Mantic crazy box

After success of last year Mantic crazy box, which offered more the 70 figures, I decided to order this years edition of the same.
Well the box arrived, and I have to say that I have mixed feeling about this year content.

First, this box contained only 38 figures. Also, according to the comment on Mantic page, it seems that content is not at all random as promised, but that all boxes have the same miniatures.
On the other hand, good thing is that only one sprue is repeated from last year box, while all other models are from ranges published in 2013.

So lets star from the oldest models. These are Mantic elf bowmen sprue containing 10 elf archers (links are leading to Mantic page with figures)

Unfortunately, these are the worst designed models Mantic ever did. All elves are molded with shield in left hand and bow in the right, and therefore all are completely unable to fire their weapons. Worst still, shields are mostly molded as part of the body, so no matter how good you are with the tools, you will not be able to convert them to anything logical. Totally useless figures that are going directly to local auction site with starting price below 1 euro.
So, 10 gone, 28 more to hope for.

The next item within the box were human men at arms. And here comes another disappointment, since box contains not one but TWO identical sprues, with 5 men each. All soldier san be assembled with swords or spears, all left hands hold shields. So ten men at arms? BOOOOOORING. I could accept one sprue with five soldiers, but two? Who needs that? More items to be resold as soon as possible.
So only 18 models left.

To finish with the fantasy range, there are 3 ogres that can be assembled with one-hand or two-hand weapons that can be swords or axes. Set comes with extra arms and heads, so lots of useful bits. Once I paint one of these ogres, I will compare it with the one GW model I have, but this will be separate post. Any way, I am finally starting to think that Mantic crazy box can be a useful investment, at least partially.
20 to 3

Still partially in the fantasy range is a king figure from the earth fraction from Mantic chess variation called Loka. While quite nice looking model, it very obviously looks like a chess peace, and is not very useful for wargaming or RPG. I am still thinking if I am going to sell it or paint it like granite and use it as a statue/part of the scenery.

20:1:3

The next figures come from futuristic sport game called Dreadball. Bith models are VIP players.
First comes the Big Mech. Mantic describes him as a ball player adjusted from combat walker. Well, I will have to adjust it back. Some cutting and green stuff will be required to move it from running into moving pose, and then with addition of some SF weapons it may turn into OK mini.
20:2:3

Anne-Marie Helder is a really interested miniature. She is sculpted as ancient Madonna of fertility, with  dominating pregnant-like belly and big breasts, and that leaves an impression. Properly painted to avoid SF features, it can find it's place within any Blood Bowl pitch as human Blitzer.

20:2:4

And therefore I am coming to the SF part of the box.
First, there is a set of  5 space dwarf veterans, consisting of one officer, 2 dwarfs with machine guns and 2 with flamers. SF dwarves are rarely produced, so this is a good catch.
20:2:9

My Mantic Crazy box brought me a good starter warband of Space orks. They actually came from 3 sets: infantry command sprue  (NCO and heavy weapon), raptor (note: it seems that not all boxes contain Raptor! Why mine had it while some don't is a mystery to me) and two models from Deadzone starter that is still in pre-order (commando and goblin sniper). Ork riding a heavy bike is not your first choice within skirmish warband, and may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it is not something I am going to complain about.
20:2:14

Of course, I was saving the best for last. Box contained two miniatures from pre-order of Deadzone rebellion starter: one goat-like and one lion-like alien. One can never have enough weird aliens for space skirmishers, so thumbs up to Mantic for including these.

Final score: 20:2:16. As I noticed at the beginning, mixed result.
Is it worth 20 GBP? I don't know. Decide for yourself :)

Solo Carcassonne

If you like tile placing mechanic, Carcassonne is a God among the games. And if you are also a solo player like me, you must have tried all solitaire variants available on the net, and must have your favorite one.
Well, for me it is Famine in Carcassonne by p4warrior. Rules can be found on BGG here or as Google document here.

This variant is based on upkeep mechanics which is great since it is more challenging and surprisingly more similar to multiplayer mechanic then other proposed solo variants. Another good thing is that it needs almost no bookkeeping.

The only problem I have with this variant is that it supposes that the game ends with the win at the moment you put down the last tile. So, the more tiles you have the game gets more and more difficult. For example I play with all light gray tiles I have, and that is a lot of tiles :)

So, to solve this issue, I decide to house rule this variant a bit.
My suggestion is that for a win you have to harvest following:
3 monks
3 peasants
3 knights from the city at least 3 tiles big
3 thieves from the road at least 4 tiles long.

This way a player gets the clear goal to strive to, and according to whom it can guide the tactics during the play.

To keep track of harvested maples, you can use scoring track and big maples from Ins and Cathedrals expansion, red for monks, green for peasants, yellow for thieves and blue for knights.

If you try this variant with my end game rules, let me know what you think.

Solitaire Tsuro variant

As I already mentioned in previous post, Tsuro is a nice filler puzzle like brain burning game that can be played out of the box. All this makes it a suitable choice for solo play by business father types like myself.

So, I created a solo Tsuro variant that suites me best. Variant is based on Path of conquest by S McCulloch.

Start with eight dragons arranged in starting positions around the board. Two dragons should be positioned on each side of the table, on exits 4 and 9.
Select one dragon to represent yourself.
Draw three tiles. Place a tile in a position to move your chosen dragon. Draw a tile. Continue drawing and placing tiles, moving your dragon each turn.

The goal of the game is to kill all other dragons by  making them collide to each other. Do not let enemy dragons escape by leaving the board. Collisions at the board edge are allowed and count as kill.

Scoring:
Minor victory - kill six dragons and place all 35 tiles (one dragon can escape at any time during the play)
Major victory - kill six dragons and then kill also seventh by making suicide attack and coliding your dragon with the last remaining enemy.
Ultimate victory - achieve major victory after placing 35th tile.

Tsuro

We just had a chance to test another tile placing board game. This time it was Tsuro.
So far I have played a two player game against Njam-Njam (its him on the photo).

I have to say that tile placing mechanism is getting quickly up on my list of game mechanics.
Tsuro was just great.

We have played several games and as Njam Njam noticed, we were playing really non aggressive, each of us keeping to our own half of the board, and getting competitive only with last tiles.

With more players game should be quicker and should bring even more fun,  since interaction probably happens sooner.

A great game anyway. I wander if it can be played solo....

Even more purchasing

I wanted this game for a long time, and finally it is here:

I had a chance to play the basic version earlier, so naw I am eager to dig into expansion :)

Shopping mania

For years I was naughty solo RPG player. While everybody else bathed in their excellence, I was the only one who postponed purchasing them....

But finally I also succumbed to their call, and here they are...

 

My own set of Rory's Story Cubes!

I hope that now I have them I will find time to continue my RuneQuest adventure....

 

And when I already went shopping, I decided to also purchase some expansions for my favorite games....

 

So, I bought Agricola - farmers of the moor, although with my current time table I have no idea when I will be able to play it....

I also bought Carcassonne expansion No 6 - Count, King and River; this will see its first play much sooner.

Finally, I brought into my house a long awaited Kids of Carcassonne game. My older kid, age 3, is maybe still to small to play it, but all my nephews and nieces (all aged between 5 and 10) just love it! This is a game I definitely recommend.

Plastic soldiers lost in action

For several days now, the well known web page Plastic Soldier Review is not available on the internet.

This page was the best resource for 1/72 plastic soldiers for all periods and for all manifacturers.

Does anyone know what happened to them? 

NEW INFO:
After some server problems, it seems that they will be back soon. Good news :)