Jumping on the seasonal band wagon I'd like to wish friends, family and readers of this blog a very very Merry Christmas from Nath, myself, Strider, Nico and Loki (aka the wolf pack).
This year is the first time in six years that I have been able to spend Christmas Day with Nath. For me this is the best present ever. I hope everyone is spending the day with loved ones, and has a great time.
Today Nath and I saw Star Wars The Force Awakens again. There is nothing like a Star Wars movie for a father and son cinema experience.
Although we didn't see the 3D version of the movie, I had to buy the promotional 3D glasses that the Vue cinema we saw the movie at are selling. Yes I'm that sort of fanboy. What you hadn't already guessed with all those Lego Star Wars advent posts?
Have a great day tomorrow, eat, drink and be merry.
Tomorrow sees the release of the new Star Wars movie, and yes I'm going to see it.
We in the “hobby” gaming world are a bit luckier than those that get their games from mainstream outlets. How? Well we have been over the last three or more years been lucky enough to have some really great Star Wars games to play.
Fantasy Flight Games have done a really great job of releasing great games, that look amazing, and give a really enjoyable experience.
Capture the feel of dogfights between squadrons of rebel and imperial ships from the Star Wars universe. The base set gives you the two fan favourites of an X-Wing and two Tie Fighters to battle it out. The base set gives you everything for two players to fight it out. Currently there are two versions of the base set. The newest version gives you versions of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter based on the new movie.
There are a lot of expansions for this game, that give you more ships from the Star Wars universe like Tie Bombers, Y-Wings, A-Wings, the Millenium Falcon, Slave 1 to name a few.
I will warn you this game is like crack, once you play you get hooked and start buying more and more ships.
The models look stunning in this game, and when played on a playmat (usually of some awesome star field/space image on) this game takes your breathe away.
Based on the Descent system, Imperial Assault moves its mechanics to the Star Wars universe.
The amazing thing about this game is that you get two games in one! You have the campaign mode, where one player plays as the Empire while the other players play as the rebels. Plus you also get a two player skirmish mode, where two players go head to head with their teams fighting it out.
The miniatures are super amazing in this game. But then so do all the components for the game.
There are expansions for this game, introducing fan favourite characters like Han and Chewy.
So they are the two I have played. I still have the Carcassonne Star Wars edition to get to the table. But I'm a fan of Carcassonne so I'm hoping this is a match up that works.
Also from FFG you can get the following Star Wars games, which I don't own and haven't played. So I'll apologise now for the rubbish coverage of them. However these have had some good reviews. And if I had the budget I'd definitely be buying Armada.
Star Wars Armada – this is gives you the big ships from the Star Wars universe like the Imperial Star Destroyer and allows you to recreate epic space battles between the Empire and Rebels.
Star Wars LCG – a two player card game using the FFG living card game model.
Star Wars rpg – if you like Star Wars and role playing games, nuff said.
From the mainstream market there is the new Star Wars Risk, which apparently not being as good as the fabled expensive out of print Queens Gambit, is still from reviews I've seen a decent game, that is similar to Queens Gambit and not actually Risk.
So I hope that's given you some ideas for games to play with the Star Wars fan in your life. Or even buy (although some of these are not cheap) for that special Star Wars fan.
I'm wrapping up the coverage of the wave two expansions for Imperial Assault with a look at the first expansion for the game Twin Shadows.
The contents of the box
So now you have seen the contents before they have been unpacked. Let's take a more indepth look at what we get for our money.
Tokens
Naturally we get more tokens for the game. These tokens are made up from:
ten damage tokens (four fives, six ones)
Six device tokens
Six strain tokens
Five weaken tokens
Four ally and villain tokens (just in case you haven't bought the villain and allies packs that also came out at the same time).
Eight ID tokens
The game also comes with twelve more map tiles.
Sculpts
In this expansion we get ten new miniatures. Two rebel characters called Saska Teft (below left) and Biv Bodhrik.
There are also four Tusken Raiders.
And four Heavy Stormtroopers.
As usual these sculpts are up to FFG's usual high standards, and begging to be painted. And before you ask I haven't made any progress on the Stormtroopers I painted with primer.
Campaign
For the campaign side of the game Twin Shadows comes with two hero sheets for the rebel characters.
There are nine cards that make up the hero class deck for Saska (below).
Followed by another nine cards making up a hero class deck for Biv.
There are also nine Imperial class cards for use by the Imperial player.
Two supply cards have been included.
You also get five reward cards.
Plus six item cards.
Four side mission cards also come with the expansion.
We also get six agenda cards.
Skirmish
Naturally the game comes with a skirmish map sheet detailing the map to use with the skirmish mission cards.
The two skirmish mission cards that go with the map sheet.
There are eleven deployment cards. However five of them are also found in the Ally and Villian packs that came out at the same time (these are used with the tokens if you don't have them). So I've just included the new deployment cards here.
And as expected there are deployment cards for the two new rebel characters also.
There are four weaken status cards (these are also used in the campaign).
We also get three command cards.
