This morning on BBC Radio 5 Live (the only radio station I listen to) they were asking for suggestions of things to do with the family on a rainy Summer holiday day.

Naturally I sent in the following text to the news team in response to their question.

Not long after sending it they read it out on air including the game suggestions (minus MtG and Pokemon).

Naturally, (well I say that, but I’m making a big assumption they aren’t hobby gamers) they hadn’t heard of the games. But the one reading the text out politely said she was going to look into them. I wonder if they will actually do that or they were just saying so and then not doing anything. 

The only gaming thing I did yesterday was take delivery of a couple of items. I got the third and final figure of the last Star Wars: Imperial Assault wave which was a Jawa. Plus some more target buys for Star Wars: Destiny. Target buying is now my main way of getting cards I’m missing now. It’s the cheaper option. 

I did go and see Spider-Man Homecoming for a second time. It really is a great movie that can be watched multiple times. 

Yesterday Dale and I spent the afternoon playing Star Wars: Destiny at The White Lion. I tried initial versions of two decks. The first was a FN-2199/eUnkar Plutt/First Order Stormtrooper. 

Which doesn’t have a cool name (afaik UPDATE: A friend Chris Shaner has informed me it’s called FuNkar) like the other initial deck I played, which is called emokids.

I played both as elites (which is why I put an e in front of a name, to signify that that character is elite, i.e. played with two dice not one). Luckily my target buys arrived in the morning so I could play Darth Vader. 

Dale was playing his Maz/Snap/eRey deck.

Out of four games my FN/eUnkar/First Order Stormtrooper won a single game. That was when the stars aligned, the dice and cards smiled on me, and everything went my way.

But Dale’s deck is such a nasty action cheat. With Force Speed on Rey, playing an upgrade weapon with Ambush on her could see Dale taking an additional 4 actions, one of which is activating Maz with her resolving two dice, by the time it’s my turn again Dale is more or less finished and ready to claim the battlefield. Which if he has his two plantery uprising outs is four points of damage. 

What I don’t get about FFG is that they nerfed the Ammo Belt/Second Chance because “this has not proven to be a strong combo at a competitive level, it warps more casual games and is difficult to deal with“. But this action cheating is a problem both at casual and competition level but no they don’t nerf that. It’s possible to do the “massive” amount of damage to get through the Ammo Belt/Second Chance. There isn’t much you can do about this action cheating. It feels like you are just a spectator, there isn’t anything you can do but sit there and take it. If you have a character alive or not critical at the end of it you are lucky. This is what FFG should have errata’d. 

Before playing the emokids, Dale and I did some quick trading of cards that saw me getting a second Sith Holocron.

Although my emokids didn’t win a game I found those games more “fun”. Having two Sith Holocron cards made a big difference. I was much more consistent drawing the card in my opening hand. Although getting an upgrade ability to go with it was a little less reliable.

One or two of the emokids games were close. But the plantery uprising was a game winner. However the amount of damage possible with the emokids is surprising. The first game, activated Darth Vader first ,double special rolled, that’s 6 damage. A bit more consistency on hitting Darth’s specials and taking a character out turn one or two with the aid of Kylo this could be a nasty deck to be up against.

I did have the new expansion for Five Tribes called Whims of the Sultan. This adds a fifth player (not sure if I’ll ever use this, if it played well with five it would have been in the base game), and six new tiles, two djinns, some Whims cards for the new tiles. 

Sadly when I opened up the box inside I had two sheets with the new order and bidding tracks, and a missing sheet of tiles. 

Once again I’ve managed to find the wonky needle in the haystack. Naturally I’ve emailed the retailer I bought it from. I’m awaiting a reply, which should be today. 

I know this will shock you but I didn’t buy the last wave of Villians and Allies for Star Wars: Imperial Assault. But organising the minis Tuesday reminded me to rectify this. So while the Jawa is still on its way, the BT-1 and 0-0-0 Villain Pack and Hera Syndulla and C1-10P Ally Pack did arrive.

