out before we could run the follow on fight between the Warchiefs, so we called a draw (of course, both privately feeling that we'd have won if we'd played another turn).  The fact that the game was so close, and had moments when it swung one way or another, show, I think, that the rules are sound and that we will have a lot of fun with this going forward.

I'll do another post talking about the rules, but briefly, I did enjoy them this time around.  There are areas that we are still vague about (we occasionally forgot to take Order Tests for units with pins for example), and there are aspects of them that are odd or annoying, such as some of the naming conventions, but there is a depth of tactics that we are just starting to learn, and I look forward to more games, and, who knows? Maybe Warlords of Orc's Drift?

OCTOBER - Restore or Start Again?

One of the main reasons for choosing 6mm orcs for an Orctober project was that I have a lot already painted (loads unpainted as well, of course) and I wanted them to have a purpose. Now these were done many many years ago. I can't remember when, exactly, but Bodvoc and I collected the 6mm Irregular Fantasy range way back in the late eighties or early nineties.  We adapted a set of 6mm SF rules from a wargaming magazine.  I still have a copy of our rules, but as I recall, they never quite worked.  We spent so much time play-testing them and altering them, that we never got round to actually just playing and enjoying them.

Our rules worked around using the 5 minis wide strips that Irregular Miniatures were making at the time.  So my orcs were painted up as the strips.  At some point later I must have experimented with using them for Hordes of the Things, because quite a few of them are stuck randomly on card bases that match that system.

Later still, Bodvoc and myself used 6mm for some battles using Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargaming.  I started afresh with these, painting up a goblin army that will, one day, be rebased for Fantastic Battle (probably).

Rescuing The Old Orcs

The orcs are painted very much in the style of the time, check out the photo on my initial Orctober post to get some idea.  I undercoated everything in Goblin Green, then just added a few details for weapons, shields etc. I'd like them to look a bit more like my current style.  I think I've done a better job in 6mm with my dwarves, but do I want to start again with the orcs? 

Not if I can save something from the paint jobs the orcs already have.  

Time for some experimenting.  I've stuck fifteen orcs of various kinds on to a lolly stick to see what I can do.

A Wash and (Dry) Brush Up?

The first experiment was giving the orcs a wash of equal parts Army Painter Strong Tone and Dark Tone.  This shades the minis and tones down that garish eighties orc skin. 

 

The test orcs after a wash

They already look better, but can I do anything more?  Despite the wash they still look a bit 'flat'.

When I painted my dwarves I realised that just a small amount of extreme highlighting made a big difference at this scale.  This is the essence of my method for mass painting most minis these days, just taken to the max.

I tried drybrushing to pick out details, but it didn't work very well in 6mm, its too easy to obscure the detail I want to accentuate.

But very careful application of a few highlights works much better.  There's more control, and it allows me to change some of the colour choices I made all those years ago.  I don't need to add much to really make them 'pop'.

The test orcs after highlighting

I'm happy with how they look now.  Perhaps not quite how I'd paint them if I were starting from scratch, but certainly good enough, and, importantly, I've shown that they are worth saving.

they'll get a wash (the usual Army Painter Soft Tone/Strong Tone mix) before being based.  I'll add a few bow armed orcs in the mix as irregular troops in Fantastic Battles have some short range missile attacks.

Now on with the rest of them.

Unit Identity

Previously I'd tried to give the orcs shields with unit symbols on them.  You may notice crossed bones and a blue moon among other shields in the photo earlier (and if you look carefully above after the wash).  Now I'm not going to copy the shields I've used on the Orc's Drift tribes, but a variety of different shield colours across a unit does give a pleasingly random look to the horde, which is what I'm after now.

#ORCTOBER

ORCTOBER - Planning the 500

Before I start painting 500 points of orcs, I want some idea what that will consist of.  The Fantastic Battles rulebook includes a goblin list, and I've previously worked out a list for Mordor (and Gondor) troops for our 10mm Lord of the Rings games, but I want a distinctive feel to the army, and neither of these quite fit what I'm looking for.

Nic Wright's excellent Fantastic Battles (my battered first edition copy)

What a Piece of Work is Orc
I want my orcs to be a bit more like the typical fantasy wargame orc.  Big, hitting hard, but with discipline problems.  The rule book goblins (and my Mordor orcs) have Unreliable as their species' trait. If your not familiar with Fantastic Battles, this means that they are slightly more likely to suffer pre-battle mishaps, and if there are no commanders near are more likely to do their own thing in battle.

