All posts by 5 Minutes

What Makes It Tick

What Makes It Tick: Star Wars X-Wing – Part II

Continuing on the basics of Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game, I thought I would focus this time on the intricacies of the combat mechanic, another thing I look back on my experience and say to myself, god I wish I knew that from day one.

The Dice
The X-Wing combat dice, red for attacks, green for defense, are no equal! Most gamers won’t spend too much time analyzing the dice of a game, but in the case of X-Wing it plays a pivotal, quite possibly the single most important piece of the puzzle in understanding what is and isn’t an advantage.

dice

To put it in plain terms, if you have a ship with 3 attack dice, rolling against a ship with 3 defense dice, the defender is at a disadvantage. The reason is that by default 50% (2 hits and 2 crits) of the results on an attack die are hits, while only 37% (3 evades) of the results on a defense die are evades.

Duh! This is not everything there is to the puzzle. Going deeper into the mechanic you will note that most ships have the options of either evading, or focusing, which again, changes the odds, given things are equal (the same amount of dice) but the odds are still in the attackers favor. This is because an attack die with a focus token has 2 focus faces, so if you do the math, with 4 hits and 2 focuses on an 8 side, this means with focus you have a 75% chance of hitting.

The defense die however with a focus gets you to 66% (3 evades and 2 focuses faces on an 8 sided die). The advantage remains on the attack.

Now there is the evade action which effectively gives you 1 free success you can spend against one attack roll after you see the dice results. This however again, given things are equal (3 dice each) and assuming the attacker takes a focus while the defender takes an evade still leaves the attack at a slight advantage. In that, the attack also all but guaranteed to have at least 1 hit, so with the remaining two dice he has about an equal chance of getting as many hits as the defender can roll with 3 defense die at 37% percent.

I’m not going to get too deep into the statistics, but the point here is this. When playing X-Wing, the only good defense is an offense. Think of the green dice as a formality, to win you need to shoot and really what you want to do is shoot first.

Pilot Skill and Combat
This is where pilot skill really comes in. While movement takes place from lowest to highest skill which gives a small benefit to low skill pilots as they can effectively get in people’s way and cause overlaps, having a high pilot skill is everything because you shoot first.

3iIxRAs

Imagine a simple scenario. You have a low pilot skill X-Wing vs. a High Pilot X-Wing and let’s assume they are stationary. Since they are equal ships, simply facing each other, who will win? The player with the higher skill. The reason is that, shooting first will most likely result in a final round in which the higher pilot skill X-Wing will shoot and blow up the lower ship X-Wing before he gets a chance to shoot. Just ask Han Solo!

The final piece, shooting arcs
Since we know that the person shooting is at an advantage and shooting first exponentially increases that advantage, the end result is that the player who keeps his target in his sights and gets the most shots in a match is most likely to win the game. As such maneuverability of the ship and player skill in maneuvering his ships becomes really the defining final piece of the puzzle. Each piece is important, but only when they all come together is victory assured.

Conclusion
Combat in Star War X-Wing is a combination of working the statistical of the dice, really understanding what it means to roll X attack dice vs. Y defense dice. It comes down to pilot skill, a choice you make when you’re building your list. Finally maneuverability combined with smart player choices (player skill). For a novice player that is a lot to juggle at once, so where do you start?

The answer is you start with the things you can control.

We can control our understanding of the attack dice vs. the defense dice. Simply knowing that when you charging a Millennium Falcon and are about to roll an attack with 4 attack dice against his 1 defense dice that not only are you at a major advantage but likely to get 2-3 hit minimum will give you the confidence to make such a charge. You can almost ignore defense dice to a degree, they are statistically likely to fail their owner. So be aggressive, shoot, shoot and shoot.

You can control the pilot skill of the ships you field. It’s tempting to take low pilot skill pilots because they are cheap point wise and allow you to field more ships, but the reality is that you are far better off with 3 X-Wings with high pilot skill pilots in the cockpit than you are with 4 low pilot skill X-Wings. Rolling 9 dice and shooting first, is far better than rolling 12 dice and shooting last because you are likely to lose a ship before it gets too shoot, so you’ll be rolling 9 dice anyway.

