Ivory Tower

One of the things I share with my 6 years old boy is reading children literature. So far, I am still reading the novel, and he listens.

Last night, we finished reading Neverending Story by Michael Ende. So this morning, my son decided to build Ivory Tower and surrounding labyrinth using the wooden bricks he found at his grandparents house.

I have to say that I am very proud with his achievement, as he did everything by himself.

 

Who messes with kobolds? - Oldbook adventure

It's been almost a year since I left my D&D hero Oldbook standing in front of the kobold cave. 
Finally I found time to move on with the adventure.

One would expect at least some guard in front of the kobold cave, but there was no one.
First cave had two doors at the bottom. One was locked, so Oldbook decided to go for the other one. It led to the kobold armory, that also served as a stable for riding giant lizard. As the beast was chained to the wall, Oldbook easily avoided it.

There was nothing among the kobold armor and weapons that our hero cold possibly want, so he moved on.

Next room was some kind of office. Lone man was working by the table. Noticing Oldbook, accountant run out of the room in panic.

Oldbook decided not to go after him. He check the desk and found lots of documents with proofs that innkeeper was cooperating with kobolds. Bard took the documents and returned to village, presenting them to the chieftain.
Innkeeper was immediately arrested. He was surprised with the situation. It seems that accountant never bothered to inform his boss about unwanted guest in the office.

Next thing Oldbook did was to return to the office within the kobold caves. Accountant was still there, working as if nothing happened. Bard called on him and persuaded the man that he can be a better employer than the innkeeper.

Later that day, accountant organized a meeting between Oldbook and old kobold shaman.
Yes, kobolds could explain everything about the grave below the Deepcold, but not for free. There was the question of the illness that was weakening the tribe. Tribe can only by cured by a meteor stone owned by the witch living in the caves deeper in the mountains (Rory Story Cubes - falling star + cauldron). If Oldbook manages to bring the stone to the shaman, he will tell his story...

To be continued....

Micro Rome

Among the print and play games there are gems for solo play that should not be omitted.
Micro Rome by Michael Bevilacqua, and it's expansion Aegyptus is such a game.

The game is fairly simple. It contains 17 two sided cards. The player draws a card, selects which of the two available sides to use, and places it over previously placed cards following simple rules (at least 3 fields of the earlier placed cards need to be covered, buildings need to be covered completely, etc.)

Expansion brings 8 new cards, new placement rules and scoring possibilities.
And that is it. Simple but effective and highly addictive.
Micro Rome can be played as light pastime in 15 minutes, or as a serious brain burner, in which case it will take more time to decide the best placement of the drawn card.
Anyway, no solo gamer should be without a copy of this game in the collection. Files for this game are free on BGG, so go get them.

Highly recommended.

Alien Worlds with 6 years old

Looking for the game to play with my six years old son, I recently discovered a SF game called Alien Worlds by Echidna Games.

It is a very simple game, but it has possibilities for tactical decisions, and that is just what I was looking for.

Similar to SBH, it uses stick for measuring distances, but here it is just one stick that measures 1/6 of the playing field. Model can "leap frog" stick for ease of movement. Shooting is possible up to two sticks. For combat resolution player rolls 1d6, adding and removing one or two modifiers. There is no defense roll. Very simple, but still satisfying. My kid had a blast.

We played using pre-painted Star Wars miniatures.

In other news, my Boardgames collection is now richer by another solo game - it is Imperial Settlers by Portal Games.

River crossing

Song of drums and shakos is till my favorite Napoleonic skirmish game. And my Lone shako solo rules still performs perfectly as enemy AI.

In my last game, I decided to try to move some Polish troops over the river and through the ambush prepared by British rifles.

The gal of the polish side was to cross the northern river, then move across the bridge and rush into the village.
But early in the game, rifle fire took it's toil on several Vistula legion soldiers.

One brave polish Voltigeir reached marksman proximity of rifles officer, but missed. A kill here could make a game take completely different turn.

But when the brave voltigeur was killed, my squad fell below half of the starting value, morale start affecting them and they fled north of the river.
Victory for the British.

New arivals

This month, I got me a new board game and a new SF rulebook.

The game is Carnival Zombie. The best way to describe it is a Castle Panic version for big kids.
I played a couple of games and I have to say that I really like it, although the complete campaign lasts too long to be played on one go.
In the future I think I will be playing just one night battle at the time.

I also purchased wargame PMC2640 by Polish publisher Assault Publishing. This is a SF game played at company level.
The reason for acquiring the book was the claim by the author that it has fully developed solo rules.

After just reading the rules, I am not 100% happy with what I see. Book keeping system is a bit complicated, players will need several different counters, it will be hard to use them in 6mm on 1 foot board.
Solo system is design to fight "mindless" opponents - bugs or rebel militia. Enemy will act more or less random, situation on the table is not used into consideration.
But I will have to try to play it to give my final decision.

Finally, one thing unconnected with gaming.
I was recently introduced to the book Stories of your life by Ted Chaing. I have to say that it is the best SF book I have read in last couple of years. Last night I stayed awake until 2am just to finish one story, and that didn't happened to me in some time. Highly recommended.

Dungeon of light and darkness

2016 BGG Solitaire Print and Play Contest started two days ago, and it already delivered some really interesting titles.

This year, I will try my game designing skills with the game called Dungeon of light and darkness.

It is a push your luck tile and dice placement dungeon crawl game.

Somewhere among the tunnels of Dungeon of Light and Darkness, lies famous Fountain of knowledge. Many have tried to find it, but none succeed. And no, there are no monsters in this dungeon.. But the light goes on and off in its chambers in mysterious ways, and this is enough to drive explorers crazy and forever lost. Can you become the first man in centuries to drink from the long lost fountain?

Here are images of some game components in full color and in ink saving black and white version.

 

Game files can be downloaded from contest WIP thread, or directly from here:

First draft of the rules:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_68vh2U4DoKMmVRM1oyZGU2ckk/view?usp=sharing

Full color components front:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_68vh2U4DoKWDJPdm1OLWlIWkU...
Full color components Back (not necessary to play the game):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_68vh2U4DoKNF9JMjhVU3ZLbW8...

Low ink version components front:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_68vh2U4DoKdEtzTG9LTTJ0czQ...
Low ink version components Back (not necessary to play the game):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_68vh2U4DoKa3ppTy05VjJTcEU...