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Playing Miniatures Board Games?
starmanbrand
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok, I am a virgin to the world of in depth board games. I've recently been taken captive by Carcassonne and am interested in expanding my table top horizons. I am even going to go play some risk 2210 or whatever tonight to try that out. Anyhow.
I am looking to get into board games. My friend is a big star wars fan. We have both expressed interest in the Star Wars miniatures game. But I just would like some information on this game, and the game type, before I invest any sort of money in it.
1.) I understand that this game has different classes of characters and you have a predetermined amount of character points to deploy. But could, say, one jedi still kill a proportionate number of other types of characters? I don't know if it would be that much fun to have to rely on a couple types of pieces to win
2.) Are there pretty much set decks of stuff that work, or could you still have moderate success just mixing and matching types of things? Basically. Is it like in Pokemon games, where most things have a decent shot against each other?
3.) What else should I know about this type of game, or should I just avoid it and find something else?
I am also going to ask for other ideas for board games(And yes I have read through the other thread on it, but incase anyone wants to add anything new or something.)
Thank you.
I am looking to get into board games. My friend is a big star wars fan. We have both expressed interest in the Star Wars miniatures game. But I just would like some information on this game, and the game type, before I invest any sort of money in it.
1.) I understand that this game has different classes of characters and you have a predetermined amount of character points to deploy. But could, say, one jedi still kill a proportionate number of other types of characters? I don't know if it would be that much fun to have to rely on a couple types of pieces to win
2.) Are there pretty much set decks of stuff that work, or could you still have moderate success just mixing and matching types of things? Basically. Is it like in Pokemon games, where most things have a decent shot against each other?
3.) What else should I know about this type of game, or should I just avoid it and find something else?
I am also going to ask for other ideas for board games(And yes I have read through the other thread on it, but incase anyone wants to add anything new or something.)
Thank you.
starmanbrand on
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If you like fantasy games, Descent is great. Ever play Heroquest, back in the day? Imagine it on steroids, but the steroids are also on steroids.
If you liked Carcassone, you'd likely really enjoy Puerto Rico or Settlers/Seafarers of Cattan.
Better yet, go into your local game shop and as the clerk. If you can get past the inevitable neckbeard and the horrible geekiness of walking into a game shop (and let's face it, you're asking for advice on a webcomic forum about a star wars tabletop game, you ain't got much room to judge) then you might find some gems out there that you never would have discovered otherwise.
Damn, I'll definitely have to look up Descent. Hero Quest was, quite possibly, the greatest game of my childhood. And if it's that much better than Hero Quest, I can't pass it up. (I had ended up accumulating two full sets and both U.S. released expansions by the time I hit my teenage years, because I loved the game so much... and I'd use the extra boards/pieces to make new maps... lost them all when my parents moved to California, they tossed them out without me knowing it. Ugh! But I digress severely)
It's a really fun game to play, but only if the people you're playing with are also fun. I pretty much only play with my friends for that reason... going to the tournaments tends to bring out a lot of people who seem like it's their first time coming out of the basement in years and lost their social skills years ago.
Also, for the absolute barebones minimum army of the "noob army" (Space Marines), it's $55. This consists of a single commander guy and two squads of five basic troops. This does not include the $22 codex for that army listing the actual stats of those units, or the $50 rulebook that tells you how to use those stats (to play the game).
But I think I'm beginning to sound a bit too negative. Obviously since I am a player I don't think it's bad at all. I think it's a pretty good amount of fun... since all of the figures come disassembled and unpainted, it's really up to you deciding how awesome you want your army to look. After you've done that (or even before) you play the actual game which is pretty fun.
I would just heavily recommend making sure you want to stick with it for a while before getting anything by GW. They're pretty popular, so you might have a friend/acquaintance who has some. If you do, see if they can introduce you to it. Otherwise I would recommend something else...
- Settlers of Catan. Start with the basic game before you mess with any of the expansions. I'd argue this game is better than Carcassonne, and I like Carcassonne quite a lot.
- Puerto Rico. This game will make you loathe your fellow players, but in a fun way.
- Cheapass Games. So much fun for so little money! Even if you find some of the games a little flawed, you can console yourself with the fact that you spent less than $10 on it. I especially recommend anything to do with zombies, anything with "Dr. Lucky" in the title, and Secret Tijuana Deathmatch just cuz.
- Citadels. One of the most interesting play mechanics I've ever seen, you take on a different persona (The Thief, The Assassin, The Architect, The Merchant, The King, etc.) every turn.
I know Carc and SWM are different, but I am looking for more games to play. Another of my friends loved heroquest when he was younger, so I think I am going to grab descent from the local shop.
So, do miniature games have a lot of balance? or is it sort of like. "you need a piece like this, this, and this to be effective."
Plus now they have a Marvel version of it, too. If you ever wanted to know how many dragons are needed to take down the Hulk, you could find out...
This is good advice, though it's often tough to find shops that have a significant stock of board games. Drexoll Games in Vancouver was fantastic for this, they had hundreds of board games that were free to try out, tons of stock, very knowledgeable staff, and a store that was surprisingly nerd-funk free. Most places I've been tend to focus on the standard cash cows (CCGs, Clix-style games, etc.), but you can't really fault them, it's not exactly a lucrative business.
The star wars minis is basically a combination miniatures and CCG... but instead of a limited number of cards, each card/mini is worth a certain number of points depending upon how powerful it is.
I like this game, it's fun. Of course, there are people who take it way too seriously and like to, as you say, have "set" strategies that have a high percentage of winning. If you're just playing with your friends you don't need to worry about that sort of thing.
You can have fun just grabbing a map and doing something like: hey, let's do something like the Battle of Kashyyk from Ep III... one of us will be republic and wookies, the other separatists... or make up other scenarios.
It's pretty easy to get into, the problem that I have with it is like CCG's, the mini's come in randomized packs, with the more powerful minis tending to be rarer and rarer. Probably this is just as expensive as collecting any other mini or card game.
Often you can get a good price on stuff off ebay... like when you buy a lot of them.
Also, the minis are prepainted. For some this is a bonus, for others a minus. The plastic they're made out of isn't of highest quality and can be bent when you pull them out of the box, but you can fix this by putting them into some hot water and re-posing them.
The second great thing about heroscape is that it has been recently moved from hasboro to wizards of the coast. Now this game is going to be managed by a real game shop so those in the community are expecting good things. It does mean a good half a year of nothing coming out as wizards gets its bearings, but being new to the game you will have tons of stuff you want before you would be hurting for new stuff.