Category Archives: lcg/ccg/tcg game night

Twin Suns Shenanigans

September 20, 2024lcg/ccg/tcg game night, star wars, Star Wars Unlimited, Twin SunsDarren

Two weeks ago was our first game of Star Wars Unlimited using the Twin Suns multiplayer rules and decks we built.

As my little announcement video below shows I was playing my Sabine Wren and Jyn Erso deck (you can see the deck list here).

I was up against two decks by Marcin. They were

The Mandalorian/Bo-Katan Kryze/Security Complex
Boba Fett/Cad Bane/Command Center

Dave and Marcin took turns playing the decks.

None of the three games we played this first time went beyond the seventh round. So very short games. Expensive cards to play were resources. There would be no chance to play them.

I won the first game, with my deck seemingly working to plan.

Marcin won the remaining two games.

Reflecting back I think although my base Jedha City with its ability while very handy to nullify a threat or reduce the impact. With its health being 25 instead of 30, I felt left me feeling a little more vulnerable.

Although I’m happy with the cost curve it felt I was lacking answers to the threats Marcin and Dave were posing in the two games Marcin won.

This week we once again played Twin Suns games. Dave had his own decks this time (I forgot to make a note of his leaders).

The two games we played this time were longer games. I got the Krayt Dragon out! It won me the first game. I was surprised I got to play the card.

But I had no right winning that game. I was no able to keep a presence on any of the battlefields. It was mainly Dave and Marcin duking it out trying to position themselves for the win. I was just a bystander. Both couldn’t finish off the game by killing me because the other player would win. So they had to concentrate on getting slightly ahead on damaging the other players base.

Dave won game two with some great tactical play especially utilising his leaders to deliver a winning blow by knocking out Marcin. I had sat on cards that dealt with upgrades from my initial hand because of Marcin’s Mando deck.

I am really enjoying our games of Twin Suns.

I think now after five games I might look at what ramp I can possibly introduce to the deck.

As an exercise I might try and classify the cards in the deck by use, such as removal, etc. That might help me identify better areas I’m weak in.

I now have two decks nearly built. I’m just waiting for a handful of cards to arrive. Whilst the third deck that I was inspired to build is 60% complete.

Pimped Out

August 28, 2024ccg/tcg, lcg/ccg/tcg game night, star wars, Star Wars UnlimitedDarren

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.

Multi player Star Wars Unlimited

August 22, 2024lcg/ccg/tcg game night, Star Wars UnlimitedDarren

Tuesday night was our weekly lcg/tcg/ccg game night. This week Marcin, Dave, and myself played a couple of games of multi player Star Wars Unlimited (SWU).

SWU has a multi player format called Twin Suns. Twin Suns is basically the SWU Commander. Like Commander it’s a singleton format, ie only allowed one copy of a card in the deck.

Sadly I have not built any decks for Twin Suns. I’d love to see FFG copy WotC and release Twin Suns precon decks just like WotC release Commander decks but not as frequently as WotC release them. But I digress.

So how did we play a multi player game?

I used the starter decks like they were decks in the MtG Game Night Kit. Which was the inspiration for this idea.

So we each chose a starter deck (Dave went Vader, Marcin went Mando, and I went Luke) and played the game as a free for all.

The one rule I borrowed from Twin Suns was how the game ends.

“Once one player is eliminated, the game will end once the current phase ends. The player with the most HP remaining on their base at the end of the current phase wins the game.” taken from the Comprehensive Rules by FFG p46

We had a blast playing SWU this way.

It had that Commander vibe to it. But you are very much aware how much damage your opponents have on their bases. It’s a deciding factor on when or if you try and take out an opponent. Obviously you don’t want to knock someone out if you have more damage than the other remaining player. So you are hoping that you’re not too vulnerable to get knocked out, whilst the other player hopefully gets some damage to their base putting you in a potential winning position.

I won the first game, whilst Dave won the second. But in both games could have been won by any of us. They were that close.

Obviously I’d like to try the Twin Suns format. But I don’t have the cards to build some for us to use. I’d also like to have some “battle decks” but I suffer from the same issue as that for the Twin Suns decks.

Maybe that’s a project to put on the to do list.

One against many, or just another Commander evening

July 28, 2024Commander, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night, magic, MtGDarren

Tuesday saw another lcg/tcg/ccg evening.

This time three of us could make it, so the plan was to have a game of Commander.

Dave was playing his Doctor Who deck. I played my Ninja deck. While Marcin played my Atraxa precon.

It really was Dave and Marcin vs me. I needed every trick in my deck to try and hold in and get to a winning position.

A position that never arrived.

Was I close? I don’t think so. I tried politicking to try and help me out. But the butt hurt Marcin still had from the weekend made that very hard.

