X-Wing: The Ghost

The Star Wars cartoon Rebels is a big, big hit in my house.  It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that knows me that I love the main ship on the show.  When the first images were released I didn't care for it.  The odd angles and design elements shoved together were a little off-putting.  As I watched the pilot episode I quickly grew to love the design and watching the ship in action.  I was extremely excited when Fantasy Flight announced that they were creating the Ghost for use in their table top miniature game, X-Wing.

For those unfamiliar with X-Wing: The Miniature Game is game where players form small fleets of ships representing the Empire, the Rebellion, or a criminal faction known as the Scum.  Players maneuver their ships in space combat and try to either fulfill some scenario based objective or just try to eliminate the other player's ships.  Today's update is going to really talk about how the Ghost preforms in game.  I haven't had the change to even use it once yet.  The set comes with enough pieces and cards that it will take a few games before I really get a good feel of the piece.

What I wanted to show off was just how nice the model looks.  The Ghost is huge compared to other ships and the small details really shine through on it.  The package comes with both the Ghost and the Phantom but I've also used an A-Wing in one of the pictures to show off just large it is.  Unlike Warhammer, X-Wing miniatures come pre-painted.  I've heard about other people having issues with badly painted pieces but I've never seen it.  The paint on the Ghost looks far better than I could have put together.

The surprising thing is that the model is hollow.  When looking at it you expected it to have some weight to it.  The model is super light, which is a good thing considering its size.  It already has to use a different flight stand than the other ships if it weighed more it would have to use something even larger.  I should point out that the Phantom doesn't actually dock into the Ghost model.  Instead the Ghost is sculpted to already have a Phantom back there.  Expect another Ghost article in about a month from now once I've gotten to do more than fly it around my kitchen making "pew pew" laser sounds.

Batman Love Letter

Love Letter is a quick, easy to learn card game.  The premise is simple; all of the cards have a point value and a rule on them.  When the round is over you want to have the card with the highest point value on it.  You start the game with one card, then on your turn to have to draw a card and play one of the two in your hand. The rules printed on the cards are very simple, things like look at another player’s hand.  The game is so quick that even when you’re knocked out for a round it doesn’t take long before you’re playing again.

Because the game is so simple it is open to being licensed all sorts of ways.  I chose the Batman version but there are Hobbit, Adventure Time, and other versions already released or on their way.  Joker is the high value card in the set, so he’s the one you want to end with.  The lowest value card is Batman.  When you play Batman you can earn a point by correctly guessing what card is in someone’s hand.  It knocks them out of the round and you get to feel like the world’s greatest detective.  We had a lot of fun asking each other if we had Poison Ivy.  

You don’t have to go down to your local game store for Batman Love Letter either.  I found it in my local Target.  I don’t know why I was over in that section that has sports and collectable cards, but there it was in its clamshell package.  Target has done a good job keeping some of the more popular board games in stock over the past few years and it was a pleasant surprise to find this one.  The game runs between 9 and 12 dollars depending on what version and where you get it.  If you're looking for something fast and easy I highly recommend it.

X-Wing Wave 4

I’ve been playing a lot of the X-Wing miniature game.  During that time I’ve amassed a small fleet of Rebel and Imperial ships.  Fantasy Flight had already revealed that there would be an Imperial Aces box set and two larger ships with the transport and blockade runner set to come out later this year.  The entire time they were talking about these ships Fantasy Flight assured us that they were not wave 4.  Last Friday wave 4 was announced.  Consisting of two ships for each faction the newest wave pulls ships from an interesting amount of references. 

For the Rebels they’ve added the E-Wing and the Z-95 Headhunter.  The Imperials are gaining the TIE Defender and the TIE Phantom.  The Headhunter is a predecessor of the X-Wing and is going to be a cheap missile delivery ship.  The cheapest version will only be 12 points.  The E-Wing was supposed to replace the X-Wing and be able to take droid and system upgrade cards.  That makes it an expensive ship, the lowest pilot starts at 27 points.

