Showing posts with label Boardgame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boardgame. Show all posts

Sunday 16 April 2023

Heroquest - A mid life crisis story

A fun day was had by all at the first Dragons Keep Roleplay Club Game Day of 2023.

Having recently picked up a copy of the re-issue Heroquest boardgame I was eager to revisit my childhood and go do some dungeon bashing 90s style

Heroquest - Now and Then

That first scenario is so tough and you essentially get thrown in at the deep end, ultimately facing off against a Gargoyle which is the toughest monster in the core set.  Needless to say we ploughed on and over the course of some very enjoyable hours Conan the Diabetic and his chums managed to get through 3 challenging scenarios.

Can't wait to pick up where we left off.


Saturday 4 June 2022

Boardgame Rescue - My Next Project - Warrior Knights

The next in my Rescue Mission series is going to be one of my two copies (if not both) of Games Workshop Warrior Knights circa 1985.

Warrior Knights is a great medieval wargame designed by Derek Carver who alsodesigned Blood Royale which was similarly released by Games Workshop two years later as part of their Bookcase Games range.

I have played Warrior Knights a handful of times but it always stood out as a great game with lots going on for each player both in their turn and in others as you strive to capture cities across the board, wage war and try to put your pretender on the throne.

To Pimp or Not To Pimp

That is the question.  There is limited scope for pimping the game as it comes with a huge amount of cardboard tiles for all manner of item , however, there are some options including:

Strongholds and Cities - The most notable game piece on the board are the stronghold counters which come in three flavours:

  • Stronghold - x1 - This is your barons home
  • City Control Marker - x14 - Some city walls to surround your
  • Improved Control Marker - x6 -

Noble Markers - As you can see from the photo below these generic shields just look cheap and nasty and mine have even changed colour!!

Warrior Knights - Nobles, Strongholds and Cities
Warrior Knights - Noble pawns, Stronghold and City Control Markers

Money - It makes the world go around and you end up playing with these tiny little tokens throughout the game.  Much better to have some nice plastic tokens that don't blow away if someone coughs.

Warrior Knights - Money
Warrior Knights - Money - Who has time for 1/2 crowns these days!!

Trade ships - There is an exploration element to the game represented by the 4 colonies in the corners of the board.  These work in the same way as the cities on the main board and can be captured and fought over.  Getting there requires a vote in the council and the ship's progress is represented by a small cardboard counter.  This could easily be replaced by a tiny sailing ship.  

Wish me luck

Sunday 29 May 2022

Pimp My Game - Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

Back in the midst of the Corona Curse, I went about restoring one of my favourite Games Workshop boardgames from the 1980s, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb.  

I was never truly satisfied with the result and the ultimate goal was to have a pimped out copy of this vintage classic.

A prayer to the eBay Gods and an incomplete copy of the game was soon in my hands for the princely sum of £20.  Why, you might ask, would I part with good money for an incomplete game?  Well this one had all 5 of the original minis.  

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Minis

These are much sought after "oldhammer" minis from the Night Horrors set and bought individually carry a hefty price tag of between £15 and £20 each.  All 5 minis for the price of 1 is what I call a bargain! If only I could find my originl minis...

The Pyramid of Khonsu    

Both my original and this copy had horribly warped boards and an even worse central column.  I therefore took it upon myself to model and print a new sturdier version on my 3D printer.  I modelled this in Sketchup including all the important game elements such as the start arrows, encounter numbers, pharoahs heads, ankhs and compass, leaving the way too complicated hieroglyphic frescos to someone with better modelling skills than myself.

The Pyramid of Khonsu

The goal here was to balance printability (must fit on my print bed), functionality (must fit together and store in the original box) and playability (must have all the major functions of the original).  The middle and top floor plates all fit on the bed of my printer but the ground floor needed to be cut up into 4 segments and printed in batches.  I've seperated these out as individual models so you can play around

With a bit of trimming on the tabs it goes together easy enough.  

In order to print it on my FDM printer I split the central column into 3 pieces and magnetized each piece (16 Magnets in total) with readily available 5mm neodynium magnets. 

Curse of the Mummys Tomb Pyramid 3D Print - 1
Pyramid of Khonsu - The Floors

Curse of the Mummys Tomb Pyramid 3D Print - 2
The Floors and Columns click together

Curse of the Mummys Tomb Pyramid 3D Print - 3
Floors stacked with the help of magnets

Curse of the Mummys Tomb Pyramid 3D Print - 4
It all fits neatly back inside the original box

If you want to print your own Pyramid of Khonsu you can download the STL files for free from thingiverse

Tana Leaves

The quality of card stock in these 80s GW games would give the team at Fantasy Flight nightmares. It is so shockingly thin (10 thousands of an inch thick), I imagine you could use it to accurately set the tappets on a vintage car or level the bed of your 3D printer.  The tana leaves get a lot of handling during the game and so were another candidate for the 3D printer.  Given their size and relatively low number it was not too much of a chore to design and print 55 of the little blighters. 

Tana Leaf Tokens
Download your own replacement tokens for free from Thingiverse - Tana Leaf Tokens.

Attribute Cones

This new copy came with a few cones missing.  I could have purchased some replacements from eBay, or tried to find some replacements from boardgamemaker.com, but a pretty good alternative is available on thingiverse - Cone Game Piece (Games Workshop style)  They are the ubiquitous game tracker pawn used in many GW games of this era such as Cosmic Encounter which used them to represent the ship tokens.

Attribute Cones - Classic GW Style


The first outing for the game was as a special finale finale to my recent Judge Dredd campaign.  I'll write up the rules for this in a seperate article


Tuesday 8 February 2022

Boardgame Rescued - Battle Over Britain

A recent charity shop find saw me fixing up the box and sorting counters for this vintage 1983 SPI TSR copy of  Battle over Britain. 

Battle Over Britain Board Game

These sorts of counter heavy wargames are not my bag but for some reason I couldn't let it just fade away.


Saturday 29 January 2022

Dungeonquest - It's a Classic!

One of my passions is the Games Workshop Bookcase format games of the 1980s.  I am gradually completing my collection and one of the games I absolutely had to have was Dungeonquest.

Dungeonquest (or should I call it Dragon Keep)

Drakborgen was designed by two Swedes Jakob Bond and Dan Glimme and licensed to a range of board game companies.  Games Workshop picked up the license for the UK and sold it as Dungeonquest.

The game is essentially a race to the center of a randomly generated maze where you grab some of the Dragon's hoard and try to get out before the dragon wakes up.  As you generate your path you will encounter variouos obstacles, dead ends, traps, monsters designed to halt your progress or rob you of valuable turns.  

There is a heavy push your luck element to the game and whilst on your way out of the dungeon you won't have to face any of the monsters you encountered getting to the dragon, your path out may have been blocked requiring you to start finding a new path and encountering new monsters and traps.

Man, is this game stacked against you.  I remember playing it once back in the 80s but I didn't remember how hard it is to win.  It's a lot of fun 

It's a component fest with lots of cards and tiles, 4 character models in really cheap hard styrene and plenty of plastic cones which were the defacto stat tracking counter of the day.  The component quality is classic Games Workshop, thin as you like cardboard that just wouldn't fly in todays boardgame market.

