Courtisans - A Medieval Take on Happy Families

My work colleague Stephen (Tik Tok Games) returned from UK Games Expo with this exquisitely produced card game.  I loved it so much I immediately bought it.

Courtisans by Catchup Games (distributed by Hacehette)

A new arrival on the board game scene are Hachette Board Games UK a new division of the all dominating French publishing giant Hahcette.  They have collaborated with a number of smaller games designers to distribute their games just in time for Christmas.

One such title is Courtisans by Catchup Games, a simple card collecting in the style of Happy Families except that in addition to keeping and giving away cards you get to try to influence who is in or out of favour at the Queens banquet.

 

High Production Quality  

As soon as you open the box your eye will be drawn to the tapestry play mat.  Something I've never seen in a game and it is so "on theme" I'm tempted to try something similar for my 2nd favourite card game Citadels.

The playing cards are similarly gorgeous.  It is not often that you see tarot sized cards in a boardgame and this again harks back to medieval times when this was the standard size for all cards.  Printed with a gold spot colour these are beautifully illustrated and the necessary symbols discrete yet clear.

Fast Game Play

The objective is simple, collect as many cards of families who are Esteemed, avoid collecting cards of families who are Fallen from Grace and play cards at the Queens table to influence who is Esteemed and who is Fallen from Grace.  Whichever side of the table has the most cards (Esteemed on top, Fallen below) determines which families in everyone's tableau score positive or negative points.

Every turn you keep a card, give one away to another player and add one to the table.  It is that simple.  However, there are four special card types (for each family) which if you draw them can be played and mix things up.  These are:

• Assassin - denoted by the dagger symbol can be used to kill any card from any family whether they are played in your or another players tableau or at the queens table.
  
  
• Guard - denoted by the shield, the guard cannot be killed by an assassin.
  
  
• Noble  - denoted by the Crown X2 means that they are worth two points instead of one.
  
  
• Spy - denoted by the mask symbol is played face down and only revealed at the end of the game.  They can count towards your positive or negative points or can add to the esteemed or fallen from grace scores at the queens table.

Finally a range of secret mission cards can tip the balance in the end game should you be able to satisfy the win condition.

In Conclusion

Courtesans is a great little 5 player game which is quick to play and can easily fill that dead time whilst you are waiting for players to turn up to your RPG game.  I personally love the intrigue element and there are lots of tactics you can deploy to try to seal your victory at a cost to other players.

Mystery Dice Goblin - 7pc D&D Dice Sets

"You can never have enough dice" and when Mystery Dice Goblin reached out and asked me to review their dice bags I jumped at the chance.

Retailing at a very reasonable £4.50 per set with free shipping these blind bags are an excellent choice for birthdays or to give as Xmas Gifts.  Lets open those sealed bags and see what we got.

Set 1 - Green / White Marble

This is a pretty solid starter set, although my particular preference is for solid or gem dice they certainly stand out in a crowded dice bag.  The consistency of the marbling is 50/50 as some dice seemed to get much more of the green juice on one side than others.  The choice of gold number ink is great on the heavy green sides but leans to illegibility in places just purely due to the randomness of the marbling.

Set 2 - Red Arcane 

This set appears to be slightly larger than the other two and they are quite pretty.  A good choice if you are playing a horror inspired RPG like Ravenloft or Call of Cthulhu.  The numbers are well positioned and sufficiently unobscured by the "runes" which feature on every side.

Gold and red are a classic combo and lead to highly legible dice.

Set 3 - Blue and Gold Sparkly Dice

Finally we get to my favourite set which are a blue gem style dice with yellow gold sparkles.  These pop right out of the box and I really like the "blackletter" style numbers inked in white.  Highly legible from every angle these will certainly get some table time in my next game.

Bonus Gift - D&D Enamel Mystery Pin - £5.50

Whilst the Mystery Goblin's are clearly cornering the market with blind bag random number generators, it's not their only offering.  They treated me to one of their enamel pins in the shape of the D&D Logo.

Measuring 30mm across it is tastefully decorated in Red and Blank enamel.  The reverse has a single pin and clasp.  I am pleased to report that the clasp is high quality with some sort of ruberised inside and so it should not fall off easily.  Cheaper versions always seem to fail spectacularly so it's really good to see that some time and effort when into the choice of clasp here.

Even More Accessories Online

As I mentioned earlier, where Mystery Dice Goblin excels is in their wide range of gift sets perfect for every occasion and every gamer.  My particular favourite is the Party Box of Holding which if I were 40 years younger would have been the perfect Xmas gift from one of my aunt's.  

Chock full of dice, stickers, pins, item cards and a fresh character sheet, who wouldn't want one of those in your stocking.  Heck, I should start dropping hints now as Secret Santa is fast approaching approaching.

