The Queensdale Herald - Fan fiction for Guild Wars 2

Just a little something I have been working on for the game Guild Wars 2.

Christmas Cut-off times and Deadlines for the Festive Season

Hi folks,

Now that we are into October I thought it might be a good idea to post a rough guide to my Christmas cut off times. December is always a busy month for me with painted models, mainly for friends and repeat clients, so these times are estimates and subject to change.

If you really need painted models, especially large orders, and dioramas, its best to email me asap as these categories are always the first to reach cut off times. Single models and small gifts I am usually OK with into December, especially if posting within the UK.

Thanks

 

                                                             UK / USA

Large Orders/Armies (100 models) 1^st Nov / 1^st Nov

Units/Teams (20 models) 1^st Dec / 17^th Nov

Small Collections (5 models) 7th Dec / 23^rd Nov

Single Models 16^th Dec / 30^th Nov

Diorama (10models/scenic pieces) 1^st Dec / 17^th Nov

Diorama, small (5 models/scenic pieces) 1^st Dec / 17^th Nov

Scotlings Football Team!

First look: Scottish inspired dwarf Fantasy Football Team, the 'Iron Bru-sers'

Models: Impact Miniatures, Scotlings

Over at TMP I answered a call for 'painters needed' from a great guy by the name of Shawn Reis. After talking to Shawn it turned out that he is part of a group that helps raise money for the charity 'Toys For Tots' by selling/auctioning painted models. I am always happy to help a good cause, so I volunteered to paint up a selection of models, namely these little beauties, the 'Scotlings'.

These are first look photos, I still need to do a little more work on them.

I decided to keep with the 'Scottish' feel of the models, so the uniforms are mainly blue, with a little white. A little know fact is that Scotland does have a large proportion of gingers, so I decided to give all the team huge ginger beards!

The kilts are green/red tartan.

More to come soon!

For anyone who is interested in helping out, or wants to know how/where they can purchase the models, you can email Shawn directly here - shawnreis@hotmail.com

Thanks

Chris

BGG Competition, Playing the Games: Game #4 'Midnight Mountain'

Boardgamegeek 2012 Solitaire Print and Play Competition

Game #4: 'Midnight Mountain' by Michael Robertson

Hi folks, and welcome to my next play through. For game #3 I chose a game that appealed to me, in this instalment I decided to do the opposite – choose a game that didn’t.

Looking through the list of games I can across 'Midnight Mountain', a game about rock climbing? So with Sly Stallone 'Cliffhanger' playing in the background, I began to print off 'MM'.

First thoughts – Printing and Initial Look

Once I select a game to play, I read through the rules online and check out all the sheets before printing. Its important I state here that I cut a lot of corners with this game, and doubly important to state its not a reflection on the game!

The game has multiple levels of difficulty, each requiring a different deck of cards. What I wanted was to try the game on a medium level, and enough to get a good feel for the game, so I only printed one set of cards. On a design note there are separate print off’s for the backs of the card, I skipped on these as well as I didn’t see that it would matter much.

Aside from that the game is nice and easy to print and cut.


Reading the Rules and Playing the Game

The format of the rules is one of the best I have seen so far in terms of presentation. I found it very easy to read (one of the reasons I decided to cut corners). The only problem I found, was in the number of triggers or stages. There is a lot, almost to much to keep an eye on and remember to move or change. Even passing (climbing) a stage, had two stages and triggers and potential triggers (experience points, freezing dice, bravado), whilst remembering to reduce Energy and knock down the Assent Timer.

Gameplay

The player begins at the foot of a mountain, once you have generated your climbers stats, rolled for weather, drawn a mountain set up and placed cards face down. I cheated a little here and choose the mountain pattern I wanted to play, one I thought would give a good game.

I made my character 'balanced', with all stats roughly equal, as I didn’t know how much each stat would influence the game. As the game progressed I realised that each stat was roughly the same, or felt roughly the same. That is a card would ask you to test X stat. While the narrative was different, the end result was roll a few dice, score points. I felt that the stats could be reworked, down to something like 'Physical' and 'Mental' and still achieve the same result without effecting the game.

Climbing the Mountain was enjoyable. A player can scout the path and find a route that best suits them, but at the cost of a little time. My only gripe here was that the cards essentially have two tests on them, a 'Risk' test and a 'Climb' test, and while there are differing effects and text, it did feel like I was being asked to roll twice to accomplish the same thing.

Summary

An awkward game requiring you to remember to move counters, and timers and triggers, and will have you feeling like you're doing everything twice to achieve one result, but the climbing is fun!

I feel this game tries to incorporate too much. There are several aspects that while look good, detract from the main purpose of the game – to get up that mountain, which once you start is actually very good. I enjoyed scouting the path, deciding my moves, and once you factor in that I only played a brief version of the game with a set up that I chose, opens up the main game to be a lot of fun. A slim-line version would be great to see.

Thanks for reading.

