Review: Zombicide

There are many regrets one can have in life. Not having the guts to punch a school bully in the nose, I did by the way, then his four friends jumped me and I got a bit of a kicking! Not talking to that smoking hot girl at the bar, because well, you know... look at me and then look at her!!! Plus not being able to get in on the Zombicide Kickstarter action, damn it! That's probably the worst one for a geek like me. I watched the first of Cool Mini or Not's Kickstarters religiously from the off. I probably checked back more often than those of you who had actually pledged. Unfortunately I was completely and utterly broke at the time of that campaign, and had been hit by so many unexpected one off bills that my meager funds were depleted even further. Life can sometimes be a really, really cruel experience you know, because literally two hours after the Kickstarter had finished somebody purchased a whole heap of painted mini's off of me and I was more than flush enough to have funded the Kickstarter... oh cruel fate why do you mock me so? So I guess I missed out on all the free stuff and special miniatures, but hey, at least I get to play the game now. Right? Any way here's the games video from the Kickstarter campaign.

Product Description

The Game comes with 71 plastic miniature, there are six handily colour coded Survivors, which leaves you with 65 zombies of varying types. These are 40 Walkers (normal zombies), 16 Runners (48 hours later zombies), 8 Fatties (erm... fat zombies) and 1 solitary Abomination (think the Tyrant out of the Resident Evil games). You also get 9 large double-sided map tiles, if you're familiar with Super Dungeon Explore you'll know what to expect. You also get 110 mini-gaming cards, the same sort of small card you get with Fantasy Flight Games stuff, there are 42 Zombie Cards, 62 Equipment cards and 6 Wounded cards. There are 6 Survivor identity cards, to help keep track of your survivors progress and 6 red D6. You also get a plethora of the usual chits and gaming tokens. There is quite a bit of 'stuff' in the box.

You get a hell of a lot.

Review: Last Night on Earth

       
         

When I was asking around about what zombie games I should get in to review for this zombie themed week, one game kept on cropping up. No not Zombicide, although that was a fairly popular request too it has to be said... no, I'm talking about Flying Frog Productions 'Last Night on Earth'. I've only really ever heard good things about this game, so when I was reminded of its existence it was bound to go down on my list of games to review. I'm quite glad it did.

Product Description

Right you get 1 large central board tile that is double sided for twice the fun, or something. There are 6 further L-shaped corner tiles, 4 of which will go around the edge of the board to make up the gaming space you'll play the games on. You'll get 22 plastic miniatures, 8 unique (read zombie film tropes) heroes, and 14 zombies, 7 green and 7 red. There are 120 playing cards, split between 40 Zombie Cards, 40 Hero cards and then 20 Advanced cards for both the Hero and Zombie decks. There are also 8 Character Profile cards, 5 Scenario Cards, 6 Reference Cards, the Sun Track, loads of card board chits and tokens and a CD. Don't ask. Did I also mention you get 16 D6's? No! Well you do, although God only knows why you'd need that many

There's a fair amount of stuff in the box.

Review: Zombies!!! Second Edition: Director's Cut

     
       

Arguably the quintessential zombie game.

When I first decided I'd be doing a week of articles on zombie games, the first product that went down on my list was 'Zombies!!!' simply because I don't know anyone who hasn't played it, or a version of it. Simply put it's one of those rare boardgames that appeals to diehard geeks like me, but doesn't put off 'normals'. It's mechanics are simplicity itself, and everyone can understand and enjoy it. Plus it's dirt heap. So why not review it this week I thought, so I am!

Product Description

The box actually comes packed with a lot of basic components. For starters you get 100 plastic zombies in two different poses. OK yeah sure they're small and not incredibly well detailed, but if you want a game about hordes of zombies this might be the place to start. There are 30 map tiles that are about 10cm by 10cm in size or 4" by 4" if you work in old money.You also get 50 cards for the event card deck, 6 human survivors and life and ammunition tokens, which I'm really not going to count, but you get way more than enough. Along with the rules that are printed on to an A4 sheet of paper and two D6's, one red and one blue that's your lot!

