The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Namco-Bandai’s Japanese drum simulator Taiko no Tatsujin stands out from the usual Japanese game simply for the amount of goodies provided for its fans – the official sites for most Japanese games that I have encountered don’t even have a single promotional wallpaper for download

© Namco-Bandai

Last year I wrote about Taiko no Tatsujin’s monthly wallpaper series which revolved about the festivals celebrated in Japan for each particular month (featuring the game characters of course – the main characters which not suprisingly happen to be a pair of taiko drums)

© Namco-Bandai

This time round, the publishers have outdone themselves and actually released a free board game in PDF format at the official site to download, print out and play. While the play instructions are only in Japanese and primarily intended for a younger audience, it’s the thought that counts Wouldn’t it be great if more games came with extras like this?

© Namco-Bandai

the board game eevn comes with its own DIY dice

Download the Taiko no Tatsujin board game. (Look for the image below and click on the orange button)

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Learning About Japanese Festivities with Taiko no Tatsujin
Audiotool – Virtual Music Production Studio
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Orange Mixer

I love virtual collectible card games and Mytheria is no exception. This Flash game by
Diffusion Games was only given a brief mention in Jayisgames‘ first Link Dump Friday of 2009 so I thought I might provide more extensive details on this fun little timekiller.

If you have played CCGs like Magic : The Gathering (sorry, it’s the only CCG I have any experience with), you’ll find the rules for Mytheria rather easy to learn and play. For those that haven’t, the single-player campaign will gently ease you into the world of Mytjeria while teaching you the nuances of the game system in the first three missions. The rules aren’t as complicated as physical CCGs though – no upkeep applies for deployed units and there isn’t a system for interrupts as in Magic : The Gathering.

As in any other CCG, power is needed to summon units and cast instants (the Mytheria equivalent of spells), enchantments and auras (global enchantments). Unlike Magic : The Gathering though, Mytheria’s multi-coloured powers are not acquired by playing land cards – instead, you are forced to decide on either increasing the rate of power growth by one each turn or draw another card from your deck. I find this game mechanic rather ingenious as it not only adds a degree of strategy to each game but also makes the game fairer for both players since resource management no longer depends on luck but on each player planning ahead.

Furthermore, by allowing players to directly control the power growth, it increases the possible strategies of deck construction since players can actually build and play decks containing a swarm of many weak, low-cost units to quickly rush and overwhelm the opponent or opt for a smaller selection of powerful high cost units bolstered with multiple enchantments and auras and so forth. Unfortunately, custom decks cannot be used in the campaign but only in the Challenges which will allow you to acquire another six additional cards for the Deck Builder.

The five factions with their distinctive strengths and playing styles affect deck construction (obviously ) as well as make playing each mission in the campaign a very different experience especially when facing a deck from another faction.

Scythian (red) – Relatively strong units and direct damage instants make this faction very straightforward to play with. Leader units like Commander J’Ardan and Scythian Elites gain strength when deployed with other Scythian soldiers.

Solarian (white) – Strong defensive units like Solarian Fortress bear the brunt of the the enemy attacks while Solarian Walkers provide the offensive punch. Many healing and defensive enhancements are available for the Solarian faction.

Hrathians (blue) – Comparatively cheap robotic units.

Myrkin (purple) – Average units with a focus on instants, auras and enchantments like Power Drain that disable your opponent’s units and power resources.

Blackguard (black) – Mutually destructive auras and enchantments like Biochemical Assault and Contamination and make playing with or against this faction a very unpredictable and challenging affair.

Play Mytheria.

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Enter Cthulhu via The Necronomicon
Myths and Legends Artwork by Gonzalo Ordonez
Loot!
Warhammer 40,000 Dark Millenium Card Database

1848 is a wargame sponsored by the Hungarian Ministry of Education and released by Hussar Games as a free download in 2006.

The game is set during the violent era of the Hungarian Independence War of 1848-49. 1848 was a year of revolutions. Most of the uprisings were crushed quickly, but Hungary was an exception. While Austria was occupied in dealing with the independence movements in Italy, Hungary used the time to train and deploy a competent army.. The newly created Honved Army suffered some set-backs in 1848, but in the 1849 spring counter-attack, the whole country was liberated. Victory was sweet but short for Hungary – in the summer of 1849 the Tsar of Russia intervened with 200,000 troops. In history, this force could not be stopped. Can you change history?

