A whole lot of Sci Fi goodies at a very good price!
For a complete change of pace - if you recall I mentioned that this year I was looking at skirmish style games so as to ease myself back into some figure painting - and as I had a small balance remaining on my Christmas Amazon gift card, I decided to take advantage of the low price and purchased a copy of Mantic Games ‘Sci Fi Dungeon Crawler’: Star Saga.
To be honest I was attracted to this for three reasons - the figures, the terrain pieces and the fact it is a square based game reminiscent of Hasbro/GW’s Space Crusade or GW’s classic Space Hulk. This has done the game a slight disservice as there is rather more depth to it than the two mentioned. There are a number of expansions available that add to the experience with additional figures, scenarios and rules etc.
Some very useful terrain types including terminals, weapon racks, crates and a couple of holding/stasis tanks - “Looks like love at first sight to me. Oh he likes you Burke!”
Another useful part of the game is the ability to play it solo which is rather handy and is something I will explore in due course.
All very ‘epic space opera-ish’ looking
My copy cost £35 and represents really good value for money. To give you an idea there are 35 figures (28mm I believe although possibly slightly larger), 36 terrain pieces, 33 board tiles and even a brace of Aliens style sentry guns! On top of that there is a bewildering array of game cards and counters, range rulers, a flame template, the rules and a mission book.
The terrain pieces are rather nice as are the figures although I did look at some of the latter with a wry smile. I have to say that the whole package represented great value for money and I will certainly get some fun out of it, maybe not it the way the designers intended though.
Two excellent rules sets - designed for small numbers of figures
I have a few ideas around how to use the figures from the game - the upcoming Stargrave (from the Frostgrave stable) for one as well as Galactic Heroes and even a few other odds and ends I have kicking around. I am even looking forward to painting them as something a little different. I also have a long term skirmish rules plan in mind but that will be for another post at some point.
8 comments:
These scenery pieces look really useful David...
I do like the cover art for Galactic Heroes... wonderfully retro 😁
All the best. Aly
Hello there Aly,
The terrain pieces are very handy indeed and are nicely detailed - they should paint up well. The cover for the Galactic Heroes rules has that real Dan Dare/Flash Gordon style feel about it - I am no connoisseur of pulp style Sci fi but the imagery is how I would imagine it.
I have the original Fistful of Lead as well which will I shall experiment with for a few other ideas I have.
First of all though, is the resumption of the ship building which should be in a couple of weeks although there is some work I can tackle in the meantime with them.
All the best,
DC
Bit different from your usual Dave?
Not my sort of thing at all, but I must say it looks a good buy and great value. Sci-Fi skirmish games when well done do look wonderful. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this.
Hello there Raymondo,
I have ‘previous’ with Sci Fi skirmish level games so this is not unknown territory for me. I am looking forward to painting the figures - not specifically for this game - and seeing where it takes me.
All the best,
DC
Hi there Steve J,
I have had a lot fun with various Sci Fi games over the years at a skirmish level and this particular set seemed like such a good deal I was unable to resist it! Needless to say there are some cunning plans afoot....
All the best,
DC
Woe, love this, see what you mean with respect to Space Crusade
Hi Geordie,
I thought it represented great value for money and with Stargrave coming out this year it will certainly get some additional exposure.
I always enjoyed Space Crusade and Space Hulk for the inherent built in carnage!
All the best,
DC
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