The contents of the box.

Review: Munchkin Zombies

      
        

While I was compiling a list of zombie games to review, it hit me that I hadn't actually spoken about Munchkin at all on my Blog. I hadn't even reviewed a single version of Steve Jackson's insanely popular game. Given how many drink fueled games of Munchkin I've played over the years that is incredibly remiss of me. So here I am trying to kill two birds with one stone... or should that be two zombies with one bullet? Either way I'm reviewing Zombie Munchkin.

Product Description

It comes in a box with a lot of cards, 168 full-colour cards in total. These are split between the Door Deck and the Treasure Deck, with there being 74 and 94 respectively. You also get a lovely looking dice with the Munchkin symbol on it, and the incredibly simple and easy to learn rules to Munchkin, in a full colour pamphlet form. Nothing fancy, just a card game in a box. As a warning, because I know a lot of people who buy Munchkin products are surprised by this, Zombie Munchkin does NOT come with a board or counter system to keep track of your levels in game as you progress, which I've always found an annoying oversight myself. So you'll need something to keep score for yourselves, that isn't open to easy abuse. You have been warned!!!

Here's what you get in the box.

Review: Super Dungeon Explore

So much promise, by and large left unfulfilled

Well this will be an interesting product to review. I think it's fair to say I was left a little bit 'deflated' after my unboxing of the game. Hey, I'm open to criticism and I went back through the article and tried to see if what I'd said was in any way a tad too harsh as some people had suggested to me. My considered answer after all this time? No, I was bang on with what I said. I still think it was a daft oversight not to include instructions on assembling their overly fiddly miniatures, and while I'm glad they've produced some, it's not in the box is it? Secondly it doesn't say anywhere on the outside of the product that it requires assembly. I'm not bothered that I need to assemble these miniatures, as I'm a wargamer and used to such things, but as a product on the shelf it should tell people what it is, and what to expect. The box it comes in is a shit quality corrugated card board affair, that does damage far too easily and thus makes storing the contents of the box difficult. And the playing cards? They're still the worst quality playing cards I've come across. So I'm sticking by what I said, so to those of you who have emailed me and told me to edit my unboxing article and be more upbeat... kindly go forth and multiply. They're my opinions and I'll not change them for all the barracking in the world! But what do I think of it as a game now I've played it?

Box contents pre-assembly

Product Description

Yep it is yet another board game in a box. Get over it already! You get 9 hero miniatures, 5 minion spawning points, 5 treasure chests, 2 boo-booty treasure chests, 22 Kobold minion miniatures, 6 Drake denizen miniatures, 2 Kobold Ogres and 1 Dragon miniature. They're the undeniable stars of the product. There are 5 double sided dungeon tiles that measure in at roughly 12" by 12". There is also a game tracking card which tracks various game effects and also measures 12" by 12" in size, meaning the maximum gaming space it takes up is 3' by 2'. There's a myriad of colourful game tokens and a nicely produced full colour rulebook. There are also 16 custom dice, 8 blue (weakest dice) 6 red dice (middling) and 2 green dice (most powerful). Finally there are about 60 playing cards representing Loot, treasure, Adventurers, Minions, status effect etc.

Review: Claustrophobia

Demons vs Christian zealots? Poppy will have some of that!!!

Well it's a game that many readers of my blog and personal friends have suggested I should get for review. It's been described as a 'dungeon skirmish game' also as a 'sort of dungeon crawler' and a 'wargame on a board' by various people I know and respect, who are normally far more eloquent. I can see elements of all three statements in the game if I'm honest, although for me it certainly has felt more like a skirmish board game. Claustrophobia is produced by Asmodee, the company originally behind the Hell Dorado wargame, and this game too is set in the very dark Hell Dorado universe. So I was very keen to get on and play the game.

