Bios: Megafauna - First Impressions

Most of you probably already know that I'm a great fan of Phil Eklund's space exploration/exploitation game High Frontier, and when I started looking into more games of his Bios: Megafauna immediately caught my attention. In it you take control of a group of animals and try to guide their evolution and behaviour through the Triassic all the way to the Tertiary period of pre-historic Earth.

In true Eklund fashion the science of it all is in the centre - instead of coming up with an interesting game mechanic and then coming up with a theme that fits, Phil has obviously gone to the evolutionary biology and figured out how to represent it all in a board game setting. Although Bios: Megafauna has made some sacrifices in the name of playability compared to its predecessor American Megafauna, make no mistake; this is a highly thematic game that stays with you even after you've stopped playing!

I first got to try it out at my friend Micke's house where I met up with him and Claes (who's a budding marine biologist!) and started teaching the game. As I hadn't played it before I kind of started backwards and started explaining about biomes and DNA codes before the objective of the game was clear. Bios: Megafauna is not a difficult game, but there are a lot of moving parts and things to keep in mind as you play and can seem dense at first look. However, we got through it and started playing.

I took control of the dinosaurian Dino-crocs (red), Micke played as the mammalian Dog-face (orange) and Claes took the mammalian Two-tusker (white). The starting selection of biomes featured a lot of Marine (M) areas so Micke quickly grabbed the Blubber mutation for his Dog-face and I took the Salt-excreting Tube Nose meaning our two species were now amphibians. Claes on the other hand didn't manage to snag any M DNA so was limited in how he could migrate his creatures.

Setup. Blue biomes are seas, green are land and orange are highlands.

A biome in Bios: Megafauna comes with a certain code of DNA letters that works as a requirement for the animals who want to feed from it. For example, to be able to surive in an IM biome the animal need to have the Insectivore and Marine DNA. Of course, you could simply ignore the biome requirements and instead look at the DNA of the animals feeding off it to see if maybe your animal could hunt it for prey! In that case you check the prey animals "Roadrunner DNA" and if the predator has the same or better the hunt is on.

At first I tried my hand as a herbivore, but Micke's Dog-faces were better adapted to it and slowly started pushing me out of available biomes. So I decided to embrace my inner predator and began hunting the Dog-faces instead. This worked much better and my Dino-crocs prospered! They evolved Switchblade claws and Placental reproduction and lost their Digging Claws just in time to survive when the first major extinction event occured!

Claes had created a decent Browser and Grazer herbivore but it went extinct when the X-ray burster hit the Earth! His next try was a fire bearing (AAA), Grazing Two-tusker that was able to spread fairly well in the new land biomes that started turning up. It was too little too late though, and since I had been able to win the first three scoring rounds (although by a small margin only) we decided to call it to make time to play Powergrid: The First Sparks.

In this inital game we did play a few things incorrectly, like forgetting that giving a species MM would kill of any members of that species that is still on land, as well as the -1 to migration range for amphibians. Still, we all learned how to play the game and had a great time doing it! The game stayed with me for the coming week and I kept considering different possibilities and looking forward to the next match.

Final round. A crushing victory for the Dino-crocs!

Which wouldn't take too long! Yesterday me and Claes met up with Anders for our second game. This time I took the Dog-faces (orange), Claes took the Dino-crocs (red) and Anders took the Chisel-lizards (green). This time I think I could explain the game better to Anders and go through it in the right order. I think he got to grips with the basics fairly quickly.

Setup. You can see how bare the lands were! 

In the initial placement of biomes I just kept drawing Immigrants (invading species from across the world) who got discarded and I also drew an Orogeny biome that raised the greenhouse level, making some already established biomes extinct. This meant that the starting board was very barren, with only the arctic and horse latitudes remotely livable. Still there were no M or B DNA available for quite some time so during the first million years our respective species were very limited in their migration. Claes and I both expanded into a second species and had it hunting our original species (or the other way around) as a means to at least expand a little.

Still early...

Anders held off on getting a second species and instead piled on DNA on his original Chisel-lizard making it very capable but... comet bait (over-specialized animals with lots of DNA run a great risk of going extinct during a catastrophe!). Me and Claes simply decided to wait the lizards out as they was inevitable doomed. However Anders got Male Contest culture meaning that he could give as much DNA as he wanted from the parent when he created a new species. This way he could tailor the new species for very specific tasks which would prove scary towards the end of the game.

