How to Build a Medieval Castle

My favourite living history team are back on TV again and this time they're belping to build a 13th Century Castle from scratch.

Secrets of the Castle is a new 5 part show in which Historian Ruth Goodman, and Archaeologists Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold, learn the skills needed to build a castle and get a taste of life in the 13th Century.

(L to R) Peter Ginn, Tom Pinfold and Ruth Goodman

Not sure if this series is available to international viewers but it's on BBC iPlayer right now.

You can learn more about this ambitious 25 year long, Guedelon Castle project from wikipedia or at its own website.

The Dark Valley - An Austrian Cowboy Movie, WTF?

Well that's what I thought initially but being the self confessed fan of European cinema (and my missus being a cowboy movie fan) I thought "What the heck, I'll give this a go".

Dark Valley (2014)

Directed by Andreas Prochaska (Dead in 3 Days), "Das Finstere Tal" is set towards the end of the 19th century in a village in the Austrian Alps.  Sam Riley (Maleficent, Byzantium) is Greider, a lone rider, who enters the eponymous valley in search of shelter from the approaching winter.

The villagers are a bedraggled bunch of peasants who are kept firmly at heel by their self appointed leader and protector Brenner (Hans Michael Rehberg) and his six sons.  Nothing happens in the valley without their approval and Brenner makes all the laws, including reviving the barbaric feudal custom of Droit du Seigneur.

Greider tells the Brenner boys that he's a photographer recently returned from America keen to document the valley, so they let him stay.  It's not long before the first of them meets a grisly end and Greider's real motive for entering the valley is revealed... Revenge!

Whilst the acting is convincing enough, the real star of the movie is of course the scenery and the cinematography of Thomas Kienast, ably assisted by Mathhias Weber's cold and haunting soundtrack.  Filmed in Val Senales, Italy during heavy snow, they manage to paint a beautiful yet sinister backdrop against which Greidel and the Brenner family's stories unfold.  It's so chilling it makes the nine walkers trip through Redhorn Pass look a Snow Day. 

Well worth a look if you fancy something a bit different. 

Let's Blow this Kid and Go Home!!

Wow, the Dungeonmorphs 2 kickstarter has unlocked THE CITY STRETCH GOAL and with a little bit more we could have, wait for it....

CITY RUINS !!!!!!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO BE LIKE LUKE AND BACK THIS KICKSTARTER

Let's be like Luke and hit that £19K Stretch goal.  I've already upped my pledge level to 3 sets of dice, and if we shoot through £16K everyone gets a...

SECOND BONUS DICE per set!!!!

so if you're a 3 set backer you'll get 6, yes count them, 6 bonus dice.  That's an extra set of dice right there and it will cost you nowt, nish, nada, zero, zilch, nothing.

Come on guys and girls this is just too good an opportunity to pass up.

I want my Ruins!! 

Almost There... Almost There...

...as Red Leader would say. 

Over the weekend the Dungeonmorphs 2 kickstarter funded and it's almost unlocked it's second dice set stretch goal, only $1000 bucks to go!

There's still time to jump on board this project and push forward to hit that stretch goal.

If you back at the 2 dice set pledge level you'll have 10 dice (+ 2 bonus dice) to create your villages and cities.  All for a measly $40 ($3 a dice). 

If there are any FLGS stores reading this, you can still grab a retailer bundle on your customers behalf and save even more money.

Click the picture to become a backer

Joe will be releasing some proofs of the city dice designs later today, so come on guys, share this with your friends, get them to pledge and we can unlock some AWESOME.

5 Boardgames Still Crying out for an App

1.  Car Wars

Original Car Wars "Pocket Game" Box Art
Published way back in 1981

There are a few noteable real time car combat games out there such as Death Rally, Auto Mangle, Indestructible, and Horror Racing.  I've had fun playing them all, but there's but nothing that's turn based.  A while ago I went through a period of playing Dark Wind which is a 3D turn based combat game, it was fun for a while but the interface was a bit clunky on my old mac.  there's a massive gap in the market here for a top down, turn based car combat game with an RPG/Tournament community angle.  Come on SJG this needs to happen alongside the re-launch of the Car Wars boardgame you promised during the OGRE kickstarter.

2.  Citadels

There's an iOS version of San Juan which sports a similar theme and variable abilities mechanic, so I don't see why there's not been a Citadels app.  I don't know how difficult it would be to program the  AI element but surely it's not be too tough a nut to crack.  If you solve that problem I think you're half way towards a version of the other Bruno Faidutti classic Mission Red Planet.

3. Formula D / Formula De

When Asmodee re-launched Formula De as Formula D an inbox flyer promised "raceronline", an online version of the game with tournaments and the usual multiplay options.  Well that never really happened (unless you spoke french) and the online site has since gone belly up.  Before anyone calls foul, yes I am aware of Racer Feud, which whilst a pretty good version is not officially licensed and personally I've found a bit buggy on my iPad2.

4.  Robo Rally

This is one of my favourite and a classic of the "programming" style games.  Once again a talented developer has released their own unlicensed version in the guise of Parcours.Robo, sadly it's a one player puzzle game and not the multiplayer anarchic deathmatch so typical of every game I've ever hand the pleasure to play.  I don't know who holds the licencse for this one as it's been through the hands of several different publishers since it was originally printed in 1994.  It's last reprint was in 2006 and it's high time that this got some appification.

5.  Thebes

Thebes by Queen Games

Whenever I feel the itch to be Indiana Jones, I dig out Thebes (no pun intended).  There's just so much variety in it but the game itself is quite simple to play, you either travel, research or dig.  I'd love to play it more often but the pre-game set-up takes a while to resolve in exactly the same way as Settlers of Catan.  It's probably not on any developers wishlist, but it's a game I love and I'd relish the opportunity to buy it in app form.

Honourable Mentions

I was going to add Battlelore to this list, but it appears that Fantasy Flight are in the process of releasing an iOS/Android/PC version, (albeit single player) of the game in time for Christmas.  I'll also be checking out the Bloodbowl app, maybe do a video review in the not too distant future.