Category Archives: dice masters

dice masters

Excelsior!

dice masters, marvel legendary, new arrivals, pixel tactics

What would a Marvel Cinematic Universe film be without the cameo from Stan Lee? A lesser movie that's what. So when I found out that there was a Stan Lee bystander card for Marvel Legendary, well I just had to have it. Guess what came today?

So now when I play Marvel Legendary I can simulate that cameo appearance from the Generalissimo himself by shuffling in these two bystander cards into the bystander deck.

And for me the awesome thing will be when I'm playing with some-one who doesn't know I have this card and it appears. I'm hoping for a little “OMG! That's awesome” moment.

Tomorrow im going to see Ant-man at The Luxe cinema, and hopefully before the film two or three of us will have a chance to be uber geeks and play a game of Marvel Legendary before hand with Stan Lee shuffled in the Bystander deck.

Also today the two Dice Tower Pixel Tactics promos arrived. I only got them yesterday off that UK Facebook trading page. So dam good service.

Finally the other day the rare Constantine dice masters card arrived. It appears to be a popular card especially in control teams I think. I'm not fully up on the current meta. It's changing again now that the Age of Ultron set has hit stores in the U.S. and any day now in the UK.

I've not played nearly enough dicemasters this year. I really enjoy the game. But this release schedule Wizkids has for sets is brutal. It's almost a new set every two months. Which if you want to be a completionist makes the game expensive. If you want to be competitive at tournaments (which I like to think I'm capable of being) then you need to be living this game, which makes it a life style game. And I have too many games in my collection that I enjoy playing that fall into this category. But I think this is a topic that I will explore in another post in the future.

 

Confessions of an UK Games Expo Noob

dice masters, krosmaster arena, netrunner, new arrivals, tabletop

The UK Games Expo took place at the NEC the last three days. I think it's safe to say that this is the UK's largest board gaming related event. With it getting bigger next year! (More on that later).

So the thing I think most people will want to know is what did I get at the show.

As the photo above shows I have finally caved and got Krosmaster Arena. What swung it was it was being sold at a very good price, saving about £15 on it, plus it came with two promo characters. I also found a copy of Get Bit! Which was on Tabletop a while back, and looked a fun filler game. Now Sushi Go! Was bought after having a demo game at one of the stands. It was really good fun, quick to learn, and not that expensive.

At LAST! I was able to get a Machi Koro playmat. It's a lovely mat in my opinion.

Naturally I got some Netrunner stuff. Luckily the new data pack Chrome City had just come out, and was available. Plus I picked up a couple of old data packs I didn't have. Plus as the photo below shows an awesome beautiful looking official playmat.

I managed to get a copy of Roll For The Galaxy along with three Wolf Dice bags.

Then finally today I also picked up a spare set of dice for Krosmaster Arena, another two characters and a second map for the game.

While waiting with Zoe and the boys for Todd to have his lunch break from playing in the Netrunner nationals I got talking to one of the X-Wing competitors who was on a break. He made an interesting statement that he had looked at getting into Netrunner but was put off by the “high” cost of entry to be competitive at a competition level. His argument was that in the two or so years that Netrunner has been out with the expansions it is now too costly to buy them all.

I disagreed with him over this, pointing out that X-Wing at the level he was playing at could also be looked at that way, having to buy ships that you may never play with just for a card, and the game he had once played Magic The Gathering was astronomical to get into at a competition level. I also pointed out at least with Netrunner you could either just buy the cards you needed or the data packs with them in, which would of been one solution. Thinking about it, you could probably buy everything for Netrunner for the cost of one or two of the more rare Magic cards (I know some of the cards go for two or three hundred pounds each, maybe even more).

However it got me thinking. You don't need to buy all the data packs in one go. I'm not, I'm buying a couple a month, targeting specific packs if I need a particular card.

But then I'm not looking at the moment at playing at competition level. I know this is what some people like about playing some of these games the competitive competition side. But for me the first and foremost side is that I'm having a good time playing the game. I want to be good at playing the game. But if I don't get to a competition level then it won't kill the game for me.

Saw the guy today and found out how well he did in the tournament. He did well finishing 36th, just in the top third, and if I remember correctly he said yesterday he was flying two IG-88 ships.

Dicemasters

On Friday I took part in the D&D Dicemasters tournament. There was only four of us in this, the majority of players were taking part in the DC/Marvel tournament.