Product Description

It is a board game in a box, what can I say? I'm addicted. Given the price of the game, and the fact that the miniatures are pre-painted I think there's a fair amount of stuff in the box. There are 36 floor tiles, single sided but seriously 36 is more than enough and they're a decent size too. There are about 50 or so card tokens, 17 pre-painted miniatures, 5 reference cards for the human faction (the Westerners), 5 plastic stands for those reference cards, and 13 dice split between 1D10 and 12D6. There are also 25 plastic damage tokens that you stick into the player reference cards to denote wounds. Finally we get a rulebook, a vitally important component to any game!

Review: Descent Journeys in the Dark (1st edition)

It's a big box, no question, it's even full of stuff... just not win!

So here I am, finally reviewing Descent: Journeys in the Dark.The game loads of people have told me I should have got in the first place. It's reputation is pretty impressive, talk to any serious board gamer and they'll all know of Descent. It's also one of the few board games that many wargamers have heard of, most I've spoken to have either had a quiet respect for the game or have been madly in love with it and wanted to marry it. Honestly it has been rare I've come across people willing to question the status this game has, even in polite company, it's like walking up to the bride on her wedding day and pinching her ass. It's like handing the Pope a copy of Origin of the Species as a Christmas present. Telling a new mother her baby is ugly... all things that are considered bad form, or so I hear. So this review might be fun!

There's a lot of stuff. This isn't all of it!!!

Product Description

Descent is quite often described in language that is normally reserved for deities, rather than a game in a box. However, it is most assuredly the later and I have yet to see any evidence to support the claims that it is indeed the former. I'm not going to regale you with tales of what is contained within this box, suffice to say their is a lot. A hell of a lot, I know there are 20 plastic hero figures and therefore logically it follows that there must be 20 hero sheets. There are 60 plastic monsters too, and there must be a similar number of interlocking dungeon tile pieces. There is a rulebook and a Quest Guide, but there is no way on Gods good green earth I'm going to list all of the various tokens and thingymebobs and doohikies!!! There is just a boat load of card components in this box, a ridiculous number to be honest with you, and some custom dice.

Adventures with Girls II: Down in the Dungeon

Totally suitable armour for a female rogue

Yeah so, my first series of articles on playing Dungeon Crawlers with girls actually 'went down' rather well amongst the readership of this blog it seems. Perhaps it was because the word 'girls' featured prominently in the title, a popular ploy I'm told by successful blogging types often employed to increase hits. Other ploys include the use of semi-nude photo's of celebrities or soft core pornography, not that I've deployed such base forms of popularist nonsense myself you understand. Innuendo laden articles? Maybe. It could just have been that people found them genuinely interesting to read, and occasionally amusing. Who knows, however, at the end of the first social experiment we discovered the girls felt the lack of narrative had hampered their enjoyment with the Dungeons & Dragons game Castle Ravenloft. That, and the lack of customisation of characters left them a little bit frustrated with their choices. They had declared that perhaps a more involved experience might actually be in order, and that we might seek a 'deeper' experience with which to test their mettle against. And us boys also felt that although the Dungeons & Dragon games weren't all that bad really, they weren't exactly the sort of game we'd personally relish playing all the time. We also wanted a more involved experience that tested our gaming skills a little bit more.

Review: 'Dwarf Kings Hold: Green Manace'

First things first I owe you lot a bit of an apology, this review should have gone live during early September and I'd just assumed it had. Turns out I'd scheduled it to go live during September of 22,011. Yeah, like I'll still be blogging then!!! Sorry.

It might be a smaller box but it still has stuff in it!

This is the second of the Dwarf Kings Hold games, and is therefore a sort of dungeon crawler... but not... ish... it's not like the co-operative ones you might be used to. I've heard people refer to Dwarf Kings Hold as fantasy Space Hulk and this winds me up no end, as the only similarities are the grided game board and that you play with toy soldiers! But, I guess as a quick, none qualified statement it's not totally lame... although I still don't like it as it's lazy. Jake Thornton didn't like me calling the game adversarial last time around, but I think it is adversarial, because it pits one player against another, and there can be only one winner, although obviously you both win if you're having fun!!! Although obviously the 'actual' winner is the real winner. However, the first game, which I thoroughly enjoyed playing was a fun game to play and easy to pick up, it also had a nice level of tactics hidden away. Dead Rising, had Dwarfs facing off against foul shambling skellies, and this latest version changes that dynamic by putting brutish Orcs and nimbly pimbly Elves together in a Dungeon of doom. To be honest with you I was intrigued to see how the dynamic between Elves and Orcs would be different to that between the Dwarfs and the living dead. Oh yeah did I mention the cave ins...

