Analog Games

Thanks to graduate school I haven't been able to attend Gencon recently.  First, a gallery of all the pictures from the con that can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/CochH Overall it was a great time.  I managed to see and do a ton.  According to Fitbit it was a mere 50 miles walked over the last week.  Some more detailed impressions: Doomtown(+): I had a great time playing Doomtown and managed to come in 3rd on Sunday in the finals.  While it was a ton of Doomtown for the con, the tournaments ran well and I paid the iron price for a bunch of swag.  Thanks to restocks, Nightmare at Noon and Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force were also welcome purchases(really didn't expect that new pine box early). I'm going to try to post my deck and some thoughts on DTDB sometime this week. FFG(-): Their booth was a mess of a neverending line.  I would have liked to pick up GoT 2nd but it would require far too much effort.  The next wave of Impe...

The line 30 mins before it opened Game Kastle held another swap meet.  As I learned from my first one of these, this is a fairly big deal.  Sadly, while I have plenty of things I would love to sell I didn't really have time to organize properly for this one.  This is especially true as I try to get ready for Gencon. It was still something I wanted to go to.  There were plenty of incredible deals at the last one and I can at least look for some of the rare games or rarer miniatures I wouldn't mind picking up. While there was plenty of 40k and WHFB at the last one, there was even more WHFB this time around.  It's almost like something drastic happened there.  Beyond that it was a smattering of board games, popular miniature games and random junk(Why you think anyone wants your hand painted map of an underground cultist layer is beyond me). The line from the half way point right before it opened Still, I can't complain about what I found.  Th...

In a similar vein to the DT prep, I'm looking for feedback on what Armada list to fly.  My current core is this:  Imperial list.   From there, I have some variants with the remaining points: 1.  Two Squads of TIEs and a Gunnery Team for the VSD. 2.  Two Squads of TIEs and Expanded Hanger Bays for the VSD.  This allows the VSD to activate all 3 Bombers and an escort at the same time. 3.  Lose a single Advanced.  From there add the Gunnery Team, maybe the Expanded Hanger Bays and 3 TIEs. 4. Two more Interceptors.  Giving the list more anti-fighter answers. I don't think there is anything particularly unique about this build or the above variants.  Gunnery Teams should help soften up multiple ship lists significantly as the VSD is effectively a carrier.  Allowing the VSD to fire the main batteries and anti-squadron out the front is nice too. It is also refreshing to play Fighters Squads on the Imperial side that weren't a...

So Gencon is less than two weeks away.  It's past time to settle on a deck and get final testing done.  Currently, Desolation Row is still the deck to beat but there are options in other factions that are also good.  The Desolation Row deck is a good template for shooter decks from other factions too. Starting with the aforementioned Desolation Row:   this is the deck  that I took to my local recent Sheriff's event.  I used that starting posse for most games.  Against Deedslide or Clowns Fred Aims went in with his infinite influence(note both of those decks should run The Evidence) and against decks that wanted to fight I switched out Allie or Makaio for Angelica.  In retrospect I should probably start Angelica, Sanford, Travis, Jake and Makaio.  Starting with two studs has been very very important.  Modern shooter decks have incredibly odds to have the ability to debuff one of them so it's an important to have a backup before starti...

A review of the just released No Turning Back. Stolen completely from stim hack, the follow metric will be used: 5 – Great One of the strongest cards in the game: it’s powerful and always useful. It’s surprising to see a deck that doesn’t play this card in-faction. 4 – Good A good card that sees plenty of play. It’s not necessarily the best choice for every deck, but you can put it in your deck and know that it will do something for you. 3 – Playable You can’t just throw this card in any deck and expect it to do something for you, but it can be good in the right context. 2 – Weak This card isn’t good enough to be worth playing. The decks it fits tightly into are not well suited for competitive play. The stars might align such that it fits into a competitive deck, but even then it’s generally worse than a more straightforwardly good card. 1 – Bad This card sucks. doomtown db should eventually have the full spoilers up. Avie Cline DG - 5: If anything L5R taught me that Harpoons are ...

by Harrison Osaki 1-5 scoring. 5 is high, 1 is low. Most cards should come in at 2 or 3. The remarks will generally be kept brief. It is assumed that the reader has access to another resource (e.g., doomtown db ) to view card text. Funtime Freddy - 2 Freddy provides a wide variety of keywords and a grifter ability, but he's got pretty significant limitations. He is a stud (but only one bullet), is cheap and has no upkeep (but has no influence, so is just a body), and is a grifter with a tutor ability (but the opponent selects the spell you attach, and it aces freddy and the unselected spell). And he is a huckster, but not a good one (0). He's basically a more offensive Travis Moone. One way to use the grifter ability is to select spells which share some sort of common feature, so that you aren't at your opponent's mercy of the choice. For example, if the opponent has to choose between Puppet and Paralysis Mark for a The Fourth Ring (TFR) control deck, bot...

So I was rather excited about the casters from Reckoning.  PP previewed some great character concepts and models.  The more recent caster releases had really been knocking it up a notch too. Sadly, for the casters from the factions I play it was right back to the Mk2 caster doldrums.  While it is great that they have a battle plan for a caster that isn't enough.  Your caster is the focal point for resource allocation and decision making, when they run on autopilot your list runs on far more autopilot.  This leads to boring gameplay. Zerkova 2 really drove this home.  She has a single spell, the combos with her feat that is rather powerful.  Beyond that she suffers from having a clunky arcnode with nothing to arc outside a paltry selection of two combat nukes.  There is very little decision making going on, even in order of activation, and you better hope your arcnode has survived(or hasn't been dispelled). Now, it is easy to criticize but...

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...