Session Report: World of Warcraft Miniatures Game

Well, we finally got to play our first game yesterday and it was great! My oldest son (age 14) plays WoW online with me on the weekends, so he was really interested in the mini game, as was I from my years of playing other mini games and also knowing the WoW world from online play, so both of us had great interest and are glad the game went smoothly!

Despite having purchases several boosters, we stuck with only using the starter characters for the first couple of games, just to make sure we got the rules down. I love the 'tic' mechanic of the counter and how different actions you take cause you to have to wait longer, it works out well.

My son won the first game because Gorebelly had that Taunt ability that messed me up, but the second game went better for me, as I knew of the ability going into it, and kept one of my characters positioned so it wouldn't force him to attack Gorebelly and instead I was able to open up on the Paladin.

I think this game is going to have a lot of possibilities and a lot of strategy, so hopefully it will be around for a long time to come. I am not a huge fan of collectible games, but I think on this game I'll take a break from my normal ranting and raving and go with it.

I will probably write a few review, or at least some more detailed thoughts at some point in the future, but for now this short session report to say how much I enjoyed the game is good enough.

World of Warcraft Miniatures Game - Quite Impressed!

I had been looking forward to this game for quite some time, and I finally got them yesterday (2 starters and 10 boosters) and I must say, I am quite impressed!

I have read and seen so many bad images of the minis that I was very worried, and although they are not even close to being up to par with the prototype images we have seen for months and months now, I was quite pleased with how they actually did look as I had feared the worst.

I'm looking forward to my first game (tomorrow), but I wanted to say the painting isn't as bad as was expected.

Wave 2 in hands - Thoughts?

Hey guys, I got my wave 2 stuff today, I was wondering if anyone else has yes, and if so, what are your thoughts. Don't take this post as a complaint, because it is not. For the price I paid for these to be shipped to me (a tad under retail when all was said and done), I feel that the money I spent got me some good products that I am happy with overall... the value of what I am getting for what I am paying is fine for me, I have read others thinking it was not, but it seems ok to me.

My one negative thought however, is the paint quality on the wave 2 stuff seems a little poorer than the first set. This confuses me because I thought all of these minis were made at the same time and just repackaged/released in two waves? What gives? The paint is not 'horrible', but it isn't as good as wave 1 (which some people already hated), overall I'd say it looks like some corners were cut either to:

A) Save Money by lowering the quality of the paint, or

B) Get them 'out the door' faster to meet a rapidly approaching deadline.

Remember, it isn't 'bad' in my opinion, just not as good as the standard that was set in wave 1. Slight disappointment, but not horrible, just a bit 'messy' I guess you could say.

In any case, I wanted to ask if anyone else had them, and what their thoughts were on the quality compared to the original stuff.

Session Report: The Phase 10 Sweet Spot

For the last few months we've (my wife and myself) been going to my Parent's house for game night. The night changes based on our schedules, but we usually have been meeting once a week and have been trying an assortment of games, but we usually always play Phase-10 at least once per gaming session.

It is a great game, and everyone likes it... but that's the problem, everyone 'likes' it, but nobody 'loves' it. There is always something about it that makes it not a perfect game for us. Some of us don't like the length, some don't like how the rounds go, we've tried the Master's Edition, variants from the rules, variants online, etc., but still, something has never been quite 'perfect' with the game... heck, I've even guy the Phase-10 Dice game to try that out.

Well, last night we found the sweet spot, we played a game of Phase-10 that everyone loved. It was fast and fun and we used a combination of the original game with a variation and an element from the Master's Edition, overall the game worked out great, and I thought I'd post the method here for anyone who may be in a similar situation - trying to find a way to play this that everyone will enjoy.

First, we used the first variant rule from the original game to make the game quicker... We played 10 hands and each player advances to the next phase whether they completed the phase or not... this made the game time about half of what it normally had been running (4 players, we finished in about an hour, whereas previously the games too up to 2 hours). Basically in the first round, we were all going for Phase-1, then in the second round we were all going for Phase-2, etc., at the end of the game, whomever had the lowest score was the winner.

In addition to the faster game play, this also made the game easier to play and keep track of. No more "I'm going for Phase-3, she's going for Phase-2, You are still on Phase-1, and he's already on Phase-7" confusion that the normal game would sometimes pose... Actually, if you haven't yet played Phase-10, let me not mislead you, it isn't THAT confusing, but like I said, in recent weeks we've been trying many variants, and also the Master's edition, which lets you go for any Phase you want at any point you want to, which basically causes confusion going into the first phase.

This also made the game more interesting for a few reasons... With us all on the same phase, some of the phases became quite a challenge. In phases 4, 5 and 6 (going for a run of 7, 8 and 9), the phases got harder each time because with a run of 9, everyone was in need of almost every card... Also, in phase 8 (7 cards of one color), the phase was fun and challenging. With 4 players, the chances of two people going for the same color were pretty good, and luck was with me because I was delt a completed phase from the start, so I went out fast. My Parents and Wife scrambled to get rid of high cost cards and complete the phase before I could go out, and my Wwife and Dad both ended up going for the blue color at the same time, which basically screwed them both. My Mom, in an effort to 'skip' me twice in a row to buy them some valuable time, didn't realize until it was too late that she already had her phase (she thought she was a card short), she realized this as my second skip expired and I took my final turn, going out just before she could put her phase down. I taunted her that if she wasn't so busy trying to plot and scheme with her plans to skip me, she would have gone out as well, and with 2 wilds in her hand at the time, that move pretty much cost her the win at the end.

The other thing we did differently, was a rule we pulled from the Master's Edition that we all seemed to like. Basically it introduces a 'save' pile. Each round, instead of discarding a card, you can 'save' one card from your hand to put to use later in the game. I found that I would end up with the ability to put my phase down, but would hold off a bit, trying to get a skip or wild card to save for later, or if I had a completed phase in my hand that used a wild, I'd continue to play for a bit to see if I could find a replacement and save the wild's. The ability to have a couple of wild card sitting in my save hand was a big help. You don't need to own the Master's set to add in this rule, it is pretty basic and no new cards are needed, just remember when you use a card from your save deck, you draw it instead of drawing a new card, and you can't draw more than one saved card at a time (you can't pick up 3 wilds from your deck play them all at once).

