Zombicide Season 3: Rue Morgue unboxing (pic heavy)

I was surprised today by the delivery of the box for Season 3 of Zombicide, called Rue Morgue.

The rulebook includes 14 new scenarios.

Cool Mini or Not had announced last week that delivery of the game had exceeded their warehouse capacity, so American backers of the game who confirmed by the deadline would receive their copies ahead of the expected fulfillment date in February. The remaining new expansion, Angry Neighbors, and the stretch goals and specialty figures remain on target for February delivery.

Rue Morgue is designed as a standalone game, but it can also be combined with the earlier sets for the game: Zombicide, Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall. Set months after the initial outbreak, Rue Morgue has players running teams of survivors who are more hardened, more ruthless than their predecessors.

The 12 new survivors for Rue Morgue gat more skilled the more zombies they kill.

And, as we know, when supplies get scarce, it's the other survivors who pose the greatest danger.

Opponents in this release include the new skinner zombies, who continue to fight as Crawlers once they've been cut in half.

Content includes:

12 Survivors: Louise, Maddie, Travis, Parker, Terry, Dan, Jane, Cathy, Joe, Laurie, James and Bear.

40 Skinner Walkers
8 Skinner Fatties
16 Skinner Runners
15 Crawlers
1 A-bomb Abomination
9 double-sided game tiles
12 Survivor ID cards
8 dice
12 experience trackers
11 tent cards
155 mini cards
9 Team Action cards
92 tokens

Let's take a look at the zombies.

And the tiles.

You'll notice there's one tile image missing. My eyes went swimmy trying to figure out which one I missed. So one will have to be a surprise for you!

Tent cards, front and back:

Dice and experience trackers:

I really like that the pips are bullets.

Character ID cards:

Mini cards for zombie actions and Team Action cards:

Dual-sided tokens:

This edition has the same consistently excellent artwork and sculpts we've come to expect from Guillotine. It's really the materials here that are the star. I swear you could build a strong house out of these tiles! And the plastic used for these minis is among my favorites. Certainly easier to deal with than Mantic's restic.

Hope you enjoyed the look at the contents of this early release. Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon.

Banner day in the Sheets household

My Black Friday order from Wyrd arrived on Thursday, and the goodies are VERY good!

In addition, I received the few items I ordered from that amazing sale Fantasy Flight was running a week or so ago. I bought some things I've wanted for a long time, and I got them for ridiculously low prices.

Forgive the terrible photos. These aren't even crappy iPhone pics. These are crappy tablet pics. Won't make that mistake again.

Let's take a look:

My Malifaux haul:

Alternate Perdita

The Carver

Nightmare Tara crew in smoky translucent plastic.

Fist edition metal model of Seamus, Avatar of Dread. (Because all Victorian-era gamers need a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Mr. Hyde.)

The free Katanaka sniper for my order level. The pic of the sprue was too bad to use, even with the bar set this low.

The free Bayou Gremlin for my order level.

From Fantasy Flight:

Sweetheart from Descent

Axis Hero Pack for Dust Tactics

Operation Seeloewe for Dust Tactics. This was my big score. I really wanted Markus, the Blutkreuz ape character, but I couldn't see paying $40US for the set just to get one figure. But during FF's sale, it was just $9! And it comes with four pieces of scatter terrain (two tank traps, two ammo crates) and six terrain tiles.

I am a very happy camper. I promise better photos once I start slapping on the paint. I'm so eager to get the Carver done that I can hardly wait for my days off.

Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon.

Hendybadger hosts a giveaway

Over at Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher, our friend Hendybadger is having a great holiday giveaway. Choose either the Arkham City Batman or the Dark Knight Trilogy Batman from Knight Models for their excellent Batman Miniature Game.

Entry is easy: Comment on the post there on his blog and share news of the giveaway around. That's it!

Thanks, Hendybadger, for a great holiday surprise for the gaming community.

"The Miniatures Man" hit 100K pageviews

Joakim Ström over at The Miniatures Man blog is celebrating 100,000 pageviews with a giveaway.

The post detailing the prizes and method of entering is here:

http://miniatyrmannen.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/100-000-pageviews-its-time-for-give-away.html

I plan to do something similar when I finally hit 50,000 pageviews, or 100 public followers, whichever comes first.

But as we await that glorious day, go check out Joakim's blog. Definitely worth it.

New fiction up on "Brass and Blood"

I've just uploaded a new short piece of fiction on our sister blog, Brass and Blood.

This tale introduces Pritkin, a human mage. More Gothic horror than steampunk, but a depiction of the scale of conflict in my setting.

