The salty air filled our lungs as gulls circled above the quayside. The harbour was alive with excited voices and the clinking of coins. Ships came and went, their hulls heavy with stories of distant islands and dangerous encounters. Somewhere beyond the horizon lay our opportunity to make our fortune through trade, charm, or even force. As we stood at the edge of the dock, we mapped our routes as we were Islebound: Emerald Edition by Ryan Laukat from Red Raven Games with art by Ryan Laukat.
One thing a board game will never formally have, is an overture. The three hour and 47-minute epic Lawrence of Arabia begins with a four-minute piece that encompasses a medley of themes pertaining to the film’s atmosphere, setting, and characters. It sets the stage for the powerful cinema you are about to experience. The closest…
Be victorious on the battlefield with your Kings of War rules & reference!
I’ve been covering a lot of Mantic Games lately (especially since a certain other company decided they didn’t want the support of content creators), and I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by their offerings. The new Epic Warpath is a great system with a wide range of classic scifi factions to play with, and Halo: Flashpoint is coming into its own as the range of available models increases. But the one game of theirs I haven’t explored yet is Kings of War. It’s perfect timing then, because the new 4th edition has just been released!
Kings of War is a classic ‘rank and flank’ fantasy tabletop miniatures game, in the tradition of the old Warhammer Fantasy Battle (now Warhammer: The Old World). It’s been interesting to see these old regimental games enjoy a resurgence of popularity – Hobgoblin and Conquest: Last Argument of Kings are two others – and there’s certainly something very satisfying about pushing around trays of warriors in neat rectangular formations. Kings of War commits completely to the concept because you actually model the miniatures attached to the base, rather than have them individually standing on it. It may mean a lot more modelling – building and painting 10 miniatures to make a single unit is a big job – but it certainly looks spectacular when you have a full army on the field.
As for the rules themselves, they’ve been cleaned up from previous editions. I haven’t played yet (I’ve been busy painting, which is now all done – watch out for a tips video), but will film a game when I do so you can see how it goes; but Mantic have a habit of making very solid rules systems, so I have high hopes. The new starter set Claws in the Sand is a good introduction box for new players and features two unusual small armies – the aquatic Trident Kingdom and the Medieval Japanese-syled dogmen of the Xirkaali Kingdom.
In the meantime, here’s my rules and reference to make your games easier and smoother – and of course you can also find it in my rules app Tabletop Codex!
Looney Labs has a new card game coming soon, Czech Games Edition has announced a new fully cooperative Codenames, and Plaid Hat Games will be releasing Super Auto Pets Card Battle.
Our dear cat Penelope has died. Thus, the history today is personal.
Penelope’s early life is shrouded in mystery. She lived on the streets, but we do not know for how long and if she had been in a human household before. In 2016, she was found and taken to an animal shelter. For the next three years, nobody wanted to adopt her… until we came there and found her to be a somewhat reserved, but very sweet middle-aged lady.
She integrated into the family immediately: One day after her adoption, she already strategized how to blunt the Prussian invasion of Bohemia.
From then on, she was our constant companion. She read with us…
…celebrated Halloween…
and Christmas with us…
…rid our place of provocative ribbons…
…tested all boxes for their sitting qualities…
…and had secret admirers who sent her bouquets.
She even found the time to adopt a secret second identity as quirky nanny Purry Poppins.
Her love for board games remained undiminished. Sometimes we suspected that she considered herself to be a board game.
The only thing she could not abide was me going for business trips. Big-eyed protests were staged on my suitcase.
Yet when I came back and played a game with her, everything was forgiven.
While she certainly enjoyed the games…
…the most important part to her was spending quality time with her family – for example, sitting on my lap while I sorted counters into trays.
Penelope was with us during tumultuous years. No matter if Covid forced us to stay at home or Putin threatened to cut off our energy supply, it was always a comfort to have a furry, affectionate companion with us.
As Penelope aged, her health deteriorated. She succumbed to a lung edema on March 11. She will be greatly missed.
