With Wave 3 nearing completion it was time to prime Wave 4. Which as you can see is only 6 zombies this time.

While I’m boring you I posted these 2 photos taken of Nico this morning.

Managed to watch the latest Netflix Marvel show to drop yesterday, don’t read any further if you want to avoid spoilers.

So Iron Fist season 2 has dropped. Thanks to mum having a scan yesterday I was able to watch the whole thing in a massive all day binge session.

Ok what was my overall opinion of this season? I liked it. It wasn’t amazing. But what I like about these Netflix shows is that they are a bit more grounded (well as far as a superhero show can be, they are not constantly relying on mass city wide destruction) and grittier.

They were bound to do one of the characters losing their abilities storylines. I’m kinda glad they did it here. I’m not sure whether the multiple different coloured iron fists is cannon (I don’t read the Iron Fist comics, and barely remember him when he was teamed up with Luke Cage in the 80’s). I kinda think this storyline is a bit lazy and predictable, and a standard superhero trope. So when they do it, for me it comes down to how well do they do it? I think they did an ok job.

Typhoid Mary a character I was not familiar with, I liked. I wouldn’t be upset if she turned up in the other series (Punisher?). I’d love Misty to get her own series. I really do like her character.

Was it lazy having the sister team up with a bad guy for this series? What will they do in season 3 (if there is one), have both brother and sister team up with the bad guy? As for the bad guy, not the most threatening, with the Ra’s al Ghul cleanse the city plot. I suppose we will see this picked up again at some point because we haven’t had the big bad that was being hinted at. Defenders 2 plot line where they team up to stop it?

I thought the last episode didn’t do a good enough job of explaining how Danny got the fist back, and why now they could use it with weapons.

Oh and on the last episode at the end there is a teaser for Dare Devil season 3 (out December).

Worth watching.

Some how in my first half century on this planet I’ve never been to Nottingham. I have to say I was pretty impressed with the city centre from the little of it that I got to see. I think I nearly liked it more than Guildford or Peterborough. But then again there are not many cities for me to compare it with. I’m not a big city type of person.

I had some spare time before my appointment that had bought me to Nottingham, so while drinking a cortado in Costa I googled “board game shop Nottingham”. One of the top results was a Warhammer shop (I’m assuming these are rebranded Games Workshop establishments) real close to where I was consuming hot milky coffee.

So while taking the unintended long winded route to the place (I literally just had to cross the road) I saw a familiar name from The Dice Tower coverage of their trips to the UK for the UKGE, the Ludorati board game cafe. Which was by luck round the corner from the Warhammer shop.

Although not teaming with customers the Warhammer shop did have a couple of young lads sitting painting miniatures. It was nice to see. I bought this new collectable magazine published by Games Workshop and only available from their stores. For the £1.99 it was worth getting for the paints alone, it also had a brush and 3 models to build and paint. The magazine was a bit disappointing on the how to front considering this is aimed at beginners. If it had been better I may have got future copies, but there isn’t enough in the magazine to justify buying it. If you like or are interested in the lore, and playing Conquest then this might be worth looking at. But these collectible magazines are a scam, and in the long run over priced for what they are.

While handing over paper tokens, I also exchanged them for coloured stuff that’s meant to be grass! to cover the bases of my figures with.

Sadly there wasn’t enough time for me to visit the Forbidden Planet opposite from the Warhammer shop. My wallet and bank account breathed a big sigh of relief.

But I did get to look quickly inside the Ludorati gaming cafe. It also wasn’t overly busy. It looked like a good selection of games to chose from if you were there to game, and lots of play space. But I thought they might have a bigger selection of games to browse and buy. It was a bit disappointing on that side. But I was able to buy a recent issue of Tabletop that I was interested in getting. Who would pay £5.50 for that “free” gift I don’t know? I certainly wouldn’t.

Next time I need to plan things better, because I think Nottingham is the stamping ground of an ol’ college friend from many many moons back. It would be good to touch base with him again after all these years.

Here is an amazingly easy clue to the theme for the new secret Commander deck that I mentioned in passing in one of the posts on Tuesday.

I also (if my failing memory hasn’t betrayed me) mentioned the Commander in passing in my coverage of the Commander 2018 spoilers. It is also possible when I was talking about this Commander that I pointed out there will be a few new decks built around this Commander.

Thought I’d have a little fun with you all, or with those that care anyway.

Here is a musical clue to the theme of the Super Secret Commander deck that I mentioned yesterday in a post. I have no permission to have this here,I’m breaking copyright in so so many ways it’s unbelievable. But I acknowledge the rights of the copyright owner which I will name, and give info about this bit of music at the weekend once I give the answer. Otherwise this information gives the game away.

There will be another clue tomorrow.

This morning I woke to an email/update from the Tiny Epic Zombies kickstarter that they will have started shipping the game to backers by the end of the week. Amazing news, so with a fair wind, a bit of luck (which I never seem to have with the shipping companies) by the middle of September I’ll have my grubby mitts on the game.

