Nostalgia Thursday - Half Price Books Around Milwaukee

I had a chance to visit some of the Milwaukee area Half Price Books earlier this week after checking out a couple of movies up that way.  For those interested, I enjoyed both Lucy and Hercules 3D for a variety of reasons that I'll try to find time to blog about down the line.  In any event, aside from the Half Price Book stores, I popped in to a couple of hobby shops that were just east of the first HPB stop in Greenfield, east on Layton Ave.  I discussed this trip a bit yesterday on the CMG Blog Triad here but wanted to expand a bit today because of the nostalgia factor that imbues trips to HPB; there's almost always something from yesteryear at a decent price.  The following this rough map of my route:

My first stop was the Greenfield HPB located in Greenfield Place at 5032 S. 74th St. Greenfield, Wisconsin 53220 (414-281-0000).  Marked on the map above by the "A."  Some of the nostalgic highlights include:

My second stop was Greenfield News & Hobby 6815 W. Layton Avenue Greenfield, WI. 53220 (414-281-1800).  This is located just east of the "A" on the map above.  Not much in the way of gaming but fans of Hot Wire Foam Factory will appreciate the deal I got on some of their accessories (which I detail more here).

The third stop on this tour was The Board Game Barrister in the Greenfield Towne Center at 6120 West Layton Avenue Greenfield, WI 53220 (414-423-7100).  This is just a bit further east from the "A" on the map above.  Again, this didn't have much in the way of Nostalgic finds but the giant chess pieces were neat and they had a ton of board games to purchase.

My fourth stop was the Highland Plaza HPB up north in Milwaukee in Highland Plaza at 8514 W. Brown Deer Rd. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53224 (414-354-1235).  This is marked on the above map with a "B" and is the only HPB actually in the city limits of Milwaukee, though just barely it would seem.  I snagged a Warhammer Siege supplement but they had some other nostalgic goodies too.

Lastly I stopped in the Brookfield HPB in The Plaza in Brookfield at 17145 W. Bluemound Rd. Brookfield, Wisconsin 53005 (262-789-0280).  Marked on the above map by a "C."  In the nostalgic vein, this location had the most items.  In particular, a lot of older wargaming goodies.

There are a lot more pics from this trip to check out either in my Facebook album here or over on Google Plus here.  If you are interested in any of the items, they can often be had through the HPB online interface or transferred from one HPB to another.  As always, call the individual store to find out their policy in this regard.

In the same spirit, and if you're a gamer who has been around and gaming for a great many years, I also started a thread over on the Board Game Geek forums that might interest you, and to which you might contribute.  It asks folks where they purchased wargames in the 1970s and the list of outlets has surprised me.  Locations include a pharmacy, many bookstores (some mainstream, some not), lots of toy stores (some large chains, some regional, and some ma & pa toy stores).  Anyway, chime in there if you want to add to the informal database.

Nostalgia Thursday on MFWARS.com 

Focusing on the roots of current tabletop gaming
with an eye toward the last century and before.

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Wargaming Wednesday - Warhammer Siege & Hot Wire Foam Factory Extras

I made a little trip over to the Milwaukee area yesterday, first and foremost to see a double feature of Lucy and Hercules 3D, both of which I recommend despite the obvious scientific falsehood in the former and, perhaps, because of the lightheartedness of the latter.  In any event, when I was finished with my afternoon of film-going, I decided I that since I was already in the area, I would check out the three Half Price Books in the area.  While doing so, I made a couple of additional stops at The Board Game Barrister and Greenfield News & Hobby, both just up the street from the first HPB stop.  I'll blog more about this trip and share lots of photos on Facebook and Google Plus soon.

The reason I bring this up on Wargaming Wednesday is because of a few things I found at a couple of the stops.  The first was a copy of the Supplement, Warhammer Siege.  They want $6.99 and a quick eBay search and an Amazon check let me know that was a more than reasonable price.  Honestly, I'm a bit of a sucker for the color photos and instructions on building and painting that come with most WH books, so even if that had been an average or slightly high price, I might have grabbed it.

