Upon his return from doing some uncle duties first thing. Nath and I spent our last morning together playing a couple of games of you guessed it Star Wars Unlimited.
The first game went the same way as the previous evening. With me getting a comfortable win.
But our second game saw me in a position where if Nath had no answer I was going to win on turn seven. I had enough units in either battleground to deliver the winning blow.
Nath tapped all eight of his resources and defeated all my units! I had no cards in hand. I never recovered from this board wipe. Two turns later Nath just picked me off unable to defend myself to get the win.
Afterwards I started packing ready for the journey home.
The time always goes fast when I’m visiting Nath. Parting is always so hard. Even with Nath being an adult and towering over me, he’s still my little boy.
But part we must. At least I will be back in November and updating our decks or building new ones.
Waiting for me when I got home were the final two cards needed for my twin suns deck. That’s ready now for Tuesday.
Plus the board game Tribes of the Wind, which has a very Naussica Valley of the Wind vibe just from the box art alone. Can’t wait to try it.
Apparently Nath and the two attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki have one thing in common. That’s that they don’t like going out in the rain.
With the heavens pouring down Nath was adamant he would not be going for a walk in the rain. Despite me pointing out we have coats, and I have a tarp/poncho that could be used to keep us dry during the coffee stop. Nath remained unconvinced.
Instead we went into town.
Yes it was raining.
No Nath didn’t take a rain coat with him.
Yes after we had lunch at Burger King and made our way to the game shop he “borrowed” my umbrella.
Somehow at the game shop another booster box for Star Wars Unlimited Shadow of the Galaxy ended up in my possession.
After checking another couple of possible stores that on the off chance sold singles we headed home to crack open some packs.
We got some good pulls that went to building my Luke/Hera Twin Suns deck (details soon).
However as we were cracking open packs and sharing the cool cards we’d pulled (like foils, full art etc) I thought how cool it would be to do a mandalorian themed deck for Twin Suns. I think this would qualify as a tribal deck as we’d call it in MtG. Just the thought of the possibility was getting me excited.
Next thing I know I’m sorting out all of the mandalorian cards we’d pulled. And I’m sure I’ll bore you with a post about it in the near future too.
Earlier in the day (before we went to town) I taught Nath Dice Masters using the X-Men Forever campaign box. These campaign boxes are aimed at two players, and meant to give them everything they need to play.
Using the suggested cut down setup recommended in the included rules book I taught Nath how to play. I should say it’s impossible without the aid of a phone camera to work out what the setup is. The image is just too small and unreadable.
Nath won this first learning game.
I then separated the character cards into two piles. Villians in one, and X-Men in the other. Nath was then given the choice of which he’d like to play. He went bad guys.
We then built our 8 character teams, got the appropriate dice (another fault with this campaign box they got away with the bare minimum they could get away with).
After a very tactical game I managed to get to the position of being able to deliver a winning blow.
Later before tea (a roast dinner) and just chilling watching The Retirement Plan. Nath and I played a couple more games of Star Wars Unlimited.
These were comfortable games for me with Nath not really able to mount any real defence to hold in and get back in the game. It wasn’t one sided my base took damage. It’s just I was able to smash face before Nath found any answers.
Despite the disappointment of not going for a walk. We had a great day.
Yesterday I travelled south to visit Nathan for a couple of days. After unpacking I realised what I had forgotten to pack.
On the drive down I knew I had forgotten something. Everybody has that nagging feeling when they set off somewhere.
It wasn’t until I had unpacked and was getting the Star Wars Unlimited stuff out to show Nathan when I realised I had indeed left something at home.
Sitting back at home are the four starter decks from the two starter kits.
Luckily I hadn’t forgotten the prerelease kit and two booster boxes.
But what were we to do?
Opening the prerelease kit we chose a leader each from the promo Luke and Vader cards that were in it. Nath went Vader, which left me with Luke.
We then cracked open the six boosters in the prerelease kit, followed by opening the Spark of Rebellion booster box, and cracking open the packs inside.
Nath really enjoyed opening the packs and discovering full art cards, foils, or foil full art cards. He had caught the habit most MtG players have. That crack addition of opening packs and seeing what is inside. It’s so addictive.
Afterwards we separated the cards by their aspect and then built decks for our respective leaders.