To more closely model the old WFB Animosity rules I'm using the Belligerent trait from the additional rules (available on the Fantastic Battles Facebook page).  This gives them a bonus in melee, but with a chance that they will attack their own side.  

But the point of the exercise is to enjoy painting tiny orcs, and I'm in danger of getting too nit picky over points and balance.

Wish List

Instead of looking at details of the stat lines and traits, I'm better off deciding what minis I want to paint.  

I'll need a Warlord, and at least one hero.  As with the dwarves, I can make these up from various cut up infantry and cavalry strips.  There are some individual characters in the range, but I'm not sure if I have any of them.  

Although I doubt I'll need a shaman yet, I can use odd individual minis for that too.  Perhaps even a human wizard, either the evil genius behind the orcs, a la Saruman, or someone co-opted for their magical knowledge, and who is ambitious enough to overlook the orcs' less pleasant side (and their lack of hygiene).

I want some infantry, probably a mix of the spear and sword armed orcs. I don't see them as organised or disciplined enough for spear phalanxes, and they will be irregular. 

I might include a unit of tougher (or at least better equipped and organised) troops. I have some of the Man-orcs, and they'll do nicely. They'll make up an elite (or at leas regular) core of the horde eventually.

I don't expect much from orc archery, especially compared to the arrow-fest that Bodvoc's elves will have, but a company or two will give at least a bit of a threat.

Cavalry are more important, and I can have both orcs on wolves and wild wolves. There's also a nice orc chariot model that I'd like to include.

The last thing on my wish list is some form of monster. I've a few options here; trolls, ogres, a giant, not to mention more exotic creatures.

So out of that lot I'm going to cobble together some sort of list, but, as Bodvoc suggested in a recent comment, I'll aim to paint nice units and then choose the army. I've plenty to work with after all, and lots to expand with once I've got this lot finished.

Fantastic Battles is available from Irregular Wars, no relation to Irregular Miniatures, whose minis I am using for this project.

#ORCTOBER

Orctober 2024

I last did something special for 'Orctober' in 2021 when I managed to paint a couple of Ripper Suits for Deadzone,  some 15mm orcs and I started a 10mm Mordor army for Fantastic Battles.
This year I think I'll do some more orcs, it's not like I haven't had practice recently.

But what? Simply painting more Old School orcs is a bit too much like the rest of the year (though I do have some nice pre slotta orcs to do sometime). 

Orctober Suggestions
I had a couple of ideas; more Rogue Trader Orks, or some 6mm orcs to oppose the 6mm dwarves that I painted for Fantastic Battles.

The Rogue Trader Orks would be ten more to bulk out the ones I did back in 2022. It would give me some special and heavy weapon support, and if they go well I'll add in a character mini or two. It would give me enough old school orks for a skirmish game, and if I got those done, I've a Dreadnought and even a buggy to paint.

The 6mm orcs are from Irregular Miniatures and have already been painted and are currently based up for Hordes of the Things. As I said regarding the dwarves, this puzzles me, as I've no recollection of ever playing HotT in that scale). But I'd like to get them painted in my current style. I might even simply try a wash and a highlight. If this works, I can get a second 6mm FB army done. I've got lots of them, including cavalry, artillery and monsters. I've also got loads of goblins, but I think I'll keep those as a separate force.

Further Suggestions
Chatting with Bodvoc he added a couple of other suggestions. Post a picture a day from my orc collection (this seems a bit like self promotion - says the chap publishing a blog) or build some orc terrain. I do like making terrain, but I tend to need some impetus to get round to doing it. A challenge perhaps?

And a Decision
In the spirit of compromise, we are combining my 6mm orc idea (you'd already guessed that from the photo below, hadn't you) and Bodvoc's terrain idea. What's more, he's joining in with elves to give me the extra impetus to finish this (an early Nelfember project?)

So by the end of October we both aim to have 500 points of Fantastic Battles 6mm finished, along with a piece of terrain.

This should be fun, but first I have to work out a list and see if I can repair and update the painted orcs or will it be 'Strip and Start Again'?

Some of the painted 6mm orcs

#ORCTOBER

Artefacts From my Gaming Past - Aquila Lite-Man

All the RPGaDAY stuff got me thinking back to my early gaming days. This coincided with me finding an old mini from the seventies.

There's not a lot to say about this mini itself, except that it's probably one of the oldest minis that I still own.  I don't know why I painted it purple either, but it seems to suit the rather unearthly look of the thing.