Claes won the first scoring round and with all the points accumulated in the tarpits he took a hefty lead! However he did have some bad luck(?) during the game and had several colonies of animals killed off by changes in environment. Mid-game I got the Projectile Hunting and Tool Use cultures for my original Dog-faces (I had expanded into a new Nocturnal Browser as well) and this made a huge difference! Up until now Anders' Chisel-lizards had been off-limites thanks to their defensive Tail Club (A), but projectile hunting allows you to ignore one of the prey animals Roadrunner DNA codes.

With the right tools my Dog-faces could spread and hunt.

Suddenly my bow and arrow wielding Dog-faces could hunt the Chisel-lizards from a safe distance and I could expand rapidly and won the two following rounds. Towards the end of the game our score was close enough that we all had the chance of ultimate victory. Anders gamble of stacking lots of DNA paid off as the damocles meteorite never came. Instead his second species (a flightless, Blubberous bird) started competing with my bow and arrow Dog-faces and with PPP it was simply the better predator! I knew time was of the essence and did what I could to end the game (by buying and discarding mutations) while hoping for that big catastrophe that would wipe the Chisel-lizards off the face of the Earth!

My winning species. I could have claimed the Bone Cracker culture as well, but there simply wasn't time!

It never came, but the end of the game did and the scoring was very, very close! We had seen three distinct animal dynasties rise and fall in the game: during the Triassic and Jurassic it was the Dino-crocs, followed by the tool using Dog-faces during the Cretaceous and finally the Chisel-lizards grew strong during Tertiary. Very cool! Anders won the last scoring round, but as he had had the least points up until then it was all up in the air until we started counting population and culture points. In the end Anders and Claes got 21 points each while I barely edged them out at 22 points!

The board after the final turn. Notice how most of my predators have been culled!

Compared to our first game the second was much tighter and more cut-throat, even with Anders being new to it. So far we haven't used the optional Roadrunner Club rule from the living rulebook (or the additional DNA display), but it might be worth trying out in our next game.


Some Thoughts

It seems like people who don't like Bios: Megafauna finds it either too random/chaotic or too slow. I'm
guessing that the ones who find it too chaotic are used to traditional euro games that allows, or demands, a lot of planning and forethought. While Bios of course rewards planning the core of the game is to adapt to an ever changing environment - the one who builds the best species or the most redundancies will likely win. Also, many times you can avoid detrimental events by avoiding low climax biomes, not over specialising your animals and stay in the highlands. I have no trouble at all with the apparent chaotic nature of the game, in fact I enjoy the dynamic board!

Claes ran with a comet-bait as well, towards the end.

As for being too slow... I can understand that somewhat. The game is not slow in and of itself, but if the right combination of biome and DNA simply isn't available it can stall a bit. Kind of how our second game started out - you try to cycle cards waiting for that specific DNA that would allow you to migrate. However, I think this is not the normal state of the game, but rather something that happens once every other game and certainly not anything that should discourage you from playing.

Bios: Megafauna is not a Euro game, neither is it Ameritrash. It's simply... Phil Eklund. Just like High Frontier we have an extremely thematic experience that also works as a highly competetive and clever game. Adapting to the environment at the same time as you try to outsmart and evolve past your opponents is great fun and having it all making sense from a scientific standpoint is awesome! Claes who's a biology student kept nodding at all the little details and how they correlate with reality.

I personally also find great enjoyement in imagining the different creatures that are created during the game. Just look at this combination of DNA possessed by Anders' original Chisel-lizard:

What we have here is something similar to an apatosaurus. It weighs around 9-10 tons and has a long neck but a shorter tail that ends with a club. It protects its young and males engage in a contests to impress the females. Although the card says headbutting, with the long necks I imagine it being more like how Giraffes fight it out. Altogether quite an interesting creature!

Hmm... this has grown quite long for just being a first impressions post. Hehe! Well, as you've probably gathered by now I really like Bios: Megafauna. It has some of those Eklund quirks, like the dry, reference manual-like rulebook and the graphic design is not to everyones taste, but it is nonetheless a very interesting game both from a theme and a gameplay standpoint. Just like with High Frontier I find myself really sucked into the game and it stays with me for a few days as I mull over what happened and other ways it could have played out.