I have seen rumblings by one or two online that if the app for Imperial Assault doesn’t get released soon they are selling up. The app would be nice, it would be cool to have that campaign co-op option. I enjoyed the Descent app experience. So I’m looking forward to the app for Imperial Assault. But to sell up if it doesn’t come out. That’s extreme and cutting your nose off despite your face. 

So that’s my Wednesday. That’s how rock ‘n roll my holidays are. 

I forgot to post this screen grab from the Star Realms app the other day. It’s something else I haven’t done in a really long time in the game. Yep it’s been a while since I’ve smacked some-one down with this much damage. 

It’s Summer holiday time so I’m chillin’ until I have to go back into work for a day next week.

So am I spending my time productively? Nah. I’m being a slob.

I did finally open up the last wave of Star Wars Imperial Assault I bought (a few months back) this morning. Aren’t these minis brilliant?

I even popped out, got some organiser trays (need to get more) from the local QD, so I could organise the games minis. I’d used these trays successfully for organising my Zombicide survivors. So I knew these were perfect for the Imperial Assault minis. I also got the smaller ones shown below to put the tokens for the game in.

I also sorted out the tiles by expansion. At some point I need to motivate myself and work out a solution for the cards in the game.

So there you have it, a day in the life of some-one with no life.

Fortunate events against others in games here is a dice roll I had against Dale last week whilst playing a Qui-gon/Rey/Padawan deck against him.

It was the prefect roll at the perfect time, and grabbed me the win (iirc) in that game.

Like Pandemic Iberia? Well I do. So does my friend Duncan (described as the Scottish version of me but likeable!)

Duncan has done some amazing work for the game by creating standees for it to replace the pawns.

I’ve stolen one of his photos of them below. Because that’s the sort of person I am. Take, take, take.

Not only that he’s shared them with the gaming community by putting the file up on bgg for others to do the same.

Obviously this shows just how much nicer than me he is.

You can get the file HERE

Thought I would give you a brief respite from the Top 100 posts. It’s not much of a respite because it’s still me wittering on about nothing really.

Recently (I think in the last couple of months) I was given the option of having Xia: Legend of the Drift System and it’s first expansion Embers of a Forsaken Star at the end of August. It was a kind offer by the publisher to allow for those backers of the expansion to be around to receive their Kickstarter backed goodies, and not miss the delivery because they are on holiday. I naturally took the “I want it yesterday” option because I can’t wait, and the situation that inspired the generous offer doesn’t apply to me.
According to the update yesterday the UK distribution company being used are getting 14 pallets today and a further 13 pallets tomorrow. So if I’m exceedingly lucky (which the last few Kickstarters have proven I’m not, as I seem to be on the tail end of the shipping lists) I could have all of the following by the weekend:

“FOG 1752: Sellsword V2 edition SKU – Contains same as above plus Sellsword V2 Miniature, playmat, ability card, rules card, npc card and flight stand. (It also contains the Sellsword V1 playmat / ability card).”

Plus the base game. Well it would have been silly to have backed the expansion when I didn’t have the base game. And the Kickstarter offered me a chance to get the base game which at the time was not easy to get hold of (it’s gotten easier since).

But in reality knowing my luck I’ll have it by the end of the month. Just in time for the Summer hols.

I’ve added a new page that just lists the cards I have collected for the game Star Wars: Destiny.

It’s mainly been created so that when I do the deck posts for the game on here people can look on that page and see why possibly I haven’t included a certain card or a second copy. The usual response most of the time is either I don’t have the card or if I do just the one copy.

But this page will allow visitors to check out for themselves whether I have the card or not. The we can proceed to discussing the merits of the card if I have it and why I should that one instead of another. Or consider the card I don’t have. 

You can view it HERE or use the link above.

I don’t know why I call this my final thoughts, it’s not as if the posts about the expo have been in-depth and insightful. But hey ho it is what it is.