I am waiting on the Star Realms Frontiers kickstarter to be shipped. The US has theirs now and it’s very frustrating seeing all these people getting their copies. While here in the UK we are not getting ours yet. They are in the country now. However the shipping company is Games Quest and their kickstarter fulfilment side is amazingly useless. They appear to be totally understaffed, and unable to meet the commitments to kickstarter projects that they have been contracted to fulfill. Can you tell I’ve been on the receiving end of their ineffectiveness a few times now. I wish Kickstarter creators would realise that because Games Quest is cheap (possibly) that they are not any good, and that they tarnish the reputation of the creator.

Anyway back to happy thoughts and Tiny Epic Zombies, and the Tiny Epic series. I thought that just out of interest for myself and maybe some random people out on the inter web I would rank the Tiny Epic games. As a general comment, the only thing tiny about these games is the box. Once out and setup they can take up a lot of space. Oh and one thing Gamelyn do as an optional extra that you can by for these games are play mats. Naturally these don’t fit in the box. But they are pretty cool, and do add to the game, and aid setup and game play.

Let’s start with the one I haven’t played and haven’t been tempted to play Tiny Epic Defenders. It didn’t help that the reviews I saw were not that flattering for the game either. So naturally this goes straight in at the bottom slot. No competition.

Now all the rest I have played, and enjoyed. So lets get onto the real rankings.

Tiny Epic Western is next lowest in the rankings, which currently makes it fourth place. I like the game. This has worker placement, bluffing, area control, rolling of dice, set collection, unique player powers. The bullet shaped dice are thematic and rather unique. But also fun. I love the play mat. But this game takes up a lot of space once set up. I like the poker mechanic that the game introduced.

Third place goes to the 4X game Tiny Epic Kingdoms. I like 4X games, and this hits the spot when I want that quick fix without the epic long game play. I really should play this more. This has individual player mats instead of a single playmat. They are mouse mat size, and there is score tracking mat too.

Tiny Epic Galaxies takes the second place slot. Action selection, dice rolling, resource management. I like the follow mechanic, there is a way to mitigate bad dice rolls. There is also a bit of engine building when you collect planets for your empire/colony. The expansion Beyond the Black is also a nice addition to it. I love the theme.

The top two spots were really hard to choose between. I really like both games a lot. But Tiny Epic Quest just edged it to the top slot. I think at the time after playing the game for the first time, this was Zelda the boardgame for me. The playmat is a must for this game in my opinion. It just makes life so much easier when playing and setting up. It helps that it is a really great playmat. The ItemMeeples and the plug in equipment help make this feel like you are adventuring, and also that your ItemMeeples are unique.

This post will actually help I think when I come to talk about Tiny Epic Zombies once it arrives and I play it. It has also got me wanting to get these games back to the table sooner than later.

So this arrived yesterday. The power of pre-ordering.

All I have to do now is find a suitable free location that can be used on a regular basis to play this. Oh and then suitable dates and times that those interested can play. Which is the more herculean task.

But I am so excited to start playing this. I’ll keep saying this, I absolutely love Scythe, it’s my all time favourite game (I’ve proven this scientifically using paired comparisons). I don’t play it nearly as often as I should, this campaign expansion is an excuse to play it a lot more times.

So until I’ve solved the above problems of location and dates I’m keeping it in the bubble wrap to avoid the temptation to peak inside.

This post is dangerous for WotC, it should be a warning to them.

Today I wanted a MtG experience on my iPad Pro. I knew there was no-one around to play a physical game with. So I had to think what were my options digitally? Hearthstone? Or fire up the hardly played early access beta for Epic (I backed the digital version on Kickstarter, so had that early access to the iOS version)? I suppose I could reinstall Magic: Duels. But that’s a dead product and I’m not sinking any cash into that. I decided I wanted the MtG like experience that didn’t involve spending lots of money on digital product, or grinding my way to getting stuff.
Epic it was.

I don’t normally play against the AI in Star Realms, all my games are against my friends. So I thought I would get used to playing Epic and the cards by playing against the AI.

My first game was a beginner game, and I chose the green Wild deck. Yes the beginner decks do seem to be just the mono decks from the physical game.

I think to make me feel good, and get me hooked the AI let me win.

I decided to then dive right in the deep end and play one of the two limited formats on offer. I have to admit the Dark Draft format is really great fun.

The great thing about it is that you are never really sure what the other player has drafted. That not knowing exactly how they might have built their deck adds to the suspense. You know what cards they had a choice from, but what did they take and what did they discard?

Oh a Dark Draft if you were wondering is when “Each player is dealt 5 cards. They take 1 card out of their hand of five cards and drafts it, then passes the other 4 to the other (at the same time).
Each player takes 2 cards out of their new hand of four cards and drafts them, then discards the remaining two cards into a shared face-down discard pile.
Both players now have drafted three cards. Repeat nine times to get to a 30-card deck.”

Once you finish you play a game of Epic with the deck you just drafted.

I didn’t keep track of the win loss ratio, but I think the AI edged it.

