Star Wars LCG Progression, Part 1

So, I love card games for many reasons, but a big one is that I love the deck-building side of things.  Sitting down with an idea, fleshing it out with a variety of cards from the card pool, and then taking your ideas and throwing them against your opponent's ideas?  Well, it's just fantastic.

Now, as part of this, I really enjoy exploring the whole card pool.  That card that no one ever throws in their decks?  Yeah, those are the cards I like looking at, and seeing if I can't get some mileage out of.  It's a big part of the enjoyment for me.  So LCGs are really a natural fit- I always get a full playset of the cards with my purchases, and with no rarity, the companies should have a disincentive to printing 'bad' cards.  Every card should have a role to fill in the meta and the card pool.  Otherwise, what was the purpose of printing that card?

When the Star Wars LCG came out, I played a decent amount of it, especially when the only product out was the Core Set.  Now that the game is 'complete', however, I look back and realize there were a LOT of gaps in my experience with the game, and I played a bunch at the very beginning, some after about cycle three, and a few games at the very end.  That's great, but wouldn't it be great if I could take my time through the game, really get to enjoy it, and really get to explore the card pool?

Well, looks like I'm getting a good chance to.  My friend Eric picked up the complete set after trying the game, and we've agreed to go through the game, playing it slowly, and deliberately.  Spend a bit of time with each cycle, trying out some new decks, and actually getting to enjoy the game without the rush to 'solve' the meta, and without the need to play only the top tier stuff.  So, I'm going to blog about this, as it'll be good to help me keep track of what I've done, and hey, maybe someone else will find it useful too.

At this point, he and I are playing with the Core Set, first deluxe expansion (Edge of Darkness), and the first cycle (the Hoth cycle).  We've played a few games, re-invigorating my love of it, and hopefully giving Eric a lot of enjoyment, but as we prepare to play some more, I have decided to push myself to actually use EVERY objective set in at least some decks, so that I can explore the card pool.

This post, I'm focusing on the Dark Side decks I'm running.  Also, I'm going to consider the Core Set objectives 'played' already- I played a lot of Core Set only games, and I guarantee I've used them all at some point.  Also, just because I use an objective set doesn't mean I won't use it in the future.  I just really want to force myself to look at all the cards, and give serious consideration to using them.

So, let's look at the decks I've used so far, and how they've done.

All of my decks, by the way, I've built using the CardgameDB Deck Builder.

Sith/Imperial Navy Capital Ships
Total Cards: (50)

Affiliation:
Sith

Objective: (10)
2x The Emperor's Web (Core 23-1)
2x Imperial Command (Core 26-1)
1x Death and Despayre (Core 29-1)
2x Deploy the Fleet (The Search for Skywalker 46-1)
2x The Executor Arrives (Escape from Hoth 66-1)
1x Imperial Blockade (Edge of Darkness 88-1)

Unit: (29)
2x Emperor Palpatine (Core 23-2)
2x Emperor's Royal Guard (Core 23-3)
2x Admiral Motti (Core 26-2)
2x Duty Officer (Core 26-3)
2x Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core 26-4)
2x Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core 26-5)
1x Devastator (Core 29-2)
1x Imperial Officer (Core 29-3)
2x Death Squadron Star Destroyer (The Search for Skywalker 46-2)
2x Death Squadron Star Destroyer (The Search for Skywalker 46-3)
2x Fleet Navigator (The Search for Skywalker 46-4)
2x Executor (Escape from Hoth 66-2)
2x ISB Liaison (Escape from Hoth 66-3)
2x ISB Liaison (Escape from Hoth 66-4)
1x Captain Needa (Edge of Darkness 88-2)
1x Imperial I-class Star Destroyer (Edge of Darkness 88-3)
1x Imperial I-class Star Destroyer (Edge of Darkness 88-4)

Enhancement: (10)
2x Sith Library (Core 23-4)
2x Orbital Bombardment (Core 26-6)
1x Control Room (Core 29-4)
1x Defense Upgrade (Core 29-5)
2x Death Squadron Command (The Search for Skywalker 46-5)
2x Sith Holocron (Escape from Hoth 66-5)

Event: (10)
2x Force Lightning (Core 23-5)
2x Force Choke (Core 23-6)
2x Admiral's Orders (The Search for Skywalker 46-6)
2x Aggression (Escape from Hoth 66-6)
1x Apology Accepted (Edge of Darkness 88-5)
1x Tractor Beam (Edge of Darkness 88-6)

Fate: (1)
1x Heat of Battle (Core 29-6)

I've played this twice so far, both times against Eric's Rebel Alliance Snowspeeder deck, and both times I won.  I'm able to get at least one capital ship out pretty early, within the first two turns, and although I generally lose an objective, I usually have enough muscle to power through to the end game. 

