Category: Uncategorized

Memoir of Memoir 44

Memoir 44 is a lite tabletop historical wargame for two players set in ww2. It comes complete with all you need for a dozen or so scenario based battles, it’s easy to play and perfect for introducing your children to the horror of war.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Memoir 44 (and I’ve successfully used the word Memoir five times, which may not seem like such a big deal but it’s more than you’ve used it in a whole week)

The models are neat and dinky. Not up to the high standards of say descent, more Airfix 72nd scale from your childhood (well, my childhood) but perfectly adequate for purpose

The base game comes with a big
Pile of German and America troops consisting of infantry, tanks and artillery and a few extra bits like sandbags and tank traps. The game board is a good sized double sided hex board with grassland on one side and a beach on the other. Perfect for your d day Landing needs

On top of the map a number of hex tiles can be laid to add rivers, hills, forests and villages. Other features like bridges and bunkers can be laid on top of these again to create fairly varied battlefields.

The game comes with a number of increasingly complex scenarios but it never feels hard to understand and above all other things the game is always fun and easy to play.

This is a great game for two players. It’s a good one to give to the seventh and eighth player on a games night or to while away a few hours without being too stressed. It’s also a best game to show to kids and introduces a number of key elements for more complex tabletop games

The command system is quite neat and features cards that allow you to move troops withe on the left, centre or right flank. This system leads to some interesting choices on holding cards, bluffing and guessing.

All in all a best little game. I got to play it last Friday with my 6 yr old and although the rules were simplified a little for that battle it still proved to
Be a fast, fun game.

A dozen or so add ons and numerous scenarios are available to add longevity. I’ve only ever played the base game so I can’t comment on the extras but I like it and look forward to working my way through all the scenarios.

All in all good clean warlike fun

Huzzah!

Vic

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Twiligh Thur – Being a Drax Report

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Do you suffer from Roids? A surprising amount of Pilots, both Imperial and Rebel Scum do.  I was certainly suffering badly from them last Thur when I drove not one but two of my Tie Fighters through a few choice asteroids all clearly labelled as such.  The real enemy Star Wars X-Wing miniatures (just like life) are not the other players it’s often yourself…. /Allows time for reader to nod sagely

I’m pot committed with x-wing.  Myself and a gaming buddy (please note: buddy is a misnomer, there are no gaming Buddies as such, just opponents or people if you play it right, whom help you until it’s high time to stiletto them.  Just before they we’re planning on vaping you.  It’s the nature of things) but in the loosest sense of the word a gaming buddy (see earlier) and I have a fine collection of x-wing models which since it’s a mare to separate we’re married in a humanist ceremony some time back and are often seen out together having fun.  It was high time to crack open the boxes they reside in and breath some life into them with the appropriate rules and phew phews.

X-wing is not a million miles (or a long long time ago) from Wings of Glory a WWI Flying Ace combat game .  It’s a relatively new game from Fantasy Flight and as you would expect it has high production values and it’s not half bad.  Ok let’s be honest the game has EXPLODED.  It has very keen models which very importantly come pre-painted.  You can jump right into it with just the started box (which comes with an x-wing and two Tie fighters) and it’s gloriously collectable.

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There are over a dozen ships that can be bought to add to the basic game,  A-Wings, B-Wings, Tie Advanced, to name but a few, and thankfully all from the original series.  Fantasy Flight have done a sterling job (at least for them) in drip releasing new ships every so often and some of them (A-Wings for example) sell like hotcakes.  Some of the bigger and seriously expensive ships are due to hove into sight soon which will really put the transports amongst the pigeons

A couple of things I like about X-wing.  It’s Star Wars.  The greatest trilogy of all (yes it is)(don’t argue) time, it’s the original trilogy, the models are really really nice. Everything you need to play a decent game comes in the original box.  Also it’s Star Wars.

There’s a fantastic feel to the whole thing, It’s pretty easy to play, the games are fast (depending on size), there’s a lot of variety and it’s edge of your seat stuff start to finish.