At the start there was some confusion about the format of the competition, on the Facebook page for the show the format was declared as rainbow draft, while the organiser was going to have it as a constructed match. I'd only bought my basic action cards along for this because that was all that was needed for a rainbow draft game.

The organiser settled on the rainbow draft format, which gave each player twelve packs each to open. So after the passing round of cards you end up with twenty four cards and dice to choose a team of eight from.

The organiser was generous in that we were given a playmat plus a Pheonix Force promo card. PLUS to make up for the confusion over format we got an alternate artwork Beast Mutate #666 card plus an alternate artwork Harley Quinn card.

To cut a long story short I came fourth or last depending on the spin I want to put on this. I could of come joint second! How? Well my last game was against Scott, and after a mega, and I mean mega long first game which I won I was drained. Scott took the second game, which was a lot quicker. But I was exhausted by now. So I conceded the last game giving Scott the win. That put Scott into second place with two wins. If, and it's a big if I had gone on and won the third game that would of given three of us out of the four players with one win and making it a three way draw for second place.

I have to say it took me a while to work out how best to play my team and what the possible win conditions were. A more skilful player would of got to that point a lot lot quicker.

But still I got ten boosters for the D&D set as a prize. So for the ten pound entry fee, a playmat, twenty two boosters, three promo cards, not a bad return on the investment.

Plus this was my first time playing rainbow draft which was a great experience, and an afternoon playing Dicemasters.

I was down for taking part in the constructed nationals for Dicemasters but I hadn't really had time to look round and there were a couple of things I wanted to get before the show closed, and I was enjoying my time with Zoe, Todd and their two boys Ethan and Tristan.

Final Thoughts

I had a great time at the expo. I bumped into people I knew from my local FLGS, and a friend or two. Plus I met up with Zoe, Todd and the boys.

It was very hectic. On Saturday the main open play area was taken over by the Netrunner and X-Wing nationals which meant there was a severe shortage of space to play games.

The expo could of done with more space. Which I know from the expo guide they will have next year.

The expo staff were really polite and helpful.

Lots of cosplay especially Dr Who related, the two daleks were great fun, and a few Star Wars related ones, the Stormtroopers were very popular.

I think the half hour lunch that the Netrunner nationals and also the X-Wing were allowed was rediculous. The queues were ridiculously long for food, over fourty minute waits to be served. Unless you had the foresight to bring a packed lunch there was no chance of players getting something to eat, let alone have time to eat it.

There were no previews that I saw. With Origins on next week in the US I think they are being saved up for that. So why weren't we allowed to have previews? I'm talking of stuff like the new Imperial Assault expansions, or cards from the Age of Ultron Dicemasters, or games that will be out a month later at GenCon (another US show). Do we not warrant the same treatment as the US games buying public? Is this a drawback of timing? Would we have gotten some if the show was between Origins and GenCon? It does kind of make me feel we in the UK are not treated the same as our American brethren. Oh wait we aren't.

I was hoping to get a copy of the new artwork Resistance but the only copies I saw were the original/current artwork.

It was great to get a game of Netrunner with Todd, managed to answer one burning question I had about the game, and getting some advice on my deck. Naturally I lost. There will be a better write up of the deck in another post.

Overall a great first time experience at the show. Definitely going next year.

 

Loki Gem-Keeper One of My Fav Cards

dice masters

Loki, good grief does he live up to his name?

