Thursday, February 16, 2017

Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes


Galaxy of Heroes is my daily grind, apart from Pokemon GO (which I only play when I go shopping or am out).  Galaxy of Heroes (GoH) unlike Pokemon GO can be played at home without the need to be seeking out pokemon, there is enough activities happening that I can fill in a half hour to an hour a day without any problems, longer if I so require.

I enjoy the game, it has character development, guilds that you can join.  The game is essentially free, though you can spend money if you desire upgrades faster than the rest of players.  I got introduced to the game last year just after Pokemon GO, and have found that it has supplanted it as my daily game of phone games.

Below is the web address for EA if you are interested in knowing more about the game.


My current team! I'm almost Level 85 (Max), just under 7000 points before I'm there. Yes there is a Jedi among the Sith/Dark Side, but I don't have a healer amongst the Dark Siders of worth to keep the team working in prolonged battles...










Saturday, February 11, 2017

Crimson Skies (2003) by Wizkids



Thank goodness for clubs, that's all I can say, as well as to friends who have old games they are happy to part with.  How did I end up with Crimson Skies you may ask?  Well it's a long story... no not really.  When I posted my articles about my board game collection another friend on facebook mentioned his desire to obtain the pen and paper board game version of Crimson Skies.  I posted an expression of interest out there seeking a copy of him, what I got was a friend asking if I wanted his sets of the clix version of the game.  Being the hoarder and collector I could not help myself, I said yes, the price was more than fair and it is now with me waiting for a chance to be played sometime in the future...


Some closer shots of the contents, not the best, sorry in advance.




Below is courtesy of Wikipedia
Wiki link
Collector NumberFactionPilotPlane
001Broadway BombersHeather 'Ivy' IverianE-1C Avenger
002Broadway BombersKenneth 'Iron Horse' Vanderbilt 3E-1C Avenger
003Broadway BombersLt. Eugene 'Money Man' Windthorpe 3F6 Brigand
004Broadway BombersNancy 'Market Maker' MorganF6 Brigand
005Hollywood KnightsLt. Steve 'Glamour Boy' GardnerBloodhawk
006Hollywood KnightsLt. Carmen 'Killer' FloresBloodhawk
007Hollywood KnightsLt. Winifred 'Brandy' NoonanFirebrand
008Hollywood KnightsLt. Karl 'Wrongway' GrunerFirebrand
009Broadway BombersLoyle 'Showstopper' CrawfordE1C Avenger
010Hollywood KnightsCharlotte 'Charlie' SteeleBloodhawk
011Fortune HuntersRobert 'Buck' DeereP21 Mk 3 Devastator
012Fortune HuntersEllen Sue 'Tex' RyderP21 Mk 3 Devastator
013Fortune Hunters'Brooklyn' Betty CharlesFB14 'Vampire'
014Fortune Hunters'Big John' WashingtonFB14 'Vampire'
015Fortune HuntersNathan ZacharyP21 Mk 3 Devastator
016Fortune HuntersMaria SanchezFB14 'Vampire'
017Red Skull LegionHenrietta 'Hettyhawk' CorbettPeacemaker 370
018Red Skull LegionRafael 'Fencer' HerreraPeacemaker 370
019Red Skull LegionHarry 'Lucky' KenyonS2B Kestrel
020Red Skull LegionLuthor 'PryBar' PrymonS2B Kestrel
021Red Skull LegionJonathan 'Genghis' KahnS2B Kestrel
022Rajin’ CajunsLouis 'Wild Card' ThibodeauxPeacemaker 370
023Black SwansWilliam 'Fenn' FennelJ2 Fury
024Black SwansJudith 'Valkyrie' DuChampJ2 Fury
025Black SwansEdward 'Mad Eddie' SearsM210 Raven
026Black SwansYulia 'The Architect' ChelekhovaM210 Raven
027Never Released
028Never Released
029Never Released
030Never Released
031Hollywood KnightsCharlotte “Charlie” SteeleCoyote
032Blake Air SecurityPaladin BlakePR1 Defender
101Broadway BombersLoyle 'Showstopper' CrawfordF6 Brigand
102Hollywood KnightsCharlotte 'Charlie' SteeleFirebrand
103Broadway BombersCarlton 'Carpetbagger' HawthorneE-1C Avenger
104Hollywood KnightsCaptain Norm HoustonBloodhawk
458PromotionalSanta “St. Nick” ClausSanta’s Holiday Flyer
Based on the above chart I'm only missing the planes below the "Never Released" section.  From my days of running organised play events for Wizkids I'm going to have a punt and guess the last six planes were prize support and clearly the last a promotional. While it would be nice to get them all, I'm not busting a gut these days.  CMGs or anything collectable has passed me by, sure it will annoy the hell out of me that it's incomplete, but I can now live with it.  Who knows, I may even complete it on the off chance, like picking up this game like I did this weekend just past!