With 29 units, I usually can keep a good board presence, and with an objective reducer, 12 cards capable of generating resources, a few other cards that reduce the cost of capital ships, and the Sith Holocron to help get the Executor out... well, I seem to have the resource curve covered.

I don't really know what more I could do to improve this one, at the moment, but it does have at least some problems with the force struggle if Palpatine isn't on the board.  I'll use it from time to time to see how it plays as Eric's decks change, but at least for now, I'm happy where it is.

Mono Scum and Villainy... Control?
Total Cards: (50)

Affiliation:
Scum and Villainy


Objective: (10)
2x Lucrative Contract (Assault on Echo Base 57-1)
2x Hive of Scum and Villainy (Edge of Darkness 80-1)
2x Jabba's Reach (Edge of Darkness 81-1)
1x The Tatooine Crash (Edge of Darkness 82-1)
1x Trandoshan Terror (Edge of Darkness 85-1)
2x Feeding the Pit (Edge of Darkness 86-1)

Unit: (30)
2x Outer Rim Space Pirates (Assault on Echo Base 57-2)
2x Corrupt Official (Assault on Echo Base 57-3)
2x Corrupt Official (Assault on Echo Base 57-4)
2x Greedo (Edge of Darkness 80-2)
2x Paid Informant (Edge of Darkness 80-3)
2x Paid Informant (Edge of Darkness 80-4)
2x Jabba the Hutt (Edge of Darkness 81-2)
2x Jabba's Pleasure Barge (Edge of Darkness 81-3)
2x Gamorrean Guard (Edge of Darkness 81-4)
1x Jawa Scavenger (Edge of Darkness 82-2)
1x Jawa Scavenger (Edge of Darkness 82-3)
1x Sandcrawler (Edge of Darkness 82-4)
1x Bossk (Edge of Darkness 85-2)
1x Trandoshan Hunter (Edge of Darkness 85-3)
1x Trandoshan Hunter (Edge of Darkness 85-4)
2x Bib Fortuna (Edge of Darkness 86-2)
2x Krayt Dragon (Edge of Darkness 86-3)
2x Gamorrean Guard (Edge of Darkness 86-4)

Enhancement: (7)
2x Bounty (Edge of Darkness 80-5)
2x Prized Possession (Edge of Darkness 81-5)
1x Bounty (Edge of Darkness 85-5)
2x The Almighty Sarlacc (Edge of Darkness 86-6)

Event: (9)
2x Explosive Charge (Assault on Echo Base 57-5)
2x Captured (Edge of Darkness 80-6)
2x Reversal of Fate (Edge of Darkness 81-6)
1x Utinni! (Edge of Darkness 82-5)
2x Spice Visions (Edge of Darkness 86-5)

Fate: (4)
2x Twist of Fate (Assault on Echo Base 57-6)
1x Twist of Fate (Edge of Darkness 82-6)
1x Heat of Battle (Edge of Darkness 85-6)

One nice thing about this idea of a progression series is that I can spend some time REALLY getting to know some of the stuff I didn't get a chance to before.  One part of that is the whole Scum and Villainy card pool.  I really didn't play a lot of green cards during the game's lifespan, except rarely when I threw things together.  Now, I'm going to force myself to do so.

This deck has only been played once, against Eric's Rebel Alliance Speeder deck.  I ended up winning, primarily on the back of the two Reversal of Fates.  So I really need to get it on the table more before I try to tweak it any, so I can figure out exactly what it is good at.  It does capture cards occasionally... but not super effectively.  It has a lot of tricks, but it feels like it's lacking focus.  That may be what I try to build into it, going forward.

It has plenty of units, and six resource cards.  Eight units with Tactics icons.  I feel like I do struggle with resources, thinking back... but yeah, really just need to play it again.

Okay, that's it for this post.  Next post, I'll look at which Dark Side objectives I still need to play, and build a new deck using a bunch of them (something Imperial Navy or Sith focused, most likely).

2019 Resolution Progress, Part I

Well, we are a third of the way through the year, and it seems like a good time to look at my resolutions to see how I'm doing.  This year has been off to a rough start- a couple of illnesses, a lot of house work that needed to get done.  With that said, I haven't given up quite yet.  I am working to refocus, and I believe I'll still accomplish most of these, if not all.  So, I want to at least see what my current status is, and assess from there.

