Mission Command

I just wanted to add a couple of items to the 'Games We Play' list.

We recently picked up the Sea and Air games of Milton Bradley's Mission Command series.

The air game is 2-4 players and features 8 decent sized miniatures that dogfight across the board (2 per player). It is very fast, but quite fun. There are more detailed reviews here.

The Sea game is a little more strategic, but still quite fast. The air game is more fun straight out of the box, but has a random factor that reduces the strategy. Both are worth looking at for the $5 Cnd each I paid at Walmart. The detailed Sea reviews are here.

Icons Clash!

Chaos ruled the day!

Three groups of heroes woke up in a semi-abandoned factory in Gotham city. Each group was drawn to the center of the building where they all met face to face. They were shocked to find duplicates of themselves staring back from across the room. Confusion took hold as each hero was convinced that they were the 'originals'.

There were three Tim Drakes dressed in identical Robin garbs. Two Batmans faced each other suspiciously. Tension mounted as two Starfire's became very agitated. And each duplicate was joined by a team of their usual allies, such as Aquaman, Wonderwoman, Beast Boy, and Raven. The only addition that seemed out of place was Cheetah, who was quickly convinced by one of the Batmen that she had no choice but to pick sides.

This Batman organized his team and quickly moved into position near the center of the room. Starfire carried another Batman into position from opposite directions. Finally, confusion gave way to violence as a second Starfire charged in, backed up by a group of the Titans.

Raven's ability to heal and regenerate was identified as a major threat and she was targeted by two Robins and one of the Batmen. Another Tim Drake attempted to come to her aid, but it was too late. She was the first to fall.

Her fall was like an avalanche that starts with a single scream. Suddenly emotions went wild and this three way slugfest was joined in earnest. It didn't take long for Aquaman, Beast Boy, Cheetah, and one of the Robins to fall. Batman kept his doppleganger occupied while a Starfire picked him off. Wonder Woman tried to come to the aid of the wounded Caped Crusader, but could do no more than avenge him. In the end, the two titanic women faced off. Somehow a Tim Drake had been resourceful enough and was still in the fight. He managed to get a couple of shots in against both ladies, but just couldn't match their raw power. The bout ended with Wonder Woman pounding both opponents into unconsciousness. She quickly called in some Justice League experts to investigate and clear up the confusion.

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Here's the result of Friday night's friendly booster draft:
Rod's Wonder Woman took the day. It was close though. All three of us landed some pretty powerful blows.

I think all three players left the table satisfied with the figures they took. It looked like there would have been lots of doubles, but we were able to pick and choose, and each of us took away most of the figure we wanted without any duplicates. Unfortunately, nobody got to go home with a Unique, but I did get my hands on a V Joker, E Robin and Batman, a Superman, and a Bizarro. The V Superman Rod picked would have been nice, as would have been the Darkseid Darren pulled, but you can't have everything.....

I've concluded that booster drafts are a great way to start collecting any set.

An 'Iconic' Tournament

We're planning a booster draft to celebrate the release of DC Heroclix Icons set.

Each person attending will buy 3 boosters (4 random figs) and leave them unopened until the unofficial tournament starts. When all are seated and a map has been chosen (one of the new starter maps, I'm guessing), each person opens one booster and picks the figure they want the most. They then pass the box around the table to the next person who does the same. This continues until each person has chosen 12 figures from the total selection. Once this is done, each person gets to choose one figure from the ones they've chosen that they are guaranteed to go home with. This ensures that each person gets the best figure out of the boxes they've purchased.

Then we play. A point total is agreed upon, and teams are created from the different figures each person previously picked. The winner of the game gets first pick of all of the figures at the end of the game. The rest of the players are assigned a random order and each person picks figures to go home with one at a time until all the figures are chosen.

It's fun, and you get a better chance of getting the ones you really want than simply by buying 3 boosters. For instance, most people would probably want the V version of Robin over the E version, but I already have that one, so I'd pick the E.

DC Heroclix - Icons

Yes, I finally went and got the DC Heroclix Icons Starter Set that Mad City Comics in the United Book Exchange store put aside for me.

