10 RPGs YOU MUST PLAY IN 2018!

PLUS OUR RE V IE W OF DUNGEONS & DR AGONS’ NE W E XPANSION

January 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk

BOGUS
BOARD GAMES
Do you own
a fake?

FALLOUT
Wasteland warfare
Nuclear PHWOAR! We go behind the scenes of
the action-packed post-apocalyptic minis game
STUFFED FABLES | CIVILIZATION: A NEW DAWN | VENGEANCE | AZUL
Display until 29/1/18

THE MAKING OF DOMINION | PHOTOSYNTHESIS | MASSIVE DARKNESS

£5.25

STAR SAGA PAINTING TIPS | HNEFATAFL: THE VIKING BOARD GAME

HUNT FOR THE RING | TABLETOP LIVESTEAMERS | RAXXON | AND MORE
 C O M I N G F E B R U A R Y 2018

Every year the Emperor walks through

the Imperial Gardens to greet the spring,
every year he stops beneath the sakura
trees, and every year you try to paint his
picture. This will be your year.
Sakura is a light tactical game of pushing
your luck, and pushing your friends. Each
player will simultaneously decide how
far to move both their character and the
Emperor. The player closest to the Emperor
2-6 20-40
MINUTES
when the cherry blossoms are reached
PLAYERS PLAY TIME will gain a huge amount of prestige, but if

“
you push too far you risk bumping into the
Emperor and walking away in disgrace.

“
Jostle to the front of the crowd
ready for your opportunity
to shine, or keep yourself in
the background only to leap
forward at the right moment.
But beware! The emperor has
a mind of his own.

TIPS FROM CREATOR

REINER KNIZIA

p002.indd 1 04/12/2017 15:54

 EDITORIAL
EDITOR Matt Jarvis
01778 392 400

Welcome
matt.jarvis@warnersgroup.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS John Dodd,

Owen Duffy, Holly Gramazio,
Sam Illingworth, David Jagneaux,
Richard Jansen-Parkes, Dan Jolin,
Andy Leighton, Lucy Orr,
Phil Robinson, Alex Sonechkina,

H
Paul Wake, James Wallis

HEAD OF DESIGN & PRODUCTION

appy New Year! The start of a new year always
Lynn Wright means lots more exciting upcoming releases
headed to the tabletop, but 2018 is set to be even
DESIGNER Richard Hallam
more exciting than most if you’re a fan of Tabletop Gaming.
COVER IMAGE FROM It’s our first year as a monthly magazine, meaning for the first
FALLOUT: WASTELAND WARFARE time you’ll be able to know exactly what you should be picking up
ADVERTISING
and playing every single month. If you’re not already a subscriber,
TO ADVERTISE PLEASE CALL we’ve made it easier than ever before to get the world’s best
GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER coverage of gaming through your letterbox with quarterly
Claire Ingram 01778 391 179
claire.ingram@warnersgroup.co.uk
and half-yearly options – plus you’ll save a bunch of money
compared to buying it in the shops. We’ve got loads of exclusive
GROUP TELESALES EXECUTIVE
Ben Jackson 01778 391 129
Now Playing... previews, features and promo gifts in the works, so you
ben.jackson@warnersgroup.co.uk Civilization: won’t want to miss out! Check out page 53 to find out more.
A New Dawn That’s not all! We’re also busy beavering away on the
ADVERTISING DESIGN plans for the first Tabletop Gaming Live convention, which
AND PRODUCTION
will take place this September in London’s gorgeous
Nicola Lock 01778 392 420
nicola.lock@warnersgroup.co.uk Get in touch Alexandra Palace. Tickets for the show are on sale right
now – make sure you’re at the most exciting show of the
MARKETING tabletopgaming.co.uk
year by booking yours today. Get the full details on page 6.
MARKETING BRAND MANAGER
Nicola Lumb tabletopmag Once you’ve done all that, strap in as we venture into
the irradiated post-apocalypse of Fallout: Wasteland
MARKETING ASSISTANT tabletopgamingmagazine
Warfare, explore the nightmarish dreamscape of Stuffed
Katherine Brown 01778 395 092
katherine.brown@warnersgroup.co.uk tabletop_gaming_magazine Fables, reveal the dark world of tabletop forgeries and
even take a trip back in time to game with the Vikings...

Matt
PUBLISHED BY
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Claire Ingram
Warners Group Publications PLC
The Maltings, West Street, Matt Jarvis Editor
Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH matt.jarvis@warnersgroup.co.uk | @liquidmatt
01778 391 000
www.warnersgroup.co.uk
Q U I C K S TA R T
NEWSTRADE DISTRIBUTION
Warners Group Publications PLC It’s another I want my We can only
01778 391 150
level above games to guess at the
PRINTING
the normal be more like harm end users
This publication is
printed by Warners wargame. Maybe the books that are exposing
01778 395111 it’s more of an have an indelible themselves
The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily
those of the publishers. Every care is taken to ensure that
adventure impact on to from
the content of this magazine is accurate, but we assume no
responsibility for any effect from errors or omissions. While
every care is taken with unsolicited material submitted for
game. your soul. counterfeits.
publication, we cannot be responsible for loss or damage. Why Fallout: Wasteland Jerry Hawthorne has high We reveal the dangers of
While every care is taken when accepting advertisements, we Warfare is SPECIAL, p18 hopes for Stuffed Fables, p26 fake board games, p44
are not responsible for the quality and/or the performance
of goods and/or services advertised in this magazine. The
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) exists to regulate the
content of advertisements. Tel: 020 7429 2222

© Warners Group Publications PLC, 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk 3

003_Welcome_v5 MJ.indd 3 11/12/2017 16:22

 In this issue
06 AT A GLANCE
A 30-second guide to the latest in gaming
09 FIRST TURN
Scythe creator Jamey Stegmaier on
the winey delights of Viticulture
10 10 OF THE BEST
Your map to some of the most exciting
worlds found in roleplaying games
13 ROLE CALL
The upcoming RPGs to keep your eye on
14 ALL THE JAHRES
Looking back at the questionable
themes of 1989’s Café International
17 MY FAVOURITE GAME
Mangaka designer Jason Thompson
expresses his love for Cosmic Encounter
ON THE COVER
18 FALLOUT:
WASTELAND WARFARE
Suit up in your power armour as we explore
the rad post-apocalyptic miniatures game
26 STUFFED FABLES
Why the tale from the man behind Mice
& Mystics will leave you sleeping soundly
34 HAVE YOU PLAYED?
Finding your place in Terra Mystica
37 KICKSTARTING
FROM SCRATCH
Art Deck continues on its journey
from concept to crowdfunding
38 HOW WE MADE
Donald X. Vaccarino reveals the secret
of the original deckbuilder: Dominion
4 January 2018
004_005_contents_v5 MJ.indd 4
44 FAKE BOARD GAMES
Find out about the wave of counterfeits
creeping into players’ collections
48 THE VIKING GAME
Forget Blood Rage – here’s what the
ancient Norse warriors really played
52 PLAY IT SMART
Our doctors break down the symptoms
and search for a cure to gamer rage
54 VENGEANCE
Gaming’s answer to revenge films Kill
Bill and John Wick is a bloody good time
58 STREAMING AHEAD
Playing games live on the internet has
never been bigger – we meet its stars
61 PLAYED
Reviews of the latest and greatest
games you should be playing
83 PAINTING GUIDE
Adding a splash of colour to the bosses
of sci-fi dungeon crawler Star Saga
88 DUNGEON MASTER’S
GUIDE TO ROLEPLAYING
Introducing new players to your campaign
91 EVENT REPORT
At Uncon: the unconventional convention
92 CLUB DIRECTORY
95 SHOP SPOTLIGHT
Rochester Games, Models & Railways
98 TABLETOP
TIME MACHINE
Let’s Do Lunch! On the menu: you!
13/12/2017 10:24
 THE GAMES
7 Wonders 44
Aristeia! 78
Art Deck 37
Asset Drop 80
Azul 62
Betrayal at 72
Baldur’s Gate
Betrayal at House 53
on the Hill
Café International 14
Civilization: 64
A New Dawn
Clank! In! Space! 68
Cosmic Encounter 17
Dominion 38, 44
Dragon Castle 81
26 Dungeons 10, 88
& Dragons
44 D&D: Xanathar’s 65
Guide to Everything
Elite Encounters 79
Ex Libris 73
Fallout: 18
Wasteland Warfare
Gaia Project 34
Hnefatafl 48
Hunt for the Ring 74
InBetween 80

38 Indian Summer 67
Let’s Do Lunch! 96
Massive Darkness 71
Monopoly 52
Star Saga 83
Photosynthesis 77
Pulsar 2849 63
Queendomino 69
Raxxon 70
Sidereal Confluence 75

54 Stuffed Fables 26
Terra Mystica 34
Ticket to Ride 44
Vengeance 54
Viticulture 09

tabletopgaming.co.uk 5
 AT A GLANCE
TABLETOP GAMING LIVE TICKETS GO ON SALE!
Day and weekend passes available for London show taking place in Alexandra Palace this September
You can now get your ticket to the most
exciting gaming convention of 2018:
Tabletop Gaming Live!
Together with our sister magazine Miniature
Wargames we’re hosting a celebration of all
things tabletop – from board and card games
to RPGs and wargames – at London’s beautiful
Alexandra Palace on Saturday, September 29th
and Sunday 30th 2018.
We’ll have some of the hottest new releases
from Gen Con in August, as well as a preview of
some of the games making their way to Essen
in October – making this your first chance to
play some of 2018’s biggest games in the UK.
There’s plenty more planned for the
two days, from tournaments to talks from
designers revealing how they made some of
your favourite gaming experiences.
We’re offering a special discount if you
pre-book your tickets before the show, with
adults able to pick up a day pass for just £15 or
attend the whole weekend for £25.
Weekend passes will only be available ahead of
time, so make sure you don’t miss out by waiting.
Tickets for young adults between the ages of
11 and 15 only cost £10 for one day or £15 for
both, while kids under 10 get in absolutely free. If
you’re a family of two adults and two young adults,
you can get a special group pass at £40 for a
single day or £65 for the weekend – saving £15!
Head over to theticketfactory.com and
search for “Tabletop Gaming Live” to get your
tickets today. We can’t wait to see you there!

TS
ADVANCE TICKAELE
N O W O: N S
Book and save today theticketfactory.com

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

14 31 3
Cluedo has been inducted into
1949

Infection at Outpost 31 studio Wings

the National Toy Hall of Fame. of Glory
Mondo has revealed its next
The murder-mystery classic was spin-off
movie-based games will be
invented at the end of the war Tripods
Jurassic Park and Fight Club

50%
and published a few years later

7
& Triplanes
You only have 14 hours will cross
After years of More than half of new the historical
left to save the Earth
waiting, 7 Wonders D&D: Fifth Edition players dogfighting minis
in the upcoming Flash
has finally come out watched someone play game with The
Gordon RPG for the
on iOS and Android the RPG online first War of the Worlds
Savage Worlds system

REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE

• SAVE UP TO 10% PER YEAR

• GUARANTEE YOUR FREE GIFT EVERY MONTH
• DON’T MISS OUT IF THE SHOPS SELL OUT
6 January 2018

006_007_atAGlance_v3 MJ.indd 6 13/12/2017 14:19

 We asked…
What games and
conventions are you looking
forward to in 2018?

BACK TO THE HOUSE You said…

ON THE HILL
Pandemic Legacy and Risk
Legacy designer Rob Daviau
returns with Betrayal Legacy
The man who pioneered the legacy genre
with Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy has
revealed his plans to transform another
tabletop favourite.
Betrayal Legacy is Rob Daviau’s
upcoming take on Betrayal at House on
the Hill, the 2004 horror adventure game
known for its various haunt scenarios and
traitor mechanics.
Betrayal Legacy will again feature 50 haunts, but each
playthrough will be connected in a series of 13 chapters
that tells a story over several decades and multiple
generations of the same families. That means you might
play as one character, only to control their descendant
in a later scenario (if they survive, that is). Items found in
the spooky manor can also be passed down, gaining extra
significance and becoming family heirlooms.
Although you can expect the game to feature the
same permanent modification and destruction of the
For the latest news from the world of gaming visit tabletopgaming.co.uk/news
Betrayal Legacy!
Jennifer Kaufer
Star Wars: Legion is the obvious
one, but Betrayal Legacy has the
potential to be an all-time great
horror-themed game.
Daniel Williams
Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is the
game I’m most looking forward
to. Also intrigued by Star Wars:
Legion. As for shows, always look
forward to Salute!
board, cards and whatnot as other legacy games, Mark Sheppard
Betrayal Legacy is said to be fully replayable after the
story is finished, allowing you to experience the haunts UK Games Expo gets bigger and
you might’ve missed. better every year, so can’t wait
The game marks a return to Betrayal at House for even more! Also interested to
on the Hill for Daviau, more than a decade after he see how Tabletop Gaming Live will
worked on the 2004 game while at Hasbro – the same be in September before heading
role that later led him to create Risk Legacy, his first to Essen Spiel for only the second
title based on the innovative format. time in October.
Betrayal Legacy is planned for release toward the end Sam Freeman
of 2018.
Forbidden Lands by Fria Ligan.
Also the BattleTech game on PC.
MASTERS OF MAGIC Dave Thompson
The latest Magic: The Gathering World
PAW 2018 in Feb in Plymouth,
Cup has crowned its international victors Devon. Plus more new Necromunda.
Ian Henderson
Japan has bested Poland to take home the latest
World Magic Cup from the annual tournament. Village Attacks, which looks like
2017’s competition saw 73 teams of three from being a hoot and has some lovely
around the globe battle it out in the collectible card miniatures. Really hoping the
game, with China, Italy, Poland, Wales, Slovakia and gameplay is as good.
Germany filling out the top eight rankings. Jeff Stokes
The home nations performed well, with all but
Northern Ireland making it through to the second day Shadows of Brimstone: Forbidden
of the competition. Scotland made history by becoming Fortress, Time of Legends: Joan of
the only team to always make it to the second day and Arc (especially historical mode).
walked away with a Spirit Award for its display of its Kevin Thomas
national pride with Braveheart-style face paint and kilts.
The highest-placed UK team was Wales, which lost
to Poland in the day three quarterfinals, placing it fifth Get in touch tabletopmag
overall. The team also picked up a Spirit Award.
Next year’s World Magic Cup will be held from
tabletopgamingmagazine
December 14th to 16th in Barcelona, Spain.
tabletop_gaming_magazine
S TA R S A G A

PAINTS & TECHNIQUES 1 BASE 3 HIGHLIGHTING 5 FINAL

PAINTS USED ZENITHAL HIGHLIGHTING STAGES COLOURS
Abaddon Black Lothern Blue Zenithal highlighting at its core is a much more complicated Each creature is split up into four stages, each with a list
Kislev Flesh: Add a layer to the face,
leaving the recesses dark.
DETAILS
Agrax Earthshade Lugganath Orange process than what I am going to show you in this guide. I will of colours and the corresponding paint that was used Cadian Fleshtone: Apply one to Blue Horror:
two light coats to the face until Ulthuan Grey: Apply a spot highlight Apply a light
Alaitoc Blue Macragge Blue show a basic version that helps apply a simplified version for it. Each stage uses a different technique to achieve a
you have an even colour. to the armour, focusing on corners highlight to the
Baneblade Brown Mechanicus Standard Grey of highlighting. This begins at the basecoating stage, whilst similar effect on each element but with different colours.
Abaddon Black: Mix with two and where the lines from the screen and the hard
Blood for the Blood God Mephiston Red preparing the model for the later stages.
parts water and apply a good previous stage meet the edge of edges around it.
Bloodletter Moot Green Stage 1 is base colours. Base colours are applied using a
coat over all of the armour the armour. Ceramite White: Add a
Blue Horror Nuln Oil Begin by basecoating the mix of glazes and flat colours.
and fatigues. Russ Grey: Apply a line highlight to spot highlight to the arm
Bugmans Glow Pallid Wych Flesh miniature black. This is easiest Stage 2 is applying shading. In this stage we use
Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the fatigues and cap. and gun.
Cadian Fleshtone Rakarth Flesh with a black spray paint. various washes and glazes to add an element of
the arm and gun. Fenrisian Grey: Apply a layer over Pallid Wych Flesh: Add a
Celestra Grey Reikland Fleshshade shading to the models.
the arm and gun, focusing towards spot highlight to the face.
Ceramite White Russ Grey Stage 3 is highlighting. This stage involves applying a line
one corner on each section and Gauss Blaster Green:
Dark Reaper Screamer Pink of your colour along the hard edges and ridges of the
the edges. Add an edge highlight to
Dawnstone Squig Orange area. I would recommend using a fine brush and adding a

Turn to page 53 to find out more

Dorn Yellow Steel Legion Drab tiny dash of water to your paints. the bottom right of the
Drakenhof Nightshade Sybarite Green Stage 4 is final highlight. This involves adding a small dot eye lens.
Ceramite White
Fenrisian Grey
Flayed One Flesh
Temple Guard Blue or dash of a colour, generally in the same area as the
previous highlight, but focusing on corners or where folds 2 SHADING 4 FINAL & Abaddon Black:
HIGHLIGHT
Troll Slayer Orange
Gauss Blaster Green Ulthuan Grey Once the black is dry, apply a in cloth meet. For hair or fur it involves adding a dot to Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply With a tiny amount
Genestealer Purple Warpstone Glow light spray of white from the the tip of each strand. If you find yourself unsure of where across the arm, gun and face. Blue Horror: Add a highlight to on the tip of your
Jokearo Orange Wazdakka Red top around the model. This to apply the highlights or spot highlights, look over the Dark Reaper: Apply a highlight to the arm and gun, focusing on the brush, carefully
Khorne Red Xereus Purple will create a light element images alongside the guide and compare that stage to the folds and hard edges of the corners and hard edges towards paint the eye.
Kislev Flesh Yriel Yellow of highlighting and shading the last. fatigues and the cap. the top of the model. Once dry add a
straight off the bat that will Stage 5 is the final details. This stage involves cleaning up Dawnstone: Apply a line highlight Flayed One Flesh: Apply a line dot of black to
either provide shading and and adding a few spot highlights. This stage also includes to the armour sections. Also, highlight to the face. the top, centre.
highlighting in later stages or a painting the base of the model. with very little paint on the brush, Fenrisian Blue: Add a fine highlight
guide as to where they should apply small dashes across the to the fatigues and cap.
be applied. armour surface. Sybarite Green: Apply a coat to

GRAVES
the eye lens.
Lothern Blue: Mix with one part water
and apply on and around the wrist
1 BASE COLOURS screen and the chest are opposite.
Mechanicus Standard Grey: Paint the majority of the armour using
this grey.
Macragge Blue: Pick out sections of the
armour and apply one to two coats until you
1 BASE COLOURS
Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist guards.
have an even colour. Cadian Fleshtone: Apply a basecoat to the face.
Khorne Red: Paint the visor, lights and pipes. Fenrisian Grey: Apply a basecoat to the fatigues.
Steel Legion Drab: Apply a coat over the gun. Abaddon Black: Apply a coat to the boots and cabling.
Jokearo Orange: Apply a basecoat to the gloves and knee pads.

2 SHADING 2 SHADING
Nuln Oil: Apply over the entirety of the model in one even coat. Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply a coat to all the
Warpstone Glow: Once the wash is dry make a mix with two parts water areas previously coated with Dawnstone.
and apply to the wrist generator.. Celestra Grey: Apply a layer over the fatigues,
leaving only the recesses the base colour.
Yriel Yellow: Apply a layer over the gloves and
knee pads, leaving the recesses and bottom

3 HIGHLIGHTING 5 FINAL DETAILS

edges the base colour.
Dark Reaper: Apply a line highlight to the cabling
Dawnstone: Apply a line highlight to all of the grey armour sections. Blue Horror: Add a spot highlight to the and boots.
Also, with very little paint on the brush, apply small dashes across Squig Orange, Xereus Purple & Sybarite Green:
5 FINAL
edges and the lines of both the blue and
the armour surface. grey sections of the armour. Apply orange over the lights on the arms, joints
Alaitoc Blue: Apply a line highlight to all of the blue armour sections.
Again, with very little paint on the brush, apply small dashes across
Lugganath Orange: Apply a spot
highlight to the visor and the centre
and chest piece and apply the purple and green
to the vials found across the model.
DETAILS
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a spot
the armour surface. of the lights. highlight to the face.
Wazdakka Red: Apply a highlight to the top and hard edges of the Ceramite White: Mix with three Ceramite White: Apply
visor, over the lights and along the piping.
3 HIGHLIGHTING
parts water and apply a light wash a spot highlight to the
Baneblade Brown: Apply a line highlight to the gun. to the wrist generator. mechanical arms, armour
Temple Guard Blue: Mix with two parts water Fenrisian Grey: Add a line highlight to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist guards, and wrist guards.
and lightly apply within the centre ring of the

or subscribe today from as little

focusing on corners and hard edges. Ceramite White &
wrist generator. Ulthuan Grey: Apply a layer over the fatigues, leaving a little more of the base and the Abaddon Black: With
previous layer showing through. a tiny amount on the
Dorn Yellow: Apply a line highlight to the gloves and knee pads. tip of your brush,
Russ Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the cabling and boots. carefully paint the the
Trollslayer Orange & Moot Green: Apply a layer
4 FINAL HIGHLIGHT over the lights and vials.
eye. Once dry, add
a dot of black to the
Celestra Grey: Apply as an edge highlight to all of the grey armour top, centre.
sections. Also apply a spot highlight to the lines added in the Blue Horror: Apply a
previous stage.
Russ Grey: Apply as an edge highlight to all of the blue armour 4 FINAL HIGHLIGHT spot highlight to the eye lenses.
Lugganath Orange: Apply a spot highlight to
sections. Also apply a spot highlight to the lines added in the Blue Horror: Apply a final highlight to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist the lights.
previous stage. guards, focusing on the corners.
Squig Orange: Add a fine highlight to the visor, focusing towards the Flayed One Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the face.
corner created by the last stage. Also add a spot highlight to the lights, Ceramite White: Apply a line highlight to the hard edges of the fatigues.

DR. KOYNER
and a line just in front of each light. Mephiston Red: Apply a coat over the wires on Dr. Koyner’s head.

MONARCH
Lothern Blue: Make a mx with two parts water and add a very fine line Lothern Blue: Mix with one part water and apply a coat over the eye lenses.
around the centre disc of the generator. Fire Dragon Bright & Gauss Blaster Green: Apply a spot highlight to the lights
Screaming Skull: Add an edge highlight to the gun. and the vials.

84 January 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk 85

20 of 132 pages
P L AY E D

players a single point. Put tiles

adjacent to each other instead and
you'll score one point for each tile
in a horizontal and vertical row

as £14.99
attached to the newly-placed tile.
This means that points can rack up
quite fast with thoughtful sequence
of placements. It also eliminates
ED

IT
CE

I
a possibility of a runaway winner,
O R'
S CHO
because one cleverly added tile to
the wall can bring in enough points
to catch up, even in the last round.
Winning in Azul depends entirely
on
the player and the set of decisions
they make during the game.
This is not to say that Azul lacks
player interaction and opponents
cannot influence each other’s moves.
In the drafting stage of the game it
is
quite easy to steal tiles form under
an opponent’s nose or, alternatively,
leave them with tiles they do not
want. This confrontation is most

AZUL
pronounced in a two-player game,
where Azul turns into a tense chess-
like game of push-and-pull between
the players.
More fun than tiling your bathroom! Despite the simplicity of its
Designer: Michael Kiesling | Artist: mechanics, Azul’s ’s rules can feel

I
Chris Quilliams fiddly and confusing, especially with
30-45m 2-4 8+
t was only a matter of time before £40
its scoring. Azul is the type of game
someone took term ‘tile-laying’ the player, the tiles are moved to the
that will ‘click’ after playing it once,

A DISH
literally and designed a game ‘pattern lines’.
and the second time going players

SERVEDBEST
about – you guessed it – laying down Already, this simple action of
will make more strategic and better-
tiles. Azul embraces this prosaic picking up tiles and placing them
informed decisions. Luckily, one
on the player mat has a myriad of

ROLLED
premise and takes it to a wonderfully game of Azul,, even with four people,
colourful place, delivering ambitious possible tactical decisions. Players
lasts about half an hour, so it is very
gameplay on its way. might take a risk and discard several
easy to play just one more.Taking
‘Azul’ – Spanish and Portuguese tiles to the middle, in the hope that its cues from
WHAT’S IN enough tiles of the same colour will
Azul is everything one wouldmovies violent revenge
for 'blue' – comes from the word THE BOX? want from an abstract game; it lookslike Kill Bill and
‘azulejos’, decorative tiles used by ◗ 100 resin tiles
accumulate by the time the turn
instantly beautiful on the Vengeance
Oldboy,
returns to them, allowing them to table puts players
Portuguese monarch Manuel I. This ◗ Four player boards and its gameplay is challenging blood-soake in the
sets up the game, giving players some ◗ Nine factory displays pick up a lot of them at the same
and addictive. The game is d boots of characters
hunting
really
good at rewarding players for their down those that
background information to justify ◗ First player marker time – but there's always the chance
tiling walls – beyond this, though, ◗ Linen bag their opponents might get those
thoughtful moves and placements,done them wrong have
the tiles ahead of them. The order in in order to set
theme is entirely window dressing. and, despite one minor luck them right. For
This is fairly insignificant as, at its which the tiles are transferred to karmic justice.
the ‘pattern lines’ is important, too.
element, there is a real breadthAnd victory
of
heart, Azul is a quick abstract game points, natch

tabletopgaming.co.uk/subscribe
choice and decisions to be made
with beautifully-made tiles. Which colour is best to build first?
throughout the game. Words by Matt Jarvis
At a first glance, it might seem that Which colours are other players
ALEX SONECHKINA
there are a lot of luck elements within going for? Which combinations need
the game. After the initial random to be picked up to avoid excess tiles
drawing of tiles out of a bag, however, going to the ‘floor line’ and hence WE SAY
the game becomes pure strategy. earning a player minus points? Breathtakingly beautiful and tactically
The scoring part of Azul is equally exciting, Azul will be a great addition
Players can collect tiles of the
tactical. Transferring one tile from to any board game shelf. While its
same colour from one of the plates, premise is seemingly mundane, this
moving remaining tiles to the centre. the pattern line to the ‘wall’ earns is
a game unlike any other.
Alternatively, they can also pick from
the centre, once at least one tile has TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… SAGRADA
been moved there. Once taken by Azul has fewer moving parts than Sagrada,
, but its drafting and tile-laying
mechanics are just as strong and the
visuals are equally gorgeous.

62 January 2018

tabletopgaming.co.uk 54 January 2018

006_007_atAGlance_v3 MJ.indd 7 13/12/2017 14:19

p008.indd 1 06/12/2017 09:11
 FIRST TURN
JAMEY STEGMAIER
The man behind strategy hit Scythe and last year’s Charterstone mulls over
the game that started it all: 2013’s winemaking, worker-placing Viticulture
Interview by Dan Jolin
BACKGROUND
“I have been designing games as a fun hobby since I
was a little kid. But it wasn’t until I was midway through
my second career – as a director of operations at an on-
campus facility – that I started on Viticulture. Kickstarter
was a big inspiration; when I started to see board
game projects on it, it clicked that maybe I could make
something that people would want.”
COMPONENTS
“When I’m designing a game and I play another game
for the first time, it will often influence me. If I recall
correctly, at the time I started designing Viticulture I
got Fresco for Christmas. So that had an immediate
impact, in that it has a ‘wake up’ track very similar to
Viticulture’s. I also played Stone Age around that time,
too, and that’s when I thought, ‘Oh, I really love the
worker-placement thing. Let me see if that’s a good fit for
Viticulture’. Before that, it was more of a card game.”
OBJECT
“I wanted to design a game I thought would appeal to
gamers, and also appeal to non-gamers who just happen
to love wine. Though that didn’t end up being the case. It
ended up much more appealing to gamers… and gamers
who like wine. Winemaking just came to mind as one of
these things we tend to romanticise. Like farming. It’s
kind of odd that we romanticise that, because I think very
few people actually want to go out and work on a farm.
But it somehow works as a romanticised idea in board
games. And wine, I thought, elevated that idea a little bit.”
SETUP
“The game was much more spreadsheety early on. I was
trying to simulate too many things. I had weather factoring
into the value of the grapes. I had soil types that would
impact on how good the grapes were. And in your cellar,
where right now you just age wine sequentially, every type
Hosting visitors at your vineyard opens up
strategic paths during the game
January 2018
009_firstTurn_v3 MJ.indd 9
of wine had a different numerical system; so some wine
might get much more valuable the longer it ages, while I’m
other wine might de-value as it ages. And it wasn’t fun. So
over time I simplified those things and focused more on fun more
and function.”
of a beer
HOW TO PLAY
“In Viticulture you are one of potentially up to six players drinker,
who are running a vineyard. You build buildings to expand
your vineyard, you plant vines, you accept wine orders and myself. But
you’re trying to fulfil those wine orders. Vineyard tours, and
tasting, are a big part of the industry, so I wanted to capture I did a lot of
that element, too. Not that I’m a ‘wine person’. I’m more
of a beer drinker, myself. But I did a lot of research!” research!
END OF THE GAME
“I never really knew what would come out of Viticulture. I
hoped that people would play it. What I didn’t imagine was
that it would become an evergreen game for Stonemaier.
We go through three or four printings a year, especially
since the Essential Edition came out. A very special moment
was when Uwe Rosenberg emailed me and said he enjoyed
playing it. And then for me to actually work with him, on
designing the Moor Visitors expansion, was incredible.”
STRATEGY TIPS
“I severely underestimated the value of blind
playtesting. That’s when the designer or publisher
sends files of the game to people to playtest
when they’re not there. So the designer doesn’t
help teach the game, or answer questions.
And you usually get some incredible
feedback by doing this. With Viticulture,
most of the blind playtesting came during
the Kickstarter campaign, which is much
later than it needs to be done. So that was
a big takeaway for me, and a big thing I
advocate to other designers.”
tabletopgaming.co.uk 9
11/12/2017 16:24
 1 DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS
Let’s get this one out the way first, shall we?
Dungeons & Dragons is the obvious choice, but
it’s the obvious choice for a reason. Flexible,
simple to get to grips
with and backed up by
more than four decades
of supplements and
adventures, the world’s
biggest RPG has never
been better or easier to get
into for newcomers thanks
to its fantastic fifth edition
and a slew of new digital
tools to help first-time
heroes jump straight in.
Play if you like: Fantasy,
magic, never being short
of new quests, Satan
(just kidding)
2
CYBERPUNK
First released in the late ‘80s at the height of
the gritty sci-fi sub-genre rooted in sex, drugs
and (virtual) rock ‘n’ roll, Cyberpunk was a shot
of adrenaline wired directly into players’ nerves.
Among the diverse characters players can create
are hackers and mercenaries able to augment
themselves with advanced tech – although the
blurring of lines between human and machine often
plays into the drama, especially as the combat sticks to a realistic
approach that means characters remain vulnerable to a single bullet. The original game
was set in 2013, but later editions advanced the setting to 2020 and then 2030 as life
caught up with art. As rich and rewarding as a Philip K. Dick story, Cyberpunk might well
be the coolest game on this list – or indeed on the tabletop.
Play if you like: Leather jackets, Blade Runner, William Gibson novels

10
OF THE BEST
ROLEPLAYING
GAMES
Whether your alter-ego is a hapless bank robber, doomed investigator
of the paranormal or tech-obsessed hacker, there’s an RPG out there
for you. Here are ten titles you shouldn’t pass up the chance to play
Picked by Matt Jarvis

3 FIASCO
In every roleplaying campaign, things
inevitably go awry. There are few
games, however, where accidents
and mishaps aren’t just part of the
action – they are the action. Fiasco
is inspired by tales about hapless
criminals, capturing the black
comedy and drama of films like
Fargo in about the same amount of
time as a movie without the need
for a GM. There’s no preparation
needed and the action is dictated
by little more than imagination and
six-sided dice, making it a great
way for those looking for a first
taste of roleplaying to have fun.
Play if you like: Screwing up
without worrying about it, not
having a GM, the Coen brothers
4 ADVENTURES IN
MIDDLE-EARTH
Although you’ll need Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition to use
this Lord of the Rings-inspired set of books (earlier RPG The One
Ring is a standalone option), there’s probably no better choice
if you’re a diehard fan of Tolkien’s momentous fantasy series. Set just after The
Hobbit, Adventures in Middle-earth’s Player’s
Guide provides all the rules needed to create
characters rooted in the lore of the world,
while the various supplements bring even
more races, creatures and locations to your
campaign. There are several other changes
to D&D’s formula too, swapping alignment
for corruption (all players are good) and
introducing extra tips for journeys and advice
on forming your own fellowship, but combat
and much of the D&D foundation remains the
same, making it just as easy to get started.
Play if you like: Tolkien, D&D, being a goodie,
hairy feet, the precioussss

10 January 2018

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 5 CALL OF CTHULHU
The ultimate horror RPG, Call of Cthulhu is a stone-cold classic of
the tabletop. Set in the world of terrifying cosmic monsters and
murderous occultists created by H.P. Lovecraft, Call of Cthulhu
differs from so many roleplaying games by making players’
investigators physically and psychologically fragile as they delve
into the forbidden knowledge of the unknown. Characters don’t have classes; instead,
they’re just like regular humans with occupations and particular skills trying (often
in vain) to stop the world’s destruction. Often this
6 NUMENERA
Set on our Earth, but
in a far-flung future
approximately a billion
years from now (so, a
while), Monte Cook’s sci-
fi creation boasts a captivating setting
and refined d20-powered gameplay that
has quickly made it a modern smash hit.
means that players spend hours attempting to Players’ characters are created using
solve a mystery only to end up dead, insane or a simple system that uses a single
worse, but Call of Cthulhu makes failure so fun sentence to outline their personality,
it’s easy to see why it continues to be so popular background and skills before heading
more than 30 years after it debuted. The most out into the Ninth World and
recent seventh edition fixes many of the issues of discovering its mixture of fantasy
older versions, particularly surrounding combat, tropes filtered through imaginative
and there’s plenty of spin-offs and supplements science-fiction. After inspiring everything
available for fans, from the comic book-like Pulp from a video game and short film to a series of novels and other
Cthulhu to the Arkham Horror board games board games, a sequel to the game is planned for release later
inspired by the original RPG. this year, but it’s still well worth revisiting the original.

Play if you like: Scary movies, Lovecraft, mysteries, Play if you like: Exploring strange but familiar worlds,
going insane (it’s more fun than it sounds) Clarke’s Third Law, unconventional fantasy

7
GURPS
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System is one of the
most versatile RPGs around, offering a flexible set of rules
that can be used to roleplay in pretty much any setting
or genre you can think of. Characters are defined with
a set of basic traits and then a set of advantages and
disadvantages that help to give them
realism and balance – for instance, a
particularly clever character might also
8 PATHFINDER
have a drinking problem. GURPS might
require a little more effort to get going
than some of the other entries on this list
because of the scope and complexity of
its one-size-fits-all approach, but if you’re
looking for a single game that could be
used for everything from a gunslinging
cowboy adventure to a planet-hopping
space opera, it’s got you covered.
Based on the third edition
rules of Dungeons & Dragons
(and therefore backwards
compatible with many of its
supplements), Pathfinder
was originally designed as a successor to the
roleplaying favourite but quickly forged its own
path with a unique approach to character
creation, class progression and combat that
saw it gather a massive following itself. The
game has an essentially active community
thanks to the Pathfinder Society and Adventure
Path, a series of campaigns released as six
monthly episodes. Pathfinder was followed up
with a sci-fi sequel, Starfinder, last year, which
takes place in the same expansive universe and
adds in rules for spaceship dogfights and more.