The post is here: http://bit.do/wheelswithinwheels

In addition to the entry, there are links to the story as a pdf and on Google docs.

Welcoming Wednesday

This week we welcome aboard two new followers:

First is Blaxkleric, who himself is the author of more blogs than one can shake a stick at.

• The Brown Bag, "An English Comic Collector Blog," which does exactly what it says on the tin.
• Fantorical, "The Fantasy-Historical Miniature Painting Guide," the one from which I primarily know Blaxkleric.
• 10 Years and Counting Down, "The 10mm Miniature Painting Blog," appears to have lain fallow for about a year.
• The Analog Hobbies Painting Challenge, which logs this and past year's painting challenges. Well worth the visit.
• Mooretoons, "Comic Capers Within a Universe of Mystery, Horror, Alien Invasions and Super-Heroes." Ummm, nothing I can say will explain Blaxkleric's original webcomic. It's a "you-had-to-be-there" kind of experience. And I mean that in a good way. The format of toon plus an explanitory/expanding block of text works a treat here.

So everyone make Blaxkleric feel welcome.

Next is Gordon Richards, who has made quite a splash with his new blog,  I have wrought my simple plan...

He promises a predominance of content for IHMN, already gracing us with his Nautilus crew. I'm definitely a fan and look forward to his upcoming entries.

Let's welcome Gordon, me hearties!

OK, that's enough cheering. Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon.

Thankful for my FLGS

This photo of Moxie Games' interior is lifted from its Facebook page,
as my photos didn't turn out very well.

Reflecting on the many things for which I'm thankful, I realized just how grateful I am to again have a wonderful local gaming store to frequent.

We were without one here for a long time, so the presence of a gaming store that gets it right is something to be celebrated.

My local haunt is Moxie Games, run by the incredible Jerry and Meredith Fry. These Indiana natives, parents of Leah and Cash, originally ran Moxie as a paintball equipment company. They first started carrying Games Workshop product as a sideline to get them through the slower winter season. Now a few years and a relocation later, the paintball equipment is all gone and tabletop, board and card games and their accessories line the store, and the store has multiple tables and terrain available for your gaming pleasure.

A typical Tuesday's incoming goodies.

One of the things they do that I love is post weekly pictures of their new shipments as they arrive. Just seeing the assortment of new goodies does a gamer's heart good. There are also soft drinks and snacks for sale.

They support a thriving (and growing) gaming community. In addition to GW's 40K and WHFB, they carry minis, rulebooks, dice and decks for Warmahordes and Malifaux, and they are more than happy to special order items. Magic the Gathering is incredibly popular, with drafts and standard events three days a week. Those games that straddle the line between minis and board games are represented as well, like Super Dungeon Explore and Krosmaster Arena. Other items include RPGs, paints, card sleeves and mats, Funko vinyl figures -- your usual geek assortment.

I've never played any CCGs, so I have no idea what
any of this sign means. It might as well be written in Abyssal.

Board game nights are Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, when you can bring your own or borrow from the store's demo collection. There are usually weekly Heroclix tournaments at 3 p.m. Saturdays. A 40K escalation league has just wrapped up, with a tournament coming this Saturday. Stars Wars X-Wing has caught fire among the customers, it seems. I can't really speak to the meta here, as I'm much more a shopper than a hang-around-and-play type.

But I do love hanging around to chat with Jerry and Meredith. Meredith says many people have told her that, once meeting them, they immediately felt like family, and I can attest to the validity of this statement. Jerry exudes a relaxed surfer vibe, unless he's riding herd on unruly tournament players (Don't cross him, people. Don't poke a sleeping bear.) Meredith is a great conversationalist and a talented artist, and she is funny. I know I'm not related to them, but when I got out of the hospital this summer, one of the first things I did once I could travel again was go to the shop and give them each a hug. They are warm, witty, knowledgeable, customer service geniuses who will bend over backwards to help an earnest customer. Their staff share these traits as well.

Meredith and Leah

Jerry and Cash. Photos again from Facebook, used with permission.

I remember overhearing that Jerry also stays up into the wee hours to play Pokemon online. At that hour, I guess his only opponents are kids on the other side of the planet. I do not know if Jerry can talk smack in Korean.

And did I mention how smart their kids are? Scary smart. And cool. Smart and cool. Smash some face, Cash.

The clientele is warm and welcoming, with none of the stink-eye, distrusting, insular treatment new customers or players sometimes get at gaming/comic stores. You know the kind, I'm sure.

So here's my thanks to Jerry and Meredith. Thank you for giving us a gaming home in Columbus, Ga. May your business and your family continue to thrive.

Enough of my gushing. Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon.