Micro Tank Battle!

Look what just came in the mail for me!

It's the rule book for Brickmania's new WWII tabletop miniatures game! (The one demoed at World War Brick) Now, I'm sure you already know I'm a big fan of using Legos for miniatures, so it should come as no surprise to you that I was extremely enthuisiastic to review this game when Brickmania gave me that chance!

 After looking the rules for a bit, I've decided that I really like the simple, but useful combat chart and damage application and everything is super easy. As a result of this, it appears that the game is both fast and fast paced, the base game taking a bit under half an hour (at casual game speed). To be honest, the more I write about this game, the more it makes me want to play it!

Also, let's not forget about the awesome Lego miniature tanks! There are several different tanks for each side (Americans and Germans) and, although the rules for making your own Battleforce are not provided, I'm sure you could make a "points per tank" chart fairly easily. I haven't built any tanks yet, but when I do, I'll try to remember to post pictures!

Make sure you head over to Brickmania's website, www.brickmania.com to pick up a copy of the rules, or even the complete starter kit. Thanks for reading and thanks to Brickmania for the awesome rule book!

ITD

Happy International Tabletop Day! I hope to get a game in but I'm not sure if it will happen...

Shocked

Wow. This post is so right. (https://thetransitgate.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/table-talk-mfz-isnt-a-wargame/) It is well-written and addresses some very real concerns for the way MFZ is played. I'm still having trouble coming up with words to describe just how correct this post is! Anyway, go check out The Transit Gate Podcast while you're there. You won't be disappointed!

Mechwarrior Team Smackdown!

I played a great game of Mechwarrior today! It was a team game, with each player on each two-person team getting 450 points and three orders per turn. My teammate selected a Spirit Cats and Clan Nova Cat house alliance and I decided on a faction-pure Dragon's Fury force. Our opponents were playing a dangerous, long-ranged game with House Liao and the Highlanders.

The fifty minutes passed incredibly fast. It was a cautious game, each team advancing slowly and staying in cover. When the fighting finally got going, however, it was intense! The three mechs on our opponent's side began taking potshots, some of the coming out of cover to fire at one of my teammate's tanks. Then, my Jupiter mech stomped up and started pummeling the enemy mechs. Even though not many points were scored in this game, my team was victorious by getting some hover bike kills earlier in the game!

This just makes me more excited for my next game!

Last Night's Game

Well, in a sudden turn of events, I managed to get an 1850-point game of Warhammer 40K in last night. I was playing Space Wolves against Orks. 

Now, I thought that I would have a few turns to shoot at them and then be able to beat them in close combat once I had whittled them down.  I was very, very wrong. My first indicator that this was going to be difficult was that my opponent deployed only wheeled units. Something like fifteen Warbikes and five Trukks! Three of the Trukks had a deadly team of Bully Boyz each and the other two had small squads of Boyz inside. The Orks got the first turn, killing my bigger squad of Long Fangs and a few terminators. Then, on my turn, the carnage began. The Warbikes and Skyclaws clashed hard and my Blood claws attacked one of my opponent's Trukks. I wasn't actually doing too bad at this point! On my opponent's turn, most of the rest of my units got bogged down in close combat, pretty much ending the game for me. Now, I did manage to hold on until Turn Five, when the game ended and I had three miniatures left on the board. Ouch!

My opponent had built a great list that blended protection and efficiency into a ruthlessly fast game. 

Oh, yeah, the reason I don't have any pictures posted is because my phone died as soon as the game began...

Well, I had a lot of fun playing against a super nice opponent and it was a great way to spend the night!

Game Day!

Haha! Today I'll be getting together with some friends for a day of gaming fun! Hopefully, we'll be able to play some of my group's favorite games, like Seven Wonders and Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction! It promises to be a fun day!

Mechwarrior: Dark Age and Age of Destruction

About a week ago, a member of a gaming group I am in said that they were getting rid of their collection of Mechwarrior clix miniatures and that they would give them to whoever could give them a new home. I quickly volunteered, since I've had a fair amount of experience with the miniatures and own a small collection of them.

On Saturday morning, (03/14/15) we both pulled into a parking lot where we had agreed to meet after a sudden change of plans. As they opened the trunk, my jaw dropped, literally. The  entire trunk was filled with toolboxes, fishing boxes and a bag. I never guessed that a collection that I was getting for free, would be that big! To be honest, I'm still not positive of everything I have. I have to keep going back and digging through it to check if I have that faction or this miniature here or there. It's such an awesome collection and I'm very happy I was able to give it a good home.

