Gaming & Guinness XIII: Day Two

Thursday morning began with a round of Bang! the Dice Game, in which a group of good guys and bad guys attempt to shoot each other down, except no one knows which team they're on.

I was Black Jack--an outlaw, this time around. But the sheriff prevailed.

Next up was the first marquee game of the event, Wits & Wagers. We started Wits & Wagers at G&G X, and each year since, a different member of the group has come up with the questions and served as manager of the game. This time around, Rob presented the questions. He did such a good job that I only snapped a couple of photos of the game. Here, Steve, Scott, and Mike prepare.

Up next was Fortune & Glory, now with painted miniatures! I spent the better part of a year painting each of the two dozen or so 28mm figures, and while they're not great, they're better than unpainted! I find painted minis really help with immersion.

Fortune & Glory is a 1930s pulp adventure game with a really nifty cliffhanger mechanic, but it suffers from a badly organized rulebook. Luckily, Steve found a fan-created rulebook on Board Game Geek; we used that in a playtest a couple of months before G&G, and we found that it really improved the game's pace. Poor Pete and Jeff still found up stuck in a jungle for four or five rounds though, much to Jeff's frustration and our amusement.

Paranoia ruled at our next marquee game, new to G&G: The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31. Based on the John Carpenter's brilliant 1982 film, The Thing casts players as the characters of the movie...but one of them is actually The Thing, and he's out to infect the other players before they can escape on the helicopter. The Thing won, dooming humanity.

Oh great, more miniatures to paint...

"I'm going to be stuck in the jungle this entire game, aren't I?" 

Inglorious Misfortune

Thanks to the much improved homebrew reorganized ruleset some kind souls at Board Game Geek created, this round of Fortune and Glory actually provided a challenging, satisfying experience. Our crew managed - just barely - to defeat the Nazis, thanks in great part to Pete and Jeff's derring-do in sabotaging the Nazi's secret base and their Zeppelin, respectively, which held back the enemy's progress on the victory track long enough for us to accumulate enough Fortune for the win. I'm much more confident now that this will be a good experience at the next Gaming & Guinness. 

Saturday Night Fortune and Glory

A Gaggle of Germans

By painting this assortment of WWII German troops, I have finished painting all of the pieces for Fortune and Glory, in plenty of time for the next Gaming and Guinness. As you can see, I experimented with different uniform colours. I Googled "German infantry World War 2" and got a whole bunch of different results. So I made some tan, black, grey (that turned out more like silver), and one green plastic Nazi. The tan ones are sort of cool, the black nice and sinister, but the grey/silver ones show off the most detail. The green one just doesn't feel right at all. All in all, though, I think these turned out pretty well. 

Trio of Terror

Here are three more painted playing pieces for Fortune and Glory: a cult leader, a Nazi, and a mobster. Quite a collection of evildoers, ready to be vanquished by the players - one hopes. 

The Gold Diggers

Here are some more freshly-painted Fortune and Glory playing pieces, along with a treasure chest (not from the game). I was trying to give the mad scientist a mustache, and wound up bearding him instead. After taking this photo, I added some more detail to the treasure, painting the iron supports black. I'll share images later. 

Four Miniature Women

These still need some work, mainly because I made the mistake of trying to add some detail to the faces. While the woman on the right came out best, she still looks like she's wearing football greasepaint on her cheekbones, and I think I completely failed to come up with a convincing skin tone for the Eastern-attired martial artist next to her. I kinda like how the dresses came out, though. 

A Trio of Heroes

Here are three more of the board game pieces I've been painting to make Fortune and Glory more immersive. I'm quite fond of how the woman on the left turned out. I tried to give the guy in the middle a mustache; I'm not sure if it really worked. As you can see, I'm having trouble with getting full coverage of the pieces, especially where hair meets skin. 

A Few More Mobsters

Here are some more freshly-painted mobsters for Fortune and Glory. I'm most happy with Mr. Grey, centre, with his grey suit and black overcoat. Mr. Orange looks pretty slapdash, while Mr. Red and Mr. Purple each need another coat, I think. Mr. Yellow doesn't look too bad. 

10 Little Cultists

Here's another batch of Fortune and Glory tokens; this is a group of cultists. Once again, I'm embarrassed by the sloppiness on display, but I'm quite fond of how the gold dress turned out, and I even tried to innovate a little by painting some blood on the dagger of the foreground helmeted figure, along with what I imagine is the heart in his other fist. As you can see, my paint application is still wildly uneven; I'll have another go at these to see if I can fix some of the rougher spots. I feel like the woman figure could use a bit of detail in the face to draw out her features, but that might be a bridge too far for me at this stage of my (cough cough) painting career. 

Five Little Mobsters

As you can see, my painting still needs a LOT of work. While I've been trying to put some tips from Stephen and Jeff into practice, my clumsy hands need much more practice. So very bad. 

These are board game figurines for use with Fortune and Glory, in which players take on the role of adventurers trying to save the world while enjoying Republic serial-style cliffhanger escapades. I'm painting the included miniatures in an effort to make the game more immersive. As it stands, I'm afraid my lumbering incompetence may prove more of a distraction than anything, but we'll see how it goes. It's good to try something new, even if (perhaps especially if) it's outside my core strengths. 

Painting Pyramids

Gaming & Guinness VIII: Chariots of Fire

Saturday began with Fortune & Glory, a game that casts players in the roles of 1930s Republic serial heroes, cooperating to stop either the Mob or the Nazis from casting the world into darkness.