Honestly, I was impressed, especially when compared with Marvel's starter. For one thing, the 6 non random figures (Starter exclusive "E" versions of Hawk Girl, Man-Bat, Batman, The Joker, Robin, and Harley Quinn) are decent picks for DC fans. They all look great, except of course Robin. It's the old, no pants, Dick Grayson version of Robin, but on top of that they mis-painted his mask.... It looks like the Joker clocked him hard enough to knock his mask sideways. I can repaint that much, though.

I'm particularly impressed by the quality of the map, object markers, manual, and PAC included in the box, as compared to the Marvel set. For example, the Marvel Starter map was a quarter the size of standard maps, and a reprint of a part of a map from a previous set. The DC map is full sized, double sided, and brand new.

The price impressed me as well. It's $6 to $11 cheaper than I was expecting. That motivated me to buy one of the 4 figure random boosters for the Icon set as well.

I was more than happy with the four figures I got from my first booster pull.

• Robin - Veteran (Tim Drake as part of the Teen Titans - not the most playable version, but a great sculpt and currently my favorite in-book 'super hero'.)
• Lex Luthor - Unique (A rare version of Lex in his Kryptonite powered battle suit. This is 212 points of Justice League kicking genius! And relatively hard to get.)
• Wonder Woman - Experienced (Charge, impervious, and 5 pnts damage...... Ouch.)
• Starfire - Experienced (I wouldn't care if she weren't a Titan... But hey, another option for the team never hurts.)

So, some nice additions to the collection. Definitely better pulls than Fantastic Forces. Thanks, Wizkids. It seems like your doing what almost no other company has tried before. You're listening to your customers. Lets just hope you were smart enough to produce enough of them. Maybe they won't sell out in a month like the last DC set!

Silverfang's Reports from the Front - Ghost Bear found Behind Truce Lines!

Ghost Bear found Behind Truce Lines!

The forces of the Federated Commonwealth and Capellan Confederation met in a brief raid on Ingress. It was a surprise then, when before hostilities were joined Clan Ghost Bear dropped in on a raid of their own. Astonishingly they were far below the Tukayyid Truce Line and undetected.

The Ghost Bears bid away their assault 'mechs and dropped onto the battlefield. They were able to make a lot of very successful strikes against the Capellan supply lines, while holding the Commonwealth military at bay. Between the militaries of the Commonwealth and the Ghost Bears, the Confederation forces were unable to exploit their superior supply chain, which eventually proved their undoing. Even the use of banned nuclear weapons proved unable to save them.

The Ghost Bears were initially able to prep a devastating military force, but supply problems limited what they were able to field. The FedCom troops further used artillery to good effect picking off the Ghost Bear leadership. The Ghost Bears were able to establish a defensive ring that proved devastating to the remaining Commonwealth Troops. Sometimes sending one BattleMech against two attacking FedCom lances, the Ghost Bears made good use of what they had, but by the time the supply problems were cleared up, it was too little too late. Several of the Ghost Bear Mechwarriors were added to the Clan's gene pool and given mention in the Remembrance for their efforts in this raid.
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This plot was taken from a game of Battletech CCG played out on September 11, 2005.
Edited for spelling and form.

Silverfang's Reports from the Front

Silverfang has agreed to write a series of articles detailing some games he's played recently. His areas of interest include Battletech, Startrek, World War II, and SPANC! (don't make too many assumptions about that last one though....)

Here's his first:

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The situation was a Trial of Possession between three clans.

The Ghost Bears had gathered a critical piece of intelligence about the future military situation of the Renewed Star League. The Ghost Bears claimed that they would reveal it in due council but that wasn't good enough for the Jade Falcons. Clan Wolf was also aware of it, as was Clan Wolf-in-Exile.

Both the Jade Falcons and the Wolves challenged the Ghost Bears to a Trial. However, it was agreed to hold the Trial on the Wolf possessed world of Ramsau.

Surprisingly the two factions of the Wolves presented a united front in the Trial. The Jade Falcons were antagonistic towards both. Khans Phelan and Vlad of the Wolves initially had some tension with the Ghost Bears, who were a bit slower in posing a threat. In this three way battle however, the vicious antagonism between the Wolf and Jade Falcon boiled over, allowing the Ghost Bears to organize the defenses they needed to prepare a devastating offensive.

