Analog Games

Anyone who has played X-Wing or Attack Wing knows the real game being played here is a twisted version of tetris.  While they appear to be spaceship combat games, finding appropriate ways to both store and transport these games takes up a significant chunk of time.  You need to find a storage solution that is cheap, can be continuously expanded and somehow accommodates both the fragility and weird shapes that these ships come in. My traditional sources for have been plastic organizers / tackle boxes from Wal-Mart or a Sporting Goods store, but there aren't any local Wal-Marts and I haven't had much luck on the Sporting Goods front either.  What I've currently settled on is this: I found these stackable organizers from Target on sale.  I figure with the organizer pictured on top I can organize the fighters.  There can then be a layer for Imperial Capital ships, Rebel Capital ships, rules and cards and finally fighters. Thus far I'm happy with it, but it st...

So I knocked out an introductory game of Star Wars Armada today.  My thoughts thus far: ++ I like the scale and resolution of the game.  Each ship, individually, hits a sweet spot for complexity.  They are more complex than the standard fleet battle games(Firestorm Armada, Full Thrust, Starmada) while at the same time avoiding the other end of the complexity scale(Star Fleet Battles, Federation Commander).  The size of starships vs. the Squadrons of fighters is a nice touch too. ++ Speaking of correct resolution it reminds me of Lightning Strike .  Part of this is the aforementioned resolution, but the Squadrons vs. Capital ships pinged in the same way.  This is a good thing as Lightning Stike is awesome, but unloved. ++ The clunkiness of the command structure and the movement system gave the larger ships an "inertia" that the smaller ships lacked.  This felt appropriate and thematic. ++ Much like X-Wing and in direct comparison to Infinity,...

Continuing my trend of wise purchases, I've picked up the Scyk.  I really should have joined the local X-Wing league that started up a few weeks back but it falls on the same night as Shadowfist. The Scyk seems to be the Scum answer to the TIE fighter.  It compares very well with a Black Squadron Pilot, where you trade 2 points of pilot skill(in the less useful mid ranges away from the extremes), sidegrade a hull for a shield and gain the ability to target lock.  The maneuver dial loses the 5 ahead but gains the 1 bank and splits up the k-turns to be at 3 and 5.  I would have prefered something a little cheaper but as the Z-95 has shown 2-3 Scyks will have a place in lists. Serissu and Laetin are the two named pilots, both with defensive abilities.  Serissu appears to be a rare case in Scum where they like to work in a tight formation.  A defensive reroll in a bubble is a nice mirror to howlrunner as well.  What I like about Laetin's ability is i...

Even though I'm not actively playing X-Wing I couldn't resist picking up one of these.  It reminds me of a Star Fury and is exactly the sort of ship I am drawn to in X-Wing despite myself(see my 3 TIE-Defenders).  What do I think of the Star Viper? Compared to the X-Wing golden standard, it gains a defense die and trades a shield for an armor.  The viper also gains the barrel roll and boost abilities.  Where it really shines is the movement dial.  Having a full row for one and two is really hot and the curved K-turns have potential too.  Sadly, this all comes in for 4 extra points...which gives me real doubts about its general use.  IMO they compare favorably to the E-Wing or Defender but generic versions of those don't see much play either. Guri and Prince Xizor are the two named pilots.  Guri seems solid, any ability to gain a free action is one I am happy with.  If he ends at range one he can have both a focus and a target lock, or h...

So I won the local Attack Wing Resistance is Futile event.  This sounds longer than it really was, as it was just playing 3 separate events once per month.  To keep the Borg theme, the ships won were all partially converted Alpha Quadrant ships, with the grand prize being a variant Borg Tactical Cube. I'm honestly more excited for the Galor class The local Attack Wing community has been excellent.  Great gamers who also appear to be into Euro-style board games.  The organizer changes things up in a few ways that I really appreciate too:  they order more packs from Wizkids so that for most events everyone gets a ship and offers 3 bounties per event when building your fleet.  These are restrictions like equipping every ship with a photon torpedo or playing a pure Cardassian fleet(which I was more than happy to do). The changes in scenario and terrain are nice too.  I hear X-wing hasn't really changed at all in regards to that and its really a sham...

While I am completely out of modern X-Wing it was fun to see this: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2015/02/x-wing-rise-two-ship-meta.html One, its good to see those X-Wing players finally catching up to what Attack Wing was doing a year ago.  Its a funny bit of parallelism there. I also remember trolling Matt with Lucas on this very subject when they changed the scenario rules.  "Good" to see we weren't off on that one.  I always did want to fly double Decimator.

Thanks to the rain I haven't wanted to risk priming models so I've knocked out some random terrain projects I've been meaning to do forever.  The first is making some 3'x3' gaming mats for random space game.  I started with some black felt and lightly dusted them with white spray paint.  I think splattered some paint on them to finish that star look. Before/after spray: After stars added: I kinda want to try this for both Warmachine and Malifaux.  The 3'x3' would be especially great for Malifaux.  Spray painting helps the felt not look a flat boring color like it normally does and also helps matte it down some so its not as bad to play on. I also assembled and painted some Warsenal terrain: I love the computer terminals and communications array.