Category Archives: netrunner

netrunner

I’m Not A Champ

netrunner, star realms

My continuing hunt to complete the set of Star Realms promo cards has taken one more step towards completion. This morning two copies of the Starmarket a Trade Federation base and The Ark a Machine Cult card arrived.

The nice thing about the Star Realms app is that these two cards are in the Gambits expansion, so I'm used to playing with them.

The Ark is an amazingly powerful card and rightfully expensive. It definitely is one of my favourite cards in the game.

I also like the Starmarket probably in my top five bases in the game.

Below a photo of all the promo cards I have for Star Realms so far.

To complete the set I need to get/find two Battle Barges and a Breeding Site. But I'm a patient man, I know these will turn up and when they do I'll be there. I know there are some alt art cards that have been done for promos at various cons. However I try and avoid them because that way lies madness and stupid high prices.

8th Casual Sunday Star Realms Tournament

Oh for those interested I once more lost in the first round of the 8th Casual Sunday Star Realms tournament. I lost 2-1, all three game were close. I actually won the first game to my surprise! I had made the tactical decision to buy bases and follow a bases strategy, which is unusual for me as I normally buy maybe two or three bases at most. Towards the middle of the game I accidently scraped a Trade Federation Trading Post (I think it was), which is easy to do. As soon as I did it, it was “oh crap I didn't mean to do that”. I needed to keep that base as part of my big plan. “I've bloody lost this” kept running through my head afterwards. But I hung in, stuck to the plan, kept buying and fielding the bases, and slowly chipped away at my opponents authority to get the win.

Games two and three were much more aggressive hardly any bases! In the second I hadn't scraped enough so that when I got my opponent down to under ten authority I wasn't able to finish them off, because as so often happens in this game you then draw scouts or non offensive ships. Which then gives your opponent the window they need to get back in the game and steal the win.

I'm not a store champion

We all know I'm a noob at the game, struggling to find games locally. Heck none of my local stores even run Netrunner events (but I have a plan for solving that).

However FFG do produce some rather cool looking play mats as prizes for stores to use. The fact is I'm nowhere near good enough to enter let alone win a tournament (this will come). So how does a noob or pleb like me get their hands on such good looking mats?

Well you can sometimes find a complete store kit on Amazon for around £70 plus. While eBay you are more likely to find individual bits like the play mat on sale for silly money. The play mats alone on eBay can be £40 or more. Then sometimes on the Netrunner Facebook pages stuff will pop up for sale.

It was this last place that I got the above play mat from and deck boxes. Usually the Facebook side isn't too far from the eBay price. However recently there has been a spat of sales on one of the groups from people located in Poland. Not only that they have been selling at a really cheap price compared to the other places I've mentioned above. Naturally they tend to sell very quickly. That playmat cost $15! Yep amazingly low. The three deck boxes were $5 each. Plus the postage was rediculously low as well.

So now I have two great play mats for Netrunner. Back now to trying to play more games.

 

My Noise Deck

netrunner, tabletop

Here is my Noise deck that I put together to play against Todd. As the feedback from Todd was I didn't put him under enough pressure or as I like to put it I was not aggressive enough. I just wasn't drawing viruses, which put me off running at ice. The cards I had in for economy worked really well. So I'm happier with that side of things.

My viruses/programs need to be worked on. So once Todd sees this list and what cards he has to work with he will make some suggestions on how to improve my deck.

In the meantime I want to replace Inject with something else. What I don't know, maybe use those as slots for more viruses. I know I have spare influence as well so using an out of faction card is an option.

Runner:

  • Noise

Programs:

  • Parasite
  • Clot (x2)
  • Darwin (x2)
  • Wyrm (x2)
  • Imp (x2)

Events:

  • Inside Job
  • Day Job
  • Wanton Destruction
  • Inject (x2)
  • Showing Off (x2)
  • Hacktivist Meeting (x2)
  • I've Had Worse (x2)
  • Infiltration (x2)
  • Surge (x2)
  • Deja Vu (x2)
  • Demolition Run (x2)

Resources:

  • Scrubber (x2)
  • Utopia Shard
  • Hades Shard
  • Armitage Codebusting (x2)
  • Virus Breeding Ground (x2)
  • Kati Jones
  • Human First
  • Plascrete Carapace (x2)
  • Chop Bot 3000
  • Astrolabe
  • Grimoire
  • Cyberfeeder (x2)

45 cards in total

Built from the following:

  • Core set (x2)
  • What Lies Ahead
  • Trace Amount
  • Cyber Exodus
  • A Study in Static
  • Humanity's Shadow
  • Future Proof
  • True Colors
  • First Contact
  • Up and Over
  • All That Remains
  • The Valley
  • Breaker Bay
  • Order and Chaos

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

My Anarch Program Cards

netrunner
NB I had the following data packs when I built this deck:
  • What Lies Ahead
  • Trace Amount
  • Cyber Exodus
  • A Study in Static
  • Humanity's Shadow
  • Future Proof
  • True Colors
  • First Contact
  • Up and Over
  • All That Remains
  • Order and Chaos

Plus two starter sets

 

My Master Plan!

