Category: Reviews

Summer Haul Report 2020 – aka The Treasure Hunt Goes On

This quarter has been busier than expected, practically I haven’t painted anything but have luckily had very good RPG (Cepheus Light and D&D) and wargame (Stargrunt II) sessions. COVID-19 is still around, so there was no wargame show to report about and the games I played were online, not face to face. But there is something reassuring about buying hobby stuff. This time it wasn’t panic buying like it was in the spring, but a more methodical one.

Let’s start with Patrick Todoroff’s Hardwired rulebook and The Tsim Sha Tsui expansion: these are both short, fifty-page black and white booklets with a bit of background, complete rules, list of equipment and a handful of missions for cybernetically enhanced agents. Sounds familiar? There’s a good reason: Syndicate, the old PC game was one of the inspirations for this game. The subtitle “Cyberpunk espionage and mayhem” refers to a cyberpunk setting, but it’s very adaptable – you can swap the agents with a black ops team, a commando unit, a squad of mercenaries, a recon or a SWAT team and swap the opposing security forces to insurgents, alien bugs, zombies, rogue AI robots, vicious gangs, or your favourite villains.

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Maps of Impossible Worlds – Inkarnate Review

After years of hiatus, in early 2019 I decided to get back to running RPG campaigns as a DM and I wanted to run a one-off DnD session just to refresh my storytelling skills. I had been preparing for these gaming session a lot, and I knew that there was a bit more in the story; it could even be a mini-campaign of three or four sessions and I started to called it The Tales of Silversand. After three completed adventures, I realised that I had enough ideas for dozens of run-on stories and by now we have had more than twenty sessions – many of them proper, full-day sessions – full of adventures, laughter and drama, memorable and heroic moments. Then came the pandemic, and the lockdown made face to face meetings impossible, and after a couple of online sessions -where I couldn’t use my miniature and map collections- I started to feel that I failed to deliver the same level of gaming experience, so decided to put the campaign on hold and do some research.

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Assassins of Allansia: Hungarian Edition – Review and Comparison with the Original

I received a copy of the Hungarian edition of Assassins of Allansia from Chameleon Comix for review a few months ago. It is a very neatly designed book, with the look and feel of the classic softcover Fighting Fantasy series, using the same artwork that’s visible on the hardcover edition. It immediately triggered a wave of nostalgia in me.

But why did it took me so long to write this review? Reading Fighting Fantasy books was one of my treasured childhood memories and I got paralyzed, and started wondering if I still enjoy them as much as I used to. Are they still as good as I remember they used to be? Does this book meet the standards that I expect, or is it just exploiting nostalgia? Luckily, I had no reason to worry: twentyfive years have passed since I last read an FF book and this was just as immersive and gripping as I remembered.

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Spring Haul Report 2020 – aka The Big Spring Treasure Hunt

In a previous post about the cancelled wargaming show, I suggested checking the manufacturers and traders online and spending your show budget on games and minis. Well, I did walk the walk. I have had a proper shopping spree this spring…

On one hand, it was a kind of a panic buying: having an incomplete collection is somehow deeply disturbing for me. On the other hand, I found massive discounts! Most of the things I bought were on my wishlist anyway, so sooner or later, I would have ended up buying them.

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Carts before the Horses

In my previous post I briefly talked about the difficulties with following schedules in my hobbies and this time I have another perfect example of how strict plans have to be abandoned sometimes. When it comes to miniature painting, I always face a huge scheduling conflict. Should I work on the army I started painting for a wargame, or rather paint the minis that are needed for the RPG campaign I run, or maybe paint these miniatures that are not really needed, but look too much fun to skip?

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SPQR – Review and First Impressions

In my professional life, I do my best to be logical and organised, I have detailed plans and schedules. However, when it comes to my hobbies, it’s a bit different: I still make a reasonable effort to be logical and organised… but I have to be careful to find the right balance, because if I overdo it, it just kills the fun. Therefore my hobby plans are a bit fuzzier, and I allow plenty of room for changes, unscheduled activities and impulse buys, which is what this post is about.

When I visited Dark Sphere in Shepherd’s Bush, I didn’t have the slightest intention to buy anything, but I run into a pile of new stuff with ancient battles, Roman legions and Gauls… I really did my best to resist, but the Roman legions are my long-time favourites, it was a complete starter set with a rulebook, and even the price tag showed a reassuringly low number, so I’ve bought a box of SPQR Starter set.
I also purchased a box of Legionaries with swords and slings as ranged units are a must have, a Scorpion team, as artillery is useful too and the Gaul Heroes, as they also deserve a bit of a boost.

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