Tannhäuser Tuesday - Summoner Wars Master Set

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The ridiculously fun game Summoner Wars has just released an all new way to get in on the action. Plaid Hat games calls it the Master Set. The game has a massive amount of fun in the box for a good price, especially if you shop around.

The Summoner Wars Master set includes six all-new factions to play in the game you might call "Magic the Gathering-lite" with tactics. Except instead of playing lands for mana, you have to sacrifice cards. And instead of attacking the other player, you are manuuevering your units to destroy the other player's most powerful card - the Summoner. 

The Summoner is your key card in the game. Using his power, you can bring cards from your hand onto the board. Yes, the board. Summoner Wars is a board game that uses cards as your fighting forces. 

Positioning is key. Choosing how to use your resources is critical, because you never have enough. You only get a 40 card deck and when they're gone, you just have to use what's left in your hand and on the board. The game plays fast and is so fun you'll want to play again.

The original 2 starter sets sold for $25 and were a smash hit. It was a lot of fun  in a tiny box. But the people wanted more. They didn't like the printed paper play mat. So they made their own.

Some people got really fancy...

And Plaid Hat released more factions. And booster packs so you could mess around with your army deck. But not too much. The game stayed balanced. People have favorite factions, but they are all an even match. If you can figure out the right strategy.

Plaid Hat Games put out more faction decks and more boosters. Before you knew it, there were eight factions and a nice mounted gameboard.

Then came the surprise. The Master set. Six all new factions and an even nicer premium board for the same price as buying the two original sets. Fifty dollars. That's retail. Online you could probably find it (if you hurry - this baby is gonna sell out) for $35. 

I easily fit my complete set of Summoner Wars stuff in this one box. However - the insert included does not handle sleeved cards, but some fans have found a way around this...

I really love this game and all the crazy new factions:

- Sand Goblins that scurry and can move their walls.

- Swamp Orcs that come with 15 extra wall cards (2 life each) in addition to their regular walls.

- Deep Dwarves that can tunnel and mess with your deck.

- Mountain Vargath that look like Roman Bighorn Sheep and can attack multiple times and stomp over units.

- Shadow Elves. All I can say is they look like Vampire Elves.

- Benders. These are powerful telepaths and telekinetics. Counter Summon. Steal Event Card. Mind Control. Glimpse the Future. Mind Capture.

The Swamp Orcs have 15 extra walls!

Now there are 14 different factions you can play and Plaid Hat Games is going to be releasing boosters for all of them. The game is stronger than ever and with the Master Set you get 3 times the game for only 2 times the price. Buy it and play it, Summoner Wars is great fun.

The new rulebook!

I received a review copy of the Master Set and I continue to be impressed with the commitment that Plaid Hat has for its fans and for their games. These guys just love games. If you ever doubt that, just listen to their podcast or go back and look at all the incredible Heroscape custom stuff that Colby Dauch did for fun. And he's still having fun - but now he is getting paid for it.

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New York Comic Con - Part 1 - Pulp Panel

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Note - It seems I have misidentified some people in the pictures...

This past weekend I joined the masses at the New York Comic Con. Sunday afternoon was the occasion of the Pulp Fiction - Now With Even More Pulp panel that featured a huge all-star panel that included authors Adam Garcia, Mark Halegua, Jim Beard, and Will Murray, artist Tom Gianni, publishers Greg Goldstein (COO of IDW), Joe Rybrant (Dynamite Comics), and Anthony Tollin (Nostalgia Ventures). Ed Catto was the moderator.

With this many panelists and the volume of pulp material being published, the hour flew by quickly and a bunch of fans got to take home some freebies. The panel was introduced and the current and upcoming projects of the panelists discussed. Disappointingly, there was not nearly enough time for a  discussion on the state of pulp fiction today. I think that there is a lot to be discussed about New Pulp and the term didn't even come up.

 The panel from r-l: Ed Catto, Greg Goldstein?, Will Murray, Anthony Tollin, Tom Gianni, Adam Garcia

The panel cont. r-l: Joe Rybrant, Jim Beard, Mark Halegua

Some of the upcoming projects mentioned were quite exciting. Here are some highlights, or at least what I remember...