It was a great evening sharing the experience of cracking open packs and building a deck with our pulls.
Later I went through the remaining cards to see if I had any that I needed for my Luke and Hera (I now have a rather sweet full art card of Hera) Twin Suns deck. I found 22 cards that I needed. Cutting down on any imminent purchases to finish the deck off.
This morning once Nath had gotten back from his babysitting duties for his baby niece I taught him Star Wars Unlimited.
After meeting up with my aunt and uncle in Guildford, Nath and I played a couple more games of Star Wars Unlimited.
This time my deck worked and I was able to get two comfortable wins.
Between games Nath wanted to crack open the Shadows of the Galaxy so I caved and let him. Although I didn’t get a Mando card that I needed for the Twin Suns deck I did get another Krayt Dragon (I did purchase my other copy).
Which means I pulled a £40 odd card. Which I definitely plan to use in the Vader/Tarkin deck.
We ended up playing a fourth game. Nath wanted the opportunity to pull things back.
It was a very tense game with Nath hanging in by the skin of his teeth before grabbing victory from the impending jaws of defeat.
I think it can only be said that we’ve had a great day.
With the impending visit to Nath I have warned him that we will be going for a walk whilst I’m there.
I have an idea of where we will be walking after getting a 1:50k os map of the area and finding a woods not far from Nath’s.
The plan is that we’ll stop brew up, even have something to eat.
With that in mind
New gear arrivals in last six weeks or so (not everything I’m sure):
32 OZ, Wide Mouth, Nalgene bottle
50PCS Cold Brew Coffee Filter Bags
Snow Peak Folding Nylon Cooking Ladle
Toaks titanium 1350ml pot
CAMPINGMOON Compact Foldable Stove
Hellery Camping Coffee Percolator Pot
1:50k os maps for eTrex 32x gps
Belgian military hooped bivy
DD Hammocks lightweight hammock and under quilt (not sure if mentioned before)
I’m taking the BRS 3000T stove for this trip. I’ve not used it and it needs an outing.
The Nalgene bottle is for making cold brew whilst at Nath’s and when I go away whether camping or in hotels. Hence the filter bags.
For me to turn my dried bean and veg bags into a soup or stew for me and Nath my current pots just weren’t large enough. I think the largest was 900ml. So I got the larger 1350ml Toaks pot. That should be big enough cooking for two. Hence why I got the Snow Peak ladle. The percolator is for camping trips.
I’m hoping that the woodland walk and a bit of chill time will help Nath with all life has thrown at him recently.
Obviously a lot of this stuff will be used when camping or even backpacking. But with me using a campsite for next years UKGE, getting bits in that will make that trip as “glamorous” as possible. Or my take on it using a mixture of backpacking gear and camping gear.
The dust has just about settled and I’m already getting a UKGE post for next year written!
My plans for next years accommodation is to use a camp site.
As I have previously mentioned I feel this is the last thing to experience at the expo. I’ve done the a room share at the Hilton and had the whole expo experience that involves, such as evening gaming, see “celebs” in food queues etc.
I’ve done air b&b whilst helping demo Epic the Card Game for Wise Wizard Games. I’ve stayed at a deer farm, Travelodge (several times), that awful pub.
I think the only accommodation I’ve not done is the camping side.
A few years back now I remember on the Board Gaming Trading & Chat Facebook page it was mentioned that one or two of the group going to the expo were staying at a camp site.
Since reading that was an option it’s always been at the back of my mind when I’ve looked for accommodation during the expo. Especially when I’ve left it rather late to find any affordable bargains.
But I’ve finally decided to pull the trigger on that idea and do it next year.
I’ve googled camp sites near the expo. There are one or two that I like the look of. So in the new year I’ll book the one I decide to go with.
I have been bearing in mind camp site usage as I refresh my outdoors gear. Sadly the camp stove I want the Jetboil Genesis Basecamp is no longer made (it’s an ex stove). They must be good stoves as they don’t exist on eBay unless I want to pay stupid money for one from like Australia which would also hit me massively on import tax too.
The only thing I think I need that would be camping specific is a gazebo to use for cooking, chilling, playing games (I have two folding tables), etc. Oh plus some sort of cool box and a camping bbq.
If I could convince Nath to join me camping I’d invest in a suitable tent and cots to make the experience as “glam” as possible for him.
