Weekender: 20,000 Miniatures On The Tabletop & WIN Escape The Dark Castle
June 15, 2019 by dignity
Come and dive into our Weekender as we make a triumphant return after many weeks in hiatus.
Weekender Podcast Download
We've got Thomas Pike from Themeborne in the studio this week talking about his new campaign for Escape The Dark Sector.
Updates - Boot Camps, Prizes & More
We've got lots for you to catch up on from over the last few weeks. The UK Games Expo ran over FOUR days of Live Blogs and Livestreams and that means we've got lots of prizes to give away. Make sure to get involved and comment in order to be in with a chance of winning these goodies.
As well as UK Games Expo last weekend saw the Flames Of War D-Day Boot Camp. You can still get involved and comment on the various Live Blogs in order to win yourself some World War II goodies.
Super Fantasy Brawl Facebook Contest
We also had Mythic Games in the studio this week and both Leo and Az decided that they were going to give away a Core Pledge from their upcoming Kickstarter.
You need to LIKE the post on our Facebook Page and then FOLLOW the Super Fantasy Brawl Page in order to be in with a chance of winning. Good luck!
News
We crack on with some of the big news from this week...
- SPQR Pre-Orders - Warlord Games begin diving into their Ancient skirmish game
- Glasgow's Take On Waterloo - A massive game is being played out this weekend. Will you be watching it?
- Aftermath - Jerry Hawthorne brings animals to the tabletop once more with this new Plaid Hat game
- Spy Game - Will you be James Bond or Jason Bourne?
- Liminal - Skirt the edge of reality with this new urban fantasy game from Modiphius
What caught your eye?
Para Bellum Talk Conquest
The team from Para Bellum Wargames are with Justin this week talking about their game, Conquest, which is going to be launching very soon.
This means we're going to be exploring the Starter Set and some of the expansions they have planned as well as a little bit more about the world.
Kickstarters
We're looking at two awesome projects this week...
- Escape The Dark Sector - Thomas gives us his elevator pitch on why you should be backing this game
- Mighty Lords - Fancy barbarians and demons as your tabletop army?
Which of these projects are you likely to be backing?
Competitions - WIN Conquest Miniatures AND Escape The Dark Castle!
We have two massive competitions for you this week.
WIN - Conquest Mystery Sprue Bundle
WIN - Escape The Dark Castle + All Adventure Expansions
So, all you need to do is get involved in the comments below and you could be in with a chance of winning yourself some epic goodies.
Remember to tell us exactly how you ended up getting trapped in the Dark Castle!
As always you can check out our Prize Centre to see if you've won our previous competitions.
Have a great weekend!
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It’s the Weekender back with a vengeance! errr or just the Weekender?
Happy Weekender everyone!
It would be cool if we had one of our Backstagers in the Glasgow area to snap some shots of the event! If this epic event has a good turn out the BoW team should interview the organizer of the event to find out what it takes to put on this kind of grand scale gathering.
Who knows, it might encurage others to take on such a happening.
Wish i could go to glasgow, that sounds amazing!
When I hear Glasgow I think Rab C. Nesbitt and his associates… scary place.
This escape the dark sector looks really good.
Lots of interesting stuff happening. Would have loved to have braved an evening or two in Glasgow to watch lots of tiny fighty men in action, and I could also have visited the university to watch the Waterloo reenactment 🙂
SPQR. Warlord put up pictures of the heroes and troopers you get with the set on the preorder page. The heroes are very nice sculpts. The 40 Celtics are definitely just their very nice plastics they released many moons ago, but I’m not sure if the archers are new sculpts or if the Romans are as well. Will be interesting to see how this unfolds. My initial excitement over the game has been tempered as I have no idea how it will play and be balanced. Was good to hear Gerry’s take on it.
Escape the Dark Sector sounds great. Good luck to Thomas with the remainder of the Kickstarter!