If I had to fault the game I’d say it’s a PIG to store.  The models although gorgeous are awkward and like a lot of tabletop stuff easily broken, although, touch plastic, none have for me so far.  (Hi faith, Victor here). You can spend a bit of money and get a decent storage system but it can be pricey.  A few cheaper options are presenting themselves and a bit of imagination can help with your storage woes. Dragging out a lot of models and setting them up for a big battle can be a chore but no more than any other tabletop game and it’s your own fault if you set-up a huge battle.

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The game can be played as either a points versus battle or as a scenario based game.  Either is good although my understanding is in a points battle some combos are killer and some are weak beer.  That said Fantasy Flight and the greater gaming community recognise this as an excellent game and adjust it accordingly with new releases.

I like this game, I had better really since I’m a few models in and want more, because I do and that’s reason enough.

The game on Thur was a 50 points 2v2 which is really a 1v1 with two people on either side if that makes sense.  We split into two groups each of which had semi-experienced players and me and another player.

My team took Imperials while my erstwhile buddy took rebel scum.

We had Five Tie fighters (one of which was Vader flying the Tie Advanced) and we squared up against two X-Wings, an A-Wing and a Y-Wing in a straight out fire fight in an asteroid field.  (Be careful with them there asteroids, there’s a reason Tie Fighter pilots tend to avoid them)

Our Tie fighters were a mix of academy pilots and veterans and it was straight in zero kissing first turn, plenty of phew phew and initially anyway a nice mix of hits on the rebel shields.  The Rebel Y-wing a real workhorse took a sustained hammering from the swarm of ties expertly directed by Vader, who indeed “has you now”.  Return fire was minimal and all things were looking good

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The next turns became a bit of a scrum with ships knocking up against each other and worse still against some asteroids and a hard fight en-sewed with very little finesse, just lots of guns and hope.  There was NO flying casual.

Whittle by whittle (see what I did there?) both fleets started to be whittled down until it was just Vader and his youngfella Luke Skywalker and his shit of a droid R2-D2 (who btw knew all long who his Da really was but never mentioned it once.  not once).  Finally Vader vanquished skywalker and after a short robotic cry it was all over.

Not bad.  We need to play this more.  That said we need to play lots of games more and we will

Joined by another gamer we jumped into the very long titled

DC Comics Deck-Building Game

This game is very similar to Dominion, a game I liked initially and now doesn’t beep my jeep at all.  It has some nice pics of superheroes but that doesn’t save it from being an OK game.  My problem with this and Dominion (and a few others) is it’s primarily a solo game, there isn’t a whole lot of interaction with the other players, there’s a bit, but it doesn’t have the whole  “HA! Take take” style of play.  It’s more about getting the best deck together you can before anyone else and it just doesn’t work for me.

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There’s nothing particularly wrong with the game, The card quality and art work is very good, the game is fairly fast it’s just…. it’s Dominion clone and not a very good one either.  Each game is the same, you don’t even get to vary the cards  like Dominion.  I’m sure there’s a stack of expansions in production but I just can’t be bothered with it.  It’s a dull game.  I’ll play it but I refuse to be excited.

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Funny enough I played Aquaman whom is not as bad as all that.

So in summary X-wing good, DC Comics Deck building game bad if you’re not a dominion fan.

Expect a few more mini reviews of X-wing.  It’s just too good not to play again and again

More of that soon

Huzzah!

Vic

 

 

 

 

 

 

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MrSaturday Turns 40 Part 2

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It’s actually today, so it seems appropriate 

This is part two of my report on the gaming events from last weekend’s epic gaming sessions

Next up was

Ca$h and Gun$ live

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If ever there was a stupid ass game this is it.  Each turn the GM counts out an amount of cards equal to the standing players on the back of which is a monitory amount  5k – 20k and hidden on the front is either a

  • Knife
  • Kevlar
  • Grenade
  • Handgun
  • Double Handgun
  • Shotgun

Each of the players get to move around and when the GM blows the whistle they all Stop and point their guns at another player, by THEIR guns I mean they pretend they have certain guns, which may or may not match their actual weapon cards.

