Warhammer 40000: The Farlands Way

Thursday Night Gaming just gone, I had a absolutely fantastic game if 40k with a friend. We played Grey Knights vs Necrons, 4 objectives, random vps, in each table quarter. During the aftermath, we discussed just why this game was so good.

Now when we usually play, we stick to the rules to the letter, in a pseudo tournament style of play. In this game, we made a few changes.

1. We forgot the tape measure. Both of us. Luckily, we has a chain that measured 24 inches, so most measurements could be worked out.
2. We made rules up on the spot. If something happened that we thought would be fun, we house ruled it and just did it.
3. Some of the army specific rules for the Necrons we took back to the previous codex rules.

All these together left us with a game where we basically goofed around and just had FUN. With friends, I believe that with any game fun is the biggest factor. I have no problems with changing some rules around to make it more enjoyable for both people. This game told much more of a story than usual, there were some truly epic scale assaults that went on, and some sneaky moves by the Necrons.

I think the biggest thing was the forgetting of the tape measure. It came down to that we stopped measuring for a lot of things, such as movement and assault distance, and just approximated the 6 inches. When shooting, if we were a half inch out, it still hit.

Give it a go yourself. Get a good friend, and just play a game, and change something around. Don't change the actual mechanics, such as to hit or leadership tests, but just play in a relaxed way and have fun with it. This is the way that I think that I will play with friends. I found the stories that came out much better than saying your squad cannot be hit because your enemy is one sixteenths of a inch out of range.

Fun in a ball

So I picked this up from a charity shop on one of my travels. I think that these are called Mazeballs, but what I do know is that these are a lot of fun.

The idea, get the ball from one end of the maze to the goal at the end. A simple premise, but with (on this example) three different ways to the end, each one getting harder and longer. Even the first track is challenging, a real test of manual dexterity and concentration.

Playing along with the clock is a great way to pass away some time on your own, but, these really shine when you bring in a friend, and a clock, as you race each other to the best times, sharing strategies and ways of beating the game.

All in all, these are fantastic ways to pass some time, especially if you do not want to break out a solo RPG or game that takes time to set up.

I have played this for hours on end, and would recommend that you pick one up if you see one. Even at full price, if I see a different version I shall be picking one up straight away.

Review: Pirate Fluxx

Fluxx is a long running card game made by the wonderfully named Looney Labs, and these games truly are looney.

One of the simplest games I have ever played, this Pirate Version brings a lot of fun to the table again. The idea of the game is to complete the goal placed by a player, which usually consists of getting two cards in play that match the goal, and you win. It sounds simple, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong.

Green cards are called keepers, and go in front of you. These are the cards that you win with. Blue cards are actions, which can move cards around, to letting you look and pick a card from the discard pile. Yellow rules change the rules of the game itself, from the starting draw 1, play 1, to things such as draw 5, or creating a hand limit of only 1. Pink cards are goals, and change how to win the game. And black cards, Creepers, mean you cannot possibly win if you have it in front of you.

All the rules are simple, just do what they say (my favourite has to be draw a extra card if you talk like a pirate during your turn...awesome!)

This is a real fun game, as you could be about to win and someone changes the goal, then you set about trying to reset it back, or go for the next goal. Mechanically, there’s not a lot. Do as the cards say, and your fine. The artwork in this is great as usual, but I noticed not as comic like as Zombie Fluxx, but still fits the theme of this one great.

Set up time is as long as it take to shuffle some cards, and play time ranges from 1 minute up to about 30 at most, with most games being in the 10-15 minute range depending one how silly you are with voices. All in all, a really fun game at a reasonable price.

One last thing that I like about these games: they are all compatible with each other. The backs are all the same, so you can mix and match as you want, so zombie-pirates are the way to go with our next game I think...

Pirate Fluxx is in stock over at the Farlands Games e-shop.