X-Wing Expansion Packs: the Verdict

 
   

Right, rather than review each and every single X-Wing expansion pack as stand alone products I've decided to review them as a collective. I'm more reviewing the idea of these expansion packs as well as what you actually get inside of each expansion pack, so you could view this article as an extension of the Star War X-Wing Miniatures Game review I did yesterday. In fact that's exactly what you should do. Any who, lets get onto what you get in each of the initial four expansion packs:

Review: Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game

A long time ago in a Blog far, far away... I wrote an article about Fantasy Flight Games getting the Star Wars license. Three products were instantly announced, there was going to be an RPG, which for me personally was a bit 'meh'. I've never been a big fan of RPGs, I've given them a go but I've never really gotten into them, they're just not for me. Then there was a card game announced too, something that at the time I was starting to enjoy more and more, mainly as filler for when wargames or boardgames ended early. Indeed the card game was slated to be the first product out of the Fantasy Flight stables bearing the Star Wars branding... turns out there were some issues with it, and it still hasn't seen the light of day. I still have it on pre-order somewhere, I just can't remember where! Finally there was the X-Wing Miniatures Game, which lets be brutally honest here, probably got most geeks I know a trifle moist. However, I was a bit down on the announcement at the time because of the awful news that the miniatures would be pre-paints... Luke I am your father... Nooooooooooooooooo!!! OK, so I've had the game now for a short while, and I've played my allotted amount of games before I feel safe in making my judgements, as always there's no rush on my part to get a shallow knee jerk review out. So what do I think of Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars based dog fight simulator?

Product Description

It's a game in a box! It's a game in a box gurl!!! Except it is, and it isn't. In effect the core boxed set, which is what is being reviewed, is actually presented as a typical Fantasy Flight Games, game in a box. As a game in a box for RRP circa £30 it's not bad... but there are add ons to the game to help 'personalise' it. In the box you get two pre-painted TIE Fighters and an X-Wing, plus 3 swanky (but brittle) plastic flying stands to put them on. There are also six custom D8's, a shed load of card tokens, including a card range ruler and maneuver templates. As is always the case with Fantasy Flight products these come on a thick, good quality card. There are three ship Maneuver Dials, 51 cards for various game functions, a quick start set of rules and then there is the 28 page full colour rulebook. Again Fantasy Flight include a number of zip-lock bags to put your various bits into, which helps with storage and is a nice touch. As a quick point, the box comes with a cut out for shelf display purposes that shows off the aforementioned pre-painted miniatures. Great sales ploy, but if you throw away or lose the clear plastic cover for your mini's... well it becomes a bit of a design flaw because those pre-painted ships will no longer stay in the box. Consider yourselves well and truly warned!

Review: Dust Warfare Rulebook

All behold Dust Warfare, the second coming, the saviour of wargaming... or is it just another tale of the Emperor's new cloths? Honestly I've sat amused the past few weeks, or months watching as many proclaimed Dust Warfare to be a Warhammer 40K killer. The next big thing. The best game ever. Will it be a Warhammer 40K killer? No I don't think so, the biggest threat to that particular franchise is Games Worshop themselves. Could it be the next big thing? Possibly, if Fantasy Flight games pull their fingers out and support it properly. Is it the best game ever? Well I guess you'll have to read on to find out won't you?

Product description

This little book is being touted as a hobby saviour by many, a way of salvaging something from the supposed 'inevitable' wreck that will be 40K 6th Ed, when it's actually a 143 page hardback rulebook, about the same size as a Games Workshop Codex or a Privateer Press army book. When I open it's pages choirs of angels can not be heard singing and I am not bathed in a warm light of pure goodness, the binding on the pages though is stitched and the quality is noticably higher than the books from many other game firms, so that's nice. The hardback cover of the book is a matte finish and the pages inside are fairly thick paper, finished in satin as opposed to high gloss, it is not a Holy tome descended from the heavens. The book contains a good level of fluff and it is interlaced with unit descriptions and special rules, it doesn't herald the dawn of a new age of enlightenment and prosperity for humanity. The core rules themselves start on page 26 and finish on page 50, meaning the rules themselves only take up 25 pages, so it's not as daunting a ruleset as the 143 page count might suggest. Special rules cover a further 8 pages, while battle set ups and scenarios take up 16 pages. The army lists for both the Axis and Allies factions take up roughly 14 pages each. At the back of the book are a number of pages designed to be photocopied and used as tokens and counters in the game. That's your lot, it doesn't give you the answer to the meaning of life, or cure caner or AIDs... it's a rulebook for a wargame, so can people please stop putting it atop a pedestal it's never going to be able to stay on?

