Star Wars Armada Wave II

On 6 April 2015 Wave 2 was announced, offering additional fighter squadrons and ships including the first ships on "large" bases for both factions.  Wave II includes the following expansion packs for the core game.

• Imperial-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack
• MC30c Frigate Expansion Pack
• Home One Expansion Pack
• Rogues and Villains Expansion Pack
• Imperial Raider Expansion Pack

The Imperial-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack brings this behemoth battleship to your games of Armada with one pre-painted miniature, two ship cards, three command dials, eighteen upgrades, and all requisite tokens.

The MC30c frigate expansion pack contains two command dials and ten upgrade cards, along with all the tokens you need to bring this Rebel ship to battle. Of course, as with other Armada expansion packs, the MC30c Frigate Expansion Pack also comes with two ship cards that let you field your MC30c as either the MC30c Scout Frigate or MC30c Torpedo Frigate.

Admiral Ackbar flagship star cruiser, Home One, features one large-size, pre-painted miniature MC80 star cruiser, two ship cards, three command dials, and fourteen upgrades.

The Imperial Raider expansion pack comes with a command dial, speed dial, and all the tokens you need to enter the fray.

The Rogues and Villains Expansion Pack features Han Solo, Boba Fett, and a handful of the galaxy's most notorious rogues and villains.

These five expansion packs of Star Wars Armada Wave II are scheduled to arrive in the third quarter of 2015!  Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

Fantasy Flight Games: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/4/6/here-they-come/

Mel Miniatures Nebulon B

So I was trolling out on the internet and ran across something amazing.  Mel Miniatrues has created
this Nebulon B model for Star Wars X-Wing via Shapeways.  Yes it is to scale!

https://www.shapeways.com/model/2374158/fragata-nebula-be-fo re-1-450.html
https://www.shapeways.com/model/2374094/fragata-nebula-be-af t-1-450.html
https://www.shapeways.com/model/2373837/stands-for-quot-frag ata-nebula-be-1-450-quot.html

Howard Beam from Peoria, AZ has already bought the entire model and painted it up. Check out his blog http://www.nangiliath.blogspot.de/. Here is a pictures of the finished piece from his posting.

Risk: Star Wars Original Trilogy Edition

On a recent trip to my local German Toys 'R' Us I noticed that they were selling a risk game based on the original Star Wars trilogy.  Of course my mind quickly went to how could I incorporate this into my miniature adventures. The map is quite awesome, I plan on using it as the basis of a Star Wars Campaign.  However the small figures are cool too and could be quite useful as 10mm land forces. Now to find it in an english version, and my adventure begins

After coming home and using my Google Fu skills I learned that the game actually came out in Nov 2006 in the United States :( to my surprise.  How did I miss this release?  After more Fu on the web, Amazon, Noble Knight Games, etc, etc I found myself once again at eBay's mercy.  After some eBay Fu little sniping, no not really, I was able to acquire an OOP copy of the game.  Upon opening up the game it was everything that I had hoped.

The game board (below) will be a great Star Wars galactic space battle campaign map.  I just need to finish those darn Tie Fighters, argh.

The game pieces are all plastic.  One Hutt faction and two each Imperial/Rebel factions.  These I might use in a 10mm land battle game, don't know yet.

Lots of pieces!

I thought these game tokens were interesting.  I believe I will reuse the capital ship markers a fleet markers in my campaign.  It should work out nicely.

So I have decided that I am not going to use it to play risk, but if you are here is the skinny on it.

2 to 5 players

There are 3 factions in the game, each with its own victory conditions.

• The Rebellion must find and destroy the Emperor, who will be hiding at one of his Imperial Bases.
• The Empire must eliminate all Rebel forces.
• The Hutts must take control of 10 out of the 13 resource planets (The ones that have the green aura)

Players choose to play as the Rebels, Empire, or Hutts and battle for domination of the Galaxy. The Empire can use the Death Star to terrorize all and the Rebels can grow in the Force as the game goes on by attacking Imperial Bases. Heroes and villains like Luke, Han, Darth Vader, and Boba Fett come into play on the many faction cards that can be played throughout the game. Each faction can enhance their attack with ships.

The game includes 2 Death Stars and enough sculpted pieces representing the Rebels, Empire, and Hutt factions for 5 players. The Risk game play has been updated and enhanced with cards, ships, and The Force to represent the Star Wars Original Trilogy.

Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars™: Armada

Well I am finally back from my 3-week vacation and I am so excited; why might you ask.  Fantasy Flight Games is releasing a two-player miniatures game of the iconic and epic Star Wars genre called Star Wars Armada!

