In the meantime, please check out the first episode of Tabletop Bebop. I got together with Naki (from All Things Good & Nerdy) and Sean (from An Elegant Weapon) and we broke down the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game. This will be a monthly affair and we've got our sights set on Sentinels of the Multiverse for April's episode!
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Well, that explains the dust...
I'm working on clearing away all the tumbleweeds and cobwebs here in order to make room for International TableTop Day coverage. I'm extremely excited for this event (as if I needed another reason to swoon over Felicia Day) and will be working at my Friendly Local Game Store to run demos and organize the chaos. I think it's going to be a blast!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Living Card Games
Several years ago, Fantasy Flight Games introduced a new method for distributing card games. They acquired the licenses for the Call of Cthulhu and Game of Thrones collectible card games and rebranded them as Living Card Games. The idea was simple - produce high quality, competitive card games using unique licenses and mechanics without the need for random booster packs. This is accomplished by releasing smaller, monthly expansions with a fixed variety of cards - every player who buys a chapter/battle/data/asylum pack knows that they're getting the exact same cards as everyone else who bought the same pack. With a fixed and card pool, deckbuilding and competitive play becomes less about who can afford the rarest, most powerful cards and more about who can use the card pool to create the most powerful deck.
For the most part, the system works incredibly well. Monthly releases of fixed cards end up being cheaper than their collectible counterparts. Players can swing by their local game store to get the latest cards and tweak existing decks or use their new options to try something completely new. Game stores can profit from consistent monthly purchases and new players can start playing any of the LCGs knowing that there is a fixed card pool with little to no secondary market for purchasing single, powerful rare cards at outrageous prices. With new games like Android: Netrunner and the Star Wars Card Game, players can easily get every card in the set on a regular basis without resorting to buying boxes (or cases) of booster packs
The system isn't perfect, though. For long running games like Game of Thrones or Call of Cthulhu, the monthly releases over the years have created massive card pools. New players looking to start these older games have to sift through dozens of packs and expansions to put a deck together. Without guidance from sites such as Card Game DB, this can be very daunting. Competitive play is also a challenge. While there is a vibrant tournament community for LCGs, my own personal experience trying to get regular play days for Game of Thrones at my local game store has been a rocky road. With games like Magic: the Gathering offering programs like Friday Night Magic, the Organized Play kits that retailers can order from Fantasy Flight pale in comparison.
For my money (in this case, literally), the benefits of the LCG system far outweigh the drawbacks. I like knowing exactly how much I'm going to be spending on a game and having something that is regularly expanded upon helps satisfy the itch of playing a game that grows and changes as time goes on. Despite needing players and organizers to put a little more effort into it, the Organized Play system from FFG has some great rewards and is growing more and more each year. The LCG system is definitely working and I look forward to seeing more releases both from FFG and from other companies that might look to imitate the format.
For the most part, the system works incredibly well. Monthly releases of fixed cards end up being cheaper than their collectible counterparts. Players can swing by their local game store to get the latest cards and tweak existing decks or use their new options to try something completely new. Game stores can profit from consistent monthly purchases and new players can start playing any of the LCGs knowing that there is a fixed card pool with little to no secondary market for purchasing single, powerful rare cards at outrageous prices. With new games like Android: Netrunner and the Star Wars Card Game, players can easily get every card in the set on a regular basis without resorting to buying boxes (or cases) of booster packs
The system isn't perfect, though. For long running games like Game of Thrones or Call of Cthulhu, the monthly releases over the years have created massive card pools. New players looking to start these older games have to sift through dozens of packs and expansions to put a deck together. Without guidance from sites such as Card Game DB, this can be very daunting. Competitive play is also a challenge. While there is a vibrant tournament community for LCGs, my own personal experience trying to get regular play days for Game of Thrones at my local game store has been a rocky road. With games like Magic: the Gathering offering programs like Friday Night Magic, the Organized Play kits that retailers can order from Fantasy Flight pale in comparison.
For my money (in this case, literally), the benefits of the LCG system far outweigh the drawbacks. I like knowing exactly how much I'm going to be spending on a game and having something that is regularly expanded upon helps satisfy the itch of playing a game that grows and changes as time goes on. Despite needing players and organizers to put a little more effort into it, the Organized Play system from FFG has some great rewards and is growing more and more each year. The LCG system is definitely working and I look forward to seeing more releases both from FFG and from other companies that might look to imitate the format.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
First Impressions: Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game
I recently had the opportunity to run a few friends through the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game by Fantasy Flight Games. While I'm not quite ready for a full review, I thought I'd discuss what I liked, what I didn't like and what I'm wary on.
For starters, the components are excellent. The pre-generated character folios have some great full color art right on the front. It's easy to look at Oskara, the Twi'lek bounty hunter or 41-VEX, the droid colonist and get a good impression of what to expect from the character.
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| A nice spread of all the Beginner Game's components - look at them folios! |
The proprietary dice are very nice, high quality polyhedrons in a set of color blind friendly shapes and colors that make them very easy to distinguish from one another. The game also comes with a staggering array of cardboard tokens to represent player characters, non-player characters and ships as well as a full-color, double sided map. Really, the only complaint I have with the components is with the box it all comes in. I'm not sure if Fantasy Flight was just thinking folks would toss the box and keep all the tokens and dice in bags, but it's probably the flimsiest cardboard I've seen from them outside of their Print on Demand line of mini-expansions.
The adventure itself is a very simple affair. It's extremely linear and introduces game mechanics slowly from encounter to encounter. The core mechanic of the game is in building dice pools based on your character's abilities and proficiencies. Once the pool is complete, players roll and see if they can get more success symbols than failure symbols. If so, then they've succeeded and whatever task they were attempting. However, the dice also have symbols such as Threat, Advantage, Despair and Triumph which have no direct affect on whether a roll succeeds, but may change the situation around a given roll. The adventure slowly integrates new options for interpreting these additional symbols.
The varied results of the dice pool mean that a GM has to be on their toes to react and explain the action based on what is rolled, but the Beginner Game has plenty of tables and charts to easily identify all the options available to players and GMs alike. The game also has a fantastic initiative system which allows players to decide who goes in which initiative slot during combat - a subtle change from more traditional RPGs that I think will have a positive effect on players all around.
So where do I stand? Well, I'm definitely excited to play some more. I haven't had this good of a time roleplaying in the Star Wars universe since Wizards of the Coast's Saga Edition. I have a good track record with Fantasy Flight's RPGs and this one has potential. I love the dice system and how it opens up a lot of options for players and GMs to interpret the dice pool. However, I am anxious to see the rules for character creation and how deep they go. Additionally, I have no idea how the Force is going to be handled and that can make or break any Star Wars game.
The core rulebook has a nebulous release date of "somewhere in the second quarter of 2013". I've got one on preorder at my friendly local gaming store, but until then I'll be running a few more sessions with the Beginner Game contents just to put it through its paces and test these core mechanics backwards and forwards.
The adventure itself is a very simple affair. It's extremely linear and introduces game mechanics slowly from encounter to encounter. The core mechanic of the game is in building dice pools based on your character's abilities and proficiencies. Once the pool is complete, players roll and see if they can get more success symbols than failure symbols. If so, then they've succeeded and whatever task they were attempting. However, the dice also have symbols such as Threat, Advantage, Despair and Triumph which have no direct affect on whether a roll succeeds, but may change the situation around a given roll. The adventure slowly integrates new options for interpreting these additional symbols.
The varied results of the dice pool mean that a GM has to be on their toes to react and explain the action based on what is rolled, but the Beginner Game has plenty of tables and charts to easily identify all the options available to players and GMs alike. The game also has a fantastic initiative system which allows players to decide who goes in which initiative slot during combat - a subtle change from more traditional RPGs that I think will have a positive effect on players all around.
