Hello there !

New pre order for Middle Earth
Key Features
Two new heroes to add to your Minas Tirith army
Includes three resin miniatures
Heroic wardens who help to keep the lands of Gondor secure

38€

Pre order :
https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-EU/Wardens-of-Gondor-2018

Rules :
https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/resources/fw_site/fw_pdfs/Hobbit/Wardens-of-Gondor.pdf

Hello everyone !

Ban list and Restricted list added to Organised Play rules.

Restricted

No more than 5 cards from this list :

UNIVERSAL – OBJECTIVES
Advancing Strike (Shadespire #234)
Alone in the Darkness (Shadespire #235)
Change of Tactics (Shadespire #243)
Defensive Strike (Shadespire #252)
Escalation (Shadespire #257)
Extreme Flank (Nightvault #317)
Fired Up (Nightvault #319)
Loner (Nightvault #342)
Perfect Planning (Shadespire #280)
Precise Use of Force (Shadespire #284)

UNIVERSAL – GAMBITS

Earthquake (Shadespire #321)
Illusory Fighter (Shadespire #332)
My Turn (Shadespire #343)
Pit Trap (Nightvault #436)
Ready for Action (Shadespire #348)
Trap (Shadespire #369)
Twist the Knife (Shadespire #372)

UNIVERSAL – UPGRADES

A Destiny to Meet (Shadespire #373)
Awakened Weapon (Shadespire #376)
Helpful Whispers (Shadespire #393)
Incredible Strength (Shadespire #395)
Shadeglass Dagger (Shadespire #410)
Shadeglass Hammer (Shadespire #412)
Slumbering Key (Nightvault #539)
Soultrap (Shadespire #420)
Tethered Spirit (Shadespire #424)

Banned cards

Great Concussion (Shadespire #329)
Quick Thinker (Shadespire #347)
Time Trap (Shadespire #368)

https://whc-cdn.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/warhammer-underworlds-restricted-cards-en.pdf

Deck Builder

Some of you might already be familiar with UDeck – a free online deck builder made by Warhammer Underworlds fan Josiah. We loved what Josiah had built, and we quickly decided that it deserved a permanent home on the Warhammer Underworlds website.

We’ve been working with him for the past several months to create a fantastic interface that will allow you to quickly make decks (including the new Banned and Restricted List rules above), save them and print them.

The result of these efforts is Deck Builder.

https://warhammerunderworlds.com/deck-builder/

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello there !!

GW published this message on the community website

We’ve now started work on the General’s Handbook 2019 – and we’d love to hear from you. We want your thoughts on matched play points – in particular, the units you think should cost more or less. We playtest Warhammer Age of Sigmar relentlessly and love our dedicated team, but the game system is huge, so your feedback is essential, as well as being highly likely to influence the final book. If you’re looking to take part, make sure to do so in the next two weeks – after that, we’ll be taking time to go through everything you’ve sent us.

Go there : https://www.facebook.com/GWWarhammerAgeofSigmar/

/Cheers.
Bob.

Just sharing. We fought and they delievered. Weapon upgrades - coming early 2019!

Regards,
Lady Atia

Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Weekender

Become part of the story on Vigilus at the Warhammer 40,000 Weekender! The embattled sentinel world stands guard at the mouth of the Nachmund Gauntlet – the only stable route through the Great Rift – and its strategic importance is all but unrivalled. Come and join in the fun as Warhammer World plays host to an exciting celebration of the latest seismic events that are taking place in the 41st Millennium. Here’s what you can look forward to:

Saturday 24th November 2018 – Open Day

Seminars:

Studio Area:

Demo Area:

Licensee Stands:

Black Library Meet & Greet:

Open Hobby Area:

And last, but not least…

Golden Demon

The Events Hall, hosting the Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Open Day, will require a ticket for entry, but the stores, Exhibition and Bugman’s bar will all be open to visitors as usual.

Sunday 25th November 2018 – Vigilus Tournament

You can download the free event pack to learn more about it what lies in store here:

Tournament pack
https://s20889.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Vigilus-Tournament-Pack-1.pdf

Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Weekender Ticket
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/warhammer-40000-vigilus-weekender-ticket-tickets-51068782102

Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Open Day
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/warhammer-40000-vigilus-open-day-tickets-51068768060

Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Tournament
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/warhammer-40000-vigilus-tournament-tickets-51068788120

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello there !!

Wtf is this ?

What sort of horrible, spiky abomination could this belong to? Is it even flesh, or some sort of hybrid abomination of sinew and something…else?

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

Just sharing a sad one :

Stan lee, the writer, editor, and publisher who is responsible for lovable characters such as, Spider-Man, X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, and The Fantastic Four, Stan Lee, has passed away at the age of 95.

/Cry
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

A New warlord setup is coming soon !

You’ll be able to add a differently armed Warlord Titan to your maniples, with the release of a new version of the plastic kit, complete with a pair of Sunfury plasma annihilators – high-powered plasma weapons capable of burning through even Titan armour – and an optional Arioch Titan power claw, for those Princeps who want to get up close and personal. The kit also comes with a pair of carapace-mounted laser blasters and two choices of head.