So all in all we think we found a method of playing phase-10 that everyone was really happy with, and we'll play with this method again next week and probably 'set in stone' that as our house method of playing.

Oh, in case anyone was wondering on the final scores:

FIRST PLACE

Dad-Rock with 185 points

SECOND PLACE

D-Rock with 255 points

THIRD PLACE

Mom-Rock with 285 points (she probably would have won had she not tried so hard to keep me from winning in Phase 8, that was her downfall)

LAST PLACE

Wifey-Rock with 315 points.

FFG - So the rumors ARE true!

I had posted back in July that I had heard FFG had made a decision to no longer carry AT-43 or Confrontation, at the time nobody seemed that rumor was true and everything was just fine and dandy... I even got a nasty email from a well known "FGG Volunteer" who will remain nameless, who basically said "How Dare I start rumors about this"... however, I just now read this press release and it seems as though the rumors are true!  One point for Cardboard Carnage!!!

Roseville, MN, Thursday, October 16, 2008

Fantasy Flight Games to Discontinue Distribution of New Products

from Rackham

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) announced today that it will, effective immediately, no longer be distributing new releases for Rackham's AT-43 and Confrontation lines. FFG will continue to supply backstock of these lines while supplies last.

Specifically, FFG will not be distributing product from Wave 8 (originally scheduled for late September) and forward. Retailers and Distributors interested in these new products are encouraged to contact Rackham directly.

FFG extends its appreciation to the retailers and distributors who have carried these lines under our tenure, and to Rackham for allowing us to distribute its beautiful range of games and miniatures in the past many months.

Fantasy Flight Games

Jeremy Stomberg

jstomberg@fantasyflightgames.com

Phone: (651) 639 1905

Review of Management Material

Note: There are three different games, all of which have the same rules and concepts using different themes (Marriage Material, Management Material and Management Material: Information Technology), I am only going to review the Information Technology version since all three would have nearly identical reviews.

We took out a copy of this game the other night for our weekly family game night and decided to give it a shot. I've had the game now for several years, given to me by a local gaming store owner as a prize for something, and it has sat, alone, in my game closet the whole time.

First, I'll start off by saying this game is either going to be something you will like, or hate, and that is going to be based on how you play it and how serious or how fun you decide to take it.

On this particular gaming night, the players were myself, my wife and my Mom and Dad, who both recently started to get into gaming. 

First I'll give you my thoughts on the game itself, which appears to be from a small company or self-publisher, but the quality itself is actually quite good - in fact, when held up in comparison to more main stream games from larger companies (such as Phase 10 or Uno for example), the quality of the cards is almost at the same level, quite surprising and nice to see that the publisher didn't cut corners and take a cheap way out like so many other games I won't mention here.

Basic game play is pretty easy, and I will give a basic rundown of how to play without copying the entire set of rules over. Each player is an employee in a company, and as the game plays, jobs will be drawn from a deck on the table, each player (who is an 'employee') tries his hardest to get out of a job by coming up with a good excuse. The job (project) will have a number, such as Project "5", and in order to get out of the project you would need an excuse that is equal to or greater than that number.

You can use many small excuses, or one larger one, but you may not want to give up a good (high point value) excuse too quickly, there are some high point projects that you might get stuck with. The first person to reach 30 points of projects is out of the game, and the game contines until there is only one employee who has managed to talk his way out of almost every project given.

The excuses come in the form of the player's hand, which you add to by drawing 2 cards from the excuses deck each turn. In addition, the player has a chance of drawing a 'recognition' card, which can be used to screw other players who have excused their way out of a project.

Here is a quick rundown of a turn and how it might go...

On my turn, I drew a project called "Locate a Good JAVA Programmer", it is a 3 point value project, which means I need to either come up with 3 points of excuses to get out of it, or the project is mine, and the card value is added to my score (remember, when you reach 30 project points you are out of the game - apparently getting a promotion out of the office and away from your friends who continue to come up with reasons to get out of other projects).

In my hand I have a few excuses, The first excuse is a 2 point excuse "Virus ate all network files", the next excuse is also a 2 point excuse "Error 404 - File Not Found", followed by a 9 pointer "I have a date tonight" and an 11 pointer "Blue Screen of Death".

Since I want to hold onto the 9 and 11 point ones later for a larger project, or as a card to save me from going out of the game, I put down my two smaller excuses, which total 4 points. Since my assigned project was only a 3 point project, I have gotten out of it and it is passed onto the next player, this process then repeats itself.

The "Recognition" cards could have been used once I displayed my 4 points of excuses, another player could have basically commended me once I gave my excuses, this would in turn raise the project point value up, and if the other player could have raised it up over my 4 points of excuses, then I'd have been stuck with the project.

For example, In the above scenario, when I put down my two 2-point excuses and 'gotten out' of the project, my wife could have given me a recognition. An example would be a 2 point recognition called "I'll order in a sandwich for ya!" which essentially is an incentive for me to take the project. Since the point value of the project was 3, and my wife added a 2 point recognition, the total point value became 5. Since I had played only a total of 4 points of excuses, I would have been stuck with the project (I could have put down one of my higher point value excuses here, but as I had said, I wanted to hold onto them until later when I really needed them or for a game winning move).

The cards are beautifully illustrated by Cartoonist Roy Schneider (no, not the old dude form Jaws), he did an amazing job at some awesome cartoons which really add to the feel and fun of this game and bring it to life. As with the card quality, if the publisher had opted for an illustrator who was not as skilled, or went with 'clip-art' or generic text, the game probably wouldn't have been considered.

So hats off to them for not holding back on their efforts to create this game with top notch graphics and quality.

With that all being said, I have to now go back to one of my original points. You are either going to love this game, or hate this game, and to be honest, the first 5 minutes or so of game play we all really hated this game, but once we got into the feel and fun of it, and started to really act out excuses and play things up a bit with some minor role playing, the game actually started to grow on us and became a lot of fun.

