Recent Posts

81

General Discussion / Re: Perspectives on progress

« Last post by Covertwalrus on September 22, 2023, 03:33:28 pm »

Impressive looking token holders, I must say.

As for your analysis of your progress, I feel there is a parameter you might have missed.; How often does your collection get utilized for one of its purposes, or in blunt terms, how frequently do you play?.

 Having limited resources, including space, I have a personal rule; For my forces, any army/fleet that I do not use at least once a year gets moved to a list for disposal - Usually sale, sometimes gifting to other keen players.  Pragmatically, this makes more space available, and b can bring in funds to allow me to explore new options ( Read; Buy new toys for a new game or update previous forces.  ). In practice, this also keeps me flexible as I make a regular shift from force to force, rules to rules and play style to play style, so I keep mentally fresh.

 That works for me, though might not work for anyone else. I confess I admire your approach here, though.

82

Dystopian Wars / Re: Cyclone Of Shadows - Initial Impressions

« Last post by Covertwalrus on September 22, 2023, 03:15:46 pm »

That seems to be a pattern with Warcradle's approach to DW.  Some extremely well-thought-out sets of miniatures, with a highly open-ended rule book and game support. It falls somewhere between the Spartan approach and the current GW "Spoon-feeding" tactic; I know there's a bit of frustration among players about some of that, especially the "living ORBATS" that are updated every few weeks, as it feels a little unfinished and chaotic. Mind you a few players love 3.0 for precisely that reason, so different strokes, as they say.

 Then again, I am loving some of the new ships.

83

News and Rumors / Re: Armada Campaign: Shadowed Horizons

« Last post by Kelly on September 20, 2023, 11:06:41 pm »

The first week’s results of the campaign are locked in, and the next phase of Shadowed Horizons is in progress now…


The player base for Kings of War is orders of magnitude greater than Armada, so it is not really a surprise that the player’s choice and special scenario rules for this phase are designed explicitly for KoW* but they are still including setting descriptions to help with the decision of which scenario would best fit the current progression of the story, i.e. those with islands.



*Though translating movement to speed and unit strength to crew strength to make the new rules fit Armada would be technically be possible, but that would not interact well with most if not all of the scenarios.

84

MBS Media / Re: MBS Podcast Episode 85: Taking Another Look at Star Wars Armada

« Last post by Kelly on September 20, 2023, 10:57:47 pm »

Good discussion, and I think something that cannot be overstated is the pre-painted nature of Armada.  The number of ship purchases that were not for the game but for display purposes only by general fans was not anything to be discounted for both Armada and X-Wing, so I could see the line continuing to be distributed and stocked for years to come even if no additional game supports are ever developed by AMG.

85

Firestorm Armada / Re: Firestorm Armada...Not fully dead yet?

« Last post by Toxic_Rat on September 19, 2023, 12:58:59 am »

Was BFG really that popular?  I know Games Workshop is a juggernaut in its own right,  but it seems odd to let them call the shots. 

That's a great question, and I think it's a fundamentally unknowable one in the sense that the hard data either doesn't exist or isn't publicly available. All I can speak to is that BFG seems to have an enduring popularity based on how I've seen the community evolve over the last 15+ years (yikes, I'm getting old), and that it has a pretty large built-in fan base thanks to the popularity of the 40k universe.

Regarding the second part of your question about "letting them call the shots," it seems to me that Warcradle drew a few lessons from the rise and fall of Spartan, one of those lessons being that rapid release of new games is a path to ruin. So, I'm not surprised to see them slow-roll an eventual FSA reboot. However, I'm generally in agreement with you that there will never be a perfect time to launch the game, so eventually they will have to bite the bullet and launch it.

You're right on having a large fanbase for WH-40k.  Everything seems to reference back to that game.  My brother and I played in a 'learn-to-play' event at Gen Con for Mantic's Kings of War this past August.  The guy teaching the game kept referring back to 40k on how the game was different and "if you know 40k, then you'll understand this" kind of teaching.  Even in teaching a different game system 40k rears its ugly head.  So I guess it's to be expected.

And it's a good point to learn from what Spartan did right and wrong.  Too many games to support, and not enough staff to support them makes for a fatal combo.  A slow roll...very slow with 6 years and counting.

86

News and Rumors / Re: Star Trek: Into the Unknown

« Last post by Ruckdog on September 18, 2023, 05:40:58 pm »

Looks like these pics were from an open house for Alliance distribution back on 8 Sep. A gameplay video has been posted:

https://youtu.be/tjBILyzBZ5Q?si=YoSD6IlIx8lCMw90

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Firestorm Armada / Re: Firestorm Armada...Not fully dead yet?

« Last post by Ruckdog on September 18, 2023, 05:38:38 pm »

Was BFG really that popular?  I know Games Workshop is a juggernaut in its own right,  but it seems odd to let them call the shots. 

That's a great question, and I think it's a fundamentally unknowable one in the sense that the hard data either doesn't exist or isn't publicly available. All I can speak to is that BFG seems to have an enduring popularity based on how I've seen the community evolve over the last 15+ years (yikes, I'm getting old), and that it has a pretty large built-in fan base thanks to the popularity of the 40k universe.

Regarding the second part of your question about "letting them call the shots," it seems to me that Warcradle drew a few lessons from the rise and fall of Spartan, one of those lessons being that rapid release of new games is a path to ruin. So, I'm not surprised to see them slow-roll an eventual FSA reboot. However, I'm generally in agreement with you that there will never be a perfect time to launch the game, so eventually they will have to bite the bullet and launch it.

88

MBS Media / MBS Podcast Episode 85: Taking Another Look at Star Wars Armada

« Last post by Ruckdog on September 17, 2023, 05:45:21 pm »

For Episode 85, Andy is joined by a new co-host, Chris. Chris is Andy’s local “partner in crime” when it comes to the game that is the focus of this episode: Star Wars Armada. After years of collecting but not playing, Andy has been playing a lot of Star Wars Armada over the last year, and a lot of those games have been with Chris! The two of them touch on the changes that have happened to the game and its support over the last few years, and prognosticate on the game’s future.

http://www.manbattlestations.com/blog/2023/09/17/mbs-podcast-episode-85/

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Firestorm Armada / Re: Firestorm Armada...Not fully dead yet?

« Last post by Toxic_Rat on September 16, 2023, 05:48:06 am »

@Ruckdog, I hadn't heard that they would be looking to time it so far after the release of BFG.  I never got into playing that game, so it doesn't hold any special power over me.  I can understand not wanting to compete with a rival product.  On the other hand, isn't that kind of the point of having a rival product?  Develop a solid game before your competition and get it to market before they do?  It seems like this thinking will simply haunt the Firestorm brand for as long as BFG is out there.  "We don't want to compete with the BFG launch, so we'll wait a year."  "We don't want to release set XYZ because BFG just came out with their expansion." And on it goes.  If you always wait to avoid competing with the other guy, don't you just end up waiting all the time?

Was BFG really that popular?  I know Games Workshop is a juggernaut in its own right,  but it seems odd to let them call the shots. 

90

Space Naval Games / Re: Metaverse (Free Space Combat Game)

« Last post by Kelly on September 13, 2023, 07:21:58 pm »

Wow!  There is a lot in here, and I am not even a third of the way through... but I am still reading the rules since they are engaging, even though I will not be at a point to make a decision on them anytime soon.  The designer notes are a welcome addition as they are longer form sidebars instead of just footnotes, and they are spread throughout the applicable sections of the rules.