5punk

Legendary

So, played this today, another deck building game, something there seems to be a lot of lately, but I liked the look of this one.

You play as Shield, and you and the other players must team up to beat the supervillan in a given scenario, as you defeat the main bad guy (something you have to do several times) and the minions, you save bystanders and gain victory points.

But you can change what supervillan and what scenario you play with.

As usual, you must use the deck you have to beat the minions and add hero's to your deck, however, you can also swap out what heroes you get to choose from. with the basic game, you may as well add the lot in, but with the expansions it adds new levels and means you have to start thinking more of the tactics you use to deal with the combat.

I may be getting this next pay day for Bash. 2-5 players.

Rab did a thing about Discworld.

Thought you might like to know.

Rab's fucking weird and I disagree with at least half the stuff he says.

Dog Pants wrote:Rab's fucking weird and I disagree with at least half the stuff he says.

Indeed. Also, stating "I dont like LoTR and I have never read Discworld" as an opening statement in a Discworld boardgame review stinks of either hipsterism or trollbait.

I assumed it was a caveat - "you might love this if you love Discworld, but I've no idea because I've never read them." The problem I have with Rab's opinions is that he plays a lot of board games and so he has these expectations about them that I, as someone who rarely plays them, don't. So in this case where he says casual people won't understand it and hardcore people will find it too simple, I don't agree. Just because I don't play a lot of board games doesn't mean I won't understand the game's mechanics, and it's a bit of an insult to the readers' intelligence to suggest so. Maybe I'm not the casual player he's talking about, maybe I'm the guy who would enjoy other games more. If that's the case suggest some, qualify the comment. In any case he missed the reason why we enjoyed it - it's chaotic and lets you stab your mates in the back, which is hilarious.

Dog Pants wrote:I assumed it was a caveat - "you might love this if you love Discworld, but I've no idea because I've never read them."

He does go on about it a bit though.

I think maybe I just don't like his reviewing style. He goes on about having some vague issue with it not being right for anyone then says "I like it though" without really saying why. Just statements like "Its nice" and "its interesting". I get to the end of the review and I'm only vaguely understanding how the game works and have no real idea of its strengths or weaknesses. I think he liked it? Although he also seems to be saying that no one should be playing it as casual boardgamers will be confused and non-casual boardgamers would be better served elsewhere. It is very interesting though. So is it a recommendation or not? Fucked if I know.

Agreed. I do find Rab to be quite arrogant. I can't remember exactly what it was which tipped me off, but it's a lingering impression. That's not really unusual for RPS though, I've noticed they've slowly been moving from fun and irreverent to arrogant and pretentious for a while now. I remember a long time ago I considered that of Jim Rossignol and John Walker when they worked for PC Gamer. On the other hand I still think it's the best gaming blog out there and I can live with some pretentiousness if they're also addressing issues the rest of the industry don't have the balls to confront.

Joose wrote:I get to the end of the review and I'm only vaguely understanding how the game works and have no real idea of its strengths or weaknesses. I think he liked it? Although he also seems to be saying that no one should be playing it as casual boardgamers will be confused and non-casual boardgamers would be better served elsewhere. It is very interesting though. So is it a recommendation or not? Fucked if I know.

That review wasn't.
It seems to be a quick 30 min job because he was in a rush, which is a shame. As DP pointed out, he looks down his nose and assumes we won't understand the mechanics if we are casual, well bollocks, we understood it plenty.

I've not come across him being arrogant, I just think that particular piece was rushed and shit.

Anery wrote:he looks down his nose... I've not come across him being arrogant.

Ha, yes, good point.

ANYWAY! Another review:

Zombies!!!!

Zombies! A game about zombies! Like L4D but with tiny plastic men and dice! ZOMBIES! Its not very good.