Replayability is high because every game will have a different collection of tiles in your path.  Yes, the choice of monsters is limited, but the ingenious combat mechanism means that the monsters react differently and your combat outcome will vary depending on the cards you and the monster play against each other.  

Dungeonquest (1985) Games Workshop

Art was provided by Gary Chalk (creator of the Lone Wolf books) and it is very much of its era.

Re-releases and Immitators

There have been numerous reissues of this game.  It was rereleased in Sweden as Drakborgen Legenden in 2002 and in the 2010s Fantasy Flight teamed up to reissue a few of the Games Workshop bookcase games they chose Dungeonquest alongside Fury of Dracula and Warrior Knights (probably the three best games of the series).

Drakon is another random tile laying dragon heist boardgame which Fantasy Flight re-released back in 2006 as part of their silverline game range.  A super simple game which turns it from being a race to the center to get to the dragon into a race against the other players and avoid the dragon.  I also own this and for a time it was a go-to filler game if our friday night sessions started late or ended early.  It's a quick game and is so easy to pick up for new players.

RPG Inspiration

The tile laying aspect of this game really floats my boat.  I'm a big fan of the dungeonmorphs concept and have created a bunch of my own tiles over the years and even contributed some art to a kickstarter and the davesmapper project.

It would be childs play to use the tiles to map out a random dungeon for use in any role playing game.  Much quicker than the famous Appendix A - Random Dungeon Generator found in the Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) in my opinion.  I might even have a go myself one day. 

Every year at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club we host a memorial trophy in honour of members who are no longer with us.  One year, I actually went to the trouble of building a 2d cardboard version of the game but with a simplified combat system and character generation which used playing cards.

Tuesday 11 January 2022

Helter Skelter - To Paint or Not to Paint

In an earlier article about Judge Dredd Boardgames, I hinted that I had prayed to the eBay Gods to send me a copy of Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter.  

 Well the Gods answered and now it is in my boardgame collection.

20 Plastic Miniatures in Need of Some Colour

Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter Miniatures

So should I do it? Should I paint these up?  Tell me in the comments box below.

Sunday 9 January 2022

The Great Human vs AI Challenge

Did you know that it is almost 25 years since Skynet became self aware?  I thought I would test whether or not the old girl was still up to snuff.

The Challenge

Play 10 games of Race For The galaxy on my iPad whilst I am walking up in the morning (see I'm already finding reasons why I lose), log all the win scores and then crunch the numbers in excel.

The Ultimate Challenge - Race for the Galaxy (R4TG)
The Ultimate Challenge - Race for the Galaxy

Only completed games are recorded and there is no quitting except in the event of a game crash (it happens surprisingly often).  The AIs are set on Hard and play uses all the expansions available (New Worlds, Gathering Storm, Rebels vs Imperium and Brink of War).
 
It will be interesting to know if any patterns emerge among the AIs and whether or not my win rate improves as I play more games.
 
I have done this challenge before in the first lockdown and despite playing 1000 games I only managed a 25% win rate which is probably the same as the random chance score in an ESP Test.

Race for the Galaxy The RPG?

Unlike other CCGs like Magic the Gathering, R4TG has no  flavour text on the cards despite the huge potential to do so contained within the theme. 

If you are active on Instagram check out @r4tg_2022 which is one person's personal project to add a narrative roleplaying element as he plays the game.

Score So Far

As I write this I am 1 week into the challenge with 70 games completed.  Scores on the doors please George Dawes!
 
Rt4G - The AI vs Human Challenge - Week 1
  • AI 1 - Strongest player Win Rate: 37%, Average Score: 47.5, Average Win Score: 60.5

  • AI 2 - 3rd strongest player: 25.7%, Average Score: 42.3, Average Win Score: 53.9

  • AI 3 - 2nd strongest player - Win Rate:30%, Average Score: 45.7, Average Win Score: 43.4
     
  • Me - Weakest player - Win Rate: 12.9%, Average Score: 38.1, Average Win Score: 62.8  
The average score per game is 43.4 but the average score to win a game is 58.0 which means that AI 2 and AI 3 are winning with much lower than average scores.

Galactic Council Report

What a diabolical start to the challenge. Lets hope that my play improves considerably going forward.
 

Wednesday 5 January 2022

New Years Hobby Resolutions 2022

It's that futile thing we all do around this time of the year.  Some people might say that this only counts if you make your resolutions on January 1st but I say stuff that I had a 3D Printing hangover...

Blog More

I am in lock down until the Prime Minister says otherwise so this gives me ample opportunity to get ahead in the blogging stakes.  My goal is to brain dump at least one article a day and schedule the posts ahead of time.  

The name of the game is short and sweet with lengthier articles in between.  This is harder than it looks though so don't hold me to it.   

Play More

My List of Games I need to play in 2022

  • Block Mania - One of my Games Workshop Bookcase Games and a Judge Dredd one at that.  Do I wait until I have the 4 player expansion Mega Mania? or do I just bite the bullet and try before I buy?

  • Rogue Trooper - Another Games Workshop Bookcase Game which has never been played and really should.

  • Dune - Another bookcase format game this time from Avalon Hill, with the re-imagined version launched to coincide with the Dennis Villeneuve 2021 movie release prices for punched but unplayed copy have plummeted to below the price of a new version so I should really work out if this is something I want to hang on to as I don't have the valuable version with Sting on the cover.

Dune Boardgame

 

  • Jaws - A gift from my old work colleagues which desperately needs to be played.
     
  • Mow - A stupid little card game I picked up in a charity shop last year.  The box goes Moo and it's by Bruno Cathala (Shadows over Camelot, Cleopatra & The Society of Architects, 7 Wonders Duel)

  • Shuggy Hall Brawl - A print and play game from the pages of Warlock Magazine back in the 80s which I am currently making a 3D version of.  This will require some 3D modelling work and I ought to learn how to use FreeCAD.

Print More

There's no point in having a 3D Printer if you don't use it.  Plus Jessie's Prints is always in need of new content so why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone.  Here are some grail prints which I really should try and get done in 2022.

  • Aliens Pulse Rifle (Thingiverse 2334265) - A truly iconic weapon from the Aliens franchise and one that needs to be on my prop wall. Wait a minute I don't have a prop wall.  Well that needs fixing.  I don't think I will go the whole hog of adding lights and sound but you never know...

  • Judge Dredd Killdozer (Thingiverse 3840028) - An absolute must addition to my 15mm Judge Dredd Vehicle Fleet and a great objective or background prop for my RPG Campaigns.

  • ABC Warrior Bust (Thingiverse 2568026) - Stallone Dredd rarely gets any love, but the set dressing and special effects were awesome.  I refuse to call this Hammerstein but it's a pretty iconic robot which would look fantastic on one of my floorstanding speakers.  The eyes must light up of course and it would be a good starting point for an arduino sound / IR remote project.  I promise not to use it in anger and especially not to kill off Ian Dury's character.

