Thinking Outside the Box

Whew it's been a while since I've cracked open my box of Sedition Wars . I think the last time I set it up to play was in September back at Fallcon 2013. That's not to say it's a bad game, but I'll admit that I experienced some frustration with the original rules and the rapid number of "no this is the last and latest rules update" coming out of Studio McVey . In fact, the folks over at the Esoteric Order of Gamers  have provided a set of cards and rules summary that, in my opinion, is far superior in layout and brevity than the actual rules from the publisher. However I digress, I'm here to talk about the second wave of models sent to backers of the original Kickstarter campaign. I've had these mostly constructed for a while now (you'll have to forgive the lack of photos today, sorry). So just what did I receive? Firebrand: - Vokker Dargu - Jade Lily - Dead Space dude and strain version The Strain: - bone crabs Vanguard: - Rami...

Last night I ran the Star Trek: Attack Wing OP event "The Arena" at Trilogy Games . With the prospect of huge amounts of Borg firepower in the space battle, and the knowing value of high captain skill on the planet, building a fleet list that I would enjoy playing proved to be quite the challenge. As I generally prefer to play pure faction, I decided to bring a Klingon fleet. I knew that in all likelihood I'd be outmatched on the planet by the likes of Kirk, Picard and Gul Dukat. The Klingons always love a good up-close-and-personal fight however, so off we went. Klingons-in-the-Arena  (100pts) - Vor'cha class w/ Chang and Klag - K'T'Inga class w/ Koloth - B'Rel class w/ Martok (8-skill) - IKS Somraw w/ generic captain My plan was relatively simple: spend the first few turns moving three of the ships towards the planet and trying to keep it between myself and my opponent. In the first round Martok would grant a captain an extra action to cloak,...

For those of you in various parts of the globe, July here is quite an interesting time due to the Calgary Stampede taking over for a few weeks. There are free pancake breakfasts daily all over the city, barbecue parties, concerts, and all kinds of great stuff going on. If you ever want to party for 10+ days, the Stampede can help you out with that. Don't believe me, click here . Having grown up on an actual farm, I think the "costume cowboys" are rather entertaining. Putting on boots and a hat does not make one a cowboy, but it's all in good fun. On the other hand...the costume cowgirls are A-OK with me. Working downtown during Stampede does have some visual appeal to be sure. Wait, I was going to talk about gaming wasn't I? Yes, yes, I do have some kind of point here. Another gamer friend and I have fired up a few games of Blackwater Gulch  to countdown to Stampede. If possible I think we'd like to build up a western town game board and run a day of ga...

I arrived home from a vacation a little while back and smartly enough, I had booked a couple of extra days off so that I could recover from any possible jet-lag. Also, I really didn't feel like going to work on my birthday. I had to run some errands in the morning, and on my way home I decided to stop in at Revolution Games to pick up some goodies. I figured I might as well get a present I knew I'd like for myself, just in case! I didn't end up with any new games, but did find plenty of expansions. I haven't played any of them yet, but I really hope to do so soon! My aunt also dropped in from out of town while I was post-vacationing. I had shipped some stuff to her place to save some postage fees during the past year. I was also planning go to pick it up myself, but hadn't been able to make the timing work. I'd forgotten just how much stuff was waiting for me. It was like Christmas all over again (or more birthday presents), once again courtesy of my own...

Today I come to regale you with tales of something very different than my normal posts, but still technically tabletop games! This time I'm going to be talking about one of my favourite sports: HOCKEY. Part 1) My workmates and I sometimes get together during Friday lunch hours to play card or board games.With the  NHL Stanley Cup  playoffs in full swing my brain was most definitely in 'hockey mode' so I suggested we play a game of Big League Hockey Manager , with the included "Stanley Cup" expansion! This game is tough to play in an hour, but we did our best to crank through it. Knowing we were limited in time we played to three match wins rather than five. This was the first time we had used the expansion and everyone agreed that it added a lot to the game. Konrad and Sonja ended up as the two finalists, playing Pittsburgh and San Jose respectively. The Penguins pulled out to an early 3-0 series lead, but some savvy coaching of the Sharks saw them make a ...

Last week I had a chance to play a quick game of Strange Aeons  v2 with Uncle Mike. I didn't have a Threshold list, so I quickly put one together and we rolled off a scenario, "Escape...Into Danger!" I had forgotten my phone so all I can provide is a briefly play-by-play of the action: - Mike's cultists (high priest, shotgun, mad midget and pistol cultists) set up near mid-table for good positions to shoot / attack from. My agents first move was to bring everyone all up into cover.  My female agent tried to activate her psychic powers. I hit my psychic guess and had her clairvoyance unlocked for the game. She used it on my boss to get give him an extra action to shoot at the midget...he missed. - The high priest casts barrier on the shotgun cultist, who lands a minor injury on Jackson. The resulting morale checks are passed by everyone except my boss, who goes face down. The cleaver-wielding midget charges him and causes a major injury. Two rounds in and I'm alr...

Tholian Web A few weeks ago I posted up my planned fleet list for the "Tholian Web" event. When I found out that my regular venue wasn't able to get the kit I resigned myself to not getting to try the fleet list. If you want a quick recap, it was two Bajoran scouts, a Defiant-class and some Federation fighters. The full list and my thoughts about it can be found  here . Pleasantly enough, I had a chance to run this fleet at Sentry Box's event last Monday! The first match put me up against a two-ship Federation build that made quick work of my Bajoran ships. The Defiant class survived long enough to take out Picard's ship, and with time called, my fighters took out the second ship with just enough damage to take down its last remaining hull point. The second match was against a fully loaded Voyager clocking in at 98 points. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the build. It had some good tools and those 10-dice torpedoes are scary. However, the attack us...