It also inspired me to rewatch Planet Earth, Blue Planet and to hunt down some of my old books on natural history, and for that alone the game is worth playing! I'm looking forward to a full four player game next time, but I think before that another game of High Frontier, this time including the advanced rules, is in order...

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March Releases for Infinity!

Well then!,I was expecting the new releases to be revealed tomorrow... but here we are on a Thursday. Lucky! Let's have a look...

First off we have a new character model for ALEPH; Penthesilea! I'm a great fan of the Yu Jing Aragoto bikes so I'm glad to see more more motorcycles in the game. Especially I like that the bike is fairly similar to the Yu Jing version, except with a bit more of a Tron feel to it. Of course, an ALEPH bike don't have a dashboard as the rider probably can control it remotely anyway. Great looking bike and great looking rider! Kind of Asura looking but with a bit more humanity injected in her features. Her face reminds me of some actress whose name escapes me... someone with a similar haircut. Stupid brain! In game she's kind of like a more badass version of an Aragoto: ODD and i-Khol L2 means she'll be very hard to hit and if you does get hit she has No Wound Incapacitation. A combirifle, a contender (for those nasty ARO shots!) and a Nanopulser makes her a formidable opponent, well worth her 46 points I think.

From high tech lightcycles to machinegun toting scotsman! Yepp, the Caledonian Volunteers finally have their HMG operator! A solid sculpt but not very spectacular, basically it does the job. Line infantry like this guy usually have a more modest look so this is not surprising. A HMG is a HMG so can be dangerous in anyones hands, but to get the most out of this model you'd most likely want to put him in a link team. On the other hand he's cheap both in points and SWC so you could several of them!

The Shasvaastii have always appealed to me and this guy has become one of my new favourites! The Caliban looks like a regular Shasvaastii crossed with a Gremlin! Actually... he looks like an overgrown Gremlin, full stop. Haha! I like the armour he's wearing and that he's just gutted a poor Karakuri (I guess the Caliban survived the Explosion!). The more greeblie look, compared to regular Shasvaastii, suits the model well and I hope we'll see more like this. The Feuerback this model brings provides the Combined Army with some heavy firepower - only two shots but armour piercing and double action really makes them hit hard! He comes with an automedikit as well which might allow him to stay in the game even after having gone unconscious. A little odd that they went with the Feuerbach as the first released weapon option as I think most players will want his Engineer version... unless there's a four model box in the pipeline of course.

Another support box, this time for Pan Oceania. Nothing really exciting in here as we've seen all the models before, but a good box to get for PanO players (especially if you want to play the Paradiso campaign). I see a lot of people ragging on both the Machinist and the Trauma-Doc, but I quite like both of them myself.

Finally we get some Nomad love! A whole box of space-nuns! The old Reverend Moiras sculpts have been almost  infamous for their cheesecake factor (besides simply showing their age) so having them updated comes as no surprise. And what a nice update! I think CB has managed to retain the sexy vibe, but moving away from the cheesecake. Actually I think if you painted the skin areas in a different colour you could remove the combat swimsuit issue entirely. The poses are good, although I can certainly understand people who find them a bit static. What I'm most interest in are the weapons! They all look substantially different from the regular Nomad guns and I think they look better overall. It's weird that other new Nomad miniatures like the Riot Grrls and the recent Moderator sniper all use the old weapon designs (although re-scaled). This makes me wonder if this is what Nomad guns will actually look like from now on (yay!) or if they are simply Observance special issue (booh!). Only time will tell I suppose.

Although there is nothing new for the StateEmpire this month I'm a happy Mayanaut. The New Moiras look great, I really like the space gremlin and there's another biker to skid around the battlefield! I think Penthesilea is my favourite release this month, although the Moiras aren't far behind... :)

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More Wooden Cubes, Please!

It's something I'm fairly used to by now but it's still interesting to see my interests shift after a period of intensive ameritrash filled gaming. This time the trigger was two six player games of Twilight Imperium played in close succession - it's one of my all time favourite games but it's quite a big undertaking to get going. After the kind of sprawling, over-produced, random space-spectacle that is TI (and I mean all that in a good way!) I felt the need for something more modest. 