The Imperials both pick up expensive ships.  The TIE Defender has 3s for attack, agility, hull, and shields.  Starting at 30 points it is more expensive than an Interceptor but it is also more durable.  The TIE Phantom is a big mystery.  It is going to have some kind of cloaking action, but the details on that haven’t been released yet.  It also has a 4 attack.  A fighter with 4 attack. 

I’ve never been a fan of the E-Wing so I don’t plan on picking any of them up.  They might have great stats but I can’t use a ship I don’t like.  It is the same situation with the TIE Defender.  There are a lot of people that love it, but I’ve never cared for it.  I’m very excited about the Z-95s.  They come with the Ion Pulse Missile which places two ion tokens on a ship when they hit.  I can’t say much about the Phantom until we actually see how the cloak action works.

X-Wing Storage

I almost went two weeks without mentioning X-Wing!  Considering how much of my free time has been taken up by the X-Wing game and reading Edge of the Empire (the Star Wars RPG) I’m actually surprised that it took me this long.  Today I wanted to document the storage solution I picked for my X-Wing pieces.  I didn’t come up with it on my own; I spent some time looking over other people’s picks over at boardgamegeek.com.  The Plano 5231 is an extremely popular choice; if you look it up on Amazon it will actually group it together with X-Wing models.  I went with the 3952 since it is like having two of the 5231 cases glued together.

As you can see in the picture it is a dual sided setup.  Right now I have the Rebels and the Imperials separated so they each have their own side.  As my collection grows that could certainly change.  It isn’t as impressive looking as the Battlefoam I use for my Warhammer figures, but the Plano box only costs me 24 dollars after shipping.

The outside portions can be accessed without opening the actual box.  This makes them really easy to get into quickly.  The outer portions are also much shallower than the interior ones.  On one side I’ve loaded my range/movement templates, dice, and all the tokens I would need in a normal game.  To be honest I could move some of the squad number and target locks to the other side, I have so many I could never actually use them all in a game.

The other outside section is pretty empty.  I have another set of range/movement tiles.  Eventually I want to replace the cardboard ones with a nice set of acrylic but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.  I also have all my scenario tokens.  Out of everything on this side I’ll probably use the asteroids the most and since I’ll only need to get to them during the game setup that shouldn’t be a problem.

Besides being a little blurry this is the inside of my Rebel side.  I have all the ship stats, flight bases, and movement dials for my five Rebel ships inside.  It doesn’t look like I have five Rebel ships here because I have three X-Wings stacked on top of each other.  I trim the plastic clamshells the ships come in to give them a better fit in the case.  My A-Wing and Y-Wing are loose in the case, I need to get some foam to go on top of them or buy a couple more and stack them like I did the X-Wings.

My Imperial side is more filled out.  The TIE’s wings are so large I can’t stack them like I could the Rebel ships.  In addition to that for each basic set came with two TIEs to the one X-Wing.  Even with all the space used I still had plenty of space for flight stands, ship stats, and flight dials.  I also have my extra damage deck thrown in there.

 

 

Besides the extra damage cards I mentioned I don’t have any cards in my Plano case.  That’s because I bought the Ultra Pro Dual Deck Box.  The box holds all my ship pilots on one side and on the other it has space for a damage deck and my upgrades.  It also came with two dividers so keep my damage separated from my upgrades and my Rebels separated from my Imperials.  The box doesn’t fit inside my Plano case but I still think it is worth it.

X-Wing Unboxing

I’ve been talking a lot about the X-Wing game recently.  It shouldn’t be a surprise that I ended up with a pretty good starting fleet after Christmas.  I’m the guy with a full sized astromech droid in his computer room and an X-Wing tattooed on his arm, eventually I was going to cave and start playing this game.  Because playing games like this by yourself is boring I started looking for people to toss the dice around with me.  The first obstacle I ran into was people balking at the cost.