Play if you like: Thinking of ideas that Play if you like: D&D (but not quite),
others don’t have, playing exactly the episodic storytelling, sticking with one
way you want to, literally anything character for a long time

9 SHADOWRUN
Combining the advanced tech of sci-fi with the magical
wonder of fantasy, Shadowrun takes place in a world
that has been inhabited by mythological creatures,
leading to humans giving birth to beings such as elves,
dwarves and more or transforming into orks and trolls.
There’s often a cyberpunk edge to the
action, with underground hackers working
together to break into megacorporations
10 VAMPIRE
Flipping the typical RPG setup,
– although sometimes they’re simply in Vampire players are the monsters, embodying
working for a rival company. Shadowrun’s the undead personalities of blood-sucking kindred in the moody,
incredible setting has been the source atmospheric World of Darkness that would go on to serve as the
of endless inspiration for players and backdrop to RPGs based on other classic horror creatures such as
creators alike, spawning dozens of Werewolf, Mummy, Demon and Wraith. Vampire moves away from
novels, other games and more – so if many of the clichés of vampire stories, exploring the idea of a civilisation
you’re hooked, there’s no shortage of of clashing vampire clans hidden in modern-day cities. Both a ‘classic’
ways to dive even deeper into the world. game – The Masquerade – and updated sequel The Requiem are still
available, with a fifth edition of The Masquerade due out early this year
Play if you like: Fantasy and introducing a focus on ‘you are what you eat’ mechanics.
and sci-fi together, Android:
Netrunner, cyberpunk Play if you like: Nosferatu, darkness, The Cure

tabletopgaming.co.uk 11

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p012.indd 1 04/12/2017 15:51
 Role Call
The start of a new year means a beginning for both new
games and fresh takes on older roleplaying classics
Words by John Dodd
GENESYS CORE
RULEBOOK
Genesys is Fantasy
Flight’s new foray into
roleplaying games. It’s
not a single large setting,
but five smaller ones and,
while the rules require a
specialist set of dice, the
mechanics promise to
allow a greater degree of
freedom to work within
the worlds provided. In
the manner of Steve
Jackson’s GURPS before
it, the core book is a single
ruleset to set you on the
path, with no doubt with
many expansions to follow.
Fantasy Flight | £35
January 2018
013_roleCall_v3 MJ.indd 13
WORLD WAR
CTHULHU:
OUR AMERICAN
COUSINS
The 1970s were a decade
of revolution, both on home
soil and abroad, and it is
into the colonies that World
War Cthulhu: Cold War now
ventures. This book details
intelligence agencies and
coverups, and contains a
full guide on how to create
American investigators
for WWC. It also contains
a complete adventure
designed for characters
made with the book and a
series of NPCs to use.
Cubicle 7 | £17
UNMASKED CONAN THE CAPHARNAÜM
From the ‘70s to the MERCENARY The upcoming English
‘80s, and a world very The latest offering from translation of the French
dissimilar from the recent Modiphius covers the game Capharnaüm: The
Tales from the Loop times when Conan was Tales of the Dragon-
RPG set in the decade. a sellsword. Players Marked. A world not
Unmasked is the latest are given the chance unlike the original
offering using the Cypher to work as a part of the Arabian Nights, but with
system first seen in mercenary companies, more in common with
Numenera and features as well as knowing the Exalted universe,
a world where the players where to find work as a players live vicariously
are teens who don masks mercenary, the countries as paragons of the gods
in the evening to fight as that have the most in the unending sun of
their superpowered alter- need for them and the a land in chaos. Due
egos. With a full setting enemies that they are in the first quarter of
and all-new abilities to often hired to fight. The 2018, and with a series
add to your other Cypher book also includes rules of adventures already
games, it promises to be for mass battles and the planned, this will be one
a very dark future. tactics of mercenaries. to watch.
Monte Cook | £35 Modiphius | £10 Mindjammer Press | £30
tabletopgaming.co.uk 13
13/12/2017 11:27
 All the
Jahres
Replaying the winners of the Spiel des Jahres so you don’t have to
Words and pictures by James Wallis

CAFÉ INTERNATIONAL
W
hen was the last time you saw And then Café International won the Spiel
someone smoking on the cover Year of win: 1989 des Jahres.
of a board game? How about two Designer: Rudi Hoffmann Café International is an altogether more
people smoking? How about on the cover of a Number of players: 2-4 tasteful affair, or so you might think. A
game published by Mattel, the home of Barbie Playing time: 45-60 minutes tile-placing game of seating diners at a
and Fisher-Price? Worthy winner? As a game, sure. As a cosmopolitan restaurant, it was the brainchild
Café International is that game. In the late cultural artefact, not so much of veteran designer Rudi Hoffman, who had
1980s Mattel Germany had made a big push Worth playing now? Dated but still fun been producing games since the 1960s, and
into the booming board game market, Availability: Still in print in was a forerunner of a style of tile-based
working with premier-league designers Germany, from Amigo mechanics that 11 years later would
to produce a range of family- Price: £25 evolve into Carcassonne
Carcassonne.
friendly titles. ‘Family-friendly’ There’s a restaurant with 24
is a relative term; Mattel’s tables and a bar in the middle.
offerings included Till For reasons that are unclear
Eulenspiegel,
Eulenspiegel a game each table may only be
based on a series of occupied by people of a
folktales about a certain nationality, and if
character who you were wondering at
mostly does what point in the 20th
enormous shits, century Germany got
and Suppenkasper,
Suppenkasper over the stigma of
a trick-forcing game the racial segregation
about building meals and imposed by the Nazis,
making other players evidently by 1989 they
eat them, which were just fine with it.
includes a What’s more, each table
laxatives can only be occupied
card – more by mixed couples or
shitting – and groups – no singletons
which you win by or single-sex
being closest to the ideal gatherings here – and a
weight when another table of four must be two
player dies of anorexia men and two women.
or explodes from Your job is to use the
overeating. I’m not trying five tiles in your hand
to explain or justify to fill as much of the
these games, I’m just restaurant as possible,
noting that they exist two tiles at a time. You
and were published by Mattel. You score for each tile, with
may never look at a Barbie the same way again. scores that increase the more

14 January 2018

014_015_allTheJahres_v3 MJ.indd 14 11/12/2017 16:31


people there are at a table, and double if
they’re all of the same nationality. Because,
you see, some of the tables have chairs that
overlap with other tables: the English (it says
‘England’ not ‘Britain’ or ‘UK’) must share
their space with Africans, Chinese, Spaniards
and Italians. It’s not a roleplaying game, but
roleplaying some of the conversations that
might ensue between people forced onto the
same tables does give the game an interesting
new dimension.
Theoretically it’s possible to fill the board
completely, but in practice some tiles soon
become unplayable, and that’s where the
bar in the middle comes in. It has 20 seats.
Putting otherwise unplayable tiles on the
first five will actually earn you points, but the
numbers get increasingly negative after that.
Add an interesting twist that reduces your
hand size by one every time you complete a
table of four diners from the same country,
and some clever stuff with jokers, and you’ve
got an interesting, engaging and pleasantly
unpredictable game.
There are two problems with Café
International. The first is one that I’ve
mentioned before: the Spiel des Jahres is an
014_015_allTheJahres_v3 MJ.indd 15
award for family games, and therefore some
of its winners lack the tactical depth that an
older, more hobbyist crowd would expect. Café
International is one of those titles. The small
hand size makes it hard to think tactically
more than a turn ahead, and the fact that each
player is supposed to keep their tiles face-up
removes any element of mystery from the
gameplay. It’s fun to play, and an enjoyable
mental workout, but it feels more like a
competitive puzzle than a regular game. In
1989 this was groundbreaking stuff, but it’s not
aged well.
The other problem is the tiles that represent
the diners of the 12 nations. Here we learn a
lot about the way Germans stereotyped the
world in 1989, and if the gameplay feels dated
then hold onto your hair – we’re only getting
started. The tiles show pictures of the diners,
male and female. A lot of them are what you
might expect: Americans have big hats or big
hair; the English have a bowler and a pipe, or a
Lady Di haircut and an overbite. Generally the
white European people come out of it okay.
However, those who are African (thick lips,
wide grins) or Chinese (slit-eyed and buck-
toothed) are less fortunate.
If a
game was
released with these
kind of images
today social media
would have
a meltdown.
It’s not screamingly offensive, and certainly
wasn’t intended to be. But it is offensive, and if
a game was released with these kind of images
today then your social media platform of choice
would have a meltdown. Café International is
an artefact of its time in more ways than just its
game design, and that time was early 1989. The
Soviet bloc still existed, Berlin would still be
divided by a wall for another few months and
national attitudes were all about us-and-them.
All the same, I’m pretty sure that if I’d been
writing this review in 1989, I’d still have called
out this art for its casual racism.
It’s a shame. There’s a lot to like in Café
International. It’s not great with two players,
but it’s a clever melding of puzzle and theme,
not quite like anything else. The gameplay is
about how we should be able to find ways to
share the same space despite our differences.
But its graphic design anchors it firmly at
the end of a strange, troubled decade, and
perhaps it should have stayed there.
Next month: We look at Klaus Teuber’s Adel
Verpflichtet, the least pronounceable and
most underrated Spiel des Jahres winner
tabletopgaming.co.uk 15
11/12/2017 16:39
 THE SCI-FI ADVENTURE BOARD GAME
FOR 1-5 PLAYERS

Featuring strong story-telling elements

and immersive game scenarios, Star
Saga: The Eiras Contract will see players
guide a team of mercenaries on a mission
to retrieve stolen technology from a highly
guarded research facility deep beneath
the surface of the planet Eiras.

www.manticgames.com

Star Saga Ad
p016.indd 1 265x200.indd 1 01/11/2017
04/12/2017 15:57
15:53
 my favourite game
JASON
THOMPSON
The quick-draw creator of Mangaka and Cartooner
explains why Cosmic Encounter is out of this world
C
osmic Encounter, the world’s greatest
science-fiction board game, is now more
than 40 years old, but it doesn’t look it. For
a game that was conceived in 1972 and
published in 1977, when tactical wargames
and their Gygaxian spawn ruled geek culture, Cosmic
Encounter feels like an ancient alien, a visitor from
some advanced civilisation bearing gaming insights that
wouldn’t become commonplace for 30 years.
It’s the execution, not some high concept, that makes
Cosmic Encounter so great. “Alien races compete for territory
by taking over each other’s planets” could have been the
pitch for any 1970s wargame. Even as late as 1988 Avalon Hill
was still making crusty sci-fi games like Merchant of Venus,
with preset maps, dice-based subsystems and hundreds of
unique tokens; in contrast, Cosmic Encounter is a triumph of
abstraction and minimalism. Each player’s starting territory
consists of an identical star system with five identical planets.
The territories slot together in a modular way, gathered
around the central repository for dead tokens: the warp.
Each planet starts with four identical tokens, which represent
your troops, and the cone (a pointer) that represents
where your troops are headed in any given round.
Combat is basic. Each player has a hand of numbered
cards and, when you fight, each side plays a card facedown.
Flip them over: the player with the higher number, plus
the number of tokens in combat, wins. (Here comes the
diplomatic element: you can send foreign troops/tokens to
assist your friends.) It’s a bluffing game, like poker: should
you commit your best card to the battle, or will you end up
wasting a 40 while your opponent throws the fight with a -5?
Of course, if they’ve got allies when they play that -5, sending
their trusting friends screaming to their deaths, grudges will
be held. Win five fights, conquer five planets and you win.
What makes this simple foundation work is that Cosmic
(as we called it when I played it in school) is one of the first
examples of an exceptions-based rules system. Weird cards
tweak the gameplay in countless ways, from compromise
cards (you lose the battle, even against a -5, but can draw
consolation cards from your opponent’s hand) to multiplier
cards and special cards which initiate a non-violent deal
between players or have other strange effects.
The real twist is alien races. At the start of the game
each player chooses or randomly draws an alien card,
which gives you a unique special power for the entire
game. For example, the sorcerer can choose to switch
attack cards with their opponent, after they’re chosen
but before they’re flipped face-up. The Warpish adds the
January 2018
017_myFavGame_v2 MJ.indd 17
total number of dead tokens – everyone’s dead tokens
– to all its attacks. To fight the Warpish, you really
need an ally like the healer, who brings tokens back from
the dead. Or the zombie, who never dies; its defeated
tokens just shamble to other planets and regroup. The
trader can trade hands with an opponent, the plant can
copy and accumulate other players’ powers, the terrorist
booby-traps planets so they explode…
The base set of Fantasy Flight’s 2008 Cosmic Encounter
(the most recent edition) has 50 alien powers; there’s nearly
The
200 if you add all the expansions, and each combination
of dueling aliens is a unique game. Like your class in
designers
Dragons, your alien race in Cosmic determines
Dungeons & Dragons
your strategy and even your personality if you choose to
understand
roleplay. Like characters in a good fighting game, the aliens
are asymmetrical, varying in complexity and strength, from
that a lot of
the awesome virus (multiply your tokens by the value of
your attack card, instead of adding it) to the questionable
fun is worth
worm (move your tokens around between your planets,
like they’re burrowing – I think? I still don’t understand
sacrificing
it). While there’s no blatantly useless prank aliens, the
designers of Cosmic understand that a lot of fun is worth
a little
sacrificing a little balance. In northern California coffee
shops in the 1990s, my friends and I house-ruled it and
balance.
played games with two or three alien powers each, just
to see what amazing combos we could pull off. Cosmic’s
sense of escalating chaos inspired the design of my own
games, Mangaka and Cartooner
Cartooner, in the sense that strange,
unexpected card interactions are a fun thing to be desired.
From its simple, clean, primary-colored components
and tokens, to its delightfully goofy, bug-eyed aliens,
Cosmic Encounter is a delight to look at. Much more
importantly, it’s a delight to play. The modularity of
the rules makes it easy to simplify it or make it more
complex by taking out certain aliens and classes
of cards. Each time I play it I marvel at how the
designers knew what to put in and what to
leave out, what to leave to player
choice and what to randomise.
(How much playtesting did it
take for the designers to decide
that players shouldn’t be able to
choose who they fight each round, so
people can’t gang up on the weakest player and
wipe them out of the game?)
The first edition of Cosmic is subtitled ““A
A Science
Fiction Game for Everyone”. It really is. Some life forms, like
some games, are so perfect they don’t need to evolve.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 17
13/12/2017 14:30
 18 January 2018

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 NUCLEAR
WINNER
The irradiated America
and mutated inhabitants
of Fallout come to life in
Wasteland Warfare, a
miniatures game that
embraces the roleplaying
core of the series with
its story-focused
take on wargaming.
Chris Birch leads
us on a tour of the
post-apocalypse
Words and photographs
by Matt Jarvis

tabletopgaming.co.uk 19

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 “War. War never changes.”
T
hese evocative four words have
served as the opening for all
four of the main instalments in
the Fallout series, starting with
the 1997 debut of the post-
apocalyptic roleplaying video
game. When it comes to Fallout
itself, however, things have
changed drastically since its
days of 2D turn-based strategy
on the PC, with 2008’s Fallout 3 turning the game into
a real-time first-person roleplaying shooter. Fallout
3 went on to sell more than 12 million copies across
consoles and PC – the same number of copies shipped
in the first 24 hours of its successor, 2015’s Fallout 4.
The series’ latest transformation may be its biggest
in a decade, as it swaps pixels for plastic. Fallout:
Wasteland Warfare finally brings the setting of an
America decimated by nuclear war to the tabletop in
the form of a miniatures wargame. While its heavily-
armoured Brotherhood of Steel knights may recall space
marines and its super mutants have a similar green hue
and bulky brute force to orks, Wasteland Warfare is far
more than just simple fan service or another two-a-
penny sci-fi miniatures effort, paying ample homage to
20 January 2018
018_025_falloutWastelandWarfare_v4 MJ.indd 20
Fallout’s roleplaying and strategy origins. The result is
a wargame with a tale to tell that doesn’t shy away from ABOVE A Brotherhood
layering in aspects of roleplaying and storytelling over of Steel knight and two
its dice-driven combat. initiates prepare for battle
“I’m sure a lot of people will just buy it for the minis
to collect, but we’re not just trying to make a dumbed- RIGHT One of the knights
down game, which would be very tempting,” explains clad in the iconic T-60
Chris Birch, founder of UK studio and Wasteland power armour
Warfare publisher Modiphius. “I believe in making
really great experiences.”
Fallout’s arrival on the tabletop could be considered
a return of sorts. The original PC game was initially
designed based on Steve Jackson’s flexible pen-and-
paper roleplaying system GURPS but was eventually
forced to drop the framework for reasons that remain
disputed to this day. In the place of GURPS, developer
Interplay created the SPECIAL system, which based
characters’ combat proficiency, conversational tact
and more on seven attributes: strength, perception,
endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck.
Just as it has done for all of the video games to date,
SPECIAL lies at the foundation of Wasteland Warfare,
influencing the stats of each unit as they do battle in
the irradiated ruins of cities or abandoned tunnels
of underground nuclear bunkers – the series’ iconic
11/12/2017 16:44
 FA L L O U T: WA S T E L A N D WA R FA R E
vaults. The system’s all-encompassing dilution of each
character’s mental and physical abilities means that,
in some ways, skirmishes become more like dungeons
in an RPG. One turn, a character might be engaged
in a gun battle; another could find them bartering for
information, searching for items or taking control of a
remote turret or robot.
“Every character has SPECIAL stats, so it means
you’ve got a lot more flexibility with stuff you can
do with scenarios,” Birch says. “You might have to
interact with someone using your charisma, you
018_025_falloutWastelandWarfare_v4 MJ.indd 21
might have to use your strength to break open a door,
you might have to hack a piece of equipment. It’s
another level above the normal wargame. Maybe it’s
more of an adventure game.”
If the similarities with an RPG weren’t strong
enough, Wasteland Warfare employs a dice pool that
strays away from the familiar six-sided cubes so often
used in wargames, including a d20 and five pairs
of colour-coded d12s – “Weird dice,” Birch jokingly
calls them. As well as traditional number checks
for accuracy and armour, the custom dice include
symbols for bonus damage, armour penetration and
the activation of special abilities with results showing
the series’ Nuka-Cola drink bottles.
The dice tie into each unit’s distinctive SPECIAL
stats in a unique way that reflects their differing
skills – a human might have their overall hit points
dictated by their ability to dodge with agility, while
a tougher muscled mutant might shake off attacks
using endurance instead. The scores affect characters’
effectiveness with different types of weapon,
too, making mutants formidable up close while
Brotherhood of Steel soldiers excel at longer range.
“Super mutants can’t hack doors because of their
big hands,” Birch laughs.
Adding to the streamlined wargame mechanics is
a set of similarly colour-coded movement and range
rulers (both the dice and the rulers feature symbology
for use by colourblind players). Particular weapons
gain bonus damage dice and other effects at different
ranges, neatly decoded by weapon cards attached to
each character’s main reference sheet. These cards bring
into the fold a reimagining of VATS, the slow-motion
targeting system introduced in Fallout 3 that allowed
players of the video game to effectively pause the action
and target specific areas of an opponent’s body to
incapacitate limbs or deal critical damage. In Wasteland
Warfare, certain weapons can cause ongoing negative
effects to enemies when triggered by the right roll.
The rolls go beyond combat, too, heightening
the feeling of exploration and survival in the
nuclear wilderness.
“There can be pools of radiation that might give you
radiation damage,” explains Birch. “You might search
a container and find out that it’s radioactive when you
open it, which will give you a radioactive attack. There
are traps; you might find a trapped box or Nuka-Cola
machine. There’s different things to search like consoles
and vending machines – all the classic stuff from Fallout.
We’ve even got the little terrible radiation shelters; the
really mad radiation shelters that really weren’t very
good and you keep finding skeletons inside them.”
WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS
The narrative focus of the missions is reflected
by an extensive campaign mode inspired
– at least to begin with – by the stories
of the last two numbered entries
tabletopgaming.co.uk 21
13/12/2017 11:32
 FA L L O U T: WA S T E L A N D WA R FA R E

in the series (2010’s non-direct sequel Fallout: New missions. You can just play a normal battle, but it’s very
Vegas is seemingly skipped over). These scenarios can much– I’ve been a big wargamer since I was a kid, so I
be tackled with two players taking control of either side really wanted to make sure there was a lot more deep
of the encounter, or in a single-player mode that uses AI storylines to the games, as well.”
cards to control the moves of the enemies and ensure The sense of storytelling in the Fallout world will
they’re engaging with the varying objectives on the map. extend to the game’s presence at tournaments and
As well as the five scripted narrative missions in the core other organised play events, with Birch revealing that
box, there are also five solo-centric scenarios, plus five both standard and narrative-focused competitions will
tutorial chapters. be an option. For those wanting to keep up with the
“You can play solo; a lot of wargamers don’t get game’s plot, Modiphius plans to release free monthly
round to see all their friends,” Birch confirms. “It’s got missions online, punctuated by bigger organised play
a really fun solo play side to it, you can just go and narrative packs every three to four months.
explore the wasteland. You and your dog.” For more generalised battles outside of the story
In classic roleplaying fashion, Wasteland Warfare’s progression, such as one-off skirmishes, the core game
story opens with the player’s ‘sole survivor’ emerging includes five more setups that involve less
from their vault to find a dog caught in a trap. It turns specific objectives.
out to be a trap laid by super mutants, who return to “Where possible we’re using
check their catch and decide that the human would storylines from the game
make for a better snack. Winning the skirmish unlocks that already exist
canine companion Dogmeat for the survivor, in the instead of creating
first of several branching moments in the campaign new content,” Birch
that lead to different endings and rewards – in another says. “There’s so many
example mentioned by Birch, the player seeks revenge quests and stories for
for a character’s murdered brother, interrogating an us to work from. Or we
enemy leader to potentially discover the real killer, can be quite generic,
with the speech check’s outcome revealing different where you’re looking
cards and plot beats. through the ruins of an
Making your way through the rest of the story old atomic power planet
presents the chance to acquire further teammates and for a synth head that
improved items and equipment, gradually building up contains some secrets. But
from the survivor and a pistol to a roving band of allies there’s a storyline that we’re
that persist between matches. This includes events such working loosely based around the
as mercenaries, who could be hired using caps and main quest lines in Fallout 4 and 3.”
added to the deck of wasteland event cards revealed With such a strong focus on
during each round, appearing later to take a shot at an narrative gameplay and character
enemy. Other cards drawn from a quest deck between progression, and the rich world
scenarios can affect the potential incidents that occur and inhabitants of Fallout already
during the following scenario, triggering dangers such established over the course of
as a radroach infestion or radiation storm. decades, some players may find
“The game is kind of, if you like Mordheim or themselves wondering why
Necromunda,, it’s more that kind of grow a little crew Fallout studio Bethesda passed
and develop them, but you can have a big game as up the opportunity to produce
well,” Birch says. “It plays up to, like, 30 figures. There’s a full-blown roleplaying game
a lot more narrative to it, a lot of storylines in the based on the setting.

It’s another level above

the normal wargame.
Maybe it’s more of an
adventure game.

22 January 2018

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 “They didn’t really want to do a roleplaying game
because they know, of anyone, how much work is
involved in approving a roleplaying game,” Birch
responds. “Luckily, we’ve got a fantastic world to delve
into so we don’t have to create anything really. We’re
going to be enlarging upon some of the references to
other battles and missions to create lots of scenarios.
In a sense, if you just take three or four characters
onto the battlefield versus a bunch of creatures, you’re
almost playing an adventure there. It’s very flexible.”

SETTLE FOR MORE

In place of the customisable player-created characters
that served as the heroes in the Fallout video games,
Wasteland Warfare takes the step of canonising
two vault dwellers as the default protagonists of its
campaign: female hero Nora and male lead Nate.
“Obviously they’re from Fallout 44,” Birch says. “We’re
going to do a set of vault dwellers, generic ones. We’re
going to work our way through, from Fallout 4, Fallout
3, backwards.”
To stop the survivors stealing the spotlight, other
characters can be made heroic, unlocking additional
abilities to use during an encounter, such as the
chance for extra actions, environmental interactions
and critical hits. These heroic individuals can
subsequently be promoted to leaders, introducing
area-of-effect skills that boost allies around them –
including characters from previously hostile factions.
“You’ll be able to build your force with different
allies and mix-and-match,” Birch confirms. “Or if you
want, you can just go, ‘I really want a Brotherhood
of Steel guy in power armour, I really like
that super mutant with a big hammer,
I want to have a survivors and Dogmeat with armour’
– you can just build your own thing, because it’s your TOP Turrets and other
world, it’s your game.” tech, such as robots, found
Speaking of the fan-favourite hound, there’ll be no in each environment can
shortage of customisation options for those wanting to be hacked and controlled
roam the wasteland with their poochy pal. by players
“It’s probably the single most popular character
in the game,” Birch laughs. “There’s various versions ABOVE There’ll be plenty
of Dogmeat, so you get to play vanilla Dogmeat, or of scenery sets based on
Dogmeat with his goggles and bandana, armoured the universe, including
Dogmeat, that kind of thing.” Nuka-Cola machines
The character progression is most pronounced
in the game’s settlement mode, which sees players OPPOSITE It’s not easy
improving their individual home base in-between being green: one of
scenarios using caps collected by winning games and Wasteland Warfare’s super
searching containers. Building structures and upgrading mutants takes aim
utilities allows players to keep more and better gear
found during missions, which are otherwise potentially

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A meeting of metal as
a Brotherhood of Steel
knight and super mutant
clash up close
24 January 2018
018_025_falloutWastelandWarfare_v4 MJ.indd 24
discarded as they ‘wear out’. Some of the buildings allow
players to choose specific weapons and armour to take
into their next battle, while others require the drawing
of random cards to represent scavenging the wastes for
whatever will do – a better headquarters means more
control over your loadout.
“You’ll be able to upgrade your settlement in
the background, so you’ll be able to buy an armour
workbench to give you access to more T-60 armour
suits,” Birch explains. “You might get a weapon
workbench to get access to better upgrades for
your weapons.”
While player settlements are tracked on paper by
default, it’s not hard to imagine committed fans taking
the opportunity to build their own scenery or use some
of the pre-built structures being released for the game
to render their base in 3D. Whether it exists on paper
or in plastic, players can bring their post-apocalyptic
home to life by engaging in head-to-head modes that
make use of the customisability, including a setup
where one player attacks the other’s base.
“When you come to build your settlement, if we
say, ‘Look, let’s do a 500-cap battle, I’ll attack your
settlement,’ you think: ‘Ah, maybe I’ll buy more
turrets this time because Chris is always buying
loads of mutant hounds which come racing in.’ It’s a
bit like doing a tower defence game, where you can
try different strategies each time. So you’re not fixed
on that one base, you can rebuild your base with
your caps.”
Players can also work together against the
game’s AI, controlling separate factions or the
same group of survivors depending on the scale
of the encounter.
“You can even play co-op, so you and me could
defend our base against the game, which will attack us
with a larger force,” Birch summarises.
While Wasteland Warfare will feature a narrative
focus in both casual matches and tournaments,
the option to simply build a force using traditional
points will be there, too – so if you want to set out
into the wasteland with just two fully kitted-out
soldiers or a dozen nimble survivors in little more
than their radioactive undies, you can do so. In a
break from convention, how much each character,
piece of equipment and ability will cost doesn’t come
written on the cards. In fact, the space has been left
deliberately blank so the inevitable shifting values
can be easily adjusted as a result of feedback from
the game’s community and tournament scene, with
Modiphius planning to update them each month so
players can choose whether to write them in or use
sleeves to avoid having to correct their components.
“They always change,” Birch admits. “We’re just
being honest.”
ROOM FOR WAR
Wasteland Warfare’s stories recreate the desperate
fight for survival in the wilderness between
scattered groups of survivors. Introduce more
miniatures, though, and the scale of the game
can be taken from smaller encounters between a
handful of figures to sweeping clashes between
dozens of units, with players’ control changing from
moving individual models to ordering collected
squads around the battlefield.
Birch says that the game’s flexible scale was partially
inspired by viral YouTube videos featuring mods for
11/12/2017 16:44
 FA L L O U T: WA S T E L A N D WA R FA R E

FALLING OUT
Fallout’s PC versions, where players are able to spawn
in dozens of computer-controlled characters and
enemies and watch them duke it out to the death.
“Lots of people always do all these videos with, We played through one of Wasteland Warfare’s early missions. Here’s what happened…
‘Let’s have 50 deathclaws versus 100 Brotherhood
of Steel and see what happens,’” he explains “So The scenario opens with a Brotherhood from the shorter range of his rifle, sinking
people are kind of putting their own little wargames of Steel knight and couple of initiates a shot through one of the mutants’
together. I want to be able to do that in real life with that have encountered three super armour but failing to bring down the giant.
the miniatures.” mutants around the Red Rocket gas A super mutant finally closes the
Fallout’s in-universe history is comprised of station. We pick the Brotherhood of gap, charging into melee with one of
countless fights between the world’s various factions, Steel side for the gatling laser, which the initiates, which gets him a bonus as
so there’s no shortage of opposing forces ready to fires five times and reduces armour with he swings at the human’s head with his
players to assume control of – and battles from the every consecutive hit. board. Somehow it misses, allowing the
extensive lore of the universe ready to be recreated. With an equal number of figures, we soldier’s companion to join the fray and
“The obvious factions we’ve got are the raiders, roll to decide the first player. It’s the retaliate with his stun baton, stunning the
Brotherhood of Steel, The Institute, the super mutants,” super mutants, which move up into cover monster – but it hardly matters with his
Birch says. “We’ve got this kind of generic faction called behind a pile of junk and the main building. cranium completely turned to mush. He
the ‘survivors’, which is Mama Murphy, Ronnie, Sturges, The knight charges up his gatling drops down dead.
some Minutemen, Preston Garvey. There will be a laser and takes all five shots at the The knight opens fire for a third time
Minutemen faction later on. So you could play back in approaching super mutant leader while at the mutant leader and a lucky series of
time when the Minutemen were forced [to abandon he’s still exposed. Two shots land, but four hits in a row turns him into a bloody
their Fort Independence base]. There’ll be the Enclave, are stopped by the mutant’s armour. mess. Two down, one to go.
later on, as well. Then we’re going to work our way One of the initiates takes a pop at The remaining super mutant runs up
through other stuff. There’s lots of little, mini factions. another of the mutants and successfully to the initiates and, after shrugging off
For example, Riley’s Rangers, who are on the good side. dishes out a wound thanks to the laser a series of knife and baton attacks from
So the survivors would have them as an ally. So there’s rifle’s special armour-bypassing ability. the pair, tears right through one of them
lots of allied units. There’s lots of neutral units. People The Brotherhood hold their ground with a single point-blank shotgun blast
like Children of the Atom and stuff like that. behind cover. thanks to two bonus damage dice. Gulp.
“I think a lot of people remember what the video The knight lets off another blast of the With just one hit point left, the mutant
game is like and think, ‘Well, I want to be able to play gatling laser at the mutant leader, with survives one more knife attack and
the battles that you hear about in the game. Like the one single shot of the five dealing a wound takes out the other initiate with another
Battle of Hoover Dam or something,’” he says. “You despite the cover bonus. As the leader brutal blast. Weakened, the beast finally
often hear about battles and go, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to moves out into the open to charge at the falls to an attack from the charging
play that and have more troops around you?’ knight, an initiate opens fire but misses. knight – but not without leaving his gory
“What we’re trying to do is look at all the behind- His squadmate moves closer to benefit mark on the wasteland.
the-scenes stories. So, you hear about a battle that took
place – we’ll play that battle out. We’re going to have a
different branching story that’s still within the universe.”
The first three sides in the game will be relatively
straightforward – Brotherhood of Steel, super mutants
and the survivors – but there are already plans to take
Wasteland Warfare in a wilder direction with some of its
first expansions. Among these will be rules to turn the
world’s creatures and robots, which otherwise primarily
appear as environmental elements during encounters,
into their own playable factions – including the chance
to build an army of fearsome chameleonic deathclaws
and mutated crab-like mirelurks, or a legion of
assaultrons, protectrons and other custom automatons
created with build-it-yourself robot parts.
All of this builds towards Birch’s ultimate vision for
Wasteland Warfare: a highly adaptable wargame that
allows players to play out conflicts great and small
in one of the richest post-apocalyptic universes ever
created. With the world of Fallout ripe with endless
stories to be explored on the tabletop, it looks like
Wasteland Warefare is well on its way to find its own
place at the end of the world.

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 Stuff of
Dreams
A young girl’s toys battle against her nightmares in the latest
visionary creation from the designer of Mice & Mystics.
Jerry Hawthorne reveals how he turned his love of storybooks

I
and Pixar movies into an emotional adventure to remember
Words by Matt Jarvis

f literature has Roald Dahl, it could be that
gaming has Jerry Hawthorne.
The designer’s Mice & Mystics was a
dungeon crawler unlike any other, combining
the adventuring and dice-throwing of
Dungeons & Dragons and HeroQuest with
the in-depth story of a children’s novel,
contained in its tome of narrative directions
that doubled as a kind of artificial paper game
master. Players weren’t just characters; they
were readers, both passively discovering and actively
controlling the action and plot during each of the
game’s scenarios, fittingly referred to as ‘chapters’.
Just as the work of Dahl, Neil Gaiman and Terry
Pratchett never shies away from addressing the darker
side of life and fantasy, Hawthorne’s tale of staunch
courtiers transformed, The Witches-style, into field
mice was full of moments of tension and horror as the
group encountered insects, rats and cockroaches now
big enough to snuff them out. To say nothing of the
game’s greatest threat: the prowling housecat, Brodie.
The result was an experience that was grown-up
enough in its tone and roleplaying-lite gameplay to
keep parents and other older players interested, while
still having the simplicity and fairytale feel needed to
give kids their first proper taste of gaming.
Hawthorne’s next big project stays true to his
commitment to storytelling on the tabletop and
all-ages approach to design. While Stuffed Fables can
in many ways be seen as a student of Mice & Mystics’
philosophies, though, the designer is resolute in
pointing out its differences to his best-known work.
“I approached this as its own separate project,” he
says. “It’s a whole new game system that I created so
that I could tell stories like this. But the similarities
it has with Mice & Mystics are a natural comparison
because the game is also a story. I don’t know of
any other games out there that really do as heavy
storytelling as Mice & Mystics and now Stuffed Fables.
You really are playing inside of a storybook.”
On this last point, he’s being quite literal. Where
Mice & Mystics’ structure felt like a book with chapter-
style scenarios and a connected storyline, Stuffed
Fables takes the comparison to its conclusion by
combining rules and game board into a single tome
that is laid out flat in the centre of the table. Players
place their miniature adventurers directly onto the
environment, while the opposite page might explain
the story, narrative choices or any special rules needed
for that particular mission.
“The book is really a great innovation because it
allows me to tell a much richer story since every page
is completely different,” Hawthorne says.
“You don’t know what to expect because
the information is somewhat hidden from you
because it’s in the book form, too. So you’ve gotta
play to the point where you can turn that page
and find out what happens next. That page-
turning kind of dopamine response you get, that’s
different than Mice & Mystics, because Mice &
Mystics you were always working with that same
set of tiles that were arranged in as many creative
ways as I could possibly imagine, but you would
cross that fairly quickly.”