  • 15mm Blank People (Thingiverse 1695396) - My 15mm boingers were a great start but they were let down by my pathetic sculpting skills.  What better way to learn mesh mixer than by reposing these blanks and printing them.  I could also do with some fatter fatties if you know what I mean. 

I think that's enough to be going on with right now.  If you have any suggestions of games I ought to play or things I ought to print, you know what the comments box is for.

Saturday 5 June 2021

Vintage Miniature - The Chainsaw Warrior

I've blogged before about my passion for collecting boardgames and in particular my mission to collect all of the bookcase format Games Workshop boardgames released in the 1980s.

Chainsaw Warrior is one of those games.

Chainsaw Warrior (1986)
Chainsaw Warrior (1986)
Chainsaw Warrior (1987) is a solo game where the titular character climbs a New York skyscraper fighting off zombies and other evil minions in a race against time to find and destroy the ultimate evil Chaos.

It's peculiar in that the game is dominated by amazing artwork from 2000AD artbot Brett Ewins yet is not a miniatures game and in fact does not have a single pawn in the game.  

However, that didn't mean that Citadel wasted this opportunity and launched a series of Chainsaw Warrior minis for fans of the game which could be bought as a single blister pack - C100.  Exactly how you used them in game was not proscribed, I guess you could use them as a turn marker. 

They also released a Chainsaw Warrior as part of the Talisman Timescape miniature range to accompany the Talisman expansion of the same name.  A masterstroke in marketing to use a massively popular boardgame to shift a metric ton of lead.

Citadel also made 3 bad guy minis directly culled from the card art used in the game.  These were only available as a very limited release and command insane prices on the secondhand market.

Three Bad Guy / Zombie Cards
Three Bad Guy / Zombie Cards

I've had this one mini kicking around since 1987, I must have the other two but only God knows where they are.  At the time I must have been going through a Blanchitsu phase as he was painted white with black checkerboarding all over him.  

You do stupid things when you are young, innocent and influenced by the 'Eavy Metal pages of White Dwarf.

The Myth The Mini

As I recently rescued my copy of Chainsaw Warrior it seemed only fitting to rescue this one mini.  Sadly time had not been kind and he had lost the blade of his Chainsaw.  

The mini has a weird "braced for action" pose which makes him look all hunched over.  

Cling Film to the Rescue!

I scratch built a new chainsaw out of a plastic cling film (saranwrap) cutter blade and some scraps of styrene plastic I recycled from ancient W3C Web Accessibility Initiative business cards.  I knew I would find a use for them one day.

The Chainsaw Warrior
The Chainsaw Warrior - a vintage Citadel miniature from 1987

I consulted the box art and some original painted examples for a muted military olive drab kind of colour scheme.  The chainsaw of course got the defacto hazard stripes and some oil washes to make it stand out as the most important thing in the room.

The only thing left to do now is actually play the game...



Tuesday 9 March 2021

Another Vintage Boardgame gets the Rescue Treatment

This is my copy of Judge Dredd the boardgame which I have had since I was 10.

Sadly along the way I managed to lose a perp.  Careless of me I know, but in my defence it has been 39 years and two house moves.

Judge Dredd Boardgame
Judge Dredd Boardgame (1982)

The miscreant in question was one Remington Ratner proprietor of Ratner's Rest Home for the Semi-Dead (which may have been a slight dig at the House of Lords) and featured in the story Body Sharks (progs 149-151).  

In game terms he is only semi dangerous (4) and body sharking is a mid level crime (5).  

Body Sharking and Organ Legging

According to the the 2000ADopedia (seriously needs a better name) body sharking is a very common crime and 1 in 4 (25%) of citizens will encounter body sharks in their lifetime.  Nevertheless Body Sharking and Organ Legging are heinous crimes and cary a mandatory life sentence.

Friday 5 March 2021

Rescuing the Oldest Game I Own - Belisha (1937)

A few years back a good friend (and fellow bargain hunter) bought me a Christmas Gift of two copies of an old card game game at an antiques fair in Covent Garden. 

Sadly, one of them was missing two cards and so I rescued it from oblivion.

Belisha - The "Safety First" Card Game

Published way back in 1937 by Castell Brothers Ltd (1878-1983) under the "Pepys" series of games.  Belisha is a reimplementation of popular card game Rummy.  The name "Belisha" was borrowed from the iconic Belisha Beacon introduced to UK roads in 1934 by then Minister of Transport the Rt.Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha.

Belisha - The Safety First Card Game (1937)
Belisha - The Safety First Card Game (1937)

  A Game of Thrill

"All the family can play this new and entertaining game. Young and old alike. will find in it many a new thrill and many a valuable lesson, for 'Belisha' teaches the ever-valuable and all-important doctrine of 'Safety First'. 

Played on the same familiar lines as 'Rummy' with new and ingenious variations. 'Belisha' is a game of many interests. As the game proceeds the players are taken on a tour of England and Scotland from London to Oban: many of the cards bearing beautiful pictures in colour of famous beauty spots.

Belisha Card Game Advertisements
Belisha Card Game Advertisements

Each card bears in the top left-hand corner a familiar safety first symbol; some cards illustrate the dangers of the road; some show how accidents may be avoided. 

There's a touch of humour, a smattering of geography, a new method of teaching 'Safety First' and a heap of fun. 'Belisha' is a game that should be played in every home, for it has the merits of a family or party game with the added attraction of demonstrating again and again the way to ensure road safety for all."

Safety First, the birth of RoSPA and the Tufty Road Safety Club.

Tufty Club Badge
The "Safety First" campaign can trace its heritage back to 1916 and the founding of the London Safety First Council.  A public meeting was held due to an increase in road traffic accidents involving motor vehicles and the reduction in street lighting to aid "blackout" during WWI.  Their first campaign which encouraged people to walk on the pavement on the side of the road facing oncoming traffic reduced pedestrian deaths by 70%.

In 1941 the NSFA patron the Duke of York became King George VI he wished to continue his patronage and RoSPA was born.

I first encountered RoSPA, like many of my generation, when having to perform my bicycle safety exam as a child in the 1970s.   

The Tufty Road Safety Club had been around since the early 50s and I distinctly remember having to negotiate a mock road course which had been det up in my school playground.  Getting your Tufty Club badge was a seminal achievement back in my day.  

Tufty and his woodland friends have been iconic champions of children's road safety education for decades and featured on many educational board games over the years.

Tufty Road Safety Boardgame (1970s)
Tufty Road Safety Boardgame (1970s)

A masterpiece of marketing before the advent of  Baby Shark, "do doo, dee doo, dee doo" he was rocking the hit parade with an album of nursery rhymes related to road safety. 

Fun times.

Bicycle Road Safety Training
Bicycle Road Safety Training and Belisha Beacons

Tuesday 23 February 2021

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb - Vintage Fun from 1988

Recently I blogged about rescuing my copy of the vintage Games Workshop boardgame Curse of the Mummy's Tomb.  This weekend I actually got to play it for the first time in about 30 years. 

