Friday, January 30, 2009

Free Dungeon Corridor Tiles For Use With 25mm Miniatures


This set is now out of date. See the newly updated corridor tiles page for the fixed up set, now with twice as many pages.

This is our gift to all the roleplayers and wargamers who use miniatures in their games. These should be useful to anyone who uses 25mm miniatures in their games of Dungeons & Dragons, or Warhammer. These would be perfect for a subterranean variation of Mordheim when you get bored of fighting in broken down buildings.

The link below is the download link to a 3 page PDF. The intention with these is to quickly construct the immediate surrounds of a battle scene so you can position the various fighters in any given combat, so unless you are planning on building entire dungeons, you should be able to get by with 1 print out of each, but it's your ink, print as many as you want! If you have the space for it on your gaming table, you could print out whatever pieces you need and give them to the players as they explore, slowly building up a full size 1:60 map of your dungeon.

Page 1: 1 x Dungeon Corridor Crossroad tile, 1 x Dungeon Corridor Corner Tile, 1 x 40' Dungeon Corridor Section, 1 x Fissure Hazard, 1 x Blood Splat Token, 1 x Blazing Fire Hazard

Page 2: 2 x Dungeon Corridor T-Junction Tiles, 1 x 10' Dungeon Corridor Section, 1 x 20' Dungeon Corridor Section, 1 x 30' Dungeon Corridor Section

Page 3: 1 x 50' Dungeon Corridor Section, 4 x 20' Dungeon Corridor Sections

For best results turn off "shrink to fit page" when printing it out. This will keep each flagstone at an inch square, making each corridor 10' wide in 25mm scale. Use spray glue to attach it to thickish mounting board (2mm in thickness should do the trick) and cut out using a steel ruler and craft knife. Always use a sharp blade and be careful. For added longevity you may want to cover the tile in a self-adhesive plastic wrap, or seal it down with decoupage paper varnish.

Download Kev's Lounge: Flagstone Dungeon Corridor Tiles from Papercraft Dungeon!

This is just one set in a bigger collection. If you haven't already, you're going to want to download the Small Room Tiles, Bigger Room Tiles and Free Dungeon Huge Room Tiles. Follow the link for the instructions and download.

I have a lot more sets on their way, including sewers, narrow alley ways, larger rooms, and rooms with unusual shapes. I'm also working on a Natural Cave set for those spelunking goblin hunters among you, and a 3 dimensional alternative to the Door Markers. If there is anything you'd like to see, please let us know!
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Saturday, October 4, 2008

Game Tips: Risk 2210AD Majors Add-On

Shortly after Risk 2210 AD was released, these 5 extra cards were given away at a Convention to promote the game. Each card pays tribute to one of the creators of the game with a portrait, but I could not honestly say who is who. If anyone knows, please fill me in. These cards are beyond impossible to get your hands on now, so if you'd like to add them into your games you'll have to fudge it a bit. The easiest way is to use the blanks that came in the box. If you've already used them or lost them then the best solution I can offer is to make a brand new set of command decks, including these (and any other custom cards you may have made). I will go in to detail on how to do this nicely in a future post. If you are going to include these cards in your games, you should be aware that they are rather powerful and may be a little unbalancing.

Here are the cards, and a description of each.



Major Power: Diplomat Command Card
Cost: 4 Energy

Play on you turn before your first invasion is declared.

Draw 2 cards from each command deck that you are able to. (You must have that commander in play to draw from the deck.)




This card can really tip the balance in your favour. Who doesn't want a fist full of command cards to broaden their options? This card is especially good value if you happen to have most or all of your commanders in play, and if you are in a strong position with a lot of energy in hand then this card could possibly win the game for you. If you are in a bad spot though, and your energy is low, it might not be worth your while as those extra cards are not going to help a lot if you can't afford to play them.Of course if you're not going to spend that energy anyway it might net you a few valuable defensive cards or at least thin out the decks a bit to your opponents' detriment.



Major Flöwerz: Land Command Card
Cost: 4 Energy

Play on you turn before your first invasion is declared.

Remove a devastation marker. This territory is now passable.





Major Flöwerz has a very unfortunate name, and you better believe he's hardcore to have survived long enough to become a major in spite of his girly sounding name. Major Flöwerz is all about the environment, and he's quite active in his attempts to save the planet. Now, I generally find the devastation markers to be rather useful where they are and I take full advantage of them and don't want them going anywhere... chances are your opponents have a similar opinion and knowing that you can't sneak through that deadly radiation, they leave the areas behind the devastation marker pretty poorly defended. This is when Major Flöwerz unleashes a lifetime's worth of passive aggression and bottled rage from all the teasing he received as a kid and ruins your opponent's day by stripping him of his beneficial little wasteland barrier for good. Bear in mind however that you probably are pretty weak behind that devastation marker too, so you're gonna want to play this in combination with a few Assemble MODs to beef up your attacking force, and hopefully have a few Stealth MODs on hand to protect your new border because the devastation marker is not coming back to protect you after the fight. Another use for this card, though a rather expensive one, is to generously clean up the pollution in one of your opponent's continents. While this seems a very kind thing to do, he will likely swear at you rather than thank you as the now clean territory is unoccupied and deprives him of the bonus he'd normally get for occupying the whole continent.



Major Death: Naval Command Card
Cost: 4 Energy

Play on you turn before your first invasion is declared.

