Sunday, October 2, 2011

Risk Reward

Hey guys! It’s been awhile since I have posted and a ton of things have happened. (Note to Ron: This is not an apology!! :P) The most significant change in my life has been moving my mother-in-law in with us. I converted our barely used dining room to my new office (FYI, the family room functions as a dining room), and the old office is my in-laws room now. She has Alzheimer's. It was my suggestion to move her in as the previous situation was just not working. I am now a stay at home care giver *and* dad. At times it is an easy job, at times it is tough. But we are holding strong.

On to lighter news, my Dark Heresy campaign is plodding along at about 1 session a month (the best my group can manage), but I am having a blast!! We are planning to start our next session earlier than usual (by about 2 hours) and to drink less beer (so the last 2 hours is productive!!). We have also added a new player to the mix and I will showcase the work I did on the miniature in a later post.

My 1980 version of Risk with Roman Numeral pieces
(Image taken from BoardGameGeek.com without permission)

The other day, my son and I played his first game of Risk. He is 8 and has ADHD, but did really well for his first game. However, about 3/4's the way through the game, my son looked at me and said "Daddy, I am a boy who plays with soldiers, not a boy who plays with clock numbers." I about fell out of my chair laughing. We finished up the game and I spent the next two weeks researching how I could supply soldiers to my version of risk.

After spending most of my time pouring through what boardgamegeek.com had to offer, I decided to get the pieces from the 1993 version of Risk, and the entire 2008 version of Risk for the new rules and components.

Pieces from the 1993 version of Risk
(Image taken from BoardGameGeek.com without permission)
Pieces from the 2008 version of Risk
(Image taken from BoardGameGeek.com without permission)
The 2008 "revised" version adds major and minor objectives, along with cities and capitals, plus rewards for completing objectives. It has also balanced the reinforcements rules. The only real "down side" is that the armies are simply arrows!?!

After about a week of searching, I found what I was looking for on eBay for a great price. The items arrived, and my son and I have played 2 more games of Risk. However, I found the 1980 2-player rules to be too simplistic, the 1993 version was the same but introduced a neutral ally, and the 2008 version doesn't even have a 2-player option!! Fortunately I was able to download the 2003 version of the rules because it has an extensive active neutral rules set.

I am working on writing up rul
es e
ssentially blending the ’93 and ’03 2-player variant within the mechanics of the '08 rules set. Once I have it finalized, I will discuss it in a later post. 

My OCD kicked in and I also started working on a new map heavily influenced by the PC game Risk II. When I get further along, I will post it.

Its good to be back in the blogosphere!!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

WIP: Imperial Dwelling

(click on image to enlarge)

Here are some closeups of one of the buildings from my Imperial City Project. It is intended to be a dwelling for a VIP/government official, or it could be a middle class apartment complex. The back side is fashioned to be the "back ally" entrance, or it could stand in as a minor Adeptus Mechanicus building.

(click on image to enlarge)

As you can see, the roof and the second floor are removable to allow for interior movement. I'm not sure yet if and to what extent I will detail the interior.

(click on image to enlarge)


(click on image to enlarge)

The large pink blocks flanking the stairway is my attempt at bridging esthetics and functionality. The balsa wood stairway is visually appealing, while the pink foam board blocks allow for 6 figures to be placed on the stairs.

I hope you like it.

[Edit] Oops... I forgot to say that the building is also removable from its base...

(click on image to enlarge)

Friday, June 17, 2011

Happy Birthday

Image taken off the internets without permission

WOW! I made it to 2 years! I was out of town the actual day my blog hit "2", and I forgot to switch this post from draft to scheduled. Oh well... I can still post it retroactively on the correct day!!

The past two years has brought many RL challenges, and forced me to change my priorities on more than one occasion. But I really enjoy sharing my hobby and experiences. So I hope to be here in 2 more years!