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Curse of the Mummys Tomb

Vintage Games Play Very Differently

Back in 1988 boardgames were very different.  Wolfgang Kramer had only just invented the Kramer Track implemented for the first time in Heimlich & Co. (1984) and no-one had heard of the term Euro game.

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb is essentially an exploration game set in a 3 tiered cardboard pyramid.  You move your token by playing movement cards on yourself but your fellow players can play movement cards on you to send you off your chosen path.

If you land on an encounter space, numbered 1, 2 or 3, they can also play encounter cards on you up to the value on your space.  These can be either a hazard, a creature or a discovery and you can have only 1 of each.  This means as a player you must search out the encounter 3 spaces in order to guarantee that you can lay a discovery on yourself.  Of course the more players the more chance that they will play hazards and creatures on you.

Heavy Player vs Player

I was quite surprised at how heavy the PvP action was.  In fact in order for you to get the right movement cards for yourself you have to get rid of as many hazard and creature cards in your hand as possible because you can only hold 5 cards at a time.  

The Mummy Is Not That Much of a Threat

Players bid to control the mummy each round by bidding with their Tana leaf tokens.  This auction style movement runs out of steam unless players are regularly pausing to burn their cards and acquire new tana leaf tokens.

If I were to play again I would definitely up the ante and instigate two house rules.

  1. The Mummy moves every turn not just every round.
  2. Either the player to the right of the active player moves the mummy or the mummy moves randomly using a d10.  (1 North, 2, North East, 3 East etc.. 9 Go Up, 10 Go Down)

The End Game

Once you find a Key of Osiris you can attempt the end game and ascend the pyramid to find the Chamber of Osiris and try to find the elixir of immortality by testing 3 of your attributes.

This is a bit of a lacklustre endgame to be honest as I hate a dice off.

Player Reaction

My boardgame pals didn't hate it completely.  Once they had gotten to grips with the forced PvP nature of the whole thing and the crippling nature of some of the hazards the pace of the game picked up.


Tuesday 16 February 2021

Boardgames Should I Punch It or Punt It?

Having a bit of a tidy up at Roleplay Geek Publishing HQ and I dug out these two unplayed boardgames.

The big question is should I punch it out and play it or punt it out on eBay? 

Civilization (Gibson Games)

The original boardgame that didn't launch a million computer games or make Sid Meir a household name.  This is infact the earlier boardgame version by Francis Tresham and is complete, unpunched and minty fresh.  

Clearly an unwanted Christmas gift from circa 1988.  The giftee must have opened the box looked at all the tiny pieces of cardboard and smiled back saying "thanks I can't wait until they bring out a version of this on my MS DOS PC."

eBay-ability: £5 to £20

Civilization (Gibsons Games) circa 1988
Civilization (Gibsons Games) circa 1988

Soldier Raj (Avalanche Press)

One for the real Grognards.  Soldier Raj is a traditional counter wargame simulation of the British Raj period between 1767-1848.  I'm not one to cast aspersions about the people who like to play these sorts of heavy wargames.  

My introduction to gaming was through my father who was a dedicated wargamer back in the 80s.  He gravitated from Napoleonics to Ancients, dabbled in a bit of micro-armour gaming and even converted the Pony Wars game to the Condominium of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 1899 - 1956.

Sadly, playing this sort of game comes lower on my bucket list than poking my eyes out with red hot pokers.  Never mind "The Struggle for India" I'm struggling to stay awake and I've only just opened the box.

eBay-ability: Unknown

Soldier Raj The Struggle for India 1767-1848

Friday 12 February 2021

3 Boardgames with a BIGGER Brother

Sometimes a boardgame mechanic or theme is way too good to let it languish in just one game.  Here are just a few boardgames which have spawned big brothers or little brothers.

Ticket to Ride / Ticket To Ride The Card Game

Alan R Moon's classic train set collection game was released in 2004.  It is often seen as a gateway game and an introduction into the world of modern "Euro" boardgames.  

It's little brother was born 4 years later in 2008 and is a pretty neat little 4 player travel version of the original.  It does away with the board and all the little carriage meeples replacing it with the "railyard" and "on the track stack" to represent the cards you have at your disposal and those used to fulfill your route tickets.  

It's a different and faster way of playing Ticket to Ride and makes a nice change.

Ticket to Ride / Ticket to Ride The Card Game
Ticket to Ride & Ticket To Ride The Card Game

Citadels / Mission Red Planet

Bruno Faiduti really knocked it out of the park when he came up with the action drafting / variable powers mechanism for the game Citadels.  He's used it in a bunch of games since including Mission Red Planet which replaces the city building concept with area control.

These play like two very different games and there's a lot more going on in Mission Red Planet and more opportunities for Player vs Player shenanigans.  The additional secret missions aspect can lead to some surprising end games with noone really sure who's won until the final scores are tallied.

Citadels / Mission Red Planet
Citadels & Mission Red Planet

San Juan / Race for The Galaxy

Whilst some will say "Hey wait a minute! San Juan and Puerto Rico are brothers!!" and indeed that is a fair point as they are both by Andreas Seyfarth.  I think the similarities in mechanism are much greater between San Juan and Tom Lehman's Race For The Galaxy.  In fact I usually introduce people to Race for the Galaxy by first playing San Juan.

There are so many similarities; the turn order role order mechanism, the action drafting and the concept of playing cards into a tableau and paying for it with cards in your hand make these spiritual siblings.  Race for the Galaxy is one of those rare games where the expansions really take a game to the next level and don't break it.  The inclusion of missions and prestige in the 3 main expansions; The Gathering Storm, Brink of War and Rebel vs Imperium, add so many new combos and ways to win that I now only play the game with those expansions. 

IMHO Race for the Galaxy is the greatest card game ever invented as it has so much replayablility and there are so many different ways to win and strategies to adopt.  It has consistently been high on both BoardGameGeek and The Dice Tower All Time Rankings and having won numerous awards including the Golden Geek and JoTa Best Card Game in 200.  

Infact I've played over 2,000 games of the Race for the Galaxy iPad version and I'm still coming back for more.  The game is also available on Android Play Store, Steam and on BoargameArena.

San Juan / Race for the Galaxy
San Juan / Race for the Galaxy

Thursday 4 February 2021

Zombies!!! - The most fun you can have in a 6" x 9" box

Today we celebrate George A Romero's Birthday with a bit of zombie posting.

My favourite zombie boardgame is Zombies!!!

Zombies!!! (yes the exclamations are part of the title) by Twilight Creations is a very big game for such a tiny box and a tiny price.

Get to the Chopper

The player's objective is to "explore" the town by randomly drawing a then placing a town tile as part of their turn then defeating any zombies which they come into contact with.  When they find the helipad tile they can try to reach it and win the game.

Zombies!!! Boardgame
Zombies!!! Boardgame Town Tiles


The stand out component for me are the town tiles which make up the board.  I think it is the frustrated town planner in me.  These geomorphs depict almost every type of building you are likely to encounter in a small town USA and I confess I have used them in many RPGs to quickly generate a town for my players.

