COD: Black ops 2 Zombies

Over the past months, this is the one game that I have been constantly coming back to. Forget the campaign and the multiplayer, this is one game I cannot put down.

For people that do not know, it is part of Black Ops 2, available on PS3, Xbox and PC. At its heart, it is just a hoard mode, with lots of zombies to dispatch of. With a few modes, survival is the most fun. Start with nothing, and build your weapons and money up by killing the undead hoard, and survive as long as possible.

The game quickly racks up the speed and pace, and can get overwhelming very fast.


In further articles I hope to describe some of my tactics that help me to get further in the game, and I hope that there will be some information there that will help some people raise there game.

In all, this is one game that I would recommend to anyone that likes FPS games. Its tense, and rewards players who play and practice and strive to get better. Playing online is fun to, but the one thing I found is that playing with people that you don't know makes this game much harder. Get your regualar gaming buddies together, and plug your headset in, and you will be in good stead for a great night of intense gaming.

Gaming Boards Mark II

 Over the past week we have been busy making some gaming boards. These ones are a post apocalypse wasteland, ideal for 40k!

The pictures do the little justice, in person they are much more impressive. Measuring a square 4ft by 4ft, these are perfect to go on the dining room table for battles.

Built in are the secret hatches that I mentioned in a earlier post, which give a fast track route for the canny warlord.

The boards are quite hardy, and stood up well to a intense game at Thursday Night Gaming, and they have yet to be varnished.

These actual boards are destined for ebay, so I can make space for the next project.

If you would like some boards like this, I will produce them for the small sum of just £50 for a 4 by 4, or £70 for a 6 by 4ft table, to your specifications. Postage will be around £20-25 by courier, but you are more than welcome to arrange to pick them up yourself. Contact me over at Facebook.

Bitten by the MMORPG bug...

So my friend had been badgering me for a while to sign up for EvE online, so I decided to take up the free trial and see what it was all about.

Let me just say, I'm not a huge fan of computer games, and over the last few years has mainly been focused on Sonic and Mortal Kombat on the Xbox 360. Stepping into the online world was a odd feeling I must say, 25,000 people all playing the same game, together, was to be frank, a bit odd to me.

EvE is a massive space exploration game set in the far future. Its like a modern day Elite, with a few key differences, but there really are many many paths to glory in this game. No path to win, as its a completely open ended game. Which is something I like about RPG's, so why not a computer game?

So I delved in to EvE, and I have to say, WOW! I could not have been more wrong. It really is immersive, with great sound and graphics, and a real sandbox go anywhere do anything style of game play. I am just looking around at the moment, trying to understand how it actually works. I liken this to trying to learn the whole of the D&D core rulebook in one sitting. Confusing, but there are lots of people in the game who will help you out and point you in the right direction (as well as people who just want to blow you up, but hey, I'm just running away from them until I can fight back!)

I will write a post in the next few days, to tell you all about my impressions of this game. I am just on a trial account at the moment, and do not know yet if I shall subscribe. If the game keeps on delivering though, I may just pay for a extra month...

EvE online has just been updated with a new expansion, Inferno 1.2, and with a 14 day free trial, what’s stopping you?

WH40k table is getting there!

The Thursday Night Gaming WH40k board is taking shape! Boy, do I have a lot of work to do to get this finished, lets hope its at least 50% done by next week!

Its very kill team inspired, and I hope to get game running where one side defends, then switch around for the next game. I might even right up a small campaign to go with this. If you like the look of this, and you are local, then come to Thursday Night Gaming with a kill team army, and lets play the night away!

Thursday Night Gaming is held at the Thimblemill Pub, Smethwick, every Thursday from 730pm onwards, £2 entry. Every type of game is played, from Scrabble and Monopoly right the way up to Warhammer. Go to www.facebook.com/farlandsgames for more information!

Gaming Groups

Are you part of a gaming group in the UK? Do you run a gaming group?

If you can answer yes to either of those questions, then do we have a offer for you. Farlands Games will happily supply your gaming group with games at a (very) large discount. I'm not going to say how much on here, but its definatly worth it.

There are different discounts to, depending on how much you and your group want to spend, starting at £200 and going all the way up to £1000+.

