Calling all superheroes

Birthday time is party time!

For Annalene's 29th birthday, we decided to have a superhero-themed party. All the wonderful superhero and comic book hero movies constanty being released make us very happy, and what better excuse to pay tribute to the genre than a birthday celebration?

We decided to make it a 'create your own superhero' theme, to shake things up a bit and move away from just dressing up like Superman or Batman. Marius was Powerslide, a villain who controlled people through his music and shot lightning from his electric guitar, while Annalene was Meteora, an ordinary human being who happens to possess the recipe for an invincibility potion created in a certain little town in ancient Gaul.

Our guests also went to great lengths to come up with costumes and back-stories. We had time-manipulating parallel universe 'twins', a nymph who can control nature, a martial artist who uses ties as his main weapon, a student who fought crime at nighttime, and a brightly dressed asthma-inhaler-wielding hero who eliminates heavy feelings.

From left: Niya Antarie, Meteora, Super Student, Tieman, Lady Huffpuff, and the Hopps (bottom)

As always, we decorated our flat to suit the theme. It helps to be into geeky stuff and superheroes in general, as we could use quite a few items we already had in our possession!

After some snacking and chatting, we played a round of Superfight, which created quite a few laughs as unlikely superheroes with unbelievable powers faced off against each other. We also played Lieswatter, Fibbage and Drawful on the PS4 as part of Jackbox Games, which is a collection of really well-designed party games that allows people to join in using their cellphones.

Here are a few more photos of the party.

Backdrop to the lounge area

Budget party tip: draw pictures/symbols on balloons

This poster on the gate welcomed our superhero friends to the party

On the way to the front door

Welcome sign on the front door

Snack table. Yum!

Some of the snacks

Radioactive jelly

Mjolnir (Thor's hammer) snacks

Meteora and the Hopps

Niya Antarie chilling with Meteora

Tieman, Meteora, and Super Student

Meteora and Lady Huffpuff

Group photo: Niya Antarie, Meteora, Super Student, Powerslide, the Hopps, and Lady Huffpuff (Tieman not pictured)

Quick post: The Jedi Path and the Book of Sith

For our first anniversary, Marius got me this:

Coolest gift ever! I wanted to share a few more photos and general impressions.

Firstly, the Light Side:

This is quite a cool 'manual' for would-be Jedi. It takes the approach of a journal full of Jedi training notes passed down from master to apprentice throughout a few generations, starting with Yoda and ending with Luke. All these notebook owners wrote their names at the front of the book, and also made copious personal notes in the margins throughout.

The notebook contains all kinds of interesting aspects of being a Jedi, including history, using the Force, appropriate attire and behaviour, constructing a lightsaber, and what happens to those who do not pass the trials.

Any Jedi fan will enjoy reading through this, and seeing the personal notes by various 'owners' of this book, reflecting their unique personalities.

Then, we get to the Dark Side:

The Dark Side usually manages to look much cooler than the Light Side, and this book is no exception. According to a preface by Luke Skywalker, this manual was put together from various parts of recovered texts, and the pages in the book actually look like they came from different sources.

The text comments on many different aspects of Sith life and training, and also sheds some light on how the Sith view the Jedi. The pages are full of colourful illustrations, making this a joy to browse through.

As with The Jedi Path, this text also features personal commentary in the margins, mainly by Luke Skywalker and Darth Sidious (Emperor Palpatine).

If you are a Star Wars fan, you are sure to enjoy these two books.

They are available from raru.co.za

Imperial Assault: a Star Wars tactical board game

Our love for board games is no secret. A while back, we decided to combine this with our love for Star Wars and invest in Imperial Assault, our most complicated game to date.

Imperial Assault is quite pricey, but you get a huge box stuffed with tons of cards, figurines, tokens, manuals, and a vast array of tiles to build all the different maps for the different missions. And all of it takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far away.

The basic premise is that you play through a campaign consisting of different rebel missions - the missions depend on the success or failure of the previous story mission, as well as which side mission cards were drawn, so each campaign will be different. There are six rebel characters, of which you choose four per campaign (we usually divide them between 3 players) and one Imperial player, who basically functions as the GM, consults the reference and play guides, and controls all the Imperial units.

Each mission has a different tile setup, different objectives and winning conditions, and different Imperial units that may be deployed. Sometimes the rebels will face Storm Troopers and Royal Guards, and other times they may face an AT-ST, feral Nexus or even Darth Vader himself. There are also quite a few expansions available, with extra missions and characters, but you might find that it will take you a while before you feel the need for an expansion.

To be honest, we actually haven't finished a campaign yet - the tutorial mission along with the first three missions took us about 7 hours, including setup and cleanup. So this game is a long-term commitment - you will have to split the campaign over a few sessions, unless you have a group of people willing to commit for an entire weekend of play.

We recently started a new campaign with two good friends - Carla and Wolf. Everyone had loads of fun, and we're planning to continue the campaign as soon as possible to find out who will win the final mission - rebels or Empire.

Here are a few photos.

We purchased some storage containers to help separate all the different figurines and tokens

Marius consulting the campaign guides as he prepares for setup

Some of the game tokens, cards and figurines

These are the six rebel characters

You can print out a campaign log to keep track of missions, credits and player XP

Loads of dice make combat interesting

One of the rebel character cards

As Star Wars as you can get

Finished setup for the tutorial mission

Marius - the Imperial player - preparing to take on some rebel scum

The tiles can get quite crowded as battle rages

The infamous AT-ST

Marius reads the mission objectives to Carla and Wolf

Our elite squad of rebel players

This mission had a large map area and lots of twists

Carla and Marius battle it out as the Imperial player attacks the Wookiee

Some background decor to get everyone into a Star Wars mood

Darth Maul provided snacks

Our captivated audience