As the board is generated the number of zombies increases with each new tile placed generating more and more for you to deal with.

Players also get to use the good and bad event cards throughout which introduces a Player vs Player element to the game.  These cards can really mess with your day or be the key to success and really ramp up the tension.

Fast Frenetic Fun

Gameplay is fast and simple.  Each player turn consists of the same steps:

  • Draw and place a tile
  • Fight zombies on your space
  • Draw event cards
  • Move an fight zombies
  • Roll and Move the zombies 
  • Discard event cards

If you die at any time you respawn back at the town square so nobody gets ejected from the game because they became zombie lunch.

Expansions Galore

Just like movie franchises, the sign of a popular game is often the number expansions it has.  Zombies is no exception and with 15 editions there is a lot to choose from.  If you want to recreate Dawn of The Dead, then there's Zombies!!! 3 - Mall Walkers.  If you want to explore the sewers then you need  Zombies!!! 6 - Six feet under.  If clowns are your thing then Zombies!!! 7 has you covered.

Zombies!!! 3 - Mall Wakers Zombies!!! 6 - Six Feet Under Zombies!!! 7 - Send in the Clowns

The Board Game Geek community has also created several house rule expansions to add flavour,  My own particular favourite is the addition of weapon cards which greatly enhance the game with ranged attacks.

Give it a go, you won't be dissapointed... you'll be dead!!! 

Monday 25 January 2021

Cthulhu Ate My Minis! - Rescuing A Vintage Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

My Games Workshop Bookcase Boardgame collection has a couple of survivors who are hanging on for grim death.

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Box Art
Box Art
One such game is Curse of the Mummys Tomb which has long since lost its metal minis and I need to replace these.  Being a tightwad I'm not going to spring for a mint copy or the £35 for a full set of 5 minis.

To the scanner dear boy...

I have the character cards which have fantastic Gary Chalk illustrations of the four protagonists which can easily be turned into papercraft miniatures.  I wrote a papercraft minis how how to many moons ago and this sort of boardgame first aid is trivial if you have a scanner and printer.   

This also gives me the opportunity to print out the additional characters from the expansion "In Search of Eternity" which featured in issue 102 of White Dwarf. 

 According to the Lost Minis Wiki all 8 character minis were repurposed from the Gothic Horror range and the Mummy from the Night Horrors.  In fact this is probably what happened to my minis... Cthulhu ate them.

Scan, GIMP, Inkscape, Print, Play

Paper mini layout in Inkscape
Replacement Character Minis
I scanned in all the player cards and in GIMP cut out each of the character images.  I increased the white point using adjust levels  to make them pop before saving them into individual files.

Moving to Inkscape I created a basic standee template 1 inch wide x 1.5 inches tall with a half round base.  Each character was then pasted in and flipped copy pasted in.  Remember to put these head to head otherwise your standees will be upside down.

Export them out as a PDF and print them out.  I only have a cheap inket and even cheaper paper so mine came out a bit blurry.  These were then stuck to cereal box card with PVA glue and once dried cut out.  There's a significant difference in thickness of cereal box cardboard.  Name brand varieties tend to be quite thick which can be a disadvantage if you are using plastic stands.

The player cards for the expansion were also printed out and backed onto cereal box card along with some missing value 1 Tanna Leaf counters.

Another Game Saved from the Scrapheap 

As can be seen from the photo the quality of the minis is very dependent on your printer and paper.

Curse of the Mummys Tomb Paper Minis
Replacement paper minis for base game and expansion
 

However, for me this is perfectly acceptable for the time being as I am desperate to play a solo game during COVID lockdown 3.0. 

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Curse of the Mummy's Tomb: rescued and ready to be played


Wednesday 16 December 2020

3 Things You Need When Collecting Vintage Board Games

Sometimes a bargain vintage boardgame comes incomplete.  Sometimes you can only afford to buy the incomplete ones.  

Don't fret, you can probably fix that game up and replace those missing components with some hand made ones.


  The three tools I have found indispensible for this are:

  1.  A Printer Scanner Copier - even a cheap and cheerful budget version will produce more than acceptable results.

  2. GIMP - the free image editor takes a bit of getting used to but is essential for manipulating your scanned card fronts and backs into printable files.

  3. A Laminator - inkjet printed cards soon disintegrate so running them through a laminator will make them a bit more substantial and resistant to cheeto fingers.

 


Tuesday 26 May 2020

Perhaps I do have a problem

...and it's called Dead Games

After joining the Fans of Dead Games Society on facebook I have realised that there are gaping holes in my collections of Games Workshop bookcase format board games.

Some of the best games from my childhood are contained in these small boxes of fun which fit neatly onto your standard bookcase (unlike todays monstrosities).  It was a popular form factor for many games publishers back in the 80s and popularized by the likes of Avalon Hill and the mark of a serious game.

These were heavily advertised in the pages of White Dwarf, The Space Gamer and Imagine magazine

It was natural for Games Workshop to follow suit and begin publishing their own bookcase format games.

Games Workshop Bookcase Games

Apocalypse the Game of Nuclear Devastation
Apocalypse
Buy it on eBay
Apocalypse: The Game of Nuclear Devastation (1980)

This is a cut down 4 player version of Mike Hayes Classic Warlord which focuses on the Western Europe part of the map.  It has a strong 6.8 score on BoardGameGeek and a bit of a cult following.

I've never played or owned this game but always lusted after it, purely on the basis that the cover illustrations is from 70s Space Artist Jim Burns.

If you like this artwork I strongly recommend that you buy his art book Lightship, you will not be disappointed.

Availability is limited but you will still find copies at reasonable prices if you search for Apocalypse on eBay.  


Battlecars (1983)

Games Workshop Battlecars
Battlecars
Buy it on eBay
Following in the footsteps of the very popular Steve Jackson Games Car Wars, Battlecars is a very simplistic vehicular combat boardgame with an innovative diamond grid board rather than the more typical square grid.  The games scale (10mm?) is compatible with Car Wars being and Citadel Miniatures even produced a range of metal vehicle minis as accessories and more pictures of the C42 Battlecars minis range can be found at The Stuff of Legends.

I played a lot of Battlecars and really enjoyed the fast gameplay.  I even scaled the game up to 1/64th hotwheels scale for participation play at a SELWG Open Day one year.  We had a lot of fun with this game and if you're like me and a fan of post apocalyptic auto duelling it's one that you should consider including in your games collection.

Citadel C42 Battlecars miniatures
Citadel C42 Battlecars - Buy them on eBay

Battlebikes (1984)

Games Workshop Battlebikes
Battlebikes
Buy it on eBay
A year after the success of Battlecars, GW released an expansion to include rules for motorcycles and lots more pedestrians and scenery counters.  This is not a standalone game and you will need a copy of Battlecars to play it.

Citadel expanded their battlecars C42 range to include motorcycles to accompany the game but it was not long after this release that the game was ultimately shelved.  The highlight of this range has to be the Sinclair C5 battletrike. 