It is during these times that I usually discover new games outside my usual hunting grounds. Since my board game collection is still made up of predominantly FFG/ameritrash titles I tend to try and find something different. Combined with a feeling of needing more gateway games to introduce the hobby to non-gamer friends and family I ended up playing Ticket to Ride Europe, doing a solo run of Power Grid: The First Sparks and (finally) teaching myself Bios Megafauna.

I was black. Would have won if blue hadn't blocked the track from Moskva...

 

I played Ticket to Ride Europe with my wife and a couple of friends and it was a HUGE success! Sure, I'd read many times that it's one of the best (or simply the best) gateway game out there, but even so I was surprised by the great response. Even my wife who has always struggled to understand what joy I could find in "simple games" had a lot of fun with it and wanted to play again. This has pretty much never happened before so... neat! I've heard the 1912 expansion is very good but I think we'll have some more fun with the base game first.

My personal first choice for that "non-gamers gaming" evening was The First Sparks by Friedemann Friese. As you probably know it's a re-themed version of Power Grid where you try to gather food and spread your tribe of cavemen rather than building powerplants. It's been slimmed down a bit with some of the heavier elements removed meaning it plays in about an hour instead of two. In retrospect I realize my friends wouldn't have had any trouble grasping the mechanics, but I wanted to play it safe so brought Ticket to Ride instead. However, yesterday I set up a three player solo game of The First Sparks just to get the mechanics down and damn... that's a fun little game! I was only going to play through a couple of turns but ended up finishing it because it was so much fun. Looking forward to trying it for real!

Playing and enjoying Ticket to Ride Europe and The First Sparks would have made a great board gaming weekend, but reading through and learning Bios Megafauna might be what I take the most satisfaction from. It's designed by Phil Eklund who has made another favourite game of mine: High Frontier (session reports here and here) so I knew what to expect. Phil writes rules like technical manuals so that when you need to reference something during actualy gameplay it's great, but when you are reading it through for the first time it can be a bit confusing and... minimalistic. Having conquered the High Frontier the rulebook for Bios Megafauna wasn't all that difficult. In fact, I think it's an easier game to understand overall.

Anyway, you play as either mammals or dinosaurs (up to four players) and start out during the Mesozoic era and basically try to create creatures that are better adapted than your opponents so they can spread as wide as possible. As always in Phil Eklund's games the science is at the very core of the game so I'm looking forward to playing this with my biologist friends! I get the same feeling from Bios as I do from High Frontier - that the theme and mechanics are so well integrated that I really would have a hard time seeing how they could be separated. Awesome! Will play it soon and write a proper first impressions post.

Browsing through BGG and looking through my board game wishlist two games have risen as my (probable) next investments: CO₂ and Archipelago. I've mentioned CO₂ before but I don't think I've talked about Archipelago. It's what a traditional euro looks like after having gone through the filter that is Christophe Boelinger's mind. If his name sounds familiar it might be because I've been going on about his last game, Earth Reborn, quite a bit (here and here for example). Earth Reborn took a unique approach to skirmish board gaming and I think it's the best in that (admittedly small) genre. Archipelago seems to do to Puerto Rico what Eearth Reborn did to Space Hulk and from what I can tell it looks like huge amounts of fun! 

So yeah... don't worry though. I'll get cured of my ameritrash fatigue eventually and go back to the mountains of plastic. I just need a break to push some wooden cubes around. :)

In other news I've bowed out of the Infinity Paradiso campaign that I participated in. I did manage to make it through the first chapter but had to call it quits after that. The reason mainly being a simple lack of time but also me not being very much into playing games at a store. I'll see if I can scrape together enough friends to play a smaller campaign at a more leasurely pace in the comfort of our own homes. I am painting though! 

More on that later...

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Infinity Painting Update!

Hello my fellow Mayanauts! It's been a while since I had any painting updates on the blog so I thought I'd show you a couple of models I actually finished in June last year. In preparation for the Paradiso campaign I decided to paint a Doctor, an Engineer, two Yaozao servant remotes and two Pangguling baggage remotes. Actually, I think I mentioned as much in this old post.

Anyway, I haven't really finished as much as I wanted but things are slowly progressing. Up top you can see the Yisheng doctor and Goncheng engineer. They are both part of the older Infinity sculpts but I they still hold up well I think, the only thing looking a bit off is the very large combirifle the doctor is holding. I tried to experiment with some OSL around the doctor's eyepiece and the engineer's googles and although it could be better I think it comes across reasonably well.