With Noise as my Anarch runner every time I install a virus program the top card of the corp scums R&D pile gets trashed into archives. So my thinking was I need to be playing to this strength and installing as many virus programs as possible.

The plan was to attack the core servers which I think and I may be wrong on this a keyhole strategy.

I wanted to be able to put pressure on the corp by being able to look at both the top and bottom of the corps R&D when I did a successful run on it, plus put as many cards as possible from R&D into archives ready for a run on it at the right moment. To aid this strategy I wanted to get the Hades Shard installed on archives early so that I could do a run on archives at an appropriate moment getting as many agendas as possible that would snatch me the win.

Being able to attack both ends of R&D would make life difficult for the corp scum because they wouldn't be able to hide agendas towards the bottom of the deck.

I hadn't forgotten about HQ and I had the matching card (can't remember it's name at the mo) to Hades Shard that would allow me to install it and do a run on HQ when ever I wanted. This tactic again relied on getting a run on HQ early before the corps can put up any really defence.

This would mean that the corps would not have a safe central server to hide agendas.

It should then be a matter of pulling the trigger at the right time to hover up those agendas to win.

Well that's the thinking, as we know from the games I played it didn't work exactly as planned as I lost both runner games.

Program Cards that I used:

  • Djinn
  • 2x Darwin
  • Imp
  • 2x Progenitor
  • 2x Medium
  • 2x Hivemind
  • 2x Crypsis
  • Keyhole

Progenitor and Djinn were chosen to allow me to host other programs/virus without impacting my memory usage. Progenitor also has the bonus of keeping a virus token the hosted card when the corp scum purge virus counters. Hivemind allows me to use its virus tokens on other virus programs as if they are theirs for card effects. Which is pretty cool for pimping out Darwin on the down low.

Medium allows me with the help of Hivemind also allows me to access more cards in R&D when I do a successful run on it. And Imp allows me to trash cards which is good when we consider my “master plan”.

Crypsis I can't remember why I chose this one. I think it was because I wanted an Icebreaker AI virus to help feed off the Noise ability of trashing the top card of R&D when a virus is installed.

So there you have it the program's I played plus my master plan. The next plan will look at the hardware and resources I chose.

Feel free to comment below with suggestions of how I can improve my deck – just remember the data packs that I have. Although as I have proven I am prepared to jump a data pack to a must buy ahead of the ordered purchase list I have to get a needed card.

 

Crystal Maze Post

lego minifigs, netrunner

The forces of good gather to consider options to get Han out of the pickle he's got himself in. Obi Wan said Han shouldn't have failed his Crystal Maze challenge. But Luke and Chewie didn't like this change to the original Crystal Maze format. The ramifications of failing the challenge had a lot more serious consequences than just being trapped in a room.

I decided to add a spare black cloak to the Jedi Luke minifig to finish it off. I may get a black hood at some point to use with it.
A Darth Vader wearing a medal arrived escorted by two Stormtroopers. Wasn't happy with the state of one of the Stormtrooper helmets. I think bad feedback may be due.
Once again I've added to a minifig. This time Vader really did need a lightsaber.
Is it obvious what minifigs I'll be using on a certain day next month? I bet it is.
Some minifig props also landed through the door, four blasters for the Stormtroopers, and a trophy. I think there will be some end of year awards this year.
I also created a new minifig called The Establishment that was inspired by the cover of the book by Owen Jones. It was a simple figure to create, a Lone Ranger head(!) for the mask, a bowler hat, suit torso and plain black legs. Captures the cover rather well I think.
 

The second volume of Snowpiercer also arrived.

Android:Netrunner SanSan Cycle Data Packs

Super cool news saw that the first data pack in the SanSan Cycle is out to buy! The data pack is called The Valley, and that's all I know about it. I've not seen any spoilers for cards for this data pack, or cycle so I have absolutely no idea what to expect. This is going to be an unusual experience for me. Usually something I play I'm up on any spoilers. I don't recognise myself.

