All posts by Darren

SanSan Cycle Comes To An End

netrunner

Regular readers will know that I received the last data pack in the SanSan Cycle The Universe of Tomorrow last week.

So it's about time I looked at the cards or goodies that make up this cycle. Let's start with the cards that have been added to my beloved Anarchs.

I'm not too impressed with the “Power to the People” event card. I can see its use as an econ card but I can't see it making it into my Windy deck. Now the next two cards “Surfer” and “DDoS” they are different stories.

I love the flavour text of these two cards, especially the “DDoS” card. Plus the art is fabulous. For me “Surfer” is a card I may find myself using. But “DDoS” is going straight into Windy. The card is a constant threat to a Corp player, once trashed if they have been foolish enough to protect their servers with just single ice, I'm hitting them big time. I just love that ability of stopping the corps rezzing the first piece of ice on each of their servers for the whole of my turn. Anarch running havoc, love it.

Criminals get a new identity “Laramy Fisk” and he also has an event card “Fisk Investment Seminar”. It seems to me that this new identity and the event are aimed at getting the corp player to go through their R&D deck quickly, forcing them to discard cards from their hand that they would have otherwise have liked to have kept around. Maybe getting them to hold a handful of agendas in HQ!

Those do good ear white hat shaper runners also get two cards. A program that helps a little with the economy, allowing the shaper to install a card for free. I'm not sure how useful this would be for a shaper. But it's not a card that I would think about spending influence on. However their other card is something I would consider. “Bookmark” is hardware that when installed allows me to store cards face down from my grip. Then at a time of my choosing spend a click or trash the card put them back in my grip. This is awesome. Instead of discarding cards put them on “Bookmark” and pull them back when you need them.

For me this is far more useful version of the Anarch “Street Peddler” card. However it does continue a trend of runners being able to put cards out without the corp player knowing what they are. Now the runners are getting to have hidden information. Love it, love it.

The neutral “Wireless Net Pavilion” doesn't excite me at all, sorry.

Jinteki gets a new identity “Chronos Protocol”, plus a new agenda “Ancestral Imager” which seem to be meant for each other. Dealing net damage, and allowing the corp player to see the cards in the runners grip before trashing one. That could be very useful in stopping the runner from getting his rig setup, and force them to hunt for another copy of that card, or remove that “DDoS” before it can be played. The “Genetics Pavilion” could also be a thorn in the runners side. It certainly slows down their game when they are drawing trying to find a particular card.

HB get two nice assets, that I could see me spending influence on to use, especially “Team Sponsorship”.

My favourite corp NBN. I can see “Franchise City” making it into my deck. I do also like the neutral agenda “The Future Is Now”, score and get a card you want, very handy.

I like the new Weyland cards, definitely a little push on assets for them. They all work very nicely together.

This has been the first cycle that I have bought as it came out. Well I only started playing earlier in the year, so it it makes sense as this one started up just after I started playing.

I've really enjoyed opening the new data packs, discovering new cards. Looking at new interactions, loving the art work and flavour text.

I'm looking forward to the new Deluxe expansion and the Munbad cycle.

 

An Epic Memoir Afternoon

Fenland Gamers, memoir 44

Yesterday afternoon saw Jonathan and myself once more (well for the second time) facing off over the battlefields of Europe during World War Two in the game Memoir '44.

Jonathan had bought along the latest addition to his extensive Memoir collection, the Memoir '44 Tactics and Strategy Guide. This is an epic five hundred plus page book that as the title suggests takes an indepth look at how to play and win at Memoir by recommending various strategies etc for playing the game. The book has been on my radar since it was announced but it's hefty fifty pounds price tag has always put me off. Especially since I wasn't able to look it over before purchasing (draw backs of the interweb).

But Amazon have it at a more affordable price these days, still not cheap, but lighter on the pocket. I have to say this is a nice looking book. I love the clean layout, it's bright, colour pictures. It is a very comprehensive looking book.

Jonathan and I discussed the scenarios we wanted to play this time. Jonathan had wanted to try using a breakthrough scenario, while I wanted to try the Arnham scenario from the base set manual. So with our battlefields for the afternoon set it was time to start playing.

Arnham – Allies

The reason I had wanted to play the Arnham scenario was related to my dad. Dad had been in 2 Para in the late sixties. It was his regiment. Arnham is on the regiments list of battle honours. We all know the story, and seen the movie A Bridge Too Far (well apparently Jonathan hasn't, I'll have to fix that one, along with showing him The Longest Day which he hasn't also seen! Sometimes I forget that some folks have lives unlike me), so I won't go into the details here.
However for me when I watch, read or play something to do with the Paras I'm connecting with Dad, and honouring his memory. It's why even though I don't think I'll get to play Sergeants: Red Devils a World War Two miniatures games again (I've played it once with Nath). It won't leave my collection, it's Dads regiment, it stays.