Alongside the Warlord will be a new option for your Household Support Banners – Cerastus Knight Lancers. Armed with deadly shock lances and protected by ion gauntlet shields, these Knights come in a set of two, with various arm and head options. They’ll add speed and hard-hitting, close-ranged force to your battlegroup, and between their shields and improved carapace, they’re harder to kill than their Questoris brethren.

Also coming soon are a pair of resin Realm of Battle boards designed for Adeptus Titanicus: The Horus Heresy. Civitas District War Zone Alpha and Civitas District War Zone Beta both represent war-torn urban areas on Imperial worlds. They feature roads blocked by abandoned siegeworks, sculpted buildings, and areas to add plastic Civitas Imperialis scenery to personalise your boards.

All of these new additions to Adeptus Titanicus: The Horus Heresy will be available later this month – keep an eye out for more information. In the meantime, if you want to get started with the game, check out the Rules Set and existing miniatures, such as the mighty Reaver Titan and doughty Questoris Knights.

Everything Available later THIS MONTH (november)

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello there !!

The next set of made to order from 17Nov

-Gorthor The Beastlord

-Ghorros Warhoof

-Wargor Standard Bearer

-Pestigors

-Khorngors

-old metal Warhounds

+

A pdf Beast Battletome for narrative and Open play

That Hype !!

/Cheers.
Bob.

Black stone Fortress Play Test :

Hello everyone !!

Yesterday we played Blackstone Fortress, doing the first mission of the campaign. I say first but all mission are randomized so it's not the same start for everyone. Before saying what i think of the game i am going to do a short review of the material and a quick explaining on how the game works. I'll try to keep it short as a lot of content is already available on the gw community website and on Blackstone fortress website

Content of the box

The box is really heavy for the size. It's jam packed with models, hextiles, cards, books.

The models

9 adventurers models, 2 bad guys sprues with on each : 6 Guardsmen, 2 Urghul, 2 beastmen, 2 drones, 1 CSM, 2 psychers, 2 negavolt cultists, twice ! And 1 Chaos lord sprue (amazing model )
That's a total of 44 models.

The models themselves are all push fit, the quality is awesome. The new CSM lord is incredibly well detailed. My favorite are the new traitors guardsmen, these are incredible good models. The adventurers are also great, the production is of great quality. But that no surprise knowing GW. I'd say it's even getting better as they get experience with push fit release.

Stuff

Books

The box contains 5 booklets full of rules, background and construction guides for the miniatures:

- A 16-page Rules booklet: this walks the player through games of Blackstone Fortress from setup to exploration, with explanations of special rules and a quick reference guide;
- A 16-page Combat booklet: this contains all the rules for resolving combat during games, with easy to follow annotated examples and a quick reference guide;
- A 24-page Precipice booklet: this details the actions that occur between expeditions, with your explorers resting and rejuvenating;
- A 24-page Background booklet: this provides details on the Fortress, the explorers and the hostile forces they face;
- A 16-page booklet of datasheets for using the included miniatures in games of Warhammer 40,000.

Gaming Content

The box also contains everything you need to set up and play a game of Blackstone Fortress, including:

- 40 double-sided board tiles to create the internal labyrinths of the Blackstone Fortress;
- 234 gaming cards;
- 9 Stasis Chambers – safe places for characters to rest between explorations;
- A Databank and a Hidden Vault;
- 70 markers;
- 28 dice.

Honestly everything is perfectly produced.
Included also, large number of plastic zipper bags for storage and game continuation. There are 2 versions of these bag, one for packing (usual transparent bag) and one for each player to store his cards and stuff for the next game (with a cool logo on it)

If you want more details just take a look here :

https://warhammer40000.com/blackstone-fortress/

or

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-NZ/Warhammer-Quest-Blackstone-Fortress-2018-eng

Rules of the game

You can play with 1 to 5 players, but if you are five (we where 5 yesterday) one of them is going to be the bad guy. The rules are simple and close to silver tower game play.

How do you play

In a nutshell at the start of the game session you assemble a deck of 8 Exploration cards . Then you draw one and resolve it and so on until you bail/escape or die ^^
There is 2 types of exploration cards. Challenge and Combat
Challenge : Challenge are mini games that you resolve by rolling a few dice or something more manual like doing a tower with your dices. Take 5 to 15 minutes to resolves.
Combat : need to set up the map and models for a fight ! Take 35 minutes to 1h to resolve.

After each card resolution you can go home to the precipice to heal and buy stuff.

For more details check the play video with Becca, louise, andy, and Duncan on this website
https://warhammer40000.com/blackstone-fortress/

During a combat it's the same as in silver tower, you roll 4dices minus wounds and use them on actions.

