It has to be said that if certain games had arrived from Kickstarter
when they should have done, then my response would most likely have been
different to what it is today. Mainly
because those pieces were from Cthulhu wars, and they look like being the most
singularly awesome pieces that have ever graced a game.
But Cthulhu wars has not arrived yet, and so I have to look at my
present favourite pieces in a game, and those belong to the Star Wars Starship
Battles Game...
I’ve always liked larger pieces in a game, I like the tactile element when
you pick the piece up, the weight of it in my hand, reminds me that the
decision I’m taking on what to do with it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Overthinking things?
Maybe, but it’s what I feel...
I’ve always liked things that are sturdy, does my head in when I think
I’m going to pick something up and bits of it are going to fall off in my hand,
ruins the whole feel of the game for me,
and that’s why I always liked these pieces.
They’re not the most well constructed, they’re certainly not in
proportion to each other, and the game itself has rules that are on a par with
Battlefleet Gothic for getting it wrong, but there’s something about being able
to pick up a Super Star Destroyer and move it around the table.
When X wing came along a short while ago, I found myself using both the
X wing and the Tie fighter in the battles set to play larger games before I
went on to buy the relevant models from the X wing range, and I find myself
thinking hard about what you could do with all the other models that are out
there. On the one hand, if you were
going up against a super star destroyer, it’d have to be the size of my garden
to be accurate in size compared to the regular X wing pieces in the set, but when
you consider that the top speed of most of the snub fighters is in kilometres
per second, it’s entirely appropriate to have things racing around something as
if it wasn’t this mammoth hulk sitting in space.
But I digress...
While I didn’t play much of the game, the pieces have been sitting on
the side since I opened the box, and they’re the only game pieces that occupy
such a position, because I still like looking at them even if I don’t
play. For me, pieces that generate such
interest are both a blessing and a curse, a blessing because you just want to
play with them, even if the rules aren’t the equal of the pieces. A curse because if they weren’t so shiny in
the first place, you might not have bought the game in the first place.
I have to say that I’m hoping I won’t feel the same about Cthulhu Wars
when it finally arrives...