Till next time, keep gaming!

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

The Lord of the Rings Radio Dramatisation BBC Radio 4



I can remember many years ago when radio still played a part in my daily life.  Thankfully Australia when I was young still had strong cultural ties with Britain and we still received much in the way of entertain programming.  The Lord of the Rings dramatisation was one of the best radio plays I had listened to apart from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  I can recall the delimma that was the choice of either staying home and listening to the next episode or going to my game club!  It was so hard a choice.  I think in the end I bought a 90 minute play tape, put the device on slow record (can't remember the exact terminology but it doubled the recording time on the tape, a 45 minute side became 90 minutes) and hoped that when I came home I had recorded the entire episode.  In the 1980's the broadcasting authorities were notorious for not keeping to broadcasting times.

So for a long time I cherished my taped recording of the radio play.  Eventually someone in Brisbane had this appear on their shelf and when I saw it I just had to have it.  The fact that it was apparently a limited numbered edition was of no concern to me, I'd have been happy with just an ordinary copy at the time.  What did excite me more was that there was a CD of theme and incidental music included, if you have not listened to this then I suggest you find yourself a copy, it is well worth the listen.  I have included the wiki link below rather than plagiarise, so read and find out what interested me.  Find a copy, listen and enjoy, I certainly did.

Wiki Link

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Just Role Play Damn It!

Courtesy of the internet search engine...

Why oh why do we constantly have to have a new edition of a rule set?  Really?  You mean you don't know the answer to this one?  No it's not to improve the game, though that is the reasoning given in many interviews.  It's not just because the game is so popular it's had to be reprinted and in the process it's had the rules changed.  It's because once you own a set of the rules you don't need to buy another copy - period.  So how does a company that sells games exist if everyone has bought a copy?  If no more people are flocking to buy the game to justify the corporate body and expenses?  It can't, so it's like the university crowd dogma - publish or perish, it's that simple!

So maybe I've oversimplified this and there is more to it than what I've made apparent, but this is how the world exists today.  If you cannot produce a product that needs to be constantly bought, or continue to produce new lines then you will not exist long in business.  Hence people will tinker with rule sets and games, sometimes for the better, sometimes with questionable results.

As you can see from my previous posts I've been cataloguing my collections.  One of my earliest joys when I started my gaming life was role playing games.  I look at the game mechanics of the 1970's and 80's and see them as enjoyable, testing and some ground breaking.  Yet at the heart of the game was the premise of role play, the mechanics were secondary to playing and acting the roles of the imaginary characters created.  We used our minds, pencil and paper to plot out how events happened.  In the early days miniatures were slowly being made and utilised by some within the community.

I admit I have not done any role play in over a decade, my group has died off (literally for some) and from what I see the shape of role play is not what it was or how I remembered from the early days when role play first hit the scene.  It's been commercialised, accessorised, compartmentalised to suck as much cash out of you as possible.  Certainly when it comes to the named role playing games that people know and associate when you mention the hobby.

It is like everything today which has any hint of age or being out of date, it has no relevance to today's generation.  I see it in those who review, for instance board games, where they are extremely critical of most old games.  Rather than enjoying the essence of gaming and association, people prefer to denigrate them as out of date or superfluous.  Yes the game may not be as tricked out as current trends dictate, but there is still a charm to be found in an old game, even if it is only my generation who may appreciate it.

So play the game not the system.