Product description

Right when I reviewed Dwarf Kings Hold: Dead Rising I had someone PM me a complaint that I hadn't made it clear enough that the miniatures required assembly, even though I said they did... so let me say from the start that the miniatures in Dwarf Kings Hold: Green Menace require the use of clippers to cut them from the spru's, craft knives to clean up mould lines etc. and indeed plastic glue to stick them together. I'm going to assume that beyond that basic information most of you are good to go all by yourselves! However, it is a fair point, most board games come with the miniatures pre-made for you so I guess for some people it is something that does need to be made clear, although I honestly don't think Mantic's miniatures should tax even the most basic modeller. It would though, have been good if they'd included a little assembly guide to help things on their way. You get a host of card tokens, 9 dice, 5 green and 4 blue. There are also 28 floor tiles of varying shapes, sizes and complexity, If you own Dead Rising you'll know what to expect. Last and by no means least there are those miniatures, you get 20 Elves and 8 Orcs, these are wargaming standard miniatures not board game rubbery things.

Review: Dungeons & Dragons The Legend of Drizzt

 

Apparently this is a cool and muted palette... Girls approve of such things

Well this is the third Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System Game that I've brought, so either Wizards of the Coast were doing something right with the other games, or I'm a complete schmuck. Don't say it, I already know I am! However, between them Castle Ravenloft and Wrath Ashardalon probably would have made a pretty engaging experience. As it was though, Castle Ravenloft proved too easy, and although it had a great theme it was, as Geology Girl stated, a little 'soulless' as an experience. Meanwhile, Wrath of Ashardalon was a sterner test of my adventuring mettle but had even less character and lacked a cohesive and consistent theme, which was a shame because I felt the challenge it offered was a worthwhile one. So then, how does this third game fare? I mean, they've brought out one of their big guns in Drizzt, a character who has had many novels, they've also had feedback from the first two games. So, has this iteration learned any new tricks?

Product Description

This is a game that comes within a self contained storage device.... OK, OK it's yet another game in a box. Yay!!! I've had a fair few people email and PM me to ask if these are somehow expansions and ask whether they need Castle Ravenloft to play both Wrath of Ashardalon and Legend of Drizzt. The answer is no, they are not expansion packs. Each game is a standalone game and comes with everything you need to play the game out of the box. So what do you get in this box then? Well I'm glad you asked, there are 40 plastic heroes and monster type thingies ranging from the huge winged demon  Errtu Balor, right down to the tiny ickle spider swarms. You also get the eponymous Drizzt Do'Urden of course, along with other Drizzt stablemates Regis, Catie Brie and even the Assassin Artemis Entreri. There are the 58 floor tiles, these are the interlocking jigsaw type. The 12 hero and villain cards, the rulebook and adventure books, 168 markers and tokens, we shouldn't forget there are also 200 Encounter, Monster and Treasure Cards, split between the standard and Advanced decks. Have I forgot anything? Oh yeah, there's a lovely almost black but very dark navy blue / purple D20... sexy, and so in keeping with the Drow theme darlings!

The massed ranks of bad guys or gals, we're equal opps here at the FG blog

Supremely Deflated Expectations

At this point the anticipation was unbearable....