Finally maneuverability, now this one is tougher to control and really tougher to make a determination. What is maneuverable, what are we comparing it to. Clearly Tie Fighters are more maneuverable than X-Wings, but when it comes to maneuverability typically this means having the ability to keep ships in your firing arc by making tight turns, doing 180’s and keeping your ship in a position to fire. With X-Wings you have maneuvers like the 180 degree turn, you have sharp turns. It’s a maneuverable ship for all intense and purposes. Not as maneuverable as some other ships, but more than sufficient to keep ships in your firing arc. Avoid slower, hard to maneuver ships when you first start playing X-Wing, get familiar with the X-Wings, A-Wings, Tie Fighters and Tie Interceptors first and avoid large ships like the falcon or Lambda shuttle until your more comfortable with the games nuances.

Now certainly there is a lot more to the game here, there are all sorts of ships and list with different variances and effects that can render some or all of these things like firepower and maneuverably useless, but again, we are talking about a starting strategy here. Something to base your starting plays at and giving yourself a fighting chance. As such, understand some of this information and apply it. Over time lights will start to turn on and you will gain the confidence needed to consider deeper levels of play.

I can tell you that when facing 3 X-Wings with high pilot skills and special effects, it doesn’t matter if you’re a new player or a veteran, that list is always strong and it is so because it filters through the most fundamental core elements of the game. It’s safe pick and you will win matches, in particular when facing opponents working without the basic information outlined in this article.

What Makes It Tick

What Makes It Tick: Star Wars X-Wing – Part I

Kicking off a new article series, “What Makes It Tick”, these articles will be about the mechanics and strategies of selected games. Now I will say up front here that I’m hardly an expert of these topics, but there are many games that have subtle “facts” about them that, when I discovered, gave me that “AHA!” moment. That moment of clarity where strategy and approach start to make more sense, in particular if you are new to the game.

Today’s topic, the overwhelmingly popular Star Wars X-Wing!

More and more players are joining the ranks of Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game, which at this point is so big it’s practically a self-contained hobby itself. If your new and you can’t wait to start pushing miniatures around, you will very much benefit from this article which to experience players might be very obvious but god do I wish I knew these things on day one.

Measurements
A base of a standard ship is exactly the same size as a 1 increment movement and because movement is measured from front to back, when you move 1 increment, you actually end up touching with your front the distance of a 3 measurement ruler, effectively moving the distance of a 2 measurement ruler. The picture illustrates this better than words, but one of the most common problems you will have when starting with X-Wing is making distance judgements, knowing this simple little fact should help a great deal with visualization.

image2

The Curves & Formation Flying
Formation flying is a pivotal element of the game, ships that move together and stay together can concentrate on the same targets, giving them an edge and making them far more lethal than out of formation, in particular during the initial stages of the game before chaos ensues. Understanding how the angles apply to movement in formation is critical to avoid self-inflicted overlapping between your own ship, a very basic, but critical skill for all X-Wing players.

The sharp turn is a 90 degree turn and the normal turn is 45 degree’s. This is an important concept to get down very early in the game, in particular how to blend different turns and sharp turns.

Note how in a 90 degree turn, while the position shifts, the ships remain in formation and do not bump each other. This is because both are the same range of 2 and both are perfect 90 degree angles.

Image3

Try to do the same thing with a 45 degree turn and the results are an overlap, a situation you never want to be in because it prevents your ships from taking an action and is largely self inflicted.

image4

 

This is a very basic but important thing to understand.  Sharp turns can match speeds and you will always end up in formation, even with multiple ships of the same size, but with normal turns (45 degree’s) you can’t match speed, you need to alternate with lower speeds on the inside.  For example a 1 speed on the inside and 2 speed on the outside works fine.

There is so much more to this, but I think while extremely basic that information with a bit of experimentation for new players will definitely turn some lights on.  I may do more advanced stuff on angles and speeds for X-Wing in the future.

Gaming Articles

Creating A Great Game Night

Planning a game night may seem like a simple thing, pick a time and place, everyone shows up and you game, piece of cake! The truth is that most game nights are ruined long before anyone shows up to the table as there are so many things people don’t think about when they decide to host a gaming night at their house. Any one thing in this list of problems/solutions may not ruin your game night, but mix a couple of them together and the combination can create some pretty horrible game night experiences. If your host or organizer of a game night, be a good one; Here is some advice!

