The Weekender XLBS: The Star Wars Special!
May 4, 2014 by dignity
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May the fourth be with you!
Happy Starwars Day Folks!
May the fourth be with you…..always.
Great way to start a day.
just keep an eye out for the revenge of the fifth
Yep, I see what you did there 😉
Games Workshop were approached about doing a Star Wars game back in the late 80s. They weren’t keen on it so sculpted up a stormtrooper in the Citadel style to show why it wouldn’t work and the idea died a death from there. Disney also own Marvel, and Knight Models are putting out Marvel minis, so I don’t think Disney have any intrinsic objections to minis based on the brand. KM may be the most likely place to see any future Star Wars minis.
Here (hopefully) is the mini. Sculpted by Jes Goodwin.
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I listen to the audiobooks of star wars while painting.
Han Solo was an admiral before he kidnapped Leia. Later they got married and had forcesensitive twins.
Leia is also forcesensitive.
May the fourth be with you!
I can’t speak for anybody else but I don’t really care what Lucas says about the expanded universe. The series like ‘The New Jedi Order’ or ‘The Trawn Trilogy’ will always be canon for me. @warzan if you’ll be able to find some time you should definitely read those. And if you love huge starship battles try Star Wars Rebellion – still one of the best SW games IMHO.
Happy Star Wars Day, guys!
After you two have slapped Justin around a bit for his lack of Star Wars Knowledge, I’d definitely recommend getting hold of a copy of Adywan’s fan edit of A New Hope: Revisited; it’s what the Special Edition should have been – I refuse to watch the Special Edition now because his version is sooooo good.
Now, where did I put my X-Wing miniatures and my Hoth Beer?
“Adywan’s fan edit of A New Hope” I’m going to check that out!
Takes a bit of torrent hunting (it’s all legit, as long as you have a legal copy of the original), and a bit of DVD burning jiggery-pokery, but it’s worth all the trouble!
Anybody read ‘the star wars’ from dark horse comics?
Aparantly it’s the first idea from Lucas. General kenobi is the uncle of luke and Leia and Han solo was an alien, as far as I heard.
Models Knights have done a range of Star Wars figures. They were 30mm but they seem to no longer produce them.
I think at one point Battlefront were in competition for the miniature game licence, which I believe was one by Fantasy Flight Games….
So we got X-Wing rather than a 15mm Star Wars version of Flames.
Airfix used to produce diorama set for the Battle of Hoth…
http://www.kitpedia.com/dioramas/battle_on_hoth.htm
Release Date for Ep VII is December 18, which is good for NZ, cause that is when we used to get them, being our summer. I believe there is supposed to be one movie a year, alternating between the main films and the off-shoots.
For May the Four I ran an X-Wing Tourney at our local gaming club.
Hope everyone had fun with whatever they did today.
Another great show, loving Star Wars day, however, Justin’s knowledge of Star Wars is shocking, I mean just SHOCKING! And on that note Warren it’s Gamorean Guards, not Gregorian lol
The Hoth table is awesome but get rid of the river and sculpt in some trenches, then it could be re-used for the 2nd world war battle of Bastogne ala Band of Brothers, both very cool ideas.
Love the X-Wing coverage, more of that please, happy Star Wars day guys, Justin go watch the films, again and again.
“Warren it’s Gamorean Guards, not Gregorian lol”
Opps 😉
Amen to what what @warzan said about Ender’s Game. Proof that some books are just to cerebral, rich, and textured to be dumbed down into anything like an effective movie.
Yeah, Gregorian Guards? Do they chant and sing at people who try to break into Jabba’s palace? 😀
Very funny though Warren and your Star Wars knowledge is not as bad as Justin’s, having said that my 8 yr old nephew has a better knowledge of the force than Justin!
If Judtin has seen all six films then he already has 33% more knowledge than I do.
Great show guys! A couple of things, CosPlay and Justin’s Family Guy comment…@warzan as peter griffon playing Han Solo…… I think that would be epic… Sam and Ben could be Ewoks!! Also on the Salute volunteers, I have some participation experience with running our club games at Games Day (back when we were allowed club participation games)
CosPlay for salute next year then? I can picture Han Solo interviewing Alessio already….
Nice episode guys, also wanting to see a star wars game and will be awaiting your views of your Hoth battle later. 🙂
How come we don’t celebrate May the 5ith? Two side to each story and all that. Besides, it prolongs star wars nostalgia by 100% per annum. 😀
The thing about the freighters and indeed any ship that isn’t specifically designed for combat.. is that unless it has some catastrophic accident it is always going to be a viable ship in it’s class that can be maintained and upgraded for less than it costs to buy a new one. It’s much the same with (naval) ships today. That’s one of the reasons I’d expect to see the Falcon in the new trilogy, and considering how the YT series has evolved, I wouldn’t expect a ‘new’ YT freighter to look dramatically different to the Falcon either.
