Archives November 2021

First announced at Gen Con but now the Khorne Skull-tribe Slaughterers have arrived for Blood bowl!

Blood Bowl remains the only sports game of any type I have ever been interested in and the only tabletop sports game I have played. For a game with blood in the name though there is just not enough representation for Khorne, the blood god. Apparently Games Workshop agreed because not only did they release the Skull-tribe Slaughterers, they also sent us a review set to try on the pitch! The very first team I played with the original edition of the game was the original metal team for Chaos and I had painted them to be followers of Khorne. Sadly they did not survive my move to Arizona in ’98. Games Workshop already released two other Chaos themed teams but this is the first that is Khorne specific. Of course my memory of the original game is quite limited and there may have been a Khorne team there and I’ve forgotten but none that my Google skills have found. reference

What makes this team stand out, other than playing dirty, is the fact that they play to win. Not in a sense of achieving victory but because the better they rank then the better foes the fight. Those better foes mean a more glorious kill in the name of their god Khorne.

Here’s how to boost your team using Games Workshop:

This pitch seems to have disappeared from the store itself but I suspect it will return. It is also a must for any Khorne player. This is aesthetics only, no benefit in the game comes from home turf other than a morale boost for the player. Who wouldn’t want to see their opponent squirm looking at this board?

These cards are not entirely essential but to streamline the game the sure as hell are, plus the dirty play cards aren’t found anywhere else I’ve noticed.

Themed dice are always a win in my book but if you’re on a budget they are not necessary. Rumors are that they roll better though…

This was the first issue I’ve ever looked at of Spike and I was amazed at how awesome this is. If you are playing with a team that does not come from a core box then you need this supplement for both the rules and details about the characters. It even has a sample roster for newer players!

How to boost your team with the help of Forge World:

Check out the Bloodspawn- what Khornite coach would not want this monster of a star player. The sculpt alone is intimidating.

For coaches looking for a more unique team can order the Team Booster as well. No special stats, just unique models.

Enter Scyla Anfingrimm, another Bloodspawn but one of the most dynamic and amazing Blood Bowl models I have ever seen. I mean look at that Wood Elf player he’s smashing!

Lastly we have Max Spleenripper. If his name didn’t tell you everything you needed to know then the model itself will. I have never seen a Blood Bowl player with a chainsword, let alone anyone in the Warhammer Fantasy or Age of Sigmar realms.

With the exception of the Forge World items we were able to receive a review copy of this team and out of the three teams we currently have these are by far our favorite.

The team at Exploding Kittens have returned with a reskinning of their hit card game with Exploding Minions and it is a blast!

Exploding Minions follows the same overall ruleset of Exploding Kittens but with some minor variations, such as fewer character cards to match and a new clone type of card. Cloning a card essentially allows you to duplicate the effects of an existing card. Players take turns playing cards to try to make the others explode. If you draw the Exploding Minion and have a defuse you can place the minion back in the deck wherever you see fit and hope that your opponent doesn’t have one as well.

Meet my youngest daughter Emmy. She is a fan of card games and especially anything where I might lose. She is learning to read and only six years old at the time of writing. The game recommends players be seven or older due to needing some reading skills beyond her age group but comprehending the effects are well within her skillset. She was my opponent for our review game and was assisted by my wife whom read the cards for her and helped her understanding their effects.

Quickly she had the game down and only needed a reminding of which abilities belonged to which cards and we had our game. Playing two games we had the same outcome each time- she won. Keep in mind I was not letting her win. She is a skilled adversary and I look forward to our next games together.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar unleashes the Endless Spells with Forbidden Power and Malign Sorcery!

With the release of Warhammer Age of Sigmar Third Edition and the General’s Handbook we saw new stats for our favorite Endless Spells, followed by a rerelease of Forbidden Power and Malign Sorcery! Prior to this release my only experience with Game Workshop’s Endless Spells was simply knowing they existed and to remedy that issue our friends at Games Workshop supplied us review copies of both sets. After the Necroquake ravaged the lands of the Eight Realms, summoned magics we unleashed and went out of control. These spells can be summoned to help lead you to victory but some may hurt you just as much as your enemies.

