What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Yup Imperial Assault is the real deal folks. If you're looking for a DAMN GOOD Star Wars game not named X-Wing...well look no further. I've ordered it and can't wait to play it again.

Anybody on this site that doesn't believe FFG is firing on all cylinders right now is nuts. They're pumping out awesome games at an alarming rate!

Definitely a fun game. People are starting to notice how some of the scenarios, especially the story missions, have a tendency to implicitly swing one way or the other but I think this is a tacit part of the design, much like the scenario balance (or lack thereof) in Memoir 44. If one mission goes to the Imperials, the branching mission will probably be geared toward a Rebel victory. It seems like the balance is implemented at a more macro level to keep the final campaign mission interesting (unlike what would often happen in Descent 1st edition).

Played a 3-player game of Evolution I was the only player with carnivores and a kept trying to poison the waterhole with negative food cards to starve out the vegetarians, but my 12 year old kept putting in way more food than she needed. I ended up winning, but it was a close one.

then a game of X-wing, both of us played Scum. He had a dual IG-88 list with Accuracy corrector and mangler cannon and other stuff- he was flying the IG-88 that give a free Evade after a boost and the one that let you attack with a secondary weapon if your first attack missed. I was flying Boba with daredevil, engine upgrade, outlaw tech and a autoblaser. To back Boba, and the rarely used autoblaster up, I added some more third-stringers: two Hwks with autoblaster turrets. The HWk that steals focus w/ mold crow and navigator and a spice runner with autoblaster turret.

I figured I would be blown away with my lack of maneuverability, but actually did okay.I had put my hwks together on the left and Boba over on the right. He had veteran instincts and gave me initiative, so he set up after I did squaring his ships against my hwks.

I ran with my hwks turning toward Boba and gaining a focus for the Moldy Crow and charged with Boba. First round of shooting saw Boba in range one of both IG-88s! I got to shoot first and was sure I would score 3 hits (un-evade-able). Yep all blanks. Reroll using new scummy Boba's ability and blanks. He managed to shred my shields (as evades were also tough to roll even with two rerolls each attack) Don't get wrong, new Boba's ability is awesome, but my dice rolls not so much. I crept my Hwks in...

I managed to get my Hwks into some blocking positions and Pablo (or wahtever his name is) managed to steal a few focus tokens. Moldy Crow title worked great on him. and surprising the autoblasters were pretty effective against the IG-88s and their 3 dodge dice.Boba stayed in the middle and went down after about three rounds, but not before taking IG-free evade down to one hull. I managed to finish him off with a nice block and turret shoot combo.

So one IG-88 with 4 hull against my hwks, one down to 1 hull and one undamaged.I split my Hwks to try and keep him from being able to stay out of range one of both of them... Autoblasters only hit range one, so all other Hwk shots were 1 attack dice. Lots of circling- he managed to takeout Pablo when I rolled all blanks on my dodge dice. I had 3 focus tokens at the time (sigh). Last round we were both down to 1 hull- I did a three bank (RED) towards him hoping he would bump me, but he came up short and finished off my spice runner.

Tweaking the squad for this weekend:
Boba
Outlaw tech
Autoblaster

He'll stay in close with K-turns giving him a focus and try for rerolls

Pablo
Engine upgrade
Autoblaster Turret (hopefully this will allow him to get in range one and maybe out of arc on lower PS)
Moldy crow

Scum hwk that lower PS during combat to 0 Turkil?
Autoblaster

Try and use him for blocking and making sure I get off some shots before getting blasted.

I love that HWK and Boba combo, may want to consider Opportunist on Boba. Strip the Focus/Evades with the HWK and then beat the hell out of them with Fett.

P




Over the past few weeks, my son and I have been playing Frontiers--another game from Tanga's Island of Lost Toys. Once you wade past the lame anti-American political diatribe found in the rule book and its poorly written rules, you can hunker down and experience its game play--only then does this scifi tactical war game prove its worth. The rules apparently suffer from a French-to-English language translation barrier. However, they’re largely intuitive if you've ever played any other a miniature war game system. Experienced gamers will easily navigate around them, grasping the concepts and filling in any gaps. Newbies, however, might need a few walkthrough games before figuring out how to play. This barrier is likely why the game saw poor sales and ended up in the discount bins since it was intended to attract new players to the miniature war gaming genre, albeit without any miniatures.

