Airborne Commander - Kickstarter Review

Back in March, I found a Kickstarter for a solitaire card game called "Airborne Commander." Interested by both the theme of the game, and the idea of a solo deck-building game, I jumped in on the project and pledged for copy of the game. 

After a couple (understandable) delays, I was happy to find my copy of the game in my mailbox. 

The box contains a small rule booklet and two decks - the Allied deck containing the paratrooper units the player controls, and the Mission deck containing the Axis units, terrain, and objectives that the paratroopers will have to face over the course of the game.

The Mission deck is even numbered for introductory games, so new players will have some chance to remember whats coming up in following games. Possible cards include infantry units, machine guns, mortars, road blocks, pill boxes, armored vehicles, and historical objectives. 

The Allied deck is made up of units from the 101st Airborne Division (the same that was featured in the "Band of Brothers" book and series). You've got paratroopers, bazookas, commanders, anti-tank guns, jeeps, planes, and more.

Did I mention how awesome the art on these cards are?

So, how does the game play? Well, the above picture shows the base set-up for a game. Four cards are drawn from the Mission deck and laid out in a row, creating the Battlefield. Below the Mission deck is the Disorganized deck and the Player deck. Five cards are drawn from the Player deck to be used in this turn. On the other side of the playing area is the Allied deck and the Drop Zone, where new units can be recruited.

Play continues in turns until 4 Static Defenses cards are on the table, if the Disorganized deck has been emptied into the Player deck, or if either the Mission or the Allied deck has been depleted. 

To begin the game, I played an Officer card into the Support area (behind the Player Battlefield area), which allowed me to either discard a Disorganized and draw a new card, or use to gain 2 Recruitment points. I decided to go with the former. 

I then drew another Paratrooper card, who had the Support ability to suppress a single enemy unit. Any enemy unit that isn't suppressed or engaged at the end of the turn adds a Disorganized card to the player's discard pile, so I chose to suppress the mortar unit.

Finally, I had my other Paratrooper engage the infantry unit. Neither unit was capable of destroying each other (their attack value needs to exceed the other cards defense value). It should be noted that destroyed Allied cards are removed from the game rather than being sent to the discard pile. So pick and choose your fights!

With no cards destroyed on either side, the Mission cards went into the Mission discard pile - except for the Static Defense card, which stays on the table - and the Allied cards went into the Allied discard pile, which will get reshuffled into the Allied deck when the Allied deck runs out. The remaining Allied card in my hand (which should have been placed in the Support Area earlier) allowed me two spend two recruitment points twice. Unfortunately, I was only able to recruit a single BAR-equipped Paratrooper.

With that, the second turn began. The Battlefield was filled back up. Since there were three cards in the Drop Zone, I had to discard one, and then drew two more cards to fill it back up to four. I then drew four new cards. Note that I should I drawn five, as Disorganized cards are discarded at the end of the turn, something I did not realize until a couple turns in. I think this hurt me in the long run, as Disorganized cards only take up space in the player's hand.

The game continued for several more turns, during which time I did manage to destroy a few Axis units, but also took a couple more Disorganized cards. The game ended when I drew another Static Defense and realized between the Allied cards I had drawn and the Mission cards on the Battlefield, there was no way I was going to destroy any of them. And as having four Static Defense cards on the table at the beginning of the turn ends the game, I called it then. It's only now, as I write this, I realized I should have played the turn through, if only to score more VP's. My total for the game was -2.5 Victory points, which got me a Campaign Ribbon, the lowest score level. Ouch!

Despite my poor first performance, I found myself wanting to play more. My second game ended with all ten Disorganized cards in my player deck, and I scored 0 total points for a Victory Medal.

It's definitely a challenging game. You have to balance using cards in the Battlefield and Support areas. If you use the cards to buy more powerful Allied cards, you'll have more resources later, but also more Disorganized cards clogging up your deck. Or you can decide to fight it out on the Battlefield, but you'll be losing Allied cards each turn, and a bad round of draws from the Mission deck can force you into a fight you can't win.

I'm definitely going to have to play a few more games to get a hang of the rules, but my initial hope - a great solo game that doesn't take up a lot of space, but has plenty of replay value - seems to have been fulfilled. If you're looking for a challenging solitaire card game, I definitely recommend Airborne Commander.

Painting Update - Guild Ball

My Guild Ball project continues!

