Battle Report: Neue Regel @ Connector Cafe

This is the second of two battle reports.  We had enough players that we split into two tables using two different settings.  This also marks our first return to the Connector Cafe in two years.

Stevenik (4 Frames & 15 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 42 points.

   Blue -- 2Rh+d8/1Y/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Gold Heavy Assault -- 2Rd+d8/1B/1G/2W.

   Orange Artillerist -- 2Ra+d8/2B/2W + SSR.

   Green Tank -- 2Rd+d8/2B/2W + SSR.

Chuck (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 35 points.
   Red Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.

   Blue Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   White -- 2Rh+d8/2G+d8/2W + SSR (x2).
   Biege Heavy Assault -- 2Rd+d8/1B/1G/2W.
   Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1Y/2W.

Occam's Spork (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 35 points.

   Grey Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Orange Charger -- 2Rd/2Rh/1B/1G/2W.
   Green Charger -- 2Rd/2Rh/1B/1G/2W + SSR.
   Blue Charger -- 2Rd/2Rh/1B/1G/2W + SSR.
   Yellow Charger -- 2Rd/2Rh/1B/1G/2W + SSR.

Tom (6 Frames & 23 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 24 points.

   Pink Light Brawler -- 2Rh/2B/1Gd8/2W + SSR.
   Orange Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W + SSR.
   Green Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W + SSR.
   White Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Brown Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Colorless Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11): Tom's Orange frame moves into Stevenik's perimeter.  Stevenik's Blue frame hits Tom's Orange frame for 4.  Chuck's White frame takes 4 damage from Tom's and Stevenik's frames.  Stevenik's Green frame destroys Chuck's White frame.  

Stevenik: 42 points.

Occam's Spork: 35 points.

Chuck: 30 points.
Tom: 24 points.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 9): Tom's Orange frame runs and hides with a 1 Defense.  Chuck's Yellow frame does 4 damage to Occam's Spork's Yellow frame.  Stevenik's Orange frame does damage to Chuck's Yellow frame and Occam's Spork's Yellow frame.

Stevenik: 42 points.

Occam's Spork: 30 points.

Chuck: 30 points.
Tom: 21 points.

Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 7): Occam's Spork's Blue frame destroys Stevenik's Gold frame and seizes the Station it was guarding.

Stevenik: 28 points.

Chuck: 25 points.
Tom: 24 points.
Occam's Spork: 20 points.

Events of Turn 4 (DDC @ 3):  Tom's Colorless frame destroys Stevenik's Blue frame (11 Damage dice).

Tom: 27 points.
Stevenik: 21 points.
Occam's Spork: 20 points.

Chuck: 15 points.

Events of Turn 5 (DDC @ 1):  Tom's Brown frame destroys Chuck's Beige frame.  Tom's Pink frame destroys Chuck's Red frame.  Stevenik's Orange frame destroys Tom's White frame.

Tom: 27 points.
Stevenik: 21 points.
Occam's Spork: 15 points.

Chuck: 0 points.

Here's several aftermath pictures.

Thoughts & Observations:

• I didn't take the notes for this game.
• Making sense of Tom's chicken-scratch writing was difficult.
• In fact, I gave up trying to translate it.
• From everything I heard, this was a really fun game.

Review: 5004934 Christmas Ornament Review

I picked this up the other day at Target on Clearance.

Box.  MSRP was $6.99 for a $0.11 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifigs

Parts.  A couple of Lampholders.  Tons of
Plates, some Slopes, Tires, Rims, Jumpers,
a single Technic Brick, a Lever & Base, a
Radar Dish, a Minifig Handlebar, an Axle
Plate, a Technic Pin, and a Wheel Holder.

Build.  An IO Frigate or HVA.  Rubbish, really.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  No.  (-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?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: -5 (B-).  Not really much of a set.

Review: Gundam Converge MA-04X Zakrello (97)

I wasn't anticipating making a Gundam Converge review for a while but I grabbed this last Sunday at one of the TRUs near me.

Box.  MSRP was $5.99 at Toys'R'Us, but I only paid $2.99 for it.

Parts.

Disassembled.  The blades could be Melee or Spotting.  The flight stand is obviously Movement.  The arms pop off for White die damage.

Assembled.

Size Comparison.

The Questions:
Is it below, at, or above $10 per Frame?  Below.  (+5)
Is it a good size to use in a game?  Yes.  It looks about the same size as a Classic.  (+5)
How many parts does it have to represent systems?  Three.  (0)
Does it have enough parts you can remove to represent White Dice damage?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +15 (A).  It's not a bad mecha, just a little limited in its choices for Attachments.

Sales Alert

Target is running a 20% off sale on select Friends, City, Ninjago, and Duplo sets this week.

The company closing sale at Toys'R'Us has started.  Right now they are running 5% off on building block sets at stores that hadn't started their closing sale yet.

Good hunting.

6th Anniversary

So it turns out that this past Saturday was the sixth anniversary of the first post for this blog.  This makes 970 posts and I still have things to say.  Also, I've calculated I'll hit my 1,000th post sometime in the last week of May.  Woof.  That's a lot of talk about a game about Lego mecha.  Thanks for listening.