 

 

I Am The Harbour Master

netrunner, star realms, tabletop
Yes the above photo is the photographic evidence that I am truly the Harbour Master! But we will get to that part of the story later.
As I blogged yesterday the planned day of playing tabletops had to be rearranged for today. The plan was to be round Jamie's for around 10:30. I was hoping nah praying that the postman would arrive before I left with the First Contact data pack. I needed one card from this data pack for my planned Anarch deck to play against Jamie.
The courier arrived not long after 8am with one delivery consisting of King of New York and Perudo. As I was about to drive off with the car loaded up my Netrunner cards, Star Realms, Tiny Epic Kingdoms, and Age of War the postman walked past my car. In his hands were a couple of small Amazon packages. “By any chance are those two Amazon packages for number 4?” I enquired hopefully of the postman. The postman responded in the positive and handed over my deliveries. The postal gods had been kind to me and had delivered the data pack to me just in time. I had the card I needed (if I had identified the correct data pack it was in that is).

The full order was the Android:Netrunner First Contact data pack, Roll For It and a set of extra dice for Star Wars Imperial Assault.
In total Jamie and I played four games of Netrunner, and I didn't win a single one of them. The first two games I played as the heroic Anarch runner Noise fighting against the man. I did manage to steal some agendas, and the deck I came up with worked roughly how I thought it would. The first game I attacked Jamie's R&D a lot, and some of the remote servers. Second game I switched tactics, avoided R&D for runs. Jamie had put more ice in front of HQ and R&D leaving his Archives less guarded. I kept trashing R&D by installing viruses, did a run on Archives and installed a Hades Shard? That would allow me to access the whole of Archives at a time of my choosing irrespective of how much ice Jamie installed. I got two agendas out of this tactic when I pulled the trigger. So I was very pleased that this worked. The final two games I played as the corporate scum Weyland. I wasn't expecting much from this deck as it was made up on the spot. I do need to look more into what I want the corp deck to do, and I need to put my hate for the man to one side and get better at being the corp. but I do find playing the runner a lot easier. I'll put up the two decks I played in another post for ripping apart.
But even though I lost I had a blast playing. I'm just going to get better the more I play. I'm lucky Jamie is patient with me as we play. Sometimes I wasn't able to ask Jamie a question as it would of given away what I was going to do, so I had to quickly look up an answer in the rule book.
After Android:Netrunner we played Star Realms. It was just a single game that I was able to get multiple outposts out and allowed me to sit behind a Great Wall of bases and outposts, that stopped Jamie doing any serious damage to me. I was racking up authority, getting combos, it was really hard and I know from having been on the other end of this tactic just a little frustrating. What made it worse for Jamie was that none of the big hitters came out, or the base destroyers. That really did make the Jamie's job of getting through the Great Wall a lot harder. But he did well getting combos together to knock down the wall, but it would be back up next go, and fully built within a couple of turns. Still the inevitable with this strategy happened I won!
Sometimes I do think that maybe Star Realms might be a little bit biased towards a bases strategy.
After Star Realms we moved on to a game I've got but not played Takenoko. Cute hungry pandas, grumpy gardeners growing bamboo, and another game that I bought after seeing it on Tabletop. Now I'm not saying this because I won, but this is a fun game.
What turned out to be the penultimate game was Jamie and I learning to play Roll for It. It literally takes a minute to read the rules to learn to play. This was a fun little game to play. It's rolling dice, what isn't there to enjoy about doing that? What I like about this game is you have to manage your dice, it's possible to steal cards from other players by completing them first. It really is a great little filler game. Plus I won this game.
The last game we played was Harbour By Tasty Minstrel Games. When Jamie bought the game out it hadn't rung any bells. But once I saw market card and the player cards it clicked I had seen these before in a recent video YouTube. I think it was the Crits Happen Top 5 mini games or something like that. No wait it was a Watch It Played video.

Harbour is a worker placement game with a dynamic marketplace and a hint of set collection. The dynamic marketplace is a nice mechanic which basically means after a player buys a property the values you get for each of the four resource types changes. Which means you could just be about to buy a property based on the values currently on the marketplace, another player jumps in before you, buys a property and the values change, all of a sudden you can't get enough for your goods to buy a property. I love that. It's a touch of genius.