Lighting
Without question one of the most important thing you can do to see massive improvements is proper lighting. In particular dulled, but bright lighting focused on the table itself rather than the people. There is nothing worse than playing an awesome board game or role-playing game and finding myself squinting to read the often small text of cards, game boards and RPG books. I can honestly say that most of the gaming environments I have played in over the last 30 years of gaming have been in relatively shitty lighting, it’s an epidemic in gaming areas as gaming space requires far brighter lights than you would ordinarily need in a room. It has to be more akeen to a pool table light than a room light. I’m certain that lighting and performance, speed and organization of game play is severely effected by poor lighting. If you take no other advice, take this one, keep your playing area’s very bright.

High Seating
Another common problem to gaming space is low seating. Typically when you game you need to be almost hovering over the table, in particular for board gaming. You want a top down view of the game board and as such the table either needs to be low with normal seats or you need high seats. Again this comes down to visibility, gamers need to be able to see what’s going on, if you are sitting at a table and you can’t see what’s happening on the other side of the table without standing up, you have a seating issue in your game space that needs fixing.

Be A Good Host And Know When You Can’t Be
One of my biggest pet peeves, one that has resulted with me actually skipping game nights when a certain player hosts in some cases even leaving a game group all together is the quality of it’s host. Being a good host is not so much about being gracias and generous but rather welcoming and comfortable. So often I find that when I go to someone’s house for a game night it’s crystal clear that it’s forced. It’s little things that get to you like a host who has children who are being ignored because they are gaming, or where clearly someone’s wife or girlfriend doesn’t want us there giving us the stink eye all night, or where instead of playing in the kitchen table with great lighting and access to a fridge and bathroom we are ordered out to a fidget garage or basement.

Gamers are often willing to tolerate inconveniences and rudeness for the opportunity to game, but as a host it’s your job to know if your house/situation is not a good one for gaming. Sure, it’s in a way easier for the host as the gamers come to him, no need to drive anywhere, but if you can’t be a welcoming host, if your situation is obviously not ideal and makes your guests uncomfortable then don’t host.

Proper Gaming Table
If you don’t have a proper gaming table, don’t host gaming nights at your house. There is absolutely nothing more detrimental to a game night, in particular a board game night than playing on a table that is obviously way too small. It’s absolutely destructive to a gaming experience to not have enough space. It’s better to skip gaming all together than play on a cramped table or cramped space. Let the people breath!

Plan Ahead
In particular for board game nights it’s absolutely vital there is a plan in advance. You want everyone coming to your game night to know what games you are going to be playing so that they have the opportunity to read the rules/rulebooks of the games. More importantly if your hosting or if you are going to be introducing a game to players, read the rules in advance, know how to play the game well so that you can explain it to the others quickly and efficiently.

There is absolutely nothing I hate more than someone pulling out a board game and saying “hey let’s play this”, followed by him pulling out a 20 page rulebook to “figure out how to play”. It’s practically a guarantee that three things will happen. First the game will take 2-3 times as long to play. Secondly you will play rules incorrectly, overlook important rules and this will likely lead to someone winning/losing a game because of this fact. Finally it’s likely that the game will be rejected in the future, this often happens because the game appears unbalanced/broken or boring as a result of getting the rules wrong.

So be smart about your game nights, plan what you’re going to play in advance, read the rules for the games that are planned and be ready to teach players how to play the games without having to read the manual to them.

Know Your Audience
Kind of part of planning ahead, but know who your gamers are and what games are appropriate for them. There is nothing worse than inviting casual gamers or first time gamers to a game event and trying to introduce them to an epic, highly complex board game like Twilight Imperium for example. You really need to think about what sort of game you’re going to play, in particular it’s complexity level and compare that to who’s coming. It’s a sure fire way to ruin a game night to pull the wrong game off the shelf for the wrong kind of group.

This goes a bit further as well for player count. For example Twilight Imperium is clearly a 4, 5 or 6 player game. Sure you can play it with 3 players but you know it’s a shitty game with 3 players so don’t pull it out. Find a game appropriate for the audience and the amount of players you have.

