shmitty

There's also a Saturday at Dice Age. I'm hoping to hit one each day!

I signed up as Nopek. Looks amusing so far.

I will say that I like this game enough that I've started blogging about it.

I started out with the one of everything approach (including the expansions of the ships in the core). I found I really liked the ships that weren't in the core, so I ended up with 2 of everything. But, one of everything will work really well, especially with Wave 2 just around the corner. The game plays much better with some expansions than just the core. At the GenCon tournament I saw fleets with 6 corvettes and others with only 2 ships that did fairly well. (I will not be buying 6 of anything)

There were a couple of them at the Jantzen Beach Target. Some minor, but positive updates to the game. Looking forward to trying out the new ships.

You've done us all a great service Ando. Spared me the time of needing to attempt that myself.

Trog16 and I have been getting in some regular games of Dropzone Comander lately. We both are really enjoying the game and thought we'd post up a report of our latest game to see if we can get some more folks interested in playing with us. Dropzone Commander is a 10mm scifi game where the earth has been conquered by parasitic aliens and the human colonies are trying to win it back. It uses an alternating activation system and is heavily focused on objective play. Each unit you take has a role to play in your army to help achieve those objectives and the games are often full of challenging tactical decisions. We played a 1500 point match of his UCM (United Colonial Marines - humans) vs my PHR (Post Human Republic - Cyborgs). We were playing a mission called Targets of Opportunity. There were five objectives placed on the board in buildings. Our goal was to send infantry into the buildings to search them. A found objective is worth 1VP. If we can then extract the objective off of our table edge, it becomes worth 2VPs. So, the infantry do the objective work and the rest of our armies are there to support them or hinder the opposing infantry. Here's what the setup looked like: The picture is from my side of the table. The buildings with the red markers on the roofs contain the objectives. Typically, nothing starts the game in the table in DZC. Units either drive on or are carried by dropships. Most units are rather slow, so dropships are really necessary to improve your mobility. The first turn was fairly uneventful. We both moved our infantry towards the buildings in the center and on my left flank. I was able to put some of my Immortals into a closer building which would let them start searching next turn. My commander had brought along a couple of Enyo walkers in with squad that specialize in building demolition. They were able to rail on the objective building closest to him and took out 2/3 of its DP. This caused the UCM to avoid that building altogether as any infantry entering the building would risk being wiped out if the building collapsed. I also positioned some Menchit walkers with flamethrowers near the building on the right (flamethrowers are pure death to small infantry squads). This funneled the infantry towards the center and left buildings. End of the first turn: Turn 2 saw a couple of interesting things happen. We both had our fast movers come out of reserves. Fat movers are high speed aircraft that can make strafing runs on the table or shoot down other aircraft. They are useful for projecting firepower anywhere on the table, but can be unreliable. i was able to use some trickery in the form of command cards to extend the range of one of my AA units and take out his Facon gunships. Falcons are terrific tank hunters and having been on the wrong end of them in previous games, they were a priority target. This unfortunately hung my Janus scout walkers out to dry and he quickly annihilated them. Scouts work a bit like an Arc-Nide in Warmachine and help project your commanders influence, as well as spotting for indirect fire. He used that ability with his scouts and commander to call in an orbital strike on my AA units. So, while I killed his gunships, it cost me my scouts, an AA unit and some an anti tank walker caught in the blast! Hopefully it would be worth it. I moved some snipers into a back building, and my elite Siren infantry into the center building which were joined by some of his regular and elite infantry units. My Immortals failed to find the objective, but managed to kill a scout by shooting out of the windows of the building they were in. He called in his fast movers and took out my Immortals transport which stranded them in the building they were in. My fast movers made what I thought would be a suicide run. I was able to shoot down one of his Raven transports with a full unit of infantry still inside, killing them all. It meant my Athena would have to then fly through all of his AA defenses. I figured it was worth the trade, but his dice failed him and I flew through 22 reaction fire shots completely unscathed. End of turrn 2: Turn 3 saw the skirmish on the ground heating up. We were both able to start destroying some significant portions of our opposing ground forces. The buildings on the right were still being ignored (one reduced to rubble) and he had infantry on the left most building that I couldn't directly counter. So, I fired my demolition units at the building. This does two things, first I took off about half of the buildings damage points. Then, every time you damage a building, you check to see if the infantry inside may be killed by Falling Masonry. With this, I was able to work over his Legionares. My Immortals found the objective in their building, but were stranded there without a transport. I'd called Ina backup, but it to was shot down by his fast movers. Still, holding that objective gave me a 1-0 lead. In the center building, my Sirens had gotten there first, so we're able to search, but found nothing. Then we kicked off a Close Quarters Battle CQB. This saw my 6 sirens facing off against 10 of his regular infantry and 10 of his elite Praetorians. This would seem bad, but Sirens are crazy, cyborg, ninja, chicks with giant pistols. When the dust settled, I had just 1 siren left to face off against his 2 units, but those had been dropped down to having 2 and 4 members each. His Legionares failed their fortitude check and fled the building making it a 1 on 4 fight the next turn. CQB fights in Dropzone are often really decisive and have a big impact on the outcome of the game as they generally impact who gets the objectives. At the end of turn 3: In turn 4 I had 3 goals: secure the objective I had found and find a way to get it off the table, try to reinforce my lone Siren in the center building, and prevent his infantry from finding the objective in the left hand building. Through the use of a command card my Immortals found an Underground Monorail linking their building to the center building. Before I sent them there, I had them drop their objective with an AA tank waiting outside to be driven off the board. That took care of the first two and some more demolition shots dropped enough of the building on his infantry to wipe them out. From there we both maneuvered to take out more supporting units and they were beginning to dwindle. I tried to sneak some u its into his backfield to take out his commander. Although I got there, most of my shots bounced off his armour. He was able to reposition his tanks to take out these interlopers. The fight in the center building saw the lone Siren survive and take out 3 of his Praetorians, leaving just 1 remaining. With my Immortals able to join the CQB and objective search next turn I was feeling pretty good about the center. He moved another, slightly damaged, infantry unit into the left building for a last search for the objective there. End of turn 4: I started the fifth turn by trying to drive the objective I had off of the table. He managed to interrupt me with a command card and called down an orbital strike to take out my tank that was carrying it! Fortunately I had other units nearby that were able to secure it. He made an attempt at searching the left building, but didn't find the objective. My demolition units then collapsed that building taking the infantry and objective out of the game. In the center my 2 infantry squads combined to wipe him out while also finding the objective. A couple more shots were fired, but we called it there with me securing a 3-0 win. The game was close for the first few turns, but once the center CQB went my way, there wasn't much the UCM could do to get back in the game. It was a fun, challenging game as I think Dropzone usually works out to be. If you made it this far, I'm impressed. You just really be interested in the game. If so, hit up either myself of Trog16, we both have spare armies and would be happy to teach you the game.

