Archive for Peter Oggelsby
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Peter Oggelsby
Australia
Perth
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You know Ive been playing games for ages, and yet often I found myself looking for more, never truly being satisfied with a game for very long at all and then moving on to something different.
This has been a cycle that has been going for close to 20 years.
Now Im in my mid 30's and married and shes real tight on my 'Hobby', so the quest for that Holy Grail is more needed now than ever before.
Often I would think this quest either a metaphor for life, that it goes on and you must make the most of it with what you have, or as plainly unfulfillable.
Well I think that just changed within one week.
Star Trek: Fleet Captains
I really love this game, so much so that Ive not thought much about any other games.
The sheer amount of replayability is just great, in the few games we've played so far it feels like we've barely stepped out of our front doors in comparison to the amount of unexplored space still to discover.
That keeps this game feeling new every time I play it, and every time is a new experience, almost like the feeling of reading a book and wishing you could unread it and then read it again from that first hand perspective again.
Certainly with so many cards and randomness, there is a massive luck factor, but I agree with Geosphere's view, that your role as a Fleet Captain is to mitigate that luck with your decisions as best as you can.
Its also great because it is ultimately a simple game but with so much to do - My dad can even play it and play competitive and formidably against me, and that is a plus, because he loves Star Trek and raised me on sci-fi's like Trek, Blake's 7 etc.
I cant wait for more expansions, anything to add even more to this wonderful game, but I must say that never has a base game ever felt so fulfilling.
Super Dungeon Explore
This game is so cute it will make you puke.
The figures are sheer beauty that everything else in the game seems lacking by comparison.
And the map boards simply dont do this game justice, this game truly deserves to be in full 3D.
Man I want that castle from the picture from the demo at a con.
Its cute, its fun, and relatively simple too.
I play this with my wife and she thinks its just adorable.
It really needs expansions though, the heroes have lots of synergy and discovering the combinations you can do with them is part of the fun.
The monsters unfortunately dont have nearly as much, but the strats seems quite straight forward, but having new and different monsters will add much to this games lifespan.
One great thing about this is you could make your own custom creatures without having to make up so many of your own house rules for them, there is alot of weight in the abilities already included in the base rules.
One Idea I had for a boss was a version of ForgeMaster Throngus from Grim Batol in WoW.
He changes weapons and viola has a new fighting style that must be adjusted to.
Shield Phlanx - In this stance he gains Immobile, spray 5, and Fire.
Mace - In this stance he gains Slowed, and Cataclysmic Damage (3 Damage)
Twin Swords - Still working on this one.
But that was the basic premise for my idea.
Other translated ideas are like:
Flaming Stomp - Wave X, Fire
Shattering Stomp - Lance X, Fragile
Unbalancing Stomp - Wave X, Knockdown.
Freezing Breath - Spray X, Cold and Immobile (Frozen), or Cold, Slowed and Poisoned (Chilled).
Melt Armor - Fire and Fragile
Anti-magic Eye - Bind and Pacify. (was working on a Beholder idea  )
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Peter Oggelsby
Australia
Perth
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Again the urge is upon me to add to my collection, and Im really uncertain what I want to get.
I am also short on cash
Wrath of Ashardalon
I have Castle Ravenloft and am on the fence about how I feel about it, sure its a very dry type of dungeon crawler, where in other games you get excitement at encounters (Warhammer Quest comes to mind), this is a constant barrage of monsters and bad stuff, unrelenting to the point of boring.
The game play is constant but im not sure if Id define it as fun.
New characters, new monsters, the Gauth mmm but yea, undecided.
Claustophobia
Nice components, and from what Ive read, engaging gameplay thats fun. Sounds good, but id have liked a different variety of monsters (being a D&D geek) and heroes.
My idea of a questing party are individuals with distinct roles.
Dust Tactics expanding
I like this game and the Operation Cyclone expac is pretty cheap, though im sorta dubious about the line to be honest, it seems like its going to be forever til more good stuff gets released.
The base set by itself isnt enough for me, I want more.
Mansions of Madness
Very on the fence with this one.
I like the theme, that scores top marks for me, mythos haunted house.
From what ive read about the gameplay and set up time turn me off of it though.
Makes me want to crank out my 1st ed Betrayal at the House on the Hill although my experience with that was about 50/50 of fun or dull ending
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Peter Oggelsby
Australia
Perth
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Commanding a battle force consisting of squads of men and supported by armor is one of my gaming 'loves'.
The other is the title of this entry, personal scale games where you control a figure or two in a detailed game.
Off the top of my head I have two favorites in this style of gaming, Inquisitor and Warcraft Miniatures.
What did both these games have in common? The fact that they both died tragic deaths prematurely.
Games Workshop stopped covering Inquisitor and sent it the way of the Fanatic Press far too early after its release, where as Upper Deck Entertainment killed WoW Minis just months before the release of what I was hoping to be the most kick ass set of figures ever - Souls of Vengeance.
