Showing posts with label Shipwrights of the North Sea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shipwrights of the North Sea. Show all posts

Saturday, 18 October 2014

Ashore at last!

Awoken far too early I found myself having a parcel thrust into my hands.

"I thought I could hear strange noises coming from downstairs", she said "...as I was taking my shower. Afterwards I went down, opened the door and found this package. It says it's from Print Mighty. What have you ordered now!?"
"Nothing" I said, but I had a pretty good idea what was within.

Stunning cover art from Mr Dimitrievski.

I tore open, ok, carefully cut open the package and sure enough, to my delight, found a shiny new copy of Shipwrights of the North Sea. Generously donated to my collection by the games author, Shem Phillips of Garphill Games, for a touch of play-testing and editing I had done for this very title.

Time to build us some ships!

The quality is fabulous. A very sturdy linen laminate box; within are beautifully printed player boards and cards, also with linen laminate; wooden resource tokens, ships and workers ...all created specifically for the game ~ no common meeples here. A stand-up first player marker, point tokens, as well as a mini art-book showcasing the great art of Shipwright's artist Mihajlo Dimitrievski.
Great stuff ...I have a feeling Vikings will certainly be invading my games table this weekend.

Northmen, ships... and all you need to build 'em.

Little did  I know that later this day I would receive another surprise.
Checking my emails in the eve I found I had one from Z-Man games...

"Hello, Congratulations on winning our Pandemic: The Cure contest on BGG!".

It felt a bit strange that I would soon be having, fingers crossed, fun, playing a game revolving around an outbreak of a contagious diseases set to wipe out humanity with what's going on in the world at the moment. Hmm.

An offshoot of Matt Leacock's board-game Pandemic ~ a game I have never played but have always found looked intriguing. A dice based version. Disease busting Yahtzee ...looking forward!

Fast acting and fun!

Well, I can say I probably won't be sniffing the fresh gamy aroma from within the box when I spring the lid, just in case it contains a bit of extra 'theme'.

Thank you Z-Man games!!!

Between the two occurrences above I had been continuing with my Pathfinder Adventure Cardgame - Rise of the Runelords. Well, more of restarting it from scratch. Several months back I had acquired the base set, character add-on and first adventure pack. I played and found it very enjoyable.
If you love the die rolling part of role playing games like D&D and Pathfinder then this is a game (or could well be) for you. It's a bona fide 'roll' (the dice) playing game.

It's a full co-op that can be played with a handful of players ...or solitaire (which is how I tend to roll with this one).

There's an overarching story there (supposedly based upon a campaign from the Pathfinder role playing game) and each scenario contained within has an intro tale... but once the game has started it's all dice action. It's all about ability and skill checks ...gathering treasures, throwing spells, hacking monsters, visiting dangerous locations and tracking down and quelling major villains!

Missing livestock ...scorched earth ...sounds like something scaly afoot!

As you progress through the scenarios you gain better items, grow in power and abilities ...and gain larger pools of dice with which to adventure where no hero has adventured before ...unless you are re-playing a scenario you've tried before ...but failed (it does happen thank goodness - if there was no challenge where would be the fun) ;p

The fighter ...always a handy chap to have about.

The reason though that I've just restarted the whole thing is because I've gone ahead and grabbed the remaining adventure packs (a total of 6) as I saw that they were, well almost all of them, on sale at the Book Depository. On sale plus free shipping - it had to be done.
So with the full Rise of the Runelords set. I thought I'd scratch my old characters and start afresh.... Onward ho!

Another package at the door?....

What? ...more polyhedral dice? Huzzah!.

:)

Friday, 14 March 2014

The Ships they are a Sailin'

Well, I'm just so super stoked for Shem right now.
The Kickstarter campaign for his board game Shipwrights of the North Sea just finished with a resounding success. Reaching almost 10 times his base target ... he required $8k for it to go to press, and ended with huge $73,642.
All push goals were reached ... so it's going to be fully pimped out; can't wait to see it in it's full glory.


Congrats Shem and Garphill Games, job well done!

Friday, 28 February 2014

Ægir be praised!

Just a friendly heads up on the Shipwrights of the North Sea Kickstarter project.

I've mentioned previously that this was under way ... but just thought I'd confirm it has reached it's funding goal (of $8k). In fact it's surpassed that and has now just hit it's 4th "Push Goal" ($30k)!!
That's new cards (more townsfolk, buildings and a fresh ship), added vp chits, a starting player marker, not to mention a full component upgrade ... that's a linen laminate on the cards, board and box, higher quality wooden components and a custom box insert!
If this wasn't a worthwhile purchase before (and it was) ... it certainly is now.

Shipwrights of the North Sea -- Kicktraq Mini

Forgive the overflow ^

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Vikings, Vikings, more Vikings ... and ships!

The Shipwrights of the North Sea Kickstarter campaign is under way!
Vikings! Need I say more. Well, OK .. It also has murder, marauding, more muscle-bound Vikings ... and even a ship or 2 (who would have thought?).

Secure your copy of this fabulously fun board game now while the price is right ... and it certainly is right!

Did I mention it's by New Zealand's own Shem Phillips (Garphill Games).

In the meantime, if you haven't seen it already, track down the awesome TV series Vikings. It'll get you chomping at the bit.

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Boat-building Shenanigans

I recently have been having the opportunity to do some play-testing for an upcoming board game by New Zealand game designer Shem Phillips (author of other great games such as Tanzania, Cibola, Plethora and more) of Garphill Games. Titled "Shipwrights of the North Sea", it's a game where you side off against other Viking clans, trying to be the first to construct a fleet of ships while expanding your village and fending off incursions from your opponents.
I've really been enjoying it and it just seems to get better with every play.



The blurb on the BoardGameGeek site states...

Shipwrights of the North Sea is set in the early years of the Viking Age, circa 1000 AD. As Viking shipwrights, players compete to build the greatest fleet on the North Sea. Players must collect oak, wool and iron, as well as getting other craftsmen on board to help. Gold is a precious commodity, and must be spent wisely. As you would expect, the township is filled with an array of characters, bad and worse. Better hope they're on your side!

On top of it being a really fun game, the artwork by Mihajlo Dimitrievski is just fantastic. It's quirky cartoony style just fits perfectly.

Watch this space ... it's going to be hitting Kickstarter shortly!