So tell the people who run your groups, or just group together with some mates, and send me a email, at admin@farlandsgames.co.uk with Group Order as the title with your details, what you would like. I will then get back to you to confirm and give you a price. P&P extra, but I will do the best I can. All orders will be with you within 4 days.

Thursday Night Gaming 26/07/12

It's nearly upon us again, and boy, is this week going to be a good one!

There shall be this week the following games:

Monopoly
Scrabble
Dominion
Talisman
Formula D
Railways of the World: The card game
LOGO
Chess/Draughts
Cribbage
Packs or cards lying around
Connect4 Advanced
MageStones

And thats all what I shall be taking from my collection! Hopefully there will be many more bought down by other people!

I regret that there will be no Warhammer 40000 this week, as I am in the process of making a new battlefield. A couple of weeks and it shall be back!

So come on down, and lets play some games!!!

Thursday Night Gaming 19/7/12

The night went very well again! There was a different turnout of people, but it matched the same amount as last week.

Everyone enjoyed themselves, with many games going on. On one table was a three way game of Scrabble going on, and from the words that were going down I would not have stood a chance. On another table was a rather fun looking game, Yahtzee Poker. I didn’t get chance to play this, but it looks like a great, fast and fun party game. I am going to have to check this one out, as I could not quite grasp the rules from the quick look that I got.

The main event, which I participated in was a rather awesome game of Warhammer 40000. We had decided on a 1000 point game, and I used a alliance of Orks and Space Marines, against the might that are the Grey Knights. I had 43 models on my side, including the Dakkajet, and the Grey Knights were only 11 models strong. And I got the beating of my life in this game. To say that I have only ever lost 3 games of 40k in the past 6 years, this was a shock. Grey Knights are just stupidly over powered (which is why now, I think my next army will be them...). I can't even see a strategy that could overcome them, but there must be one. The game took the best part of the night, and the 6^th edition rules really shined through in this game.

After that, a few round of Magestones whilst we waited for the others to finish their games, then we finished up on a game of Railways of the World: The card game. Again this was played with people that had never played it and had no interest in the theme, but again these people loved it. I am slowly converting the world to love ROTW, one person at a time....

All in all another fantastic night, and one that I hope will continue to grow with new people and seasoned gamers coming down.

If you are in the area, then we are there every Thursday from 730pm onwards. Come on down, and lets play some games!

Vintage Game: Guess Who!

In this series of posts, we are going to play old games and see if they stand up to the test of time.

Guess who was first released in Great Britain in 1979 by Milton Bradley (MB) games. It went to the US in 1982. It has taken a few design changes over the years, the 1987 version only included 5 women and 19 men, which was not rectified until the 2000 version which had a almost equal split. Star Wars, Marvel and Disney versions have all been released, as well as various travel editions, which had only 20 tiles to choose from.

Guess Who. Now I think that everybody at some point in time must have played this game, it is one of THOSE games. I remember having it as a child, and now I play it with the children that are around now (nephews, friends children etc.), but recently we got this out at a party with adults, and yes it went down a blast.

The idea of the game is to “guess who” the other player has drawn from a deck of cards. You get two game boards, each with 24 tiles with each of the characters faces on them. You take it in turns asking questions about the looks, and by the end you should have one tile left, which should be the identity of your opponents character. If it is, you win that round, and onto the next one. First to five wins.

Now I know that write up is most likely irrelevant, as most people know how to play this simple game. With children, it teaches them logic and how to formulate plans to achieve a goal in a very real sense, and I think that this game alone is worth a place in children’s game collections just because of that. With a group of adults however, the game changes. The once innocent questions of a child are replaced with some, lets say, more colourful questions. But that all adds to the fun of this game.

I have played this game just one on one, and whilst it was still good, I think that with a group of adults, team play is a must. How you go about this is up to you, and part of the fun working that out.

The game in this day and age I think is defiantly still relevant. As I mentioned above, as a children’s game it encourages the building of logic skills, to get to a unknown goal in a structured way. As a adult party game, it works great. Its simple, easy to teach and can have some very funny outcomes and banter associated with it. If your child has this game try it out again, you may be surprised. If your child does not have this in their collection, get it for the both of you.

The night that was TNG...

TNG being Thursday night gaming!

