Boardgame Rescue: Waage Mut

One of the joys of being a boardgame collector is finding one of those long out of print games that only about 20 people admit to owning on BGG.

Waage Mut - Schmidt Spiele (1982)

I picked this up on one of my regular thrift shop trips for the princely sum of £2.  Clearly this was some sort of manual dexterity / balancing game which is usually enough to make me run for the hills, "I'm looking at you Bausack!!"

However, the cover photo featuring a five armed plastic balancing spider intrigued me so it came home.

Google lens translates the box cover as - "LIBRA COURAGE - Anyone who doesn't weigh things up and bets wrong. blurs the victory".

An Incomplete Game

The risk of buying any game in a charity shop is that it comes with missing pieces.  For a common game such as cluedo or monopoly this presents no problem as the pieces are readily available.  However, the older and rarer a game gets the more difficult it becomes to acquire replacement parts.

This is where the 3D printer shines and so I quickly knocked up a replacement blue pawn in Sketchup

If you are missing a pawn you can download a free STL file from:

1. Thingiverse - Thing 6773663
   
2. Cults 3D - Waage Mut Replacement Pawn
   
3. Printables - Waage Mut Replacement Pawn
   

Of course having the abilitle to churn out replacement pieces means it is a trivial exercise to print out a whole 5th player set of pawns.

The Rules (English Translation) 

Sadly the game does not come with rules in English and so Google Lens came to the rescue.  I will be giving this to me my German friend Jonas who can do a proper translation.

LIBRA COURAGE

For 2 to 4 players ages 4 and up, fun for the whole family.

 

The weights must be cleverly distributed in order to achieve as many points as possible without the star. to cause it to tip over. Who doesn't weigh up and. If you put it wrong, you lose your victory.

Preparation:

 

The arms are attached to the center piece and the resulting star is inserted into the stand. Each arm has 6 holes marked 1 (center of star) to 6 (outermost edge).

Gameplay:

Each player receives 6 weights of one color (if there are only 2 players, each player receives 12 weights).

 

A weight is alternately inserted into each hole. If the weight causes the star to tip over, it is removed from the game and may no longer be used.

 

Weights can also be "caught" by placing your own on them. This is an advantage, especially with weights with high points (in holes 5 or 6).

 

The game round ends when all players have set their weights. Each game consists of as many rounds as there are players, so that everyone has the advantage of placing the last weight.

Evaluation:

Each weight is evaluated based on the score of the respective hole. If several weights are stuck in a hole (they have been “caught”), all points are added together and they are credited to the player with the highest weight. 

 

Whoever was able to collect the most points won.

More Photos

 

A Potential Roleplaying Puzzle?

Imagine a scenario where each player enters a large chamber at a different arm of the balancing beam.  Looking down they see only darkness.  Their goal is on the center pedestal, they must combine their movement to ensure that the beam stays balanced and they can get to the center.

 

When they fall do they fall to their deaths or just disappear into the darkness?

To add some peril have some wandering creatures like spiders move onto each of the arms.

Boardgame Rescue - My Next Project - Warrior Knights

The next in my Rescue Mission series is going to be one of my two copies (if not both) of Games Workshop Warrior Knights circa 1985.

Warrior Knights is a great medieval wargame designed by Derek Carver who alsodesigned Blood Royale which was similarly released by Games Workshop two years later as part of their Bookcase Games range.

I have played Warrior Knights a handful of times but it always stood out as a great game with lots going on for each player both in their turn and in others as you strive to capture cities across the board, wage war and try to put your pretender on the throne.

To Pimp or Not To Pimp

That is the question.  There is limited scope for pimping the game as it comes with a huge amount of cardboard tiles for all manner of item , however, there are some options including:

Strongholds and Cities - The most notable game piece on the board are the stronghold counters which come in three flavours:

• Stronghold - x1 - This is your barons home
  
• City Control Marker - x14 - Some city walls to surround your
  
• Improved Control Marker - x6 -
  

Noble Markers - As you can see from the photo below these generic shields just look cheap and nasty and mine have even changed colour!!

Warrior Knights - Noble pawns, Stronghold and City Control Markers

Money - It makes the world go around and you end up playing with these tiny little tokens throughout the game.  Much better to have some nice plastic tokens that don't blow away if someone coughs.

Warrior Knights - Money - Who has time for 1/2 crowns these days!!

Trade ships - There is an exploration element to the game represented by the 4 colonies in the corners of the board.  These work in the same way as the cities on the main board and can be captured and fought over.  Getting there requires a vote in the council and the ship's progress is represented by a small cardboard counter.  This could easily be replaced by a tiny sailing ship.  

Wish me luck

Pimp My Game - Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

Back in the midst of the Corona Curse, I went about restoring one of my favourite Games Workshop boardgames from the 1980s, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb.  

I was never truly satisfied with the result and the ultimate goal was to have a pimped out copy of this vintage classic.

A prayer to the eBay Gods and an incomplete copy of the game was soon in my hands for the princely sum of £20.  Why, you might ask, would I part with good money for an incomplete game?  Well this one had all 5 of the original minis.  

These are much sought after "oldhammer" minis from the Night Horrors set and bought individually carry a hefty price tag of between £15 and £20 each.  All 5 minis for the price of 1 is what I call a bargain! If only I could find my originl minis...