You don't use miniatures in Frontiers--instead, you use round and oval cardboard chits. These chits contain excellent artwork and clear graphics showing each unit’s stats. The lack of cumbersome plastic miniatures makes Frontiers cost less and offers you two ready to play armies which fit inside the box, all without any assembly or fussy painting. You can tell that the game’s designers invested a lot of time perfecting their system--it shows. It really shines during gameplay. Their clever spacial and color-coded graphical interface on each of the unit chits make gameplay easy, quick, and smooth. Figuring out a unit’s stats is a breeze. The different combat units’ artwork offers a 3D feel. The included poster playing surface adds to the scifi atmosphere.

During setup you balance the strength of each army by agreeing upon the total AP points available. AP point values are listed on each unit according to their strength. You simply choose various units and add them to your army until you reach the AP limit. Each army also receives unique faction cards which add chaos to the game by assisting with attacks, adding to defense, helping with mobility, or increasing health etc. Scenarios might dictate victory conditions requiring you to eliminate a certain AP value of your enemy’s army. Other scenarios might require you to hold and defend specific parts of the map or capture an item--it’s all up to your imagination.

The terrain features included in the box are abundant and you can choose to place craters, ruins, wooded areas, and buildings onto your battlefield. Players mutually decide where to place these items during setup. Terrain features disrupt line-of-sight, add color to the board, and offer variety to game play. Certain destroyed units become part of the terrain; this is a neat feature. The terrain also allow you to customize the architecture of buildings. Some units can enter buildings (or even infiltrate them during initial unit placement). I like the fact that these custom buildings allow you to add castle-defense scenarios or simply use them for complex tactical cover.

The game has hidden mission supply drop/cache counters for units to obtain on a first-come basis. These might give a unit a new weapon system, explosives, a med-kit, or what have you. Other counters in the game can be used as capture the flag style mission objectives; e.g., one counter included represents a computer data bank that each army might be trying to protect or obtain depending upon the scenario. You can combine all of these features to create your own custom scenarios. All of the items together lend depth to the Frontiers sandbox and promote repeated gameplay.

Game play is simple. On your turn, you choose whether your unit moves, attacks, or, uses or flips to use its special ability. You can also play one of your army's cards which might either improve your attack, defense, health, movement etc. depending upon which cards appear in your hand from the deck. A unit’s movement value determines initiative. The order in which your units take action depends upon which secret numerical order token is placed next to it; just like in Heroscape, decoy order token are used to increase the fog of war on the battlefield. The number of orders available to you depends upon the initial total army AP number chosen during setup and whether your army includes leaders who increase the number of order tokens available to you; likewise, losing leaders in combat reduces your combat effectiveness by reducing the number of orders available.

Attacking successfully in Frontiers depends upon the combat strength stats listed on your unit and what type of enemy unit is being attacked, all combined with the roll of a d6 die--if you equal or exceed a unit's defense value, then it takes a hit. Distance, line-of-site obstructions, and any cards available might modify your chances of success during combat. Some units might also have special weapon features that assist in combat by reducing distance penalties, line of sight problems, or what-have-you.

I usually play the Legion army and my son plays the Zirl army. Both sides are well balanced and asymmetrical; however, the planned expansions, had they been released, would have added additional units, new terrain, more specialized units, and fleshed-out a few existing units by adding customizable weapon systems intended for both of the armies's larger mechs. They had even planned another faction to choose as your army. Of the units in the box, we most enjoy the special abilities that some units offer, and, of course, we like the larger mechs which can attack more than once if you assign two order tokens to them. My favorite special ability so far is one unit's ability to lay down smoke to obscure the enemy's line of sight to your units.

