Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game - Session Report 1

I recently introduced Fantasy Flights X-Wing miniatures game to our little game group. To document our growing love of the game, I will be uploading session reports to this blog regularly, with the occasional ship review thrown in too.

This is my first attempt at doing session reports, so please be patient, and they should slowly improve with time.

Game 1  -  3 Player   (06-03-13)

Rebel: David (6th play)
Fleet value: Approx. 60 points

• X-wing (Luke Skywalker) & R2 D2
• X-wing (Biggs Darklighter)

Empire: Karl & Jay (both 1st play)
Fleet value: Approx .75 points

• Tie fighter (Black Sq. Pilot) 
• Tie Interceptor (Fel’s Wrath) 
• Tie fighter (Academy Pilot) 
• Tie Interceptor (Soontir Fel) 

As this was my first game for a few months, and the first time at all for Karl & Jay, not much tactical play went into this game. The 2 Tie Fighters and Biggs’ X-Wing were all destroyed after only a few rounds of play. This left the two Interceptors and Luke's X-Wing to duel it out.

However, due to R2 D2's ability to recharge Luke’s shields, the Interceptors just couldn't get any serious damage onto him and both were destroyed only having done 1 damage to Luke’s hull.

Result: X-Wing (Luke) sole survivor

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Game 2 - 3 Player (06-03-13)

Rebel: Karl & Jay (both 2nd play)
Fleet value: Approx. 85 points

• Millennium Falcon (Outer Rim Smuggler)
• X-wing (Luke Skywalker) & R2 D2
• X-wing (Biggs Darklighter)

Empire: David (7th play)
Fleet value: Approx. 85 points

• Tie Interceptor (Soontir Fel)
• Tie Interceptor (Turr Phennir)
• Tie Advanced (Darth Vader) 

Our first game with the Millennium Falcon (it was bought only a few hours before). To avoid the game taking too long, and to make our first game using it easier, we went for the Outer Rim Smuggler pilot card. Giving the Falcon only 3 shields and 5 hull, a fair amount less than if you use Han, Chewbacca or Lando.

More tactics were in play during this game, with the Falcon attempting to draw fire, while also trying to ram Vader as much as possible. The empire sent its interceptors into a head-on fight with the X-wings, while Vader whittled away at the Falcons shields. After a few turns both interceptors pealed away from the X-wings and joined Vader in bombarding the Falcon, until after a few turns it was destroyed.

The X-wings swung round to follow the Interceptor’s and concentrated their fire on taking them out one at a time. The Interceptor succumbed to a critical hit inflicted by Luke, and the second only moments after the Falcons destruction. Next turn Vader swooped in through growing debris field and destroyed Biggs’ X-wing; leaving the game as a showdown between father and son, Luke's X-wing vs. Vader's Tie Advance.

After Vader narrowly avoided flying off the side of the board (and into the oblivion of space) they squared off for one last fight. Both with 2 hull points left, and no shields.

Vader with the higher piloting skill shoot first, but only managed to deal 1 damage, bringing Luke down to 1 hit point left. Luke however managed to score 3 hits, one a critical. Vader didn't have the skill to evade all 3 hits and was destroyed after drawing a double damage critical card.

Result: X-wing (Luke) sole survivor…again!

Analysis: Both of these games went well, and were very close; only Luke’s X-Wing survived each game. We decided to keep it fairly simple, so kept upgrade cards out of it for the most part. The combo of Luke & R2 D2 is very strong, and I think in future if I’m going up against it I will make sure to target him first and try and take him out quickly, before R2 can recharge his shields.

Everyone had a blast playing this, I’m enjoying it more and more each time I play, and both Karl and Jay said they were dying to play again soon.

They didn’t have to wait long, 5 days after this we played a mammoth 5 player game, introducing the other two member of our group to the game and using pretty much every ship I own and a large amount of upgrade cards. Stay tuned for a detailed session report in the coming soon.

Durance RPG - Blog Play - 01 Planetary Survey

OK lets get this thing rolling...

On a remote planet far from civilization, the worst criminal scum from a dozen star systems have been dumped, charged with building new lives under the watchful eye of Authority. Within a brutal hierarchy of savagery and servility, convicts and guards alike must make hard choices. Every colonist has their own code of conduct and their own aspirations—aspirations that invariably come at the expense of others. This dangerous new world is too small for everyone to succeed. In fact, it may well be too small for anyone to succeed. Only the shrewdest, the toughest and the luckiest will get a chance to find out. Will you be among them?

OK first up is the planetary survey. In this part of the game, a list of six favourable survey assessments about the state of the planet is passed to the left of the host (me!), and each player in turn highlights one, and crosses one out. Each of the statements has a letter associated, and the three letters of the favourable survey assessments form the planet's Universal Terrestrial Survey which can the be looked up in the rules book.

We've already done this part via email, I used a randomiser to pick the order and the results are:

The Actual comments were...