The reason I've waited with posting these guys is because I wanted to show the finished Yaozao servant remotes at the same time, but they're still not finished and I think I've been holding off for too long already. I've finished the bases but have yet to paint the actual miniatures (which is a shame considering how quick they would be!). Anyway, here's the state they are in now:

You should see these guys all painted up fairly soon I hope! Neat little models although I think I should have played around with their poses a bit before gluing them down. Oh well.

I've also assembled and magnetized my two Pangguling baggage remotes as that's something you definitely want to bring to the table if you play the campaign! Although I prefer the Yaoxie/Lu Duan a bit more the Pangguling are still pretty cool looking little robots. Normally I would have painted the base before mounting them, but I think there's enough space to get a paintbrush in underneath them. I magnetized the combirifles and the EVO repeater antennas so I'd be able to field them as the minesweeper variant as well if I wanted. It works really well!

For my next purchase I'm debating whether to get some Shaolin monks or the new Bao troops. Hmm... decisions decisions...

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February (and January) Releases for Infinity!

Still playing catch-up I'm afraid... and although the January releases aren't actually news anymore I enjoy writing my little blurbs about the new minis so I'll post two months worth of releases in this one article. I'll start with February though as those are actually hot off the presses as it were. Then you can continue and read about my thoughts on the January stuff if you feel so inclined. :)

The first Crusader Brethren was released back in October and was well received by the community, although I wasn't all that impressed myself (not really a knight fan), and here's the HMG version. It's already been previewed at Beasts of War and has been ridiculed for its little Hopscotch skip! Of course it's supposed to look like he's just landing from his air drop and you can see that if you actively keep it in your minds eye as you look at the mini. But as soon as you stop thinking it he's back to hopscotching! Well... for me anyway. There's also something about the loincloth that rubs me the wrong way - which is understandable as long loincloths like this are hard to get right I think. I sound awfully negative which I don't want to as I really like the design of the mini, it's just the pose that's a bit awkward.

Next up a box of Bao Troops which is something I've been looking forward to since I got my Paradiso book. With a solid statline, a decent selection of anti-infantry weapons and Multispectral Visor 2 the Bao provide a relatively cheap alternative for anti-camo duty. The concept art that we saw a while back looked brilliant but I don't think sculptor Javier Ureña has managed to capture it quite as well as I hoped. Again it's the loincloth that throws the models off balance a little. For a moment I also thought we saw the return of the infamous combat high-heels when I saw the Bao, but that's an effect of the concavity of the shin guards, and perhaps the angle of the photo. Now, I'm nitpicking a bit here as I think the rest of the model looks great and it looks like you can leave the loincloth off if you want. In any case I'll be getting a box for sure!

Aww... our beloved Ko Dali truly has been sepsitorised and turned into an agent of the Combined Army. While I would have prefered a new model for the regular Yu Jing version of her I can't deny that this model really is spectacular! Obviously the inspiration has been Kerrigan from Starcraft but CB has been able to put their own touch upon it of course. The large wing like structures will make her hard to hide though, and I'm not sure I'd use the "tail" thing if I got the model myself. In game the new and improved(?) Ko Dali is quite a scary CQB monster with two assault pistols and a nano-pulser. She's still fairly fragile though, so until she's been able to absorb some extra wounds from downed models through Protheion it might be best not to use her too aggressively.

Another mercenary box and another reason for me to start a Qapu Khalqi army! These new Kaplan Tactical Services are some of my favourite Infinity miniatures released so far! The Spitfire KTS that was released a while back was ok, but a hunched, slightly static pose short-changed the the model I think. Here we get a few different poses that, while still hunched, really help to bring out the cool design of these mercs. Again I think we've got some video game inspiration going on here as the KTS look quite similar to the Combine soldiers from Half-Life 2. I just want to get these guys and the Druse and paint them in a kind of police-esque colour theme of dark blue and off-white (again, like the Combine)! Damnit! How am I ever going to complete a faction with cool stuff like this being released all the time?!