So where do I stand? Well, I'm definitely excited to play some more. I haven't had this good of a time roleplaying in the Star Wars universe since Wizards of the Coast's Saga Edition. I have a good track record with Fantasy Flight's RPGs and this one has potential. I love the dice system and how it opens up a lot of options for players and GMs to interpret the dice pool. However, I am anxious to see the rules for character creation and how deep they go. Additionally, I have no idea how the Force is going to be handled and that can make or break any Star Wars game.
The core rulebook has a nebulous release date of "somewhere in the second quarter of 2013". I've got one on preorder at my friendly local gaming store, but until then I'll be running a few more sessions with the Beginner Game contents just to put it through its paces and test these core mechanics backwards and forwards.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
I'll choose the purple ships. Blue? Wait... Teal?
If you were to sit down and play a game with me, the odds are pretty good that you'd learn something about my genetics. If said game had different colored pieces for each player, you'd notice that I tend to go for either black, white or something very prominent like yellow. The reason for this is because I suffer from deuteranomoly, commonly known as red-green color blindness. For me, colors like reds & greens or blues & purples have a tendency to blend together, making them tough to distinguish from one another. This can make some games frustrating to play if hues are too similar or if the lighting in our play area is too dim.
Some facts about color blindness
Someone who is color blind is often thought of as not being able to distinguish any colors at all - seeing the world in black, white and gray. In reality, the vast majority of people classified as being "color blind" can see colors, but they are often skewed or tend to blend together. Red-green color blindness is the most common form. It occurs in approximately 8% of the male population, 0.5% of the female population and accounts for 99% of all color blindness. After that is blue-yellow color blindness which is only present in approximately 0.01% of the entire human population. Total color blindness is a very rare and serious vision condition which inflicts roughly 0.003% of the entire human population.
Now, here's an example. Most of you should be able to tell the difference in these images. I, on the other hand, have a hard time distinguishing the left and center images from each other at all and the rightmost image is just slightly different. As you can imagine, this kind of deficiency can throw a serious wrench in gaming since so many games rely on colorful iconography to relay important information.
Dealing with deficiency
In most cases, my red-green problem is just a minor inconvenience, but color blindness of any type presents a unique challenge for game designers and can become an issue for groups of players who have one or more color blind individuals among them. One of the best positive examples of this is the Ticket to Ride by Days of Wonder.
Some helpful links
This humble article could have easily turned into a discourse on ocular genetics. The subject is pretty fascinating, so here are just a few links to websites where you can learn more!
Some facts about color blindness
Someone who is color blind is often thought of as not being able to distinguish any colors at all - seeing the world in black, white and gray. In reality, the vast majority of people classified as being "color blind" can see colors, but they are often skewed or tend to blend together. Red-green color blindness is the most common form. It occurs in approximately 8% of the male population, 0.5% of the female population and accounts for 99% of all color blindness. After that is blue-yellow color blindness which is only present in approximately 0.01% of the entire human population. Total color blindness is a very rare and serious vision condition which inflicts roughly 0.003% of the entire human population.
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| From Left to Right - Original Image, Deuteranope (red-green) Simulation, Protanope (blue-yellow) Simulation |
Now, here's an example. Most of you should be able to tell the difference in these images. I, on the other hand, have a hard time distinguishing the left and center images from each other at all and the rightmost image is just slightly different. As you can imagine, this kind of deficiency can throw a serious wrench in gaming since so many games rely on colorful iconography to relay important information.
Dealing with deficiency
In most cases, my red-green problem is just a minor inconvenience, but color blindness of any type presents a unique challenge for game designers and can become an issue for groups of players who have one or more color blind individuals among them. One of the best positive examples of this is the Ticket to Ride by Days of Wonder.
I won't go into a huge breakdown of the rules for Ticket to Ride, but there is a fair amount of color matching that needs to be done between the cards and the different train routes. In addition, each player has a unique set of colored trains that they use to mark who has claimed which route. It can be a huge mess and, in fact, I have a really hard time playing the mobile app Ticket to Ride Pocket because the greens and oranges tend to blend together. However, Days of Wonder has made the boardgame itself (and the iPad version of the app) much more color blind friendly by including shapes on the route spaces that correspond to shapes printed on the cards, making it easier for me to match them to each other.
Where shapes are impractical (perhaps your game has too much iconography as it is), then bright primary colors can succeed. Runewars by Fantasy Flight Games is a great example. The 4 different factions in this empire-building wargame are light blue, dark purple, red and green. Having a lighter blue against the darker purple makes them easier to distinguish from one another and the red and green pieces are colored using very stark, bright hues.
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| A selection of components from the Runewars: Banner of War expansion |
Boardgamegeek is also chock-full of resources for various games to make them more color blind friendly. Usually, these take the form of reference sheets or alternate component lists. Last but not least, if you have any type of color blindness or know someone who does and it seems like a game company hasn't taken this into consideration, contact them! Most game companies appreciate any sort of feedback that will help them make future releases more attractive to prospective players.
Some helpful links
This humble article could have easily turned into a discourse on ocular genetics. The subject is pretty fascinating, so here are just a few links to websites where you can learn more!
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Blood on the Pavement: A Warhammer 40K Battle Report
The Introduction
Yesterday, I made a post about an upcoming game of Warhammer 40,000. My White Scars Space Marines were set to take on a strike force of Grey Knights in small, 500 point skirmish. Last night, the battle was fought and, well... It was a very bloody affair. What follows is a brief battle report with pictures illustrating the final position and casualties of each unit at the bottom of each players turn.Disclaimer: I apologize in advance if I flub any rules explanations or unit abilities. I have very little experience with my opponent's army and my notes from last night are very brief. In addition, I'm still learning the 6th edition of Warhammer 40K and I might just be dead wrong. Also, these armies are both works-in-progress so please forgive us for incomplete and unpainted miniatures.
The Armies
In my post from yesterday, I laid out my White Scars army list. I made one slight change before playing and swapped out the Land Speeder Storm for a standard Land Speeder. This was largely due to the fact that my Storm model wasn't completely built yet, but also because I didn't think my Scouts would need a transport and the regular Land Speeder is slightly more survivable.My opponent fielded a tiny, yet elite strike force of Grey Knights. These guys are very expensive (points-wise), but have a lot of tricks up their sleeves and some of the most devastating weaponry in the game. His total model count was 7 (compared to my 12) and his list looked something like this -
HQ: Grey Knight Captain
- Terminator Armor
- Master-Crafted Nemesis Force Halberd
- Master-Crafted Storm Bolter
TROOPS: Grey Knight Strike Squad
- Psycannon
- Justicar w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
HEAVY SUPPORT: Dreadknight
- Heavy Incinerator
- Heavy Psycannon
My main concern going into the game was the Dreadknight. I had the melta weapons to pierce his ridiculous armor, but the damn thing isn't a vehicle and has a Toughness value). That's a tough nut to crack and I deployed my army with the intention to try and drop the Dreadknight as quick as possible.
The Set-Up
Our mission for this game was The Emperor's Will and our Battlefield deployment was Dawn of War. My Captain secured the Warlord trait of Master of the Vanguard (which unfortunately never came into play) and my opponent's Captain gained the Intimidating Presence Warlord trait (which he did get to use, but was not effective). We placed objective markers, but I'm going to spoil a bit of the battle and reveal that they never came into play - you can, however, see them at the top and bottom of the right side of the battlefield (represented by servo-skull markers).
