Friday 7 September 2018

Conan: Hunting the Tigress; and many other boardgames

I had the opportunity to take some time off and play many boardgames last month. In particular, some longer and more complex multiplayer games with up to six players.

Conan was a fun success with two new players. We played 'Hunting the Tigress', where the pirate queen (and Conan's lover) Bêlit has been cornered by her pursuers. Either the enemy captain or Bêlit has to die by game's end!

Bêlit and Conan and friends start at opposite ends of their ship

Peppered by arrows, Conan and Bêlit clear their ship of attackers

Conan leapt onto the enemy ship ,but could not overcome the captain and his demon.

Filled with rage, Bêlit slays the enemy captain herself!
A great introduction to this game system. I was the sorcerer Hadrathus, and I used my spells to drain my life to support Bêlit- pleading with her to use my gift wisely! It really came down to the final rolls, with Bêlit and her foe clinging on and attacking each other.

Other games played included:

Falling Sky, about Caesar and the Gallic revolt
Mansions of Madness
Time of Crisis, about 3rd century Rome
Middle-Earth Quest
Scythe, about pastoral Europe with steam mechs
Twilight Imperium, a space opera
And finally, Here I stand, about reformation Europe. I was England, and very stressed about having a son before Mary Queen of Scots comes along. Heretics were burned, Ottoman raiders were at the gates of Vienna, the New World was plundered, it was suitably epic.

The intense boardgaming was a success, allowing us to get longer, more complex, and multiplayer games to the table. We intend to do it again. I got a bit happily gamed out and have only just picked up a brush again!

10 comments:

  1. Like the look of that Conan game. I still have my rather ragged looking collection of Robert E. Howard paperbacks at home. And tellingly I also like the look of the the Mansions of Madness game as my other favorite author from that period (and a correspondent of Howard's) is HP Lovecraft.

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    1. They’re both fun skirmishes. Conan has a very cinematic, intuitive action mechanic, and MoM has decent storytelling.

      I was going through my older blog posts- brilliant and insightful stuff- and I found myself saying “Not even once” about unpainted minis...

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  2. Fun looking games there, give yourself a break about unpainted/semi painted I figure it's ok as long as I get around some time and as long as it's occasional! Here I stand looks interesting,wou wo it make a campaign game that you could tie in pike and shot games?
    Best Iain

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    1. It’s an impressive game- the short answer to your question is that while you could, I wouldn’t.

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  3. Conan is quite a fun game we enjoy at club nights sometimes

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    1. I’m looking forward to Batman next year.

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  4. A long list of games there that I've been dying to try. Any thoughts on Falling Sky / Time of Crisis?
    I have HIS in my collection (obligatory for a Mad Padre, doncha know) but I haven't tried it yet.

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    1. I found Falling Sky conceptually easier to grasp than other COIN games.

      Time of Crisis was unexpectedly enjoyable; simple mechanisms with a real feel for plotting and intrigue with barbarians at the gates. Played it with three and four players, and hoping to get another three player game this coming week. Recommended.

      Here I Stand was suitably epic- we played the tournament scenario which is a little shorter, and the people who had played the full game before said the shorter version was good.

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