The X-Wing core box set runs 40 dollars.  Numerous Targets have had this marked down to clearance prices, but you can also find them online for less than 30 dollars.  As the pictures will show below, you get quite a bit for your money.  After the initial purchase you will want more ships.  Additional fighter cost around 15 apiece (again they can be found cheaper online).  There are larger ships available too; those come with larger price tags.  I really was more interested in dogfight aspect of the game and have stayed away from ships like the Millennium Falcon and Slave 1. 

Inside the starter box are a quick start rule book, a full rule book, 4 sheets of counters that need to be punched out, dice, a range template, lots of cards, and three fighters.  Like most starter sets, you get a lot of the essentials.  If you can find it at a good price, I really recommend picking up two of the set.  That gives you a solid amount of dice, asteroid templates, and movement templates. 

The game comes with two different sized cards.  The pilot cards are standard sized player cards but the game also uses a much smaller card for upgrades and damage.  Through some trial and error I found out these cards are called “Mini American”.  That’s important if you want to put your cards into sleeves.  The set comes with 3 attack dice and 2 defense dice.  You can buy more dice separately, but again two starter sets will take better care of you.

 

 

I also wanted to show how much comes with the additional ships.  Besides getting a pre-painted model you also get a movement dial, upgrade cards, pilot cards, and any additional tokens you need for that fighter.  The model sculpts are pretty detailed and while I only have 11 ships to go by, the paint applications have been well done.  Considering other table top war-games sometimes sell single, unpainted figures for 20 plus, I think you get a pretty good value out of the additional fighters.

 

I think that is enough X-Wing talk for a few days.  Probably.

Star Wars: X-Wing Miniature Game

Brandon and I text each other probably every other week about a game that we’d be buying if the two of us lived closer together.  Honestly I’ve been saving a lot of money by looking at a game and saying to myself, “I don’t really have anyone near me that would want to play this.”  When I was doing some Christmas shopping this Sunday I ran into a large store display of the X-Wing miniature game.  I haven’t been paying much attention to the game, but the display stopped me in my tracks.

The game is put out by Fantasy Flight and has really been gaining a lot of momentum lately.  The game is on its third wave of expansions so there are numerous different Rebel and Imperial ships to add to your dog fights.  Each expansion includes more than the ship model, it also includes things like the tokens and cards needed to use that ship in combat.  I’ve watched enough people playing it at this point that I really want to jump in.  I haven’t yet, but I’m pretty sure that at least the starter box will be coming home with me at some point. 

Of course I’m strange I don’t really want a bunch of the other ships, I’d just want to field 12 X-wings.  You should probably expect more updates about the X-wing miniature game in 2014.

Star Wars Risk: Original Trilogy

I’ve had board games on the mind a lot lately; it might have been the new Cards Against Humanity expansion or it might be all the Table Top episodes I’ve been watching.  Regardless I knew I needed to spend some time rolling dice.  The biggest challenge is finding the time and finding additional players that also have the time to do play.  There have been a few Kickstarters lately that I had to stop myself from funding because I knew I’d never get around to playing what looked like an awesome game.

 So I was lucky enough to find the time and some players to play some Risk.  When delving into my closet I was surprised to find out I don’t actually own a version of vanilla Risk.  I have Godstorm and Star Wars Risk.  Being that all the players are big Star Wars fans I went with that version.  There are two different versions of Star Wars Risk; one for the Original Trilogy and one for Clone Wars. 

Star Wars Risk differs from standard Risk in a few ways.  The first is the factions.  Playersr will be controlling the Empire, the Rebellion, or the Hutts.  Each of these groups has their own conditions for winning.  The Empire needs to wipe out the Rebellion, the Hutts need to control certain planets on the map, and the Rebellion needs to kill the Emperor (or wipe out the Empire).  Each army also has a different number of planets they start the game with and a different number of troops.  The Empire has the largest starting army and controls the most planets.  It’s a thematic change but is mostly balanced out during gameplay.