Obviously I knew the main tactic of the Atraxa deck, and the proliferate was useful in delaying Dave getting his cards out for free using his time warp/suspend ability. I think the Doctors deck Dave was using had potential. With some suitable additions could be pretty good and fun.

That’s what I like about my ninja deck is it is a fun deck to play. Maybe not be on the receiving end of.

Marcin managed to get the win.

Next week the plan is to do a Dice Masters draft using draft packs from Tomb of Annihilation. A booster box had arrived earlier that day along with two campaign boxes. Recently Wizkids had a 50% off sale on Dice Masters stuff. So I took advantage of that sale to pick up a couple of things.

Lcg/tcg/ccg night returns

July 17, 2024ccg/tcg, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night, Star Wars UnlimitedDarren

Sadly neither Marcin or Diego were able to make the restart of the lcg/tcg/ccg night. But Dave was.

It’d been a long day for me. To be at work for 6am I need to get up at 4:30. Or 4:45 if I’m feeling particularly lazy. Having started at 6am, these last three days I’ve been finishing at 3pm.

After getting home just before 4pm, I had a bath and nearly fell asleep. Yeah I was that tired.

I threw the two starter sets you can get for Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) into a bag along with the two player game mat.

After pleasantries, getting refreshments, and having to apologise for the very poor quality of the starter set components (they are shocking) we chose our decks from the Spark of Rebellion starter set.

Dave went Vader, which means I played Luke.

The first game went my way. It wasn’t one sided by all means. It was a bit to and fro, with each player having moments having the upper hand.

We stayed with our respective deck choices, and played a second game.

Dave definitely had the upper hand in this game. For the majority of the game I felt I was just holding on for dear life. Delaying the inevitable.

Finally Dave managed to deliver the winning blow.

Our third game was going to be with the second starter set that goes with the latest set Shadows of the Galaxy.

Dave played the Moth Gideon deck whilst I had the Mandalorian deck.

These decks were completely new to me. I had no idea what the focus of them were. I’d avoided any talk online about them.

I had to mulligan my opening hand and the resulting six cards still left me lacking a turn one play or even a decent turn two play. My turn one action was taking the initiative token.

Yeah I was on the backfoot right from the start.

Whilst my deck continued to hate me giving me no synergy between cards I had, no combos etc. Dave’s was just delivering him the goodies to overwhelm me, remove any defences/threats I could muster. In the end he just totally destroyed me.

I know within SWU there is targeted removal of one for or another. But I would have loved a board wipe card in this game. Maybe that’ll come in future releases.

Our fourth and final game saw the tables turned. I was getting upgrades, went all Voltron on Mando once he was out (I had him hitting for eight points of damage and a final winning 9). Dave was struggling to keep up or deal with the heavily upgraded Mando.

I do really like these starter decks. They are great fun to play. Seem relatively balanced. Great design on the player mats with the helpful player aids. But as pointed out these decks are let down by poor component quality.

I’m currently (as you have seen) using these like MtG duel decks for casual play with friends.

I had a great evening playing SWU with Dave.

Star Wars Unlimited two-player starter set experience

April 10, 2024ccg/tcg, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night, star wars, Star Wars UnlimitedDarren

In my previous post I gave my impressions of the two-player starter set from FFG for Star Wars Unlimited.

So continuing on from that post I’m going to share my thoughts on playing Star Wars Unlimited using the two starter decks included in the starter set.

Both Diego and myself have played other competitive collectible and living card games such as Magic the Gathering, Android Netrunner (not sure if Diego has played this) and Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.

Obviously for this starter set to be playable by two-players as its name suggests, it has to come with two preconstructed decks that can be played straight out of the box. You’ll find the deck lists for both decks at the end of the post.

Every deck built for Star Wars Unlimited has to have a leader and base. They determine the cards you can play in your deck. You can play out of faction cards but there is an extra cost in doing so.

In this two-player starter the two leaders you get are Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

I love that the art for both is from the duel between them on Cloud City at the end of Empire.

I’ve not looked at all the cards in the decks. But there is one that ties in with this called “I am your father”.

Even the way the card works (above) is so thematic. Love it.

Luke’s base is the Aministrator’s Tower, and Vader’s is the Commander Center. Both 30 health, and add a third faction symbol.

Obviously the game shares mechanics common to all ccgs. Such as exhausting cards (tapping in mtg), units coming in exhausted (summoning sickness), spending resources to play cards. You get the idea.

So coming from a ccg background it was very easy to pick up the game.

I did like that you draw two cards at the end of the round, and may play a card from hand face down to be used as a resource.

This for me this is a major difference to other games I’ve played. It also introduces a hard decision because once a card has been played face down as a resource there is no getting it back. Which card becomes a resource? Which do you hold on to? If you don’t play a resource it delays when your leader can come out, it limits what cards can be played. It has such big implications. Especially early on.