It's getting Dusty round here

  
 

The Revised Dust Tactics Core Set.

OK so that title is an absolutely terrible tabloidesque pun, and yes it should be way beneath a quality Blog like this one. But, bad pun aside I'm really happy, I've got the revised Dust Tactics Core Set to review, and my copy of Dust Warfare. I'll be looking to do a few more Dust related articles in the next few weeks or so after I've had a bit of a blow out with both these games. For now you'll have to content yourself with some pretty pictures of me getting the contents out of the box...

Games that currently intrigue me: Dust Warfare

     
       

It's finally here!!!

Right, this article is sort of out of sync with the others in the series I've been planning. My aim was to do Dark Age next and then Dust Warfare... but SinSynn whinged, so as he'd say 'waddayagonnado'? Turns out bring the Dust Warfare article forward by a month or so and push Dark Age back a bit (sorry to all those of you who have asked me to cover Dark Age)! Just to be clear from the outset this article is NOT a review of Dust Warfare the game or rulebook, it's just my initial thoughts on things so please don't tell me I can't review a game on only one play through, I'm more than aware of that fact and that's not what I'm doing. So chill.

Dust Warfare is yet another game I guess that I've already sort of brought into, not directly mind you. More vicariously in the shape of Dust Tactics, the skirmish based board game that I own, and reviewed a few months back now. In it I discuss how I felt the game looked kind of strange to me on the board. Although I didn't think the game was bad per se, I didn't think the first edition starter set that I had was a very good introduction at all. I also felt that the game would have been just better accepting that it needed to be a wargame, instead of some weird board / wargame hybrid. So I did do a little dance and smiled when I saw that Fantasy Flight Games were releasing Dust Warfare finally. I actually think the profile cards for Dust Tactics actually have a lot of scope for variance and character, it's just that's not going to be fully realised on a board... the game has also been designed by Andy Chambers. He's sort of a personal hero of mine too.

Painted up the miniatures looks as good as anyone's

Company: Really? You need me to tell you who Fantasy Flight Games are? Where have you been for the last decade or so? OK, here goes. Fantasy Flight Games are based in Minnesota USA. They were founded in 1995 and have since gone on to become one of the biggest names in Board Games, RPGs and Card games. They have an increasingly impressive roster of games and have produced some highly popular games based off of Games Workshops IP, and continue in this Blogger's opinion to make better, more inventive use of said IP. They also have many other license agreements with other household name brands... well household names for geeks like me, such as Game of Thrones, Arkham Horror, Gears of War although the biggy they own, Star Wars, should be a household name for everyone. So seeing them make a move into wargames proper is a pretty big deal... well I think it is!!!

Review: Descent Journeys in the Dark (1st edition)

It's a big box, no question, it's even full of stuff... just not win!

So here I am, finally reviewing Descent: Journeys in the Dark.The game loads of people have told me I should have got in the first place. It's reputation is pretty impressive, talk to any serious board gamer and they'll all know of Descent. It's also one of the few board games that many wargamers have heard of, most I've spoken to have either had a quiet respect for the game or have been madly in love with it and wanted to marry it. Honestly it has been rare I've come across people willing to question the status this game has, even in polite company, it's like walking up to the bride on her wedding day and pinching her ass. It's like handing the Pope a copy of Origin of the Species as a Christmas present. Telling a new mother her baby is ugly... all things that are considered bad form, or so I hear. So this review might be fun!

There's a lot of stuff. This isn't all of it!!!