Summary
I like this expansion it adds new content to the base game. The expansion lives up to the FFG reputation for providing beautiful looking high quality games.
As a noob skirmish player I'm not sure I'd be playing with the new rebel characters. But that is mainly because I still think that the rebels are grossly under powered compared to the Empire. However the Heavy Stormtroopers I can see being used. I'm going to have to think about the Tusken Raiders.
Right I now need to play this more, get sleeve for the cards, and push on with my painting.
So Qwertee had some Star Wars designs up recently and I caved and bought one. I could have bought all three to be fair. But somehow I found the inner strength to just get the one. The one I went for tickled not just the inner Star Wars nerd in me, but my teenage metal head as well.
Below is the original design that inspired the rather humorous fun Star Wars themed take on it.
Ashamidly for a Star Wars fan I have only one Star Wars related tee. So this will be my second. This trooper tee is begging to be worn while playing Imperial Assault or X-Wing. Yes I think we have already established on this blog that I am in fact that sad.
Now I just need to get either game to the table to prove how sad I am in real life.
Can you believe after being so adamant that I would get to play Star Wars Imperial Assault on my visit to see Nath last weekend, guess what?
Yep, we didn't get to play it. Well I guess some of you may have worked that out from the couple of posts over the weekend from said visit down South.
However just before leaving yesterday I did get a chance to at least show Nath the awesome, nah amazing miniatures that are used in the game.
Nath was impressed with the miniatures, especially the AT-ST models. And then rightly so he asked if I had considered painting them. Der! Yep but at the moment that is not where I have any skills.
For those with a better memory than me, will remember painting miniatures is one of the skills I want to develop this year. Which to my shame I haven't made any progress on yet.
I agree with Nath that the miniatures would look good painted. In fact I think they would be taken to an even higher level of awesome painted. Which has been proven online with all the painted ones I have seen.
Now I just need to get this game to the table again, and hopefully on a regular basis.
This got me thinking what would I like to see added to this game?
First up on my list is I want character cards for the released allies like Luke, Han and Chewie so that those characters can be played in the supplied campaign instead of the characters that come in the base set. I don't just want to play with them as allies to a mission. I want to play the campaign as them.
I'd love to see a separate campaign/skirmish designer book released. One of the things I loved about the Zombicide scenario book that was released was the excellent designer advice section that gave advice on how to create your own scenarios. What makes a great campaign? How do you balance the game? What makes a great skirmish scenario? You get the idea. Add in a mini campaign and a couple of skirmish scenario s with maybe some designer notes and I think this would fly off the shelves. Imperial Assault screams making your own scenarios for it, and this would help guide people in making enjoyable ones to play.
I'd love to see an expansion that covers the conflict between the rebels and imperials on the planet Hoth. It screams tiles that cover the rebel base, and also the rebel defences. I can see the Tauntaun models now with plugin riders for Han and Luke. And how awesome would a Wampa model be?
At some point there has to be Ewoks. Toughest creatures in the Empire! Look how easily these little guys with little more than sticks and stones took on superior forces that were far better equipped and won.
What would you like to see added to Imperial Assault?
Just a word of warning I’ll be updating the post later with more photos celebrating the day. You will be able to see them also on the usual social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) channels too.
FOR THE RECORD my Star Wars movie for the day is the movie Fanboys. I really do like this movie. And is Star Wars themed.
A Sith vs Jedi battle broke out at the pub
The fight continued when they got home…
Finally something unrelated to Star Wars…
This is one for Netrunner fans, this is a take away in Wisbech!
For those of us in the UK (particularly in EnglandShire – not sure about that funny lot north of the wall) this Monday coming is a Bank Holiday. Yep a loooong weekend for us, we'll an extra day. This year it also happens to fall on the same day as a popular geek celebration day May the Fourth Day, where geeks around this little globe of ours celebrate all things Star Wars.
I love that this most excellent of days coincides with a holiday this year. It allows me to pretend that here in the UK we have made May the Fourth Day a holiday (if only).
So what am I planning to do on Monday to celebrate this most auspicious of occasions?
Well for starters this blog will have a post dedicated to photos of these Lego minifigs I have that are Star Wars related. I do have one or two if you remember. These photos will also be pushed out via Instagram to Twitter and Facebook. Yep I'm going to spam social media.
I'm also going to use this post to invite any of my friends in the Wisbech area to pop round and play a Star Wars related game. I appreciate I may of upset one or two today with my political views and disappointment/annoyance that once more candidates have not canvassed my home (I'll leave the full rant for that Facebook discussion).
I have X-Wing (sadly rarely played), Imperial Assault and a Star Wars themed Risk. I'd love two or three friends round to play Imperial Assault, or at least one friend to play it in skirmish mode. I've not played the game and really want to.
Will this happen, will this invite be accepted?
We will find out on the day.
In the meantime I must make sure iTunes Match has logged my Star Wars OST cd's so that they can be playing in the background, and I may play catch up on Star Wars Rebels and rewatch the original trilogy. Well those two are the backup plan.