I love life, even though it has an unbelievable track record of kicking me right in my man parts. No, on the whole life is pretty damn good. Yesterday the Cursed, Mr Chaos Space Marine and my good self spent the entire day gaming at a local gaming club. It was all damn good fun, although the Cursed probably now has a fear of Asura's... but I digress. We got back from this day of gaming to mine intent on getting some board gaming in, maybe some more Legend of Drizzt or Claustrophobia so I could get on with formulating some proper opinions of those games for review. When we got back however, there was a lovely parcel of epic goodness from OG Games waiting for us. 'What could it be?' They asked. 'Only one thing' I replied 'Super Dungeon Explore!!!' Cue loud girlish squeals of delight and much high fiving.

You see, I think for at least 12 months now, being the geeks that we are, we've waited patiently for this game to arrive. I've had it on pre-order from since before I was made redundant and that seems like an absolute age ago now. The cute anime chibi styling's of it all had us salivating at the prospects of getting our hands on it. So there we sat, looking in awe at the box paralysed by excitement... for all of about one second before I tore the wrapping off and glared lovingly at, well a really shit quality box. No two ways about it, the first thing that hits you as you pick the game up is just how crap a quality box it comes in. I fully expect the box to disintegrate within a month, especially with the cats around. Hell the little cat Poppy has already buckled the front of the box just by standing on it. Word to the wise Soda Pop, if I was walking into a shop and picking this product off of a shelf, it'd feel bloody cheap because of the shitty box.

Review: Blood Bowl Team Manager

 

It comes in a very compact box

Blood Bowl Team Manager: The Card Game is the first card game in a box that I've actually brought. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I don't tend to like the blind buys that most card games foist upon gamers, I'm looking right at you Magic the Gathering. The constant searching for the special cards, and the wasted booster packs as well, it's just not this particular gamers cup of tea. Which, I admit, is a terrible shame because it's actually quite a good little game, in fact I know many card games are the same, great games, but still the cynical and shitty sales ploy of blind buys sticks in my throat a little too readily for me to ever be that sort of card gamer. So Fantasy Flight Games 'Living Card Games' actually appealed to me quite strongly, and got me looking at card games again, as there are no blind buys and you know what you're getting when you buy the packs. However, to be clear, Blood Bowl Team Manager isn't one of those 'Living Card Games', it's just a standalone card game, that again requires no collecting of booster packs to find the Morg 'n' Thorg foil card!

Box contents, it's not a huge amount, but it's enough

Product Description

It's a card game in a box, which is a sort of a variation on a theme for this here blog. Right, the game has a plethora of different card types, over 220 cards in total split between team player cards, star player cards event cards upgrade cards etc. For those who like to know these things, the cards use Fantasy Flights protection sleeves 4 and 2. The rulebook is clear and concise and retains much of the humour evident in other iterations of Blood Bowl released by Games Workshop. The game isn't hard to learn, and to be brutally honest you'll be away and playing the game in no time at all. There are your usual tokens and counters, that all come attached to the usual card sheets, as well as two green block dice. There are also 4 score board fan score tracker thingies to assemble, and they can be assembled wrong so take your time and make sure you do it right because I very nearly got one wrong being in a rush. So that's fun!!!

Review: Dust Tactics

Its a beast of a box with a shed load of stuff inside

The Dust universe created by Paolo Parente is pretty darn cool if you ask me. I've always liked alternative history themes. What if the Nazi's won, or the USSR invaded the USA or going further back what if the Confederates won the America civil war or if Jesus had of bottled it and decided being a martyr sucked? The world we live in might look very different to the one we see today. The premise in Dust if I'm correct is that the Nazi's found some alien tech and managed to prolong WWII, and... its still going.  This has led to a world with genetically enhanced killer Gorilla's and big walking mech tank thingies, they look great they really do. So with time on my hands I thought I'd better occupy myself with some hobby related stuff and seeing as Fantasy Flight Games are also giving us a Dust related true wargame (Dust Warfare) I thought it was time to take the plunge.