After watching a demo of Bear Park, and having the game explained to me – I wasn’t impressed. Unless I’m missing something about the game, I don’t see how it is better than say Patchwork. Jonathan bought it, so I’ll try and get a play of his copy. But I just don’t get the attraction. I like the economic side of Patchwork, and the denying or not of tiles to an opponent based on which of the three available you go for. I can’t deny the game seemed popular Mayfair sold out of it on their stand.

RANT ALERT! RANT ALERT! So you are Warlord games, you have splashed out money on a big name IP. A much beloved character, that appeals to young and old (despite the attempts of the current show runner to kill off the Doctor with poor scripts and wasting a great talent). You create a Doctor Who miniatures game. Fine no problem with that, makes sense (kinda). Then you make it so that the models are on sprues! So you have to cut off the bits of the model (carefully) with a scalpel, then glue them together! I get that people into miniatures “love” doing this. But they are not the market you are aiming for here. You bought the IP because you want to appeal to a wider audience. Bring new people into the hobby, and buy your product. That new audience are not miniature gamers, they are ordinary people that are fans of the show. They don’t want to buy the game, open it up and discover they can’t play it until they have spend hours putting together all the figures. WTF were you thinking Warlord? I actually listened to a guy on the stand demoing the game to a grandfather and grandchild explain about the cutting, gluing and painting. At one point he even said that he “cut off the Dalek eye stalk so he could re-glue it back in different positions.” This is not the way to attract new gamers into the hobby. FFG/CMoN can produce high quality molded miniatures for their games. I can buy them and be up and playing within 20 minutes. A game that has an IP that is meant to appeal to a wider audience should also have this ability. Not buy and then spend hours piecing it together. That’s assuming that they have a scalpel and the correct glue in the first place. Otherwise it could be days before they get to play the game. I fear for how Warlord are going to ruin my favorite 2000AD characters (see announcement here).

I did express this opinion to the Modiphius who have acquired the Fallout licence. This is clearly aimed at trying to attract fans of the very popular video game franchise. And yet they seem also intent on making the same mistake as Warlord and shooting themselves in the foot. Fans of the video game will not want to spend hours cutting and gluing stuff together before playing. I can’t see how this escaped them. Steamforge did it correctly with Dark Souls. Doesn’t matter your opinion of the game itself, the fact remains you can buy the game, open it up in the store and be playing in minutes. I told the guy at Modiphius that I spoke to, in no uncertain terms that there would be no way in hell I’d buy them game if I had to glue stuff together. Nor would my students, who would be his target audience.

I’m gobsmacked at how the likes of Warlord and Modiphius can spend money on getting very popular IP’s and then do everything they can to make sure it won’t appeal to fans of the game. Even that Alien vs Predator game did a 2.0 that used pre-made minis, and dropped it’s price. Modiphius still have time to pull the rabbit out of the hat, and correct this big big mistake.

END OF RANT! END OF RANT!

I saw yesterday evening the figure of 16,500 for the attendance to the expo. That’s massive growth. Last year I’m sure that the attendance was in the 10k to 12k area. It definitely for the next two weeks anyway makes the show bigger than Origins in the US of A. So with this sort of growth and numbers will we see publishers taking the UK more seriously? Normally game announcements and releases are saved by the publishers for Origins, GenCon and Essen. So you would think with these numbers the UK and Europe deserve a bit more respect and have some of those announcements and releases at UKGE. It was nice to see a couple (and there may have been more) of games/expansions getting to us before the Origins announcement. I was able to buy the new expansions for Onitama, Sensei’s Path. Which apparently was due to be officially released at Origins in 2 weeks time. Which means we may see it here on the shelves of our flgs by the end of the month if we are lucky. Plus I was able to get the new 51st State expansion, Scavengers from the Portal stand. And it was nice to see Portal have a stand at the show this year. Hopefully they will have a bigger presence next year. Which is a good example of publishers taking the show more seriously.

Wow I know I met Tom and Sam last year briefly. But they would never remember that. However they are so approachable, including Zee! They really are nice guys. And whenever you saw them people were always talking to them, having photos taken (see Jonathan’s third trolling Eric photo below). Now other bloggers/reviews didn’t seem as approachable. The SU&SD guys looked anything but approachable and miserable as feck.

