Putting together the Shadows of Brimstone figures

Before I can do a play-through of our new Shadows of Brimstone game, I need to put all the little figures together.

The figures come in bits attached to frames, like airfix kits.

You have to cut the parts of each figure out of the frame and glue them together.

You have to cut the parts of each figure out of the frame and glue them together.

I started with the monsters, as I felt I’d rather make all my learning mistakes with them and not with the heroes.

Initially I had some kind of Bostik glue, but that didn’t seem to want to work with the plastic, so I gave up and used super-glue. I kept some of Gab’s nail varnish remover handy for when I stuck my fingers together.

Some monsters were easier than others. The Tentacles and the Zombie Witch were each just one piece, whereas I had to stick arms and a hat on the Zombie Prospector. The Beetle Monster had all four arms and legs to stick on.

All the bits had specially-shaped connectors and matching sockets, so you couldn’t stick any of them in the wrong place, and they were guaranteed to be in the correct position.

The beetle monster was the first one I built. It was one of the bigger figures, so I thought it would be less fiddly.

The beetle monster was the first one I built. It was one of the bigger figures, so I thought it would be less fiddly.

I also needed to glue the figures to the bases but there were no slots to stick them in. I had to press the figure to the base until the glue had set enough that they could hold together on their own and be left to dry. They all worked out ok, though.

After finishing all the monsters, I felt confident enough to attempt the heroes.

The Lawman hero comes with a separate head and hat. The hats were always the most awkward bit to get on right.

The Lawman hero comes with a separate head and hat. The hats were always the most awkward bit to get on right.

Here is a picture of one of each of the finished figures.

Here they are ready to go.

Here they are ready to go.

The last figure still to make is the huge Harbinger demon figure. I have tried to put this together twice, but it is much more fiddly. You have to get the arms, legs, head, and tail all slotted into the body as you stick the two halves of the body together. I think I am going to need to trim down the connectors to make sure they all fit properly without any gaps.

I am sure the Harbinger will be very impressive when it is done, but it has a lot of pieces.

I am sure the Harbinger will be very impressive when it is done, but it has a lot of pieces.

 

A Silver Twilight summoning

Suspect interview: Mike ‘Mud’ Malone.
Taken October 19, 1926. Witnessing officers Detective Sergeant Terence Wilson and Officer Joe Collins. Stenotypist Mary Barker.

I know what you all think. You look at me and you think I did it. You think I killed Doctor Kipley. You think you got me. You think it was some kind of hit. Well, you’re wrong, way wrong. I never killed the Doctor. Listen to me and I’ll tell you. I didn’t kill the Doctor. I killed the thing that killed the Doctor.

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Shadows of Brimstone Unboxing

One of the other games we bought on our recent trip was one of the Shadows of Brimstone set by Flying Frog.

Shadows of Brimstone is an old west horror board game, where you play cowboys battling against monsters from beyond.

It’s not technically a Cthulhu game, but it has that kind of flavour. The one we got was Swamps of Death. There is also City of the Ancients and they are compatible with each other which is cool.

Shadows fo Brimstone

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Ye Essential Saltes

The following are entries from an anonymous diary found in a Boston second-hand book store.

January 29th, 1925.
Here we are, finally arrived in Arkham. The house is much larger than our townhouse back in Boston but we shall just have to spread ourselves out. Lucy, our beautiful Siamese, has settled in already. She has found herself a new favourite patch in the sun on the window sill. It is Charles’ first day at the new shop tomorrow and he is a little nervous, but I have told him Mr Hutchinson is sure to be very pleased with him.

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Dark Gothic Unboxing

We visited Sci Fi City while we are here in Orlando. We almost missed it because they had moved across to the other side of the shopping estate sometime in 2013 and when we arrived we thought they had closed down. Luckily I spotted their sign on the other side of the car park.

We bought a bunch of stuff, one item of which was Dark Gothic, a card game from Flying Frog, and based on their earlier game A Touch of Evil (the Spooky Hollow game). This is a deck-building card game using all the same illustrations, which is nice.

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Fhtagn!

Arkham Sanitarium Patient No. 1652: Carter, R.
Case file: March 1, 1925.
Transcript of handwritten note found in empty cell.
Patient missing, whereabouts unknown.

Mankind’s oldest fear is fear of the unknown. While the familiar and the mundane offer comfort and safety, the Other always lurks menacingly at the edges of our thoughts. The unknown can be found in many places, in strange streets where the faces are unfamiliar and no one meets your gaze, or in dim-lit grottos where eerie fungi grow and the air is heavy with a miasma that clouds the mind, or on bleak cold-swept plains where nothing has ever grown nor ever will and yet the shrill cries of unnamed birds echo disturbingly, or in cosmic voids of limitless space where the Outer Gods play and laugh and dance to the thin hideous piping of a nightmare flute.

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Eve – the card game

I was thinking about space stuff and I remembered getting the Eve Card Game when it came out way back in 2006.

This is a customisable card game, along the lines of Magic, and is based on the world of the huge MMORPG space sim Eve Online.

It comes with a couple of starter sets and you build your collection by buying boosters, with common, uncommon and rare cards.

Or rather you would have done, because the game died almost immediately after it came out.

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Improving the corp

Most of the Haas ICE is bioroid, which means they are run by artificial intelligences. The effect of this is that the runner can usually break subroutines on the ICE by spending clicks rather than using a breaker. They can work around them, or talk their way past them.

This is a bit of a weakness, so I need to make sure I also have some ICE with requires the runner to spend credits.

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Netrunner economy cards

It is very important in Netrunner to be able to pay for the cards you want to play. You pay using credits and you can get one credit by spending a click.

This is far too slow, so you will want to put economy cards in your deck to give you credits faster than this.

There are several different cards that give you credits, and they all work slightly differently.

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Running with a better rig

After a few plays, I am looking at tweaking my runner deck.

This is pretty much just getting rid of cards I find I don’t play much, either because the time never seems right or because they don’t really fit into the overall strategy.

ffg_scavenge-creation-and-controlFirst off, I will get rid of Scavenge as I can tell it is more of a combo card and not used on its own.

Other cards up for review:

Escher – This could be good to create a path to an agenda but it is too conditional. Just having the full set of breakers and enough economy should do me.

Crypsis – Might be good as a general breaker but it is very expensive. It can hit a trap, but so can Tinkering at a pinch. Also the cost of a click is bad when facing lots of bioroid ice. You need your clicks to get past them for free.

ffg_inti-creation-and-controlInti – Cheap to install, but expensive to use, and the barriers are the strongest ice so the cost to break one can be extortionate. Maybe I need to consider another fracter option?

Personal touch – This is good on breakers like Inti, but is not essential to my strategy. I will keep it if I have enough slots.

Akamatsu Mem Chip – I do need mem units but is there another option?

Based on all this, the mods I made to my deck are:

-2 Scavenge
-1 Escher
-2 Crypsis
-2 Akamatsu Mem Chip
-2 Inti

ffg_battering-ram-core+2 Battering Ram – a less costly barrier-breaker.
+1 Levy AR Lab Access – as a late game reset.
+1 Omnidrive – to replace the mem chip.
+1 Toolbox – also replaces a mem chip.
+1 Freelance Coding Contract – to clear out duplicate cards in my hand.

This leaves 3 more slots:

+2 Modded – to help install my now more-expensive programs and hardware.
+1 Feedback Filter – as defence in late game final rushes.

Done.

Now to take a look at my H-B corp deck.