Judge Anderson 1/24th Scale Resin Kit

A recent haul from Aliexpress included this fantastic resin kit of Psi Judge Anderson for the princely sum of £8.46 including shipping

Psi Judge Anderson 1:24 scale Resin Kit

Meet the Parts

Another multipart kit depicting Judge Cassandra Anderson doing some psi stuff next to the grave of Sidney De'ath the most powerful of the Dark Judges.  No assembly instructions which is not  big deal as the kit goes together really easily.  However, I have no idea where Death's skeletal hand is supposed to be mounted.

This appears to be based on this Psi Judge Anderson STL on Maco 3D.  I should probably buy that as well and print it out on my new larger 3D Printer.  Although this is a great alternative if you don't have access to a 3D Printer. 

Assembly

The parts were really clean and went together easily with no need to fill except for the join between the two halves of the base. 

Painting

I wanted to go for a comic book colour scheme although the black uniform was going to need a little bit of thought.  After priming and zenithal I airbrushed on the green accents and added a dark wash.  

I think painting this assembled was a big mistake as it would have been so much easier painting individual parts with no risk of overspray.  

I promise that the next model I build will be hot-glued together for the priming and zenithal stage and then disassembled before painting.  I also made the mistake of glueing in Judge Death's claw before glueing Anderson to the base.  This led to him losing one of his fingers... oh well.

The uniform was brush painted in some very thin coats of black and then dry brushed with a very dark blueblack mix to give it a volumetric effect.

Blocking in the Colours

The shoulder pads and badge were painted in a fiery orange with highlights in a yellow orange mix.  Orange and yellow are such lousy colours to paint and Iin hindsight I should have painted a white base coat to allow them to pop.  I chose to wash them in zealot yellow speedpaint which gave them a glossy look.  Don't panic... this will be fixed in the final step.

Face and eyes were painted in my usual skin tone set, at this size it is pointless trying pinkle.

On the hair I tried a mousy blonde base and washed with zealot yellow and then progressively lighter highlights whihc kind of worked/

Black accents were added to the gun, belt pouches and gloves and she was done.

The magic final step is to airbrush a coat of artist matt varnish which removes all signs of glossiness.

 

RIP Steve "Stig" Tasso

This week I learned that my old Hobbits Hole clubmate Stig had passed away after a long illness.

Stephen "Stig" Tasso

I had known stig for over 20 years and we were regular clubmates at an earlier incarnation of the Roleplaying Games club, Hobbits Hole, which I co-founded many years ago.

 

We shared many Friday nights together and had many adventures over the years.  My fondest memories of Steve are always filled with his good natured humour and his boundless creativity.

As an early player in my Lands of Dual Castles & Crusades campaign, I will be forever grateful for his creative input and it is entirely thanks to him that my world has a fully explored species of lizard kin known as the Salamankari.

Stig always embraced the weird and outlandish game ideas I dreamed up and basically ran with it.  Being not that much older than myself we shared many similar interests in music and pop-culture including a love of the classic 1980s comic exploits of Judge Dredd and punk rock.

Steve was always a kind soul and I will miss his no nonsense approach to life.  Steve was definitively a "no fucks to give" type of guy.

Long may your star shine bright and I hope to see you again in the heavenly mosh pit.

The Masks of Nyarlathotep - Bunty Rothschild

At my regular friday club Dragons Keep UK we are 10 weeks into a year long Call of Cthulu and I have only just gotten round to printing and painting my character mini...

Bunty Rothschild - Heiress and Supernatural Investigator

Bunty's Story

Her early life in the Hamptons was idylic, being the daughter of the extended Rothschild family the world was her oyster as long as that meant marrying into one of the other rich families that Daddy knew.

Whe she was 16 she was packed off to Paris to study at the famous Sorbonne finishing schools.  However, far from the withering gaze of her father she developed a rebellious streak that even the legendary Madame Guillaume couldn't tame out of her.  

With the outbreak of war she and her American classmates were shipped back to the USA like refugees. Her father being far too busy with the business of supporting the war effort left her to live in the family's 5th Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park.

Of course Bunty was soon getting up to mischief and found herself fronting various high society illicit parties on behalf of the Italian Gandolfini Syndicate.  Her taste for risk and danger often saw her accompanying the boys on a rum run and her skills with the Chicago Typewriter made her invaluable to Don Luigi.

Unfortunately, her success came to an abrupt end when the syndicate fell under the beady eyes of Izzy and Moe, who operated the New York office of the famous untouchables.  She was lifted by the cops in a sting operation and only managed to avoid incarceration due the sworn testimony of her Uncle and New York State Supreme Court Judge.

Tired of his wayward daughter's antics, her father gabe her an ultimatum.  Either she married into one of the respectable wealthy society families or she got herself a job.

Whilst Bunty ruminated on the two equally unnatractive options facing her, fate had other plans.  A chance reading of the New York Tribune classifieds saw her embark on a steamship to Lima, Peru.