I don’t expect there will be another post about the expo until the new year. So see you then (there will naturally be my other boring content until then).
I started an 8 day break from work today. Which means during this much needed period of R&R I’m going to visit Nathan for two or three days.
Before any visit I always mull over which games to take with me for us to play.
There are practical limitations to which games make the journey with me. The major one is the footprint of the game. Whatever I take needs to fit on Nath’s circular dinning table. So large footprint games are out of the question. No Star Wars Rebellion for Nath unless he comes up to visit.
I have Star Wars Outer Rim (his favourite game) and the Star Wars Deck Builder at Nath’s.
Nath likes MtG so I’m definitely taking Star Wars Unlimited with me. The plan is we choose a starter kit deck each and play them against each other. I’ll the crack open the Spark of Rebellion prerelease kit and we will use the boosters from that to “upgrade” our decks. After some games with the new decks I have booster boxes for Spark of Rebellion and Shadows of the Galaxy. Which we can crack packs open to once again strengthen our decks.
I’m also going to take the Dice Masters X-Men campaign box I have to teach Nath Dice Masters.
Unusual for me I’m going to leave it at that! Although I’m sure I’ll throw something in the bag at the last minute.
So here we are with my first Twin Suns deck, and also my first ever deck for Star Wars Unlimited.
Unlike building a Commander deck where I have a rough idea of the number of cards of each type I need to have in a deck, such as the amount of removal, ramp, etc.
I have no idea what is optimal for a Twin Suns deck.
Just under half (22 cards) of this deck are events. It has a single upgrade. Only seven space units, and twenty ground units.
Oh before I go any further I do need to issue a boiler plate DISCLAIMER. At no point should this post, the deck, be taken seriously. I have no idea whatsoever if the deck is any good, or even works. I’m still in the process of getting the cards needed. I then need to play it a few times. Contemplate on how the deck did, make changes. Rinse and repeat. In other words like all other decks I’ve built in other games, it’s a living deck.
Let’s start with my two leaders for this Twin Suns deck and the base.
So the theme of this deck is trying to get as much secondary value out of an attack as possible. Particularly targeting opponents bases. Sabine gives me that. Jyn and the base I hope works well with her by allowing me to keep Sabine (and other attackers) out doing their thing for longer by reducing or even eliminating the damage taken in attacking another unit. So I can remove threats and whittle down the bases health.
Let’s get started with the showing you the initial cards that make up this deck. I’ll start with the ground units.
Ground Units
I’m not expecting to get a chance to play the Krayt Dragon. But if I do it’s going to be hilarious. Especially if I bounce back everyone’s battlegrounds to their hands before hand. But there is no ramp in this deck. So eight rounds before I get to play it.
Space Units
If there is an area I think I’m light on it’s here.
Events
I like that there are “board wipes”, and “targeted removal” cards. I have both types in this deck. I can’t wait to combo Evacuate with The Chads of War. That will be hilarious. I’ve also got a little discard action going on with a card or two. The shenanigans these cards will cause are me, and the sort of thing I like to do with my decks.
The basic idea is disrupt my opponents enough to put my plan into action.
Upgrades
My one and only upgrade, and it’s a bounty.
Obviously the idea is to play it on an opposing unit.
Card Cost Curve!
All cards
I’m happy with this curve. With over half the deck being cards I can play turn one, by turn four approximately ninety percent plus of the deck is playable. By turn four also it’s possible to play up to three cards depending on the hand I have.
It should come as no surprise that breaking the cost down by the three card types that the spread matches roughly the overall pattern.
Ground Units
Space Units
Events
I have high hopes that this is a good basis to build from. But only actual games with the deck will prove that now.
I’m waiting on six cards to arrive and then the deck will be ready.
Well that’s the way it felt playing Star Wars Unlimited last night.
I’d finally sleeved the starter kit decks. I used the Gamegenic matte sleeves. Which to be honest about I felt a little underwhelmed by the quality of them. They were no Dragon Shield sleeves. But they were cheaper than the Dragon Shields. I used my usual Mayday Premium sleeves for the leader and base cards.
Obviously we had official Gamegenic playmats, a two player and single player. These have the various play areas used in the game marked out on them. Great for teaching the game. But also handy for more experienced players too. Cuts out any confusion.
