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Archive for November, 2012
Welcome to New Angeles
Commissioner Dawn lifted the sheet, glanced at the cool- ing corpse underneath, and then grimaced. It was just
as the officer on the scene had said, and it meant a lot of paperwork and a lot of overtime for her detectives…
It is the future. Mankind has spread itself out across the solar system with varying degrees of success. The Moon and Mars are colonized. A plan to terraform Mars is well underway, hindered only by a civil war that has broken out on that planet. On Earth, a massive space elevator
has been built, stretching up into the sky. It is the hub of trade in the solar system, and most people refer to it as the “Beanstalk.”
Computers have continued to advance, and that, combined with discoveries in the field of neurobiology, has led to brain-mapping, a method by which a human mind can be stored electronically. Recently, two rival companies used this development in different ways to create artificial, sentient life. Jinteki created human clones that can be matured and educated in a fraction of the normal time. Haas-Bioroid, on the other hand, built robots with brain- mapped, artificially intelligent minds, calling them “bior- oids.“ Naturally, this has caused no end of trouble.
With both companies selling their artificial humans, or an- droids, as cheap labor, thousands of already-impoverished humans have found themselves unemployed. This, com- bined with their deep mistrust of scientists playing God, has led many lower- and middle-class citizens to hate and fear the androids. A group calling itself Human First has sprung up, calling the androids “golems’“ – referring to the legendary soulless clay creatures. Human First has attacked the androids on numerous occasions, usually wielding sledgehammers as their weapon of choice, since the androids are often physically resilient.
In this hotbed of hatred, fear, and prejudice, the men and women of the New Angeles Police Department attempt to maintain order. Their job isn’t easy, since their charter requires them to patrol not only New Angeles but also the Heinlein moon colony located across the Beanstalk. Nev- ertheless, they continue to guard the thin blue line between civilization and anarchy.
FF first Android universe game, A classic detective game
Then came Infiltration based in the Android future. Infiltration is a tense card game of futuristic larceny in which two to six players take the roles of thieves, competing to steal valuable secrets from a highly secured corporate facility. The most vital information lies deep within the complex, but each step inward takes you farther from escape. Worse yet, corporate mercenaries are closing in! How long will you push your luck as you avoid security patrols, surpass rival thieves, and try to download the most data before the building is locked down?
And the latest Android themed game, Netrunner.
Monolithic megacorps and individualistic netrunners collide in a dystopian future. Set in the gritty, cyberpunk future of Android, Android: Netrunner is a two-player Living Card Game™ that rewards skill, strategy, and just the right amount of calculated risk. In a world where corporations can scan the human mind and interface it directly with electronic data, more data moves every second than was ever processed in the first five-thousand years of written language. The network is omnipresent, the crux of modern human civilization, and while visionary corporations seek to secure their most valuable data on the network, the elite hackers known as netrunners seek to steal it.
Up Front – A game of WWII Man to Man combat by R MacGowan
Posted: 26 November 2012 in Up FrontTags: Up Front
I was browsing BGG last night as saw a whole lot of “Up Front” goodness. I have had this game forever and never played it! After watching a video by J Steadman who had made his own copy of the game because it has be out of print for a long time, I realised I had a copy on my shelf. The video has inspired me to try and have some games. I also have a copy of Squad Leader by Avalon Hill that I have only ever played once or twice. Heaps easier than painting up a squad of men and getting terrain etc ( I know this because I have had the odd miniature game of IABSM and have a British company all painted up!). I must admit that is the BIG advantage of card and board games when time is short.
So I downloaded some rewritten rules (that are apparently easier to read from BGG) and I will work through these. I also started having a go playing the first scenario “Meeting of patrols” . I sorted out the American cards #1-12 and the Germans #1-10, split them into 2 groups starting on range band 0. You get heaps of cards i.e Mortar,Anti tank rifles,Medium machine gun, flame throwers,50mm PAK 38,Panzerschreck,57 mm M43 ( The Russians) etc You also get vehicles such as M3 Halftrack,M8 Greyhound, M4 Sherman and Tiger PzKw VIE to name a few. Combined with terrain cards for gullies, hills, marshes, streams, buildings,woods, brush and walls.
I was pretty cool just flipping a few cards, laying down some light machine gun fire from PFC Schussel into the American squad in the open. The other American squad moved forward into some brush to get some cover. Wow , I can see this game providing lot of opportunity for some very cool narratives.
I cant get over how “brand new” my cards are considering I have had them since october 1984. I will read rules asap and try and get a game in soon.
I played my frist game today and it was a blast! It was a 2 player game for the full 30 turns. Only a little bit of rule reading was required when we got stuck and the game flowed nicely. It was great fun burning around the planets discovering new cultures for trading and experiencing random encounters along the way. It was very close at the end and it came down to the infamy points gained through encounters and some less than perfect trading conditions (I know its a lame excuse) and it was a narrow loss but it didn’t matter as it was a fun game. Most of the time you are trying to navigate the trade routes but the only issue we encountered was remembering which planet had which culture. I know its written on the tokens etc but trees and forest.. I might make some standup tokens with the number 1 to 14 on them to make it easier .’
I got an email today from Mantic, here is a snippet
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We are getting close to the goal – that goal obviously being the dispatch of over 2500 Kickstarter pledges! The first of our Kickstarter pledges will start shipping next week, and with the 8 MVPs (the final components) arriving as well we will start shipping Strikers a week on Monday! |
has reached the milestone
which is the strech goal of “Night Calls” to unlock the Panthera.
From the last count 69 people have pledge for “Explorator” which is the book & picture + free model. 75 People have claimed the “Aftermath special” which includes all of the unlock goodies. If I didnt already have 6 factions then I would have gone for this. The scenery is very nice as shown in this image. I am almost tempted to upgrade my pledge to this.
The new factions looks very nice and I think I might save my money for this, although I could upgrade and get some more models , a 15% discount and some cool scenery…Hmmmmn.
I ordered MoV from Amazon and it arrived outside my door today as predicted by the Amazon mail algorithm. Well my first impression is what a quality product. From the linen cards to the thick and excellent tokens, it just oozes quality. The rules look easy to read (classic and standard) and the two side board is fantastic. I need to read rules to work out how to play but I think it will be a quality game as well. I cant wait to have a game.
The box has plenty of depth as it is somewhere to put all the counters and you can just see the funky little space ships bottom right .They have small stands and look very nice
Nice thick tokens which almost fell out they as they are perfectly cut. The graphic design is great and they are easy to read. You can see why the box weight is so heavy.
The remodelling of the Defiler has finished with a base coat applied and some washes as well. I ran out of both red and purple wash so need to get some more. I am happy with the finish and think it looks better than before and a fitting addition to my Slaanesh army.
See this
I have the core rules and the last expansion and some of the Germans. Fun game and we use to have a blast playing it.
My Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Gaming Blog 