The Force Awakens in X-Wing on May the 4th!

May the 4th brings awesome news from Fantasy Flight Games for the X-Wing Mini Game!

Poe's black T-70 and the updated Millenium Falcon with Rey, Finn and older Chewy and Han.

You cn see the article below or HERE

What do a desert scavenger and a fugitive Stormtrooper have in common with an iconic war hero and the galaxy's greatest pilot? They are all coming to X-Wing™ in the Heroes of the Resistance Expansion Pack!

With Heroes of the Resistance, Rey, Finn, Han Solo, and Poe Dameron all make the transition from the big screen to your tabletop. Rey and Han arrive as Resistance pilots for a new version of the Millennium Falcon with a sculpt and paint scheme that have been updated to reflect the ship's appearance in The Force Awakens. Finn supports the Resistance as a crew upgrade. And the galaxy's greatest pilot Poe Dameron can now fly to battle as Black One, sitting in the cockpit of his signature black T-70 X-wing.

In addition to its new starship miniatures, Heroes of the Resistance introduces ten ship cards and eighteen upgrades, plus all requisite maneuver dials and tokens. These include a Poe Dameron with a pilot skill value of "9," ship cards for both Han Solo and Chewbacca that feature new pilot abilities, three new unique Resistance X-wing pilots, new elite pilot talents, new Tech upgrades, and unique Title upgrades for both the Millennium Falcon and Black One.

Updating the Millennium Falcon

While, in essence, it is still the same heavily customized YT-1300 light freighter that the galaxy has come to know and love, the Millennium Falcon from the Heroes of the Resistance Expansion Pack comes with a few key differences from the version in the Millennium Falcon Expansion Pack.

First of all, you might notice the ship's new, rectangular sensor array. While this is likely the first change you may notice in the difference between the sculpts, it is not the only one. Heroes of the Resistance introduces a new sculpt and paint scheme for the Falcon that faithfully represent all the changes that the ship underwent between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

A closer look at the Millennium Falcon miniature from the Heroes of the Resistance Expansion Pack.

Next, you might notice that the expansion's new Millennium Falcon  Title upgrade features a different ability from the version in the Millennium Falcon Expansion Pack. While that version seemed to reflect Han Solo's ability to fly theFalcon out of the most improbable of situations, the new version calls to mind Rey's piloting in The Force Awakens, as she looped back on her opponents after flying out of the hull of a crashed Star Destroyer. And just as that maneuver allowed Finn to line up a shot, the new Title upgrade allows your Falcon to catch your opponents squarely in your firing arc more often than not.

And that is a good thing. For even as Heroes of the Resistance introduces new versions of both Han Solo and Chewbacca, it also marks the debut of Rey . The Falcon may come with a turret primary weapon, but Rey's ability ensures that you get the most mileage from your Falcon when you can maneuver it skillfully. Whenever she attacks or defends against an enemy ship within her firing arc, she can reroll up to two blank dice. Accordingly, even asHeroes of the Resistance promotes the exploration of new tactics, it emphasizes the importance that the game places upon skillful maneuvering, reinforcing one of the game's core joys.

The Galaxy's Greatest Pilot

At the time of The Force Awakens, Poe Dameron enjoys a reputation for being the Star Wars galaxy's greatest pilot, and Heroes of the Resistance offers both a new T-70 X-wing miniature and ship card worthy of his reputation.

Among other things, X-Wing has earned a reputation for the high quality of its pre-painted miniatures. These miniatures transform your games into richly immersive Star Wars experiences, and the new T-70 X-wing miniature inHeroes of the Resistance adds to your experience by allowing you to fly Poe in his custom black-and-orange fighter. More than that, though, this new T-70 X-wing has been updated with a new detail certain to catch the attention of every true Star Wars fan: instead of the R4 astromech that comes with the standard T-70 X-wing sculpt, Poe Dameron's signature vessel comes sculpted with his faithful astromech companion, BB-8.

A closer look at Poe Dameron's black-and-orange T-70 X-wing.

Meanwhile, Heroes of the Resistance also introduces a new Poe Dameron ship card. Interestingly enough, his unique pilot talent remains untouched:

"While attacking or defending, if you have a focus token, you may change 1 of your  results to a  or  result."

Yet where his unique pilot talent remains unchanged, Poe's pilot skill value has been increased from "8" to "9," a change accompanied by a corresponding increase in his cost from thirty-one squad points to thirty-three. This change from "8" to "9" is particularly meaningful because it vaults Poe into the very top echelon of X-Wing pilots. No pilot in the game has a base pilot skill value greater than "9." This is the elite value shared by the likes of Darth Vader and Wedge Antilles , and now Poe joins those ranks.