Zombies!!!!! has the players take the part of the most selfish bastards to ever survive a zombie apocalypse. There is no element of co-operation here, its every man for himself. Each turn the players get to move around, collecting bullets and hearts and avoiding the shambling dead. That same player ends his move by shuffling a bunch of the zeds towards the other players. As the players explore, special cards are revealed giving special powers, like a shotgun to make anti zombie combat easier, or an untied shoelace to trip an opponent. The game ends when the helipad is discovered, with the first person to get to the helipad declared the winnar!

So that sounds good enough, right? Right! No. There are two main problems.

Number one is those cards I mentioned. You get them at random, but many of them only activate when you go to a special location. The trouble is the bonuses they give are rarely, if ever, worth the effort of trudging halfway across the map and back, so mostly they are ignored.

The second problem is that everyone just mills about aimlessly till the helipad turns up. Its only then that you have a clear objective, so its only then that the game is in any way fun. This is roughly the last 10% of the game.

On the other hand, you get a bajillion little plastic doods in the box, which is quite handy for things like RPGs. They look a lot better than tokens.

I do not recommend it. Its shit. Apparently Last Night On Earth is a much better zombie game, but I haven't played it myself. I mean to though!

Zombicide is a good alternative. You need to work together and have an objective right from the start.

Dog Pants wrote:Zombicide is a good alternative. You need to work together and have an objective right from the start.

Ooh, not heard of that one. It looks a lot like the game Zombies!!!! is trying to be and failing. I shall check it out.

Zombicide is pretty fucking awesome, this was PNuts last stand.

Not a review, a preview.
Fantasy Flight announced an expansion to Relic. It introduces PvP, horses the pace of the game and expands to 6 players.

Link

Running through some of these older posts and I realise that Pants nominated me to review Death Angel.

Death Angel is a card game of Space Hulk. Like Space Hulk it features a team of Blood Angel terminators tasked inside a derelict infested with Tyranids - mostly genestealers.
Each player picks a duo of terminators to control, these are assigned randomly. Each duo consists of a special character/weapon and one "normal" terminator with storm bolter.
Each duo has two sets of cards, ability cards that can be played during the game and a representitive character card that is placed in formation on the table. The formation of the cards is one long line - as it would be if you were progressing through the cramped (for a terminator everything is cramped) confines of a ships corridoors, again this is done randomly .
Each corridoor section has various outlets that can errupt with genestealers and these are placed at various locations along the formation, each section also has two "blip" piles assosciated with it, these are where the genestealer cards are drawn from. You progress to the next section of corridoor when either the blip piles are empty or you fulfil the criteria of special location cards - like a door - that allows you to progress.
You win the game by fulfilling the criteria of the final corridoor card.

I've never played the board game, but I have heard some things about it and from that I can tell you - this game is as unforgiving as the original. Do not expect to survive this game with your entire squad intact - hell, don't expect to survive. The game does rely on dice rolls so you can be really unlucky and lose your heavy flamer early on thus removing your ability to deal with large swarms of tyranids, or you could destroy a promethium tank and remove all tyranids from the formation whilst you take no damage. As with any game relying on a dice mechanic this can seem a tad unfair at times but mostly it makes the game feel that bit more desperate (as you would if you were tasked to take on a space hulk full of nids) it also doesn't replace the need for tactics, which battle brother to move where in the formation, what ability to activate, which target to attack and so on.
I've played this several times and you will quit out of some games before they get too brutal (consider it a GG - you know you can't win, the odds are stacked so why bother to play out the final death throes?) and sometimes a game will go right down to the wire with the final group of marines consisting of one or two and swarms of tyranids surrounding them.

The rules can be a bit obscure at times, each game I've played has had me reaching for the rulebook to puzzle out how to procede. This is a massive flaw in the game, I can take the losing and the battering I will inevitably take in the course of the game but the rules need to be clearer.

There are a few expansion sets, these replace some of the tyranid cards or marines. There is a DeathWing expansion too, but I've not played that yet - even though I own it.

Bonus points if you can play it drunk.

So, I have a tabletop game that I was given for a birthday present.
This game happens to be taking the tabletop playing world by storm.
This game is awesome.

