Battle Report: Fleet Exercise (Part 2)

The battle is continued from part 1.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 8):
Tom's Sister damaged Tom's Frigate 1.
I destroyed the same Frigate.
Tom captured one of Tom's Sister's HVAs.
Tom's Sister captured one of my HVAs.

Tom: 30 points.
Me: 21 points.
Tom' Sister: 18 Points.







Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 5):
Tom's Sister damaged my Blue Frigate then rammed it with one her Cruiser 1.
Tom damaged Tom's Sister's Cruiser 1.
Tom's Sister damaged Tom's Cruiser.
Tom's Sister damaged Tom's Frigate 2.

Tom: 30 points.
Me: 21 points.
Tom' Sister: 18 Points.









Events of Turn 4 (DDC @ 2):
Tom damaged Tom's Sister's Frigate 2.
Tom's Sister destroyed Tom's Cruiser.
I destroyed Tom's Sister Frigate 1.
The Doomsday Clock ticks down to zero.

Tom: 24 points.
Me: 21 points.
Tom' Sister: 15 Points.








Thoughts & Observations:

• We continue our streak of having at least one ramming attack per game.  Tom's Sister made up for Stevenik's absence.
• I went with all Frigates for maneuverability and to bid for Defender position. My strategy was to run away.  It worked for half a turn.
• We may play the next session with Frame Companies but without Boarding rules.
• We had the same table, and the engagement area didn't seem as claustrophobic.
• Once again we ignored the terrain placement rules.
• The only time Point Defense weapons got used was with White Dice by a mostly destroyed ship.
• I like this version of the game and hope we play it again.

Battle Report: Fleet Exercise (Part 1)

On Sunday, July 27th, 2014, two of the usual suspects returned to The Whiz.  Tom and myself were joined by Tom's Sister for another day of Lego spaceship carnage.  This time around we had decided to Play Intercept Orbit without using Frame Companies.

The squadrons broke down as follows:
Tom (3 Tactical Assets & 10 Systems) = (6 Points per Asset) * (5 total Assets) = 30 Points.
Tom's Sister (4 Tactical Assets & 14 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (6 total Assets) = 18 Points.
Me (3 Tactical Assets & 9 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (5 total Assets) = 35 Points.

Here are pictures of the game at start up.  My ships are the clump in the center.  Tom's are arrayed to the right in the picture above.  Tom's Sister has her ships on the left.  I had a reason for setting up like that and it will be revealed at the end of the battle report.




Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11):
I tried to maneuver out of the engagement area.

Tom's Sister damaged my Red Frigate.
Tom's Sister destroyed my Red Frigate.
Tom's Sister damaged Tom's Cruiser.
Tom damaged Tom's Sister's Frigate 1.

Tom: 30 points.
Me: 28 points.
Toms' Sister: 18 points.

This is the log sheet that Tom created to keep 

track of everything that happens in the game.

To be continued...

Good Sets for Parts 8

It's been a while since I've done one of these.  Let's give it a shot.  I've already covered the movie sets elsewhere, and the Mixels should be obvious. Let's take a moment to look at some of the other new sets.

42020 Twin-Rotor Helicopter.  145 parts for $12.99.  As most people can figure out, I'm a big fan of Technic parts.

10667 Juniors Construction.  160 parts for $14.99.  Plenty of fiddly bits and plenty of color.  The only minuses are the mono-body vehicle piece and the minifig.

70161 Tremor Track Infiltration.  241 parts for $19.99.  I've always liked the Agents line.  This set is a tad monochromatic, but Tan and Dark tan can be interesting colors to work with.

70141 Vardy's Ice Vulture Glider.  217 parts for $19.99.  This set is similar in color to the one above.  It does have Translucent Light Blue pieces to make things interesting though.

60056 Tow Truck.  227 parts for $19.99.  I feel like I get to recommend City sets so rarely lately, it's almost worth a celebration every time I do.  This set has plenty of parts in Blue, White, Red, and Light Bley.

