Battle Report: Ice 9 (Expedition 5)

Our gaming group had to skip September since we fell victim to the most common ailment of adult life -- conflicting schedules.  Since it had been almost two years since this table setting had been used and over three years since it had been used in a home game, I broke out Ice 9 instead of trying to use one of the newer table settings.  We had five players in a Battle situation for this game.

Me (4 Frames & 16 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (5 assets) = 35 points  (Serpent Legion)
   Yellow Delegator -- 2Ra/1B/2Y/2W + SSR.

   Blue Delegator -- 2Ra/1B/2Y/2W + SSR.

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

PJ Nicht (5 Frames & 19 Systems) = (4 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 24 points. (mecha)

   Purple Light Brawler -- 2Rh/2B/1G+d8/2W.

   Yellow Fast Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/1B/1G+d8/2W + SSR.
   Teal Heavy Assault -- 2Rd+d8/1B/1G/2W.

   Blue Armored Assault -- 2Rd/2B/1G/2W.
   Pink Fast Spotter -- 1G+d8/2Y/2W  + SSR (x2).

Tom (5 Frames & 19 Systems) = (4 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 24 points.
   Grey Armored Swarmer -- 2Rh/2B/1Gd8/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Green Armored Swarmer -- 2Rh/2B/1Gd8/1Y/2W + SSR.

   White Armored Swarmer -- 2Rh/2B/1Gd8/1Y/2W + SSR.

   Yellow Armored Swarmer -- 2Rh/2B/1Gd8/2W.

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

Occam's Spork (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 18 points.
   Orange Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

   Green Fast Stalker -- 2Ra+d8/2G/2W.

   Red Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   White Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Blue Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

Narbey (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 18 points.  (Skitterers)
   Yellow Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

   Green Brawler -- Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W.

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

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

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

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

Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11): My Orange frame captures PJ Nicht's Station before the game starts.  My Green frame captures Toms' Station before the game starts.  PJ Nicht's Yellow frame hits Narbey's Green frame for 2 then jumps into the fountain.  My Green frame hits Occam's Spork's Blue frame for 2 with a SSR and retreats to the large pumping tube and cylinder section.  Occam's Spork's White frame seizes Tom's Station that was under my control after moving forward from the small pumping tube and cylinder section.  Tom's Blue frame hits my Green frame for 1.  Tom's Green frame breaks out of the stack and buzzsaws Occam's Spork's Blue frame for 1.  Narbey's White frame skitters towards PJ Nicht's Station and hits my Orange frame for 2, Station Dance.  My Orange frame steps over and hammers Narbey's Yellow frame for 3, Station Dance.  My Orange frame captures Narbey's Station.  PJ Nicht's Teal frame runs over from the flag and captures their Station back.  Narbey's Red frame skitters to the end of the long building and hits Occam's Spork's Red frame for 1, Station Dance.  PJ Nicht's Blue frame turns and hits my Orange frame for 1, Station Dance.  PJ Nicht's Blue frame then lumbers forward and captures Narbey's station.  PJ Nicht's Pink frame hits Narbey's Yellow frame for 4 with a SSR, destroying it.  Tom's Grey frame moves towards an ice formation and hits Occam's Spork's White frame for 1, Station Dance.  PJ Nicht's Purple frame claws Narbey's Green frame for 4, destroying it, them moves away from the long building and closer to one of the domes.

Me: 35 points.

PJ Nicht: 28 points.

Occam's Spork: 21 points.

Tom: 20 points.