Those aren’t the only additions either.  Depending on the cards played during the game, there is Force setting that affects how many cards the Empire and the Rebellion get and how easy/hard it is to destroy the Death Star.  That’s right, I said the Death Star.  The Death Star can actually destroy a planet and any armies on it.  It isn’t easy to fire the Death Star but it’s quite effective when it does go off.  There are also fighter, bomber, and capital class ship tokens.  These ships help out dice rolls; either by adding to the number you rolled or by changing the dice type.  Finally the Empire gets to place defensive bunkers.  There bases make it easier to defend an area but one of them houses the Emperor.  If the Rebels manage to kill the Emperor they’ve won the game. 

If you’re looking for your own copy I’m sorry to say it’s been out of print for a while now.  The price on eBay seems to fluctuate pretty wildly on this one, so if you keep an eye on the auctions you may be able to score one at a reasonable price.

12 Days of Holiday Bullshit

The Cards Against Humanity people are at it again.  Last year they sent out the Holiday expansion at a “pay what you want” price.  It was an awesome item and a bunch of money actually got donated to charity.  This year they are doing something completely different.  If you sign up now and pay 12 dollars they will send you 12 presents.
 

What are they?  I honestly don’t know.  I haven't been disappointed by any of the items I've ordered from them before, so I trust them on this one.  There were initially 100,000 spots open to sign up for this, and at the time of me writing this 10,000 have already been filled.  This isn’t going to last long.  If you want in on all the surprises, you better sign up quick at www.holidaybullshit.com

UPDATE:  I knew Holiday Bullshit was going to sell out, but I'm still amazed at how quickly 100,000 orders went.  Hopefully if you were able to get your order in.  For those people who were too late or just didn't feel like dropping 12 bucks on chance; we will be running a follow up once the gifts start arriving.

Bigger, Blacker Box

Cards Against Humanity players it is finally on sale!  The Bigger, Blacker Box has been teased by Cards Against Humanity since this past convention season.  They even released a video to tell you exactly what this new product is.

 

So you get a large case that should fit all of the current Cards Against Humanity expansions, you get 20 new cards, 50 more blank cards, and possibly something else.  If you need the Bigger, Black Box in your life you can order it Here. 



Relic

This past weekend I spent quite a bit of time playing Fantasy Flight Game’s board game Relic.  Relic takes place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and sends players exploring the galaxy.  The game is the 40K version of the fantasy game Talisman.  Relic takes Talisman’s rules and improves upon them.  The game retails for 60 dollars, but the game is full of detailed playing pieces, counters, and about 12 trees worth of cards.  Seriously, they’re smaller than playing cards but there are a ton of them.
 

At the start of the game each player picks one of the game’s characters.  Each character has different starting stats and special abilities.  The game is Empire-centric so choices run from things like a Space Marine Captain to a Ratling Sniper.  A final objective is set in the middle of the board that determines what it takes to actually win the game.  In addition to the final objective each player is dealt a mission card, giving them a smaller objective to achieve.
 

 

At that point the players start moving around the board.  Each card drawn gives them a chance to fight an enemy, gain equipment, or even gain followers.  Kill six points worth of bad guys and you gain a level.  Leveling increases your stats and could have other rewards.  Finish three missions and gain a Relic.  Relics are very powerful equipment cards.  It can be a very, very long game.  Because it is so reliant on cards, it can also be a very random game.   That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun though.  Laughing at the misfortune of your opponents might be the best part of the game.  If you like your board games a little more complicated I recommend you check it out, I know it is something that I’ll be adding to my collection soon.

Robotech RPG Tactics

Before we get started with today’s updates we need to get a few things out of the way.  We’re talking about Robotech.  Yes, I know Robotech was originally three cartoons before Harmony Gold combined Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA.  There may also be spoilers for a cartoon that came out in 1985, so if for some reason you want to view the series for the first time you probably want to skip the next paragraph.