While we are setting up the scenario I reveal my secret weapon for the afternoon. I had bought with me Captain America to inspire my forces!

Playing as the Allies with the positioning of the two artillery units you have such a commanding advantage. Their use was devistating. Any armour coming over the bridge was easily picked off, the three Axis troop units on our side of the river easily disposed of.

Jonathan wasn't getting the cards to enable him to move his elite units out of his right flank. Plus their movement was slowed by forests when he could move them. No pot shots from his troops over the river because it was too wide. This is a hard scenario for the Axis player.

Naturally giving the scenario I won as the Allies.

Arnham – Axis

My turn now to play as the Axis powers. Would I get better card draw? It seemed odd having Captain America command the Axis powers, the Red Skull would be proud.

My turn as the Axis was slightly different I had the cards to move the elite units, just not the cards to move units in the middle of the board. I did try keeping my units out of range of the Allied guns on my side of the river. Hoping to get the right cards. But to no avail, I was delaying the inevitable.

I did manage to destroy a token unit so it wasn't a complete walk over. A well deserved win for Jonathan.

After my loss as the Axis I decided to look up in the guide what it said about Arnham and tactics it suggested.

According to the strategy guide the Allies win eighty three percent of the games. The guide also said that Arnham is the toughest scenario in the base game. So Jonathan and I shouldn't feel too bad about not winning while playing as the Axis powers.

Now we did have an interesting little question that I came up with during the game. As the Axis forces if I blew up the Arnham bridge would I win? Historically the Paras dropped in to hold the bridge until Allied forces arrived, so if I blew the bridge it would put an end to their objective. However in this scenario the only objective is to score five victory points. I'd love to know what others think on this.

Battle of Abbeville (Breakthough map and scenario) – Axis

Wow the breakthrough map is massive! We even looked at it compared to the anniversary D-Day map or one section. The D-Day map was bigger. I'd love to play the complete massive D-Day scenario, but the amount of space and large tables you would need to play. Wow I can't even imagine them setup.
It took awhile to setup the game, it was almost a game in itself.
As the Axis player you look at the board and think “oh heck, how many tank units?”
I was soon down four units, which meant four victory points to Jonathan. This was going to be a walk over for the Allies. I was going to get thrashed.

Above photo courtesy of Jonathan. Captain America and me

I managed to knock out four Allied units, not only that they were tank units! Our scores were equal. Then Jonathan pulled ahead again knocking out three more units. I began retreating my forces back to the river and my two artillery units. The majority of Jonathan's troops were still near their starting positions. His remaining tanks kept pushing the attack, moving into range of my artillery.

When our scores were tied at six victory points each, I did offer Johnathan a chance to call the game a draw. I knew I was about to get the upper hand, well more like hoping it would play out that way. But it was also part mind games and bluffing. Naturally Johnathan turned down this offer.

As my guns picked off Jonathan's tanks, some of his soldiers started to get in range also. We exchanged fire, but the advantage was mine. My artillery and troops picked off Johnathans forces giving me the victory.

OMG! These breakthrough games are amazing! But boy they are also a lot longer to play. The scenario plays to ten victory points, your forces are much larger. If there was not the “On the move” ability on cards allowing you to move additional units to the ones you command it would take an age to play. I liked the blitz rule, as the Axis player I could use a recon card (I think that's the correct one) as an air power card. Which I did manage to do a couple of times during play.

We didn't have enough time to play the second half where we swap sides. But we have put the tiles we used aside separately so that setup is a lot quicker next time.

What an awesome afternoon playing Memoir '44. I'm so fortunate that I've met some-one who loves playing the game, and also has nearly everything for the game.

Thanks Jonathan for a great afternoons gaming. I look forward to the breakthrough second leg.

 

Happy Batman Day

Uncategorized

Yep you read that right. Today is Batman Day.

So go play some Batman Love Letter, or DC Dicemasters using Batman characters to celebrate. I know there are some other Batman games out there, and a Batman miniatures game but I don't have them. Read some Batman comics/graphic novels, watch some of the cartoons and movies (but not Batman and Robin that was just dire).

Have a great Batman day.

 

A Surprise Kickstarter Arrival

new arrivals

A package arrived this morning, excitedly I opened it wondering if it was Epic the card game or Tiny Epic Galaxies. But it was neither but just as cool. My copy of The Story of U.S. Gold arrived plus all the extras I had paid for.

