Small World Rules Index

A board game rules reference sheet to round out the month!

I have compiled all of the Small World Rules, Variants, Races, Powers, Relics and Places into a quick reference document.

Small World Realm came with some Righteous Relics and Popular Places tokens that did not have corresponding rules. I have included my home brew rules ( a few were taken from the interwebs) for these items.

The Crypt of Hen: The player who discovers the Crypt of Hen immediately places the Rooster Knight on the same region. Once per turn (including the turn discovered), the Rooster Knight may move to or conquer an adjacent Region using a single Race token, regardless of the number of enemy tokens defending it. The Region is now immune to enemy conquests as well as to their racial and special powers until the Rooster Knight moves. During each new turn, you may move the Rooster Knight to a different adjacent Region. When you go into Decline, the Rooster Knight goes back to the Crypt of Hen and is placed back in the storage tray.

The Crystal Amulet of Yeti Summoning: Once per turn... use amulet to summon a yeti... must be on or adjacent to a mountain region... amulet remains in adjacent space?... yeti disappears at the beginning of next turn... may not summon to same place twice... use amulet to mark previous region.

The Head of the Skeleton King: During your Troop Redeployment, take 1 new Race token from the storage tray for every 2 non-empty Regions you conquered this turn, and add it to the troops you redeploy at the end of your turn. If there are no more tokens in the storage tray, you do not receive any additional tokens.

The Immunity Idol: At the end of his turn, the player who controls The Immunity Idol, may place it on any of his controlled regions. The Region is now immune to enemy conquests as well as to their racial and special powers until the Immunity Idol moves. The immunity Idol remains (but can no longer be moved) even if the troops that occupy that region are In Decline.

The Windmill of Fortune: At the end of the turn, the player whose troops occupy the Windmill of Change Region rolls the reinforcement die. Receive one Victory coin for each pip rolled.

You can download a PDF of the file here. It is formatted to print as an 5.5"x 8.5" booklet.

Let me know if you find any omissions or mistakes. That's all for now!

Talisman 2ed Figure Collection (part 2)

Here is part 2 of the look at my Talisman Figure Collection.

30 years later, I am still impressed by these sculpts. Yes they are comical and disproportionate... but THEY HAVE CHARACTER!!!

The Knight, Warrior, Soldier, and Gladiator

At some point, I replaced the Knight's shield with a newer style--I believe it originally came with the same shield that is on the Soldier. Back in the day, Citadel plastic shields were ground breaking! They had holes smack dab in the middle, which were never as big as the bulbous knob on the shield bearer's wrist. I jest--They really were cool in their day.

The entire range of original Citadel plastic shields!

Speaking of the Soldier, at the time, I was very proud of my freehand shield design. Heck! I'm still proud of it--I'm not sure I could do any better today. The Solder was painted around the same time as the Knight and the Warrior.

The Gladiator was painted more recently and is sporting 3 paint jobs! (I shamelessly admit I'm lazy and rarely strip the paint off my figures when doing a repaint).

The Zulu Warrior, Highlander, Saracen, and Samurai

When I re-re-painted the Zulu Warrior, I spent some time converting him. Actually he is the only original figure that I modified at all (excluding shield swaps). I replaced his horrible spear with a other brand metal one in by bitz box, placing his hand farther back on the shaft (the back part of the spear has broken off). I also made the shield out of plasticard as there was nothing in the GW range that resembled the character's image. lastly, I attached a sword hilt and a toothpick behind the shield.

The Highlander and the Saracen were re-painted at the same time. I never got the plaid to look right, but I passes on the table. There is a little freehand on the Sarecen's shield that I wish I had black-lined. These two were the unfortunate recipients of a near fatal accident--I accidentally grabbed a can of white primer instead of mate cote!! The damage is not terrible, but is noticeable.

I never finished the Samurai. I actually got a little farther painting him the first time around. I hit him with white primer and plocked out a little color during the re-re-paint stage.

That's all for now. See you next time!

Ultimate Monopoly

I came across this fan-made variant for Monopoly the other day while researching my own fan-made variant of Monopoly!

Much like my Risk Omega Project, I have been working on a Monopoly Omega project. My aim is to combine Mega Monopoly, Monopoly City, Super Add-on, Monopoly Stock Exchange, and a few ideas of my own. While I was compiling data, I came across this board.

Jonizaak from Deviant Art created this Ultimate Monopoly board as well as rules to go with it. Another artist created a set of cards. To my amazement, this project is about 85% of what I was in the process of developing!

The main element I would like to add is Monopoly City Bonus Buildings, Hazards, Industrial Buildings, Stadiums and Railroads.

That's all for now!

Air Superiority | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 9)

A smorgasbord of flying thingies!

Can't have too many flying pests to annoy an adventuring party with. This installment of my RPG Figure Collections focuses on small flying creatures.