Also, while heading between locations, I spotted the aforementioned Greenfield News & Hobby.  They're primarily a model and train, and RC, store but have lots of crafts and magazines and other goods.  In the center of the store are a couple of discount tables on which I found some Hot Wire Foam Factory goodies.  I've got many of the tools and use them from time to time but never had any of the instructional videos.  They can be found online but it often irked me that the tools didn't include such things or that they weren't made free online somewhere by the company, so I eschewed them.  Nevertheless, when confronted with a couple of copies of the instructional DVD for $10, another of the same in VHS format $5, a DVD of the Foam Coat Systems: The Basics for $3, and an A/C Power for $5, I snagged some of them, leaving one of the instructional DVDs and the VHS tape for others to pick up should they so choose.  We'll see if the watching of these inspire new projects for me.

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A closer examination of board and miniatures Wargaming.

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Terrain Tuesday - TerranScapes Tips, Paper Models Sale, Historicon Photos, & LEGO Dol Guldor

Mike over at TerranScapes has posted a new video on his YouTube channel with Terrain Tips.  Enjoy!

Two great paper building model companies are having sales through the end of July.  Check out the saving from Dave Graffam Models here and Fat Dragon Games here!

If you have a Facebook account, you can check out a ton of Historicon 2014 photos of wargaming tables in his dedicated album here.

If you don't mind having scenery which is traditionally thought of as "toys" on the game table, there is a LEGO depiction of Dol Guldor that can be had here.  You can find a lot of similar pieces if you look around there.

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Minis & Modeling Monday - Wappel's Adepticon Pics

Over on his wappellious.blogspot.com site, James Wappel has photos from three years of his Adepticon expeirences from 2012, 2013, and 2014.  Check them all out for minis painting inspiration.

Minis & Modeling Monday on MFWARS.com 

A look at prepping and painting Miniatures,
crafting buildings and paper Models,
and other non-terrain stuff for the tabletop..

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Handmade Butteflies and Moths by Yumi Okita

Artist Yumi Okita makes the most wonderful Handmade Textile Butteflies and Moths and they are featured in a pictorial article over on booooooom.com.  Clearly these works of art are a bit too cost-prohibitive to use as mounts for miniatures in a tabletop game situation, but imagine taking one of these fine pieces and strapping a howdah on its back then adding a few halberd-wielding warriors.  It would certainly make for a spectacular table game!

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Systems Saturday - Bremerhaven (2013)

I played a game that was new to me yesterday called Bremerhaven (2013).  I guess this one caught a little flack when it came out because some folks assumed from the artwork on the box and the theme that it would be very much like Le Havre (2008) and it isn't.  Both revolve around the action of a seaport but from there the two games diverge significantly.  I'll say right now that I enjoy both.  I've played quite a bit of the latter and will certainly play Bremerhaven again as well.  As described on Board Game Geek:

Bremerhaven is a clearly structured but complex economic game about the famous harbor town in the north of Germany. Each player builds his own unique harbor and tries to reach the highest combination of money and prestige by the end of the game.

Each round, players are trying to get the most influence on the action fields they want to use. Since you place your influence cards face down, you have to watch closely what the other players might want to do. (You can even place more than one card on one spot.) The options are varied: Get a new ship with new goods into your harbor, close a new contract, change the values of the four different goods, improve your influence card-hand, expand your harbor, buy a new building, or simply rise in the nautical ranks to get more money. But you have to be careful: Every ship and every contract will stay in your harbor only for a short while. (The transporters and trains are waiting!) If you fail to coordinate the incoming and outgoing goods, you might have to pay penalty for not fulfilling a contract!

Bremerhaven ends after a defined number of rounds, and the rules include both a short version and solo rules.