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 tabletopgaming.co.uk 27

026_033_stuffedFables_v2 MJ.indd 27 11/12/2017 16:47

 STUFFED FABLES
DREAM TEAM
Stuffed Fables’ story takes place a world away
from the castles and dungeons of Mice
& Mystics,, but the fairytale morals and
childhood themes remain as strong as ever.
Players take on the role of the ‘Stuffies’: stuffed
toys tasked with protecting a young girl from nightmares
while she sleeps. In the game’s opening, the girl is
moved from her crib to a full-size bed for the first time,
with her parents using the toys to help calm her nerves.
“Stuffed animals are kind of like surrogate parents
if you think about it,” Hawthorne explains. “They
really exist so that parents can get a good
night’s sleep. They give kids something to
snuggle and fight away their fears so that
parents can sleep and the child can sleep
and everybody gets a good night’s rest.”
With the magical protection of the crib’s bars
gone, the forces of the Nightmare King, an evil
presence that takes advantage of children’s
disturbed sleep, invade the girl’s room.
After a tussle with the minions, the
Stuffies end up being sucked into the
portal to the nightmare world, which is
inhabited by broken and lost toys. Stuffed
Fables follows the party as it attempts to help those
stranded in the nightmare realm while also fighting off
further attacks by the Nightmare King.
The story spans seven chapters, each representing
a different year in the girl’s life from the age of three
until she turns ten. The natural progression of the
overarching narrative means that each scenario is
based on a fresh confrontation with the Nightmare
King as the girl grows up and overcomes the various
challenges of getting a good night’s rest.
28 January 2018
026_033_stuffedFables_v2 MJ.indd 28
ABOVE One of the hero
Stuffies, proving the pencil
is mightier than the sword
BELOW The
AdventureBook format
uses a storybook as both
its rulebook and board
“When you sit down to play one session of
Stuffed Fables you’ll be playing through one night
in this little girl’s life where you would normally
expect her sleep to be troubled,” Hawthorne reiterates.
“Those are the nights where the Nightmare King is
going to come and those are the nights
where mayhem happens. For instance,
the second chapter of the book is the night
where the players put her to bed for the first time
without an overnight diaper, so she’s potty training.
That night when the minions arrive they run around
the house turning on faucets, making all this water.
So you have this little caper where our heroes are
running around the house trying to turn off faucets
before the little girl wets the bed. That just leads to
more and more adventure.”
Although the wider saga has a fixed story it wants
to tell, players’ actions will be able to influence the
outcome of each separate section, resulting in different
encounters and even finales depending on
what they choice to do.
“A play session will be roughly 90 minutes,
give or take, because the story is branching –
so you might take a different turn in the story
that might make the story last a little bit longer,”
Hawthorne explains. “You just play through the book;
the book just basically guides you right on through.
“You’re going to play through the seven stories
in the game, and each of them have three possible
endings to them. So if you were to play through it
again you might have different endings and a different
experience. But it is a fairly linear story – there’s just
different paths and different tracks you can take to get
to the same sort of thing. Once you finish all seven
stories, it’ll tell a complete story.”
11/12/2017 16:46
 LEFT The story takes
place over seven years of a
young girl’s life

BELOW Mice & Mystics

and Stuffed Fables
designer Jerry Hawthorne

It’s not just the story that players’ choices will
impact. The gameplay will be subtly altered as the
group completes different objectives and explores the
world, unlocking various items and other discoveries
that persist between the chapters and can pop up later
in the same campaign.
“There’s some other elements in the game that kind
of change the game,” explains Hawthorne. “So as you
play the game some of the events that happen, some of
the things you do in the game, will alter the game itself
so it changes – in a small way, not in a big overblown
way, because everything here is real streamlined and
easy to pick up and learn so families can play without
the rules getting in the way.”
The main way this will occur is through new cards
being added to Stuffed Fables’ various different decks.
“When you encounter those cards through gameplay
in the future you’ll have a different experience because
of having seeded those cards into the deck earlier
through choices,” Hawthorne clarifies.
It’s a system that sounds similar to the evolving
card pools of legacy games such as Gloomhaven and
Pandemic Legacy, but Hawthorne is quick to point out
The
book
is really
a great
innovation
because
it allows
me to tell
a much
that any changes made during a single playthrough
will be able to be reset for future campaigns, rather richer
than causing permanent alterations.
“Just in a single campaign those cards will be fed story.
into the decks and then, later on, if you wanted to reset
the whole thing, each little deck has a card that tells
you what goes in it so you can easily reset everything,”
he confirms. “It’s done very lightly, it’s not real heavy or
rooted heavily in the mechanics or anything. Basically,
when you go through the story, it’ll tell you: ‘Oh, you
did this? Okay, put this card into your deck.’ So there’s
no micro-management or anything like that.”
MICE & DICE
Clearly inspired by Hawthorne’s adoration of HeroQuest,
Mice & Mystics was a dice-chucker through and through.
You threw dice to move. You threw dice to attack and
defend. You threw dice to cast spells, use abilities and
even level-up. It was a straightforward setup that
earned as many admirers for its simplicity
and tense excitement as it did
detractors for encouraging gameplay
so heavily rooted in luck.

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 STUFFED FABLES

Ticking Toy Bomb

WRENeaC H
pon
Melee W

re imminent!”
"Warning! Warning! System failu
ct in 5... 4... 3...”
cried the robot. “Self-destru
defuse the bot?
CHOICE: Do you run or try to
4 spaces.
If you run: Move your stuffy
+ 2 If you try to defuse the bot: Per
form a yellow
in g a icul ty 3. Pas s: "Re pair Successful"
W he n perform skill test diff
BO N U S: dice ar said Robbie and he gave you valu
e able data.
, if no purple
melee attack lts .
Remove up to 2 threat dice from the thre at
red die resu
used, add 2 to in the disc ard poo l bac k in
ge , whe n ad ding a track. Put all dice of you r
Once per pa that . Fail (or cannot): At the end
to a gr ou p task, change the bag 3 spa ces of this spa ce
red die . fies within
of your choice turn, all stuf
die to a facing receive 3 damage .
sehold • Fix
Paws • Hou

ABOVE The childhood
themes run throughout
Stuffed Fables’ story
and gameplay
OPPOSITE, TOP Players
will encounter and battle
creatures and characters
from the nightmare realm
OPPOSITE There are
plenty of inventive
enemies, such as this
doll... crab... pliers... thing
Stuffed Fables doesn’t shy away from Hawthorne’s
love of rolling dice. In fact, it ratchets up the element of
randomness even further with a second layer of luck,
as players pull five colour-coded dice from a blind bag
of 35. The colours of the dice dictate what that player
can do on their turn – move, attack, use abilities and
so on – and are rolled in a similar manner to Mice &
Mystics to decide the level of success.
“One of the things that I found restrictive after I had
designed Mice & Mystics was working within the use of
those dice, the custom dice, and working with a limited
amount of tiles for telling stories,” Hawthorne recalls.
“So when I was creating this game, I tried to create the
most open-ended and flexible system possible.”
The designer is adamant that combining two random
elements doesn’t overdo the reliance on chance – “I like
dice and I like luck games, so I’m not afraid of that sort
of thing,” he asserts – but adds that there will be ways for
players to help recover from less fortunate draws and
rolls by swapping dice with their teammates.
“We have all these little gizmos in the game that are
all about co-operating together by sharing dice and
making sure you optimise the way that your team uses
all of the dice you have available to you, keeping track
of how many dice have been used up and what’s going
to be available and what you anticipate pulling out of
the bag,” Hawthorne details.
“All that stuff really works well, especially with a
wide variety of ages playing the game. It’s fun and
pretty intuitive. Once you learn how to play it, it’s not
like you’re going to have to go back and relearn how to
play each time you sit down to play because it really is
a simple and pretty elegant ruleset.”
Hawthorne believes that using dice rolls is central
to both Mice & Mystics and Stuffed Fables’ appeal to
adults and children alike, allowing every player – no
matter their experience – to be subject to the same
strokes of good fortune and ill fate.
“When you’re designing for a wide variety of gaming
skill levels and a wide variety of ages, luck is your great
leveller; it really evens things out,” he states. “I think
that everybody will probably, depending on their luck
tolerance, find within this system ways to maximise
your capabilities without being too luck-dependent.”
That’s not to say that skill won’t play a part. Another
major modification from Mice & Mystics is the concept
of levelling up, which in the squeaky fantasy game
was handled with the ‘cheese system’; specific die
results would grant players crumbs of cheese that
could be consumed to perform special abilities or
level up. Minions had their own cheese wheel, which
could trigger extra waves of enemies and advanced
the timer for each scenario. Stuffed Fables strips back
some of this light roleplaying dressing for a sense of
progression that keeps the players right at its centre.
“The idea that I’m working with is that because of
the way that the dice and stuff work in the game, as you
get better at playing the game, you’ll be able to handle

30 January 2018

026_033_stuffedFables_v2 MJ.indd 30 11/12/2017 16:47

 based on family virtues?’ That’s how I started to design
Mice & Mystics, the mechanics behind it.”
With the game’s basic feel beginning to take shape, it
was another precious moment spent with his children
that led Hawthorne to develop the storytelling focus
and magical world that would come to define Mice &
Mystics as a modern family gaming staple.
“My daughter was struggling with reading at the
time – she was young and learning how to read and we
were really concerned about her,” Hawthorne recalls.
“So I thought, ‘Okay, I’m just going to make a game,
I’m going to use this family thing because that will
draw everyone in my household in, and I’m going to
make reading a big part of the game.’ I wanted to break
up the reading with game, so that she could have it in
smaller chunks. Then I made it about mice, because
mice were her favourite thing at the time. So that’s how
Mice & Mystics turned out.”
As he begun to sketch out his ideas for Stuffed Fables,
Hawthorne found himself inspired by another Pixar
movie, 2015’s Inside Out, which represented the clashing
emotions of a young girl as distinct characters living
inside her head – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust.
“You get to watch how emotions work, it’s kind of
like a model on how the human emotional spectrum
works,” the designer says. “Each of those characters
was colour-coded, I noticed, so I thought, ‘Oh wow,
wouldn’t this be a cool way to gamify something, to

more and more challenges,” Hawthorne says. “So

there’s nothing mechanical really; it all basically relies
upon the players getting better at co-operating with
CRAWLY 1-5: RUSH
each other and better at optimising their choices. It’s
not really all about getting the best gear or levelling-up
6 1 4
or anything like that. There’s nothing really like that
in the game; you just level-up basically by becoming
better at playing the game.” 6: CRY FOR HELP
0 1 4
A FAMILY AFFAIR
While its world of adventuring animals aligns closer At the end of this Minion Tur
n, if
with classic fantasy such as Dungeons & Dragons, Lord there are 1 or more crawly car
of the Rings or, perhaps most of all, Brian Jacques’ ds in
the minion discard pile, add
Redwall novels (“I love Redwall!”!” Hawthorne confirms 1 of
them to the bottom of the min
when the comparison is mentioned), Hawthorne recalls ion
that the key inspiration for Mice & Mystics actually
column and place its figure
came from a place many may not expect – Pixar’s 2004 adjacent to this crawly. Do not
add
a crawly if there are already the
animated superhero movie, The Incredibles.
“What I loved about The Incredibles was that you 6 LEADER same number or more minion
s
had this family and they’re superheroes, but they’re a than stuffies in play.
superhero family,” he enthuses. “Each member of that
family had a superpower that also kind of matched
their typical role in the household; so the father was
strong, the mother was flexible, the daughter just wants
to disappear and the little boy’s just a handful running
around all of the place. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great
if you could have a co-operative game where a family
could work together as a team using their own special
powers and accomplish missions that basically were

tabletopgaming.co.uk 31

026_033_stuffedFables_v2 MJ.indd 31 11/12/2017 16:48

 STUFFED FABLES
have this colour-coding and then have each player play
something that represents an emotion or something?’
“That morphed into Stuffed Fables, where each of
the stuffed animals basically represents an aspect of
this little girl’s personality. They’re colour-coded and
they work with the different-coloured dice that are in
the game.”
To reflect each Stuffie’s individual nature and the
role they play in the young girl’s psyche, the characters
have the ability to re-roll a single colour of dice during
the game as an ‘always-on’ talent.
“The coloured dice match the character attributes,”
explains Hawthorne. “So if you’re playing the little lion,
he’s always angry all the time and he’s really good at
fighting, so he gets to re-roll the dice that’s connected
to fighting: red dice. So he’s much better at combat
than the other Stuffies.”
More powerful are so-called ‘heart’ abilities, which
reinforce the game’s kid-friendly preaching of peace,
love and understanding and tie into the wider lore and
enchanted wonder of the universe.
“Inside each little stuffed animal is a plastic heart
that was placed there by the great manufacturer,”
Hawthorne narrates. “When all those stuffed animal
heroes are in this other world, doing good deeds fills
that little heart with love energy, and that love energy
is how they power up their special abilities. So we have
this sort of system where you are encouraged to be
charitable and to help out the needy little broken lost
toys in this other world. By doing so, you power up
your superpower and become more powerful. It’s all
based upon merit.”
32 January 2018
026_033_stuffedFables_v2 MJ.indd 32
With a more moralising tone than most board
ABOVE Sleep tight – and games and its creator’s affinity for creating
maybe try not to imagine memorable moments between parents and children
this gang of nasties under (as well as groups of adults absorbed by inventive
your bed fantasy), Stuffed Fables – like Mice & Mystics before it –
begins to blur the line with the literary and cinematic
works inspiring Hawthorne.
“I’m a parent and I have a couple of kids at home,
so I kind of put a lot of the things that are important
to me into my games,” he says. “I just really love
getting together with my kids, watching movies
and stuff like that, and those ideas come to me in
the form of stories that I basically gamify, so that if
families want to they can sit down and play through
an experience that’s similar to reading a book or
seeing a movie.”
GAMES FOR THE SOUL
More than half a decade on from Mice & Mystics,
Hawthorne is still searching for ways to tell his tales
on the tabletop. Stuffed Fables is the latest destination
along that journey, but its designer doesn’t see the
game as bringing a close to his last tale just yet. If
anything, it’s simply a new chapter.
“I don’t look at it as an end for Mice & Mystics,”
Hawthorne insists. “It might be an evolution. If you’re
able to play Mice & Mystics inside of a storybook like
this, the variety of experiences would be amazing.
I would love to bring this book concept to Mice &
Mystics. I think that everybody would respond to that
quite well, being able to play inside of a book. It’s really
pretty cool.”
13/12/2017 11:35
 Even Stuffed Fables may prove to be just the middle
chapter of Hawthorne’s ongoing hunt for captivating
yarns spun through a pattern of play.
“I don’t currently have any plans to do a sequel
to Stuffed Fables,” he reveals. “I’ve had some people
already asking if I’m going to do one where the
central character is a little boy so you can get a little
boy’s perspective. I have no plans right now for that.
I’m more in the moment right now and not trying
to plan out too far, because I think that I can create
better games if I keep my mind on what I’m working
on right now.”
Yet, having found the ideal format to mirror his own
melding together of gaming and storytelling, Hawthorne
is keen to experiment further – perhaps even going
beyond the realms of fairytales and childhood.
“Once you learn how this game system works, you
could pick up and play an AdventureBook game in any
setting and the mechanics would have the flexibility
to adapt to all of those settings,” he says. “You could be
playing a space version of an AdventureBook game or
even a dark theme or an adult theme, it doesn’t have to
be always about stuffed animals or mice or whatever.”
As our conversation draws to a close, Hawthorne
begins to tell an anecdote that captures his own
absolute desire – to not only tell stories, but to
emotionally move players to the point where the
experience of playing his games become stories to be
told themselves.
“I was on an airplane one time and I was sitting next
to a lady and she was reading a book she was almost
finished with,” he begins. “On the other side of me
was somebody who was doing a sudoku puzzle. The
woman finished her book and she leaned back and her
eyes got filled with tears and she just clutched the book
to her chest. The experience was obviously emotionally
moving for her. The other person finished up their
sudoku puzzle and they curled up their newspaper
and put it away. I thought to myself: ‘A year from now,
who’s going to remember this plane flight? Is it going
to be the lady who read the book, or is it going to be BELOW A valiant teddy and
the person who played the sudoku puzzle?’ Sudoku is a adorable elephant are two
rewarding experience, but can you remember your last of the hero Stuffies players
sudoku puzzle? Does it stick out in your mind? But you can take control of
remember the last book you read or the last emotional
experience you had, or the last great exciting game that
you played.
“While both of them bring enjoyment into our lives,
I want my games to be more like the books that have an
indelible impact on your soul.”

THEADORA
Versatile: Once per turn, when taking a turn with
Theadora, you may swap 1 of your attribute dice for an
attribute die in the discard pool.

Resourcefulness: Use this ability when a player

rolls attribute dice. That player may re-roll 1 or
more of those dice.

Persevere: Choose a stuffy. Remove 1 or more

status cards from the chosen stuffy.

5
Words of Motivation: Use this ability any time
a player draws dice. That player may return all
dice just drawn to the bag and redraw.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 33

026_033_stuffedFables_v2 MJ.indd 33 13/12/2017 11:35

 H AV E Y O U P L AY E D ?

TERRA MYSTICA Come explore an ever-changing fantasy landscape where a medley

of races must adapt the terrain around them and jostle with their
neighbours to grow their home – but there’s little room for luck
Words by Matt Jarvis

N
o matter how big the fantasy world,
it’s inevitable that its inhabitants
will eventually begin to rub up
against each other. From Tolkien’s
tension between elves and
dwarves to the interfamilial conflicts of A Song
of Ice & Fire, much of fantasy’s greatest drama
springs from the classic gripe of not getting along
with your neighbours.
Terra Mystica places this tension right at its
heart, constructing an intense strategy game
around the idea of several factions trying to
carve out their own place in the world. Players
are able to pick from more than a dozen
different races, from mermaids and witches to
fakirs and giants, each of which has their own
distinct personality and abilities.
With luck all but absent from the way players
are able to expand their territory and advance
their civilisation, Terra Mystica becomes a game
of pure strategy and competition between the
rival groups – and the players controlling them.
The intricate but tight mechanics and depth
involved in mastering each of the 14 peoples
has led the 2012 title to become one of the
most acclaimed strategy board games of all
time – a success story that its recent sci-fi
sequel no doubt hopes to repeat.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
Although its denizens drive the action of the
game forward, it’s actually the land of Terra
Mystica itself that’s the star of the show.
You see, the terrain of the world isn’t the
most hospitable to begin with. Each of the races
starts on one of seven home landscapes – desert,
plains, swamp, lake, forest, mountain and
wasteland – they’ve already adjusted to survive
on, but they’ll need to adapt to take spread their

34 January 2018

034_035_haveYouPlayed_v2 MJ.indd 34 11/12/2017 16:50

 rule across more of the land. More specifically,
they’ll need to adapt the terrain; each faction is
able to terraform an unoccupied space to their
home landscape by paying a varying amount
of spades depending on the starting type and
their unique transformation cycle. To cross and
traverse rivers to travel even further across the
world, the sides will need to develop their ability
to use boats or (literally) build bridges.
Once a plot has been made habitable, a
faction can build a dwelling on it, which can
later be upgraded to a trading house, temple,
sanctuary or stronghold to increase their
income of coins, power or priests. Victory
points are partially awarded for having the
largest connected areas on the map and
players’ progress along four cult tracks,
representing their advancement in the worship
of earth, fire, water and air, which can also
grant some bonuses at the end of each round.
HOW DO YOU PLAY?
Designed by Jens Drogemuller and Helge
Ostertag, with help from Agricola, Patchwork
and A Feast for Odin mastermind Uwe
Rosenberg, Terra Mystica features no direct
conflict between players but masters the
passive-aggressive competition of the
Eurogame genre.
Each turn consists of a simple set of
actions that quickly gain complexity as the
claustrophobic feel of the map takes effect,
forcing players to carefully consider every
move and the potential benefits it could hand
to their rivals.
As they say: keep your friends close, but
your enemies closer. In Terra Mystica, this
has real gameplay benefits. Players can gain
extra power when an opponent builds next to
their existing structures and it costs more to
upgrade a dwelling next to another building,
making staying in close proximity to your
rivals very beneficial indeed.
Placing a group of four structures of the same
colour next to each other forms a town, which
grants extra victory points, other rewards and the
chance to advance to the final space on a cult
track – which is only accessible by the first player
to do so. Creating sacred structures also presents
the chance to collect favour tiles, which boost
that side’s standing with a particular cult
and might also unlock a special ability.
Players can improve up their
standing further by utilising a
selection of bonus cards selected
when moving between rounds,
which can gain extra victory
points or resources once a
player finishes their actions
for the turn – with those who
pass earlier getting to pick their
bonus for the following round first.
034_035_haveYouPlayed_v2 MJ.indd 35
Although terraforming spaces and establishing
buildings to build up their resources is the core
of Terra Mystica, players are aided by several
special abilities that increase their capability
to conquer the map. Each faction has a special
power unlocked once a stronghold has been
constructed, allowing them to gather bonus
points or changing the standard rules in other
interesting ways to propel them towards victory.
NOT ENOUGH SPACE
Five years after Terra Mystica was released, a
follow-up to the game was announced. Gaia
Project takes the terraforming concepts that
drive the gameplay and blasts them into outer
space, expanding the idea of civilisations looking
to spread their presence to an entire galaxy of
planets instead of a single world.
In a major change to the way players must
transform potential new homes, the board is
made up of ten (seven in the two-player game)
modular sector tiles that create a different layout
in every match.
There’s another 14 unique factions from
players to choose from, too, which are once
again equipped with special abilities and
bonuses to help them colonise the universe.
To help them further, the various sides can
advance six different types of technology
– terraforming, navigation, AI, economy,
research and gaiaforming – making it easier for
them to travel further across the system, gather
resources, increase their scientific knowledge
or terraform a wider variety of planets
Some of the worlds are known as ‘transdim’
planets, strange worlds that can’t be built
upon but can be harnessed for their resources.
To access the worlds, players must begin a
Gaia Project, which grants them the chance to
utilise gaiaformers to transform the transdim
planet into a gaia planet.
Created by Drogemuller and Ostertag
and said to be a ‘spiritual successor’ to Terra
Mystica, Gaia Project offers a whole new way
to enjoy the head-to-head empire-builder
without changing its heart.
WHY SHOULD I TRY IT?
Terra Mystica is an endlessly replayable
strategy gem that shines due to its
combination of luckless strategy and
asymmetrical player abilities.
Every match feels unique as the different
opposing factions lock horns, but the gameplay
has been finely tuned to ensure that each race
has an equal chance of victory in the right hands.
If the basic game wasn’t enough of a puzzle to
be solved, the game’s first expansion, Fire & Ice,
adds another six factions to the mix – including
two that really shake things up by changing the
rules even more.
Although the game’s complexity, length and
variability between races can be imposing for
first-time players, the payoff is more than worth
the effort. There are also digital versions of the
game available on mobile and PC that include
a handy interactive tutorial and the ability to
play against different computer difficulties and
review your moves to help you develop and
improve your play style with even less effort.
Half a decade on, Terra Mystica remains one
of the finest strategy experiences on the tabletop.
With Gaia Project taking the brilliant gameplay
one step further, it seems that Drogemuller and
Ostertag’s creation will remain a firm favourite
for years to come.
Each of the 14 races’ unique powers and
starting habitats is key to its strategy –
and players’ victory
tabletopgaming.co.uk 35
11/12/2017 16:50
p036.indd 1 05/12/2017 14:03
 KICKSTARTING
F R O M S C R A T C H
Holly Gramazio grapples with the hard decisions involved
in putting together a campaign video for Art Deck – and
A
starts to have regrets about the drawing game’s name
s we get ready to fill in our Kickstarter
It’s worth page, slowly edging towards the point
where we can hit the big launch button
paying on our project, we’ve got some tough
decisions to make. Some of these are
for a design decisions. Some of them are about our target
audience; do we stress the party game aspect of Art
professional Deck, its possibilities as a creativity tool or its function
as critical commentary on 1970s instructional artwork?
– even if (Probably not that last one!) Some of the decisions are
about what we’re offering backers, and how elaborate
we won’t we want to get with our reward levels.
Some of the scariest choices are about how much
be able to money to spend upfront, before we even know whether
the campaign is going to succeed.
recoup One of the biggest tasks before we can launch – and
one of the biggest possible expenses – is the campaign
the money video. You know the sort of thing: a video where we
show a moment from Art Deck, explain how it works
if the and then try to let people know why we think they
might want to support the game.
Kickstarter We could make something ourselves. It wouldn’t
be great, but we could put something together that
fails. explains the game and shows a bit of gameplay. It
would save money (a professional video would cost
January 2018
037_kickstartingFromScratch_v2 MJ.indd 37
somewhere in the low thousands of pounds), and it’s a
decision a lot of tabletop games go for.
But projects whose creators go for a homemade
video are often either made by people with at least a
little skill at creating video – which isn’t us – or they’re
for games firmly aimed at a definite hobbyist market.
They’re promoting their project to people who’ve
backed games on Kickstarter before, people who
understand how this whole process works and who are
excited to find new interesting work to support.
In the case of Art Deck, we obviously want to
involve that audience, but it may be more immediately
appealing to people who want a party game, or
something to play with their kids, or even something
to use to get themselves to start drawing. People
who may have never backed a game on Kickstarter
before. To draw these potential players in, to get them
watching the video and to make it clear that we’re
able to deliver on our promises, needs a higher level
of polish. So it’s probably worth gritting our teeth and
paying for a professional – even if that does mean we’re
paying money that we won’t be able to recoup if the
Kickstarter fails.
So that’s where we are now: planning a video, talking
to people who might make it and trying to get the rest
of the game to the point where we actually can film it.
Working on draft designs for the cards, getting a couple
of decks printed, making any last-minute rule tweaks.
It’s all getting very real. And that’s making us think
about something we’ve been unconsciously trying
to avoid for the last couple of months – the sneaking
suspicion that ‘Art Deck’ is maybe... not a good name.
That it might, in fact, even be... a bad name. It’s
certainly not a very memorable name; even our friends
are sometimes pretty vague on what the game’s called.
(In the last few weeks people have tried “Art Game”,
“Art Cards”, “That Drawing Game of Yours” and “You
Know, That Thing You Made Where Anna Hid Under
The Table”.)
We’re both just really, really bad at naming
things – I mean, we run a company called Matheson
Marcault, a name which people can’t successfully
spell, pronounce or remember. So maybe we should
just stick with the pretty bad name we’ve got, content
that it could be so much worse. Or maybe it’s time for
a last-minute rebrand...
tabletopgaming.co.uk 37
13/12/2017 14:36
 38 January 2018

038_042_howWeMade_v2 MJ.indd 38 13/12/2017 11:37

 HOW WE MADE
DOMINION
Donald X. Vaccarino’s revolutionary card game
was like nothing that had come before – but has
been copied countless times since. The designer
looks back on the origins of deckbuilding and
the pressure of living up to its legacy a decade on
Words by Owen Duffy
G
enuinely new ideas are rare
in gaming. Designers take
inspiration from one another’s
work and riff off of existing
concepts, tweaking and tinkering
to develop new spins on what others have
done before. 2008’s Dominion is an exception.
It created the concept of a deckbuilding
game, where players craft a deck of cards as
they play.
It’s proved massively influential, with a host
of creators incorporating its novel approach
into their own designs but, a decade after its
release, Dominion remains one of the most
popular games in the hobby.
I spoke to its designer, Donald X. Vaccarino,
about the game’s development, its success and
what its future might hold.
BUILDING BLOCKS
“I made games even as a kid,” Vaccarino says.
“But I didn’t really start making lots of games
until 1995, inspired by Magic: The Gathering;
I was really grabbed by the idea of interacting
rules on cards. But, while I played lots of
Magic, the idea for Dominion didn’t come
from there.”
“I was working on a game called Spirit
Warriors II, where each player would have
a deck representing their party of fantasy
heroes, à la Dungeons & Dragons. Each hero
was represented by ten cards and you shuffled
them together to make your deck.”
He worked enthusiastically on the idea, but
soon saw that his design had some problems.
“I realised that the math involved would
be too hard,” he says. “You’d be looking at a
card in your hand; it’s a card for your ranger,
it deals two damage per level of bow skill.
What’s his bow skill? It’s three, so that’s six
damage. Now remember that number and
038_042_howWeMade_v2 MJ.indd 39
look at the next card in your hand, a card for
your paladin, and his sword skill is…
“You’d look back and forth and back and
forth remembering numbers, and at the end
maybe you didn’t even decide to fight. It
didn’t seem like it would work.”
Undeterred, Vaccarino worked to simplify
his design. Along the way he came up with a
concept that seemed intriguing.
“I really wanted to be building up my
party,” he says. “I hit on the idea of having
you build the deck as the game went on –
when your ranger levels up, you get a new
card for him, better than his previous cards.”
The approach allowed players to
incrementally improve their characters with
each passing turn, starting the game with a
handful of low-powered cards and gradually
upping the quality of their decks as their
inexperienced adventurers grew into battle-
hardened warriors. While it first came to
Vaccarino as an element of a more complex
design, he suspected that the idea could
stand on its own.
“I realised that I could make a game out
of just that with none of the other pieces,” he
said. “Just building a deck.
“I jotted down some notes on it, then
went back to Spirit Warriors II. Months later
I needed a game quickly for a game night,
and Spirit Warriors II still needed tons of
work, but the simple deckbuilding game was
something I could just whip out. So I did.”
The basic side project would go on to
become Dominion, dropping the original
D&D-inspired theme and instead casting
players as aspirational monarchs competing
to build thriving kingdoms. As they played,
they added cards to their deck to generate
victory points or to take a variety of actions
– drawing extra cards, forcing opponents to
tabletopgaming.co.uk 39
13/12/2017 11:37
 HOW WE MADE D O M I N I O N
discard some of theirs, removing weak cards
from a deck to improve the odds of drawing
more useful ones. It allowed for a variety of
tactical approaches that evolved in different
ways over the course of every game, and it
proved to be an instant hit with Vaccarino’s
game group.
“Dominion took over all of our
gaming,” he says. “I had a
Magic night and a game
night; they both turned I had a Magic night and a game
into Dominion nights,
with extra Dominion on night; they both turned into
the side.
“I had made the Dominion nights.
game on the weekend
and put it out on the
kitchen table. For all I
knew it wouldn’t work at all. But it was good
times, and we were enthusiastic about playing
another game immediately. And, I mean,
that was that for years to come; the game of
choice was Dominion
Dominion.. A few months later I
made a couple of new games, and my friends
just were not interested in trying them. Trying
40 January 2018
038_042_howWeMade_v2 MJ.indd 40
something new would cut into Dominion time.
So, I made more expansions instead.”
Vaccarino and his friends experimented
with different strategies, discovering the
power of different card combinations and the
importance of stripping out less effective cards
from their decks. As they played, Vaccarino
made changes to the design, removing cards
that didn’t work as he’d hoped. But he says
the final result wasn’t far removed from his
original idea.
“If you’d played the game shortly after
I made it, and then again when it was
published, you’d have had trouble figuring out of analogue gaming, with Magic and its
the differences,” he says.
WORLD DOMINATION
Encouraged by his friends’ enthusiasm,
Vaccarino decided to approach publishers
with his design. He struck a deal with Rio
Grande Games, whose previous releases
included English-language versions of
European games like Power Grid and Puerto
Rico. His experience with his own game group
had left him confident
that Dominion
could be a similarly
successful hit.
“I wasn’t confident
I could get the game
published,” he said.
“But I was sure that
if I did, it would
eventually have a shelf
to itself in game stores. I had already had the
experience of a group of gamers switching to
nothing but Dominion
Dominion,, so the fact that people
became big fans was not surprising.”
Strategic card games were already a mainstay
competitors creating communities of players
13/12/2017 11:37
 around the globe. But where the likes of
Pokémon or the gothic Vampire: The Eternal
Struggle required players to trade or buy new
cards to build their collections, Dominion
offered a similar experience in a single,
self-contained game. It met with a massively
enthusiastic reaction from players and, in 2009,
won the tabletop industry’s most coveted prize:
the Spiel des Jahres or ‘Game of the Year’ award.
“I didn’t think I had a shot, even after
it was nominated, just due to Dominion’s
complexity,” says Vaccarino. “And I think they
added the more complex game category [the
Kennerspiel des Jahres or ‘Expert Game of the
Year’] later because they ended up deciding
Dominion was too complex after all.”
Fans were hungry for more, and Vaccarino
had more to give them. Years before Dominion
had been published, he had already begun
work on expansions that added new cards to
the mix. The first, Intrigue, could be played
as a standalone game or combined with the
original set to support up to eight players. The
Seaside, experimented with the game’s
next, Seaside
turn structure, adding cards that played
out their effects over multiple rounds. Later
additions gave players new ways to score
points or to use resource cards, opening up
fresh strategies to explore.
Vaccarino says he became more adept
at designing expansions over time, with
players’ reactions helping to guide the game’s
ongoing development.
“I feel like I got a lot better as I went along,”
he says. “The early sets have the most duds
ABOVE Dominion’s ’s many (many, many) expansions introduce a variety of new cards to the
because I wasn’t as good at the game. We
game’s healthy roster, as well as other fresh gameplay concepts and strategies
would have a card sometimes and that would
be enough for me. I wouldn’t play around
OPPOSITE Vaccarino based the concept of deckbuilding on the idea of a character levelling up
with it and ask, ‘Could I make it stronger? How
does it compare to other cards?’
“I got feedback from players. They didn’t “At this point the big challenge is trying to miners and fishermen looking for mountains
like how some cards didn’t have resources, keep complexity down,” he says. “You run and rivers to hermits seeking remote spots
they just attacked opponents. I stopped out of simple things to do, but it’s bad to get removed from civilisation.
making those. They liked attacks in general complex. It’s fine if strategy is complex, but “It started out trying to be a Dominion
less than I’d expected. Later sets have fewer not if the cards are.” spin-off,” says Vaccarino. “You played cards to
attacks, more non-attack interaction. take over spaces on the board, and took over
“The Alchemy expansion was too slow. I OFTEN COPIED, spaces to gain cards. I eventually cut out the
hadn’t realised that until it was out. I started NEVER EQUALLED deckbuilding and replaced it with drawing a
paying more attention to avoiding cards being While Dominion is a highlight of Vaccarino’s card and putting three pieces on that type of
slow to resolve. With Hinterlands I went too far design career, it’s not the only one. In 2011 terrain. The deckbuilding part just didn’t seem
in trying to dredge the last ounce of playability he released Kingdom Builder, a simple but essential; it was just there to be there.”
out of each card. It’s better to have simpler thoughtful board game that, like his previous The game earned him his second Spiel
cards that are a little strong or weak. I’ve tried hit, cast players as rulers looking to expand des Jahres, making Vaccarino one of a select
not to make that mistake since.” their domains. Players would draw a card handful of designers to win the accolade more
This self-criticism might seem harsh given from a communal deck corresponding than once. While he’s pleased to have one of
the game’s ongoing popularity, but it’s left its to different types of terrain on the board, the industry’s biggest recent hits to his name,
designer with a firm perspective on how best claiming territory and aiming to seize areas he’s also glad to have received recognition for
to grow the card pool. that best met the needs of their subjects – from other games.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 41

038_042_howWeMade_v2 MJ.indd 41 13/12/2017 11:37

 HOW WE MADE D O M I N I O N

“A big effect of Dominion on my career
is that it’s meant I’ve spent years making
Dominion expansions instead of new games,”
he says. “Dominion winning was great,
obviously. But it didn’t just make publishers
want to publish my games. I still had trouble
even getting games looked at. It was after
Kingdom Builder won that publishers said:
‘Okay, show us something.’”
Vaccarino continues to work on new
Dominion expansions, although he says he plans
to reduce the pace of his work on the game to
allow him to devote time to other projects.
While the game still boasts a large and
enthusiastic community of players, it’s also
inspired other designers to come up with their
own spin on its deckbuilding premise. For
Vaccarino, though, many of the games that
followed in Dominion’s trail haven’t done enough
to distinguish themselves from his original design.
“I always say that it’s great that people got
to make Dominion-inspired games, and sad
what most people decided to do with the
privilege,” he says. “There are all these games
that don’t add much to Dominion. I don’t look
at those games so much because I don’t want
anyone thinking I copied whatever Dominion
mechanic from a Dominion clone.
“There are actual new games inspired by
Dominion. Two examples I always cite are A
Few Acres of Snow and Eminent Domain. But I
mostly haven’t played them.”
While he thinks some deckbuilding
games are a little too close to Dominion for
comfort, a recent development is far more
straightforwardly problematic. Counterfeit
copies have started to appear online, with
unscrupulous manufacturers pirating the
game in its entirety. But while you might
expect the designer to be furious at having
his work ripped off, Vaccarino doesn’t let it
bother him.
“Most games don’t make any money, and
so won’t be counterfeited,” he says. “If your
game is such a hit that it’s being counterfeited,
it’s also making you good money. Making less
money, when you’re making good money; like,
it’s not what you want, but how much does it
really affect your life?”
He plans to keep working on expansions
for the game, he says, but he’d also like to
work on new spin-offs and unrelated titles.
With keeping Dominion fresh for players
taking up so much of his time, could he ever
see himself passing on responsibility to other
designers, just as long-running games like
Magic have passed through the hands of
many different creators?
“No,” he says simply. “I don’t see someone
else taking over.”

