Samurai vs. Shaman

I'm not at all familiar with the Shadowrun universe -- aside from a basic idea about the mix of fantasy and cyberpunk -- so when I started playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall, I looked over the available classes for something that would spark my interest. I opted for the shaman. The shaman was my favorite class in Fourth Edition D&D, despite its many drawbacks, so I thought it would be fun to try out a shaman in Shadowrun. Maybe it's just me, but the Shadowrun shaman seemed as underpowered as its 4e counterpart. I started the game over as a samurai, and the fights have been a lot easier!

Wedgie

Whew! Wedge got behind the Imperial Raider and gave it a wedgie, so to speak. With Wedge shooting it from behind, and my other ships tight up against its starboard side, the Raider was unable to fire its powerful forward guns or any of its aft-mounted weapons that can only be used at long range. We ran the risk of crashing into the Raider, but it was preferable to getting caught out in the open and obliterated by a turbolaser. Flying along with the slow-moving Raider, then, my three remaining ships -- two X-wings and one Headhunter -- strafed the aft section until it was crippled, and then the Raider was toast. I had some very lucky dice rolls on my side, though, so I won't gloat over the victory!

Ouch!

I'm playing X-Wing against Matthew and his new Imperial Raider, and my poor Rebels are really taking a beating. We shot down the TIE Advanced fighter escort, but the Raider's ability to unleash multiple long-range weapons is proving...troublesome. I went into battle with a full squadron of X-wings -- top-notch pilots and astromech droids for each -- and a few Z-95 Headhunters for cannon fodder, and already I've lost a third of my forces. My only hope is to get a ship or two behind the Raider, where it can't return fire. Come on Wedge, let's see some fancy flying!

Imperial Reinforcements

It was a Star Wars Christmas at our house, with the boys scoring a Lego Star Destroyer and TIE Fighter along with a TIE, TIE Advanced, and Imperial Raider for Star Wars: X-Wing. The Rebel Alliance is in serious trouble now!

Ignore the fact that the Lego TIE and the Star Destroyer are really, really not to scale...

Holiday Game Action

It's going to be a fun holiday vacation. We aren't going anywhere this year (staying home for Christmas for the first time in eight years!), but we'll have plenty to do. We'll have The Cloud Dungeon and Ghostbusters for new tabletop options, an old Lego Heroica game that Matthew desperately wanted for Christmas, some new Imperial ships for X-Wing, Shadowrun: Dragonfall (thanks, Matt!) on the computer, and, if I can muster the fortitude, the last round of battles in the iPad Injustice: Gods Among Us. Can't wait to get started!

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

Star Wars Prep

I'm taking the boys to see The Force Awakens tomorrow, so today we're doing a bit of X-Wing action to get in the mood. Well, as if we actually needed to get in the mood!

This battle is taking place in a "graveyard" of destroyed ships. We'll see how it goes, but so far there's been a lot of stalking and not much heavy-duty combat. I think the odds currently are tilting in favor of Nathaniel's Imperial Decimator and TIE Interceptors. Matthew brought in the seldom-used Hawk to support his Millennium Falcon and A-Wing, and so far it's been a non-factor. Of course, anything can happen in a galaxy far, far away...

I Have Seen It...

...and I can confirm that it is good!

I'd Buy That for a Dollar!

You have less than 24 hours to join me in supporting a wacky Kickstarter in which you can contribute as little as a dollar to get a new RPG...details here!

T-70

So...I hear there's some big fancy-dancy movie coming out this weekend. But now does this mean I'm going to have to replace my fleet of X-wings with the new T-70 model?

Kickstarter Delivered

I've now supported four Kickstarter projects -- three of them funded and the fourth has more than met its goal with a few days left in the campaign -- and the first to deliver a product is a family-friendly RPG called The Cloud Dungeon, which arrived this weekend. With Zombicide occupying much of our gaming time and our long-languishing Tyranny of Dragons D&D campaign in serious need of some attention, I don't know when we'll get to Cloud, but I hope we can give it a whirl over the holidays.

Zombie World

"It's...Zombie World," Nathaniel sighed.

Indeed it was. The boys and I played a pretty epic Zombicide scenario today, with each of us controlling two human survivors. Our objective was to navigate through a city neighborhood and reach the exit on the opposite side of the map. Things started innocently enough when we began to search a building for gear. Unfortunately, Amy (the purple mini below) was killed by the building's undead occupants. The rest of the humans hustled back outside and started to head up the street, with Phil (dark gray) and Josh (orange) taking the lead.

Soon we were confronted with a choice: keep to the streets or try to find a shortcut through a zombie-infested building. I wanted to play it safe and avoid opening any more doors, but Matthew was intent on going through the building, so that's what we did. While the others moved through the building, clearing it room by room, Phil hung back to guard the rear and slow down the advancing horde.

It was curtains for Phil, but the shotgun-wielding cop took a whole lot of walkers with him before he died. The others managed to slip out of the building through another door and scurry to the exit zone, but not before Matthew's trigger-happy characters had drawn out even more foes. The pic below shows only the active zombies on the board at the end of the final turn -- it doesn't show the legions that were cut down during our frantic race to safety.

So, four of the six humans survived to see another post-apocalyptic day. It's the zombies' world, as Nathaniel said, and we're only living in it.