It's from the Minifigs Science Fiction range and Lost Minis Wiki identifies it as SF 18 Aquila Lite-Man from the mid 1970s (it appears in the 1975 catalogue). 

I can't remember why I bought it, though it might have been some sort of wraith in early D&D (which would date my purchase to around '77-78) but it brought memories flooding back, and that's what these Artefacts posts are all about.

Way Back in the Mists of Last Century (provide your own wibbly-wobbly SFX)

I bought a few of this range back in the seventies on rare and much anticipated trips to the Model Railway Supermarket in Bradford. There was no plan to buying them, I just got minis I liked the look of.

Back then, shops selling minis were rare, and often the minis were just a small section among other hobbies, such as plastic kits, model planes and railways (much later Something Wicked was also like this). 

I always found model soldiers fascinating, going right back to plastic Britain's soldiers, but the opportunity to buy the smaller lead ones was very rare. 

I do have vague memories of a shop in Scarborough where I bought some Highlanders, and there was a shop in Howarth called, appropriately, Land of Gondal*, which had a good selection of historical stuff.  I remember them having a table of small cardboard boxes, each with a code for the particular mini and the relevant mini inside.  Very trusting. 

My first trips to the shop in Bradford were true expeditions. A bus to Bradford, then a long walk (well, to my young legs; it was over a mile and a half each way) to the shop. We later worked out which bus to take, but it still felt special.

I first went there to buy some of the Minifigs Mythical Earth range, and my remaining handful have the title of oldest minis still owned, but they are for another post.  I even remember seeing small books with the words "Dungeons and Dragons" on them, but I ignored them, I was there for the lead.

There would have been a good number of cabinets of historical minis, and a few of the then new fantasy minis.  I remember some of the ranges even now.  Minifigs produced Mythical Earth, the Science Fiction range and a Sword and sorcery range that were to Conan what the Mythical Earth minis were to The Lord of the Rings.

As I moved from Middle Earth wargaming to D&D the trips became more focused on RPG minis (hence Aquila Lite-Man).  I was no longer making the expedition with my parents but with the gaming group from college.  They were rather raucous journeys!

Enough misty-eyed memories.  Now I'll have to think of something to do with the Aquila Lite-Man.

*That's right, Gondal, not Gondor.  A no-prize (or possibly a self-administered pat on the back) if you comment why it's appropriate.

Kerwin the Rogue

As part of the 'Grand Sort-Out' I found an old character mini recently. Kerwin the Rogue.

Kerwin was one of the pregens in the fourth edition Starter, Keep on the Shadowfell. One of the players chose him, and another chose the pregen dwarf fighter, Kathra. I seem to remember that the rest of the group rolled up their characters, but these two players missed that session.

We used one of the WotC prepainted plastic minis at first (they did specific minis for both Kerwin and Kathra), but there was also a small range of better sculpted metal mini. I had at least two of these (the other one was Sovelis, half elven bard).

Sadly, Kerwin met an unfortunate end in Specularum. He fought the law, and the law won.

I stripped the original paint job and removed an added crossbow, which reflected the character's equipment, but added nothing to the looks of the mini.

I gave Kerwin a muted paint job. He is a rogue after all. I rather enjoyed the challenge of painting brown clothing but making different areas distinctive. The red headband is a nod to the original prepainted mini, and the red piping echoes this.

The blue trousers are simply because I wanted a dark colour to help with hiding and I thought an extra colour would look good.

I've now given Kerwin back to the player, something I like to do when a character mini is no longer in play.

I must apologise for the poor quality of the photos. Two of my lights had run out of batteries, and I didn't have any spares.

Kerwin's player is a rather good photographer (much better than I am), so hopefully he'll share some pictures, in which case I'll post them here.

RPGaDAY 2024 Review

RPGADAY 2024 Review 

Well, that was fun! 

It's been an interesting experience, and helped me think about what I play and why. It may even affect what I play in the future, particularly relevant with D&D 24 looming.

I'm not really surprised that I sound like an old school Grognard, but it's refreshing to see that I've mentioned more than just D&D and Call of Cthulhu. I like to think that I've dabbled in a few lesser known titles, though I've been reading a few other entries, and there are some truly obscure games out there.

I've definitely come to some sort of understanding of why I play games, and what sort of games are likely to appeal to me. 

Despite no longer being in the world of work, time seems as precious as ever, and inevitably I have to compromise when it comes to RPGs. 

In the past I've run several different games on different nights, using different systems (running D&D in both 4E and 5E was a challenge). I can't really do that anymore. The cognitive load is greater than I want to give these days.