ALL HANDS ON DECK STAR REALMS

Designed by two former Magic: The
Dominion’s success sparked a rush of games using Gathering pro players, Star Realms
distilled the deckbuilding experience to
similar deckbuilding mechanisms, with designers a one-on-one showdown, with players
taking the concept in a host of new directions controlling galactic empires fighting to
dominate the universe. It’s a slick, simple
ARCTIC SCAVENGERS and addictive take on the formula, and
Where Dominion cast players as wealthy if you don’t have any opponents handy,
nobles, Arctic Scavengers adopts a much there’s a well-executed smartphone app
bleaker tone, with bands of survivors with a busy community of online players.
struggling to eke out an existence in a
frozen, post-apocalyptic wasteland. Players DICE MASTERS
aim to build powerful tribes, recruiting Dice Masters takes the core ideas behind
characters with specialised skills and Dominion and swaps cards for custom-
scouring the remnants of civilisation for made dice representing characters from
precious supplies and equipment. a variety of pop-culture universes. While
the first Dice Masters sets featured
A FEW ACRES OF SNOW characters from Marvel comics, the
Part of a trio of deckbuilding games from game has expanded to incorporate DC
designer Martin Wallace, this two-player characters like Batman and Wonder
war game recreates clashes between Woman as well as figures from Yu-Gi-
French and British colonial forces in Oh!, Dungeons & Dragons and Teenage
Oh!
North America. You’ll gain new cards by Turtles.
Mutant Ninja Turtles
capturing territory and strengthening your
hold on the continent. Wallace developed MYSTIC VALE
the game’s mechanisms further in the Where most deckbuilding games
fantasy follow-up Mythotopia and space challenge players to create a customised
conquest game A Handful of Stars. deck, Mystic Vale takes things one
step further, letting them build their
TRAINS own individual cards. Using a system of
Deckbuilding board game Trains puts you modular transparent cards that slide
and your friends in the shoes of Japanese into plastic sleeves, it allows players to
railway company directors. You’ll use your combine multiple powerful effects on a
cards to acquire locomotives and lay down single card. It also comes with a blackjack-
tracks, hoping to build a system that’s style push-your-luck element, where
as efficient and dependable as the real players can draw additional cards, but at
Japanese rail network... as opposed to the the risk of unleashing corrupting magic
British one. that could cost them the game.

42 January 2018

038_042_howWeMade_v2 MJ.indd 42 13/12/2017 11:37

 Blood Red Skies is the
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mass aerial combat from
Warlord Games
Release April 2018
with a great range of
expansion sets
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p043.indd 1 05/12/2017 14:01
 IS THERE A FAKE
BOARD GAME IN
YOUR COLLECTION?
The number of counterfeit games being sold online to unwilling fans is rising.
With players increasingly at risk of shoddy-quality and even dangerous
versions of their favourite titles, we look into the dark world of tabletop forgery
Words by Matt Jarvis | Illustration by Sam Richwood

44 January 2018

044_047_counterfeitGames_v2 MJ.indd 44 13/12/2017 14:37

 “A
bout eight months ago we started
to get all of these customer
services requests. People picking
up the phone saying, ‘Hi, I
bought a Ticket to Ride from
Amazon, the cards are all rubbish, I’m missing five
black trains and the board doesn’t lay flat.’”
At first, Steve Buckmaster says, it was assumed
that the copies of Days of Wonder’s iconic train game
were normal outliers from the production process.
Esdevium, the dominant UK distributor of which
Buckmaster is MD, began to send out replacement
parts for the incomplete sets, as it would with any
other game missing pieces. Still, something didn’t
sit quite right – a feeling reinforced by the growing
number of complaints about a title usually known for
its high standard of quality. Three or four months later,
overwhelmed by requests, Esdevium decided to look
into the matter. It seemed that one of its most popular
games had fallen prey to cheap forgeries being sold
online via third-party sellers, with unsuspecting
buyers unaware that their copy was an unofficial fake.
Very quickly, it became
clear that it was an issue
far beyond Ticket to
Ride. Sales of some of No matter what we do,
the industry’s biggest
games have become it’s very hard to contain.
flooded by fakes as part
of what Buckmaster
describes as an “endemic”
counterfeiting problem. Especially at risk are titles
that had become staple games for introducing
new players to hobby gaming because of their
accessible gameplay and simple components –
factors that now made them easier to duplicate.
“Games that have relatively simple card
components in particular – Dominion being a great
example – where it’s just printing cards, it’s relatively
straightforward for someone to counterfeit,”
Buckmaster says. “They need the print files and
the ability to make cards – which most factories
will have – then they just need to make boxes and
plastic inserts, which again most factories will be
able to do. Off they go on their merry way making
a counterfeit version of the game. So I think the
criteria for a target to counterfeit is that the game
has got to be a relative perennial.
“What we would consider the stable gateway
games of this industry – Ticket to Ride, Catan,
Pandemic, Dominion – have a good level of sales,
yet they come from relatively small publishers
that are going to struggle to be able to take the
action required to try and get counterfeiters shut
down. It’s a real challenge for our time.”
Partly to blame for the surge in forgeries is
gaming’s boom in mainstream popularity over the
last few years, with multi-million-dollar Kickstarters
044_047_counterfeitGames_v2 MJ.indd 45
and consistently rising sales attracting both genuine
and illegitimate attempts to cash in on the tabletop’s
golden age. The biggest enabling factor has been
the internet; while crowdfunding has made it
easier than ever before for creators to find a global
audience for their otherwise niche projects, the
online removal of worldwide barriers has turned
counterfeiting into an international issue.
“Right now we’re dealing with significant
counterfeiting coming out of the Far East and, no
matter what we do, it’s very hard to contain because
the internet and online commerce has made it able to
reach far and wide and deep and it’s hard to figure out
exactly where the nexus of all that stuff is originating,”
says Christian T. Petersen, CEO of Asmodee North
America, the mega-publisher that owns studios such
as Fantasy Flight, Z-Man Games and Plaid Hat.
Although the full extent to which counterfeits are
pervading the market remains currently unclear due
to some companies refusing to release their data,
Asmodee’s internal figures suggest that up to 60%
of all online sales for some games are now fakes.
“We’re able to do a bunch of data analysis online
and we can also compare year-over-year numbers
and look at the sellers actually selling the product,”
Petersen explains. “A product like – just as an example
– 7 Wonders may have been affected more than 60%.”
“We’ve been told that counterfeit games have
dramatically increased recently,” observes Richard
Lee, COO of major game manufacturer Panda.
“Scanning and printing technology has improved by a
large amount and has become much less expensive as
well, which has led to more counterfeiting activities.”
Scott Tepper of Dominion, Race for the Galaxy
and Roll for the Galaxy outlet Rio Grande Games
echoes that the overall scale of counterfeiting is still
being looked into by the publisher, but suggests
less of an impact on its affected games.
“We are still investigating the extent to which the
recent counterfeit Dominions reached the US market,”
he says. “In comparison with our total sales, the
percentage of counterfeits that we believe have recently
appeared is a small percentage of our total sales.”
Wizards of the Coast, the Hasbro-owned
publisher responsible for Dungeons & Dragons,
Magic: The Gathering and wargame studio Avalon
Hill, concurs that it has experienced counterfeiting,
but adds that – at least from what it has seen –fake
games still remain the exception.
“We take counterfeiting very seriously,” a
representative for the company tells us. “While we
can’t comment on specific anti-counterfeiting tactics
or investigations, we can say that we occasionally
learn of small quantities of counterfeit Wizards of the
Coast games being sold online. When this happens,
we investigate. Our investigation team is second-to-
none in the gaming industry and works closely with
our state, federal and international law enforcement
partners to target and stop counterfeiters.”
DOING DAMAGE
The targeting of gateway games by counterfeiters
is particularly troublesome for publishers and
distributors because of the players most likely to
end up with a fake in their collection. There’s a good
chance that committed gamers already own several
of the entry-level titles affected, or will see notices
put out via social media, websites and newsletters
concerning possible fakes. But a standard consumer
picking up a hobby game for the first time won’t
necessarily be on the lookout.
“What we’re really
worried about is somebody
who’s possibly new to board
games and, rightly so, going
for something like Ticket to
Ride, Pandemic or Catan as
their first or second board
game purchase,” Buckmaster
says. “They go online, buy
the cheapest, get a counterfeit copy and go, ‘Ergh,
this was a poor gaming experience,’ because they
were missing components or the rules weren’t right
because they’d been counterfeited.
“We are more concerned about the, dare I say it,
mums and families; people that are new to board
gaming in general being caught out by this. For
hardcore alpha gamers that are buying a mixture of
games on Kickstarter and on release and all that sort
of stuff, they’re probably safe at this moment in time.”
“If a counterfeit game happens to be the first
game that person has ever played, it could leave
a bad taste in their mouth and keep them from
trying other games,” agrees Panda’s Lee.
It’s not only players who can be put off gaming by
dodgy copies. With many designers making a living
through royalties earned on sales of their games,
having their work copied without compensation
can drastically impact their living.
“Counterfeits cause damage on several levels,” says
Tepper. “The designer, who has done considerable
work to create an exceptional game, does not receive
the deserved royalties for the counterfeit copies.
“Damage is done to our brand when customers
receive these inferior knockoffs and think that this low
quality is representative of Rio Grande Games and then
decide not to try any of the Dominion expansions.”
tabletopgaming.co.uk 45
11/12/2017 16:56
 COUNTERFEIT GAMES
“Buying counterfeits only helps the
counterfeiters – and takes money out of the pockets
of the hard-working people who are creating
the games,” agrees Shari Spiro, CEO of independent
publisher Breaking Games and manufacturer Ad
Magic, which has produced various games including
Exploding Kittens and Cards Against Humanity.
“Whether or not the end consumer cares about
whether a game designer gets their royalty on games,
they’ve put their heart and soul into something,
they created a game that’s going to be fantastic,”
Buckmaster adds. “They’re obviously being cheated
out of their income,
which is the royalties they
We can only guess at
make on selling games.
Which I suppose also
the harm end users are
impacts their ability to
continue to develop
exposing themselves to.
games and do stuff.”
In the most extreme
of cases, fake board
games can even pose
a risk to the health of
players by bypassing
universal safety checks
“The world out there is not entirely aware of the
enormous influence of counterfeiters online and how
much stuff is actually not authentic and even potentially
dangerous,” says Petersen. “Because we do, of course,
a lot of testing on all our materials to make sure they’re
[safety] compliant, vis-à-vis the poison in plastics,
the lead paint on wood and so on and so forth. I can
assure you that counterfeiters have no such testing.”
Buckmaster presents a specific example of one
game aimed at children that had been found to
lack the quality control of the official product.
“We don’t even know if the counterfeit Dobble
game can be played properly because it’s quite a
mathematical game. It’s not enough to sit there and
have some cards with symbols on, you actually
have to have the exact right mix and it has to
46 January 2018
044_047_counterfeitGames_v2 MJ.indd 46
Some counterfeit
games appear
under different
names, such as
this Splendor
clone The Stone
Merchant (left);
others try to
replicate the
game’s original
packaging, as
seen with this
fake copy of
Sushi Go! (right)
be a certain way. We have seen the counterfeit
tins deform; we don’t know if they’ve been tested for
harmful elements. As a genuine manufacturer, there’s
quite strict safety testing that you have to do on your
product to ensure it’s in no way going to be harmful.”
Tepper offers a similarly frank warning.
“The authentic Dominions and expansions are
made in our partner factories in the US and in
Europe,” he confirms. “We are confident in their
quality and safety for our customers. From what we
have seen, the counterfeit copies have cheaper card
stock for the cards and have inferior card trays which
are flimsy and break easily. We can only guess at
the harm end users are exposing themselves to
from the counterfeit copies as they are not made
using the strict standards we use in our games.”
RETAIL WOES
The majority of publishers we spoke to pointed the
finger at Amazon’s third-party Marketplace and
‘Fulfilled by Amazon’ programme – where third-party
stock is stored and sent out of Amazon warehouses
– for allowing online stores to freely offer illegitimate
copies of games, which are often misunderstood by
buyers to be vouched for by the retail giant.
Buckmaster says that, in certain cases, direct
sales of some Esdevium games through Amazon
have been reduced by up to 80% of their usual level
when a seller of counterfeits manages to get the ‘buy
box’ – making them the default choice for customers
that land on the page and hit the ‘Add to Basket’ button.
“The way that Amazon is structured, most
consumers make the assumption that if it’s fulfilled
by Amazon, it must be fine – this is unfortunately
not always the case,” he says.
Although Amazon does remove counterfeit
sellers when flagged up by lawyers working on
behalf of bigger studios, one major publisher that
wished to remain anonymous told us that Amazon
had been ‘difficult’ and ‘slow’ to work with on the
matter, allegedly taking up to a week to shut down
some stores and going so far as to reinstate multiple
third-party sellers accused of offering counterfeit
games when the claims had been contested. Multiple
sources claimed that counterfeit sellers they had
identified had later resurfaced under the guise of
a different store, allowing them to simply sell the
products under a different name. This reportedly even
caused Amazon’s own sales of at least one popular
game to ‘tank’, a source close to the matter said.
“Amazon prohibits the sale of inauthentic and
fraudulent products,” an Amazon spokesperson told
Tabletop Gaming in a statement. “We remove items
in violation of our policies as soon as we become
aware of them and block bad actors suspected of
engaging in illegal behaviour, such as counterfeit.
“If merchants sell counterfeit goods, we may
immediately suspend or terminate their selling
privileges and destroy inventory
in our fulfilment centres
without reimbursement. In
addition, if we determine that a
seller account has been used to
engage in fraud or other illegal
activity, remittances and
payments may be withheld.
The sale of counterfeit goods
can also lead to legal action
by rights holders and civil
and criminal penalties.
“We are constantly innovating on behalf of
our customers and working with manufacturers,
content owners, vendors and sellers to improve
the ways we detect and prevent counterfeit
products from reaching our marketplace.”
Amazon does require that Marketplace sellers
offer a return policy equal to or better than its own 30-
day rule and offer replacements for products found
to not be as advertised within a “reasonable time”.
“As much as we’ve been struggling with
Amazon, there is an element of accountability
where you can go back and go: ‘Look, I think I’ve
got something counterfeit,’” Buckmaster says.
That’s not the case with another online retail
giant alleged to be offering fake board games for
sale: auction site eBay, which Buckmaster calls “a
dog-eat-dog marketplace, basically”. Under the
11/12/2017 16:57
 SPOT THE FAKE
Rio Grande’s Scott Tepper runs under the Dominion logo on the finish that looks like a linen
us through the differences side panel that has the picture finish, but that is more due to
between a genuine copy of of the bandit. That is a code the photograph of the cover art
Dominion: Second Edition (on the referencing a particular print than an actual linen finish. But it
left) and a fake (on the right) run from our factory. All of the is hard to discern this through
“It is difficult to tell if you have counterfeit copies we have seen the plastic wrap.
a counterfeit copy of Dominion so far reference that code. But “Once you open the box, it is
without opening up the box. The it is possible to have a copy easy to see obvious tells. The
platform’s rules, sellers are not required to offer a
counterfeit copy is lighter in with that code that is authentic, counterfeit game has a very
returns policy, but eBay does offer a Money Back
colour, but that would be difficult so that code alone is not an badly-made thin plastic inlay that
Guarantee to reimburse users who receive an item
to perceive without having an indicator of a counterfeit. crumples and breaks easily. The
that fails to match its listing description.
authentic copy next to it. “There is also a difference cards are lower quality than
“Counterfeits are illegal and not welcome on any of
“Another hint that you might in the linen finish of the box authentic Dominion cards, and
eBay’s sites,” a spokesperson for eBay told us. “eBay is
have a counterfeit copy is that paper. An authentic copy has a the artists’ names on the cards
fully committed to combating the sale of counterfeit
there is a code, ELM 62812, flat, non-glossy linen finish. The are not white, but tend toward
goods and has consistently been the internet industry
in white print that appears counterfeits have a more glossy orange and red.”
leader in working to stop the online sale of counterfeit
goods. eBay runs several anti-counterfeit initiatives
including the Verified Rights Owner Programme,
and is continually introducing new proactive
measures to combat the global trade in counterfeits.”

COUNTERATTACK
As tabletop gaming grows and matures further, it’s
all but certain that counterfeiting will continue.
Petersen describes the problem as like an endless
game of whack-a-mole, while Buckmaster says
the number of games finding their way into the
mainstream and hunger for popular titles means
there’s no shortage of targets for forgers.
“I think the problem will continue, even if we
can get some games cleaned up,” Buckmaster says.
“Let’s say, for example, we manage to close down
the problem on Dixit; my gut feeling is they might
go onto something like Forbidden Island instead.
They’ll just choose another stable product that’s
always ranked highly on Amazon and go start
counterfeiting that product, as well.’
However, steps are being taken to try and combat
the number of fakes finding their way into players’
hands. Ad Magic and Breaking Games recently
artnered with security and authentication specialist
De la Rue to place custom 3D holograms on the
companies’ games as proof of their genuineness.
Other publishers and manufacturers have similarly
stepped up their own efforts to stem the flow.
“As games become more complex and
advanced from a production standpoint, the
harder it will be for counterfeiters to keep up,”
predicts Panda CEO Michael Lee.
Ultimately, though, it seems that the best way
to avoid ending up with a counterfeit in your
collection comes back to age-old advice.
“If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably
is,” Buckmaster advises. “I know in this day and age
a lot of people will want to buy the cheapest online
offer, but it’s always worth checking the source; if
in doubt, buy from a brick-and-mortar store where
you can actually see what you are buying”
“If you are going to buy from a third-party seller,
read their feedback comments,” Tepper says. “The
third-party resellers that we caught selling counterfeit
Dominions had multiple instances of feedback
regarding counterfeit products. So either people
are not checking these comments or they are willing to
roll the dice for a ‘good deal’. You get what you pay for.”

tabletopgaming.co.uk 47

044_047_counterfeitGames_v2 MJ.indd 47 11/12/2017 16:58

 VIKINGS ON BOARDS
When they weren’t blood-raging or feasting for Odin, the Vikings loved
a good board game – one that, centuries later, is making a comeback
D
Words and lead image by Dan Jolin
uring the 1880s, while excavating
the ancient Swedish town of Birka,
archaeologist Knut Hjalmar Stolpe
unearthed a large, well-furnished
grave containing a Viking warrior.
Alongside the armour-clad remains, Stolpe
found weapons (sword, axe, spear, arrows),
two shields, the skeletons of two unfortunate
horses and, nestled lovingly in the corpse’s lap,
a full set of board game pieces.
The importance of this final element was only
emphasised when, in September 2017, DNA
testing confirmed that the remains were in fact
female. The arms and armour suggested she was
a warrior, but the game pieces encouraged the
most exciting conclusion: that she was of high
status – perhaps “a powerful military leader,” as
archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson
put it at the time of the revelation. Which
means, in terms of upending our view of Viking
society as male-dominated, the fact this real-life
shieldmaiden could swing a blade is actually less
significant than her ownership of a board game.
48 January 2018
048_051_vikingGame_v3 MJ.indd 48
Tabletop gaming wasn’t just a frivolous
pastime for Vikings – male or female. It was a
sign of status. A huge deal.
These days, if you threw an axe in a board
game café, there’s a good chance it would
hit a box with Vikings on it. From Eric Lang’s
epic, Ragnarokkin’ Blood Rage (itself a
reimplementation of his 2007 game Midgard),
through 2016’s rather more whimsical
Blue Orange title Vikings on Board, to Uwe
Rosenberg’s gorgeously complex worker
placement/tile-laying hybrid A Feast for
Odin (which even comes with a detailed
almanac on Norse life), the Viking theme has
never been more popular. Not that it’s a new
phenomenon, of course. Look at TSR’s 1982
game Viking Gods, for example, or 2004’s Fire
& Axe. Technically, the world-dominating
Catan’s Viking-themed, too; designer Klaus
Teuber was inspired by the Viking settlement
of Iceland.
But there’s also a chance your café-terrorising
throwing axe would (aside from getting you
arrested, of course) strike the oldest Viking
game of all. The original Viking game. The
one whose pieces lay in the lap of that ancient
chieftess, and which now is making something
of a comeback. Namely, hnefatafl.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
In June 2017, IT development manager David
Lonsdale drove over 100 miles from his home
in Peterborough to take part in a hnefatafl
tournament held at the Hull and East Riding
Museum. His brother Steve travelled with him,
having introduced David to the game three
years earlier, and the pair ended up facing
each other in the final. David was triumphant.
“I guess its simplicity was the main thing,”
says Lonsdale of why the game – which he also
plays online – first hooked him. When we speak,
he reveals he’s just qualified for the top group on
the Aage Nielsen website’s World Tafl Federation
hnefatafl championship tournament.
“I was a reasonable chess player when I was
younger, but I’m not the sort of person who
11/12/2017 16:59
 can sit down and learn lots of openings and
things. What I liked about hnefatafl is generally
it’s a simpler game with very simple rules.
Whoever you’re playing, be they experienced
or a learner, that simplicity means you can be
on a relatively level playing field.”
Pronounced “neffa-taffle” and meaning
‘king’s table’, it’s a two-player abstract strategy
game which, intriguingly, is asymmetric.
The white player takes the defensive role,
with their fewer pieces starting arranged in
a diamond pattern around the king at the
centre of a grid-based board. Their objective
Hnefatafl involves
an asymmetric
setup where one
player attempts to
protect their king
while the other
tries to capture him
048_051_vikingGame_v3 MJ.indd 49
is to move the king to safety, typically by
reaching a corner square.
The black player has no king, and
commands twice as many troops as the white.
These are arrayed in four, arrow-shaped
groups around the board’s edge, and their task
is to capture the white king.
Every piece moves like a rook in chess, and
capturing usually happens when one player’s
piece is trapped between two of the other player’s;
although capturing a king in most versions of the
game means you have to surround him on four
sides. As you can guess, choosing black makes it
a much tougher game, more reliant on long-term
strategy than the reactive style white requires.
Hnefatafl’s asymmetric nature is what
appeals to Dr. Roderick Dale who, as cultural
engagement fellow at the University of
Nottingham’s Centre for the Study of the Viking
Age, is one of the UK’s leading Viking experts.
“It makes you think,” he says, “because it
requires different things from you depending
on which side you play. I actually find it more
interesting than chess. If you swap sides you’re
effectively playing two different games, in
some ways.”
LOST IN TRANSLATION
One of the game’s foremost proponents in the
UK is Damian Walker, who in 2004 founded the
hnefatafl website (tafl.cyningstan.com) – an
excellent online repository of all things Viking-
gamey – and has written two books on the game
(Reconstructing Hnefatafl and An Introduction
to Hnefatafl). It was in fact Walker who
organised the Hull tournament won by David
Lonsdale. He first came across hnefatafl 15
years ago, while reading a book about ancient
board games, titled The World Of Games.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 49
11/12/2017 16:59
 H N E F ATA F L : T H E V I K I N G G A M E
“It was the striking appearance of the game
that caught my eye,” Walker says. “Though it’s
got an asymmetrical division of forces between
the two players, the board layout looks very
symmetrical and pleasing. Once I discovered
the game, it was the mystery surrounding it
that kept me interested; it turned out that there
was a lot of information waiting to be found.
We know a lot more about it now than we did
10 or 15 years ago.”
At the heart of that mystery were the rules
of the game itself, which it seems the Vikings
never wrote down.
“For decades,” explains Walker, “everyone was
trying to reconstruct it from a faulty translation.”
It turns out that an English misunderstanding
of Swedish scientist Carl Linneaus’ 18th-
century Latin account of the rules, recorded
after he played the game in Lapland, gave
rise to the idea that the king needs to be
surrounded on all four sides when, in fact,
says Walker, “the Latin passage says that
the king is captured like other pieces except
when he still sits in his central ‘castle’ square;
only then does it take four enemies to
surround him”. Hence the imbalance, “where
it’s very hard to capture the king – especially
since both the English and Latin rules have
the king winning when he gets to the edge of
the board”.
50 January 2018
048_051_vikingGame_v3 MJ.indd 50
This has led to dozens of modern variants
on the game that attempt to balance out the
rules, such as by stating that the king needs
to get to a corner, rather than the board’s
edge. This is stated by the ‘Copenhagen’
ruleset, followed by the Aage Nielsen
tournament. Other variants include the
Fetlar rules (established for the world
championship on the Hebridean island
of Fetlar, overseen by hnefatafl enthusiast
Peter Kelly until his death in 2014), as well
as the different ancient versions of the game,
played on a variety of board sizes from
seven-by-seven up to 19-by-19: brandub,
tablut, tawlbwrdd, alea evangelii…
For Lonsdale, this sheer variety and
mutability is far from off-putting. Just the
opposite, in fact.
“What really interests me isn’t so much the
playing of an individual game, it’s actually
playing to try and work out the best version,” he
says. “You know: on a particular-sized board,
should you be playing with an unarmed king
[ie. one that can’t take enemy pieces], corner-
square sort of combination? What’s the right
combination of rules on a certain board to get
an even balance between black and white?”
For the more casual player, though, it’s
probably best just to go with the rules as
given in the History Craft Ltd version of the
game (as summarised above, and close to the
Copenhagen ones), simply titled The Viking
Game. This impressively designed set bases its
pieces on the 12th-century Lewis chessmen
found in the Outer Hebrides in 1831 and
comes with a grid printed on natural linen
that incorporates “typical Viking patterns”.
You really feel, when playing with this set, that
you’re experiencing the game as the Vikings
themselves did, back in the historical murk of
the Dark Ages.
NORSE PLAY
Board gaming was, confirms Dale, “quite
important” to the Vikings: “It was almost
certainly something that everybody did.”
Tafl (ie. “table”) games – which descended
from even more ancient, Roman games – were
significant enough to feature in The Sagas of
Icelanders; plus, of course, there’s all the
archaeological evidence to show that, as Dale
puts it: “Playing board games was something
you did when you weren’t busy trying to
conquer the Danelaw.” Hnefatafl sets were
“prized possessions,” says Damian Walker;
“Archaeologists have found some very fine
examples buried as grave goods.”
It was, as its name suggests, truly the game
of kings. Not that playing it with an actual king
was a good idea.
11/12/2017 16:59

A medieval gaming piece from the 9th to mid-
11th centuries made from cast lead or lead
alloy. The shape of the piece (similar to a rook
in chess) might mean that it was used as a king
in hnefatafl matches (The Portable Antiquities
Scheme/The Trustees of the British Museum)
“There’s a story that Cnut the Great, king of
England and Denmark [from 1016 to 1035],
was at a feast at Roskilde when his brother-
in-law Ulf saw that he was in a bad mood
and thought, ‘Right, let’s cheer him up with
a board game,’” relates Dale. “But when they
played, Cnut wanted to take a move back, and
he and Ulf argued about it until Ulf kicked the
table over and stormed out. So Cnut had him
killed the next day.”
Still, whatever the risks, if you wanted to
be considered a proper member of Viking
aristocracy, you needed to know how to play
board games.
“Earl Rögnvald of Orkney wrote a poem
describing his skills,” Dale explains, “all the
skills you would need to be a well-rounded
member of the aristocracy. And he includes in
it his skill at playing board games.”
You can’t help but wonder if hnefatafl was
treated by the Vikings as some kind of strategy
primer – a way of honing their battle tactics. You
can imagine that its asymmetric nature, which
makes victory harder for the ‘invading’ force
048_051_vikingGame_v3 MJ.indd 51
It seems to have
been played
mostly for
relaxation.
Museum
and therefore more glorious when achieved
over the besieged whites, might appeal to a
people who, while actually mostly fishers and
farmers, were nevertheless renowned and
feared for their raiding and pillaging tendencies.
Certainly, the presence of tafl pieces in that
unknown female warrior’s grave was taken as a
strong sign she might be a military leader.
“It would have been a good way to teach
tactical thinking,” says Walker, “but I don’t know
if the Vikings used it for that purpose. It seems
to have been played mostly for relaxation.”
Historian Dale is even less sure: “Whether
the board games were actually intended to
teach strategy per se, or whether that type of
thinking is just a byproduct of playing board
games, we have absolutely no idea. They’re
never presented as teaching strategy in the
source material that we have. And I don’t
think we can even begin to speculate as to
why they’d particularly like an asymmetric
game. I mean, you have to remember this
style of game had been popular for thousands
of years.”
And then, from around the 13th century
onwards, hnefatafl almost completely
disappeared from tabletops. Its younger,
cooler and distinctly less lop-sided cousin
chess sidled into town and became the new
rage. Scandinavians, thinks Dale, must have
noticed the aristocracy in Francia playing this
intriguing, impressive Eastern import, and
adopted it as a new kind of status symbol.
“The popular kids were playing it,” he notes.
“So everybody else wanted to play it.”
THE RETURN OF
THE KING’S TABLE
It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that
hnefatafl truly reappeared, when chess
company Jacques of London put out the first-
ever commercial version of the game, using
James Edward Smith’s (mis)translation of
Linnaeus’ rules (albeit with the rule-balancing
addition that the king couldn’t capture
black pieces). Much later, in 1965, it was
reimagined as naval strategy game Breakthru
(although Walker says that’s “a different game
altogether”, only loosely inspired by hnefatafl).
Then, in 1970, Milton Bradley published its
own version of the game named Swords and
Shields. Neither exactly took off.
It’s only in more recent years that players are
rediscovering the Vikings’ favourite pastime
(apart from, y’know, sacking Lindisfarne) in any
significant numbers, with Walker’s tournament
joining annual events in West Stoke and
Formby – as well as the Fetlar tournament,
which is expected to return this spring.
History Craft’s The Viking Game, which
smartly makes a virtue of its ancient nature
rather than trying to gussy it up in modern
clothing, is certainly helping spread
awareness, as are websites like Walker’s and
Aage Nielsen’s. People – not just Eric Lang and
Uwe Rosenberg – can’t seem to get enough of
those hairy, Dark Age raiders.
“It may be that it’s kicking off more now
because Vikings are particularly fashionable
at the moment,” suggests Dale, who himself
has been besotted with Vikings since hearing
Norse myths as a child on his Hebridean
grandmother’s knee, “thanks to the Vikings
TV series and The Last Kingdom. I think more
people may be getting interested in it just
because of that.”
Hnefatafl certainly rewards that interest.
It’s more accessible than chess, while its
asymmetric nature gives it an idiosyncratic
appeal. Besides, if it was good enough for old
Earl Rögnvald – a saint, no less – it’s surely
good enough for any of us.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 51
11/12/2017 16:59
m2+y
y2+z3
c
cc 180
∏r 2
Play it smart
The tabletop has the ability to bring people together – and sometimes drive them
apart when the competition heats up. How can players avoid dreaded gamer rage?
Illingworth Players of Monopoly will be all too aware
Doctors Paul Wake and Sam
M
any of us will be beginning
2018 by trying to undo the
excesses brought about
during the tail end of 2017. (unwritten) rules. As Caillois puts it, play is
Joining a gym, opening a
new savings account, cutting down on cheese
and perhaps gleefully returning Monopoly to
the deepest recesses of our shelving units. What
is it about family get-togethers that makes us
reach for the red and white box when spending
time with the extended family? We certainly
don’t seem to enjoy the game...
Hasbro’s 2013 ‘Disconnect Reconnect’
advert certainly captures the sentiment
behind us getting games to the table, but it
is some way off the reality of what happens
once play begins. One online response to the
video says it all: “Monopoly doesn’t make
friendships, it breaks them.”
A recent survey named Monopoly as
the cause of nearly half of all game-related
arguments and the game most likely to end
with a flipped board (which is exactly what
happens in Hasbro’s 2017 ‘Monopoly New
Classic Edition’ ad). But why? Research
from the Georgia Institute of Technology has
shown that games that minimise luck and
resource management are the most effective
52 January 2018
052_playItSmart_v2 MJ.indd 52
√z
a+b
in fostering collaboration. In other words,
science tells us that Monopoly (a game
that is based entirely on luck and resource
management) might well be the worst
game to play with non-gamers, as there’s a
very real risk that they will come away with
the impression that board games are little
more than a cause of conflict and strife.
Of course, conflict is at the heart of many
games. As Roger Caillois, a key figure in game
studies, puts it, competition (what he calls
‘agôn’) is a key element of play. Competitive
games, he says, are “like a combat in which
equality of chances is artificially created”.
that any such ‘equality’ is often abandoned
the moment that its uncontrollable human
variables (players) sit down at the table. This
can be fine; it can even make the game worth
playing, when everyone understands the game’s
an activity that’s separate (in time and space)
from everyday life, so if in-game conflicts are
‘Semi-collaborative’ games such as Betrayal
at House on the Hill are one way of stopping
competition from boiling over into frustration
(a) 2
+
6 (b)
Y
P
La
Ga
Am
Es
spilling over into the ‘real’ world (as Hasbro’s
2016 Monopoly Christmas helpline suggests)
then things are clearly going awry! Perhaps we
might conclude that being comfortable with
‘competitive play’ is something that takes practice.
Readers of this magazine won’t need Caillois
to tell them that competition is just one aspect of
play. Eurogames such as Carcassonne allow for
less painful ‘indirect competition,’ collaborative
games such as Pandemic and Arkham Horror
displace competition by treating the system as
the antagonist, while ‘semi-collaborative’ games
such as Dead of Winter and Betrayal at House
on the Hill match competition with storytelling
and imaginative roleplay. In other words, there
might be better games to play with your non-
game-playing family and friends than Monopoly,
especially if you want to play with them again.
So, the next time Uncle Nigel suggests a
friendly game of Monopoly, reach for your
copy of Betrayal and suggest swapping
hotels and stations for statuary corridors and
research laboratories.
Paul Wake and Sam Illingworth are
Manchester Metropolitan University
academics and co-directors of the
Games Research Network
tabletopgaming.co.uk
11/12/2017 17:03
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Abaddon Black
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S TA R S A G A

Lothern Blue
Lugganath Orange
ZENITHAL HIGHLIGHTING
Zenithal highlighting at its core is a much more complicated
process than what I am going to show you in this guide. I will
STAGES
Each creature is split up into four stages, each with a list
of colours and the corresponding paint that was used
1 BASE
COLOURS
Cadian Fleshtone: Apply one to
3 HIGHLIGHTING
Kislev Flesh: Add a layer to the face,
leaving the recesses dark.
Ulthuan Grey: Apply a spot highlight
5 FINAL
DETAILS
Blue Horror:

THE WAY
Alaitoc Blue Macragge Blue show a basic version that helps apply a simplified version for it. Each stage uses a different technique to achieve a two light coats to the face until Apply a light
you have an even colour. to the armour, focusing on corners highlight to the
Baneblade Brown Mechanicus Standard Grey of highlighting. This begins at the basecoating stage, whilst similar effect on each element but with different colours.
Abaddon Black: Mix with two and where the lines from the screen and the hard
Blood for the Blood God Mephiston Red preparing the model for the later stages.
parts water and apply a good previous stage meet the edge of edges around it.
Bloodletter Moot Green Stage 1 is base colours. Base colours are applied using a
coat over all of the armour the armour. Ceramite White: Add a
Blue Horror Nuln Oil Begin by basecoating the mix of glazes and flat colours.
and fatigues. Russ Grey: Apply a line highlight to spot highlight to the arm
Bugmans Glow Pallid Wych Flesh miniature black. This is easiest Stage 2 is applying shading. In this stage we use
Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the fatigues and cap. and gun.
Cadian Fleshtone Rakarth Flesh with a black spray paint. various washes and glazes to add an element of
the arm and gun. Fenrisian Grey: Apply a layer over Pallid Wych Flesh: Add a
Celestra Grey Reikland Fleshshade shading to the models.
the arm and gun, focusing towards spot highlight to the face.
Ceramite White Russ Grey Stage 3 is highlighting. This stage involves applying a line
one corner on each section and Gauss Blaster Green:
Dark Reaper Screamer Pink of your colour along the hard edges and ridges of the
the edges. Add an edge highlight to
Dawnstone Squig Orange area. I would recommend using a fine brush and adding a
Dorn Yellow Steel Legion Drab tiny dash of water to your paints. the bottom right of the
Drakenhof Nightshade Sybarite Green Stage 4 is final highlight. This involves adding a small dot eye lens.
Ceramite White
Fenrisian Grey
Flayed One Flesh
Temple Guard Blue or dash of a colour, generally in the same area as the
previous highlight, but focusing on corners or where folds 2 SHADING 4 FINAL & Abaddon Black:
HIGHLIGHT
Troll Slayer Orange
Gauss Blaster Green Ulthuan Grey Once the black is dry, apply a in cloth meet. For hair or fur it involves adding a dot to Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply With a tiny amount
Genestealer Purple Warpstone Glow light spray of white from the the tip of each strand. If you find yourself unsure of where across the arm, gun and face. Blue Horror: Add a highlight to on the tip of your
Jokearo Orange Wazdakka Red top around the model. This to apply the highlights or spot highlights, look over the Dark Reaper: Apply a highlight to the arm and gun, focusing on the brush, carefully
Khorne Red Xereus Purple will create a light element images alongside the guide and compare that stage to the folds and hard edges of the corners and hard edges towards paint the eye.
Kislev Flesh Yriel Yellow of highlighting and shading the last. fatigues and the cap. the top of the model. Once dry add a
straight off the bat that will Stage 5 is the final details. This stage involves cleaning up Dawnstone: Apply a line highlight Flayed One Flesh: Apply a line dot of black to
either provide shading and and adding a few spot highlights. This stage also includes to the armour sections. Also, highlight to the face. the top, centre.
highlighting in later stages or a painting the base of the model. with very little paint on the brush, Fenrisian Blue: Add a fine highlight
guide as to where they should apply small dashes across the to the fatigues and cap.
be applied. armour surface. Sybarite Green: Apply a coat to

GRAVES
the eye lens.
Lothern Blue: Mix with one part water
and apply on and around the wrist
1 BASE COLOURS screen and the chest are opposite.
Mechanicus Standard Grey: Paint the majority of the armour using
this grey.
Macragge Blue: Pick out sections of the
armour and apply one to two coats until you
1 BASE COLOURS
Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist guards.
have an even colour. Cadian Fleshtone: Apply a basecoat to the face.
Khorne Red: Paint the visor, lights and pipes. Fenrisian Grey: Apply a basecoat to the fatigues.
Steel Legion Drab: Apply a coat over the gun. Abaddon Black: Apply a coat to the boots and cabling.
Jokearo Orange: Apply a basecoat to the gloves and knee pads.

