The second expense my Irish escapade added to my shopping list was Smog 1888. Smart Max (who are the bounders responsible) started out making insanely detailed and finely made 50mm (ish) figures for the painter and collector. Smog – the 13th Hour is their game. Now I’ve been holding off from buying any of these delectable morsels as they are not cheap and I generally don’t buy things I can’t put on the table in a game. I don’t have the time to paint anyway, and certainly not just for display. I thought I’d escaped their temptations as I had fairly low expectations for the long-promised game. However, I was happily surprised when I played it with the Beasts of War guys (a video of our first go should be available soon to folk with back stage passes). It’s great! Far from the also-ran effort I was expecting, it’s a simple, but surprisingly involving diceless boardgame with loads of character and a simple set of rules that belies the tactical options. We played with one model a side, and that appeared to leave me with few options. However, the more I think about it, the more I can see. A normal game would have 2-4 models (I think they mention 1-6 a side, but different scenarios have varying sizes) and the way in which characters interact gives them all sorts of extra tricks and considerations. The rules are available as a free pdf, so you can check out those and the exquisite models online at their site. Let me know what you think.