The beauty of the Malign Sorcery box is that these Endless Spells are not specific to any one Grand Alliance or army. The trick will be to properly gauge timing and placement of your spell to maximize it’s effects and limit the damage you receive yourself. You have a couple options when controlling these spells, you can send them towards your target, send them off the board or try to dispel them. There are variations that are army specific like the Stormcast Eternals or Daughter’s of Khaine for example.

I used the spells for the first and second time recently. The first attempt the Malevolent Maelstrom was reversed by my son and ravaged my front lines. Our second match I used Suffocating Gravetide and drove it off the map before he could hit me with it again. These spells added a whole new dynamic to our games that I’ve never experienced prior and they were a hell of a lot of fun, even when they killed my own troops. Using the links above you can order your own set of each- Malign Sorcery is the more universal of the two and Forbidden Power’s models look amazing, you can even use some of the pieces to kit bash an evil bone bridge as well (I’m trying to justify a second set for this reason alone).

Faraday Protocol is a puzzle-centric first person shooter and platformer by Red Koi Box and available on Xbox One and Steam.

In Faraday Protocol you play as Raug Zeekon, an explorer/adventurer, landing your spaceship on Opis. As you leave your ship you are greet by a voice that puts you through a series of trials to test your mettle. Do you have what it takes? The AI is going to find out. Each chamber in the Ziggurats pose puzzles and challenges that increase in difficulty as you progress. Some allow you convert energy types, while others transport it from one chamber to another. Some will even power elevators.

The puzzles themselves, for the most part, are quite easy, they just require some out of the box thinking at times. There are a couple that seem much more difficult. These rare puzzles, at least to the point I’ve completed so far, offer easy solutions that require a bit of creativity. The story is a bit lackluster but the ingenuity of the puzzles more than makes up for it. If you enjoy creative puzzles that require some critical thinking to solve the $25 price tag may be appropriate but I feel it is just too high for what you get out of the game.

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON A FEW THAT I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios- their home page is here) had sent me codes to several of the movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. Part 1 was all about Underwater and Part 2 focused on The New Mutants. Part 3 we talked about The Personal History of David Copperfield. Part 4 discussed The Empty Man. Part 5 talked about Nomadland and Speed 4K Ultra HD. Part 6 discussed The Night House and Free Guy. We are back with Part 7 and The Eyes of Tammy Faye!

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Having grown up in a religious household I was aware who Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker were but thankfully my family was not one that watched them or their shows. The film follows the rise and fall of the televangelist duo and as those who were following the story originally will remember things weren’t as good as the duo would want the world to think. The story was well done but contextually was not something I would be interested in. Despite my lack of interest the film was captivating and both Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield deliver the best performances I have seen from either of them previously.

Warhammer Underworlds returns for another season with Harrowdeep and this time you take the fight under the waves.

Taking place in the Realm of Shadows, Harrowdeep takes players to a maze beneath the sea. Xandire’s Truthseekers face off against the Da Kunnin Krew but will later be joined by others. Take your existing warband or one of these new ones under the Shadowsea for a competitive experience like no other (with the exception of previous iterations of Warhammer Underworlds). With the original announcement we also learned that there will be two core sets released each year going forward, two additional warband releases and with them a new rivals format to the game.

Here is the official roadmap for Harrowdeep (hint the first warband is pirates):

As mentioned above the Q1 warband is a pirate themed Destruction warband and nothing officially is known about the Q2 warband. If the image is anything to go on I suspect whatever faction they are will have lightning based abilities. The obvious answer is likely another Stormcast Eternals warband but I think we will see something more unique, perhaps a Tzeentch warband or even better would be a Cities of Sigmar warband with a wizard of some sort (with a lightning spell or two).

What is Rivals?

Rivals is a new way of playing the game without all the deck building mechanics. Essentially this is to allow players to dive right in with their new warbands immediately after they are built using a predefined deck. The focus is to allow newer players to jump in without having to search for years of cards to build their decks. Personally I’ve always played this way because when reviewing I play the game with the prebuilt decks in the box. Those that play in the Championship format will still be able to build their decks as they did before, just not as part of the Rivals style of the game.

Overall thoughts:

To start with I must admit this box was provided to us by Games Workshop for the purpose of this review but their generosity has no bearing on our opinion. With the somewhat recent release of Dominion I have learned to really enjoy the Stormcast Eternals faction and absolutely love Kruelboyz. The sculpts in this box are fantastic for both factions and the box is worth picking up for those alone. Additionally the new map boards are gorgeous. Gameplay has been tweaked slightly for the new realm and the double support rolls on defense dice when standing in a Gloom token means that you will have a better chance of survival with the weaker warbands. The addition of Grand Alliance cards is a HUGE bonus for those with other warbands and making some of the upgrades leave upon injury adds further complexity to the game. Personally I can’t wait for my next game as I plan on trying out either my Soulblight Gravelord Vampires or my Slaves to Darkness warband in the new setting. The only thing I am disappointed in with this release is that this is the first that did not have an accompanying novel from Black Library. Time will tell if we will see one over the next year but I sincerely hope we do.

Exploding Kittens has created their own take on a gaming classic, Charades, with On A Scale Of One To T-Rex.

Any time Exploding Kittens releases a game we look forward to it. Consistently their titles are among our family’s favorites so when they shared this with us we were more than excited. With Charades players try to get others to guess what they are pretending to be. I have always been terrible at this as most of the connections I make to different people or things most people weren’t making. You also can’t use any words to give hints either. On A Scale Of One To T-Rex flips some of these rules on their head.

With this game it doesn’t matter who knows what you are trying to act out, what matters is how intensely you do it. If you and another player have the same intensity level then you get points. On top of that the players all do theirs at the same time. When doing this in a large group can make things pretty loud quickly. Being the father of three things tend to get loud but that is where the problem with this game was for us. Two of my children have sensory issues and the volume of the game became too much for them.

For a party game this can be quite fun, just need to make sure anyone with sensory issues aren’t around while you play, it can get a bit overwhelming for them.

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO WARNER BROS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON THOSE I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at Warner Bros (their home page is here) had sent me codes to some of their movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. For the first part of this series we talked about Scoob, Birds of Prey, The Way Back, Goonies 4K, Beetlejuice 4K, Full Metal Jacket, Sherlock Holmes 4K and Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows 4K. Part 2 ‘twas massive and discussed V for Vendetta 4K, 300 4K, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4K, The Hobbit Trilogy 4K, Blade 4K, Bill and Ted Face the Music, Tenet and The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Part 3 talked about Wonder Woman 1984, The Little Things and Judas and the Black Messiah. Part 4 discussed Tom and Jerry the Movie and Godzilla Vs Kong. Part 5 was all about Wrath of Man, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Space Jam. Part 6 had discussed Mortal Kombat and Those Who Wish Me Dead. Part 7 discussed In the Heights, The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 20 Years of Movie Magic edition. Part 8 discussed A Clockwork Orange, Space Jam: A New Legacy and Shawshank Redemption. We have returned for Part 9 to talk about The Suicide Squad and Reminiscence!

The Suicide Squad

This is the first film in the DC cinematic universe by James Gunn, and hopefully not the last. The squad has been assembled to remove another threat to the world, this time with two squads. Once again Margot steals the show as Harley Quinn as her team tries to rescue her. Out of the current cinematic universe this is by far THE BEST installment yet. It is even a close second behind Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

Reminiscence

Global warming has caused the world to flood and with it the military and law enforcement have begun utilizing the ability to view memories at command. Nick, played by Hugh Jackman, is a private investigator skilled in the process of viewing these memories and calling up specific details to either help with a case, help a woman relive time with a past love or even as simple as helping a woman find her keys. The story is wonderfully told and really captures Nick’s desperation as he tries to find the woman he loves.