The book is awesome. But the highlight for me was a copy of Dropzone signed by the developer himself Archer MacLean. I had this game on the Commodore 64 when it came out. It was an instance classic. zzap64! (Definitely my favourite gaming magazine at the time) gave the game one of its exclusive Gold Medals. I think the only way I could top this in my collection is if I got some signed Llamasoft games by Jeff Minter.
Plus I also got a signed postcard of the loading screen also.

I'd forgotten about this bit of the pledge level, but there was also a cd of remixed C64 game chip tunes. I have to admit I love listening to the old game music on the C64. It's probably the majority of music I listen to, if I listen to music in the car (mostly its audio books or podcasts).

In the very top photo you will also see what looks like a U.S. Gold badge but is in fact a fridge magnet. That went straight on to my fridge ^__^

A really nice surprise this morning a great way to start the weekend.

 

Is Street Fighter Coming to Dicemasters?

dice masters

In the latest episode of the Rolling Dice Taking Names podcast (number 76), Eric Lang co-creator of Dicemasters, and other really cool games is interviewed.

In his segment of the show they play a game where they have to list in order three items and say why they are in that order. One of the lists was Streetfighter, Mortal Kombat and Smash Bros. Eric and the show hosts discussed their ordering and the final host (forget his name) mentioned how cool it would be I'd Dicemasters did a Streetfighter version. After a threat of violence to the said host Eric could not confirm (or deny) anything.

So is Streetfighter coming to Dicemasters?

Listen to the episode HERE. What do you think?

 

Deck Boxes and a Futuristic Fair

expansions, netrunner, new arrivals

Ok so I had some new arrivals this morning. Not the Kickstarter games that are still somewhere in the postal system however. Although on the Kickstarter front backers of the Thunderbirds game had some good news in the past couple of days. The base game is nearly with us. It's hitting the relevant shores and going through customs. Which means by the publishers estimate backers should be getting their grubby hands on the game by mid October.

On the Game of Thrones boardgame front, I got a refund on that. Somehow it got “lost” by myHermes. So the wait for a copy continues.

Right onto today's new arrivals.

First up is two Ultra-Pro Satin Tower Deck Boxes. I bought these to use with Ashes, to hold a deck and its dice. I have to admit these aren't exactly the model I was expecting. However it meets the main requirements I wanted from the model I thought I was buying, space for the deck I've built and the ten dice.

For a really bargain price from that addictive and expensive (only in the sense you spend so much) Facebook board game trading page I got this little card game called Race for the Summit. Which from its box art you can tell is all about climbing.

I've no idea what the game is like, and I'm curious to find out.

The last data pack in the SanSan cycle The Universe of Tomorrow also came today. I'm looking forward to cracking open this data pack and seeing what goodies are inside.

Android:Netrunner News

Yesterday FFG released floor rules for Android:Netrunner. The floor rules are for judges and organisers to help them with decisions that crop up during organised play, like a misplay or cheating.

I think this is great that FFG have done this, it shows that they are serious about organised play and making sure that there is a consistent experience and decisions no matter where you play. This can only be of benefit to the community.

You can get the floor rules from links in the official FFG news story announcing their release HERE

 

Plagues and Trains

Fenland Gamers

Another mid week Fenland Gamers gaming session took place this evening. Tonight it was Mat selecting the games that we would be playing.

The evening started off with the game Rattus.

This game is set during medieval times (?) with plague invested rats sweeping across Europe. The aim of the game is to have the most cubes (I think they represent people) left on the board at the end of the game.

This game took a little getting into, maybe three turns before it clicked properly and I started thinking of tactics. I'm not sure how you would describe the genre. So I'm not going to attempt to categorise it.

Mat won the game comfortably. While Jonathan and I drew for last place. Mind you Jonathan and I spent a lot of the game duking it out for getting our cubes onto the only safe space on the board. Leaving Mat alone in reality to build up his winning population.

I enjoyed the game, but I think I need another game or two to make a final decision to see if it makes it onto my wish list. But even if it didn't make the list, I'd be more than happy to play the game on other occasions. It's an enjoyable game.

Next up was the worker placement game Russian Railroads.

This game has lots and lots of tokens! While Mat was setting up, Jonathan and I joked about how the game designers came to have so many tokens with such lines as “you know what's missing from the game? More tokens”.

When you first see the board and your player tableau it does look a little daunting. However game knowledge from other worker placement games soon kicks in speeding up the learning curve. After watching the others take their turn, and then taking mine everything was on familiar ground, with just the odd question over particular symbols, or placement of stuff.

There are some nice touches to the game. Like buying engineers that give you exclusive actions to take on a turn. Having multiple development tracks that you have to decide between developing, adds a nice little tactical decision making to your choices.

