Review: Lost Patrol

This is NOT Space Hulk in the jungle!

Here’s another one of those Games Workshop board games that I was really keen on getting. Due to the fact that these games all need to be assembled it took a while before I actually got it together and had the chance to play.

The Premise

A drop ship with important surveillance files has crashed on the deadly jungle world of Moraz III. A squad of space marine scouts has been dispatched to retrieve the files and escape the planet with missing the drop ship.

Contents

In the box you get a squad of space marine scouts and 12 what I believe are purestrain genestealers. You also get some 6 siders and a bunch of jungle hexes about the same size as the ones from the Settler of Catan board game, and a bunch of genestealer infestation markers.

The quality of the miniatures is excellent and on par if they were bought separately.

Game Play

This is only a two player game. This is one of my biggest frustration with Games Workshops board games. While there are a few multiplayer games out there most seem to be of the two player variety. I suppose this can work well for people with limited player pools, but it does limit the amount of times I will bust this out.  

Ok rant over. On to the game itself. Holy shit this game is fast and deadly! It is virtually impossible for the space marine scouts to win. We played quite a few games and my buddy only came close to winning once, and even then he was down to one dude and it was unlikely he would be able to get pass the swarm of genestealers coming his way.

Each side has a certain number of action points they can spend moving and attacking. The jungle is created randomly with the exception of the drop pod which is always the last tile in the stack. As play continues the jungle can move cutting off space marines which is a neat part of the game. All in all everything is stacked against the space marine scouts.

The nice thing is that the game is so fast that you can switch back and forth between playing the genestealers and scouts.

The Verdict

I still really like this game, but I do think the rules need to be tweaked somehow. Otherwise after awhile the game becomes frustrating and pointless. Its one thing to make it hard for the scouts to win, but when you lose more games than you win (which will be almost all the time) what the point? From a purely miniatures perspective this box is worth buying just for the contents. Especially if you have both a space marine or genestealers army. My LGS told me that a lot of people just buy these boxed games for the minis inside because the price point is so good for what you get. With the exception of Blood Bowl, I think everything GW is putting out is useable in the 40K or AoS table top battles.

Review: Space Hulk Board Game (2016)

Game over man! GAME OVER!

Games Workshop has been on a tear pumping out board games new and old. One game that I was super excited about getting was Space Hulk. This two player game (sad face) pits the Blood Angels chapter of the space marines against Genestealers that are infesting a space hulk that is moving dangerously close to a new planet to spread their infestation. DEATH TO THE XENOS!

The Contents

Like Wizards of the Coast, Games Workshop knows how to make pretty games. Everything in this set is of high quality and really nice to play with and read. The cardboard pieces that make the board are of an extremely thick cardstock with a nice raised aspect that will last a life time of play and look amazing when set up. The miniatures are the snap together kind and not as detailed as if they were bought individually. This does mean they are easier to assemble allowing you to play faster. Also, you don’t need glue, but I did glue mine to ensure that they would stay together no matter what. Also the fact that the space marines are red and the Genestealers are black, means that you can get away without painting them and still be able to identify both sides easily.

Game Play

In the game each player controls one faction and then plays out one of the 16 missions outlined in the game guide. The guide outlines how to set up the space hulk (which ends up looking like a futuristic dungeonscape), which space marines participate in the mission and the win conditions for both sides. Each player takes a turn activating all their dudes with actions points. The space marines have a lot of options and additional command points they can spend on their turn or the Genestealers. The space marines are best when they attack from range and the Genestealers have no choice but to move into close combat which most times means they will rip the face off of a space marine if they can close with them. After playing three games my buddy and I concluded that both sides really benefit from just sitting back and waiting for the other to come to them, which makes for a pretty boring ass game.

The Verdict

Despite a few flaws (mostly above issue with both sides deciding to hunker down and wait for the other to come to them), I really enjoyed playing the game. I can see a lot of potential to expand the game. For example, it would be cool for an option to add more factions, more equipment and new missions and especially multiplayer options for three plus players. I saw that there are three expansions available on the games workshop website, but the reviews I read about them leads me to believe that they are not worth the money. All they really do is allow you to play new space marine chapters (which I suppose is cool). But in the 40K universe there are so many cool factions it would be nice to see more options. I still have Deathwatch: Overkill to assemble and play so its possible that some of the issues with Space Hulk are addressed in that game. I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to play a relatively fast and fun miniatures game but doesn’t want to fuss with a lot of assembly.