I actually downloaded this game back then but didn’t have time to seriously play it. Here’s my (three years late) impressions of this game after completing the tutorial and a brief foray in the Transylvania campaign.

The game includes a detailed tutorial scenario which should teach players the basics of this operational-level wargame very quickly. Kudos to the developers for producing the excellent in-game tutorial that does not require players to refer to the manual while playing each turn. In my opinion, 1848 serves as a good introduction to players new to wargames – the graphics are appealing and there’s no need to (overly) worry about supply and logistics or orders of battles. Most critical factors are abstracted as simple numbers which eliminates scary stuff like formulas or combat resolution tables although the nitty-gritty statistics and supply mechanics are explained in the manual if you’re so inclined.

One thing which I felt the tutorial taught but did not emphasize its importance strong enough was the need to detach cavalry regiments for battlefield reconnaissance. I learned this the hard way when I sent my forces blindly in the direction of the enemy during an actual campaign with fog-of-war turned on

I don’t know about the effectiveness of simulating interest in military history via wargames but I wonder if a similiarly-sponsored wargame on the Battle for Malaya and Singapore could interest local students in the what-if scenarios of repelling or containing the Japanese invasion of the peninsula in WWII.

Download 1848 or visit Hussar Games’ official site.

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A satirical boardgame from TerrorBull Games on the War on Terror. The colourful box art and card artwork by Tom Morgan-Jones initially attracted my attention as the artistic style reminded me of Quentin Blake’s pieces for Roald Dahl’s series of books. However, the Empire and Terrorist cards with their illustrations and witty little captions are quite possibly the main draw among the contents of the game package (which includes a balaclava incidentally )

© TerrorBull Games

Whatever your opinions on the actual War on Terror, terrorism and the War on Terror isn’t something that can be easily nor clearly defined as right or wrong. Take this Terrorist Upsurge card from the board game as an example.

© TerrorBull Games

Some of favourite cards include Terrorist Attack, Nuclear Disarmament and Spin the Axis of Evil. Yes, this boardgame even comes with a Axis of Evil spinner built into the gameboard.

© TerrorBull Games

© TerrorBull Games

I haven’t seen this in Singapore before – TerrorBull Games does ship the game worldwide at £29.95 (inclusive of postage and packing) if you’re suitably impressed

Meanwhile, you can go have a look at the official War on Terror – The Boardgame site where you can find Rules and the Empire Cards and Terrorist Cards galleries.

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Double Fine Wallpapers
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Modern Tactics 3

© Fantasy Flight Games

Stylized illustration of a German Pzkpfw VI ‘Tiger I’ along with three other American war machines from the board game Tide of Iron published by Fantasy Flight Games.

During the course of identifying that unassuming looking truck in the wallpaper, I learnt something interesting which the other three vehicles – Medium Tank M4 Sherman, GMC CCKW-353 (Truck, Cargo, 2 1/2 Ton, 6×6) and the Light Tank M5 Stuart – have in common (other that they’re American, of course ).

Thanks to the might of American industry, all three vehicles were produced in mind-boggling quantities. The M4 Sherman was the most widely produced American tank with 48,966 manufactured in WWII. The Russian T-34, however has the distinction of being the most widely produced Allied tank with over 57,000 units (!) produced during the war.

General Motors built 562,750 CCKW trucks out of over 800,000 2 1/2 ton cargo trucks (other trucks in this category include the Studebaker US6 and International Harvester M-5H-6) fielded by American forces during WWII. More information on these 2 1/2 ton trucks can be found at olive-drab.com.

The M3/M5 Stuart was the most numerous Allied light tank with 22,710 M3 and M5s produced – see American armoured vehicle production data @ Wikipedia)

German tanks were produced in significantly lower quantities – only 1350 Tiger Is and a combined total of 50,439 tanks, assault guns and tank destroyers were manufactured during the war (Wikipedia)

Download the Tide of Iron wallpapers.

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How To Operate a Tiger Tank
Armour Artwork from Motofumi Kobayashi
Hypothetical Illustration of P.1000 Ratte Super-Heavy Tank