I also like the back and forth of actions. And the gamble of passing. On your turn you can pass, waiting to see what your opponent does. However if your opponent seizes the initiative, or passes also. That’s it the round has ended. Even if you wanted to do more! That’s the gamble.

Diego and I played a game with each deck.

The decks seem fairly evenly matched. Our first game was pretty close.

Although our second game was more one sided. But that was more down to the draw of cards. You get games like that. You just have to put the game behind you, and move on to the next one.

I liked playing Star Wars Unlimited with these decks. They were fun to play. Great decks to play casually with a friend over the kitchen table.

I’ll definitely buy the next sets two-player starter set. Hopefully they too will be as balanced.

Finally here are the two deck lists for the decks.

It should be noted there are some cards in this starter set that are only available in the starter set, or in the op kit promo kits.

First impressions of the two-player starter set for Star Wars Unlimited

April 10, 2024ccg/tcg, first look, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night, star wars, Star Wars UnlimitedDarren

Last night I got to play the two-player starter set for Star Wars Unlimited with Diego.

I have some mixed thoughts about the whole experience.

Let me just say up front I really like the game.

However I do have some issues with the quality of this product.

First up is the flimsy very thin card tokens included for tracking damage, first player, etc. That’s my issue they are so flimsy. I hate them. If you intend to get into the game you will want to upgrade these as a priority. Maybe that’s what the aim was. To “encourage” you to buy the GameGenic acrylic tokens. That’s if you can find anywhere that has them.

I was also very disappointed with the quality of the cards themselves. They too are very thin. You will be sleeving the cards. You have to. These are boarding on unusable. This means that opening boosters will be a bitter sweet experience. On one hand I’ll be excited about opening the packs, and the cards I pull. On the other repulsed by the poor quality of the card stock used.

The two folded paper playmats were as expected quality wise. I like they have the play areas on them. Plus act as a player aid with setup, what you can do on a turn, end of a round summary, plus keyword summary. All very handy for learning the game, and teaching it.

The quick start/learn to play booklet is nice and does the job well. We hardly had to refer to it.

The two cardboard deck boxes a nice touch that don’t need assembling. They are large enough to hold the cards sleeved.

Overall I think value wise this is a great starter set. However quality wise of the cards and tokens it feels cheap and that FFG are cutting corners to cut costs and maximise profit.

In another post I’ll talk more about the play experience of Star Wars Unlimited using this two-player starter set.

A two player evening

November 11, 2023dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game nightDarren

Last night I met up with Marcin to play some games. Which meant this was a third night this week that I’d done some gaming. Something that hasn’t happened in a long long time.

We started off with a game of 51st State. A game I haven’t played in a few years. I think the last time I played this was at a UKGE with my friend Scott.

We were playing Marcin’s copy of the game that is the Ultimate edition. Which is a pretty cool edition that replaces the Master edition. It has all the expansions, “upgraded” components, insert, etc. I was almost envious and regretting I hadn’t got this edition myself. But at the time it was announced and added to GameFound or whatever it used to be called I couldn’t justify the expense.

After a brief refresh on the rules we were ready to play.

I was off to a slower start than Marcin unable to get anything going resource wise until it was too late to stop or catch up.

By the time the game ended I had only gained 3 victory points to Marcin’s 25!

Next I introduced Marcin to the dark draft format for Dice Masters using my pauper cube.

The teams we ended up drafting were the following:

My Team

Gambit: Ace in the Hole
Green Goblin: Goblin Lord
Mystique: Ageless
Hawkeye: Longbow
Psylocke: Betsy Braddock
Wolverine: Wildboy
Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants
Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme

Basic Actions

Rally!
Gearing Up

Marcin’s Team

Black Widow: Natural
Falcon: Samuel Wilson
Iron Man: Upright
Punisher: McRook
Loki: Trickster
Sabretooth: Something to Prove
Pyro: Saint-John Allerdyce
Doctor Doom: Reed Richards‘ Rival

Basic Actions

Smash!
Ambush

Game one saw Marcin use the Punisher to great effect. It kept chipping away at my health whilst I failed to really get a solution in place to deal with its threat.

Game two saw me do much better. A mixed attack of two Green Goblins, a couple of sidekicks, and a Gambit swung in to grab me a victory.

Our third and final game was over very quickly. This was the Green Goblin and sidekicks showcase. Which saw me swinging in with an unopposed 18 attack made up of five sidekicks, a Green Goblin, and a Gambit iirc.

The two games I won Marcin did get a Punisher out. But it was used less effectively. For some reason Marcin preferred Falcon over Black Widow.