Here are my resolutions:

Get 15 painting points - I have currently gotten zero, but I have managed to put a few layers of paint onto a unit of Gatormen Posse and I think if I focus, I could get them done soon.  That would put me at about 10 points, I think, and then I can look for what's next.  I definitely think I can manage this.

Reduce my number of unplayed games by 10 - This is not going well.  I believe I am basically negative three in this column, but I have a bunch of quick games I can play, so I'll see if I can't get it under control.

Play 50 games of Warmachine/Hordes - I have managed to play ten games so far, which is far below where I should be.  That puts me on pace for about thirty games played, which is pretty good, but not where I want to be.  I can manage one game a week from here on out, I'm sure, but I'm going to have to find some weeks where I can get more than one game in if I want to hit my goal.

Read 18 books - I am currently at 12 books read this year, so I am quite healthily on pace.  I feel good about this one.

Lose 25 pounds - I am going slow here.  Again, been sick, but I still have managed to lose another two pounds.  I think I will be okay now I am healthy again, and my wife is healthy again, and we are both motivated to lose weight.

So, overall, not great, but I think I will be okay if I just stay focused.  Will post again in a few more months with my progress!

Monthly Summary for April, 2019

Another month gone, and more gaming was had!  This was a bit of a lighter month, it felt like, as I got sick not once, but twice, and that really slowed down everything I was trying to do.  I did eventually battle through it, and got some gaming done!

Games Played

• KeyForge - Three games against my brother, winning once with each of my decks, and losing once with my artifact deck.  I actually feel like my artifact deck is the better of these two, but Matt actually had no issues dealing with it with one of his decks.  Anyway, still pretty happy with my decks.
• X-Wing (Second Edition) - Three games.  Two against Joey, who recently picked up the game, and is interested in playing Imperials.  I have not been having a whole lot of success in the new version of X-Wing, although I do enjoy it.  For my games, I took a four ship Scum list that involved Fenn Rau, a Scurrg, a Z-95, and an M-3A.  I figure practicing with a variety of ships will give me the best chance to actually... you know, get good at the game.  So with that, I ran this list against him... and actually managed to win both games.  The second game, I played much better, as I figured out what the heck I'm doing with my ships, but regardless, both were wins.  The third game I played was against my brother, who recently bought Separatists.  He took a list with Maul in an Infiltrator and a bunch of Vultures.  I had a few bad dodge rolls early, which left some of my ships destroyed, and I followed that up with a few bad plays... and he wiped me.  Still, I learned a lot about my squad, so maybe I can turn this into a lesson!

  

  Getting into position... to destroy my poor squad :(

• Folklore: The Affliction - Two games with Bob up in PA.  I had eyed this on Kickstarter when it was running, but didn't jump on it.  Thankfully, Bob did.  We played the first story, which had two chapters, with each of us running two characters.  I used the Slayer and Illusionist, he took the Exorcist and Witch Hunter.  We managed to complete the story successfully with only one death (the Slayer).  Overall, we had a great time- it really does give an "old school" D&D feel, and the story was actually pretty interesting.  Looking forward to getting this played again.
• All or Nothing: The Fight for Fort Mercer – October 22, 1777 - Wrote up a session report of this, here.
• Ascension: Deckbuilding Game - Played a solo game of this on my phone.  I won against the computer AIs.  
• Europe In Turmoil - Played this against Rob.  It's a lot like Twilight Struggle, a game I enjoy but find kind of stressful to play.  This one takes all of the things I enjoy about Twilight Struggle, and adds some improvements to it.  The major additions seem to be the space race (into a naval arms race) - where each step has an impact on the game (the space race is TS only has a few spaces where something happens, if I remember correctly), and the Great War itself.  The specter of potential war is ever-present in this game, and happens under certain conditions.  When the war happens, you play a mini-game, with choices influenced by the status of control of the board.  The war itself can change the influence layout of the board, and the post-war state of the board is what you'll use to determine victory.  It was a very cool game, one I may get at some point.

  

  Fighting over Europe... with ideology

• Catan Histories: Rise of the Inkas - Two games with Megan, Christian, and Marina.  This is my first experience with the Catan Histories series of games, which seem to be self contained games with a bit of historical background to their setup, play, and victory conditions.  Marina described this as her favorite version of Catan so far, and although I wouldn't go that far, I would say that I enjoyed it quite a bit.  It required a different style of play, and it included goods, which aren't always present, and it was definitely a lot of fun!  I won both times- I think I figured out the placement of my second and third tribes well, which my opponents did not manage to do quite so fast. 
  