Basically, what I am saying is that you may be seeing a lot of Mechwarrior stuff very soon! I'd like to even do a Battle Report at some point, but we'll see...

Dragon Week Day 7: The End

We end the week very fittingly. We end the the week with Cardfight: Vanguard's Dragonic Overlord The End!

He's a Grade 3 card, whose full potential is unleashed when he rides Dragonic Overlord. If you thought Schwarzchild Dragon was the only Dragon to have a scary Persona Blast, wait until you hear The End's! When this unit's attack hits, you can Counter Blast two cards and discard a card named Dragonic Overlord The End from your hand to activate a devastating effect. By paying the cost, Dragonic Overlord the End is able to Stand once again to crush his enemies! One of the best parts of his ability is that it can be activated more than once per turn, as long as you can pay the cost! This is the perfect way to end the game, grinding your opponent into the dust!

Unfortunately, his ability can be shut down by guarding his attack, so it's best to activate it late in the game, when you need that final rush for victory.

Did I mention that the artwork is amazing? One version of the card even has the line "the End shall never fall!" printed in gold foil lettering!

Dragonic Overlord The End, in my opinion, is the only way to end Dragon Week! Thank you for reading and I hope you've enjoyed the week!

Dragon Week Day 6: Pokémon Dragon Typing

Have you seen the Dragon types in the Pokémon TCG? If you haven't, they're a fairly new type and both puzzle and intriuge me.

Dragon Type cards have a goldish-green look to them and are usually weak to Fairy Types. Their retreat cost is low/medium. The odd (and cool) thing about them is that you don't use Dragon Energies to power their attacks. Instead, they use a combination of other energies! For example, a certain Goomie needs both a Water Energy and a Fairy Energy to power its attacks, while a Deino needs a Psychic Energy and a Dark Energy to attack. 

Now, if you've been paying attention and you understand how Pokémon deck building works, you might have seen how useful these cards can be for combo-color decks. That also means that you can't (very successfully) play a deck with the only Type being Dragon.

In closing, all of the Dragon Type Pokémon I've seen have been built to bridge the gap between two Typea in multi-Type deck. They are extremely situational deck building-wise, but can have a tremendous impact on the game with their powerful attacks and unique abilities! I can't wait to see the Dragon Type become more used and better supported! Who knows, maybe one day we'll get the right cards to built a single-Type Dragon deck! 

Dragon Week Day 5: Black Dragons

Now we're back to Buddyfight! The Black Dragons are quickly becoming more and more supported, so I figured I'd devote a whole post to them!

So, Black Dragons are an archetype of Darkness Dragon World, meaning that they have access to a majorly scary repitoire of destruction and defense spells. They have some good offensive set spells like Pain Field and Crisis Field as well.

Okay, it's time for me to write about what I consider staple cards in a Black Dragon deck! (I'll tell you some of the abilities of each card, then move on to tell you about the Black Dragon's main gimmick)

Death Dragon, Deathgaze Dragon is a must-have! He is a size 1 monster with 6000/2/1000 in the order of Power/Critical/Defense so he's clearly an offensive monster. (Perfect for the Black Dragon play style!) He also costs one gauge to call, which isn't bad considering he has the awesome ability "Spectral Strike." Spectral Strike causes two damage to your opponent whenever Deathgaze destroys one of their monsters. Deathgaze is great at opening up your opponent's center position or playing in a rush kind of strategy, using him to run your opponent's out of monsters while damaging them.

Great Evil Dragon Samael Apocaslypse is much more of a specialist weapon for the Black Dragons, but can be incredibly useful when you need him. He has 8000/1/7000 with Double Attack. However, he's not free! In fact, he costs three gauge to call! Possessing the same Spectral Strike as Deathgaze, he can be a killer rush-style card.

Black Dragon Shield. Come on, it's in the name. Need I say more?

Even though I already mentioned them, I'd like to talk about Crisis Field and Pain Field. Crisis field costs one gauge and is a Set Spell. It gives all monsters on your field with Spectral Strike Power +2000. That's a nice power bonus for a lot of Black Dragons.

Pain Field is another Set Spell. It costs two gauge and you must take one damage. Whenever your opponent nullifies one of your attacks, they take one damage AND they can only gain life with their Buddycall. That is a scary, scary card for only two gauge and one damage.

Well, that's about it. I'll tell you, though, before I saw some of the truly powerful rush attacks of the Black Dragons, I wa snot impressed with Darkness Dragon World. As you can believe, they quickly changed my mind!