This means that Poe stands an even better chance than before of maneuvering after his opponents and firing before them. Given the versatility that he gains from his ship's boost action, especially when BB-8 is aboard, the ability to maneuver after his opponents makes it easy for Poe to line up his shots, round after round. And firing first is just as crucial… because after Poe has destroyed a ship, he is freed from the threat of return fire.

An Instant Classic

"Chewie, we're home."
     –Han Solo

As the seventh installment in the Star Wars saga, The Force Awakens proved to be an instant classic, honoring everything that made the original trilogy a worldwide phenomenon. Now, Heroes of the Resistance looks to make a similar impact upon the X-Wing miniatures game.

No matter whether you are a new player, just joining the game with The Force Awakens™ Core Set, or you're the grizzled veteran of a hundred dogfights, Heroes of the Resistance expands your game with myriad new options, even as it honors and reinforces all of the most important elements of its design.

Join the fight against the First Order. Heroes of the Resistance is scheduled to arrive at retailers in the third quarter of 2016!

Darth Badger Returns to X-Wing

Something, something, something, Darth Badger..........

Year 3, attempt 3. I am returning to the world of X-Wing.
This began with a new club starting in my area so I reinforced my Imperials. (which I had cleared out most of due to getting no games) and grabbed a second hand mat (above).

It went well and I remembered how much I enjoyed the game.
Then this happened......

Whoops!
Oh well, that's all the Imperials now. (apart from the 2 Imperial Vets I have on order).

Getting back into the Star Wars universe I decided it was about time I watched that 'Force Awakens' thing.
LOVED IT! I Need some rebels!

I stared to grab a few of the ships I liked and a chap at the club gave me Rebels Season 1 on DVD. Now I want a Ghost!
Oh well, I may as well get the lot.

Sooooooooo, looks like I'm back in big time.
I'm currently playing a league at our club using Imperial Aces and doing quite well. Could there be a couple of tournament in my future? Maybe.

May the Force be with you.....
- Hendy Darth Badger

Marvel, Batman, Warmachine, X-Wing, 40K and more in North Cornwall

Hey folks,
Are you in or around North Cornwall UK?

I new club has started up at the Poldark Inn, Delabole on a Friday night.

The LEG Tabletop Wargames play all sorts from Marvel to 40K. X-Wing to Warmachine and Across the Dead Earth to Batman.

You can find the clubs Facebook group HERE. Or if you are not on the book of faces, just show your interest below and we can sort out contact.

Here are a few shots from the last couple of weeks.

Hope to see a few of you there in the future (They have a bar!)

- Hendybadger

Avengers vs Guardians IN SPAAAAAAACE!!!!!!

I landed a new Bespin game mat for X-Wing the other day and it instantly gave me an idea.

In the comics, the Avengers, Guardians and others are often seen floating around in space. Could I pull this off for a game board?

I grabbed my trusty Gale Force 9 Badlands rocks, a couple of toy ships and came up with this asteroid belt set up.

For an idea of scale and such we have Thor and Ironman vs Starlord and Nova.

What do you think?
Is this something you want to try?

- Hendybadger

Darth Badger Returns to X-Wing

Back in 2013, Darth Badger starter playing X-Wing and went on to win the South West regionals.
Life then happened. Children, work, new games and all sorts. The X-Wing collection was moved on for make way for other goodies.

Roughly 2 1/2 years later, I got the itch again. Since I last played the game they have released all sort of new goodies including a whole new play type in Epic / Cinematic.
I could feel the dark side of the Force calling.
I gathered together some pennies, store credit and some extra work cash and started to make mistakes.

The Imperial Fleet has gathered again! All these pretty new ships.
What on earth do they do? Does the Imperial fleet work like it used to?
What am I going to be facing?
Can't wait to find out.

I'm not entering the dark battlefields of space alone though.
Mrs Hendybadger / The Galley Wench has grabbed herself a Scum and Villainy fleet.
Looking at the cards for these, I'm going to be in trouble.

Back with more on this soon,

Darth Badger

The Price of Being (playing) Batman!

Recently I have seen a few people mention the price of the Batman minis from Knight Models and say that the Batman Minis game is too expensive.
To be honest, I thought the same when I looked at it to begin with. I thought £12 a model was a bit steep. Until I looked into it further anyway.

