Funkoverse: Thank You For Being A Friend... With Cheesecake!

I dove further into the Funkoverse this week, adding the most bizarre expandalone in the first wave...  The Golden Girls.

When I first heard that the Funkoverse would include them, I immediately swore off the game.  "They have DC characters, Harry Potter characters... why would they include half of the Golden Girls?  That's just ridiculous."

Then I realized just how ridiculous it was and it all made sense.

Funkoverse isn't about making a cohesive universe with a story arc about the lives of the characters that live there.  It's about mashing things up and enjoying the mess that you make!

This expansion gives you two of the girls from the series and while you might wonder how well they could stand toe to toe versus a superhero or wizard, these girls mean business!

Blanche Devereaux gives your team some token manipulation in the form of Flirt, a challenge 2 which lets you put one of your opponent's tokens onto their cooldown track.  Notice that she doesn't need to actually win the challenge and she lets you take any token from your opponent's pool.  I can see this ability messing with your opponent as you take away one the token he needed to pull off his masterplan!  In addition to this, she also adds some board control as she can use Southern Hospitality and Hi, Boys to move either herself or her rivals around the board.  Not only can this set up combos with our allies, she can also nerf adjacent rivals thanks to being Devastatingly Beautiful.

On the other hand, Rose Nylund can be something of a brute since Life Isn't Fair, Kiddo.  Challenge 4 is a solid blow and being able to move them afterward could be a handy trick as well.  Story Time gives her some board control as well as she pulls an ally in line of sight potentially across the board.  I can see this being handy in several of the scenarios as you pull allies across the board to score extra points or set up follow up actions.  Thank You For Being A Friend can supercharge Rose as it lets perform any basic action when her friend is challenged.  You could even use this to pop the friend right back up if Rose is adjacent since assist is a basic action.  Last but definitely not least, you need to remember that she is St. Olaf's Favorite Daughter.  If you're going to challenge her, you better knock her down or she'll be coming right back at you!

And of course you can't forget their item; cheesecake.  Whoever is carrying this item can use it to stand up as an action.  That's right, cheesecake make you Relentless, just like Batman.

This is a really fun looking set and I'm excited to add them to the mix as I can see some strong combinations coming from both of them.  I'm also that much closer to having the all the set from the first wave which just leaves the question; should I get Ron and Draco next or Rick and Morty?  Until next time...

Star Wars Legion: I Feel A Disturbance In The Force...

Things have really... slowed... down...  thanks to the flu.  Over President's Day weekend, I managed to get a really extended weekend since I was down with the sickness from Saturday night until Wednesday.  So much fun, let me tell you!

Feeling better now but unfortunately that break has really thrown me off my stride.  On top of that I'm potentially moving rooms soon so I don't want to break out too much stuff yet.  Been itching to set up a table and push some minis around with all the terrain that I built at the end of last year but I'm going to hold off until I'm relocated to minimize my packing.

I did get to watch/referee a game of Legion the Saturday before I get sick and I have to say that I'm really torn.  The game looks great visually and it's Star Wars.  How can you not love Star Wars?  Unfortunately the latest trilogy didn't really hit it out of the park from what I've seen and read, and since it's owned by Disney... well, they are in the market to make money.  They make some great things but yeah, ultimately money is the most important factor for any corporation.  I don't think that Star Wars is going anywhere soon, but what about the license?

Which brings Fantasy Flight Games into the picture.  FFG is a monster in the board game world, the originator of the coffin box games themselves!  FFG managed to get ahold of the Star Wars license years ago and they've been doing great things with it.  X-Wing, Imperial Assault, Armada, and now Legion.  Except Imperial Assault isn't being produced anymore... and X-Wing is in it's second edition now but you can get conversion kits... and recently I'd heard that their digital department either is closing or already has and then I read that X-Wing 2.0 uses an app to track points since the new edition doesn't have point values on the cards.

Have I dug into any of these things deeply to see how much they affect things?  No.  But hearing about them makes me nervous.  I bought a fair amount of X-Wing stuff over the years and for me to use that now, I need to invest $200 just to get the base game and conversion kits for my ships.  That's a lot of money to shell out just to use minis that I've already invested in and how soon is this going to happen again?  And if the digital content isn't supported, how are they going to support the app that is used to track the points to build forces for the game?

But with all that said, Legion is still a really tempting game.  The minis are really well sculpted and have a good variety even within the same unit to avoid the cookie cutter syndrome.

This is the Tatooine board my friend has put together.

There are some great terrain options out there as well, both from FFG and from independent companies that so it's easy to put together a great visual experience as well.  The rules seem pretty solid as well.  FFG likes to go for the literal interpretation of the rules so in most cases just play them as written.  They do a great job making sure that there aren't little nuances that can confuse the issue.

So why not get into it?  Even with the other concerns on my mind, it seems to be a solid ruleset, the minis are gorgeous, terrain options are easily accessible... and it's really expensive.  I'm kind of old school so I tend to look at GW as my gauge for "it costs how much?!?" but it seems like Legion is right up there too, at least for it the standard format.  It seems like the common recommendation with the FFG Star Wars games is "Get two starters" and it does make sense.  You get enough minis for the core of both a Rebel and an Imperial army, two sets of all the movement and range templates, and twice the special dice needed for the game.  All for just $200 retail and the good news is that you only have to buy a few more things to actually have a legal army to play!