Looks like Trog16 and I will be in for another round of Dropzone Commander.

I think Trog16 and I are going to come by and play a game of Dropzone Commander around 2:00.

Did someone say Dropzone? I have a large-ish PHR army and a small Scourge force as well. I live in Vancouver and play a lot at Dice Age. I've been trying to get a Dropzone night going there, but have been too busy this summer to really make it happen. Right now I'm gearing up for GenCon (where I will be spending some time working in the Sropzone booth). After I get back, I'd like to get a Dropzone group going somewhere. I've talked with one other guy on here that would like to learn the game. Lets plan to meet up in early August and see what we can do.

PNW Star Wars Miniatures Championships An Armada/X-Wing/Imperial Assault Tournament What: A 4-round Star Wars miniature tournament using Armada, X-Wing, and Imperial Assault. When: August 8th - 12:30 PM Where: Dice Age Games – Vancouver, WA How Much: $20 Why: Because it’ll be awesome. The Plan: Round 1 – 300 Point Armada Round 2 – 300 Point Epic Scale X-Wing Round 3 – 100 Point X-wing Round 4 – 40 Point Imperial Assault Skirmish Prizes: The tournament is the weekend after GenCon. Any models being released early at GenCon will be given away as prizes. The number of prizes given away will depend on the number of people in the tournament. There will be an overall grand prize and the remaining prizes will be given away as a raffle. There will be separate raffles for each game system. What if I don’t have all 3 games? – There will be spare fleets/squads available for each system that you will be able to borrow. You can also sit out rounds for games that you don’t play, but you will only be eligible for the raffles of the games that you do play.