This is a GW Vampire Counts Bat Swarm.

A flock of GW Warmaster Carrion

These are actually sci-fi creatures. I based them of fantasy (square) bases as I wanted to bolster my selection of monsters for D&D. They are fGW Necromunda Ripper Jacks.

Lastly, here is a selection of various familiars--A hawk, cat, owl, and eagle.

All but 2 minis were painted within days of each other about 10-12 years ago. They were speed painted (and based)--Base cote, dry-brush hi-light, and ink wash... done! It took a total of about 2 hours from primer to matte cote for the lot. 

That all this time. To see the previous posts in this series, click below.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

2nd Annual Rockfest BBQ Party

My son will be singing with my band again during his birthday party this year. 

Last year's party was such a huge success, were doing it again this year. Deathbot has been practicing one of our songs on guitar--there are only 2 chords. He doesn't have it down yet, so it will probably be a day of decision whether he plays.

Here's hoping for good weather!!

Cold Blooded | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 8)

'Ere we gots ssome snakeses and ssome ribbiterz...

A small group of reptiles and amphibians. Although, these don't come into use too often. 

Not much to say about these guys. The only ones I painted are 2, 4, 8, and 9.

1. A D&D Miniature Giant Grog (mid 00s)
2. This is a wood sculpted toy/trinket (early 80s)
3. A D&D Miniature Giant Grog (mid 00s))
4. A GW Talisman Toad (late 80s)
5. A D&D Miniature Displacer Serpent (mid 00s)
6. A D&D Miniature Fiendish Snake(mid 00s)
7. A D&D Miniature Iron Cobra (mid 00s)
8. I no longer remember where this mini came from (early 80s)
9. And #8s partner (early 80s)

Thats all for this post. Hope you come back again!

To see the previous posts in this series, click below.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

My Son's Invented Soldiers

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Today is my son's 11 birthday. In honor of this momentous occasion, here is a post for him.

My son asked if he could design his own soldier. After some rummaging around my bitz boxes and a few veto's, here is the mock up he came up with.

The body is from an old set of multi-part Space Marines. The arms are Space Orcs, and the head is from the old FB Skeleton regiment box. Very simple, but I think he will look really cool! If I have the time and the gumption I will add a few tattered bitz and baubles.

Deathbot describes him as an undead mutated Imperial Guardsman in power armor. He wanders the galaxy searching for his homeworld. Once he gets back with his people he will be their eternal defender.

How Deathbot explains the Space Marine armor is telling of his gaming pedigree--the armor "leveled up"!

Talisman 2ed Figure Collection (part 1)

Talisman is one of my favorite GW games. This series will likely be 6-7 installments.

Back in the day, I managed to acquire Talisman and all of the official expansions (and figures!). More recently (15 years ago) I started to convert some figures from my bitz box for the few characters that did not have official versions. I also downloaded a digital copy of a Polish-only expansion called Talisman Cave from www.talismanisland.com.

The game is definitely dated--It suffers from bloated and uneven rules. But the charm is still there for me. I break it out everyone and awhile to rediscover the lengthy game play. Then promptly put it back on the shelf!

I keep the entire set of figures in a Plano 3700 tackle box tray (as are most of my figures). They get more use in RP games than in Talisman nowadays.

Before the City expansion (1988) I had completed painting every figure to date except 2. Around the late 90s, I repainted almost all of them (indicated by the light green "Finished (old style)" boxes). The dark green (Finished "New Style") represents a second repaint. Most of them were done around 10 years ago, but The Timescape figs were done here--I used them as prominent NPCs in our Dark Heresy campaign.

At the time, I normally painted the base edge in black, but my Talisman figs were painted dark green to help identify them after a late night session full of fun and alcohol! Once I had a dozen or so bases painted (and on the gamin table), I started to really like the look of a dark color that compliments the base rather that stark black. To this day, I paint all my figure's base edge with a dark color.

Unfortunately, all of the pictures in this series turned out a little over exposed. It was very bright out that day, and from the screen on my camera they looked good. It wasn't until the next day when I downloaded all the images to my computer that I realized they could have been better.

So the first up are the Sorceress, Scout, Prophetess, and Swordsman.  The most recent paint job can be identified by the 2-tone base. It this light it is hard to tell, but the newer style is richer, has more blend steps, and is more adeptly applied.

Next we have the Druid, Rogue, Monk, and Priest. All of the older style skin tones are flat and sickly. The Rogue has a livelier and richer color in real life.

[edit: The Druid and Priest pictured above are not the official minis. The actual versions of these minis will be seen in a later post.]

Hope you enjoy the stroll down memory lane and check back to see the rest of the collection. Cheers!

Man's Best Friend | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 7)

This is a short one today. Dogs and a beast of burden are up next in my collection series.

