Octopus Overlords

Car Wars shipping addresses are being locked. Very excited, but with Ankh this will come close to filling my board game shelves. Hard choices lie ahead.

$iljanus wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 7:46 pm I’m a little curious about this minis paint Kickstarter.

Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy: Two Thin Coats Paints

Don’t think I’d go all in but 15 pots for $55 perhaps, especially since I do have a bunch of paint already.
Going to have to do some reading about the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy….

(Apologies if this was posted in the mini painting thread)

I will say the same thing as last time I saw a paint KS - I'll wait for reviews. There are several brands of five-star paint out there, some better than others. Reaper, Vallejo, Scale75, Army Painter, etc. I can't see myself experimenting with an unknown when already excellent options exist. If it comes out and ends up bringing something new to the table, I'm sure I'll hear about it, try a couple of bottles, and maybe invest. But if it is inferior or equal to what's out there (and on my shelf), then I'll be saving a lot of money.

/edit - and I love triads, but again - they're already out there in known quality.

Blackhawk wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:04 pm

$iljanus wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 7:46 pm I’m a little curious about this minis paint Kickstarter.

Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy: Two Thin Coats Paints

Don’t think I’d go all in but 15 pots for $55 perhaps, especially since I do have a bunch of paint already.
Going to have to do some reading about the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy….

(Apologies if this was posted in the mini painting thread)

I will say the same thing as last time I saw a paint KS - I'll wait for reviews. There are several brands of five-star paint out there, some better than others. Reaper, Vallejo, Scale75, Army Painter, etc. I can't see myself experimenting with an unknown when already excellent options exist. If it comes out and ends up bringing something new to the table, I'm sure I'll hear about it, try a couple of bottles, and maybe invest. But if it is inferior or equal to what's out there (and on my shelf), then I'll be saving a lot of money.

/edit - and I love triads, but again - they're already out there in known quality.

I regret missing a contrast paint KS (I forget which company but some forum folks have their paint and have used them with pretty cool results). And the thing is that this KS isn’t offering anything interesting like that so that’s what’s staying my hand for the moment.

Edit: ahh it’s the Scale 75 instant colors I believe.

Yes the earlier KS was from Scale75. The Instant Color wasn't just "paint", there was a gimmick, as it was all contrast paint and designed to make your painting easier and quicker, folks here that backed it seem to agree and be satisfied. I looked at the Duncan Rhodes KS and it seems it's just...paints...standard paints and washes, of course developed by Mr. Rhodes and a team of expert paint-chemists and branded with the Rhodes name, for about $3 bucks a paint pot. I applaud his entrepreneurial spirit but as someone else said, why would you buy his untested paints when you can buy from the many highly regarded well established vendors?

Speaking of kickstarters, I have been following this campaign, which is pretty close to winding down. I was/am not familiar with the original game but this second edition looks very interesting. YellowKing, you particularly may get a kick out of perusing the KS page. Game play looks very cool (or it just be my massive crush on Becca Scott), theme is really interesting, components look really good, price isn't too crazy, but there does seem to be a lot of add-ons and I don't know how strong the solo-play would be as it seems the core game is competition between the various mages.

The Black Rose Wars:Rebirth

Yep, I got in on the Scale75 campaign. There were two factors: One, they were offering something unique and different. And two, they were a known quantity. I have been touting their metallic paints as the best on the market for years, and they've got a reputation for top quality.

$iljanus wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 7:46 pm I’m a little curious about this minis paint Kickstarter.

Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy: Two Thin Coats Paints

Don’t think I’d go all in but 15 pots for $55 perhaps, especially since I do have a bunch of paint already.
Going to have to do some reading about the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy….

(Apologies if this was posted in the mini painting thread)

Like Zarathud, I am so into contrast painting and airbrushing, that this has less appeal that it would have before. I'm far more interested in the October release of The Army Painter's Airbrush paint line, since I don't already have a lot of colors of pre-mixed airbrush paint (and I haven't mastered dilution yet).

I like Duncan a lot though. And I have mixed feelings about him starting a paint company. Part of it feels weird like he is stealing Citadel secrets, but the other part of it feels like he is "sticking it to the man" particularly since GW has been pretty awful with small businesses lately (and always).