Improving your influence cards as early as you can is crucial to the ongoing accumulation of influence and securing building rights each turn is a necessity.  The only question for the latter is how best to utilize those rights and strategies can seemingly be fairly diverse: expand your harbor, acquire buildings, or simply use the highest bid status to drain some funds from your opponents.  All are valid reasons to bid high for those rights.  Wealth is a huge deal in the game as it multiplies with your influence total at the end to give you your final victory points.  It's likely you can do well in this game if you can avoid getting into too many bidding wars for incoming ships/goods and for contracts.  It's also seemingly wise to try and time your contract to come to fruition at moments when you have little competition in that regard so you can attempt to adjust the prices of goods and get the lion's share for them.  The game really is all about the timing in many regards and it appears to be a game where you can increase your mastery of that timing with repeat playing, regardless of the randomness of cards: ships, contracts, buildings, and events.  Those factors are important in each game but the overarching strategies will always be predicated on your own combining of those elements in a way that is well-orchestrated.

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A look under the hood of various Games, Rules and Systems.

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Tabletopper Friday - Belfort (2011)

Belfort (2011) is a game I've seen played at a few events I've attended in the last few years.  I've wanted to play but haven't managed to get in on a game until last weekend.  I had a blast.  It certainly helps that I have a great many fun friends with which to game but I'll give some credit to the game itself.  It is a challenging board game with a number of good strategies toward victory that don't, on first blush, appear to be too dependent on the missteps of other players.  However the tactics during play can certainly lead to obstacles, but they are obstacles one can hedge against with a bit of foresight.

We used the expansion and I played with two experienced players and two others who were new like myself.  Though one had played briefly years ago with the base game, so I am counting him as a virtually new player.  It's not only a resource management and worker placement game but one where turn order management requires some subtlety and planning, particularly regarding the expansion options.

Board Game Geek describes the game thus:

Put your Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes to work in the Village and Guilds of Belfort to collect resources and build up the city!

Elves collect wood from the forest while Dwarves collect stone from the quarry. An Elf and a Dwarf together can collect Metal from the mines, and either one can collect Gold. Build buildings in the five districts of the pentagonal city and hire Gnomes to run them to gain their special abilities. 

Belfort is a worker placement game with area majority scoring in each district as well as for each type of worker. Buildings give you influence in the districts as well as income, but taxes increase based on your score so the winning players will have to pay more than those behind! Manage your resources and gold well, choose your buildings wisely, and help build the city of Belfort!

  In future games I will have to make sure I not only have my taxes covered by can roll over some funds from turn to turn to keep more options available to me.  I'll also be mindful of getting a majority in one of the three races, Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes, so as to secure some continued points.  I think I was wise to secure one of the guild buildings early but acquiring a second might have stretched me a bit too thin in the early going.  All in all, a fun game I will gladly play again.

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Nostalgia Thursday - Warriors Of The Red Planet RPG

Eric Fabiaschi gives his impressions on his newly acquired copy of the Warriors Of The Red Planet a retroclone RPG system here.  I'm seeing a lot of good buzz on this one round the `net and am hoping to play in a game of it sometime in the next few months.  Let me know if you have a copy and, if you are in the area, have a seat open for me, please.

Nostalgia Thursday on MFWARS.com 

Focusing on the roots of current tabletop gaming
with an eye toward the last century and before.

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Wargaming Wednesday - History of the World (1991/2001)

History of the World is a wargame originally published by Ragnar Brothers in 1991 then Avalon Hill in 1993.  The version I have played most is the 2001 Hasbro edition, reprinted and updated after they acquired Avalon Hill from Monarch Services/Monarch Avalon Printing in 1998.  The components of the Hasbro/AH version are wonderful but do give it more of a boardgame look which doesn't bother me in the least.  The Hasbro version still feels like a wargame to me.

A "Color Level Corrected History of the World Box Front"

is available on Board Game Geek here.

The game is mechanically rather simple but strategically complex.  Game Play is described on a wiki page as:

The game is played in seven rounds known as epochs. In each epoch, each player plays a different empire; at the end of the epoch, the empires stop expansion and players score points. New empires then rise for the next epoch, although the remains of the previous empires stay on the board and score points for as long as they remain unconquered. The majority of points come from presence and/or dominance of various regions (generically called "areas") of the world, which fluctuate in worth throughout the game. For example, the area of Northern Europe is worth more in modern times than in ancient times, while the area of the Middle East is worth more in ancient times, based on historical importance. Other points come from capitols of empires, cities in general, monuments, and fleets or navigation.  Inevitably, a limited selection of historical empires had to be chosen for inclusion in the game. In the newest version of the game, there are seven empires in each of the seven epochs.

