Tag Archives: Tabletop

Marvel Burnout and Rebirth

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I’ve played Marvel Champions maybe a half-dozen times, mostly with Spider-Man and Captain America.

I’ve played solo, and I have yet to play this with my gaming group.

I bought too many expansions which have yet to be played, so I stopped buying every expansion as it came out.  That was the completionist in me.

When this game came out, another Marvel game came out as well, one that I was interested in but didn’t want to get into, because miniatures were involved, which is bad for my completionist tendencies.

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At my signal, unleash hell.

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I wish there was a better solo system for this game.

I’ve had this game in my collection for a while, probably over a decade, but I can count the number of times I’ve played on one hand.

I’ve played more games of Memoir ’44, also by the same designer (Richard Borg), than I have this game, and the only time I played against a human opponent was at Dice Tower 2019.

I decided to revisit C&CA because I had preordered a Samurai version of the game sometime last year.  As I was browsing Amazon for expansions (I got the 1st and 6th expansions over the years, Greece and Eastern Kingdoms, and Spartan Army, respectively) I saw a damaged copy of C&C Napoleonics on sale for almost 50% off retail price.  I’d never played any Napoleonic wargame, but it’s been something I’d wanted to try, so I ordered it.

Cool, I thought, I’m going to play this one as soon as it comes in.  I was planning to develop a bad French accent to use while playing.

The next day I got an email that the game I had preordered had shipped.

Welp.

So in the span of a week I’ve gone from 1 of these games to 3 variants, or 2 to 4 if you include Memoir ’44.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still possible to play these games solitaire, with one of my plushies or action figures on the opposite side of the board to represent my opponent, but they’re more fun and challenging when playing against a live person.

For now, it’s time to assemble the playing pieces for the Samurai Battles game.

Stand by!

Battletech Update

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I reviewed my Clan Invasion Kickstarter pledge, and found that I had already locked in my order, consisting of even more Inner Sphere stuff.

So I went and ordered a lower tier late pledge and added some Clan Stars to it.  It also allowed me to get a PDF copy of the House Davion handbook for much less than it’s offered on Wargame Vault.

I also took a dive into some of the Clan lore, and saw that there’s a lone green Mad Cat mech piloted by a mechwarrior named The Bounty Hunter.

So I’ve decided to take that lone Mad Cat that I have and make a similar unit, with mechwarrior Dyn Djarin of Clan Mudhorn.  He named his mech the Razor Crest.  I might paint his green, too.

This is the Way.

Sitrep: Battletech

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Over the last week I took an inventory of the Mech miniatures in my collection.

60-odd mechs in 15 lances.  All Inner Sphere, more or less.

Except for a single Mad Cat.

Which makes me think that when I choose Mechs for that Clan Invasion Kickstarter that I backed, I should choose mostly Clan Mechs.

I guess.

*shrug*

EN GARDE

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Re-reading my stack of Nexus Magazines + internet access in bed = eBay purchase!

Never did get this game back in the day.  But re-reading some of the articles sparked my interest in it again.

Nexus published a pirate AND a samurai variant for this one.  I’ll be playing both.

ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL!

*cue theme from BBC’s Musketeers series*

GIGA-ROBO BATTLE #1

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CHOGOKING VS. DAI-RAIJIN-V

Basically, the faster mecha was able to beat the bigger one by running away and biding it’s time to build up enough ‘fighting spirit’ to land a huge blow on his opponent.  The two exchanged blows early and often, throwing or knocking each other into buildings, causing them to collapse and affecting play through the IMPACT cards.

In the end the bigger mecha lost by losing it’s remaining armor due to a fire it had created when attacking the smaller mecha.  Chogoking probably should have jumped into a flooded hex to put out the fire.

I think this lasted at least a half a dozen game turns, if not more.

I like how the game plays, there’s a bit of a learning curve, but a couple of read-throughs of the rules AND actually putting them in practice makes a difference.

I saw one video that was critical of the ‘interrupt’ phase of the combat turn, that you can keep interrupting the combat turn endlessly.  Sorry, but that’s just dumb, because you won’t have enough cards and the ability to pay the cost of said cards to do that ‘endlessly’.

This plays differently from Battletech, of course, but feels more like what you’d see in a giant robot anime series or video game.

Recommended, if you like giant robots.

GIGA-ROBO!

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This should be delivered next week.

I totally missed this on Kickstarter, 4 years ago.

We tried to play it at Dice Tower West, but the rules were a bit confusing.  Actually, they were totally confusing.

But I read the rules online later, watched a few game play videos, and it makes a little more sense.

I guess I’ll find out next week.

Stand by!