The Painted Thumb

This past weekend, I had a game of Starmada with my friend Ken. He and I have been long time Trekkies. We both wanted to try a Star Trek miniatures battle. Ken even purchased the 10-pound grab bag of Starfleet 2400 miniatures from Amarillo Design Bureau. I have been gathering some plastic minis from bargain bins at local game stores and I borrowed a set of metal Starfleet minis from another friend. Between the two of us, we had enough figs to setup a reasonable sized skirmish battle. I attempted a game of Starmada before with Desert Scribe (some photos are here ). We were both unfamiliar with the rules and struggled with some the details. In my recent game, Ken and I did much better but there we still made a few mistakes in game play. Ken played the Federation faction with a 1x Command Cruiser, 1x Heavy Cruiser, and 1x Frigate.  I took the Klingon faction with 1x D7C command cruiser, 1x D6 cruiser, and 1x F5 Frigate. The game took three hours to complete despite the fact the r...

The months of February through April are the hardest months for me to make new blog posts.  I really don't know what causes this drought yet is seems very cyclical. Despite the lack of posts, there has not been a shortage of games being played.  So, rather than trying to write AAR's for all the games played over the past few months, I'll just post up some photos of the most recent game sessions.  I did participate in a Lord  of the Rings SBG 'Doubles' tournament which deserves it's own post and AAR.  For now here is a montage of the latest battles. Played some 'Saga' at OwlCon, it was a great game!  But like many new games, it requires custom dice. Also at OwlCon, had a great game of Blood Bowl vs. Coach K I used a borrowed Human team, in green uniforms ...

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…  There was a game called Star Fleet Battles.  It was a rules bloated, counter and hex, mess of a spaceship combat game. And… I loved it! Yes, it’s true. This statement alone could give my readers reason to suspect my mental stability. The game was loathed by some players, revered by some players and possibly both loathed and revered by many others. So, what was it that drew me to this game? I am a self-described Trekker and this game IMHO was the best simulation of ‘Star Trek’-style starship combat ever made. The game was so detailed that it really gave players a sense that the simulation could be based on actual starships.  For the analytical players , the tactics were rich and engaging with new strategies to consider with every new ship design. Games like this often come with a rulebook so large that you might be killed if you were to fall asleep while reading it. SFB is no exception. The original game included ships from o...