What makes Blackstone Fortress so fun?
Is it the beautiful hex tiles? Is it the exotic space bazaar narrative? Is it the brilliant miniatures? Is it the intriguing characters? Is it the imaginative gameplay? Is it the vast unknown of the Blackstone itself? Or is it all of the above? I say it’s all of the above. The game has it all. Total package. But with all that going for it, it’s still not for everyone. It’s too boardgamey for hard core gamers It’s too RPGey for casual game players It’s not Warhammerey enough for Warhammer players. But it’s just enough for me, my friends and family. You roll fun dice. Explore exotic locations. Slay interesting monsters. What’s not to like? If I have one criticism, it’s the layer of abstraction laid over trading on Precipice. I think it’s there to avoid “gaming” the trading system. But I find it cumbersome, we leave it out. If…
Hand sculpted vs computer sculpted
Why do the new GW models look the way they do? Is Computer Aided Design (CAD) affecting the aesthetic? I don’t even have the words to describe how they look. They’re less-characterfull? They’re more generic? They’re overly uniform? They’re abnormally standardized? They’re too boardroom flowcharted? They’re too scale-accurate? They look like they the sculpting was outsourced and they’re designed to spec. Maybe they’re designed in-house, but the really look like they’re designed by a completely new staff. In some ways they’re great. In other ways, they do not look like a GW model. They don’t have a GW feel to them. Do I like them? Yes, I suppose. Do I own many of these? Not too many. Also, the Warhulk pictured to the right costs $55.00 USD. The days of finding an interesting GW blister pack for pocket money are long gone. I find that some of the magic, whimsey,…
Rogue Trader (My Brother is Awesome)
How awesome is this! I recently turned moderately old, and my world-class brother gave me the hardcover reprint of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader. This book is so cool. It was absolutely formative in our early adolescence. Love the models from back then. Not only that, he got me a subscription to White Dwarf! Something old and something new!
White Dwarf 2024
I got my hands on the latest iteration of Grombrindal, the White Dwarf. White Dwarf 500 has rules for Cursed City, Age of Sigmar, Underworlds, and Warcry. I’m most interested in Cursed City and hope to try him out in the next week. Always Board Never Boring goes over his rules. He’s a Loremaster in Cursed City, which is interesting because his stats are very stalwart-ey and he has no spells. Oh but that axe! He’s going to do some damage. Admittedly, this is a splurge purchase and at nearly $40 US, it’s pretty steep for one single-little-itty-bitty piece of plastic. But, I’m a bit of a white dwarf collector, so I can stomach this one. Having game rules definitely helps too. I’ve been somewhat critical of the tiny pieces in some GW sets. Not so here! Look at these beautiful chunky pieces! This thing went together great, no fiddley…
A final word on Darktide
I was at a game store over the weekend and held a copy of Darktide in my hands. It was surprisingly heavy, considering the contents are pretty megre. Also, the box was a cheap tuck-box. That’s not going to hold up well on the shelf. Gorechosen, the game I recently compared it to, was $70 U.S. at retail for 4 miniatures! So, it could be worse, I guess? In any event, I’m happy to have copy of White Dwarf 500 and a physical card to play Grombrindal in Cursed City. I need to get some paint on my vampire slayer Grombrindal ASAP!!
One Man Army
Old Man Time has really started cranking the wheel hard because believe it or not, it’s been over a year ago that Warhammer Community published rules to use some truly mighty heroes in Cursed City. I printed up the cards and was ready to roll right away. I have absolutely no problem proxying minis that are a close facsimile to the originals. Take the Cryptguard ghouls for example. I’m not going to spend $50.00 US on 20 ghouls when I have perfectly good ghouls at home! However, I’m loathe to proxy character models. So I got all three. Well, I already had Gotrek Gurnisson, so getting Cursed City rules was an added bonus. I’m a big Gotrek & Felix fan -Me (2005) I really had a blast playing a couple games as Gotrek. I have to admit, I was a bit star struck. I even got everything painted up! I…
Cursed City or Blackstone Fortress
A frequent question I see online is: I’m interested in getting into a new game, should I go with Cursed City or Blackstone Fortress The Internet It’s a tough question. They’re both still currently available new, from Games Workshop or your friendly local game store. Cursed City costs a bit more, but dollar-wise it’s not a deal breaker. Also, your preference between fantasy (Cursed City), or sci-fi (Blackstone Fortress) may sway your decision. Both have: Blackstone Fortress was developed first, and came out in 2018. Cursed City came out in 2021 and is a bit more distilled than Blackstone Fortress. They both are a bit light on strategy, though some of the newer expansion heroes for Cursed City make it more interesting. Some of the things that were slimmed down for Cursed City make Blackstone Fortress a bit more intriguing to play. In Blackstone fortress, you’re frequently deciding when to…
Update on Darktide the Miniatures Game
So the price is in for Darktide The Miniatures Game. It’s $110 U.S. This game right here. It costs $110! You get 20 minis and some cardboard for $110. That’s $5.50 per figure. Cursed City is $3.33 per model, and appears to be about 10x the game. Generally speaking, I’m pretty charitable when it comes to Games Workshop. But this is too much. If GW does release a new Warhammer Quest game in the future, I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford it.
How I made a Kickstarter
Zine Quest is a month-long celebration of zines at Kickstarter every February. I was completely oblivious to such a thing six months ago. I’d only heard of zines antidotally, skater zines, punk rock zines, etc. Well, as it turns out, there’s a ton of people making RPG zines. There’s SOOOOO much cool content, imagination, and artistry out there in that space. However, almost all of those zines are D&D-like experiences. They need a Game Master to run the adventures. That’s great for a lot of groups, but for me, I like being a player. And those that don’t require a GM, they require a fairly large book with tons of lookup tables and rules. Which has its place, but won’t fit in your pants pocket. So that’s where my game fits in. In your pants pocket! The germ of this idea had been in my mind for decades I think. …
Warhammer Quest – Cursed City: What early reviewers missed
Pretty much all reviewers left out the Trait cards. I don’t completely blame them; out of the 100+ cards, only eight are Trait cards. Some reviewers mentioned that they didn’t care for the leveling-up system but no one ran an on-camera adventure using anything other than level zero heroes. Is the leveling up as momentous as Warhammer Quest 1995? No. Does leveling up unlock new and nastier monsters (other than boss fights)? No. Can leveling up change the development path your character takes? No. Will new levels unlock fun and exciting equipment? No. Wait, I’m not selling this very well. What I mean to say is that even though leveling up in Cursed City isn’t monumental, Trait cards add a lot to the game. Most characters have two or three actions they can take every turn. Adding Traits greatly expands the thoughtfulness needed every activation. It’s fun imagining your characters…