It's widely (although not universally) accepted in tabletop gaming that it's fun to roll dice. Broadly speaking, that tends to be correct. There's a guarantee in rolling dice. You're either going to be happy because you get what you want, or else you're going to be surprised. We humans like getting...
I decided that during 2024, I'd design one game every month. This month, I've created Paper invasion, a wargame designed to be played entirely with pencil and paper. The design challenges for this one were that I didn't want to rely on dice for randomization, and there's a lot of notation required...
Most wargames are designed to be played as a single game event. You play a game, the game ends, and whatever story that game told is over. The game has no "memory", and the next time you field your army it's like you're fielding a brand new army, with no battle scars or past experience beyond what's...
The end! The crew fought bravely, but they've met their final challenge with Challenge 16 of the Space Station Zero book. This battle report contains minor spoilers, although there are a lot of branches in the campaign so what happens in my campaign is unlikely to also happen exactly the same in y...
Another challenge, another totally unreasonable target number. I'm playing Space Station Zero wargame with an aim to get through the entire station, and I've decided to post battle reports about each Challenge along the way. These battle report contain minor spoilers, although there are a lot of b...
I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of the fourth book in the series, Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow. There are spoilers in this review.
This is an important book in the Horus Heresy series, as it transitions us away from standing next to Gavriel Loken, and gets...
I'm playing Space Station Zero wargame with an aim to get through the entire station, and I've decided to post battle reports about each Challenge along the way. These battle report contain minor spoilers, although there are a lot of branches in the campaign so what happens in my campaign is unlik...
Battle in Balin's Tomb from Games Workshop is not just an excellent introduction to wargaming, it's also a fun game. And, I'm afraid, it's something of a frustrating product. But with the magic of arts, crafts, and a few choice purchases, I managed to bring my Balin's Tomb board to life. Here's...
A gaming miniature usually has a base it stands on so that the miniature doesn't tip over during your game. After you paint a miniature, the finishing touch is to clean up the base, because inevitably paint has splattered on to it as you've been painting. Some people decorate the base with tiny shru...
Like much of the existing Tolkien work outside of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (LOTR), the content of Children of Húrin was written long ago and stashed in Tolkien's writing desk for half a century. Parts of the story were published here and there, including in the The Silmarillion, but...
I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of the third book in the series, Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter. There are spoilers in this review.
In my review of the previous book in the series, I mention that Horus himself feels like he skipped a notch or two between "really great...
I'm playing Space Station Zero wargame with an aim to get through the entire station, and I've decided to post battle reports about each Challenge along the way. These battle report contain minor spoilers, although there are a lot of branches in the campaign so what happens in my campaign is unlik...
Wargaming and, to a lesser extent, tabletop RPG poses an interesting data management problem when it comes to miniatures. The challenge is that your imaginary player character can have an infinite variety of weapons and adventuring gear, but the little plastic miniature (or paper token, or whatever...
I'm playing Space Station Zero wargame with an aim to get through the entire station, and I've decided to post battle reports about each Challenge along the way. These battle report contain minor spoilers, although there are a lot of branches in the campaign so what happens in my campaign is unlik...
I was the target audience for the original Star Wars. Or at least, I was the audience the movies found. I've heard from slightly older friends of mine that they saw the original Star Wars (it wasn't called "A New Hope" or even "Episode IV" then) when they were teens. I wasn't old enough to see the o...
I was recently in the US for a conference, and while there I decided to finally pick up a Steam Deck, which is hard to find in New Zealand. This is my review of [spoiler] a pretty amazing gaming device.
In terms of gaming, there were a few "problems" I wanted to solve.
Time to play
First, I wa...