Photo: Triton NoirCharlie Hall is Polygon’s tabletop editor. In 10-plus years as a journalist & photographer, he has covered simulation, strategy, and spacefaring games, as well as public policy.Lots of folks say they want to get started painting miniatures, but they’re just not overly fond of Space Marines or anything else that Games Workshop is selling at the moment. That’s okay, because there are plenty of miniatures-based games out there for you to get excited about — including loads that you’ve likely never even heard of. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice is on sale right now as part of Amazon’s October Prime Day, and it’s an excellent example of how a small purchase can start you down the road to an amazing new hobby.Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice is a story-driven, cooperative campaign game for up to four players that includes 26 playable chapters, each roughly an hour long. It also has a solo mode, so you can play it by yourself or learn it thoroughly before sharing it with your friends. And while I haven’t had the chance to put it through its paces, the game comes highly recommended by several writers that I respect, including Aftermath co-founder Luke Plunkett.Photo: Triton NoirMuch like other modern board games, Brotherhood of Venice was brought to life with a successful crowdfunding campaign. While the $239 collector’s edition is still available, the $79.99 version is half off for Prime Day, on sale for just $39.99 through Wednesday.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice$70$8013% off$70$70 at AmazonInside your copy of Brotherhood of Venice, you’ll find the first five miniatures you get to paint, a series of familiar-yet-deadly assassins wrapped in flowing robes and cowls barely concealing a collection of elegant sharp objects. How about a video tutorial to get you started? Who better to assist you on your journey than Golden Demon award-winning painter Angel Giraldez. (Just skip the bit with the airbrush and do a quick zenithal highlight with some spray paint instead.)Now all you need is some paint and a brush. You could, of course, drop by my in-depth painting guide for lots of helpful advice and buying options. Or you could snag this Army Painter Zombicide paint set that’s currently on sale, which comes with enough basic colors and metallics to get you started. You even get a decent brush! Any other colors that you want or need, just pick them up at the local hobby store or online.But we’re not done yet. Now that you have five fully-painted Assassins, and after you finish the 26-mission campaign, then what? Well, then it’s time to check out TTCombat’s Carnevale, a full-fledged miniatures skirmish game played on elaborate terrain. You can start small with just the core rulebook, or go big with a massive laser-cut wooden diorama. Or you can skip the skirmish game entirely and just do up a nice little Venetian street corner for your beautiful new miniatures to hang out on.Opportunities to start painting miniatures are all over the place, with more and varied lines from all kinds of different settings coming to market every year. So quit putting off starting a new hobby, look around for miniatures and games that excite you, find some good tools and tutorials, and get painting. You won’t regret it — especially as the cold winter months begin to creep in.Looking for more deals? Check out all of Polygon’s favorite October Prime Day 2024 deals right here, and subscribe to our newsletter below to get great deals delivered to your inbox every week.
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NEW YORK — U.S. stocks careened through a manic Monday after President Donald Trump threatened to crank his tariffs higher, despite a stunning display showing how dearly Wall Street wants him to do the opposite.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% at the end of a day full of heart-racing reversals as battered financial markets try to figure out what Trump’s ultimate goal is for his trade war. If it’s to get other countries to agree to trade deals, he could lower his tariffs and avoid a possible recession. But if it’s to remake the economy and stick with tariffs for the long haul, stock prices may need to fall further.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 349 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by 0.1%.
All three …
Read moreFortnite is going back to its roots with the launch of Fortnite Reload, an exciting new mode available for both Battle Royale and Zero Build. Featuring classic weapons, iconic locations, and an old-school Fortnite aesthetic, Fortnite Reload is a futuristic twist on Fortnite’s past.
Fortnite Reload (which launched just after Saturday’s Metallica concert) takes place on a smaller map that includes familiar locales like Tilted Towers and Retail Row, where 10 four-person squads will face off inside a Storm that shrinks much faster than it does in standard matches.
To promote the launch of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Microsoft has partnered with IHOP to create an Indiana Jones-themed breakfast menu and a custom Xbox themed around pancakes.
Starting November 18, people who dine at IHOP will find an Indiana Jones-themed menu that includes items like the “Fully Loaded French Toast” and drinks like “Explorer’s Caramel Apple Butter Hot Chocolate” and the “Long-Lost Cookie Butter Milkshake.” It’s not clear what any of these things have to do with Indiana Jones or Xbox, but the food looks delicious.