Actually, my Wife, my Dad and myself all loved it, my Mom just wasn't catching on and has gone so far as to say she'll never play it again. She is more of a Scrabble/Trivial Pursuit type of person anyways.

Quality: 4/5 (Way to go for not skimping out on quality here)

Game Play: 3/5 (Not bad, not the best, but fun in the right mood)

Artwork: 5/5 (excellent cartoons)

Fun Factor: 3/5 (some will love it, some wont)

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Session Report: Phase 10 - Master's Edition

Well, I thought I'd write a review on this game, but since there are only 5 posts here currently, 4 of which are reviews, I decided my time would best be spent writing a short session report and giving my thoughts on the game.

For the last few months my wife and I have been getting together with my parents for a weekly game night. This started as a game of Scrabble a few months ago, and has since turned into a quest for new and exciting games each week, since everyone was pretty happy with the standard Phase-10, I decided to purchase the "Masters Edition" the other night in Wal-Mart.

As you can read in the other reviews, this is basically the normal Phase-10 game with the optional rule that allows you to attempt any phase you want and also adds a "save" pile to your play area. Each round you can save a card to use in later rounds if needed.

The game itself went pretty well, although it was a little confusing on the different phases being able to be completed at any time, and as my father pointed out, it kind of made the game a little harder to play because you could normally develop a bit of a strategy (such as - "I better not put down any fives because to person to my left needs them" - and things such as that), it becomes more difficult to try and keep track of what everyone is doing.

The save pile worked out great for me, nobody else seemed to be using it until more towards the end of the game, but I was constantly putting wild cards into it as I got them, and as the game got towards the end, and I was in last place, I was able to pull out some fast victories in the final turns, bringing me up to second place.

The overall thought was that the Masters Edition was pretty good, but not great and nothing really overall better than the original. When we play again in the future, we'll probably end up playing the regular version and make a house rule to add the 'save' pile into the game.

Review: Zobmondo!! You Gotta Be Kidding

I bought this? You Gotta Be Kidding... (pun intended)

Ok, I made an impulse buy at Wal-Mart and bought the "You Gotta Be Kidding" card game, it isn't the exact game that is shown here, but since there is no entry for it (and it is not worth an entry of it's own - trust me on that one), I thought I'd give a report on it here. Initially I was going to give a session report like I have always done on games played in the past, however, since I noticed that there were no entries at all, I thought I'd combine my report into a review and give my thoughts on the the game play, components, etc., to help others decide more if they'd want to purchase this or not. 

The retail price I got this for at Wal-Mart was $2.00, it didn't say if it was a special sale price or actual retail price, I found it in the toy department on the end cap that has all of their card games. I figured I'd take the shot at two bucks.

Now for a little background... the last couple of months, my wife and myself have been getting together with my parents once a week for 'game night'. It started off as an innocent game of Scrabble a few months ago, and has now turned my non-gamer parents into the type of people who are now calling us up to ask if we can come early or bring more new games. We are not yet to the level of pulling out a copy of Tide of Iron or anything, but all in all it has been a fun time for all mainly sticking to party games and family games. This has been a great experience for me, and is really the main reason I got into this 'game' hobby to begin with, to spend quality (fun) time with friends and family members...

A few weeks back I was in Wal-Mart and purchased a copy of the "You Gotta Be Kidding Me Card Game", which as far as I can tell is the same game as this except only comes with cards. This was one of the new ones we decided to try out.

The game itself comes in a small deck pack like games such as "Phase 10" or "Rage", upon opening the pack you find a stack of cards which are not quite card sized and have square edges. The overall quality is poor, non-glossy and not able to stand up to a lot of wear and tear (I doubt this game will see enough play time to actually wear down the cards, but I thought I'd mention it), the overall stock of the cards would (in my opinion) be considered poor.

There are also 2 colored tokens in the box as well, numbered 1 and 2, as near as I can tell there is no reason for the color difference since the numbers are printed right on them, but whatever.

Basically, the first player reads one of four questions on the card, and everyone else playing tries to guess which answer you have selected (which you have picked by placing a token in your hand with a number 1 or 2 on it). Questions are goofy and fun and some are disgusting, but in a funny way. An example of this would be "Would you rather eat a cup of your own snot or drink a cup of monkey spit". Then you secretly place your answer (token) in your hand and everyone guesses, whomever is correct gets a card and the next person reads a question, the winner is the first person to 6 cards.

Well, we did the first few turns and it wasn't too fun and a little boring, apparently if we had a couple of 12 year old boys playing with us that could make fun at the questions we'd have had more fun, so then we decided to put a twist on the game and go ahead and make it part of the game to give a specific reason WHY you would have picked the answer. In the above example, had I chosen "Drink a cup of monkey spit", I'd have to explain why I'd rather do that over eating a cup of my own snots... the game suddenly became a lot more fun.

The length of the game for 4 players was quite short, in fact, we were done in maybe 10 minutes, so we decided to double the play to 12 cards for the win.

The overall thoughts were that this game was decent, but probably not something we'd pull out specifically to play. It would make a great filler game if you were planning on a get together and waiting on somebody to show up, especially if you introduced some house rules. Also, I think that a more 'adult' version of this game would probably be more fun. I think it was made for ages 8 and up if I recall correctly, so they obviously had to tone down the subject matter a bit.

Quality: 3/5 (About Average)

Game Play: 2/5 (Might be ok as a filler game?)

Artwork: 1/5 (Nothing Special)

Fun Factor: 2/5 (Add some drinking and you might have a winner!)

Overall Rating: 2/5

Session Report: PHase 10 - Gaming with the PHolks

Ok, bad play on words... anyhow, last night my wife and I got together with my parents for a game of Phase-10. We have been starting to get together and play a game once a week, and it has been a lot of fun. No cool wargames or fantasy type games like I'm into, we are talking more along the lines of Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit type stuff.

