Embrace the Chaos

Nothing that dramatic in honesty but whilst attempting to simplify and progress my current projects I've actually managed, as many of us do, to increase the mountain whilst simultaneously finding other shiny things to run after.......

Firstly I've finally spent my birthday Element Games voucher on this lot;

I went for the Aguacile specialists the Tunguska Inventnors (the pandas are SO cool) and a couple of Zonds to round out the selection. The rest went on completing the scenery set with a three storey apartment, some holo ads, consoles and a dumpster which is to follow.

Additionally I've dug out another couple of AT-43 vehicles to add to the scenery set and also picked up a Moran Massai as I've realised just how good they could be. While I'm at a pair of Geckos have also made thier way onto the WANT list. Meanwhile I'll be picking up about £100 of X-Wing Wave 7 on Saturday as well as renewing the car tax........sigh!

I was already looking at taking a weeks leave in early September which is now likely to become scenery week. I'll also paint a few of Rob's bits to alleviate the mild guilt.

Moving swiftly on, Rich introduced me to Kaos Ball and the Netrunner LCG over the weekend.

Kaos Ball looked pretty much like another Blood Bowl / Dreadball clone when the Kickstarter came round so I didn't really take a look. Apparently it's aimed at novice / non gamers and it certainly comes across that way with simple, primary coloured graphics / print.

However, despite deceptively simple gameplay there is a lot more depth to the game than I expected. Card driven there's a decent element of resource management and bluff. There are various cheat / power up cards with some drastic penalties if you get it wrong. Most impressively there's multiple methods to score points, which ramp up as you play through the quarters which in themselves are timed by how many cards you've played.

As such there are quite a few variables knocking about that you have to pay attention to. All of a  sudden it wasn't nearly as basic a game as I first thought. Probably still not a replacement for DB, if and when I get round to playing it again, but I'd happily play a few more games of it :)

Which brings us to Netrunner, which has already been registering on the fringe of my radar for a little while now. In honesty it was already hitting a lot of buttons for me. The background, imagery, concept and the fact that as a card game it's straight out of the pack with little room required are all big wins. the only downside is its LCG nature and the potential need to catch up with the pack.

I'll admit that I wanted this game to be good and I was HUGELY impressed. Learning as we went with pre-built decks meant we surely never got all the bells and whistles going but they weren't necessary. There's a great tech feel, and thrill, to the game.

You alternatively play as the Runner and the Corporation and both feel significantly different to play. As with many LCGs there are strong resource management elements but the big thing here is the feeling of paranoia and pressure that comes with it.

As I'm sure you've already guessed I forsee a fair bit of Netrunner in my near future :]