Narbey: 9 points.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 6): Occam's Spork's Red frame moves towards the large pumping tube and cylinde section and claws my Green frame for 1 which forces my Green frame to retreat to my Station.  My Blue frame hits Occam's Spork's White frame for 1 with a SSR after it moves next to my Station.  My Yellow frame hits Occam's Spork's White frame for 1 with a SSR.  Occam's Spork's Orange frame hits my Green frame for 2, Station Dance.  Occam's Spork's White frame captures my Station.  Occam's Spork's Green frame hits my Green frame for 3, destroying it.  Tom's Blue frame hits Occam's Spork's White frame for 2, Station Dance.  Narbey's Orange frame hits PJ Nicht's Purple frame for 1.  PJ Nicht's Purple frame retaliates by hitting Narbey's White frame for 1, which then skitters to the end of the row of ice spires.  PJ Nicht's Pink frame hits my Orange frame for 1 with a SSR.  My Orange frame leaps over the fray and hammers PJ Nicht's Purple frame in the back for 3 damage.  Narbey's Red frame skitters away from the long building and attacks -- attempting to hit PJ Nicht's Blue frame -- hitting an ice spire for 1.  Tom's White frame hits Occam's Spork's Blue frame for 1, Station Dance.  Tom's Grey frame buzzsaws Occam's Spork's Red frame for 3.  PJ Nicht's Teal frame hits my Orange frame for 4.  PJ Nicht's Yellow frame leaves the fountain -- moving towards one of the domes -- and hits my Orange frame for 4 with a SSR, destroying it.

PJ Nicht: 28 points.

Occam's Spork: 24 points.

Tom: 20 points.

Me: 14 points.

Narbey: 9 points.

Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 2): Occam's Spork's Orange frame hits PJ Nicht's Blue frame for 2.  Narbey's White frame hits PJ Nicht's Pink frame for 1, Station Dance.  PJ Nicht's Pink frame retaliates by hitting Narbey's White frame for 2.  Narbey's Orange frame hits PJ Nicht's Blue frame for 3, Station Dance.  Tom's Blue frame hits the Ice Spire in front of PJ Nicht's Blue frame for 2, and the frame for 2, destroying it.  Occam's Spork's Green frame hits PJ Nicht's Purple frame for 1, Station Dance.  Tom's Green frame buzzsaws Occam's Spork's Red frame for 2, Station Dance.  Occam's Spork's Red frame claws Tom's Grey frame for 2.  Tom's Grey frame buzzsaws Occam's Spork's Red frame for 1 then moves beside my Station.  Tom's White frame hits Occam's Spork's Red frame for 2, destroying it.  My Yellow frame hits Occam's Spork's White frame for 2.  PJ Nicht's Teal frame hits Occam's Spork's Orange frame for 1, Station Dance.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

PJ Nicht: 24 points.

Occam's Spork: 21 points.

Tom: 20 points.

Me: 14 points.

Narbey: 9 points.

Here are a few aftermath pictures.

Thoughts & Observations:

• This is our fourth game this year.
• Point Attacker was decided by die roll.
• As was Attacker position.
• This was a Battle.
• I'm still holding to my resolution to use squads that haven't seen prior table time.
• But of course the night before the game I had to remake some of the Systems for the squad I chose.
• I didn't have a clear idea for a strategy or squad composition for this game.
• I know I also made tactical mistakes during the game.
• We really hammered the Doomsday Clock at the end of the first round and I have no idea why.
• This was another tense, highly competitive game.
• Here are more pictures from the game.

Lego Ideas 10

Here's another set of really neat looking Ideas submissions that may have great parts for Mobile Frame Zero.

Freshwater Algae Eater Models.  Tons of Translucent parts and other cool parts for MFZ.

The Hearthean's Ship from Outer Wilds.  Terrain and Frame parts all in one.

Micro City.  Lookit all those Octagonal Bar Plates!  This would also function as nice microscale terrain.

Workshop Lathe in Minifig Scale.  While this one does have a lot of parts that could be useful for MFZ, I'm supporting it for more personal reasons.

Flying Insects.  This looks like it's the start of a fleet for Intercept Orbit.

As always, I've supported all the projects on this list.

Double Set Challenge: Blok Head City Builder

Five years ago I came up with an expansion for my Single Set Challenge, the Double Set Challenge.  It's nowhere near as popular -- I think I'm the only one who's tried it -- but I still like the idea.

So when the Blok Head City Builder set came along and I commented that it needed one more Ball Joint Plate to be awesome, I figured I'd take a shot at a Double Set Challenge with it.

Flickr page.

