*Shrink-Wrapped box of Hornet Leader
Arkham Horror 2nd Edition (Fantasy Flight Games)
A Great cooperative game in the Lovecraftian / Cthulhu setting , where your team of investigators try to stop the GOO (Great Old Ones, a big and ugly manifestation of evil) from coming to our world using a warp gate (ok not that warp gate, but its a gate nonetheless).. if you watch 'Hellboy' movie then it exactly described the kind of giant squid-like monster that want to enslave the world. Arkham horror is like playing as the Bureau of Paranormal detectives i guess.
World of Warcraft the Adventure Games (Fantasy Flight Games)
This is the small version of the giant World of Warcraft the BoardGame. In its core it is a competitive game between 2-4 players each racing to reach top level by doing quest and putting 'obstacles' / hindrance to other players.. a good quick game to setup and play. Sadly it is out of print now.
Lord of the Rings : The Living Card Game (Fantasy Flight Games)
A Cooperative Card game thats captures the beautiful journey/questing in middle earth. The artwork is great and the game system also challenging enough to last months.. i also get their expansion (Hunt for Gollum expansion)
Space Hulk : Death Angels Card Game (Fantasy Flight Games)
A Cooperative Card game thats not really a card game but a game that use card as replacement for miniatures. If you know the original SpaceHulk whether its the 1st , 2nd or 3rd edition then this game is the 'lite' version and comes in a very small package that you can carry anywhere. The Premise is the same, an elite team of Space Marines in their best weapons and armour enter a space derelict and got attacked by endless aliens that can tear our the marines armour with their claw.. very hard to win but fun.
*One thing i have to say to Fantasy Flight Games, their customer service is way beyond excellent. If your game is not complete or got missing/broken part (like my LOTR game), then you just email them and they will send the replacement without question asked.. what a great service..
Hornet Leader : Carrier Air Operation (Dan Verssen Games)
As a person who have interest in real-world Military Aviation , i noticed there's a buzz on the wargaming sites about a great solitaire Wargame called 'HORNET LEADER : Carrier Air Operations' by DanVerssen Games (DVG). At first i noticed that the price is higher than the usual mass-market boardgames from companies like FFG, but then again if i dont buy it how can i know whether its a good game or not ? My Conclusion : This game shelved my other games, even LOTR game is shelved and the Hunt of Gollum expansion is yet unplayed.
The description of the gamebox said :
"If the US Navy has it, so do you! " Hornet Leader – Carrier Air Operations is a huge game based on the material seen in our Vassal/PDF games. We have also further enhanced the game systems and weapon values to make them fully consistent with the new systems seen in Phantom Leader. Hornet Leader spans all aspects of US naval aviation throughout the service life of the F/A-18 Hornet from 1983 to the present day.The game places you in command of the pilots and aircraft of a squadron of U.S. Navy strike aircraft in hostile campaigns around the world. The aircraft and weapons available for each campaign are historically accurate. A major part of the game is mission planning. You decide how to arm your aircraft and which pilots are best for the mission. Pilots are rated for skill level. Deciding which pilots to fly each mission is a major consideration. Your pilots will become fatigued with every mission. If you fly a pilot too often, his skills will degrade. Your pilots also gain experience with every mission flown. This makes for some great decision-making. Should you keep flying the top pilots and further fatigue them to get the job done, or fly the new guys to prep them for the tough missions ahead? Component List: |
Why solitaire ? because there's lack of wargamer around when i feel the need to play, most people on the area are playing the usual boardgames or cardgames like Carcassone , Agricola and Dominion. Not many people breaks out Arkham Horror or Warcraft BoardGame (the monster sized one)..
For people who are not in the WarGaming Circle, these links below will provide a clue on what im talking about ;-D
PHOTOs
These are my own photo taken by an ancient Nikon D90 DSLR with NIKKOR manual lens AI 50mm f/1.2 (on second thought, i should use standard 18-55 nikkor instead of 50mm manual lens)
* notice the thickness of that box, its a big and heavy box with lots of contents..
* Box Contents : Pilot Cards, Target and event Cards, Tactical board, campaign maps, counters, manual, player aids, player logs..
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| *Hornet Leader Crew |
VIDEO
Video links showing Hornet Leader review and sample play sessions by 'marcowargamer' on YouTube. The reviews itself are pretty complete and describe the game beautifully, the sample game session (3 videos) are clear enough to describe a strike mission.
*the comprehensive game review by MarcoWargamer
However, the sample video only describe certain game mechanics and dont show the kind of choice that a player can make when preparing their strike group. It only show 4 Harrier AV8B running a US Marine Corps campaign on Taiwan strait against Chinese Communist targets. Every campaign can be played using US NAVY and US Marine Corps rule, if you play as US NAVY then you get all kind of aircraft from the old warhorse the A-6 Intruder to the F-35 JSF Stealth Fighter. If you play as US Marine Corps then you can play the AV8B Harrier II and F-35 Stealth (Marine SVTOL version).
* Sample Session 1 of 3
* Sample Session 2 of 3
* Sample Session 3 of 3
Thats concludes my introduction of this excellent wargame. to read more about this game you can visit DVG games and download the PDF game rules freely..
http://www.dvg.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/33/Hornet%20Leader%20-%20Carrier%20Air%20Operations
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