The Completist

Sometimes I hate myself for being one.

I recently started going back to my older non-sports tabletop board games, and found myself reading up on the rules for Starfire, 2nd edition.

This was the first boxed version of the game, which I originally picked up in high school.  Before this I owned the 1st edition of the game, which came in a ziplock bag, along with it’s two supplements (Starfire II and Starfire III: Empires).  I sold those off to friend.

Anyways, I picked up the first expansion/supplement for this edition, New Empires, back in the day.

I never played it, since it was more of a strategic-level empire building game that really needed a second player to get the most out of it.

There was a third product in this line, before the third edition of the game came out, but I never bought it. Until now.

I didn’t buy it back in the day because by that time my group had moved on to role-playing games and Warhammer 40K.  So even though I rarely played this with friends, this, and Star Fleet Battles, went into the ‘did not play’ category of games that I owned.

I would occasionally see this product on shelves in the late 1980s, but at the time I wasn’t interested in it and it went out of print.  But because of my recent interest in old games, it popped up on my radar again.

Enter eBay, and sellers who sell factory-sealed editions of out of print games.  I probably spent about 2-3 times the price of this thing was when it first came out, but at least I managed to scratch that itch that is my curse, the game completist.

And regarding that third and later editions: yeah, I bought those, too, but 3rd edition was a bit complicated with it’s own set of supplements.  The game later spun off from Task Force Games, became 3rd revised (bought), and finally 4th edition, which I also own, but never even punched the counters.  1st/2nd edition were the most playable (read: simplest) version IMHO.

And I own the PDF of the 6th edition, Solar Starfire.  They went with electronic products starting with the 5th edition (Ultra Starfire) which I didn’t buy.

Enemy fleet on scanners – ARM WEAPONS!

The 50s

March 9th, 1967: premiere date of Star Trek episode ‘The Devil in the Dark’.

Dispatched to the mining colony on Janus VI, the Enterprise is tasked to investigate rumors of a strange, subterranean creature responsible for destruction of equipment and the deaths of fifty miners. Kirk and Spock discover a silicon-based life form, a Horta, which lives in the surrounding rock. After Kirk and his Vulcan first officer find the strange creature, Spock performs a mind meld, discovering the reason behind the Horta’s attacks.

This episode holds a special place in my memories because it was the first Star Trek fotonovel that I bought, which means it was one of the first books that I ever bought on my own, with my allowance.  I think I got it from Gemco.

It was a great episode, with a really cool monster, the Horta.

I still have an unopened Spock action figure that I picked up last year after that Star Trek concert.  Perhaps I should open it.

RPGs

I keep buying these Bundle of Holding deals on role-playing game systems, even though I have no one to to play with them.

My current gaming group is gearing up for Mutants and Masterminds.

This morning I got two bundles, one for Space: 1889 and one for Classic Battletech RPG.

Ack.

Sunday

It rained.  And hailed.  And rained.  And hailed.

All the while I ran a few errands.

No one seems to like Peeps Oreos.  They’re not bad.

I also got a bag of black jelly beans, which only I and my niece Chloe seem to like.

And I found this guy:

Jakks Pacific Big Figs 20″ Classic Superman

I’m tempted to pick up Batman and the rest of the original Superfriends, if they become available.

Phantom Leader Unboxed

The package arrived at about a quarter to 1pm.

BEHOLD! Average sized box for a wargame.
Opened! Rulebook sits atop the rest of the contents, as usual
Counters!
Aww, the player log sheet was damaged. Luckily they have it online, so I can print copies as I need them
Campaign sheets
Help sheet
Tactical display
Cards and a d10

I’ll post my 1st play through as soon as I read up on the rules

Uh oh…

Phantom Leader is out for delivery, via Amazon delivery services.

I haven’t had something delivered by them in a while, since this Flex thing started, so we’ll see if  the service is any better than it was before, like when they delivered a small package of mine to the house next door.

Overboard

As per my standard operating procedure, I went a little overboard and went on a games shopping spree.

In addition to Phantom Leader, I have these two games on order:

And later I discovered THIS and ordered it…

So yeah.  Games overload.

LOGAN

It was okay.

FOX still can’t create anything that compares to even the Netflix Marvel stuff.  Seriously.

It had some cool moments, but as a whole it was just kinda ‘meh’.

That’s really all I can say.