At first, nobody was interested in a 'card game', but I really wasn't up for Scrabble, so somehow managed to talk everyone into playing. The players were 

D-Rock (me)

Wifey-Rock

Mom-Rock

Dad-Rock

My wife and I had both played several times together and with others, so we were quite fimilar with the game, however, we did decide it would be best to do a read through on the rules before starting, just so nothing was left out or forgotten, and everyone would have a fair chance from the first round.

The game started off pretty well, and everyone quickly picked it up, my wife blew through the first few phases like nothing, quickly taking the lead, before long Mom-Rock and Dad-Rock started to catch wind of the fact she was completely leaving us in the dust, and for several rounds every "Skip" card was assigned to her to give the rest of us room for advancement.

As we caught up and narrowed her lead down, we all hit the last few phases with amazingly close scores. As we neared the end of the game I managed to be on the last phase, while Wifey and Dad-Rock were on Phase-9 and Mom-Rock somehow fell behind and was stuck on Phase-7.

I knew people were going to target me with skips and do whatever they could to hold me back from completing my last phase. The hand I was dealt was actually really good, but I had to put on my best poker face and pretend it was a bad one, I let out a huff when I looked at my cards, and quickly threw everyone off my trail by drawing a couple of cards from the start that I didn't need. 

My plan worked, because Wifey (who was on my right) thought I was after the cards I really wasn't after, and as a result she discarded the card I needed to get my phase, and luckly I was also able to go out of the game in the same move, not only ending the game, but leaving the other players with full hands of cards.

As the game ended, I realized I not only won by getting to Phase-10 first, but I also had the lowest score as well.

Final scores:

D-Rock: 435 points

Mom-Rock: 465 points

Dad-Rock: 470 points

Wifey: 485 points

It was actually quite funny that my wife came in last place, having blown through the first few phases so quickly. Looking back at the scores, for the first five rounds she only had a total of 15 points, where as we were all between 170 and 220. So it was quite the turn of events the second half of the game.

Overall everyone enjoyed it and was happy to have played, even though the initial reaction was to not play it because it was "just a card game", I know this game will see some table time again in the near future, and it is nice to play something with my parents. I really have no memories of playing games with them as a child, so it is great to have that experience now (as I rapidly approach being 40 years old myself).

Session Report: Battleship Express with my 5-year-old

My friend Wil (I have mentioned him before, he is from my old gaming group) picked this game up and sent it to me in the mail, he said he had fun with his son and thought I might like to try it out with my 5-year-old.

There are two versions of this game, we played the basic version of the game which is easier with less rules. The players were Dad (me), Mom and Parker (5 year old).

Mom isn't much into gaming, unless it has to do with Sex and the City or Friends Trivia, but we somehow managed to get her to take command of a fleet. We all sat down and went over the rules (which took about 10 seconds). Anyhow, I think the game is for ages 7+, but my 5 year old had no problem understanding the rules, and figuring out how many dice to roll and count the hits to determine is ships were sunk or not.

The game went pretty quick, with a slight stall towards the end where we went about 10 rounds with nobody scoring a hit, overall though, for our 3 player game, I think we played about 15 minutes.

Although I haven't played the more advanced version, I can't really see this as being a 'must have' unless you have some kids to game with. I really can't see anyone in my gaming group pulling this game out while trying to decide what to play.

With that all being said though, the game itself was decent, and playing with my son made it enjoyable. I am sure we'll play this a few more times, but I don't know how long term it will last.

Session Report: Scrabble with the Family

I have always hated Scrabble. Now don't get me wrong, and if you are a fan I don't mean any disrespect or harm, it is just my personal opinion and up until yesterday I was stickin' to it. :)

My wife apparently like Scrabble as a kid, now while I was a kid it was a world of games like Axis and Allies or D&D, not 'Scrabble'... I had played it a few times and remember it being long and boring, not my style.

Well the other day we went to Barnes and Noble, and while my wife wandered off to look for some celebrity gossip magazines and I took a gander at some things I was interested in, she came back to me carrying a huge dark box, I had no clue what she was carrying until I saw the words and muttered to myself "oh crap, scrabble!"

Well, apparently this Onyx Edition was some high end deluxe game, and it was marked down to $20 on clearance, so I couldn't refuse. Thinking of all the games I've bought in the last few years, there is no way I'd say no to her for a $20 game, so we went home with it... (NOTE: The image at the top of this blog is NOT the Onyx Edition, this is the Parker Bros. image of the "Deluxe" Scrabble, which is almost identical except for the color scheme).

Last night it came out and ended up coming to my parents house for dinner. After dinner we broke out the game and my Mom, Dad, Wife and myself all began to play. Now also keep in mind, I can honestly say I never remember playing a single board game with either of my parents in my entire life (and I'm rapidly approaching 40)...

Now, I don't know if this is a special rule only in the Onyx Edition, but there is a variant to draw and use 9 tiles in the game instead of 7, and let me tell you this, the 9 tile draw is a blessing, it made this horrible, boring game that I was dreading into a fast paced and fun game that lasted maybe 30 minutes on average (for 4 players), for the most part words were pretty easy to make, it became more of a strategy to see who could make the longest words or hit those triple word score areas... Actually, if you use 7 or more tiles in a word, you also get a bonus 50 points according to these new rules (again, I am not sure if these are new to Onyx or not).

In any case, we ended up playing 4 games. I won the first game and took second place in the next three. My wife took 3rd in every game and my Dad took last in every game. My Mom was the overall winner... How my Dad took last in every game is a mystery, he had some sweet words with Q's and Z's and what not. Hmm... now that I think about it, my Mom kept score each game...

Anyhow, My childhood horrors of this game have been shattered, I had a lot of fun and am actually looking forward to playing it again, it was nice to spend some family time with my wife and my parents and this game seemed to make everyone happy.

I do think that if we only used 7 tiles, the game would have been slower and harder and I probably wouldn't have liked it as much, and while this game is certainly no Axis and Allies or War of the Ring, it was a nice change from my normal gaming routines.