So how I got stuck in the Dark Castle… An Evil Economics Professor with wizardly powers decided to play the Prisoners Dilemma, but rather it just being a thought experiment to introduce Game Theory to undergraduates, he decided to bring the game to life… As the Nash Equilibrium is confessing and me being too smart for my own good… I ended up in the Dark Castle with a bunch of undergraduates… It really is the dismal science! (If that makes sense to you, good luck 🙂
It’s the weekend! Finally with a Weekender to kick it off again.
I assume the Caesarian Roman guards all leave their fort via the postern gate rather than by the main gate? …
…
… I’ll get my coat!
I got chucked in the Dark Castle’s even darker dungeon for telling un-funny jokes such as the one above; once referred to as “Dead jokes”, but due to certain regional accents have become called “Dad jokes”.
I’m confident however that given the imminent annual festival of fatherhood I’ll either have the company of many others who’ve committed the same offence or I’ll be granted the traditional pardon that is usually given on said day.
If not then I will of course need the means to Escape the dark Castle!
Happy Weekender everyone. Wonder what the mystery sprue might be?
I like how the guys from Para Bellum have scaled the game up slightly to achieve a better miniature done in plastic. Whilst this will likely get some people scratching their heads in the community I have no problems with it as in recent times we have seen so many games with great 3d renders that just cannot be achieved in the final product.
Outlaw Country!
Great show. Thanks guys 🙂
No need to rub it in that Gerry didn’t get to go to UKGE :p
I really liked the 100 kingdoms look, can’t wait for the characters to be released to give a more unique feel to each battle host too.
Hmmmmm as the dark castle is kinda old school medieval looking, i think id have been thrown in jail for failing to practice my longbow skills and gambling nine mens morris instead.
In case anyone is interested in the Waterloo game – @WaterlooReplay is the official Twitter Account.
@Digwaterloo – twitter for the charity that @avernos mentioned
@ProfTonyPollard – I think is the brains behind it
@WatRepAllied – Is the official Twitter account of the Allies
@WatRepFrench - official Twitter account of the French army
As far as I can tell there will be live Twitter streams all weekend.
Wargames soldiers and strategy are covering the game live I believe
Plenty of pictures of the reenactors at the event on the Facespace.
they were showing how to strip down a Brown Bess. My guess is they’re probably almost finished setting up by now ^^
I’m really liking the look of the Conquest stuff. Going to go do some looking around for more info on the Waterloo re-creation.
Also I end up in the Dark Castle for poaching in the king’s forest, he prefers his eggs fried on a hunt.
Oi! I do the dad-jokes in this thread… 😉
yes the weekender is here!
Would you please take a look at the company of heroes kickstarter next week? I was hoping you would have featured it this week already 😉
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/223137030/company-of-heroes-board-game/description
Will have a look at it 🙂
thanks! 🙂
Conquest: the Last Argument of the Kings is the most anticipated game by me since many years. I am really excited to see the Army Builder and more factions, and more units for ones already shown.
As how I got stuck in the Dark Castle: romantic dinner with a lovely dame that I met just a day before in a library, who accidentaly happened to like the same books…A glass of wine later and I woke up strapped to a metal table in something like a mad scientist lab. The same, now not so lovely lady looking at me menacily. I could sware that she looked at least 30 years older and had claws like an animal…
I think you just described marriage 🙂
I’m not stuck in the Dark Castle. I like it here
You won’t be wanting to escape then!
Neverwhere was great
Favorite food burgers
Shame Liminal is sold out, I am very interested in this one
Still got options for PDF if you like the digital side of things.
You can get a physical copy through DriveThruRPGs print-on-demand service. I’m not sure how it will compare to the “proper” physical copies, of course, but its an option.
Ended up in the Dark Castle after selling some bad seafood to the Lords Cook!
Happy saturday!
Hey Garry I have neverwhere ion CD all 4 episodes.
The reason I ended up in the dark castle is whilst a little drunk in the local Inn I told the local sherriff that his wife was fat and hairy, oopps
I got locked up for poking the Kings Badger with a spoon. Its an original sin, dontchaknow.