He may look cute, but he is just a little ball of mischief. For the record I didn't name him!
One of my early favourite cards from Dice Masters is the Loki Gem-Keeper card. It was a staple in teams especially ones that aimed to control the other player. The ability to shutdown a character and stop it being fielded is powerful.
For Loki Gem-Keeper to work it needs to sit in the field doing its job stopping that character being fielded. To aid in this Loki has a high defensive value but a low attack value. The Level 1 version with careful management can be used as a blocker and stay on the field, but when you get a level 2 or 3 version you have a great blocker too.
The nice thing is if you have Antman on your team with the global that allows you to swap the attack and defence values of a dice you also have a potential killing blow as well.
In the DC set that's just been released Loki Gem-Keeper has been replaced by The Joker Clown Prince of Crime. Same cost, same effect, slightly worse defensive stats but slightly better offensive stats. Is the trade off worth it? I'm on the fence about it, undecided. I think that The Joker is more dangerous than Loki, so having a better attack is more thematic.
Now I am a big Joker fan, so when it comes to choosing one for use in a team my heart will pick The Joker every time. But sometimes the head has to rule, and if I'm going to do the Antman global then I'm going to have to go Loki.
Onething I'm playing with, with some of my teams is the use of overcrush to do the damage to the opponent. It forces the opponent to think about which dice blocks which attacker. It negates using sidekicks as blockers for those with high attacks because the excess damage carries over. Into this scenario having them allocate a sidekick or low defence valued blocker to a Loki Gem-Keeper and then pulling the switcheroo on Loki's stats could be the game winner. A one off trick, then the surprise next time won't be there and they will be looking for it but that distraction may let another hitter through.
I'm not going to look into how to buy the dice for either because there are so many ways now in the game to do that whether it's reducing the cost or drawing extra dice to roll to get the required energy to purchase the dice.
I like Loki the character, and having a dog that lives up to the name does make life interesting. Loki Gem-Keeper still has a place in the current meta of the game in my opinion. Despite my love of The Joker I think Loki edges it over Joker. What do you think?

 

How many sidekicks does a hero need?

dice masters, tabletop

Just how many sidekick and basic action dice do you need?

The photo above doesn't include the dice I have in my dice bag for playing. These are the spares from all the four Dicemasters starter sets so far (if I remember correctly I bought two of the Uncanny X-Men set). Plus this will grow a little bit more when the DC one ordered arrives.
Plus I'm getting a nice little stock of the awful waxy dice bags they give in the starter set.

 

All Booked

dice masters, netrunner, star realms, tabletop
So that’s me all booked for the upcoming UK Games Expo. I’m going to be attending all three days, and have accommodation sorted also.
This will be my first time to the event and to a board gaming one. I’ve been to comic cons before (many decades ago), Raspberry Jams and video game related events.
But the firsts don’t stop there. Oh no. I signed up for the Dice Masters Nationals. I’ve never played in a Nationals before. Last year I did play in a Dice Masters OP event organised by my FLGS, and out of eight participants I didn’t come last, it was seventh. So not exactly a good showing, however that was early in my Dice Masters playing. After that I wasn’t able to get to the handful of other OP events they held.
The funny thing is I wasn’t sure I’d throw my hat in for the nationals because it falls on the last day of the expo. Well I’m used to making up the numbers and at least I should get a participation prize.
Now I am lending a couple of Yugioh cards and dice to a friend for his nationals team. So basically now I’ve armed a potential competitor (if we get drafted against each other that is). I should of put in a similar clause to that used in football when a player goes out on loan. Usually the loan agreement says that the player on loan can’t play against the loaning team if they meet up in any of the competitions. Or maybe I should of treated it like a game of Munchkin. Saying I’ll help you for a share of the treasure. And then haggle over how much of the treasure I’d get for my assistance.
In the meantime I have a lot of work to do. I’ve only played one game of Dice Masters since Christmas (although a lot of Star Realms). At that point in time the meta for the game only involved two sets, Avengers vs X-Men and the Uncanny X-Men. Since the start of the year Yugioh, Dungeons and Dragons and in the next couple of weeks DC (although just out in the US of A) have been released. Although I have Yugioh and D&D I’ve not played them (well one game of Yugioh) and I’m not really familiar with the current meta.
So I need to start looking at the cards of the new sets, looking at what has been played in recent national tournaments in the North Americas to see what I could potentially be facing. Let’s face it I expect some people to just be playing a team that others have created and done well with (ie won with). Armed with all this information build my team that I think will win me games and then play the heck out of it.
Which brings me on to Freddy. Freddy has kindly offered to be my Mickey Goldmill/Apollo Creed and help me get back into fighting shape again. Unfortunately I don’t have any chickens to chase and catch, but Loki is slipperier than a chicken especially when he has run off with a tissue or hankerchief.
With all this training going on I think we need…
 