The Wolf and Jade Falcon tore each other apart, but even the combined Wolf force was unable to overcome the Jade Falcon force this day. By then they were in no shape to handle a solid attack, which the relatively intact Ghost Bears delivered with a devastating strike and finished off the Jade Falcons in moments. The Ghost Bear leadership, with the decision of the trial firmly established, retained the intel and adhered to their planned schedule.
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This plot was taken from a game of Battletech CCG played out on Sunday, August 28, 2005.
Edited for spelling and form.

I'M BACK!

New Games Played since last we spoke:

Risk: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition
Monsters Menace America
eBay - The Card Game - Actually more fun than it first sounds...
Robo Rally
SPANC
And probably some others I'm missing.

I've designed a game, with the help of several play testers, unofficially called GalCon. I've also gotten a lot more work done on my Gamesworkshop Lord of the Rings miniatures and scenery. I might showcase some of that stuff later.

I'm looking forward to seeing some write ups of our recent Battletech card games by Silverfang.

Lastly, leave comments here if you want to be added to a mail list that notifies it's members of updates. Thanx.

JLA and Avengers Reserves hold off Mutant and Alien Invasion!

We played a double team 630pnt Heroclix game last night. Four of us each had sepparate teams, but the good guys (Trevor and I) didn't attack each other, and neither did the bad guys (Ken and Steve).

Trevor's team included KC Supes, V Wonderwoman, E Hal Jordan GL, Martian Manhunter and Kara-Zorel LE. KC Supes was a big target, and though they took him off his best clicks right away, he managed to stay in the game and deal out some damage as well. The MVP was really V Wonderwoman. Even though she faced 6 damage monsters, she somehow consistantly rolled a 5 or 6 for her impervious, avoiding all damage. One hit managed to get through for three points, two of which were absorbed!

I had Ultimate Iron Man, Beta Ray Bill, Ultimate Cap A, Black Panther R, Scarlet Witch V, Quick Silver E, Mandroid R, and She-Hulk V. Basically a loose Avengers association.

Steve had Thanos, Terrax, Ronan, and Super Skrull..... Very nasty. Sort of a 'Cosmic baddies the FF has loved to hate'.

Ken had a whole slew of Brotherhood including Mail-away Magneto, V Mystique, V Sabertooth, V Selene, Wade Cole, E Ultimate Cyclops, R Hellfire Guard, V Pyro, V Avalanche, R Destiny, and E White Queen. There were so many, I may have missed one....

Ken split his force, sending his big hitters (Cyke, Mystique, Magneto, Wade Cole) after KC Supes, supporting Steve, who'd already attacked Trevor's force. Iron man managed to hit Magneto for a couple of clicks as he moved through, but he stayed in until late in the game when my SheHulk took him out. Every little bit helps. In the mean time, the White queen got into Iron Man's head and forced him to fire at Black Panther (When does ultimates TA cut both ways??? When the enemy has Mind control). He wasn't dead, but he was useless. Iron Man was then obsessed with taking her down. Unfortunately, her super senses kicked in and she avoided the smack down for some time (apparently she was still in his head after all...).
Shortly thereafter Beta Ray moved in and easily cleaned out the support unit consisting of Pyro, Selene, and a Hellfire guard. Unfortunately, my Quicksilver didn't do as well, getting critically hit just after doing a whole 1 point of damage to Destiny.

While this was happening, Steve managed to take out SuperGirl and take Green Lantern down a bit. By this point, the end game was becoming clearer and clearer. Between getting hit by GL, Wwoman, and Manhunter, and pushing because his force was so small, Steve's team was running out of steam. The last to fall was SuperSkrull, thanks in part to his TA.
Fortunately for our team, but unfortunately for me as an individual player, KC Supes still had enough power to pick off the ones I had previously rendered useless. I moved my heavy hitters up to deal with Ken's advance force. I ended the game being the only player to not loose a single piece, but Trevor took MANY more points than I, and so emerged the game winner....

Great game guys. I look forward to more mayhem.

Starship Combat

Just wanted to let you know, I've posted some info on the Starship Combat page regarding the U.S.S. Excalibur.