Action resolution is not resolved with standard D6, now you have D6/D8/D12 with specials marking that grant 3 types of result : Nothing, Hit, Crit. It's super simple and effective. Reminded me of the FFG starwars RPG

What did I think of the game

As I said earlier, we played yesterday and we were 5. Off course I took the role of the bad guy to let them experience the PC side of the game.
4 aspects that i want to talk about : Game setting, Game mechanism, Being a player , Being the bad guy.

Setting up the game

The game is not too long to set up, but it's a bit tedious and you need a large table !

Lots of cards deck to arrange. Nothing serious but I think the box miss a plastic cards holder like in a lot of board game. Or an insert to sort cards as it became a bit messy especially when you have like 10 sorts of cards pile around the board.

Something like this would help a lot :

Off course this is not a deal breaker and you can order one in a minute on internet, but it's an aspect of board game making that gw can improve (and should ^^)

Another problem is setting the map after drawing a combat cards from the exploration deck. You have a bunch of double sided hex tiles all connected to form a maze-like combat zone. it's not that easy to do !

that's a bummer that tiles are not numbered and don't have any tag to set them up, you have to do it by eyes by looking at the card. It really slowed down the game, each cards could have a list of the tiles used and their numbers, an orientation mark on each tiles... All these little helpers are not mandatory but lots of really successful board games have them.

Apart from combat map deployment and cards sorting slowing down the game. Everything is well thought and work perfectly with the game.

State of the board when everyone was close to escape after fight number 2. Notice how the Eldar ranger is trying to get some extra loot^^ #Phatloot but #GreviousWound ^^

Mechanisms of the game

A few points :

Actions & actions dice : Like in Silver tower you rolls your action dice at the start of the round and use them to buy actions. If you rolls high you can use stronger options.
For example Ur-025 assault canon shoot once if you use a 1+ dice, twice with a 4+ dice and trice with a 6+ dice. Yesterday there was turn where he had two 6+ dice to use and shoot 6 times 'Dakkkkkkaaa'. Honestly the mechanism is solid, they improved it by making everyone roll at the same time.

Initiative : Another aspect that I really like is that at the start of the round we decide initiative (by shuffling the cards) then players can exchange initiative slot or even try to gambit (by spending a dice ) to swap their place with an enemy. Very fun and strategic.

Destiny dice : Bonus dice that everyone can use. It worked quite well on Silver tower and it's the same here.

Inspiration
If you slay stuff you can gain Inspiration points. Once you have 3 you become inspired. Inspired Explorers are a lot stronger !!. The only one that dont feel a big change is Ur-25 but it's because is already super strong. (but really super strong^^)

Cover Another great and effective mechanism. It simply reduce dice result by one step. It's strong and a really profitable advantage. Hence weapons ignoring cover are strong options to clear blockade (like the flamer on Pious)

Attack dice : excellent innovation by gw there, roll the special dice of the right colour and check result : 0 dot = failure, 1 dot = hit, 2 dots = critical. It's simple and effective ! Making a bunch of attacks for a guards unit is fast and don't slow the game.

The game as a player

The game is intended to be cooperative, so the focus is on the explorers. Everything is made for making you shine. Results spike, allow you to clear big room full of enemies and the defence dice make you quite sturdy especially if you are in cover.

From what the 4 players said, it was a super fun game, everyone made his best to get inspired (like in Shadespire you flip your cards and get better stat), loot clues and archeotech (that are in fact money)

Game balance seemed good but it was hard to threaten Ur-25 and Pious. Pious have a ability to put fire token on the ground and if enemy walk on it they get burned (it's super strong). And the robot is unstoppable ^^

So it's a super success for the player point of view (and it's the most important point !)

The game as the bad guy

As the controller of the inhabitants of the Fortress :

-You have little to no control on what do the NPC
-You have no control on when NPC group activate.
-Playing as the overlord is ok(ish) if it's the first time playing but after that the interest decrease rapidly ^^

Conclusion : Don't play with 5 peoples as the role of the Overlord is not interesting past the first fight.

On the other hand if you play in cooperative mode with no one handling the NPC : The experience work great. The behaviour tables are well made and the NPC pressure the PC effectively. If you are not Ur-25 it's scary to be attacked if you positioned poorly.

Cover mechanism coupled with behaviour table help create fire-fight and it's super fun. Until Pious take his flamer and start burning the world !

PC really need to weight their options as i think the game can be super punishing ^^
Ps : There are also 5, non randomized fight (look hard) that you must beat to win the game !

Finals Words

Blackstone Fortress is an awesome cooperative game, great mix between Board and rpg it's a big Improvement over Silver Tower. Every Explorers look interesting to play and all have multiple tactical choices. Even the Eldar ranger can do more than sniping from afar !!

The part were you buy stuff and plan the next mission is cool too as you can equip your explorer the way you want. Off course you gain power but the Fortress gain access to new villains and you are more and more scared of dying and loosing everything you have accumulated.

I just hope a future addon will add depth to the GM side !
Favorite boxed board game of GW

That's it for the BSF review

/Cheers.
Bob.