Smog:On Her Majesty's Service

[Old Dwarf]

Set in the steampunk The World of Smog , On Her Majesty's Service is a stylish board game for two to four
competing players. You'll need to navigate the rotating tiles that make up the game board, trading Ethers
and Artefacts in order to fulfill the quest set by Queen Victoria, all the while dealing with the Agents of
the Shadow Master.

This is an OoP Game from COMON but still available from Amazon for under
$30. Its rather abstract (I hate abstract Games but this is a real Jewel-IMHO)
To win a player must collect a certain amount of Ethers (there are several types)
which are different for each player & 4 Artefacts & then escape from the
Shadow Market (again each player has a unique escape path.

The Board is made up of 9 Ethers Locations & 4 Artefacts Locations
represented by Dials that spin throughout the Game that make
up the shadow market. It's gorgeous.

Players also get a chance to control the Shadow Master & his Agents
which give the controlling player certain advantages.

The Core Game has 4 Gentlemen who represent 4 different Clubs
& 6 Agents + the Shadow Master represented by bust type figs.
The Ethers are small various colored figs (4 different types).Artefacts
are represented by Cards.

It supports 2-4 Players but I worked out some Solo Rules which in my
play testing worked well.Each Club is represented by a Gentleman
(or Gentlelady) & each has unique objectives needed to win which makes
it fairly easy to Solo.

A small expansion was offered in the KS which adds 2 more Gentlemen
& 4 more Agents .

The Theme didn't quite hit me as it's background is the King of the Fairies
is coming to Queen Victoria's Jubilee & she has commissioned various
Gentlememen/Ladies to collect magical Ethers & Artefacts to present
to him as gifts. Meh---------------

I changed it to the Nightside of the Simon R.Green books so the Clubs
are in a power struggle to be the power behind the Nightside.

I'm posting up a Session Report on my first Game.

OD

[Raynor]

Always wanted to try this one. The theme is very interesting, but I generally prefer co-op so it wasn’t first in line for a buy-to-try experiment. Still, playing in the Nightside is an even cooler setting than described. Nice