My White Scars are lined up on the bottom of each of the pictures below. As you can see in this first one, I threw my bike squad and captain (he's the biker with no head and all the metal bits on him) dead center to face off against "Legs" McGee, the Dreadknight. My plan was to have them drive up, pour a TON of bolter and meltagun fire into the thing, slag it and then loop around to charge into the Strike Squad that was being accompanied by the Grey Knight Captain. My Scouts set themselves up in a high perch which gave them line of sight to damn near everything on the battlefield (lower right, in the building) and my Land Speeder hid behind that big rock column (lower left) to avoid being blown away on the first turn by the Dreadknight's big guns or massed small-arms fire from the Strike Squad (which you can see in the top left, coming out of the ruined building).
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| My Captain and 2 other bikers got clipped off the bottom of this pic, but I swear they're there. |
The Battle
On his first turn, my opponent marched his Grey Knights forward. No fancy maneuvers here - he just closed the distance. Afterwards, shots from the Strike Squad were able to ice one of my bikers. Not a great start, but I still had my meltaguns! Thankfully, he was still too far off to attempt to engage me in hand-to-hand combat during his Assault Phase.
For my first turn, I moved my bikes up and set the Land Speeder off to the lower left hand corner of the board. For the Speeder, my goal was to keep the Strike Squad within range of my heavy bolter, while staying out of their range. Unfortunately, the Speeder's shots were ineffective. My bikes, on the other hand, did better (but not great). Their melta weapons were able to inflict a single wound on the Dreadknight. My scouts also took a few potshots at the lumbering pair of legs, but their high-tech sniper rifles were unable to find an exploitable chink in its armor.
Moving into the Assault Phase, I realized that my bikes were a little too close. One of the things I like best about 6th edition is that players are now free to pre-measure distances at any time and had I taken proper advantage of this, I could have brought my melta weapons to bear and given myself enough space to avoid a counter charge during my opponents next Assault Phase. As it stood, I tried charging into the Dreadknight to at least avoid getting kicked to death. With it's crazy high Toughness, my bikers would've needed to roll 6's to do any damage on the lumbering behemoth.
This is where the tide of luck started to turn for me as I ended up failing to roll an adequate charge distance and lock the Dreadknight down. My biker just sat in the middle of the road looking fearsome.
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| And another case where I couldn't quite capture the whole field. My Land Speeder is off to the lower left, out of frame. |
As you can see, the bad luck didn't stop at my failed charge. Though the Grey Knights had similar misfortune in their own charge attempts, their ranged weapons reaped a heavy toll on my Captain and his squad. I lost another biker and my all-important Attack Bike (with it's mounted heavy weapon). Oh! And my Land Speeder got plinked and lost one of it's hull points.
Ouch.
At this point, I needed to make a desperate gamble - so I veered off to the left with the bikes and charged the Strike Squad. Before the melee commenced, I took a few shots with the Land Speeder, the snipers and my bikes, but was unable to cause any casualties. My Captain challenged the Grey Knight Captain and the two of them ended up locked in combat for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, the rest of the Strike Squad made short work of the 2 bikes that had bravely charged in alongside their commander.
And this is what the board looked like right before my Captain finally succumbed to the onslaught of the Grey Knights. Two rounds of concentrated shooting with the Dreadknight's heavy weapons made short work of my Scouts and the Landspeeder proved unequal to the task of mowing the bipedal death machine down with it's heavy bolter.
Though my Captain fought valiantly, he was only able to deal a single wound to his Grey Knight counterpart before his luck finally ran out and he was brought low with a mighty halberd swing.
The Conclusion
They say that defeat is the great teacher and...well, I definitely learned a lot from this game. Grey Knights? They're tough. Like, super tough. I was not expecting those 6 men to last as long as they did and the Dreadknight is going to haunt my dreams for a while. If I could change anything up, I'd likely drop the Scouts and the Land Speeder for a regular old squad of Space Marines on foot (or in a Rhino transport, if I had the points) to get more guns (and, like, a missile launcher or something) on the ground and force my opponent to attempt more armor saves.
Despite some awful dice and being all but tabled, I still had a lot of fun with this game and can't wait to start painting my models and building the army up beyond a mere 500 points. I hope you guys enjoyed this battle report and that you'll leave a comment or drop me a line with some feedback. I'd love to do more of these (for Warhammer, X-Wing or any other games)!
Friday, January 18, 2013
A Very Special Training Exercise, starring Khajiun Khan
I've never tried my hand at a battle report before, but I've got a game of Warhammer 40K tonight and I think I might give it a spin. My friend Ken and I will be throwing down with 500pts using the latest 6th edition rules. He will be playing a small strike force of Grey Knights and I'll be bringing my savage White Scars to bear.
Several of my friends and I have been playing these small games using a modified Force Organization chart (requiring only 1 Troops choice as opposed to 2) in order to acclimate ourselves to 6th edition. My own experience with 40K is tumultuous (I've only rarely ever had a field-able army), but I've been entrenched in the setting since the game's 3rd edition. For my money (quite literally), 6th has been a very tight, comprehensive system that captures all the great elements that past versions have waxed and waned on. Heroes are incredibly heroic and powerful without being armies unto themselves. Core units of troops are essential for every army to secure and hold objectives. Vehicles are now neither wafer thin nor mandatory mobile cover. It all fits together rather well.
When the call went out to start playing again, I had just sold my 5th edition Ork army. I thought long and hard about picking the Greenskins up again as they are easily my favorite part of any Games Workshop intellectual property, but I didn't want to have to struggle with list building like I did in 5th edition and I certainly wasn't prepared or motivated to build and paint a massive amount of foot-slogging boyz from scratch. No, for this I wanted something more compact and elite. As it happens, I'd been pumping out a few characters for Fantasy Flight's Deathwatch rpg and I had really come to love and appreciate the White Scars chapter of Space Marines. There's a lot I could say about the Scars from a cultural/historical perspective, but that might get a little wordy and stray off topic (cultural appropriation in Space Marine chapters has got to be covered by someone somewhere). Suffice it to say that I love Genghis Khan as a historical figure and the thought of a massive army of unrestrained Space Marines on bikes appealed to me.
So, I got my hands on a Dark Angels Ravenwing Battleforce (because it is essentially a bike army in a box) and set to work. I was lucky enough to score some old White Scars bits off eBay and a few friends helped me scrounge up the bitz I wanted to start adding a Mongol horde flavor to the army. So far, I haven't gone too crazy, but it's a start. After playing a few games, I've settled on a list that incorporates as many bikes as I can reasonably fit in 500 points.
HQ: Space Marine Captain
TROOPS: Scout Squad
TROOPS: Space Marine Bike Squad
FAST ATTACK: Land Speeder Stor
I have actually gone ahead and thrown in the mandatory HQ and 2 Troops choices required by the standard Force Organization Chart despite the house rules requiring just 1 Troops choice for this size game. I used Sniper Scouts in one of my test games and was really impressed with them (and the new plastic models). They make a nice long range addition to the bike squad that has to get up close and personal to get the most out of their devastating melta weapons. The Land Speeder Storm isn't really necessary as a transport for the scouts, but it gets me a nice mounted heavy bolter and is very characterful for an army that is highly mobile in the fluff.
Now, I'm not sure what my opponent will be fielding tonight, but last I talked with him he had a list that had a Captain, a 5-man Grey Knight Strike Squad, and a Dreadknight. This is a tiny, tiny army and I will have an unusual numerical advantage, but the Grey Knights are tough and the Dreadknight is scary - I mean look at it! If this is the army I end up facing, then my plan will be to secure any objectives with the scouts and pepper his Strike Squad with sniper rifle fire with support from the Land Speeder Storm. The bikers, meanwhile, will swing wide to slag the Dreadknight with melta fire before charging into whatever remains of the Strike Squad and/or Captain.
Tonight, I'll be taking pics and notes for a full battle report which should be up on Saturday. Since the White Scars and Grey Knights are both Imperial forces, this is just a "training exercise" from a fluff standpoint, but I hope I can lock down a victory.