Finally after what seems like an age we no longer had to play using the bloody awful tokens/counters from the starter kits. Instead we had the much much better official acrylic tokens from Gamegenic. So that I have enough for our sessions I did buy three sets.
I also have two extra acrylic tokens that I got off Etsy from a UK seller, a Blast and Plan token. These two tokens are used when playing Twin Suns. Something we plan to do. However as you will read further down also useful for last night.
Once again it was Marcin, Dave, and myself playing the starter kit decks as if they were from a Game Night Kit.
Obviously we used the same Twin Suns rule for the game ending as last time. But this time we added in the Twin Suns counter rule.
With the Twin Suns counter rule “the “Take the Initiative” action has been replaced with the “Take an Available Counter” action.” taken from FFG Twin Suns counter pdf.
So how does this work? “a player may still take the Initiative counter in order to go first at the beginning of the next action phase. However, two new counters provide additional options. You may put your opponents on notice by taking the Blast counter, which deals 1 damage to each enemy base. Or if you need to dig a bit deeper in your deck, take the Plan counter, which allows you to draw a card, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your deck. Remember, you can only take one counter, but you may choose any of the three which haven’t been taken yet. Choose wisely! Taking a counter means you are finished taking actions for the round.” taken from FFG Twin Suns counter pdf.
I’m pretty sure I read somewhere, and for the life of me I can’t remember where. That when setting up with the counters in Twin Suns for a three player game it was suggested that you only use one of the counters. That during setup players vote for the one they want to keep.
Dave had a cunning plan last night. Let Marcin and I beat crap out of each other, and then as one of us lay bloodied on the floor swoop in and deliver the winning blow. It was a pretty successful plan really because he won all three games that we played.
Playing with the acrylic tokens really did enhance the whole experience. It’s a tactile thing.
The two extra counters were a great addition. They worked really well. End your turn in a phase now had a meaningful decision attached to it.
Finally I did spend yesterday afternoon putting together a Twin Suns deck for the Sabine and Jyn deck. I’ve no idea if the deck is good or works. I won’t find that out until I play it. I’ve ordered the majority of the cards for it from Magic Madhouse. There were about ten they didn’t have in stock. I might just use proxies for the missing ones until I can get them. There will be a post about this with the deck list etc in a day or two.
Saturday afternoon saw Charlene, Ben, Dan, Anthony, Marcin, and myself gather to play Cosmic Encounter.
I think it’s fair to say Cosmic Encounter is considered a classic board game.
We were playing the core game rules with the rewards decks added in.
Earlier in the day I had sorted all the alien cards by difficulty so that we would only be playing with the green (less complicated) ones. My thinking was for the majority of us this was our first game. We didn’t need to complicate that experience with potentially confusing, and complicated aliens.
Using the bgstat app to select the first player and not the draw of cards from the destiny deck, Ben was chosen as the first player.
I did enjoy my alien power as soon as other players started using artefact cards. It meant I got them, and could then use them myself. In other words the cards potentially came back to haunt them.
I’m not going to bore you with a long winded account of how Ben, Charlene, Dan, and myself all ended up on four points (aka colonies on other planets), and Marcin and Anthony trailed way behind.
But that was the situation after much negotiation, banter, and alliances as we ended up on what was to be the final encounter.
The final encounter of the game was for Dan. He had to choose who to attack. After much deliberation he chose Marcin.
Charlene, Ben, and myself were invited to join him on the attack. We threw in the maximum number of ships possible. This attack needed to succeed. I helped it along by playing an artefact that switched off Marcin’s alien ability of swapping played event cards. Oh and for some unexplainable reason Anthony threw in with Marcin.
But still Marcin was quietly confident of victory with a kicker card he was playing. However under normal circumstances he would have every right to feel that way. Indeed his play would have worked. But it didn’t take into account I had another artefact in hand that allowed my to cancel his kicker.
So smugly Marcin revealed his trump card that would remove everyone’s ships and deny us victory. Then my big reveal in response his reveal. His hopes and dreams shot down in burning flames.
He got smashed and his planet was colonised.
Sadly for Ben he was at the bar getting refreshments as the drama unfolded missing it all.
We had a four way win between Dan, Ben, Charlene, and myself.
What a blast the afternoon was. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Loved playing Cosmic Encounter.