This is more of a session report than a review, so I'll post it as such, but I would like to take a moment to let you know my thoughts on the game itself... It was very nice compared to the fold out board I remember as a kid, the tiles each had a little 'slot' they fit into on the board so they wouldn't slide around, and the board itself spun around so each player at the table could look at it in the correct direction, they included a nice pad of score sheets and a little sand timer for keeping track of turn time (which we didn't need to use). My only complaint is the little holders for the tiles were made for 7 tiles, and while 9 did fit on it, they did not leave any room to 'shuffle' them around while trying to make words before your turn, that was a little annoying.

Finally Shipping!!!

Well, I got notification this morning that my order for Mutant Chronicles will be shipping out to me on Monday, that is a relief, I have been really waiting for this for some time now and only seemed to get frustrated week after week when I would hear about delays and push backs over and over, to the point that it almost became a joke.

I hope this game proves to be worth the wait, some of the reviews I have read so far kind of make it sound like it might go either way with me, so we'll see. My teenage son and I will get a game in this coming week at some point, I'll post my thoughts on how it goes.

When in the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks does this game come out?

Ok, first of all, let me start by saying that FFG is one of my favorite companies for board games. I am not sure if it is my number one favorite, but I can guarantee it is in my top three at least. I have probably purchased about 80% of their products over the years and have enjoyed most of them quite a bit.

With that being said, I have also been looking forward to Mutant Chronicles for quite some time as well, for awhile there when it was first announced, I was a little bit iffy on if I would be getting it or not because it was 'collectible', but then I convinced myself that isn't a 'bad' thing (I still have horror stories from MageKnight/MechWarrior/HeroClix), anyhow, all in all I have been really looking forward to getting this game for quite some time.

But what the heck is the deal with the game? When is it REALLY going to be released. For months and months now, every time I think I am going to be getting it, I am told (yet again) it is delayed a few weeks or a month or two. At first this was understandable, and I kind of just rolled with the punches on it, but now it just seems like it is getting ridiculous.

Back on the June release date (I think it was), they announced it was delayed until July and they were no longer making it collectible, ok... that sounds like a fair reason, that's no problem. Then July rolls around and I'm told it is another week or two off... so the middle of July rolls around and I am told it's now pushed back to the first week of August... the first week of August rolls around and I'm told it is pushed back to the weekend after Gencon... so I just went to my FLGS yesterday and they tell me they got an email from FFG to expect Mutant Chronicles in OCTOBER?!?! So that is now ANOTHER Month and a Half??

I'll be honest, I'd be a much happier customer if I was just told a realistic date to begin with, I'd rather wait longer and know the date, than having the game delayed time and time again when it was promised by a certain date. It is like taking a 5 year old kid and rolling back Christmas a few times, and not actually giving it to him until mid June.

As I said, I love FFG and I have been waiting for this game for some time now, I've got some money set aside specifically for this set's released, but I also have had my eye on World of Warcraft's miniature game, and that is something we only heard about fairly recently and they seem to be doing a much better job at getting the product ready and out when they say it will be. I intend to at least get a few boosters and a starter from that game, but if WoW actually is released BEFORE Mutant Chronicles, I'm afraid that I'll end up buying more WoW and putting that cash into that game instead and making MC the game I just get a couple of misc. things from here and there.

Please don't take this message as a negative slam towards FFG, I do understand that delays happen, but come on. How in June could they really think that they could have everything done in a couple of weeks? Why keep giving us dates a couple of weeks off to keep our interest in the game only long enough to announce it is being delayed again.

Had they announced in June something like this "We have decided it was in the best interest of the gaming community to make MC non-random, as a result we have a major repackaging that needs to occur before we can ship to retail, we are sorry, but the game will most likely not hit shelves until October, but well in time for the Holiday Season"... you know what, I would have been really happy to read that announcement and wait until October, but instead I have been told now 5 times since that announcement a date that has not been held true.

The funny thing about it, is when I was at my FLGS and asked, the owner rolled his eyes and let out a snicker, he said "you know how often I am asked about a FFG release date and it never holds true"... thats when he looked in his computer for the email from his rep at FFG saying to expect them in October.

Sorry for the rant, I had to vent and see if anyone else was in my same boat. :)

I saw Gorebelly

Has anyone here seen any of these minis in person? If so, what did you think?

I saw Gorebelly the other day, a local gaming store had been given one for a preview and to show customers. My initial thoughts were they were a little smaller than I had though. Larger than most minis, but still not as large as I was thinking for some reason. They seemed smaller than the Mutant Chronicles minis I saw about a week ago.

As for the mini itself, I was quite impressed with the sculpt and paint job. Aside from the fact that the face was not painted, just a huge green splotch, but I was told that this was an early sample and the face was unpainted. With that one thing aside though, the mini was amazing.

The base was quite neat and I liked it, however this one had a bright pink base (again, because it was an early sample), but the concept and look were quite nice.

Has anyone else seen these in person and care to make specific comments? I play WoW on the computer maybe 2 hours on the weekend each week, so I am familiar with the characters and monsters, although not an expert. I am looking forward to this one.

Star Wars Miniatures with my 5-year-old son (Part 2: The Fall of Kenobi)

Well, after our first game of Star Wars Minis last week my son really has been really eager to get back in and play it again. We have been mostly playing the basic HeroScape and he has done quite well, but I think he likes the SW game better because he is such a huge fan and always watches the movies and cartoons and has no trouble pointing out characters by name, making the game flow much faster since he already knows who is who in the Star Wars Universe. Also, since he knows the game is for the "older kids", being able to play it (even the very basic streamlined version that we play) makes him very happy with himself.

My older son likes the D&D Minis, so it looks like I'm going to be getting hooked on buying into the whole collectible game thing again (something I had no plans of doing after MageKnight, HeroClix and MechWarrior), at least I like these minis better (the D&D and SW minis), and I like the cards with fixed numbers better than those clix dials anyhow.

I wanted to add some rules into the game this time around and slowly make it more complex so he can learn one or two new things at a time and handle it without any frustration. This time around we added in Vader and Kenobi. My son has been having a great time playing the Empire, so he continued and took Vader to lead his troops. I explained his special ability to double attack in hand to hand if not moving and he understood this quite well.

