Last night I got to play a couple of games of Run, Fight or Die! with two friends while sharing an alcoholic beverage (ok I was on orange and lemonade not very rock and roll I know). One of the friends was new to the game but picked it up really fast.

I won the first game but it's how I won that matters. Friend number one playing as The Country Girl had died, swept away by a zombie horde. I was playing as The Street Kid and had a couple of wounds, while friend number two (noobie) was playing The Silent a Rancher and had his full seven health remaining when friend one left the mortal game board.

Luckily we weren't playing the co-op expansion so friend one dying was good for the rest of us. One down, one to go. Into the mix the Mutant Boss decided to make an appearance. Just what we needed more pressure. The way the boards were building up there wasn't going to be much chance to take him out.

It wasn't looking good for me, in a couple of turns I too would be on the receiving end of a zombie horde that had built up in zones three and two unless some miracle happened. My rolls allowed me to clear zone one, but that was delaying the inevitable. I needed a miracle.

On my next turn I now had a packed zone one, the rolls of the dice hadn't gone my way.

And low and behold one did occur. I had to draw a follower. I drew the card, and looked at it. I had drawn Hit Girl. Hit Girl was worth two victory points. But if I sacrificed her I could remove all zombies in any one zone. OMG I had just top decked a card that was going to keep me alive for another turn. There was no soul searching, no how could I sacrifice a little girl to survive. I was cold and brutal and sacrificed Hit Girl in a blink of an eye. Zone one was clear I would life another turn. Although that wasn't looking any better, because once more a horde would be knocking on my door.

Luckily friend two although having two more hit points to start with, had been slowly building up wounds with poor draws of the mutant cards. They were now only two wounds away from defeat. While I was slightly better off with being three away still.

My turn again. I needed to be lucky again or get overrun and become a zombie snack. I had to draw again, I can't remember the card type. But I had top decked again! The drawn card stopped all zombies advancing this turn. Wow why can't I be this lucky in Star Realms?

I was still alive somehow. Friend twos turn ended up being their last. With the Mutant Boss doing the final two wounds to kill them off.

Somehow I had hung in there long enough to win! If I hadn't top decked there was no way I'd be celebrating this victory.

Game two was a shorter game with friend one winning. Although I did manage to do three damage to the Mutant Boss before dying a couple of turns later, when I was overrun by a horde.

A great evenings gaming with two good friends. Doesn't get much better than that.

Oh while I remember I've pre-ordered the Big Box expansion for the game, which is mainly a large storage box for the game and all the expansions I believe. But it also comes with the new Running Late expansion, plus some kickstarter promos. Which pushes up the value for money factor. While I was pre-ordering that I also pre-ordered the mutant boss 2.0 model. It's so hard to get the mutant boss model 1.0 because it was a kickstarter exclusive I believe, and they rarely come up. So I was relieved that the publisher is doing this limited release model.

Upper Deck Legendary News

 

I don't know how I missed this news from GenCon but I did. Luckily I've found out now, and this news is blooming awesome.

Upper Deck are going to be releasing two new Legendary games based on two very popular ip. I think it would be fair to say they have big cult followings.

Both of these games will be using the Legendary game engine. Which means these will be deck building games. I'm assuming here based on previous products in this line that they will be co-operative, possibly have a competitive mode of some sort, be really thematic (Legendary Encounters Alien did win the best themed game award in the Dice Towers Awards this year) and finally interchangeable with the other Legendary games.

The first ip that will be joining the Legendary world is Big Trouble in Little China. The eighties cult classic staring Kurt Russell as Jack Burton.

There is no release date at present. However considering that next year is the thirtieth anniversary of this classic cult movie (god I feel so old typing that) and there is a remake/reboot apparently in the works and in some stage of development with apparently The Rock involved. With that information in hand I would hazard a guess that we will see Big Trouble in Little China in 2016, I'm not sure when the exact date of the anniversary is, but if I was in marketing at Upper Deck I'd be trying to release as near to that date as possible. However my gut says because of the next ip to be announced and that's release date we will see this game in the first half of 2016.

Will we see Upper Deck pick up another cult classic starring Kurt Russell, Escape from New York?

The second ip taking the Legendary world to a new world of awesome is… No before I tell you, you had better go to the toilet because you are going to soil yourself in excitement…

Right now you are back…

The second ip joining the Legendary world is…

Are you ready for it?

The second ip is… get this… Firefly!!! OMG!! How amazing is that news? There are a lot of fanboys wetting themselves at the moment because they didn't listen to my advice. Yes there are already Firefly games out there, including the just released Firefly Shiney Dice game. But this one has the potential to put all those others in the shade.

Oh yes a chance to play the crew of the Serenity using the amazing Legendary game engine. If the reavers aren't in the game I'd be really really shocked.

So when can we expect to get our dirty sweaty nerdy fanboy mitts on this new member to the Legendary stable? Currently (and I say that because things can happen in the meantime that could delay it) Upper Deck are aiming for GenCon 2016 for its release. Which basically means we have a year of trying to manage our excitement.

I do have one concern with this news, by the time these come out we will have three (four depending on how you want to class Villians) games out on the market using the Legendary engine. Will the games start feeling tired? How will Upper Deck make sure that the games remain fresh, but at the same time compatitable with the existing games, and not just a retheming of an existing engine? Maybe I'm just worrying over nothing. I know I'll be buying both I'm such a predictable sheep sometimes. What do you think of this news or my concerns? Are you excited as me about it?