As for the military ships, that’s harder to say and it will largely depend on Disney’s take on the 30 years that follow RotJ. If there is no galactic war at the start of EP 7, then there won’t have been a need to develop better military ships and the Republic (or New Republic, or New New Republic) probably isn’t going to have a need for fleets of capital ships anymore.. so what we will probably see are multi-role fighters and small carriers that are the next generation of whatever was kicking around prior to the Clone Wars, designed for patrol and policing instead of the next GCW. Star Destroyers and Tie Fighters etc might have found themselves passed to well-funded paramilitary groups but after 30 years a dwindling fleet of such fighters would probably have been merged together to make a few uglies.
If there IS a new threat emerging (or already emerged) by EP 7 then yes, I expect we will see a small evolution on the existing military ships unless Incom, Sienar etc have gone out of business.
Very interesting points, siegess. In World War II, new tanks were coming out sometimes every few months. But even during the Cold War, the M1 was introduced in 1984 and here we are 30 years later using the same tank (albeit a much-improved version). Our F-15 fighter fleet is 40 years old. Some B-52 bombers are so old that fathers have literally flown the same plane as their sons when they became Air Force officers 25-30 years later. I think USS Enterprise is being decommissioned this year (CVN-65, not NCC-1701 🙂 ) and she’s well over 50 years old I think. So I could totally see some of the old Imperial / Alliance stuff still flying around in Endor + 30 years setting, especially if things have been relatively quiet in the interim.
Because they talked about it on the show and I’m OCD that way … 🙂 … I went to FFG’s website, looked up their “official” starfighter scale as 1/270 …
http://fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3420
… a Relentless-class Star Destroyer (the classic one everyone knows) would be 19.5 feet long, about 5.5 feet high, and 6.5 feet wide at the base. The Executor-class Star Destroyer (introduced in Episode V ESB, crashes into the Death Star in Ep VI ROTJ), would be a ridiculous 160 feet long in that scale. And yes, the first Death Star would be 1,955 feet in diameter (I think West End Games’ old Imperial Sourcebook had it as 160 km diameter = approx 100 miles / 270 = almost 2000 feet. That “miniature” would be just over a third of a MILE wide.
So take your X-Wing miniature and hold it up to a major American football stadium, use your imagination for a second, and you see what Wedge was feeling when he said: “Look at the size of that thing!” – “Cut the chatter Red Two! Accelerate to attack speed and drink some Hoth Beer!”
I presume everybody gets there smartphones out and donwloaded the Starwars soundboard apps, to have some nice soundeffects with the game.
Lloyd points out that the ships, vehicles, and equipment are as much a part of the cast as Harrison Ford and Mark Hamil. PREACH ON, BROTHER LLOYD! Absolutely couldn’t agree more. I’m sure (and hope) there will be lots of new stuff, but the occasional shot of an old-school X-Wing, Y-Wing, or the Millennium Falcon would just be solid gold. As Justin says sometimes: “Shut up, take my money!”
I also agree with Lloyd in his approval of all post-Endor writing no longer being considered part of Star Wars canon. I made it through Truce of Bakura, the Timothy Zahn’s “Heir to the Empire Series” (Admiral Thrawn), and most of the way through Kevin Anderson’s “Jedi Academy” series . . . but that was all I could stand. Once they came out with the “Sun Crusher,” I knew the post-Endor expanded universe was in trouble.
Look, I’m sure it’s subjective and what one reader likes the other will abhor, but the fact is that there wasn’t much cohesion from so many different writers and story lines. Trying to incorporate such a disparate background into the fabric of Episode VII would have weakened the movie and limited Abrams’ options for the screenplay. Our fate is in your hands, J. J. Abrams! Be gentle! 😀
Whoa, I never saw Warren’s tattoo before. On his right arm when he’s unpacking the Star Wars Risk box. Awesome. 🙂
Thats Justin I think.
