Gifts Ungiven

...check this out:

http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_eGallery&file=index&do=showgall&gid=101

A new prepainted, collectible Star Wars mini game. Looks like we have Eps 4-6 coming out first, then 1 and 2.

Yet another thing I probably won't buy, but the figures do look neat.

If anyone feels like being corrupted:

Star Wars Miniatures

I've watched it in play; the system is quite fast and very simple. The miniatures look nice, too. Online retailers sell the boosters at a reasonably steep discount (36% or more). You can get a case of 84 for about a hundred bucks.

They do look nice, but I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing I should talk others I know into buying, since I already own so many games.

We just watched the Revenge of the Sith trailer.

I'm psyched.

I'm well aware that Attack of the Clones is a painful movie experience. Note all the rewriting stuff earlier.

Regardless, I'm psyched.

On a related note of Sith Goodness, I recently bought one booster of miniatures for the Clone Strike set for Star Wars Miniatures. We mostly have original trilogy miniatures and haven't bought prequel ones, as there's just more of an emotional attachment to, say, Stormtroopers than Clonetroopers. kwc bought the Clone Strike starter set, so he has General Kenobi and Jango Fett (to complement his Boba Fett from the original set). I decided I'd buy one booster to see what I ended up with, and I now have Darth Maul. Nifty, and a good complement to my Darth Vader.

We ran the two against each other a few times and Maul won unless Vader got lucky. This makes sense, though, as Maul is better on his own, whereas Vader is a good team player (assuming the other members of the team don't mind summary executions when they screw up).

Last week, I found a very cheap supplier of single miniatures from the Clone Strike expansion for Star Wars Miniatures. Coolstuffinc.com has, on average, the lowest prices I've seen for Clone Strike figures. I was especially happy to see their very low prices for "bulk" infantry such as Clone Troopers and Battle Droids.

kwc and I purchased a bunch of figures which should arrive within a week. He concentrated on Jedi, while I went for the large groups of basic troops. In addition to the figures that are coming, we both have a handful of figures already, including Jango Fett and General Kenobi for kwc and Darth Maul for me.

Here's the list of incoming figures:

kwc's list:

C3-PO
General Veers (These first two will help play scenarios with our classic figs)
ARC Trooper
7 Clone Troopers
4 Clone Trooper Commanders
2 Clone Trooper Sergeants
Agen Kolar
3 Jedi Guardians
Ki-Ad-Mundi
Kit Fisto
Luminara Unduli
Mace Windu
Qui-Gon Jinn
Saesee Tinn
Asajj Ventress
2 Dark Side Acolytes
Durge
Aurra Sing
Zam Wesell

my list:

Aayla Secura
20 Clone Troopers
4 Clone Trooper Commanders
4 Clone Trooper Grenadiers
4 Clone Trooper Sergeants
Luminara Unduli
Asajj Ventress
20 Battle Droids
4 Battle Droid Officers
Destroyer Droid
4 Geonosian Overseers
20 Security Battle Droids
10 Super Battle Droids
Zam Wesell

So kwc can bring the Jedi action and I can field hordes of disposable troops. Fun all 'round.

I've realized that the Rebel side in the classic Star Wars Miniatures set is pretty boring. The Imperial side is a lot of fun to play. In addition to Vader and the Emperor, there are Storm Troopers, Storm Trooper Officers, Heavy Weapon Storm Troopers, Elite Storm Troopers, Imperial Officers and Scout Troopers.

It's understandable that they wanted to include the major named characters from the classic trilogy, but the other units didn't have to work so poorly together and be so uninteresting. Here's the Rebel complement:

Bothan Spy (useless grenade tosser)
C-3PO (draws fire)
Chewbacca
Commando on Speeder Bike
Elite Hoth Trooper
Elite Rebel Trooper (those guys who die on the Tantive IV)
Han Solo
Hoth Trooper
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight
Luke Skywalker, Rebel
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Leia, Captive
Leia, Senator
R2-D2
Rebel Commando (Endor garb and grenade throwing)
Rebel Officer (Hoth clothes)
Rebel Pilot
Rebel Trooper (more guys who die on the Tantive IV)
Wookiee Soldier

Assuming that you have to keep the named characters, I'd want to drop the following units:

Bothan Spy
Elite Rebel Trooper
Leia, Captive
Rebel Officer (Hoth clothes)
Rebel Pilot
Rebel Trooper
Wookiee Soldier

In their place, I'd like to have had:

First, some cosmetic changes:

Rebel Trooper (wearing the Endor clothing, and with a slightly better attack than a Stormtrooper, but weaker defense)
Elite Rebel Trooper (wearing the Endor clothing as well)
Rebel Officer (also in Endor clothing, perhaps offering the same bonus)

Then, some substantive alterations.

Rebel Scout (more Endor garb, with Stealth, Spotter ability and otherwise weak stats)
Loyalist Noble (a commander effect that lets one or two units move but not attack after it takes its activation)
Rebel Medic (or Medical Droid -- something that can heal non-droid characters)
Boush (if you're going to have another Leia, why not this one?)