People who join IHOP’s International Bank of Pancakes program can upload their receipt to earn “PanCoins” that can be redeemed for Xbox prizes like game downloads, merch, accessories, and Game Pass memberships Come from Read more
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 arrives worldwide on October 25, and many players will be jump in as soon as possible–in fact, you might be wondering how some people are already playing early. That’s possible either due to the region they’re located in, or a little trick that can allow you to play before your region’s scheduled release time. You just need to pretend you’re from New Zealand–something that, it should be noted, players are asked not to do in Xbox’s community standards.
For the past few years, eager Call of Duty fans have tricked their devices into thinking they live in New Zealand Come from South African Online Casinos . This only seems to work for consoles, and the ru…
Read moreIt might be almost 20 years old, but The Sims 2 just became the talk of the town. That’s because the Los Angeles Chargers utilized the video game to unveil their NFL schedule for the 2024-25 season.
The social media team for the Chargers “spent hours” in The Sims 2 to capture footage for the video–seen below–that reveals the football team’s weekly opponents. On X (formerly known as Twitter), Chargers senior director of social media Megan Julian noted the “entire thing was done in house by members of our content team.” It begins showing Sims wearing jerseys swimming in a pool. Then, the ladder is removed, leaving the Sims screaming for help.
The roughly three-and-a-half minute video is packed full of inside jokes revolving around the NFL and it…
Read moreThe spirit of E3 lives on in June as publishers, game studios, and several other initiatives come together to host various livestreams. Only a few more weeks remain until there’s an influx of broadcasts held online, and if you’re looking to organize your schedule, we’ve rounded up a full list of everything announced so far.
Like previous years, one of the big events will be Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest on June 7. An annual event, this showcase is hosted in front of a live audience and is streamed across the globe. Microsoft is hosting its event on June 9, and while games for it haven’t been confirmed yet, there’s a good chance that Avowed, Indiana Jones, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will make appearances. The worldwide reveal for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be broad…
Read moreAhead of the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard in October, BioWare has announced an eight-part “immersive fantasy” podcast series set in the game’s universe. The first episode will premiere on August 29 and will feature podcast-exclusive characters alongside all companions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
The characters of Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance will be voiced by Mae Whitman, Bridgette Lundy-Paine, and Armen Taylor, and each episode will reveal more details about the companions of Dragon Age: The Veilguard–Harding, Davrin, Bellara, Neve, Taash, Emmrich, Manfred, and Lucanis–as they embark on a new adventure set in Thedas.
Episode one introduces Nadia, a retired thief unknowingly working for the Dread Wolf. After her lover Elio is banished to the Fade, Nadia cross…
Read moreIn 1997, Will Smith solidified his turn from TV actor and rapper to movie star in Men in Black opposite Tommy Lee Jones. That film was one of Smith’s first blockbusters as a leading man, but he left another impression on director Barry Sonnenfeld. According to Sonnenfeld, one fart from Smith was enough to make the entire crew temporarily evacuate the Men in Black set.
Sonnenfeld shared the anecdote while he was a guest on Kelly Rippa’s SirusXM podcast, Let’s Talk Off Camera. During the scene where Smith’s Agent J and Jones’ Agent K were driving upside down the Midtown tunnel, they had to be hermetically sealed into the fake car on set. That’s when Smith accidentally let a fart rip while he and Jones were stuck inside.
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Read moreOctober 23 is coming up, which only means one thing – what’s grown into the Fallout version of May the fourth. It’s the anniversary of series’ world getting a nuclear makeover on that fateful day in 2077, and for the first time, Bethesda’s commemorating the occasion with a broadcast that’ll feature both developers and community folks.While this date’s long been a time when Fallout fans post cool stuff and do a bit of ‘wink, wink, nudge, nudge, have you checked the calendar?’-ing it makes sense for the series’ developers to being joining in a bit more this year, given how much Fallout’s profile’s been boosted in the aftermath of the TV show.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings “Fallout Day is coming on October 23 where we will be hosting our first ever …
Read moreMafia: The Old Country doesn’t have Italian voice acting, but 2K’s now revealed the reason behind what initially looked to be a rather perplexing omission – Hangar 13’s elected to go for Sicilian instead.In case you missed it, The Old Country was revealed right at the end of Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024, with a teaser trailer confirming a 2025 release window and offering a taste of the game’s depiction of the mod underworld in 1900s Sicily.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Not long after that showing, fans checking out the game’s Steam store listing noticed that it didn’t have full audio for Italian checked in its list of supported languages, with English, French, German, Spanish, Czech, and Russian all having that box ticked. Given the thing’s …
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