Such a great quick game in a fantastic package. Gives you a taste of Arkham Horror in a quick tour guide package.

The game involves resolving a set of tasks to complete various adventures. This is achieved using a set of customised dice to roll and match symbols. Some tactics are involved around how you want to ration out the results of the roll. Completing an adventure can get you additional items to help your quest or take you a step closer to defeating the Ancient One. The strategy comes in choosing to complete easier adventures to help provide you with tokens/bonuses to complete the more difficult ones. The difficult adventures are more likely to result in the acquisition of an Elder Sign. Each Ancient One can be defeated after attaining a set number of Elder Signs. The clock time keeps the game pace up and each new day can result in bad effects or a move closer to the end of the world!

Owning all the Arkham Horror miniatures means that I can reuse them in this game to give it more of an immersive view compared to the included cardboard counters!

I really like this game. It’s quick, fun and gives you a nice aperitif to Arkham Horror when you are too full to handle the main course. It makes you appreciate the depth of the full game that much more.

Buy Elder Signs here

Another GW classic given the FFG makeover. High levels of quality throughout and some great game pieces.

I had a lot of fun painting these and the player cards help your decisions with the colour schemes, if you’re feeling less creative. My general method was to paint flat colours then dip in some Army Painter Quick Shade. After that was a touch of any details and to paint in the eyes.

This version maintains the feel of the original from an artwork perspective, but deals with it in a much more colourful fashion. Some may prefer the linework of the original.

I’ve found that this version is much more quest like in that the characters have to explore to really build up their attributes and skills. This aspect of the game can take a very long time, but it is key to the survival of the inner regions. On the plus side there are hundreds of adventures and side quests to explore. The multitude of expansions builds on this.

A great game to get into if you’ve been bought up on the Games Workshop 2nd edition. Great for collecting as there are loads of expansions (both large and mini boxed varieties) available. I now keep the GW version locked away for viewing purposes. The cards seem so fragile compared to the FFG version. You also get plastic coins and cone tokens instead of the previous cardboard squares. I seem to have completely skipped the 3rd edition and it has passed me by, so can’t comment on developments from that version. As an interesting aside, the most recent expansion, Talisman Dragons, harks back to the little known final expansion of the GW range. You can find the occasional copy coming up on eBay for crazy prices.

Overall, a nice set of packs to get hold of. Superb quality as always. Good if you enjoy painting your figures as there’s a wide variety of them. I think FFG have given this series plenty of support, so you can probably count on more expansions. This is the game where you want to set aside a few hours to play to really develop your characters. Alternatively, if you’re extremely lucky with dice throws you can head straight for the middle! It’s relatively easy to get into and really beautiful game to look at.

Buy Talisman here

Dust Tactics the game is quite a strange beast as you’d expect these kind of miniature wargames to be proper skirmish game without the need of a board. It comes to no surprise then that Fantasy Flight and Dust Studios have indeed created a new spin off called Dust Warfare which is coming soon. However, this review is concentrating solely on the board game version.

The Game

The year is 1947 but it’s very much a parallel universe as massive combat mechs stomp around the green fields of Europe as the Allies and Axis forces do battle. It’s a power struggle literally as both sides seek an elusive alien material called VX. All this is the brain child of Paolao Parente and he’s created a setting that’s a heck of alot of fun!

The game is played by miniatures and dice which dictate the hits-n-misses. Players go head to head as either the Allied or Axis forces. It’s very much a fast shooter game and relatively quick to play with each skirmish taking under an hour to complete.

Some of the parts in the box (yes, there is a lot more!!)…

What goes into the squad is determined by the player and there is a limit of points value of the total units in each side. The most exciting part of the game is the ability to control giant Mech units that stomp around. Units essentially move on 90mm x 90mm squares on a grid of a 9 squared board.

Here’s the full list of contents:-
• Never-before-released miniatures exclusive to this Core Set
• An updated and comprehensive rulebook
• The “Victory Bridge” scenario book
• Six Combat Dice
• Two double-sided terrain posters (each the size of six terrain tiles)
• 10 unit cards
• Nine double-sided hazard squares
• Two ammo-crates
• Two anti-tank traps
• 1 Blackhawk Walker
• 1 Rhino Hero
• 5 Hell Boys Soldiers
• 5 Death Dealers Soldiers
• 3 The Hammers Soldiers
• 1 Hans Walker
• 1 Lara Hero
• 5 Sturmpioniere Soldiers
• 3 Heavy Laser Grenadiers Soldiers
• 3 Heavy Flak Grenadiers Soldiers
• 1 Plastic Loaded Token
• 1 Quick Start Rules Card

The miniatures is one of the best things about this game. They are incredibly detailed for plastic board game components. You certainly get the feeling of quality from these.

Here’s a couple of pictures from the set…

The Allied forces…

The Axis forces included in the set…

The rules are designed to keep the action flowing as much as possible. There are various rules about movement and firepower of weapons that are described on the individual unit cards. Line of Sight and Cover rules apply in Dust Tactics. They are handled differently according to where a unit is shooting from on which side of buildings for instance. Cover saves work on a soft and hard cover basis and the dice is rolled to indicate whether shots successfully hit targets. If the squad consists of a number of hit troops it’s up to the player to remove which troop/s are taken out of the game. The victory goes to the squad that captured the target objective and victory points are calculated at the end the game.

As you can imagine there’s quite a lot to cover in the rulebook but in terms of quality and gameplay it’s an excellent introduction into the Dust Tactics Universe. Coupled with the fact that a new table top rule set is on its way, it’s an ideal place to build up a decent set of miniatures. Expansions and Scenarios are available and  released through Fantasy Flight Games.

Buy Dust Tactics: Revised Core Set here

Additional resource:-

The Rule set is available to download here from Fantasy Flight