Card Holder for X-wing and Armada

Over a year ago, I designed this card shoe/holder for damage cards that fits FFG's 'Yellow' card sleeves exactly.

I was getting frustrated by the cards tilting and spreading, and thus made a card holder out of cardboard, but I did not like it that much, although it did get the job done, so I started dabbling in 3D-design - and now, as I have got my new Creality GR10S S3 up and running, it was time to try printing it, and you can see the result to the left (I have nor removed the 'skirt', yes, seen along the back edges).

I printed it lying on its back to avoid supports, but I am going to to make another one standing upright with supports for the 'shelf', so that I may compare the two methods.

3D Design: Card Deck Holder

I have begun dabbling in 3D design for printing stuff at home (I am planning to get a 3D printer, and have begun saving up for it).

Earlier today, I downloaded 123D, and I have been playing around with it, until I arrived at this result.

The deck holder is designed for cards in FFG Yellow sleeves (X-Wing and/or Star Wars Armada damage cards, for instance), and I expect to make versions for all the games I use cards for. I have not figured out how to resize a finished design, but it may be possible to do so, instead of designing from scratch every time.

Star Wars Armada: DIY Card Shoe

I took the holidays as an opportunity to start playing around with making some card shoes for some of my games using cards for several purposes.

I like putting sleeves on my gaming cards to protect them from wear and tear, and that makes the decks rather tall and unstable, and the sleeves add thickness to each card, and the sleeves are somewhat more smooth/slippery than the card themselves, so the stack/deck topples over easily when handled.

My solutiuon for this: Card 'shoes'.!

I had been playing with the idea of getting some pre-made kits for this, but as it were, they do not seem to be commercially available in all those different sizes I would need, so I decided to make some from cardboard - an almost free solution, as I have plenty of sturdy cardboard in store, I just need to add some glue/scotch tape and elbow grease ✌

This, my first 'proto type' was made exclusively from cardboard and scotch tape. It is for Star Wars Armada Damage Cards, and I made it taller than necessary to accommodate a double deck, if I decide to incorporate both Damage Decks form the two starter sets I have.

I applied good old Pythagoras to find the necessary depth of the shoe, and as it turns out, I need to add a little depth to give a few more degrees of dimensional tolerance to the build, but - hey - that is what proto types are for, right? 😎

My next build is for the Strange Aeons Solo Play Deck, as I intend to start delving into that mind of madness very soon (just have to make a nice 2x3 playing mat out of painter's felt, of which I have an abundance from when we  moved to out current home.

Expect to see more of this kind over the next couple of days (plus updates about Christmas Wars and God of Battles - things have been brewing lately, and I should have more to show very soon)!

Attic Attack IV: Day 1, Star Wars Armada

This year's Attic Attack has come and passed, and it is time to tell tall tales of heroic deeds and dastardly villainy!

First, I played the planned Star Wars Armada scenario with Kevin, a long time acquaintance from Svendborg who was finally able to take some time off family and house to visit the Attic.

I took on the mantle as the Imperial Commander, letting Kevin perform the blockade run.

Set-Up

Opening Moves

Learning to use the Ship Maneuver Ruler/Tool

TIEs swarm ahead!

"Where did they come from?"

Battle is joined, and the Victory-Class Destroyers close in

Chaos ensues!

The Star Destroyers try to come about, but they move too slowly.

A collision occurs, as the captain of a Corvette misjudges the speed of a Star Destroyer.

 

As the Rebel fighters finish off the last TIEs and begin attacking the Star Destroyers,
 the last Corvette breaks through,
and ensures victory  for the Rebel Alliance

Things came about as I had foreseen, and the scenario was too easy for the Rebels. The Star Destroyers are too cumbersome to turn quickly, and I think that the Empire needs some smaller ships to engage and pursue the Rebel ships early on, while perhaps one or two Destroyers act as backstops.

Also, the Rebels had too many fighters, and I shall try running the scenario with only the X-Wings and two Corvettes, and we shall see if the TIE-Fighters can then soften up the opposition sufficiently for the Star Destroyers to finish up at least one of the Corvettes...

I do, however, think that the Empire needs space superiority (in terms of fighters). plus some smaller ships, to have a chance, but only actual play-testing will show!

Star Wars Armada: Escort (Homebrewn Scenario)

The light was playing tricks on my camera when taking these photos (I really need to take that Digital Photography class, and learn to use the manual settings for taking better pics), but you should be able to make out what this is about, anyway.

I only put some big ships on the table to show the size of the  game; the players are going to place their ships and squadrons themselves, after learning the conditions of the scenario.