For most of the game Jamie had the lead and was always a property ahead of me, well he was the first to two buildings. Always buying a building a move before me. But I thought I was about to pull of a stunning win by buying two properties. I went to execute the coup de grace, but fell on my face, I had misread the building cards. I had misread the cards point value as the cards cost! I couldn't buy both buildings in one go. But I could buy one and in a couple of turns be able to buy the second. All the time I was expecting Jamie to movie to his building to buy his final building to win. But he didn't I was able to complete the two turns and buy the final required building. Even with a final turn Jamie wasn't able to buy a final building. It was time to add up our points. Just as a final act of dumbassery (is that even a word?) I miss read the cost for points and ended up with a score less than Jamie's! Once the points were correctly added up I had won. Now it was photo time. There is a card with the game that the game creators suggest you take a selfie with to allow you to boast about your victory. Hence the photo at the start of this blog post and the title of this post. They also suggest that if you tweet the picture to include them in the tweet. Which I have done as I shared with the world that I am THE HARBOUR MASTER!

I've had a totally awesome day playing games with Jamie. Thank you to Allie for being such an amazing hostess and the really delish chocolate brownie.

 

More food for thought

netrunner, tabletop

More options arrived today for my first runner deck in the shape of the Order and Chaos expansion.

This is one of the “large” expansions. 165 cards of awesome covering Anarch runners and Weyland corporate scum (I did say I'm squarely on the side of the runners).
I'm busy looking through the Anarch cards at the moment, and the neutral runner cards. I can see one or two that will be in my deck for sure. My first deck has a target of being 45 cards the bare minimum I can have. I don't want to go more than that. The thinking behind this is it means I'm more likely to get to the cards I want in the deck. But it also means I need to be ruthless in my choices, and to make sure that the cards I select work together, and support each other.
I love the size of this expansion, the box itself has a nice rich feel of quality. As usual there is a leaflet that has background info/flavour text on the three new Anarch runners and a corporate identity. I love that FFG do that. It helps bring the characters to life. The flavour text on the cards themselves is good and gets to the heart of the what the card represents. But these longer bits are a much welcomed addition.
I've read the Android book Free Fall which I loved reading. The Anarch runner Noise is mentioned in it. But sadly we don't get to meet the character, or to find out more about him. Free Fall is at its heart a cop story, a who dunnit? Only its set in some dsytopian future that resonates a little with our current times. Like all good sci-fi does.
I'm hoping in the other books written we get a look at the runners. In the meantime these bits of longer flavour text are teasing scraps that FFG throw at us. A sneak peak behind the curtains that I want to get to see more of.
Right I'm off to do my homework for my deck.

 