Paolo Parente's artwork adds a certain 'vibe' to proceedings

Official Promo shot

Product description

This is the older 'unrevised' edition of the game in the mammoth HUGE box. I wanted to try these 'old' rules out before the revised edition pops onto the shelves anytime soon, mainly because there has been a little bit of controversy over the switch to the 'newer' rules. Admittedly by a very small, if vocal minority who are determined to announce Fantasy Flight Games as the next reincarnation of Satan and all that is wrong in the world... yeah the feelings have run that high for some people. However moving onto the box contents the undoubted stars of the boxed set have to be the 4 Mech's, the two Allies and two Axis mechs are fantastic and are as good as any plastic vehicles or walkers you'll see produced by any company out there, they really are. There are also a fair amount of troopers as well, some 30 troopers split equally between the two forces. There are also two special characters, one for either side. There are 6 pieces of plastic terrain, 12 special D6's (more on which later), glossy unit cards, 18 two-sided card floor tiles, a rulebook and a campaign scenario book. There's also a card sheet with some quick-start rules on it. There's no denying i think that its a hefty amount of stuff to fit in a box!!!

Legend of Drizzt Unboxing

Don't you fail me now Drizzt!!!

So yeah, when I first looked at getting some Dungeon Crawlers a few months back I turned to the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System Games, Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon, they're not terrible games, but neither are they brilliant games. No, I'd say they were average I guess. I even inflicted them on girls, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. So I really did give the first two games a thorough going over, and despite them having pretty solid mechanics and components the whole experience fell some way short of actually what we as a group of gamers wanted. They also felt a little bit soulless,  a devoid of flair or character. So I'm hoping the third in the series of D&D Adventure Games, 'Legend of Drizzt' can address some of the issues that I personally had with the first two games, in short I'm hoping it's third time lucky for Wizards of the Coast.

Chaos in the Old World: Horned Rat Expansion Unboxing

The cheese munching rat men have landed

Chaos in the Old World has rapidly become a bit of a popular game in these parts. And for good reason, it's an excellent little board game. You can read the full review here. Thing is I have more than three friends, well, I know more than three people who are willing to be in the same room with me at the same time without feeling uncontrollable urges to either punch me or vomit profusely, or indeed both at the same time. That gets messy rather quickly. So, this has led to some glum faces when we've discovered we have one too many people to play the game. However, we can rejoice now, because Fantasy Flight Games also felt it was a bit too restrictive only being able to have four people play the game at any one time, and so they released this, an expansion for Chaos in the Old World called, 'The Horned Rat'. Now I don't exactly know whether it lets you play the game with 5 people or whether it just means there's an extra deity to choose from. Either way I'm looking forward to reading it and giving it a blast.

Claustrophobia unboxing

'Yers, iz moar pleesing syez bocx, ver gud'

No the irony of that title didn't pass me by! Any who, when I plumped for the D&D Adventure Games all those months ago many people told me I should give this little box of wonders a blast. So I did, and I found it interesting, even in spite of the boring person who ran me through it as an intro. Even his dull monotonous voice and lack of communication skills didn't manage to kill the joy that the game contains, so I thought I'd get it. So here it is, and I'm looking forward to playing it with human opponents, as opposed to the sub-human fun sponge I had my into game with. Word of warning to all those people who intro games to people. If your not enthused how the hell do you expect the customer to be? Beggars belief, any way onto the unboxing:

Oh no, even more new stuff!!!

Yeah, more stuff. What the hell is wrong with me?

Yeah, that's right, I've had even more crap turn up today at Frontline Games HQ. Yesterday it was Descent: Journeys in the Dark, and today it's the Chaos in the Old World expansion, 'The Horned Rat', Asmodee's Hell Dorado themed Dungeon Crawler 'Claustrophobia' and finally we have the third in the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System Games, 'The Legend of Drizzt'. Obviously today I've been spending my time flicking through rulebooks and looking at various plastic toy soldiery things. I'll put the three unboxings up shortly. This glorious arrival of hobby stuff's has however, meant that I'm going to push my review of the first edition big box version of Dust Tactics back until tomorrow. As it'll give me more time to add my pictures properly and to proof read the review. Sorry if you were hoping to see it today, but new toy syndrome took over, what can I say? I'm a big kid at heart. Peace out!

So finally I got Descent: Journeys in the Dark...

Does it not look magnificent?