Several of my friends and I have been playing these small games using a modified Force Organization chart (requiring only 1 Troops choice as opposed to 2) in order to acclimate ourselves to 6th edition. My own experience with 40K is tumultuous (I've only rarely ever had a field-able army), but I've been entrenched in the setting since the game's 3rd edition. For my money (quite literally), 6th has been a very tight, comprehensive system that captures all the great elements that past versions have waxed and waned on. Heroes are incredibly heroic and powerful without being armies unto themselves. Core units of troops are essential for every army to secure and hold objectives. Vehicles are now neither wafer thin nor mandatory mobile cover. It all fits together rather well.
When the call went out to start playing again, I had just sold my 5th edition Ork army. I thought long and hard about picking the Greenskins up again as they are easily my favorite part of any Games Workshop intellectual property, but I didn't want to have to struggle with list building like I did in 5th edition and I certainly wasn't prepared or motivated to build and paint a massive amount of foot-slogging boyz from scratch. No, for this I wanted something more compact and elite. As it happens, I'd been pumping out a few characters for Fantasy Flight's Deathwatch rpg and I had really come to love and appreciate the White Scars chapter of Space Marines. There's a lot I could say about the Scars from a cultural/historical perspective, but that might get a little wordy and stray off topic (cultural appropriation in Space Marine chapters has got to be covered by someone somewhere). Suffice it to say that I love Genghis Khan as a historical figure and the thought of a massive army of unrestrained Space Marines on bikes appealed to me.
So, I got my hands on a Dark Angels Ravenwing Battleforce (because it is essentially a bike army in a box) and set to work. I was lucky enough to score some old White Scars bits off eBay and a few friends helped me scrounge up the bitz I wanted to start adding a Mongol horde flavor to the army. So far, I haven't gone too crazy, but it's a start. After playing a few games, I've settled on a list that incorporates as many bikes as I can reasonably fit in 500 points.
HQ: Space Marine Captain
- Space Marine bike
- Lightning claw
- Lightning claw
TROOPS: Scout Squad
- Sniper rifles
TROOPS: Space Marine Bike Squad
- 2x additional bikers
- 2x Meltaguns
- Attack bike
- Multi-Melta
FAST ATTACK: Land Speeder Stor
I have actually gone ahead and thrown in the mandatory HQ and 2 Troops choices required by the standard Force Organization Chart despite the house rules requiring just 1 Troops choice for this size game. I used Sniper Scouts in one of my test games and was really impressed with them (and the new plastic models). They make a nice long range addition to the bike squad that has to get up close and personal to get the most out of their devastating melta weapons. The Land Speeder Storm isn't really necessary as a transport for the scouts, but it gets me a nice mounted heavy bolter and is very characterful for an army that is highly mobile in the fluff.
Now, I'm not sure what my opponent will be fielding tonight, but last I talked with him he had a list that had a Captain, a 5-man Grey Knight Strike Squad, and a Dreadknight. This is a tiny, tiny army and I will have an unusual numerical advantage, but the Grey Knights are tough and the Dreadknight is scary - I mean look at it! If this is the army I end up facing, then my plan will be to secure any objectives with the scouts and pepper his Strike Squad with sniper rifle fire with support from the Land Speeder Storm. The bikers, meanwhile, will swing wide to slag the Dreadknight with melta fire before charging into whatever remains of the Strike Squad and/or Captain.
Tonight, I'll be taking pics and notes for a full battle report which should be up on Saturday. Since the White Scars and Grey Knights are both Imperial forces, this is just a "training exercise" from a fluff standpoint, but I hope I can lock down a victory.
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| For the Khan and the Emperor! |
Monday, December 31, 2012
Ryanuary Begins
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to guest host on the All Things Good & Nerdy podcast where we discussed the upcoming "Ryanuary" extravaganza. Throughout the course of January, I'll be acting as the 4th chair on the show and delivering hard-hitting tabletop news, reviews and commentary.
I'll probably also go into the ATGN Trademarked "Super Dick Mode" about component quality, box control and Games Workshop's specialist game support.
I'll probably also go into the ATGN Trademarked "Super Dick Mode" about component quality, box control and Games Workshop's specialist game support.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Review: X-Wing the Miniatures Game (If we're going in, we're going in full throttle)
Buckle up folks, this one's been a long time coming - it's X-Wing: The Miniatures Game by Fantasy Flight Games! Now, before you go locking your s-foils in attack position let's hold our fire and see if there are any life readings on board.
Components: In the past, there have been some mediocre Stars Wars miniatures (I'm looking at you Star Wars: Starship Battles), but with Fantasy Flight behind the wheel we have some impressive offerings. These are easily some of the best pre-painted miniatures I have ever seen. The detail is very crisp for the scale (which comes in at approximately 1/270th) and the paint jobs are nice and clean. Fantasy Flight is using a harder, lighter plastic than other pre-painted minis games (like HeroClix, Dungeons & Dragons or Monsterpocalypse). As a result the ships feel a bit fragile (due to the light weight), but are surprisingly sturdy and don't suffer from the type of drooping/sagging/bending that plagues other minis. Additionally, the game comes with movements templates, tokens, dice and cards - all of which live up to the Fantasy Flight standard of quality.
The rulebook for X-Wing is nice, neat and accessible. The core box set has enough components for players to try a few scenarios (also included in the rulebook) and get a good grasp on both the basic and advanced rule sets that are presented. The rules themselves are intuitive to a point, though the interactions between ships while moving and the timing of certain abilities may pose a problem to players on occasion. Fantasy Flight recently released an FAQ/Errata document that clears up most of these issues.
Gameplay: X-Wing is a dogfighting game through and through. Players will build squadrons of fighters by selecting either named pilots (like Wedge Antilles or Howlrunner) or generic ones and equipping them with upgrade and skill cards. Pilots, equipment and skills all cost a certain number of points and currently, the standard game size is 100 points. This allows players to customize their squadron as they see fit and could mean as few as 3 or as many as 8 ships on the table depending on what a player choose.
The basic mechanic behind ship movement consists of players simultaneously selecting which move each ship in their squadron is going to perform via a set of dials unique to that ship. The maneuvers include things like simple moves forward, slight turns, sharp banks and the infamous Koiogran Turn (a simplified, Star Wars version of the Immelman Turn). Once players have set a dial and secretly placed it next to each corresponding fighter, they are revealed in ascending pilot order - each pilot having a skill number that determines just how good they are. Once a ship has moved, it can perform an action. Actions can range from improving your ability to evade, acquiring a target lock or even activating one of your upgrade cards.
After all ships have moved, players will enter the combat phase and attempt to shoot each other down. This is as simple as checking to see who is in your firing arc (a 90 degrees wedge in front of every fighter), how far away they are (there are bonuses to attack for being at point blank range and bonuses to defense if you're far enough away) and building their dice pools. Attackers take a number of attack dice equal to their primary weapon value and roll them. After counting up how many hits they've scored, the defender will build a pool of green defense dice equal to their evasion and attempt to roll evade icons to cancel hits. There are rules for shields, critical hits and of course character abilities that alter the core mechanics of the game, but these are the basics.
Overall: If you follow me on Twitter, then it won't surprise you to know that I'm in love with this game. Like, the scary kind of love that makes me want to tie it to a bed and break it's legs so it can't run away from me. Squad building is an exciting challenge and there's enough variety so far to keep squadrons fresh and games interesting. Both the Rebels and the Imperials seem to be well balanced against one another. However, since combat is dice based, there is a fair amount of luck involved and sometimes even your best laid plans can evaporate if you keep rolling blanks. Luckily, the game plays relatively quickly and the moments of bad-dice-temper-syndrome are likely to be few and far between.