I was hoping while at the expo to meet up with people to play some Star Realms. I do enjoy playing Star Realms using the actual physical cards. And it will be great to be able to do so. To meet this goal I’ve ask on a couple of appropriate FB fanpages if anyone is going and if they want to meet up to play some games of a Star Realms. It does seem odd, well not odd but sad that we aren’t getting like a nationals for Star Realms at the expo. Well you know we are getting nationals for Dice Masters, plus Android: Netrunner, X-Wing, HeroClix etc. There are tournaments for other games also which I’m not sure if they are official or not, but still they are going on. Just a shame nothing has been done for this awesome game. Let’s face it I’m not the only one that thinks it is awesome, it’s winning awards left, right and centre. It seems to be selling really well. So why no tournie?
While there I will hopefully (well very high chance) get to meet the fiancée of Martin and Julie’s daughter Zoe, Todd. Todd is a huge Android: Netrunner player and taking part in its nationals on the Saturday. So on the Saturday I’m hoping to watch a game or two of the nationals, but also pick the brains of Todd on playing and building decks. Zoe and her two kids (sorry guys names are missing from my old head) are also going to be there so hopefully will get to play some board games with them too on the Saturday.
So there you go I’m going to UK Games Expo, hope to see you there.

 

 

 

 

Second of April

dice masters, lego minifigs, tabletop

Two new minifigs out of five isn't too bad.

As I'm always saying though doubles in minifigs isn't a problem when you also make custom minifigs. It helps build up a library of spare parts to use in your own figures.
I have some others on the way, a boxer, some storm troopers, Obi Wan,Emperor, and Jedi Luke. Well you know now that when they arrive I'll share pictures of them with you.
Talking of stuff on its way, how much did I enjoy the Harbour game yesterday? I enjoyed it so much that I have a copy on its way to me. Who knows I may just have a second copy coming to give as a prize for a competition. I've not done one of those in a long long time.
This little beauty arrived today. Normally I binge open all the packets. But I've decided to take my time and savour the experience. So just five packets today, then some more tomorrow. As long as I'm ready to play Freddy over the weekend.

 

An Inconvenient Customer

dice masters, imperial assault, tabletop

Today was going to be such an awesome day. The plan was pop on over to Peterborough get the Imperial Assault expansions, hopefully also get an Android:Netrunner data pack I wanted (if they had it in stock). Then pick up a power cable from a friend, followed by shooting off to another part of Peterborough to play Android:Netrunner with Jamie and possibly some Star Realms.

But hey on the drive over (I'll try not to over share here too much) I ended up getting sick on me in several spots! That kind of put a dampener on the plans, I couldn't really spend the rest of day smelling of sick. So I rearranged the gaming for tomorrow.

Smelling of sick I picked up the power cable and ended up at the LGS. I managed to find all the expansions that had been released but no sign of the extra dice you can buy. I asked the young lad looking after the shop if they had them but he had no clue. He was equally clueless when asked if there was any Netrunner data packs.
I was becoming a bit frustrated with this shop assistant. He seemed more interested in wanting to get back to his magic deck building with his friend than help the only customer in the shop. There was no “I can't see any on the shelves, let me check out back for you.” There wasn't either a “we don't have it in, but would you like us to order it for you?” Nothing you would consider good customer service.
It puzzles me why stores employ people like this. This sort of person is representing a small business that relies on regular customers, and trying to compete with online retailers. To me this is the small business equivalent of the owner shooting themselves in the foot.
I really did resent spending my money today. I don't like being made to feel like an inconvience, and when the thing that is meant to distinguish your brick and mortar business from those that operate on line is that personal touch, along with instant gratification and ability to browse. You soon think why should I bother?
Maybe I should of just walked out not buying anything. I could of got everything online and with me tomorrow.
I like to support local when I can. But this relationship is a two way street. And today it didn't feel that way.
As you can see from the pictures above I walked away with a copy of the Batman Love Letter. So counting the original Love Letter this will be my third copy of the game, and come the Summer there will be a fourth in the form of The Hobbit Love Letter. I know there are tweaks to the game for each of the IP they represent, but Love Letter has nailed the rebranding the original game to all these other franchises. Althought Munchkin is fastly catching them up on this front (and ironically they are one of the IP with Love Letter). So how many times can I buy at its heart the same game with different branding? When will enough be enough? Obviously the answer is at least once more. But seriously I think they have nearly flogged this horse to death. Mind you it's not stopped all the rebranding of Monopoly.
Just to tie me over until the gravity feed arrives I also got five packs of D&D Dicemasters. The photo below shows the cards I pulled from the five packs.
 

 

Another Present From Past Darren

dice masters, new arrivals
Past Darren sure is a kind and thoughtful person, and knows Future Darren really well. Past Darren thought that Future Darren might just like the new Dungeons and Dragons Dicemasters set, which should also be coming with a promo card for the game too. Wow was Past Darren right. How did he know Future Darren loves Dicemasters, and would definitely love the latest release of the game?