We setup our cards, and used poker chips for the hit points (each chip was worth 10 points, so Vader had 14 chips, Kenobi had 10, etc.), this method of stacking the cards with the chips seems to work better than trying to use those little cardboard point tokens when they take damage, or trying to keep track of it on paper, it just makes the game flow faster and is a bit easier - especially for him being only five.

If you read my last session report, I controlled some Rebel Fleet Troopers as they tries to gain access to one of Vader's bases, they were killed, and as a result we decided that this time the Empire should have an advantage because they knew Kenobi's forces were on their way.

My group of characters consisted of the Rebel Trooper Captain (I will keep calling him Captain Antilles, but he was not named that on the card), and a small band of Rebel Fleet Troopers. They were all lead by Ben Kenobi. My son had a squad of Stormtroopers with one Heavy Stormtrooper in there (doing more damage per hit) and they were lead by Vader himself. The point totals were completely equal except I did not let Kenobi use any special force powers, only Vader with his double attack.

The special bonus he got for winning the last scenario, was to setup his guys wherever he wanted, and when we entered the base he would have the first attack. It actually worked out quite well for him, he did a great job putting his guys around corners and setting them up nicely. Perfectly positioned to defend against Kenobi's soon to come assault. I wanted to take out his heavy Stormtrooper as soon as possible but it wasn't possible for me to get any shots at him in the beginning.

As the game began, my Rebel Fleet Troopers met a lot of resistance entering the base and I lost two of them right off the bat, but I was determined and my wave of troops pressed forward into the main base, taking out Stormtroopers left and right. The feel of play really felt like the movies, troopers vs troopers as shots blasted back and forth down the hall, the only thing missing were R2 and 3PO trying to cross the hall between them. :)

After a few turns had gone by, we were down to a few troopers on both sides, that ended up in a shoot out in a hallway on the right side of the throne room. While this battle raged on, Vader and Ben finally met in the hallway on the left side of the throne room. Kenobi and Vader had an epic (and long) lightsaber battle while the battle on the opposite side ended with Captain Antilles being the sole survivor. 

As the lightsaber battle continued, Vader was doing quite well and Kenobi was quickly running low on health, so Captain Antilles ran to his aid. Antilles arrived too late though, he managed to get a couple of shots off, only one of which actually managed to hit and damge Vader, but it was at that moment that Vader's saber cut down poor old Ben. 

As Vader turned and moved towards Antilles, I did what any Rebel Captain would do when facing the Dark Lord, I turned and ran! I managed to get out of the base before Vader was able to reach me, and I told my Son he was going to call for help and get Luke and Han to join him in another attack.

It was a great game and lasted about 45 minutes or so. My son has been improving in his math skills quite a bit with this game. In HeroScape we never needed to figure any double digit numbers, and in this game it seems as though all of the numbers are double digits, making it more difficult for him to figure out some of the dice rolls and once in awhile he needs some help, but overall it isn't bad and he is learning the rules quite well.

Thanks to everyone who helped me with suggestions from my last posting, I think that I'll be enjoying Star Wars Mini games with my 5 year old for some time to come now, and have as much fun with him and this game as I do playing with adults my own age.

Review: Star Wars Miniatures with my 5-year-old son.

My 5 year old son has literally grown up around gaming. I have held game nights every other weekend for years and play everything from board games to light mini games, to heavier games like Warhammer. (Note: That didn't sound right and caused some confusion, I was trying to illustrate how the games my gaming group played were heavy for my 5 year old, meaning that games like Warhammer were out of the question to try and simplify for him because there is just too much going on, whereas a game like HeroScape of Star Wars Minis has more potential because they come with fixed weapon stats, little cards to help you understand the pieces, less dice rolling and math, etc.)

He has always shown an interest in gaming, he plays with his toys and rolls dice as he moves them and things of that nature.

Now that he is able to count and do simple addition and subtraction, I thought it might be good to bring him into some real gaming (we have done things like Kids of Catan and Candyland and whatnot), but recently I introduced him to HeroScape using the basic rules and simplified a bit... he loved it and caught on rather quickly!

Earlier this morning he asked if we could play with the Star Wars Miniatures. I am not a big player of the game myself, but my oldest son (age 14) is, and we have quite a collection. I know the game is for 12 and up (I think), so I tried to talk him out of it, but he really wanted to give it a shot. "Please Daddy, Please! I love Star Wars, I can do it!"

So I finally agreed and set up a map (one with inside walls, rooms, turbolifts, etc. and asked if he wanted to be the good guys or the bad guys. Of course he started pulling out Darth Vader and armies of Stormtroopers. So I had him calm down a bit and suggested that we take it slow for our first game, he agreed.

I setup a small 3 man unit of Stormtroopers. One was an Elite and had a larger gun (I'm sorry if I am not being extremely accurate here, my oldest son could tell you anything you wanted to know about this game, but I am pretty new). Anyhow, I gave myself three Rebel Fleet Troopers, one of them was a Captain. Our groups were evenly matched.

I said "Ok, let's set them up and then I'll explain the basic rules to you" and his reply was "Yeah, but what is the scenario!" I laughed that he used the word correctly, but sure enough, he wanted to know the back story before we would begin the game.

"Ok" I replied as I took out a mini of Vader and a mini of Ben and placed them out on the table, "We are not going to use these minis right now, but let's pretend that Ben is on a mission to Capture Vader, and he is starting off by sending in these Rebel Fleet Troopers to determine the location of Vader."

My son seemed quite eager to hear more. It seems as though his imagination is such that he really got a better experience out of our game by me setting it up nicely for him, so I continued, "If I can take out your three Stormtroopers, then in our next game, when Ben meets Vader, he will get some kind of a bonus for being able to take out the Stormtroopers... and if your Stormtroopers win, then in our next game Vader would know Ben was on his way and you'll be able to have a trap set for me!"

My son was really excited about the game now, "Let's play!" he shouted.

