My Ludus Magnus 5v5 Cohort in Arena Rex...

In Arena Rex, teams of gladiators (cohorts) take to the sands to spill blood for the cheers of the crowd.  The typical game is either a 3v3, 5v5, or 8v8 battle.  There are currently 4 factions to choose from, with several unaligned (faction-less) models as well.  That said, from the very start Ludus Magnus, with their more traditional gladiator aesthetic, has been my personal favorite.  I've played all the factions thus far for testing purposes, but I keep coming back to Ludus Magnus.  I believe 5v5 will be the "base level" for the game, so I'm focusing on that, and will add gladiators to my 5v5 list below to hit 8v8 or take some away to hit the lower 3v3 level.  Below is my favorite Ludus Magnus 5v5 list thus far.  I may tweak it in the future after further testing, also bear in mind these are the playtest rules/stats, future rules changes could also affect my gladiator choices as well...

Blood upon the sands. More Arena Rex pics!

Tiet-Khebi vs Urbicus

Red Republic Games have given a look at some of their completed, pre-production models, and man, are they BEAUTIFUL!  If you have not already done so, head on over to the RRG forums and check out the playtest rules for yourself.  Some of the models were shown in a post earlier in their WIP state, and now RRG has shown us the completed version of several of them, as well as a short video with a 360 view of Tiet-Khebi, Otho (one of my favorites), and Proximo.  Anyway, enough babbling, on with the eye candy!
 

 

We have Tiet-Khebi on the left, with Urbicus on the right, along with RRG's resin columns behind them.  The columns are HUGE, and would look really cool once cut up to look collapsed imo.

Proximo, the chimera-like beast.  Man, I just cannot wait to get a hold of one!

Link to the Youtube video of the Tiet-Khebi, Otho, and Proximo 360 view.

**Sorry, I couldn't embed the video for some odd reason.

As always, some good stuff coming out of RRG!  Makes me wish I had pledged for the entire collection...

A few of the games on my radar...

Gen Con has come and come and gone, and while I did not get the chance to go (ever), I still was able to view a ton of the pictures from various booths, and get several reviews from the various podcasts I listen to.  With all that info, here are several of the games that have been "on my radar" so to speak.  That's not to say that I will be 100% be picking all of these up.  After all, I'd still need people to play against, and lets face it, I'm pretty sure the gamers in my area recognize a GOOD game if it came up and punched em in the face!  But that is another rant in and of itself.  There will also be a bit of trend in my choices, see if you can spot it.  Anyway, here are some of the games that have caught my eye...

This Geek's Week...

Bit of a "Star Wars gaming week" this time around...

-  For the Star Wars LCG, I dismantled my Scum & Villainy deck and built a Sith deck instead.  I also rebuilt my Smugglers & Spies.  I was going to try a Han+Chewie+Falcon+Lando deck, but decided I'd stick with my Renegade Squadron, and add in the Sleuth and Blockade Runner.

- Picked up the Spartacus board game.

- Played 4 games (2 full matches) of the Star Wars LCG.  First was Renegade Sleuths vs a Scum & Villainy.  2nd was my new Sith vs a Rebel Hoth Speeder deck.  3rd was my Jedi vs Navy Capital Ships. 4th was my Navy Trooper/Walker deck vs Rebel Hoth Speeders again.  IIRC, I lost the first match due to 1-1 scoring, I solidly won the 2nd match set, winning both of those rounds.  I've come to the conclusion that I need to focus down, and create 2 strong decks, backed by 2 fun ones, instead of having 4 decks that may fall in the suboptimal category.  I've got work to do...

- Also played a 100 pt game of X-wing.  I used my 181st consisting of Turr, Fel, both with a little gear, a Saber pilot, and an Alpha.  I fought a geared Wedge, geared Biggs, a rookie x-wing, and an A-Wing.  Seeing as I didn't do Interceptor spam, I was a bit outclassed.  Biggs shot forward, but wedge got stuck in a little traffic jam in the center of the board, which allowed Fel and Turr to tag-team Wedge, which blew up in a single round of fire to the 2 pilots due to botched defense rolls.  At that point, I was pretty happy,  I claimed the life of one of the Rebel's best pilots, this was a win for the Empire in my book, regardless of the actual outcome!  Rebels followed by eating one of my lowbie pilots due to a hit and a crit, which resulted in a total of 3 damage.  Turr and my other lowbie started to take a beating, while I was forced to start spreading damage on the rebel ships.  I had yet to cause another casualty before it came down to just an untouched Fel, but he literally only lasted another round before dying himself...

- Dismantled and reworked ALL of my Star wars decks.  For the lightside, I built a Jedi/Smuggler deck running Luke+Han+Chewie+Falcon and a Rebel vehicle deck running sleuths along with Renegade Squadron elements.  On the Darkside, I built a Sith deck that is also running some scum elements.  I may just end up dropping it all together in favor of running another Navy deck.  I also reworked my trooper deck, removing the walker elements, adding back in the Vader set.  Honestly, I think a trooper deck is my favorite deck theme, which is why I'm constantly going back to it despite it not being a "top tier deck", maybe one day troopers will be strong!

- Ordered the Dreadball base game, as well the Enforcer MVP.... Now, I'll finally have some miniatures to paint!

This Geek's Week...

Then again, what isn't these days...

** Not a lot of stuff went on this week, so I kind of ranted about the Game of Thrones Card Game...

- More Arena Rex playtesting.  I also made a felt "Travel Arena" that can be rolled up and transported in my battlefoam bag.  It turned out ok, and will hold me over for now...

- Played a game of Sentinels vs the Chairman, and we got owned...