Well, it was a good turn out, many games were played, and more drinks were consumed. Everyone had a great time, and I hope to see them more at the next meeting!

A difficult question needing discussion...

The night kicked off with a group playing the great game LOGO. I heard lots of laughing and joking just from this group, and they played the game about 4 times I think. Just goes to show how a game so simple can be so social. Moving around the room we had a mahjong game going on, with a brand new player and a experienced player showing them the ropes. I did have to jump in and help the new player (even though I missed the most obvious move..oops!)

MageStones, a game that I highly rate and love, got a good airing, with two players having a good few games of it. A simple game like naughts and crosses with a twist, I can see this being a great hit with everyone.

Take that lowly monk!

Talisman was next, and although only two players, quite a few were involved, laughing at the undeafeatable monk, and a dragon slaying bard (!). That game ended messy, with a unanimous win for the monk, again. It seems like you draw him you win....

Around the room there was a game of Monopoly going on, with a improvised rule I overheard “its only cheating if you are caught”, which I like the sound of.

....But all in good jest

The point someone cheated....

And finally we had a game on Warhammer 40k 6^th 

Edition. I think the new rules shine much better than previous, and a testament that the players had almost no experience of the game, it went smooth with a somewhat predictable Space Marine win (best moment, a dreadnaught assaulting a 10 man group of Ork boys...)

All in all it was a great night. There was plenty of space left, so we want more people to come! Bring your own games, or come and see what we have there ourselves. There will be something for everyone, and I can nearly guarantee that there will be a game there that you will not have played, so come on down and let us show you what you are missing!

Thursday Night Gaming will be every on Thursday night at the Thimblemill Pub, Smethwick, from 730 pm till late. Entry is £2, and there will be at least 10 games supplied by Farlands Games every week, ranging from Scrabble all the way up to Warhammer 40000. Come on down and say hello, we welcome everyone and there will always be something to play!

Logan Stones: Rock, paper, strategy

I played a new game today. It was easy to learn, light and abstract.

It was Logan Stones by Gem42. This really is a great little game. As mentioned above, its really easy to learn. If playing with new players, just tell them its a cross between Rock, paper, scissors and connect 4. With a dash of Othello. And that really is all to say about the rules.

In the box you get 18 quite luxurious double sided tokens, the Logan Stones, a nice fabric bag to keep them all in, and a well laid out rule sheet.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of this game. You place a tile, and in the vein of rock, paper, scissors, if that stone beats it, you turn that one over. When you run out of tiles, you start re-arranging the tiles already down, until you get 4 in a row.

The strategy cones from remembering what is on the other side of the tiles that have been put down, and trying to combo the flips to get the elusive 4 in a row. Your first games will be won by just placing down the winning tile, but soon that will become old hat, and you will be trying to get the final blow dealt at the end of a combo. Which is always good.

Playability wise, with two people, after a few games it could get repetitive, but throw in some extra people, then I think this game would be a fantastic filler between bigger games, or even could be part of a league. It says 2 people on the box, but more than 2 could easily play with a bit of common sense applied.

Overall, this is a great game. It may be a little pricey, but what you get is quality, and quality comes at a price. These tokens will not be damaged by normal wear and tear, you would have to go a long way to do any damage to them at all.

Verdict: 7.5

This will be making it to Thursday Night Gaming, and if I can get my hands on any, will become the showcase game. If you would like this game, drop me a message over facebook.com/farlandsgames or visit our website www.farlandsgames.co.uk and message me. With enough interest, I will stock this game!

Painting a Ork Dakkajet

So I painted a Ork Dakkajet this weekend. I have wanted to paint one of these since GW released the model, so decided what the hell, lets do it. And was I glad that I did, this was a fun model to paint!

So from the beginning, here is how it comes out of the box:

Only three sprue’s, but these are packed with fun little bits of detail and items on them. All was cast well, no problems there.

Putting it together was a breeze, but watch those wing supports! I put them on upside down to begin with, which gave me a headscratch moment when I tried to connect the exhausts.

As I have found with most GW instructions for models, its best to use these as a example of how to put these models together, not the be all and end all. A little experimentation can yield some simple yet nice conversions straight out of the box.

It took about 45 minutes to put it together to this stage.

