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11th February 2024: I Actually Painted Some Things

It's been a long time since I really knuckled down and painted something, but just before Christmas, Scoob's enthusiasm for his new Nid army started to stir the desire in me again.

I first painted some more of the Epic Evil Sunz. Those poor Orks. I just keep teasing them with the possibility of finally being finished, and then move on to something else.

Case in point, rather than carry on with the little Orks, I instead switched my attention to the Callidus Assassin that I'd stripped of paint and shoddy green stuff a few years ago.

To make up for my horrendous first effort at painting this model, I thought I should really try this time, and painted her up about as good as I am capable. It doesn't really mean much, as it's still not great, but I'm happy enough with the end result.

After painting that model, which was my first 40K model in some years, I moved on to something entirely different. For some reason, I felt like painting the character figures from my old copy of Cluedo: Super Sleuth, which is a game I've owned since the 1990s and have never played. At the same time as painting those, I thought I may as well paint the four detectives from the City Of Angels game as well.

All I want for Christmas is the love of painting

All I want for Christmas is the love of painting

It's spraying time

It's spraying time


Here's my Callidus Assassin, Xenia Koza, back and ready for action.

Not Lady Deadpool. Honest.

Not Lady Deadpool. Honest.


Still not sure why I felt such an urge to paint these, as I've never used them and maybe never will.

But I used to really love Cluedo as a kid, and they will be ready on the very small chance that they will ever be needed again.

Which one is the murderer?

Which one is the murderer?


What a bunch of dicks!

Still can't wait to get this game to the tabletop and use the full rules. Hopefully, the other players will be as interested in it as I was.

Can't believe it's been three years already since I played through the solo variant. Holy shit.

Alright, pay attention, you dicks

Alright, pay attention, you dicks


Not long ago, I had a look online if there were any good print & play games available. One that popped up on a few people's lists was a little game called Sprawlopolis.

For some weird reason, I thought print & play games were all free, but it turns out I was very mistaken. Still, this one was only £3, and looked interesting, so I picked it up.

The game has you placing cards to form a city, and then see how well you did depending on three randomly selected scoring conditions.

In my first game, I needed to get a total of 31 points in order to win, and I managed a very comfortable 38.

Thinking I'd already cracked the game, I had a second attempt. The scoring conditions were Master Planned, Concrete Jungle, and The Outskirts, meaning I needed just 16 points to win this time.

In a polar opposite outcome to the first game, I only managed a measly 7 points, leading to complete failure.

With one win and one loss under my belt, I then played a 3 player game where we had to get 25pts in order to win. We only got 3 combined points from two of our scoring conditions, but the third one, called Looping Lanes, allowed us to score a whopping 30 points, and brought our total to 37.

It's a fun, quick little game that really makes you think. Not sure how much play it will get in group situations, but there's always the option for more solo play.

Strange that Master Planned has rocked up as one of my scoring conditions in all three of my games. I wonder if I'll ever get to see the city blocks on the other side of that card.

Fabricating my city blocks

Fabricating my city blocks

My city sprawls far and wide

My city sprawls far and wide

We create quite a racing circuit

We create quite a racing circuit


Just yesterday I got to play my first ever game of 7 Wonders, the card-drafting, civilisation-building classic, that seems very well regarded amongst board gamers.

The basics of the game were easy to pick up, and though we realised later that we'd made a simple rules error, we were soon quite into it.

What was quite interesting to note is that we all went with very different tactics in order to try and win. I went a very science route, while my bro-in-law went very trade-heavy, building up his treasure, and my sister went almost full military.

While I came last, we were all within 5 points of each other, which we were quite impressed by.

I'm looking forward to playing it with a couple more players, so that everyone can't interact with everyone else.

I Wonder why I keep losing

I Wonder why I keep losing

16th January 2024: Insert Some Order

Not sure if I'm too paranoid or not, but I really prefer to sleeve all my cards in the board games I own. The problem is, many games come in boxes, or with box inserts, that just do not support the size of card sleeves. For example, look at what happened when I sleeved Viking Raiders:

I don't think these cards fit in this box

I don't think these cards fit in this box

Not only does the box not close properly any more, I had to take the insert out just to get the cards to even fit in the box at all. Daft.

But if that wasn't bad enough, I next decided to have a go at Godfather: Last Family Standing. Not only was this insert not big enough, but it was also glued into the box.