Games Workshop returned to the post apocalyptic auto duelling genre 4 years later with the much more accessible 1/64th scale Dark Future game which I covered in my A-Z of UK RPGs in the 80s: L is for Large Box Games post.


Block Mania (1987) - OWNED

Games Workshop Block Mania
Block Mania
Buy it on eBay

A product of the licensing deal with 2000AD publisher IPC Magazines.  Games Workshop released a slew of 2000AD related products also featured in this list.

A 2 player game in which the residents of Sammy Fox and Buddy Holly blocks have gone to war with each other and are determined to destroy as much of each others blocks as possible using whatever items they can lay their hands on.  A very vibrant looking game and one which features the work of seminal Judge Dredd illustrator Brett Ewins.

Block Mania and it's expansion, Mega Mania, are games which slipped under the wire for me despite them being Judge Dredd related.  Needess to say they are on the wanted list and still pretty affordable if you search for Block Mania Boardgame on eBay.

UPDATE: This was re-released by Rebellion Unplugged in 2021 along with the Mega-Mania expansion.

Blood Bowl (1986)

Games Workshop Blood Bowl
Blood Bowl
Buy it on eBay
This game of Fantasy Football by Jervis Johnson has been a mainstay of the GW IP for many years and has spawned numerous editions, computer games and spin-offs like my favourite Blood Bowl Team Manager.

The first edition was released in the bookcase format and there are some significant rule differences which make it a less fatal version of the game.  Consequently, the board is a 4 piece jigsaw puzzle affair (something GW experimented with on a number of games at the time) and the miniatures are cardstock standees with plastic bases which kept the production costs low.

I own the 2nd Edition Large Box version with the Expanded Poly-Styrene foam field.  I consider this to be the definitive edition which came fully supported with a huge range of extra star player and add-on team boxed sets from Citadel Miniatures.  However, it all started here with this Bookcase version.

If I ever get this version it will be a curiosity filled spur of the moment purchase.  There are plenty of copies available if you search for Vintage Blood Bowl on eBay, but be prepared to wade through hundreds of listings for later versions.

Blood Royale (1987)

Games Workshop Blood Royale
Blood Royale
Buy it on eBay
I've always thought of this as a cut down version of Warrior Knights but it is infact a completely different 3 to 5 player game of European political conquest in the Middle Ages.

A gorgeous looking board stretches from England in the North to Spain and Portugal in the South and as far East as Germany and Italy.  Unlike Warrior Knights, where forming banner armies, laying siege and raising cities to the ground, is the core of the game, Blood Royale focuses on the political machinations of the individual family members and the quest for wealth.  

BoardGameGeek recommends that this is best played with 5 players so I imagine it takes some time to complete a game.

Prices remain a bit on the high side when you search for Blood Royale on eBay.  But with the right wind and a lack of interest from other snipers I just might be able to get a bargain.  Fingers crossed. 

Calamity: The International High-Risk Insurance Game (1983) - OWNED

Games Workshop Calamity
Calamity
Buy it on eBay if you must
This was early days for Games Workshop and they would still release these odd "traditional" boardgames.  GW originally started out making chess boards and one of their first boardgame releases was the wine trading game Grapevine (1980) in partnership with Colman's of Norwich, a well established winetrader.

Calamity is another such game and proudly advertises the name of its designer musical empresario Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Yes Games Workshop made a game designed by the man behind some of the most popular musicals of the 80s like Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express, Chess and Cats.  Who woulda thunk it.

This is a fairly dry affair compared to their other games and modern satirical games like Crunch or the glorious The War on Terror boardgame by Terrorbull Games (if you haven't played them you should).  I own a copy but purely out of curiosity.  It has hit the table once in only 10 years and to be honest is only here for those who want to complete their bookcase games collection.

Chainsaw Warrior (1987) - OWNED

Games Workshop Chainsaw Warrior
Chainsaw Warrior
Buy it on eBay


A weird one this.  Chainsaw Warrior is a rare, exclusively solo game with a 1 hour fixed time limit.

It sounds a bit like a boardgame version of The Raid before that movie was even a glint in the milkman's eye.  You take on the role of a Special Forces veteran who has to come out of retirement to face the ultimate evil known as The Darkness (not the noughties rock band)  who has taken over Manhattan.  GW published a set of extra cards in White Dwarf #88 and the Chainsaw Warrior proved popular enough to be integrated into the Talisman game with a range of miniatures from Citadel.

Artwork by the sorely missed master illustrator of big combat boots, Brett Ewins, this game just screams 80s action movie horror and reminds me so much of the comic strip Bad Company which he drew in the 80s.  This could be the perfect game for me, especially if Coronavirus Lockdown continues for another month.

Fortunately prices are reasonable when you search for Chainsaw Warrior on eBay so there is every chance that this could be gracing my bookcase in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: I managed to pick up an incomplete copy (missing just a handful of cards) which I intend to complete.  If anyone reading this has the stats for the blaster, please comment below.

Chaos Marauders (1997)


Games Workshop Chaos Marauders
Chaos Marauders
Buy it on eBay
I must confess that this is a bookcase game which has never really taken my fancy which is strange because I field an orc army in Warhammer.  I have always loved the unpredictability of Orcs and my favourite unit are the ball and chain chucking goblin fanatics who are frankly more of a danger to their friends than their foes.

Designed by Stephen Hand of Fury of Dracula fame, Chaos Marauders got a small form factor reprint from Fantasy Flight Games as part of their budget silverline range.

It is a reasonably available and affordable game if you search for Chaos Marauders on eBay.  I suppose I will bite the bullet and get a copy some day...

Cosmic Encounter (1986) - OWNED

Games Workshop Cosmic Encounter
Cosmic Encounters
Buy it on eBay
Another licensed version of a West End Games classic although Cosmic Encounters has passed through many hands over the years and is the basis for Avalon Hill's Dune boardgame.

This is a fairly abstract and esoteric Player v Player game of stellar conflict in which each player tries to eliminate the others using their combat cards and their special power.  The beauty of this game lies in the variety of powers available and something which has been expanded upon over the years with each edition.  Games Workshop used the pages of White Dwarf #78 to publish their own expansions whilst they owned the license. Ibelieve cover art is early John Blanche.

I own this and whilst I enjoy it, there is never any love for it among my group so it never makes it to the table.  It's still a solid game and this bookcase version is considered to be one of the classics.  They are readily available if you search for Games Workshop Cosmic Encounter on eBay.  

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1988) - OWNED


Games Workshop Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Buy it on eBay

This is the game that started my own personal journey down the rabbit hole of bookcase game collecting.

A 1 to 4 player game where you take on the role of explorers investigating the interior of the pyramid of  Khonsu, trying to find the ultimate treasure, the mythical Elixir of Life.  The thing that really makes this game stand out is the 3 tiered pyramid which adds a third dimension to the gameplay like some sort of Games Workshop vesion of Vulcan Chess (Kal-Toh).  Sadly the rather flimsy construction and the lack of distance between levels causes more aggravation than I am comfortable with.  Perhaps I will design a 3D printed, upgraded and sturdier pyramid.