The end of round scoring seemed like a mysterious thing to Jonathan and myself. Luckily Mat was familiar with the dark art. Although I don't think it helped making Mat laugh a couple of times when he was scoring putting him off.

And boy do you score points. I think my final score was 287!!! Mat was over 200, and Jonathan was well over 150. Racking the points up is insane. I got 40 points at the end for collecting four engineers. At the end of a round you can easily be score 20 points or more. Then you get multipliers kicking in. It's crazy.

I really did enjoy this game, and not just because I won. There is a nice depth to this game, and worker placement games are becoming one of my favourite game genres.

I hope when we finally get Lords of Waterdeep to the table that it lives up to the others expectations. I love the game but sometimes a game can become bigger than the actually game is in the imagination. Then when you play the game it doesn't quiet live up to the hype and expectations. So no pressure!

Another great evening of gaming. I'm looking forward to the next one.

 

The Waiting Game

Uncategorized

It's like torture waiting for stuff to come through the postal system.

I'm currently waiting for these two games to come through the post from the US of A.

It doesn't help that my friend Freddy had his copy of Epic two weeks ago.

I've also got a King of New York themed t-shirt from Kickstarter also in the post from the same continent.

I'm sure that the postal service sends my packages the longest route possible, giving me the biggest delay they can get away with. If not it certainly feels that way.

It's nice having the delivery email from the distributing company that the companies use to send out their games. But then every day I'm like a dog waiting for its owner to come home, excitedly hoping that when I get home from work that the postman has delivered my anticipated goodies.

Oh the waiting game, the one game I hate playing!

 

The Phoenixborn

Ashes

In this the second post on Ashes Rise of the Phoenixborn and the first of my posts looking at the content of the stunning box in more detail, we start off looking at the Phoenixborn themself.

In the base game, for that is what this gorgeous box is, we get six Phoenixborn. Additionally if you got the game direct from Plaid Hat (not sure if it also made it to retail too) you got an additional promo Phoenixborn.

In the rule book for each of the base game Phoenixborn there is a suggested pre-built deck for people to get playing with straight away. For the promo Phoenixborn you will have to make use of the deck building guidelines in the rule book to build a deck.

Naturally the art on the cards we are about to look at is stunning. You will probably get fed up with me saying this. But it takes my breathe away. I hope Plaid Hat games does an art book at some point.

Anatomy of a Phoenixborn card

So before we look at the actual Phoenixborn themselves it's probably best that we look at a card and what information is given on each one.

a) Name of the Phoenixborn – do I need to explain this? No really isn't it obvious?
b) Battlefield Value – this value determines the how many units a Phoenixborn can have on the battlefield at one time. In the example above that means Dimona can have a maximum of five units on her battlefield.
c) Ability – an effect that the Phoenixborn has on the game. It can be constant or needs to be activated.
d) Flavour text – oh come on I don't need to explain this.
e) Activation cost – the cost to activate the Phoenixborns ability.
f) Spellboard Value – similar in effect to the Battlefield value, the Spellboard determines the number of active spells you can have in your Spellboard. So in the example above Dimona can have a maximum of five spells in her Spellboard.
g) Life Value – nor should I have to explain this. If this reaches zero guess what? You're dead.
Ok so that is the anatomy of a Phoenixborn card. Shall we meet the Phoenixborn?

Aradel Summergaard – The Mist Guardian

Stat wise Aradel can have the largest battlefield of all the current crop of Phoenixborn. Aradel is one of the weaker life values of the Phoenixborn, so she needs to be a bit more careful and make use of that superior numbers on the battlefield to protect her.
Her Spellboard is on par with the majority of the Phoenixborn. But it's her ability that excites. Don't underestimate being able to do direct damage. This could knock out a potential defending unit before you swing your attack, or deliver that killing blow to the opposing Phoenixborn.
You can read the Plaid Hat look at Aradel and her pre-built deck HERE

Jessa Na Ni – The Bloodwoods Queen

Jessa has an ok Life Value, kind of in the middle. She also has the average sized Spellboard and Battlefield. So even though her Life Value is better than Aradel, Jessa still needs to be protective of that Life. Based on her stats I would describe Jessa as average.
Now Jessa's ability is interesting because as long as you have the dice you are able to chip away at your opponents Life Value even when it's not your turn.
You can read the Plaid Hat look at Jessa and her pre-built deck HERE.