To get it out, I had to cut and tear at it, until it came free. This had the unwanted effect of damaging the inside of the box, so I had to fix some card to the bottom using double-sided tape. After this was done, I glued in some foam core to the right height, so that there was plenty of room for the cards and the boards.

Get off my land, you stupid insert

Get off my land, you stupid insert

Much better

Much better


My next little box improvement session came when I had to have a wrestling match with King Of New York. I've owned the Power Up! expansion for this for years, but never used it, so I wanted it to be in the box. After sleeving those cards, I also downloaded and prepared the print'n'play Power Up! cards for the monsters that come in King Of Tokyo, so also needed a place for those.

My original insert for this game had already been sliced and diced to fit the sleeved main card deck, but it was not going to be possible to use it at all with the Power Up! cards.

So I've made some little trays to fit several of the components in, which should support the board on top, and leave room for all the other components, which I have bagged.

Power Up! print proceedings

Power Up! print proceedings

Making it fit

Making it fit


There have been a few game sessions over the past couple of months, mostly consisting of Codenames and Secret Hitler. The one stand out was when we got to play Whitehall Mystery for the first time, a game I have wanted to play for years.

In this one, I took on the role of Jack The Ripper, and tried to dump my murder victim's body in 4 pieces around the city.

However, as I made my way to the last dumping point, the three cops managed to catch up with me and slap on those handcuffs. These hidden movement games really are quite difficult for the villains.

On the run from the rozzers

On the run from the rozzers

10th November 2023: Print Me A Gamey Worthy Of Boardor

There's been a lot of printing, cutting, sleeving and laminating going on recently, as I've been working on even more games to bring to the tabletop.

Up first, I got the new version of Secret Hitler, in Secret Sith Lord, all finished and ready for some action. I even managed to come up with a better plan than the paper envelopes we'd been using all these years, as they would constantly wear out and would need to be replaced. Especially if alcohol was involved.

The next game to get some attention was Black Sonata. I'd printed out the tokens for its expansion back when I printed the base game. But I've only now pulled my finger out and printed all of the expansion cards. The expansion is called the Fair Youth, which means in addition to finding who the Dark Lady is, you also have to go around looking for the Fair Youth. Sounds a bit dodgy to me, Shakespeare.

The final game in this little print marathon is a bit of a dodgy one. I've been wanting Whitehall Mystery ever since I saw gameplay on Youtube a few years back. But it was unavailable here in the UK for ages, and Scotland Yard did nothing to quench my desire.

The damn thing is, it seems at some point earlier this year, there were a few copies of another print run available here. But like the idiot I am, I completely missed it, and now they're all gone again.

So I've been a bit of a dodgy geezer, and printed my own, until it's (hopefully) available yet again. I just need to make a screen for Jack to use, which I can also use when the printing police come looking for me.

Just print more copies of the game! Jackasses!

There is no civility, only politics.

There is no civility, only politics.

All this work is not fair

All this work is not fair

It's a mystery

It's a mystery


Now I'd finally got the Black Sonata expansion fully printed, I decided it was time to bring this game to the table again.

Up first, I thought it prudent to play a vanilla game without any expansion content, to help me remember the game.

This first effort did not go according to plan. The Dark Lady's double backs along her route confused me, and on subsequent laps I could only manage vague recollections of where she'd been. Because of this, I searched many times in empty locations. However, I managed to get two good searches on her late on and managed to win. The victory was quite hollow, however, as I had no fog cards left, and only 4 cards in the stealth deck on its last rotation.
This all gave me a meagre 4 points.

Just a warm up, though. I hoped.

In the second game, I made it much harder and much easier at the same time. I chose a more difficult route for the stealth deck, used the tougher Dark Lady cards from the expansion, and also added in the Fair Youth component. However, what turned the game in my favour was that I allowed myself to take notes this time. I have no idea if you're "supposed" to be allowed to do this, but it really did make it much easier.

For the Dark Lady's first rotation, I jotted down all the landmarks she visited, while I went all over the board hunting for clues about the Fair Youth's hideout. So at the end of that rotation, I sat there and worked out a good chunk of her route, as well as nailed down where the Fair Youth was hiding.

So, after I got enough clues to the Dark Lady's identity, I was able to successfully finish the game with both tasks completed and 44 points in my back pocket. A much better effort, but one that I would never have managed without keeping the notes.

Losing the Dark Lady's trail. Again.

Losing the Dark Lady's trail. Again.

Where's that bloomin' hideout?

Where's that bloomin' hideout?

There's method to my madness

There's method to my madness

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