I got a text from the designer of Gundam Assemble about today's strip, which was very nice of him. His name is Justin Gary; we met during quarantine and he was one of the first non-family humans I saw in person. We played Solforge out on the porch. He's probably best known for creating Ascension, which was one of the heavy-hitter deckbuilders back in the day. I was already going to be interested in Gundam Assemble, a wargame using the cutest miniature gunpla you ever did see, but when I found out he had made the engine for it that elevated the offering substantially.

For Kiko, I think its approach is a little too board-gamey. Mega chits, a big timeline sideboard, and discrete hex-based movement I think move it away from the action all sorta happening on the field. I think I'm okay with it. One of the things that makes it interesting is how aggressive they are with the price.

Games Workshop pricing has gotten scary. As in, I haven't picked anything up for it in a hot minute, and chit wargames give me all the decision fun and the pieces are all made out of cardboard. There isn't anything like throwing several thousand points of painted minis at each other, I'll always have a place in my heart for that, but I already have thousands of points painted and ready to go for about five of their games. The absolute best deal in Wargaming I think might still be Catalyst's Alpha Strike box, which can regularly be found for sixty or so bucks - it's thirteen mechs with a whole box of goodies. Gundam Assemble's starter includes a box full of goodies too, but it's thirty five bucks with six little gunpla you can build. They're launching with a Deluxe set also for ninety-nine bucks that includes thirteen mechs also, but they have positioned their deluxe sets tend to be focused around recreating famous battles for the true enthusiast. Either way, they came out here ready to fuck people up.

(CW)TB out.