New Year and what I hope to do...

 Well Friends 2020 is behind us, about fricking time! Now I sit here wondering what the new year will bring for my hobby, lets place some ideas here:

Model Railroading - Well I want to continue working on my layout and getting my modules up and running for the club I am with. So far this is looking very good as of today I was working on a few rollingstock just today, so that's a plus already. At the end on 2020 I got all the track laid and now I am sourcing wire to get it all wired up, my plan is to have the NCE DCC system working by the end of February. Modules should be up sometime in March, I just finished paying my buddy for them so I now can actually start working on those.

FoW/TY/FoN - Well I would like to get back to Flames and need to get inspired to finish up a few units for the game for each of my armies that I have. I know Drunken Samurai will be happy to see this as he is usually the one I play the most.

Kill Team/ Necromunda - I really love these games, and want to get them back on the table in the new year. I had plans for building a Inquistor based Kill team, I may get back to that, we shall see.

FFoL - I love the Fistful of Lead games, at the end of October I purchased the Starfighters rules as well as a couple of token sets for the various games. I knoe Wiley games is going to be working on a Big Stompy Robot version as well as a Samurai game, both I am waiting on pins and needles for. So if these come out I will be picking up the rules and doing some of both!

Pulp - I yreally love the pulp gaming scene and love Pulp Alley and wanted to get this back on the table. I backed the 2nd edition rules and have them, I have models, I have terrain, just need to play some games.

Gaslands - I really miss playing GL, I have to date built 50 cars, when you only really need about three cars! I have built some terrain and really need to get this back on the table. I love the game and really do miss racing around the wasteland and hope that I can get it back onto the table this year.

Warlord of Erehwon - This was another late comer last year and I really love this game as well, it scratches the itch for fantasy. I would love to get it back onto the table this year.

Bolt Action - Well I only got in a few games of Bolt last year, I really love it and want to play it more often. I bought terrain for South Pacific buildings and want to make an effort to get in more Pacific games this year with Drunken.

Black Powder - Well I want to get this back on the table and as I write this I am thinking of the new Epic scale warlord is going to come out with and I may jump on getting into it. Still have not decided yet, but I am thinking about it.

Stargrave - So, Osprey announced a futuristic game called Staregrave from the same author of Frostgrave. I am very interested in seeing this and if its any good may go out on a limb and purchase it, really depends on the state of affairs with the world.

So there you go, some hopes for 2021, we shall see how this rolls out.

TK

2020 in Review or lets get this year over with already!

So,

Its that time again for the end of year review, you can see the original post here. So lets see how we did: 

Kill Team – Well this was a success as I got my GSC cult finished, we played a bunch of games and had a good time with it. Necromunda also crept into the mix this year which once we started playing that Kill Team was left behind. Drunken Samurai and I struggle with using either Kill Team or Necromunda for I-munda, we still have not decided which is a better system to use! LOL

FoW – Well I started a Mid War Russian Tank army, got it painted up and played a few games. Then I switched to a Mod war German force and built and painted up a whole new force for that, got in more games with that. Then Drunken and I took the leap into Team Yankee, I took Russians and he took USA, split the starter box and played one game. Part of the reason for the stall was waiting for BF to get the new rules and expansion pack out for the Russians, I was able to get the new Russian cards, but that was about all I did with it.

Gaslands – Wow, Mike and I had huge plans for Gaslands, then Covid hit and squashed all those plans. I built cars (now have about 50!) and built a nice Canyon to race in, but as the Covid kept getting worse, the games became less. I think I got only one game in after Covid hit. The lack of games is really bumming me out about the game, I still love it, but agter building 50 cars and terrain, I can't do much with it.

Other Games - Well I did work on a few new things that I had not planned, Warlords of Erehwon saw my LotR orcs getting some new units and new/old figures. Played a few games, really like the system and how it plays and hope to get it back on the table.

Worked on Pulp stuff this year for Pulp Alley, got a lot of models painted, got new terrain but no games played. Also worked on stuff for Fistful of Lead, old west, gothic horror but once again could not play anything. I had planned on doing another Halloween game, but the scary monster called Covid stopped that dead.