The game came with 5 28mm metal pawns (a feature of GW games of this era) representing the four player characters Marlow Hammet, Rev Luther Kirkegard, Professor Nayland Cushing, Lt-Gen The Earl of Carmarthen and the titular Mummy.  Sadly mine have become Player Characters and gone missing somewhere.  I will track them down because I have an urge to play this game especially as the game has a rare solo play option thanks to the drawn movement mechanic.

Secondhand versions are readily available but good, unmolested and complete versions command reasonable prices because a lot of people have fond memories of this game.  You can find rare bargains if you search for Curse of the Mummy's Tomb on eBay.

UPDATE: I Pimped my copy with a 3D Printed Pyramid of Konshu and new minis.

Doctor Who (1980)

Games Workshop Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Buy it on eBay
I can't believe that I don't own this game, especially as #MyDoctor (Tom Baker) graces the cover.

However, a quick unboxing reveals a particularly uninspiring timey-wimey looking experience.  The game gets a dissapointingly average 5.4 on BoardGameGeek and it's rather unfortunate that for such a great franchise it seems to get terrible boardgames.

What this game could do with is a customisation with 20mm pawns to replace the cardstock counters.  That would look awesome but probably push the cost of owning this game several orders of magnitude into the stratosphere.

Availability is good and prices reasonable when you search for Games Workshop Doctor Who on eBay. The completist in me is interested but the Doctor Who fan less so.

DungeonQuest (1987) - OWNED

Games Workshop Dungeonquest
Dungeonquest
Buy it on eBay
I played this once a long time ago and the person who owned it didn't know the rules so we played it all wrong.  But I loved it.

Basically a GW licensed version of the game Drakborgen (Dragon's Keep) it has the four players starting at different corners of the board revealling tiles as they go and trying to uncover a route which leads to the center of the board and their goal, the Dragon's hoard.  To win the game you have to get out alive.

I love a good push your luck dungeon crawl.  I am a fan of modern equivalents such as Cave Troll, Drakkon and Dungeon Roll (despite it's irritating box shape) so this is right up my alley.

When you search for Dungeonquest on eBay you can see some quite eyewatering prices.  I guess this is a testament to how good the game is, I don't know but I will bide my time and if I can grab a bargain, I guess I will find out...

Fury of Dracula (1987) - OWNED

Games Workshop The Fury of Dracula
The Fury of Dracula
Buy it on eBay
An amazing hidden movement game where you play one of 4 period correct heroes trying to track down and vanquish the evil Dracula.   You travel around a wonderful map of Europe visiting towns and searching for clues to Dracula's location and fighting the minions he has left there.  But be careful when you finally track him down and fight him as he is more powerful in the night and will probably kill you.

As with many of the bookcase games of this period it came with a set of 5 metal character miniatures.  Strangely for GW/Citadel, these are not 28mm but 20mm sculpts and not really useable in RPGs.  This is probably the reason I still have mine in the box.  

This game has spawned a number of re-release versionsand is always a mark of quality and a large fanbase.  If you are going to collect Bookcase games, this is a great starting place.  The game was very popular and original editions are easily found when you search for Fury of Dracula on eBay

Judge Dredd the Boardgame (1982) - OWNED

Games Workshop Judge Dredd Boardgame
Judge Dredd the Boardgame
Buy it on eBay

This is a peculiar first use of the Judge Dredd license.  A simple game where upto 6 players play Judges patrolling Mega City One trying to arrest random perps committing random crimes who pop up in random locations.  Each perp has a Combat Factor which is added to the crimes seriousness to give you a number which you have to beat on a roll of 1d6 plus your Judges Combat Factor.  Any player can use Action Cards to increase or decrease either sides Combat Factor and their chance of making the arrest.  The player with the highest scoring perp count wins.

The triple random draw function leads to some bizarre and impossible combinations such as Judge Death (10) caught Littering (1) having the same basic Combat Factor as Filmore Fargo (7) caught Blackmailing (4).  As an introduction to the often bizarre world of Judge Dredd it is a strange but fun game and the Player v Player element can get a bit heated.  To top it all off it has a cover by the greatest Dredd cover artist ever, Brian Bolland.  This game is serious zarjazz fun, it must be, as Tharg the Mighty himself is credited as a playtester.

There's a lot of love for this on the collector market but you can still grab a bargain if you search for Judge Dredd boardgame on eBay

UPDATE: Rebellion Unplugged re-released this classic in 2022

Kings and Things* (1986) - OWNED

Games Workshop Kings and Things*
Kings and Things*
Buy it on eBay
A West End Games licensed edition of the Tom Wham classic 2 to 4 player area conquest game.  Each player must explore the shattered Kingdom of Kadab (randomly generated from a stock of 48 hexagonal terrain tiles) and conquer, construct and recruit whatever they find in a bid to become the most powerful (and benevolent) King.

For some strange reason, this was one of the games I lusted after when scouring the pages of White Dwarf but I never had the funds to acuire it at the time.  I own a copy of Tom Wham's The Great Khan Game released by TSR under their Forgotten Realms setting banner.  It's a blast and I hope that Kings and Things lives up to the hype. 

Thanks to a search for Games Workshop Kings and Things eBay, I finally own a copy at a reasonable price.  Just got to get through the Coronavirus Lockdown and get it on the table

Mega Mania (1987) - OWNED

Games Workshop Mega Mania
Mega Mania
Buy it on eBay

Not a standalone game, rather a 3 & 4 player expansion for Block Mania which adds two new blocks; Sly Stalone and Millhouse Nixon and all the necessary extra counters. I find it rather prophetic that a game released in 1987 would use Sylvester Stalone's name who would later play Joseph Dredd in the movie Judge Dredd (1995).

GW also published an expansion in White Dwarf #94 called Happy hour. 

The movie took a lot of flack back in the day for the cheesy portrayal of Dredd but, as I have said on many occasions, what the film gets right is its portrayal of Mega City One.

One of the best scenes is that of the residents of Heavenly Havens and the neighbouring block, Elysian Heights?, engaging in a full scale Block War.  It really sets the scene of a city on the edge of social collapse, the normal state of affairs in Mega City One. 

This is harder to acquire than the base game Block Mania but can still be found at reasonable prices if you search for Games Workshop Mega Mania on eBay.

UPDATE: Mega Mania was re-released by Rebellion along with the base game in 2021.

Quirks the game of un-natural selection (1980) - OWNED


Games Workshop Quirks
Quirks
Buy it on eBay

This is another bizarre early boardgame for which Games Workshop was the UK license holder and publisher.

Designed by Peter Olotka (among others) who is most famous for Cosmic Encounter, Dune and the enticingly entitled Isaac Asimov's Robots VCR Mystery Game.

Quirks is an evolution game where you must create 3 creatures by putting 3 cards together, in a sort of Darwinian Identikit, in order to become the dominate species for the current environment.  Each successive turn the environments evolve from Ocean thru Forest, Plains, Desert to Jungle.  If your creatures don't evolve they risk becoming extinct.  Lose 3 creatures and you lose the game.

