Verisimilitude

While excavating in the shed I came across an unopened box of the original Star Wars Miniatures set, which I must have saved for a rainy day. It was pretty cold, grey and miserable so Raphael and I opened them all. He then assembled a vast force of Imperial Stormtroopers (who wouldn't) and set up an assault on Hoth. For my part I recruited a motely bunch of Hoth and Rebel Troopers, then added in Chewbacca, Hans Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and C3PO and we were set to go. The first few turns were pretty uneventful as the Dark Side manoeuvered themselves into position and the Rebels lurked inside their base. Tiring of this I sent C3PO out to open a door (what else are droids for) so that I could shoot at the incoming horde. I missed my targets but C3PO attracted a hail of fire and expired. At this point we had an amusing discussion because one of Chewbacca's special abilities is to Repair droids, by taking a damage counter off them. I suggested that he could now repair C3PO, which drew an indignant response, Raphael pointing out that he was "definitely dead". My counter argument that C3PO was forever being disassembled and reassembled in the movies got me no sympathy and he stayed dead.

Meanwhile the Imperial forces mowed down all my troopers, just like the cannon fodder they are in the movies. Things looked grim, but Chewbacca knocked down 2 key enemies in one turn using a nasty combo move, then withstood a storm of fire without getting badly hurt. Hans Solo picked off a menacing Stormtrooper on a Speeder Bike who possessed a nasty Strafe move, while Luke and Leia held off an assault at another door. This was very much true to the spirit of the movies where the heroes hold out against impossible odds and the rarely fearsome Stormtroopers drop like flies. Raphael concentrated on Luke Skywalker who perished, but by now the balance had shifted, particularly when Hans Solo took out his General with a critical hit from an improbable angle. More verisimilitude! Shortly after we stopped playing as it was unlikely that the remaining stormtroopers, though still very numerous, would be able to harm Solo and Chewbacca.

We also played a battle using a random assemblage of interesting figures, just to try them out. I picked on Jango Fett because he has caused me a lot of pain in previous games and eventually got rid of him (at some cost). Alas, I neglected Raphael's AT-ST, and gambled all on an initiative roll, which I lost, allowing the AT-ST the chance to  destroy my Speeder thing which had the only heavy weapon that could have harmed the AT-ST. My valiant Ishi-Tib scout actually got a critical hit on it (which was the only possible way he could damage it) but it was ultimately hopeless. I could have dodged about trying for more critical hits, but that would merely have prolonged the inevitable. Of course what I really needed was a couple of Ewoks, as they seemed to have no difficulty destroying AT-STs with nothing more than some sticks and vines in the movie!

The interesting thing for me was the way the theme, and the background knowledge of the movies, seriously improved the game (particularly our Hoth encounter). I have never been a miniatures gamer, particularly where dense rulebooks and measuring tape is involved. However, the Star Wars Miniatures game is redeemed by theme and nice bits! Who can resist playing with a horde of Imperial Stormtroopers, even if they are useless!

Following these epic encounters we squared off with good old Settlers of Catan Card Game. Unusually this one wasn't even vaguely close, and this seemed to hinge on a series of event die rolls that bought up the Windmill about 7 times in a row. The player controlling the Windmill (Commerce) token gets to steal a resource from their opponent when this happens. At an early stage in the game where resources were scarce this seriously hampered Raphael and it ended up as an easy victory. Still very satisfying though.

Last night I played Starfarers of Catan with Iain and Tully, and that went down pretty well. Iain got shafted at the end by not being familiar with the rules, sending off his colony ships to the wrong star systems, and losing the friendship of the monkey people. Us fellow starfarers were harsh and unsympathetic to his plight! As Catan variants it is a good one, featuring a large map, rattly plastic space ships and random encounters with other spacefolk for variety. I am not sure that it has great lasting ability but would certainly play it several more times. Settlers of the Stone Age edges it out in a battle for my favour though - it features a solid theme, and great sweeping movement.