Unboxing BSG: Starship Battles from Ares Games

Battlestar Galactica (or BSG) was one of my favourite TV shows growing up as a kid. When it returned to the small screen in 2004 I was pretty excited - I can still remember watching the Pilot whilst my nephew fell asleep on me (he was a pretty small toddler at the time). The combination of outstanding story lines, brilliant "WW2 gun camera" style space cinematography and deep characters made it a must-see each week for me.

Fast forward some years and the FFG Board Game came along and it was equally brilliant. I've played many games, lost more than I have won, and been excited to play it each and every time. 

Now we get a chance to scratch that BSG itch again with a new spaceship game (from Ares Games) that promises a lot! Best of all I've managed to get hold of a copy thanks to some friends that went along to Essen SPIEL last month..

The box.... it is just a box.

Lifting the lid we find... some amazing ships (more on this at the end), flight dials and stands

The flight dials are pretty cool and give a little heads up on the complexity of the game

Next up we find the rule book, scenario book and ship ID tokens

A quick look at the Index. I've got some early thoughts to share (in a later post) about the rules

Tokens and templates. I wondered why the Asteroids were on a thinner cardboard stock. Presume it is because of the movement mechanics?

The bottom layer is filled with movement cards, pilot and ship cards and upgrades. Not a single square piece of paper in sight...

And now what you have really been waiting for....

The Raider:
A surprisingly impressive paint job. I expected much less detail if I am being blunt.

Apollo's Viper:
Apollo's ship looks nicely battered and weathered. I didn't even see some of the detail till I took these photos and looked at it at 400% size on my screen.

A bit blurry... sorry.

Hardball's Viper:
Hardball's ship is much cleaner, but no less detailed.

Viper Comparison:
A top down view of the two ships to see the major differences.

Thinking about the components (excluding the ships) they are nicely printed, stored in some useful vac trays, with really high quality pieces. You can see why the game has a higher RRP than X-Wing.

The ships however are where the game truly shines, and shines brightly for that matter. They are absolutely fantastic. I don't mean that in a "oh these are mass produced so how high a quality can you expect" kind of way. I mean it in a "these are painted better than I would paint them" kind of way. By comparison they are as good, or better than ANY FFG X-Wing model. I guess I should have expected this high level of quality given their Wings of War aircraft, but I was still blown away.

Now for the rules.... stay tuned. I've read them once, didn't quite "get" them and watched a couple of the GENCON videos to help.

Getting Excited About Panzerschreck 2015

About 12 months ago on the long drive from Palmerston North and Panzerschreck 2014 Phil and I started discussing a possible team up for this years event. It seemed like a match made in heaven, he claims to know the rules well and I bring a level of charm and sophistication…..

What is Panzerschreck?
For those of you that do not know, Panzerschreck is the oldest (and first) Flames Of War Tournament in the world. It is run by the Manawatu Duellists Society, including our own figure sculptor Evan. For the past few years it has been a teams event where you pick a friend (or rules writer in my case) and build a pair of 1000 point armies. You can trade up to 100 points to help with the list building. You also get to play your games on big 8’ x 4’ tables meaning that there is a lot of real estate to cover. Located in sunny but cold Palmerston North it is a quick 7 hour drive down south so the BF boys get together, hire a big van and declare a road trip!

What are we taking?
Phil already had a list lined up with what he wanted to play – an FHH Panzersturmkompanie from Blood, Guts, & Glory – so I started thinking (as we drove home) about what I could take, but by the time I dropped him off I had a basic idea. Phil had no recon, I wanted to paint Pumas… job done, list built!

Phil’s Component: FHH Panzersturmkompanie from Blood, Guts, & Glory (1090 points)
FHH Panzersturmkompanie HQ 60 points
FHH Panzersturm Platoon 190 points
FHH FlaK Platoon (6x Sd Kfz 251/21)  190 points
FHH Panzerjaeger Platoon (3x Panzer IV/70(V)) 305 points
FHH Mortar Platoon (with Stuka zu Fuss) 165 points
FHH Armoured Flame-thrower Platoon (2x Sd Kfz 251/16) 70 points
FHH Cannon Platoon (4x Sd Kfz 251/9) 110 points

Chris’s Component: Panzerspahkompanie from Atlantik Wall (910 points)
Panzerspahkompanie HQ (1x Sdkfz 234/2 Puma) 50 points
Puma Panzerspah Platoon (1x Panzerspah Patrol - 2 Puma) 100 points
Puma Panzerspah Platoon (1x Panzerspah Patrol - 2 Puma) 100 points
Puma Panzerspah Platoon (1x Panzerspah Patrol - 2 Puma) 100 points
Radio-control Tank Platoon (1x Konigstiger (Porshe)) 250 points
Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Anti-tank Gun Platoon (3x 7.5cm PaK40) 155 points
Anti-tank Gun Platoon (3x 7.5cm PaK40) 155 points

With the lists largely settled on quite early you would have expect that I would have gotten straight into assembling and painting the key components quite early. Regular readers will know that I never assemble or paint anything early! As the months slipped by, we found ourselves a few months out with nothing started. Phil got stuck in and made up for lost time, I….. well let’s say I kept thinking about it!