Rank and Flank isn’t high on my list of games to get in to, but some of those Conquest minis are amazing and very tempting for painting projects.
I was hoping for a little more chat about the upcomming hobby boot camp, but perhaps we will get that tomorrow?
Happy saturday!! I’m glad to see the show is back, even with the other content I always miss the weekender when its not there.
SPQR looks interesting and I’m well into ancients now with mortal gods, can I handle another game system for that period ? always ?
I’m so jealous of the guys up in Scotland playing that massive game of waterloo. I can only imagine there will be some confusion with that many players but I think the fun had will cancel that out. Very cool indeed.
I saw the post about aftermath the other day and my opinion remains the same, I need to pick it up at some point. Stuffed fables really brought my family together with tabletop gaming. I can see this doing the same.
Conquest looks unbelieveable. I saw it at the shows last year and this year and I’m completely sold by the sculpts. I was originally concerned with the larger scale of the minis as I wouldn’t be able to use them in other systems. After seeing the recent play throughs I can’t see me wanting to do that anyway. The rules look simple enough to pick up and it looks like a really fun game. The four factions are all beautiful, as for which one I’d go for I have no idea. I love the northern guys with their almost viking feel, the 100 kingdoms with their shiny armour and massive banners, the firey dwarves and their big war engine thing and finally the spires look awesome and its always great to play the baddies!!
Escape from the Dark Sector looks really interesting. I haven’t done alot of role play myself as I’ve not really the people around me to play with. I missed dark castle but always look on it fondly when people having been playing at shows. I’m going to give it a go at some point.
See you all tomorrow!!
Cheers, great show as usual.
How I got stuck in the Dark Castle: I was invited to romantic romantic date to lovely castle, but I woke in horrific dungeon with some others poor fellows.
Some nice board games this week
Finally we have a weekend(er) again… rest… peace… quiet…
missed the weekender for the last two weeks, glad to see it back. Downloaded “The Spy Game” quickstart to have a look.
Happy weekend all, some interesting stuff a good mix.
The best place to eat in the US is definitely International House of Pancakes also known as IHOP ?
And as to being thrown in a dungeon… Probably for being a bit too cantankerous as a DM and the players decide to revolt…lol
Got to love what’s going on with this weeks show
Conquest tempts, and the minis are great. It´s something to consider.
Escape the Dark Sector sounds good. Atr there going to be miniatures for this, too? As always, I missed out on something.
God bless you and keep painting/gaming/enthusing.
would love escape the dark castle , used to play chose your own adventer books as a kid
Happy weekender! and tomorrow we get to see everyones favourite XLBS. I need a day to prepare for the deep ‘historical’ facts that will be shared.
happy weekend this was a great on. back with a bang
Escape the Dark Castle & stuff from Parabellum? sign me up
Oh and for burgers, how about Wendy’s, and we all know it’s ‘hip to be square’ (although five guys near me has the old style diet cherry coke so i have to go there now and then for my fav soft drink
and i’m imprisoned in the Dark Castle for expanding Sweeney Todd’s barber/pie shops into a TV talent show/petfood empire
Conquest minis do look good; just hope that being in a slightly larger scale won’t backfire on them in regards to sales; as I’ve said before, that marginal difference means that they’re not quite compatible with existing ranges so people are going to have less incentive to buy them for other games, or use their existing collections to form the core and buy the actual minis for the unique units/bulk things out. The Spires will probably be less hit by this because of their uniqueness, but the Thousand Kingdoms and Dwegholm will hit the problem that they’re nice Fantasy humans and Dwarves that won’t fit with people’s existing collections.
Can’t fault the rules though, demoed it a while back and found it quite good. Iirc it was close enough to WHFB to make it easy to pick up if you’re an experienced WH player, but different enough that you won’t get the rules muddled in your head which is always a danger when you play multiple systems. Liked the deployment/reinforcement rules for the expanding deployment zones.
Like the artwork for EtDS; very reminiscent of 2000AD and Rogue Trader.
