30 July 2016

July Update

What a crazy month it has been.  Amongst a range of work and work related travel, I managed to sneak in a week of holidays, travelling down to Melbourne with the Lad.  While there we caught up with long time gaming buddies Pete and Ken.  While at Ken's awesome Man Pad we sat down with the big box game Fortune and Glory.


Fortune and Glory is quite a fun game of classic pulp action: Indiana Jones, The Mummy, The Phantom etc.  We played a competitive version of the game (think Indiana Jones vs the French archeologist Belloch in Raiders of the Lost Arc) though there are rules for playing cooperatively to find the Secret Nazi base and other cool stuff like that


Naturally, cheesy quotes were a must on every turn (and every time sometime discovered a Nazi enemy, there were naturally obligated to say "Nazis. I hate these guys")

A fun game- not complex and with lots of great components in the massive box.  Because of its different modes and the way that different cards get put together to form the quests, it has a lot of deployability.

Highly recommended if you like Pulp action and this is the sort of game you can play for a few hours while chatting and enjoying a few adult beverages.  I understand there are a few expansions too, but I haven't seen those.

More detail here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/95103/fortune-and-glory-cliffhanger-game

21 July 2016

New Gladiators

While a match of Jugula requires precisely four Gladiators on each team, in the campaign setting a Ludus may have up to six Gladiators, allowing for recuperation from wounds between matches and some armature/type diversity in the stables.  My Ludus Caeruleus (Blue School) already boasts a Thraex, Retiarius, Murmillo and Provocatur (see here) but I wanted additional redundancy.  So behold the latest additions to my retinue, fresh from the painting table.
First up is Nemo the Secutor, a heavy class sometimes known as the Contra-Retiarius (Foundry figure).  I cursed Alan constantly as I expended an inordinate amount of time hand painting the shield, but such is the standard of our gaming group - use decals to your eternal shame!

Second is the Dimarchearius Rufus Fortis (Foundry figure) who hails from northern Gaul and wields two blades for maximum offence. And with that red flowing beard he is clearly a favourite of the Patrician ladies...


And for a bit of a change here is a casualty figure.  I decided not to tempt fate by painting him in the colours of Ludus Caeruleus and instead left him generic.  Jugula doesn't use casualty figures, but we want to try adding them as additional obstacles as Gladiators fall (and no attacking them, this is an honourable and glorious contest you know!)



While the campaign with Alan is continuing, thats probably going to do me for this Ludus.
I'm keen to go with a different mix of types in a new Ludus, and with a new colour scheme too!
The familia of Ludus Caeruleus pause from training to pose for a publicity lithograph

10 July 2016

KONFLIKT ‘47

I've been trying to limit my posts this year to reflect my own games and modelling, but this forthcoming Warlord release has me excited to get back to my WWW2 gaming.  Sounds like its more science based vice occult elements, but you can get your trusty Nazi Zombies into the fray!

Being based on the popular Bolt Action rules, it might also be a good catalyst to get some new blood into the Weird WW2 genre.  It available for pre-order now for an August release- see here

EDIT: Warlord have now also posted a Designer's Commentary here