That sounds like a perfect present... no harm if the whole family enjoy it too 😂 That's why we have kids, right? 🙈

@TabletopGamingMag I didn't force him (aged 7) to play Memoir 44 with me, honest! And it teaches him history, right? It's practically a calling! 😁

Hope you enjoy it! Haha thank you, I don't hear an accent until I do videos, then it feels really noticeable 😂

It's more brutal than wargames I've played 😂 Glad you enjoyed!

In case of a mirror match, Aurora vs. Aurora. Or, if you bring the deck up against another arcane hero outside of the 1st Strike decks.

Wooo absolutely right! You'd need "Go Again" in order to play 😄

Thanks for commenting! :)

Glad you liked it! It honestly sat on my shelf for far too long until I picked it up to try with a friend at a board game cafe, and now I play it a few times a week - definitely the new favourite of our house. I just think they had such a benefit of time in making this one - Splendor is fantastic, but Splendor Duel is even cleaner. Everything works to its optimum. Definitely worth a try!

Definitely a good opportunity to play the hero 😄

Hahah you think it can't get any more fiddly, and then it does! 😂 Thank you, this was a LOT of fun to do!

The only reason why is that I've never managed to get a full game of it, but it's definitely been a wishlist game for me - hopefully the next time I look back over them I'll have been able to give it a good try! 😄 I love how many options there are though - the GREAT Star Wars games are far more common than the naff ones, which is rarely the case for franchised board games. Working on showing more of them off, but that's great feedback, thank you!

I need to get another play in of Imperial Assault, I know it's a lot of people's favourites but I think I just had a naff experience with being taught it - will need to give it a go myself. And I like Disney Villainous - it's definitely lighter, but it's fantastic for getting Star Wars players into board games without too much rules needed upfront. Plus if they've already played Villainous, it's more of a stepping stone. THEN I bring out Star Wars: Rebellion... 😂

Hey! Thanks for commenting! :)

It's not designed as a solo experience, but I've seen people mod other games into solo quite effectively, so could be worth a look around 😊

I agree, there's something incredible in the stories that come out of this game!

It does not! Everdell Farshore came out afterwards, and is a standalone rather than an expansion 😊

@@TabletopGamingMag omg thanks for letting me know what a lifesaver!

The jealousy is real!

From what I've heard, there's one in each box of boosters. So if you buy a sealed box you're guaranteed to get one.

@@AndrewMcColl Yeah nah, there might be one in a case. There’s no guarantee whatsoever.

I don't think that's right, simply because of the price that they each sell for.

I'm leaning on silly ones - opening the sets in the car, opening them once the new set is out, using other people's luck (which was this video). Realistically, there's no real way to guarantee it, and regardless of the physical odds, it's definitely been against me for open vs success rate!

I think that's on average. I've seen some people will pull three enchanteds from a case, but I've managed to pull 0 so far 💔

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I haven't managed to get my hands on My First Battle, but my understanding of it is that it's a smaller deck with modified rules to make it extra child friendly. I think the recommendation then is dependent on the child. Kids who might need a little extra support learning things like this would benefit from the rules being simplified even further. Hypothetically, they could then later step up and learn the full game later... However, Battle Academy teaches it so very well, that I personally would lean towards that (out of the two). Only one set of things to learn, taught so cleverly and intuitively, and it gives you a great board for later games too. There are three decks, so you can mix and match, and then if you want more, you either start the process of deck building, or pick up the premade decks and just loop those in. Equally, I acknowledge that My First Battle is about half the price of Battle Academy, but if you end up buying both it's still more expensive 🙈 Hope that helps!

Thank you! That's really helpful, I'll give super glue a go. I've done a few more now, but haven't had any more luck with the bases, and haven't got as far as the droids yet. I went a bit rogue with the assembly order. I'll remember that tip though, very much appreciated!

Oooh okay, great tip, thank you!

Thank you! Haha, I think it's easy to worry about the things you don't know. But, as with most things, it's easy once someone explains it to you - for one, without the guide I was using, I definitely would have had the wrong glue. I went to edit this video down into just me doing it properly, and realised I was missing the point of being able to show that yes, you can be intimidated by it, but look, even I can do it! 😂 Amazing, I will give it a try! I've assembled a few since but the base didn't work again on one of them so I gave it up as a lost cause. Will try again. Thank you!