I've realised that I don't enjoy a game if I feel I'm lost in the rules. I know that I might make poor choices within the game, but I want them to be my poor choices, not just because I don't understand the details of the game rules.

I appreciate that there's bound to be a period when I'm learning a new game, but, much as with my wargaming, I'm wary if something new comes along. Do I already have a game that does the same sort of thing? If so, is it worth learning something else new?

I've also realised that I like playing in games where the players act as a group to achieve a goal. I'm all for personal goals and motivations, but I've a personal dislike of games that set the players against each other. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this style of game, just that they aren't for me.

And if I'm playing a fantasy game, I want it to feel heroic. 

Honourable Unmentioned 

I realised that I've played quite a few different games over the forty plus years that I've been roleplaying, and many of them haven't been mentioned. 

Here's a list of the ones that I can remember.

So, in no particular order;

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 

Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game 

Runequest

Fiasco

Shadow Chasers (and various other Polyhedron magazine games)

GURPS

Tunnels and Trolls 

The Arduin Grimoire (or is this just a D&D supplement?)

Dragon Warriors 

Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying

Basic Roleplay System (the OSR clone)

Traveller

True d20 (the Pulp version, not the Mecha version. I regularly get asked to run this again)

Microlite d20

Warrior Cats 

SAGA roleplaying system 

Star Wars (the WotC d20 version)

STOCSlite

Maelstrom 

Lone Wolf (RPG based on the game books)

TORG (both versions)

Empire of the Petal Throne 

Beneath the Sands (devised by a fellow player/GM at the FLGS)

MERPS

Maybe some of them will get a mention next year.

#RPGaDAY24

Lidl Hobby Drill

Just a quick post to mention to UK readers that Lidl are currently selling a pin vice and drill bit set for under £6.

The forty bits range in size from 0.06 mm to 2.5 mm and there are left and right handed bits for each size!

I can't vouch for quality, but that's a lot of drill bits.

Board Game Night: Wingspan

The MEGAforce was down to just two this week, but we ploughed on and tried Grim's latest game, Wingspan by Stonemaier Games.

The end game

How to Win

The aim of the game is to have the best collection of wild birds, measured by a value given on each bird card, plus a couple of personal goals drawn randomly at the beginning (one of mine was to try and get lots of birds with eggs on their cards at the end of the game, Grim was collecting birds with small wingspans, nominally passerines). There are also changing goals each round for extra points, and some birds have the ability to cache food or 'tuck' other bird cards - presumably they predate them or perhaps mob them and drive them off.

Game Play 

Each turn players take it in turns to either play a bird card in the relevant habitat (costing food, and potentially eggs), collect food (randomly rolled with special dice in the 'bird box/feeder' dice tower) from the forest, lay eggs from the grasslands or draw bird cards from the wetlands. Doing any of these last three actions also triggers abilities that any birds played in that habitat have.

The game is played over four rounds, each consisting of a number of turns, initially eight, reducing by one each round.

Stand outs 

The action economy system is great. Using small cubes to gain actions, but losing one each round really focuses you on your endgame.

The 'bird box/food tray' is a fun addition. Not completely necessary, although you do need to differentiate between food dice available and those which have been claimed, which it does admirably. Fortunately it does fit in the game box simply by separating the tower from the tray.

Minor grumbles

We found the starter deck, designed to help new players learn the game with four pre determined turns of the first round, more of a hinderance than a help. But we've learned that lesson, and we'll probably not use them with future new players.

For a game with an ecological focus, there's a lot of plastic. Plastic eggs, plastic trays for the various components.  There has been a move towards wooden or card components in many games recently, that would have been appropriate here.

And being an American game, the birds are all North American birds, though some birds do have a wider range than just North America. I'd like to see a more international supplement.

*EDIT* apparently there is a European supplement, along with several others.

Overall 

There's more to the game than my brief description, and initially it seemed rather complicated, but by round three we were pretty sure of play and were building strategies. 

I'm certainly looking forward to playing again, hopefully with the rest of MEGAforce, although it did play very well as a two player game.

I'll place this firmly in A Tier, with the understanding that this may move up or down slightly with repeated play.

RPGaDay 2024: Day 31: Game or Gamer you miss.

And now we reach the final entry. It's been a fascinating experience, and I've got a review planned, so check the blog for that one coming soon. Anyway, on to

Day 31: Game or Gamer you Miss 

The choice is easy, in fact, when I read the questions back at the beginning of August, this is the one that convinced me to take part, but it's by far the hardest one to write.

I'd argue that good games never die; as long as the books (or PDFs) exist, it's still possible to play them. 

Fashions change and editions come and go, but as long as there are gamers, we can always play whatever we want. It doesn't matter what the current edition is, as long as the group are happy, play on.

If there's a game that you used to play and miss, get a few people together and give it a go, though beware, you may be remembering it through a haze of nostalgia.

So, good games never die.

But gamers themselves do. 

I've known Dave since Infants school (primary, to you youngsters). We shared many of the same interests, went through three schools together and ended up at the same college. 

We were the kids sitting on the grass reading (usually Science Fiction) while the others played football.

When I tried D&D back in 1977, Dave was the first person I brought along, and he was just as enthusiastic as I was. 

When I talked about the lich mega dungeon, Dave was one of the players. He was part of the team tackling the Halls of Anubis too. He designed and ran wonderfully quirky adventures, his Dervish Dungeons were legendary.

Although university sent us to different cities, we kept in touch with long letters. I remember once sending him a 'pick your path' adventure that I wrote.

He returned the favour by narrating his experiences playing Call of Cthulhu, and as soon as I'd finished my finals, I got my own copy.

Eventually jobs and family meant we saw each other infrequently; he'd moved away to the south coast for his job, and was now married, but occasional meet ups were a whirl of gossip and games.

Over the years we met less and less; we knew he had family problems, but we didn't know how bad things were for him. The now very occasional meetings were good, but looking back, there was an intensity there, a need to grab what fun he could, and always a look back at how much better things had been.

Eventually, he decided to bow out. 

It was some comfort to see how many of his friends turned up to remember him.

We all wish he'd said something directly, or that we'd realised or been there to help, even just to listen. 

I'd give a lot for one more game with Dave.

So long, we miss you.

#RPGaDAY24

If you feel any of this might apply to you or to a friend, please talk.

Good friends will listen, as we would have, and professional help is easily available. Speaking from personal experience, it does help.

RPGaDay 2024: Day 29: Awesome App

Day 29: Awesome App

This one's easy. I only really use one app for RPGs, Roll20.

I'm not nominating it because it's amazing, it more or less does the job and I'm aware that it can do a lot more than I know how to do.

It's simply that we need a way to game online, and it seems to fit the bill. There's a regular cost, but that's unavoidable if I want to play online.

Now the vague rambling bit.

When I stop and think a bit more, I do have a dice rolling app on my phone, which I've not used in many months, and we use Meets for the actual AV side of things (the AV on Roll20 was too slow when we tried).

I also use Inkarnate to draw maps, but there are many other ways of producing maps, including just downloading commercially produced ones.

I'll also mention Obsidian Portal. I've used this off and on since the 4E days and it is a useful way to organise a campaign. I find that it requires a lot of set up though to have enough wiki in place for the players to usefully reference, and if some players interact more with it than others, I end up not sure what to assume with player knowledge. So I end up restating it in session, which sort of negates the reason for using it in the first place.

And now the rant-y bit.

But I know many people use apps much more. DND Beyond is the big one, of course, and it seems as if it's becoming increasingly necessary. I know there's a free version, but it doesn't cover all the options. WotC even advertise it now on the grounds that character generation is too slow and complicated without it. To me, that's like GWs' liquid greenstuff, a condemnation of the original product that its trying to fix, not a selling point for the new thing.

It also looks like the next edition of D&D will rely more heavily on D&D Beyond and VTs, all of which will require subscriptions.

I'm certainly not opposed to paying for content. I buy the books that I think I'll use (OK, and a lot more besides), but I don't want to have to buy everything all over again just to play remotely.

If we've got to the stage where the game requires apps to keep track of all the abilities, then it's getting too complicated* for me.

While I'm channelling my inner Grognard I have another grumble; people relying on the various apps have access to everything they've paid for, and it doesn't always match what's in the books. I like to start a game or campaign stating what books the players can draw from, usually just the Players Handbook. I rule that any other material has to be discussed before its introduced, and online services make it hard for a player to know if its something I've OKed.

Now this isn't a very new thing. 4E had online tools, and as the characters got more powerful, they became increasingly necessary for levelling up. We split the cost between us, but the wizard was using spells from all over, sometimes not very well balanced spells either.

It's not me being a killjoy, it more about me knowing what the heroes are capable of and building suitable challenges.

#RPGaDAY24

* My personal definitions; Complex - involving many details for the benefit of the whole.

Complicated - involving many details just for the sake of it to the detriment of the whole