Kicking myself

We interrupt our continuing coverage of the new version of Dreadball (I was sooo foolish to even begin to think I would just do one quick post on it) to bring you this latest development - the Star Saga Kickstarter (wave 1) has arrived.


And there was much rejoicing.


Now, I've already shown what is in the retail version here.  So what is different?  What did we get that you mere mortals didn't?

For wave 1, not actually all that much.  We got a special kickstarter embossed box (as shown above).  This has none of the retail information - and in fact is made to look like a sci-fi biological sample case.  But at least it is bigger to hold all the extra goodies!



Or not.  The box is the exact same size.

Be careful removing the box from the box, as there is a pack of cards in the box but outside the box.  Unfortunately, the kickstarter boxes were mispacked and were all missing the character cards for the base game.  They included them in the shipment - just make sure you don't miss them and throw them out.

Opening the box, the first thing is the kickstarter exclusive art print of the commercial box cover


Cool.  It goes up with all my other exclusive kickstarter art prints.  Which is a stack in the corner of the hutch of my desk.  While these are nice I don't really have a place (nor (honestly) a desire) to display them.

Beneath that the contents look exactly like the retail version.  On closer examination, there are three more bags of minis inside.  Lifting out the tray, the dice bag is laying on top of the tile / counter sheets.

So the entire difference between the retail and kickstarter version are the box, the art print, a dice bag, an extra set of minions, five new mercenaries and a new boss, with cards for all but one of them.


A decent quality dice bag - I will certainly use it.


As promised - one more of each sculpt of the minions.


And five new mercenaries, and a big boss (plus the 3d Virus Containment Marker)


Now I want to take a minute here.  To attempt to get decent pictures of all the miniatures, I used my Foldio 2 light box, a small tripod, and my Google Pixel phone (honestly the phone cameras anymore are much higher quality than any stand alone camera I've EVER had).

I put the mini in the box, zoom in, focus.  Click the button for a picture.  Reach in, rotate the mini approximately 180 degrees, and snap a second picture.  Almost nothing has changed.

Yet the colors come out different.  WTF!?!  I know blue on a blue background (yes, I'm too lazy to change it for these few pictures) is difficult, but it amazes me that the pictures come out in different colors of THE EXACT SAME THING.   Now there is probably a big technical explanation for this, and seven or eight professional techniques to prevent and fix it.  But I just want quick pictures.  Rant Over.

But while I've managed to distract you from what you really want to see, I do have to mention that all of the minis in the box were in MUCH better shape than the retail version I received.  Maybe it was the slow boat (as opposed to being shipped by air) or the colder temperatures now - but the furniture sat flat and the only thing bent was Wraiths sword (which is thin enough that it is probably always going to be bent).

Ok, on to the pictures.

For Star Saga, Blaine is not just the Kickstart mascot, or just an extra model.  He is the behind the scenes manipulator.  He hires the mercenaries to do a job.  But of course they needed to make another model of him - so he was included as another kickstarter exclusive.


They wanted to make him a playable character - and he is - kind of.  Every mercenary has a specified point cost to use if you want to create your own team to play with.   Well Blaine is pretty powerful (eight wounds!, and 5 dice across the board for everything), but it comes at a cost.  He is priced as much as FOUR normal mercenaries.  You could use him as part of your team for Mission 1 - but he wouldn't be part of your team, he would be YOUR ENTIRE TEAM.  Now I do wonder if he could actually make it through alone or not (really, if he costs what four other cost he should be able to do what four others do).  It might be fun to actually give it a try.

One of the things I really enjoyed with this kickstarter was expanding the model range for the Nameless.  So much so that there will be an entire expansion using them as the bad guys.  And of course having those sculpts means that it should be easy to make stats to use them in the other games Mantic has in their Warpath universe - Deadzone, FireFight and Warpath.  Of course they are already in Dreadball.

So to whet everyone's appetite, they included the Nameless big boss (and his card) - the Terror (how can he have a name if they are Nameless?)  A nice figure (the face really makes me think of Davey Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies), though I expected it to be a little bigger.


Hacker Half-Tail is a character from Deadzone, and now in Star Sage.  I find it interesting that this game does away with the "good v. evil" trope completely.  None of the mercenaries are traditionally good, and some of them actually would fight on the side of the traditionally 'evil' armies, and he is one of them.


Kira Nikolovski is a Sphyr medic for the team.  If you pre-ordered the retail version, you got an alternate sculpt for her in resin.


The Survivor is another Deadzone character.  I believe there are two Deadzone sculpts for him, so this makes a third as he is introduced to Star Saga.


A note here - while these minis all come pre-assembled, they aren't all actually single piece.  This is a good example - if you look closely you can see where the arms meet the body.  Even more obvious for mine, as the left arm was completely detached.  It easily fit back into place however, so it didn't even slow me down taking the pictures.  And in my head I just think "not a problem, I can easily glue the arm in once I get done with the pictures."  Best laid plans and all that.  You can see where this is going.

So I get done with the pictures, throw all the minis back into the box lid (which I used to carry them into the basement) - my mind not even thinking about this arm that isn't glued on, and while it fits, it isn't a tight fit.  At all.  So I get upstairs, put the lid down.  A quick glance at the clock on my desk - hey my show (Scorpion - I find it light and entertaining, don't judge me!) is almost on - good timing.  So I grab and dump the minis into the box.

As I'm doing this, I notice something flying off, and then I remember the arm.  I quickly take out all the mercenaries from the box - and the arm is missing.  A frantic search all around, in the lid, the box, on the table - no arm.  And I'm mentally kicking myself for being so stupid.  I mention it to my wife, and she just rolls her eyes as she does any time I start talking about games, or movies, or books (really, any of my hobbies ) - the sign that, while she sometimes is willing to endure the droning of my voice washing over her, much like the buzzing of an annoying fly, it isn't actually registering at all.  She at least registers that I'm mad, but sees that it isn't at her, so just gives me that sympathetic look like you do for some poor, stupid dog that is upset because it lost its bone (when it is right behind him).

ANYWAY, I'm pissed so I sit down to watch my show, and at least not think about it for an hour.  Then as I'm about to head up to bed, I decide to look one more time.  Box, lid, table, chair, desk.  And there, under the desk (so much like the question on how the colors change, I am a bit curious how the physics of the bounce for a small piece of plastic make the thing shoot several feet from where it started in often the hardest to find of places) I find it on the floor.  Not wanting to duplicate my stupidity or give it even a second chance, I head right downstairs (because, of course, all my hobby stuff is in the basement until after Christmas (this whole wanting to be able to use the dining room table to eat at - what a concept)).  Right back to my table where I take pictures.  Where the glue is.

So to make a short story extremely long, he is now fixed.

Finally is Leesh'Ma, a Koris mercenary.  Apparently he wasn't supposed to be in this set (instead coming in wave 2) so he doesn't have a card yet.  Still a pretty cool sculpt, it will be interesting to see if he keeps the portal ability from Dreadball, and how it might be used here.


Because it is all fun and games . . .

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