Oops, you’re right. He’s wearing a black and white shirt (not black and blue) and sitting where Warren was, the obviously filmed that part at a different time. Thanks for the heads up! 🙂
Love the Hoth table. I’ve always said I wanted to do something similar. Now that I’ve started playing Bolt Action, I think I could use those rules and Star Wars minis. Awesome XLBS as always.
this is what is going to make star wars successful…
The Producer Kathleen Kennedy
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (associate producer)[17]
Poltergeist (1982) (associate producer)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (producer)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) (associate producer) (producer) (segment 2)
Gremlins (1984) (executive producer)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) (associate producer)
The Color Purple (1985) (producer)
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) (executive producer)
Back to the Future (1985) (executive producer)
The Goonies (1985) (executive producer)
Fandango (1985) (executive producer)
An American Tail (1986) (producer)
The Money Pit (1986) (producer)
*batteries not included (1987) (executive producer)
Empire of the Sun (1987) (producer)
Innerspace (1987) (co-executive producer)
The China Odyssey: ‘Empire of the Sun’, a Film by Steven Spielberg (1987) (associate producer)
The Land Before Time (1988) (co-executive producer)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (executive producer)
Always (1989) (producer)
Back to the Future Part II (1989) (executive producer)
Dad (1989) (executive producer)
Tummy Trouble (1989) (executive producer)
Arachnophobia (1990) (producer)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) (executive producer)
Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990) (executive producer)
Back to the Future Part III (1990) (executive producer)
Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) (executive producer)
Hook (1991) (producer)
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) (executive producer)
Cape Fear (1991) (executive producer)
A Brief History of Time (1991) (executive producer) (uncredited)
A Wish for Wings That Work (1991) (TV) (executive producer)
Noises Off (1992) (executive producer)
Schindler’s List (1993) (executive producer)
We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (1993) (executive producer)
A Dangerous Woman (1993) (executive producer)
Jurassic Park (1993) (producer)
A Far Off Place (1993) (executive producer)
Trail Mix-Up (1993) (executive producer)
Alive (1993) (producer)
Milk Money (1994) (producer)
The Flintstones (1994) (executive producer)
Balto (1995) (executive producer)
The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) (producer)
Congo (1995) (producer)
The Bridges of Madison County (1995) (producer)
Twister (1996) (producer)
The Best of Roger Rabbit (1996) (executive producer)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) (executive producer)
A Map of the World (1999) (producer)
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) (producer)
The Sixth Sense (1999) (producer)
Olympic Glory (1999) (executive producer)
Jurassic Park III (2001) (producer)
Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (2001) (producer)
The Sports Pages (2001) (TV) (executive producer)
Signs (2002) (executive producer)
The Young Black Stallion (2003) (producer)
Seabiscuit (2003) (producer)
Munich (2005) (producer)
War of the Worlds (2005) (producer)
Persepolis (2007) (executive producer)
Le Scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) (2007) (producer)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) (producer)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) (producer)
Ponyo (2009) (U.S. version co-producer)
Crossing Over (2009) (producer)
The Last Airbender (2010) (executive producer)
Hereafter (co-producer with Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz & Steven Spielberg) (2010)
The Adventures of Tintin (2011) (producer)
War Horse (2011) (producer)
The Secret World of Arrietty (2012) (U.S. version executive producer)
Lincoln (2012) (producer)
Happy Sunday Day and I refuse to say May the 4th Be With You!
Star Wars brings back some good memories of my own attempts to influence my kids preferences when they were small. Subtle brainwash or scar them for life maybe but it’s a great feeling when they get into all the same things as you.
.
This is still the best version of Star Wars… But it’s not for kids. lol
http://youtu.be/vskHXtPuvBk
AUGH! Curse this website which will only allow me to “like” this video once! This deserves 100 thumbs up just for having Vader say “goodie gumdrops.”
The WofC collectible Star Wars Miniatures (28mm) are still sold in online gaming stores such as Coolstuffinc and Miniature Market (I live in the U.S.), and they are still pretty cheap. They are only a couple years out of production but the game is just as beautiful as ever, and community members like Armored Cartographers and Maps of Mastery are still making new maps and content for the game to keep it alive.
There WAS a Star Wars miniatures game “just like 40K”. I have the rules.
It tanked… but considering when it was launched, had it been successful our fair hobby could be VERY different…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Miniatures_Battles
Despite being heavily into tabletop gaming at the time, and well aware of their licensed Star Wars rpg, that one completely passed me by. It tanking may not be unrelated as GW’s infrastructure and established consumer base almost certainly meant it could never complete.
It was launched originally in 1989. How big was GW really back then? Not very… 40K was still in its infancy, tournament list play was just coming to WFB, 40K 2nd ed. and WFB 4th ed. boxes were still in the future. I think GW was even still selling other people’s games at that point.
It tanked because it was a bad game, with bad figures (for some reason they decided 20mm was the way to go), badly promoted.
Seriously, I don’t know who they bribed to get the Origins award. The game is hideous, it’s basically just the combat rules ripped off the RPG book. And Star Wars itself was in the low point of its popularity, which is probably why West End could afford the license in the first place…
Tabletop gaming was a very different world in the late 80’s. It was very hard to find rules for fantasy or sci-fi games (I spent quite a lot of effort looking for them). It was basically virgin territory, which I think has a lot to do with GW’s early success.
