Boardgame Reference Sheets Update for November

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Some more updates on the Universal Head Boardgame Summary Sheets page:

Betrayal at House on the HillBetrayal at House on the Hill now has a completely revised, all-in-one game aid booklet that includes a rules summary, a set of character cards to put players in the mood, 3 versions of the Haunt Chart, and the revised and corrected Haunts plus the extra 20 Haunts offered online by the original designer (for a total of 70 unique Haunts!) All the Haunts have been painstakingly formatted to match the graphic style of the game. Note this is all for the original version of the game, not the revised version!

AztlanMy latest major boardgame graphic design job was Aztlan for Ares Games. Since War of the Ring is one of my favourite games, it was an honour to do the graphic design for Roberto di Meglio, not to mention work with illustrator Drew Baker of Ninjato fame again. The game, which is set in the mythological homeland of the ancient Mexican peoples, features simple but ingenious rules that I’ve summarised in this new sheet.

InfiltrationSet in FFG’s cyberpunk Android universe, Infiltration is a fast, fun, push-your-luck game about operatives breaking into a high-tech facility to steal data files. Hmmm… why don’t they just use the internet? Oh well, it’s a great little game and captures the theme well. New rules summary and reference sheet.

Finally, my sheet for Ninjato has had some minor rewording to make it clearer.

Enjoy!


Boardgame Reference Sheets Update

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Now and then I still get a chance to update old game sheets and create new ones; here are the latest updates on the Universal Head Boardgame Summary Sheets page:

BattleLoreThanks to the help of BattleLore fan Damon Usher, I’ve finally updated this sheet to include everything that has ever been released for this classic (we can call it classic now, right?) game. Unless Fantasy Flight Games actually does something with BattleLore, this should be the definitive version of this summary and reference sheet collection.

Descent 2nd EditionDescent has never made it to the table enough, mostly due to its incredible long playing time, which has made it somewhat of a byword for long, exhausting game sessions. But Fantasy Flight has cleverly listened to the feedback and rebooted their own franchise with Descent 2nd Edition, and the new the game is the fast-playing, fun dungeoncrawler it always wanted to be. Shame about all the work I put into those 1st edition sheets…

Betrayal at House on the HillThis B-movie haunted house romp is pretty standard fare until the ‘haunt’ kicks in, and one of 60 unique plots pits one of the players as the Traitor against the others. My rules summaries, character cards and redesigned Haunt Chart are unchanged, but my redesigned Secrets of Survival and Traitor’s Tome booklets (with the Avalon Hill-corrected text) have finally been updated with the bonus 10 plots that were released later. Remember this is all for the original version of the game, not the revised version.

Rune AgeA stand-alone deck-building card game set in Fantasy Flight Games’s Runebound generic fantasy universe. A slick little design with a perfect mixture of conflict and strategy that’s fast playing and fun. Version 2 of my summary and reference fixes a small error and adds the rules from the new expansion Oath and Anvil.

Mansions of MadnessLovecraftian sanity-blasting goings-on from the makers of Arkham Horror, but with more of a storytelling emphasis. Like little games of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game without all the time and preparation. Now updated to include the Forbidden Alchemy expansion.

Also updated in the last few months: Mall of Horror, the Man O’ War ship cards, Runewars, and Ticket To Ride: Switzerland.


Headless Hollow Boardgame Reference Sheets Update

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The years pass, the seasons come and go, the sun god travels in his blazing chariot across the sky, and Universal Head keeps making boardgame summary sheets:

Merchants & MaraudersThis finally looks like the pirate game we’ve all been waiting for—lots of options, variety, plastic pirate ships, combat, trade, naval vessels; even 3D cardboard chests in which to stash your gold. Arrrrrrr!

Road Kill RallyA game that reminds me of many wasted hours playing Carmageddon on my Mac, Road Kill Rally sees players mowing down little old ladies and kids while blasting each other with machine guns and—oh yes—racing to the finish line. What’s not to like?