Warcraft Miniatures was going to be 'the one' for me, so saying I was heartbroken to hear that they werent going to release SoV is an understatement.
I still have a pic of a flyer for it, and man, Illidan and Maiev looked soooooo cool.
The rules of the game were great, the base10 engine they used was amazing - they could have imported it into a RPG and it would rock.
This game died far before its potential was reached, being promised detailed PvE rules and raids.
Just the amount of untapped ideas for figures makes me ache inside.
I still have to teach this game to my Fiance' but she will pick it up easily I feel.
R.I.P Warcraft Miniatures, you will be missed (Curious note, I tend to play mostly official things, despite working on alot of ideas for expanding this game on the old Wowminimods website. - heres praying for an official revival though I doubt it)
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Peter Oggelsby
Australia
Perth
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My first entry into my new blog where I will try to rate, rank and catergorize games in my collection while trying to satisfy my gaming needs.
Ive been collecting games since I was about 13 years old, recieving the classic HeroQuest one day after seeing an advertisement for it on television.
Back then I was into the old gold box advanced dungeons and dragons games and getting my first miniatures of goblins, orcs and heroes really opened up a new world to me.
When I was a child I fondly recall setting up my unpainted heroquest figures, along with a couple of lead miniatures a friend gave me, on a piece of green felt cloth and thinking how amazing it was to have this little world before me.
Also around that time I got my first issue of White Dwarf which blew me away, seeing all the painted figures and dioramas and their quality.
Many years later at the age of 16, after I had dabbled with Epic: Space Marine, I took the plunge into Warhammer 40K. And I was hooked.
Actually thinking back right now, my interest in miniature gaming started even earlier, but in a different form.
I would play with my G.I Joes with my dad, setting up a blanket over a couple of pillows to simulate hills and basically we took turns determining Line of Sight from figure to figure and attempting to throw a projectile (pen lid as I recall) along that line of sight to score hits.
Hehe, as I think about it, that was were it really started mmm.
Anyways, long story short Warhammer sucked and was never as enjoyable for me after they brought in 3rd edition, despite my liking for the majority of the changes they had made, the game just didnt seem fun anymore.
Since then I've been looking for a game to fill my need for miniature wargamming and after trying very hard to like 5th edition 40k as well as some other systems such as Rezolution, Starship Troopers, Gangs of Mega-city One, and that other game with prepainted miniatures that I cant recall the name of despite being in the other room (yea, I really didnt get into it, but by not remembering its name shows how little impact it made on me)
Thats when about 2 weeks ago I started reading reviews about Dust Tactics, mostly because I am a FFG junkie and and found that I can rely on them for quality in games. That and their games tend to bring a nice awe of satisfaction when you first open them up.
DUST TACTICS - My thoughts.
This game bring back in simplicity the fun that Ive been missing for a while in a wargame, Its brutal its bloody, but its also fast paced.
I remember agonising over army lists before, or making terrain or painting up my forces - this must have been fun for me when I was younger because now that Im in my 30's I have very little patience for any of that anymore.
For me now, I want to spend more time actually playing games now and less prep - thats why I hated games like Necromunda, 30 min battle and 30 min wind down with paperwork.
So in that regard I love how Dust is so simple and fast to set up and pack away.
While Id love to get a Deluxe edition and have fully painted figures, the standard set is fine.
Better than fine actually, having played a couple of test games against myself, it seems very well balanced while both containing decent forces.
Sure the new 40k Black Reach set had great figures but still it seemed incomplete.
Dust Tactics feels sorta complete, sorta because I can always want to expand on what I have - and I really hope FFG does this game proud and expands it nicely without breaking it.
This could really become my wargame, although im not too certain about its theme, Ive never been a historical buff so I havent too much knowledge about WW2.
Dust isnt really WW2 though? yea but it took me a bit to tell the difference between panzersfausts and ... heh, I dont even remember what the german bazooka is called.
So theme seems a little dubious, but after watching Saving Private Ryan I think I could dig this.
Is the game too simple for me? I dont think so, since Ill be playing games mostly with my dad and fiance' I think the simpler the better.
Oh, and admittedly one thing that really made this game cool for me is the Ludwig, once you pick that baby up and attach its arms you cant help but admire it.
I think I held it up and went "Pew Pew Blam Blam" for an hour and still do from time to time, this thing surely blows the plastic dreadnaught from Black Reach away, hands down.
I guess my final thought on the matter is that Dust Tactics could be the one to satisfy my wargaming itch, but only time will tell because I want to see and do more than what is available in the base set.
Edit: Mmmm Ive had a thought on one thing Id like to see in game, 2nd edition 40k had mission cards which I really loved, Id like to see something like that for non scenario Dust Tactics Battles.
Oh also, Dust Tactics sets up on my 3x3 table perfectly - this is my indoors gaming table when its too hot to go out to my gaming shed, which seems to have been the majority of the year.
Maybe one day ill buy a second starter set or even a deluxe to make bigger badder games but for now the product seems fine, but as typical, im always wanting more
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