Karl (Yellow Smudge)
A. Atmosphere is excellent (I want to breathe)
E. Biology is benign (we're gonna have triffids)

Rebecca (Terminator)
C. Geology is stable (not sure I want to battle against falling rocks as well as various monsters!)
F. Intelligent life is absent (There's gonna be a ton of strange indigenous beasties)

Matt (Medical Marvel)
B. Climate is mild (Why would I want the weather to be mild? Let there be storms!)
D. Hydrology is favorable (Killer plants? No thanks!)

OK so this leads us to the planet named RFS 617 with the following survey...

Recommended. The surface’s water is clean and plentiful, atmosphere is perfect gas mix and pressure, and the planet is geologically stable. Excellent colony candidate.

That sounds dandy! We'll not worry about the revised survey just now, I'm sure those surveyors have done their job thoroughly. :)

So next up is the colony, and it's much the same again with the Colonial Survey. So choose one and lose one in the comments from the following, and I'll update in the next post. The order will be David, then myself, and then back to Karl.


U. Planning is meticulous
V. Density is low
W. Workforce is motivated
X. Prosperity is high
Y. Order is well-established
Z. Justice is universal


Cheers all, looking forward to settling our lovely clean, geologically stable planet!

Darkwood

I'm pretty sure we all play some sort of video or computer gaming, so I'm probably going to chuck the odd post up. This is just a very early trailer for a survival horror game called Darkwood. It's already looking great though.

I'm intrigued by procedurally generated environments, and games like this that use roguelike elements. I'm similarly drawn to roleplaying games with random dungeon generation, and huge tables to roll on to generate all sorts of things. Something in that open-ended story idea that really works for me.

Anyway, check the trailer, and keep an eye out here.

Durance RPG - Blog Play - Introduction

So the group has thrown round the idea of trying out some roleplaying games, and since it's an area we have less experience with I thought a fairly straightforward storytelling game might work, this led me to finding Durance from Bully Pulpit Games. It instantly grabbed my interest because of the prison planet setting, and on reading I really liked the simple mechanics to draw a story out of the players. The big plus though was the lack of GM and preparation, which takes the pressure off any one person in our group.

From the publisher...

On a remote planet far from civilization, the worst criminal scum from a dozen star systems have been dumped, charged with building new lives under the watchful eye of Authority. Within a brutal hierarchy of savagery and servility, convicts and guards alike must make hard choices. Every colonist has their own code of conduct and their own aspirations—aspirations that invariably come at the expense of others. This dangerous new world is too small for everyone to succeed. In fact, it may well be too small for anyone to succeed. Only the shrewdest, the toughest and the luckiest will get a chance to find out. Will you be among them?
Durance is the latest game from designer Jason Morningstar, author of the award-winning game Fiasco. It is a fast-paced, low-prep, highly collaborative game designed for 3-5 players and one or more sessions of play and includes a detailed, engaging science fiction setting.

Unfortunately we haven't managed to work it into one of our regular gaming sessions, partly due to the number of boardgames we have been trying, though also due to a certain amount of trepidation as to how it would actually work. On further reflection and discussion, it might be that something with heavier rules and lots of tactical combat might actually work better for our group, as it would be an easier leap from some of the boardgames we already play.

Anyway we decided to play out some of it by email, and since the blog is rolling I thought I'd move it here and play the whole thing out in a number of posts. It'll give us a good idea of how the game works, and take the pressure off giving plenty of time to discuss, and create a world that interests us. I'm not going to write in depth about the mechanics, there are some reviews out there, though I may put a some brief notes at the beginning of any new section of play.

It's probably best I leave this as a simple introduction, I'll start the gaming proper in the next post in the series. Started this late, so I'll put the next post up tomorrow.

Solo Gaming Review - Party of 1: Kalgor Bloodhammer and the Ghouls Through the Breach

So it's weird, and will make you go blind...but as every young boy discovers, playing by yourself can be fun. No I was talking about solitaire or solo gaming you depraved people you. Anyway, I have plans for a series of reviews, and views on solo gaming, so I though I'd start by reposting this old review I wrote. It involves yet another fascination of mine...gamebooks....but more on those later.

Was in the mood so I snagged myself a copy of Party of 1: Kalgor Bloodhammer and the Ghouls Through the Breach, and I've just given it a quick play so I thought I'd post a little review.

So what do you get for you hard earned Flainian Pobble Beads?.....well you get a nicely formatted 14 page, numbered paragraph adventure. It's essentially a small gamebook in the tradition of Fighting Fantasy using the OGL for the rules, of which there are few. In fact the rules are introduced as you play the game so there isn't a rules section to refer to, and it's largely simple choices and basic combat of 1d20+modifiers against Armor Class, plus the odd strength check. At least that is mostly what I encountered during my initial play, along with some objects which can be used, and a 'secrets' system for tracking your progress and discoveries.

In short, it's short, much like this review.