Over in the US of A there is a three day Star Wars celebration currently going on. Already we are getting to see the new teaser trailer for Episode 7, a trailer for the new Battlefront video game, and fan pictures of the ships and figures that make up the Fantasy Flight Games offerings that will be joining their official licenced boardgames later this year (hopefully) from their stand. Naturally at these sort of events there are panels, cosplay and more. And yes I wish I was there.
Above is my “fleet” for when I get to play X-Wing miniatures. Definitely not the largest “fleet” out there by a long shot. However considering the number of expansions they have released, the amount I get to play the game (hardly ever), and the number of other games in my collection that release regular expansions I think my “fleet” is very large. Naturally it could be bigger, for starters the Scum and Villiany ships could be there, but I'll add to the “fleet” when resources permit. One thing that anyone who sees these models up close does say is “wow, those models are amazing”. FFG do knock it out of the park with the X-Wing models.
All your farms belong to us!
It's funny to think what an impact and impression Star Wars and the franchise has had on western society. Who would of thought in 1977 after falling in love with Olivia Newton John as Sandy in Grease, and her bad girl look in the song “You're the one that I want” from the end of the movie. Which seemed to be constantly on tv and Top of the Pops. That the clip that rivaled it for being on tv all the time that year of Han and Luke operating the guns on the Falcon shooting at tie fighters ending with Han saying to Luke “great kid, don't get cocky” would be such an amazing film and still fueling the imagination of people decades later.
Some of my rare childhood memories that I have are linked to Star Wars. I remember queuing up round the corner with my family waiting to get into the cinema at Kings Lynn to see the rest of the movie that went along with that clip. Lucas really did capture the people's imagination everywhere. Marvel comics hit a home run with the comic strip adaption that made it over here in a UK comic book edition. I missed the first issue but got the following ones.
My friends and I were mad for anything Star Wars, it was all our playground conversation was for a long time. I even made my own tie fighter in class using a ping pong ball, cardboard, paper mâché and paint. I remember being jealous of those that had official merchandise, but still I had my tie fighter.
Back in the late seventies we had panini sticker books for football, and from time to time the odd hit movie. It was never like this day and age where there seems to be a sticker book to collect for everything that could even remotely be pimped to the public. We also had bubble gum cards and I remember collecting the cards and stickers for Empire Strikes Back. Well not exactly the cards but definitely the sticker book.
If seventies Darren had access to the stuff modern Darren has he would of been in a fanboys dream world. Back then we never had a foggiest the journey we would be taking with Han, Luke and Leia over the years. Let alone the constant fiddling Lucas would do to the movies we loved so much. South Park did such an amazing job of capturing what every fan was thinking (the clip below is definitely not safe for work) about Lucas and Spielberg because they did the same with another beloved character of theirs Indy.
On the video game front the first Star Wars game I played was a Commodore 64 port of the classic Star Wars arcade game in all its wireframe goodness. From there I progressed to the Atari ST port of the Return of the Jedi arcade game. After that in the nineties while working in Byfleet for a credit card company on my first pc, an Amstrad 16Mhz 386sx clam shell laptop I got taken totally away into the Star Wars universe and lived every fans dream of being able to pilot an X-Wing in the groundbreaking game X-Wing. Naturally the follow up X-Wing vs Tie Fighter was more of the same amazing goodness. And then the Star Wars franchise jumped on the Doom band wagon with the amazing Dark Jedi Knight, a rather cool Star Wars FPS.
My only brushes with the Star Wars games during the Sony console dominated late nineties and early noughties was by proxy of my boys when they played them. However I'm getting a chance to play some of those games now thanks to a recent Humble Bundle that gave me a crap load of them for under a tenner. But the Humble Bundle folks also gave me a load of Star Wars comics (including the original Marvel ones) recently as well, also for a criminally low price. TOP TIP keep an eye on the Humble Bundles, sign up for their alerts they have some great value deals on regularly.
In the late nineties I collected the cards that made up the Star Wars collectable card game that was out at the time. Didn't get to play the game sadly. Plus in a box when there were the anniversary celebrations and special editions released I collected the Tazos and little plastic busts that Walkers did as part of the promotions that Lucas film had given them the licence for.
Now days it seems we are spoilt for good quality Star Wars related boardgames. the main plus side is that we don't have to put up with thinly rebranded editions of Risk and Monopoly. But can experience the rich tapestry of the Star Wars universe with X-Wing miniatures, Armada, Imperial Assualt or the Living Card Game to name some of them. FFG have done such a great job bringing the Star Wars universe to the table top, although I think none gamers and gamers will agree not always cheaply.
Having implied that rebranded versions of Monopoly and Risk are just cashing in (well I'm not a Monopoly fan), one cashin that I would love to see is the Star Wars theme being applied to Love Letter. I think it would work very well, and I love Love Letter especially the Batman Love Letter, and a Star Wars themed version would be awesome.
I don't know if the above words make any sense or form some sort of coherent narrative, or even have a point. But I hope you enjoyed them, what are your experiences of Star Wars growing up and of the games (which ever media).
Finally if you haven't seen the movie Fanboys it's worth a watch, it's been out a while.
Posted by me using my iPad and the Blogsy app
