Sunday, April 10, 2016

Mastering the Rainbow: How to tackle drafting tournaments in Dice Masters

There are many ways to experience a game for the first time. My first exposure to Dice Masters wasn't even playing the game proper, it was a draft. A local store was holding a tournament and invited me to make a selection for someone who no-showed. Not going to sugar coat it: I am a sucker for opening mystery packages and looking at the art on cards. Of course I was going to love the draft, but I wasn't expecting to like the game itself. As it turns out, it's not only great to play casually, the Rainbow Draft/ Tournament combination is good introduction for anyone wanting to test their competitive game skills. I'd like to give a few tips for anyone interested in playing Dice Masters but have little experience playing in tournaments.

Star Wars: Rebellion - A Review from a Casual Player

*This was originally published on 4/8/16 on the Armada Tactics at Steel Squadron HQ blog, ran by my better half. Check out Biggs IRL and his posts here*
“Casual” gaming is sometimes confused with gaming set on “easy mode”. While I rarely play in tournaments, I do enjoy playing games with more strategy and finer mechanics. Meta-gaming doesn’t always hold my interest, but I can appreciate a system that continuously blends its engineering with its atmosphere. Yes, I fly casually, but I also enjoy the long hours spent playing games like Twilight Imperium. Actually, part of why I recommend Rebellion is because of how much similar it is to Twilight Imperium. It’s a universe that changes throughout the game and each player is given a pretty hard winning condition to meet. Anyone who regularly plays games like X-Wing Miniatures or Armada will like Rebellion, but it can pose as an interesting experience for anyone who enjoy the Star Wars series. I want to talk about this game from the perspective of a casual player – not only get other casual players to try this game, but to encourage more veteran players to challenge their counterparts with more complex gameplay.