I also finally decided to put my paint brushes down with Saguaro Painting Service, was a nice run of almost 10 years, but life made me realize that I am not getting any younger and its time I paint up my own toys. So I had one commission sitting completed for about 4 months but due to Covid, I could not get it to the owner locally. Another part was that most of my commission work was historical and Vallejo paints got hard to get and I did not want to try to match paint colors I used for years.

I have been on again off again working on my Model Railroad layout, but back in October a friend gave me his huge collection of locomotives and rolling stock. With this huge gift, I was back into Model Raillroading again and had no excuse to not be working on my stuff. I have found enjoyment working on it and even coaxed a fried, Drunken Samurai back into the hobby (wasn't hard to do). 

Lastly, I had set a goal to be more active with the blog last year I barely got through 13 post for all of 2019, which was a post a month, I wanted to do a better job and with this post it will be 68 for 2020. Part of the reason was I left Twitter and tried to stay focused on doing my own thing. Twitter became a a horrible place with politics creeping in to the tweats, I had to leave it behind. I am still on Fakebook, but trying to limit my time there as well. At least with my blog I can not worry about the negativity and just keep it to my interests.

So all I can say is get the F@$k Out 2020, here is hoping and praying that 2021 gets back to normal!

TK

Adepticon 2018 Recap

So,

I survived Adepticon 2018 and it was an interesting show to say the least. I flew out the Wednesday before everything started to help set up the CAV Strike Ops booth with the Talon Crew (Jon, Nate Luke and Myself). Jon of Talon Games had built a new booth for this show and it looked awesome! It was big, bright and full of all kinds of CAV Strike Ops love, what more could a CAV player want!

Another view of our Awesome Looking Booth!

Our goal was to make a splash with the booth and Jon and Nate would operate the booth while Luke and myself would run the big CAV Strike Ops game throughout the weekend. But do to some miscommunication with the Adepticon crew, they had scheduled the big game for a solid 6 hour block. We wanted it to be set up so that players could cycle into the game every two hours, that way folks could play in other games or attend classes. But with it showing for a 6 hour block, no one wanted to sign up for a 6 hour game. So instead we ran folks through demos of the game and kept score of the folks that did the most kills.

Large board for the Big Game/demos

As for Adepticon itself, it had a strange vibe to it this year, I really can't put my finger on it as to what felt different though. Maybe it was because I was in a different role this time as a vendor, maybe its been a few years since I last attended. But I did meet up with a bunch of friends that I have made throughout the years and it was also very good to catch up. I have always stated that Adepticon is a great place to build new friendships over our hobby.

Some of my haul this year!

Now, with being a vendor this time around, I had early access to the vendor haul, so once we got our booth set up, I started wandering around looking at all the cool vendors. Fantasy Flight was there in Force with all the Star Wars games including Legions that released while I was there. Two of the companies that I knew i would spend money with was Pulp Figures (which I did spend about $85.00 with!) and Knuckleduster Miniatures which I bought about $80.00 in minis from them. I also picked up a few Blood Eagle models from Footsore miniatures for myself and a few friends. I also picked up a few terrain items from Death Ray Designs for Drunkensaumari.

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza!

As mentioned above, I did get a chance to make the rounds and see a few games that were being hosted at the event. One in particular was the new Fallout miniature game. I couldn't get any good pictures due to the amount of folks around the table. It did look pretty cool, but I noticed that it uses specialty dice much like Fantasy Flight games for Star Wars. This seems to be a trend I am noticing in the game world. I also got to see the new Blood Red Skies WW2 game from Warlord, it looks interesting but with so many new games coming out, I really can't seem to get to excited about buying. There is just only so many games one can actually get to the table in a year and I am not sure I am ready to jump into a new game right now.

One last thing, Jon Walker of Talon Games and his two boys, Nate & Luke were awesome to be around all weekend. Jon seems to know most of the vendors and I got to meet and hang out with a few of them, especially Ed from Reaper (who owns the company). So it was rather interesting to hear how other vendors deal with this hobby of ours and I got to see behind the current of the game industry.