I'm really starting to see the pull of the build. I thought I'd be doing it just to get to the painting side, but there's something exceedingly satisfying about putting it all together. I'm not artistic enough for conversions, but I do enjoy watching Blinded by Daylight! How would you define good clippers and scalpels? Or better, how can you tell a good one from a bad one? These Army Painter Clippers seemed to do the job fine, but I inherited these rather than picked them. Oh hope your partner is okay! A good warning though, thankfully I was okay, but I'll stay cautious. Thanks for this comment 😊

​@@TabletopGamingMag Thx for your reply! I might ramble a bit. First about good clippers and scalpels. The scalpel handle there are basically two important factors. One is rather obvious how well it fits your hand and posture. That is something you need to try and will find out over time. The more important aspect is the how it holds the blade. There are two styles the ones where you use a little screw to fasten the blade and one where you use a screw on the grip to a hand or electric drill (sorry, i am German don't know the proper words for it.) In most beginner kits there are cheap handles that have a tendency to untighten the screw while working. Happened to me a lot in the beginning and did led to a few wounds as well. So if possible get one where the crew mechanism is in the back of the handle. They can be pricy though. For the blades the only real tip i have is to try the many many different kinds and change the blades every few build sessions. (if you build a lot change it several times during a session) There are many interesting blades including chisels, mini saws and others. I personally just use wide very long and point straight blades. Nippers can be a hotly discussed topic. I personally would say that three aspects are important. - A straight cutting edge and a straight back. - good handles that don't hurt after a few cuts - fragging sharp - while plastic doesn't really resists much it helps with stress reduction of your hands. For nippers i stay in the 15 Euro range. You can go much higher than that with specialised nipper for model building in the 50-70 Euro area but I have not taken that plunge yet and I am sceptical its worth the price. I am a big proponent of starting something with good tools. Bad tools or sup bar tools can kill the enjoyment of something that is actually well fun. // Warning Rambling ahead // First don't put yourself down! Artist skill is exactly that. skill. It can be learned is normally acquired through osmosis just by doing stuff - anything really. The are some technical skill that come over time and thanks to youtube there is great knowledge available if you feel ready to have a look. But there is massive factor that makes Kit bashing less accessible than in the past. older kits - and kits from smaller studios - where build very differently then modern main stream games. I think you can see some elements of it with the battle droids for example. Older models basically followed this scheme you had one sprue with 4 different sets of legs, torsos, arm pairs, a bunch of heads, weapons and equipment and other stuff. The made the models more static of course but it made people kit bash automatically. Every Mini was a little story. You collected all the knives from all the sprues and put it on one guy with a crazy face. The box didn't come with a machine gun no problem just glue two gun together to make one. There were also no instructions. because the models where so simple it wasn't needed and that made it easy to deviate from the path. Then you bought another box and the parts where compatible you had more poses and arms and more bits and bobs and with every purchase your bits box grew. You could really make your models your own story. I find that much harder know. I mean if I am already interested in kit bashing and building that's no biggie. I will find sources and parts. But what's missing is that slow natural progression and taking away the fear of changing the models. Thankfully there are so many amazing people out there sharing their journey with us. I hope you try some more building and maybe some kit bashing. I recommend terrain its a good start. Maybe I will do a three hour deep dive video about this one day.

Last update I saw was the February one on their Kickstarter, but not since.

It definitely adds to the appeal. I've seen a few comments about the cost of getting additional characters in the Squad Packs, but there seems to be so much already in the Core Box that the value seems to work out without them. Then adding them in is just for fun. Sounds amazing!

@@TabletopGamingMag absolutely. And if you already know someone who has the base game, you can start playing by just picking up a couple of the squad boxes and getting the free rules online.

Haha it's taken me a long time for something to catch my interest, maybe something else will for you 😂 Glad you enjoyed it though, and thanks for commenting!

Play games, find new ones, speak to publishers, and hear about cool things!

Unfortunately I didn't in the end - ended up on maternity leave! - but will look to add it back in to the future list 😄

@@TabletopGamingMag ah no worries 😂 I bought the standard version and now wondering if I should have bought the big box instead for the mini expansions.

Hope you had a great time! :)

Hope the family enjoyed it - the family zone seemed much bigger this year, hope you found some fun games!

Lovely to see you! :)

Thank you! Hope you loved it as much as we did 😄

Hope you love it, it was great fun to play!

Super useful, thank you! I've been loving Rogue Hobbies videos!