I was 9 when Robotech started airing on television.  Despite the fact that my local television station didn’t always air the episodes in order I was fascinated by it.  It’s the first cartoon I can remember that didn’t talk down to the audience.  There was a lot going on in those plots and while the younger me might not have understood all of it, I was never lost.  I can still remember the impact Roy Fokker’s death had on me; people in cartoons weren’t supposed to die.  Most people think of the Macross saga when they hear the name Robotech.  My personal favorite was the New Generation but Macross saga has Khyron.  Khyron was so cool he made sitting through Minmay scenes almost bearable.

So why am I talking about Robotech today?  Palladium the long time holders of the Robotech RPG license have created a Kickstarter for a Robotech Tactics game.  When I say Palladium has had the license for a long time, understand that I used to play the Robotech role-playing game they created back in high school.  Their newest game is going to fill your table with Macross saga veritechs and Zentraedi battle pods.  As of this writing there are 20 days left to go in the Kickstarted and it is already fully funded.  They’ve actually made enough to fully fund the project 6 times.  Palladium is going above and beyond and adding stretch goal after stretch goal. 

There are numerous different levels that you can pledge.  The level I want to talk about is their Battle Cry level.  It isn’t cheap, that level will cost you 140.  But for that you’ll get a 90+ page rule book, 12 Zentraedi dice, 12 UEDF dice, 40 game cards, an art print, and 45 game pieces (including the Kickstarter exclusive Rick Hunter veritech).  That’s the basic set.  You also get another 14 game pieces that have been unlocked by the stretch goals.  Roy Fokker’s Veritech is included in those pieces, like Rick he is also a Kickstarter exclusive.

That’s a fantastic amount of plastic to move around your table.  You could have 10 Veritechs and 4 Destroids defending the Earth against 21 Regult Battlepods, 2 Reconnaissance Battlepods, and 2 Glaug Officer’s Battlepods.  If that isn’t enough for you there are plenty of add-ons to purchase.  You can buy extra Battlepods of all types.  Or extra Veritechs.  Or Gnerl Fighters. Want some real firepower?  The MKII Monster is available for 40 bucks.  If you’re a fan of tabletop war games or just a Robotech fan this is a Kickstarter you need to check out.  With 20 days left to go I’m excited just to see what else is coming.

Dwarf Blood Bowl Pitch

Near the beginning of the month I posted some early pictures of my Dwarf Bloodbowl team, the Stoutheart Brewers.  I’m still working on getting the team fully painted but we aren’t focusing on the team today.  The last sentence in that update was that I’m also working on a Blood Bowl pitch for the team.  When you purchase a Blood Bowl boxed set it does come with game board.  But the Cyanide video game version has shown me that you don’t need to settle for a grass field.  Dwarfs prefer the feel of stone under their feet.  What you’re going to see below is still a work in progress.

When playing Blood Bowl each coach has a side board that contains their Reserves, Injured, and Dead Players.  Early in my design process I decided I wanted to have these dugouts located beneath the playing field.  For some reason it felt more Dwarf that way.  It was also a more complex build, which I thought was a great idea for someone who hasn’t done any wood work since my high school shop class.  Despite having to re-teach myself some basics of carpentry my frame came together pretty quickly.

The next step was to use foam project board.  Basically a piece of foam sandwiched between two sheets of poster board.  Using a rag I wet the paper down one side of the board and stripped the paper from it.  I did this for two full boards because I wasn’t really sure how much I was going to need.  That’s kind of a theme of this project, me getting more supplies than I really need.  Once the foam was cleaned I began measuring out the game board.  Using a T-Square, a pencil, and a sharp X-Acto knife I spent a lot of time creating the grid for the actual playing field.  After that I did turn trackers, re-roll trackers, a scatter template, and random stone work to fill the rest of the board. 