Product Description

Descent is quite often described in language that is normally reserved for deities, rather than a game in a box. However, it is most assuredly the later and I have yet to see any evidence to support the claims that it is indeed the former. I'm not going to regale you with tales of what is contained within this box, suffice to say their is a lot. A hell of a lot, I know there are 20 plastic hero figures and therefore logically it follows that there must be 20 hero sheets. There are 60 plastic monsters too, and there must be a similar number of interlocking dungeon tile pieces. There is a rulebook and a Quest Guide, but there is no way on Gods good green earth I'm going to list all of the various tokens and thingymebobs and doohikies!!! There is just a boat load of card components in this box, a ridiculous number to be honest with you, and some custom dice.

Adventures with Girls II: Down in the Dungeon

Totally suitable armour for a female rogue

Yeah so, my first series of articles on playing Dungeon Crawlers with girls actually 'went down' rather well amongst the readership of this blog it seems. Perhaps it was because the word 'girls' featured prominently in the title, a popular ploy I'm told by successful blogging types often employed to increase hits. Other ploys include the use of semi-nude photo's of celebrities or soft core pornography, not that I've deployed such base forms of popularist nonsense myself you understand. Innuendo laden articles? Maybe. It could just have been that people found them genuinely interesting to read, and occasionally amusing. Who knows, however, at the end of the first social experiment we discovered the girls felt the lack of narrative had hampered their enjoyment with the Dungeons & Dragons game Castle Ravenloft. That, and the lack of customisation of characters left them a little bit frustrated with their choices. They had declared that perhaps a more involved experience might actually be in order, and that we might seek a 'deeper' experience with which to test their mettle against. And us boys also felt that although the Dungeons & Dragon games weren't all that bad really, they weren't exactly the sort of game we'd personally relish playing all the time. We also wanted a more involved experience that tested our gaming skills a little bit more.

Review: Blood Bowl Team Manager

 

It comes in a very compact box

Blood Bowl Team Manager: The Card Game is the first card game in a box that I've actually brought. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I don't tend to like the blind buys that most card games foist upon gamers, I'm looking right at you Magic the Gathering. The constant searching for the special cards, and the wasted booster packs as well, it's just not this particular gamers cup of tea. Which, I admit, is a terrible shame because it's actually quite a good little game, in fact I know many card games are the same, great games, but still the cynical and shitty sales ploy of blind buys sticks in my throat a little too readily for me to ever be that sort of card gamer. So Fantasy Flight Games 'Living Card Games' actually appealed to me quite strongly, and got me looking at card games again, as there are no blind buys and you know what you're getting when you buy the packs. However, to be clear, Blood Bowl Team Manager isn't one of those 'Living Card Games', it's just a standalone card game, that again requires no collecting of booster packs to find the Morg 'n' Thorg foil card!

Box contents, it's not a huge amount, but it's enough

Product Description

It's a card game in a box, which is a sort of a variation on a theme for this here blog. Right, the game has a plethora of different card types, over 220 cards in total split between team player cards, star player cards event cards upgrade cards etc. For those who like to know these things, the cards use Fantasy Flights protection sleeves 4 and 2. The rulebook is clear and concise and retains much of the humour evident in other iterations of Blood Bowl released by Games Workshop. The game isn't hard to learn, and to be brutally honest you'll be away and playing the game in no time at all. There are your usual tokens and counters, that all come attached to the usual card sheets, as well as two green block dice. There are also 4 score board fan score tracker thingies to assemble, and they can be assembled wrong so take your time and make sure you do it right because I very nearly got one wrong being in a rush. So that's fun!!!

Review: Dust Tactics

Its a beast of a box with a shed load of stuff inside

The Dust universe created by Paolo Parente is pretty darn cool if you ask me. I've always liked alternative history themes. What if the Nazi's won, or the USSR invaded the USA or going further back what if the Confederates won the America civil war or if Jesus had of bottled it and decided being a martyr sucked? The world we live in might look very different to the one we see today. The premise in Dust if I'm correct is that the Nazi's found some alien tech and managed to prolong WWII, and... its still going.  This has led to a world with genetically enhanced killer Gorilla's and big walking mech tank thingies, they look great they really do. So with time on my hands I thought I'd better occupy myself with some hobby related stuff and seeing as Fantasy Flight Games are also giving us a Dust related true wargame (Dust Warfare) I thought it was time to take the plunge.

