Battle Axe is a new skirmish-level fantasy war game system, available for download. It’s diceless, instead attempting to merge the mechanics of traditional war games with CCGs.

You can get the basic system ($7), Elves deck ($7), Goblins deck ($7), all of the above ($10), or a starter kit with rules and non-graphical versions of all of the above ($0).

The rules include usual war game elements such as a point-buy system for your army, terrain, troop rallying, cover, flanking, and so on. Your actions are determined by the cards you’ve drawn from your deck, which determine which units you can move and what types of attacks you can make.

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Ghost Corp is a new company aiming to create some kind of mix of stories and games simultaneously. I tried to figure it out – really, I did – but I’m pretty much confused.

They’ve got a main site which looks like a blog. They call their game/story mix “Hybrid Media Universes (HMU)”. Their first HMU – or story – is Blak Universe. The first story in Blak Universe is Dirtgirl. The first game in the Blak Universe is Cell, or perhaps Cell:Prime. Or Cell:Prime is the name of the free downloadable version of Cell. It appears to be a light card-driven cyberpunk combat game for 2 to 4 players.

Blak Universe has its own site/blog, but it’s called Blak Net. This site links to the Cell: Prime download and Dirtgirl, and also to something called Space Warfare rules, which looks to be in development.

I think that’s the gist. I’m not entirely sure how the storytelling fits into the games; perhaps something like the story of Dominia and Magic: the Gathering?

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This French-carved ivory and bone Chess set goes on sale on Tuesday at a Christie’s auction, along with many other items (including a Staunton Chess set and two Chess tables ).

According to source, it was rescued from the rubbish heap in the late 1800’s by an enterprising butler, who passed it down to his descendants. It’s estimated value is £3,000 – £5,000.

(source)

Update: It sold for over £10,000.

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Drive Thru RPG has over 13,000 games for download, including what must be the largest collection of RPG material on the internet. In addition to the RPGs, there are hundreds of board, card, and mini games, as well as publishing resources.

If that’s not enough for you, you can hop over to their sister site Wargames Vault, which has another 2,300 items, including war games (natch), more board and card games, accessories, software, and magazines.

And oh yeah: a whole bunch of items on each site are free or real cheap.

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Badminton is a three-day horse racing event held in Gloucestershire, England.

Someone decided that the event, comparable to an Olympics level event, requires its own Top Trumps game. Source claims that you can get the game at the official site, but I couldn’t find them.

(source)

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