List Challenge for Board Games

Each year Dice Tower posts a top 100 Reader's Choice Award for board games.  I made the 2016 list into a list challenge.  It is a great list of the games that are out there. I have currently played 20 on the list and each one deserves it's place of honor.  Check out the link and see what your score is!

Take the challenge here

Painting Notes for Daqan Spearmen

Not my paint job. This is an example of how to paint the spearmen and then use the Army Painter Quick Shade. I clipped it as a way to make notes for my future paint choices.

My goal here is to paint them quickly to tabletop standard and get them on the board as soon as possible.  I may cut out some of the steps below to speed the process.

1. Airbrush Vallejo Black Base Coat All Over

2. Airbrush White from top for Highlights

3. Airbrush Blue thinned down to allow highlights to show through

4. Airbrush Lighter Blue on middle shield and tops of head and shoulder

5. Brush flesh base coat on face

6. Brush Light Silver on spear and chain necklace

7. Brush Bright gold on Edges of Armor

8. Brush light brown on shoes, leggings, gloves, and spear shaft

9. DIP in Army Painter Strong Quick Shade

10. Dry 2-3 Days

11. Airbrush Matt Varnish x2

12. Drybrush/layer highlight of light tan

13. Highlight of light blue?

14. Drybrush highlight of light metal

15. Brush tips of highlight of bright gold

16. Airbrush Matt Varnish x2

17. Vallejo Dark Earth on Base

18. Base model

Runewars Miniatures Game

This is my new favorite game! Runewars Miniature Game from Fantasy Flight Games is exactly what I would expect in a beginner miniature game.  The miniatures are easy to fit together and have one position they lock into. The plastic posts are a good fit and barely require glue.  I used Tester's Cement for Plastic.  My wife and I had the whole stater box assembled in 1.5 hours and were playing in 3 hours.  The rules were a little deep to wade through at first but after the first game, we had a decent understanding of how things worked.  The "Learn to Play" book was very helpful and I liked the "Rules Reference" for later.  The box I put together was for the local game store and I am anxiously waiting for our copy to come in.  It is worth the money at $99 for 2 starter factions and all the movement tools.  Currently, you can find it on Amazon for around $70 which makes it a great value.

The miniatures are supplied unpainted but they fit together great.

For the money, you get about 100 points of humans and another 100 of skeletons.  These are easily expanded to the 200 point regular game level.

I will be posting pics soon (as soon as we get our own box) of assembly and painting.  My plan is to airbrush as much as possible and use the Army Painter dip for quick shading.  I want decent looking minis that get to the table quickly.  We will see how it goes.

If you click on the link below and purchase the game, I get a small percentage. However, I am not sponsored by this or any other game.

Game Store Copy of Hordes Battle Box

Hordes Battle Box Assembled

A while back, I had the opportunity to put together my local game store's copy of the Hordes Battle Box. It gave me chance to put hands on the plastic Trollbloods and I was pretty excited.

Trollblood Fenblades, predominantly made of 2 pieces.

Arms glued in place. Used the box to line up which body went with which arms.

The light war beasts had a lot more parts to them but seemed to have good posts and sockets for connection and glue surface.

Done with Trolls

The trolls went together like a dream. Then snapped together with little fussing. The only things I pinned were the arrows on the back of the spear chucker and the spiky ball on the end of the basher's chain.

Then I got to the Skorne.

These guys were each made up of made of 6 pieces minimum. The head, each arm, and each shoulder pauldron were separate and did not have strong attachment points. 

How is this a good beginner box???

Here they are. The warbeasts are pinned, the war caster in the front left is pinned, all the fiddly bits are glued. I left off the distinctive back flags as there was not a good way to attach them and have them stay attached durning rough handling. If they were mine, I would have fashioned something with green stuff but these guys are staying unpainted.

Overall, I think this is a lousy beginner box.  If this was a first time modeler trying to put stuff together, I would have thrown the box against the wall.  Maybe if they just printed on the outside of the box, "Hey! Yeah you! Have you tried other miniature games? Do you have a moderate level of skill and patience? Come try our game!"  I love the Warmachine/Hordes universe, game system and mechanics.  However, they have a lot to learn about boxes meant to draw people into the game.

If you are still interested, click on the link below and purchase the game.  I get a small percentage through the link. However, I am not sponsored by this or any other game.