Analog Games

So KublaCon was a bit of an enigma.  I was told both that it was the best local gaming convention in Silicon Valley but that most of the WM players never bothered with it because it just couldn't draw a WM crowd. I was also in a bit of a bind.  I couldn't make the first three days because I had plans to finally see San Francisco but I could attend Monday.  My guess was Monday would be dead but it would be a good chance to recon the con and see if it would be worth flying in for.  Also Monday was supposed to have a Flea Market. The con itself: The Flea Market The board game library and play area The Dealer Hall So, as predicted the con was a bit dead Monday.  Turns out they have two Flea Markets and the one Friday night fills up that entire area...while the one Monday is the left over junk.  There were several other rooms than just what is pictured above, but they were all sadly empty.  I can easily believe that wasn't the ca...

So Reckoning was a book I was rather looking forward to.  The artistic design of everything spoiled was incredible as were the pre-released models.  It looked to be an excellent book. Sadly, this didn't hold up.  As far as WM releases this is likely the most disappointing in living memory.  Far too many Jacks, in an era where Jacks are back down to minimum numbers.  Really disappointing casters(for the factions I care about at least), especially after the last batch of casters.  This doesn't seem like it has really sunk in yet on the various faction forums, but I'm honestly surprised that a faction receiving two MAT 5 warjacks is taking it as well as it is. If you somehow haven't seen any Reckoning spoilers they can be found  here . Cygnar I'm not sure what to think yet of Hailey3.  Temporal Flux is a solid spell, as is repudiate.  She is incredibly focus starved, even with 12 focus.  Revive is likely only going to happen once a...

So I've gone through a few 300 point fleet engagements now compared to the pre-Wave 1 demo games.  It's been interesting watching games go from Fleets having a hard time destroying enemy ships to one side being completely destroyed before the end of the game. If there is one thing that Attack Wing teaches about this genus of games, it is the importance of both dice pools and dice fixers.  A huge dice pool is great but at a certain point fixing instead of increasing it returns better results.  These are especially important if they don't require any specific action(Worf) or if you can cheat the requirement(Spock) without action. It is important to note that dice can be re-rolled multiple times in Armada compared to either X/A-Wing.  You can also use your rerolls and direct dice fixers in the order of your choice too.  Finally, the less your ships requires Concentrate Power to be effective the more it allows you to use the three other powerful commands at yo...

So after the great extinction last month, it's down to just Andrew and I.  This month he knocked out Ramos as he has been enjoying Malifaux: Makes me wonder if my well received Tactica can still be found anywhere( It totally can .  I love how that was stickied for the longest time).  I've continued my streak of painting miniatures for games I never seem to play: an Imperial Envoy and bodyguard for  Bushido : Again, I feel lazy in how I painted these minis, but they seem to have come out fairly well.  I still need to finish basing and dull coat them but it's not like they are going to see play anytime soon! I'm not sure what to paint next month.  Maybe something Skorne that will actually see the light of day?

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...

And the first month of the Paintine is completed!  We appear to be down two people from the very start.  Lucas said he was at least half way through but Joe didn't get anywhere at all.  Slackers! My finished Han Solo.  A little dark, now that I look at the picture online but eh.  It was refreshing working on him and I enjoyed knocking him out right away.  Sadly, I was then super lazy and didn't get anything else done the rest of the month. I'm also super unsure about the base.  If I were to paint up a set of IA I don't know if I should go with traditional miniature basing, as above, or just go with a grey base.  Part of me thinks they would look best attached to clear bases with the whole map thing they have going on. Next month I want to knock out these two Bushido models. Andy knocked out this fine Merc model.  Pond has supposedly done some extra excellent work on a Mangler, but I have yet to see it.

Spartan Games  was at Salute this weekend and had a great video showing off their presence there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgVnKpjZ8iI&feature=youtu.be The HALO fleet game keeps looking better and better.  From what I hear its a mixture of Firestorm Armada and what looks a little like X-Wing.  It is also supposed to play faster than FSA which is a welcome change too.  The miniatures look incredible painted up, can't wait to find out more about this. Planetfall is in this video too and you can get a good idea of the scale of some of the minis there.  It was fairly off my radar until recently too.  I thought the scale was closer to Dystopian Wars and was pleasantly surprised to see some infantry stands when some locals were playing it.

For all the flavor in Doomtown , from the Wild West to Hucksters and Mad Scientists, the game's heart revolves around Positioning, Area Control and when those inevidently fail Violence.  By modern CCG standards it is also a rather complex game, especially its deck construction rules.  This presents a barrier in both deck building and skill that players need to overcome before they can really start enjoying the game. The aim here is to help out with the first of those barriers.  Constructing top tier decks is a far more complex endeavour, but this will at least prime the pump on the journey there.  On that same note these aren't laws of deck construction but general guidelines to be ignored with experience. The first step is to figure out a faction you want to play and a basic 2-3 card combo you want to try out.  Sloan Hucksters with Shotgun, Corporeal Twist and Pinto, or Legendary Holster Law Dogs with low A's,2's, and 3's are two fine examples.  The ...

