Dance-Card

These are the games that currently rock my table-top world and as such receive the greater portion of my love, time and money. Who says you can't buy happiness? ;)

Star Wars X-Wing:
 
I really cannot stress just how much I enjoy this game. I converted over from Star Trek Attack Wing and the difference in balance an playability is out of this world. The Flightpath system is easy and intuitive to use contrasting against a depth of tactical options in respect of how you build, equip and fly your squadrons.
 
Fast and visceral, X-Wing puts you in the middle of fierce Star Wars firefights. Use each craft’s unique maneuver dial to secretly plot its movement action for each turn. After each player has locked in his movement decisions, the dials are revealed and ships are moved starting with the lowest skilled pilots. Pepper the enemy with blaster fire as you rush into the dogfight, or move into combat range slowly, attaining deadly target locks before you launch a devastating attack. No matter your plan of attack, you’ll be in total control throughout the tense action.
The Good;
- FlightPath™ and the wider X-Wing mechanic is a strong, simple one qualifying for the "minutes to learn, a lifetime to master" stamp of approval.
- The IP is very well managed with the character of Star Wars and all your favourite characters and scenes, from the books as well as the films, well represented.
- The Meta is equally as well managed and far less abusable. Release waves are well balanced introducing new tactics and strategies. Meta shifts keep refreshing the game very effectively.
- Epic Play expands the game and brings the big ships into the game in a manageable way strengthening the strategic side of the game and fleet-building.
- The X-Wing community is a good one. Something about the mechanics and setup of the game being difficult to abuse seemingly weeds out a lot of power gamers.

The Bad;
- It's a good touch more expensive than ST-AW once you start getting into the bigger Epic ships RRPing at £75. Post Armada Epic play gets even less of a look in.
- Certain cards only coming with certain packs which can result in purchases purely for cards and tokens rather than because you want to fly the ship.
- There's something of a lack of scenario play outside of fan run stuff with most games and tournaments straight shoot-ups amongst the asteroid field, though to be honest it's not an issue for most players

My Ugly;
This is the game I initially rejected to play STAW instead, feeling that STAW was more "rounded" as a game. In hindsight, boy was I wrong! I've spent a LOT of time, money and effort on this one but have reaped that back ten-fold at the least. I've never got bored of the game and am not sure how I ever could do.
 
Infinity:
 
I've been a long time admirer of Infinty's stunningly gorgeous figures, setting and graphics. To me this is proper Blade Runner-esque Sci-Fi with grit to contrast the glamour.
 
Infinity recreates Direct Action operations, high-stakes missions in the battlefront or behind enemy lines, where victory or death are a trigger pull away. Players command a small group of elite soldiers, chosen for their adequacy to the mission parameters at hand. Each battle calls for a different composition, and building an effective team from hand-picked members of different regiments is key to a successful operation. Infinity is a groundbreaking, dynamic system that allows you to make meaningful, fun choices throughout the entire game sequence, and gives you the tools to implement any number of strategies with realism and flexibility.
The Good:
- The IP, background, imagery and figures are fantastic dripping with Neon colour and detail.
- Though challenging the game mechanics are also incredibly rewarding once you get your head around the design ethos which is like nothing you've ever played before.
- The game revolves around scenario play and is one of it's major strengths adding a further level of strategy and tactics as well as avoiding static shooting matches. Manouvre is just as important as firepower.
- Corvus Belli support the game incredibly well with free downloadable rules, scenarios, markers and an excellent online army builder program. They invest in your game like no other games company.
- Support for scenery, markers and other accessories from secondary suppliers is strongly and actively encouraged by Corvus Belli. The scenery set ups you see in the literature are practically obtainable in real life.
 
The Bad:
- There is no doubt that the learning curve with the rules is steep and the game can be pretty brutal. There are a plethora of special rules to learn which can be bewildering at first but with persistence can become second nature.
- As beautiful as the true scale figures are, as multi piece pewter they can be a nightmare to be put together, especially for the novice hobbyist.
- Top end product commands a top end price and as much as you only need a dozen figures you'll soon end up with many, many more. 
 
My Ugly:
After drooling from afar for many years I took the plunge by splitting an Operation Icestorm starter set and haven't looked back. We've established a decent group of players at the club and I've been trying to play as regularly as possible which seems to be key for Infinity. Lessons have been learnt slowy, often painfully, but they've always been good fun.
  
Android: Netrunner:
 
The new kid on the block. I've dabbled with card games over my long and illustrious gaming career on the rare occasion. Magic the Gathering way, way back when and Warhammer Invasion a few years ago to try and recapture that love of Fantasy that I started out with as a kid.
 
Netrunner is a big boy game in the same way that  Infinity is to Necromunda. Once again the flickering Neon Sci-Fi grit is there along with a brutally efficient "combat" system. It's a mature card game with a mature following and meta. It's also a very, very good game with an excellent offset twist and plenty of bluff as you play as both Corporation and Runner within a game round.
Android: Netrunner is a two-player Living Card Game® set in a dystopian, cyberpunk future where monolithic megacorps own and control the vast majority of human interests. While corporation players try to score points by advancing their agendas, they have to guard their intellectual properties from the elite and subversive hackers known as netrunners. Netrunners attempt to win the game by stealing the corp's agendas, by any means possible!
 
The Good:
- As with all card games it plays straight from the box, no fuss no muss. With tournament paired games set at 70 minutes you can squeeze in as many of few runs as you have time for.
- The Netrunner community is excellent with many deckbuilder websites for help and advice.
- Once you're up to speed your monthly fix is about a tenner so not horrifically taxing on the wallet.
- It's a really excellent game full of bluff, double bluff, tension and drama like no other game you've ever played.
 
The Bad:
- As an established Living Card Game there's quite an investment to be made to come up to speed with the more established players. Certain cards in certain deck types are fairly crucial and can demand an arms race.
- It's a pretty steep learning curve and not for the faint hearted, or easily discouraged. Definitely a game where you'll learn far more from a string of losses than easy wins......of which there are few.
- Given the initial complexity of the game it can actually quite a difficult one to explain and teach. Once you're in though......
 
My Ugly:
Introduced to the game by a gaming buddy I was soon hooked and looked to invest in a controlled manner as a fringe, filler game. The more I've played the more the bug bit and I've splurged a touch, though having done my research as to what sets were more critical to the decks I wanted to play. I'm now at a happy point where I'm going to play as much as I can and see where the game takes me. 

No comments:

Post a Comment