Note the pilot and weapons are not built at the moment, this allows for easier painting of the main aircraft.

I under-coated it with Tamiya Grey Primer, then put a base coat of Humbrol Crimson down over the top.

After that, I just had fun with this model. I used a variety of different techniques to get the battle damage in place, and played around for around 3 hours until I liked it. (One note, Humbrol crimson spray is a pain to paint over. It has a very gloss finish, and shows up every brush stroke on top of it. Lesson learnt, next test will be with a coat of matt varnish over the top before painting.)

Like I said, I had some real fun painting this, and it is going into the commissions folder to show people what I can do. For now, this is on ebay. Go and check it out if you want, maybe you might even want it, I don't know. More of these can be painted, so if you want a squadron painting, head over to facebook.com/farlandsgames and drop me a message!

The fiasco that was..

Thursday Night Gaming. After a month of Facebook updates, tweets, and general nuisance making in the community, the night came around.

Many many preparations were made, building boards for Warhammer, making sure I had enough games.

And then I went to set it all up. And the pub I was holding it in had shutdown. No phonecall, nothing. I was high and dry with a load of board games, people coming and nowhere to go.

We scrambled to find a alternative venue, but to no avail. Had to cancel before we had even begun.

But thats ok. Because we will be back, better than before, risen from the ashes like a phoenix. Next week in fact. Thursday 12^th July, Thursday Night Gaming!

Warhammer 40000 6th Edition – First Impression

I just received my copy of the new rulebook (I know, a bit late, but there were some supply issues) and have decided to share my initial response.

The book itself is gorgeous, big and heavy. The paper is thick, and the printing is impeccable. And this is only the normal version, I would love to get my hands on a collectors edition.

As with most of the GW rulebooks, the rules come first in the book, followed by 300+ pages of background, missions, hobby related items and reference tables. I have yet to read through the 130 pages of rules yet, but a few new rules such as mystery terrain and artifacts really stood out on a quick flick through.

There are a lot of pictures of beautiful boards and army’s in this book. I think maybe to many. I do believe there should be two versions you can buy, this version and an version with just the rules. Yes there will be a A5 rulebook in the new box set most likely, but the option to get it on its own would be nice, and most gamers would have both anyway.

Overall, I was very impressed with the presentation of this book. I cant comment on the rules, there will be another post soon dicussing them, and only time will tell if they stand up. If you have a spare £45 knocking around I would recommend getting this if not for just the pictures and story alone.

First impression presentation: 9.5

Thursday Night Gaming

Yes the time is rapidly approaching.

Thursday 5^th July at the Thimblemill pub Smethwick shall be the first Thursday Night Gaming. But what is Thursday Night Gaming?

Well I came up with the idea to create a gaming group to play all the games that we play, such as Warhammer, Talisman, Formula D, Dominion and so on. But then I decided to throw it open to absolutely anyone who wanted to come and play a game.

So what games can you play here? ANYTHING! Bring Monopoly, Scrabble, Ludo and game you want, we don't mind! We are encouraging people to dust off their old board games and bring them down, and play with other like minded people. Get away from the computer and TV, and come and talk and game face to face with real people.

Hopefully, if the first night goes well, it shall become a bi-weekly event, and I hope to be able to bring in raffles and competitions, leagues for games that suit it and a whole lot more.

So come on down if your local and lets make this the best night ever!

Talisman 4th Edition Review

I first played this game many years ago as a child, when it was in its third edition. Back then it was a great game, that I could play with both my family and friends, and it will always have a dear place in my heart. So how does the Fantasy Flight Games 4^th reprint stack up?

This game oozes presentation. From when you first pick up and feel the weight of the box, you know you have a great game in your hands. This carries on when you open up the box for the first time, and see all the cards and the miniatures, and that board.

The board is huge, with beautiful artwork all across it. You can play this game many, many times and still see new things on the board, things that you missed the last time. All the other componants are wonderful aswell, with nice finishes on all the cards, and all the plastic pieces just feel right.

The rulebook is the usual fare, and I feel way to long for this game. It makes the game feel complicated when you first read it, but play the first game, and you will see how it all fits together seamlessly.