... Just before it gets its second edition. Typical, some might say, but hey at least I'll be in a pretty good position to compare the two edition and let you know how it is. In the meantime I might finally get some super awesome dungeon crawling in between now and then. The first thing that hits you is the the size of the box. It's a big bugger! No two ways about it, this version of the game is literally packed with a veritable shed load of stuff. The box has a hefty feel to it, and there's no getting away from the fact that it weighs a lot for a game. Now, I know everyone who loves the game always prattle on about how much you get in the box, thing is, they're right. You do get a hell of a lot in the box, as you're about to see with my long series of unboxing shots..

Review: Chaos in the Old World

Warhammer Fantasy has always been part of my gaming hobby time. Ever since I was a wide eyed 5 year boy, and my father stood over me as I ruined a dwarf he let me paint, trying his hardest not to tut at me, and failing. Yes that's right, since I was around five years old I was surrounded by little lead men, dwarfs and elves, not to mention miniatures painted by my father!!! Did I mention I was a comedian? Yeah, OK I'll go get my coat. Although I'm sure health and safety would probably lock him up and throw away the key now, he always used to let me paint the odd miniature with his supervision. He taught me that miniatures weren't toys to be played with in the classical sense most toys are, but that they were individual works of art to be lovingly painted, and have attention lavished upon them. So I guess its pretty darn fair to say he taught me a hell of a lot, and he taught me to love Warhammer Fantasy. So when recently I started to drift away from the Warhammer world because of dumb ass decisions taken with new releases, like the Chaos Daemons, Dark Elves and eventually 8th Edition, I have to say I was a little sad. Luckily, I guess, there is another company out there making product based in the Old World, Fantasy Flight Games, and it is they that are keeping my love of the background and setting alive right now.

Product description

There are a few cards, some plastic pieces, a really nice board (requires some assembly) and lots of card tokens... oh yeah and the important bit, a full colour rulebook. The tokens are punched out of some card spru's and represent various game tokens of the four Chaos Gods and other bits and bobs such as hero's and peasants of the Old World, as well as events and stuff. The artwork is all very nice and clear and makes it obvious which foul deity they belong to, or what the function is that they perform. As always with Fantasy Flight Product, it's high quality stuff and nice, thick and sturdy. The game board is the real center piece though, being made of a lovely thick card with a really atmospheric rendition of the Old World map on it, seemingly branded into the skin of some poor unfortunate soul long since lost to some dark ritual. The board does require some assembly though as it has some spinning, tracking thingies called threat dials, these are used to measure each Gods threat level as the game progresses, and they need to be attached using some plastic spindle things. Its not hard to do and once in place they should stay put... so be very careful not to put the Tzeentch spinner on the Khorne location and anger both Gods at the same time!!! The plastic pieces are nice enough and come in the lurid colours of the four Gods. You also get some chunky red dice to add to the dark mood!

There's also a rulebook I forgot to put in this picture

Thank you Mike McVey!!!

My Sedition Wars Maps!!!

Some days you feel like the world is against you, not just rubbish, but actively working against you. You've finished giving CV's out to plenty of people who'll just chuck them in the bin and ignore you. You've sent off countless job applications to people who probably won't even bother reading it and will just pick people randomly out of a hat for interview. Hell you've been rained on, missed you're train home and dropped the change you'd saved for a fecking bag of crisps down a drain while being rained on, after missing your fecking train home. Some day's suck so hard you wander whether your life is just one big cosmic joke for some higher entity that takes great pleasure in your abject misery...

...and some day's you get home and somebody has done something really nice for you that you didn't expect and almost certainly didn't deserve!!! That somebody is Mike McVey at Studio McVey. A few days ago I mentioned how they'd published the Alpha rules for Sedition Wars and how you should all get involved. I was originally planning on using my Space Hulk board tiles and any old miniatures I had lying around because I'm skint. Well Mike has sent me some really nice looking maps for Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabster, which my cat Tybs clearly approves of. However getting the maps out of the well packaged tube something else fell out...