Fantasy Flight Games Website: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=270&esem=1

The Star Wars: Armada Core Set contains everything you need to get started, including the rules, an articulated maneuver tool, a range ruler, six command dials, nine attack dice, ten unpainted squadrons, and three pre-painted ship miniatures (Victory-class Star Destroyer, Nebulon-B frigate, CR90 Corellian corvette), plus more than 130 cards and tokens.

I never got into the FFG X-Wing game, however this on the other hand has my interest.  The only downside side is that this starter is slated to go on sale for $99.  A price point that will see most gamer bow out on the initial release.  I have been trying to find out at what scale these miniatures will be release as to see how well it will align with other miniatures I already own.  This however has been meet with extreme difficulty. I assume that they will use a sliding scale to ensure that a SSD does not come out to be 1 meter or more long on the gaming table.  I am perplexed by the introduction of the Victory Star Destroyer in the starter because it was not an iconic movie ship.

Overwhelmed in Projects

I have a bad habit of starting a new project when one is not completely finished.  Then starting another one when that one is not completely finished. Then Then starting another one when that one is not completely finished to the point when I have 6 to 10 building and painting projects going at the same time.  The main striff I have this weekend is that I have plenty of time, but the weather is not cooperating.  It is raining cats and dogs outside and the humidty in my house is way high.  No painting for me.

First up, I have decided a few months ago (8 to be exact) that I need a little Imperial Domination going on in my gaming circles.  So I started putting together an Imperial Task Force that could be played in several gaming systems i.e. Firestorm Armada, Babylon 5 ACTA, Full Thrust and Colonial Battlefleet.  At the moment I am trying to paint 10 Stands of Tie Interceptors (30 Individual Fighters), 3 Imperial Dreadnaughts, 1 Interdictor cruiser, 6 Carrack Cruisers, 3 Light Star Destroyers and a Carrier.

 

As you can clearly see from the above pictures I have not even completed 50% of the project, :(
I am slugging along, after prepping the Tie Fighters almost 5 weeks ago I have not at least painted one squadron, albeit not very well.  I suppose I will get better at the paint scheme I am shooting for in the next 9 stands of fighters.  I will include a more in-depth dive on this task force later.

On to major project number two (2).  I decided that I needed a Hiigaran fleet to add to the mix.  Tim from Fate Amenable to Change modeled and produces this line of ships that look great.  I am trying to build this fleet to be playable with the Firestorm Armada rules.  Right now I have enough ships to complete 2 patrol fleets complete with 4 frigates, 3 cruisers, 1 battleships and several stands of fighters.  This project has been on-going for several months too.

Having a lot of ships to play multiple game systems means that I have to be a bit picky on what flight stands that I use.  Having each of my ships permanently mounted to a flight stand takes up a lot of room and limits my transport ability.  Therefore I have chosen now to use the CorSec Engineering flight stand system.  This was done after 2 other failed attempts to use one common flight stand system with all of my miniatures.  As you can see I am trying to convert my miniatures to this standard and have enough flight stands to accommodate multiple gam systems.  Right now I am working on my fighter stands.

So my daughter loves the Dindrenzi and decided she needed another cruiser, frigate and corvette group to go with her current ships for our upcoming campaign to use as reinforcements.

More projects stalled on the shelf at the moment.....

Battlefield debris and Objective projects are still ongoing, here is one of my largest attempts.  I received a defective Aquan Battleship that I am converting to a burning hulk.

Last but not least, I have found that I love the DropZone Commander game.  I play tested at a local gaming store and had to have some.  Therefore I bought the two-player starter and a PHR small set.  AAARRRRGGGG!!!  I have not had a chance to work on it for more than 6 months.  Oh well, time will tell.

Fleet Reinforcements from Shapeways

I just received several well needed additions and reinforcements to various armadas that I am trying to finish building.  I am trying to incorporate an Imperial and Rebel Alliance fleet into my Firestorm Armada campaign.  Only time will tell if it works.

The First is a Halo inspired UNSC capital ship from Mid7night.  You can purchase it directly from Shapeways at https://www.shapeways.com/model/330615/iac-1.html?materialId=61&li=ostatus

 The second and third are Star Wars ships from Gosric .  I purchased the small Corelon Battleship and Empire light Cruiser Coruscant.  Both of which can be purchased at the below links respectively.

Battleship: https://www.shapeways.com/model/133775/corelon-battleship-smaller.html?materialId=60&li=ostatus

Star Destroyer: https://www.shapeways.com/model/293232/empire-light-cruiser-coruscant.html?materialId=60&li=ostatus