Just received another somewhat depressing email. Another of the games I kickstarted a while back just notified backers that production of the game was complete and the company was now at the delivery stage and they are committed to delivering every copy but this will most likely bankrupt the company. According to the update, when the developers began the kickstarter they received shipping quotes of approximately $1000 per container, they budgeted for 3x that amount to build in a buffer, actual costs now are 15x the original estimate. I originally saw this game at PAX and got to meet the lead developers, they were a really nice bunch of folks who were incredibly enthusiastic about what they were doing with lots of ideas and looking forward to releasing more content and more games. It's rather sad to hear that they are reduced to possibly selling their cars just to fulfill their commitment. The backers for the game are rallying together and a great many have offered to add additional funds for shipping, myself included. They had about 3500 backers, so if everyone or most kick in another $15 or $20 bucks that should cover the extra costs. I get capitalism and supply and demand but it seems almost criminal to increase shipping rates from $1000 to $15,000. Someone in that supply chain is making a ridiculous amount of profit at the expense of literally destroying other companies downstream.

$iljanus wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:12 pm

Blackhawk wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:04 pm

$iljanus wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 7:46 pm I’m a little curious about this minis paint Kickstarter.

Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy: Two Thin Coats Paints

Don’t think I’d go all in but 15 pots for $55 perhaps, especially since I do have a bunch of paint already.
Going to have to do some reading about the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy….

(Apologies if this was posted in the mini painting thread)

I will say the same thing as last time I saw a paint KS - I'll wait for reviews. There are several brands of five-star paint out there, some better than others. Reaper, Vallejo, Scale75, Army Painter, etc. I can't see myself experimenting with an unknown when already excellent options exist. If it comes out and ends up bringing something new to the table, I'm sure I'll hear about it, try a couple of bottles, and maybe invest. But if it is inferior or equal to what's out there (and on my shelf), then I'll be saving a lot of money.

/edit - and I love triads, but again - they're already out there in known quality.

I regret missing a contrast paint KS (I forget which company but some forum folks have their paint and have used them with pretty cool results). And the thing is that this KS isn’t offering anything interesting like that so that’s what’s staying my hand for the moment.

Edit: ahh it’s the Scale 75 instant colors I believe.

My Scale 75 Instant Colors sit in the box while my contrast paints get used all of the time. I use them very occasionally when I need a very specific color type (like some types of flesh colors). I could see where if someone had not used contrast paints could find uses for them. And the full figures that I painted with them look good, don't get me wrong. I'm sure I have some samples posted in the minis painting thread.

I just love me some contrast paints.

My impression was that they're better for layering effects or over patterns/metallics/zenithal highlighting, while Contrast paints remain superior for quick full paintjobs.

Blackhawk wrote:My impression was that they're better for layering effects or over patterns/metallics/zenithal highlighting, while Contrast paints remain superior for quick full paintjobs.

That’s where I landed too.

Not sure if anyone else backed Sanctuary: The Keepers Era Twisted Fables, but I just received my copy. I knew they had finally started shipping but I did not receive any sort of direct notice, it just showed up at my door a short while ago. Have a friend coming over to do some gaming so I probably won't get to break it open until later this evening. I guess I should have opened the box before I posted, I was not expecting this game for another couple of weeks. Will be very cool if Sanctuary also arrives this week as well. Looking forward to getting one or the other to the table next weekend.

Tao wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 2:09 pm Not sure if anyone else backed Sanctuary: The Keepers Era Twisted Fables, but I just received my copy. I knew they had finally started shipping but I did not receive any sort of direct notice, it just showed up at my door a short while ago. Have a friend coming over to do some gaming so I probably won't get to break it open until later this evening. I guess I should have opened the box before I posted, I was not expecting this game for another couple of weeks. Will be very cool if Sanctuary also arrives this week as well. Looking forward to getting one or the other to the table next weekend.

I have and love both. I made a bunch of videos on Twisted Fables and one or two on Sanctuary.
Feel free to check them out

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1DeM ... WGU8U0Qpfw

My favourite is Twisted Fables though, the fables all play very differently and their background stories are all . Very cool.

Great video's Ezekiel. I watched through your Twisted Fables unboxing and a couple of the playthroughs. I've already sleeved all my cards and played through solo as Red and Snow White and the rules are incredibly straight forward and easy to learn. The complexity definitely comes in on the cards, where it should. My only gripe at the moment is the pegs used to track status are really hard to get in and out of the boards, to the point my fingers were starting to ache from moving them. Hopefully they will loosen up a bit or I may just sand them a little. I have a friend coming by this weekend and I am really looking forward to getting to play a few rounds of this. I agree with your comment that with 10 different characters, think that's 45 combinations, plus the 3 different decks, plus three Epic cards, there should be a decent amount of replay ability, but I'm a little concerned after a few games an optimal play will evolve for each Fable.
I also just received my notice that Sanctuary should be arriving by Thursday evening, so I am also interested in seeing if you do a comparison video. I skipped the Sanctuary videos for now as I don't want to spoil the surprise.

