I'm reading "after action reports" on the Golem Arcana forums. It's a thread where people who run demos post their experiences, comments from people who played the demo, suggestions, etc. Someone just posted a very detailed cumulative report of stuff from several demos he's done. This made me lol...

"*Players really liked the pre-painting and even the experienced painters said that the models had a pretty good weathered look and would require minor enhancements to be up to their standards. The quality was likened to the Star Wars X-wing minis and collectors said they were better than the Star Trek Attack Wing minis, which were a bit more boring."

Well they do have better apps.

Not really following this? What exactly was being compared to both X-Wing and Attack Wing models? Also, I don't think you will find a single person who plays either game that would say Attack Wing models are in any way superior to their X-Wing counterparts, so if that's all you got to fall back on I feel for you

Sorry for not making that clear...the quote was talking about the Golem Arcana figures.

Oh, there's plenty more to "fall back on". I just thought it was humorous that it would come up in a forum that has nothing to do with either game.

X-Wing has far superior models. I don't know anyone who would disagree with that.

What are those? Don't think I have heard of them but to tell you the truth clix, AW and XW are the only mini games I play. I am mainly an RPG guy, been doing it for 31 years.

It's a minis game that will be released to coincide with GenCon. It's created by Jordan Weisman, the guy who made Mage Knight (and hence, HeroClix) and created the Battletech universe. It's being billed as a "digitally enhanced miniatures game". Short version...

It's a minis game that also has an app running on a tablet or smartphone at the same time. The app handles all of the rules (no rules arguments), stat modifiers, bonuses, tracks % to hit, damage, etc. All the "stuff" that you have to remember to calculate when moving or attacking, the app does for you. You interface with the app via a stylus that's connected through Bluetooth to the tablet or phone. The stylus is a microdot reader and nearly everything in the game is coated in microdots... the figure cards, figure bases, map tiles, relic cards (in game magic items) are all microdot encoded. So for example... you tap (with the stylus) the figure you want to move, tap the space you want to go to, the app confirms that's a legal move, and you move your mini there. Or tap the fig that's attacking (tap which attack it's using actually), tap the opposing fig, and the app tells you if it's a legal attack, what you're percent to hit is, and how much damage you'll do. If you want to make the attack you confirm it (which rolls the dice in app or you can roll physical dice and input the results) or tap the next enemy fig to see what the odds are of hitting that one are.

There's a lot of depth and strategy to the game that comes in army building too. Each golem has specific innate or attack abilities (as well as various sizes that affect things like movement, etc) as well as a point cost. All golems must have a Golem Knight to 'drive' their golem. Knights have abilities (and cost points) or are generic (and don't cost points). Ancient Ones are added to the force as well. Ancient Ones are "gods" of the game and you can use them to call down miracles, blessings, and curses through the course of the game. Finally, relics can be added to forces as well and relics are magical constructs that are carried into battle by the golems and activated for some ability.

The app also allows for various scenarios... King of the Hill, capture the flag, etc. It will save your game for you, if you need to tear down and resume at a later time. At some point, the plan is to allow remote play (over wifi) through the app and even an augmented reality option.


There's a lot more I could tell you... organized play, a "living world" that influenced whenever someone plays a storyline event, etc... but I said "short version" earlier. I've been demoing it now for a month or so and everyone who's played it says it's a lot of fun. While it's still a minis game, the app frees you up to focus on strategy over "book keeping". It'll be sold as non-blind, as a starter and then "Arcanum" (faction) packs.

So what you are saying is Gollum Arcadia is failing so badly that people are talking about other games rather than it.

Sounds about right.

It's "Golem Arcana". And no, all the after action reports have been extremely positive. Nate has one of my demo kits... have you tried it? I really think you'd like it.

Not likely. I'm not a big fantasy fan.

X-Wing paint jobs are superior to Attack Wing paint jobs, but they're really not that impressive, especially if you're a serious minis painter.

I received my first X-Wing minis last week, love the look of them, have had several very entertaining (and surprisingly challenging!) solo games, but I immediately noticed what I would consider flaws in their paint jobs.

The ink wash is applied unevenly, and there's some bleeding of color onto areas where it doesn't belong.

One of the TIE's "wings" (panels, whatever) was also noticeably not perpendicular to the attaching "arm" (pylon, whatever - man, I'm really bad at TIE anatomy!), so it looked pretty funny before I fixed it.

This one really is a dead horse, so let's just let it go.

Yeah, I'm not. Thankfully. Though, it would probably be better to cheaper to learn and paint my Interceptors red than buying more Aces packs.

FFG's stuff is good, but not 100% perfect. There tends to be some variance in how the peg is inserted into the ship. I don't mind, but some people do care if their ship isn't facing straight. I had to stop an opponent from twisting one of my TIE fighters.

Sounds interesting but as I have a stupid phone and no tablet will miss this.

Wait, the captain is separate from the golem? Isn't that an inherently bad function that leads to op force building?

It certainly has the potential, yes. But in GA point costs can be adjusted (not that they want to rely on that, but the option is there) or Knight abilities tweaked in order to balance it out, as all of that resides "in app".