I finished Mallet (a fantastic Defensive Midfielder with a 3" attack range during his activation, in a game that normally has 1" or 2" attack ranges) and Honor, the team Captain, who exemplifies the team's ability to play either the scoring or the bashing game without really exceeding in either. She's a great scrapper who becomes very dangerous with the right support, and a decent ball handler who gets better with buffs from her teammates, like Mallet's [+1/+1"] KICK aura. 

Another two members of the Masons team are Flint and Mallet. Flint is the team's striker, and is apparently one of the best (if not the) best striker in the game. With the right buffs, Flint can score from 22" away - a very dangerous ability when the pitched is only 36" in length and width. With the right timing, Honor's Superior Strategy can let Flint go again and potentially score twice in a single turn! I'm interested to get him on the field, as so far Harmony has been my ball handler. She can do a fine job, but I'd like to see Flint take the field and try out his abilities. 

Tower, on the other hand, is definitely a defensive player. He'll work great with Mallet, as Tower gets bonuses when attacking models that have been knocked down. Additionally, he can suffer damage for other models using his Heroic Play (useful for players like Flint or Harmony that have low health, or players that are big targets, like Honor), and he can even force a single model to go last each turn!

So that's it for the original Masons. Hopefully, I'll have the chance to get Chisel, the first of the Masons' second season player. 

Masons vs. Morticians - Guild Ball AAR

Last week I managed to play another game of Guild Ball with Kevyn at Stomping Grounds.

I played my Masons in a 5-on-5 game against Kevin's Morticians. Our teams were:

Masons
Honor
Marbles
Harmony
Mallet
Brick

Morticians
Obulus
Dirge
Cosset
Silence
Ghast

I ended up winning the first dice-off, but decided to kick instead of receive. I wanted to see what it was like starting without the ball. So I gave Mallet the ball, and he sent it flying to the other side of the pitch.

The first turn ended with Mallet attacking Obulus with his huge 3" attack range. Silence ran the ball up the side of the pitch with Dirge.

Honor and Harmony ganged up on Ghast, while Cosset charged Mallet and Silence charged Marbles after being goaded.

The game then saw a big swing towards the Morticians. While Ghast was taken out by the two sisters (netting 2 VP for the Masons), Mallet was knocked out by Cosset, and Silence scored a goal, quickly making it a 6-2 game. I did use a couple Plot Cards to gain extra Influence and put a Vengeance Token on Silence however.

The ball was thrown back in, and Harmony managed to snap up the ball as Honor went after Obulus. Despite needing a single 4+ on four dice, I failed to roll a single success, and so the ball went shooting past the Mortician's goal. Then Harmony was taken out by Obulus, ending the turn with a score of 8-2 in the Mortician's favor.

Hoping to capitalize on Silence's Vengeance Token, I had brought Mallet back in only after a single turn. I quickly realized that this had been a terrible idea, as Silence put the old mason back down into the dirt again, scoring two more VP.

Finally, after surviving an onslaught from Honor, Obulus chased after Marbles (already weakened by an earlier charge from Silence) and put the Mascot down, gaining two more VP and ending the game 12-2.

Ouch - not a great start for the Masons. Although Harmony's terrible kick didn't exactly help, as it sent the ball to the very edge of the pitch, out of easy reach. And I definitely haven't figured out any kind of strategy of kicking the ball instead of receiving it! I think I tried too hard in the bashing side of the game, especially wasting a bunch of Influence and time having Honor and Harmony beat down Ghast. And the benefits from the Guild Plot cards certainly didn't outweigh the loss of giving the Mortician's the first goal.

Well, I've got Flint and Tower arriving soon, and Chisel following shortly afterward. So I'll be able to play full games, and will even have options to switch players in and out.

Update: I wanted to add a little more to this post. This past weekend, I played another 5v5 game against the Brewers, and ended up winning 12-0. I got the chance to see exactly how the Masons work, with player synergies helping each other. Honor and Harmony were the MVPs, with Harmony scoring two goals (even though she missed another), and Honor knocking out the Brewer's captain. Even Brick got his moment in the spotlight, when he stopped Stave (the Brewer's big guy) from getting off his knock-down AoE by attacking with his counter-charge ability. So, when the Masons work, they really work!

Painting Update - Kings of War, Guild Ball

Although I did play another demo game of Guild Ball this past weekend, I didn't get the chance to take any pictures, so here's a hobby update for this week. 

I'm stilling working away on my Kings of Men army. I managed to get a Cannon and a troop of Mounted Scouts (with pistols) finished.