So overall, the show was good, not great like it had been in years past, but overall it was good. I do believe that Adepticon is changing as more big game companies come on board with Adepticon. It seems that this con is now looking to expand into the realms of Gencon status as it grows larger every year. So if you have never been to Adepticon, go, it is an experiance, but as a long time traveler to Adepticon, I may not be back for sometime. It really depends if Talon Games goes back and they need me for the trip to help out again. But I think my days of going as a gamer are just about done, it was still an expensive trip for me even with the help of Talon Games.

TK

A Tale of Two Kitties

So,

Last week Robert over at Drunken Samurai Painting Blog, pitched me an idea for a big game that he would like to do sometime next year. It is sort of a top secret game but what I can tell you, it will require a few tanks in 28mm and use the Bolt Action Rules (I'm not going to spill the beans just yet). So with that said, I needed to start picking up a few vehicles. About two months ago, I started selling off all my 1/48th scale armor kits and started to switch over to 1/56th vehicles to be more in line with 28mm figures.

One of the kits I picked up was the Rubicon Models Tiger I Ausf. E tank to replace my Tamyia Tiger. I love the Rubicon kits and have a few now, so it was a no brainer that I would have this kit. In fact I was so excited that once I got home, I built up the kit! Now with this secret project, I knew I was going to need another Tiger, but after talking to Robert, I decided to pick up the plastic Tiger from Warlord Games this past weekend.

So last night I had some free time, so decided to build up the second Tiger to see how it matches up to the Rubicon kit. Now I have to say, if your in the market for a Tiger model, either one of these great kits will work and you will be satisfied with the results. I will be reviewing each kit below, but hear me on this, both kits are very well done and I really can't say which one is better than the other.

So first up is the cost of each kit:

Warlord Games Tiger = $32.00
Rubicon Models Tiger = $37.00

Now you can get both of these kits cheaper if you go online, but these are the suggested prices for both.

Next up is assembly, the Warlord kit gives you two plastic frames, while the Rubicon comes with three plastic frames. Each kit took about 45min to put together. Now the Rubicon kit allows you to build three different versions (early, mid or late variants), while the Warlord only allows you to build a late version. The instructions for both kits are easy to follow and pretty straight forward if you have ever built any sort of model kits in the past.

Now it is worth noting that the Warlord kit comes with zimmerit paste already sculpted on, which the Rubicon has none.

Another thing you get with the Warlord kit is a commander figure, while the Rubicon kit dose not come with a commander. Now this is not a big deal, but it is always nice to have a figure to add to the tank. On the Rubicon kit, the tracks have no real detail to them but the Warlord kit has actual track detail (you can see the track links and such). Once again its a minor issue, but not it was something I noticed when I assembled the kits.

Overall size of the kits is pretty good, but the Rubicon kit is just a hair larger than the Warlord kit. I noticed it with the gun barrel sizes, the Warlord kit is shorter than the Rubicon kit (and we all know barrel length is important, sorry!). But overall you could easily run both of these kits together on the tabletop in the same platoon without seeing an issue.

One other thing I would mention is that the detail on the Rubicon kit seems much crisper than on the Warlord kit. I am talking about the molded on detail like the tow cables and track equipment rear deck detail. Its minor and once the model is painted it will not be an issue. Both kits do come with decals, although the Rubicon decals are the same ones you get with the Panzer III & Panzer IV kits, would have liked to seen a different set of decals. The Warlord model has a generic set of German numbers and cross' which is nice.

So which one is better? Well I don't know, both kits have their strong points and low points, but as I said at the beginning of the post, these are very small issues. With saying that, I like the Rubicon kit much better since I have the option to build three variants as opposed to one version. But I think I will be buying another Warlord kit for our super secret project since the Tigers would have zimmerit on them and I do not want to green stuff up the Rubicon kit. I hope this little review helps you with deciding on a Tiger to purchase. Stay tuned for painting these big kitties.