Granted, it does violate the first rule I set down, it has more than 50 pieces -- but I'm going ahead with it anyway.

First Build -- The Frame I wanted to build when I did the review

(2Rd [ventral gun] 2B [leg armor] 1G [motor stacks]).

Second Build -- Another Battle Cart Frame (1B [cockpit armor]

 1G+d8 [extra wheels/no ranged weapon] 2Y (sensor arms]).

Third Build -- A crappy little Station.

So from two sets at $8.00 total I managed two Frames and a

Station.  Six sets would get you six Frames and three Stations

-- for $24.00 -- which is a decent starting squad.  All you'd need

is something for SSRs and a Ruler and you'd be good to go.

Review: 60219 Construction Loader

I was walking through JC Penney the other night when I found this.  After a quick check of the price tag I saw it was on Clearance, so I bought it.

Box.  MSRP was $9.99, for a $0.11 Price per Piece.  I paid $7.49 for a $0.09 Price per Piece.

Instructions & Stickers.

Minifig.  

Parts 1.  Roll Cage, Digger Bucket, Bent Lift Arms, Tires,

Wedge Plate, Plates, Mod. Plate 2x6x2/3 w/4 Studs on

Side, Bricks, Studless Slopes, Vertical Hinge Plate, Tile

w/Studs, Axle Plates, Fence, Rims, Bracket, Double Studless

Slope, Brick w/Studs on Side, Log Bricks, and Slopes.

Parts 2.  Tiles w/Studs, Tile, Plates, Jumper, Grille Tiles, Plates w/

Pinhole, Panel, Vertical Clip Plates, Large Cheese Slopes, Transparent

Round Plates, Inkwells, 1L Technic Connector, Round Tiles (Olive Green!),

Translucent Tiles, Translucent Plates, 3L Friction Pins, and 3L Pin.

Build.  Battle Cart (2RH+d8/1G/1Y), and a1 Hit piece of Cover.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- 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?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  It's not a bad set at the Clearance price -- it'd have a +20 (A+) score -- but it has some weird parts quantities.

Terrain Workshop: Papercraft Quonset Hut 2

My prior attempt at a papercraft Quonset Hut worked pretty well.  Although I came up with a way to reduce the amount of parts after I put up the blog post.  After the last game I was talking with the other players about terrain and something one of them said brought to mind my old "Sci-Fi Outpost" table-setting.  I've used Quonset Huts as some of the terrain for that setting.  So I figured I'd try and update those old builds with the new hotness.  :-)

Brickshelf gallery.

So I was wrong in saying that these would always be six Studs wide and three Bricks tall, 15 feet by 9 feet in 6P scale, since I figured out a way to add one Brick level in height.  With this build we have the Curved Slope 3x1x2 w/Stud as before.  But we add in a Brick 1x3 on top of one Brick 1x2 and one Brick w/1Stud on Side, to form half of the end of the hut.  Double it up to finish the end then double those up to get the other end.  Cover it in two pieces of paper, holes punched at the corners.  Instead of using Round Tiles to hold the paper in place, we're using 1x8 Tiles at the bottom and 2x2 Tiles at the top.  This cuts four pieces out of the total.  The door is still a Window Frame 1x2x2.6 topped with a Square Tile.  That totals up to 24 pieces which is 4 Hits.  So I managed to make a larger version with the same parts total.  In 6P scale this version is 13 feet Tall by 15 feet Wide by 22.5 feet Long -- counting the doorway.

I've discovered while working on the most recent papercraft builds that Log Bricks make excellent templates for marking the spots where the holes have to go.

If you want to update the smaller version, swap out the 1x2 Bricks for a 1x4 Brick.  Along with the changes to the Tiles securing the paper, that brings the parts total down to 18 pieces which is 3 Hits.

Standard Size Comparisons.

I hope people like this continuing exploration of using paper in terrain builds.

Sales Alert

Hey, first one of these in seven months!  Target has Lego advent calendars on sale at 20% off, which means the Star Wars advent calendar should be $0.10 per piece.  Mega Construx Hot Wheels sets are 10% off, this should bring all of them to or under the Golden Ratio ($0.10 per part) and should make for really good deals on the larger sets.  The Mega Construx Pokeball is on sale online for 10% off as well.

