Mansions of Madness

Tonight I had a couple of friends over and we played a couple games of Fantasy Flight Games' Mansions of Madness.

This game was a lot of fun, we knocked a couple games off in about 3 hours. It's a typical Fantasy Flight game: lots of high quality bits. The manual is reasonably long, but this is misleading as the game is really quite simple. If you've played Descent, then you'll find this game very similar. The only downside is the number of scenarios. There is only 5 and each scenario has a set of cards that go with it. If someone was to have a scenario repository (like FFG has with Descent and Tide of Iron) they would have to create cards to go with each scenario. FFG has actually done this with it's two expansions for this game as they're both Print-on-Demand. It would be interesting to see how it's set up. Regardless, I think I might pick this up.

15mm Sci-fi - Assorted US Units

Last night I finished a handful of units for my US faction. These are all from Ground Zero Games. First up is a pair of light tanks.

Next is a 6-wheeled buggy with a rear gunner.

And finally is a group of infantry. I decided to start doing putting the heavy weapon teams on one base instead of one base per figure.

Next up is the last of the US vehicles and a few heavy weapon teams. Also tomorrow night I'm having a couple friends over for a few games of Mansions of Madness. I'm really looking forward to this game.

15mm Sci-fi - US Armour

Tonight I finished a group of 15mm vehicles for my US faction. These are all Ground Zero Games minis. First is a group of 5 hover vehicles: 3 are APC's with gun turrets, 1 is an APC with missile turret and the fifth is a command vehicle.

Lastly is group of 3 hover drones

Next up is some terrain, some more infantry and a couple move hover vehicles.

Edmonton International AFV Model Show

Today I went to the Edmonton International AFV Model Show at HMCS Nonsuch (www.aafvms.ca). My camera crapped out early so I only got a few pics before switching to my iPhone. Probably a good thing as my camera pics were crap. There was some amazing paint jobs there. Below is some of my better pics.

I believe this was some sort of Italian towed gun.

This was an amazing train setup hauling some sort of enormous mortar/cannon.
A Canadian LAV III
This was one of the neatest. Right below the model you can see a bit of a pic. The picture is of a exploded Panzer IV. The model was an excellent recreation of the pic. Really original.
This diorama was of Berlin in 1945.
A German scout car.
This was one of only 2 sci-fi entries.

Castle Ravenloft

Last night I played a game of Castle Ravenloft from Wizards of the Coast. This game is in the same genre as FFG's Descent. In the game you go on various quests to complete certain goals, it's not just a standard dungeon crawl. It's got good production values comparable to Descent. It's also a simpler and shorter game compared to Descent. But unlike Descent, Castle Ravenloft is entirely a cooperative game. Overall, I prefer Descent mainly because the amount of options and flexibility is superior to Castle Ravenloft. The game does have at least out expansion coming out for it so far (might already be out).

Prussia's Defiant Stand or Prussian Beating

Last night Chris and I played a couple games of Prussia's Defiant Stand by Worthington Games. The first game ended shortly before the mandatory end and was a decisive Prussian loss. The sheer numbers of troops they were facing was simply too much and couple this with the fact that they lost Berlin. The second game had Prussia surrendering at the end of the 1st year. Their main southern army was annihilated due to my "awesome" luck and then wintering wiped out most of my centre units. The view at the end of the first game:

The game is a decent block game but the Prussian player has a pretty hard time vs. the Allied player. With no luck and a good Allied player it's extremely hard, I'd say almost impossible for Prussia to win. As the game uses 6-sided dice, I'm pretty much screwed. It's like Warhammer all over again. With 6 dice how hard is it to roll above 3? Apparently it's pretty damn hard. We're going to take another stab at the game next weekend.

The game is a nice looking game with good quality components. The rules are reasonably simple although they could use some cleaning up with regards to supply and wintering clarifications. Supply is extremely important and will quickly see an army vanish. We've downloaded the latest rules version and the FAQ from Boardgamegeek.

15mm Sci-fi

Last night I finished another batch of 15mm sci-fi for my US faction. These are all Ground Zero Games minis. First up is a civilian hover truck.

Next is an unmanned VTOL gunship. I had heard that this was a pain to make. I didn't have any problems at all. The biggest pain for me was mounting the thing on a base.

And finally is another batch of infantry, some command and some heavy weapons.

Next on my paint table is some hover vehicles for my US faction and maybe some terrain pieces. Also, tonight I'm going to have a game or two of Prussia's Defiant Stand from Worthington Games. Looking forward to that.