If you’re a fan of Star Trek, or comics, or just hate Chief O’Brien and have always desired to see a depressed and under-appreciated version of him, then I recommend checking out this excellent strip. Here’s a link to the first edition just to get you started.
Fleer has been a sports trading card titan for a long time. Maybe not titan. When I was a kid I thought Fleer cards were crap, especially compared to Bowman and Upper Deck. At any rate, Fleer decided to jump into gaming and this Star Trek CCG was apparently thought to be a good idea during a time when there were CCGs for just about ANY property. Continue reading Round 8: Fleer’s CCG Attempt
I saw this in the used section at my FLGS for $10 and I bought it without hesitation. The artwork alone looked great, and when I checked out the back of the box I saw that it had a modular board. Whaaaat? Even if the game sucked at least the artwork on the board was cool. Very 70’s sci-fi in style. But after all this is Milton Bradley. Before I read the rules I just assumed there’d be some roll and move and zero thematic integration. But I held out hope that I’d be wrong. Continue reading Round 7: Milton Bradley’s Take
There are so many versions of Catan it’s disturbing. It could begin turning into Monopoly, except each version actually plays a little differently. When I first heard the announcement that they’d be releasing a Star Trek version I was actually really upset. Why are they doing this? What benefit could this possibly serve? Where can I buy one? Continue reading Round 6: USS Catan, Cleared for Docking
-Captain, things have changed here at Starfleet Command. We’re no longer going to commission officers to ships. Instead we’re switching to a pro-sports style draft. Don’t worry, there’s no salary cap though..
-Ha, good one Admiral. When can I put in for repairs and upgrades on my crappy Constellation class ship?
-Well, out there on your exploration mission, you’ll encounter many things. Sometimes you’ll even encounter other ships. Enemy vessels and Federation ones. You may have to defend yourself, or you can always Diplomacy them.
-Er, uh, Diplomacy them? You mean engage in Diplomatic relations?
-Whoa there Captain, there’s no engaging in any sort of relations while on duty. And no, I mean you DIPLOMACY them. Hard. That’s how you acquire a new ship. Even if it’s Federation. Just take it from them and dump that heap that we issued you.
-Copy that sir. I will jettison redshirts and draft brand-namers in the name of peace throughout the galaxy.
-You’ve got a plan, I like that. Good luck out there Captain, and watch out for typos.
Ed. note: I totally butchered the rules for the Kobayashi Maru test, but I still got a good idea of gameplay.
I go back and forth on whether or not I even enjoy solo gaming. For me, the draw of board games is getting a group together and interacting with each other. Solo board gaming is so tedious that it offsets the rewarding challenge of the game itself. I’ve played Hornet Leader: Carrier Air Operations, Gears of War: The Board Game and Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game solo and they were all fun, but it was tiring for me checking and re-checking that I wasn’t breaking any rules. That’s not to say I’ll never play another solo game, because I have Thunderbolt Apache Leader standing by and one of these days I’m going to play Gears of War again.
jcodyb