So Future Darren opened up his present from Past Darren that had arrived today. There inside well padded was the new starter set, but no promo card. Maybe it was inside the starter set? I know it was nieve to think that it would be, but still I opened up the starter hoping to find it inside. Sadly the hope was ill placed. There was no promo inside the starter.

With my disappointment still fresh I decided to contact Wayland Games about it. Well it seemed right to let them know how sad I was inside that there was no promo card, especially since I had pre-ordered the starter from them.

So for your reading delight I've included my email to Wayland Games. I'm not expecting a favourable response to this email. But I do feel better after writing it and sending it.

“I received my order today, which I had pre-ordered with you. One of the reasons I pre-ordered the Dicemasters D&D starter was to get the free promo card that was also being given out with it. I was very disappointed that the promo card was not included with my order.

It's a shame as tonight my post about receiving the starter will be mainly about my disappointment of no promo card now, instead of excitement and wanting to challenge other players via Google hangouts. I hope my fellow dicemasters players in the UK have been luckier than me. I'm sure when they read my tale of woe there will be those that will gloat and say I should of gone elsewhere. I can't wait to read those responses on Reddit and facebook. Maybe one will take pity on me and have a spare that they can let me have for an extortionate amount money.

As I'm pressing the send payment button in PayPal to pay for a card I should of received for free as part of my order I will try and think of you in a less than favourable light and not be too bitter. But I fear that I may fail at that as I look at the virtual digits flow from my bank account to the bank account of another.

I would say thank you for the prompt service in dispatching my order to me. But my disappointment stops me from showing such gratitude.

Darren Christie”

 

 

New Arrivals New Arrivals – mid Feb 15

dice masters, lego minifigs, new arrivals, star realms

I'm starting this new arrivals post with Lego minifigs. I'm still awaiting for some parts to arrive from France, but in the meantime I managed to get a Lone Ranger minifig and also the Lego City Polar Accessory Kit. I got this mainly for its accessories. I wanted a tent, and the stove, the mugs and axes are a bonus. But there is also what looks like a lolly which is a little hand trowel. These accessories will help me in my backpacking scene I will be creating.

Next in is some Dicemasters stuff. Top photo shows the three cards from the Days of Future Past OP kit. I had bought the first OP kit as well, however that seems to have been lost by the courier, and I got a refund. So now need to source another copy of that.

The bottom half shows off the final nine cards that I needed to complete the Avengers vs X-Men Dicemasters. So I'm happy about that. My set does not include the alt art cards, that's a silly root for me to take as the Tsarina alt art card is going for silly money.
Next month get the final cards to complete the Uncanny X-Men set.
Finally on the Dicemasters front the Yu-gi-oh! Starter set also arrived. I think I need nineteen cards to finish off this set after getting the starter and a gravity feed. So that isn't bad. The cards are either rare or ultra rare.
Also arriving are the cards from the two tournament kits that Star Realms had last Summer. Star Realms is one of my favourite games at the moment. Obviously there are spares which I'll be giving away. I'm going to need to get another base game. Then I can have a copy of the base game to teach new players with, and a copy of the game with the expansions added to play with experienced players. I still need to find a copy of the Gambit expansion, and I haven't seen anyone advertising the storage box yet.

Finally I have for some reason two copies of the Blackmailer promo card for Cash 'n Guns 2. Could of sworn I only clicked it once! And also with that came the Kickstarter Deluxe Content for Tiny Epic Kingdoms. This adds three new factions and the exploration expansion.

So that's the new arrivals wrapped up. Some cool stuff I think. I'm going to leave this post with something I shared on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook yesterday, I hope you like it.

 

DiceMasters Yu-Gi-Uh Initials Cards I Like

dice masters

As the earlier new arrivals post showed I happened to open a gravity feed for the latest set of Dicemasters Yu-Gi-Uh. I've had a couple of looks through the cards I pulled and thought I'd put up the ones that grabbed my attention so far, ones I like the look of.

This Jinzo card seems to be getting some heat (my friend and Dicemasters online rival Scott dislikes this card).

The main problem now in a mixed game, three sets, only eight cards. And this only gets worse through out the year when the other new sets come out, currently four at the moment.