This is an incredibly rare game and rarely comes up when you search for Quirks on eBay.  However, despite this rareity, it does not command particularly high prices.  I'm very much intrigued by this game and so I am on the hunt myself...

UPDATE: I managed to snag a mint never played copy from ebay for a very reasonable price.  The rules are decidedly 80s and did not go down well with my friends when we tried to play it.  I'm convinced that there is a game in there somewhere so will have to try to decipher the rules or come up with something better myself which uses just the metric ton of cards.

Rogue Trooper (1987) - OWNED

Games Workshop Rogue Trooper
Rogue Trooper
Buy it on eBay
I was fortunate to pick up a pretty mint copy of this 2000AD licensed game at the Dragonmeet 2019 bring-and-buy for the princely sum of £15.  Conventions are a great source of bargain vintage games as the seller is usually on a mission to clear shelf space and desperate to not take the game home unsold.  I'm not really a fan of Rogue Trooper but the double pleasure from adding both a 2000AD related and a boolcase game to my collection was a "Double Whammy" I could not resist.

The board is another jigsaw puzzle hex map affair but this time it's a whopping 6 boards worth and features many of the iconic locations from the comic alongside helpful game reminders.  There are plenty of components including pawns, impressive sculpts of the eponymous Genetic Infantryman, for each of the six players.   

Whilst GW had the license Citadel pumped out a range of Rogue Trooper miniatures but they weren't intended as upgrades to this game even though they were advertised in the rulebook.

Unfortunately I have no experience with this game so can't tell you how it plays or wether or not it is fun.  I have to get it to the table with the right set of 2000AD loving friends.

Availability is high and prices very reasonable when you search for Rogue Trooper on eBay.      

Super Power: The Game of Global Exploitation (1986) - OWNED

Games Workshop Super Power
Super Power
Buy it on eBay

This game looks like it should have been released 3  or 4 years earlier than it was and features an esoteric flower shaped layout of the disputed territories of Africa, Asia, Latin America and The Middle East.  These are the "Third World" regions in which Russia and the USA historically played out their detente foreign policies during the cold war.

I'm not much of a historical boardgamer to be honest and this has alway been one of those games that has left me feeling pretty meh.  There are a couple of history buffs in my regular Friday night games group so it could be an interesting experiment to get it out on the table to see how it plays.  I guess if I were to see a real bargain I might just pick it up out of curiosity.

Availability is high and it goes for a song when you search for Super Power on eBay.

UPDATE: Another game which now thanks to ebay is now in my collection. 

Talisman: The Magical Quest Game (1983)

Games Workshop Talisman
Talisman
Buy it on eBay
There is a lot of love for this game but in my experience and opinion it's misplaced thanks to the poor game play.  Essentially a role-and-move game where you land on various spaces on your journey to the centre of the board where you chance your arm at acquiring the crown of power and must complete encounters gaining magical items or defeating monsters along the way.  It's a fantasy version of monopoly meets snakes and ladders as there are plenty of ways you can be kicked back into an outer ring by an unlucky dice roll.

It has had numerous reissues and expansions over the years but I just don't understand why this game is so popular.  

Prices for the more plentiful 2nd Edition are much better than the 1st when you search for Talisman on eBay.  It's not something that really interests even the comlpletist in me so I will only pick this up if I find a real bargain.

Valley of the Four Winds (1980)

Games Workshop Valley of the Four Winds
Valley of the Four Winds
Buy it on eBay
The cover of this game just screams buy me. I remember it being heavily plugged in adverts on the pages of early White Dwarf.  Created by Lewis Pulsipher, the well respected designer of the highly rated Britannia and the founder of Pulsipher Games, this is an epic old school wargame.

I'm not a square counter pushing Grognard so I'm not sure if this is the kind of game I would enjoy.  The components look excellent (for the period) but it has an average score on BoardGameGeek.

Availability is good when you search for Valley of the Four Winds on eBay,  but with prices between £30 and £50 it's too rich for my blood.  This is probably a mistake on my part and I will have to pay much more in 10 years time.  LOL.   

Warlock: The Game of Duelling Wizards (1980)

Games Workshop Warlock
Warlock
Buy it on eBay
Another early game from GW this magical take that card game is one I've always been aware of but never pulled the trigger on.

Something about this game suggests that the mechanics will be pretty old school and uninspiring particularly when this sub-genre is full of much better and more exciting modern games like Steve Jacksons Munchkin.  Yes I said it, Munchkin.  Every gamer household should have at least one copy of Munchkin.

There are copies out there when you search for Warlock on eBay which, for a 40 year old game is suprising.  You will need to wade through a lot of listings for the next game on the list. 

Prices are pretty steady in the upper ranges of reasonable.  My problem is how badly do I want it?

Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1986)

Games Workshop Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Buy it on eBay
Hot off the popularity of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook came the bookcase boardgame of the same name.

This is another big name game that I have never played and it looks like a rip-off of TSR's Dungeon but I have no idea if it continues along with the same gameplay.  There is a lot of nostalgia surrounding this game and I suspect it has some quite dated mechanics.  It is a very heavy player v player game and one of the rules encourages deal making between players.  However, it is a drawn out race to the finish which includes the frowned upon player elimination mechanic so I suspect that its not a game with much fun factor.  

Availiability is good when you search for Warlock of Firetop mountain on eBay.  However, having that secondary Fighting Fantasy collector base means that prices for this game are much higher than I am prepared to pay.

Warrior Knights (1985) - OWNED

Games Workshop Warrior Knights
Warrior Knights
Buy it on eBay
Finally we get to the end of this monstrous list and I have saved the best till last.  Frankly this is the best bookcase game I own, period.  It has huge amounts of gameplay, counters galore, variety in strategy and lots for you to think about as you wait to take your next turn.  In fact this game is so good I bought it twice as a spares backup for the many, many components.

You play one of four Barons vying for total dominance over the kingdom and you must build and maintain your banner armies under your allied nobles, moving around the board laying siege to cities and building your strongholds as you go.  The acquisition of wealth through siege and foreign exploration is an important and necessary part of the game as you must always pay the upkeep on your troops or they will leave in a huff.

This tends to be a long but very rewarding light wargame and very accessible to non Grognards like myself.  It has had a series of re-releases but I consider this version to be the definitive one and there are a few mechanics in the newer ones that don't sit well with me.    

Availability and prices are very good but there are a lot of incomplete copies when you search for Warrior Knights on eBay.  This is a gem of a game and should be on everyones shelf.



Thank you for getting to the bottom of this monster post and putting up with the amount of affiliate links I added.  They are there as much for my benefit as yours as I am actively searching for many of the games on this list.

I have tried my best to create search phrases which will put you in touch with the most relevant listings on eBay and weed out all the crap you get when you search for old Games Workshop games.

If you are a fellow collector, please consider following those links as they cost you nothing extra but help to fund this blog.  You will also have my eternal thanks and appreciation.