Battle of Poitiers - French Activation 7

The French start their turn by activating Orleans and advancing forward. They are also able to activate Jean II and move him forward and then fail to activate Dauphin. Play passes to the English.

Here's an overview of the current battlefield:

Battle of Poitiers - English Activation 5

Edward is activated to start off the turn. Rushing to the kings aid the entire line surges forward and attacks! The two Hobilar units advance around the end of the flank, one dismounts while the other continues to move. The dismounted unit cannot fire this turn. Two units of English foot shock attack the French foot to Edwards left. The defending unit is disordered must retreat one hex and the attacking unit follows it. The mounted unit to Edwards right advances and shock attacks the French foot unit directly across from it and disorders the unit. Edward and his mounted unit then attack both of the disordered units. Both units are retired from the field and Edward advances! 

The French flight track is moved up two points. Also, the earlier Genoese Crossbowmen cannot rally and are eliminated due to SSR. This adds an additional two points to the French flight track which is now at twenty points. 

Salisbury is activated next. The disordered longbow unit does nothing this turn and losses its disordered status. One foot unit moves into position to plug the line. The second longbow unit fires across the hedges at the now out of command foot unit and disorders it. The English foot unit follows the longbow attack and attacks the now disordered unit and completely eliminates it! Two more points on the French flight track, who seem to been dropping like flies this round. The last English longbow unit fires at the Genoese crossbow unit across from them for no effect. Play passes to the French when the English fail to activate Warwick.

Walking Dead - Game Review

Being a big fan of the Walking Dead on AMC I recently purchased and began playing the Walking Dead game by Telltale Games and I must say I am completely hooked!  I just finished up episode two, the game was created and released in five connected episodes.  So far the story has been gripping and the characters outstanding, they are well rounded and have their own distinct personalities.  Along the way you are asked to make many gut wrenching choices including cutting of a mans leg with an ax to save him and choosing one character over another in life and death situations.  Each episode has five or six major decisions, your choices are compared to all other players of the game at the end of the episode giving you an idea where you fall among other gamers.  For instance "You and 85% of people shot so and so".  Its neat to see how your decisions stack up against the masses.

Overall its a really enjoyable game, one I would highly suggest it.  All five episodes are available on Steam for a total of $25.00, its a really good dead, I mean deal.  Good story, great characters, gripping choices and a very nice comic book style make this one of my favorite recent games!  I you like the Walking Dead, zombies or just good games this one is for you!

Five Steins out of five!

Lazy Sunday

Hey folks, I was planning on doing a review today, but I was to lazy to get any work done on this blog (see sleeping dwarf above).  Instead I spent the day watching Chelsea destroy QPR, going grocery shopping with my wife, working on my final project for my Methods and Materials class and just generally being a lazy bum.  

More stuff coming this week including several reviews and at least one Artist post.  I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!

The Dungeon Alphabet - A Review

The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis (designer of Stonehell Mega-dungeon) is a fun and informative book that would be worth twice the listed price.  Its forty-eight pages long, comes in hardcover only and is published by Goodman Games (http://www.goodman-games.com/). There is wonderful art though out the entire book, almost every page is illustrated with beautiful black and white images created by the likes of Jeff Easley, Erol Otus, Stefan Poag, Jim Roslof and a number of others.  

Every letter of the alphabet is given a meaning, always relating to dungeons.  A is alters, B is for books, C is for caves, etc.  Flip to the according page and you will find a short paragraph on each subject followed by a table of random versions of that item.  For example, H is for hallways so when you flip to the hallways page there is a list of twenty random hallway descriptions, each different and varied.

What I love about this book is not just that you get all kinds of fun tables and charts to roll on, it really ignites your imagination and gives you so many ideas and suggestions that can make your dungeon unique and varied.  

For $9.99 this book is a steal, I had a very enjoyable time reading through it, I found it both fun and useful.  The book is written so that it's system free, it can easily be plugged into any retro system of your choosing.  Unfortunately it seems to be out of print, the copy I purchased from Amazon was at the list price, but all the copies left seem to be way above that.  If you can find it cheap, pick up a copy, its a great read and great addition to any DM's toolbox.