HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy New Years from Savage Tales - We'll see you 2011!!!

Game Spotlight - Summoner Wars Reinforcement Packs

Summoner Wars Reinforcement Packs

The first two Reinforcement Packs are here, providing extra units for all 4 original factions plus some Mercenaries. Plaid Hat Games has divided the cards nicely so that if you bought just one Starter, there is a Reinforcement Pack to go with it.

 

Guild Dwarves Reinforcement Pack

Cave Goblins Reinforcement Pack

 

These new cards enhance the deckbuilding element to the game - deckbuilding. Now you can swap out a few or a bunch of cards to surprise your opponent or build with the cards that suit you. 

 

Tundra Orcs Reinforcement Pack

Phoenix Elves Reinforcement Pack

There are also a few mercenary units packed in. These can go in any deck.

 

Mercenary Units from Reinforcement Pack

The new cards look great and I'm looking forward to seeing how they change the game. There is also a new promo, Sairook...

As you can see from the lovely surface underneath the cards, I bought the premium board. It is beautiful and nicely made with thick cardboard. It comes in two parts and each half is a quad-fold board so it folds up to a small footprint. It is well worth the money.

 

If you want to get back to the original decks, here are the decklists:

Cave Goblins Faction Deck Includes:
•1 Sneeks - Summoner
•1 The Eater - Champion
•1 Mook - Champion
•1 Blarf - Champion
•8 Fighters - Common
•6 Slingers - Common
•4 Berserkers - Common
•3 Goblin Horde Attack Events
•3 Goblin Rage Events
•2 Goblin Rush Events
•1 Goblin Invinciblity Event
•3 Wall Cards

Guild Dwarves Faction Deck Includes:
•1 Oldin - Summoner
•1 Gror - Champion
•1 Baldar - Champion
•1 Thorkur - Champion
•8 Defenders - Common
•6 Spearmen - Common
•4 Engineers - Common
•2 Besiege the Walls Events
•2 Heroic Feat Events
•2 Magic Drain Events
•2 Reinforcements Events
•1 A Hero is Born Event
•3 Wall Cards

Tundra Orcs Faction Deck Includes:
•1 Grognack - Summoner
•1 Blagog - Champion
•1 Krung - Champion
•1 Ragnor - Champion
•8 Fighters - Common
•5 Shamans - Common
•5 Smashers - Common
•3 Freeze Events
•3 Ice Wall Events
•2 Reinforcements Events
•1 A Hero is Born Event
•3 Wall Cards

Phoenix Elves Faction Deck Includes:
•1 Prince Elien - Summoner
•1 Maelena - Champion
•1 Kaeseeall - Champion
•1 Fire Drake - Champion
•6 Guardians - Common
•6 Warriors - Common
•6 Archers - Common
•3 Spirit of the Phoenix Events
•2 Burn Events
•2 Magic Drain Events
•1 Greater Burn Event
•1 A Hero is Born Event
•3 Wall Cards

Fallen Kingdom Faction Deck Includes:
•1 Ret-Talus - Summoner
•1 Skhull - Champion
•1 Dragos - Champion
•1 Elut-Bal - Champion
•7 Skeletal Archers - Common
•6 Zombie Warriors - Common
•5 Reapers - Common
•3 Dark Sacrifice Events
•2 Legions of the Dead Events
•2 Forced Summon Events
•2 Magic Drain Events
•3 Wall Cards

Vanguards Starting Faction Deck Includes:
•1 Sera Eldwyn - Summoner
•1 Archangel - Champion
•1 Kalon Lightbringer - Champion
•1 Raechel Loveguard - Champion
•8 Guardian Knights - Common
•5 Stalwart Archers - Common
•5 Priests - Common
•3 Holy Judgment Events
•2 Divine Strength Events
•2 Summoning Surge Events
•1 Intercession Event
•1 A Hero is Born Event
•3 Wall Cards

Tannhäuser Tuesday - BPRD Agent One

Arkham Horror Investigator Joe Diamond

Thanks go out to Miah again - this time for the tokens and for input on the packs.

11:30 PST - I have reposted with less typos on the powers.

Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage #20

October 1934 - Death in Silver

This adventure has a limited cast, with Renny working in South Africa and Long Tom and Johnny in Europe. Death in Silver finds Doc, Monk, and Ham blasted into danger when an office under Monk's Manhattan laboratory is blown up by the mysterious and deadly Silver Death's-Heads.