How did I end up in the Dark Dungeon? Hmm, punishment for being lazy and not painting my minis; locked in there until I’ve cleared my backlog and to stop me buying new stuff before I do. ?
The Waterloo game sounds amazing. Also what happened to the prizes from the FOW unboxings some time ago?
Favourite American food….. I’m not sure I’ve really had any real American food, so I’m going to go with McDonald’s.
Dark Castle looks like a great game.
22,000 minis for a battle Waterloo. That epic
Cop out answer but all the food was amazing when I visited the states. Actually thinking about it the cinnamon buns I had in Vegas were immense.
The more Escape games I see you guys show off the more I want to start playing them. Looks like so much fun!
As to the spy game, not ready for the whole thing? Just the tip…
If Neverwhere is the show that I think it was… I was one of the few that saw it.
Got a feeling that the occupants of Neverwhere were ignored by society and became invisible to the ‘normal people’… sounds like the definition of a gamer to me.
that’s the bunny, join us in London below. The novelisation was very good as well
I have the series on DVD. The novelisation and audio drama is superb. Actually managed to get my copy signed last year.
By Lenny Henry?!!
Neil Gaiman I’m afraid.
shame, did I ever tell you of the time Terry threw shade at him?
No, First I’ve heard of it.
I’ll tell you tomorrow
Really excited by conquest just hope it takes off and people pick it up locally. More conquest bat reps on bow please guys
good looking stuff
I shouldn’t be in this dungeon because I was screwed by my lawyer. I’m innocent
loving the miniatures for Conquest, very tempted to dive in although I think I prefer the Dweghom
Went on holiday to america once and the food was average… like english food (meat and veg) but more of it…. so the best food in america… KFC…
Good to come back to my first weekender in a few months now!
My favourite food in the US when I visited was probably a nice fancy bagel.
As for being locked up in a dark castle… Would probably be to do with having too many games and running out of room and home and so getting in to trouble while trying to find some additional storage space!
Conquest looks friggen AMAZEBALLS!!! I’m so kicking myself in the butt for not getting etdc. Escape the Dark Fortress looks really fun.
Deffo going to have to give conquest a go, looks like my kind of game!
I can see myself getting thrown into the dungeon for buying more minis that i dont plan to paint :).
seeing the figures for conquest they look even better. and escape the dark sector sounds really good,
loved the show guys.
The Conquest minis look very good. With the detail work molded on they will be much easier to paint.
I was trapped in the Dark Castle for refusing to the dirty work that is my lot.
Nice show guys. Saw Conquest at EXPO and the models and game look very good. Sector also seems interesting
Reason for being in prison is simple… I said what I think and that’s never popular…
Great show..the conquest stuff looks amazing…
I got stuck in the dark castle because I drunkedly bet one of my mates that I can give the castle guard a wedgie, of course in my inebriated wisdom I didn’t realise that in order to pull on the guards breeches I would have to remove his armour with my dexterity inhibited…safe to say I did not make my dexterity roll…
i remember Neverwhere had it on dvd
Can’t wait for Conquest, only 5 more days!!
Love the Weekender. Love Para-bellum .. always want to hear more about Conquest. I pre-ordered 2 starter sets … who knows when I’ll get to paint them, but looking forward to the future of this game.
I am really pumped for conquest!! cant wait to get it…. I got stuck in the dark castle because I told the king to f*ck off
Looking forward to getting the Conquest starter in my hands. Being able to win a mystery sprue is really cool – so my best restaurant in USA, a country which I have visited once in my life (only for a couple of days since I was on a luxury boatcruise for our wedding trip). Best restaurant on the mainland was an asian street-food restaurant in a Florida mall!
great weekender glad its back. favorite American food had to be the steak i had at an American naval base, most memorable was on a run ashore with my wing man Gilly in i believe Tampa Florida (was a long time ago) completely drunk having Wendy’s burgers where we had a picnic outside on the sidewalk causing chaos. The cops were called and we only got away with it because we were stupid funny drunks and serviceman we did offer the officers a place at our picnic and a drink Lol. Eventually with much singing we were moved on and later passed a fire station where i still have the pictures of me drunk complete with fireman hat sat in the drivers seat of an engine pretending i was driving complete with sound effects. Now that was a run ashore i had a whale of a time with Gilly we acted like a couple of plonkers didn’t get arrested and will always remember Wendy’s and that night.