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,...

While the Rhino is done, Joe asked if Xerxes himself could count as a model for the Paintine and I've agreed.  That brings our total entries into this contest to 4.  Others are still more then welcome to enter until the end of the month. Gaming wise, the locals have decided to take a break from Shadowfist with some board games.  It's been great to play Manila again and a bit funny that even with the worse version I have people love the production value.  It's also been interesting to see how people react to it, "It's just a dice rolling game there is nothing else there" has been the weirdest bit of criticism. I also had the opportunity to try out Quartermaster General.  I need to play it a few more times before coming to a conclusion.  It has potential in how each faction subtly plays a different game - the Japanese player complaining about Americans being able to outproduce him massively by endgame was interesting.  It may have a few issues to...

Pond has become the first entry with his Mangler: And Andy the second with his House 9 Merc: Get your entries in slackers!

So I haven't painted a model since moving to CA and I've been missing it.  A little work can really add up over time, but getting even that little bit going can be difficult.  So in the spirit of a Tontine, I'm going to sponsor a contest. To compete over the next 6 months all you need to do is send me two pictures of a single miniature, one unpainted at the start of the month and one finished at the end.  Each picture will be posted here, but if you miss a month you fall out of the Tontine as it were. As is only appropriate, there is also going to be a little bit of a prize on the line.  $60 will going into the pot, as it were, to be divided among the people who complete the 6th month.  If anyone else would like to sweeten the pot that will be awesome and it doesn't just have to be cash(free paint job on a model for a single victor, etc). What am I going to try to paint this month: I'm not really sure why I decided on Han, but I'm impressed at the qu...

Finding the right scale buildings for Heavy Gear has annoyed me for a while.  I haven't quite found anything that I was happy with for the price I was seeing.  The closest was the Dropzone Commander terrain: Which just doesn't do it for me.  They are just huge rectangular buildings and don't feel futuristic at all.  At Game Kastle today, I had the good fortune to run into some  Firestorm Planetfall  players.  Talking to them as they set up their armies and terrain I appreciated a few things.  First, the terrain they sell for Planetfall is way better then I gave it credit for: It has much more of that futuristic vibe then the Dropzone Commander stuff does and looks fairly good even with some minimalistic effort.  Honestly, prime the plastic grey, a little drybrushing for the edges and blacklining the cardboard and it should look really good.  I'm kinda annoyed I didn't pick this up for Miniature Markets March Madness sale. Secon...

If you're not a Star Wars fan at 25 you have no heart, if you're not a Star Trek fan at 35 you have no brain.

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...

So the swap meet at Game Kastle was this last Saturday.  Compared to the ones I've been to in DFW this one was srs bsns.  The line you can see above is the people waiting outside for the swap meet to start. Compared to Dallas area swap meets you have to buy a spot at $15.  This gives you a table to display your fine wares.  As you are buying in you are also free to take cash, though you can always choose to take store credit too. It was intense but only lasted about an hour.  Makes me think about the wisdom of the hour long swap meet at BGG con.  Much like BGG con buying a table lets you get first dibs too.   I walked away with over $500 in my wallet, even after dropping $15 on Settlers of Catan Rome and $10 on a Skorne dice tin and dice.  Sadly I didn't see a copy of Manila or A Study in Emerald. I didn't have too many surprises on what sold and what didn't.  The weirdest bit is that no Flames of War sold, but I had a to...

While I haven't played a board game since moving out to CA( :/ ), I couldn't resist picking this up when I saw it as  http://www.miniaturemarket.com/  's deal of the day.  The title didn't jump out at me, but after a little research it looked like something that would be right up my alley. The game reminds me of a mixture between Axis and Allies and Twilight Struggle.  You break down into two asymetrical sides, with players controlling a different amount of countries based on the number of players in the game.  Each country is represented by its board position but also has a unique deck of cards, which is what really sold me on the game. Gameplay itself looks fairly simple.  The game is played over 20 rounds, and on each turn you play a card, check for supply, update victory points and then discard/draw.  Some cards give immediate effects like attacking or building more armies, some cards give a permanent bonus and some are kept hidden until they...

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...

Right from the start the MK II point system was controversial.  While the Mk1 system was incredibly fiddly, in both scale and how you purchased units, the MK II system was incredibly simple.  The suggestion to double the scale was rejected in the field test with DC stating that there wasn't any problem and you could simply tack rules onto a model to make it worth its points. Enter the Adepts... At this point its rather obvious that this didn't work out.  A common, and justified criticism, is the granularity on the smaller end of the scale.  Jumping from 1 to 2 points is a 100% increase and 2 to 3 falls to a mere 50%.  Rules can't just be added to a model to balance this either.  There aren't half rules steps so you still fall into a granularity trap alongside other issues such as models not being able to fully utilize their special abilities package. The One Point Difference From a game design perspective a less obvious takeaway is its important ...