No Mans Land. Maidstone.

I went over to Maidstone today as I knew that Karl from Crooked Dice (7TV and 7OMBIE TV) would be running a game. He actually had two games set up. "You Only Live Dice" which we were lucky enough to play at the club two weeks ago and this one. "Fiddlers Green" is a small introductory game that takes 30mins to a hour to play. As such it's a very good stepping stone into understanding the rules. The whole game is on a 2 foot square tile. Set in a fictional English village, I assume called "Fiddlers Green" as that is the name of the scenario. A couple of good guys are sent into town to investigate the strange happenings aided and sometimes hindered by one of the locals (a little old lady with a shotgun) All the pics, apart from the first one are in play photos. The Villainous opponents are some Morris Dancers with pistols and unfriendly attitudes and some robotic scarecrows with scary attitudes.

I did not play, I probably could have Squeezed a game in but elected to take some snaps and bother Karl about a few game ideas.(More of that in a second or two). Because I did not play I am not 100% sure of the victory conditions. So all I will say about that for now is that the game did look well balanced seemed to flow nicely. One player did struggle to get the initiative dice roll and was always just slightly out of step. But as we all know you just can't beat the dice when you continue to roll low.

As mentioned above the real reason for going was to talk to Karl about the proposed show game. I showed him the picture of the "Tigers nest Monastery" and he firmly bit into the idea. As a visual it's very strong and If I can make it to look anywhere near as good, the game will be a winner in the public eyes no mater what. (we all get seduced by nice terrain). I was concerned about using any of the Characters that already exist in the rules. I need not have been Karl is happy for me to use them, or not as I see fit. He will get a chance to play test it before I take it to any shows, so anything he really dislikes can be changed.

One of the problems with the two show games Crooked Dice have is that they take too long. I think I can remedy this by breaking my game down to 4 sub games that can, if you choose and time permits play in sequence. Or I hope you can play it as 1 large game. The 4 smaller games strike me as the best option though as at shows most people in the UK don't want to commit themselves to a long game, but could spare 30mins to an hour. The freshness of 4 smaller games might work well. I have not seen it at a show, where all the games are linked, but I hope it will give a very episodic feel.

I plan to start buying some materials on Monday and maybe to start the build. Plans are great as they always change so when Monday comes I can always change my mind. I intend to build one 2 foot square section at a time. This will allow me to try it down the club at each stage. Maybe this is a prudent, maybe it's me being a wimp! One of the first things to do though is to decide on the style of the casts. Artisan do some "Sky Pirates" which will look good as the heroes troops. I have two packs unpainted so that is a start. For the Villains though I am torn as there are so many options. I want them to look as dramatic as possible, as well as villainous evil underlings. My current thinking is to change them on different boards. The first board for example maybe some Copplestones "Back of Beyond" Figures will look correct with one Ninja. Progressing through the boards with the foes getting more and more daunting. Maybe the 4t board has an end of level boss...

AT this stage it's all just talk. Now the hard work begins.

Thanks for looking have a good weekend. Take care and roll good dice. All the best Clint.

 Post script: A pic of Rochester Castle from the train as I came home from Maidstone.