Paolo Parente's artwork adds a certain 'vibe' to proceedings

Official Promo shot

Product description

This is the older 'unrevised' edition of the game in the mammoth HUGE box. I wanted to try these 'old' rules out before the revised edition pops onto the shelves anytime soon, mainly because there has been a little bit of controversy over the switch to the 'newer' rules. Admittedly by a very small, if vocal minority who are determined to announce Fantasy Flight Games as the next reincarnation of Satan and all that is wrong in the world... yeah the feelings have run that high for some people. However moving onto the box contents the undoubted stars of the boxed set have to be the 4 Mech's, the two Allies and two Axis mechs are fantastic and are as good as any plastic vehicles or walkers you'll see produced by any company out there, they really are. There are also a fair amount of troopers as well, some 30 troopers split equally between the two forces. There are also two special characters, one for either side. There are 6 pieces of plastic terrain, 12 special D6's (more on which later), glossy unit cards, 18 two-sided card floor tiles, a rulebook and a campaign scenario book. There's also a card sheet with some quick-start rules on it. There's no denying i think that its a hefty amount of stuff to fit in a box!!!

Chaos in the Old World: Horned Rat Expansion Unboxing

The cheese munching rat men have landed

Chaos in the Old World has rapidly become a bit of a popular game in these parts. And for good reason, it's an excellent little board game. You can read the full review here. Thing is I have more than three friends, well, I know more than three people who are willing to be in the same room with me at the same time without feeling uncontrollable urges to either punch me or vomit profusely, or indeed both at the same time. That gets messy rather quickly. So, this has led to some glum faces when we've discovered we have one too many people to play the game. However, we can rejoice now, because Fantasy Flight Games also felt it was a bit too restrictive only being able to have four people play the game at any one time, and so they released this, an expansion for Chaos in the Old World called, 'The Horned Rat'. Now I don't exactly know whether it lets you play the game with 5 people or whether it just means there's an extra deity to choose from. Either way I'm looking forward to reading it and giving it a blast.

So finally I got Descent: Journeys in the Dark...

Does it not look magnificent?

... Just before it gets its second edition. Typical, some might say, but hey at least I'll be in a pretty good position to compare the two edition and let you know how it is. In the meantime I might finally get some super awesome dungeon crawling in between now and then. The first thing that hits you is the the size of the box. It's a big bugger! No two ways about it, this version of the game is literally packed with a veritable shed load of stuff. The box has a hefty feel to it, and there's no getting away from the fact that it weighs a lot for a game. Now, I know everyone who loves the game always prattle on about how much you get in the box, thing is, they're right. You do get a hell of a lot in the box, as you're about to see with my long series of unboxing shots..

Review: Gears of War the board game

I think its fair to say that the Gears of War franchise has been a little bit of a success for Epic Games and Microsoft alike. Its shifted a fair few units and I'm pretty certain the reason I'm still clinging onto my tired and creaky Xbox 360 Elite is to sample the delights of Gears 3. No doubt the curse of the Gears RRoD will strike and finally kill off my 9th 360 for good. So why is it so successful? Its not the cleverest game on the block and neither are its protagonists but I guess that's been half of its appeal, right? The style of the characters and animation certainly owe a little bit I guess to a certain future warrior from a certain Gothic sci-fi franchise, in some cases shamelessly so. But its certainly no direct rip off and its universe has its own distinct flavour. It was the brutality of the action and the awesome way in which the Locust were 'introduced' to the game environment via emergence holes that had people hooked... it also had me thinking that its mechanics might make a good Dungeon Crawler when I first saw it. Seems that somebody at Fantasy Flight Games had the exact same idea... and I say thank the Lord above that they did!!! Here's the Fantasy Flight Games video that's been doing the rounds to give you a taster...

Product Description

The massed ranks of the Locust and the 4 COGs on parade

Its another one of those 'games in a box' that I seem so addicted to lately. I think its fair to say that the box isn't as jammed pack full of stuff as say some of the other games I've reviewed lately, say like Mansions of Madness. However the game miniatures are arguably some of the best I've ever seen in a board game and you get 32 of them. Comprising of the 4 COGs and 28 Locust of varying types, they're all really nice. There's a veritable gaggle of different game cards and card tokens. You get 9 specialist D6's for defence and attack (red and black respectively) and a load of two-sided floor tiles. Its not a small amount of stuff by any stretch of the imagination. I also liked that the cards and some other components came sealed in zip lock bags so I don't have to buy my own for a change and I hope this is something Fantasy Flight Games and other manufacturers start doing a little bit more of.

Review: Mansions of Madness

    
    

Well I've finally got through enough games of Mansions of Madness to finally feel able to say what I fairly think of the H.P. Lovecraft inspired game of adult Cluedo. I think it is fair to say my initial thoughts aren't too far off of the mark: Mansions of Madness first play. Phnglui mglw nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah nagl fhtagn...

Product description

Its a game in a box, wahoo!!! Yep its another one of those board games I've been playing and although you have pretty much everything you need within the core game box Fantasy Flight Games are set to release expansion packs for the game. The first of which, the 'Season of the witch' has already been released (and is already in this reviewers possession). In the core box though you get a large number of double sided floor tiles, a veritable bucket load of card tokens and game pieces, loads of playing cards for various tasks and some quite nice Cthulu / Lovecraft inspired plastic miniatures for playing with.

Look what just came through my emergance hole...

 Macca helps inspect the new recruit

Its much less painful than it sounds you know!!! Yes that's right ladies and gentlemen Gears of War the board game has arrived at Frontline Gaming HQ today. After many months of waiting patiently as it sat there on pre-order at OG Games, it has landed. I'm pretty darn excited about it too because unlike the other two versions of Gears of War I have this one hopefully doesn't come with RRoD. Yeah that's right while playing Gears 1, RRoD. Playing Gears 2? yeah you guessed it RRoD. Screw you in ear Microsoft, I don't need your badly made hunk of junk anymore to get my Gears fix... in your face Xbox 360, IN YOUR FACE!!! Excuse me while I go tea bag the hell outta my Xbox 360 Elite...

...and I'm back! Right so far the quality of the product looks as lovely as anything you'd expect to see coming out of Fantasy Flight Games. The cards look suitably Gears like with lots of really atmospheric artwork displayed really well on high quality gaming cards. The board tiles although not interlocking, that's not necessarily a bad thing, are as always made of thick sturdy card that feels durable and the printing is nice and clear. The miniatures are still made of the slightly rubbery or flexible plastic that board game manufacturers love so much, but like the Mansions of Madness pieces they're actually a lot harder or stiffer feeling, in fact the Gears miniatures feel firmer still when compared to the Mansions of Madness pieces. I'm going to say they're closer to the plastic pieces produced by Games Workshop than I thought they would be and the detailing is actually really quite nice. Any way Here's some pics:

I have more board games!!!

OK so I said I'd try and get back to writing about wargames on my blog, but for whatever reason I keep having these chuffing board games turn up to my house. So which games have turned up now?

Yeah my collection of stuff is getting bigger...

Dust Tactics

The world looks fun and the miniatures aren't too shabby.

Yep I wrote about it a few weeks back, and no I didn't plump for the revised box set but the big huge one as the picture shows. I was always very interested in getting into the Dust games simply because I love the alternative WWII vibe created by Paolo Parente... well in fact I just love alternative history stuff period, and the walkers looked absolutely ace. With the added news that the Dust Warfare rules would be coming out later this year it was pretty much a done deal for me. The idea of having two game systems I can use those lovely miniatures in just sealed the deal totally for me. I'm aware I've got the 'old' rules, what with the new revised core rules coming out later this year but I honestly wanted to grab the game and try the original mix first so I can give a proper comparison of the changes for you guys... see that's how much I care!!!

Hmmm the force is strong with this one!

Yep one of the worst kept secrets in gaming was finally let slip out of the bag yesterday by Fantasy Flight Games. Yep they've got the Star Wars license and I bet we're about to see a veritable smörgåsbord of juicy Star Wars gaming goodness from the chaps and chapesses over at Fantasy Flight Games. You can read how totally 'pumped' and 'psyched' and many other American-English adjectives they are right here FFG Star Wars announcement. Pretty cool hey? I mean I'm what I like to call a 'Broad Spectrum Geek' (its a thing, or it soon will be if you all start using it!!!), and that means I geek out on everything from computer games, to toy soldiers and from comic books to Star Wars and anything in between.