Don’t force it, play games that you know will work with the amount of people you have and the type of gamers you have.

Don’t Take It Too Seriously
It’s a tragic illness that many gamers have, myself included, that we often take the hobby too serious. We become obsessed with trying to find that victory in a complex strategic game and if we can’t be it because the dice gods are against us, or the rules of the game leave something to be desired that we can get outright mean towards our opponents. We forget that we are there to play games and have fun, become competitive, aggressive sometimes even vengeful.

Remember, it’s a game, the people you’re playing with are your friends, quite possibly your guests if you’re the host. Keep your cool and win or lose do it with grace.

Board Game Reviews

War Of The Rings By Ares Games 2004

Designers:  Roberto Di Meglio, Marco Maggi, Francesco Nepitello

War of the Ring is a two player game (though there are some gibberish rules for 3 or 4 players) that depicts the epics story that is The Lord of the Rings.  One player takes the side of the free people’s of middle-earth on a quest to defend the realm while the fellowship of the ring attempts to carry the one ring of power to Mount Doom while the other player takes on the evil forces of Sauron trying to crush the people of middle-earth and re-claim the ring of power.  In a nutshell you are effectively re-writing the history of the Lord of the Rings story in the form of an epic board game with every finite detail from the books and movies imaginable built into the mechanics.

To say that War of the Ring is anything but one of the most thematic games ever made would be a major understatement.  It IS the story of the Lord of the Rings and every mechanic, every card, every action and every nuance of the game reeks of the middle-earth theme.  I have played many Lord of the Rings board games, card games and miniatures games but none come even close to capturing the story with as much gusto and detail as War of the Rings.  War of the Rings however isn’t just an amazing re-telling of the story in board game form, it’s actually mechanically one of the most intuitive two player board games I have ever played.  The game is epic in scale, which means that you can expect a game to last at least 4 hours. There is no question that to tell a story like that of Middle-Earths great conflict depicted in the Lord of the Rings books and movies, nothing short of epic board game would do it justice and as such it’s one of the very few long games I think is worth every moment of time spent playing it.

A collectors edition exists for true fans, though the hefty price tag will likely have you running for the hills.
A collectors edition exists for true fans, though the hefty price tag will likely have you running for the hills.

There are many clever way’s the story is depicted mechanically in the game, most notably the all-important story of the fellowship of the ring.  From movement of the fellowship itself, with the evil forces always at their heels, the corruption of the ring and how each character and villain is represented with his own card and figure, all making plays as the fellowship moves towards Mount Doom.  You have a clear sense of the journey, an important part of the story.  These characters are used to support the fellowship itself in various ways but can leave the fellowship for various tasks like rallying the people of middle-earth or even directly leading critical battles on the game board.  Suffice to say that these mechanics, the characters, they all do what you hope they could in this game, giving the characters of the Lord of the Rings story as much relevance in the great war as they do in the books.

Then there are the amazing event cards, each depicting scenes and story elements of the books and movies, tied to the mechanical advantages they yield to each player, ones that feel thematically correct, each more epic than the last.  These cards not only help to tell the tale but there use is critical to each side winning the game as they depict important events in the story, they also bestow powerful advantages.  Often despite the great war happening on the army filled map of middle-earth that is the game board these cards turn battles with a single play and sway the flow of power.

Finally there is the amazing use of specialty dice, the precious resource that determines what sorts of actions will be available to you from round to round.  While sometimes unwieldy, the dice themselves shift the focus of the game and allow for maneuvers, tactical and strategic decisions that give each game despite being setup identically each time a completely unique feel.  Each play of the game ends up being definitively a different version of the story as a result.  It’s often like watching the movies but with alternative story arches that pull you towards unique side story’s you would not expect, but still fit like a puzzle piece into the story and the game as a whole.  It’s amazing how in each game I have played different area’s become the focal parts of the story.

You also have events being tracked via the very important political tracker, which is a critical element to the game making things much more difficult for the free peoples player.  In essence most of the nations in the game are reluctant to join the war and this political track represents this element of the story in the game.  This basically means that despite the evil player being able to quickly push his forces to war and start raising armies, as the free people’s player you must first rally all the nations to the cause before you can take advantage of the weight of their armies.  This is difficult and forces the free peoples player to make hard choices between using his companion characters to protect the ring, or to send them out to rally the nations to war (yes just like in the books!).  Yet another wonderful mechanic that puts the players to making endless streams of important decisions while always thematically bringing out the Lord of the Rings story.

The question of balance (equal chance of winning) is often discussed in this game and I will grant the nay sayer’s that the Free People of Middle Earth side is a bit tougher to win with, at least in the sense that the war itself is obviously rigged. The free people have a limited amount of time to succeed in getting the ring to Mount Doom before they are crushed by the forces of evil militarily.  The evil forces outnumber you greatly and have an unlimited re-supply of combat units that floods the board turn after turn.   It so happens now and again that the evil player blunders by mismanaging his resources opening the window to make a rare military victory but in most games the free people must get the ring to Mount Doom and they must do so under the overwhelming forces of evil.  It’s tough, perhaps tougher to win for the free people but the more you learn about the nuances of the game the less impact this slight imbalance has on game play.  Two veteran players of the game stand a pretty equal chance of winning in my opinion, the divergence comes largely from inexperienced players as the actions of the player controlling the evil forces of Sauron has more room to make errors than the free peoples player.

I think the main difference between playing the two sides is that one player, the free peoples player dictates the direction of the game for both players.  Another words  if the free peoples player focuses on moving the fellowship, his opponent must respond, if the free peoples player gets aggressive with cards, the opponent must respond, if the free peoples player gets aggressive in the war, again, his opponent must respond.  In a way whenever the forces of Sauron lead the action by pushing a strategy not opposing the one the free people’s player is deploying, they are at a disadvantage as any action that isn’t a direct response to the tactics of the Free People player will typically result in him having a very easy time of executing it successfully.  As such one side is more responsive while the other directs the action.

A good example is moving the ring.  The Sauron forces player must dedicate his action dice to the hunt, if he does not, the result can be that the Fellowship moves very quickly to Mount Doom unharmed.  If he does however commit action dice to the hunt, he gets fewer actions which in turn buys the people of middle-earth time to rally their forces as the free peoples player can simply choose not to move the fellowship if it’s too dangerous without affecting his action dice resources.  As such, the evil forces must be wary of what the good people of middle-earth are trying to accomplish and making smart decisions when to try to block a strategy and when to recognize it as a rouse to buy time.

The strategic elements and choices players in the course of the game make create an amazing array of cause and effect, it’s almost a game that combines bluffing and miss direction at times, where you make sacrifices to get your opponents attention in one place as you sneak it an action that will help you win in the long term.  The subtlety and nuances of this game take time to pick, it’s very likely that if you play against someone who has played before you may play several games before you can beat him.  It’s worth the trip however, as the game rewards you over and over with amazing story’s of that time when you played War of the Rings.

If it’s not only clear that this game gets my highest recommendation, than let me re-affirm it, if you love the Lord of the Rings as much as I do, this game belongs in your collection.  There are no better games on the market that depict the Lord of the Rings story, in fact, this one is so far ahead of the pact you will find that once you play this, all other Lord of the Rings games seem very flat by comparison.

One game to rule them all, War of The Rings.

Board Game Reviews

Shogun by Rio Grande 2006

Designer: Dirk Henn

Rio Grande typically releases Euro style games and as such I approach anything they make with caution. Not that I have anything against games made in Europe, but I find that the quality of the games wavers greatly most having a pretty limited feel for game board presence and emersion, rather focusing strictly on mechanics. In fact you can take almost any Rio Grande game, strip its typically thin layered theme and replace it with zero impact on the game. I really dislike games without a proper mechanical connection to its theme but I’m a sucker for games based on medieval Japan so when I heard about Dirk Henn designed Shogun I was excited but cautious.

Shogun is largely based on another Dirk Henn creation called Wallestein using similar mechanics but built around the map of Japan. The three key mechanics around which the game resolves is the use of a cube tower for the resolution of combat and a pre-action planning phase in which players decide what they are going to do for the entire round in secret in advance followed by an execution phase of those actions.