Each deck had just a handful of cards updated. I just updated the language on my original cards based on the download. There are new versions of the cards printed, but I'm not sure if you can tell by looking at them. The game itself is brilliant and I encourage you to give it a go. I'm actually on the official demo team for Hawk Wargames if you'd like to setup a time for a learning game.

I'm going to be playing in the Armada tournament at GenCon this year, so I'm trying to get a feel for the different play styles. Currently I realy like the AF MK II. The big broadsides really help you control how the engagement happens. I'm still getting a feel for bombers. Getting the most out of them really involves coordinating their strike with the guns from your cap ships. So far, I've not been nearly patient enough with my squadrons.

I was really happy with the Assault Frigate in the game. The broadsides were easy to aim and effective. The downside was I used a token to speed up to 3 and avoid a VSDs front arc and couldn't slow down before it went off the table.

I got a game in yesterday with some of the new Armada ships from the Wave 1 expansions. It definitely added some nice depth and options to the game. I really enjoyed having some additional fighter options. A-Wings and B-Wings performed better than I had expected, while the TIE Advanced was a huge boon to the Imperials. Also it looks like I will be running an Armada tournament at Dice Age on June 6th.

The most interesting bit is that both the Punisher and K-Wing are ordnance heavy ships. That should mean that ordnance will be getting some love in his wave. Hopefully not just new ordnance, but something to make all those proton torpedoes more useful.

Got a 300 point game in with misreal yesterday. The extra ships, squadrons, and upgrades certainly added some nice layers to the game. As the game grows, one of the challenges will be in maneuvering your fleet in a way that the ships can support each other. I'm still getting used to the shoot, then move mechanic. I got one of Nebulons killed for not thinking that through very well. Dodonnas ability is not near as useful in the game as Tarkington, but when it does kick in, it can have a large impact. Overload Pulse and Enhanced Armament are probably the most useful upgrades in the core box. Both of the Liasons combo really we'll with the extra tokens from Tarkin.

I already know I will have to have some money set aside to pick these up at GenCon this summer.

Short Version - It's not X-Wing Played a couple of games of Armada with the starter set this afternoon and really enjoyed it. Other than the similar theme and some of the FFG bling, it really felt distinct from X-Wing. Lots of fun choices to be made and a very different set of problems to consider. It feels/plays more like BFG or Firestorm Armada than X-Wing. Shooting before movement makes you really have to think ahead about how the board may change. The movement system is pretty cool despite some fiddliness with the maneuver tool. It definitely takes some practice to understand where you can end up. I ended up in a situation where my CR-90 was either flying off the table or directly in front of a Star Destroyer. Either way spelled the end of that ship. Fighters are interesting as they almost have their own little game going on. Xwings and TIEs kill each other pretty efficiently, but I haven't seen either of them do much damage to a capital ship. Likewise, capital ships aren't very effective at hurting the fighters. I'm looking forward to playing more games, especially at higher point values. I'm on spring break this week, so if you're free during the day and want to get a game in, let me know.

I'm actually directing a theater show right now. A local stagging of "Is He Dead?" By Mark Twain. Lots of fun.

At one point they put out a .pdf of balanced boards. I've been using that ever since. It basically gives a nice dispersion of heavy resource planets, blank spaces, and red spaces. Not sure if it's still available.

We played through a full campaign and really enjoyed it. It seemed well balanced and had some good decision points. Much like X-Wing, if you strip away the theme there is still a really good game underneath.

I have Rohan, Easterlings, Wood Elves and Orcs And I live in Vancouver.

I play on occasion and enjoy the game quite a bit. I just picked up a used copy of the Hobbit starter so I could look at how the rules had changed.

Primarily after the figures and the rulebook. But I'd happily just take the whole kit.