Greg Goldstein said that IDW is doing another anthology series with the Rocketeer, featuring new creators and a few returning creators from the first series. That is great news, because those were good stories. The major publishers can't even get one story in a comic and the Rocketeer Adventures had 3 or 4! I would also like to see a longer adventure featuring Cliff Secord and Betty.

Will Murray wrote the first new official Doc Savage novel released in almost 20 years, The Desert Demons, written from Lester Dent's notes. That came out this summer, but the next one, Horror in Gold is coming out soon! Audio books of Will's first 2 Doc novels are out from Radio Archives. Will is also overseeing a line of of pulp audio books with them as well, starting with The Spider.

Anthony Tollin has many things coming including a Shadow movie serial script and a behind the scenes look at the serial and interviews with crew members. The Shadow Scrapbook will be expanded and reprinted, including a 1934 radio script by Walter Gibson.

Tom Gianni has painted a cover for Moonstone's Avenger Chronicles and is working a Graphic novel of his own called, "Mechanic Anna", which is hoping to have out next summer. Tom's beautiful art, can be seen here.

Adam Garcia is making a name for himself with his new Green Lama stories which span the media. His new Green Lama novel, The Crimson Circle should be out early next year, and there will be Green Lama comics and an audio drama, too. Exciting stuff!

Dynamite has a lot going on and Joe Rybrant clearly loves pulp and talked about an upcoming Flash Gordon / Phantom cross over featuring another unnamed pulp character that may be Mandrake of possibly the Green Lama... Dynamite also has another big pulp character coming that will be announced soon.

Mark Halegua has his first story out in Mystery Men & Women Vol 2 from Airship 27. It features his original character, the Red Badge.

With this many creators and this many new books to talk about there wasn't much talk about the future of pulp, or the New Pulp movement, except for when Adam Garcia talked about bringing more to the table by leaning in a slightly more literary / post-modern vein that some pulp fans don't seem to care for. I think that there is plenty of room for that and the mainstream publishers are publishing that under the guise of 'steampunk' and other names...

The fans swarm the panel for free goodies

Adam Garcia and fellow Green Lama writer W. Peter Miller

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Tannhäuser Tuesday - Shogunate Itami and Mizu Report

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Mizu and Itami, the final two figures in the initial Shogunate release are here and bring a few interesting wrinkles to the faction.

ITAMI

 

Itami's primal scream is so disturbing that he can cause his opponents to run away in terror. He can also force his will upon an adjacent figure an force them to take an action. He is also strong enough that any enemies next to him have to overpower him just to move and he gets stronger for each adjacent enemy character.

Itami also includes a Bonus Pack for  Ramirez which includes his MK 19 Mod A1 gun, a AN-M11 Thermite grenade, and a FR19 grenade which puts out a sticky fire retardant that puts out fires and prevents future fire grenades in that Path. It also causes a +1 to movement for each circle in the path.

MIZU

Mizu is ninja-like in her ability to evade and confound her attackers. She can attack a character twice in the same turn, counterattack without spending a command point, throw smoke in reaction to being attacked, and can ignore the effects of smoke. If that isn't enough, she can dodge attacks.

 

Mizu Kage also includes a Bonus Pack for Irina that includes 3 new Liturgies. The first has Irina reduce the defense of opponents figures on the same path, the second lets her do direct damage from a Mental Duel, and the third has all non-Matriarchy figures moving one circle less.

 All in all, these are fun sounding packs and I am looking forward to playing them.

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Pulp of the Week - Honey in his Mouth

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Written by Lester Dent

Lester Dent is most famous for writing the bulk of the Doc Savage novels, starting with the first in March 1933 and continuing on to the last one published in the summer of 1949. He also had many other stories published in the pulps. But he had always wanted more and after Doc Savage Magazine ended its run he continued to write.  One of the those things was a novel written in 1956, but not published until long after his death.

Noted Doc Savage novelist, and official Lester Dent file searcher, Will Murray came upon the manuscript and Hard Case Crime published it in Oct 2009. Two years later I finally got around to reading it. I wish there were more lost Dent novels.