TK

From Down Under Comes a Package

So,

About a month ago wile I was surfing the blogs I follow, I came across a fellow blogger, Scott of Scott's Wargaming was looking for some LotR models. So I stepped up and sent him a care package from AZ. He was shocked at how much stuff I sent and some of the items I knew he would not be able to get (like a GitD Shirt!). Scott wanted to know how much he owed me, well I told him how about a trade instead of money. The catch was he had to surprise me with what he would send. I have been slowly collecting figures from friends so I told him to send me a painted figure. I left it up to him on what to send me and today, I got a package from New Zealand.

An Easter Package!

So above is the box and below is what greeted me from New Zealand, it is always interesting to look at newspaper from other parts of the world, yes I looked at the newsprint! Here is what the items looked like in the box.

Hmm, did he send food?

Inside the box on the right, were 6 stands worth of British 8th army figures as well as two 28mm figs.

8th Army and a few Reaper minis!

The figs were from Battlefront and these two below are from Reaper minis, on the left is a flesh golum and on the right is a plague zombie painted up by Scott.

Hmm Reaper Miniature

Next up is some British anti-tank guns from Battlefront that Scott started to paint, just need to finish up the guns on the trucks.

Ohh some anti tank guns!

Next up is a little air support, Scott sent one Typhoon for the 8tharmy.

Incoming!

And here is the big score from Scott, 8 old boxes of British 8th as well as two armored cars. The good thing is that these figures are all current and will get used! It is also nice to see the old Battlefront packaging as opposed to the current blisters.

A ton of British!

Lastly Scott include a nice little note giving me a detailed list of all the items.

A Note from Scott

So, there you go, a good deed returned. Scott is a awesome guy and I hope to one day be able to meet him in person and shake his hand, have a beer with and throw down some dice. Scott, if you ever make it to Phoenix, you have a place to say and a place to play some games, thanks man!

TK

All Is Quiet On New Years Day

So,

The first post of 2014 and as the title mentions, it is all quiet here at SPL (aka my game room). In years past I have always had folks over for gaming on New Years day, but not this year since it falls in the middle of the week. So I guess I should lay out my plans for gaming and modeling this year, these are not in any particular order, so here goes.

X-Wing - So I got a pretty good haul of stuff this Christmas and Robert and I have talked about getting this game onto the table. Being old enough to remember when I saw Star Wars in the Movie theater during its first release, I always wanted to do some sort of miniature gaming with Tie Fighters and X-Wings. So now after many many moons, that will happen. In fact, Robert and I got in 4 games of it on New Years Eve and we had a blast. Sadly my record of Win/Loss was a 1 -3, but this will change as I read up on the rules and play more games.

Flames of War- Well this is one game I will be returning to in a big way. It was the most played game for me in 2013 and 2012 and I do not see that changing for 2014! In fact I am getting excited about doing another campaign with Robert and a few others. We are looking at an Operation Market Garden or Operation Overlord. So that means I will be building a few more armies for FoW. I will also be playing in Shifting Sands 2014 in a few weeks and I want to play in more local tournaments. I played in one tournament in 2012 and 2013, this year I want to play in more than one. I am also thinking of running my own FoW event in 2014, but we will see how that one goes.

Pulp Alley - I love these rules and I love anything "Pulpy". Last year I ran a group game for some friends using the LotR rules, it worked but still did not feel right. I think Pulp Alley has everything I want in a rule set. So my goal is to run not one, but at least four Pulp Alley games. So I have some painting to do as well as planning in order to get in more games of this. Nice thing is that I will be taking a demo game of Pulp Alley to Adepticon in April, so I hope to hook a bunch more folks into playing it.

Legends of the Old West - Like last year, I want to get this game back to the table. Nice thing is that I am playing in a small tournament of LotOW at Adepticon this year. I recently got about a dozen Gorgon Studios old west figures that I plan to get painted up for the event, as well as do a review of them. With doing Old West, I want to finely get more of my old west building painted so I can play said game. Last year I sold my buildings to the local game store hoping that would get me to paint up what I have, but all it did was keep it on the back burner. So I hope to be doing some old west gaming in 2014.

Bolt Action - Well I am running a Bolt Action tournament in about a month and a half, so I will be working on terrain and figures throughout 2014. I don't see any new armies in the future, just painting up what I have and playing some more games.

Empire of the Dead - Well I want to get at least two factions completed for the game so I can demo the game for folks. I only got in a few games with my buddy Dave but I am sure more folks would get interested in it if they saw it out on the table. So I plan to get out and play more of this in the local shops.

Saga - Well, I played one game of this last year, liked it, but did nothing else with it, so I want to get in at least two games of this. My WAB Viking army is wanting to get out of their storage box and I can use figures from that for Saga.

Adepticon - Well I am going back to Chicago for this awesome game event, I will be running a Bolt Action tournament, playing in the LotOW tournament, helping my buddy run a Legends of the High Seas event as well as play in a few Gladiator games using the LotR rules. I will also be playing in a the Sons of April game this year since it is using the LotHS rules.  I also plan to do my usual blog coverage of this event and I am looking forward to seeing some old friends. John & Jamie owe me a dinner!

Gathering in the Desert - Well as I mentioned, GitD is back on and this year it is Warlords Bolt Action. I want this event to stand out over the other Bolt Action events with the way it runs and looks. So I have my work cut out for me in the next month.

Black Powder - Well we are all planning on doing some Nappy games for BP and I want to get at least a brigade of French ready for the game. I also want to get my Confederate Brigade completed. Some tall orders since I have nothing painted or even assembled yet. But BP is a cool group game and I love playing it with folks.

So there you go folks, this years plan, I hope to due better than last year. My biggest goal is to stay focused on these goals and do not let myself get distracted. So it will be interesting to see just how well I do this year. Good Luck to me, because I will need it!

TK

A Look Back at 2013

Well,

The end of the year is almost upon us and it is that time to look back and see what we did here at Cursed Treasures, first a look at what the goals were for 2013.

Bolt Action will be getting a ton of play since it is now my favorite WW2 28mm. I will be doing a challenge with three other buddies starting on New Years day so stay tuned for that. I also plan on working on terrain to go along with the WW2 gaming.

So I did very well with Bolt Action this year, I got in a ton of games and had a lack luster game record of 4-6-4. The Paint Challenge for 2013 was to paint up 1000 points of my US Airborne and I ended up painting my whole force. The funny thing is that I had these particular figures for well over 5 years, but I finally got them all painted up. I also decided to to run another Gathering in the Desert event which will be for Bolt Action in 2014. So I have been trying to build the local community for the event and we will have another great event. So all in all, I would say I did very well with Bolt Action this year.

A Black Powder American Civil War game that Robert got to the table this year has got me committed to building a brigade of Confederates for another game. 

 So, we got in two large games of Black Powder ACW and my goal was to build a Confederate Brigade, well that did not happen. I picked up four boxes of Perry Miniatures to build my Brigade, but I only got four figures built and no painting done. So I would say I didn't do to well this year, but there is always next year.

There has been talk of doing Hail Caesar games and since I have a Mongol army and a viking army just sitting, this could become reality rather soon. Seeing how Bolt Action and Black Powder are great games, I am sure HC will be as well.

I only got in one game of Hail Caesar this year over at a friends house. We did a large ancient game in 15mm, other than that, nothing else was ever done with HC. We are still talking about playing it, but it will depend on me getting the rules and doing something. So this goal was an epic fail!

I am looking at still doing some Old West and the inspiration is coming from a PS3 game, Red Dead Redemption. I got this video game for Christmas and it is giving me the itch to do some old west gaming. I am going to be play testing a friends Old West game so this will be perfect for this year.

Well other than playing Red Dead, there was no Old West gaming at all. I did get two of my Old West buildings painted, I just need to paint up about 15 more buildings and I will be good for terrain on the Old West Front. Now in 2014 I will be playing in a LotOW tourney at Adepticon, but nothing for 2013, so fail here.

Flames of War will be back this year since just today my buddy Robert just got a cool scenic piece that looks like Anzio. So perhaps we will get our act together and finally play a campaign using the FoW rules. Regardless we will be getting back to 15mm WW2.