5e Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set Review

Image stolen from EN World

I’ve been really craving a chance to chuck some dice lately and I’ve really wanted to see what D&D 5e has to offer for sometime now. Thus on a whim I picked up a copy of the 5e Starter Set this week and I was surprised by what a great product it was. Like some kind of RPG prophet, I felt compelled to write this review and spread the good word.

What you Get

64-page adventure book (Lost Mines of Phandelver)
32-page rulebook
5 pre-generated characters
1 blank character sheet
6 really boring dice

The Physical Product

The box itself is solid and can be used to store notes, pencils, a handful of miniatures and whatever else (a box of Junior Mints, a cigarette for that time when you TPK the group, shark repellent, a peanut butter and jam sandwich…you get the point), you might want to store away for your next game session. As for the contents the production values are top notch. The pages are glossy and thick. (make sure you take good whiff of that new book smell). The art full color and what you would expect from one of the leaders in the RPG industry. The cartography is both functional and beautiful, I particularly like the inclusion of the hex map in the adventure booklet. The set of dice included are nothing special. It would have been cool if Wizards would have put a special symbol on the d20 like they do for the Magic: The Gathering life-counter dice.  

The Rules

The rules seem to cover pretty much all the major things you would expect to do in an average D&D session. The text is very much presented in a language meant to convey how to play and adjudicate the game to new players. I can speak from experience that learning to play earlier editions of D&D was a challenge. I feel like the rules and presentation succeed at helping to teach and learn the game if you don’t know people who already understand the basics of how to play an RPG. I like that the rules seem to be consistent with the actual published rules. Too often I’ve seen intro sets try to simplify the rules so much that it is as if you are playing a completely different game and therefore you’re left just as confused as to how to play the actual game if you do decide to buy the core rules. My biggest gripe is that aside from the five pre-generated characters that are included, there is no way to actually make a character. You are stuck advancing from levels 1-5 based on what is presented on those character sheets. This might not be the end of the world but it does limit the number of players to a maximum of six (five players + a Dungeon Master) and the re-playability of the box unless you download the basic rules online or buy the Players Handbook.   

The Lost Mine of Phandelver Intro Adventure

The starting adventure is what makes this product so great. The adventure is set in the Forgotten Realms some time around 1489 Dale Reckoning (the calendar system of setting). With the exception of a foray into Ravenloft, the Realms seems to be the default campaign setting for 5e and they take this more seriously than they did back when Greyhawk was the default setting of 3e. The Lost Mines starts off fairly linear but does branch off in the third chapter providing a more open world to explore. The adventure provides a great starting village of Phandalin and an enterprising DM could easily build off of the material provided here to continue a campaign for a long time. Another thing that I really like about this adventure is how easy it is to use as a starting point for any of the hardcover campaign books that Wizards has put out over the years. The only real issue is that characters would be starting those campaigns at levels higher than expected. This can be mitigated somewhat and one of the fun parts of running a game is modifying things to fit your group. Also from what I’ve seen the campaigns that follow are meant for experienced players and Dungeon Masters so starting at a higher level might not be a bad idea for novice players.

Conclusion

Over all I think that the 5e D&D Starter Set is a worthwhile purchase for anyone who wants to test out the 5e rules, or as a great place to launch a new campaign. I’ve seen a lot of starter sets for a lot of different RPGs and this is by far one of the better ones. I’d argue that the Pathfinder Basic Set is better, because it provides the tools to make your own characters and other tools (monster tokens, a reusable battle map, etc.), but if you’re looking to play 5e D&D this is still a great place to start. I think the Lost Mines provides a great framework for new DM’s on how to go about creating their own material for future adventures or as an introduction to Wizards follow up campaign storylines like the Tyranny of Dragons, Elemental Evil, Rage of Demons and so forth. As someone who plans to introduce the game to fresh meat for the Prince of Demons a group of noobs I think this is a great