Thinking Outside the Box

So I had to make a trip up to the big UPS depot on Friday afternoon to pick up a package.  I wasn't certain what it was, although it really could only have been a 50/50 choice between two items.  While I was thinking (and sort of hoping) that it was my shipment of gaming mats from Zuzzy Mats , that wasn't the case.  Of course my disappointment was short-lived, as the alternative wasn't too shabby either: my huge Empire of the Dead order from the previous week! After paying the import duties and taxes from UPS the price of all this lovely stuff ended up being, less than stellar but let's forget about that for now and dive into things a little bit more. This particular batch of metal, paper and plastic was ordered directly from West Wind Productions based in the UK.  Until recently I'd honestly never heard of them, but apparently they're producing some other miniatures games that have been quite well received of late. In addition to current games, t...

I really enjoy the locally-developed miniature game  Strange Aeons, which is probably no secret by now.  I was able to play a 4-player game at last week's club night with the "Old Man" scenario.  We had two players on each side and the lurkers were able to get away with the information they pried from the old man, before mercilessly killing him. Seeing how much fun the lurker players were having I decided to download the beta test rules for Uncle Mike's in-development game Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten .  Don't worry, I can't pronounce it either, even though I am 99.9% sure it's German.  According to the text on the front of the book it means "Of Unspeakable Cults". After returning home from work I sat down to read through the rules and make up two starting cult lists to give things a try.  I'll give some details of the game here, then follow it up with my thoughts afterward. The Game I rolled the "Fight" scenario and set up...

If you've been watching my blog for the past month or so you've seen that I've spent a fair amount of time on miniature gaming over my traditional card and board game focus.  Miniatures aren't a new realm for me, but on the grand scale they've generally not taken a huge portion of my gaming time.  I've spent a lot of money on Warhammer 40k , and a decent amount on Hordes , but the amount of actual playing time with either of those games is decidedly small. Then comes along Strange Aeons and totally messes up my life. Besides rekindling my interest in miniature games in general, that simple demo of the game has had some much farther-reaching effects.  Here's a brief run-down: Copious New Miniatures Purchased In addition to all the official Strange Aeons figures I've picked up from UMW (Uncle Mike's Worldwide), I've also bought a lot of items from RAFM's Call of Cthulhu and Modern Heroes lines.  I also picked up 8 packs of figures fro...

It's taken me quite a while longer than I'd planned to finish up this particular post.  The 2.14 people out there who were waiting for it...please accept my apologies. Saturday morning didn't start as early as I'd planned.  The long Friday followed by the late night Magic tournament apparently took a greater toll on me than I'd anticipated; I slept through my alarm AND my brunch appointment with Jason and William.  I believe William did too, so we both owe Jason an apology...likely by means of paying for breakfast another day.  Now if only Jason actually had TIME to meet us these days. Waking up late actually ended up to be a positive thing, as I missed the long line ups at the door, as well as being just early enough to not get locked out by the fire marshals.  I strolled into the convention center with no line up, arriving just in time to make it to the next TNG panel with Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner and Levar Burton.  The panel was a lot of fun and you...

Yesterday evening was an interesting turn of events.  If I'm feeling social I will sometimes invite a few friends over to play board games.  With the nice weather I wasn't planning to do so, but one of my friends called shortly before dinner-time.  We ended up going to grab a quick bite at my favorite local restaurant, enjoying a beer and some sunshine before rolling some dice. Upon Seb's suggestion we decided to play a game of Strange Aeons . This would actually mark the first time a miniature game was played on my gaming table in over a year, as well as being a first for using some of my newly created terrain and  all of my recently painted miniatures. We rolled up the scenario Escape...Into Danger , with Sebastien playing the Lurkers (6 cultists - a leader, three with knives, one double-barrel shotgun, and a tommy gun).  I fielded my Threshold list (Carl Selinger: character with rugged and a double-barrel shotgun, Elizabeth Montrose: agent with heroic and...