It's
A FUCKING XWING GAME!
Ahem.
Right, so this has been around for a while and some of us might have played it and some might not but believe me when I say this game is fucking ace - but it is.
I'll start with the main game boxset.
It costs 25 quid,contains two miniature TIE fighters and one XWing, 8 dice, pilot cards, upgrade cards, movement dials and movement templates - oh and a rulebook. The miniatures are pre-painted and to a decent standard too,you might want to repaint them but unless you are a very good painter I wouldn't bother. The level of detail involved in the sculpts is nice too, considering the scale I'm impressed.
The quality of the various other components is also pleasing, the cards and dice are of a standard that I am accustomed to seeing from Fantasy Flight, that is to say - very good.

So, the game.
It is a deck/list builder. Prior to most games a cost limit will be agreed upon, just like 40k or pretty much any other tabletop game, and each player will attempt to create a competetive list of units within that cost limit. This is done relatively simply, each pilot has a cost assosciated with it and additional equipment can be added at extra cost.
For example:
A 50pt limit is agreed on, the Rebel player opts to take Biggs Darklighter and a Rookie Pilot for a cost of 46 points. He also opts to add an R2 unit for an additional 4 points, bringing him up to the 50 point cap.
The Imperial pilots, on the other hand, are cheaper by Rebel standards but are a lot squishier and he opts to take two Obsidian Squadron Pilots at 13 points each and two Academy Pilots at 12 points each.

Depending on the scenario being played the two sides start at opposite ends of a 3x3 foot playing area, each takes turns to place obstacles (asteroids etc) on the table and then the game begins.
Phase one is the planning stage, this involves secretely deciding the manouvre each pilot will execure. These are seleted from a manouvre dial which is unique to each spacecraft (not pilot) and the dials are placed facedown next to the unit it relates to. Next the manouvres are carried out in the order of the pilot with the least skill until all manouvres are carried out. These movements are done by way of a template corresponding to the manouvre selected.
Then the shooting begins, this is done in order of the pilot with the highest skill first. For each attack score attribute an attack die is rolled by the attacker, for each agility attribute a defence die is rolled. Each hit symbol can be counterracted by the defender IF he can roll an evade symbol.
Example:
Biggs Darklighter attacks an Academy Pilot. Biggs has an attack score of three so he rolls and scores one hit and one crit - the third dice rolls a miss. The Academy Pilot has an agility of three so he rolls three defense dice. He manages to roll only one evade symbol and he cancels out the hit (hits are always cancelled before crits) so he is dealt a damage card to represent the loss of one hull point. As the hit was a crit he turns the card over to reveal the consequences of the damage (normal hits are not revealed in this manner, they only count as hull point losses) He reveals a Minor Explosion and he actions the text on the card - Immediately roll 1 attack dice. On a hit result, suffer 1 damage. Then flip this card face down. These cards can have lasting consequences throughout the game, lowering speed, removing pilots ability to make certain manouvres or lowering scores.
Last man standing wins.

A full game isn't quite THAT simple but it's the general idea.

Thats the baisc box.
There are other ships available to buy too - TIE Advanced, Y Wings, B Wings, Slave I, Millenium Falcon, Imperial Shuttles...lots of others and more are released at intervals. These additional ships all include more equipment and pilot cards to tweak your lists with, and some have special rules too. These ARE expensive, at a tenner a pop it's not to be taken lightly BUT when you consider that your lists will only consist of 4 or 5 ships FF have to make their money somehow. Most players actually buy two copies of the box set as a cheap way to accumulate 4 TIES and 2 XWing - saving a tenner and getting all the extra gubbinery too.

Expect to hear a lot about this game.
If you are coming up to not bash at my place in August expect to play this at least once. Multiplayer games can be achieved with each pilot being controlled by one player.

I also havd X-Wing. It's based on older WW1 tabletop games and is kind of similar to Sid Meier's Ace Patrol. I've picked up a few extra rebel ships and they are very nice.

Shut up and Sit Down did a thing about X-Wing miniatures. I am fairly sure that Quinns would have FULL SEX with the game if there were a way of doing so.