Unlike other games, the default size for Legion is 800 points.  Period.  To use an example that I'm familiar with, a standard game of Antares is 1000 points but the have lists for 500, 750, 1000, 1250... I'm sure you see the trend here but the point is you can play a smaller game and have it be legal.  And considering that the army boxes from Warlord have between 500 and 1000 points in them, you are good to go right out of the gate for an $80 investment.  Well, except for the order dice (which you could just get some wooden cubes and write on), a tape measure (which you probably already own), and the rules (the light version of which can be downloaded for free from the Warlord website).

Thankfully FFG has offered an alternative to this by introducing Skirmish level games.  These are only 500 points and play on a 3' x 3' table which are both two big pluses in my book.  I prefer smaller boards (even though I like Antares which really thrives on a larger board) and 500 points should make it that much more affordable, even if it only functions as a gateway to larger games in the future.  I still need to run some numbers in Battlescribe to see just what I'm looking at but it's a start.  Until next time...

Workbench: Spearmen, Space Barrels, and Some Gardening Too!

More progress on the painting challenge but things have been going... a bit... slower...

I've started work on the spearmen that I had drybrushed and I've gotten half of them painted already.

I decided to split knight army up a little bit to add some flavor to the whole thing.  The soldiers in blue are the affiliated with the Crown and will form the core of my army.

In addition to these core troops, one of the two leaders for the army will be Baudric the Red (aka Lord Hawthorne from the Daqan forces of Runewars).

His set comes with a mounted figure and one on foot which will give me some options in the army as well.  Baudric is definitely the more imposing of the two figures so if I field the full army, then he will move into the champion slot.  Beside Baudric is one of the mounted knights that will accompany him, plus I will be painting up a unit of spearmen in his colors as well.

The next items are terrain pieces.  Nothing too fancy but I'm excited to have them to add into the mix.  What are they?

Spaaaaaace barrels!!!  (this is a call out to Table Top Warlords YouTube channel... check them out if you haven't already!)  I'll admit that I have no idea what Kevin made his out of but I made mine from assorted plastic bottle lids hot glued together, then painted.  Quick and easy!

Last but not least, I added some detailing to my plant terrain.  Originally I was going for quick and easy so I didn't bother with any ground cover.  Well, I decided that it was time to change that up so I hit Michael's and grabbed some lichen.

This is just a sample of but you at least get the idea.  It's just a minor touch but I really like how it added some realism and depth to the pieces.  I've been holding off on setting up my full terrain board since I'm going to be bouncing rooms again soon but once I'm in a more permanent location, I'll have to see what I can do.  Still more to do this month but this is a good start for this month!  Until next time...

I've Been Pulled Into... The Funkoverse!

I had only planned on buying one of them, honest.  I found the DC 4-Pack for a good price on Amazon and picked it up... then I found the DC 2-Pack on sale as well.  It only makes sense and they go together after all... then I found the Harry Potter 4-Pack on sale for less than the sale price of most of the 2-Packs...  But this is it... I'm serious this time... Just let me check Amazon again...

For those of you who might have missed it (though I don't know how), the Funkoverse is a light strategy combat game that is being published by Funko.  These games all come with a slightly smaller version of their Pops and are themed according to their pack.  There is DC and Harry Potter, plus you can add on Rick and Morty or even the Golden Girls.

I'll let you go back and re-read that last sentence.

I had only played this game a few of times solo but I really liked it and wanted to get it to the table.  The gameplay is very straightforward but I think that there is enough variation with the characters and missions that are included that this one will stay interesting.

Only in the Funkoverse will you find Voldemort bopping Joker in the nose with his wand.

And it turns out I was right!

I want over my friends new house and he told me to bring the Funko.  I've mentioned it to him and he was gracious enough to be a guinea pig and try it out.  I ran down the rules basics, we grabbed our Funkos and got down to business.  On my side of the table we had Batman, Catwoman, and Voldemort working together against the forces of chaos and anarchy, Jokey, Harley, and Hermione.

Mourning the death of Batman... until he jumped up and started smacking people around!

The first game was just the basic game to run through the basic mechanics.  Quick and dirty, but it touches on the high points and sets you up to jump into one of the scenarios.  Once that was done, we jumped into Control, one of the four scenarios included so far with the game which is where I think this game really shines.  While some games lead to people turtling, this one really pushes you to keep moving forward.  Sure, you don't have to but if you don't your opponent is probably going to run away with the game

The victory nap!  Yes, I won the game with my entire team watching the clouds drift by.

This is a game that I'm glad that I picked up.  I was really on the fence but there is more to it than I first thought there would be.  Would I pay the full retail price for it?  Ummm… probably not, but I tend to be an aggressive bargain hunter when it comes to gaming.

That said, I do plan on buying the rest of the packs for the first wave.  Not because I'm trying to be a completionist but because they sound like they would be fun to play.  As for future expansions, we'll just have to wait and see what they are, but it won't be a long wait...  the next wave is slated to start rolling out within the next couple of months if I'm recalling correctly.  We'll just have to see what the next madness is that comes to the Funkoverse!  Until next time...