That would have made me happier. Here are some possible stats for Boush:

Boush, Leia in Disguise (20 points)

Hit Points: 50
Defense: 18
Attack: +8
Damage: 20

Special Abilities:

Unique

Thermal Detonator 20 (Replaces attacks: range 6; 20 damage to target and to each character adjacent to that target; no save)

Force Powers:

Force 2

Some observations from the miniatures game:

All Battle Droids: not so good
Battle Droids with Geonisian Overseers providing Double Attacks: very good
All Jedi: not so good
Jedi with Clones and Aurra Sing: quite good

Some random notes from the most recent Star Wars miniatures chat, with the game designers (who, incidentally, are very good at following the online SW minis community and using it as a gauge of what's working and what's not):

For the Endor pack:

• Intended to deliver a handful of miniatures and lots of maps

Champions of the Force, the next expansion, will contain:

• Additional New Republic units (not something I care about)


• Yuuzhan Vong not represented


• Lucas nixed many Old Republic units, so more Sith than Old Republic


• Queen Amidala


• Exar Kun

For the upcoming spacecraft miniatures game:

• Miniatures will be "relatively" sized, rather than truly in scale


• Will not supplant the normal minis game in the production schedule

Upcoming releases in general:

• As long as people keep buying


• They have a couple years' worth of material planned


• Bounty Hunters set will have remakes and new bounty hunters


• No new Ewoks in the next two sets, but there does seem to be a demand


• Their contact at Lucasfilm really wants them to make Jar-Jar


• Their policy is to start providing set facts 6-9 months before release


• Either a new Emperor or a Darth Plagueius figure will be showing up

From the Star Wars Minis message boards:

The best custom Star Wars minis ever

Also, from Boardgamegeek:

A list of game reviews from the early days of White Dwarf magazine featuring more than one name that's become familiar to me in the last five years or so.

In the extended: the stats for pieces in the upcoming Star Wars minis Champions of the Force set. I'm really looking forward to it.

For those who care, draft rules in the extended.

People took some pics of the upcoming Bounty Hunters set for Star Wars minis at GenCon. Here's the link:

BH set pics at The Holocron

Notes in the extended.

Wizards of the Coast has finally put up their information page for their upcoming Star Wars space minis game, which is due for release in late November.

Here's the page

For the moment, this is a standalone, collectible-format game featuring a starter pack that comes with 8 randomized spacecraft as well as Executor and a big Mon Calamari ship, and boosters that each contain 7 minis.

They've also posted the rules here. They're about as simple as the rules for the normal minis game, with the removal of the complications provided by cover and terrain in the normal game.

You can see a couple images of actual minis scattered around the site. At the moment, the Star Wars home page shows us an X-Wing, a TIE Interceptor and the Millennium Falcon. The product page features Slave I (in Jango rather than Boba colors, I'm told).

The next Star Wars minis game, Spaceship Battles, comes out at the end of November. Someone posted the setlist and some stats on the SW minis forum, so I've included both in the extended. One fun bit -- the basic TIE Fighter comes with the ability "Infinite" -- when it is destroyed, it is returned to the fighter pool and can be launched again.

Sweet.

The Star Wars Starship Battles Game went on sale this week. The starter was already sold out in both local game stores I checked in on today; the game has been much anticipated in the community.

The minis themselves look really good -- better than the normal minis. This isn't surprising, as the mass production methods used for collectible minis are more forgiving to vehicles than to people.

The stats for all the ships are already up at swshoebox, and my normal eBay source is posting the minis for sale today.

After some test plays of the new Star Wars Starship Battles game, I've decided that it's just a little too simple for my tastes. There's very little motivation to actually maneuver the capital ships, and the fighters, while fun, play out like a fairly routine chess game.

I've decided to transfer the game to a free-standing (that is, normal) minis game, with measured distances, playable on any old surface.

Modified rules and stats in the extended. Opinions welcomed from interested parties (e.g. folks on whom I'm going to inflict this).

Over in this RPGnet thread, Thornhammer rethemes an old favorite as a part of the Old West. His words:

New Hope County, southern Arizona. Looking at an invasion by some unpleasant Federal Government types, led by US Marshal Garth Vader. He wears black.

An old prospector and a young hotshot cowboy roll into Los Eisley on a lazy summer day, looking for transport out to Estrella Muerte...

Wizards of the Coast has announced that the 2008 Star Wars Miniatures championship will be held at this year's PAX. The tournament is open to all comers, but you have, well, today to preregister for PAX before that option closes (otherwise, you're stuck paying at the door).

You can read the announcement here. It's 150-point Constructed format...and I'm not a competitive player, so I have no idea what the latest tech and best builds are for Star Wars Minis these days. I recommend checking out the Star Wars Minis forums and swShoebox.com for proper format research.