- Convinced my wife, who is NOT a gamer of any sorts, to play the HBO Game of Thrones card game with me.  She played Starks and I played Lannisters.  For not being a gamer, she played really well, chose her plots well, attack/defended well etc.  If she made one mistake, it was that she put the direwolf (bodyguard) on Jon Snow instead of Rob Stark, as it ended up costing her 5 power after I hit him with "A Lannister Always Pays His Debts".  I did come to one overall conclusion about the game.  So the HBO version plays pretty much the exact same as the regular GoT LCG, with a few less keywords and such, but the mechanics are the same.   The key difference though is in the decks.  in the regular LCG, each player constructs his or her own deck, with various strengths and weaknesses, avenues for winning, etc.  However, in the HBO version you are playing pre-constructed decks, and those decks are both really well balanced, almost too balanced I might add, to the point of almost a stalemate.  In the regular LCG, it's not uncommon for someone to rocket to 15 power in a handful of turns, getting 5 or more power ahead of an opponent is pretty common, while each time I've played the HBO version, both sides usually have stayed within one or two power of each other the whole game.  Then, there's the issue of the decks themselves.  The decks you design in the regular LCG version can often focus on making sure you have a strict advantage in one type of challenge, sometimes with the objective of the deck being to win via consistently winning that single challenge type.  (I.e. attrition through military, board control through intrigue, etc)  Problem is, in the HBO version, you really get none of that.  Both the Starks and the Lannisters can effectively do all 3 challenge types with equal vigor.  The Starks do seem to try to go mostly military, but the Lannisters can still mount an effective defense against 9-out-of-10 times, and Lannisters seem to lend more towards intrigue, but likewise, the Starks tend to be able to mount a suitable defense there as well.  Due to this, the games can feel slow, long, and tend to come down to a bit of a renown race to clinch out a victory.  As a huge A Song of Ice and Fire junkie, I really enjoy the game, I just wish there was some extra customization options available outside of just the plot the decks... that and maybe that my beloved Targaryens (the true and rightful heirs to the Iron Thrones) would make the appearance within the game as a playable deck.  That said, I really hoped FFG would have shown some additional support for the HBO version, but at this point, it really does seem unlikely...

This Geek's Week...

I've been playing this game soooo much this week...

- Played several games of Infinite Crisis, and am getting a better grasp on the game.  I'm still not good, mind you, but I often get more kills than deaths, which is a start.  So far 10-6 is probably my best score using Nightmare Batman, it was 10-3 till the last few minutes then i got overzealous and sloppy.

- Been playtesting Arena Rex like crazy, almost a game each day, and have become pretty active on their forums.  I'm really digging the game so far, and am glad I made the investment!  Plus, the devs are pretty active and responsive to our feedback.  If you haven't done so, you can check out their early beta rules from their forums.

- Painted the 181st stripes on my Interceptors.

- Played the Battlestar Galactica board game, and it was kind of meh.  I really liked the show and all, but the game didn't really click for me.

- Ran through the 1st group op in SWTOR as the healer.  No one died, so I must have done ok...

- Still reading "Darth Palagueis", but I'm having a harder time getting into.  I think it's because I hate the Muuns...

- Picked up 2 books by Steven Saylor "Roma" and "Empire"... both stories about ancient Rome, because I am in no way, shape, or form, obsessed with Rome! =P

Arena Rex WIPs...

Arena Rex recently began an open playtesting phase, and since then I've pretty much been playing at least one game a night.  The game is definitely fun, and offers several mechanics I have yet to encounter in any other games currently out there.  As I said, the game is currently in open playtesting and the rules, stat cards, and some proxies for the models can all be downloaded through Red Republic Game's forums at ArenaRex.com .  But, that's not what this is about.  Actually, I thought I would post up some of the WIPs that can be found on the forums and through a google search.  Since this is all public knowledge, I'm not giving away any super-secret models, rather I'm just "googling it" for you!  In my opinion, Arena Rex features some of the greatest, most realistic sculpts I have encountered thus far.  Anyway, enough talking, ON WITH THE SHOW!

This Geek's Week...

- My 5 TIE interceptors and A-Wings arrived.  Now I've got to start painting em up...

- Tweaked my Smugglers deck for the Star Wars LCG.  I'm thinking I may need to scrap it, and come up with a whole new approach.

- Played 2 games of Sentinels vs Voss, and the Time pirate chick.  Both died really easily.  I really wish they would make a DC comics version, using the Sentinels mechanics, where everyone plays a specific DC hero on the Justice League vs a Super Villain.  That would be amazing imo.  Heck, I'd even play it if it were in the Marvel universe so long as they included the Avengers.  (The only Marvel title aside from Moon Knight that I'd actually read)

- Played a game of the HBO version of the Game of Thrones card game.  I ended up winning as the Lannister player, but both of us made some big play errors as far as poor target/plot choices go that cost during the game.

- Been playing a bunch of "Infinite Crisis" a new MOBA (League of Legends style game) set in the DC Universe.  The game itself is fine, and everything looks great, the problem is that I have no experience playing a MOBA and I.. AM... TERRIBLE!  I've mostly been playing as Green Lantern since he's my favorite DC character, but I cannot seem to get him to work.  So far, my best game was going 8-5 while using cyborg, most of the time I'm pretty deep into the negatives...

- Incase you didn't notice my earlier post, Arena Rex has just entered into playtesting.  I've been working on getting things ready for it by printing out the cards, reading the rules, and coming up with a good solution for proxying models.  I'm hoping to start doing some test games of 3v3 and 5v5 in the next few days...

Arena Rex Playtest goes live!

That's right!  Red Republic Games, creators of Arena Rex, have released their playtest rules for their successfully kickstarted gladiatorial skirmish game, and I could not be more excited!  With this playtest release, I'm hoping to be able to start covering Arena Rex in more detail as the game continues to progress.

I've got my weekend plans for next several months figured out...

- see you on the sands!