Destroy all opponents' naval commanders that are in play.




Major Death doesn't seem to much like competition, and wants the water to himself. Use this card when you are planning a major water offensive, to quickly and efficiently eliminate the risk of pesky and nasty defensive cards being played on you while you conquer the oceans. If timed well, this card could really work in your favour, but at the very least it will cause a fair bit of inconvenience to your enemies by forcing them to replace their Naval Commander should they wish to continue in the waters of the world.


Major Pain: Nuclear Command Card
Cost: 4 Energy

Play on you turn before your first invasion is declared.

During this turn, all units attacking from the same territory as your nuclear commander use 8-sided dice.




This card is only as effective as the brain in the head of the person who plays it. You want to play it at the critical moment, when your Nuke Commander has lots of buddies to support him on his rampage. Definitely worth it to lay down some army building cards like Assemble MODs in combination with this one. You might also want to use Decoys Revelealed to get your Nuke Commander into the best position if he isn't already. It's probably not worth paying for this card if your Nuke Commander already has other commanders to back him up, since 3 d8's are only a tiny improvement over 2 d8's and a d6.


Major Destruction: Space Command Card
Cost: 4 Energy

Play on you turn before your first invasion is declared.

Roll a 6-sided die. Destroy this many enemy space stations.





This card can just be plain nasty. Space Stations are hard to replace because you can't buy one unless you have all of your Commanders in play, and then they cost 5 energy each. This card can effectively remove the threat of being attacked on the moon if you roll high. Apart from that the card can weaken your opponents defense considerably. Without the Space Station the MODs on a border will only get to defend with d6's, making it slightly easier to penetrate, and each Space Station provides a free bonus MOD every turn which your enemy is going to have to live without until he gets a new one.

For more on Risk 2210 AD have a look at this interesting unofficial expansion.
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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Game Tips: Official Risk 2210AD Expansions

Risk 2210 AD is a pretty rich game in itself, even though it is dramatically more simple than a game like Axis and Allies. Never the less it is the kind of game that is just begging to be expanded upon, in both story and tactics. Avalon Hill/Wizards of the Coast realised this and created more than a few expansion packs for the game over the course of a few years but, in a move that can either be called pure genius or utter stupidity, they never released any of them commercially at all. Instead they arranged a tournament circuit called Frontline, and each season organized the tournaments around a new themed expansion. The expansion paraphernalia were produced in very small quantities and the tournament centres were issued just enough to run their tournaments, with the expansion pieces being awarded as prizes.

Season 1: Mars
The familiar Earth map, was ignored this season and the entire campaign took place on the Martian Landscape of 2210AD. As with the Earth map in the box, the Martian map was based on modifed satellite photographs of the landscape which I presume they bartered off of NASA. Mars has been occupied and terraformed and the entire Northern section is one big ocean, with the southern portion consisting of a large land mass divided into colonies, rather than a multitude of separated continents that most risk players would be familiar with. The resulting lack of bottle necks meant that the strategy was dramatically different, requiring a blanket defensive strategy rather than the traditional "strong at the borders, weak in the middle" approach. I personally have never played this variation, but I intend to in the near future if I can get my hands on a map again.

Season 2: Tech Commander
This expansion was dramatically more significant than the Mars one that preceeded it. It consisted of a deck of Tech Command Cards with original art and a Tech Commander for each army. I was a little disappointed to learn that the actual commander piece was a piece of cardboard with a stand, and not an actual plastic figure to match the existing commander pieces, but this news made me less sad about having not been in a position to actually participate in any of the Frontline Tournaments. The Tech Commander is not unlike the Nuke Commander in terms of game mechanics, and uses a d8 for all his attacks and defense rolls, but the Tech Command deck is a true asset and adds a whole lot of new options to old strategies while creating a brand new set of new ones. Most significantly there are now cards that allow you to negate the effects of an opponents card, like a Counterspell in Magic: The Gathering. There are also cards that allow you to move your troops around more efficiently and that bypass the Devastation Marker rules to your strategic advantage. Most significantly there is a most powerful card that allows you to swap turn order with someone else, which can be as much to their detriment as it is to your advantage. You can find a great fan-made recreation of the cards in part of this interesting unofficial expansion.

Season 3: Factions
The Factions expansion consisted of 6 playmats, that had space for cards and energy marked out on them. The mats themselves were pretty inconsequential, but each mat was themed to a different faction with its own advantages and disadvantages. Each faction was dramatically different from the others and required a different style of play to achieve victory. It incorporated the previous season's Tech Commander and really improved the game. I will discuss this one in greater detail in a future post. You can find a great fan-made set of Factions cards in part of this interesting unofficial expansion.

Season 4: Invasion of the Giant Amoebas
This simple expansion was designed to shake up the mechanics by adding in a new level of randomness and a non-player invasion force. It consisted of a pile of glass beads (the amoebas), a deck of Amoeba Event Cards that controlled the Amoeba's attacks and fortification, and 3 additional Diplomat cards. I haven't played this one either, but it's on my list of things to do.

After Season 4 they turned their backs on Risk 2210AD, but there are a lot of unofficial expansions out there. I may explore some of them down the line, and I will definitely be adding some of my own in future.

For more on Risk 2210 AD have a look at this interesting unofficial expansion which includes DIY versions of some of the official expansions described above. If you enjoy board games, you might also enjoy Zombies!!!
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