Showing posts with label Death Angel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death Angel. Show all posts

17 September 2012

A few games recently

Each year Comrade James and I generally find ourselves together in Sydney at some stage and get together for some gaming fun after hours. This year we christened the new Sydney 'Man Pad' while sampling my Barmy Bishop Bitter! And an extensive sampling it was...

Death Angel - played a couple of games and tried out the Deathwing and Space Marine expansion sets.   The first game saw us take two combat pairs of Terminators each and ended horribly with all Marines KIA barely half way through the mission.  The second game we took three pairs of Marines each (using the commensurately increased number of 'Stealers of course) and fought our way through to a down to the wire Victory with four Marines remaining - a mere 66% casualties sustained!  Good fun.

Spearpoint 1943 - the first game saw me playing Germans against James's US Forces in a head to head encounter.  I started off with a pair of Panthers bearing down on a remarkably resilient Sherman and some screening troops, before I committed a wave of Infantry, support weapons and a Tiger I.  James established an effective artillery support line which did some real damage and I was fortunate to sabotage his P-38 Lightning so it never got on the table.  He managed to kill off the crews of the Tiger and one of the Panthers, but in the end I was able to overwhelm his infantry line with mortars and MG43 teams and claim the Victory.

We then played with James's newly acquired Village/Defensive Line expansion set - the additional terrain really increases the straying power and survivability of infantry units, who really get chewed up quickly in the standard game.  The components are beautifully done and are double sided so you can play in either summer or winter (with snow).  I took and infantry and artillery heavy force which did well in the terrain and cleaned up James's Combined Arms force in the rubble nicely!
 
Apparently the Russian Front expansion for Spearpoint will be a Kickstarter project later this year and I will definitely be pledging up for it. 


Patton's Best - we dragged out this classic Avalon Hill hame from the 80s.  If you aren't familiar with it, its a solitaire game in which you command a single M4 Sherman and its crew from the US 4th Armoured Division as it breaks out of the Normandy area, crosses France, relieves Bastogne and drives on the Rhine.  The game was new to me and we played some introductory engagements to get me ready for a proper campaign to start shortly.  The game mechanics are very similar in nature to B-17 Queen of the Skies and you can read a BGG review on it  One of the unique aspects of the game is the fog of war and "Tiger shock" effect - essentially the Pz VI Tiger tank caused great consternation to US tank crews.  Accordingly, EVERY German AFV is a Tiger and every anti-tank gun an '88' (and they hit like one too) until proven otherwise, so its very much in your best interests to scout well and identify enemy units as soon as possible!

Duel of the Giants - ended up not getting time to play this unfortunately but we dragged it out and looked at the awesome components anyway.


Munchkin Booty.  Another recent addition to James's collection, he managed to beat me soundly in two games - love the theme of this game!

Kittens in a Blender.  My own new game - who could resist?  Essentially the curious cats are exploring the kitchen - save your own cats and make the others pay!  Yes, its a twisted and fun as that sounds.  James smashed me senseless and we both had a great laugh with it.  

Being a game for 2-4 players, I took it home to the family.  After the initial outrage and horrified comments we got into it and they were blending the kittens with great enthusiasm!  Indeed the Lad showed a particular penchant for sacrificing his own kittens to get everybody else's' - a tactic reminiscent of General Douglas Haig in my opinion and that eventually won him the game.  Nice!

21 August 2012

A few Miscellaneous purchases

Finally managed to get home for the weekend (first time in almost two months) and found all the goodies I ordered before I went away.  These included (in no particular order):

'The Abberation', by Vesper On games
Just loved this mini- great for both Cthulhu/Pulp/Horror games, and also for use as a Beast of Nurgle in Blood Bowl (he is about the size of a Troll fig, maybe a touch larger but not too much).  See what I did there?  Convincing yourself that it two uses = bargain = justified :-)


Axis Gorilla Squad aka "Blutkreuz Korps Kampfaffen Squad" - giant mutated monkeys.  'Nuff said.  Clearly everybody needs some of these! (Note to self: repaint them using the great tips by ferret Labs here)

Cloning Tanks, by WestWind Productions.  Look at the picture - no reasoning required!


Deathwing card expansion by FFG - I love this game as its easily played solo and deosnt take up much space. I've been looking forward to this one for a little while and now have all four expansions.

15 June 2012

More Death Angel Expansions

The third and Four expansions for Death Angel (by FFG) snuck out earlier this year without my noticing.
In case you missed them too (and care!) here they are:

Fight the Tyranid Threat! The Death Angel Tyranid Enemy Pack is a Print on Demand expansion for Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game. It includes two additions for Death Angel: a new deck of enemy cards to replace the standard Genestealer deck, and a new Location card type. 


The new Tyranid deck contains a variety of enemies to challenge even the most seasoned Space Marines, while the Hive Lord Location cards introduce the Tyranid’s epic and deadly overlords!


The Deathwing Space Marine Pack, expansion for Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game, includes an alternate set of Space Marines to replace the ones from the Death Angel base game.


By simply switching out a number of your base game combat teams, you can bring new strategic options to your fight against the vile Genestealers!


http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=118&esem=2

31 March 2011

Death Angel expansions

Yes I'm still in a Dark Ages mood, but Comrade James has reminded me that I havent looked around at what else is going on for awhile...

FFG has some new expansions for Death Angel and I dont consider these to be optional purchases!  From the FFG website:


Death Angel: Mission Pack 1 Expansion

Your mission is not over, and failure is not an option.
While you may have survived the harrowing challenges of Death Angel, the mission is far from over. The Mission Pack 1 Print on Demand expansion brings twelve new Location cards to provide alternate missions for players. These cards are seamlessly incorporated into your Death Angel game - simply choose whether you want to use the standard Location cards or the ones found in this Mission Pack and build your mission as normal.

