365 Days of Paint

Don't let yourself get attached... ...to anything that you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner. Nominated in 2017 for the Spiel des Jahres; losing out to Kingdomino.  Magic Maze is a co-operative realtime heist game for 1-8 players.   In the game you are a band of adventurers who has lost all their stuff!  How can a Barbarian slay without Steel?  Can a Dwarf and an Elf have a orc slaying competition without an Axe and a Bow?  And our poor Mage without components you just have a nice squishy target.  So what do you do?  You embrace your inner Mallrat, engage in some shop lifting and then try to escape the mall without getting caught . The game features some cool game mechanics.  Because there are only 4 pawns everyone controls all the pawns.  What happens is that at the beginning of the game the starting map tile is placed on the table with the 4 pawns on it....

Would you like some Lion nuts with your beer? The biggest and baddest Tabletop Kickstarter ever.  12 Million dollars?  YEP!  Kingdom Death known for their boutique horror miniatures made a game called Monster.  The latest release is version 1.5.  19lbs. of adventuring goodness. I am one of the crazy people that bought into the game and I am extremely excited to play it.  The biggest draw for me as a hobby painter/modeller is the sheer amount of miniatures that come with the game.  You have to assemble your starting 4 and the first monster before you can even play the game.    The sculpts are so amazing and so detailed it is very intimidating to me as a novice painter not that I don't know how to paint them.  It's just that I fear I cannot do the sculpt justice. The game itself plays 1-4 players in a series of Lantern Years.  In it players will hunt quarry to harvest materials they then use in the Settlement phase.  ...

Smokey and the Bandit in SPAAAAACEE Happy New Years to you all! Galaxy Trucker is an amazing game from well known designer Vlaada Chvatil.  Vlaada has brought to the table such games as Mage Knight, Star Trek Frontiers, Codenames, Through the Ages, and of course this game. In Galaxy Trucker, each player receives a tableau board in order to build a space ship. In the middle of the table within reach of all the players a very large pile of tokens all face down is created.  Reminds me a bit like Mah Jong without the clackity clack clack. Once ready, a sand timer is started and with only one hand and one tile at a time everyone makes a mad dash to flip over tiles.  You then decide if you want to keep that tile and connect it to your base module.  If not, you return the tile back into the common area face up this time and it becomes free grabs for any of the other players to use.  Connectors must match on both sides of the tile once set and you rea...

Like watching "The Martian" but with less potatoes! Growing up in the 80s/90s had it's benefits.  Not the crazy hair, weird fashion; shoulder pads looking at you.  There was amazing music, and as a nerd who loves High fantasy/Sci-Fi/action films.  There was an arms race; all about the pump, between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.   It was the golden age of action films.  One of my favorite films from that time is Total Recall.  Loosely based off the Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" Like in  the PKD story the main character of the film experiences a melding of a real and false memory and by the end of the movie has gone to Mars, reclaimed his real life, and started the Alien oxygen terraforming engine. Hey Benny!  SCREW YOU!!! As good as Total Recall is I'd like to think that Terraforming Mars takes place 50 years after the movie The Martian which is a more altruis...

Stop Drop and Roll Last month, my son was invited to a good friends kids birthday party.  Not the usual crazy indoor playground or pool party or other similarly kid orientated party.  But in fact we went to have a tour of a local Fire Station. You got to meet your local firefighters(Anyone in a Calendar?), see their gear, check out the trucks, and get a refresher in your homes fire safety plan.   The highlight was getting to climb around the different fire engines and take a look up at the hose tower.  When you pass your firestation next time look for the tall tower thats in every fire hall.  After they go out to fight a fire the hoses are strung up there to drain and be cleaned before being rolled up and stored for next time. Finally, the funniest thing was probably the hazing of the rookie as he came down the pole and was greeted with a bucket full of cold water. To be very honest I don't know who had more fun, me or my son.  Not goi...

The Paris to Roubaix Spring Classic on your dinner table. mmmm flavour country! When it comes to the word Cyclist there are usually two kinds of people, you either get a knowing smile or you get a angry red face, spit on the ground as you leave and a toss of salt for good measure kinda person.  I'll be up front I am the kind of person who has a knowing smile. In fact my PS4 screen name is Souplesse which in the cycling world means perfect pedalling. Look, I get it.  It's the no shame spandex wearing, we own the road - are vehicles/not vehicles so we don't follow the road rules or pedestrian rules riders.  We ride 10 wide on a 2 lane highway and are a shining beacon of healthy living and green transport.   Here I am in my giant dually truck sucking down a Baconator. BOOM! GET OUT THE WAY! GET OUT THE WAY!  There seems to be stereotypes on both sides. The reason why I love cycling is because at it's purest it reminds me of my childho...

Soldier of Fortune?   Expendables?  Why yes!  Welcome to Gloomhaven. If you've been following big tabletop Kickstarters like me, you will have heard of Gloomhaven by Isaac Childres of Cephalofair Games.  The game had a small first printing, and people who played it raved so much that demand came in like a wrecking ball.  The game became so popular there wasn't enough for retail and with massive demand it sparked a second print run on Kickstarter.  This time I did not miss my chance to blow.   2 weeks ago this unassuming box with the words Gloomhaven on the side arrived.   Copy #514 of 23000. After watching my postman struggle to get the box to my front door I dove into the 22 lbs of gaming goodness to check to make sure everything was there and correct. There have been a lot of reports from backers that some boards have poor gluing and are falling apart.  As well some boards seem to have 1 or 2 misalign...