In all the games I was using the crap out of Professor X’s global to move sidekicks into the prep area. In the first game I needed to do that to buff up Mystique. With the side benefit of it allowing me to ramp into a Professor X or Doctor Strange.

Marcin enjoyed the dark draft format. Which means the two people I’ve played it with it’s been a hit. Marcin also liked the cards in the cube more than the modern cube. They were less complicated. Easier for a new player to understand.

So a great evening of gaming.

It was a dark dark draft of a night

November 1, 2023dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game nightDarren

After missing last weeks lcg/ccg/tcg game night (I think it didn’t happen in the end) due to me doing some overtime at work. I was glad to be getting some gaming in again.

This week it was going to be just Dave and myself. So I arranged to play test the dark draft format in Dice Masters with him. Commander would have to wait for another evening with more players.

When I play Epic the card game (usually the app version of the game, did I say the app is free? You only pay for online competitions or cosmetic stuff) I only play dark draft. It’s my favourite two player format of the game. Especially for a draft experience.

I love that decision space you have with the initial hand of cards. You can only have one but which? Which do you really not want your opponent to have? Which one do you really want or need? Which of the two decisions is the stronger? Is it more important that your opponent doesn’t have that card? Or do you really really need that card more?

Add on top the incomplete information of what your opponent has drafted it really does add up to some very difficult decisions.

We drafted using the Marvel Pauper Cube I created (you can get the list of cards I used here).

Draft 1

My First Drafted Team

Black Widow: Natural
Gambit: Ace in the Hole
Green Goblin: Goblin Lord
Punisher: McRook
Psylocke: Betsy Braddock
Wolverine: Wildboy
Rogue: Anna Raven
Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme

Basic Actions

Rally!
Transfer Power

Dave’s First Drafted Team

Captain America: Special Ops
Falcon: Samuel Wilson
Black Panther: Wakanda Chief
Vision: Density Control
Spider-Man: Hero for Hire
Mr. Fantastic: Brilliant Scientist
Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants
Nick Fury: Mr. Anger

Basic Actions

Teamwork
Focus Power

I was happy with the curve I had. The only character I never bought was Rogue in the two games we played.

Doctor Strange was a really cool dice to have out. Getting free basic action die was super helpful. But it seemed like I could never roll them when I had sidekicks they could affect in the used area.

But my team worked a bit better than Dave’s to get me two wins.

Draft 2

My Second Drafted Team

Black Widow: Natural
Punisher: McRook
Rogue: Anna Raven
Deadpool: Assassin
Hawkeye: Longbow
Namor: The Sub Mariner
Wolverine: Wildboy
Marvel Girl: Telekinetic

Basic Actions

Rally!
Invulnerability

Dave’s Second Drafted Team

Toad: Tongue Lashing
Pyro: Saint-John Allerdyce
Green Goblin: Goblin Lord
Mystique: Ageless
Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants
Colossus: Unstoppable
Gambit: Ace in the Hole
Magik: Illyana Rasputina

Basic Actions

Gearing Up
Transfer Power

It was a clean sweep on the victory front. Although game one of the second draft I thought Dave had me. He got me down to seven health before I was able to stabilise and make a dramatic comeback to snatch victory. The basic action dice for Invulnerability was the secret source for my victory here. Being able to swing in with everything and still have characters left on the field was a life saver. Especially against a heavily buffed Mystique.

The second game of draft two was just not kind to Dave. The dice were just not rolling kindly for him. He kept getting energy. So much energy.

For the record I never bought Rogue in these two games either!

So how was it?

Wow! This worked so well.

Dave said he preferred it for two players. This is now my preferred two player draft format too.

It delivered everything I enjoyed about the format in Epic the Card Game. And worked so well using the cube.

I highly recommend that if you are playing a two player draft then this is the only way to go about it.

A multiplayer experience

October 18, 2023dice masters, Dicemasters, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game nightDarren

Last night was our weekly lcg/ccg/tcg night at Fenland Gamers.

We would once again be drafting Dice Masters. But this time using the Dark Phoenix Saga display box (contains 8 draft boosters) that I picked up for £40 off eBay.

Which was a bloody bargain. These retail at £80 plus usually. So being able to pick one up so cheaply was not an opportunity I would be turning down.

Hopefully I can get a bargain Secret Wars to draft in the future.

Our session was attended by Dave, his friend Zack, and myself.

Zack had not played the game before but was familiar with MtG. So we had a learning game where I cracked open a draft booster (I’d not included the two origin packs this time). I chose a couple of basic action cards, and a couple characters for each of us to learn with. With Dave helping/advising him, Zack and I played a greatly cut down game of Dice Masters.

Zack picked the game up quickly, helped by his MtG experience.

After the game we cracked open three draft boosters and commenced to draft our cards.

The teams lined up as follows: