American Flagg & X-Wing

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. We were busy but mostly around the house all weekend.

One of the things I did was dig deep in the memory banks to relocate American Flagg by Howard Chaykin. It occurs to me that this could be another dystopian future setting to recreate with miniatures.Although I'm not sure where to find the very 80's shoulder pad aesthetic.

Of course Vol 2 arrived before Vol 1, so I'm going to have to wait to get reading. 

In the boy playing games news, my little one broke out X-wing and had three or four rousing games. We then went out and bought the YT - 2400 with a Barnes & Noble 20% off coupon. I was shooting for the Millenium Falcon, but they didn't have one.

I just gave him some bare bones of fire arcs and how to read the dice and use the measuring sticks. He then set up all the ships and had fun. I thought that letting him enjoy the game was better than trying to play "by the rules". It would be nice to play together, but this way worked a lot better than the last few times we played. Hopefully we can build upon success and get in a game together.

I'm pretty deep into the Talomir battle, but I ran down the battery in the camera. We should have it wrapped up soon.

I also had a chat with Stevo and we may be inspiring each other to paint. It's probably more like him holding me accountable for painting my Orc army for Oldhammer USA. Of course I have to chat with him some more about it. But I'm putting it out there to hold my feet to the fire a little.

X-Wing - Game 1 - Political escort

Hot on the heels of the Battle Cry game, my son asked to play X-Wing. We decided (or was that I decided) to play the first mission in the back of the rule book, but using the very basic quick start rules.

Here's how it went.

It was over fairly fast. My son flew in with the Ties and broke up my formation, but tail gated the shuttle. In my reading of the rules you can't take a shot if you are in base to base contact. I tried to persuade him to ease up on the accelerator. There were many tears after I shot down the one TIE. I'm not totally sure why as I thought we were passed the "it's only fun if I win" stage. So it may be some solo X-Wing in my future.

Scenarios and Solo for X-Wing

So we are in the midst of playing our second game of X-Wing here at the corner and here is where it stands after starting last night and resuming a few rounds before school this morning. (We are fortunate to have my wife be understanding enough to let us leave it set up.)

Darth Vader (my son) in the Tie Advanced and Dark Curse (my daughter) in the Tie Fighter are dueling  with me as Gold Squadron Pilot in the Y-Wing. I decided we would try the quick start rules again but they wanted to use the new ships, and honestly who doesn't want to be Darth Vader?

With a better grasp of how damage is dealt out, I have taken 5 hits while Darth Vader and Dark Curse have each taken two. For most of the game I have managed to do a slow spiral in the center, keeping one or both of them in my sites. This was after initially being thrashed in the first pass. The firepower and maneuverability of the Y-Wing is not my favorite, but it can take a lot of punishment.

But the main thrust of this post is not about our game but the resources I found online for X-Wing. Like many I was shocked to see only three scenarios in the  rule book. So I did a search for some. The mother load was at Board Game Geek.

Two pdf's and a cross post:

Flytrap, Dagobah's Death Star Trench Run, Refinery Raid

Then 3:10 to Yavin which you can download from the files section as a PDF here plus a bonus mission here, but you have to be logged on to BGG to access them.

There are also some Bulk freighter pieces here.

As well as a scenario from the WWPD forum that came from the Outpost Zero blog Star Wars tag.

I'm also excited to try this solo scenario from Deep Dark Dungeons.

Also check this out for a sweet render of a 3D “Blockade runner” space ship.

I am seriously considering buying or making a star field mat to play on. I like the idea of making one with my kids.

Welcome to Anne from Anne's Attic. Funny, talented painter and friend of Ray and Fran. Go check her out. It took me way too long to become a follower of hers.

Succumbed to X-Wing

Well after reading about Tamsin and Nick buying themselves some new expansions for X-Wing I broke down and bought it over the weekend.

Source: http://bitsofboardgames.blogspot.com/

As usual I stalled the kids until I could read the 4 page quick play rules and we played last night after finishing homework. I played the Rebel Academy pilot in the X-Wing while my son played the Academy Pilot in one TIE Fighter and my daughter the Obsidian Squadron Pilot in the other.

It was a little tricky for my 7 year old son to grasp the concept of getting into position to fire but my daughter really worried me as she managed to keep me in her sights an uncomfortably long time. Add to that my total crap rolls and I missed many opportunities to score damage.

We had a little trouble maneuvering around the 2' x 2' playing area and had to fudge some moves to keep the kids in the game. Aside from shooting both my kids down, the highlight for me was when I shot down my son and he still seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the game. In the past any loss has been met with tears and tantrums, no matter how much I try to convince him that I almost never won any games as a kid. lets hope this is a big milestone.

Anyway I think we're on for a rematch tonight, maybe even using the two add-ons I bought yesterday, the Y-Wing and TIE Advanced.

Also, speaking of gaming with kids, Bob over at MC Monkey Dew's posted a little set of rules he made with his then 4 (now 10) year old son. I'm going to try them out with my kids sometime soon.

Welcome to new follower Chris Kemp. If you have a blog please let me know, I didn't see one in your Friend Connect profile.

And watch this space for more X-Wing action. Darth Tater will crush the rebellion!