Adobe Cantina

I built the second of Andy's Christmas presents this weekend - an adobe cantina from Sarissa Precision for Mexico and Wild West games.  This is another laser cut MDF flatpack.

This is another well-designed set that is straight-forward to construct.

The building has two floors and a roof (accessible by a supplied ladder that I forgot to include in the photos) as well as full interiors.

The Castles of Burgundy - 21 February 2018

Despite a number of very well-received and enjoyable games, we have inexplicably overlooked this board game for a couple of years.  We won't leave it so long again.  This is a really clever game, with different strategies to earn victory points and has a nice concept.

Final scores: David 204, James 196, Andy 152.

He's dead, Jim

I'm not a big fan of casualty figures, preferring to knock over figures when they are out of action.

But the underside of the base doesn't look very pretty.  In the Ronin ruleset, as well as counters for being stunned or wounded, it provides death counters - using the Japanese kanji character.  And that got me thinking...

I printed out the Kanji character onto 25mm white stickers, once I'd carefully aligned the sheets:

...and then fixed them to the bases of my Japanese figures:

I think this looks much better and I will adopt the approach for my Wild West figures (with an image of a vulture) and Pirates (the inevitable skull and crossbones).

Rob the Stagecoach scenario - 17 February 2018

Stuart visited today so another chance for a Wild West figures game.  This scenario saw James' defenders escorting a stagecoach across the length of the playing area, with Stuart's attackers attempting to slow the stagecoach to a halt.  The table was covered with rocky outcrops and cacti, plus a new MDF building - a minehead wheelhouse - recently constructed but not completely finished yet, so no close-ups of that building just yet.

The defenders:

And the attackers:

The stagecoach started the game moving 8" a turn so the rifle-wielding defenders struggled to keep up (they could only shoot if they moved half distance).

Stuart's bandits continuously fired off their weapons but nothing to worry the attackers too much.  James' rolls were slightly better and he had taken out two of the bandits by the fourth turn.  A couple of turns later, Stuart had his revenge, throwing a stick of dynamite at two defenders who had foolishly got too close together.  One character was pulverised but amazingly the other survived.

Stuart then turned his attention to the stagecoach itself - the scenario meant that adjacent attackers could roll to attempt to slow the stagecoach by 2", which he steadily started to do.

Finally, four inches from the edge of the table, the stagecoach was completely halted, giving the win to Stuart.

Ronin Skirmish Scenario - 14 February 2018

At long last, almost three years since I visited Japan and started developing this project, I finally got round to testing the Ronin rules with Andy.

Ronin is a short set of rules produced by Osprey.  The rulebook also contains lots of information for different Buntai (groups) and a set of scenarios.  It has the standard Initiative - Move - Combat sequence but has two important characteristics that make it different from the Warhammer skirmish games we play (Legends of the Old West, and Legends of the High Seas).

The first characteristic is that instead of a player moving all their figures before the other player, the players move one figure each alternately, so you feel more like you are playing with a set of individuals than a group.  The second characteristic is how hand-to-hand combat works.

Ronin uses a (as far as I know) unique system of combat counters.  Each figure has a rank of 1 to 5 with a corresponding number of combat counters (black and white Go counters).  During combat, characters use black counters to attack, white to defend, and further black counters to enhance initiative and attack roles.  Players select a different set of counters for each combat so there is a need to think what your opponent might do and then what risks to take with whether to enhance your rolls or not.  We had a quick one-on-one fight to test this (which pleasingly was won by the first figure I finished painting) and found it was much simpler to play than it is to describe!

Then the first proper game - a standard skirmish on a two feet square board with a bamboo grove and a couple of buildings.

We had three Samurai figures each.  I made up stats cards for each character.

The three Buntai started on opposite corners of the playing area...

...but were quickly facing up to each other...

...and then getting stuck in:

Blood was spilt and James' Buntai was victorious - earning 9 Victory Points for killing Andy's three Rank 3 Samurai.

We then tried another skirmish with a larger Buntai and some additional random minor objectives (e.g. kill the Leader, kill 75% of the enemy).  Each Buntai had a Rank 4 Samurai, two Rank 3 Samurai, two Ikko Ikki and a Ninja as a "sword for hire".

Starting from opposite edges of the playing area, the figures again quickly closed up...

...and then got stuck in:

This time Andy wiped out James' Buntai, losing half his figures the process, and so winning 18 Victory Points to 9.

It was great to finally play with these figures and a relief to find the rules are good to play.  Given the focus on individual figures rather than groups, Ronin will easily work with more players without the need to create complicated multi-Buntai scenarios.

Gloomhaven - 'The Barrow Lair' - 8 February

A bout of heavy colds and an overseas trip for other Rivals reduced the party to Adrian's Cragheart and James' Brute, for the second Gloomhaven scenario - The Barrow Lair.  Without the more subtle and ranged abilities of the Tinkerer and Spellweaver, this outing was a more straight up fight in the crypts below the hill, but it was nevertheless a tense and excellent figures game which resulted in the bandit leader and minions defeated, the merchant's papers found, and three more scenarios unlocked.

Gloomhaven Scenario 1 'The Black Barrow' - 31 January

Having seen all the hype, managed to get a total bargain on Gloomhaven the day the second printing was released in January. Gave it a road test with Stu and David. We used the Spellweaver, Cragheart and Tinkerer character classes and played the first adventure in the book. Avoiding spoilers, the game does indeed live up to its hype. Beautifully produced and with tonnes of content and very clever game play. In a really tense and fun scenario we won more or less on the turn of the last card. All were keen to play again soon with James joining the party.