So why is this post dangerous to WotC? Well with I’m pretty sure less resources available to them, White Wizard Games are developing the digital version of Epic on all platforms at once. The interface isn’t Hearthstone/MtG Arena like, but it is still very nice.

From what I have seen in this current beta build at the moment White Wizard Games can’t be that far off from actually releasing the game to the world. This won’t have the same business model as Hearthstone or WotC. If the Arena mode of Star Realms is anything to go by, then you will pay to enter events/tournaments. But the majority of the game will be pay once and play away, until a new expansion is released then you get that for a relatively cheap price. The nice thing is that this is buy once, have available everywhere. So if you move from your iOS device to your PC/Mac then you pick your games up where you left them, along with all the expansions etc that you have paid for. I really do like this model.

So while WotC are concentrating on one platform (Windows for their closed Beta) they will be at a disadvantage when they move to being open to everyone because they will not have Arena available on all platforms. which their competition will have. If from day one you are not on iOS and Android then you might as well pack up and go home. I know my playing habits from my brief time playing Hearthstone, and my constant playing of Star Realms, it’s portable, playing anywhere. Take my turns and move on to something else. I rarely fire up my Mac, and I don’t have a PC at home. My main computing device is my iPad. My students play Hearthstone on their phones (if they play it).

Hearthstone is well established now, they are the one to knock off the top. Epic won’t be that one, it will have a hard core audience that will play it (will it be as popular as Star Realms? I don’t think so). And I don’t think Arena will either. They are far,far behind Hearthstone. WotC are too busy trying to be the MtG version of Hearthstone, and working out from it’s closed beta just how much they can milk players for.

In the meantime I can get a MtG like experience where I can draft, build decks, play real time games against opponents online or 48 hour ones (this mode means each player has up-to 48 hours to take a turn) without being gauged for cash to play.

So with the lack of support for the platform I prefer to use (mobile and desk top) I’m looking at the alternatives to Arena and to be frank, I like the alternatives a lot.

Just put a base coat on a zombie horde for classic Zombicide and might, well will be used in Last Days the zombie survival skirmish game.

I was going to do the genestealers and space marines from Space Hulk. However I currently don’t have all the colours I need, and the correct glue. There is a little shopping list for pay day, so that may well be the project after I’ve worked through the numerous zombies that make up Zombicide. But then I have the survivors to do as well.

If I’m lucky, come Halloween I’ll be playing Zombicide with fully painted stuff for the first time ever. I just need those 3D doors. But they are ridiculously hard to get hold of.

Oh well the horde is drying, I’ll see you in the next post.

Yesterday I was chatting briefly with some-one I’ve known on social media for a few years now, Jim Connolly. As a result of that conversation I said I’d do a photo of my current iPad setup.

The iPad is my main computing device. Except when I need to code, I can do pretty much everything else I need to do on my iPad. This blog is exclusively written on the iPad or iPhone.

My current setup is as follows:

• iPad Pro 12.9″ 2nd Gen
• Apple Pencil
• UGreen Tablet Stand
• JETech Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard
• Lamicall Adjustable iPad Stand
• HooToo wireless hard drive companion, wireless router, battery extender, access point
• FiFine USB Condenser Microphone (not shown)
• Snugg iPad case

I have 2 stands because the UGreen one (the white one) fits better in the bag that I take to work. While the metal Lamicall (which I prefer because of the height) stays at home and is used there (unless I go away then it gets put in the suitcase).

For the record the rest of my blogging makes use of an iPhone 6S, gorilla pod, a cheap tripod, and a phone holder mount that allows me to securely attach my iPhone to the tripod (it’s more robust than the flimsy one that comes with the gorilla pod).

I suppose folks might like to know what my apps are that I use the most when writing this blog.

• wordpress app (naturally)
• Pixelmator
• LiveCollage+
• Diptic
• Percolator (for obscuring peoples faces)

Here are some of my other favourite apps:

• GoodNotes
• iThoughts
• Kindle/iBooks
• MS Office Apps
• Dropbox
• Outliner

I hope that has been of interest to folks.

I thought I’d give Dram his own post. This little power house wizard deserves his own post.

The top left photo is Dram after I had done some touching up of the paint work before applying a wash.

For my wash I used a watered down black grey paint.

I’m pretty happy how it ended up looking after the wash was applied. Well except for the cloak. It looks awful really. But the rest has that dirty, been adventuring, travel along lots of dusty roads look. Obviously I have some work to do on washes.

I decided not to attempt highlights by dry brushing. I thought it didn’t need it. I didn’t want to ruin the effect I’d achieved so far. Stripping back to metal and starting again was something I wanted to avoid. Although that cloak,has me tempted to do that.

This time I finished Dram off using the correct spray can, and applied a thin layer of varnish.

So overall I’m reasonably happy with the way Dram turned out. The one look I wanted to avoid was bright, loud, just walked out of the supply store in new clothes look. I think I achieved that.

I might source some green sand/grass and glue that to the base to finish it off. I’ll look into that in the future.

So now do I attempt another mini? If so which one from the many I have? I feel like doing another.