POST BY DAVID BOCK. Another commission complete. I absolutely love painting Scythe. In part because it’s a challenge (as the minis aren’t very detailed) and second because I know them well enough now to improve upon my previous work. I tried something new with this one, painting the base colors and highlights with the airbrush and then coming in afterward for the details. It really made a huge difference.
I plan on doing a painting video in the future, likely for my painting I did for the SPACE PARK rockets for Gen Con 2018 with Keymaster Games. They’re very simple and easy to paint, while still being creative.
If you have any questions at all on how I painted these or what I used, please feel free to ask. I’m an open book and always happy to share any of my “secrets”. That includes my photography and videography as well. I’ve always felt that a rising tide raises all ships — so if you’re struggling with something that you think I can help at, just let me know!
And if you’re interested in having me paint your minis, go here!
Publisher: Japanime Games. Designer: gingko. Year Published: 2011. 2 – 4 Players / 30 min / 12+ / Weight: 2/5
POST BY CATHY BOCK. Many of us still remember that first game of Dominion, sitting across from that over-excited friend–the one obsessed with board games of all things–who seemed sure they were about to change your life with something revolutionary. And maybe they were right. Because you played it, this dull-looking card game, and you actually liked it.
At first it seemed so simple–play some cards, buy some cards, play some cards, buy some cards, shuffle and repeat. But then the game suddenly ended just as you were getting going. Just as it was getting good. You’d discovered these combinations of cards that gave you more cards and then more money to buy more cards and you were feeling so so smart about it all. But then it was over. While you were busy being smart, your friend, now sitting there with that smug grin, had whittled away that pile of Provinces, leaving you with a worthless brick of cards in front of you. There had been a subtle shift in the game that you had missed. And it was clever. Different. Even fun.
It would be impossible for me to talk about Heart of Crown without talking about Dominion. Dominion spawned a whole genre of deck-builders and was a gateway game for many of us. But it was mostly devoid of theme, and what little theme it had was not appealing. Enter Heart of Crown. Heart of Crown is Dominion in lace. Dominion with blue-haired anime princesses, maids in aprons, and magical girl witches. And while the anime theme is not really my thing, it gives the game a heart and a feeling that I’m doing something for a purpose, something I never felt with Dominion.
Also, *whispers* it’s just a better game.
In Heart of Crown, your emperor has died unexpectedly, leaving an open throne and seven daughters. You must decide which princess to give your support and then earn enough succession points to ensure her place on the throne. The setup is what you’d expect–action cards, territory (treasure) cards, and succession (point) cards are available to purchase. You start off only able to afford the cheap stuff, building your way up until you are finally able to back a princess.
Now here’s where Heart of Crown starts to diverge from its Dominion parentage in an important way. There are six princess cards (one is a set of twins), each with its own unique ability, to choose from. You must back a princess at some point in the game in order to begin playing (scoring) your succession cards, but the timing here is crucial.
When you choose to back a princess, in addition to paying six gold, three territory (treasure) cards will be removed from your hand and placed in your domain in front of you. But if one of these territories is a starting card–a lowly Farming Village–that’s negative two points. And if it’s a Large City card that normally gets you 6 gold when played, you’re losing a lot of bank by not having that in your deck.
But–and here’s the interesting part–each territory in your domain allows you to save an action card (of equal or lesser value) on it for a future turn. This means that instead of using a card now, when you don’t really need it, you can save it for when that big combo comes around. This is huge. Enormous. This eliminates the one thing I dislike most about deck-builders–the luck of the draw. You can save your Wishing Well until you have a dud hand and need a new draw. You can save your Bank card until you need a big payday. You can plan just the right moment to play a card, making it so much more satisfying because no one can say that it was luck that won you the game. Careful planning, unlike in most deck-builders, is a real thing in this game.
In Heart of Crown, as soon as someone takes that first princess, the race is on and you better grab yours soon before someone scores a fistful of Duke cards and leaves you in the dust. And unlike in Dominion, those points don’t clog up your deck. While it takes up a turn to play them to your domain, they don’t stay there constantly churning up like a nasty piece of gristle in your chicken soup.