But beware! New terrors have emerged in the form of Adrenal Genestealers: deathly agile and relentless. These dangerous new foes will pop out from every dark corner, unleashing attack after attack.
Also included in Mission Pack 1 is an all-new Terrain card, that will threaten to thrust unfortunate space marines out into the cold embrace of space.

Death Angel: Space Marine Pack 1 Expansion

Rally your battle brothers with the Death Angel Space Marine Pack 1 expansion!
Space Marine Packs introduce brand new combat teams to your game, ready to blast their way into the carnage that is Death Angel.

The Space Marine Pack 1 Print on Demand expansion comes complete with two new Combat Teams and their respective Action cards. The deadly Chaplain Raziel brings his ironclad faith to the fight while Brother Adron readies his Cyclone Missile Launcher for absolute devastation. These new Combat Teams can be seamlessly incorporated into your Death Angel games to provide more versatility and more options.

Also included in the Space Marine Pack 1 are 8 Combat Team cards, which replace the original 6 Combat Team markers from the Death Angel game, making it easier to randomise and select your teams.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2050
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=118&esem=2

29 October 2010

Consimworld review of DA

A good read with a bit more detail and "how-to" than the previous reviews I've posted here.
Brother Zael, sole survivor. Witness the last seconds of his life!
http://wargamecenter.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/review-space-hulk-%E2%80%93-death-angel-the-card%C2%A0game/

19 October 2010

Death Angel...through Skype!

After our initial concept test last week, it was time to give it a go!


Comrade James took the Librarian and Heavy Flamer combat teams, while I took the Sgt Lorenzo and Assault Cannon teams

Setup – Toxin Pumping station via the Munitorium and Baal Crypt.

We each ran matching card layouts on a table with a computer with camera facing our boards and a skype video call running.  I was the master controller from a card perspective, with James following suit on the ones I randomly drew.  I also had a beer (Evolution Ale, by Man Cave Brewery to be precise) but in keeping with his Librarian values, James kept his mind and body pure from potentially mind altering substances... 

The game progressed well and despite a few tense moments along the way we lost only a single Marine in compartment 3 (Brother Valencia, one of mine.  The Emperor’s peace is with him).  Brother Zael’s heavy flamer was instrumental in burning out the few larger swarms that showed up, though Brother Leon’s assault cannon and the Librarian’s psychic attack did for more than a few as well and we managed to kill most stealers before they could attack or congregate in large numbers.  Good use of support orders ensured that most marines also carried a support token or two for those essential re-rolls.  Marine Victory!  The pairs of terminators selected seemed to have good synergy, with strong attacks and useful special abilities that helped out by neutralising swarms when attacking wasn't possible. 

Comment on the use of Skype
In the end the cameras weren’t a great deal of use, though it was good for watching key die rolls, showing the results and watching the cards come up. But it was the use of voice that was key.  The only game modification was the “instinct’ cards which couldn’t really be played as such and there was a bit more discussion than technically permitted.

Playing via Skype also induced a bit of extra playing time (this game took right on two hours) because each time we travelled we spent a few minutes double checking our setups to ensure we had the same layout, and talking through each move to make sure we were aligned. Still being relatively new to the game probably didn’t help either.  

Overall, playing over Skype worked well despite the time issue - it was great fun and far better than playing solo.   The next evolution I think would be playing a three player game, incorporating the Lad, via Skype.

Spearpoint 1943 would work well over Skype too (hint hint Comrade!!!)

Death Angel Reference Cards
Thanks to Comrade for finding the very useful QR cards now up at the Universal Works here:

12 October 2010

Death Angel - first game

Yes it has arrived - sweet :-)

First up - love the components: great quality, nice card texture, great graphics. Very cool.
Most importantly, the Lad bent down to sniff as the box was opened for the first time, exclaiming 'ahhh....that new box smell!" The young Padawan has learned well!

I must admit that I found the rules a little confusing to start with, but then once I had a play through with the cards in hand and it all made sense pretty quickly.


First full game last night - the Lad took Scipio and Zael combat teams while I took the Librarian and Sgt L.
Wow- talk about tense!  Stealers running everywhere, not enough firing opportunities, real coordination required between squads.  We managed to pull off a win, but only just and after losing 5 of our 8 marines.

Brother Zael's heavy flamer is awesome - load him up with some support tokens for timely re-rolls, and you can really take care of those swarms with righteous and purifying flame!

And to top all that off I gave Comrade James a bit of a spin through the rules (he bought a copy too) and we confirmed a technical proof of concept to play over Skype - looks very promising and I look forward to climbing through a Hulk at your side next week buddy!

20 September 2010

Death Angel Video Reviews

Just to whip Comrade James and I into further frenzy....

here is a video review of the game:

and a video review of the game's components:

19 September 2010

Death Angel Review


With both Tas and I awaiting the impending delivery of our respective copies of the Space Hulk card game, this review has been posted on The Hopeless Gamer blog just in time!
http://thehopelessgamer.blogspot.com/2010/09/review-space-hulk-death-angel-from.html

05 September 2010

Death Angel - rules online

All the reports from demo games at GENCON sound very positive, maybe out in time for Christmas???






http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=1509

Ep 63 of the D6G podcast (released today) has a review too....havent had time to listen just yet though.

05 June 2010

Death Angel

A card based version of the beloved Space Hulk Game?
Scalable from solo to up to 6 players?
The only thing not to like is that it hasn't been released yet!

The mission seems impossible. Survival seems unlikely. Failure is not an option.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=118&esem=1