Finally we have the mandatory Tohaa release, this month in the form of their AD troop Gao-Tarsos. Now I quite like what I've seen of the Tohaa so far, with the Spec-Ops being my favourite, but none of the models have really impressed me enough to start considering getting some Tohaa of my own. Until now. This guy sculpted by Jose Luis Roig is absolutely awesome! This is a perfect example of how to make a good looking dynamic pose that looks natural (which is ironic as Jose also sculpted the hopscotching Crusader Brethren). The big jump/drop back on his back looks nicely hi-tech and alien at the same time and the helmet simply looks badass. I really hope we get to see the HMG version soon enough as I would want to have as many as possible of these if I ever start collecting Tohaa. Do have a look at the larger and better pictures at Angel Giraldez blog.

So in summary a good month overall, although I think the Bao could have been a little better and that Crusader Brethren will always be the butt of jokes when on the field. On the other hand Ko Dali, the KTS and the Gao-Tarsos are altogether brilliance and great examples of what you can expect from CB at regular intervals. My favourite model of the month has to be the Gao-Tarsos although I think it'll be a while before I actually own one myself. Now... let's take a quick look back on January as well...

 Ariadnian Briscards. Very nice, realistic looking sculpts, although the different size (scale?!) of the Sniper Rifle compared to the rest of the guns look somewhat silly.

 Yu Jing Celestial Guard Hacker. Quite a surprise to see a model for the CG hacker, but a very welcome one as it's probably the Yu Jings most cost-effective hacker. The updated CG model looks great and I hope that some day in the future we might see resculpts with this kind of detail for the rest as well.

 Tohaa Gao-Rael. Sinister looking medium infantry that I quite like. The small weapons of the Tohaa helps to add that hi-tech feel I think. 

 ALEPH Support Pack. Nothing new here, move along. Good mix of stuff though. Definitely a good box to pick up for a fledgling ALEPH player.

Wildcats. I liked the earlier Spitfire Wildcat but this girl is even better! Some people have complained about the pose and that it's a bit "too much" and the hair doesn't seem all that popular either. Both work for me though, and I'd be happy to have this Wildcat in my army if I played Nomads.

My favourite January model is definitely the unassuming but very well sculpted Celestial Guard hacker, closely followed by the Wildcat. Seeing as I'd like to try out playing the ISS I could see an ALEPH support box in my future as well. 

Speaking of the future the rumoured releases for March are ALEPH Penthesilia (motorcycles, woo!), a box of Nomad Reverand Moiras (resculpts methink), a box of Tohaa Chaksas, Shasvaasti Haiduk, Caledonian Volunteer HMG and a PanO support box. Some new Moiras would certainly be welcome and ALEPH motorcycles sounds awesome! Roll on March!

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A Delayed Update

Twilight Imperium in full swing!

Hello out there! Sorry for the lack of updates recently. You might remember I said I'd post a tactics article on how to play the with the Rebel fleet in X-Wing. Unfortunately I chose to type it out in Word for some reason and I ended up deleting it by mistake when it was pretty much finished. This made me a bit frustrated and I couldn't find the energy to blog for a while. Plus I'm simply lazy. Haha! Don't worry though, the tactics article will make a re-appearence further on once I've absorbed the new Wave 2 ships. I have been busy playing games though so I thought I'd post a quick round-up of my gaming and geeking activities this past month.

First off, Ed from Two Hour Wargames sent me a review copy of the recently released 5150 Star Navy and I've managed to get a couple of games in. It's been an interesting experience since it's quite different from your run of the mill Full Thrust-esque game. It's more about the big scale stuff and just as much about what happens between battles as what happens during them. Some more games are needed before I feel ready to write a proper review though.

I realised that I had forgotten my GZG ships so we used figures from Twilight Imperium instead. 

Worked great!

Not only was it fun to play Star Navy it also resparked my dormant passion for spaceship gaming! I've been come to the conclusion that what I'm lacking the most right now is carriers and fighter craft, so my next order from Jon at GZG will include some for both the FSE and the UNSC. I have also been looking through my collection of Babylon 5 Earth Alliance ships and managed to get hold of some old Starfury fighters for them (although I think I might use them for my UNSC as well) so there might be some B5 in the future as well.

Great haul but... sad. 

In more spaceship news I got a whole box full of Lightning Strike/Jovian Chronicles models from DP9. Awesome... yes, but it was a bitter-sweet package to get as they've now discontinued their JC line of miniatures. Jovian Chronicles have been one of my great sci-fi/RPG inspirations since I got hold of the first edition book back in the late nineties. I've always wanted put together two proper fleets of Jovian and CEGA forces, but the large scale difference between the ships and the EXOs (mecha) and the price of the models you need most of have meant I kept postponing it. Now, in this final order I only bought ships as I couldn't afford enough EXOs to fill out a fleet.