As the last few weeks ticked by I started contemplating wholesale list changes till my previous team mate (Mike Haycock) offered the use of his Panzerspahkompanie. Normally I hate borrowing figures as it means I don’t get things painted (tournaments are a great incentive to finish off the odd unit or army) but this time I was exceptionally grateful as I knew I had no chance of finishing (or starting) the force.

What’s our plan?
Don’t really have one! I’ve never used Pumas (well not since a few games during the V2 rules playtesting) so I am going to learn on the job. Lurking, sneaking, and avoiding the enemy will be my top priority. The Tiger II with its host of special rules will find a nice hill to sit on and try to avoid moving, whilst the PaKs blaze away at enemy medium armour, and occasionally move up if necessary. Phil’s job is to take care of aircraft, infantry, medium tanks, guns, and anything else that the opposition has! Looks like we have a plan after all…


Post Match Entertainment
One of the biggest reasons for heading to Panzerschreck is the fun during the drive down and the gaming in the evening. Every year we make a brief stop in at the Waiouru Army Museum but this year we have decided to come back a day later (and avoid the 2am Monday morning arrival at home) and come back on Monday, and include a stop in and tour at the Museum. We are also going to take down BSG (Phil loves being a Cylon!) and a few other games to keep us entertained during the long cold evenings…

As you can tell I am pretty excited about the weekend away “with the lads”, pushing some toy soldiers around the table and generally having a bit of a laugh. All Phil and I need to do now is get a few wins to top it all off.

Sunday Gaming: Battlestar Galactica and Dystopian Wars

Had a great day of Sunday Gaming today and despite turning up late (as usual) Victor and I managed to get a game of Dystopian Wars in, before settling down for a good game of Battlestar Galactica with Sean and Casey.

Initial setup, Dreadnought and Battleship up the middle

Dystopian Wars was Victors Empire of the Blazing Sun up against my Prussians. It was really a chance to see how much of the new ruleset I managed to absorb after last nights read. In terms of the update to V1.1 I really like alot of what they have done. It feels like there is alot of streamlining, but I need many more games to really get my head around the changes. I also wish I had a quick reference sheet with the model assigned rules (MARS) to help me remember what everything is. I also need to look at sorting out some tokens as we had a lot of damaged ships limping around the table. We kept the game simple and avoided anything flying, as well as too many of the optional (or what we refered to as optional) rules like morale...

Cruisers head to the left flank, enemy in the distance

As it stood my little ships accounted for themselves well cleaning out alot of Victors destroyer screen, but his cruisers then took their toll on the survivors and my battleship. Meanwhile my gunships (think guns of a battleship but speed of a cruiser) worked over his battleship with a little help. In the end we called it a draw. I think I may need to re-read the rules again and perhaps cruise the Spartan Games forum for a few extra gaming aids / FAQs etc - either way a great game and a good test drive for my new islands (I'll have more photos of them soon). Hopefully this week my last two will arrive allowing me to create an island airfield an a table-corner industrial facility for some home-brewed scenarios.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game

Next up was BSG - the Fantasy Flight board game. If you like BSG at all, and you like board games at all, then this is a absolute MUST purchase. I've played it a dozen times now and each time is different, nail biting, back stabbing, high quality fun... and we haven't even had a single game yet using the expansions (but now Sean is hooked he will read the expansion rules and teach the rest of us!).

As they say on the site
The Board Game is an exciting game of mistrust, intrigue, and the struggle for survival which places each player in the role of one of ten of their favorite characters from the show. Each playable character has their own abilities and weaknesses, and all must work together in order for humanity to have any hope of survival. However, one or more players in every game is secretly a Cylon, and wants the humans to perish.

The basic premise is that anyone can be a Cylon, it is just luck. As a group you try to get your doomed fleet home whilst the Cylons (who many not even know they are one yet) try to stop you.

Oh really?

Short version of the game, I was everyones favourite (Baltar) and knew that I was a skin-job from the start. I spent the first half of the game hiding, counciling the other players, trying to hide my identity. Mike was playing a confusing game and even though I knew he was a human he had the rest thinking he was a toaster at heart. I changed sides with a bang and proceeded to cause trouble whilst I waited for an ally. In the end it was Casey (Adama) who revealed himself, more through accident than anything else though. In the end the Cylons plucked victory from defeat as the humans were moments away from salvation (not may humans admittedly, more than a few perished after a massive Cylon ambush).

Assuming I make it to the next Sunday Gaming session I very much hope that we roll out another game of BSG!