Among the things that Dent learned to do while writing a few million words of Doc Savage was to write action effortlessly, and to create a character in just a few words. In Honey in his Mouth, Dent creates Walter Harsh - not quite a grifter, but also not quite on the up-and-up. Harsh had figured out a scheme where he would take portrait photos of people and then get them to buy prints of the pictures, and there are always more pictures that the people might want and they cost more than they were expecting.

Walter also happens to have a girl - Vera Sue Crosby. She is a piece of work and is ready to leave Walter when he suddenly is approached by a group that wants to pay Walter $50,000 to make like he is the El Presidente of a small dictatorship. It seems that Walter is the dead ringer for the dictator.

With that set up, Dent sends Walter and Vera Sue on an scheme that spirals from simplicity into complete chaos. While the book is not Pulitzer material, it is a taut thriller and a heck of a lot of fun. Dent writes just enough good in Walter that we root for him as he tries to escape his circumstance, but just enough bad to keep this a crime novel.

I liked Honey in his Mouth enough to give it an 8 out of 10. The cover painting is an original for the book and is painted by Ron Lesser.

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Pulp of the Week - Storm Front

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Storm Front
By Jim Butcher

Storm Front is the first book in Jim Butcher's series, The Dresden Files. The stories feature Harry Dresden, a freelance wizard and part-time private detective in contemporary Chicago — well, a version of contemporary Chicago that includes all sorts of wizards and demons and bizarre activities.

Storm Front was released in April 2000. It is one of the books that helped push Urban Fantasy into the forefront of genre literature and is one of the few series popular with men. Other Urban Fantasy authors are Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, and Charlaine Harris whose Sookie Stackhouse book series started in 2001.

The series has thus far spawned a sci fi channel show, comic books, and a role-playing game. not bad...

The novel follows Harry Dresden through the course of two mysteries. One is a missing persons case where a desperate woman asks Harry to locate her missing husband and the other is a brutal mob hit that has supernatural written all over it. Harry consults with the Chicago PD on those kinds of cases.

Harry's ad in the phone book - you know this was written a long time ago - well before the iPhone, anyway - because he has an ad in the phone book:

HARRY DRESDEN—WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties,
or Other Entertainment

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While the plot of the book is certainly good enough, and the mystery well conceived, what really make the book work, like so many other private detective novels is the voice. In this case, Harry's voice.

The book is told first person, with Harry's battle weary voice guiding us through the events of the novel. The book is very entertaining and Harry really grows on you. I enjoyed the book a lot, despite numerous recommendations which could have easily caused me to be expecting too much.

Maybe my guard was down from having seen a couple of episodes of the ehh Sci Fi channel show based on the books, but I really liked the book.

I'll give Storm Front a solid 8.5. It was a fast read and an exciting tale. For this review I read my ROC paperback, 22nd printing with an "As seen on SciFi" announcement of the cover. The cover is a nice painting of Harry, but the book does not tell me who the artist is... but the internet says, Christian McGrath.  Jim Butcher can be found here.

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Tannhäuser Tuesday - Shogunate Releases

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The first new figure is Hellbo…err, Itami, a hoofed demon that the Shogunate  assigned to Iroh Minamoto’s 3rd Division.

As the FFG press release says, "There, they hope he can make use of the strange powers he draws from Naraka, the Realm of Suffering. Itami can wrack others with pain and bend their very wills, and an unholy penumbra that seeps out of his every pore drains the life essences of those around him. Enemy combatants tremble at the primal suffering in his bellowing voice."

The second character is an “international liason” for the Shogunate.  Mizu Kage is a ninja-like character equipped "with Willow and Winding Stream, her deadly sai blades. 

Currently, Mizu operates with a directive from the Lord of Spiritual Wellness Yami Seimei to collect information that the Shogunate’s Reich allies have been withholding. With her sai, shuriken, and happo, she can decide to tread a path of blood or conduct an infiltration, unseen and unheard."

These single figure pre-painted character packs come with the usual tokens and character sheets along with equipment cards. The rulebooks include "unique scenarios designed to pit Mizu and her team against that of a thief from the Union or Matriarchy, or to test Itami and the limits of his strange abilities against a demon of the Reich."

I'm curious to see what those scenarios are like.

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