Yay my hobby weekend routine has returned, welcome back Weekender, sounds like you guys had lots of fun these last few weeks
For takeout or “driveby” eating on the go in the US, it would be hard to choose between Jack in the Box (they do a fantastic plain cheese burger), OR Arbys (if you are a fan of wads of sliced beef). Then there’s Schlotzsky’s Deli if you want a cold sandwich (go for the Sourdough it’s excellent), but if you are in the State of Texas you HAVE to go to the “Texas Stop Sign” in the form of Dairy Queen (it’s a bit retro, and a classic fast food menu that you’d imagine as a non US citizen). Problem with the US is there just SOOOOO many places to choose from 😀
Conquest does look cool, but space is at a premium and the game might be too big for me. I’d still give it a go though!
As for the Dark Castle I was locked up for braving the wrath of the Dark Librarian and not paying the fines for late return of my Dark Library books!
I ended up in the Dark Castle for being a member of a cult that worships everything that is shiny.
+1 for dropping Neverwhere in. I bloody love that series. It is on DVD. Well worth a look if you love your urban fantasy or 80s Doctor Who production (Dave McKean spent so much of the budget on the luscious title sequence).
Shame the budget went on that and the beast ended up being a cow with a woolly blanket on it
Best food in the US: BBQ from Fette Sau in Williamsburg. Oh heck I’m hungry again.
I love IHOP (international house of pancakes) in America.
I got thrown in the dungeon of the Dark Castle because I’m a bard that the queen really liked. She came to my room but the king found out.
He made up ridiculous crimes that I never did but still got put away for.
Great show.
nice prizes
Really like the fact that miniatures for Conquest have been scaled up it gives us mere mortals of the painting realm opportunity at painting to a better standard , also airbrushing could be the way to go .Being able to pose larger figures is also a bonus .
I love the 35mm figures – but we seem to be seeing size creep in model figures – 25mm to 28mm to 28mm heroic to 32mm now 35mm – so where will it stop… 🙂
I had one beside a fireforge 28mm foot knight and it was twice the size so think of them as 40mm instead…heroic 35s ???
Happy Weekend!
It’s good to see the guys at Para Bellum Wargames in the studio, the game looks very interesting and the minis (some not so mini 😉 ) are awesome! Love the fact that the standards are scupted! No need to “try” to put something on them 🙂 🙂
Thanks for the fun guys!
Great prizes. I would be imprisoned in the dark castle for stealing Justin’s regeneration serum. Can’t wait to check out conquest at Gen Con this year. Whose going from OnTableTop this year?
Can’t wait to have a conquest starter set!! did they said june 20th??
Literally NO Store around my city is showing interest in selling conquest material, and there’s only three days left… I will need to buy it through an online Store… 🙁
THAT ^^ is my dark castle :((((
I have been waiting to RPG neverwhere for absolutely years! Love the tv show LOVE the book. @avernos as an FYI i bought the neverwhere series on DVD about 6 years ago – so it is available (i think i got it from the generic online store (amazon or ebay)
Another great show, the more I see the Parabellum stuff the more I like it (You guys should come demo in the shops in Hawaii, and I’ll show you the best food in America :). I didn’t do anything to get put in the Dark Castle, I was accused of stealing the Lord’s underwear from his wife’s bedchamber. It was my own underwear, I couldn’t have stolen it.
Conquest by Para Bellum looks fantastic. I don’t think I’ve been this interested in a fantasy game since discovering Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in the ’80s. I am most looking forward to the Nords, but am very interested in the starter contents. The world-building and verisimilitude of this setting are very impressive, and the models do the fantastic artwork justice.
That was an amazing show and it is good to see it back
I am so far behind on my OTT content, UKGE coverage took some catching up on!