The things to remember with this range is that is 35mm instead of the usual 28-30mm. The models are high detailed metal instead of sprue plastic and it's a licensed product. Licensed items always cost a little more anyway.

With this in mind I thought it may be a good idea to do a price comparison with Batman vs 3 of the top games on the market. X-Wing, Warmachine and Warhammer 40K.
I know all of these games are quite different. The game size, model scale, material used and such but as they are the most popular games our there is shows people are willing to pay the prices to play them.

This sort of thing can be a bit of a minefield though. Each game has several different forces, model sizes, army builds and more. You can do elites or swarms and this all varies the price to play.
For this article I'm going to pick the most popular force in each game, pick a starter force and expand it to a standard sized game.
I will also take into account any rulebooks, specialised templates and dice you may need to get started.
There are several expansions and optional extras out there but this is just what's needed. Tokens, scenery and tape measures are something most people will have already as well.

As it's comparing Batman to other games, I'm going to make two Batman forces. One of just characters and one swarm of thugs with a big character added. This should show the cheapest and most expensive options.

Prices will ALL be taken from Wayland Games as they are a large well known retailer that stocks all ranges. To make things a little easier, prices are rounded to the closest £.

First up is the Bat Family. A starter game for Batman is around 200 Rep and a standard is 350 Rep.
I know there is the new rulebook soon, but there is still a free download rules set so I count it as an optional extra.

Rulebook - Free download
Tokens / Templates - In Rulebook
Batman (Arkham) - 130 Rep - £12
Robin (Arkham) - 68 Rep - £12

Starter game - 198 Rep - Total £24

Batwoman - 95 Rep - £12

Robin (Damien Wayne) - 50 Rep

Standard Game - 342 Rep - Total £48

The other end of the scale for Batman would be a Joker Swarm with a big model for muscle.

Rulebook - Free
Templates / Token - In rulebook
Joker Starter (Joker + 3 Clowns) - 158 Rep - £25
Clowns pack 2 - 41 Rep - £12

Starter game - 199 Rep - Total £37

Clowns pack 1 - 51 Rep - £12
Killer Croc - 95 Rep - £16

Standard game - 345 Rep - Total £65

X-Wing is probably to closest of the top 3 to Batman. It's a small model count licensed game.
For this I'm going for a Rebel force. Starter size of around 40 points and standard size of 100 points.

Starter Set - £24
Rulebook, Tokens, Templates - In Starter
X-Wing - 21 pts - In Starter
X-Wing - 21 pts - £11

Starter Game - 42 pts - Total £35

Millennium Falcon - 27 pts - £23
B-Wing - 22 pts - £11

Standard game - 91 pts - Total £69

The next game up is Warmachine. A normal starter set game is around 11 points and a standard sized game is 35 points. For this list I'm going for the boys in blue, Cygnar.

Rulebook - £18
Templates - £16
Cygnar Starter set - 11 pts - £32
(Stryker, Ironclad, Lancer, Charger)

Starter game - 11 pts - Total £56

Hammersmith - 8 pts - £23
Hunter - 6 pts - £9
Trenchers x 10 - 10 pts - £33

Standard game - 35 pts - £121

For the final game, its the most popular tabletop game in the world. Warhammer 40K. Again, it's the boys in blue, the Ultramarines. Or just standard Marines.
For a starter game I'm going for the basic 1 HQ and 2 Troops at 400 points. For a standard game, the smallest you will probably find is about 1000 points.

Rulebook - £42
SM Codex - £30
Templates - £8
SM Captain - 100 pts - £15
Tactical Squad 10x2 - 300 pts - £40

Starter game - 400 pts - £135

Terminators x5 - 200 pts - £22
Land Raider - 250 pts - £36
Devastators x5 - 150 pts - £16

Standard game - 1000 pts - £209


OK, that was a lot of numbers. Again, all prices come from Wayland Games. I'm sure they could be found cheaper or more expensive on other site or in stores.
Like I have said, I know these are all different games with different scales, sizes, materials and army builds but I have just gone for a very general force for each. The sort of thing a new player would walk into a store and buy. This gives an average cost on startng and playing each of these top / most popular games.

As a quick recap -
Batman - £24 / £48
Joker - £37 / £65
X-Wing - £35 / £69
Warmachine - £56 / £121
WK 40K - £135 / £209

This puts the price of playing Batman vs -
X-wing - About the same.
Warmachine - Just over half
WH 40K - Around a quarter

We all know that our hobby isn't one of the cheapest out there, but if you are looking at Batman, it's probably going to cost the same or less than other games you play.
As with any game though, it doesn't stop after the first few models does it?

