Category Archives: lcg/ccg/tcg game night

Star Wars Unlimited two-player starter set experience

ccg/tcg, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night, star wars, Star Wars Unlimited

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.

Luke’s Base
Vader’s Base
The two bases

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.

Deck list for both 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

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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

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night

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

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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

dice masters, Dicemasters, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night

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.

The Dark Phoenix Saga Display Box

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:

My Team

  • Psylocke: Telepath
  • Kitty Pryde: Right of Passage
  • Lilandra: Politician
  • Corsair: Recruiting a Crew
  • Mister Sinister: Biologist
  • Professor X: Uncanny Leadership
  • Storm: Cloud Cover
  • Rogue: Mrs. X

Zack’s Team

  • Professor X: House of X
  • Wolverine: Pure of Heart
  • Iceman: Frozen Fists of Fury
  • Storm: Extreme Weather
  • Angel: Wings Over the World
  • Bishop: Tortured Timeline
  • Blink: Skilled Combatant
  • Cable: I’ll Do This All Day

Dave’s Team

  • Corsair: Criminal Record
  • Toad: Looking for Comradery
  • Gladiator: Psi Resistance
  • Colossus: Skilled Painter
  • Blob: Depowered from M-Day
  • Master Mold: Targeting Mutants
  • Bishop: I’m Back!
  • Lilandra: Politician

Basic Action Cards

  • Mutation (randomly selected from discarded cards)
  • Making the Team (Zack’s choice)
  • Power Bolt (my choice)
  • Lab Test (Dave’s choice)

Which Multiplayer format did we go with?

The multiplayer format we went with was Hunter (see yesterday’s post for a description of it and others). I thought this would be the easier format to go with having a new player with us.

Each of us chose a basic action card from the ones we drafted to go in the middle as a common pool, plus a fourth was chosen randomly from the remaining discarded basic action cards.

We also went with the first player handicap for everyone but the last player on their first turn.

I really liked this format. I hadn’t played Hunter before in Star Realms. So had no idea what to expect!

My new dice tower

This format does force some hard decisions on you. You want to swing in and hit your opponent on the left. But at the same time not wanting to leave yourself wide open to an attack from the person on your right.

It was a delicate balancing act that was not easy to pull off.

In our game I did get an initial free hit at Dave who was on my left. And then after that chipped him away with a Power Bolt. Which was how I knocked him out. Freeing my attack phase up for getting in a sneaky unblockable attack on Zack.

But in the later half of the game I started making purchases that’d allow me to deal with Zack’s scary team. Wolverine and Ice Man were not a nice pairing.

That planning may have been for nothing if Zack had rolled better and been a bit more aggressive.

But in the end I ended up victorious.

Yeah I thought Dice Masters worked as a multiplayer game. Can’t wait to try the other variants that I covered.

It’s cold outside

game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night

It was that one evening a week when I currently manage to get some gaming in once again.

This week finally (since I bought the game back in 2015) saw Arctic Scavengers hit the table. The edition I have comes with the base game, plus two expansions HQ and Recon.

Setting up a game

I had spent some time Monday configuring my copy of the game as an all in setup. Afterwards on the Fenland Gamers Discord channel for lcg/ccg/tcg games (I know Artic Scavengers is a deckbuilder) I asked Diego to bring his copy of the game so we could quickly and easily play a base game only.

When you look through the rulebooks (there are two in the box, one covers the base game and HQ expansion, the other just the Recon expansion) you are presented with the premise that the expansions are module and told which cards to add to include for the module. They then suggest the market has a particular unit plus 9 others to make up to 10 units to buy from. That gives you the impression that you can choose any other units etc. However if you go all in on the modules. You do not have that freedom of choice. You are basically not using any of the base games units.

But I do really like this kind of a la carte module choice during setup. Plus there are two or three modules that do not actually add cards to the game but change rules.

I also like that scattered through out the modules there are suggested setups for things like the contested resource deck, and suggestions on tweaking things.

A final word about setup of the game. The game comes with an insert that organises the cards and helps speed up the process of setting up. However it also means that cards warp/bend when stored this way as I found out Monday. A better solution would have been labelled card dividers but hindsight is a marvellous thing, especially some 8 years later.

Onto the game

Set in the near future of 2097 in an arctic post-apocalyptic world when humanity is struggling to survive and attract new tribal members from survivors. The theme of the game made me think of post-apocalyptic movies such as The Colony, and Snowpiercer, and even the board game Dead of Winter (without the zombies naturally). But did the theme come through as we played the game?

Diego, Marcin, Dave, and myself played the base game plus the gangs, leaders, and buildings modules thrown in.

The leaders each of us chose are below:

Our leaders

I liked the art it had the right tone for the theme. But did it help get the theme across?

On your turn you can go hunting which allows you to recruit new tribe members. You can go scavenging that allows you to go looking for useful items in the junkyard. Or you can take part in a fight with the other tribes for contested items like bigger groups of tribe members or more powerful items than can be found in the junkyard. But do these mechanics help get the theme across?

Now I’ve asked that question three times about theme without answering it. For me the theme seems paper thin. It’s hard to get the theme across in a deckbuilder. Without being told what the theme was you might guess it’s post-apocalyptic from the art.

The combat phase at the end of each round that took place from the third round onwards felt very Dune Imperium like. But I did like the combat. It gave you an interesting choice to make with your hand of five cards. How many did you save for the combat and how many did you use to do one or two of the other actions? Was that contested resource worth going all in for? Something only you knew when you became the initiator for the round. There is the bluffing element also, where you could save two cards that are useless in combat. But it makes the other players think about how many they commit. Maybe forcing them to do less action wise trying to beat you in combat.

