Barnestorming- Imperial Assault Ally/Villain Packs in Review, Thunder Blade, Star Wars Comics, "Home"

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Board Game DLC

Is Thunder Blade as frantic as Afterburner on 3DS? Maybe I'm just bad at Afterburner, but it seems a lot more difficult on the 3DS than I remember it being back when it was new.

No joke on Cowboy Bebop. Watching it again since I got the Blu Rays for Christmas.

Didn't X-Wing and most other miniatures game have separate miniatures sold from the start? IA isn't a boardgame its a miniatures game.

Well, I was going to start in on you for IA, but then I got to the bit about the comics.

Vader is a strange book, but I like it. It continuously makes you think it's moving towards a cohesive whole, but each issue is far more episodic than I was anticipating. Only one more to on that one. Leia is really good (Mark Waid, so yeah, duh) and it makes me happy to see a badass X-Wing pilot who is a girl. And yes, I can't get over how good Kanan is. I thought for sure that would be the first missfire.

There's a Lando book on the way with Alex Maleev (BMB's Daredevil artist) and after reading Star Wars #4, I'm sure another old favorite will be getting their own book in the future.

But the waiting. Oh, the waiting.

Micheal? Is that French?

Yeah Josh, Vader is really odd- totally unexpected. Kieron Gillen is such a strange choice to do that book, you'd think they would have put Aaron on it...

But there are some really compelling things about it. We've never seen Vader in this way- really kind of reeling, out of favor with the Empire, and dealing with...being that guy that was in the Clone Wars and all. I have to say that this was kind of the first time that I felt like that Anakin is the guy in the suit. He's alllllmost humanized a bit. And very nearly makes...allllmost a joke here and there.

I like revisiting Geonosis, actually. It's oddly touching that Vader's ship is Padme's old silver luxury yacht. The archaeologist is cool, and I like her "well shit, I'm working for Vader" attitude. The homicidal Threepio/R2 stand-ins are actually pretty funny, calling to mind HK-47 from KOTOR. The "heretics" are actually a really neat concept.

Princess Leia almost reads like it was written specifically to be a girls' SF book, and it's really quite well done (yep, Mark Waid). I like that we see her with the weight of royalty, something again that we've never really seen before. It's always just like "oh yeah, Princess Leia of that blown-up planet."

Kanan is written by Weisman (hello- Gargoyles, Young Justice, etc.) and it's about a great character so I thought it was can't miss opportunity.

I heard about the Lando book- can not wait. Very interesting choice with Maleev, I wonder if it might get a little gritty, maybe into some more seedy areas. I hope it does.

Also hoping they get around doing books about Dengar, Zuckuss, Maliki and of course- Lobot. People don't know yet how awesome Lobot is, I'm telling you.

WK- Thunder Blade is much less in-your-face than After Burner II. It's a little slower-paced but it also has more complex controls...and that cool mix of top-down and behind-the-chopper gameplay. I probably like ABII better overall, but TB feels different enough from it (and Galaxy Force II) to make it interesting.

Did you get Outrun? That is definitely the best of the 3D Classics...I think that game has actually aged really, really well. Which I wouldn't have said before playing the new edition of it, I thought it was one of those games whose time had come and gone. Super Hang-On is great too. Love that whole line.

Mad Dog- No, Imperial Assault is a board game attempting to be sold as a miniatures game. Somewhere in there is FFG dodging the stipulations of their contract and what Disney has worked out with Hasbro. They're giving you "placeholder" components in the starter box and then getting you to buy the "DLC" of figures for those components and a couple of missions/cards that easily could have been in the main box but were parceled out to others SKUs.

Look, I'm the biggest IA apologist on this site, and even I'll tell you Michael is right. The way IA is sold may look like a minis game, but it's a damn stretch to actually refer to it as one.

Descender is the only non-Star Wars comic I'm reading right now. I think I just got #3 last week? Yeah, I think you'll really dig it.

I forgive FFG for selling IA as a mini's game when we all know it's a boardgame. This game would not happen otherwise is my belief and I really want this game. I don't think they have a license for the boardgame so whatever... at least I got the game. I'll pretend it's a mini's game if that's what I have to do. Ever since I sold Doom I wanted that system in a Sci-Fi world again, but a little faster and more balanced. IA is exactly that and I love it. The fact that it's set in the SW universe is somewhat incidental to me but also a bonus.

I like the tool kit feel to IA. I love the main campaign and how it's designed (although there should be at least two different introductory scenarios to give it more longevity) and I have a blast with the skirmish mode too. But basically I want two things from this that I don't know if they will ever do. I mean I know they're going to make expansions galore and all that but what I want is;

1/ An online scenario editor to make your own scenarios' easily. They did one for ToI at first but then it never got updated after the first expansion and just fizzled away, but it was a blast at first. I'd like to see that idea return. Put some power in our hands.

2/ A designer series mission book like ToI and Decent got. I love the idea of hiring a bunch of big name designers to each do a mission or two and it was the best thing about ToI, I could see a lot of great stuff coming out of a book like that for IA.

I'd say that an online scenario editor is actually pretty likely. They have one for X-Wing now and there's some insanely cool scenarios up. Han Solo's escape from Hoth through the asteroid belt anyone?

I, too, am ok with FFG selling IA as a minis game, but let's call a spade a spade. I wish there wasn't so much of a problem Hasbro over the board game end of the lisence. I mean really, I'm going to buy pretty much everything both companies put out. No joke, I already have a time off request in for September 4, the day all the new merch drops, which will likely be the day that new Risk game and Loopin' Chewie (aka GOTY 2015) comes out.

Did you realize that in TOEE's town scenarios the art matters? I missed that little bit in the rulebook because it's buried and treated the whole area as an arena for the first town adventure, but buildings and fenced areas are actually walls and your heroes have to follow the little paths etc, which makes the town adventures slightly, and only just slightly, more interesting.