The Rebels are trying to bring Leia Organa from Alderaan to the still functioning Galactic Senate; i.e. the Rebel Alliance player must exit Leia via the far board edge, guarded by the Imperial Star Destroyers (and a swarm of TIE-Fighters, led by Howl Runner). The Imperial player will not know which ship has Leia Organa aboard,
so will have to outguess the opponent, and stop the right vessel from passing.

If the ship with Leia Organa leaves the table via the Imperial table edge, the Rebel Alliance wins, no matter how battered their fleet is, If it is destroyed, the Empire carries the day, while Leia Organa makes her exit in an escape pod.

I am a bit exited to learn if the task is too easy for the Rebel Alliance, in which case I have to regulate the available ships and squadrons - but I have no time for a test run, so the first game has to show this.

Rebel Alliance Reinforcements

While visiting Dragons Lair (the only dedicated Games Store on Funen, as far as I know) earlier today to get some paints, I stumbled over a Star Wars Armada Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack, and I followed an impulse to purchase it.

It contains two each of A-Wing, B-Wing, X-Wing, and Y-Wing squadrons/stands.

Each type of fighter has one 'Named Character': Wedge Antilles (X-Wing), "Dutch" Vander (Y-Wing), Keyan Farlander ((B-Wing), and Tycho Celchu (A-Wing).

All the fighter types of course are different; the X-Wing clearly pack the most punch, but the diminutive A-Wing has the interesting 'Counter' rule, which allows it to return fire when attacked by a fighter squadron - even if  it is destroyed by the attack! Nasty little hornets!

I need to get some games played to get the hang of the different potentials, but I have a feeling that I am going to want to add more fighters to the Rebel forces, as I think the picture of small Rebel vessels escorted by swarms of fighters squaring off against Imperial Star Destroyers sending out wave after wave of TIE-Fighters is iconic to the Star Wars universe!

I do, however, wish that Flying Fantasy Games would sell the fighters in single-type packs instead of these mixed sets (the Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack contains four types of TIE) with limited numbers of each type, but, sadly, it is probably not going to happen.

Star Wars: X-Wing. Some Reinforcements.

I can now add these models to my SW:XW collection:

I also received my second box set of Star Wars Armada, and I shall try to get a full game going soonish...

Star Wars Armada, First Game!

Lea asked me if we could play the game when I had it ready for going through the starer scenario, and I of course agreed right away.

This is NOT a step-by-step AAR, just a quick report, I shall have to do a full break-down of a game at a later point, as the game had to be packed away to give place for X-Wing.

The first 3 game rounds I used trying to circle the Star Destroyer with the two smaller Rebel vessels, while letting the X-Wings deal with the swarms of TIE-Fighters.

Up to this point, everything went smoothly according to plan.

As can be seen, at this point odds were fairly even, perhaps even in the favour of the Rebels, as the X-Wings are more than a match for the TIEs one-on-one.

While the fighters were busy duking it out around the Star Destroyer, I was trying to get into attack position behind it.

One thing that is VERY differnt from X-Wing is that in Armada you attack BEFORE you move; that takes some practise to get used to.

This means that it is rather difficult to get into range when trying to catch up with a ship moving away from you - which the Star Destroyer was ordered to do, ploughing its way through the fightet swarm.

Most of the time, we both forgot the possibility to attack nearby fighters from our ships, but as it turned out, the X-Wings were overmatched after all, and most dog.fights took place near the Star Destroyer, anyway.

I kept trying to circle the Imperial vessel:















At this point, my plan had worked perfectly, but I was running out of time to start hitting the Star Destroyer from behind; Armada is played with a set number of game rounds, 6, and as can be seen from the picture below (the small round tokens at the edge of the board), we are now in round 5.

Then, Lea revealed the 'Squadron' command, which allows the ship employing it to immediately, out of sequence, activate a number of squadrons equal to its 'Squadron-Value' (if they are within command range), which meant that, suddenly, 3 TIE squadrons got a shot without my X-Wings being able to respond, which tipped the balance in favour of the Imperials.

To make things worse, the Star Destroyed seemed to home in on the last remaining X-Wing squadron, while the Rebel Alliance ships kept circling it.

As it were, we managed to play a full sequence of 6 game rounds without dealing any damage to the ships, but Lea won the game because she destroyed more points in fighteres than I did.



Next time I play the Rebel Alliance, I'll try a more direct approach, and make sure I use every opportunity to target the TIE squadrons with my ships' attacks.

For now, I just had too pack up the models and get my X-Wing stuff out instead.