• Federation Commander - One game against Rob.  This was a teaching/learning game, where we each took two ships (of roughly the same point value) and played against one another.  I took the Federation, who are a good introductory race for any of the SFU games, and Rob took the Romulans, who he likes thematically.  On our first pass, I did pretty significant damage with my photon torpedoes, and he dropped a Plasma-R and Plasma-G that I ran from.  Unfortunately, the Plasma-R did end up catching one of my ships, and further shooting ended up destroying it.  We called it soon after, as I was in pretty bad ship.  I had a great time- I'd really love to play this again!

  

  Torpedoes incoming!

• HATE - One game again Matt, teaching him the game.  He took the Hate-focused tribe, and I took the Support-focused tribe, and we played the Big Oven scenario.  In this, Matt, as the attacker, needed to rush to the middle of the board, and work to destroy four of the oven spaces, which weren't too absurd to destroy.  My objective was to grab any attacker bodies, and cook them.  We go back and forth, and a lot of damage was done to each tribe, but in the end, Matt managed to get the final oven destroyed, just as I had the final body I needed to cook to win, and on my way back to finish it.  Down to the wire!

  

  Matt is halfway through destroying the ovens.  I am halfway done eating for the day

• Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth - This game came out in the last month, and Rob picked it up, so he came over, and we played it.  I took Gimli, he took Beravor, and we played through the first quest/adventure.  We ended up getting overrun near the end, and losing.  What a great time though- FFG definitely seems to have learned from their previous, similar games (Imperial Assault, Descent, etc), and this feels like the best yet of this genre of game.  I'll consider getting it some day.
• Warmachine/Hordes - One game against BK.  BK is getting back into the game (yay!) and I was happily there to show him the ropes.  He took the Harbinger of Menoth in the Faithful Masses theme.  I didn't want to take my top-tier stuff, because I think they could be a negative play experience, especially when you are first playing, so I took Jaga-Jaga in WWFF.  This is still a very good list (I know people take it to tournaments), but it at least lets my opponent play the game.  So, we played, and it... was rough going.  I'm not very good with WWFF, but actually had the bright idea to put all my lesser warlocks on one side, with Jaga and her battlegroup up the other side... and it worked better than my previous tries with WWFF at least.  I still struggled dealing with all of BK's defensive tricks though- the penalties to hit from the Harbinger and Set Defense, plus the high armor, plus Martyrdom... I had some difficulties.  I did, however, end up winning, by throwing everything into his infantry, which chipped away at the Harbinger via Martyrdom, and managed to Overrun a Blackhide Wrastler into her, and on his final fury, killed her.  Whew!
  

New Arrivals

• Omega Master Rulebook - This is a rulebook for Star Fleet Battles, explaining the rules for using the 21 races in the Omega Octant.  I owned a copy of this, but it was in the basement of the apartment in Catonsville, and flooding saw it get ruined.  I finally replaced it.
• Two miniatures for Warmachine/Hordes - The Bride of Arkadius and Seeker of Silence mini-crate variant sculpts.  These are both character miniatures I already have the base versions for, so I wasn't overly excited about these, but they are nice miniatures, so I'm not super disappointed.
• Dungeons and Dragons - the three book collector set (Dungeon Master Guide, Player's Handbook, and Monster Manual).  I'm going to be running a campaign at some point!

Miniature Assembly/Painting

• I have begun working on assembling my Blackstone Fortress miniatures, as my brother expressed interest in playing.  I haven't made great progress, as I kept getting sick when I wanted to work on them, but at least I started.
  

Reading

• Counterfact Magazine, issues 8 and 10.  I think I've caught up on reading all of the issues
• The March and April issues of White Dwarf.  Very good reads.  GW is doing a great job!
• Against the Odds Magazine, issues 48 and 49, dealing with the first Caliphate and the siege of Charleston.  Lots of good historical articles- and hey, I played one of the mini-games that were included!
• Municipalists - I received this as part of the Goodreads First-Reads program, where they send you free books so you can review them.  This one was about an AI helping solve a terrorist attack, and taking the field in assistance to an 'agent'.  It was perfectly fine, although not really exceptional.  It read quickly, the characters were enjoyable, and the plot moved.  So, yeah- if you're looking for a nice quick read, take a look!
• Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair - Another First-Reads book, this one a non-fiction book about how we deal with violent criminals.  It was very enlightening, and interesting, although probably not something everyone would be interested in.  I learned a lot, definitely.