The game is a bit pricey for a board game generally and a bit pricey for a miniatures game if you take into consideration how many models you get for the price - BUT, I find the depth and satisfaction I get out of the game makes this initial sticker shock completely irrelevant. X-Wing definitely delivers your money's worth and with new expansions coming out early next year, I don't think I'll be letting it collect dust any time soon.
Components: In the past, there have been some mediocre Stars Wars miniatures (I'm looking at you Star Wars: Starship Battles), but with Fantasy Flight behind the wheel we have some impressive offerings. These are easily some of the best pre-painted miniatures I have ever seen. The detail is very crisp for the scale (which comes in at approximately 1/270th) and the paint jobs are nice and clean. Fantasy Flight is using a harder, lighter plastic than other pre-painted minis games (like HeroClix, Dungeons & Dragons or Monsterpocalypse). As a result the ships feel a bit fragile (due to the light weight), but are surprisingly sturdy and don't suffer from the type of drooping/sagging/bending that plagues other minis. Additionally, the game comes with movements templates, tokens, dice and cards - all of which live up to the Fantasy Flight standard of quality.
The rulebook for X-Wing is nice, neat and accessible. The core box set has enough components for players to try a few scenarios (also included in the rulebook) and get a good grasp on both the basic and advanced rule sets that are presented. The rules themselves are intuitive to a point, though the interactions between ships while moving and the timing of certain abilities may pose a problem to players on occasion. Fantasy Flight recently released an FAQ/Errata document that clears up most of these issues.
Gameplay: X-Wing is a dogfighting game through and through. Players will build squadrons of fighters by selecting either named pilots (like Wedge Antilles or Howlrunner) or generic ones and equipping them with upgrade and skill cards. Pilots, equipment and skills all cost a certain number of points and currently, the standard game size is 100 points. This allows players to customize their squadron as they see fit and could mean as few as 3 or as many as 8 ships on the table depending on what a player choose.
The basic mechanic behind ship movement consists of players simultaneously selecting which move each ship in their squadron is going to perform via a set of dials unique to that ship. The maneuvers include things like simple moves forward, slight turns, sharp banks and the infamous Koiogran Turn (a simplified, Star Wars version of the Immelman Turn). Once players have set a dial and secretly placed it next to each corresponding fighter, they are revealed in ascending pilot order - each pilot having a skill number that determines just how good they are. Once a ship has moved, it can perform an action. Actions can range from improving your ability to evade, acquiring a target lock or even activating one of your upgrade cards.
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| Example of how the dials & movement templates work |
After all ships have moved, players will enter the combat phase and attempt to shoot each other down. This is as simple as checking to see who is in your firing arc (a 90 degrees wedge in front of every fighter), how far away they are (there are bonuses to attack for being at point blank range and bonuses to defense if you're far enough away) and building their dice pools. Attackers take a number of attack dice equal to their primary weapon value and roll them. After counting up how many hits they've scored, the defender will build a pool of green defense dice equal to their evasion and attempt to roll evade icons to cancel hits. There are rules for shields, critical hits and of course character abilities that alter the core mechanics of the game, but these are the basics.
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| Combat in action |
Overall: If you follow me on Twitter, then it won't surprise you to know that I'm in love with this game. Like, the scary kind of love that makes me want to tie it to a bed and break it's legs so it can't run away from me. Squad building is an exciting challenge and there's enough variety so far to keep squadrons fresh and games interesting. Both the Rebels and the Imperials seem to be well balanced against one another. However, since combat is dice based, there is a fair amount of luck involved and sometimes even your best laid plans can evaporate if you keep rolling blanks. Luckily, the game plays relatively quickly and the moments of bad-dice-temper-syndrome are likely to be few and far between.
The game is a bit pricey for a board game generally and a bit pricey for a miniatures game if you take into consideration how many models you get for the price - BUT, I find the depth and satisfaction I get out of the game makes this initial sticker shock completely irrelevant. X-Wing definitely delivers your money's worth and with new expansions coming out early next year, I don't think I'll be letting it collect dust any time soon.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
The holidays are killing me...
UPDATE: As of yesterday evening, the prices for these games have gone back up. Though these games are still cheaper on Amazon then they would be at retail, the difference is less striking and (as always) it's probably for the better to support your local game store if you can.
There are some crazy deals up on Amazon right now that I would be remiss not to tell you guys about.
Mansions of Madness, $36.79 (54% off) - A Lovecraft/Cthulhu themed dungeon crawler set in Fantasy Flight Games' Arkham Horror line of games. This one has some quirky mechanics and takes a while to set up, but is probably my favorite in the genre due to the intricate mysteries that the Keeper player must put together for the Investigator players to solve.
Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, $17.84 (55% off) - This one is unique in that it's a co-operative Living Card Game. Players create a team of heroes from Tolkien's works and support them with allies both familiar and new. The artwork alone makes this game worth the cost of entry, but I'm happy to say that the game itself is also incredibly well done and fun to play (also great for just two players, though it supports up to 4).
Android: Netrunner the Card Game, $21.59 (46% off) - Netrunner is just plain gorgeous. It has beautiful artwork and sleek, elegant mechanics. I don't have enough good things to say about this game. One player takes on the role of an giant, mega-corporation trying to bring it's plans to fruition while the other plays a Runner hellbent on hacking into the corps' assets for their own gain. The gameplay is completely asymmetric - meaning that the Runner and Corp both have different decks with different cards that have different mechanics. It's a little hard to explain, but imagine Shadowrun meets Bladerunner the card game.
X-Wing: The Miniatures Game (ALL THE SHIPS) - The X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Fighter and TIE Advanced single ship expansions are all on sale from 43-57% off. I've got a review for this game that will be up on Sunday, but until then it's Star Wars dogfighting at its tabletop finest. Command squadrons of your favorite pilots from the original trilogy as either the heroic (terrorist) Rebels or the dominating (peace-keeping) Imperials.
There are some crazy deals up on Amazon right now that I would be remiss not to tell you guys about.
Mansions of Madness, $36.79 (54% off) - A Lovecraft/Cthulhu themed dungeon crawler set in Fantasy Flight Games' Arkham Horror line of games. This one has some quirky mechanics and takes a while to set up, but is probably my favorite in the genre due to the intricate mysteries that the Keeper player must put together for the Investigator players to solve.
Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, $17.84 (55% off) - This one is unique in that it's a co-operative Living Card Game. Players create a team of heroes from Tolkien's works and support them with allies both familiar and new. The artwork alone makes this game worth the cost of entry, but I'm happy to say that the game itself is also incredibly well done and fun to play (also great for just two players, though it supports up to 4).
Android: Netrunner the Card Game, $21.59 (46% off) - Netrunner is just plain gorgeous. It has beautiful artwork and sleek, elegant mechanics. I don't have enough good things to say about this game. One player takes on the role of an giant, mega-corporation trying to bring it's plans to fruition while the other plays a Runner hellbent on hacking into the corps' assets for their own gain. The gameplay is completely asymmetric - meaning that the Runner and Corp both have different decks with different cards that have different mechanics. It's a little hard to explain, but imagine Shadowrun meets Bladerunner the card game.
X-Wing: The Miniatures Game (ALL THE SHIPS) - The X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Fighter and TIE Advanced single ship expansions are all on sale from 43-57% off. I've got a review for this game that will be up on Sunday, but until then it's Star Wars dogfighting at its tabletop finest. Command squadrons of your favorite pilots from the original trilogy as either the heroic (terrorist) Rebels or the dominating (peace-keeping) Imperials.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Review: King of Tokyo
My love for kaiju movies and the giant monster genre in general can be likened to Godzilla himself - large, menacing and when it decides to surface, it will take the combined force of several other monsters and a few potshots by the Japanese military to bring it down. With that in mind, let's take a look at King of Tokyo by IELLO - a dice game for 2-6 players that plays in a lightning fast 20-30 minutes.
