Minis & Modeling Monday - Goobertown Paint Stripping

Over on the Goobertown Hobbies YouTube channel, a video from September 9, 2018, Brent tests out 6 different paint stripping methods here.

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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Terrain Tuesday - Tabletop Workshop YouTube Modular Boards Series

Over on the Tabletop Workshop YouTube channel earlier this year, they posted a four-part series (pt1, pt2, pt3, & pt4) on customizing modular game boards.  Enjoy!

Terrain Tuesday on MFWARS.com 

For purposes here, the term Terrain is used broadlyto cover
3D tabletop pieces made from foam, felt, and other materials.

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Wargaming Wednesday - Biggest Tabletop Wargame Ever

The University of Glasgow is hosting an event this weekend that is being touted as the "biggest ever historical table top war game" though, technically, I suppose some might prefer it be called a floor game.  Read more here!

Wargaming Wednesday on MFWARS.com 

A closer examination of board and miniatures Wargaming.

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Minis & Modeling Monday - Snits Revenge Scaled Up!

Over on David Wood's Dear Tony Blair blog from six years ago, he recounts his experience at the 2013 Salute gaming convention where a scaled up version of Tom Wham's Snits Revenge was being used.  I've borrowed a couple of his pics but there are several more so follow the link to his excellent blog.  Very cool!

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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Systems Saturday - Battling Space Ships by Tom Wham

Brad and I joined Tom Wham for a game of Battling Space Ships.  Recently, Dave Conant took the rules Tom has been tweaking for a while and gave them the Game Crafters treatment, so Tom would have a prototype.  Tom was quick to point out this one wasn't really quite ready but I found it to be pretty well complete.  A couple of clarifications and some physical component adjustments, along with an art upgrade, and this one will be good to go, I think!

In Battling Space Ships, each player builds a number of ship in their dock attempting to send them out on cargo runs, send them to disrupt the cargo runs of other players, or to engage in space piracy in the shipping lanes against random deck-drawn ships.  Each turn, a player collects for cargo shipped the previous turn then draw cards face up from the main deck up to the number of players plus one.  The active layer then selects a card from the cards drawn as do the rest of the players in clockwise order.  All players may they build or upgrade any ships in the space dock.  Finally, the active player may choose to send any of his completed ships on a cargo run or out to battle.  Once someone builds three complete ships, the active player finishes their turn and the round is over, so victory points are tallied.  A game consists of two rounds.  Ship size gleans victory points, as does the number of ships and some special ship parts give bonuses.  These add to whatever was gained from cargo runs and battling during turns (which are scored right away) and the highest score wins.

Systems Saturday on MFWARS.com 

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

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Tabletopper Friday - Lake Geneva May 2019 Tabletopping

As May 2019 comes to a close, I find myself at Nexus Game Fair, which is now in Brookfield, WI.  I think this will prove to be a good move for this convention.  I've been unable to go for more than a day the last couple of years but worked out some vacation time to go for a little longer this year but more on that next week.  For this post, I want to just look back over a few of the games I played that I didn't highlight along the way.  for a few of them, I didn't get pictures but I'll be more attentive next time, I hope.  Earlier this week, Jesse broke out his newly acquire copy of Machi Koro (2012).  It's a fast, little card game with some interesting challenges, an engine-building component, and just enough ways to mitigate the dice rolling aspect to keep it from feeling like you need to be lucky to win.  Granted, being lucky can help but it can be overcome by solid strategy, so I enjoyed it.  I guess Anthony, Rick, Jesse, and I owe some thanks to Dennis for putting it in the Blind Auction for Jesse to win.

We got Rise of Augustus (2013) back to the table early this month.  I like to call this Roman Bingo.  It's amazing how tense it can get hoping your needed symbol is drawn from the bag before someone else gets what they need.  Great fun!

I've already mentioned Architects of the West Kingdom (2018) in other posts and I played it a lot the last couple of months but I don't doubt I will play it more throughout the summer.  It's a clever game but I think it is going to need some expansions to keep it fresh beyond a few more plays.  In this instance, we were happy Tom's longtime friend Mike Bell was in town to join us.  Don't ask him what the "A" on his hat stands for because it seems to change with some frequency.  Later in the month, but before getting in that game at the Pizza Ranch, Tom, Brad, and I knocked out yet another game of Architects!

There was also a good deal of Love Letter, Magic the Gathering, Stone Age, and more squeezed in at one time or another but it's time to gear up for a lot of boardgaming and card play at Nexus Game Fair, so I say, So long," to May and look forward to gaming in June.  Go, Cubbies!

Tabletopper Friday on MFWARS.com 

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

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Nostalgia Thursday - Fief: France 1429 (2015)

Of course, I've played and posted about Fief: France 1429 (2015) before but it feels like forever since I've played so when I managed to wrangle a Sunday off so I could join Wayne and the gang at A Gathering of Gamers at the Elkhorn Pizza Ranch on Third Sunday, and when he further decided Fief was hitting the table, I jumped to grab one of the open seats.

The reason this under Nostalgia Thursday is because it is based on a game that was first published as Fief (1981), revised and republished as Fief 2 (1989), trotted out again as the revised and streamlined Fief (2011), then finally upgraded and published in its current rendition.  I'll describe our Fief game a bit more toward the end of this post but first allow me to recap some of what else what played at A Gathering of Gamers in May.

When I arrived just after 11 am, Wayne had Francis Drake (2013) ready to go with Curtis, Creed, and Rob.  I've never had much luck with this game, so I didn't jump in on it and opted to join some others for an early game of something else, planning to rejoin that table for Fief in the second half of the day.

Instead, my day began with a game of Architects of the West Kingdom (2018), which I've played quite a bit lately but still enjoy quite a bit.  I played with Tom Wham along with Julie and Chris who I love gaming with whenever I can.  They're both tough opponents whether we play something we've played before or even something new to them!

Robie had a crew playing Clank! In Space! (2017) which I have yet to play but looks like a lot of fun.

Rich, Carl, and John joined one another for some Root (2018) which John can't seem to get enough of.

Laura, Nancy, Joe, James, and Brad were adding in some tech to a game of something, perhaps, Cthulhu-esque, or maybe horror-oriented, I am not sure.

Wendy presented a mystery game to Harold and company a bit later but first played some Power Grid (2004).

But, finally, Wayne got Fief: France 1429 (2015) to the table and I crowded Wayne's opening position to pressure him into an early alliance.  My penchant for only drawing female nobles, and the lack of them early on elsewhere in the game, helped me convince him to wed one of his lords to my first lady.  Because he also had military pressure from the far side of the board, he never thought it would suit him to break our alliance, and we wound up with a shared victory.  Creed and Curtis both played great for their first time but were severely hindered by bad dice rolls both during conflicts and when resolving events.  I think their lead units were either decimated by famine or stymied by bad weather two out of every three turns.  It left Wayne and me the opportunity to build a tremendous economy in the west and top out our armies, then seize the throne for a final victory point.  It was a trial by fire for those two fellas and I dare say they will be out for blood when next we meet.

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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