Gnomish underwater chaos

I added another boardgame to my collection. And again, it is 1+ game.
The newest sheep among my flock is Red November.

I purchased game in small box, which is good since it will not take too much space in my newly redecorated and therefore no more gaming friendly house....
Also, Red November can be played almost out of the box, so it is a good game for busy fathers like myself.

 

Red November is a game where chaos jumps out of every corner. I played with 3 gnomes on the submarine and events just started popping out, much quicker then I was able to solve them.

But this is obviously a game one needs to learn how to play, so first several games player is destined to loose. One thing I learned so far is never to relay on luck when playing with fire....

 

Not the game I will play every day, but  will find it's place on my gaming table occasionally.

Going small

Confronted with growing family and reorganization of my living space, I will have less space for wargaming then I was used to.
As one of the countermeasures, I decided to go smaller and try 6mm figures, first for Napoleonic games.
I will base 6mm figures as individual soldiers, on 5mm square bases. This is 1/4 of the standard 20mm base, and I will use 1/4 of the measure for all distances mentioned in games like Song of Drums and Shakos or Muskets & Shakos. All these game are meant to be played on 3x3'' board, but with 6mm figures I can play them on as little space as 9x9' !

I already have some 6mm models, some British infantry (line, light, rifles and Scottish) and some British light cavalry in Tarleton helmets.
Here are my first attempts in painting them. Only tabletop quality, but I want to have them on the table as soon as possible.

I ordered more British cavalry (Bicorns) and British Artillery, and of course complete Polish/French army from Baccus,  I hope that this will arrive soon. 

Then I will see if my plan about using small playing field will work....

2013 BoardGameGeek Solitaire Print and Play Contest

And it is that time again!
2013 BoardGameGeek Solitaire Print and Play Contest is here!

If you are interested to participate, link to contest rules is here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1002891/2013-solitaire-print-and-play-contest/

As readers of this blog know, my entry for this year is called Power Surge.
Playtesting components can be found here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/article/13087073#13087073

Enter the contest, play games, and when the time comes - vote!

Boardgaming with friends

With summer holidays pending, things are getting slower, so I finally found some time  to play with my friends.

 

Here you can see Njam-Njam to the right, Zombie in the middle and me, playing a game of Carcassonne. I have to say that we are all becoming really addicted to this game.

We also played a couple of King of Tokyo rounds, but as much as I like dice allocation, at the moment I think I like tile building better..... Others felt the same so we quickly switched back to Carc :)

Nice couple of hours....

Quick boardgames

As much as I like to wargame, my private and business obligations take me away from it, and closer to boardgaming every day. And even there, my time is limited, so, as much as I like complexity and challenge of Mage Knight Board Game and especially Agricola, the setting for these games takes too much time.
Especially now, while my home is under renovation, I have started to appreciate games that literary do not need to be taken from the box to be played.

Castle panic is one of them. Very interesting combination of card and board game, extremely playable solo, where every game is decided in last turn.
I do not own the game yet, the one I play is borrowed, but I like it so much that I have already ordered original game together with a Mage Tower expansion from a local game store.

 

Another really good quick and solo playable game is Carcassonne. So far, I am playing solitaire version by John Fiore from Solo Nexus.

My result so far is moderate success, with around 100 points and unfinished islands.

There are other solitaire variants of this game roaming around the net, and I am eager to test them, as soon as I manage to win this one :).

Third game I tried is solo Munchkin. I have Star munchkin, with Clown Wars expansion, and I tried variant also mentioned on Solo Nexus blog but I did not get the same level of satisfaction as with Carcassonne or Castle panic, so Munchkin goes back to the box for now.