Noah Redmoon – The Shadows of Viros

Noah is interesting. His Battlefield and Life Value are better than average, but his Spellboard Value is below average. So while he can take a little more damage, he has to think carefully about which spells he is keeping out.
Now I like it when I can mess up my opponents plans, and I like this ability precisely because of that. Interfering with your opponents plans like switching off a spell when they are counting on it for their turn could be enough to throw them off and give you that edge you need for the win.
You can read the Plaid Hat look at Noah and his pre-built deck HERE

Saria Guideman – The Cloudsea Siren

Saria has an above average Life Value, and average Battlefield and Spellboard values. These stats for me make Saria a nice all rounder.

Now you have seen my tactic for my Noise deck Windy, which is milling. I can't see why you wouldn't force a card from the opponents draw deck into the discard pile. It denies them valuable cards that could screw up their strategy, and it means them are getting through their thirty card deck quicker and to that point where having no cards to draw will hurt them. I can't see a downside at the moment because I can't see anything in the rule book limiting the maximum hand size. If you find anything out that gives a maximum hand size then I may have to re-evaluate how powerful this ability is. At the moment I love this ability.

You can read the Plaid Hat look at Saria and her pre-built deck HERE

Coal Roarkwin – The Iron Men

Good grief Coal has the lowest Life Value going of all the Phoenixborn. Luckily he has above average Battlefield and Spellboard values, because he is going to need them to protect his precious Life Value.

Coals ability is interesting. To use it you discard a card and use a side action. So as long as you have the cards you are still able to inflict damage. You aren't reliant on having the dice available. I'm not sure how Coal would fair going up against Saria and her ability, especially if they were trying to use it a lot.

You can read the Plaid Hat look at Coal and his pre-built deck HERE

Maeoni Viper – The Snakes in Silver

Ok I love this card theme wise. The art and name are so perfect. Snakes and a Cleopatra type character, brilliant.

Maeoni has the highest Life Value of all the Phoenixborn, an average Spellboard and the weakest Battlefield Value.

Her ability is nice and allows a nice boost to one units attack when you most need it.

You can read the Plaid Hat look at Maeoni and her pre-built deck HERE

Promo Phoenixborn – Dimona Odinstar

Dimona is another card I love because the art matches the name.

Dimona has an above average Spellboard and Battlefield, but not a great Life Value.

Her ability is a nice one. Being able to remove an exhaustion token is massive. It means you could attack more than once a turn with a unit. Or if a second exhaustion token has been placed on a unit, you could remove the second token meaning you can get that back the next round instead of losing it for another round. That's massive in my book.

So I hope you enjoyed this look at the games Phoenixborn. These really are beautiful cards. I'm undecided which one is right for me at the moment.

 

Windy Update

netrunner
So after listening to some of the Netrunner podcasts, particularly Terminal 7 I've tweaked my windy deck.
In the current episode of Terminal 7 they were looking at the Old Hollywood data pack, and while looking at the runner side things they mentioned a card interaction between one of the new cards and a card from an earlier cycles data pack. The two cards were Paparazzi (Old Hollywood) and Data Leak Reversal (Future Proof). Paparazzi allows me to tag myself without having to rely on the corp to tag me to kick in the milling ability of Data Leak Reversal.
At the moment I've added one of each, plus a Film Critic (Old Hollywood).
Anyway here is my new Windy deck.

Windy

 

Noise: Hacker Extraordinaire (Core Set)

 

Event (10)

3x Déjà Vu (Core Set)

2x I've Had Worse (Order and Chaos)

2x Infiltration (Core Set)

1x Surge (Humanity's Shadow)

2x Test Run (Cyber Exodus) ····· ·

 

Hardware (5)

2x Cyberfeeder (Core Set)

1x Grimoire (Core Set)

2x Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead)

 

Resource (14)

2x Aesop's Pawnshop (Core Set) ····

2x Armitage Codebusting (Core Set)

1x Data Leak Reversal (Future Proof)

1x Duggar's (First Contact)

2x Earthrise Hotel (The Source)

1x Film Critic (Old Hollywood) ·

1x Hades Shard (First Contact) ·

1x Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow)

1x Paparazzi (Old Hollywood)

2x Virus Breeding Ground (Order and Chaos)

 

Icebreaker (2)

2x Crypsis (Core Set)

 

Program (15)

2x Datasucker (Core Set)

2x Djinn (Core Set)

2x Hivemind (Order and Chaos)

2x Imp (What Lies Ahead)

1x Incubator (The Source)

3x Parasite (Core Set)

2x Progenitor (Order and Chaos)

1x Scheherazade (Second Thoughts)

 

Cards in deck: 46 (min 45)

12/15 influence used

Cards up to Old Hollywood

 

Deck built with Net Deck http://appstore.com/netdeck

So that's my current thinking, what do you think? All I need to do now is test it!