I purposely left some places bare.  In those places I brushed on a layer of watered down Elmer’s glue and then sprinkled cat litter on them.  Once that was they got two more layers of glue to make sure the gravel pits stayed in place.  The important thing to remember about working with foam like this is that if you use spray paint, it will eat your foam and all your hard work will disappear.  To avoid destroying my pitch I base coated it with two layers of black acrylic paint.  The picture above was taken after I had brushed on the first layer.  You can also see the glue hasn’t dried in my gravel pits. 

Once the layers of black paint had dried it was time to get some actual color on the field.  I was playing around with a few different paint options when I handed a can of Games Workshop Rough Coat and told to try that.  At first I thought that there was something wrong with the way it came out of the can, it seemed to hit the board more “wet” than the spray paint I was used to using.  It gave me a great base coat for my grey that varied a lot in how dark it was.  Once that was dry I hit it with the black patches. 

The Spring Training League I plan on using the pitch for won’t start until the end of April, so I have some time but there is still a lot more to do.  I plan on throwing a lighter grey on the surface.  After that I’ll add the white lines that designate the different zones on the playing field.  I’ll also add white text for the scatter template, re-roll counters, and turn trackers.  The big empty area near one endzone will eventually be where I build a scoreboard.  The scoreboard won’t be built in time for the Spring Training League though.  It is very likely that the dugouts won’t be finished in time for the League either.  Considering Blood Bowl is my favorite Games Workshop game every, these things will eventually be finished.  Stay tuned to That F’ing Monkey for future progress updates.

Cards Against Humanity Holiday Pack

I don’t buy my friends Christmas gifts anymore. When written like that I know it sounds pretty cold. Instead of gift buying I host an All Swine’s Day party. For those readers new to the site; the first Sunday of January I invite my friends over for bacon-shell breakfast tacos and Ever-beer. I love it because the holidays get crazier every year and a lot of times I don’t get to see my friends during them. Another thing we’ve started doing during All Swine’s Day is playing Cards Against Humanity.

I’ve been championing the Cards Against Humanity game since their first set went on sale. It’s a simple game. One player lays down a black card. That card has a question on it. The rest of the players then play a white card that has an answer on it. The player with the funniest answer is the winner of the round. It’s a simple enough game concept. Now imagine that every one of those cards is offensive, perverse, or demented. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

Since Cards Against Humanity’s release there have been two full expansions. Yesterday they announced their newest release, a 30 card Holiday pack. The best thing about it, is they’ve made it a gift. You can choose how much you pay for these additions to your game. Their website states it takes them 1 dollar to print and 2 dollars to ship, but again, you pay whatever you want. Get your Holiday Pack by clicking HERE, just don’t be a dick when picking your own price.

Cards Against Humanity Expansion 2

Last June I was excited to talk about a game called Cards Against Humanity. It’s a delightfully simple game that lets you and your friends celebrate how offensive you can be. One player lays down a card with a question on it. The other players then go through their cards and each play a card to answer that question. Sometimes it’s nonsensical, sometimes it’s vulgar, but it is almost always in bad taste. My friends and I love it. We may be horrible people.

I was excited when they released their first expansion in November. It was quickly order, the new cards were mixed in with the old, and we horrible people in new ways. I have fantastic news, because the second expansion has just been released. There are 100 brand new cards and 12 blank ones. The blank cards are great because you can fill in your own group’s in-jokes. I know I’ll be ordering my set very soon.

TableTop

Today I want to make a confession that will probably earn me some nasty emails; I hate Star Trek the Next Generation. When it premiered, I really wanted to like it. I gave it a lot of chances to turn my opinion around. This isn’t an attack on any of the actors, I just despised the show. To me Star Trek was about beaming down to planets, kicking some ass, and sleeping with their women. Next Gen was full of sitting around and talking, Klingons who only won fights on the holodeck, Pinocchio robots, and Wesley Crusher.

Wil Wheaton is who we are actually talking about today. Because despite what I think about the show that made him famous, I think Wil Wheaton is an extremely funny guy. His role in the Penny Arcade podcasts led me to reading his own site where he was writing about introducing his son to Dungeons and Dragons. Now I have to say I’m a huge fan. I spent a good portion of a rainy afternoon watching his new webshow TableTop.