This game shines very brightly if you're creative enough to write your own scenarios. Those included in the rulebook are few and basic. I've been meaning to make the additional expansions which the designers created, but, didn't publish. Instead, they chose to reboot their entire gaming system to a WWII theme: Heroes of Normandie which also changed the ruler based unit movement to a grid system. The Frontiers expansions are available for download for free, however. You don't need them though since what's included in the box is enough to keep you busy for hours. Moreover, you can glance at the free Heroes of Normandie scenarios for game ideas to add to Frontiers--war is war.

If you want to experience this gaming system, then you can do it on-the-cheap with Frontiers since it's much cheaper than its WWII cousin. Copies of Frontiers sell for as little $8.88 with free shipping (or cheaper). I prefer the scifi genre to WWII and I'm also thrifty so it's been a perfect fit for me. Frontiers is a real bargain--there's a lot of well designed tactical miniature wargaming crammed inside the box, especially for its current discounted price.

Thanks for the write-up! I've been holding off from buying into the Heroes of Normandie system mostly due to price, but I hadn't thought of looking at the system's predecessor. Definitely picking up a copy.

Frohike wrote: Thanks for the write-up! I've been holding off from buying into the Heroes of Normandie system mostly due to price, but I hadn't thought of looking at the system's predecessor. Definitely picking up a copy.

I like this game enough that I purchased a second-copy to make the expansions. I just need to figure out how to scale the pdf artwork onto label pages to cut-out so I can stick that artwork onto the already pre-cut counters from my second copy. I haven't had time to do it though. I can't justify purchasing Heroes of Normandie since I already own Frontiers.

Had a 5 player game of Dead of Winter, the first time we actually won. Well two people completely won, of which I wasn't one since I was the betrayer.

Then our first two games of Luchador. This game is the real deal. We had a blast. Granted, it's more how you act playing it than the game itself, but what's the difference?

Archipelago

its great when you figure out who likes games you like, and when they gush over a game its probably something you should check out. so, Thanks Gary Sax and Charlest

Received this and the solo expansion in a math trade. played the short game with 4 players last night. Wow, i loved it. we are going to try the medium length game this coming saturday, and I think that will clear up some of the problems people had with it.

First - my wife was dissapointed in the semi-coop, it wasn't coop-ey enough for her. but that was driven by the fact that it was a short game. whenever we had a domestic crisis out, two resources out of the domestic market and maybe one from someone else was enough to overcome it. we also stopped exploring pretty quickly, so there wasn't much driving the threat of rebellion. saying that, another player caught on pretty quick that the rebellion/crisis schtick is a slick catch-up mechanic in disguise.

Arbitrary scoring - the game ended really just as people started getting the feel of the game, and were starting to be able to pursue their victory conditions. the Trend victory conditions was the Iron ore, and one of the players had a Iron ore victory card. and with so limited a pool of iron in the bank (only 10 vs 15 for the others) one person jumped on iron quickly and was hard to catch up too. but again, short game, hard to see what people were trying to do, especially a learning game where everyone was trying to get a grip on 'how to play' before getting to 'how to win'.

Still - this game felt so open, compared to other worker placement games. you could do whatever you wanted, the with pretty wide limits. there wasn't the stress of having to feed your family or make sure there was space to expand. money was easy to come by, but looking at the evolution cards you can see how they can get spendy. its not always critical to go first...except when it is.

its the Ver 2 of the rulebook, and didn't seem that difficult. they aren't the best organized set of rules, but other than some quibbles with engagement, nothing really stood out as odd. each individual piece is pretty simple, its just that there are a bunch of pieces all together.

This one covers about the last week or so.

Most recently game two of Case of the Catalans. GMT light wargame/econ game for 5 players. Play time maybe 2 hours if everyone pays attention. Loved the map, some interesting ideas like all five players are on the same side and each can take an action that often includes controlling the enemy to harass/eliminate the other players. But overall I don't feel like there is alot of choice in what each player can do on a given turn. Alot of luck depending on what cards and concessions (big VPs) come out and when and what order. Each turn at least one person if not two will get to do nothing, and that can continue on for the next several rounds depending on the order of the card draw. Each turn will have 5 cards, some events/ops or some mandatory events. Picking the ops gives you the option to move, get resources, eliminate Bourbon troops, get more troops, get resources, or raise your standing for concession order. It may be 4-5 turns until you actually can move any of your cubes, and the game can't be a whole lot longer than 20-30 turns I'd guess. Just too little options for me to enjoy it.