70130 Sparratus’ Spider Stalker.  292 parts for $24.99.  Lots of Technic bits in this one along with useful system pieces.

10673 Race Car Rally.  350 parts for $29.99.  Plenty of basic bricks for terrain and a healthy amount of the fiddly stuff we love.

21020 Trevi Fountain.  731 parts for $49.99.  $0.07 per piece, and while most of the set is standard bricks there are plenty of clip plates, bar plates, jumpers, skeleton arms, and SNOT bricks to make this worth it.

Non-Human 13

Let's try to end out the month strong.

nayk by Bezor-1.  Kinda spindly, and it requires some modding,
but it looks different than most mech designs out there.

Red Anansi by Toto Hermanto.  Yeah, way to big for the nominal

MFZ scale, but the use of color and presentation is great.

Think Tanks - East vs. West by Bricksky.  An interesting
look at color and size to differentiate two similar builds.

Drones by Sean Sikula.  Slap a couple of these on a base

and you'd have a decent Dispersed Systems Frame.

DL-53 "Adamant" by LowestFormOf Wit.  LFOW comes
storming back with this excellent little number.

Review: 40028 Mini Hogwarts Express

Of course, Dark Clouds has already done a review of this.  :-)  Mine might turn out a little different.

Bag.  Purchased at 5 Below for $3.99.  Price per piece of $0.06.

Instructions.

Parts 1.  Those 2x2 Rounded Slope bricks are pretty interesting, as are the 1x2 Bricks w/Groove.  I also like the 1x2 w/2 Holes.

Parts 2.  Four new headlight bricks and a bunch of cheese slopes
catch my eye.  I'm never averse to 1x1 round plates either.

Mecha 1.  Copping a bit of darksyntax's style on this one.  I originally thought I wasn't going to be able to make anything using this set but switching up styles helped with that.  Stats: 2Rd+d8 (side guns)/ 1B (armored legs)/ 1Y (cyclops eye) /2W.

Mecha 2.  This one's more of a 3P or 4P scale.  I'm calling it a Robo Hover-Tank.

Stats: 2Rd+d8 (side guns)/ 1B (sloped armor)/ 1G (hover system) /2W.

The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Not really.  (-5)
Score: A- (+10).  As I mentioned, I purchased this at 5 Below which means it should be available in most second-hand stores.

Review: 30250 Razcal's Double-Crosser Polybag

Once again, beaten to the punch by Dark Cloud Blogs.  :-)

Bag.  Purchased for $3.99 at 5 Below which yields a price per piece of $0.11.

Instructions & Minifig.

Parts.  Wow, that is a whole lotta nothin'.  The half brackets are good, jumpers always come in handy, and you can never have too many clip plates.  I'm not a real big fan of wheels though.

Okay, I managed to pull something out of the pile of parts.
It's a Frigate for IO.  I'd stat it up as 2Ra+d8/1Y/1G/2W.
It's a little thin but will work if you're in a bind.

The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: B- (-5).  Buy this one if you want the parts.  Otherwise it really doesn't have much to recommend.

Review: 30229 Repair Lift Polybag

Here's a review of one of the newer polybag sets.

Bag.  This cost $3.99 at Toys'R'Us, which gives us a Price per Piece of $0.10.

Instructions & Minifig.

Parts.  In general, I don't like wheels.  I have built a few wheeled vehicles before but I don't go looking for them.  Hinge parts are always good.  I like the 1x2 Plate w/Bar (open ends) and the 1x2x1x2 bracket.  I'm not so sure about that lift bucket though.

Self-Propelled Gun.  It's not a bad looking little vehicle.  I'd

stat it out as 3Ra/1Rd (gun) / 1B (hull) / 1G (wheels) /2W.

The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  At.  (0) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: B+ (+5).  I really like the Self-Propelled Gun design I came up with.  It's not too far off the base design of the set and a bunch of these could make for a fun squad.  The only problem is you're going to be stuck with a minifig afterwards.