To check out the BGG competition, please follow this link,
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/798184/2012-solitaire-print-and-play-contest

To try 'Midnight Mountain' for yourself, use this link. I would also recommend reading through the entire thread as Michael does a great job of responding to feedback and describing his thoughts behind the game,

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/801590/2012-solitaire-pnp-contest-midnight-mountain-s

And my own entry for the competition can be found here,

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/829534/wip-2013-an-apocalyptic-survival-game-for-the-20

Chris

Painting 6mm Carthage Punic Wars, Citizen Infantry

Models: Baccus 6mm, ACA1 Carthage Citizen Infantry

Every now and then I get an email with a question about 6mm, be it my commission rates for painting this scale or for tips and advice on painting, and when I see that dreaded number I am reminded of my love/hate relationship with 6mm. In particular my unpainted Carthaginian Army sat patiently waiting in my collection to be finished to face off against my glorious Romans...

After painting and basing about 9zillion Romans I couldn’t face any more and the project got sidelined. In this article I return once more to 6mm, and to the Carthaginian Citizen Infantry.

The Undercoat and Armour

Undercoating 6mm can be a little tricky at times. The most important part is patience, especially when picking up areas that didn’t get the paint they needed. A missed area on a 28mm model can easily be sorted with a dab of black, the same technique can destroy the detail of a 6mm model. Any areas that I miss with the initial undercoat I paint with a fine brush.

A liberal dry brush is then used on the armour. Its impossible not miss arms, faces, weapons etc when dry-brushing 6mm, so I tend to use a lighter than normal technique, not as heavy on the paint.

Flesh and detail

When I paint 6mm I find small dabs on paint on the edge of the brush works well with very small line strokes. In many cases, like the models face, a simple dab of paint is enough. For larger areas, an arm, or a spear, paint a very very small line.

Shading and Highlighting

I find it almost impossible to shade on 6mm, but a method I do find that works, is to use colours a few steps more away from each other than you normally would use. For example on a 28mm model if I was painting 'white' I would use a very light grey, almost white, as a base coat. In contrast when painting white on a 6mm I would use a darkish shade of grey.

Hopefully the shields show this technique.

Thanks for reading.
Chris

I found this brief photo of my Romans, thought I would share it. Its an old photo and the Army is well over twice that size now!

BGG Competition, Playing the Games: Game #3 'Crash Landing'

Boardgamegeek 2012 Solitaire Print and Play Competition

Game #3: 'Crash Landing' by Rocco Privetera

For my third play through I decided to choose a game that appealed to me. After reading the list of entries I found the majority appealed to me, so I went with nostalgia. I was lucky enough to grow up in a world that witnessed the birth and rise of video games. One fond memory I have is of being a tiny tot and seeing the arcade game 'Asteroids' for the first time. Such a marvel!

So, game number 3 is a card game that plays on the old school game 'Lunar Lander'.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present 'Crash Landing'

First thoughts – Printing and Initial Look

After firing up the printer and finding some paper, I was a little shocked to learn I didn’t actually need to print anything for this (Print and Play competition?). No problem there then, I was happy enough to save paper.

Reading the Rules and Playing the Game

With only a couple of pages, there isn’t much to read, and what is there is plain and simple to understand. What I liked was the fact the rules are written as part of the steps of the game. There are no duplicate sections to read. The phase for drawing a card for example, explains the draw, the max hand size and all the rules on discarding all in one paragraph and not separate sections.

The only part that I decided to change (for personal ease of play) was the speed of descent. The rules have a nice example of how to track the speed of the space craft by moving a card at different angles. But I had dice handy and found them easier to use.

Gameplay

The game is very straight forward. Descent of the craft increases each turn, the player off sets this by firing boosters (playing cards), with the aim of landing on the planet. Like the video game its based on their isn’t much else to do.

The good news is this works, and works extremely well. The bad news is, its straight forward to the point of a being a little boring. It reminds me of all the money I spend on old video games, thinking 'Wow, blah blah was soooo good when I played it at 14', then after buying the game again I usually think, well.. its never as good as I remember.

Where it falls down is in the ease of thinking a turn or three ahead. A simple count of decent and altitude and you know what is what. Any blast of rockets that buys you enough time to get a full hand of cards and you are sailing home with ease. Yes, its a little tricky to get a perfect landing, but not hard.

Summary

This game fits the feel of the arcade classic almost perfectly, and for that its very well designed. But ultimately its a game based on a dead idea. It will have you loving the idea of playing it, thinking its great when you start to play it, and then releasing why you play Xbox these days and not Atari2600.

Odd quirk or a design masterpiece? I am still unsure!

Thanks for reading.

Like the idea of the competition? Check it out on BGG website here -

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/798184/2012-solitaire-print-and-play-contest/page/1

To try 'Crash Landing' for yourself, you will need a standard deck of cards, and the rules that can be found here -

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/805777/wip-crash-landing-2012-solitaire-traditional-card

And if you still have time after visiting those pages, you can find my entry game for the competition here -

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/829534/wip-2013-an-apocalyptic-survival-game-for-the-20

Chris

28mm Vikings!

It seems my blog is just full of boardgame stuff at the mo, but fear not, I am still painting!
Here is a quick look at some of my latest work, 28mm Vikings. Foundry models I believe.

Next on the workbench, amongst many others, I have some 6mm Carthaginian Infantry. Photos coming soon (hopefully)

Thanks

Chris