I will say there seemed to be lots of bloggers/reviewers at the show as press. Videos being shot all over the place etc. I wonder how many got recognized. Maybe I’m not good at self promotion, because I never once mentioned to anyone I wrote this blog, I didn’t have a tee on promoting it. Oh that’s right I’m there to just enjoy myself, with no pressure, and not have it feel like work. Stuff all this got to interview people, try every game etc etc. This is my main holiday of the year, I’m there to enjoy myself.

I did try Xi cards, which is a Magic the Gathering style game. The guys at the Critical Twits podcast were in love with this game. And they were the reason I tried the game. It was described as like Magic but without the mana/resource issue. I did mention that it was like Epic then. But the guys hadn’t heard of Epic! It was ok. The time points system for buying actions like drawing a card or playing a card was ok. The permanent damage to creatures on the board was fine. Plus you need a lot of tokens and dice to track use of time points and damage on cards. But I can see why in what three years this hasn’t really got any traction. Go look at the bgg page for the game, it’s a ghost town. £30 for four decks of fifty cards, seemed a bit expensive. I can get Magic Duel decks for less than that for the full Magic experience. Or buy Epic plus expansions for a better Magic like experience than this game gives. I mean at least Epic allows me to do constructed, and various draft formats. Plus Epic will have a pretty great app too (I really must play more of the Alpha release of the app, well play it full stop).

Now Zephyr: Winds of Change is a game I can see myself playing more of. This co-op game had enough to intrigue me, and tempt me to at least try one or two scenarios/missions.

I did go to the expo not having had any real games I wanted to buy. I was going to pre-order the 51st State expansion. So that was a very pleasant surprise to be able to actually buy it, and also get the promo cards for the game as well. The guys on the Portal stand were super nice and friendly, even got a cookie!  I do hope this was a successful show for them. There stand just needs to be easier to find and in the expo programme next year. Plus I wanted some of the Dice Tower promos. But other than that I had nothing in particular I wanted. So I’m pretty happy with the haul I bought back. Which was mostly funded by selling some games in my collection I no longer wanted. So glad to get rid of Cthulhu Realms (how to ruin a great game).

A successful show for me I think. A much better experience than last year for sure. I’d definitely recommend The Stables, Deer Farm for a place to stay. Same time next year?

I had a decision this morning check out of my hotel and be on my way to the expo by 8:50 the latest or stay trapped in the hotel until 1:15pm! The second option also came with a free bacon sarnie at 11am. A tempting sweetener to stay put. I had been faced with this choice because the local roads were going to be closed after 8:50 for a fun run that was being held.

I didn’t fancy sitting around for the morning. So I made a flask of coffee, packed the brioche, loaded up and was off to the expo by 7:45! Just after 8am I was sitting in front of the lake at the expo drinking my coffee and having the brioche. 

Sadly no new promo on the FFG stand for Destiny.

The morning at the expo was spent just browsing. I was sitting on the fence over Statecraft, Friday and Lanterns. But resisted.

I did share with the guys behind the new Fallout miniatures game my opinion about having to cut stuff off sprues and gluing it together. As in I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Nor would my students who would be the target audience. I’ll have to write a rant about this sometime. 

Midday was about right to head off home after two whole days there already. 

The mornings haul:

Not shown some Star Wars:Destiny boosters.

Games Played:

• Star Wars: Destiny
• Xi 

I decided to avoid being packed in like cattle as the masses squashed each other waiting to dash inside to grab that elusive bargain.

With Diego, Jonathan and Charlotte at the expo today I was able to enlist them in my scheme to get the second promo card available for Star Wars:Destiny.

The target of my cunning oceans four plan!

Naturally with all the Dice Tower crew in attendance trolling photos for Eric Summerer had to be taken (and tweeted).

We also had the obligatory Fenland Gamers group photo taken.

Today’s haul:

Games played:

• Santorini 
• 51st State Master Set
• The Cousins War
• Star Wars: Destiny