2 SHADING 2 SHADING
Nuln Oil: Apply over the entirety of the model in one even coat. Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply a coat to all the
Warpstone Glow: Once the wash is dry make a mix with two parts water areas previously coated with Dawnstone.
and apply to the wrist generator.. Celestra Grey: Apply a layer over the fatigues,
leaving only the recesses the base colour.
Yriel Yellow: Apply a layer over the gloves and

YOU WANT
knee pads, leaving the recesses and bottom

3 HIGHLIGHTING 5 FINAL DETAILS

edges the base colour.
Dark Reaper: Apply a line highlight to the cabling
Dawnstone: Apply a line highlight to all of the grey armour sections. Blue Horror: Add a spot highlight to the and boots.
Also, with very little paint on the brush, apply small dashes across Squig Orange, Xereus Purple & Sybarite Green:
5 FINAL
edges and the lines of both the blue and
the armour surface. grey sections of the armour. Apply orange over the lights on the arms, joints
Alaitoc Blue: Apply a line highlight to all of the blue armour sections.
Again, with very little paint on the brush, apply small dashes across
Lugganath Orange: Apply a spot
highlight to the visor and the centre
and chest piece and apply the purple and green
to the vials found across the model.
DETAILS
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a spot
the armour surface. of the lights. highlight to the face.
Wazdakka Red: Apply a highlight to the top and hard edges of the Ceramite White: Mix with three Ceramite White: Apply
visor, over the lights and along the piping.
3 HIGHLIGHTING
parts water and apply a light wash a spot highlight to the
Baneblade Brown: Apply a line highlight to the gun. to the wrist generator. mechanical arms, armour
Temple Guard Blue: Mix with two parts water Fenrisian Grey: Add a line highlight to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist guards, and wrist guards.
and lightly apply within the centre ring of the focusing on corners and hard edges. Ceramite White &
wrist generator. Ulthuan Grey: Apply a layer over the fatigues, leaving a little more of the base and the Abaddon Black: With
previous layer showing through. a tiny amount on the
Dorn Yellow: Apply a line highlight to the gloves and knee pads. tip of your brush,
Russ Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the cabling and boots. carefully paint the the
Trollslayer Orange & Moot Green: Apply a layer
4 FINAL HIGHLIGHT over the lights and vials.
eye. Once dry, add
a dot of black to the
Celestra Grey: Apply as an edge highlight to all of the grey armour top, centre.
sections. Also apply a spot highlight to the lines added in the Blue Horror: Apply a
previous stage.
Russ Grey: Apply as an edge highlight to all of the blue armour 4 FINAL HIGHLIGHT spot highlight to the eye lenses.
Lugganath Orange: Apply a spot highlight to
sections. Also apply a spot highlight to the lines added in the Blue Horror: Apply a final highlight to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist the lights.
previous stage. guards, focusing on the corners.
Squig Orange: Add a fine highlight to the visor, focusing towards the Flayed One Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the face.
corner created by the last stage. Also add a spot highlight to the lights, Ceramite White: Apply a line highlight to the hard edges of the fatigues.

DR. KOYNER
and a line just in front of each light. Mephiston Red: Apply a coat over the wires on Dr. Koyner’s head.

MONARCH
Lothern Blue: Make a mx with two parts water and add a very fine line Lothern Blue: Mix with one part water and apply a coat over the eye lenses.
around the centre disc of the generator. Fire Dragon Bright & Gauss Blaster Green: Apply a spot highlight to the lights
Screaming Skull: Add an edge highlight to the gun. and the vials.

84 January 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk 85

20 of 132 pages P L AY E D

players a single point. Put tiles

adjacent to each other instead and
you'll score one point for each tile
in a horizontal and vertical row
attached to the newly-placed tile.
This means that points can rack up
quite fast with thoughtful sequence
of placements. It also eliminates
ED

IT
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O R' I a possibility of a runaway winner,

S CHO
because one cleverly added tile to
the wall can bring in enough points
to catch up, even in the last round.
Winning in Azul depends entirely
on
the player and the set of decisions
they make during the game.
This is not to say that Azul lacks
player interaction and opponents
cannot influence each other’s moves.
In the drafting stage of the game it
is
quite easy to steal tiles form under
an opponent’s nose or, alternatively,
leave them with tiles they do not
want. This confrontation is most

AZUL
pronounced in a two-player game,

SUBSCRIBE PRINT OR
where Azul turns into a tense chess-
like game of push-and-pull between
the players.
More fun than tiling your bathroom! Despite the simplicity of its
Designer: Michael Kiesling | Artist: mechanics, Azul’s ’s rules can feel

I
Chris Quilliams fiddly and confusing, especially with
30-45m 2-4 8+
t was only a matter of time before £40
its scoring. Azul is the type of game
someone took term ‘tile-laying’ the player, the tiles are moved to the
that will ‘click’ after playing it once,

A DISH ST
literally and designed a game ‘pattern lines’.
and the second time going players

SERVEDBE
about – you guessed it – laying down Already, this simple action of
will make more strategic and better-
tiles. Azul embraces this prosaic picking up tiles and placing them
informed decisions. Luckily, one
on the player mat has a myriad of

ROLLED
premise and takes it to a wonderfully game of Azul,, even with four people,
colourful place, delivering ambitious possible tactical decisions. Players
lasts about half an hour, so it is very
gameplay on its way. might take a risk and discard several
easy to play just one more.Taking
‘Azul’ – Spanish and Portuguese tiles to the middle, in the hope that its cues from
WHAT’S IN enough tiles of the same colour will
Azul is everything one wouldmovies violent revenge
for 'blue' – comes from the word THE BOX? want from an abstract game; it lookslike Kill Bill and

DIGITAL FROM JUST

‘azulejos’, decorative tiles used by ◗ 100 resin tiles
accumulate by the time the turn
instantly beautiful on the Vengean
Oldboy,
ce puts
blood-soaked players in the
Portuguese monarch Manuel I. This returns to them, allowing them to table
◗ Four player boards and its gameplay is challenging
sets up the game, giving players some ◗ Nine factory displays pick up a lot of them at the same
and addictive. The game is boots of characte
hunting
really rs
good at rewarding players for their down those that
background information to justify ◗ First player marker time – but there's always the chance
tiling walls – beyond this, though, ◗ Linen bag their opponents might get those
thoughtful moves and placements,done them wrong have
the tiles ahead of them. The order in in order to set
theme is entirely window dressing. and, despite one minor luck them right. For
This is fairly insignificant as, at its which the tiles are transferred to karmic justice.
the ‘pattern lines’ is important, too.
element, there is a real breadthAnd victory
of
heart, Azul is a quick abstract game choice and decisions to be made points, natch
with beautifully-made tiles. Which colour is best to build first?
throughout the game. Words by Matt Jarvis
At a first glance, it might seem that Which colours are other players
ALEX SONECHKINA

£14.99
there are a lot of luck elements within going for? Which combinations need
the game. After the initial random to be picked up to avoid excess tiles
drawing of tiles out of a bag, however, going to the ‘floor line’ and hence WE SAY
the game becomes pure strategy. earning a player minus points? Breathtakingly beautiful and tactically
The scoring part of Azul is equally exciting, Azul will be a great addition
Players can collect tiles of the
tactical. Transferring one tile from to any board game shelf. While its
same colour from one of the plates, premise is seemingly mundane, this
moving remaining tiles to the centre. the pattern line to the ‘wall’ earns is
a game unlike any other.
Alternatively, they can also pick from
the centre, once at least one tile has TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… SAGRADA
been moved there. Once taken by Azul has fewer moving parts than Sagrada,
, but its drafting and tile-laying
mechanics are just as strong and the
visuals are equally gorgeous.

62 January 2018

54 January 2018

tabletopgaming.co.uk/subscribe
Prices displayed are all direct debit deals – UK only. Ends 31 December 2018. *Promo and cover gifts only available with print copies.

ttgSubsx.indd 2 13/12/2017 13:22

 A DISH BEST
SERVED ROLLED
Taking its cues from violent revenge
movies like Kill Bill and Oldboy,
Vengeance puts players in the
blood-soaked boots of characters
hunting down those that have
done them wrong in order to set
them right. For karmic justice.
And victory points, natch
Words by Matt Jarvis

54 January 2018

054_057_vengeance_v2 MJ.indd 54 13/12/2017 13:27

 “T
he axe forgets, but the tree
remembers.”
Vengeance opens with an
African proverb. It’s more
than just a clever way to
imbue its tales of revenge and reprisal with a
particular tone of unrelenting drive and pent-up
fury come unleashed. The aphorism also very
deliberately brings to mind the opening shots of
cinematic efforts from directors from Tarantino
to the Coen brothers; from True Grit and John
Wick to Gladiator and Inglorious Basterds
Basterds,
film is full of stories of aggrieved victims
rising up to dish out payback on those
responsible for their suffering. Vengeance
aims to find that same level of heightened
emotion and unflinching action in the rolling
of dice and drafting of cards.
“It’s a board game take on revenge
movies – your Kill Bill,Bill Oldboy-style
Oldboy thing,”
sums up creator Gordon Calleja. “Oldboy,“
more than Kill Bill. The Korean [original] – Park
Chan-wook’s Oldboy. The Vengeance trilogy
was mainly the inspiration. Kill Bill was
second, maybe.”
As with any good revenge flick,
Vengeance starts with each
player’s character being horribly
mistreated by one of the game’s
cast of baddies, during a
phase fittingly titled The
Wronging. The antagonists
inflict one of three different
types of lasting damage to the
heroes, from crushing their knee
to inflict broken damage, which
reduces that character’s combat
ability throughout the rest of
the game, to mentally scarring
them, which limits their ability
to heal, upgrade and more.
It’s these cards that serve as
the thematic motivation that
spurs each character to seek
justice, but they also serve as a
key foundation for the ensuing
gameplay, dictating which
boss and surrounding gang
that player must pursue to
maximise their score by the
time the cardboard credits
roll. This means that players
can also choose to ramp
up their avatar’s anguish to
increase their own challenge,
with the potential to reap
the rewards if violent
karma is delivered.
054_057_vengeance_v2 MJ.indd 55
“At the start when you draft, you have to suffer
three cards, but you can suffer as many as you
want – the more you suffer, the more damaged
you are and the less ability you have, but the
more points you can score,” Calleja says.
True to its onscreen muses, Vengeance’s
core action sees its protagonists working their
way through their foe’s underlings before
eventually facing their ultimate nemesis at the
top of the chain.
“The heart of the game is the fight,”
enthuses Calleja.
Combat is executed with dice rolls that are
cashed in to allow each hero to take down an
enemy in their current room, a minion in an
adjacent room or to move out of an area to
avoid taking damage themselves. Upgrades
acquired over the course of a playthrough
present the chance to modify rolls, helping to
deal with the various types of attacker standing
in the way – whether it’s cannon fodder needing
to be eliminated first, blockers restricting the
character’s movement or tough guys able to
deal extra hits.
“Each of these minions has a different
ability,” Calleja explains. “That’s how the
dice-based puzzle works. It’s like a dungeon
crawler. The difference is here it’s a post-luck
situation – you have your dice rolled and then
you make your decisions after, rather than make
your decisions then roll dice, which is what
most dungeon crawlers do. It’s pre-luck versus
post-luck.”
GONNA NEED A MONTAGE
Dispatching adversaries may be where
Vengeance’s title rings truest, but it’s not all there
is to the game. Just as the best action movies
establish their characters’ motives and justify
their superhuman-seeming abilities, Calleja has
integrated natural lulls in the fighting to allow
Vengeance’s characters – and players – to catch
their breath and prepare for the next battle.
“The game alternates between montage
phases, which are your classic Eye of the Tiger
‘getting better’ training, and going out to
recon,” he details.
Each montage consists of players selecting
cards and drafting dice from a central pool to
set up their next run at taking down their rival,
before seeking out the boss or their affiliated
gang members in one of several different
locations during the recon phase.
“These are like little snapshots, little
scenarios, vignettes,” Calleja says of the
separate environments that are placed next to
each other on the table and can be tackled by
different players at the same time, in a blending
tabletopgaming.co.uk 55
13/12/2017 13:28
 VENGEANCE

of simultaneous action that brings to mind
the splitscreen visuals and parallel editing
associated with 24, The Godfather and The
Silence of the Lambs.
The result is a game that the designer is
confident pays ample thematic homage to
its filmic inspirations and conjures the right
emotional responses from players without
diluting or losing its interactive aspects as a
board game.
“I always start with the theme,” Calleja reveals.
“This and [2015 post-apocalyptic survival game]
Posthuman, all my games are theme first.
So theme/idea first, then I start shaping the
mechanics, then I develop the theme more, then
I develop the mechanics more. It’s an iterative
process between rules and story or images in the
player’s mind. I try to have things that are not
abstracted but rather little actions to stimulate
those sequences of little mental images that
create a sort of ongoing story.”
Calleja’s commitment to mimicking not
only the tone of movies, but also their gradual
build-up of dramatic momentum, helps keep
the background mechanisms of the gameplay
tight, ensuring that a match of Vengeance
would play out in the same time it might take
to watch a silver screen blockbuster.
“It’s two hours for four people,” Calleja states
confidently. “The idea was to keep it two hours,
and it’s two hours. When you play with a timer,
if you’re speedy, you can play in an hour and a
half. Test groups that take up the time or don’t
play with a timer take about two hours.”
Despite the game’s rip-roaring action
movie feel, Calleja says that early versions
of Vengeance were stretched to wearisome
lengths by players failing to take the
necessary risks and live out the moment-
to-moment fight for survival demanded
by the genre.
“The fight was always the same,” the
designer recalls. “The fight was there,
and the theme and the overall [idea of]
you needing to find the guys and score
them by going to find them, that was there.
But the montage was the thing that changed
a lot. Initially you chose whether you fought
or stayed in – montage or fight. But we
found after a couple of months of testing
that one group was taking really long,
like four hours, because they were
playing really safely. They’d heal
everything, upgrade everything
and then go in. So the only
way to keep it under a certain
amount of time was to have
that structure.
“I took the inspiration from movies themselves
that have a structure and went for a prelude,
The Wronging and then acts one, two and three
that replicate that kind of movie structure. That
worked a lot better because I could control the
time. That was the biggest change.”
Although Vengeance’s dice-driven exploits
are inherently reliant on luck and keep the
feeling of tension running suitably high,
Calleja is keen to stress that players still have
plenty of agency and control over the outcome
of their quest for retribution.
“Initially the montage was only dice and that’s
it,” he says. “Then we added the cards to make
it a bit less luck-based. Then there’s two modes
– easy mode and a hardcore mode, which is the
more interesting and tactical one. In easy mode,
you have six cards, you choose three of them and
play them and get them back. In hardcore mode,
you play your three, then you discard two of
them. So you only keep one and you cannot use
them again. So you have to kind of plan an arc.”
The more strategic aspects of the game can
be highlighted further by removing the use of
a three-minute sand timer, which is used in
the standard mode to force players to make
quick decisions during the fighting phase.
“Some test groups didn’t want to use the
timer,” Calleja says. “Then it becomes a much
more tactical attempt to get
the perfect combination
of moves. At first it’s
easy when you have only your first upgrade
and it’s easy to mitigate the rolls and stuff,
but then when you get lots of these chained
together it can become quite a head-spin.”
Another proposed variant isn’t found in
the core box, but is instead set to be released
as a separate expansion that reintroduces
direct player-versus-player combat to the
game, dramatically altering the dynamic of
the otherwise passively competitive setup.
The Saboteurs set allows players to recruit
the titular guns-for-hire and plant them on a
gang’s den, ambushing rival characters as they
attempt to chase down their target.
“We found that most of our testers did not
want that kind of direct conflict, so we left that
type of conflict out of the main game and put it
in a separate place,” Calleja reveals.
Perhaps even more intriguing than
Vengeance’s multiplayer mode is its solo
campaign, which sees a single character
play through a predetermined narrative
based on their in-universe history. Replacing
the competition with fellow avengers and
randomised elements with a more focused
perspective, it’s the closest the game comes to
offering a scripted, movie-like experience.
“Each character, on the back, you have a
backstory and setup sheet for the solo game,”
explains Calleja. “Then it tells you which
vengeance decks you use and how to prepare the
boss deck. You have a story for that character.
The heart of
the game is
the fight.

56 January 2018

054_057_vengeance_v2 MJ.indd 56 13/12/2017 14:53

 “You can do this
thing like it tells you the
backstory, what they’re trying to do –
‘He’s getting back at the guy who wrecked his
punk club’ – and you go through the various
objectives you need to get. Some of them are
simple – go nab this boss – and then they get
more complex as the character progresses.”

THREE CHEERS FOR

SWEET REVENGE
With its in-built narrative structure,
character-centric drama and fast-paced,
dice-powered combat, Vengeance’s
cinematic world of troubled heroes and
pervasive archvillains might seem like a setting ripe
for further exploration. Calleja answers carefully
when asked about the possibility of a follow-up
that would allow him to double-down on the
storytelling aspect, such as a roleplaying game.
“Yes,” he replies coyly after a brief pause.
“Actually, I’m working on something using the
same dice-based system at the moment. It’ll be
a co-operative RPG-ish thing. That’s all I can say
about it at the moment. That’s the idea.
“I seem to enjoy making things using rules to
create story. I’m a games researcher and a games
academic, so I write a lot about game narrative and
involvement and immersion. So I guess that stuff
finds its way through the board games. Initially
Posthuman was created as an illustration of this
series of papers I’ve been writing on emergent
narrative in games. I made a board game to try
and illustrate it. That’s where this all started.”
Calleja is openly passionate when it comes to
his attempts to push the ability of board games
to emotionally engage players and tell stories
that go beyond the linear form of film – while
still boasting a comparable level of refined
artistry and overall vision. His latest project may
be indebted to the cinema screen and played
on the tabletop, yet the designer outwardly
expresses a desire to imprint his stylistic intent
on a canvas touched by film and games alike.
“My main job is in video game research and I
have a video game studio, Mighty Box,” he says.
“It’s been nice moving over to the cardboard
world. I feel like I have more of a direct
relationship with the imaginations of my players,
because they have to animate the rules and
pieces and art internally rather than have that
worked out for you onscreen. That’s what I enjoy.
“You have to fill in those gaps, right? Scott
McCloud has a great book on comics and
how the work in-between the panels is what
generates or stimulates the imagination more
than anything else. That’s the kind of thing I
try to do with my games.”

tabletopgaming.co.uk 57

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STREAMING AHEAD
Watching people play RPGs and board games
online has never been more popular – and the
boom in livestreaming on YouTube and Twitch
is leading to a new wave of on-screen stars
F
Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes
rom increased sales, booming convention
numbers and the success of this very
magazine, it’s clear that tabletop gaming is
enjoying a bit of a renaissance. There are
dozens of strands that have all contributed
to this trend, but it’s hard to get the numbers and
stats needed to fully quantify their impact.
Recently, however, Dungeons & Dragons
publisher Wizards of the Coast revealed one
STREAMER SELECTIONS
DICE, CAMERA, ACTION!
Hosted by industry legend Chris Perkins,
this D&D liveplay stars a motley band of
YouTubers and streamers – Holly Conrad, Jared
Knabenbauer, Anna Prosser Robinson and
Nathan Sharp – as they look to defeat evil and
overcome terrible dice rolls.
twitch.tv/dnd
58 January 2018
058_059_tabletopStreamers_v2 MJ.indd 58
interesting nugget of information: more than
50% of players who started with the roleplaying
game’s latest fifth edition got into it through
watching people play online. This is backed
by numbers from popular streaming platform
Twitch, which show that the amount of D&D
content its users produce has been doubling each
year since 2017. These are the kind of numbers
that can shape an industry.
FRONTLINE GAMING
If you’re a fan of competitive Warhammer
you probably know about the Independent
Tournament Circuit. What you may not know
is that the company behind the ITC rules, US-
based Frontline Gaming, streams competitive
games most nights through its Twitch channel.
twitch.tv/frontlinegaming_tv
STRANGE ENCOUNTERS
It seems strange to call someone a veteran of
an industry that’s only been around a handful
of years, but if you could call anybody a
veteran streamer it would be Will Jones.
The founder of Encounter Roleplay, Jones
has been living, breathing and sleeping
tabletop RPGs since setting the group up in
2015. What started as a hobby has morphed
into a full-time career that has taken him
across the globe.
“I started DMing when I was just 10 or 11,
roping in my family to play with me, and it all
spiralled out of control from there,” he says.
“Twitch is quite similar in a way. This feels like
something I’ve been doing for much, much
longer than I actually have been.”
From humble beginnings, the Encounter
Roleplay network has blossomed to include
ten different weekly shows, ranging from a
horrific Call of Cthulhu campaign to a high
fantasy D&D playthrough. Its Twitch channel
is followed by more than 19,000 people and
the group recently launched a Kickstarter
campaign for its own adventures.
One of the advantages of livestreaming RPGs,
and why the format has proved so successful,
Jones says, is the way it allows content creators
and audiences to interact directly.
“We used to run a Q&A show,” he explains.
“People would ask us about DMing or playing
the games and we’d talk back. But I realised
that what would actually be best would be
to actually provide real examples – to run
through games in a way that allowed us to talk
directly to the audience while playing.
“That’s something you couldn’t achieve if
the format didn’t work like this. That’s one of
the big advantages you get from streaming,
and why it’s been so popular, I think. It’s been
YOGSQUEST
The Yogscast crew are best known for their
work on video games, but their Yogsquest show
cuts down on the tech for a focus on pen-and-
paper RPGs. Like many others they started out
with D&D, but have since embraced several of
the other systems out there.
twitch.tv/yogscast
13/12/2017 13:45
 great to see the explosion in the people playing
RPGs online since we started.”
MAJOR PLAYERS
Of course, it isn’t just the fans that are turning
their eyes to streaming. Tabletop developers
and publishers across the globe have leapt upon
the idea of having fans show their love for their
products online and, for the most part, are moving
to support and foster growth wherever they can.
While D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast
is perhaps the most visible company to make a
major move into livestreaming – its latest major
announcements have all come through streaming
events and its Twitch channel features a huge
range of shows, including one from Encounter
Roleplay – others are also taking a major interest.
Games Workshop has run its ‘Warhammer
TV’ channel on Twitch and YouTube for several
years now and has moved to livestreaming major
tournaments and events, while board games giant
Asmodee teamed up with Twitch to showcase
content from the 2017 Essen gaming expo.
Even when companies aren’t moving directly
into the streaming circuit themselves, more
and more are putting out video content that
at least feels inspired by the movement – less
formalised rules explanations and pre-scripted
adverts, more chatter and realistic gameplay.
Modiphius, publisher of countless RPGs,
board games and wargames, has started putting
out video content with precisely this kind of
feel. In the run-up to the release of Fallout:
Wasteland Warfare, founder Chris Birch and
wargames manager Jon Webb put out a series
of videos showing themselves playing through
the game that had a friendly, informal feel
reminiscent of fan-made streams.
“We’re always trying to be quite friendly as
a business – to be open and talk directly to our
fans,” explains Birch. “That means we don’t
always want to be highly polished, super-edited.
We want to talk to people at their level rather
than talk down to them.”
The company has certainly embraced this
approach, which highlights one of the other
advantages to getting games and other products
out in front of fans and streamers alike – it
allows developers to communicate directly with
the communities that buy their products and
play their games.
Birch notes that “this doesn’t always mean
doing exactly what the loudest, shoutiest voices
are saying,” but nevertheless provides another
route for fans to communicate, in the same way
that the streamers themselves can interact with
their watchers.
“At the moment we’re focusing mainly on
recorded video, but we’re setting up to do
livestreaming,” he adds.
“With a worldwide fanbase, being live isn’t
necessarily always a bonus. Especially as much
of our audience is in the US; if we want to talk
to them we either need to schedule things at
a weird hour or just assume that much of the
audience isn’t going to watch it live.”
WHATEVER WORKS
One of the exciting and worrying things about
being on the cutting edge is working out what
works and what doesn’t. Even when you
think you have that nailed down, some new
technology or approach comes along and
quickly changes that, too.
Just a decade ago most people would have
laughed at the idea of millions of people
watching strangers stream themselves playing
video games, but now we live in a world where
more than 15 million people tune into Twitch
every day – and that’s only one site among many.
There are technical and logistical challenges
when it comes to showing live gameplay at the
tabletop, even when compared to ‘conventional’

Talking directly to video games. Ideally you need several cameras

and mics, all of which need to be set up correctly

the audience while and reliable enough to run for several hours
without any issues.

playing is one of the Even when you have the practical side of things
solved, there’s the more esoteric side of things to

big advantages settle. Do you show a battle grid, if you have one?
How about character sheets and dice rolls? What

of streaming. do you do about things like secret rolls and notes

ENCOUNTER ROLEPLAY
It’s rare to find a group of people so committed
to their cause as the Encounter Roleplay
team. The sheer range of shows they offer is
baffling, as is the quality. Lose your mind with
Lovecraftian horror one day, fight a dragon
the next.
encounterroleplay.com
CRITICAL ROLE
The granddaddy of all RPG streams, Critical
Role has spawned fans in the hundreds
of thousands and helped to shape D&D’s
explosion into the mainstream. The original
campaign has finished, but new ideas are on
the way and the archives remain a treat.
twitch.tv/geekandsundry
passed to the DM? Is it even possible to stream
something like Battlestar Galactica or Dead of
Winter, where vital information being hidden on a
tiny card is an integral part of the experience?
“Wargames always look great on camera, and
RPGs are getting better and better as people
work out how to present that stuff,” says Birch.
“Shield of Tomorrow, the Star Trek Adventures
show from Geek & Sundry on Twitch, is a great
example of that.
“Ultimately, it all comes down to the people.
With the right people, and the right chemistry,
anything can look good. I’m a huge fan of
Watch It Played, a show by Rodney Smith,
because he’s such a passionate and engaged fan
of the games he’s talking about. You can’t help
but want to play them!
“Likewise, you can sometimes get people
playing a great game – but if they’re boring…”
No matter what happens next for tabletop
gaming, it’s hard to imagine that streaming
is going to go away anytime soon. The only
real uncertainty lies in where the next major
success will be.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 59

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p060.indd 1 04/12/2017 15:51
PLAYED
64

63 65 68
62 AZUL 72 BETRAYAL AT BALDUR’S GATE
63 PULSAR 2849 73 EX LIBRIS
64 SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION: 74 HUNT FOR THE RING
A NEW DAWN
75 SIDEREAL CONFLUENCE
65 D&D: XANATHAR’S GUIDE
TO EVERYTHING 77 PHOTOSYNTHESIS
67 INDIAN SUMMER 78 ARISTEIA!
68 CLANK! IN! SPACE! 79 ELITE ENCOUNTERS
69 QUEENDOMINO 80 INBETWEEN
70 RAXXON 80 ASSET DROP
71 MASSIVE DARKNESS 81 DRAGON CASTLE

January 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk 61

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 P L AY E D
CE
ED
IT
O R'S C H OI
AZUL
More fun than tiling your bathroom!
Designer: Michael Kiesling | Artist: Chris Quilliams
I
t was only a matter of time before
someone took term ‘tile-laying’
literally and designed a game
about – you guessed it – laying down
tiles. Azul embraces this prosaic
premise and takes it to a wonderfully
colourful place, delivering ambitious
gameplay on its way.
‘Azul’ – Spanish and Portuguese
for 'blue' – comes from the word
‘azulejos’, decorative tiles used by
Portuguese monarch Manuel I. This
sets up the game, giving players some
background information to justify
tiling walls – beyond this, though, the
theme is entirely window dressing.
This is fairly insignificant as, at its
heart, Azul is a quick abstract game
with beautifully-made tiles.
At a first glance, it might seem that
there are a lot of luck elements within
the game. After the initial random
drawing of tiles out of a bag, however,
the game becomes pure strategy.
Players can collect tiles of the
same colour from one of the plates,
moving remaining tiles to the centre.
Alternatively, they can also pick from
the centre, once at least one tile has
been moved there. Once taken by
62 January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 62
30-45m 2-4 8+ £40
the player, the tiles are moved to the
‘pattern lines’.
Already, this simple action of
picking up tiles and placing them
on the player mat has a myriad of
possible tactical decisions. Players
might take a risk and discard several
tiles to the middle, in the hope that
WHAT’S IN enough tiles of the same colour will
THE BOX? accumulate by the time the turn
◗ 100 resin tiles returns to them, allowing them to
◗ Four player boards pick up a lot of them at the same
◗ Nine factory displays
time – but there's always the chance
◗ First player marker
◗ Linen bag
their opponents might get those
tiles ahead of them. The order in
which the tiles are transferred to
the ‘pattern lines’ is important, too.
Which colour is best to build first?
Which colours are other players
going for? Which combinations need
to be picked up to avoid excess tiles
going to the ‘floor line’ and hence
earning a player minus points?
The scoring part of Azul is equally
tactical. Transferring one tile from
the pattern line to the ‘wall’ earns
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… SAGRADA
Azul has fewer moving parts than Sagrada, but its drafting and tile-laying
mechanics are just as strong and the visuals are equally gorgeous.
players a single point. Put tiles
adjacent to each other instead and
you'll score one point for each tile
in a horizontal and vertical row
attached to the newly-placed tile.
This means that points can rack up
quite fast with thoughtful sequence
of placements. It also eliminates
a possibility of a runaway winner,
because one cleverly added tile to
the wall can bring in enough points
to catch up, even in the last round.
Winning in Azul depends entirely on
the player and the set of decisions
they make during the game.
This is not to say that Azul lacks
player interaction and opponents
cannot influence each other’s moves.
In the drafting stage of the game it is
quite easy to steal tiles form under
an opponent’s nose or, alternatively,
leave them with tiles they do not
want. This confrontation is most
pronounced in a two-player game,
where Azul turns into a tense chess-
like game of push-and-pull between
the players.
Despite the simplicity of its
mechanics, Azul’s rules can feel
fiddly and confusing, especially with
its scoring. Azul is the type of game
that will ‘click’ after playing it once,
and the second time going players
will make more strategic and better-
informed decisions. Luckily, one
game of Azul, even with four people,
lasts about half an hour, so it is very
easy to play just one more.
Azul is everything one would
want from an abstract game; it looks
instantly beautiful on the table
and its gameplay is challenging
and addictive. The game is really
good at rewarding players for their
thoughtful moves and placements,
and, despite one minor luck
element, there is a real breadth of
choice and decisions to be made
throughout the game.
ALEX SONECHKINA
WE SAY
Breathtakingly beautiful and tactically
exciting, Azul will be a great addition
to any board game shelf. While its
premise is seemingly mundane, this is
a game unlike any other.
11/12/2017 17:13
 PULSAR 2849
There’s limitless energy in them thar stars…
Designer: Vladimír Suchý | Artist: Sören Meding 60-100m 2-4 14+ £40

WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ Star cluster board
◗ Dice board
◗ Gyrodyne board
◗ Die modifier board
◗ Six double-sided
technology boards
◗ Four HQ boards
◗ 24 transmitter tiles
◗ 17 planetary
system tiles
◗ Six goal tiles
◗ 30 gyrodyne tiles
◗ 24 pulsar claim rings
◗ Six construction
award tiles
◗ 12 exploration
bonus tiles
◗ Four 100-point tiles
◗ 12 +/-1 die
modifier tokens

W
ith its central, circular star
cluster board and curving
peripheral mats – including
a stack of technology boards that trail
pleasingly out like the tail of a comet –
Pulsar 2849 certainly looks the cosmic-
energy-harnessing business. So much
so, it’s initially rather overwhelming.
Planetary system tiles, colour-
themed interstellar routes, a dice board,
pulsar-power-harnessing gyrodynes,
modular transmitters, die modifier
tokens and tracks for both engineering
(which rewards cubes that in turn
reward a bonus die) and initiative (aka
turn order) – not to mention player-
mat HQs with their own pyramidically
arranged extra actions – mean the first
few plays will need to be approached
carefully and with much reference
to the rulebook. But once you start
rolling (literally, as Pulsar’s driven by
dice drafting), you’ll gradually come to
appreciate the absorbing theme and
fine-tuned balance that lie beneath the
pretty-but-bewildering surface.
After a couple of quaintly humorous
games (2011’s Last Will and 2015’s The
Prodigal’s Club), designer Vladimír
Suchý has returned to the more
epic territory of his earlier titles, like
Shipyard (2009) and 20th Century
(2010). Except, for the first time, he’s
gone sci-fi rather than historical,
pitting players against each other in
the galactic equivalent of a gold rush
(the date in the title is deliberately a
millennium after the famous 1849
Californian scramble for gold). It’s not
shiny metal you’re after but interstellar
energy generated by pulsars, which you
race to reach before your competitors,
before constructing immense
gyrodynamic generators (or gyrodynes)
and setting them spinning. It might
help to build a few energy transmission
arrays to help distribute this energy to
all the planets you’ve discovered and
established stations on.
Every possible action (there are tons
to choose from, varying from game
to game depending on your layout) is
determined by the result of a die roll,
with seven tossed at the start of each
of the game’s eight rounds in a two- to
three-player bout and nine with four
people. You can only select two dice
each per round (plus possible bonus
dice, whose value you quickly come to
appreciate), so you have to think extra
carefully about those choices.
Suchý rather smartly adds another
level of decision-making; with a
median value attached to each round’s
◗ Nine +2 die
roll, picking a low number provides modifier tokens
you with a mitigating bonus move up ◗ 25 engineering cubes
one of the two aforementioned tracks. ◗ 12 four-cube tokens
◗ 120 player tokens
For example, taking a one could push
◗ 12 rocket figures
you into pole position for receiving ◗ Median marker
enough engineering cubes to ◗ Time marker
purchase a high-numbered bonus die ◗ Nine silver dice
on a future turn. In contrast, going for ◗ Red bonus dice
a sweet high number moves you back, ◗ Technology manual
with possible penalties to your victory ◗ Four quick
point tally at the end of each round. reference sheets
Like all good Euros there are
multiple routes to victory and TRY THIS IF
minimal take-thatiness. Even if YOU LIKED…
someone snatches a die you were CASTLES OF
craving, you have many other options; BURGUNDY
and besides, you’ll likely have a handy Like Stefan Feld’s
modifier token you can use. fief-building Euro
It’s impressively elegant, and each classic, Pulsar
combines dice
replay allows whole new strategies to
drafting with limited
be explored. Like the black hole that sits action selection
at the hub of that attractively cornerless and a wide array of
board, it will utterly suck you in. action choices to
DAN JOLIN fantastic effect.
WE SAY
A triumphant, innovative blend of
mechanism and theme; whether
you dig racing spaceships, exploring
systems or constructing immense
moneymaking structures, Pulsar 2849
delivers in space-spades.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 63