By the Power of Grayskull.... I have the power!!!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cm ... d.html?v=2

I have backed way too many things lately. But since this has a solo mode and is HE-MAN, I might have to make a decision if I want to back this or more Tanares content (bundled with their 5e RPG Kickstarter).

For anyone who ordered Sanctuary: The Keepers Era and isn't in Hong Kong, my copy just arrived (along with my huge Volfyirion Dragon miniature, and yes I opened the box and confirmed this time. Two games in one week, I am very excited.

I heard about the He-Man game coming out and it does look chock full of goodies but personally I think I will take a pass on this one. I am a big animation fan but He-Man wasn't a show I went out of my way to watch or one of my favorites, plus I just recently picked up Gargoyles, which is one of my favorites. While there looks to be a ton of content for He-Man I am also not interested enough to drop a couple of C-notes for it, Gargoyles was/is like $30 bucks at Target.

One of the guys in our game group is a HUGE Masters of the Universe fan, so I'm hoping he takes the plunge on it so that I don't have to.

Too Many Bones Unbreakable coming to GameFound on 10/19. That link is to the preview page.

The final standalone expansion to the acclaimed dice-builder RPG epic.

Single player (4 character party) crpg Biosynth launched yesterday.
It promises, turn based combat, destructible environments, lots of skills, factions, and lotso characters. Nothing really all that novel, but I'm a sucker for these types of games.

Launch trailer;
https://www.youtube.com/embed/U_HJPfZE4QE

Myth & Goal looks interesting. Supposedly has a robust solo mode. Never really thought about Blood Bowl like games but the concept is grabbing my attention.

I thankfully have no interest in that one.

I think the ~$50 pledge with standees seems like an insanely good deal, though it's really just a discounted copy and you don't get stretch goals. Depending on how many they ultimately unlock, it might not be as great of a deal. But I think I'm sun-setting on miniatures. I already have too many.

I always liked the concept of Blood Bowl much more than the game itself. Then GW put out (in a casual way, I think Barnes and Noble is the only place selling it) Blitz Bowl, a much more streamlined version of Blood Bowl that's more boardgame than a fantasy sports simulation. You're still trying to score the most points, but there are objective cards that award points for doing things other than just getting the ball into the endzone.

Myth and Goal is by the same designer as Blitz Bowl, and while it looks like this leans a little more towards a sport sim it still looks more streamlined and enjoyable than Blood Bowl to me. I'm definitely following it.

Including a standee version is nice, but right now a whopping 25 people have pledged for that vs. 882 for the whole package.

Daveman wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 1:52 pm Including a standee version is nice, but right now a whopping 25 people have pledged for that vs. 882 for the whole package.

Yeah, once they start adding stretch goals the base pledge (with minis) is a much better deal than the standees.

I'm a Dungeon Party backer (originally planned September 2020) and people are starting to see retail copies of the game, apparently now available for purchase at B&N bookstores.

Meanwhile, the KS premium copies are still sitting in China. I understand that shipping is complete bonkers right now, but it's kinda weird how the retail copies made it over but KS backers have no date or a guess as to when they'll be delivered.

I know this stuff would happen occasionally with other KS projects - but usually it was like a week or two, maybe a month at most when random retailers would be selling stuff. I can't think of another example where retail is available and KS backers haven't left China yet.

What a mess.

Ok, I’m a dummy. I had forgotten that I backed Monty Cook’s Ptolus and never bothered to claim it after it was made available back in May! So I finally claimed this monster book. Should be able to see it in about a week.

Today is a big KS day.

Voidfall, the newest game from Mindclash has come out of the gate with a HUGE $488,290 first hour.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mindclash/voidfall

Beast is another one that I have had my eye on for a while but I feel they are getting overshadowed launching on the same day.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/327718895/beast-4

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Sep 21, 2020 3:09 pm German erotic card-based RPG theme? I guess I'm all in now.

So almost a full year later, the Aventuria stuff just arrived. I took a quick peek at the adult-themed expansion and uh..yeah. It's..uh, definitely adult themed. There's a card with an enemy in chaps and not much else. So much leather. My gaming collecting just took a turn I wasn't fully expecting.

Fluggaenkoecchicebolsen, indeed.