Battle Report: Oasis @ Connector Cafe

This is the first of two battle reports.  We had enough players that we split into two tables using two different settings.  This also marks our first return to the Connector Cafe in two years.

Narbey (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 49 points.  (Skitterers)

   Yellow Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

   Red Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.

   Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.

   White Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Green Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W.

Me (6 Frames & 23 Systems) = (4 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 32 points.  (Tarantulas)
   Red Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.

   Blue Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   White Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Green Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1Y/2W.

Pete (6 Frames & 24 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 18 points.  (Tachikoma)

   White Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Green Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Red Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Yellow -- 2Rd+d8//1G/1Y/2W.
   Blue Medium Artillerist -- 2Ra+d8//1B/1Y/2W.
   Orange Fast Brawler -- 2Rh+d8//1B/1G/2W.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11): Pete's Blue frame hits Narbey's White frame for 1.  Narbey's Orange frame hits my White frame for 2.  My Blue frame moves forward and hits Narbey's White frame for 1.  Narbey's Red frame hits Pete's Yellow frame for 2.  Pete's Orange frame destroys Narbey's Red frame with 6 damage and seizes the Station it was guarding.  Narbey's Green frame hits my Blue frame for 5.

Narbey: 35 points.

Me: 32 points.

Pete: 21 points.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 7): Narbey's Green frame destroys my Blue frame with 4 damage.  Narbey's White frame hits my White frame for 4.  My White frame hits his Yellow frame in retaliation for 1.  My Red frame hits the fuel dump for 3 damage and all frames within 4 units are pushed back 4 units.  Pete's Orange frame leaps away from the Station it seized and  hits hits Narbey's Yellow frame for 3.  Pete's Blue Frame hits Narbey's Orange frame for 3, but that allows Narbey to recapture his Station.  Pete's Yellow frame destroys my White frame with 2 damage.

Narbey: 42 points.

Me: 24 points.

Pete: 18 points.

Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 4): My Orange frame destroys Narbey's Yellow frame with 2 damage.  I seize the Station it was guarding.  Pete's White frame hits my Yellow frame for 2.  Pete's Orange frame hits Narbey's Orange for 1.  Pete's Yellow frame hits my Yellow frame for 1.  My Red frame hits Pete's Orange frame for 1.

Narbey: 28 points.

Me: 28 points.

Pete: 18 points.

Events of Turn 4 (DDC @ 1):  (At this point it was late and I got a little sloppy with the note taking.)  Pete's Orange frame destroys Narbey's Orange frame and seizes the Station it was guarding.  Pete's Red frame seizes my Red Station, which it had been slowly creeping up on for three turns.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Me: 24 points.

Pete: 24 points.

Narbey: 14 points.

Here's an aftermath picture.

Thoughts & Observations:

• This was Pete's first game in a year and a half.
• This was the debut of the Oasis table setting.
• I need a little more terrain for this setting.  The table was a little sparse.
• We also tried out a new rule with the exploding fuel dump.
• The edges of the green felt I cut for the oasis section didn't look that great.
• We were going to have the convoy progress across the table but we forgot to move it after the first turn.
• We had at least three people knock on the windows and ask what we were doing.

The Road to PAX East 2018

Two weeks from today PAX East 2018 opens with an extra day.  Tickets are still available for Thursday and Sunday.  I will be attending as in years past and running demos.  We will be selling MFZ Rulers this year in faction specific colors!  There's a discussion topic on the Hangar if you're planning on attending.  I hope to see you there!

Review: 30525 The Guardians' Ship Polybag

I just picked this up the other day at Walmart, figured I'd share it with all of you.

Bag.  MSRP is $3.97 for a $0.06 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts. A lot of Orange.  Those Quarter Circle Tiles are cool.  Tons of Wedge Plates.  Trans-Purple is nice too.  I also like the Plate 1x2x4 w/Tube.

Build.  I built the set.  It should

make a good IO ship.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- 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?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A-).  An IO ship right out of the bag, or a bunch of fun parts.

Sales Alert

Target is advertising a bunch of Marvel Lego sets this week.  It doesn't look like any of them are on sale though.  You also get a "Free" LEGO Teen Groot keychain (a $5.99 value) with LEGO Marvel Super Heroes purchase of 14.99 or more.

Toys'R'Us is advertising some Lego sets for an Easter sale.  There's at least one really good deal in there.  They also have some Clearance items.

Good hunting.

Review: 30113 Friends Stephanie's Bakery Stand Polybag

This is an older polybag.  I can't remember when I purchased it but it dates back to 2014.

Bag.  Estimated MSRP is $3.99 for a $0.14 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts.  Plates and Slopes a plenty.  The Clip
Plate and Mod. Brick w/Studs on Side
are the only real fiddly bits in the set.

Build. A one Hit piece of Cover and a Station.  Yeah, they're not that great.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  No.  (-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: -15 (C).  I only opened it because I needed some parts out of the set.