TableTop is a simple concept executed brilliantly. Wil invites three other people over to play a board game and they film the experience. Sometimes the players are new to the game, sometimes they are very familiar with it, and in one case one of the players was the writer of the game. Surprisingly the games are a lot of fun to watch. The shows are all on Youtube, but you can’t check out the shows homepage HERE.

Another great thing about the show is that it serves as a great preview to how the game plays. Board games are not cheap to begin with and once you start looking at the specialty games they get really expensive. So the fact you can see how games like Munchkin, Ticket to Ride, and Settlers of Catan play before you buy them is extremely helpful.

So check out TableTop. I’ll also confess that my secret dream is now to be on this show and playing Cards Against Humanity. If you'll excuse me, I just saw that they put their coffee cups up for sale and I must have one.

Warhammer 40K Sixth Edition

In the grim dark future there are only rules updates. Oh and limited edition items. In one of the worst kept secrets of all time Games Workshop is now taking pre-orders for the new edition of Warhammer 40K. In addition to the normal rule book, there are some limited edition items coming out too. The two limited edition versions are both “while supplies last” so if one of them excites you, you better get your pre-order in quick.

The most expensive version is the Collector’s Edition. For 132 dollars you get a 452 page book printed on parchment-like paper. You also get an 8 page fold out, two 8 page gatefolds, and gold foil end papers. The book comes in a magnetically sealed, wardrobe-fronted box. It is also individually numbered; there are only 4,000 of these bad boys. It’s a beautiful looking book. I’d love to see one. I have no intention of buying one though.

The Gamer’s Edition is more my style, but it still isn’t cheap. 123 dollars get you a copy of the rule book, 12 dice that come in a neat tin, and the satchel. The satchel looks pretty nice. It has a place for the book and three other side pockets. The Imperial Aquila can be removed and a Chaos star can be put in its place. If I had a bunch of disposable cash at the moment, I might be tempted by this one.

Even the regular rulebook doesn’t come cheaply. This hardcover 452 page book will run you 75 dollars. The rumor sites are already filled with rules leaks, so it looks like 6th Edition is going to be a very different game. Since all of these lovely books are just pre-orders, we’ll have to wait a little bit longer to find out all the rules changes.

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom

This Sunday I got to test Disney’s newest activity in Walt Disney World, the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game. Before we get into this, I do want say that except for 4 years while I was active duty military, I’ve lived in the shadow of the mouse’s house since I was 8 years old. I can be very jaded when it comes to the Magic Kingdom. This will also be a pretty in depth write up, because I have a lot to say about this new game.

Cards Against Humanity Expands

Back in June I talked about Cards Against Humanity (you can click HERE to check it out). The free to download card game had a really nicely put together physical copy that you could order from Amazon for just 25 dollars. One player lays down a black card with a question on it. Every other player lays down a white card with an answer on it. Funniest answer wins the hand. Oh yeah, and almost every question and answer are offensive or in poor taste.  I did order it and I’m very happy I did because the game is a crazy amount of fun and it sold out. For those of you who missed out, you are in luck. Cards Against Humanity is available on Amazon again. It is a simple game.

If you have a twisted sense of humor I can’t recommend the game enough. But what if you’re like me and already own the first box? Right now you can drop 10 dollars and get the very first expansion set! The new set has 80 new white cards and 20 new black ones. You also get 8 blank white cards and 4 blank black cards so you can come up with your own questions and answers. The fun of the game is surprising people with how inappropriate your answers are, so more options are always welcome. With the holidays quickly approaching how can you not want to have this game handy?

Warhammer 40K: The First Game

I’ve documented a little bit of my descent back into full blown Warhammer 40K addiction. Sunday I took the next big step forward. I boxed up all my little army men and went down to my local Games Workshop store and played my first game. Now I had played 15+ years ago, but the rules have changed three times since then so I’m going to just say I’m a beginner and leave out all that old history.