Only a few figures to show off this time around. The donkey was included as it seemed to fit here best.

1. A Mordheim Dog from GW (late 90s)
2. 1 of 2 war dogs from a set by Grenedier I think (late 80s)
3. A very old GW donkey. It came with a small cart. I added the green-stuff baggage (late 80s)
4. 2 of 2 war dogs from a set by Grenedier I think (late 80s)
5. This is either a GW or Reaper dog (early 00s)

I wish I had about 10 dogs in total (for RPG purposes) I always seem to need more than I have.

Let me know if you have any question or comments about this series. Any suggestion on how to improve them is welcome too.

If you like this article, see below for the previous articles in this series:
Part 1: Wagons Ho!
Part 2: Constructing Elementals (part 1)
Part 3: Constructing Elementals (part 2)
Part 4: Giants Among Us
Part 5: Have Horse, Will Travel
Part 6: Bark at the Moon

Bark at the Moon | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 6)

Here's the next installment of my RPG figure collection. Going through all these figures in various qualities of paint are beginning to inspire me to re-do some of them.

Unlike the horses in my last Fantasy RPG Figure Collection post, I do know the companies that produced these figures.

1. 1 of 4 wolves, part of a Grenadier Orc Chariot seen in this post (late 80's)
2. 2 of 4 wolves, part of a Grenadier Orc Chariot seen in this post (late 80's)
3. A D&D Miniatures Dire Wolf (mid 00s)
4. Freki, one of Leman Russ' personal wolves from GW (late 80s)
5. A D&D Miniatures Winter Wolf (mid 00s)
6. 3 of 4 wolves, part of a Grenadier Orc Chariot seen in this post (late 80's)
7. A GW Goblin Wolf Rider wolf (early 90s)
8. 4 of 4 wolves, part of a Grenadier Orc Chariot seen in this post (late 80's)
9. Geri, one of Leman Russ' personal wolves from GW (late 80s)
10. A GW Goblin Wolf Rider wolf (early 90s)
11. A GW Goblin Wolf Rider wolf (early 90s)

There have been a few times when I considered re-basing the D&D Miniature figures into my standard basing style. But the main reason I don't is that I have this crazy idea that I will actually play D&D Miniatures!!

That's all for my wolves. Next up are dogs. 

If you like this article, see below for the previous articles in this series:

Part 1: Wagons Ho!

Part 2: Constructing Elementals (part 1)

Part 3: Constructing Elementals (part 2)

Part 4: Giants Among Us

Part 5: Have Horse, Will Travel

100k Mark!! and an Update

Well, it took almost 5 years, but I finally reached 100k pageviews! Not a speedy achievement by anyone's standards, but I am proud none the less! Thank you to all of you actual readers and internet bots for elevating me to this level!

I had been watching the views slowly click upwards and wanted to post about it immediately after it occurred,. Unfortunately RL has impacted my hobby and blogging time as it often does for the last 2 months or so.

Another small milestone has passed in my absence. A new post cracked my top 5! Bygone: Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Character Sheet v2.3 has squeaked passed Tau versus Necron Redux by 11 pageviews! The latter post was authored by Laertes, so now I am the sole author of all the top 5 posts.

Even with my recent hiatus, I still aim to average 10 posts a month this year-- I want to hit 120+ posts! Stay tuned to a flurry of posts this month.

During the last 2 months I have managed to work on a few projects--Mostly rules indexes, glossaries, and rules variants. Here is a rundown:

• Kilty by Association Song Book
• Munchkin Rules Index/Glossary
• Munchkin Swag Random Generator
• Small World Rules Index/Glossary
• Zombies!!! Omega
• Monopoly Omega
• Risk Omega
• Kilty by Association Poster Art

There are a number of projects that I was unable to work on. I am anxious to get back to work on them. Here is a short list:

• WH40K: Tau Army
• Dark Heresy PCs
• WH40K: Tau Objective Markers
• WH40K: Space Marines Army
• Star Wars Monopoly Figures
• WH40K Buildings/Terrain

Lastly, I want to wish everyone a belated Happy Easter, May the 4th be With You, and Cinco de Mayo!! My family celebrated these events each in its own special way.

On Easter, my wife, son and myself went across town to have dinner at my folks place. My aunt, uncle, and their daughter came too. This was an especially special day as that day was also my Anniversary and my aunt's birthday. We ended the night with a game of Cards Against Humanity.

May the 4th be With You was Star Wars all day long! We watched episodes IV, V, and VI while we played Star Wars Monopoly.

We had a friend over on Cinco de Mayo. I had pork roast in a crock pot for 8 hours and we had shredded port tacos in the traditional style--Soft corn shell, meat, cilantro, and a little lemon juice.

Time to wrap this post up. Thanks again!