Floyd, Keith, Wayne, and I got together in Wheeling, IL

In the several games I have played in the last year, I have found that a new approach needs to be taken in each epoch, almost completely based on which empire for that epoch becomes your own.  Due to the drafting element in empire acquisition, there is a mechanism in place for players to keep whoever is in the lead in check if they work together well.

But a front-runner can sometimes use the inclination to quell him to his advantage by capitalizing on the success of a previous epoch with quick scoring if opponents leave that door open to him.  I've had this opening in two games I have played and managed to turn my purposeful over-extension of forces in both cases into a double payoff in victory points in successive epochs.  Managing just one or two other decent victory point levels in less successful epochs can make the running point total very difficult to overcome, provided some good choke points are established and the damage dealt to opponents is spread around judiciously, more or less evenly.

Playing events at the right time is crucial.  With three Greater Event Cards and seven Lesser Event Cards in the arsenal of each player, and the ability to play any two each epoch, there are four out of fourteen opportunities that need to go wanting.  You really have to trust your gut on whether to hang on to a particular leader card until later or jump on the chance to take an advantage in battle early.  Playing a Minor Empire card in a turn where you feel you'll get to score twice in a quick turnaround can really pile on the VPs.  Playing a different Minor Empire at a time when you think it will be allowed to remain for a few epochs, while achieving little else that epoch, is sometimes the subtle but best play.

Slipping a few troops into areas that aren't valuable early in the game is a worthwhile notion.  On more than one occasion, I have had some troops from the first turn wind up helping me gain Dominance or even Control of a late-blooming area, thus getting the lion's share of points on a late scoring round even when given weak empire cards.  As with any game that has dice, there is some degree of luck involved.  But, as the saying goes, Fortune Favors the Bold, so expand, expand, expand, knowing full well that the empires will rise and fall and grabbing the victory points that can be had in the moment often sets up a potential victory with even average dice rolling.

Wargaming Wednesday on MFWARS.com 

A closer examination of board and miniatures Wargaming.

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Terrain Tuesday - Polystyrene/Styrofoam Terrain with the Terrain Tutor

Over on the Terrain Tutor YouTube channel, from last October, there is a fairly complete beginners video tutorial on "A guide to using Polystyrene (Styrofoam) to make wargaming scenery."  Mel's been at making terrain videos about a year and this is an early one but quite useful.  He's got a couple dozen at this point and it's a good channel to add to your terrain making subscription list.  Enjoy!

Terrain Tuesday on MFWARS.com 

For purposes here, the term Terrain is used broadly
to cover 3D and 2D maps, foam, felt, and such.

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Minis & Modeling Monday - Painting an Attack on Titan Warhammer Giant

What a wonderful painting tutorial put together by Doctor Faust of The Painting Clinic YouTube channel as he is "Painting an Attack on Titan Warhammer Giant."  Enjoy!

Minis & Modeling Monday on MFWARS.com 

A look at prepping and painting Miniatures,
crafting buildings and paper Models,
and other non-terrain stuff for the tabletop..

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The Sunday Miscellanea - A Grand Unified Theory of Boardgamery

Over on the Big Game Theory blog, there is a recent article on the pursuit of a "Grand Unified Theory of Boardgamery."  Read more here!

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not covered elsewhere or wanting a particular focus.

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Systems Saturday - Homesteaders (2009) Revisited

For the last two Fridays, I have had the chance to try out a game from 2009 called Homesteaders from Tasty Minstrel Games.  I've enjoyed both times I've played and have managed to improve my score from the first game to the second.  I blogged about this game last Saturday here and thought it might be nice to do a quick followup blog.