Today’s recap is going to be pretty easy to follow; I’ll keep game terms to a minimum for the non-Warhammer players out there. In the future we may run more detailed battle reports. The game basics were I was fielding 800 points of Salamanders. Not a lot of points, but except for one piece, it is everything I have assembled right now. My opponent was a local Tyranid player who took second place in the store’s tournament last week. I honestly was not expecting a win. Before we go into the report I have to mention my opponent was awesome at helping me through my first game.

We used a standard setup and we had three objectives to hold to win the game. I managed to steal the initiative. Both of our first turns were spent moving up our units. The second turn made things more interesting. My Dreadnought and my heavy bolter marine both scored a wound on his Tervigon (it has six to begin with). A Mycetic Spore drops behind one of my combat squads and two Zoanthropes attack the back of my Dreadnought. Their attacks blow up his multi-melta arm and immobilize him for the rest of the game. Shooting from his swarm of Gaunts manages to take down one of my Terminators. On my far right side his Warriors take out two of my marines.

I wasn’t feeling all that great at the start of turn three. Well I was having fun; I just didn’t think I was doing very well. The Mycetic Spore is destroyed after being hit with a flamer and heavy bolter. My Captain leads the Terminators in destroying the Zoanthropes with their thunder hammers. A combat squad and a swarm of Gaunts meet in hand to hand combat. 2 marines fall and 3 Gaunts are destroyed.

The game starts moving quickly now. The Tervigon takes another wound. My Terminators charge the Warriors, killing them, but lose two of their own in the process. My combat squad kills four more Gaunts. An area attack wipes out the remaining marines in that squad. In turn 5 the Tervigon is closing in on my heavy bolter squad. It looks like those 5 marines are going to die. Somehow the dice come up for me. My rapid fire bolters manage to wound. He manages not to make an armor save. The beast falls to the ground dead in front of them.

I was having a blast. Sadly I remembered way too late that I wasn’t supposed to just be shooting the bugs, there were objectives. The Tyranids had a mass of Gaunts holding one of those objectives; I didn’t have anyone remotely near one. We rolled and the game continued one more turn. I focused all of my fire on the Gaunts and killed enough to send them running. Neither of us had control af an objective, my first battle ended in a tie. Honestly I was thrilled to tie. I learned a lot during the game and will be better prepared for the next one. Hopefully I’ll have more painted then too.

Games Workshop Altamonte

This past Saturday I went to the grand opening of my local Games Workshop store. Now I’ve been hanging out there a lot since I learned of their “soft opening” in August, but I knew I had to come out and see the big event. The store opened at noon, I got there at fifteen after and was immediately surprised by the crowd. People were crowded from the back of the store all the way to the front.

The store was selling limited edition flags and dice bags. The 40K stuff went quick. I think the dice bags were gone 30 minutes after the doors opened. The store also had three competitions going on; one for Fantasy, one for 40K, and one for the best painted army. The Fantasy side was a little sad. It consisted of one veteran player teaching someone who had just purchased an army. Just seeing it on the table did generate interest though, so I doubt the store will be Fantasy-light for long.

The 40K actually ran almost all the way to the store closing. The big surprise was that the final two armies that faced off against each other were Tyranid and Ork. The Ork army was a massive horde of green and was pretty much unstoppable all day long. They pretty much rolled the bugs over and ground them under their nobby boots. All of the games seemed really casual that day, so everything seemed relaxed and fun instead of hyper competitive.

So how did I do in the tournament? Yeah… I’m still working on that. Honestly I don’t even own enough figures yet to field the 1,500 points that were needed for the tournament. I’m working on it, but I’m about 600 points shy. And I would have needed to have them painted too. So far on the painting front I have 10 marines finished and I’m hoping to have 11 more done by Sunday. I got some fantastic painting advice from Game Workshop painter John Shaffer (who looked down just as I leaned in for a picture), so expect to see some pictures of my stuff soon.