At this point people get a chance to chicken out (quite intimidating to have half a dozen guns pointed at you)

Then in order the weapons are resolved

Knife wielders can reach out and stab someone

Grenades turn around on the spot and anyone they touch gets hit by the grenade

Single guns go next injuring those they’re pointed at

then double guns

then shouguns that do double damage

Kevlar stops all bullets bar shotguns

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Each shot cancels the person who got hit from firing with their weapons next. so for example if one player was shot with a single gun the target wouldn’t get to fire their shotgun later on.

Players who get injured are sent to the hospital for a round and these along with they who wimped out don’t get a share of the cash.  Rinse and repeat for six rounds.  

It’s actually great fun, at one stage a veritable conga line formed as people pretended they all had grenades.

now as the GM I got the rules fairly wrong it must be said, but it didn’t matter we all had fun and it worked well.  The game should have had teams and the exact order in which things happened should have been different but so what.  Come Knavecon 4 this will definitely be on the cards.  It’s a goodie

Huzzah!

Vic

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Infiltration Thur – Being a Drax Report

I’ve never tried Marmite, I’ve no idea what it’s like, I’ve seen it, I imagine it’s a bit like Bovril.  I do like Infiltration from Fantasy Flight, I’m sure there’s people that hate it, but that doesn’t matter, what’s important is we played it last Thur and it was bloody good, no if buts or maybes.

Infiltration (which is surprisingly cheap on amazon at the moment) is a non co-op game where operatives are trying to outdo each other by downloading as much as they can from a corporation they’ve broken into and get out of the building before the security mercs arrive.

Mercs is a great word, it makes everything way more cool.  Too many romantic comedies could have been saved with the introduction of Mercs to the ‘story’.

Having carefully read the rules* we set to play and carefully interpreted the rules as best we could.  NOW we only really got one thing wrong as tradition demands and that was the count down.  It ran a little bit lower than twice as fast as it should BUT it still didn’t ruin the game.  It just made it a bit shorter.

Each player starts with a hacker and four random pieces of gear at the entrance to the research facility.  The facility itself is made up of a first and second floor, each of which consists of 8 face down room cards.  The rooms contain traps in the form of NPCs, obstacles to overcome in the shape of Hi Tech Locks and lab workers and treasure as downloadable victory points and extra gear.  The first person to reach a room gets the pick of the treasure but must also overcome whatever the room contains.  The rooms each game are random so you’ll rarely face the same challenge twice.

Being a Fantasy Flight Game it’s a given at this stage that the quality is high, the artwork excellent and the whole thing reeks of quality.  

I like the premise of the game, working against a clock is always a great mechanic and adds to the tension of the game, do I get out now and risk losing on points? or stay a little longer and risk losing everything when the mercs arrive?  It’s also a fast game, the turn whips around pretty quick and whole thing rattles along at a nice pace.

The game is set in the Android universe, one of FFs IPs and it’s nice familiar setting.  Android itself was a bit of a mixed bag.  The Bladerunner esq setting was great but the game itself just never really worked and I did really want to like that game.   I’m happy to report that infiltration works very well indeed and we nearly played it a second time straight away but restrained ourselves to play something else.

Next up was Colossal Arena which cost me a whole €5 at Knavecon and was worth some of that.  Reiner Knizia is a great fella and all that but his games do tend to be a bit… well dry.  CA is no exception.  I understand it’s a rewrite of a horse racing game that’s been tacked onto a monster arena betting game… typical.

We dragged our way through it regretting not playing infiltration a second time.  I’m not saying it’s a terrible game, I’m just not saying it’s a great game and with all the other good stuff available to us why waste time on this.  I’m sure it will see the light of day again sometime but we’ll see.  I’m hard pressed to think of a Reiner Knizia game I really like, this one didn’t change that.  with that done it was time for a final chat and home, lucky in my case I didn’t have far to go!

More of that next thur

Huzzah!

Vic

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