Well, that's about it really. The numbers are there and I can't argue with them. I wont say one game is better than another either. It's all down to personal taste.

Did this work out how you expected?
Were you surprised or shocked by any of it?
Let us know below.

EDIT - Some people have asked why I haven't compared Batman to Pulp City, Infinity and Mailfaux.
The new edition of Pulp City doesnt come out until next month and I have no idea what the prices will be yet.
As for Infinity and Malifux, I would love to add them here but at the moment I just don't know enough about the games to make informed lists and comparisons.

- Hendybadger

X-Wing Wave 3!

Fantasy Flight Games have shown the 3rd wave of ships for the X-Wing miniatures game.
Not much is known about what they do yet apart from what is in the pictures and to be honest I don't know a huge amount about Star Wars, I just really like the game, so I will leave you the little bit about each ship that is posted on the FFG site.

HWK-290 Expansion Pack


Designed by Corellian Engineering Corporation to resemble a bird in flight, the “hawk” series excels in its role as a personal transport. The HWK-290 Expansion Pack comes with one detailed miniature at 1/270 scale, a manoeuvre dial, all necessary tokens, six upgrades, and four pilots, including the renowned Kyle Katarn. Each HWK-290 provides a wide range of support options for your squad and can be outfitted with both a turret weapon and crew member.

B-Wing Expansion Pack


Bring the B-wing to your games of X-Wing with the B-Wing Expansion Pack. The B-wing’s heavy weapons array and resilient shielding quickly solidified it as the Alliance’s most formidable assault fighter. Accordingly, the B-Wing Expansion Pack packs a mighty punch! The B-wing can wield as many as two torpedoes, as well as a cannon, and it can be equipped with a system upgrade for precision targeting. The B-Wing Expansion Pack contains a stunning miniature at 1/270 scale, a manoeuvre dial, all necessary tokens, four ship cards, and a devastating arsenal of five upgrade cards.

Lambda-class Shuttle Expansion Pack


Noted for its tri-wing design, the Lambda-class shuttle served a critical role as a light utility craft in the Imperial Navy. Now you can use this utilitarian ship to strengthen your Imperial squad for X-Wing! The Lambda–class Shuttle Expansion Pack includes one large-base Lambda-class shuttle miniature at 1/270 scale, its manoeuvre dial, all necessary tokens, four ship cards, and a whopping twelve upgrades, which afford Imperial players an astonishing level of customisation and control of their squads.

TIE Bomber Expansion Pack

While not as agile or fast as other TIE variants, the TIE bomber is capable of delivering an astonishing payload, and the TIE Bomber Expansion Pack carries enough firepower to destroy virtually any enemy target. Each TIE bomber is capable of carrying two torpedoes, two missiles, and one bomb. Accordingly, the expansion’s five upgrade cards present you with a wide array of armaments, including the punishing Proton Bombs. You’ll also find a striking miniature, a manoeuvre dial, all necessary tokens, and four talented new pilots.

You can see more about the cards included in these packs in the X-Wing News (link) section of the Fantasy Flight website.

I know I will be picking up at least 2 each of the TIE Bombers and Lambda shuttle. What about you?

Hendybadger awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Darth Badger is Victorious at the X-Wing South West Regional!!!!!!

Last Saturday I entered the X-Wing South West regional event at Clifton Road Games in Exeter.
I have only been playing the game for about 3 weeks but have been really enjoying it so thought it could be a fun day out.
The local club leader Tom (Chew-ginga) joined me and we headed of to go PEW PEW for the day.

The plan was to do a full report on the event, who I played, what they used and such. But, I got caught up playing games, laughing, chatting and having a great day I totally forgot that plan.  I did get a shot of the standings after round 2 though which listed everyone that played!

My list for the day was a TIE Fighter swarm.  I had run a similar list the week before with good results and lander the single Fighter expansion on ebay a couple of day before the event. This gave me the pilots I was after to make a decent looking force of 100pts.

Howlrunner + Stealth Device
Backstabber
Dark Curse
Mauler Mithel
Night Beast
Black Squadron Pilot - Draw Their Fire

How had I managed with this list in the past? Well, I hadn't used it before. Round 1 was the first game with it.