It is noteworthy that we had four players instead of three, so there was an additional auction block available.  This makes vying for them slightly different but neither easier nor more difficult, as far as I could tell.  There is a bit more competition for the various properties but there are so many of them I am not sure that makes much difference.  The Bank property which allows removal of Debt, as well as the Circus which is a 10 point card (there are also a couple of 8 point cards) seemed like a huge deal in my first game but I am thinking less so.  They can be the center of one strategy or another but need not be part of every strategy.

I stayed sheepish about Debt and managed to get rid of all but one (one victory point lost, compared to losing four points for two, losing nine points for three, etc.).  Debt, however, didn't feel as important this time around.  Perhaps my eyes weren't so wide, so I wasn't as anxious to purchase properties that might have incurred Debt.  Or maybe because I got a decent score in my first time playing and managed the Debt well enough I no longer felt compelled to worry.  I've played some games where I have pushed the limits of what can be done with taking on Debt and have yet to see a game where you can break that mechanic.

This time around I made a concerted effort to gain an average of four Victory Points per turn and wound up averaging nearly five VP per turn.  To do so, I decided to be snapping up VPs every turn I could, provided it didn't cause me to be doing absolutely no other things.  I still bought properties, I made trades sometimes when flush with Trade Markers, just to gain a VP or two.  In Kingsburg, folks know me as the player who rarely passes up the #1 spot for a victory point.  I played Homesteaders in a similar fashion and Tom even commented on my strategy immediately upon gathering a VP on the first turn.  "Leave it to Mark to do something different than the rest of us on turn one."  But perhaps that is how this strategy happened to win.  Maybe it isn't because it is such a good strategy on its own but only in conjunction with strategies from other players who are doing something that does not restrict it overly?  Time will tell.

All in all, I could see myself playing this game on a regular basis.  We'll see how I feel after a handful more times with Homesteaders (2009).

Systems Saturday on MFWARS.com 

A look under the hood of various Games, Rules and Systems.

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Tabletopper Friday - Can't Stop by Sid Sackson

There is a wonderful dice game, called Can't Stop, that some friends of mine and I play fairly regularly.  It's a Sid Sackson design, has very simple rules, and has been under the banner of a nearly a dozen game companies over the decades, including Parker Brothers, Asmodee, and Gryphon Games.  It debuted in 1980 but, on eBay or Amazon, you'll still shell out $20-30 for a complete version of it, depending upon the condition.  I hear the industrious among us might luck out and find one at a thrift store for a couple of dollars.  I keep my eyes open.  The Board Game Geek description runs as follows:

In this Sid Sackson classic, players must press their luck with dice and choose combinations tactically to close out three columns. The board has one column for each possible total of two six-sided dice, but the number of spaces in each column varies: the more probable a total, the more spaces in that column and the more rolls it takes to complete. 

On their turn, a player rolls four dice and arranges them in duos: 1 4 5 6 can become 1+4 and 5+6 for 5 & 11, 1+5 and 4+6 for 6 & 10, or 1+6 and 4+5 for 7 & 9. The player places or advances progress markers in the open column(s) associated with their chosen totals, then chooses whether to roll again or end their turn and replace the progress markers with markers of their color.

A player can only advance three different columns in a turn and cannot advance a column which any player has closed out by reaching the end space; if a roll doesn't result in any legal plays, the turn ends with that turn’s progress lost.

We recently developed a variant on this old favorite whereby someone can use the dice in any combination, even utilizing several singularly to advance a progress marker three spaces.  We tried this to attempt a faster game but found it didn't play a whole lot faster though it did play differently.  Rather than the inside columns being claimed early, more focus was placed on outside columns.  This leaving aside the 2s column and 12s column which get claimed as quickly as possible in either game.

Keep your peepers pealed for this one round secondhand stores in your neck of the woods.  It's a fun game to play and a complete game one, even in standard-used condition, can turn a few bucks for you online, if you so desire.

Tabletopper Friday on MFWARS.com 

Mostly about card games and board games,
unless they have a decidedly wargamey feel.

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