Hello darkness my old friend...

https://twitter.com/DiceThrone/status/1 ... 1336137737

(Dice Throne + Marvel)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mc ... s/mythwind

Mythwind, being described as Stardew Valley for board games - open ended, no real win/loss condition, asymmetric mechanics for different players (one is a bag builder, one is a card drafter, etc).

I'm very interested.

I bumped my Hoplomachus:Victorum pledge up to the all-in. As it stands I was in for Victorum, premium chips, and the hero mat. For another $120 I got all of the above plus Hoplomachus:Remastered and the premium chip bag. Chip Theory, like many publishers, is announcing an across-the-board MSRP increase, so I figured now was the time to grab what I could. The KS was already a discount from the previous MSRP price, and I doubt the flat $10 shipping cost is ever going to be beat.

This will also allow me to ditch my old base copy of Hoplomachus: The Lost Cities. If I can get a few bucks out of that it will help offset the cost as well.

I am also going to try to sell my copies of Hoplomachus. The problem is trying to find a BOX shaped correctly to ship it!

I did go back and switch out the "Control Your Roll" Tray for the new collapsible dice tower. It looks super cool and I already own the Undertow Tray (I wanted a second because they are awesome).

I think I’ll stick with just Victorum for now. I’m still not seeing a huge change (beyond artwork) between all the Hoplamachus stuff I have and the remastered version. If that changes, I’ll just grab it at a convention and pay a few bucks over the current price, but no shipping.

hentzau wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2019 3:49 pm Speaking of exploding Kickstarters...

Critical Role's Kickstarter to create a Vox Machina animated special.

And finally...

We are thrilled to announce that The Legend of Vox Machina will premiere February 4, 2022 on Amazon Prime Video! Let the countdown begin!

This popped up in my FB feed this morning. Heroes of Might & Magic III, the board game

While I LOVE the idea o HOMM III as a board game, the website for the Archon Studio company doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Looks like they have a whole bunch of games that are in various stages of Kickstarter pledges, but it doesn't appear that they've actually delivered any of them.

Know anything about these guys? If the HOMM III is legit, I'll back it yesterday...feels kinda scammy though.

The Roll Camera B-movie expansion kickstarter popped up on my Facebook feed, so I checked it out. I have never heard of this game before, but the premise:

Co-op game where players roll dice to complete scenes, solve problems, and make a movie

sounds great! And luckily they have the option for people to buy the base game. I have to say, having the board game box look and function like a set clapper is brilliant. So I backed it for the base game and expansion.

There's a demo of Roll Camera on TTS if you want to try it out. We looked at the original KS but never got around to trying it and missed the boat. May be worth a revisit.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/th ... xe-edition

The Watch It Played video really sold me on this one.

So the award for kickstarter that just won't die, I nominate Myth: Journeyman. I just received an email update from them. This project was supposed to ship in 2015.

They're asking folks to update a page with all the items they never received. At this point, I don't even know what I'm missing. But I had just went in on the upgrade stuff for the first Myth, so it's not really a big deal, I guess.

In other news, looks like Final Girl (from the makers of Hostage Negotiator) is shipping now to international backers. The US shipment should have arrived at port last week. I went all in on this one so I should be getting a butt ton of stuff.

The Myth stuff is a mess, yeah. Not that the pandemic is to blame for it, but I don't think it helped anything. As much as it kills me to say it, I think it's DoA for original fans, regardless. I learned last week that the artist from the original team (Keith Lowe) was originally part of the design team to help relaunch the title, but he's no longer working with Ulisses in any capacity. His art (IMHO) is part of the charm for the system and if he's gone, I am not confident in what direction it could be headed in.

They've also said that with the relaunch there won't be any type of "conversion kit", we'll just be able to play the game using the new rules and whatever they provide via free download on DriveThru. So on the one hand, they're making everyone whole based on what was originally promised (which is good) but in truth they're really doing a 100% relaunch of the IP and re-configuring how the game will be sold. I get it, but as someone that's been a big fan of the game from the get-go (even with all the warts and problems), I am kinda bummed that this is (for all intensive porpoises) and ending and that to really participate in whatever they're doing, I'd need to repurchase stuff (and that's not happening).

The final Too Many Bones campaign is now active. Runs for 17 days - kinda quick.

Yeah, I'm in at almost 300 bucks. I swore I wouldn't, but there's a lot of content they're releasing for this send off.

If they release a TMB 2.0 a year or two down the line, I'm probably going to go ballistic though. This is, by far, the most amount of money I've sunk into a game...ever. Of course, it's been spread out over about 3 or 4 years. But still...sheesh.