Hannibal RvC. Love the game, fucking hate the dice. I tried 3 times to move troops from Africa as Carthage with a roll of 1-4 a success, 5 nothing, and 6 sink. All three were sunk. By the end of the game I had 4 card plays in a row and needed one province. I could fight Rome with a 14-18 card deficit and flip the PC they stood on in a subsequent turn after forcing a retreat, or I could move to Sardinia/Corsica and flip 3 markers there to win the game. I had 4 plays here. First play, roll a dice. 1-3 safe at sea, 4 nothing, 5-6 sunk. 4. Second play roll the dice (dice gods owe me). 4. Third play...no way to both fight and flip control markers with one card so this is it. Dice gods really owe me. 4, do nothing. I lost.

Dogs of War at a recent meetup. Still love the game, taught 2 new people and one person who played it last time. Done in 75 minutes and I lost by 5 points to a new person. All seemed to like the game a lot. This game needs more praise.

Kemet. Another game of mine and one I love. Three players, one of them played last time. Closer game but I still won. Red power tiles are just too easy to avoid, even when initially I went red 0, white 1, blue 2. I didn't grab any of the stronger tiles but with only 3 players alot of tiles are still available. Still love the game.

Carson City. This one didn't work so hot with 3 players. I won and ran away with it by using the grocer to double my massive mine income the final two turns in a row. Just too much space on the map and not enough dueling for my taste with 3. If I ever get a 4 or 5 player game I want to use the dueling tiles too instead of the dice. After my Hannibal fiasco I'm staying away from dice for a bit. Fool me once, shame on, shame on you...fool me twice...and you ain't gonna fool me again.

We brought out Luchador! for the first time last night and had two tag team matches before delving into a 5 player game of Hyperborea, which saw the red player kick some ass.

The game of Hyperborea was great but the whole time I was like "Man, I just want to play some more Luchador right now."

After we packed up Hyperborea, we hit the mat 5 more times. My partner and I lost all 5 matches, awarding the Tag Team belt to the champions. I'm not sure what's up with Barnes but this game is amazing. Between the dexterity element of trying to knock dice off the ring, the interesting choices in how to spend dice or save them in the advanced game, and the bombastic over the top fun of yelling out the Pin Count or taunting your opposition before slapping your tag partners hand - this game rocks hard. I don't want to say it's a King of Tokyo killer because I'm not going to sell my copy anytime soon, but it's something that will hit the table much more often for my group. It brought back middle school WCW nostalgia and it was great. GREAT.

Michael Barnes is hereby nominated for the Clearclaw Memorial Fun-Murderer of the Year award.

Hey, I didn't say I didn't like it...I said I thought it was pretty good. I've played it a couple more times, it's still pretty good. Now, what makes the game awesome is when folks are totally invested in winning those stupid belts, talking a bunch of shit before throwing the dice into the ring, counting out the pins and so forth. It's a better game overall than King of Tokyo, but there is also a little more game there so it's not quite as accessible. And For whatever reason, the wrestling thing didn't connect at all with one group I played with so it sort of stumbled. But with some other friends, it went over much better and that "above the table" game made it come to life.

If it were just a little less gamer-y, WWE ought to license it and get into mainstream retail. They could practically do that with the basic game, it's the special powers and combos that make it more complicated.

I don't even use the special powers. Too fiddly. I play it basic. Its fast and fun that way. Perfect.

Luchador! is a game, the first other than a few of my all time favorites, that I play start to finish - including rules explanations - with a smile. To increase enjoyment anyone rolling two green dice instead of a Luchador! die should be shamed mercilessly and after winning a belt it is pretty much required to climb a furniture turnbuckle and hold up to "the crowd" with your defeated opponents in the room behind you cursing their luck.

My addiction is asymmetric abilities so I welcome that side of things, haven't found them to detract at all and it has been really fun to think of new ones to capture a different wrestler's "feel". I hope to play it a few times this weekend to test my homemade characters...