Components: Despite being a dice game, King of Tokyo has an impressive array of components. The dice themselves are large, solid and just plain fun to roll. They hit the table with a satisfying clatter and have easy to read symbols. It's hard to explain with mere words just how amazing these cubes are. Each player will also get to choose a monster standee and matching score tracker. These are simple, sturdy cardboard and the artwork is bright and vivid. The cards used for various monster upgrades and special abilities have got some great artwork on them and are printed on good stock with a nice satin finish. I'd recommend sleeving them, but then they won't fit in the box insert (always a bummer). Finally, the game has a board to denote which monster is in Tokyo (more on that later). It's small and simple, but is on par with the other compnents as far as quality.
Gameplay: King of Tokyo is a filler game through and through. It sets up, plays and breaks down very quickly. Players take turns rolling the six base dice and matching up symbols to gain different effects. You can attack other monsters, heal damage that's been done to you, gather energy (which is used to buy cards) or score victory points. You get three throws of the dice in a turn and can keep whichever dice suit your needs between throws - will you try and wrack up as many victory points as possible or will you pummel the arrogant giant ape that's currently occupying Tokyo? There is a surprising amount of depth here for so random a game. The different combinations you can get may allow you to go for one big victory point rush in a single turn or give you the opportunity to gain a little energy, heal your monster and do a little damage. Like any dice game, it's hard to plan your turn in advance, but I've yet to feel like I've been cheated by the dice.
Rules: King of Tokyo has a simple, full-color rules insert that is mostly easy to understand. The game has a few quirks (mostly concerning the scoring of victory points). Once you've got a game under your belt, however, you should be good to go. Pick up the dice, rolle them, choose which ones you want to keep, roll the rest and repeat once more. At the end of your three rolls, you compare your dice results and score victory points, damage opponents and gain energy accordingly. At the end of your turn, you can spend any energy you've gained on upgrade cards that will do anything from giving you an extra head (which allows you to add one of the green bonus dice to your rolls) to forcing you to fight the military and sacrifice health for points. Possibly my favorite mechanic is the press-your-luck decision of entering Tokyo. If the Tokyo space on the game board is empty and you roll one of the damage icons, you enter Tokyo. While in the city, you gain extra points at the beginning of each turn and any subsequent damage rolls you make are directed against all of your opponents. The flip side to this is that only one monster can be the King of Tokyo, so any damage rolls your opponents make are directed against you and can not be healed.. If you take damage, you can choose to leave Tokyo, but you then sacrifice the bonus victory points. It can be risky, but so far I have seen many a game won by a lone monster taking on all comers and finishing strong atop the smoking rubble that was once a Japanese metropolis.
Overall: King of Tokyo was a game that I bought based on a brief description and a few promotional shots of the box art. I am a huge Japanese monster movie fan, so this was a no brainer, however unlike some other games, KoT really delivers on solid gameplay and integrates the theme very well. I wish there had been mechanics to differentiate the monsters (everyone is exactly the same for now), but the game still delivers on that feeling of giant kaiju clashing in the middle of a city filled with terrified, poorly dubbed humans. What more could you want?
Components: Despite being a dice game, King of Tokyo has an impressive array of components. The dice themselves are large, solid and just plain fun to roll. They hit the table with a satisfying clatter and have easy to read symbols. It's hard to explain with mere words just how amazing these cubes are. Each player will also get to choose a monster standee and matching score tracker. These are simple, sturdy cardboard and the artwork is bright and vivid. The cards used for various monster upgrades and special abilities have got some great artwork on them and are printed on good stock with a nice satin finish. I'd recommend sleeving them, but then they won't fit in the box insert (always a bummer). Finally, the game has a board to denote which monster is in Tokyo (more on that later). It's small and simple, but is on par with the other compnents as far as quality.
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| Seriously, those dice are amazing! |
Gameplay: King of Tokyo is a filler game through and through. It sets up, plays and breaks down very quickly. Players take turns rolling the six base dice and matching up symbols to gain different effects. You can attack other monsters, heal damage that's been done to you, gather energy (which is used to buy cards) or score victory points. You get three throws of the dice in a turn and can keep whichever dice suit your needs between throws - will you try and wrack up as many victory points as possible or will you pummel the arrogant giant ape that's currently occupying Tokyo? There is a surprising amount of depth here for so random a game. The different combinations you can get may allow you to go for one big victory point rush in a single turn or give you the opportunity to gain a little energy, heal your monster and do a little damage. Like any dice game, it's hard to plan your turn in advance, but I've yet to feel like I've been cheated by the dice.
Rules: King of Tokyo has a simple, full-color rules insert that is mostly easy to understand. The game has a few quirks (mostly concerning the scoring of victory points). Once you've got a game under your belt, however, you should be good to go. Pick up the dice, rolle them, choose which ones you want to keep, roll the rest and repeat once more. At the end of your three rolls, you compare your dice results and score victory points, damage opponents and gain energy accordingly. At the end of your turn, you can spend any energy you've gained on upgrade cards that will do anything from giving you an extra head (which allows you to add one of the green bonus dice to your rolls) to forcing you to fight the military and sacrifice health for points. Possibly my favorite mechanic is the press-your-luck decision of entering Tokyo. If the Tokyo space on the game board is empty and you roll one of the damage icons, you enter Tokyo. While in the city, you gain extra points at the beginning of each turn and any subsequent damage rolls you make are directed against all of your opponents. The flip side to this is that only one monster can be the King of Tokyo, so any damage rolls your opponents make are directed against you and can not be healed.. If you take damage, you can choose to leave Tokyo, but you then sacrifice the bonus victory points. It can be risky, but so far I have seen many a game won by a lone monster taking on all comers and finishing strong atop the smoking rubble that was once a Japanese metropolis.
Overall: King of Tokyo was a game that I bought based on a brief description and a few promotional shots of the box art. I am a huge Japanese monster movie fan, so this was a no brainer, however unlike some other games, KoT really delivers on solid gameplay and integrates the theme very well. I wish there had been mechanics to differentiate the monsters (everyone is exactly the same for now), but the game still delivers on that feeling of giant kaiju clashing in the middle of a city filled with terrified, poorly dubbed humans. What more could you want?
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Mobile Posting Action Force
Don't mind me. I'm just testing the Blogger app on my phone in preparation for Extra Life this weekend. For those of you who don't know, Extra Life is a charity supporting Children's Miracle Network hospitals. Gamers around the world will be pledging themselves to play video, board, card and roleplaying games for 24 hours straight.
To facilitate such selfless devotion to this noble cause, Extra Lifers need sponsorship from supporters like you! Head on over to the Extra Life website for more information. If you're feeling particularity generous you can visit my team's donation page and help us smash our sponsorship goal. Remember, every little bit helps!
This will be my first year participating in Extra Life, so I'm trying to prepare as best I can. My friendly local gaming store will be open for all 24 hours and that's where I'm planning to be. I'll have my X-Wing miniatures, King of Tokyo, Munchkin Cthulhu and Monsterpocalypse handy, for sure. I'm hoping to get the chance to play Netrunner, Horus Heresy, Mansions of Madness and a few rpgs to boot.
Remember, I'm there for a whole day!
Stay tuned all weekend both here and on twitter for updates, pics and maybe even a few video posts!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Vicariously attending via Twitter
GenCon is upon us and even though I'm not attending, I am eagerly devouring every scrap of information I can get. You can see what I'm seeing by checking out my twitter feed. I'll be retweeting all the most interesting bits all weekend long!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Preview: Kaiju City
This past weekend I was at G-Fest XIX in Rosemont, IL. It was a fantastic con and I got the opportunity to break out some wonderful kaiju (giant monster) themed games including King of Tokyo by IELLO, Monsterpocalypse by Privateer Press and a new game currently funding on Kickstarter called Kaiju City by Bonsai Entertainment. I had backed Kaiju City a few weeks before G-Fest and was excited to learn that I would have to opportunity to not only play the game, but meet it's artist, Frank Parr. Here are a few of my thoughts on the preview copy they had available.