Instead I'm planning to get fleet scale mecha from different sources. There are the Japanese fighters from GZG and there's a whole bunch of different variants on Shapeways (like these), besides Eli's sculpts available from 15mm.co.uk. I've even considered doing my own 3D models of Jovian Chronicles EXOs in fleet scale and print using Shapeways. I've always wanted to learn 3D modelling so this might be a good way to start. Expect to read more about Jovian Chronicles going forward, I'm not letting it go that easily!

Oh, and being inspired by both this thread on TMP and by watching the altoghether excellent remake of the original Space Battleship Yamato / Starblazers (Yamato 2199) I painted one of my Earthforce cruisers and have started working on other ships as well. I've just been using simple block colouring as it gives the model a bit more of a cartoon feel.

Hopefully the first of many.

As for the new anime series, I really can't recommend it enough! It's nothing like the absolutely awful live action film released a couple of years ago. Yamato 2199 simply modernises the original series and have made it more logical and removed some of the over the top sillyness. There are some additional characters as well and the space battles are gorgeous! Check it out!

Turn one. My fleet is lined up in formation to take over the galaxy!

Next up we played a six player game of Twilight Imperium which was a lot of fun! We haven't played it for close to a year I think as we burned out a little on it last time. I got to play the Yssaril tribes who are generally considered to be the best race, with their ability to skip turns and hoard action cards. It was a fairly close game with only the Mentak player lagging seriously behind. After having been at it for about nine hours we decided to end the game as if the Game Over card had been drawn. There were three of us sharing first place at eight victory points - me, Letnev and Sarr - but since I had the most completed objectives I was the victor. Yay! Now, don't let the nine hour play time scare you off. We take it very slow and this includes breaks for eating and lots of talking on the side. We do have another game lined up for next week that I'm looking forward to!

Finally... I've payed my first Infinity campaign game! You all probably know that I hold Infinity in very high regard, but the excellent rules and the beautiful models have sometimes feel wasted on simple deathmatch games like we've been playing up until now. Sure, there are loads of fan made scenarios, but having an official scenario/campaign book like Paradiso feels like the final piece of the puzzle being slotted in!

That's no Pangguling, I hear you say. Well, that T/O marker IS a ninja so... ha!

We (of course) played the first scenario, Data Recovery, and my opponent was the mercenary heavy Qapu Khalqi. He fielded a group of Kaplan Tactical Service, a group of Odalisques sprinkled with some specialists and a remote. I had a very diverse list featuring several different hackers (going from a Shang Ji to a Ninja) some light infantry, a couple of remotes, an Engineer and finally a Tiger Soldier and a Daofei to lay down the hurt.

My opponent seized the initiative early and analyzed the first alien tech which revealed where the relevant data was located. Unfortunately for me my opponent had that area well covered by a Odalisque with a Spitfire. He dropped two Yuan Yuan who threw smoke all over the place and allowed his engineer to get close to the alien tech. The tide turned when I brought in my Tiger Soldier armed with a HMG though! With the greater range of the HMG and the Mimetism to make him harder to hit the Tiger Soldier pretty much cleaned house on my left flank, allowing my engineer to make her way to the alien tech and download the data. She made it back to the Pangguling remote but failed the upload roll. Grrr!

On the right flank my Shang Ji charged forward and torched a couple of KTS operatives. That meant my opponent was in retreat and his last few models ran off the table. This of course meant that I didn't have any more chances to try and upload the data and I won with a measly two points! Sometimes it doesn't pay to kill your opponent!

It was a fun game and playing a detailed scenario like this really shows off all the cool stuff in Infinity that you normally don't see in tournament style games. In most of these scenarios Baggage Remotes are either mandatory or helps you greatly if you bring them and although I've got a couple of Pangguling I hadn't managed to assemble them in time for the game. This weekend I took time to put them together and magnetise them though and they certainly are cute little buggers!

The total reaction version.

I need to put together my spec-ops model as well and then it's time for painting!

That's most of what I've been up to. Expect another post going through the new Infinity releases I missed last month as well as the new ones for February (Bao troops!!) tomorrow or so...

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