To my surprise I was in the final 4 cut after the first 4 rounds. In each game I had only only lost 2 Fighters and won with a clear 100pts of the opponents force destroyed.
The semi was a lot closer. 3 Fighters down vs a Firespray and 2 Interceptors.
Everyone had a single damage point left and lucky dice won me that one with 2 Fighters remaining.

The final was against another player that had only had a few games before this event.  A Falcon list flew towards me and the dice were in my favour again.

At the end of the day, Darth Badger had won the 4 round swiss and the 4 person cut. Finished the day with and awesome trophy, plastic focus, rebel patch, token bag and an invite to the World Champs in America in November!

Sooooooo pleased!
Had a great day and would like to say massive thank you to Steve at Clifton Road Games for running the event, all the players that attended and Chew-ginga for giving me a new Interceptor for taking him!

Will I be off to America? I don't know yet.

Hendybadger awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

What have they been doing?

EDIT: SORRY FOR THE DELAY IN POSTING. I AM WAITING TO HEAR BACK ABOUT SOMETHING GREAT FOR THE NEXT POST WHICH WILL BE THE 500TH!!!!!!

You may have noticed that it has been a bit quiet around these parts lately. This is for a variety of different reasons. Real life and gaming related.
I thought I was about time to catch you up with what we (myself and the Galley Wench) have been up to over the last few weeks and what we are planning in the next few.

Real Life
I am near the end of an entire month without a day off of work which included over 2 weeks of 12-14 hour days. As you cam imagine, this has left me with very little spare time and very tired when I do have some.

Some of you may know that the Galley Wench is creating a new little badger at the moment who is due to join us at the start of December. At the same time she has also been looking after our crazy and energetic 18 month old (who thinks he is 5). My spare time outside of work has mainly been spending time with the family and helping out my wife where I can. We even went out on our together own this week! Second time since the little one was born! Yes that sounds sad but it was a big deal for us and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Gaming
The 2 of us have been doing some playtesting over the last few months. A remake of a great game system that is becoming an AWESOME game system! But, these are games, rules and a couple of models that can't be posted up on here (yet) so that has taken up some writing time.
Very soon we hope to see the final edition of playtesting and then it wont be long until the world gets to see the awesomeness!

The Galley Wench had her birthday recently and among other goodies she had some studio lights and backdrops. Could this be a return of her videos?

DreadBall has been a big game for the 2 of us at home. Its something that takes just 5 minutes to set up and no more than 45 mins to play. Great to get a couple of games in on the coffee table after the little badger has gone to bed.
My parents gave me Season 1 and a pitch and we sold a load of old unused stuff to get our hands on Season 2 which arrived a couple of days ago. The plan is to review everything from the start of S2 onwards then add painting articles, news and game reports. There will hopefully be a league at the local Full on Assault gaming club soon as well so reports will be coming in about that.

A few days ago I was woken up to " Hunny, X-Wing is on Asda online. So I bought it for you!"
I knew I married the Galley Wench for a reason.
This game has been good fun to start with and a couple of ships have already been added to the fleet.
The local club, Full On Assault, has a couple of players so I hope to get games in on a regular basis.
Battle reports, tactics, news and more will be appearing on here in time.

As always, we are massive fans of Pulp City at ToaTS. The Open Beta is going strong so we have been having a go with those rules and reporting back. Even got a couple of others interested locally that have started playing in the last couple of weeks. More Supreme action!
We are both taking part in the PC Forum Mini Exchange but the people we are painting for don't know which models they are getting yet so no pics can be posted. Once they have seen them we will put them up on here. (Hint - They are dark and wet)
I know I started some PC reviews before life jumped in the way and I do plan to continue with them. Got about 8 sets lined for posts over the next few weeks and that will increase with the new monthly releases.
There are 4 minis left on the side to build. Then it time to paint the entire PC range!

With lots going on you sometimes have to put things on the back burner. Unfortunately that has been Deep Wars.

The Starter Sets have been built and the game board just needs sanding and washing. Everything else still  needs to be cleaned and glued. Then there is painting, games, reviews and more. 

Will get back to this as soon as possible but something needed to be put away for a while.

To make up for the delay, keep and eye out for the next post. You can win the Deep Wars rules PDF! (10 people can in fact)

Adverts
Just a quick note here for those that advertise on ToaTS.
Due to delays I have decided I have decided to extend the 1-year ads to lifetime ads!
And that goes for anybody else that would like to advertise on this page.

So there we have it. The blog has been quiet but we have been very far from quiet ourselves.

Everything will be back on track soon. Promise!

Hendybadger and the Galley Wench awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!