Xia: Legends of a Drift System

Nefaro · January 11, 2015, 01:22:23 AM

I ordered Xia: Legends of a Drift System this weekend, along with Heroes Of Normandie (hopefully the amended reprint but dunno).

I was impressed with Xia's components and the randomized space pilot sandbox gameplay sounds like fun. It seems like Merchants & Marauders in spaaaaace. Also been classified as a Merchants Of Venus killer, and other such stuff.

The random hex tile planet placement and the ship customization tiles/boxes really pushed it over the purchase threshold for me. Also great that the minis are already painted.. that saves me a lot of time.

Not sure when I'll get to playing it but I'll give a short impressions report afterward. Heroes of Normandie may end up going first depending on others' choice.

Arctic Blast · January 12, 2015, 01:55:08 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on January 11, 2015, 01:22:23 AM
I ordered Xia: Legends of a Drift System this weekend, along with Heroes Of Normandie (hopefully the amended reprint but dunno).

I was impressed with Xia's components and the randomized space pilot sandbox gameplay sounds like fun. It seems like Merchants & Marauders in spaaaaace. Also been classified as a Merchants Of Venus killer, and other such stuff.

The random hex tile planet placement and the ship customization tiles/boxes really pushed it over the purchase threshold for me. Also great that the minis are already painted.. that saves me a lot of time.

Not sure when I'll get to playing it but I'll give a short impressions report afterward. Heroes of Normandie may end up going first depending on others' choice.

I finally got a chance to get Xia on the table this weekend. We had a good time with it. It's sort of 'Wing Commander Privateer : The Board Game'. I like the fact that there are a lot of different ways to score fame points, and you can adjust on the fly. Seems like it has some legs. The only complaint is with the Mission cards. If you haven't explored out too much yet and a bunch of sector tiles aren't placed, you will draw card after card requiring locations that don't yet exist. It can be frustrating.

Heroes of Normandie is still a blast, but MAN can that sucker become a money sink if you like it and want to try out force building with options. :o

Nefaro · January 12, 2015, 06:12:01 AM

HoN is a time sink? I thought a game only lasted about an hour? ??? Or have you been attempting to gather all kinds of expansions and create some mega scenarios? Sounds like they can't quite keep up production with the demand yet.

I've sat on the fence regarding Xia since it came out, as I had picked up the Merchants & Marauders reprint and that is similar gameplay, albeit in a Caribbean pirate/merchant theme. The random tile placement in Xia is probably what finally pushed me, since that's certainly an extra exploration facet the other doesn't have. So I'll try to forgive the extra difficulties they cause with the missions. If that's the biggest complaint, then it must not be too bad. :)

Arctic Blast · January 12, 2015, 01:00:09 PM

Apparently I was more tired than I realized when I logged in last night, because I meant to say it can quickly become a MONEY sink.

Nefaro · January 13, 2015, 04:56:24 PM

Quote from: Arctic Blast on January 12, 2015, 01:00:09 PM
Apparently I was more tired than I realized when I logged in last night, because I meant to say it can quickly become a MONEY sink.

This whole hobby is a money sink.

As long as I don't get caught in big money pits like ASL or WH40k, I'm good. Quite happy to get small & varied single package doses than go nuts on a whole line like that.

I'm guessing HoN would be less of a money sink than the Sergeants Minis Game series. That looks even worse. But being WW2, I may well only end up getting the original HoN box anyway, unless it somehow blows my mind. I just wanted one at that level which didn't take long to play, wasn't ridiculously rules or counter heavy, and has an interesting look.

Nefaro · January 14, 2015, 08:44:53 PM

The components look wonderful in both of these.

I mean.. if I saw them set up on a table, I'd stop to ogle.

Arctic Blast · January 15, 2015, 01:17:05 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on January 14, 2015, 08:44:53 PM
The components look wonderful in both of these.

I mean.. if I saw them set up on a table, I'd stop to ogle.

Yep, they're both very well done. Great components in both games.

Nefaro · January 15, 2015, 09:49:08 AM

I also finally broke down and bought Shadows Of Malice for another solitaire game. The components look bland but I keep seeing great reviews of it's gameplay and fell off the fence. I'll post it's own thread if it's as interesting as they say.

Nefaro · January 19, 2015, 01:15:16 PM

Unpacked and punched Xia.

The paint and/or rubber-ish mini material has a nasty chemical stench. Gonna let those air out for awhile.

The cardboard ship panels are a bit thin, but not too much so. The top one or two have begun warping after being out of the box a bit but being thinner than usual will make it easier to force them into whatever shape I want.

Does look like it will look great on the table, though! :)