The game itself is 16 rounds. With the contested items deck acting as the game timer. I like clever touches like this.

I liked the asymmetry that the leaders added to the game. We went with the default way of choosing our leader of being dealt two, pick one and discard the other. However in one of the two rulebooks there are a couple of alternate rules for picking them.

At the end of the game after the gangs went to the appropriate tribe, the dust settled and Marcin had amassed the most tribe members.

Final scores

I did enjoy Artic Scavengers. It was a fun experience. Just sad that it has taken so long to get to the table.

Another great evening gaming.

Next week Marvel Champions hits the table.

Trying the cube

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters, Fenland Gamers, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night

Last night was the weekly Fenland Gamers lcg/ccg/tcg club night.

Our game for the evening was Dice Masters.

Earlier in the day I prepared two “welcome to Dice Masters” packs for Diego and Marcin who were playing for the first time.

The welcome packs are basically a set of sidekick dice, a set of basic action dice, set of basic action cards, and a wax dice bag.

I’d done similar for Dave last time we played the game.

The only thing missing are play mats. Need to find a solution.

Welcome to Dice Masters packs for the new players

After a learning game for Marcin and Diego using the Secret Wars Origin packs (I keep these in a deck box precisely for this reason) I have we went on to draft from the make shift cube.

Franklin’s Galactus was in my starting hand of the draft. I had to draft the card even if I wasn’t going to put it in the final team. I just couldn’t run the risk of having to face it across the table.

After building our teams and selecting our basic actions we paired up to play.

It was myself vs Dave, and Marcin vs Diego.

Here are the teams for my match with Dave.

My Drafted Team

  • Franklin’s Galactus: No Mercy
  • Iceman: Mr Ice Guy
  • Psylocke: Telepath
  • Namor: Leading the Cabal
  • Jean Grey: Xavier’s Dream
  • Cyclops: First Class
  • Mr. Fantastic: Brilliant Scientist
  • Angel: Jean Grey’s School

Basic Actions

  • Making the Team
  • Escape!

Dave’s Drafted Team

  • Apocalypse: Wicked Supremacist
  • Forge: More Than Firepower
  • Invisible Woman: Regents of the Uhari Throne
  • Mister Sinister: Bar Sinister
  • Bishop: Time Traveller
  • Namor: Warring with the Surface
  • Beast: Olympic Athleticism
  • Falcon: Take Flight

Basic Actions

  • Power Bolt
  • The Siege Perilous

Whilst Marcin and Diego were battling away I managed to smash Dave convincingly with a combo of Psylocke, Namor, Iceman, and my big threat Franklin’s Galactus.

Unintentionally I had drafted a pretty lethal four cards. Namor punished Dave for blocking, so once out he just sat there. Psylocke was my early buy and didn’t come into her own until I got Franklin’s Galactus out. Up until that point I kept her fielded as a blocker. Once the big guy was out I wanted her to do that get knocked out, and refielded thing so I could give the level 3 10A 10D Franklin’s Galactus overcrush. Which with the Iceman energise was lethal and got me a very emphatic victory.

So after obliterating Dave in game one, we went onto game two because Marcin and Diego were still battling it out.

This time Dave tried to disrupt my plan and take me out before I got a chance to get those lethal four cards working together.

And his plan was working he had me down to four life before I got Franklin’s Galactus out, and pulled off one of the nastiest bits of shenanigans going. Earlier in the game I had bought basic action die for Making the Team. With the thought of getting Namor out quickly.

However this particular bit of shenanigans had me rolling that basic action die, along with enough dice to give me the energy to buy Franklin’s Galactus. The basic action die came up with the side to activate the basic action ability. So I bought the big one. Then did the basic action, rolled Franklin’s Galactus and got its level 2 face.

Dave was impressed and disgusted at the same time.

I survived Dave’s next go, and was rolling a lot of dice once more that included the basic action die.

Not only did I have enough energy to get the second Franklin’s Galactus, which rolled into its level 3 face. I had the energise side of Iceman and fielded a Psylocke. That level 3 was now 20A 10D with overcrush and I swung in with everything.

Good night Dave.

Onto game three.

Dave came a lot closer to defeating me, getting my life down to 2. But a last ditch turn of mine that saw two basic action dice for Making the Team allow me to get both of my Namor dice fielded, another Iceman energise, fielding a Psylocke, and an already fielded Iceman and a couple of sidekicks sitting as 2A 1D swing in to get exactly twelve points of damage that I needed to grab the win after Dave had allocated blockers.

That was a much closer game. Dave’s plan of using Mr Fantastic’s global against me to force my fielded Namor to attack really worked.

Near the end of the third game the epic battle between Marcin and Diego ended. Sadly I didn’t get who the victor was. Hopefully Diego will add a comment with the result.

So a clean sweep for me against Dave.

Diego and Marcin really enjoyed playing Dice Masters. Which was good to hear. Maybe next time we will try the new cube I created using just commons from Uncanny X-men and Avengers vs X-Men. Which I need to do a post about the cards selected.

I thought this cube was fun. It does need some tweaking. But I need one or more draft packs to be able to do that. One or two of the cards are pointless because they have things trigger if there is a Wolverine fielded. So I either need a Wolverine card or replace these with others.

I know I’m sounding like a broken record but this was another really fun evening.

Finally…

Over on my favourite Dice Masters podcast A Double Double ‘n Dice Podcast they have once again read my comments out on the show. This time they also link to the blog and my posts to do with Dice Masters. Which was kind of them to do. I appreciate this blog is very niche at best, and certainly not to everyone’s taste.

So at some point I might see people who know Dice Masters much better than myself calling me out for my errors.

But in the meantime you can listen to the latest show (at time of writing) here on YouTube.