A cold wind carried the smell of ash across the fields as the last light of day faded behind the hills. Villages that once echoed with laughter now stood silent, their streets empty. Travellers spoke of strange sights on gloomy roads, shapes moving in the mist, and friends who no longer recognised each other. Somewhere in the land of Aelrathia, a dark mind gathered strength, raising the fallen and bending the living to its purpose. If the rumours were true, an army of the dead would soon march across the land. There was only one thing left to do. We had to venture out and face the Legion of the Necromancer by James Gill from Hammerforge Chronicles with art by James Isaacs.
This is stupid. We should be f***ing and drinking by now.
Peter and Will play the hilarious drunk-ass orcs game, Space Gits!
Mike Hutchinson is one of the great independent creators who is putting the fun back into tabletop miniatures games, and giving us all alternatives to staid, old, boring, clunky games like those released by certain huge corporate companies that will go unnamed. Cough. Space Gits is a fast (gasp!), fun, hilarious game about drunk-ass space orcs grabbing caps on a planet when all the competent orcs are away, and it brilliantly combines tabletop miniatures and dexterity game rules! I was lucky enough to be sent an example of the new scenarios Mike is concocting for his new Kickstarter campaign, which expands the base game (and allows you to grab a copy of the original game if you missed out the first time). But enough of my lacking, watch the video, then go back the Space Gits: here Come The Bastards Kickstarter. You won’t regret it!
Making high quality tabletop gaming content at the EOG takes time and money. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter or making a donation so I can continue this work! Thankyou!
You can view just the box covers, or choose to show Game name, Play count, Sort or Filter data (for instance: when you sort on Year published, this will show the Year) and Collection status.
How to enable Grid view
Tap on the green gear icon on the top right of the Games list and select Grid view.
List View Settings
Tap on the green gear icon on the top right of the Games list and select List View Settings.
Here you can enable one or more of the following:
Game name
Play count
Sort or Filter data (for instance: when you sort on Year published, this will show the Year)
Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
My Tabletop Codex app gets its first functionality update!
If you haven’t tried out my fantastic rules app Tabletop Codex yet, what are you thinking? Go download it now! And now is the perfect time because I’ve just invested more in it by adding a great functionality update. Watch the video to find out more, and find the easy links to download it for Android or Apple phones and tablets at tabletopcodex.com.
Making high quality tabletop gaming content at the EOG takes time and money. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter or making a donation so I can continue this work! Thankyou!
Zurmat is a small Pashtun district south of Kabul. In 2007, It was a tense region with a fragile sense of order. The Taliban moved throughout the villages and roads at night, issuing threats to dissuade cooperation with the Afghan government. Zurmat is also a wargame. Some soldiers write about their experience. Tim Densham designs.…
In the kingdom of Pilipalod, a wild, evil magic had erased the royal castle, leaving only the foundations visible. Queen Blodwen, King Llew, and Princess Dillie surveyed the empty hill where their home once was with some despair, but mostly patient resolve. Word of the disaster spread, and soon magical creatures gathered to offer their help, and the finest designers of the Magical Architect Alliance arrived, promising that a new home would rise again. Their first task was to rebuild the Flip Pick Towers by Rob Fisher and Adam Porter from Osprey Games with art by Beatrix Papp.
From v6.10 there is a QR scanner on the Overview screen, this can be used to scan shared Play QR-codes directly from the app!
Challenge option
For all relevant challenges an option was added that, if enabled, makes sure plays that are counted for a challenge actually appear in the challenge.
This situation could happen in Challenges where there is a filter on Play count: when you play a Game the Play count goes up and the game was no longer eligible in the Challenge.
The option will be enabled by default for new Challenges, and can be enabled in older challenges by editing the Challenge.
More
The following has also been added/improved:
Switching between score sheets (generic, round, game) transfers entered scores.
Changing location of a play no longer updates to default players once they have been edited in that play.
Grouped Plays list View options in a submenu.
Updated tab bar icons.
Improved display of board/variants and roles in several locations.
Anmelden