061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 63 11/12/2017 17:13

 P L AY E D
SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION: A NEW DAWN
Build an empire in a flash with this elegant strategy game
Designer: James Kniffen | Artist: Various
D
espite its suggestive title,
A New Dawn bears little in
common with the two previous
board game adaptations of Sid Meier’s
popular strategy series. Nor does it
share much DNA with the classic
Avalon Hill Civilization that originally
inspired the PC game franchise.
The main surprise for fans of epic
empire-building favourites such as
Through the Ages, Clash of Cultures
or Civilization will be that A New
Dawn isn’t a multi-hour marathon of
complex technology trees (a system
that the original Civ pioneered),
micro-management and gradual
cultural evolution from the beginning
of humanity to the modern age and
beyond. A New Dawn can be learnt,
played and packed away in well under
two hours – a feat rarely heard of in
this genre.
Despite its relatively short length,
the game ticks almost all of the
boxes you’d expect from a quality
civ-builder. There’s the expansion
of territory, advancement of tech,
forging (and breaking) of diplomatic
bonds and option for direct conflict
when the need arises. It’s just all been
elegantly condensed and streamlined
into a game that – while perhaps
not as deep as the heavyweights –
manages to occupy a very comfortable
space as a still meaty filler.
What makes the game particularly
pacey is the decision to make each turn
consist of a single action, rather than
covering every element of running an
64 January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 64
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O R'S C H OI
WHAT’S IN empire at once. One turn you might
THE BOX? choose to attack nearby barbarians
◗ Eight leader sheets (which randomly move and respawn
◗ 16 map tiles between the players' turns) or conquer
◗ Event dial a city-state; the next you might instead
◗ 80 focus cards focus on expanding your territory
◗ Four tech dials
by placing more control tokens or
◗ 16 city-state
diplomacy cards advancing your caravans across the
◗ 16 player map to establish diplomacy and trade
diplomacy cards with your neighbours. This not only
◗ Five victory cards helps those less familiar with the
◗ 24 world multifaceted strategy of empire-builders
wonder cards understand what’s going on, but also
◗ 24 world keeps everyone engaged as control
wonder tokens quickly bounces between players.
◗ Barbarian
The vast majority of actions are
direction token
◗ Four city-state tokens
dictated by five cards in a focus bar
◗ Eight water tokens representing the broad strategic
◗ Four natural pillars, which are reset to the back of
wonder tokens the queue after they’re used. Waiting
◗ 124 control tokens to use a card makes it more powerful
◗ 44 plastic figures (greater combat strength, more tech
(capital cities, points, the ability to expand into
cities, caravans) tougher terrain and so on), making the
◗ 32 resource tokens
main tension of the game more akin to
◗ Nine barbarian tokens
◗ 34 trade tokens
a tight hand management card game
◗ Two six-sided tokens than a traditional strategy board game.
◗ Four focus bars The five cards can be upgraded by
gathering enough tech points, but
there’s no fixed linear progression – a
starting card can be replaced with
the most advanced version without
needing to go through the two
stages between. This keeps up the
momentum and avoids funneling
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… CLASH OF CULTURES
With its smartly-crafted gameplay, A New Dawn condenses the strategy and
feeling of weighter empire-builders into a mere fraction of the time.
1-2h 2-4 14+ £50
players down a particular play style,
but it does detract from the typical
satisfaction of watching your empire
progressively advance through the
eras, leaving things feeling a little
more thematically disjointed. The
victory conditions are similarly less
clear-cut, requiring three random
achievements spread across the 4X
spectrum rather than presenting the
chance to win with a singular focus.
On the whole, A New Dawn looks
great, with a fantastic modular map
and plastic miniatures for cities and
caravans, supplemented by basic
but easily-read counters that slightly
abstract a kind of combined worker-
warrior presence. Although one of
the game’s strengths is its relative
simplicity and most of the rules are
communicated by the cards, some of
the specific details (what you get for
defeating a barbarian, what’s gained
from trading with a city-state) will
require referring back to the rulebook
– at least until you’ve memorised
them, which admittedly doesn’t
take long. Each starting faction has
a different unique skill and starting
order, giving just enough of a sense of
distinctness between them.
A New Dawn packs so much of the
satisfaction of a far heavier and longer
game into its comparatively modest
offering. It’s not a replacement for
the grand epics of the genre, but it’s
a brilliant option for those looking
for an experience that still feels
meaningful and engaging but could
be played in a lunchtime.
MATT JARVIS
WE SAY
While it doesn’t have quite the same
sense of grandeur as the classics
in the genre, A New Dawn is a
streamlined and satisfying empire-
builder that manages to do a lot with a
little. It’s a perfect gateway option for
strategy newcomers and a pleasing
filler for diehard fans.
11/12/2017 17:13

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D&D: XANATHAR’S
GUIDE TO EVERYTHING
Fifth Edition levels up in its first major expansion
Designer: Wizards RPG team | Artist: Various
I
t can be a little tricky to describe
what Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
(XGtE) represents. The core of the
book is a wealth of new options for
building and playing Dungeons &
Dragons characters, but there are
also clarifications or refinements of
existing rules, as well as fresh advice
on encounter- and campaign-building
far beyond what you would expect of a
simple supplement.
In many ways the slightly
unfocused air of XGtE is a reflection
of how modern games – both tabletop
and digital – are no longer static
products, eternally fixed at version 1.0.
It was clearly shaped by community
feedback and directly addresses many
of the questions and concerns that
regularly crop up in Reddit threads
and Twitter feeds.
Sometimes this means clearing
up ambiguous rules, such as setting
out the penalties for sleeping in
armour or determining whether
player characters can tell what spell
an enemy mage is casting. Mostly,
however, it involves setting out a
whole load of new rules for sub-
classes, equipment and spells.
Even these new options are based
around what the D&D community has
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 65
2+ £42
been looking for – or, at least, what
the most vocal part has been looking
for. Many of the character options
are designed to take routes that some
players felt were missing from the
initial release, such as a ‘death’ cleric
that focuses on helping the fallen rest
for good rather than turning them into
cackling zombies.
There’s also been a real focus on
letting players translate some less
traditional fantasy archetypes from
their head to the tabletop without the
need for reflavouring or house-ruling
existing content. For example, with
the inquisitive rogue sub-class you
can now create a Sherlock Holmes-
esque investigator with an eye for
detail and a fighting style based
around reading enemy movements,
while new spells allow brawny
warrior-wizards to mix it up in close
combat and still pump out damage.
Barring one or two missteps – the
designers have already acknowledged
that some groups may want to house-
rule an ultra-efficient healing spell
– the new character options presented
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… D&D: PLAYER’S HANDBOOK
While you certainly don’t need XGtE to play the latest edition of D&D, its
additions and clarifications mean it's definitely worth grabbing a copy if you can.
in XGtE are great fun and slot snugly
into the existing ruleset.
In many ways, the fact that the new
rules feel fun without seeming over-
powered is perhaps the book’s biggest
success of all.
Major RPGs such as D&D tend to
suffer from a phenomenon known
as ‘power creep’. This is where the
developers feel the need to push out
new content – classes, races, magic
items and so on – that begins to
eclipse the earlier options in terms
of raw power or usefulness. D&D's
fifth edition has thus far steered well
clear of this problem and has showed
considerable restraint in terms of new
supplements but, as XGtE is arguably
the first major content update, many
veterans were keeping an eye out for
the telltale signs of the creep.
For the most part, this doesn’t
seem to be a problem. There are a
few things that appeal to the power
gamers out there, but this is always
going to be the case and none of them
seem to make any existing abilities or
characters completely obsolete.
Indeed, plenty of the content
doesn’t have any impact on the
gameplay whatsoever, such as a guide
for generating character backstories
or long tables of random names for
the DM to consult when players insist
on speaking to everyone in the tavern.
The best way to describe XGtE,
perhaps, is that it upgrades your
experience to D&D 5.1. It’s a huge
content update that tweaks things
here and there, presented with all the
usual top-notch design and writing
work we’ve come to expect from the
D&D team. Arguably some of the rules
clarifications should be presented
as errata or an update to the existing
core books rather than requiring you
to buy a new one, but when that’s the
biggest complaint going you know you
have a success on your hands.
RICHARD JANSENPARKES
WE SAY
It’s a little on the pricey side for
what you get, but Xanathar’s Guide
to Everything is an excellent way to
upgrade your group’s Dungeons &
Dragons experience.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 65
11/12/2017 17:13
 e enjoyed
u'v
Yo

Now go to the
next level with

Available at your local friendly boardgame store!

Retailer contact: Coiledspring Games, Unit C1, Twickenham Trading Estate, RugbyRoad,
Twickenham, TW1 1DQ T: + 44 (0)20 3301 11 60 — E: sales@coiledspring.co.uk

p066.indd 1 07/12/2017 16:45


INDIAN SUMMER
Take a relaxing walk through the woods in search of
treasure with the creator of Agricola
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg | Artist: Andrea Boekhoff
A
few years ago video games
saw a strangely controversial
new genre emerge: games in
which you explored an environment
and looked at things. Dubbed
‘walking simulators’, they were a
tranquil, meditative alternative to
the running and gunning of big-
budget titles. Now board games are
producing a similar genre: gentle
games with themes so laid back
they’re practically horizontal filled
with elements guaranteed to give you
warm fuzzy feelings: fallen leaves,
autumn berries, hazelnuts, badgers,
squirrels – and Uwe Rosenberg.
Indian Summer is the sequel to
2015’s Cottage Garden, and the second
part in a ‘puzzle trilogy’ of games by
the designer of Agricola, Bohnanza
and Patchwork. Both Cottage and
Indian, and Patchwork too, involve
arranging odd-shaped tiles to cover
boards, where some of the spaces you
cover have special effects.
January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 67
15-60m 1-4 10+ £38
WHAT’S IN Here, each player gets a board
THE BOX? showing part of the forest floor,
◗ Six forest floor boards including what the game calls
◗ Two game boards ‘treasures’: mushrooms, berries,
◗ 75 leaf tiles feathers and nuts. Each also gets a
◗ 20 animal tiles hand of five tiles showing fallen leaves,
◗ 32 squirrel tiles
which can be red (five squares), orange
◗ 80 treasures
(four) or green (three). All the pieces
◗ Four backpacks
(player aids) are gorgeous. They’re not flashy, but
◗ Berry bush they’re beautifully harmonious and
◗ Hiking shoes tile work together to build up a lovely
collage of autumnal detritus.
However, each tile also has a
hole in it, and if you can position
that hole over a treasure then you
put a relevant token over the hole.
Complete a subsection of the board
and you can claim every token on it.
Complete a particular arrangement
of holes and you can cover them
with an animal tile, which gives you
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… BÄRENPARK
If you prefer the woods without bears shitting in them, Indian Summer is a
more elegant and less numeric exploration of a similar tile-placing mechanic.
P L AY E D
more tokens and makes your board
even prettier. First to fill their board
ends the game, but there are some
special conditions that may snatch
the victory from you and shatter your
inner calm.
Two styles of play become obvious
quickly. You can arrange leaves,
tokens and the occasional animal
in a pleasing fashion, and Indian
Summer is great for that. It’s a lovely,
very satisfying game to play. Its theme
of having a walk through the woods
doesn’t quite fit, but you’ll feel you’re
doing well right up to the moment
you lose, and you won’t really care
because it’s the kind of game where
you can swap nuts for squirrels to fill
holes in your pattern. It’s just nice.
Or you can realise the way to win
is using the treasures effectively,
because each one can be spent for an
advantage – refilling your hand early,
taking other players’ tiles and so on
– and you can spend more than one
each turn. If every player twigs this, the
game stops being a nice walk through
the forest and becomes a frantic sprint
trying to avoid muggers. This is Indian
Summer’s true form, and where you’ll
have most fun on replays.
There’s also a solo-play ruleset,
where the ‘puzzle trilogy’ earns its
name. You have just ten turns to fill
your board, and it is properly hard.
Indian Summer is the child of
Patchwork and the sibling of Cottage
Garden, but its mechanics are more
elegant (though twiddly in places), its
gameplay more holistic and its charm
more obvious. It is not a truly great
game – if you already own one of its
relatives then don’t feel you have to
have this – but, for the connoisseur,
watching a master designer work
through variations on a theme is a
true pleasure.
JAMES WALLIS
WE SAY
The core gameplay is nothing new, but
this is not the same game as Cottage
Garden and its bucolic theme hides
tactical depth. Not many games make
you ask yourself whether you should
risk shattering the tranquility around
the table by grabbing the win.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 67
13/12/2017 14:43
 P L AY E D
CLANK! IN! SPACE!
In space, no one can hear you laugh.
But you probably won’t.
Designer: Paul Dennen | Artist: Rayph Biesner
2
016’s Clank! combined
Dominion-style deckbuilding
with dungeon-crawling fantasy,
with players sneaking through
subterranean caverns, stealing
priceless treasures and avoiding the
ire of a justifiably angry dragon. It
generated considerable buzz online,
and now it’s spawned a sci-fi sequel,
Clank! In! Space!, which swaps swords
and spells for lasers and lightsabers.
At its core, the follow-up will feel
familiar to anyone who’s played games
like Star Realms or Marvel Legendary.
You start with a handful of low-powered
cards, adding new, more impressive
ones to your deck with each passing
round. Clank! In! Space! builds on the
deckbuilding formula, though, with
a board representing a space station;
you use the cards in your hand to
explore its twisting maze of corridors,
conveyor belts and teleporter pads in
search of high-tech goodies to pilfer.
Like its predecessor, the game’s
biggest hook is its emphasis on
stealth. As you move around the
board you generate noise, represented
by cubes in each player’s colour. These
go into an ominous black bag and
68 January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 68
45-90m 2-4 12+ £56
can prove fatal when Lord Eradikus,
the station’s commander, attacks at
random intervals throughout the
game. When that happens, you draw
some cubes from the bag, with players
taking damage whenever one of their
own appears. Bigger, more effective
moves generate more noise, meaning
you can never be sure whether
WHAT’S IN an audacious play will earn you a
THE BOX? glorious victory – or a splattery death.
◗ Modular board It adds drama to proceedings, but it
◗ 180+ cards also introduces an element that’s been
◗ 80+ tokens
virtually abandoned in modern game
◗ Market board
◗ Five power crystals
design: player elimination. Suffer too
◗ Player cubes, much damage and you’ll be knocked
markers and pawns out of the race. Escape before your
◗ Boss cubes, marker rivals and you’ll be sidelined while
and cloth bag they finish the game without you.
In either case, you’ll be reduced to a
secondary role, pulling cubes from the
bag of doom to inflict additional pain
on your remaining opponents.
It’s not particularly entertaining, and it
isn’t the only place where the game shows
some rough edges. Its deckbuilding
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… CLANK!
Clank! In! Space! takes the underlying mechanical pinnings of Clank! and
provides some new elements to play with in its futuristic sci-fi setting.
element comes with a decent
assortment of strategies to discover,
but little that other games haven’t done
already. The nerdy sense of humour,
which incorporates tongue-in-cheek
references to everything from Star Trek
to Hitchhiker’s Guide, suffers from the
Munchkin problem of losing its comedic
punch after your first playthrough.
The game does manage to create an
atmosphere of ramping tension, with
boss attacks getting deadlier over time.
Its combination of clever cardplay and
board-based thievery also throws up
some interesting problems to solve,
and for fans of the original Clank!, this
deep-space reimagining offers some
tweaks on its predecessor’s blueprint.
But if you’re in the market for a
deckbuilding board game, you aren’t
short of choices – and Clank! In! Space!
does little to elevate itself above the
middle of the pack.
OWEN DUFFY
WE SAY
Clank! In! Space! creates some tricky
logistical puzzles and its bag-building
damage system makes for some tense
moments, but it’s hampered by player
elimination, a deckbuilding system that
offers little new for experienced players
and an over-reliance on pop culture in-
jokes that quickly becomes grating.
11/12/2017 17:14
 QUEENDOMINO
A royal occasion to celebrate
Designer: Bruno Cathala | Artist: Cyril Bouquet 25m 2-4 8+ £30

D
escribed by creator Bruno
Cathala himself as the game he
wanted to play after hundreds
of Kingdomino matches, Queendomino
evolves the Spiel des Jahres winner’s
simple kingdom-laying game with the
abilities to construct buildings, tax
your lands and even play host to the
eponymous royal.
The basics remain the same as
in Kingdomino: players connect
dominoes to their grid, before
reserving their next tile (and deciding
the following turn’s order) by popping
their king down on one of the next
four tiles. The bulk of players’ points
are still earned from multiplying
the number of connected matching
squares by the number of crowns in
that territory – but there are several
new aspects to consider, too.
The order in which players take their
turn is even more important here, as it
grants first dibs on the available row of
building tiles, which can be constructed
on a vacant red space by spending
coins. These buildings blow open the
strategy of Kingdomino’s straightforward
tile arrangement with the chance
to gather bonus points for each
individual territory, knight or tower
– with the greatest number of towers
resulting in a visit from the queen, who
lowers costs and adds another score
multiplier at the end of the game.
Knights are used as a simple way
of collecting income by earning
tax based on the size of a specific
territory, but their limited numbers
mean that careful planning is needed
to juggle acquiring valuable buildings
CE
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without finding yourself unable to
act in later rounds. This tension is
increased by the way that buildings
on the board decrease in cost as other
structures are built, meaning that
holding off on purchasing a tile – and
hoping your opponents don’t take it in
the meantime – can be crucial.
The expanded number of ways
to gather points outside of just
having the biggest territories means
there’s more opportunity for closer
competition and routes to victory –
something sure to please those who
felt Kingdomino was overly simplistic.
The race to construct certain
buildings first and compete for the
favours of the queen adds a few
more layers of player interaction to
the game on top of the fundamental
selection of dominos – especially in
the way that the dragon can be coaxed
from its cave to burn down one of the
available buildings, leaving a gap in
the row for the remainder of the round
and allowing a player to watch their
rivals’ plans go literally up in flames.
The added rules do mean that
there’s a little more score-keeping
to do at the end of a match, often
resulting in a minute or two of maths.
Luckily, this is ably helped along by
the included score pad, which does
a fantastic job of breaking down the
various sums in a way that avoids WHAT’S IN
the momentum hitting a wall. To be THE BOX?
honest, the only possible criticism of ◗ Four starting tiles
the set we can see is that the adorable ◗ Four 3D castles
◗ Eight king meeples
3D castles seem to be just a smidge
◗ 48 dominoes
too small for the queen meeple to sit
◗ 32 building tiles
within while in residence. ◗ Builder’s board
Queendomino builds on ◗ 22 knight meeples
Kingdomino’s foundation in a way that ◗ 15 towers
feels just right. The queen, knights, ◗ Queen meeple
dragon and buildings are a natural fit ◗ Dragon meeple
for the charming fantasy world (which ◗ 42 coins
continues to look eye-wateringly ◗ Scoring pad
gorgeous) and avoid tipping the
gameplay complexity scales too far or TRY THIS IF
stretching the 20-minute play time past YOU LIKED…
its breaking point. The rules can still KINGDOMINO
be learnt by adults and children alike The royal couple
in a couple of minutes, but it feels like can be combined
deepening the scope of the domino- to support bigger
laying treasure has taken it from being grids and more
one of the best releases of 2016 to players, and feature
slightly different
becoming a gaming classic for all time.
gameplay styles
MATT JARVIS that makes both
well worth having.
WE SAY
Expanding a brilliant idea with just
a dash more complexity and depth,
Queendomino is an utter joy to play.
The new buildings and scoring rules
are a natural fit without diluting the
pure strategy that made Kingdomino
such a pleasure, confirming the tile-
layer’s rightful rule on its throne.

IT
O R'S C H OI

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 P L AY E D
RAXXON
Raxxon, Raxxoff
Designer: J. Arthur Ellis | Artist: Fernanda Suarez
R
iding on Dead of Winter’s success
Plaid Hat Games has come up
with a new game set in the same
universe. Raxxon is a Wayland-Yutani
or Umbrella Corporation equivalent
based in the Dead of Winter universe; it
is the evil corporation responsible for the
zombie outbreak, hiding behind a fake
mask of being a progressive technological
saviour. In this co-operative game,
players are trying to identify the healthy
population among the infected and safely
rescue them from the city.
On paper, everything about Raxxon
sounds exciting and interesting. Players
select their characters, each with a set of
available actions that are similar overall,
but with some intricate differences.
Every good deed triggers a set of not-so-
good and sometimes even disastrous
consequences on the following turn,
requiring players to carefully weigh the
benefits of their actions against possible
bad outcomes every round. The second
main element of the game is a grid of
citizens, among which the healthy and
infected are hiding. Here there is another
push-your-luck element, as cards have
different effects upon being turned
over. For example, when two ‘hostile’
70 January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 70
45m 1-4 14+ £40
cards are face-up, another card has to be
revealed or, upon discovering ‘chaotic’
within the crowd, an extra card is added
to the grid. So, as much as one might be
inclined to turn over every card on the
grid before committing to any strategy,
revealing cards carelessly can lead to dire
outcomes. Of course, this would not be
a game in the Dead of Winter lineage if it
WHAT’S IN did not have special cards – here called
THE BOX? Raxxon cards – that present players with a
◗ Six character sheets scenario and a set of choices to make.
◗ Game board The world that Raxxon paints seems
◗ 60 population cards
comprehensive and logical. It has a
◗ 40 Raxxon cards
◗ 60 action tokens
human and a story element with the
◗ Raxxon power token scenario cards, and the push-your-luck
mechanics are well placed within the
game. Yet, somehow, Raxxon manages
to be just slightly off in all of its elements,
firing wide of its aim at ‘challenging’ to
land squarely on ‘frustrating’.
Raxxon cards only trigger when
a certain set of events has occurred,
meaning they almost never do. This
in turn throws off the balance of the
consequences on the player’s mat,
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… DEAD OF WINTER
While Dead of Winter is undeniably superior in both gameplay and its use of theme,
if you are yearning for more games in that universe, Raxxon can scratch that itch.
because choosing an action that will
require them to take a Raxxon card feels
less like a bad outcome and more like
'whatever, it won’t trigger anyway’.
The game also lacks a feeling of
achievement. Typically, during the round,
a few healthy citizens will be saved, some
infected will be put into the quarantine
– which means they will return to the
game in a few rounds – and a mixture of
cards will be ‘killed off’, which also means
they will eventually return to the game.
There is a constant cycle of the same set of
cards, where players make small changes,
weeding out the good ones from the mix
every so often, but otherwise not doing
anything else of significance.
The more healthy cards that are taken
off the board, the higher the probability
of revealing infected cards and hence
triggering bad outcomes. That element
of challenge is what might keep some
people coming back to Raxxon in an
attempt to beat it, especially as the game
has several levels of difficulty. But when
things go bad, they quickly turn to being
disastrous, and attempts to prevent it feel
like trying to hold back an avalanche.
You could be playing a round knowing
that you have already lost; aware that one
wrong turn, one bit of sour luck, will end
the game immediately. However, as you
have not technically triggered the game’s
end, you persevere, diligently taking
your actions until there are no more
options left and you have, predictably,
lost. This comes with a certain feeling of
hopelessness which, while thematically
appropriate, is not enjoyable in a co-
operative setting.
Raxxon builds on the base of an
excellent theme with some really good
ideas and push-your-luck elements.
Even a slight balance change and minor
rules adjustments could easily transform
Raxxon into a very good game. For now,
however, the main reason to pick it up is
the bonus Dead of Winter cards that come
in the box.
ALEX SONECHKINA
WE SAY
Raxxon definitely has some interesting
ideas, especially in its push-your-luck
mechanics, but it forgets that tough
games also need to be fun and rewarding.
11/12/2017 17:14
 MASSIVE DARKNESS
The makers of Zombicide shift into full-on fantasy mode
Designer: Raphaël Guiton, Jean-Baptiste Lullien, Nicolas Raoult | Artist: Édouard Guiton, Jason Hendricks
W
ho doesn’t love a good,
old-fashioned dungeon
bash? If you’re the kind of
person who likes answering rhetorical
questions, and your answer to that one
was “Me, actually,” then you’ll probably
want to skip Massive Darkness.
Otherwise, keep reading: you may be
in for a bloodletting treat.
This latest CMON/Guillotine Games
big-box offering is the Zombicide
gang’s stab at doing a straightforward
high-fantasy hack ‘n’ slash adventure,
featuring characters (wizard, ranger,
barbarian) as stock as the monsters
(goblins, orcs, giant spiders). Its
particular similarity to Zombicide:
Black Plague is undeniable, right down
to the ‘spot the difference’ box art. But,
as you might expect, it also draws from
the likes of Descent (though this is pure
co-op) and Super Dungeon Explore
– albeit without the swollen-headed
chibi stylings.
There are no real surprises during
the unboxing. Lavishly-illustrated
modular tiles? Check. Impressive
minis? Check. A cascade of multi-
coloured dice? Check. Numerous
item, monster and event cards?
Check, check, check. As in Black
Plague, each player gets a nifty, card-
couching plastic dashboard, complete
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 71
90m 1-6 14+ £120
with peg holes to track health and XP formula and refined it into to a
– though spending that XP requires a satisfyingly sleek experience. The
bit of old-school pencil-and-papering, menu of actions is short without
as each class (tanky Paladin of Fury, being restrictive. Movement and
roguish Bloodmoon Nightrunner, line of sight is quick and intuitive,
DPS-flavoured Pit Fighter Berserker with large-squared ‘zones’ replacing
and so on) comes with a box-checking small grids or hexes. Combat is swift,
sheet pad on which to mark your skill- maths-light and blissfully stat-free,
up choices. with attack and defence dice tossed
The gameplay unfolds either in simultaneously. Item pickups are WHAT’S IN
normal mode (where each session’s a entertainingly generous; so much so, THE BOX?
standalone run) or the tougher story you’ll find yourself often taking the ◗ 75 miniatures
mode: a non-legacy campaign that game’s ‘transmute’ action to trade ◗ Nine double-sided
slows progress to a gelatinous cube’s up three bits of loot for a single new, game tiles
◗ Six hero dashboards
pace by reducing experience gains by improved item. Each game levels-up
◗ Six hero class
a factor of five. As you’d expect, every as a whole as you progress from tile to sheet pads
scenario is about tackling wave after tile, rather than each character dinging ◗ Six coloured bases
wave of foe, while looting and item- individually – which sounds clumsy, ◗ 18 coloured pegs
managing like crazy. but really works. ◗ 12 custom dice
The only big twist – and it’s a neat Thinking about it, even if you did ◗ 299 cards
one – is the ‘Shadow Mode’ concept. answer “Me, actually” above, Massive ◗ 106 tokens
Every character has special abilities that Darkness might just win you over. Go
only trigger in the dark, as defined by on, give it a bash.
the art on those beautifully-designed DAN JOLIN
tiles. This allows for some intuitive
strategies to play out; strike from, or WE SAY
retreat into, the unlit murk and you gain
It’s not going to give the game-
an advantage over your enemies.
changing Gloomhaven a run for its
What really elevates Massive gold coins and its fantasy setting is,
Darkness above much of its dungeon- frankly, industry standard, but Massive
crawly brethren is the way designers Darkness remains a bit of a treat TRY THIS IF
Raphaël Guiton, Jean-Baptiste Lullien thanks to some smartly streamlined YOU LIKED…
and Nicolas Raoult have taken the and intuitively-executed mechanics. ZOMBICIDE:
BLACK
PLAGUE
It’s a no-brainer,
really: the same
designers, a similar
setting and some
almost identical
components.
Except you’re killing
orcs, trolls and
goblins rather than
necromancers
and zombies. They
should have called
it Monstercide…
tabletopgaming.co.uk 71
11/12/2017 17:14
 P L AY E D
BETRAYAL AT BALDUR’S GATE
The horror hit swaps ghouls and
ghosts for Dungeons & Dragons
Designer:: Chris Dupuis, Mike Mearls | Artist
Designer
B
etrayal at House on the Hill
is the tabletop equivalent
of a horror B-movie; often
inconsistent in gameplay, pacing and
tone, its haunts where one player is
revealed as a surprise traitor and turns
against their former companions
are an acquired taste best enjoyed
for their silly fun and schlocky self-
awareness rather than earnestly.
In many ways, the original game’s
exploration of a haunted manor –
complete with one-off events and items
– was reminiscent of a lighthearted
Dungeons & Dragons campaign where
the DM and scenario are only decided
once the ectoplasm hits the fan.
Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate takes the
natural step of relocating Betrayal
to the streets, shops and catacombs
of D&D’s iconic city, recasting
its paranormal investigators as
adventurers doing battle against some
of the storied RPG’s various creatures.
To fit with the now explicit
roleplaying inspiration, Betrayal’s
72 January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 72
Artist:: Various
60m 3-6
mechanics have been evolved with
some notable changes. Not least is
the addition of powers to its cast of 12
selectable characters, who hit all of the
D&D tropes you’d hope for – you can
even cast Magic Missile.
A few of the background mechanics
have been tweaked, too, in an effort
to lessen some of the divisive balance
issues often derided by Betrayal’s
detractors. Biggest of all is a rethinking
of the way that haunts are activated –
instead of rolling six dice (with 0, 1 and
2 results) and triggering a haunt when
the total is lower than the number of
revealed omen cards, players now roll a
number of dice equal to the number of
omens in play and only begin the haunt
once they roll a six or higher. It means
that setting off a haunt prematurely
while the players are still gathering items
and revealing the map is far less likely,
but it does detract from the tension
somewhat by negating the first couple
of rolls – although there’s nothing
stopping you playing by the old rules.
The components – another one of
Betrayal’s weak spots – have likewise
been improved. The dreaded stat
clips do make a return, but have been
subtly altered to stop them sliding
straight off the edge of character
cards – easily one of the original
12+ £45
game’s most frustrating aspects. The
pre-painted character miniatures
won’t win any painting competitions,
but for the modest price of entry the
decoration does more than enough to
bring the world to life.
There are another 50 haunts here,
and they’re as hit-and-miss as in
the first Betrayal. A few fall flat with
WHAT’S IN combat-heavy dice fests and iffy writing,
THE BOX? but there’s plenty of fun to be had in
◗ Traitor’s Tome the mix as you run around and enjoy
◗ Secrets of Survival lighthearted spins on classic D&D
◗ 42 tiles
themes – although it has to be said the
◗ Elfsong Tavern/
outside setting with its incongruous mix
inner chamber/
kitchen start tile of buildings, alleys and underground
◗ Catacomb landing/ tunnels lacks the claustrophobic panic
kitchen basement of being trapped in a haunted house
start tile with a potential murderer.
◗ Six pre-painted plastic Perhaps the biggest shame about
adventurer figures Baldur’s Gate is that the presentation
◗ Six two-sided sticks too closely to the half-and-half
character cards nature of its title. It feels like there’s
◗ 30 plastic clips
a missed opportunity in keeping
◗ Eight dice
◗ Turn/damage track characters’ traits the same as those
◗ 86 cards in Betrayal (speed, might, sanity
◗ 215 tokens and intelligence) rather than simply
swapping them for D&D’s iconic
character attributes of DEX, STR,
CON and INT. Despite D&D-specific
details and images, the general event,
item and omen card icons remain
untouched, with the Traitor’s Tome
and Secrets of Survival books also
sticking to their Betrayal roots – would
it have been too much to ask for a fun
play on the Player’s Handbook and
Dungeon Master’s Guide?
Still, what is here is still fun enough
if you’ve explored every corner of
Betrayal and its expansion – or you’re
a D&D fan looking for a fast and
amusing reimagining of the roleplaying
universe. At the very least, those new
TRY THIS IF clips are almost worth it alone.
YOU LIKED… MATT JARVIS
BETRAYAL AT
HOUSE ON
THE HILL WE SAY
Even if you’re not The D&D redressing doesn’t go as
a Dungeons & far as it could, but the improvements
Dragons diehard, made to Betrayal’s often inconsistent
there’s plenty to gameplay and components are very
like in this set of welcome – and there’s still lots of
50 new haunts. laughs in store.
11/12/2017 17:14

