Wednesday 21 November 2018

Firefly Adventures - Heroes 01

It is my birthday next week on the 24th of November. Now that I have finally gotten the probate sorted out with my mum's will and have received a very tidy sum of money, I splashed out on a few presents for myself. One of those was for Firefly Adventures: Brigands and Browncoats, a board-game with 28mm scale miniatures produced by Gale Force Nine, which I bought from Amazon UK. It is a game designed for 1-5 players, so as a solo player, that was a big draw for me. Secondly, I am a huge fan of the TV series and spin-off film.
Firefly Adventures is a co-operative, mission based, skirmish level game where the players need to use their different skills and abilities together to succeed. When you play Firefly Adventures, you'll follow one of the Job Briefings, which determines what your Crew needs to accomplish, how they might succeed and how long they have to work.
Some jobs are easier and faster, some are longer and more involved. What type of Job you want to tackle is up to you. You can work a single Job or play a story of multiple Jobs. In a Story, you'll use the credits you earn from one Job to equip the Crew for the next Job. Each Job will detail how to set up the map for that Job, how long the Timeline should be and how much you'll be paid for completing the Job.
I'll go into more detail into how the game is played in a later post. For this post and my next one, I want to showcase the miniature figures. The game comes with 20 plastic 28mm scale figures, all of which are unique sculpts. You get 10 Heroes split into 5 Casual and 5 Heroic poses and 10 bad guy Goons, split into 5 Cowboys and 5 Thugs. I'll show the Goons in my next post. For now, I want to concentrate on the Heroes.
I guess the Unique Selling Point of the game is that the Heroes come in two flavours - Casual and Heroic. When a Hero is acting Casual he or she can move around the board and take actions without attracting the attention of the Goons. However, once they start acting Heroic, which isn't just limited to combat actions, then the Goons will go on the alert and try to stop them. I like this effect. In some cases it'll pay you to go stealthy and casual but other times you'll need to go gung ho.
The five Heroes of the game are the basic crew of the Serenity. So, from left to right, are Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, a cunning and capable leader and a skilled fighter. During the Unification War, he fought as a Browncoat.While he is not above petty theft, smuggling or even killing to maintain his free lifestyle, he is generally honest in his dealings with others, fiercely loyal to his crew and closely follows a personal moral code. He is openly antagonistic toward religion as a result of his war experience.
Next up is Jayne Cobb, a mercenary and macho man who often acts dumber than he is. Despite his amoral mercenary persona, he sends a significant portion of his income to his mother, again suggesting that there is more to his character than what he presents to the rest of the crew.
In the centre is Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye, the ship's engineer. She is the heart of the ship, a genuine and sweet person who has an intuitive grasp of mechanics, despite having no formal training in engineering.
Second from the right is Hoban "Wash" Washburne, the pilot of the Serenity and devoted husband of Zoe. He is very light-hearted and tends to make amusing comments, despite the severity of any situation.
Finally, is Zoe Alleyne Washburne, who fought alongside Mal in the Unification Wars. She is a capable fighter who keeps calm even in the most dangerous situations.
For the Heroic versions of the Crew, most are armed with their favourite weapons, apart from Kaylee who is a pacifist. Mal is armed with his trusty revolver. Jayne is carrying his favourite assault rifle, whom he has named "Vera." Kaylee is crouching down, making use of her tool box. Wash is firing a pistol in a two-handed grip and Zoe is firing her Sawn-Off shotgun from the hip.
I should point out that I bought this game last month in order to give me plenty of time to paint the miniatures in time for my birthday. The detail on these figures, particularly on the faces, is rather soft. They are made of hard plastic but are not of the same quality as Mantic Games' The Walking Dead figures. On the plus side, each figure is a unique sculpt and it is very easy to tell at a glance which version is Casual and which is Heroic. Note that if you were playing the game with unpainted figures, the Casual versions are made of grey plastic and the Heroic versions are light green plastic.

19 comments:

  1. Very nice Bryan, hope you have a great birthday, and the game looks tempting, even if it is missing a couple of characters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks, Dave. Regarding the missing heroes, Simon and River, Inara and Shepherd Book, will be available later in two future expansions.

      Delete
    2. The expansions are currently showing as "shipping now" on the GF9 site:

      https://www.flamesofwar.com/gf9online_store.aspx?CategoryID=13723

      So they should be available to order locally or at worst direct.

      Lovely stuff. Have to get around to my copy. So much lead, plastic, resin etc. So little time!

      Delete
    3. Many thanks for that heads up, Jason. I've just checked and Amazon UK have them both in stock so I've placed an order for them.

      So much lead, plastic, resin, etc. and so little time is the bane of every gamer's life!

      Delete
  2. Look so good after 300 years you will not ... hmmm

    Happy birthday Bryan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cool stuff! How do they compare to Zombicide figures?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Skully. In terms of quality, not as good. As I said, the detailing on them is soft. In regards of height, you could easily mix the Firefly figures with the Zombicide figures.

      Delete
  4. I want I want I want, like yourself Bryan I'm also a big fan of Firefly :) the idea of two of the same model one for everyday normal actions & one for action actions is something that really ticks the box for me.

    I guess after all that I should say how you nailed the paint job :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, Frank, I'm delighted to see I'm not the only big fan of "Firefly" and "Serenity." I, too, love the idea of having the choice of your characters acting casually or heroically depending upon circumstances. Another big plus for this game is the way that the boxes used for keeping stuff in also double as scenery pieces. You'll see what I mean when I do my proper review of the game.

      Delete
  5. Never seen "Firefly" myself, but its clearly something you love enormously, bryan, so I'm delighted you've bought a game you've clearly thrown yourself into. Happy Birthday too!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Simon! If you've never seen "Firefly" before then you are in for a treat. It is one of the best sci-fi shows ever aired. For me, anything written and produced by Joss Whedon is pure gold.
      Thank you kindly for the birthday wishes. I plan on playing this game on my birthday.

      Delete
  6. This sounds very interesting both the game and as others have said the two possess for the same character is a great idea for any game.

    Happy birthday for the 24th, enjoy your day and the game.
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you kindly, John. I'm very much looking forward to playing the game and seeing what happens.

      Delete
  7. Nice work on the figures! I agree the detail isn't the best.

    I also love the show! Way too short-lived. The game is fun (although I have only played once so far). I really like the heroic vs casual idea. It's nice to be able to have the option to avoid combat depending on how things turn out, or at least try to avoid it as much as possible.

    And happy birthday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good comments, FB. I totally agree that the show was far too short-lived. I'm glad to hear you found the game fun to play. I'll report on my experiences next week.

      Delete
  8. I'm someone who has lived a life seemingly in the background, I must say this final indignity I have suffered almost too much to endure. You see, I have been sickly and weak since the day I was born and doomed to go through all my life a weakling. I seemed to have always suffered from one illness or another and could never play with the other children as I so desperately wanted to. Mother always made such a big fuss over me, also, making the situation worse as the other boys teased me mercilessly after they saw it. I was browsing  the internet searching on how i could be transformed into a powerful when i came across the email of a man named Lord Mark. who was a VAMPIRE so I told him that I has always dreamed of becoming a  VAMPIRES, All i did was just to follow the procedure that i was been told, and i bet you that procedure I took change my entire life to something i ever desire, freedom, sickness free, pains free, fame, influence, connections and even more that i can. Thanks to Lord Mark. Do you want a life full of interesting things? Do you want to have power and influence over others? To be charming and desirable? To have wealth, health, and longevity? contact the vampires creed today via email: Vampirelord7878@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete