Japan Project - shrine miscellany

I received some grass flock yesterday from Total System Scenic who make the 2 foot by 2 foot gaming tiles we use, so I could base the gravestones from Oshiro confident that the grass would match.

Using some offcuts from the PlastCraftGames kits and the unused "thatch" fur from a 4Ground kit, I scratchbuilt a small shrine-keepers hut.

I painted the bridge from Sarissa a while ago but hadn't got round to taking a photo, so here it is too.

I've still got the cherry blossom and bamboo trees to base, and then I'll finally start on the figures themselves.

Tzolk'in - 1 June 2015

We managed to squeeze in an Extraordinary Games Night (the first on a Monday?) before Kieron leaves us on Wednesday.  He chose one of his favourites Tzolk'in (with the amazing rotating board) as his last game with the Rivals (for now).  With his copy in transit, Kieron had the added bonus of helping press out the pieces in David's unplayed copy.

However, despite our best efforts, we couldn't compensate for the wine Kieron had quaffed with dinner and he sadly came in last place with 39 points (plus some overlooked and unscored bonuses earlier in the game).  David still had his holiday head on and was only just ahead on 41.  Andy combined skulls and temple to reach 50 but James' all out attack on the temple points bonuses gave him 60.

A great evening to finish this chapter of the Rivals story.  Bon voyage, Kieron!

Japan Project - Takai Ki shrine

I've now completed the shrine for my Japan project, which will sit outside the village, now named Takai Ki.

I started with flat-pack kits of a building from Plast Craft Games and a torii gate from Sarissa, but I wanted to make more of a feature of the shrine.  I started with a piece of dense foam which I cut and edged with balsa.

I scored some marks on top to represent paving around the shrine and used my dremel to carve a stone wall effect into the balsa edges.  This was painted black and then dry brushed with grey and white.

The next step was to use thin balsa to construct a perimeter fence.

I painted the fence white and grassed the area between the paving and perimeter.  I constructed some steps and added a couple of lanterns.

The shrine itself required little painting.  I sprayed some elements in a bright red and painted the windows and doors.  More time consuming was etching the plain base to represent the grain of the floor boards.

The torii gate was painted in the same red and based.

There are a few finishing touches I plan to make but this is another big step of the project complete.

The fall of Singapore - 26 May 2015

Andy hosted a BKC game this week, having been up until 3am that morning painting the remainder of Kieron's Japanese army.  Adrian and James were the British in Singapore (in and around the buildings at the near edge of the table below), with Kieron (supported by Andy) as the invading Japanese.

James scheduled some well-timed attacks with his Hurricane which decimated one of Kieron's commands as it advanced across the table.  Andy had two lucky escapes on the other side of the board.

But Kieron's pair of planes retaliated by a relentless bombardment of James' troops in the buildings.

Whilst Andy and Adrian fought in and around the jungle on the far left of the battlefield.

Both the British and Japanese lost a division in the battle, but the Japanese had occupied buildings by the end of the evening, and a minor victory was assured.

Japan Project - village buildings

I constructed the Japanese village buildings pretty quickly after Salute but found that the fur for the thatched roofs had been cut the wrong way round.  4ground provided replacements and a couple of cart kits as village accessories to apologise, and I glued the fur onto the roofs a couple of days ago.  After 24 hours, the fur was then coated with a 50/50 water/PVA mixture to flatten it down and stiffen it up, and I think it's not a bad representation of a thatched roof.

The buildings are very detailed with dark wooden frames with a lighter wood or white plaster infill.  The roofs are removable and inside you can see working doors (both hinged and sliding types), raised floors and hearth, and windows.

Peloponnes & Ra - 20 May 2015

This was the penultimate games night before Kieron departs and the last occasion for board games, so a couple of favourites were brought out.

First Peloponnes without any of the expansions.  James benefited from a civilisation that grew in population every round but Andy suffered from an earthquake and Adrian lost a group of people in the final turn, giving final scores (population/prestige) of James 39/33, David 28/35, Kieron 33/27, Andy 24/22 and Adrian 15/31.

Then Ra which is always fun.  Fittingly, this was yet another win for Kieron who stormed home with 52 points, master builder Andy 2nd on 40 points, then David 32, Adrian 29 and James just 23.

Keyflower - May 6th

We engaged the fast-return-switch to revisit Keyflower, a game we played a few weeks ago. Andy suffered from not having played this before, and struggled to get enough production going. This game is not kind to first-time players. James went for a strategy of collecting and upgrading high VP buildings. Kieron and Adrian both started producing lots of resources with the hope of securing a high VP payout. David played a conservative meeple hoarding strategy and was able to make it pay off by grabbing some buildings that paid out for population, just pipping Adrian's massive resource score.

The scores were: David 74, Adrian 70, Kieron 61, James 50, Andy 28

This is a strange game. The big VP payouts are gained through collection of the high scoring buildings at the end of the game. However you are often already committed to a strategy by the time they are available, leaving very little room for manoeuvre. I was very lucky in the last round that three meeple scoring tiles were available and I was able to secure two of them.