Components: Since this was only a prototype, I can't go into great detail about the components, but the artwork they have planned for the game is phenomenally good. The monsters are all unique and suitably fearsome-looking while the city tiles are varied and the military tiles pay fitting tribute to the armed forces that consistently get crushed in damn near every kaiju film ever made.
Gameplay: Kaiju City has players choose whether to play as the monsters or the city itself. I know what you're thinking - who would ever want to play as the city and why can't the monsters fight each other? Well, simmer down because even though I had the same thought going in, I was pleasantly surprised with the stalwart human defenders. The city player will draw tiles, build up resources and bring military might to bear in a desperate effort to kill 4 of the rampaging monsters. However, the monsters only need to carve a path of destruction through the city in such a way that no new tiles can be placed in order to achieve victory. There ends up being a solid amount of depth in placing city tiles as the defender and moving your monsters around to destroy them as the attacker.
Rules: The rules for Kaiju City are nice and simple. The city player draws tiles each turn to add to the city which starts as a 4x4 grid of unique tiles. Resources generated by these tiles are used to build new areas of the city each turn. Meanwhile the monster player will have control of 4 monsters, each with unique abilities that they must leverage in order to destroy the city and prevent the defenders from building new areas. The iconography on both the tiles and monster record sheets conveniently displays all the necessary information without cluttering up the amazing artwork, so players will always know at a glance what their options are and which monsters are the most threatening or which city tiles look tastiest.
Overall: Unfortunately, I didn't get nearly enough opportunities to play the demo of Kaiju City while I was at G-Fest, but based on watching a handful of games in addition to my own I have to say that this is a refreshing, beautiful and just plain fun game. The human player will have some tense moments where they'll have to decide which city tiles will be most advantageous to play that turn and the monster player will have to carefully coordinate where they move their kaiju in order to inflict the most mayhem. Hopefully Bonsai Entertainment will be able to deliver on some amazing components if and when they get funded because everything else in this game is as solid as Gamera's shell.
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| A mock-up of the proposed box art and some of the components |
Components: Since this was only a prototype, I can't go into great detail about the components, but the artwork they have planned for the game is phenomenally good. The monsters are all unique and suitably fearsome-looking while the city tiles are varied and the military tiles pay fitting tribute to the armed forces that consistently get crushed in damn near every kaiju film ever made.
Gameplay: Kaiju City has players choose whether to play as the monsters or the city itself. I know what you're thinking - who would ever want to play as the city and why can't the monsters fight each other? Well, simmer down because even though I had the same thought going in, I was pleasantly surprised with the stalwart human defenders. The city player will draw tiles, build up resources and bring military might to bear in a desperate effort to kill 4 of the rampaging monsters. However, the monsters only need to carve a path of destruction through the city in such a way that no new tiles can be placed in order to achieve victory. There ends up being a solid amount of depth in placing city tiles as the defender and moving your monsters around to destroy them as the attacker.
Rules: The rules for Kaiju City are nice and simple. The city player draws tiles each turn to add to the city which starts as a 4x4 grid of unique tiles. Resources generated by these tiles are used to build new areas of the city each turn. Meanwhile the monster player will have control of 4 monsters, each with unique abilities that they must leverage in order to destroy the city and prevent the defenders from building new areas. The iconography on both the tiles and monster record sheets conveniently displays all the necessary information without cluttering up the amazing artwork, so players will always know at a glance what their options are and which monsters are the most threatening or which city tiles look tastiest.
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| I couldn't resist including the art for Lukar - my favorite monster! |
Monday, July 16, 2012
Review: Small World
Whenever the opportunity has come up lately, I've been playing Small World by Days of Wonder. Small World takes roughly 40-80 minutes to play depending on how many players you have. The game supports 2-5 players and is a wonderful blend of simple rules and strategic depth.
Components: Small World starts off with incredible artwork from Miguel Coimbra and soars from there. The game doesn't have any plastic figures, but the plethora of thick card stock tokens is both functional and pleasing on a tactile level. The game comes with 2 double sided boards that are used for different numbers of players. Each of these boards is colorful and easy to read with a layout that divides the world into various regions - forests, mines, plains, etc.
Gameplay: In Small World, you'll be competing for victory points over a set number of turns. Players take control of a variety of fantasy races that are combined with a random special power. Often hilarious and sometimes scary, much of the strategy and replay value of the game is nested under the different race and power combinations that come up. These races conquer regions by either claiming empty lands or giving a swift boot to whoever happens to be there at the time. As play progresses, players will reach a point where their current race can't spread much farther and they must go into decline. From there, the player will choose a new race and power combo and start all over again! Deciding when to go into decline is a very compelling aspect of the game. Generally, you'll get less points on a turn when you put a race into decline, but it's worth it for the opportunity to start fresh conquests!
Rules: Small World is sheer elegance in its simplicity. The basic rule for conquest is to place 2 of your tokens on the territory of your choosing plus 1 additional token for each piece that is already there. For example, if you're conquering an empty territory, you'd just place 2 of your race's tokens down. However, if an opponent has 2 of their race tokens in said territory it will cost you 4 of yours to take it (2 as the base + 2 for the two enemy tokens present). This rule is further modified by the a player's race ability and their special power.
Overall: Simply put, Small World is a masterpiece. The game is gorgeous to look at and fun to play on a tactile and strategic level. It works as a gateway game, plays casually and yet has enough meat on its bones to keep even the most curmudgeonly gamer satisfied. The only downsides (if they can even be called that) are that there are a vast amount of cardboard pieces to keep track of (which can make cleaning up after a game a lengthy process) and the random distribution of race/power combinations (which can lead to some very opportune turns for someone lucky enough to get the right combo) - but those are nitpicky negatives at best. Small World should be in your collection, hands down.
Components: Small World starts off with incredible artwork from Miguel Coimbra and soars from there. The game doesn't have any plastic figures, but the plethora of thick card stock tokens is both functional and pleasing on a tactile level. The game comes with 2 double sided boards that are used for different numbers of players. Each of these boards is colorful and easy to read with a layout that divides the world into various regions - forests, mines, plains, etc.
Gameplay: In Small World, you'll be competing for victory points over a set number of turns. Players take control of a variety of fantasy races that are combined with a random special power. Often hilarious and sometimes scary, much of the strategy and replay value of the game is nested under the different race and power combinations that come up. These races conquer regions by either claiming empty lands or giving a swift boot to whoever happens to be there at the time. As play progresses, players will reach a point where their current race can't spread much farther and they must go into decline. From there, the player will choose a new race and power combo and start all over again! Deciding when to go into decline is a very compelling aspect of the game. Generally, you'll get less points on a turn when you put a race into decline, but it's worth it for the opportunity to start fresh conquests!
Rules: Small World is sheer elegance in its simplicity. The basic rule for conquest is to place 2 of your tokens on the territory of your choosing plus 1 additional token for each piece that is already there. For example, if you're conquering an empty territory, you'd just place 2 of your race's tokens down. However, if an opponent has 2 of their race tokens in said territory it will cost you 4 of yours to take it (2 as the base + 2 for the two enemy tokens present). This rule is further modified by the a player's race ability and their special power.
Overall: Simply put, Small World is a masterpiece. The game is gorgeous to look at and fun to play on a tactile and strategic level. It works as a gateway game, plays casually and yet has enough meat on its bones to keep even the most curmudgeonly gamer satisfied. The only downsides (if they can even be called that) are that there are a vast amount of cardboard pieces to keep track of (which can make cleaning up after a game a lengthy process) and the random distribution of race/power combinations (which can lead to some very opportune turns for someone lucky enough to get the right combo) - but those are nitpicky negatives at best. Small World should be in your collection, hands down.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Back at the table
It's been a rough couple of months between school and work, but with the spring semester behind me, I can finally get back to slathering the internet in my opinions. And it's a good thing, too! This summer is shaping up to be a game-filled fiesta and I have more than a dozen reviews under construction as of this writing.