With a full complement of eight players our game took forever, though unfamiliarity with the rules was partly to blame. In the end we halved the game goals for both sides (Nazis and fortune hunters) just so we could finish the game without cutting into Circvs Maximvs time.

 Circvs Maximvs is, of course, the epic game of Roman chariot racing, and the closing marquee game of G&G. For the first time this year we had nine racers, thanks to the sudden arrival of Scott's older brother Dustin (left).

Jeff had already won the coveted Caesar's Cup twice in a row, only to have Pete steal his laurel wreath last year. Jeff  was champing at the bit to reclaim his crown, while Pete was eager to match Jeff's back-to-back victories. But what of the other hungry gladiators on the field? Every racer hungered for victory.

My team, on black bases, began the race next to Mike Totman's yellow-based team. I enjoyed an excellent start, whipping my horses into a frenzy to overcome inertia flawlessly. But my opening luck was not to last.

Yes, for one brief, shining moment, I held the lead. The crowd roared!

Thundering hooves kicked up great clouds of fine Roman earth as we raced past the enormous edifice replicating the cup.

But even now the vile Brothers Friel were plotting against me, and against all their fleet-footed betters. Note Dustin's Machiavellian stroking of his Mirror Universe goatee.

Dustin (white team) and Scott (orange team) lashed out with their whips at rival horses and charioteers, their vile calumny raising bloodthirsty cheers from the stadium throngs. "Are you not entertained?" the Friels cried.

Their bloodlust even infected Mike Totman, who attempted to whip my charioteer in passing. But my man was too quick, and snatched Mike's whip away, disarming the rival racer.

With half the racers getting into whip fights, former champions Jeff (light blue) and Pete (fuschia) focussed merely on circling the track as quickly as possible. Here, Rob moves his charioteer into position (in Circvs Maximvs, you move your horses first, then follow with the chariot; this makes it easier to keep track of your moves).

At the halfway point, it was still anyone's race.

And then, vile villainy. Scott whipped Jeff's horses into a frenzy, causing his chariot to flip. I narrowly avoided the wreckage, while Scott simply, callously, drove atop it.

Jeff's racer was dragged by the reins through the dirt, his body taking incredible punishment as Island Mike's racer looked on in horror.

Fortunately Jeff was nimble enough to untangle himself from the reins and make a break for the safety of the stadium. He escaped, narrowly dodging Scott's attempt to trample his fleeing form.

In the final turn I made a fatal error, misjudging my speed and flipping my chariot. Now it was my turn to be dragged through the dust. But I refused to release the reins, reasoning that this close to the finish line I still had a chance of at least reaching the podium. Here I am, right on Pete's tail.

But from behind, the hand of fickle Fate (or, more accurately, fickle Friel) loomed, moving his pale white horses into position.

On a pale horse the reaper came...

"AAIIIEEE!" wailed my driver as Dustin's horses trampled him to death.

I wasn't the only casualty. Right after Dustin trampled me, Scott whipped Rob, causing Rob to flip. And then Scott casually trampled Rob to death just as his brother had killed my hapless racer. This gory finish almost eclipsed the greater accomplishments of the victor, Island Mike himself, new champion! Mike Totman and Stephen Fitzpatrick followed right on his heels, followed by Pete, Dustin and Scott. Only one question remained: how would Mike transport the fragile statue back to Vancouver Island..?

How Fortunate and Glorious!

 Sean bought me Fortune & Glory for my birthday, and today we tried out this game of 1930s derring-do for the first time. It's the perfect game for anyone who loves Republic serials and pulp adventure.

Each player in the game takes on the identity of a hero or heroine and attempts to gain fortune and glory by exploring ancient ruins and discovering valuable artifacts. Along the way, they'll face dangers such as deadly snakes, zombies, Nazis, mobsters and other nefarious menaces. In a competitive game, each player races to accumulate as much fortune (gold) as possible. In a cooperative game, players work together to defeat either the Mob or the Nazis, who of course are trying to take over the world.

In our first cooperative game, Sean and I randomly chose the characters of Jacques Moreau, a tomb raider, and Duke Dudley a British Lord. Each character has special attributes and abilities that will influence the player's approach to winning the game. Duke, for example, starts the game with one Fortune (represented by a plastic gold coin) and one piece of Gear, chosen randomly from the stack of Gear cards. I wound up with a bullwhip, useful as it adds +1 die to combat rolls. Here, Duke and Jaques meet up in Egypt, where we attempt to find the Helmet of Medusa. Each artifact has a danger level associated with it; in this case, we had to pass three randomly chosen Tests, or challenges, before securing the artifact. Unfortunately, we failed to discover the secret of the Ice Caves, represented by a randomly drawn Danger card, and our failure compelled us to flip the card over to reveal its accompanying Cliffhanger result:

Yeti Attack! But just as in the old movie serials, cliffhangers aren't resolved right away; you have to wait until your next turn. It's a great mechanic that adds a lot of suspense and fun to the game.

Meanwhile, the Nazi villains (represented by red figures) were successfully retrieving artifacts, earning infamy on the Villain Track and moving them closer to global domination. And all the while the Nazi Secret Base and War Zeppelin were depositing soldiers across the globe.

Sadly, Sean and I were overrun in our first playthrough, securing only one artifact before the bad guys took over the world. But we played enough to obtain a solid grasp of the rules, which was our chief goal today.

Fortune & Glory is a fun, fast-paced game of strategy and high adventure. It was great fun with two players, and I have to imagine that it would be even more riotous with more adventurers. The wide assortment of Adventure, Artifact, Gear, Villain, Location, Event and other cards provide immense replay value - no two adventures are the same. Supports 1-8 players - yes, you can play solitaire.