18th October - The Daughters play Mars Attacks

Been quite a busy couple of weeks at work since I went back covering holidays and things, and a couple of busy ones still to come but I've managed to squeeze a bit of hobby in among it all. It's been a week of parcels, including our pre-ordered copy of Mars Attacks from Mantic it's been a great week of opening boxes.

Parcels have included:

1. The Wife's and mine Christmas presents to each other of the Dropzone Commander two player starter, a plastic Shaltari starter and the new rule book.
2. The Youngest's Bolt Action Italians for her Christmas present
3. A new A3 self-healing cutting mat to replace my ridiculously small one
4. The first five Horus Heresy books (which I've now almost finished in the space of a week)
5. My Counterblast Kickstarter pledge reward (I got all five starters)
6. Mars Attacks
7. And my Tarot of Loka Kickstarter reward

I've got a few other things coming next week thanks to War and Peace's moving sale last weekend.

We've been playing through the Infinity starter boxes run of scenarios The Eldest vs The Youngest and The Wife vs myself.

But today was allocated towards our first game of Mars Attacks. We opened the box and put the terrain together after lunch and I have to say that I had no trouble with the clipping the terrain together this time (compared to Deadzone which I found needed a little filing back here and there) and we ended up with a board like this.

The game plays much like Mantics Deadzone but at a parred back level (a lot less modifiers). For those who haven't played the game works on a square system (cubes for Deadzone) with combat interactions being resolved by opposed 3d8 dice pools. Modifers are simply added dice to the pool such as clear line of sight or aiming (Deadzone can remove dice from pool as well) and rolling your stat or higher for a hit. 8s are critical success which allow you to roll an additional dice. Line of Sight is quite simple with either Yes I can see it or No I can't. Victory is achieved by getting to either victory points. 

The game lasted for three turns with the girls activating two models or a model and a card in rounds until everyone had moved each model once then the turn progresses. The opening scenario for the game pits five martians (The Eldest) vs six US marines (The Youngest). The Eldest took a quick lead but stalled at around five points, from there The Youngest came back to take the game only allowing her sister to gain a single extra point. They both enjoyed the game and I can see us using this as a quick game when we have the odd half hour or so to fill.

For me apart from reading a lot of 40K fluff (which I have to be honest is brilliant) I've been working away on the PanO that came in Infinity Operation Icestorm. These still have a bit to go and I've got a bit of touch up still to go (and faces to paint) but I'm happy with the way there coming along. I've also been loving the way the game plays and Infinity 3rd edition week on Beast of War so I've pre-ordered the new rule book from The Combat Company getting a bonus mini in the deal.