In addition, I happened to land a guest spot on the All Things Nerdy Podcast (also available on iTunes) today and I'll need as much material as I can get to keep my geek cred up to date. Stay tuned!
In addition, I happened to land a guest spot on the All Things Nerdy Podcast (also available on iTunes) today and I'll need as much material as I can get to keep my geek cred up to date. Stay tuned!
Friday, December 9, 2011
New Poll Added
I've been playing around with Blogger's options and decided to open up my next review to the masses. Let me know what you'd like to see me put the spurs to next by checking out the poll in the sidebar. If you don't like any of the options I've tossed up there, then give me your two cents and let me know what you'd like to see.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
From the Wishlist: Dominant Species
This is a new kind of post that I've been kicking around for a while. I've got a massive list of games on my wishlist and every now and then I have to go back and refresh myself on what I'm waiting to buy and why. With that in mind, I thought a series of entries about some games on my wishlist might be enough to entice other people to take an interest as well as foreshadow some of my upcoming reviews.
For the first installment of "From the Wishlist", I'd like to discuss Dominant Species by GMT Games. GMT is, of course, the company behind Twilight Struggle - a game which sits atop the charts over on Board Game Geek. I have limited experience with their games, but they generally cater more towards complex themes using simple components. Dominant Species is no exception.
The game chronicles an encroaching ice age and the struggles of various types of animals as they try and adapt and compete over resources that are becoming more and more finite. Now, I'm a huge fan of biology and evolution so the theme for this game has got me hook line and sinker. The mechanics focus on worker placement, tile placement and area control, but I haven't been able to see it in action yet. The rulebook is posted online, but I generally get a better idea for a game when I have the components on hand to reference. Speaking of the components, I've found a few images/videos of them online and...well...they're definitely the weakest selling point of the game for me.
I don't want to go too nuts posting other people's pictures of the game, but I feel that this one best encompasses the overall package that is Dominant Species. For me, what you see here does not match what you see on the box. The colors are muted and the components are all abstract representations. If this were a Fantasy Flight game, you can bet that there would be about 250 little plastic insects, reptiles and mammals. With that being said, I'm a sucker for wooden components and these little blocks and cones remind me a lot of Pandemic which is a game where the abstraction of the theme works perfectly. Obviously, all I can do without playing the game is judge the pieces aesthetically. While they might not be as grandiose as I'd like them to be, they do look well made and functional which is really all a gamer can ask for - everything else is gravy.
Dominant Species carries a hefty $79 price tag. Obviously, online retailers can offer it for a considerable discount, so it's up to each gamer to decide whether they want to save some cash or throw a lot of support behind their friendly local game store (expect a post about that debate soon). For my money, I could definitely see myself paying retail for this game. While the components might be lackluster, the theme has me salivating. Coupled with a strong position on the BGG charts and a number of favorable reviews, I find myself helpless to resist the call of nature to change, adapt and thrive.
Since this is a new "feature" on the blog, I'm anxious for your feedback. Let me know what you guys like and dislike about From the Wishlist and the blog in general. As always, thanks for reading!
For the first installment of "From the Wishlist", I'd like to discuss Dominant Species by GMT Games. GMT is, of course, the company behind Twilight Struggle - a game which sits atop the charts over on Board Game Geek. I have limited experience with their games, but they generally cater more towards complex themes using simple components. Dominant Species is no exception.
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| The box art pretty much says it all. |
The game chronicles an encroaching ice age and the struggles of various types of animals as they try and adapt and compete over resources that are becoming more and more finite. Now, I'm a huge fan of biology and evolution so the theme for this game has got me hook line and sinker. The mechanics focus on worker placement, tile placement and area control, but I haven't been able to see it in action yet. The rulebook is posted online, but I generally get a better idea for a game when I have the components on hand to reference. Speaking of the components, I've found a few images/videos of them online and...well...they're definitely the weakest selling point of the game for me.
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| Photo credit - Penteado, BoardGameGeek.com |
I don't want to go too nuts posting other people's pictures of the game, but I feel that this one best encompasses the overall package that is Dominant Species. For me, what you see here does not match what you see on the box. The colors are muted and the components are all abstract representations. If this were a Fantasy Flight game, you can bet that there would be about 250 little plastic insects, reptiles and mammals. With that being said, I'm a sucker for wooden components and these little blocks and cones remind me a lot of Pandemic which is a game where the abstraction of the theme works perfectly. Obviously, all I can do without playing the game is judge the pieces aesthetically. While they might not be as grandiose as I'd like them to be, they do look well made and functional which is really all a gamer can ask for - everything else is gravy.
Dominant Species carries a hefty $79 price tag. Obviously, online retailers can offer it for a considerable discount, so it's up to each gamer to decide whether they want to save some cash or throw a lot of support behind their friendly local game store (expect a post about that debate soon). For my money, I could definitely see myself paying retail for this game. While the components might be lackluster, the theme has me salivating. Coupled with a strong position on the BGG charts and a number of favorable reviews, I find myself helpless to resist the call of nature to change, adapt and thrive.
Since this is a new "feature" on the blog, I'm anxious for your feedback. Let me know what you guys like and dislike about From the Wishlist and the blog in general. As always, thanks for reading!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
First Impressions: Civilization and the Lord of the Rings LCG
This past Saturday was a good day for gamin'. I got to head to my friendly local game store after class and spend the whole day playing games. We started off with Civiliza...err, Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game, got to try the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game and ended on a high note with Red November. Now, I've already reviewed Red November and both Civilization and LotR were learning games, so I'm just going to give some impressions and notes rather than any full reviews.
First up was Civilization. Before I say anything else, I must once again give Fantasy Flight Games kudos for posting all of their rulebooks online. Being able to skim the rules beforehand (as well as watching Drakkenstrike's excellent components breakdown) took some of the edge off of setting up the game, but we still took out time with the rules until we got used to the turn order. The components lived up to Fantasy Flight's usual standard - especially the map tiles, which were rich and vibrant, and the market board, which hosted a lot of mechanics/components very efficiently. I was particularly enamored with the combat system, but I'll save that analysis for the full review. Overall, Civilization was a blast and I am eagerly looking forward to playing it again.
Now, halfway through Civilization, I noticed a brand new box sitting up on the demo shelf. I gasped audibly and leapt our of my chair to grab it and peruse it's grim contents. This was the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game - a game that I've been lustily eyeing for a while now. It's good. Very good. Probably one of the best cooperative experiences I've had from Fantasy Flight. The cards are stunning and I often found myself totally absorbed in reading the bountiful flavor text and staring wide-eyed at the beautiful portraits on each card. If you like the idea of forming a fellowship consisting of your favorite characters from the books as well as a few unique additions provided by FFG, then check this game out - and bring a friend. I'll be reviewing this as soon as I can get my Gollum-like mitts on a copy. In the meantime, there's a wonderful introductory video series on the FFG page (at the bottom).
Lastly, as the store was closing, we broke out Red November. For this game, we were joined by a few new recruits who had never served aboard a gnomish submarine before. Due to time constraints, we ended up rushing a bit and there were a few turns that were dominated by one player or another dictating what someone should do (a classic problem with co-op games), but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves - despite the fact that the sub somehow caught fire and we all died.
Things will be quiet for the next week as I head out of town for Thanksgiving. I've got a few posts in the works, though, so expect a lot more in the coming weeks. Have a safe and happy holiday!
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