RattusRats spreading the Black Death throughout Europe in the 14th century—what a fantastic theme! The illustrations and graphic design style are just right for this compact and attractive game of role selection and ravaging plague. This rules summary includes the Pied Piper expansion.

AgricolaRunning a farm in the 17th century: not the most exciting subject for a boardgame, one would think. But this clever Euro-style game is a firm favourite among gamers who like wooden pieces, very little luck, and a complete lack of fancy plastic. I’ve only played it once so far, but for those times when Puerto Rico-style gaming is the thing, it may be time to get to work down on the farm.

Dust TacticsAfter the sad demise of Rackham and AT-43, the field is wide open for Dust Tactics, a miniatures ‘boardgame’ whose alternative-reality WWII was the original melieu for AT-43 before it went sci-fi. I forked out for the ‘premium’ painted edition and the miniatures are very well done. I expected it to be too simple but it surprised me by being a fast and fun game.

Plus, there’s the usual crop of updates as I obsessively creep closer and closer to the ever-moving target of game summary perfection! Enjoy.


Headless Hollow Boardgame Reference Sheets Update

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New additions to my Boardgame Reference Sheets page might sometimes go unnoticed, so I’ll be announcing updates occasionally here on the front page for you gamers out there:

AT43After a year’s break, finally a big update to my AT-43 cards with the addition of the COG and ONI armies. Those of you who play this great miniatures game, be sure to check out these files. I also took the opportunity to add cards for support teams, and updated the token sets, so the AT-43 set should now be complete.

Arkham HorrorThe Arkham Horror summary and reference set has also been updated—Fantasy Flight Games keeps releasing the expansions, I kept updating my reference sheets. Until the new Lurker at the Threshold expansion comes out, this is now completely up to date.

Memoir44Another big update completed recently was for good ol’ Memoir ’44. I finally redesigned these sheets from scratch with a new layout and the latest expansions.

WFRP3The new version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is out, and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it. My comprehensive rules summary and reference sheet ‘pack’ should help you keep track of all those strange new rules with ease, and let you concentrate on the storytelling.

RunewarsRunewars is a brand new ‘big box’ game from Fantasy Flight Games, and I have the rules summary and reference sheets ready, hot on the heels of the release. Enjoy!

Good gaming!


Grab ’em while you can!

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Sometimes you just have to shake your head in disbelief at the stupidity and short-sightedness of some companies. Case in point: Games Workshop. Multi-million dollar exchange-listed behemoth tabletop games company.
They must have hired a new law firm or something, because gamers all over the world are receiving cease-and-desist letters from the suits to pull down from the net anything and everything that mentions their games. This morning, all the rules summaries and reference sheets I’ve done for their games were removed from BoardGameGeek, and I fully expect to get the email any day now that forces me to remove them from this site as well.

So I suggest, if you play any of these games, grab the sheets now while you still can.

Anyone with half a brain can’t help but be amazed by this kind of treatment. How can any company be so stupid as to penalise their own fans; people who are putting countless hours of their own effort into advertising their product for free? I mean, really, how can having online rules summaries for twenty-year-old games like Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb and Rogue Trooper hurt the company? Even if the game is still in print, it is common practice for companies to make their game rules available online. These games can’t be played by rules alone.

I could go on from here into how this kind of customer-bashing has become de rigeur for companies all over the world, and how the knee-jerk response of companies to the internet is completely missing the obvious fact that they will actually end up selling more product if they allow the fans to promote and support it online. But we’d be here all day.

Suffice it to say that gamers know which way the wind is blowing, and are deserting Games Workshop in droves. Eventually the twelve-year-olds that these days make up their core customers will wake up to the facts as well, stop supporting this aging corporate beast of a company, and go elsewhere to game companies that actually care about their customers.

In the meantime, let’s all watch Games Workshop dig its own grave.

The Games Workshop Files Purge of ’09 (BoardgameGeek GeekList).