So you see when two of my geeky worlds collide normally I'm instantly overwhelmed with geeky joy at the possibilities of two of my geeky loves coming together in an awesome combination of total awesomeness... and then a 'nerdgasm' ensues. After the nerdgasm though comes the doubt, you see HeroClix should totally tick my nerd / geek boxes. I should be 'all up in their junk' as our transatlantic cousins are want to say. Yet I think they're fucking dire lumps of turd covered in shitty paint jobs. Then there are those comic book hero films and lets be clear about this, for every Dark Knight there are 10 Dare Devil's, Electra's or Green Lanterns (fuck you Ryan Reynolds, fuck you!!!). I'd fucking punch Ryan Reynolds in his stupid fucking face, the prick even managed to screw his relationship with Scarlett Johansson up, what a total douche!

So the pitfalls are many and varied in such unions. Yet Fantasy Flight Games seem willing to brave such risky unions, perhaps because they love the excitement and danger of it all, or perhaps its because no matter what, they'll make oodles of cash anyway!!! However they do seem more capable than most at not screwing such unions up! Their Game of Thrones products are of the very highest quality and have not pissed fans off at all, ditto their Arkham Horror products and H.P. Lovecraft fans. I also think their Battlestar Galactica board game is a must for fans of the TV show and they've actually managed to make engaging and fun games out of the licenses for both JRR Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, unlike some company I could mention. Talking of which, they're also able to make lots of cash and great games out of Games Workshops very own IP, something the Games Workshop themselves struggle with at times. Their Warhammer Fantasy and 40k RPGs are getting ever more popular as are their board games like Chaos in the Old World, Horus Heresy and their Games Workshop based card games, like Blood Bowl Team Manager are also successful...

Do I get into Dust?

It most certainly can't have escaped most of my regular readers notice that I've been on somewhat of a board game binge of late. I'm sure I must have mentioned this a few times. Thing is I really am a wargamer and I told myself that after Gear of War, Super Dungeon Explore and Dungeons & Dragons: Legend of Drizzt that for me that would be it for quite a while, well unless Kingdom Death suddenly pops up at very short notice. You see although Descent Journeys in the Dark is beginning to be extremely tempting, as is Claustrophobia (if I could find a copy) I really don't want to divert my gaming away from what I love and that's painting cool miniatures and playing wargames. Although the Dust Miniatures are exceptional in some cases, its not really been enough for me to take the plunge. Plus on this blog I want to get back to writing about Infinity and few others a bit more.

Thing is the amazing alternative history world of Dust has always kinda had me interested. I've read some very mixed things about Dust Tactics though some people tell me its great, other people tell me its average at best, its this mixed messages I've been getting coupled with the expense of buying the game that put me off. However the world created by Paolo Parente and the miniatures themselves have always intrigued me. Because I think its fair to say they are a significant step up from the usual board game fair served up normally in that horrible rubbery plastic. No its more than fair to say that the Dust Tactics miniature range provided by Fantasy Flight Games is on a par with some of the best plastics on the market from more typical wargames companies.

The boxed game itself can be picked up for around £70 if you shop around a bit and to be fair that's a pretty reasonable price considering the components you get in the box and for what's in the box that's a very reasonable price. However there is another reason I was always drawn to Dust Tactics. There was a the rumoured wargame that was supposedly in joint production with Dust Tactics and would use the same lovely miniatures as Dust Tactics, in a proper tabletop wargame, it was believed to be called Dust Warfare. Initially I kept a close eye on the world of Dust waiting to see if this Dust Warfare would ever surface, and until very recently I'd have to say I was very disappointed with the fact it hadn't yet shown its face...

Mansions of Madness first play

Well after the nice little review by Martin over at Fire Broadside of Mansions of Madness I decided to take the plunge. I mean I love H.P. Lovecraft, I quite like Cluedo and I've found a renewed love for board games so why not? Well last night I continued the mission to try and convert Geology Girl and Dr Brainiac to the ways of gaming geekdom...

The view from the Games Master Chair, as I plot their downfall