The Pyramid of Khonsu    

Both my original and this copy had horribly warped boards and an even worse central column.  I therefore took it upon myself to model and print a new sturdier version on my 3D printer.  I modelled this in Sketchup including all the important game elements such as the start arrows, encounter numbers, pharoahs heads, ankhs and compass, leaving the way too complicated hieroglyphic frescos to someone with better modelling skills than myself.

The goal here was to balance printability (must fit on my print bed), functionality (must fit together and store in the original box) and playability (must have all the major functions of the original).  The middle and top floor plates all fit on the bed of my printer but the ground floor needed to be cut up into 4 segments and printed in batches.  I've seperated these out as individual models so you can play around

With a bit of trimming on the tabs it goes together easy enough.  

In order to print it on my FDM printer I split the central column into 3 pieces and magnetized each piece (16 Magnets in total) with readily available 5mm neodynium magnets. 

Pyramid of Khonsu - The Floors

The Floors and Columns click together

Floors stacked with the help of magnets

It all fits neatly back inside the original box

If you want to print your own Pyramid of Khonsu you can download the STL files for free from thingiverse

Tana Leaves

The quality of card stock in these 80s GW games would give the team at Fantasy Flight nightmares. It is so shockingly thin (10 thousands of an inch thick), I imagine you could use it to accurately set the tappets on a vintage car or level the bed of your 3D printer.  The tana leaves get a lot of handling during the game and so were another candidate for the 3D printer.  Given their size and relatively low number it was not too much of a chore to design and print 55 of the little blighters. 

Download your own replacement tokens for free from Thingiverse - Tana Leaf Tokens.

Attribute Cones

This new copy came with a few cones missing.  I could have purchased some replacements from eBay, or tried to find some replacements from boardgamemaker.com, but a pretty good alternative is available on thingiverse - Cone Game Piece (Games Workshop style)  They are the ubiquitous game tracker pawn used in many GW games of this era such as Cosmic Encounter which used them to represent the ship tokens.

The first outing for the game was as a special finale finale to my recent Judge Dredd campaign.  I'll write up the rules for this in a seperate article

Boardgame Rescued - Battle Over Britain

A recent charity shop find saw me fixing up the box and sorting counters for this vintage 1983 SPI TSR copy of  Battle over Britain. 

These sorts of counter heavy wargames are not my bag but for some reason I couldn't let it just fade away.

Rescuing the Oldest Game I Own - Belisha (1937)

A few years back a good friend (and fellow bargain hunter) bought me a Christmas Gift of two copies of an old card game game at an antiques fair in Covent Garden. 

Sadly, one of them was missing two cards and so I rescued it from oblivion.

Belisha - The "Safety First" Card Game

Published way back in 1937 by Castell Brothers Ltd (1878-1983) under the "Pepys" series of games.  Belisha is a reimplementation of popular card game Rummy.  The name "Belisha" was borrowed from the iconic Belisha Beacon introduced to UK roads in 1934 by then Minister of Transport the Rt.Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha.

Belisha - The Safety First Card Game (1937)

  A Game of Thrill

"All the family can play this new and entertaining game. Young and old alike. will find in it many a new thrill and many a valuable lesson, for 'Belisha' teaches the ever-valuable and all-important doctrine of 'Safety First'. 

Played on the same familiar lines as 'Rummy' with new and ingenious variations. 'Belisha' is a game of many interests. As the game proceeds the players are taken on a tour of England and Scotland from London to Oban: many of the cards bearing beautiful pictures in colour of famous beauty spots.

Belisha Card Game Advertisements

Each card bears in the top left-hand corner a familiar safety first symbol; some cards illustrate the dangers of the road; some show how accidents may be avoided. 

There's a touch of humour, a smattering of geography, a new method of teaching 'Safety First' and a heap of fun. 'Belisha' is a game that should be played in every home, for it has the merits of a family or party game with the added attraction of demonstrating again and again the way to ensure road safety for all."

Safety First, the birth of RoSPA and the Tufty Road Safety Club.

Tufty Club Badge

The "Safety First" campaign can trace its heritage back to 1916 and the founding of the London Safety First Council.  A public meeting was held due to an increase in road traffic accidents involving motor vehicles and the reduction in street lighting to aid "blackout" during WWI.  Their first campaign which encouraged people to walk on the pavement on the side of the road facing oncoming traffic reduced pedestrian deaths by 70%.

In 1941 the NSFA patron the Duke of York became King George VI he wished to continue his patronage and RoSPA was born.

I first encountered RoSPA, like many of my generation, when having to perform my bicycle safety exam as a child in the 1970s.   

The Tufty Road Safety Club had been around since the early 50s and I distinctly remember having to negotiate a mock road course which had been det up in my school playground.  Getting your Tufty Club badge was a seminal achievement back in my day.  

Tufty and his woodland friends have been iconic champions of children's road safety education for decades and featured on many educational board games over the years.

Tufty Road Safety Boardgame (1970s)

A masterpiece of marketing before the advent of  Baby Shark, "do doo, dee doo, dee doo" he was rocking the hit parade with an album of nursery rhymes related to road safety. 

Fun times.

Bicycle Road Safety Training and Belisha Beacons