Imperial fleet coming into range!

My low-ranking, Rebel Alliance X-Wing pilot alter- ego has been on a temporary secondment, where he got to hobnob with the higher echelons of Rebel Command. Swapping his battered flight suit for a hired Alliance uniform, he had an opportunity to observe how Fleet Operations distill all the machinations of strategic and tactical planning into those familiar short, curt commands he normally receives through his fighter com-link. For he was in the nerve centre of Star Wars: Armada.

Contrails over the Pacific

This week I donned my flying helmet and grabbed some wet celery for a spot of Pacific theatre WWII Wings of War.

Return to Civilization

A busy and rather eclectic week of gaming. It started with a game of SAGA followed by a first play of Dragon Rampant. More SAGA followed by a quick game of Dead Man's Hand. Then a couple more first plays - Batman Miniatures Game and to close the week (and January), it was Civilization, the Board Game from Fantasy Flight. Rather lives up to my rather the pic 'n' mix attitude to gaming!

Massive sale at the Galactic dealership!

Last night I was engaging Imperial forces in a galaxy far, far away. I'd assembled a vast fleet of three Rebel Alliance ships to take on the Dark Side. Yes, it was time for X-Wing!

Bluff and paranoia aboard the Battlestar Galactica

My first visit to my local gaming club, LivingstonBattleground, for 2015 so after the round of belated 'Happy New Years' I was quickly subsumed into a five player game of Fantasy Flight's Battlestar Galactica board game. Having never played before my fellow players soon had me up and running with at least a basic understanding of what I was supposed to be doing. 

"Each player is secretly assigned his or her loyalty at the start of the game. Players will either be loyal to the humans, or to the Cylons. Humans and Cylons have specific and conflicting winning objectives. The human players win by reaching Kobol, but the Galactica will be threatened by a host of challenges along the way. Only through the cooperation of the humans will the ship (and fleet) survive. The Cylon player(s) wins by either destroying the Galactica with attacks from the Cylon fleet, or, through sabotage, by reducing one of the necessary resources (Food, Fuel, Population, or Morale) to zero."

The game is designed to be played cooperatively for 3-6 players. We had five players, so there were two Cylons amongst us - but who?  It quickly became a delicious game of bluff and paranoia, with each player drawing and playing various skill cards,  all done exhibiting their best poker faces. 

For example, my character was the Chief Engineer, Galen Tyrol, who somehow seemed to spend much of his time in the ship's brig - apparently my fellow players all somehow suspected him of Cylon tendencies. Not sure how to take that! On my turn my fellow players can pool some or all of their skill cards in their hand to help me escape the brig, but as it's done without revealing what they've actually played in the skill test they may be surreptitiously making it more difficult for me to reach the required pass score!
 

The Great Recession in the Verse

Still in then throws of a lean gaming period (for me), I really appreciated the opportunity of another game of Firefly, the board game,  over at Livingston Battleground today. A two-player game against an experienced player, 'J',  with all the current expansions in play. It was a challenging game for both pilots, as life in the 'verse often is!

The scenario, 'The Great Recession', somewhat appropriate considering my recent gaming activity, had us competing for a drastically reduced number of jobs with the winner being the pilot with the most cash, less costs, after four of the contacts had no more jobs to offer. I managed (don't ask!) to get no less than five outstanding Warrants making any dealings in Alliance space, um, difficult!  J got the win, having the most cash as per the triggered victory condition (see photo), although it was reasonably close; if I wasn't delayed with a tricky entanglement dodging and scrapping with those bloody Reaver ships, I could've been me! 

Apart from the usual challenges navigating the 'verse, the pilots had to deal with an angry fleet of Reaver ships, somewhat ruthlessly provoked by me early on, hoping to steal a lead on my competitor!

If you're a fan of Firefly (me, me!) then I can highly recommend Firefly the board game. Its relatively easy to learn and goes a long way to simulating life in the 'verse. As with many of the GF9 games, it does contain a lot of tokens and cards and needs quite a bit of 'space' to play. It isn't a quick game, with the two-hour to play estimate for most scenarios being very optimistic! However, there is an excellent set of solo scenarios included and what with the expansions and online support its worth the effort. 

I came across and excellent tutorial on YouTube recently by GrumshBGG, which I recommend to anyone interested in this game.

Livingston Battleground: Firefly and Star Trek: Attack Wing

Back at Livingston Battleground today after the summer break. Thanks to Jamie and Jonathan for the three-way games of Firefly and Star Trek: Attack Wing. Excellent fun :D