Building My Runner Deck Part 1

netrunner
In a previous post about Android:Netrunner I shared my early thoughts on the game and why I was drawn towards the runners.
In Netrunner there are three types of runner, anarchs, criminals and shapers.
Anarchs are described in the rule book as having a “strong contempt for the corporate oligarchs, the whole corrupt system, and often for society in general”. Anarchs like to watch the world burn, but also stand up for the downtrodden and oppressed.
Criminals on the other hand are “make self-interest an art form and don't care who gets hurt so long as they get ahead.” They embrace the criminal side and partake in other forms of criminal activity.
Lastly Shapers “are motivated by curiosity and a certain amount of pride.” “Because I can” would be the moto of a shaper. Raging against the machine or criminal activities are of little interest to the them.
Out of the three types of runner I'm drawn more to the anarchs and shapers than the criminals. But the type I'd opt to play more than the rest would be anarchs. The whole rage against the machine, standing up for the downtrodden appeals to me. It's me politically! The distrust of corporations, corrupt politicians, not having respect for authority all make up part of my paranoid delusional view point of the world.
In a world where mass government survaliance of the people goes on everyday, yet pass laws that hide their activities from exposure to the public. Corporations avoid paying taxes, and have a cosy relationship with those that are meant to be making sure they pay the correct taxes, where they buy politicians like a person buys hotels on a monopoly board to shape laws that favour them over the rights of the people. Where our elected officials spend more time and money hunting down petty looters at a riot and setting up kangaroo courts to send them to jail, and yet spend nothing bringing to justice and jail bankers that fixed global markets, laundered money for criminals and terrorists, or bought about a world wide economic recession due to shadey practices. At a time where a nations armies are more like corporate enforcers, invading other nations to further economic interests of corporations under false pretenses that they are a threat. With a complicit mainstream media gladly pushing the agenda of the politicians and corporations.
You would think I was describing the dystopian world of Android:Netrunner but in reality it's the world we live in today. I think that is one of the reasons I like cyberpunk. In the cyberpunk world a lone individual can make a difference, hit back at the oppressive regimes against the odds. It's Robin Hood, The Lone Ranger or any other character who stands up to be counted and takes a stand against corruption and injustice in the world.
I grew up watching the black and white Lone Ranger tv series. As a little boy one of the few childhood memories I haven't had erased is of my dad reading the story of Robin Hood to me and my brother at bedtime. There is this strong vein of social justice, standing up for the little guy in my DNA. Which I can trace back to these stories and my early days of reading Marvel comics.
So as you can see with my paranoid delusions of the current ill state of our society, its injustices and biases towards the rich and powerful, why I would be drawn strongly towards playing anarch. It's as if anarchs were modelled on me! Anarchs are like the Heath Ledger Joker but with a social conscious.
At the moment not having all the expansions for Netrunner I have a limited choice of runners, and an even more limited choice of anarch runners of just Whizzard and Noise.
So which anarch runner will I go with? Noise has been in Netrunner since the beginning being in the core set. And after listening to episode 28 of Run Last Click, Noise at the moment seems a popular choice in some of the local meta the hosts take part in. There is a nice piece of “flavour” text in the rule book about Noise. Noise also gets mentioned in the book Android:Free Fall. The image that comes across is that he is an elite runner, if not THE elite runner, who leaves no evidence behind that he was involved in breaking into corporate ice.
As for Whizzard I know very little about him. Well nothing! So if he were to go up against Noise who would win? It's hard to say but my gut says Noise.
Both runners have an ability that trashes corp cards. Noise everytime you install a virus program the corp player has to trash the top card of R&D. While Whizzard gets 3 recurring credits to trash cards with each round.
Each ability has its attractions. Indescriminate trashing or targeted trashing? That's the choice really. I'm going to choose the runner I know a bit about, or at least have an idea what he is about and that's Noise for my first deck.
I hope my political leanings haven't put you off. And that you have a better understanding why for totally non gaming reasons I have gone with Noise the anarch runner.

 

I need an intervention

lego minifigs, netrunner, star realms, tabletop

Just thinking aloud but I seem to be stuck at the bottom of level 5 at the moment, well as you know I had a bad run of games recently. And I have made mention in passing that I win a couple of games then lose a couple, and don't seem to be making any progress in getting out of level 5.

So I thought I'd do a quick adding up of the number of games I am currently in the middle of at the moment in the app. I was shocked to discover I have 23 games on the go. Some players I have multiple games going on. So in reality it may be about 7 or 8 players. No wonder I'm not making much head way. Or if this is a weak excuse, I suppose I will just have to face the reality that I'm not good at the game. But if that is the case I'm having a blast playing and losing.

I wonder how many games others are playing at one go. Is this the sign of addiction? Do I need an intervention? Even at the height of my Words with Friends playing I never had close to that many games on the go.

Thing is I just LOVE playing this game (just in case you hadn't gathered that reading my posts). And I'd happily play even more games if people challenged me.

New Custom Minifig!

I decided my hacktivist needed company! I know hacking is meant to be a lonely activity, but hacktivists work together to bring down the “man”. So made another hacktivist.

Organising My Netrunner cards

Since buying my Android:Netrunner cards I've not managed to play a game! I did make a start organising them, but didn't finish that. And I definitely haven't got round to building my first deck.

Curse that amazing game Star Realms for side tracking me. Anyway Easter is coming up and I really want to get some games in. It's the only way I'm going to get better at the game and learn to play. Yes I know the very very basics, but still I need to learn more. Ideally I want to get up to a level that I can teach some-one to play. Well when I say some-one I mean Nath. I definitely think this is a father/son game we can both enjoy.

But with my immediate target of playing over Easter (Which I need to arrange with Jamie when he is free, hopefully next Tuesday when I'm hopefully getting the Imperial Assualt expansions and in Peterborough). I got my thumb out of my rear and finished off organising my cards. At the moment they are organised into runner and corp. Then each side is further broken down into programs/ice, hardware, agendas etc. With the neutral cards for each side also being broken down like this.

This is an initial organisation, once I get some index cards I want to break each section down even further in to the cards “alliance”. So all the anarch programs together, then the criminal programs etc. it should then make finding cards easier, and hence deck building.

My first deck that I plan to build will be an anarch runner deck. We will look into my deck building adventures in another post, and why I chose anarch as my first runner deck.

In the meantime “hack the planet”!