The game plays really smoothly, and even with brand new players, once you have played the first turn, every one will know what to do. Gameplay is simple: Roll a dice, move your character that amount of spaces left or right around the board, and do what the space you land on instructs you to do. Usually, it will be draw a amount of cards, which you then follow the instructions. These can range from fights with monsters, to items that you can pick up or special events that affect everyone on the board. Then its the next players turn to do the same.

The whole idea is to build your character into a strong warrior and work your way into the center of the board, where the Crown of Command exists. At this point, the character with the Crown of Command kills everyone and wins. It sounds easy, but as you work your way into the center of the board, spaces get harder, as do the monsters that you encounter. Couple that with the fact that when you make a dive for the center, you become a target for everyone to get.

I have found that this game takes about one hour for each player playing. So a four player game can last four hours, but don't let this put you off, that time will fly by. It really is a fun night in game, so grab your friends, get some drinks and snacks and see where this game takes you. The tales that can be told from playing this game are wide a varied, and peoples misfortunes will make you all fall around in laughter. Take for example from a game I played. We had a hapless druid, who on his turn drew the mighty dragon to fight. Having not a chance, he still fought it, and lost. Play went around, and he swiftly moved on, only to draw a demon, the most powerful enemy in the deck! Needless to say, his character did not last long, and proceeded to get drunk in the tavern (it had been a rough day).

So, do I like this game? Yes I do, and so does everyone I have introduced to it. This definatly goes in my top 5 games of all time. So get this, you will not regret it one bit.

Rating: 9.5/10

Formula D review

This is a great game. I am just going to come out straight and say it. But what makes this such a great game?

The components are good. The board is BIG, and comes in two sections and, the artwork really captures the theme nicely.

The only problem I have with the board is that it won't lay completely flat on the table, this is to do with how its folded. But it is double sided, so two maps on one set of boards is a good thing.

The cars are nice and functional. There’s not a lot of detail on them, but with different colours and designs its not difficult to see which ones are which.

Another nice feature is the gearbox controls for all the cars, which I think are a nice touch, and also complements the theme perfectly.

These show which gear you are in and how much wear (which is damage) your car has taken. These cards are also double sided, with the basic layout on one side, and the advanced layout on the other side.

What makes this game is the way it works. You movement is determined by the roll of a dice, and each gear has its own dice and, number range attached to it. In first gear you can only move only 1 or 2 spaces, all the way up to sixth gear, which is a 30 sided dice marked 21 to 30 (!), where you can cover some serious ground. 

 

Corners are rated 1 to 3, which determine how many times you need to stop in each corner to prevent damage or even destroying your car. You can blast straight through corners rated 1, but take damage equal to however many spaces you overshoot the corner by. On a 2 or 3 stop, you will wreck your car unless you have stopped one or twice (respectively).

And that’s really all there is. There are some simple rules that control how the cars move around, which are all pretty intuitive. In the basic game, all your wear points are together, and once you hit 0 you wreck the car. In the advanced mode, your wear points are split up, into axle, wheel, engine and other parts of the car. This means you will have to start really thinking about those corners, as you have less points until you become a fast moving fireball.

The flip side of the map depicts a street race, where a whole new set of rules can be used. You can drift around corners, get shot at, and take damage from rubble on the road. The track is much tighter, and feels a lot different from the Monaco F1 track. Here you can also use drivers, each with different damage stat's and special abilities. Overall, this makes for a different style of play.

I feel that this whole game can be easily taught to anyone. If they understand car races (i.e. reach the finish line first) then the gear mechanic will be easily understood, and strategies are easily learnt. The first lap with someone who has never played before can last around an hour, speeding up at the end. I played games of this with people who had never played, and we were doing three lap races in about a hour and a half after the initial lap.

The rule books are laid out in a nice and neat way. The rules are explained in a nice and simple way. There are two rule books that come with this, a beginners book and a advanced racers book, and are A4 sized. 

The advanced book builds upon the beginner book in a nice way, adding rules that you choose.

This also lends itself to a league table. Be it with the family or game group, an lot of friendly competition could be achieved if played one or twice a week with a leader board being updated.

I like this game a lot as I have already mentioned. Its easy to play, doesn't take to long and has moments of intense excitement involved. It has been well expanded with tracks available, and has a good online following, with fan made maps and variants easily available.

Rating 7.5/10