You are a vault dweller, but if you’re going to survive, you need to start acting like a surface dweller.

Peter unboxes all the extra stuff you can get to expand your games of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Board Game!

I’ve been hoping for some time now to get my hands on this extra stuff for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Board Game, and the wonderful people at Awaken Realms were kind enough to send me the goodies I didn’t get the first time around. So here’s an unboxing of the miniatures packs, terrain pack, stretch goals and expansions for this excellent game of survival in the irradiated Zone!

By the way, don’t forget to download my rules & reference (and of course it’s also on Tabletop Codex)!

A silver stake? A crucifix? What, did you think we haven’t tried everything before?

Another big unboxing! Peter checks out everything for Grimcoven, the new boss battler from Awaken Realms!

Before I say anything more, yes, someone did point out to me I pronounced ‘Grimcoven’ incorrectly throughout this entire video, and I’m deeply ashamed about it. We all make mistakes! But anyway, there’s a lot of exciting stuff to check out here, in my first video about this challenging new game from Awaken.

Grimcoven is a gorgeous looking game with enough boss battling goodness to last you many years, so let‘s get into it!

Don’t forget to download my rules & reference (and of course it’s also on Tabletop Codex), and good luck!

There’s something down here, it’s carnivorous.

Don your black leather and grab your Grimcoven rules and reference!

Awaken Realms are now a decade old as of this writing, and their astonishing success and huge creative output has not only made them one of the best publishers in the business, but the flag bearers for huge, over-the-top productions absolutely drenched in theme and atmosphere. A gaming style I’ve had a soft spot for since I bought my first big box Games Workshop games back in the late 80s.

Grimcoven continues the tradition of wonderful excess, but there are some interesting things here that break the mould a little and tell us that the company isn’t just resting on its laurels. First, it’s a boss battler in which you play one-off games – no overarching campaign here (though you can add a little bit of character development with the Personal Stories expansion). Next, there’s something about this game system that, as I was playing, made me think of that much-used word ‘elegant’ – and I can assure you that’s not a word I use often when it comes to Awaken Realms. Unlike their usual style of dense, many-step phases that you can never remember without a reference sheet close to hand, Grimcoven actually flows smoothly and cleverly from step to step (and where it does get a bit complicated, nice little standees remind you of the sequence of steps).

I’m very happy to see Awaken step back from the long campaigns which demand a commitment of months (and often seem end up in solo play mode as a result), and move more into one-off games and more manageable campaign structures (see Lands of Evershade). Not all of us want to leave a game set up for months, or wish to devote that much extended gaming time to a single game.

Grimcoven is packed with content – there are 6 unique hunters, and each of the 6 ‘big bad’ Griefbounds have 5 scenarios of increasing difficulty (plus combinations of elite enemies and minions), plus expansions give you 2 more hunters and 2 more Griefbounds. Then, if the hunters get corrupted enough, they unlock ‘Pretenders’ – semi-Griefbounds that you can also hunt. The game plays out on modular hexagonal tiles with various terrain setups, and special cards give the terrain even more personality. The dice allocation system that powers the hunters’ actions is nothing revolutionary, but it works smoothly and efficiently here, without all the dice modifier jiggery-pokery that slowed down ISS Vanguard.

And you want the system to be smooth, because this game does not go easy on you, and you have to fully concentrate on your tactics to beat your Griefbound of choice. The game demands careful cooperation between players for success, so this is one of the most engaging cooperative combat experiences I’ve had. Also, as your hunters collect lament (the power currency of the game), you can customise your suite of abilities and gain more dice as you simultaneously become more corrupted, which gives the game a lot of forward momentum. While the difficulty can be frustrating at times, there’s a great sense of wanting to come back and try again if you lose, and there are enough interesting choices to keep you planning what you’ll try next time.

I’m highly impressed by Grimcoven so far, but I have a few more games to play yet before my full review. In the meantime, download my rules & reference (also available on Tabletop Codex) and check out my full ‘boss pledge’ unboxing video, released tomorrow!

I gave my word. I made a covenant.

Peter unboxes the top pledge of Lands of Evershade, the new hybrid RPG/board game from Awaken Realms!

I’ve been very lucky to be the recipient of the generosity of Awaken Realms lately, who have sent me some amazing stuff to cover on the channel. Recently ten years in the business, the company is going from strength to strength, churning out some really great games with absolutely peak production values.

Case in point – the PRG-meets-board game Lands of Evershade, which not only looks gorgeous, but has been receiving rave reviews. And the design isn’t just about pretty pictures and extravagant bits; they’re some very clever component design here, especially in the character board designs and cases that preserve your character from session to session. Check it all out in this comprehensive unboxing video!

Stayed tuned for more folks – a rules & reference is of course in th works, and they’ll be a video review a bit later down the pipe!

Were we gods we’d breach these walls to the Eastern Ocean.