The combination of the three core mechanics mixed in with some resource management and interesting strategic elements like trying to predict what your opponents are going to do effectively creates a solid strategic game with a madning element of often unpredictable combination of actions as players plans interact during the action phase. The suprising thing about it is how true to the theme it really is. All the chaos of war and economics blended into a wonderfully simple yet fun mechanic. I have found that this game creates so many great “oh shit” and “gotcha” moments. It’s just plain fun.

I never played Wallenstein so when I committed to buying the game I only had a vague idea about the origins of the mechanics but unlike most cube pushing Euro games, there was some purpose behind those cubes outside of simply saving money on components.

The main battle resolution mechanic (the cube tower) is used when a battle is to be resolved between two armies (made of cubes). Essentially all the cubes from the attacking territory and defending territory are picked up and thrown into the cube tower and what comes out are the results of the battle. The cube tower itself has layers of cardboard with holes in alternate position which causes many of the cubes to get stuck in the tower. The result is a rather unpredictable but ultimately anticipation and excitement building result. The fun part is that quite often more cubes come out than where put in for any given battle as cubes that are thrown in can knock loose existing cubes from previous rounds of combat. Chaos yes, fun definitely, but is it thematic? Surprisingly the answer is yes.

Tower
The cube tower is the center piece, but hardly the focus of the game. Its a much needed random element to resolving battles, but with a fun gimmick that goes beyond using dice or cards.

It’s a bit gimmicky I will say that but combat is actually not the main focus of the game, its equal parts resource management and planning, with a part of that being the resolution of battles so the fact that its unpredictable actually creates a unique nuance where planning is often offset by unexpected defeats and surprise victories.  Not unlike dice or cards, but without that statistically predictable element where you know going into it that there are x cards or y type in the deck or that odds wise you are likely to roll that 1 to 5 you need to win a fight.

I really love this mechanic but really like the impact on the game is only a part of the whole. Shogun also shines in the resource management and planning department.

During the action phase players will take 10 actions each round. The caveat here is that these 10 actions will happen in a randomly determined order each round (using cards) and you will only be aware of the order of the first 5 actions in the planning phase and which actions they will be. This little trick has an awesome effect in which you not only must plan well and manage resources well, but you also have to think about the order of the 5 hidden actions that will appear in random order later in the round. Sort of planning for the unexpected.

Again, like the cube tower, I love this mechanic, it’s really clever and creates a lot of dynamics which is one of the things most Euro games fail at miserably and again, creates a lot of great moments during the action phase.

The great thing about Shogun for me is that it’s a fast game. It’s really got this great tempo which constantly keeps everyone involved as so many of the activities are done simultaneously. Throwing cubes into the tower always creates exciting moments when it’s your turn or not and the planning phase really feels like you’re a strategic leader trying to outsmart your opponents for the coming action.

gameboard
Immersion of a game often comes from its appearance and Shogun despite the blandness of cubes looks great on the table.

The game is played over the course of 2 years and in each year there are 4 season (rounds) so you effectively play 8 rounds. This fixed time period means you’re under pressure to act, so right out of the gate in round one there is action and the tempo just picks up until the final rounds which are frantic land grabs and last minute heroic moves to try to get that final edge. I really love the fact that scoring only happens at the end of each year (hence you only have 2 opportunities to score points). It means that something that happens in the summer that might have been detrimental to your score can be fixed by the time winter comes. It gives everyone a chance to make a comeback and that is one thing that is so awesomely built into the game. It’s highly unlikely anyone is ever eliminated from the game, but it’s also very likely that someone falling behind suddenly has a surge because of the way combat actions work its actually often beneficial to fight out of a couple of strong locations rather than being spread thin all over the map.

There are so many great nuances and dynamic elements to this game and its one of the few Euro games out there that does a wonderful job of blending the theme into the game. I never played Wallenstein, but to be frank the thirty year war is a rather dry theme, I’m not surprised that this game is ranked in the top 100 games on boardgamegeek.com. I will be talking about other Japanese medieval era games, as I have a few, but this one is by far my favorite. Very easy to learn, extremely difficult to master and visually, despite the cubes, it’s very appealing. A lot of great ingenuity went into this game and I’m glad to see that there are games like this coming out of Euro publishers that prove that you can be both a Euro game and have a theme and still be a great game.

Love it, recommend it!