Is it bad? No, I enjoyed it, and I'll play it through again and hopefully win it, and possibly again to try some different paths. It will have limited replayability beyond that though, much like any gamebook, and it is short at only 73 paragraphs. It does include character sheets, which I believe you could carry over to Pathfinder proper, so I guess they may be of use for people looking for pre-generated characters.

Is it worth $2.99? Well using my balanced system of food based comparisons, it cost me about the same as a prawn mayonnaise sandwich at the local supermarket, and whilst it isn't filled with juicy crustacean goodness, it did keep me happily entertained for longer than my hypothetical lunchtime treat would. For me yes, but I love gamebooks, you could pick up some old ones on ebay for very little though, many of which will last longer than this, so maybe not for everyone.

Oh it's about dwarves.

Rats!

Still working on my Mice & Mystics miniatures...

SereneJ's Review of Keyflower

Keyflower - as game names go it doesn't sound very threatening - equally, it doesn't really give anything away about what the game actually involves - but it should have a warning on the box - this game pulls you in!
 
So what is it? What it is - is a game of 2-6 players and is probably best described as a worker placement game that is all about you building something - actually not just something - a village.  A village that you come to care about and in the three games I've played so far I've found it utterly delightful, enticing me into making the best damn village I can - my meeple deserve it. Keyflower, as I've discovered (with the help of the Finely Diced Gamers), is a game that looks friendly (it uses meeples for goodness sake) and invites you to play (the game artwork is lovely to look at), it has some interesting game dynamics but ultimately allows for some potentially bitter power struggles as you try to improve your village in medieval Keyland.

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When you start keyflower your village is one building – your house - ironically you are given an actual starting house which is needed to conceal the different meeples and tokens that you collect throughout the course of the game.  The aim of Keyflower is simple, take your newly founded village and improve it - adding different buildings such as mines, quarries and other equally useful structures. Some of these new buildings benefit you immediately, providing necessary resources (to further improve your village) or more meeples (used during your turn to activate village buildings or bid on unclaimed buildings). There are other buildings that you'll want to claim that provide either the option to select the next player to go first, the first choice of meeple coming to colonise your village or victory points at games end.

  

The game itself occurs over one year, OK - it doesn't take a year to play (I definately wouldn't have time to play the game otherwise) but it is played over four seasons - Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter – with each season being one turn. From the first season, each player takes it in turn activating or bidding on unclaimed buildings laid out in the centre of the table.  The first person to activate a building only needs to spend one meeple, the next would have to spend two meeples (of the same colour), the third person three meeples (yes, same colour).  Ultimately it comes down to how many meeple you have stashed that can allow or prevent you from activating a building.

So... you see a perfect addition to your village and you decide to bid on it (hoping that no-one has the same idea as you).  Bidding on a building again involves your meeples, with them being used to stake your claim - but watch out - as long as another player has enough of the same colour meeple - you can be outbid.  Can you remember who placed which colour meeple or how many - two, three, four...?
  

Each season ends once everyone has finished placing their meeples - the dust settles and village founders (you the player) look at what is to be added to your village - all the meeple used in the bidding process are lost - gone forever.  However - any building that was activated (by yourself or others) that you now own - those meeple now belong to you to help your village grow in the coming season.

Now you would be forgiven for thinking that all was lost, if a building that you wanted and bid on was taken by another player.  With Keyflower, regardless of where a building is - whether unclaimed, your village or another's village.  If a building can be activated you can place a meeple there - with those meeple going into the building owners's hidden stash at the end of the season.  With some strategic placement of your meeple, you can use another's building to improve your standing - in the process making it more expensive for the actual owner to use.  However, remember that the building's owner gets to keep the meeple used and don't forget - they could easily choose to use your buildings!

So the activation and bidding of buildings is present in every season but once you reach Winter you're essentially looking at how to maximise on the buildings you own to score the most victory points.  Throughout the first three seasons player will be bidding and outbidding each other to have buildings in their village - winter (I think) is slightly different - it's all or nothing.  I've managed to win this game by managing to get a building that another player's strategy required, preventing them from attaining their full potential - admittedly a risky strategy but I won by one point. 

The thing is Keyflower offers lots of strategies, one person may choose to hoard meeples, another may choose to build the longest river, yet another hoards gold - these are just three such strategies that I've seen - however, each strategy can be countered if another player manages to get the meeples in at the right time.  Keyflower could just be the right strategy at the right time but there are more building cards than can be played for each season which means that each game will be unique, there will be variety and you - the player - will have to choose  how you want to see your village expand - what direction will you want to take?

I don't currently own this game but I intend to - it's already on my BGG wishlist! If someone offers you the opportunity to play this game I would suggest you say yes - it's entertaining and its subtly aggressive -  This is a game that our group has played three times in two weeks and I would happily play again - it's a great game!  Who knew colonising Keyland could be so much fun?

I still think there should be a warning on the box!