Depends on whether you mean the UK or elsewhere. In tabletop fantasy/sci-fi gaming it dominated the UK market with a chain of stores and a multi-million pound annual turnover. It sold in 1991 for £10 million (approximately £18.5 million adjusted for inflation). It wasn’t selling any products from other companies that it didn’t have the license to produce in the UK. It was in the early stages of moving into the US market and had made no attempt to move into anywhere else yet. It was the only company making any inroads into creating a fantasy and sci-fi wargaming market, it had no real competition elsewhere which is why in the 90s it was able to enter worldwide markets so easily and why the UK remains such a disproportionate part of the fantasy and sci-fi wargaming market to this day, and it had the infrastructure to manufacture, distribute, and promote a successful fantasy/sci-fi wargame.
I’m not familiar with the game and am happy to take your word for it that it was rubbish, which would certainly have been a big reason for it failing. Even if it had been good, it still would have seriously struggled to compete with what GW were doing. No game did that until the internet age.
I’m talking about 1985-1989, when I got into gaming.
I remember when they sold other stuff. I remember when White Dwarf carried articles for any game (it was actually mostly RPGs), I have those issues on my shelf. I remember the point when they dropped all the “external” content.
And I am not in the UK, though that is a minor point as I was mail ordering much of my stuff from there anyway.
The Star Wars game was launched in 1989. GW was getting bigger by that point, but it was nowhere near the giant it is today. It certainly wasn’t a major player in the US, where West End Games is based.
Had the Star Wars game been successful, I don’t think GW would really have been in a position to squash it through sheer market dominance, like it was able able to handle pretty much all the opposition in 90’s.
There were other failures too. TSR tried to get into fantasy miniatures with the original Battlesystem, first released in 1985 (I used to have that but unfortunately sold it off). That tanked too, but had it succeeded, where would WFB be today…
I was actually talking about the Wizards of the Coast SW Miniatures game, which wasn’t so much a wargame as a board game with tons of collectible figures. It’s where the AT-STs and snowspeeders are from in this video. That one was riotously successful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Miniatures
You can dowload the 2nd edition rules in pdf format with a quick google search.
@warzan and crew: If you haven’t seen this link already, check it out. If you aren’t able to come up with enough Hoth figures / vehicles / walkers for next years’ game, maybe you can go with a Lego version?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4mdx3jFRZc
I’m not sure about the free reign and ignoring the books. The first Thrawn Trilogy or the X-Wing Series are some AWESOME stories, and it would have been even more awesome what a talented guy like JJA could make out of these.
But I’ll keep an open mind and look forward. I just hope no great tabletop company buys the SW license and makes a great game, because then I’m broke. Forever. I’ll have to sell my car…
… love the Maiden shirt. UP THE IRONS!
Sorry guys, but I’ve got to disagree with you about being excited for the forthcoming Star Wars films.
I, like a lot of people who are into the hobby I suspect, LOVE Star Wars. I’ve been a fan since I was a kid and though yes the prequels weren’t as good as I hoped and pretty much amounted to a sequence of toy adverts, I still enjoyed the fact it was Star Ways.
However, I have one reason to be sceptical about the new films. And that’s J. J. Abrams!
He can make watachable and enjoyable films fine, Ill give him that no problem. But the thing he showed TWICE with Star Trek is that he does not care about the “soul” of the subject material.
I’m not a massive tricky (is it even spelt like that?). But I watched those films thinking “this is just a wham zap kapow sci-fi film”. If it wasn’t for the shape of the spaceship and the names of the main characters it could as easily have been SUPER COOL SPACE GUYS or something. None of the heart of Star Trek was there. It was all replaced by action scenes and bland characters.
Now imagine him doing that to Star Wars! It makes my blood boil to think of it.
And I know that people are saying “yes but it’s a REBOOT” to make it more modern and cool. And that fine, if you love, take care and build around the heart that so many people love. But not if you ignore it to make a “better” film.
Imagine a Lord of the Rings film where it’s not Orcs its Aliens, or it’s not a ring, it’s a set of armour, or it’s not a giant eye but a massive death match boss battle. It may make for a more exciting film, but it’s not Lord of the Rings any more.
Ok, rant over.
Having never watched Episode III Revenge of the Pith, and with all the talk found myself with some spare time. 5 seconds in post the opening blurb…….a lens flare…..it’s not just JJ!!! Now 5 mins in and I’m really disappointed in Ewan McGregor, he’s better than this. Hayden Woodensen is just…..
Hey, I can’t watch this video. It keeps on loading with a black screen. Did the delet it?