So the rules I used were EXTREMELY streamlined. I figure that I will do like I did with HeroScape and slowly introduce a rule for each new game we play, making it more complex up to as much as I think he can handle at one time.

I noticed the hit points and the damage each mini could do were all in 10's, so I used poker chips for the health. For instance, on the Elite Stormtrooper, I think he had 30 health, so he had 3 poker chips. I figured this game would be easy to keep track of the damage, but when using Vader or Ben or anything character like that, I noticed some high numbers, like 140 health... so I figured in future games the poker chips would be a valuable tool to help the game run smoothly and keep track of hit points and damage on some of the more powerful guys. He understood the concept quite quickly.

For movement I explained that each guy could move 6 squares and then shoot, or he could move 12 squares and not shoot. He understood that right away as well.

For the shooting and damage I just rolled the D20, added the attack number, and if it beat the defense of the person he was attacking then it was a hit, subtract the damage as indicated.

That was the entire set of rules I used for the first game and it worked wonderfully! Because of the dice being a D20, he had to do some more complex math than he was used to, and there was quite a bit of counting on his fingers, but it all worked out well in the end and I feel as though games of this nature will be a big benefit to him when he goes back to school after the summer.

As for the game itself, my first move was to enter the complex and take positions near some walls, I split up my guys into 2 groups. For his first move, he ran out into the hall to confront me at both spots, which was a huge mistake because I was able to get the first attack.

He realized after his turn was over that he should have waited for me to enter the room his Stormtroopers were in so he would be able to shoot at me first. Again, I feel as though this is really helping to teach him things such as match and strategy and problem solving too.

As my turn started, I did as promised between turns, and I opened fire on him. One of his troopers was down on the first turn. He returned fire and took out two of my guys.

It was now one of my guys against 2 of his. And we were both separate now. I moved my trooper down a hallway to try and get to a good spot to fight him, and he actually managed to come in at me from two sides, and in another turn he had taken me out and won his first game.

It was a super experience, and I hope to play more with him soon and slowly work him into more rules.

I am not sure how to approach some of the bigger characters though, we are not using any of the special abilities as listed on the big white area of the card, mainly because I think it is way to complex to start off with. I know he is eager to have a lightsaber battle and use some of his favorite guys, but I don't want to ruin the game by making it over complex for him.

Can anyone give me any suggestions or tips and let me know what I can do? How well would Vader do without any special abilities? He has a butt-load of hit points, so he'd last awhile, but how uneven will battles be if I omit those abilities and still use the point values on the card?

Mutant Chronicles - Saw it at a FLGS today!

Don't get your hopes up just yet, it was not for sale, it was an early release preview copy, but the game store owner let me open it up and look through it. I had my 5 year old son with me, so I wasn't able to play, but I did get a good amount of time to look the game over and thought it was really well done.

I had read some people's thoughts on the mini's, and to be honest with you, I thought they were really good. They appeared to be of average table top standard from my experience. I also was amazed at their size. I knew they would be bigger, but didn't realize how large they would be in person. I thought I wasn't going to like it, but I actually really did.

In my opinon the minis were great, and I am really looking forward to getting the game now! I just wanted to post here to let you all know my thoughts (again, I haven't PLAYED it yet, just looked at it), and from what I saw it looked great. (the map was also pretty good, not the best, but much better than I had thought).

FFG - Are the Rumors True?

So, are they? Will FFG no longer be carrying AT-43 and Confrontation?

I heard it from a distributor that said he got a list of discounted items from FFG that they were no longer planning on carrying. All of the AT-43 and Confrontation stuff was listed, so I am not sure if it is legit or just a restructure thing or something.

Maybe FFG is redoing the packaging or something and they are clearning out of all of their current inventory?

Further digging has yielded some interesting secret information - you heard it here first! I have uncovered a strong rumor that FFG is putting out it's own AT-43 type of game, based on their DUST universe, and as a result, they want to cut their ties with AT-43 and Confrontation since it would be in direct competition with themselves to carry both lines.

I also went to FFG right after I heard that and posted my question, thinking maybe they'd have posted news about it, but nothing... I saw that league stuff that just went up.

UPDATE: On Oct 16th FFG posted an official statement on their website which confirmed much of the speculation I posted above. Interesting. 

Session Report: HeroScape with my 5-year-old

My son Parker just turned 5 years old in May. I have been a long time gamer, and he has grown up watching me have friends over for strategy board games and miniature games. He asked me the other night if there were any of 'my' games he was able to play.

I decided to try him out with a simple game of Heroscape. I had never played using the basic rules before and decided to give him a really streamlined version of the game.

He went to pre-K last year, and can count to 100, do the alphabet, add and subtract single digits and read and spell simple words with common sounds. So I felt he could handle it, and boy was I right. Not only could he handle it, but in both games we played he beat me!

Let me explain what we did and how we played... First, I chose not to use any special terrain rules or high ground, so I used a mat I had purchased from www.HouseMouseGames.com (a GREAT store by the way, try them out if you are looking for any HeroScape stuff, and the play mats are great, although I'd love them to be a little larger, but that is only my personal opinion - for the game I played with my son they were just perfect!).

I chose a unit of the Roman soldiers with spears and also a unit of Roman soldiers with bow and arrows. He chose two units of Marro (I forgot which ones, they had the guns). We did a simple deployment and lined all of our units up on our edge of the play mat. We rolled a 20 sided die to see who would go first. My son won the roll, and I let him move and shoot with both of his units (I did not use the little turn order signs, I figured I would keep this game as basic and simple as possible, and slowly introduce new rules over the next few weeks of gaming.

He studied his cars for a moment (I had explained movement, range, attack and defense values ahead of time), he looked at the board and advanced his guys forward as far as he could. He was not yet in range, so I took my move and did the same thing, however, my archers WERE now in range, so I figured I'd open fire and attack him, I killed one of his guys.

As we moved on to the next turn, he again won the roll to go first, and moved his guys slightly forward but not enough to allow my hand to hand unit to engage him - I thought it was very smart since I hadn't even told him that, he figured it out on his own). He opened fire with both units, and at the end of that round I was left with only 1 spearman and 2 archers. He really devastated me in that assault.

