Christmas Gaming Goodies

Does my family know me or what? First up is a resin suspension bridge from (wait for it) Pet Smart. Some of the best gaming terrain I have found in local pet stores usually in the aquarium section. Everything from ancient temples, jungle bushes and now this bridge, it is a great way for a gamer to game on a budget with fantastic terrain.

 The entire bridge - perfect scale for 25 - 28 mm scale (or a little bigger).

I don't play as many board games as I used too, but my Beautiful Bride (Minister of Finance and Chief of Staff), my five sons and three beautiful daughters-in-law love to play them. I must admit, I am a Munchkin fanatic and own about 8 different versions of the game: Everything from the Wild West to Steam Punk to the Apocalypse. And now . . . (drum roll please) . . . Munchkin Warhammer 40,000. One of the endearing qualities of the Munchkin games are the inside jokes, and when I saw the "New Paint Job" go up one level, I almost died laughing. I highly recommend the Munchkin games - you are in for a treat.

Last but not least is Small World. I guess my family was keeping this one a big secret because is appears all of them have played it and are twisting my arm about the game. Looking forward to having some fun.

We usually have a big X-Wing game at Christmas with the boys but I missed out this year but trust me, I will be battling soon. Here is a picture Honorable Son #2 (The Captain) took of the game with his new X-Wing gaming mat that his Beautiful Bride (The Future Lawyer) gave him for Christmas. (Who says the geeks don't get the girls?)

Great gaming mat for X-Wing.

Well, now that we have a new bridge, it's time to start gaming!

Playing X-Wing with Friends

I love X-Wing!  And what better way to enjoy the game but to introduce it to you friends?  And get blasted out of space with your new Slave 1? 

My friend Tom and his son have played games with us before and it was time to do some Star Wars action.  The first game was done with the quick play rules against Honorable Son #5 quickly followed by the basic rules.

Tom and his son in TIE fighters against Honorable Son #5

Honorable Son #5 concentrating during battle

 

 

 

 

 

High speed manuvering

 Now that the basics of the game were out of the way, we decided to have a three way death match: TIE fighters vs. X-Wing vs. Boba Fett in Slave 1. The deadly Slave I is infamous for its association with the bounty hunter in Mandalorian armor. Fett packed the craft with weapons, from laser cannons and projectile launchers to seismic charges.  However for this scenario I kept it simple with just the basics of the ship. What a mistake.

Hey!  Everybody shoot at the big spacecraft target!

Though impressive, for Slave 1 to survive in an all out melee it needs to use the special bombs, missiles, etc. to replicate it's performance in the Star Wars movies.  In our scenarios I could see the consensus in my opponents as they decided to blow me into cosmic dust and they taking on each other.

X-wing to the front of me, TIES to the rear of me.  Good think I have almost a 360 degree field of fire.

Dang it!  Fast little buggers.

 Okay.  I decided I needed some cover.  Let's add asteroids for Slave 1 to hide among.  Did I mention that Slave 1 is a bigger ship and tends to hit asteroids easier?  Whoops.

Run away!

Honorable Son #5 handing the movement template to Tom.

Smacked into that asteroid.

TIE fighters ignoring the badly damaged Slave 1 as they attempt to polish off the X-Wing

Now that the X-wing is gone . . .

Hey Boba!  Where did you learn to fly?

The victorious TIE fighter team!

 Another successful event of gaming - even more the enjoyable as it was done with friends!

More X-Wing

On Christmas Day Honorable Son #3 challenged me to a game of X-Wing.  Since I lost the first game, we played another.  Since I lost the second game - I read the rules for Slave 1 and plotted my revenge while watching a movie!  (BWAH HAH HAH!)

 Wishing I had Slave 1 to go up against Luke in his X-Wing.

Honorable Son #3 was Luke in an X-Wing.

Action on the table. A hex map is not required for the game; it's just the only space-like surface we had.

 The blue cross marker means Luke has targeted an enemy ship . . . 

  . . . and here is the ship that is targeted.  In addition the Tie Fighter has a stress marker for conducting a highly, well, stressful maneuver.

 Pweh! Pweh! Pweh! Pweh!

 Nicely detailed, painted ships come with the game.

 Pweh! Pweh! Pweh! Pweh!

 Here is when Honorable Son #4 almost was blown into cosmic dust.  He accidentally turned into the pursuing Tie Fighters and then tried to kick in the after burners.

I had both of my Tie Fighters flanking him with bonus shots for being in close range!  Of course, all six laser blasts missed.

 Another one bites the dust! Kablamo!

 An example of the detail in the X-Wing.

Somebody was not on Santa's Naughty list!

Does my family know me or what! (Okay, my mom did send me a sweatshirt too and it's perfect!)

 The loot that came down the chimney! 

From Honorable Son #2 and his beautiful Wife is one of the coolest spaceships in the Galaxy: Boba Fett's Slave 1.  If you haven't tried playing X-Wing from Fantasy Flight Games you are definitely missing out.

From Honorable Son #3 and his Sweet Fiance comes Heroes, Villains and Fiends. This the first supplement for one of my favorite game's In Her Majesty's Name (IHMN).  It provides more talents, mystical powers, weapons and weird science for the late 19th Century.  There are also more companies from Africa, North America and Europe.

From Honorable Son #1 and his wife the Future Doctor are these beautiful miniatures from Warlord Games and Eureka Miniatures.  They are the Hollywood versions of Lt. Chard, Lt. Bromhead, Colour Sergeant Bourne and Private Hook from the movie Zulu.  And since Lt. Caine and Lt. Baker are members of The Queen's Own Africa Rifles I think they be making an appearance soon in the world of IHMN.

Honorable Son #4 provided this fun to play and easy to learn card game known as The Resistance.  It took about 10 minutes to read the rules and another 5 minutes to teach everyone else to play.  Who would have known that my Beautiful Bride would be the spy to bring down the Resistance?

 

Another great gift from Honorable Son #1 and his wife the Future Doctor. The world famous Consulting Detective and the Good Doctor have been showing up in IHMN.

Honorable Son #5 provided me two good movies: Miracle and Fury.

Santa (or was that my Beautiful Bride?) brought two packs of British Constables to help out the world famous Consulting Detective and the Good Doctor.