EX LIBRIS
There's a sasquatch in your library!
Designer: Adam P. McIver | Artist: Jacqui Davis
E
x Libris immediately taps into
the geeky love of organising
collections by carefully curating
types, genres and alphabetical order,
and, most importantly, feeling pride
in it. In this game, players are collating
their own library and competing with
other aspiring book collectors for the
honour to become Grand Librarian of
a magical, but unnamed – yet clearly
well-read – village. Even for those
who might find that type of activity
mundane or boring, Ex Libris still
provides a game full of charm with a
wonderful sense of humour.
Ex Libris effortlessly blends
elements of worker placement and
card drafting together. Players send
their meeples around the board to
different places to get more book
cards and abilities, while building
their own library back at home base.
As with every good library, a certain
set of instructions must be followed;
for example, the obvious alphabetical
ordering and structural shelf stability.
Even in libraries, rules were made to
be broken, and particularly sneaky
players can even get away with some
of the inconsistencies if the library
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 73
45m 1-4 10+ £60
WHAT’S IN inspector does not spot them at the
THE BOX? end of the game.
◗ Folding town board Ex Libris is really good at rewarding
◗ Double-sided players for almost everything they
dry-erase ‘Official do. Collected the most books from
Library Inspection
the ‘prominent books’ category?
Form’ board
◗ Dry-erase marker Get some points. Have very stable
◗ 12 double-sided shelves? More points! Here, have
library tiles some points for the rarest category in
◗ 18 oversized your library, too! While keeping track
location tiles of all the bonus points might initially
◗ 12 standard seem overwhelming, all the scoring
assistant meeples elements are so seamlessly integrated
◗ 12 special
into the actions players would be
assistant meeples
doing anyway that they are not at all
◗ ‘Crystal ball’ first
player token hard to achieve. The tactical choice
◗ 152 book cards within the game is to pick one or two
(with 510 unique of them to focus on, as well as keeping
book titles) an eye on the types of libraries other
◗ Six category cards collectors are making.
It is rare to find a game that is
such a joyful experience throughout
– this even includes its rulebook,
which can be a real buzzkill in most
board games, but that isn't the
case here. Having trudged through
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… LORDS OF WATERDEEP
Once you have successfully domesticated owlbears, visit the village of Ex Libris
for more magic and insightful reading – but a touch less skullduggery.
so many illogical, unnecessarily
complicated and term-heavy
instructions that even some of the
best games can have, it is refreshing
to open a rulebook that is structured
logically and has witty well-placed
observations that make you want to
play the game, rather than give up on
it. The game components are equally
a delight; each player chooses their
own library, with a unique special
ability and a matching meeple to
suit, including a sasquatch, snowman
and wizard meeples, and even a
gelatinous cube.
All 152 cards have different book
titles that not only match their
respective letters and correspond
thematically to the book category
to which they belong, but are also
funny. These include gems like Not a
Guide That Won’t Help With Double
Negatives
Negatives, twin volumes Parasites
& You and Parasites in You, An
Incomplete Guide to Procrastination
Procrastination,
and many more. The game also
provides a dry-wipe checklist board
and a marker for scoring, so take that,
tear-away scoring sheets!
The components are generally so
well thought-out and produced that
one weird misstep in the design of
the game’s worker placement tiles
really stands out. Every tile offers a
different power, typically described in
white text across colourful and busy
artwork, which is hard to see even
when seated directly in front of the
tile. With tiles rotating each round, it
is hard to learn them and players have
to keep referring to them by picking
up and bringing them almost to their
nose to see the text.
That graphical hiccup aside, Ex
Libris is charm in a box. Although it
definitely has a competitive edge, it
is one of those rare games where the
experience of playing it is more of a
reward than the victory points at the
end of the game.
ALEX SONECHKINA
WE SAY
Ex Libris effortlessly blends tactical
gameplay with humour and whimsy,
while celebrating our inner geeky love
of collecting and organising.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 73
11/12/2017 17:14
 P L AY E D
HUNT FOR THE RING
Hobbits and hidden movement make for a perfect pair
Designer: Marco Maggi, Gabriele Mari, Francesco Nepitello | Artist: John Howe, Francesco Mattioli
H
unt for the Ring is the latest
Tolkien adaptation from two of the
masters of capturing the author’s
epic fantasy world of Middle-earth on
the tabletop: War of the Ring co-creators
Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi.
This time, the pair has teamed up with
hidden movement expert Gabriele Mari,
best known for Jack the Ripper favourites
Letters from Whitechapel and Whitehall
Mystery, and scaled down their scope
from simulating the entirety of the Lord
of the Rings trilogy to focusing on just the
opening of Fellowship of the Ring as Frodo
and his hobbit companions attempt to
flee the pursuing Nazgûl and reach Bree
before moving on to Rivendell.
Hunt for the Ring feels very much
like the meeting of minds behind its
designers’ signature games. The tense
pursuit and claustrophobic escapes of
the Ripper games are here, combined
with the dice drafting, thematic powers
and dedication to Middle-earth lore
seen in War of the Ring. In fact, Hunt for
the Ring can be played as a prelude to
War of the Ring, with the outcome of the
game handing either the Free People or
Shadow a starting advantage. That may
sound like a hell of a commitment, but
Hunt is nowhere near the length or
weight of War – even if you complete
both of its two separate chapters in
a single sitting. (A way to save your
progress between the halves is included.)
74 January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 74
What Hunt does have in common with
War is that it feels distinctly like you’re
living through the events of Tolkien’s
novels. As they search for ‘Baggins’, the
Nazgûl are able to gather information
to narrow down Frodo's potential
location from a section of the map to
a more specific area, before searching
WHAT’S IN individual locations to pick up his trail
THE BOX? – and key information can increase
◗ Double-sided board their power, enabling extra abilities and
◗ Seven plastic figures potentially unleashing the fearsome
(Nazgúl, Frodo, Gandalf,
Lord of the Nazgûl. To help Frodo, each
Lord of the Nazgûl)
◗ Ring-bearer’s screen
of his companions has a helpful talent,
◗ Journey log sleeve supplemented by ally cards and tokens
◗ 36 journey cards that present the chance to distract,
◗ 22 sorcery cards block and resist the corruption of the
◗ 44 ally cards Ringwraiths and the One Ring.
◗ Five company cards There’s a lot of variety in the powers
◗ Five Ringwraith and decisions going on, and it all feels
reference cards true to the world of Middle-earth. The
◗ Gandalf reference card
Nazgûl travel faster on roads and at night,
◗ Black Riders
reference card while Frodo must rest at the end of a
◗ Seven Ringwraith day – or can choose to press on, but risks
action dice being discovered by his hunters. The core
◗ Letter from gameplay is quick to pick up, and being
Gandalf envelope found as Frodo doesn’t mean an instant
◗ 90 tiles and tokens loss, making it a relatively easy game to
get into – like the best in the genre, the
complexity is left to what decisions you can
make, rather than how they are performed.
Uniquely, Hunt for the Ring is two
hidden movement games in one. If
Frodo reaches Bree, the outcome sets
up a second half where the hidden
TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED…
WHITEHALL
MYSTERY
Hunt for the Ring
builds on its hidden
movement core
with meaningful
powers and
fantastic use of its
setting – perfect if
you prefer Middle-
earth to murder.
90+m 2-5 13+ £50
player switches control to Gandalf,
while Frodo’s movement becomes an
automated journey to Rivendell defined
by a deck of route cards. Gandalf
serves as a sort of escort needing to
mislead the Nazgûl for long enough to
allow Frodo to get through and gains
some slightly different powers, but the
gameplay otherwise remains largely
the same – there’s no need to relearn
every aspect. The second chapter isn’t
quite as engaging for the ‘good’ player
as the first given the inability to choose
Frodo’s path, but it does make for a fun
and interesting variant on the idea of
hidden movement.
Hunt for the Ring isn’t a revolutionary
entry in the hidden movement genre, but
that doesn’t stop it being an impeccably
well-crafted game – especially for those
wanting to spend more time immersed
in Middle-earth. If you can't get enough
of the fantasy world, this is the perfect
excuse to dive right back in.
MATT JARVIS
WE SAY
Hunt for the Ring absolutely nails
its Middle-earth theme by capturing
the same tension and drama of
Tolkien’s novel with excellent use of its
characters and lore. The gameplay
isn’t necessarily world-changing, but
it’s still a fantastic hidden movement
experience with plenty to enjoy –
especially if you love Lord of the Rings.
11/12/2017 17:15
 SIDEREAL CONFLUENCE:
TRADING AND NEGOTIATION
IN THE ELYSIAN QUADRANT
It’s all for one and everyone for themselves in this
brain-burning game of interstellar politics
Designer: TauCeti Deichmann | Artist: Nakarin Sukontakorn
I
ts title may sound like some sort of
embarrassing medical condition,
but Sidereal Confluence is actually a
game of deep-space diplomacy where
starfaring species vie to become the
dominant faction in a cut-throat cosmos.
While that’s hardly a novel concept,
the game combines free-wheeling
negotiation with complex economic
strategy in some intriguing ways.
It rejects the militaristic flavour
of many sci-fi games in favour of
interplanetary politics. While it’s
undeniably competitive, it encourages
co-operation between players.
You’ll use resources represented by
different coloured tokens to research
technologies, gaining new abilities
and victory points in the process. But
each new discovery requires a different
combination of resources to unlock,
and you won’t be able to acquire them
without help.
During each round you’ll trade
resources with your opponents –
it’s here that things get interesting,
because just about everything is up
for grabs. You’ll exchange goods,
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 75
planetary colonies and fleets of
spaceships, and striking deals that see
you come out ahead while remaining
palatable to your opponents is a subtle
art. To complicate things further, you’ll
also be able to make agreements that
play out over multiple turns, or to forge
complex trades between three or more
players at a time.
The really interesting bit, though?
All of this negotiation happens
simultaneously. Rather than taking
turns to propose trades, players all pile
in at once, with goods, promises and
recriminations passing back and forth
across the table like a kind of mathsy
mosh pit. It’s hard to stay on top of it all
and, if you’re not careful, you can find
yourself out of your depth and at the
mercy of your rivals. A bit like the Brexit
negotiations, but in space.
Each of the game’s factions comes
with a unique set of abilities that
lend themselves to different tactical
approaches. The Faderan are cosmic
venture capitalists, handing resources
to other factions and cashing in
when they use them to develop new
WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
2h 4-9 14+ £65 ◗ Nine faction sheets
◗ 292 wooden
technologies. The Unity coalition resource tokens
generates valuable multi-purpose ◗ 390 cards
tokens that command a hefty price ◗ Ship, victory
from other players. The insectoid point and faction
ability tokens
Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl (pronounced exactly as
it’s spelled) are anarchic hackers,
shaping technologies to their needs.
Each species comes with a player
sheet outlining their strengths and
offering some advice on how best to
play with them. They also come with a
difficulty rating, and some are far more
complicated than others to get to grips
with; this means newer players can
pilot one of the simpler races to ease
themselves into the game. But it also
introduces imbalance, and how much
can you really savour a victory if your
opponents are playing a much harder
faction than you?
There’s also the rulebook, which
throws around in-game terms before
explaining what they actually mean,
and the game’s complex graphic
design, which means that you probably
won’t understand how everything
works until you’ve actually played a
few rounds.
That could definitely be frustrating,
especially at a time when so many TRY THIS IF
publishers are working to make the YOU LIKED…
process of learning games as pain-free COSMIC
as possible. But if you’re looking for
ENCOUNTER
Sidereal Confluence
a mix of frantic player interaction has a sci-fi theme,
and cold, cruel logic, then Sidereal asymmetrical
Confluence has a lot to get your teeth – factions and
or hideous alien mandibles – into. wheeling-dealing
OWEN DUFFY negotiation. But
it cranks up the
WE SAY complexity to a
Sidereal Confluence will delight some brain-melting level.
players and repel others. Its emphasis
on deal-making makes for some heated
negotiations, and its cube-pushing
economics requires some serious
analytical skills. But it comes with a
convoluted setup and a punishing
learning curve, and you should ask
yourself whether you’re likely to enjoy it
enough to justify the hard work it entails.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 75
13/12/2017 14:45
p076.indd 1 05/12/2017 16:35

PHOTOSYNTHESIS
The seed of a brilliant idea blossoms
into a green-fingered delight
Designer: Hjalmar Hach | Artist: Sabrina Miramon
P
hotosynthesis has perhaps one
of the loveliest concepts seen
in any game. Players act as a
sort of stand-in for Mother Nature,
sowing seeds that gradually grow into
towering trees as the seasons pass,
eventually ending their life cycle
before new seeds spring up through
the earth, continuing the loop.
Photosynthesis isn’t just a cute
idea, either. Although the game looks
absolutely gorgeous thanks to its 3D
cardboard trees in hues of green,
orange and blue, there’s also a core
of pure strategy that runs through its
trunk, leaving the gameplay as solid
as an ancient oak.
No game about plants could truly
flourish without the sun and, true to
its name, Photosynthesis depends on
the star to fuel its interesting choices.
The sun rotates around the board
each turn, allowing players to collect
light points to spend on growing
seeds and trees already on the
board or adding more to their pool
of potential florae. It’s an ingenious
idea implemented with such beauty
and simplicity it’s a wonder it’s never
been done before – although it’s hard
January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 77
30-60m 2-4 10+ £30
WHAT’S IN to imagine it being realised much
THE BOX? better than this.
◗ Game board What’s even smarter is the way that
◗ Sun segment the shifting rays begin to cast shadows
◗ Four player boards as players’ saplings spring up through
◗ First player token the ground, stopping plants caught
◗ 24 scoring tokens
in the shade of a taller tree from
◗ Four light
point trackers collecting light points or growing taller
◗ Four sun until they emerge back into the sun.
revolution counters Because the spaces towards the
◗ 24 seed tokens centre of the board earn greater
◗ 32 little trees bounties of victory points when
◗ 16 medium trees trees reach their highest point, this
◗ Eight big trees results in an intense and tight-
knit battle for sunlight as players
carefully position their plants
to leave each other in the dark.
Cashing in a tree for points means
removing it from the board, leading
to standoffs between players as
those in an advantageous position
balance gaining points (which
steadily decrease with each tree that
completes the cycle in each of the
four regions) with maintaining their
dominance over smaller shrubs.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… TAK: A BEAUTIFUL GAME
A pure strategy title at its heart, Photosynthesis relies on the same back-and-
forth blocking and simply complex rules as this absolutely abstract gem.
P L AY E D
The full rules about shadows
restricting the growth of shaded trees
are actually proposed as an advanced
mode in the rulebook, but we found
them to be so crucial to the game’s
depth and enjoyment that we’d
recommend using them from the off.
There’s no luck involved at all in
the way that plants collect light points
and the sun shifts around the edge
of the forest, making the strategy as
dependent on the constant sparring,
blocks and reversals between players
as something like chess – that just
happens to involve seeds and trees.
This also means that the game plays
just as well in a head-to-head between
two people, with extra opponents
escalating the feeling of fighting for
room in a crowded wood.
That said, Photosynthesis isn’t
perfect. The straightforward loop
of gaining light, planting seeds,
growing trees and collecting points
doesn’t change up much over the
course of the game, which can lead
to less than satisfying repetition if the
more engaging interactions between
players fails to take hold. On the
other hand, those who don’t like the
feeling of being blocked at every turn
by other players may find that the
claustrophobic competition relies a
little too much on overly-aggressive
play – and loses too much tension
to stay interesting if playing with the
trimmed-down rules.
These are very minor problems
with a game that otherwise delivers
on the promise of an intense
abstract strategy experience
wrapped up in a presentation that
leaves other games in the shade. As
it turns out, being all bark still leaves
plenty to chew on.
MATT JARVIS
WE SAY
Photosynthesis doesn’t just look
gorgeous – it also delivers plenty of
gameplay punch with its surprisingly
intense battle for sunlight. The simple
yet brilliant idea at its core is beautifully
executed, although you may find it
becomes a little repetitive on repeated
visits or is a bit too hostile for less
confrontational players.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 77
11/12/2017 17:15
 P L AY E D
ARISTEIA!
Extreme sports goes to Infinity and beyond
Designer: Alberto Abal, Jesús Fuster, David Rosillo | Artist: Kenny Ruiz
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗ Eight miniatures
◗ Eight initative cards
◗ 52 tactics cards
◗ Reversible board
◗ Custom dice
◗ Counters
◗ Tokens
◗ ID stickers
◗ Access Guide to Human Sphere
W WE SAY
elcome to the future and the
25th season of Aristeia!, a fast-
paced and brutal extreme
sports game. You'll be playing with a team
of four Aristos, fighting and manoeuvring
for control of the HexaDome.
The game has four simple phases –
planning, turns, objectives and recovery
– with a match lasting for five rounds
or until eight points are scored, which
you achieve by controlling the scoring
zone. Each player takes alternative turns
with each of their Aristos until all of them
have been activated.
Each character model comes with
a stat, initiative and four tactics cards.
The models come pre-assembled and of
decent quality with plenty of details, if
you wish to paint them. Each character
has five action points and spends two
to walk as many spaces as they have
movement, which can be interrupted
by other abilities – so you could walk
Parvati three spaces, use her medikit,
let rip with her submachine guns
akimbo and then move again. Parvati’s
versatility at fighting, healing and
removing conditions probably makes
her the best all-rounder of the box.
The custom dice mechanics of rolling
for attack and defence are very familiar,
but with a couple twists that put Corvus
Belli's Infinity signature on them
78 January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 78
– which makes sense, given Aristeia! is
set in the sci-fi miniatures universe.
Just like Infinity, when you roll for an
attack it can quickly lead to the death
of the attacker, so it's best to remember
Infinity's 'It’s always your turn' philosophy
and leave expert swordsman Miyamoto
Mushashi be while he is adjacent
because he can turn blocks into damage.
Every character has a 'switch' that
allows them to use certain symbols
on a dice roll to pull off a wide range
of abilities. For example, 8-Ball’s
switch allows the character to displace
himself, so often you can’t attack him
for fear of him moving into a scoring
zone or out of a melee zone.
In the turns phase, the character
with the highest initiative controls
activation order. Gata is all about speed
and starts with the highest native
initiative in the box, but is very fragile
with only two wounds – you can use
this control to keep her safe from harm
by activating her last in one round and
then first in the next.
You can make a green action without
fear of your opponent rolling any dice,
which makes heXx3r very powerful at
displacing both enemy and friendly
models around the dome. When you
use a red action it’s a damage-dealing
attack and, as well as using switches,
60-90m 2 14+ £50
the enemy can damage the attacker by
rolling successful hits in defence.
If you liked Infinity's
Each team starts with a deck of ten basic
setting and miniatures
cards and every character adds two more but found the 300-
for a full deck of 18. You start the match by plus pages of rules
drawing four and gain a card whenever an too heavy, this is the
enemy model is moved to the infirmary. At unquestionably the
the end of a round you draw a card, plus board game for you.
an additional card if you scored that
round. The cards clearly state when and
how they are used, and can be used for a
wide variety of actions, but adding extra
dice or free attacks are the most common
– I lost one game due to my opponent
adding an extra action point then
walking straight into the scoring zone.
Aristeia! is a simple, addictive game
that runs for around an hour and allows
for more tactile depth as each match goes
on. It captures the idea of a superstar
battle arena, with heroes trading blows
and jockeying for position rather than
statically standing there trading blows.
LUCY ORR
TRY THIS IF YOU
LIKED… WARHAMMER
UNDERWORLDS:
SHADESPIRE
Looking for something like
Shadespire, but with more depth or
as a gateway to miniatures games?
Look no further.
11/12/2017 17:15
 ELITE ENCOUNTERS
The old-school future rises
Designer: David T. W. Hughes
H
ow you feel about Elite Encounters
will likely be determined by one
simple question: does the idea of
a game with detailed rules for a bionic
liver fill you with glee? If the answer is
yes, followed by a barrage of questions
on exactly what stats it modifies and how
much it can be traded for, this may well
be the RPG for you.
Like the video game series that
inspired it, Encounters plants the players
in the boots of explorers, fighters and
traders making their way through a rich
sci-fi world. It’s a setting where grand
galactic politics melds with mundane
delivery runs and encounters with space
pirates and, while it will naturally appeal
to fans of either the classic 1984 game or
its more modern sequels, the game uses
enough sci-fi tropes that even newcomers
will feel comfortable in short order.
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 79
2+ £20
When it comes to talking about
the game itself, the first thing that
needs to be established is that this
is not the only RPG using the Elite
licence to come out recently. Elite:
Dangerous, which has been developed
by Spidermind Games, followed hot
in Encounters’ heels and seems to be a
rather different experience – arguably
a more modern one.
It’s worth noting that ‘modern’
does not necessarily equal ‘better’.
Encounters has a truly old-school feel
that permeates everything from the
dense typeface and monochrome
design to the tables and charts listing
different trade goods. Besides a
few touches of modern design here
and there, Encounters wouldn’t feel
particularly out of place among the
RPGs of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
The main mechanic is incredibly
simple. It only uses a handful of d6s,
with the amount being rolled being
TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED…
STAR TREK
determined by circumstances and stats ADVENTURES
and the target you need to beat relating Sometimes
to the difficulty of the task. In order exploring the depths
to climb a rocky cliff, for example, a of space can be its
player may need to roll at least one own reward.
4+ on two or three dice depending on
how they built their ‘avatar’, while an
incredibly difficult task may require
them to roll a 6+ or even a 7+.
Where things start to get interesting
is all the modifiers that can be added,
depending on everything from
equipment to experience. That bionic
liver, for example, provides you with
a bonus to ‘sense’ rolls when you’ve
been drinking.
Different weapons work in different
ways, and these can diverge even
further once players start loading up
on alternative ammo types that are
neatly codified and set out in the rules.
Likewise, ships can be completely
customised depending on the number
of hardpoints and systems available.
There is an incredible amount of
depth on display, but Encounters is not
the easiest RPG to pick up and play. It
can be confusing in places and trying
to get the entire table caught up on all
the rules and options open to them can
be an exercise in frustration.
If your gaming group has only
ever dallied with modern systems,
Encounters may come as a shock. It is
unapologetically lo-fi and old-school
in both design and presentation, with
the art on display seemingly culled
from the video games themselves. The
layout and presentation of vital rules
are straight from an older generation of
products and can be confusing if your
experiences have mostly been with
more streamlined RPGs.
The book was almost completely
written and designed by just one man,
David Hughes, and it shows – again,
for better and for worse. It lacks polish
but the passion and dedication to the
world of Elite on display is inspiring. If
you and your friends feel like a return
to the awe and wonder you felt when
the original game came out in 1984
WE SAY
this may well spark happy memories. Elite Encounters is an
unapologetically old-
But if you just want a simple system
school slice of space
for roaming about the galaxy, blasting adventure. Whether
aliens and having a good time it might that’s a good or bad
be worth a miss. thing is up to you and
RICHARD JANSENPARKES your gaming group.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 79
13/12/2017 13:49
 P L AY E D
INBETWEEN
Designer: Adam Kwapiński | Artist: Borkowski, Kalisz, Niziołek, Zakrzewski
A
lthough its gameplay was
devised almost a year before
Stranger Things made its Netflix
debut, it’s perhaps no coincidence that
InBetween’s full release comes hot on
the heels of the second season of the
‘80s-inflected horror TV phenomenon;
this is a Stranger Things card game in
all but name.
It’s a particularly enjoyable one, too,
as two players take it in turns to try and
drag the townspeople of Upsideville
into one of two dimensions, depending
ASSET DROP
Maker: Asset Drop
S
ubscription boxes have become
a booming industry in the last
few years, so much so that they
have now entered not only the sphere
of tabletop gaming but also painting
and modelling.
Asset Drop is one such miniatures-
centric subscription package, coming
in at just under £20 a month. Each
‘drop’ contains a variety of paints,
brushes and more niche tools like
pigment powders.
Something that always makes me
wary of loot crates is their unpredictable
nature, but Asset Drop mitigates this
with the way it selects and presents
the contents. The contents of each box
aren’t random but carefully selected to
complement each other. For instance,
the three shades of grey paint, from
Secret Weapon, are perfect when used
together as a base, layer and highlight.
There’s the combination of a textured
paint, from Coat d’Arms, and a pigment,
80 January 2018
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 80
on whether they’re trying to protect the
humans or attack them as a mysterious
being called only 'the Creature’.
Each side of the tense tug of war
feels distinct to control; the town is able
to utilise 28 diverse bits of equipment
in their fight to survive, while the
Creature has a more limited pool of
seven repeatable actions. Gameplay
is as easy as choosing a single card to
play, which either moves a matching
character one step towards your
dimension or adds a symbol to their
card so they’ll match more cards in the
future, making them easier to move.
Each player can also spend energy to
trigger special powers or set off their
one-time-use 'awareness' ability,
making timing crucial to coming out
on top – it does help if you’ve played at
least a couple of times and know some
of the cards in the deck, too.
One of the game’s best features is the
ring of characters that forms its main
play area. As well as looking great, an
£19+
from BrokenToad – both of which can
be used individually, but can also be
combined to great effect. There’s even
a Coat d’Arms basing brush included
to make use of the textured paint,
as it can be damaging to your usual
brushes. This is something that is
covered in the fantastic painting guide
that comes in each box.
Produced specifically around the
contents of the box, each guide goes
into a good amount of detail about the
supplies: telling you a little about the
company that makes them, what they
are designed to do and how to use them.
What’s great about these write-ups
is that they provide examples and
pictures, but they are also surprisingly
in-depth. The guide included in our
sample, on Ammo's Brass and Old
Brass metallic paints, covered not
only how to paint and layer with those
specific colours but also hints and tips
on using metallics in general.
20-40m 2 12+ €25
activity marker makes its way around
the circle at the end of each player’s
turn, activating the unique abilities
of any characters who are in either
dimension (those ‘in-between’ don’t
do anything) which give either player a
helping hand as they aim to devour (as
the Creature) or secure (as the town)
three people. Each side can also win
by raising their awareness five times,
which happens when the activity
marker ends a turn on a player in either
dimension – encouraging a heated
back-and-forth battle to keep characters
out of your opponent’s realm.
InBetween pulls its thrilling head-
to-head concept off with aplomb
thanks to a tight set of mechanics,
fast pace and a fantastic visual style.
In some ways it’s a shame it doesn’t
have the Stranger Things name
attached – if only so more people
would be guaranteed to pick it up
and give it a play.
MATT JARVIS
This guide really helps to tie
the whole package together;
the result is that it really feels
like you’re receiving a lesson
rather than a random selection
of paints and brushes. (Not to
mention a lollipop – you can’t
forget the lollipop).
ANDY LEIGHTON
11/12/2017 17:15
 DRAGON CASTLE
Dismantle a castle to build your own in
this stylish tile-based riff on mahjong
Designer: Lorenzo Silva, Hjalmar Hach, Luca Ricci | Artist: Cinyee Chiu
I
n games, mahjong means two
things. It can be the classic Qing-
dynasty tile-based set-making
game, the ancestor of rummy, or it can
be the solitaire game, usually digital,
where the player clears a pattern
of tiles by finding matching pairs.
Dragon Castle is inspired by both of
them. What does that mean? Mostly
that this is a heavy box, because it’s
got 116 chunky plastic tiles in it.
In Dragon Castle the players take
tiles from the eponymous structure,
formed of all the tiles stacked together,
and use them to make smaller and
altogether less impressive castles.
You score points for arranging tiles in
particular ways, but these can change
depending on which dragons and
spirits are watching over the game,
because each brings its own special
abilities and scoring conditions.
You start your turn by removig
tiles from the dragon castle –
usually a matching pair, though
you can take one tile and a
shrine marker, or discard one tile
for a victory point. Shrines are
important because most of the
scoring is based around them.
061_081_played_v5 MJ.indd 81
The tiles have six suits in two
groups of different value, and taking
them works like the solitaire version
of mahjong. This gives the game a
puzzle dynamic, as well as being the
only time where players can affect
each others’ play – by taking tiles that
someone else wants. Mostly Dragon
Castle feels like you’re each playing
WHAT’S IN
THE BOX? a solo game, drawing from a shared
◗ Two main boards resource while racing to be the one who
◗ Four realm boards has built the most points at the end.
◗ 116 plastic tiles Once you have your tiles you place
◗ 40 shrines them on your realm board, aiming to
◗ 85 victory tokens make groups of four or more of the
◗ Eight misc tokens same suit, which you can ‘consolidate’
◗ 10 dragon cards
by flipping them. Consolidated tiles
◗ 10 spirit cards
can be built on either with more tiles,
or with shrines. The higher a shrine is,
the more points it’s worth.
The game’s strategy lies in arranging
the tiles on your realm board,
consolidating sets and having enough
shrines, and this is where the game
shines. The pair-matching mechanic
of taking the castle apart is a natural
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… CASTLES OF MAD KING LUDWIG
If you have the bug for building castles on the tabletop, Dragon Castle brings a
different angle and a third dimension to your in-game architecture.
45m 2-4 8+ €50
fit for the components, but isn’t as
interesting or tactical as it should be.
The dragons and spirits with their
unique powers are what bring the
game alive and give it replay value,
along with the different ways the
Dragon Castle can be built. Without
them the experience is quite dry.
The tiles are wonderfully tactile and
playing with them ought to be a
pleasure, but the heart of the game
lies elsewhere.
Dragon Castle is a good game with
clever touches and it’s beautifully
presented, but it lacks the elegance
and compulsiveness of either of its
forebears – and even though the box
is full of mahjong tiles, it’s not a full
set and you won’t be able to play
mahjong with them.
JAMES WALLIS
WE SAY
A clever and beautiful game about
building through set-building, but
strangely uninvolving.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 81
11/12/2017 17:15
 Take your positions at the
iconic Alexandra Palace

ADVANCE TICKETS
NOW ON SALE
Book and save today theticketfactory.com
concept.indd 1 13/12/2017 15:38
 STAR SAGA
Give the sci-fi dungeon crawler a splash of colour by bringing its baddies to life
Words and photographs by Andy Leighton
M
antic adds yet another game to its
extensive catalogue with Star Saga,
a sci-fi dungeon crawler set within
the Warpath universe.
The core box comes with 35 miniatures,
representing everything from the military
minions you’ll face to the abominations
created by the universe’s deadly plague, and
everything is one piece – for the most part
they are great models, filled with details.
My only gripes are a fair amount of mould
lines and that some of the goons, especially
the security forces and soldiers, feel a little
generic. Each of the hero characters and
January 2018
083_087_paintingGuide_v2 MJ.indd 83
the bosses they face, however, are fantastic.
The heroes have the mixed squad feel we
all love to see in our fantasy adventure
games, with classic roles like the dwarf,
elf and mage filled by the dwarf (but in
space!), judwan and kayowan, all with
an updated futuristic look.
For this painting guide we are
going to take a look at how to paint
the villains of the game. Painted up
they really help add to the narrative
and capture the spirit of the tale
Mantic has created, immersing
you in the sci-fi adventure.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 83
13/12/2017 13:51
 S TA R S A G A

PAINTS & TECHNIQUES

PAINTS USED ZENITHAL HIGHLIGHTING STAGES
Abaddon Black Lothern Blue Zenithal highlighting at its core is a much more complicated Each creature is split up into four stages, each with a list
Agrax Earthshade Lugganath Orange process than what I am going to show you in this guide. I will of colours and the corresponding paint that was used
Alaitoc Blue Macragge Blue show a basic version that helps apply a simplified version for it. Each stage uses a different technique to achieve a
Baneblade Brown Mechanicus Standard Grey of highlighting. This begins at the basecoating stage, whilst similar effect on each element but with different colours.
Blood for the Blood God Mephiston Red preparing the model for the later stages.
Bloodletter Moot Green Stage 1 is base colours. Base colours are applied using a
Blue Horror Nuln Oil Begin by basecoating the mix of glazes and flat colours.
Bugmans Glow Pallid Wych Flesh miniature black. This is easiest Stage 2 is applying shading. In this stage we use
Cadian Fleshtone Rakarth Flesh with a black spray paint. various washes and glazes to add an element of
Celestra Grey Reikland Fleshshade shading to the models.
Ceramite White Russ Grey Stage 3 is highlighting. This stage involves applying a line
Dark Reaper Screamer Pink of your colour along the hard edges and ridges of the
Dawnstone Squig Orange area. I would recommend using a fine brush and adding a
Dorn Yellow Steel Legion Drab tiny dash of water to your paints.
Drakenhof Nightshade Sybarite Green Stage 4 is final highlight. This involves adding a small dot
Fenrisian Grey Temple Guard Blue or dash of a colour, generally in the same area as the
Flayed One Flesh Troll Slayer Orange previous highlight, but focusing on corners or where folds
Gauss Blaster Green Ulthuan Grey Once the black is dry, apply a in cloth meet. For hair or fur it involves adding a dot to
Genestealer Purple Warpstone Glow light spray of white from the the tip of each strand. If you find yourself unsure of where
Jokearo Orange Wazdakka Red top around the model. This to apply the highlights or spot highlights, look over the
Khorne Red Xereus Purple will create a light element images alongside the guide and compare that stage to
Kislev Flesh Yriel Yellow of highlighting and shading the last.
straight off the bat that will Stage 5 is the final details. This stage involves cleaning up
either provide shading and and adding a few spot highlights. This stage also includes
highlighting in later stages or a painting the base of the model.
guide as to where they should
be applied.

1 BASE COLOURS
Mechanicus Standard Grey: Paint the majority of the armour using
this grey.
Macragge Blue: Pick out sections of the
armour and apply one to two coats until you
have an even colour.
Khorne Red: Paint the visor, lights and pipes.
Steel Legion Drab: Apply a coat over the gun.

2 SHADING
Nuln Oil: Apply over the entirety of the model in one even coat.
Warpstone Glow: Once the wash is dry make a mix with two parts water
and apply to the wrist generator..

3 HIGHLIGHTING 5 FINAL DETAILS

Dawnstone: Apply a line highlight to all of the grey armour sections. Blue Horror: Add a spot highlight to the
Also, with very little paint on the brush, apply small dashes across edges and the lines of both the blue and
the armour surface. grey sections of the armour.
Alaitoc Blue: Apply a line highlight to all of the blue armour sections. Lugganath Orange: Apply a spot
Again, with very little paint on the brush, apply small dashes across highlight to the visor and the centre
the armour surface. of the lights.
Wazdakka Red: Apply a highlight to the top and hard edges of the Ceramite White: Mix with three
visor, over the lights and along the piping. parts water and apply a light wash
Baneblade Brown: Apply a line highlight to the gun. to the wrist generator.
Temple Guard Blue: Mix with two parts water
and lightly apply within the centre ring of the
wrist generator.

4 FINAL HIGHLIGHT
Celestra Grey: Apply as an edge highlight to all of the grey armour
sections. Also apply a spot highlight to the lines added in the
previous stage.
Russ Grey: Apply as an edge highlight to all of the blue armour
sections. Also apply a spot highlight to the lines added in the
previous stage.
Squig Orange: Add a fine highlight to the visor, focusing towards the
corner created by the last stage. Also add a spot highlight to the lights,

MONARCH
and a line just in front of each light.
Lothern Blue: Make a mx with two parts water and add a very fine line
around the centre disc of the generator.
Screaming Skull: Add an edge highlight to the gun.

84 January 2018

083_087_paintingGuide_v2 MJ.indd 84 11/12/2017 17:17

 1 BASE 3 HIGHLIGHTING 5 FINAL
COLOURS Kislev Flesh: Add a layer to the face,
leaving the recesses dark.
DETAILS
Cadian Fleshtone: Apply one to Blue Horror:
two light coats to the face until Ulthuan Grey: Apply a spot highlight Apply a light
you have an even colour. to the armour, focusing on corners highlight to the
Abaddon Black: Mix with two and where the lines from the screen and the hard
parts water and apply a good previous stage meet the edge of edges around it.
coat over all of the armour the armour. Ceramite White: Add a
and fatigues. Russ Grey: Apply a line highlight to spot highlight to the arm
Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the fatigues and cap. and gun.
the arm and gun. Fenrisian Grey: Apply a layer over Pallid Wych Flesh: Add a
the arm and gun, focusing towards spot highlight to the face.
one corner on each section and Gauss Blaster Green:
the edges. Add an edge highlight to
the bottom right of the
eye lens.
Ceramite White
2 SHADING 4 FINAL & Abaddon Black:
Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply
across the arm, gun and face.
HIGHLIGHT With a tiny amount
on the tip of your
Blue Horror: Add a highlight to
Dark Reaper: Apply a highlight to the arm and gun, focusing on the brush, carefully
the folds and hard edges of the corners and hard edges towards paint the eye.
fatigues and the cap. the top of the model. Once dry add a
Dawnstone: Apply a line highlight Flayed One Flesh: Apply a line dot of black to
to the armour sections. Also, highlight to the face. the top, centre.
with very little paint on the brush, Fenrisian Blue: Add a fine highlight
apply small dashes across the to the fatigues and cap.
armour surface. Sybarite Green: Apply a coat to

GRAVES
the eye lens.
Lothern Blue: Mix with one part water
and apply on and around the wrist
screen and the chest are opposite.

1 BASE COLOURS
Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist guards.
Cadian Fleshtone: Apply a basecoat to the face.
Fenrisian Grey: Apply a basecoat to the fatigues.
Abaddon Black: Apply a coat to the boots and cabling.
Jokearo Orange: Apply a basecoat to the gloves and knee pads.

2 SHADING
Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply a coat to all the
areas previously coated with Dawnstone.
Celestra Grey: Apply a layer over the fatigues,
leaving only the recesses the base colour.
Yriel Yellow: Apply a layer over the gloves and
knee pads, leaving the recesses and bottom
edges the base colour.
Dark Reaper: Apply a line highlight to the cabling
and boots.
Squig Orange, Xereus Purple & Sybarite Green:
Apply orange over the lights on the arms, joints 5 FINAL
and chest piece and apply the purple and green
to the vials found across the model.
DETAILS
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a spot
highlight to the face.
Ceramite White: Apply

3 HIGHLIGHTING a spot highlight to the

mechanical arms, armour
Fenrisian Grey: Add a line highlight to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist guards, and wrist guards.
focusing on corners and hard edges. Ceramite White &
Ulthuan Grey: Apply a layer over the fatigues, leaving a little more of the base and the Abaddon Black: With
previous layer showing through. a tiny amount on the
Dorn Yellow: Apply a line highlight to the gloves and knee pads. tip of your brush,
Russ Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the cabling and boots. carefully paint the the
Trollslayer Orange & Moot Green: Apply a layer eye. Once dry, add
over the lights and vials. a dot of black to the
top, centre.
Blue Horror: Apply a
4 FINAL HIGHLIGHT spot highlight to the eye lenses.
Lugganath Orange: Apply a spot highlight to
Blue Horror: Apply a final highlight to the mechanical arms, armour and wrist the lights.
guards, focusing on the corners.
Flayed One Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the face.
Ceramite White: Apply a line highlight to the hard edges of the fatigues.

DR. KOYNER
Mephiston Red: Apply a coat over the wires on Dr. Koyner’s head.
Lothern Blue: Mix with one part water and apply a coat over the eye lenses.
Fire Dragon Bright & Gauss Blaster Green: Apply a spot highlight to the lights
and the vials.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 85

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 S TA R S A G A

ORGANIC DATA STORAGE UNIT X-02-A

1 BASE COLOURS
Macragge Blue: Apply a basecoat across the chovar’s skin, leaving the
tips of the tentacles.
Xereus Purple: Apply a coat over the ends of the tentacles, feathering off
at the middle.
Mechanicus Standard Grey: Apply a basecoat over all of the metal areas.
Squig Orange: Apply a basecoat to the horns and armoured plates.

2 SHADING
Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply over all of the metal sections.
Genestealer Purple: Apply a highlight to the tentacles with lines
going in from the edges and along the centre.
Alaitoc Blue: Apply a layer over all of the blue areas of skin,
leaving the recesses the base colour.
Agrax Earthshade: Apply over the horns and orange plates.

3 HIGHLIGHTING
Fenrisian Grey: Add a line highlight to the metal sections,
focusing on corners and hard edges.
Slaanesh Grey: Apply a line highlight across the purple and
blue areas of skin and tentacles.
Moot Green: Apply a coat to the tubes and vials.
Trollslayer Orange: Apply a line highlight to the horns
and plates.
Screamer Pink: Make a mix with two parts water and apply
generously into the gills.

4 FINAL HIGHLIGHT
Blue Horror: Apply a final highlight to the metal
sections, focused on the corners.
Celestra Grey: Apply a edge highlight across the
purple and blue areas of skin and tentacles. 5 FINAL
Lugganath Orange: Apply a spot highlight to the DETAILS
horns and plates. Ceramite White: Apply a spot
Gauss Blaster Green: Apply a line highlight to highlight to the metal areas.
the tubes and vials. Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a
Wazdakka Red: Mix with two parts water and spot highlight over the skin
apply to the top of the gills. and tentacles.

BASES

STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3 STAGE 4

Apply a basecoat of Dawnstone. Apply a drybrush of Celestra Grey, focusing Use some 3-4mm masking tape to mark out lines Apply a drybrush of Jokearo Orange within
towards the edge of the base. on the base. the lines.

86 January 2018

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 ABERRATION
1 BASE COLOURS
Baneblade Brown: Apply a basecoat to the
the bone armour.
Bugmans Glow: Apply a basecoat over all
the flesh.

2 SHADING
Bloodletter: Apply a coat in the mouth.
Xereus Purple: Mix with three parts
water and cover all of the flesh.
Reikland Fleshshade: Apply a coat over
all of the bone armour.