This just adds to the feeling that in Heart of Crown, you–not your deck–are in control. And that player control is what makes this game one of my new favorite deck-builders. So now I’m the one. I’m the over-excited friend pushing games on people like a back-alley puppy dealer. But now when I’m in the mood for a deck-builder as bait, it’s Heart of Crown, not Dominion, on my table luring in the unexpecting and getting them hooked and wanting more.
POST BY DAVID BOCK. I am so happy with how these rockets turned out. I was worried about the extremely simple nature of these rockets and decided I’d make that integral to the look. I’d considered getting super detailed with them but I think that’d take away from the theme and ambience of the game. By keeping each rocket (in general) to a “two-color” scheme, they blend in.
Our friends at Keymaster Games reached out to me about painting them and I was both honored and nervous. I love these guys (they were the first company to ever provide me a review copy of a game) and I wanted to do their game justice. Plus, I knew I’d be demoing the game at Gen Con as I had volunteered to help them out a bit on Saturday (which ended up being so much fun). They asked for three schemes. One that matched the game and two that were unique.
For the first, I wanted to match the look and feel of the cover as much as I could (and likely this will be the look I go with for my own game.
For the second, I wanted to go with a Flash Gordon (yellow and red) scheme. I loved the rust red it ended up having and I’m very partial to it.
For the third, Kyle (Keymaster Games) suggested a “cosmonaut” look and so the red and silver was the result.
Hope these inspire you to paint your own miniatures and if you have any questions — as always, never hesitate to ask! I’m an open book!
And if you’re interested in having me paint your minis, go here!
Hey everyone! We had an amazing time at Gen Con 2018! We have a ton of stuff to sort through but I wanted to let everyone know that we’ll begin reviews hopefully within the next two weeks here on our website — which we’ll then copy to the respective page on Board Game Geek.
Major changes and stuff in the works. Let’s discuss that.
NEW! WRITTEN REVIEWS.
We’ve decided to expand from Instagram and YouTube into full written reviews right here on our website. Potentially some news as well? We’ll also post those reviews on BGG. We’re really excited about this and it’ll allow us to expand exponentially in the amount of content we can offer our fans. Our plan is once a week and most of them will be written by Cathy. She’s much more critical than I am, so expect a very different look at games. These should begin soon after GenCon at the latest.
NEW! PHOTOGRAPHY.
We’re going to start doing more photography for the board game industry. I am thrilled that we’ve already had some orders and we’re excited to see our pictures in the world. If you’re interested, drop us a line.
ON HOLD! THE PODCAST.
So yeah. About that podcast. We’ve decided to put it on indefinite hold. We liked the idea of it and felt it would work well but to be honest and after much soul searching and regret — we just don’t have the time available to us to give it the time and attention it deserves. We wanted to do once a week at minimum and unfortunately it’d be closer to once a month. We’re going to evaluate our options this fall and see if it’s possible but right now, it simply isn’t. We deeply appreciate the support however and as always we feel doing something isn’t worth doing unless it can be done well.
UPDATE! YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
Things are going VERY well with the YouTube channel behind the scenes. I’d love to touch on all that. We’ve finalized our setup for the show. The addition of a mic stand has been a big improvement in audio quality. Eventually we’re going to upgrade our post production software, but for now it does the job very well. We’re also aiming to publish one episode a week. Right now it’s once or twice a month, but we think we can do better. As well we have a bunch of new sponsors providing games to our channel and we couldn’t be more grateful for their support. And as always, regardless as to our sponsors, we’ll keep our reviews honest. Our plans are to diversify our videos as well. I’ll be doing some top ten videos, more maker videos, some super short reviews for smaller games, potentially tips on painting your miniatures, customizing games, etc etc. Reviews will always come first but we feel having more content is important. We’ve also decided that for the time being we’re not going to do full rules overviews. There are some excellent channels out there like Gaming Rules and Watch it Played that do this way better than we ever could. We’re also exploring some live feed options (potentially of Cathy and I playing some games) as well as full play throughs with some of our game night friends. We’ll see.
GENCON 2018! COME FIND ME!
Hey guys. I am so so so excited for GenCon 2018. Aren’t you? I am also excited to meet all of you, so please be sure to stop me and say hello. I’ll be helping at the Keymaster Games booth — how cool is that? I might also be doing a giveaway so be sure to watch my YouTube channel for updates!
And that’s it for now guys. More to come, very soon!