Peter and Andy get a fully painted Kings of War 4th Edition starter set on the table to try out the new game!

Mantic Games, though still a relatively small wargaming company, has been very busy lately churning out games and miniatures, most notably their Halo: Flashpoint system. But they’ve also found the time to release a new edition of their old rank and flank fantasy battles rules: Kings of War.

I received the new starter set Claws in the Sand at the start of this year and immediately got to painting it up, but it’s taken me a little while to finally get the game to the table. Please enjoy Andy and I putting the starter set through its paces, and having a lot of fun and laughs as we do so!

I’m just a man who’s good at what he does. Killing.

Control Solid Snake with your Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game rules and reference!

Popular game publisher CMON has been having a rough time of it post-tariff-idiocy period, forced to sell of their most profitable IPs and stop new campaigns, but to their credit they really did seem to hunker down and concentrate on getting promised crowdfunded games out to backers while slowly rebuilding the company. I think I’m even getting my Dune: Arrakis expansions soon, finally.

Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game is one of their underrated gems. I played the original computer game way, way back when, but these stealth and action mechanics are so solid, and feel so good, they could have been attached to any similar theme. The bonus for Metal Gear Solid fans is that the scenarios follow the first game’s beats so closely, which supplies a fun nostalgia hit. And like a video game, the scenarios introduce rules and new situations as you go, so you’re not overloaded from the start.

This game is nicely produced, plays smoothly (despite a long-winded and badly organised rulebook), and just works. Stealth mechanics are hard to get right sometimes, especially when you add patrolling guards and security cameras into the mix, but MGS nails it. In between there are some fun boss battling segments that use a deck of custom behaviours to give the antagonists personality. Apparently the crowd-funded version came with a comic book which fleshed out the scenarios, and it is missed here, but you can easily live without the bonus big walker miniature.

In the end, I’d trade one really solid, fun, well-designed game like this for shed-load of useless Zombicide and Marvel-themed plastic crack, but that’s just me. Definitely recommended!

I’ll rest easier when I know they’ve reached shore

Peter checks out the packed new starter set for Dystopian Wars – Dominion of the Dragon!

Warcradle keeps hitting it out of the park with their releases and they’ve followed up the recent complete revamp of the Dystopian Wars rules with a brand new starter set packed with goodies – everything you need for two players to start playing this exceptional game of steampunk naval combat. Let’s check it out!

We should have gone to the beach like I told you

Peter unboxes and talks about the new Reichbusters: Reloaded – and showcases his fully painted set!

Let’s have a good look at the new Reichbusters: Reloaded upgrade set, my painted miniatures from the original set, and explore the million-dollar question – is it better than the original game now?

You’re in it now, up to your neck!

Infiltrate the Third Reich with your Reichbusters: Reloaded rules and reference!

I spent a lot of time and money on the original Reichbusters: Projeck Vril. Painting all those miniatures was a huge job, which is why I was very relieved when Monolith bought the property from the crashing-and-burning Mythic Games and promised a new version with better rules. The original version suffered from a fiddly, clunky ruleset that bogged the game down in the second half and frustrated more than entertained. Could Monolith provide a game worthy of all those characterful miniatures?

Well, it cost me a lot more more money to get it of course, but thankfully they did. I’m very happy to say that Reichbusters: Reloaded is finally a fun game that I look forward to playing. It’s not perfect by any means – after the alarm goes off there’s still a lot of enemy wrangling to do – but it no longer feels like a game of two separate parts, one fun, the other not. Instead of constantly fiddling about with noise rolls, you have a pretty good idea how long you can get away with your team killing bad guys before the alarm goes off and all hell breaks loose; and once it does, controlling them isn’t quite so onerous and you still have a very good chance to fulfil your objectives and get out. I also love the way the objectives have been broken into three levels of difficulty – not only can you decide to go for a more difficult objective on the fly if things are going well, but extra objectives increase replayability by incentivising a return to a scenario armed with the knowledge gained on earlier playthroughs.

Thankfully, all the fiddly little tokens have completely gone, replaced by item cards and clearly laid out character reference sheets. In fact, this version is so well done I find myself looking at the original and wondering “what were they thinking?”. Probably something like “that’ll do, we’ll fix it later with an upgrade pack at huge expense”, which is no doubt one of the reasons Mythic went bust.

But enough of the past, Reichbusters: Reloaded is now the fun, frantic, silly, Nazi-bashin’ and alien-shootin’ game I always wanted it to be, and all those many hours of miniature painting were not in vain. Thanks Monolith!

You’ve taken your chances, made your mistakes… and now, a final triumph!

Put it in a museum with your Archaeology: The New Expedition rules summary!

The once popular theme of Indiana Jones-like archaeologists plundering the world for ‘treasure’ certainly hasn’t aged well, and you can count me as one of the people who believes that in almost all cases, countries are entitled to display items belonging to their own history and heritage rather than have them stolen by colonialist powers and never returned. But I’ll get off my little soapbox now and say that Archaeology: The New Expedition, despite the slightly long-in-the-tooth theme, is a great little set-collection push-your-luck game that I’ve enjoyed as a light diversion for many years now (the original Archaeology: The Card Game from 2007, that is) and it’s great it got a revamp.

The latest version introduces a little bit more variety to the gameplay, with various monument sites you can set up that shake up the actual plundering part of the thematic framework, represented on small, solid tiles. The artwork is vastly improved and in fact the game is better all round, so it’s a no-brainer if you want a fun little card game to take with you on your travels. Most recently my partner and I played a lot of it on a trip to India, though I was frustrated by the fact she constantly seemed to win, despite the fact it’s a very luck-driven game!

By the way, because this is a very small sheet designed to fit in the box, I’ve put the Setup instructions on the flip side, in order to keep most of the game play information on the front. If you’re wondering …

One does not simply walk into Mordor.

Peter and Will are back with their most famous style of battle report – a War of the Ring one! Beer, laughs and banter ensue.

One day, when the Esoteric Order of Gamers finally comes to its natural end and all about it and concerning it is forgotten, one thing may be remembered – the battle report videos documenting games of War of the Ring between myself and my old gaming buddy, Will. It‘s been quite a while since I’ve had the opportunity to film one, but the day has finally arrived! So grab yourself your beverage of choice, get comfortable someplace where you won’t be interrupted by any non-gamer who just might not understand, relax, and enjoy this hugely fun new session of my favourite board game, War of the Ring!

So uh, what’s it like, having such a short life cycle?

Peter and Will play Epic Warpath over some really incredible Gale Force Nine terrain!

My mini-season of battle reports from Will’s recent visit continues, and this time it’s an incredible game on probably the most spectacular tabletop of terrain I’ve ever had the good fortune to play on. That’s mostly thanks to Gale Force Nine, who sent me several boxes of their amazing pre-painted Gothic Sector epic scale terrain. You can see my unboxing of it all in this video.

The game is Epic Warpath by Mantic Games, and I’ve got to say I’m really impressed with this pretty streamlined, easy-to-use, and fun system for epic-scale scifi wargaming. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on some different factions and painting them up too! While panting epic armies can be a bit of a chore, the results, as you can see, are undeniably stunning, and the scale makes for big, beautiful games. So enjoy this session, where we show off Epic Warpath at its absolute best, and have a lot of laughs at the same time!

But it is not this day! This day we fight!

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!

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!

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.

Where are you going, so full of hope? THERE IS NO HOPE!

In this fantastically cinematic tabletop battle report, Peter and Will play the Necromunda: Ash Wastes scenario Cargo Run!

Will is back! It’s been way too long since my old gaming buddy has visited me to play some games, but the day is finally here. Let’s kick off this mini-season of fun battle reports with a spectacular game of Necromunda: Ash Wastes.

Will and I have played quite a bit of Necromunda over the years, going way back to the time of the original edition. It’s a rules system that’s really showing its age, and if you ask me, Games Workshop is really missing a big opportunity to create a brand new edition that streamlines and speeds up the game, but it’s still possible to have a really fun game if you’re willing to play a bit fast and loose – as we do in this battle report!

I’ve been meaning to use my big Cargo-8 Ridgehauler model in a game for some time now, and this is the perfect opportunity. So start your engines, spray your face with silver paint, and let’s get rolling!

Sextus, you ask how to fight an idea. Well I’ll tell you how… with another idea!

Peter showcases the amazing range of epic scale Gothic Sector pre-painted terrain from Gale Force Nine!

I do love a bit of tabletop terrain, and if it’s pre-painted so I don’t have to do any extra work, so much the better! Gale Force Nine just sent me this incredible range of epic-scale terrain from their Gothic Sector range, and I’m blown away. At last, great trees and roads for games like Armoured Clash, Adeptus Titanicus, Epic 40,000, and Legions Imperials, and Epic Warpath. Check it out!

I ran away from a battle. I’ve been running ever since

Peter reviews the Sultanate Faction Battlegroup for Armoured Clash by Warcradle Studios.

The final Armoured Clash faction is here, the Sultanate, and it’s certainly impressive how much Warcradle has released for this excellent epic scale game over such a short period of time.

Remember to download my Armoured Clash rules & reference before playing your own games – it’s in Tabletop Codex too!

Now, there will be some shooting.

Remember the Reach with your Halo: Flashpoint rules & reference!

As mentioned in yesterday’s video, I’ve updated my Halo: Flashpoint rules & reference to encompass the two new expansions, Rise of the Banished and Feet First Into Hell! But if you were quick and immediately downloaded it, check again, because I discovered a keyword was missing and have updated it again to v2.1. Enjoy!