Good hunting.

Random Starships 7

Since I've been dipping my toes back into shipbuilding lately, let's take a look at what's out there.

Star Trek Lego USS Defiant by Paulygons.  Looks to be

a little large for a Frigate in IO, but I think that's okay.

Image by Legolize It Man.  Possible HVAs.

Trigreener by Toa.  Some excellent use of color here.

Radon VII by Tino Poutiainen.  Too big for IO

but it has some great ideas we could all use.

Defiant class Escort by Ky-e Bricks.  A different source

for an image and it also has instructions for purchase.

Review: 30564 Monster & Vehicles Polybag

This was a "Free with Purchase" selection for late September purchases.  

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99, for a $0.08 Price per Piece.  

Instructions.

Parts.  Large Leaves, Plates, Corner Plates, Bricks, 2x2 Slope w/Curved Sides, Slopes, Curved Slopes w/Cutout, Brackets, Trolley Wheels, Round Plates w/Wheel holder, Minifig Steering Wheel, Lampholders, Bricks w/ Studs on Corner, Clip Plates, Bar Plates, Tooth Tile, Inverted Studless Slopes, Studless Slopes, Tiles, and Printed Round Tiles.

Build.  1 Hit piece of Cover, Frame (2W), and Station.

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+).  A decent set, I just feel it has limited availability at this point in the year.

Review: 30563 Snail Superpowers Polybag

This was a "Free with Purchase" selection for late September purchases.  

Bag.  MSRP is $2.99, for a $0.08 Price per Piece.  

Instructions.

Parts.  Plates, Heart Plates, Bar Plates, Trolley Wheels, Brick, Inverted Slope, Tile, Cones, Rounded Slope w/Cutout, Clip Plates, Brackets, Round Plates w/Wheel Holder, Flames, Round Plates, Levers & Bases, and Printed Round Tiles.

Build.  A really simple Frame (2Rh+d8/2Y).

 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?  No.  (-5)
Score: +10 (A-).  Cute, and it has some nice colors, but I don't feel it's worth it.

Review: 30389 Super Mario Fuzzy & Mushroom Platform Polybag

This was a "Free with Purchase" selection for August/September for Super Mario purchases.  

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99, for a $0.13 Price per Piece.  

Instructions.

Parts.  Plates w/Rounded Corners & 4 Feet, Plates, Round Plates, Bricks, Stickered

Tiles, Printed Tile, Round Brick, Printed Bricks, Slopes, Coral, 1x2x1.6 Bricks

w/Studs on Sides, Flower Plates, Round Tiles, Pyramid Tiles, and Tiles.

Build.  2 Hit piece of Cover and two Stations.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- 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: -5 (B-).  Not a great score but it does have some useful parts.

Review: 76145 Eternals' Aerial Assault

This wasn't my intended review for today but I found this on the shelves at one of my local Targets and I figured what the heck, let's get this out there.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99, for a $0.08 Price per Piece.  

Instructions & Stickers.

Minifigs.

Parts 1.  Curved Slopes, Ball Joint Plates, Inverted Tiles, 2x3

Plate w/Rounded End, Inverted Studless Slopes, Printed Studless

 Slope, Padlocks, Clip Plates, Clip Claws, Bracket, Exo-Force

Arms, Droid Body, Minifig Katana, Hose, and No.20 Swords.

Parts 2.  Plates, Cheese Slopes, Studless Slopes, Padlocks,

Lampholders, Bar Plate, Rounded Plates, Wedge Slopes, Clip

Plate, Bar Holders w/Clip, Apollo Studs, Bar Ball Joints, Rounded

Energy Waves w/Handle, Barbs, Minifig Sai, and Minifig Claws.

Build.  Frame (2Rh+d8 [hand blades] 2B [early

warning vanes] 1Gd8 [no ranged weapons] 2W)

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+).  There was conjecture that this would be a Frame-in-a-Box.  People were right.