So, Flames of War was huge this year, I had a great game record of 13-11-1, which is good since that was 25 games total for the year. That means that FoW was the most played game for me this year. I started a couple of new armies and finished up a few old armies. I played in my second FoW event and actually placed 4th out of 12 players, which is awesome. I also spent most of my hobby budget on FoW this year as well. So the FoW goal was a huge success and I can easily say that FoW was the game of the year.


So that was the goals of 2013, lets look at what else I did for 2013.

Pulp, I purchased a bunch of Pulp items this year, Pulp Alley rules, new Pulp Miniatures and I acquired some great buildings for pulp games. Pulp is one of those fall back periods that I really love and am always working on. In fact I think about Pulp gaming all the time, I know I will be continuing this trend into the new year.

Empire of the Dead, I did some work on figures for this game and got in a couple of games, but other than that, not much else happened. I know a few of my friends have the rules, but there has not been much interest in getting onto the table. I think it is because those that have the rules are busy playing something else and we are just all too busy to get this one to the table. But I will still work on figures from time to time since I like the idea of the game.

I had high hopes for this game and I purchased miniatures and the rulebook, but shortly after I bought the rulebook, they announced that they are going to do another rulebook with a new addition. That killed it for me, I will either sell off what I have, or at least paint up the minis. I am just burnt out with game companies changing their rules within a few years.

Hmm, another rule set and models that were purchased, but besides reading the rules and looking at models, nothing else happened. I did get in a game with a few guys and another friend actually got his stuff painted, but once again nothing else happened. The local scene has moved away from the game, which is strange, since there are a lot of players here in the valley.

So there you go, my 2013 year in review, what does 2014 hold, well that will be another post. You may be able to guess a few goals, but stay tuned...

TK

Jolly Joe Studios

Well,

I am on a blog posting kick, three posts within a few days, I must be trying to get my post count before the end of the year. Anyway tonight I would like to shine a little the spot light on another painter who has just started up his own paint studio, Jolly Joe Studios. Joey of Jolly Joe Studios is an up and coming painter which I have known for at 5 years now. Now when he first started painting 5 years ago or so, he was like most 11 & 12 year olds, pretty bad. But he has been painting everything and anything he can get his hands on and he has advanced to a level that is now worth of most paint studios. Well after seeing his latest work, I went ahead and had him paint something for me since I am way too busy to paint for myself.

My instructions were pretty simple, I want these guys to look like the Medjai from the Mummy movie. I also told him to throw in some red. Well I got the figures back yesterday and here they are. I did the base work myself, but everything else is Jolly Joe Studios painting..

So there you go, I think he knocked it out of the park. Oh and these were at his mid to high end work. I can't wait to see what his work looks like 5 years from now! So if your looking for a good painter, I highly recommend Jolly Joe Studios.

TK

Perilous Island Review

Wow,

It has been a while since I posted, I need to get better at that, but it is funny how life gets in the way of hobby stuff. Any how, tonight I am doing a little review of a supplement for Pulp Alley. Now, before I get started on the review, I have to inform you folks that I was given this supplement free and that I also helped with a couple of the scenarios for play testing, so I may have a slight bias. I just wanted to get that out there so folks know where I am coming from, now onto the review!

So, what is Perilous Island anyway you ask, well glad you asked. Perilous Island is the first in many supplements for Pulp Alley and is written by David Phipps and Robert Fisher. Perilous comes in at 45 pages and has the same great layout as Pulp Alley. The first 14 pages cover some new rules (Weird & Amazing) as well as some new abilities and perks. The neat thing with the new rules is that you can do some pretty cool characters and Terrors (which can be super bad guys). The Terrors rule allows you to build a wide variety of bad guys with cool abilities which are able to take on whole leagues. Picture the Mummy, Kong, Dinosaurs or any other super cool creations. Another new rule is the Bursts, which uses a cone shaped template that can represent anything from machine guns, explosions, a swarm of bugs or some sort of magical blast. The nice thing is that the rules allow you to use them how you want.

The rest of the book is dedicated to the Campaign, which is set up as three acts which has 11 scenarios that are all linked together. The basic story line is that you are hunting for a lost perilous island. The scenarios can be played either as stand alone games or all linked together. I got a chance to play the Soeraba Manhunt and Lagoon of Terror during play testing.All the scenarios have special rules that lend themselves towards the campaign.

The last section has some sample Leagues (which are your teams or crews) and it is nice to see how you can use the new rules for other games.the last page has the templates for the bursts which are either a 3" round burst, a short teardrop burst or a long tear burst template, once again allowing you to use them for which ever best fits your game.

So all in all, this is a great supplement for Pulp Alley and I highly recommend this even if you are not interested in the campaign, the new rules are well worth it. So I would give it 5 stars out of 5, this is a great supplement.

Now I just need to get a few more figures painted up and drag a few of my game buddies over for some Perilous Island adventures. On a side note, I am looking at taking Pulp Alley to Adepticon 2014 for a few demos, so if you have not tried it and your heading to Adepticon, look me up for a demo game.

TK

Welcome back old friend!

So,

Continuing with the trip down memory lane, I have been playing another old school GW game, but in a new form. You see one of the first games I purchased from GW was Warhammer Quest (well actually it was Space Hulk then Quest a few days later). WHQ was awesome, you got a ton of figures and counters and it was a basic dungeon crawl game.

Look at all this stuff!!

It was easy to get the game crew to jump on this one since it was very close to AD&D games we used to play. My wife enjoyed it as well as my Sister In-law and my brother. The four of us got so much play time in that we advanced our characters pretty far. This game was also my sons first experience with a miniatures game and it taught him how too read and do math.

The only down side to the game is that we could never get everybody together all that often and when we moved here to Phoenix, the games slowed. Sure I ran a few games here in the valley, but the interest faded and with no dedicated group, it got put on the shelf. My son still every once in a while wanted to bust out the game, but once again the interest was not really there.

Then the other day I found an old friend but in a new format. Rodeo Games released WHQ in an app for I-Pads and I-Phones. So since my wife has an I-Pad, I downloaded the game for $4.99 and at that price I thought what the heck. So after taking about 20 minutes to download, I was back in the world of Warhammer Quest.

Screen shot of the game!

So what do I think, well I have put in over 5 hours with this game, I would say that I love it! It has most of the rules from the game and Rodeo has done a fantastic job or re-creating the game. There are a few other upgrades you can purchase, but I have found that the basic very satisfying. I am sure I will purchase the other upgrades (extra money or special characters) but that will not happen until I get through it.

So if your looking for a cool little game for your I-Pad and your an old fart like me that played classic GW games, than this app is for you. Now I wonder when they will come out with an app for Space Hulk or Blood Bowl? I can only hope it will be soon!

TK

Extra Extra, Pulp Alley has arrived!!

Okay,

As some know, I am a huge fan of Pulp games, I guess it must come from watching all the Indiana Jones Movies when I was younger (Yes I saw them in a movie theater and on opening night!) Also it must come from my time while working at Disneyland on the Jungle Cruise and Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

Anyway, like most gamers that have been inspired, I wanted to re create these on the table top. For a few years my buddy Mike and I have been looking for a good set of Pulp rules. We tried a few of them and even used a conversion of the Lord of the Rings/Legends rules. Each one had it's plus' and minus' but nothing really ever felt right.

Well about a month ago while surfing the Lead Adventures Forum I came across a Father and Daughter team (Dave Phipps and Mila) that were working on a set of rules. So I dug a bit deeper and found that they had released their own set of rules called Pulp Alley. So after reading a few AAR reports on LAF and getting a reply from Dave himself on the forums, I decided to go ahead and purchase the rules.

Here they are in all their glory!

 I opted to go for the Combo pack which included a PDF, the Printed rules and a Fortune Deck. The rulebook is slim and looks like a Pulp Comic book, in fact it came in a comic book slip cover with a cardboard backing that was signed by Dave and Mila, a nice little touch!

Signed by the Authors!

 Here is a brief description from Dave on how the rules play:

The Turn Sequence is pretty simple --

Start of Turn
1. DRAW — Draw one Fortune card.

Action Sequence
2. DIRECT — The player with Initiative decides who will activate the next character.
3. ACT — The activated character may move, perform an action, or attack.
     Repeat steps 2 & 3 until all characters have activated.

End of Turn
4. RECOVER — Injured characters may recover.

"Control of the Initiative" -- Unlike checkers, players do not take turns moving models. Instead, the player who currently controls the Initiative can decide which player has to activate a character. In this way, they have a little more control over the flow of the game... but only for as long as they can hold on to it. Be assured, other players will be trying to take the Initiative.

"Hey, they shoot back!" -- When a character attacks another character they best be prepared for the other guy to fight back - immediately. In this way, combat can actually be simultaneously dangerous for both characters. And while we're talking about fighting, here's a little example ---

Let's say you have your character shoot at an enemy. Based on their profiles and any modifiers, both character will roll 3d8 ---

Your guy rolls a 5, 6, and 8
The enemy rolls a 3 (miss), 5, and 6

I should mention that the target number in Pulp Alley is always a 4+. So, in this case your guy rolled 3 hits, and the enemy rolled 2 hits. As the 'attacker' you actually have some control of how this fight plays out --

Option #1 — You could choose to match two of your dice, like your 5 and 6 against their 5 and  6. In this case you only inflict 1 hit, but you do not take any hits. Or maybe you would not play it so safe…

Option #2 — You could match one of your successes, like your 6 against their 6. In which case, you inflict 2 hits but suffer 1 hit in return. Or would you press your luck...

Option #3 — You could go all-out, choosing not to match any dice. You inflict 3 hits but also suffer 2 hits in exchange.

These options represent the split-second tactics fighters use. Is your guy playing it safe or going for blood?

"THE CARDS" -- The cards serve two purposes. The top half of each card describes an unexpected event or situation brought about by luck or skillful planning. The bottom half of each card outlines an important or dangerous challenge. Most often, this relates directly to encountering Perils and Plot Points.

"PLOT POINTS" -- You can think of these simply as 'objectives'. Every scenario is built around the idea of completing/capturing/holding these points. Within the context of the rules, plot points are very important. In addition to giving the scenario more meaning and background, plot points provide you with the means to....

Control the Initiative.
Earn scenario bonuses.
Earn post-scenario resources.
Earn experience for your league.
Develop your league’s reputation.
Determine victory.

So there you go, a short brief from the author himself. You can see more on the LAF forum under the Pulp Section. Once again, the rulebook is slender (45 pages) compared to some, but after reading through them, you really do not need much more rules. As I get older, I want a fun set of rules and I do not need 400+ pages of stuff, give me the rules so I can play.

The front Cover and the Fortune Deck.

The inside of the book is well laid out and easy to read. Graphics and pictures are well done and after reading through the rules I had very few things that I had to look up. Dave & Mila did a great job getting to the point so you can get playing quickly. I like that in rules,give me the nitty gritty and leave the fluff for others. I want to get playing as soon as possible, something that some current rules do not do anymore.

Well laid out rules and nice graphics.

One other thing that drew me to these rules is that this is a Father and Daughter project. it seems that Dave has passed on the gaming gene to his daughter which is awesome. Besides sharing his love of gaming, he was able to work on these rules with his daughter, which is priceless! To be able to share your hobby with your kids is great, especially in this age of X-box, PS3 and Cell phones is awesome. Good job Dave!

So if your looking for a fun set of Pulp rules, than look no further, Pulp Alley is for you! I look forward to getting a game of this on the table next week sometime, so stay tuned for some Pulp Alley reports on the near future!

Shruken Ned gives Pulp Alley two thumbs up, thats if he had thumbs!

Here is a bonus picture for you, yours truly at the helm of one of the Infamous Jungle Cruise boats back in the day! Yes folks that's me, your cruise directer for the next 4days and 6 nights! No I don't shoot the breeze, I shoot the Hippos! Move it up Skip!

Jungle Cruise Skipper Tim! Late 80's early 90's!

TK