Raider Envy

My parents just ordered the Star Wars: X-Wing Imperial Raider set for Matthew for Christmas. Totally awesome? Yes, of course. But I'm wondering how Nathaniel is going to react. Granted, he didn't have any X-Wing sets on his own Amazon wishlist, but I foresee a five-star freak-out when he realizes that he'll only be able to use the Raider when his big brother allows it...and how often is that going to happen?

Legendary!

Tonight I completed Sword Coast Legends, and, all things considered, it was an enjoyable game -- if a bit too much like an MMO in terms of game mechanics. It's not in the same league as the Baldur's Gate family, but it's a solid D&D video game nonetheless. I would definitely recommend it.

For what it's worth, my final foursome consisted of my human paladin PC, the derro rogue Izhkin, the elf cleric Illydia, and the drow wizard Dalanir. This party configuration offered a nice balance of melee and ranged attackers, and all three NPCs had powers that allowed them to summon creatures. The back-to-back boss fights at the end of the game turned out to be kind of a long slog, but we chugged regeneration potions while spamming the bosses with summoned creatures, and I never really felt like the party was in serious jeopardy. There are tougher battles in the game -- including one against a mind flayer, its thralls, and a red dragon that pops in to breathe fire from time to time -- but the final showdown did have a certain cinematic feel to it, and there's a cool bit between the two fights where you have to make a choice that dramatically alters the way the end of the game unfolds. Heh. One NPC was really pissed at me...but when the fate of the Sword Coast is at stake, you've gotta do what you've gotta do!

Treason Season

'Tis the season...for treason! I'm nearing the end of Sword Coast Legends and just discovered that one of the main NPCs -- one I've been leveling up relentlessly and equipping with top-notch gear -- is actually a traitor. D'oh! There goes my ideal party configuration. At least I have another solid NPC who can fill that party role, but still...

Brains!

The name of the game is Zombicide, and it delivers what the title promises. You kill a lot of zombies in this game -- the base set comes with sixty-five plastic zombie minis, for cryin' out loud! -- and no matter how much firepower you're packing, there are always more brain-eaters than you can possibly defeat. You can't win the game by fighting alone, so you need to choose your battles carefully and keep moving toward your mission objectives.

The game plays fast, too. A typical Mansions of Madness adventure would take us at least two sessions, but in one afternoon today we played Zombicide's tutorial game twice and then a custom scenario that Matthew created. In all three games, I played grizzled cop Phil (very similar to the grizzled cop from a certain zombie-themed TV show you might have heard about), Matthew played young punk Josh, Nathaniel played Wanda the waitress, and Amy played...Amy, a feisty goth gal. Here's a pic from Matthew's custom scenario: Wanda (the light blue mini in the foreground) is looking up the street at the advancing horde while the others (in the upper right) hustle to the map's exit zone.

Wanda was far and away the most memorable character from the adventures. It's hard to see in the photo, but the Wanda mini depicts a waitress on roller skates, carrying a chainsaw. The character never begins the game with that weapon, but in two out of the three scenarios, Nathaniel managed to draw the chainsaw as an equipment card while searching buildings. The roller skates give this character incredible movement capabilities, so Wanda was zipping all around the map, churning her way through multiple zombies with every attack.

This game was definitely a hit in our household. I don't foresee Amy clamoring to play it regularly -- she's decided that she's more of a Eurogamer -- but the boys and I, at least, will probably dig into the vast online library of free scenarios and come up with more of our own, as well.

Zombicide

Zombicide arrived at our house today and despite my best intentions, I don't think I'll be able to hold out until Christmas. Sorry, kids, I guess you'll just have to get an early Christmas present! 

I think this game may work out a bit better than the excellent but fiddly Mansions of Madness. Like MoM, Zombicide is a cooperative game, but this one doesn't involve a DM-like player who is working against the others; instead, all players are on the same team, and the zombie antagonists move and attack according to a simple script. As players explore the city streets and buildings (set up using double-sided cardboard map tiles), they can battle the ever-growing zombie horde or try to outwit and outmaneuver their undead foes. I hope we'll be able to give it a whirl this weekend. Stay tuned for pics of our first foray into the zombie apocalypse!

Ameritrash...and proud of it!

A term I wasn't familiar with until I started getting heavily into board games is Ameritrash, which refers (disparagingly, as you can probably guess) to games with a strong genre theme (sci-fi, fantasy, zombies, etc.), usually involving individualized characters and a kind of narrative that unfolds during gameplay. Mansions of Madness, for example, would fall into this category. In contrast to Ameritrash games are the more "critically acclaimed" (scare quotes added to be snarky) Eurogames, such as the members of the Catan family and Carcassonne. Eurogames tend to have streamlined rules and very little dice rolling, and focus on competition for resources rather than direct combat. I don't have anything against the Euro style, and I own and enjoy many such games, but I'm kind of getting sick of the board gamers who look down their noses at anything that comes with plastic minis. I've got
Ghostbusters and Zombicide on order, and damn, they both look like a lot of fun. Isn't that the whole point of board games, anyway?

"We got one!!!"

Thanks to a nifty Amazon deal, the new Ghostbusters board game is now on its way to our house. Will I be able to hold out until Christmas, or will I drop this big box of ectoplasmic awesomeness on my boys as soon as it arrives?