3 HIGHLIGHTING
Slaanesh Grey: Apply a line highlight
to all of the hard edges of the flesh.
Screaming Skull: Apply a line highlight
over the bone armour, focusing on
hard edges and the tips of spines.
Also add a layer to the teeth.
Pallid Wych Flesh: Add an oval to
each eye.
4 FINAL HIGHLIGHT
Flayed One Flesh: Add an edge highlight to the flesh.
Ceramite White: Add an edge highlight to the bone armour and the
tips of the spines and teeth.
Mephiston Red: Add a small dot to the centre of the eyes.
Blue Horror: Paint the small knobbly bits on the flesh.

STAGE 5 STAGE 6 STAGE 7 STAGE 8

Add small dots and dashes of Dawnstone within Repeat stages 3 to 5 but replace Jokearo Orange Add some final details. Scorch marks are started Blood stains are applied using the Blood for the
the line. with Abaddon Black. with a drybrush of Steel Legion Drab, followed by a Blood God technical paint.
lighter drybrush of Abaddon Black in the centre.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 87

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 T H E D U N G E O N M A S T E R ’ S G U I D E T O R O L E P L AY I N G

INTRODUCING
NEW PLAYERS
If you find yourself teaching an
RPG newcomer – or are trying
to roleplay for the first
time yourself – follow
our tips to ensure
the introductory
experience
becomes the
first of many
Words by David Jagneaux

W
e’ve spent a lot of time
in this column covering
specific ways to build
campaigns and improve
your DM process, but
none of that is very useful if you don’t have a
group of people to play with. Perhaps the most
important skill a DM can have, in addition to
being able to run a game well, is being able to
entice and enthral new players. Let’s dive in!
START WITH THE BASICS
Tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons
& Dragons are incredibly complex affairs.
There’s a reason why thousands of pages
of text go into each game’s system across
several tomes of books, notes and rules. A
sure-fire way to overwhelm a prospective
new player is to hand them the Player’s
Handbook for a weekend and tell them to
go read it in preparation. That’s like asking
someone to read the entire dictionary to
learn how to speak English.
Instead, you should slowly introduce
concepts over time outside of a game night
setting. Before you all gather around a
table with dice and character sheets, chat
about some ideas over lunch. If you’ve
got a friend that’s never played a tabletop
roleplaying game before just sit them down
and do everything verbally: “You wake
up in a dark dungeon with only rags for
clothes. What do you do?” See where their
imagination goes.
Give them dice as needed for encounters
and, by the time it’s done, they’ll likely be
curious about where things can go next.
This would be a great time to introduce
character sheets and the concept of
roleplaying. When you do that, make sure
you start with pre-generated characters,
such as those included in the D&D: Fifth
Edition starter set.
CHECK YOUR PRIORITIES
Above all else, the most important thing to
remember as a DM is that players always
come first. Just because you’ve come up
with this excellent idea for a challenging
campaign that could take several months to
complete doesn’t mean that your players will
care or want to play it.
Furthermore, don’t spend too long waxing
poetic about your amazing world and unique

88 January 2018

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characters. Don’t let the focus drift towards
the non-player characters too much. Bring
it back and make it about the players as the
protagonists and what they decide to do
inside this world you’ve made.
Don’t forget that players are people.
It might sound silly, but when you really
get into the heat of a campaign it’s easy to
look at yourself as the DM first and friend
second, but communication is vital to a
successful RPG.
Before the games start, take the time to
discuss what the players want most out of
the experience and what their goals are.
Crafting a super-serious campaign without
a hint of humour for a group of people that
crack jokes constantly probably isn’t a good
idea, for example.
088_089_dMGuideToRPGs_v3 MJ.indd 89
SHOW, DON’T TELL
(UNLESS YOU NEED TO)
Once you get your priorities set and
understand your players’ comfort levels you
can more easily identify areas where players
can be pushed a bit outside of their comfort
zone to try new things. When you’re DMing a
group of mostly new players, you may find that
some aspects are tougher to grasp than others.
A common example is a new player that loves
combat often has trouble feeling comfortable
with roleplaying out loud, especially in front
of strangers.
So when the game is underway don’t spend
too long explaining the rules if you want to
make sure no-one falls asleep. Teach them the
basics and explain the gist of it all, but wait for
specifics until necessary. For example, don’t
Entertaining and keeping players engaged
should come first – even if it means
bending the rules (Wizards of the Coast)
bother explaining the difference between
attack and damage rolls until combat starts
and don’t explain how ability scores affect a
character’s success with actions until a player
wants to do something requiring an ability
check or saving throw.
Once that ball starts rolling it will likely
pick up steam very quickly. To ensure player
experiences stay at the forefront of it all, feel
free to bend the rules where necessary to
encourage a fun and casual game. Players will
appreciate something that’s fun, even if slightly
off the rulebook, much more than they would
blindly adhering to the game mechanics.
As long as you follow these basic steps, you
should be well on your way towards creating
an open and accommodating environment for
new players.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 89
13/12/2017 13:53
 P resented by the South London
Warlords, Salute 2018 is the biggest,
independent, one-day wargaming and
gaming event in the UK. Once again,
we have a huge number of traders
from the UK and around the world
attending the show at ExCel London
as well as plenty of demonstration
and participation games to enjoy. We
will also, of course, be running our
renowned painting competition. Every
year, we aim to provide a fantastic
showcase, whether you are thinking of
starting this great hobby or are already
a ‘veteran’ wargamer/gamer.

SALUTE is held at
ExCel London, which Tickets
is very easy to get to. £10.00 via eticket or £20.00 (cash
Here is a simplified
transport link map. only) at the door.
Under 16s FREE with a paying
adult.
Again this year there will be
several ‘golden ticket’ prizes.
Tickets are now on sale from our
Facebook page and website:
www.salute.co.uk
NB: there is no bring and buy at
Salute 2018.

SATURDAY, 14TH APRIL

DOORS OPEN 10.00-17.00

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09/12/2017 11:37

EVENT REPORT
UNCON
Darius Twyman talks about organising the family-
friendly Thanet convention with a five-year-old host
Interview by Matt Jarvis
How did the idea for Uncon emerge?
We started our first Uncon back in July 2016. It
was originally meant to be a one-off Saturday
for our board game group, ‘All Around the
Board’. We enjoyed it so much that we decided
the next time, we would do it properly. The July
event was really just a massive usual games
night for us, but October saw more stalls, test
players and other activities.
 
What’s the story behind the name?
As we were halfway through the July event,
I looked around and counted 80 people. I
turned to my friend and said “There are 80
people in here!” and he replied, “It is more like
a convention!” I laughed and said, “Yeah, an
unconventional convention.” This is where the
name ‘Uncon’ began.
After that event, people were using the
hashtag #uncon over social media and asking
us “When is the next one?” After a talk with my
partner, we agreed that we would host another
one and try to make it more of a conventional
convention, but kept the name ‘Uncon.’
What makes the convention stand out?
We are all about family. We are a very inclusive
group and welcome people of all ages and abilities.
We really try to reach out to non-gamers
and gateway gamers because it wasn’t that
long ago that we were newcomers to the hobby
ourselves. We really try to educate non-gamers
that modern board gaming is much different
and much more interesting than ever before.
We really advertised the family zone to the
locals to try and get children from around
our area to experience something new and
exciting. Plus, there aren’t many conventions
that have a five-year-old games host – our
daughter did a really smashing job of that!
January 2018
091_eventReport_v3 MJ.indd 91
Uncon took place at the same time as Essen
over in Germany. Did this affect your plans?
Massively. I recall posting on the Board Game
Trade + Chat Facebook page about Uncon and
somebody informed of me the clash with Essen.
I was very naive in my reply: “But that is in
Germany, surely not that many people from the
UK are travelling to Germany?” I was so wrong.
I wish I changed the dates. I emailed and
contacted at least 20 different game designers;
only one of those agreed to come to Uncon. The
others, you guessed it, went to Essen.
I promise the next one won’t clash with
Essen! We are looking around April 2018 for
the next Uncon.
What were some of the most popular games at
the most recent event? How does this compare
to past Uncons?
Terraforming Mars has been a massive hit in
our group so that got played. Kingdomino was
played almost continuously in the family zone.
I also saw games such as Scythe being played.
But above all the other games, the true star of
the show was Rhino Hero: Super Battle!
 
Why do you choose to host Uncon in Thanet?
I grew up in Thanet and have lived there my
whole life. All my friends and family are here
and I feel like Thanet deserved something
different. People told me to go further inland,
Canterbury or Ashford, but my heart was to
keep this event in Thanet.
We hold a board game social every
Monday night which is attended by 25 to
40 guests every week, so we knew that we
had the support. As a thank you to them,
for helping us build such a unique gaming
group, I wasn’t moving the event out of
the area.
UPCOMING EVENTS
WINTER STABCON
Friday January 5th to Sunday 8th
Britannia Hotel Stockport, Stockport
Stabcon has all types of gaming in its halls,
but is more geared towards board games in
general. It’s a welcoming convention with a
well-established venue and is worth checking
out, even if you don’t stay all three days.
facebook.com/events/1314903291941444
CONTINGENCY
Wednesday January 17th to Sunday 21st
Sandy Balls Holiday Village, Fordingbridge
ConTingency is primarily a roleplaying
convention, with a lively evening social scene.
The convention centres around Sandy Balls
holiday park and has a range of games, as well
as a dedicated children’s games centre.
con-tingency.uk
BASTION
Thursday January 18th to Sunday 21st
YHA Conwy, Conwy
Bastion is four days of all types of gaming held
in north Wales. Taking place in a youth hostel,
you can book a bunk in a room shared with
fellow attendees for some late-night gaming –
or just turn up each day.
bastionwales.com
HANDYCON
Friday January 19th to Sunday 21st
Holiday Inn High Wycombe, High Wycombe
With many people having attended for
the short duration that it’s been running,
HandyCon is an excellent convention for
beginners and has a full range of activities.
handycon.co.uk
SPAGHETTI CONJUNCTION
Saturday February 10th
Geek Retreat, Birmingham
After its first two instalments in February and
October last year, the event that calls itself
the ‘other’ Birmingham gaming convention
returns to the Geek Retreat gaming café -
meaning you can order food direct to your
table. There’s a focus on roleplaying, with two
slots during the one-day get-together.
spaghetticonjunction.wordpress.com
SORCON
Friday February 23rd to Sunday 25th
Holiday Inn Basildon, Basildon
Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2018,
SoRCon often attracts more than 100
attendees, with a particular commitment
to Eurogames. There aren’t any formal
tournaments, but Saturday sees the popular
Quiz-a-Hunt return for another year.
sorcon.co.uk
REVELATION
Saturday February 24rd to Sunday 25th
Garrison Hotel, Sheffield
Up to 80 roleplayers get together to play
Powered by the Apocalypse games at this
popular and welcoming annual convention.
revelationgames.org.uk
tabletopgaming.co.uk 91
13/12/2017 14:54
 CLUB DIRECTORY
ABERDEENSHIRE CARMARTHENSHIRE OMAGH WARGAMES CLUB EDINBURGH CHINEHAM BOARD GAMERS NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE
ABERDEEN CARMARTHEN OLD GUARD Omagh, BT78 1HL EDINBURGH LEAGUE Basingstoke, RG24 8LT WARGAMES CLUB
WARGAMES CLUB Carmarthen, SA31 3AD OF GAMERS Hitchin, SG5 1XL
Aberdeen, AB15 4YQ DERBYSHIRE Edinburgh, EH7 5EA DARK WORLDS
TOWY VALLEY DERBY ON BOARD GAMES GAMING SOCIETY NORTH LONDON
OLDMELDRUM TYRANTS (TVT) Derby, DE1 1QH ESSEX Fareham, PO15 6TL WARGAMES CLUB
WARGAMES GROUP Carmarthen, SA31 2JE BASILDON WARBOYZ Waltham Cross, EN8 9AJ
Inverurie, AB51 0AA SUNDAY NIGHT BOARD Basildon, SS16 4NW FIRESTORM CARDS
CHESHIRE GAMING AT THE OLD OPEN GAMING NIGHT POTTERS BAR GAMES CLUB
AYRSHIRE ALTRINCHAM KINGS HEAD BELPER COLCHESTER Basingstoke, RG24 8FB Potters Bar, EN6 5BT
NORTH AYRSHIRE WARGAMING CLUB Belper, DE56 1NP WARGAMES ASSOCIATION
WARGAMES CLUB Altrincham, WA14 4PG Colchester, CO3 5RH FORDINGBRIDGE ST ALBANS BOARD
Irvine, KA12 0BA DEVON GAMING CLUB GAME CLUB
CHESHIRE GAMERS BARNSTAPLE SLAYERS ESSEX WARRIORS Fordingbridge, SP6 1AS St. Albans, AL3 5PE
BEDFORDSHIRE Crewe, CW1 2DF GAMING CLUB Chelmsford, CM1 3DU
BASEMENT GAMING CLUB Barnstaple, EX32 8LS PORTSMOUTH ON BOARD THOR`S HAMMER
Luton, LU3 3AN CONGLETON AND SOUTHEND-ON-SEA Portsmouth, PO1 1PT GAMING CLUB
DISTRICT LIGHT BOARD EAST DEVON TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING SOCIETY Hertford, WD6 5PR
BEDFORD BOARD GAMING GAMES GROUP & RPG GROUP Southend-on-Sea, SOLENT WARGAMERS CLUB
Bedford, MK40 2SX Congleton, CW12 1AH Honiton, EX14 1HR SS1 1BD Portsmouth, PO1 1PT WATFORD WARGAMES CLUB
Watford, WD17 4PN
BOARD GAMES IN BEDFORD ELEMENT GAMES EXMOUTH IMPERIAL FIFE SOUTHAMPTON SLUGGAZ
Bedford, MK41 0TU NORTH WEST WARGAMES CLUB DUNFERMLINE Southampton, SO17 2JZ ISLE OF MAN
GAMING CENTRE Exmouth, EX8 4SW WARGAMING AND KB TABLETOP GAMING
BERKSHIRE Stockport, SK2 6PT ROLEPLAYING FELLOWSHIP THE SOUTHAMPTON Isle of Man, IM4 4LA
BROAD STREET GAMERS GAME NIGHT @ CARPE Dunfermline, KY12 7DS GUILD OF ROLEPLAYERS
Wokingham, RG40 3AQ GUARDIANS OF THE GAMES Plymouth, PL4 8EU Southampton, SO14 0LH KENT
(TABLETOP GROUP) EAST NEUK TABLETOP GAMES ALL AROUND THE BOARD
NEWBURY & READING Macclesfield, SK11 6UB PLYMOUTH ASSOCIATION Anstruther, KY10 3DJ THE THIRD COALITION Westgate-on-Sea, CT8 8RE
WARGAMES ASSOCIATION OF WARGAMERS WARGAMES CLUB
Newbury, MUG AND GAME Plymouth, PL3 5TB KIRKCALDY MEEPLE CLUB New Milton, BH25 5BT ASHFORD (KENT)
RG14 2RA/RG1 4PS Congleton, CW12 1PG Kirkcaldy, KY2 6LF BOARDGAMES CLUB
TORQUAY BOARD WATERLOO TABLE Ashford, TN24 9AJ
WARFIELD BOARD GAMERS POYNTON BOARD GAME CLUB FLINTSHIRE TOP GAMERS
Bracknell, RG42 2DD GAME DAY Torquay, TQ2 7AD DEESIDE DEFENDERS Waterlooville, PO8 8RG BEXLEY REAPERS
Stockport, SK12 1RB Chester, CH4 0DR WARGAMING CLUB
WARGAMES ASSOCIATION DORSET WESSEX WARGAMES Bexley, DA5 1AA
OF READING VARIABLE MAGERS SOUTHBOURNE TABLETOP FGC FLINTSHIRE WINCHESTER
Wokingham, RG41 5DU Stockport, SK4 3BS & BOARDGAMERS GAMING CLUB Winchester, SO22 4QB CANTERBURY CRUSADERS
Bournemouth, BH6 3AA Bryn-y-Baal, CH7 6SZ Canterbury, CT1 1RT
BRISTOL WARRINGTON BOARD WESSEX WYVERNS
HALL OF HEROES GAMES CLUB WESSEX WYVERNS GLASGOW GAMING CLUB GRAVESHAM WARGAMING
GAMING CLUB Warrington, WA1 2SX WARGAMES CLUB ANTONINE BOARD GAMERS Ringwood, BH24 2NP AND TABLETOP
Bristol, BS16 1NU Ferndown, BH22 9AN Glasgow, G64 4EN GAMING CLUB
WINSFORD WARHAWKS HEREFORDSHIRE Gravesend, DA11 9EU
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE WARGAMING CLUB WORLDS AWAY GLASGOW GAMES ROOM DICE AND DECKS
MILTON KEYNES Winsford, CW7 4AT Bournemouth, BH2 5RQ Glasgow, G20 7QE Ross-on-Wye, GREENWICH &
WARGAMES SOCIETY HR9 5HR BLACKHEATH BOARD
Milton Keynes, MK11 1JQ CLEVELAND DUMFRIESSHIRE UNPLUGGED GAMES CLUB GAMES AND BEER CLUB
REDCAR IRONBEARDS ANNAN GAMING CLUB Glasgow, G41 3AB HEREFORDSHIRE London, SE3 7JQ
NEWPORT PAGNELL Redcar, TS10 1RH Annan, DG12 6EF BOARDGAMERS
BOARD GAMES CLUB GLOUCESTERSHIRE Hereford, HR4 9EA MAIDSTONE
Newport Pagnell, MK16 8AN CO ANTRIM THE FIVE ARCHES GLOUCESTERSHIRE WARGAMES SOCIETY
DRAGONSLAYERS GAMING CLUB GAMES BUNKER HERTFORDSHIRE Maidstone, ME17 4AW
WYCOMBE WARBAND Belfast, BT7 1NN Dumfries, DG1 3JR Cheltenham, GL51 4XA BLACK WOLF
Beaconsfield, HP9 1LG WARGAMES CLUB MEDWAY AREA
CO DURHAM DUNBARTONSHIRE PORK CHOP GAMING Hitchin, SG5 1XL BOARDGAMERS
CAMBRIDGESHIRE DARLINGTON`S DUMBARTON Cheltenham, GL50 3HA Maidstone, ME14 1ED
2D6 LODGE DOGS OF WAR WARGAMES CLUB CALAMITY COMICS HATFIELD
Cambridge, CB1 8NN Darlington, DL3 7LX Dumbarton, G82 1QQ GREATER MANCHESTER Hatfield, AL10 0JJ MILTON HUNDRED
TABLETOP MANCHESTER WARGAMES CLUB
CHATTERIS WARLORDS DURHAM RAIDERS EAST SUSSEX Manchester, M15 4ST FINCHLEY GAMES CLUB Sittingbourne, ME10 4BX
GAMES CLUB Croxdale, DH6 5HJ 1066 WARGAMING CLUB London, N12 7JE
Chatteris, PE16 6NA St. Leonards-on-Sea, GWENT SEVENOAKS & TONBRIDGE
GAMERS@HART TN38 8BL GWENT REAVERS HEMEL HEMPSTEAD ASSOCIATION OF
NEWMARKET KNIGHTS Hartlepool, TS26 9DE TABLETOP GAMING CLUB GAMES CLUB GAMERS (STAG)
GAMES CLUB EASTBOURNE Abertillery, NP13 3DJ Hemel Hempstead, HP2 6BJ Sevenoaks, TN15 9HA
Ely, CB7 5HS CO LONDONDERRY ELEMENTAL
THE SIEGE BUNKER Eastbourne, BN21 3XQ GWYNEDD HEMEL HEMPSTEAD TUNBRIDGE WELLS
PETERBOROUGH Londonderry, BT48 7JL CONWY WARGAMES CLUB WARGAMING CLUB WARGAMES SOCIETY
WARGAMES CLUB FAMOUS COLLECTABLES Llandudno, LL30 3LB Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1LD Tunbridge Wells, TN3 0PR
Peterborough, PE1 1NA CORNWALL Bexhill-on-Sea,
THE DICE AND DAGGER TN40 1DU HAMPSHIRE HERTFORD BEER WHITSTABLETOP
ROLL WITH IT! GAMING CLUB ARBBL & BOARDGAMES Whitstable, CT5 1DA
Huntingdon, PE29 3TF Bude, EX23 9BL EAST YORKSHIRE Andover, SP10 1DQ Hertford, SG14 1HH
WOLDS WARGAMERS LANARKSHIRE
THE GAMES TABLE WEDNESDAY NIGHT GAMING Driffield, BLACK HOLE WARGAMERS HITCHIN HERETICS LANARKSHIRE GAMERS
Cambridge, CB24 4RP Redruth, TR15 3QY YO25 6SS Petersfield, GU32 3HS Hitchin, SG5 1XL Motherwell, ML1 1BS
CONTY TYRONE

92 January 2018

92_93_clubDirectory_v3 MJ.indd 92 12/12/2017 13:26

 LANCASHIRE TANELORN WAR OXFORDSHIRE STAFFORDSHIRE WARWICKSHIRE WILTSHIRE
BLACK TOWER GAMING CLUB ABINGDON WARGAMES CLUB WARGAMING GUILD AFTERNOON PLAY BOSCOMBE DOWN
WARGAMING London, E11 3DB Abingdon, OX14 5AG Stone, ST15 8TG Birmingham, B15 1AY & AMESBURY
Blackpool, FY4 4ND WARGAMES CLUB
THE PHOENIX GAMES CLUB AMBROSDEN GAMING CLUB TAMWORTH GAMES CLUB BOARD GAME Salisbury, SP4 7LN
BURNEY WARGAMES CLUB London, E13 Bicester, OX25 2LZ Tamworth, B79 7DJ CAFE SUMMERFIELD
Burnley, BB10 3EU Birmingham, B16 0EZ CHIPPENHAM BOARD
THE ROLE PLAY HAVEN NORTH OXFORDSHIRE TAMWORTH LIBERATORS GAMES CLUB
BURNLEY BOARDGAMERS London, E15 2HU/SE13 6LH WARGAMING CLUB GAMING CLUB BRAVO ONE GAMING Chippenham, SN15 3WL
Burnley, BB10 3LF Banbury, OX16 9AF Tamworth, B77 3AE Birmingham, B1 1QP
MERSEYSIDE
DICED TEA OXFORD GAMING CLUB DREAMDEALERS DEVIZES & DISTRICT
FORGEMASTERS THE VINE INN GAMERS
Oldham, OL1 2DB GAMING CLUB Oxford, OX2 7DP Rugeley, WS15 2AT GAMING CLUB WARGAMES GROUP
Wirral, CH63 6HD Coventry, CV6 4FE Devizes, SN10 5AD
DUNGEONS & FLAGONS OXFORD ON BOARD STIRLINGSHIRE
Manchester, M1 7HL LIVERPOOL LION Oxford, OX4 1EA FALKIRK DISTRICT GRANGE LIVE GAMING WEDNESDAY KNIGHT GAMERS
BOARDGAMERS WARGAMES CLUB Birmingham, B1 1QP Salisbury, SP1 3TA
HOUSE LANCASTER Liverpool, L3 9NS OXFORD OUTRIDERS Grangemouth, FK3 8QR
GAMING GROUP Oxford, OX1 4AG NUNEATON ALTERNATIVE WORCESTERSHIRE
Lancaster, LA1 1EE SOUTHPORT BOARD SUFFOLK GAMES ASSOCIATION BROMSGROVE
GAMES GROUP SHROPSHIRE BURY ST EDMUNDS Nuneaton, CV10 8LJ BOARD GAMERS
PRESTON BOARD GAMERS Southport, PR8 1NH BIG ORBIT GAMES BOARD GAMING GROUP Bromsgrove, B60 2DZ
Preston, PR1 7DP SHREWSBURY Bury St. Edmunds, IP30 9LH OCTOBER WARGAMES
MID GLAMORGAN Shrewsbury, SY1 1PH ASSOCIATION DRAGOON’S DEN
SALFORD AND MANCHESTER CASTLE GAMERS BRIDGEND HAVERHILL WAR Birmingham, B16 8SY Birmingham, B13 9EA
GAMING HAVEN Bridgend, CF35 6AU E-COLLECTICA GAMES GAMES CLUB
Salford, M8 0TW Shrewsbury, SY1 2DT Haverhill, CB9 9JE SCIMITAR POSTAL ORDER GEEK MEET
MIDDLESEX WARGAMES GROUP Worcester, WR1 1DN
THE HUNGRY DRAGON BATTLEUX GAMES @ THE BIRD IPSWICH BOARD GAMERS Coventry, CV3 5GT
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WEST MIDLANDS REDDITCH
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TABLETOP TUESDAYS BATH GAMING GROUP MID SUFFOLK Kidderminster, DY10 1RP
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Leicester, LE1 1PA Londonv, SW18 2PT
HOLMFIRTH GAMING CENTRE
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Holmfirth, HD9 7HP
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Loughborough, LE12 8TX York, YO32 4AQ WARGAMING @ RADSTOCK CRAWLEY WARGAMES CLUB HULL’S ANGELS
Radstock, BA3 4BD SOUTH LONDON WARLORDS Crawley, RH11 9BQ Hull, HU1 3HG
THE LEICESTER WARGAMES NORTHAMPTONSHIRE London, SE21 7BT
AND FANTASY GROUP BATTLEFIELD HOBBIES WESTON WARGAMERS CLUB DUNGEON CRAWL-EY LEEDS GAMING
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ASSOCIATION Crawley, RH11 7QG
LINCOLNSHIRE PHOENIX GAMING CLUB WSM BOARD GAMING CLUB Egham, TW20 0QT LEEDS NIGHT OWLS
BOSTON TABLETOP GAMERS Rushden, NN10 9YE Weston-super-Mare, BS22 8PD SOUTH DOWNS Leeds, LS6 1LJ
Boston, PE21 6QQ STAY ON TARGET SIEGEBREAKERS
THE BRACKLEY & SOUTH YORKSHIRE Woking, GU21 5BG Pulborough, RH20 4DR SHEFFIELD AND ROTHERHAM
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Grantham, NG31 6LJ (AKA THE BAD GAMERS) Barnsley, S75 1JR SURREY GIRL GAMERS WEST YORKSHIRE Sheffield, S2 2TP
Brackley, NN13 6LF Woking, GU21 4AL BOARD IN THE VILLAGE
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WARGAMES SOCIETY THE PIT GAMING CLUB Sheffield, S13 7LL SWIGGERS Sheffield, S3 7HG
Grimsby, DN32 9HT Wellingborough, NN9 5TU London, SE1 2TF GAMING CLUB BRADFORD
ZONE OUT GAMES CLUB Bradford, BD1 2DX
LINCOLN BOARD GAME GROUP NOTTINGHAMSHIRE Doncaster, DN1 2PX THE WOKING WEIRD BOYZ
Lincoln, LN1 3BJ K.I.A GAMES CLUB Woking, GU22 7TA HALIFAX BOARD GAMERS

LONDON
Nottingham, NG17 8LA STAFFORDSHIRE
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Halifax, HX1 1SJ
LIST YOUR
CROSS GAMING CLUB WAR & PEACE GAMES CLUB Burntwood, WS7 0JL Chessington, KT9 1PF KEIGHLEY TABLETOP COMBAT CLUB FOR FREE
London, SE1 1DX Nottingham, NG10 5BD Keighley, BD20 6EB AND SEE FULL
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BRIGHTON WARLORDS OTLEY BOARD GAMERS CLUB DETAILS
London, SE6 2TS Newark, NG24 1ER Lichfield, WS13 6EB Brighton, BN1 1UB Otley, LS21 2AU ONLINE AT
tabletopgam ing.co.uk/clubs

tabletopgaming.co.uk 93

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p094.indd 1 04/12/2017 15:58

SHOP SPOTLIGHT
ROCHESTER
GAMES, MODELS
& RAILWAYS
Victoria Stuck chats about the Kentish store’s love
of miniatures and its recent in-store gaming days
Interview by Matt Jarvis
When did Rochester Games, Models & Railways
first open? How’s the shop changed since then?
The shop first opened in 2011 in Rochester High
Street. We had a small shop which was five times
smaller than the one we have now.
Your name suggests a focus on more traditional
areas of the tabletop hobby, such as wargaming.
Why is this such an interesting area for you?
Our name – Rochester Games, Models and
Railways – says it all. We sell everything for all
three hobbies.
Do you stock many non-wargame board games?
How has your selection of games changed over
the years?
We stock a big range of board games, from
Connect Four to Poison Explosion and Firefly.
Which games have been proving particularly
popular recently?
The Walking Dead: All Out War has been huge
for us, as has Flames of War and Team Yankee.
What upcoming releases are you looking
forward to this year?
Star Wars: Legion is certainly one to watch
this year.
January 2018
095_shopSpotlight_v2 MJ.indd 95
We are always inspired by our customers and
forever grateful for their loyalty and business.
They have helped us to build upon a dream that
without them would not have been possible.
What are your future plans for Rochester
Games, Models & Railways for the rest of
2018 and beyond?
Rochester Games, Models & Railways will
always be expanding. Eventually we would like
other stores across the county, but for the time
being we will always be bringing in new ranges
and expanding those we already stock.
You recently held an in-store gaming day
for Mantic – the first the publisher has held
outside of its own HQ. How did the event go?
What did you do on the day?
Our Mantic Games day was massive. It was
one of the best events we have ever held in-
store, with lots of demo games and exclusive
goodies available.
What other events and gaming meetups for
local players do you organise?
We have weekly gaming nights on Monday,
Tuesday and Thursday.
We play everything from Star Wars and
Warhammer 40,000 to The Walking Dead
and Munchkin.
In January we have a Wild West Exodus day
coming up, and in February Warlord Games
will be joining us for a games day.
What’s the local gaming communuty
like in Rochester?
The local gaming community is huge. As our
gaming evenings are growing, so is the local
interest in gaming generally.
Many of our regulars have become close
friends and we are very lucky to have such a
great group of customers.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 95
13/12/2017 14:55
 GUERNSEY
SHOP DIRECTORY

30 Roneo Corner, Hornchurch Essex, RM12 4TN

• Tel: 01708 475051 • Email: tolehavenuk@aol.com
All your wargaming needs available through us!
GW, Flames of War, Malifaux, X-Wing, Warmachine/
Hordes, Warlord Games, Army Painter, Vallejo, KR
Multicase, Battlefoam, Mantic Games, Magic: The
Gathering, Frostgrave, 4 Ground, Knight’s Models,
Scribor, Guild Ball, Bushido, Board Games & Living
Card Games, Chessex Dice, Perry Miniatures,
Micro Art Studio’s, Quality Neodymium Magnets, ONLINE
Airbrushes, Tools, Scenery, Resin bases plus many
more brands and products.
Mail order available • Free demos • Gaming club
A new and exciting centre for many different types of
gaming in Guernsey. Come and discover for yourself
what’s in store and join in many events and activities!
Stockists of Board, Card, Computer, RPG & Video Games.
1 Church Square, St. Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 2LD
Tel: 01481 712240 Facebook: Facebook.com/JustGamesGsy
www.justgamesgsy.co.uk
an ideal accessory for a DM
£12.00
per pack
*

free p+p in UK

hand-drawn geomorphic maps

with d20 d6 d100 results
inkedadventures.com * GBP price at time of posting

www.tolehaven .co.uk Map & Dice Playing Cards

HERTFORDSHIRE ONLINE

DEVON MIDDLESBROUGH 0NLINE WALES

SUPPLYING THE WORLD’S GREATEST TABLETOP WARGAMES

12 Buckwell Street, Plymouth, PL1 2DA
Phone: 01752 604414
Facebook: G.I. Games
Email: gigamesinc@gmail.com
Boardgames • Roleplaying
• Tabletop Battle games • Collectable
card games • Miniatures • Paints
• Dungeon Saga • Warmachine
• Star Wars X-Wing • D & D
• Cthul hu and much more...
www.asgardwargames.co.uk
WARGAMING AND
HOBBY SUPPLIES: Friendly Local Table Top Game
CHEAP AND FAST! Store specialising in Pokemon,
15% off rrp discount on Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Games
Workshop and Board Games
all Warhammer and
based in Rhyl North Wales.
Warhammer 40k products Small but well stocked and
Up to massive 25% off friendly atmosphere!
The Gallery Level, The Market Hall,
GW pre-orders Shrewsbury, SY1 1HX Visit us on
At least 10-15% off everything Tel: 07804 687884 6 Russell Road, Rhyl, LL18 3BU
just off the High Street
else on our website!
e-collecticagames@hotmail.co.uk Phone: 01745 360415
71 Gilkes St, Middlesbrough www.e-collecticagames.co.uk Email: sales@portalgames.co.uk
TS1 5EH | 01642 913460 Find us on Facebook for more details
@ecollecticagame

p096_097.indd 96 12/12/2017 13:33

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p096_097.indd 97 12/12/2017 13:33

 12
1 11
2
10
9
3
8
4
5 7
6
LET’S DO LUNCH!
L
et’s Do Lunch! is a board game with a very
tenuous connection to cannibalism –not
something I would have expected to see
coming from a large game publisher, in this
case Hasbro, in the year 2000. The game itself
is actually quite good fun; it’s one of those games that
entices you in with simple rules and then as you play
forces you to develop some strategy and start thinking
more carefully about piece placement. The box is
colourful, the plastic miniatures are all nicely detailed
and the board looks good. This is a game that plays
well and has high production values.
From a social anthropology point of view, Let’s Do
Lunch! is certainly an interesting item. Firstly, we need
to dispose of the idea that the theme of cannibalism in
some way enhances the game. The game could have
been themed in many different ways – in fact, there
is a digital game for the PC called Flower Power that
is essentially the same game with the same rules but
a different theme. Actually, the process of planting
flowers in Flower Power makes even more sense with
regards to the rules than that of placing cannibals on
the board; the cannibalism element has no relationship
or effect on the game other than as an attempt to create
something unusual for marketing purposes.
The cover of the box shows two characters from
opposing tribes: one in the cooking pot being boiled
for the other’s lunch. The character in the pot has a ring
though his nose and the chef has a bone tied in her hair.
98 January 2018
098_tabletopTimeMachine_v2 MJ.indd 98
The earliest record of this imagery I know of
is from an 1872 publication called All the Year
Round, which presented a story of a young
white sailor coming into contact with native
islanders with “a brass ring through his
hideous nose” and “the thigh-bone of a man
stuck horizontally through his matted hair”.
These ideas are designed to present an image
of the uncivilised savage and would have
been a fairly typical scene of distant island
stereotypes in the 1800s, but as a marketing
theme in the year 2000 it’s a more unusual move.
The theme continues inside the box; the game’s
components are all miniatures of tribal savages in a
similar vein, some with what appears to be dreadlocked
hair and others with tribal spears. While there is evidence
of cannibalism throughout several historical cultures, no
single culture fits the stereotype of boiling missionaries in
a pot on some far-off South Pacific island.
There’s a reason you don’t see this picture of
cannibalism in popular media today. The ideas of
cannibalism that were presented and accepted until
the 1970s are a damaging stereotype that borrows from
different tribal styles and practices and blends them
into a narrative of the uncivilised native. Unfortunately
this narrative does exactly what it was supposed to do:
skew the worldview and place Western civilisation as
a superior culture by creating a fictional lens through
which we can alienate other cultures.
Words Phil Robinson
Phil Robinson is a game
historian and the founder
of the Museum of Gaming,
an organisation that
explores and documents
the history of gaming
through its collections,
exhibitions and research.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
11/12/2017 17:22
 IN FEBRUARY’S ISSUE ON S AL E JAN UARY 30 T H

BATMAN
THE BOARD GAME
Holy board game, Batman! The makers
of Conan are back in black with their
action-packed take on the Dark Knight
– and we’ve got a first look

HOW MINIS
ARE MADE
Following the fascinating
process that produces
high-quality models for the
tabletop from start to finish

MASKS OF
NYARLATHOTEP
One of the greatest
roleplaying campaigns
ever written returns

FREE
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Grab your exclusive
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do battle in Arena:
For the Gods!

HEARTHSTONE: MAGIC’S DIGITAL RIVAL PLAYS ITS CARDS

EDUCATING WITH EVOLUTION | VALENTINE GAMES TO LOVE
tabletopgaming.co.uk 99

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Game of Thrones Catan - Tabletop Gaming.indd 1 01/12/2017 13:23:27
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