I should mention here, that I was using the older dice, the ones that were red and blue in color, not the white ones. This made it easier for him to figure out how many of which to roll and read the results. I personally like the white ones better, but the colored ones were much easier for him to understand more quickly (especially since they perfectly matched the colors on his cards that he was referring to).

My turn came next and I was able to move in with my last spearman and take out on of his Marro, my archers also managed to take one out. His move came next and he was able to wipe me out and take the victory!

Our second game went pretty much the same way, but I had one spearman that lasted quite a long time against him, several rounds of rolling dice and blocking before he won.

Overall, he really liked the game a lot, and his math skills really helped out, he quickly grasped the rules and understood what needed to be done. I am looking forward to more games with him in the upcoming weeks. I'll introduce him to some more rules, maybe add some terrain and make it slightly more complex, and try and help him understand some basic strategy.

Bottom line is that I thought he would be too young at age 5 (recently turned 5), but he was not and did much better than I had hoped. He is eagerly awaiting our next game!

I'd like to hear from anyone else who games with youngsters and if anyone has any comments, ideas, suggestions, etc., to help me in future games I would appreciate it!

Goodbye Paragon Gaming Group! (A brief history of Odyssey and a farewell to Paragon!)

In Feb. of 2003 I had no idea what I was getting into when I opened "Odyssey Collectibles" a comic and toy store in South Daytona, Florida.

Within a few weeks I had many requests for gaming, and before long we changed our name to "Odyssey GameShop" and began to stock games such as Warhammer 40k and MageKnight. Within a few months a local gaming community took roots and our focus went completely to gaming.

During that time we made a lot of friends, some of which still are good friends now, nearly 6 years later. I remember Wil, Chris, Chalen and James all coming in for the first time. Wil had an interest in Board Games, Chris in historic WWII era games. James was into Necromunda and Chalen into RPG's. Before long all of our different interests merged and we formed a group called "Odyssey Gaming Group".

Many other people would join our group. I remember the first day I saw Ricky, I think he was 14 years old and moved to the states from England. He was the only 'kid' other than my son we had in our group because he was a very experienced and mature player for his age.

Some players left... James moved to Jacksonville, Chalen found the wonders of online gaming in the Star Wars universe.  Games came and went, but there was alway a core group of founding members who stayed on in one form or another. Special thanks to Wil, Ricky, Chris, James and Nate for all those years of gaming.

Near the end of 2004, only two years after opening. We closed our doors. Despite the fun we had, the money generated was not enough to justify the rent on a 1,000 square food gaming area, and although I enjoyed my time there, it was not a smart business move to keep our doors open.

In 2005 we offically disbanded "Odyssey Gaming Group" and reformed as "Paragon Gaming Group", focusing on games such as Warhammer 40k and Fantasy, RPG's such as Dungeon's and Dragons, and Board Games like Axis and Allies and Conquest of the Empire.

The group went strong for almost three more years, until now I am finding myself leaving my group of friends and moving across country to start a new life for my family and my children. We have wanted to move for such a long time, and although I'll miss my weekly gaming sessions, it is the best move to make for my family and my career.

These guys have been a lot of fun over the last 5 years and I will always cherish the memories of gaming with this neat group of players. I hope to be able to keep in touch with them all after I move, and hope I am able to locate another group of players that I can fit into as nicely as these guys.

World of Warcraft Minis - Omedus the Punisher

That new figure (Omedus the Punisher) is now being shown on the wowminis.com website, it looks pretty neat. I hope the final production figures are as good as these prototypes they keep showing us.

Follow up (one year later) - They are not. :(

Mutant Chronicles is coming!! (I am excited, are you?)

The image area in BGG seems to be filling up (thanks to Jonas Barkå on BGG for the sneak peek photos)... So far I am impressed with these photos... The dice are neat, and although they are similar to Descent and Doom it is nice to have non-standard D6 in the game... the green dice look a little off-color, but I don't know if it is a bad photo or the actual color?

The photo of the Capitol guys looks really nice to me, even at the larger size, the paint details look decent and about what I had expected, the bases look nice and clean as well (aside from the paint scuffs on the one to the right, that is a bummer). Does anyone know what those little holes are for in the base? I assume they are to put those little cardboard tokens into?

The Algeroth minis look great too, these photos look much better for some reason than the other photos we saw the other day, so far so good in my opinion.

The blow up images of individual cards looks good as well, I haven't had the time to read them all, but so far from what I have seen I like it.

The overall layout of the Starter Set is impressive for the price, I hope we'll have more options for maps in the future, and there are a crap load of cards, I didn't realize there were going to be so many, that is good news because I thought we'd be very limited on the card selections.

I am curious to hear what everyone things of the minis in these photos?

Ticket to Ride

Played with Krissy, Wil and Brandon. Wil won but it was close, had the game gone one more turn, I would have been able to make a 3 train connection and put my two longest routes together and secured the victory.

But Wil went out too soon, and I had to throw down a random 2 train route for a few points... had I been able to make that last move and get that last route I would have won by about 10 points or so. Very close game and a lot of fun.

Brandon came in 3rd and Krissy last.

Skip-Bo

Quick game with Brandon. He won. This is a neat little filler game that would be fun to play if you are waiting on someone to show up for a gaming session or have some free time to kill. It is light and easy and fast compared to a game such as Phase 10.

Uno

I remember playing this game when I was a kid, so when Brandon asked to play I couldn't say no. Krissy joined us and we got in a couple of quick games. I liked Skip-Bo better, but I don't think I liked it as much as Phase-10. Uno seemed a little too simple for some reason.

I won the majority of the games. 

Perudo (Liar's Dice)

I played this game with Brandon and Kris and really liked it, as did Brandon.  Kris had problems trying to understand it at first, and by the time she caught on it was too late for her to win.  I have found that when we play new games, if she doesn't win, there is little chance of getting her to try it again, however, on this game she said she would maybe give it one more shot.

I won this particular session because at the last move, Brandon made a bid that was impossible for him to win.