In this bonus episode of UnderDiscussion WDR and I discuss The Settlers of Catan, an excellent board game that is the example of euro-style games. In this episode we also discuss a few Catan stories as well as some of the expansions that the game has to offer.
This link to the official Settlers of Catan homepage might be useful.
Here’s the link to our iTunes feed.
Here’s the link to the UnderDiscussion RSS Feed.
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The Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition Rulebook arrived this past weekend and I am the proud owner of a copy. It is impressive just based on the sheer size(531 pages) of the tome, which is nice but not what really matters. Upon opening, the book reveals that the oft maligned folks at Games Workshop labored long and lovingly to produce a beautiful and comprehensive tome detailing all aspects of the Warhammer Fantasy game. The book is printed in full color throughout and the numerous illustrations and photographs are frequently awe (and game) inspiring. The ribbon bookmark built into the spine is a nice touch and has proved quite useful.
Something I consider vital to a good rule book is ease of reference and the table of contents and index of the book is clear and useful. The rules section takes up the first 153 pages of the book. It starts with basic information about dealing with the models and then proceeds to present the basic rules in the order that they apply during a turn of the game. This is followed by a lengthy section covering the myriad special rules required by the variety of unit types and factions in the game. The rules are filled with well written and easily understood examples of play, most with illustrated examples.
After the rules section, there is a section entitled “The Warhammer World”. It begins with the rich history of the Warhammer World, including a timeline. Also in this section, the background and motivation of all the factions available in the game are explored. There are some truly striking pieces of art in this section of the book.
The heart of a table top miniatures game is the miniatures themselves and the third section of the book is jealousy inducing proof. It is 100 pages of painted miniatures categorized by their faction. This “Miniatures Showcase” section culminates in several pages of advise about the assembly and painting of an army.
The final section of the tome is a section entitled “WarhammerBattles” and details how to use and create scenario based battles. It has information on how to run a campaign and how to gamemaster a battle. I also features several narrative battle and a section on what they call legendary battles, which includes a battle report and a listing of participating units for the battle discussed. This section should be a boon to gaming groups that choose to take the time to use the design tools provided. I certainly look forward to gamemastering battles between my friends.
I have chosen not to go into a profound discussion of the rules because they are legion and most are written by those with more experience. The bottom line is that the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition Rulebook is worth the money I spent on it. In fact, despite the $75 price tag , I would say you get more than you pay for. The book is so impressive that it will draw new players into the hobby by its presentation and it just doesn’t get better than that.
Howdy folks, 8one6 here with a little review. Thanks to developments I’ve been granted a little more free time than I used to have. I’ve been spending the time helping out with the Pulp Fiction move and working on a few personal projects (getting the second draft of the novel knocked out, working on plot hooks for a few games, ect) and also I’ve been watching a lot more tv. How much more you might ask? Good question phantom question asker! You get a cookie and a short review!
Yes folks I’ve watched most of Buffy the Vampire Slayer over the past few days. Specifically I’ve watched all of seasons 1-4 and the musical episode of season 6. Basically the good parts of Buffy. Not to rag on the later seasons, but the show really started to drag after she and the Scooby Gang left High School. I gave the first college season a go because that was the first season that I started watching the show when it first aired. Sure, reviewing an entire series when I’ve only watched little more than a half of it might not be fair, but I seriously doubt that the producers of the show were expecting to make anything other than fast cash with the last two seasons (hell, Buffy dies at the end of season 5 because they expected the show to be over at the time.) so I don’t think I’m doing it any sort of injustice.
Anyway, the first three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were really good, with a lot of ups and down and the cast shows a lot of emotional growth and character development. It was really good at depicting the life of an average high schooler during the end of the nineties. Well, the average super good looking but still losers anyway high schoolers. You know what I’m talking about. I’m sure that everyone reading this post has been in that position. Oh ya, and fought the forces of darkness from time to time.
The fourth season when they leave high school and go to college is when the show starts to get painful. It’s not bad, necessarily, just that the setup for the season’s big bad was a little flat (though it does answer the question of how the govt couldn’t possibly not know what the heck is going on. Ha Ha, double negative.) The “hidden morals” were a lot less hidden (“Beer makes you a caveman!”) and a few characters were derailed (I’m thinking Xander here for basically being forever glued into the loser box and for the show for ditching Oz midway through the season.) I would only recommend the foutch season if you really wanted to watch something mindlessly entertaining.
The one other bright spot of Buffy was the brilliant musical episode in season six. If you have netflix it is worth adding it to your instant queue just for that episode alone. Don’t watch the rest of that season though, it wasn’t very good. (an example, the big bad for the season are three nerds that had minor recurring roles from the previous seasons. Seriously.)
The first three seasons get a solid recommend, the forth one gets a “meh” and the highlight for season six is the musical episode. Avoid the rest of it like the plague.
Oh, ya, and spoiler alert for that whole season five Buffy death thing.
This week’s bonus podcast episode is the first of our board game reviews. For the occasion we’ve decided to cover a lot of people’s gateway euro game: carcassonne!
Here’s the link to our iTunes feed.
Here’s the link to the UnderDiscussion RSS Feed.
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