A gang of silver clad thieves and murderers has been terrorizing New York City for a few weeks having robbed armored cars and astonishingly sank an ocean liner. With the explosion destroying a shipping office under Monk's lab, Doc Savage gets involved and immeadiately meets the dame. This time her name is Lorna Zane.

Doc wastes no time in dropping her off at his cousin Pat Savage's swanky Park Avenue Salon which is described as half salon, half gymnasium.

There are quite a number of items of interest in this novel.

- Ham uses the stuff coating the tip of his sword cane as a stimulant to wake up a knocked out character. This is quite different, since the stuff has previously indicated that the tiniest prick of the blade would produce instant unconciousness.

- Doc makes a bet with a cop.

- There is a description of an automatic elevator as if the average reader has not operated one before. There is also a comment about "zipper fasteners" being an efficient method of fastening clothes.

- Lester Dent describing Doc's car racing through the fog - "The machine chased the white funnels of its own headlights through the night, like a quite black ghost hurtling after some luminous siren."

The secret of the Silver Death's-Heads miraculous escapes is revealed and Doc puts the Helldiver into service again. When Monk questions why the Death's-Heads have a particular contraption on their vessel, Dent writes, "The answer to that did not come until later, after unpleasant things had happened."

Needless to say, Doc and his men wrap things up in the end, but was a pretty exciting and satisfying adventure. I'll give Death in Silver an 8.5 out of 10. 

 

The pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer, the pulp interior art is by Paul Orban (and can be found at Chris Kalb's Doc Site), and the Bantam paperback cover is by James Bama. For this review I read my Bantam paperback, 1st edition, July 1968.

Tannhäuser Thursday - Hoss Harbinger Announced!

 

Hoss Harbinger Prototype

Fantasy Flight Games has announced the release of the last of the TOY legacy single figure packs, Hoss Harbinger, a Reich Hero single figure expansion pack. From the description it sounds like he should be an EPIC HERO, but there is no indication that he is.

From the press release, "Hoss Harbinger is a descendant of Atlas, the true king of the world. In his veins flows the blood of the ancients, and he wields their powers with ease. Hoss is a frighteningly powerful individual, able to bend time and space to his will. His manipulation of reality gives him superior agility and his clairvoyant nature gives him the edge in combat."

That sure sounds epic to me! How you implement the bending of time and space in a combat board game sounds tricky and I wonder what they have come up with. It could be that Hoss may take his turn when ever he'd like, or he may have some kind of limited teleportation.

He seems to be holding the Golden Globe in one hand...

Hoss (too cowboy for my taste) was formerly call Hass, but maybe FFG thought that  Hass sounded too much like an avocado.

I'm looking forward to trying him out.

Tannhäuser Tuesday - BPRD Agent Tokens

Here are the tokens for the Agents. I guess this is a teaser, cause you won't get the descriptions until next week!

Thanks again to Miah for building the graphics!

Teaser image up on the Facebook

Mike Fyles (Iron Man Noir and Spider-Man cover artist) has started sending me illustrations for the upcoming Clark Tyler collection (title forthcoming.) Mike's work is fantastic and I can't wait to see more of these. Check it out at my facebook link.

Tannhäuser Tuesday - B.P.R.D. Field Agents

B.P.R.D. Field Agents

BPRD Field Agent One uses the Joe Diamond figure from Fantasy Flight Games' Arkham Horror Investigators miniatures line. These are 25-30mm prepainted figures for use with the Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness board games. The figures are good pulp era  figures that will find use in many rpgs and minis games. They are $4 each, whis is an OK price for the quality, which is average. As you can see there is some flash and Joe is a little smaller than he should be. The bases are a bit thinner than the Tannhäuser ones, but I don't see the need to replace them. They are close enough. I'll have a further review of the figures later. 

Joe's offense comes from his twin .45s that blaze into action. He fast on the draw and has been known to take down multiple targets with his trusty .45s.

BPRD Field Agent Two is represented by the Mike McGlen figure, also from the Arkham Investigators set. Mike's got a Thompson sub machine gun, a .45 caliber death machine. There are many figures available that would work as field agents, so feel free to substitute any appropriate figure.

I FEEL U-CHRONIC!!!

My custom additions to Tannhäuser are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Fantasy Flight Games. Tannhäuser and all related characters are trademarks of Fantasy Flight Games and © Fantasy Flight Games. The BPRD, Hellboy and all related characters are TM and © Mike Mignola.