Next up is the three troops of Arquebusiers. Two of those were already based, which meant I had to forcibly remove them from their base with clippers, with a few losing either a part of or the entirety of their feet in the process. This is especially frustrating because I have some forty-five other infantry models that are already based like this, and will have to be de-based as well.

If you've got any advice for me, leave a comment! From what I've learned, apparently leaving them in the freezer overnight may help make the glue more brittle, and so it might snap off easier. It's worth a try. Hopefully.

And speaking of Kings of War, with the arrival of a second Empire Battalion, five more outriders and thirty State troops (that'll be assembled as Halberdiers into two regiments of Pole-Arms), I've finally got everything I need to reach a 2000-point list! I'm aiming to have the whole army done by the new year.

I decided to go with the Masons for Guild Ball - I liked the look of the team along with their overall playstyle (which favors a balanced approached to the game with lots of synergy). Above is the ball included in the starter box, a goal post made from one of the role markers that came with the first edition of the Game of Thrones LCG (that I sold the cards and tokens for, but apparently not the markers), and Marbles, the Mason's team mascot.

As for actual players, I finished Brick and Harmony. Brick is currently the only in-faction "Big Guy" (i.e., model on a 40mm base) who seems to be more defensively orientated. Harmony, on the other hand, is much more offensive based, and is best paired with her sister, Honor, who is the Mason's Captain.

Apart from these finished models, I've got Honor and Mallet to paint, along with Flint, Tower, and Chisel (all of whom I should be picking up this weekend). That'll give me the full sweep of the currently available Masons to work with.

Not shown are the Strange Aeons miniatures who are getting their bases down. I'll work on them when I get tired of painting the KoW miniatures.

Sail the Spooky Seas - Sails of Glory AAR

Last Saturday was supposed to have been one of Bob's big games (Halloween-themed, appropriately), but last minutes problems came up and the event was unfortunately cancelled. Not having anything else to do, (other) Bob suggested we play Sails of Glory. 

The scenario was a simple "line up and fight" game, with my ship-of-the-line Genereux and frigate Unite against Bob's ship-of-the-line Terpsichore and frigate Defence.

The first few turns saw us maneuvering closer together. I was lucky in that I had the wind in my favor, although I made the mistake of assuming that Sails of Glory measures movement from front to front like most other wargames. This turned out not to be the case, and so for the first couple turns I was moving slower than I should have been! This was quickly corrected.

Maneuvering continued. Bob's ships were forced to sail into the wind, slowing their progress. My ships, however, had the wind angled right into their sails, and they plowed through the waves.

When the ships finally closed, their cannons boomed, with wood and men both flying apart, cut into tiny pieces. The Defence, caught between the Genereux and the Unite (which had started the game loaded with double-shot) was quickly shattered and sunk below the waves.

The Terpsichore came to a full stop and began to reverse, as the Genereux and Unite turned. Crews on both sides scrambled to reload their cannons.

Thanks to some poor planning on my part, the Genereux found itself out of the fight, and would spend the rest of the game trying to turn with poor sails and even poorer wind.

Meanwhile, I had sent the Unite after the Terpsichore. I fully expected this to be a suicide run, as even with the damage that had been done to the British ship from the Genereux, I didn't think the Unite's small armament could do much damage. What the frigate could do, however, is do enough damage that the Genereux could come in and finish the fight.

Events turned out a bit different, however. The British ship-of-the-line and the French frigate came close enough that muskets and swords were readied, and the resulting musketry and boarding action left both ships weakened.

As I had expected the Unite to go down after getting into close range, I had ordered for grapeshot to be loaded into the cannons. Now that the two ships were no longer touching, I fired a broadside into the Terpsichore's decks, along with musket fire from what crew remained on the Unite. This last volley was enough to disable enough of the British ship's crew that it could no longer fight. Victory to the French! 

As Bob and I discussed afterwards, Sails of Glory does have its share of problems. Most of that comes from how complicated the game is in some areas (like orders) and how simple it is in other (like movement). It's definitely a game that becomes challenging to run if each player has more than a couple ships under their control. I prefer it the way it was played in my first experience with the game - a large event game with each player controlling their ship. 

But that doesn't mean it can't make for a fun game, and I'm glad Bob decided to bring it out as a replacement. 

As an aside, we also discussed a set of rules Bob is working on to make use of his Dreadfleet models. They sound interesting, using playing cards for movement, activation, and attacking. Hopefully we'll get a chance to play in the future.