New X-Wing ships

Hello people's. Today I'm writing about new ships for the X-wing miniatures game. Here it goes.

So the first new ship I got is the Starviper; part of the new Scum and Villainy faction. I got this ship for purely nostalgic reasons because as a kid I had a toy of it plus it was part of a new faction. The Starviper has 3 attack, 3 agility, 4 hull, and 1 shield. It's fairly maneuverable, the farthest it can move is a straight 4, and it has green maneuvers on 3 forward, 2 forward, 1 forward, 1 soft left, and 1 soft right. It has 2 red maneuvers where it can perform a new maneuver called Segnor's loop. This let's it perform a k turn on a soft right or left 3 turn which is actually very very useful for getting a ship in your firing arc and staying out of theirs. On the Starviper I normally equip these upgrade cards if I have a lot of points to play with. First the proton torpedoes for a good four attack dice attack, opportunist or marksmanship for some better attacks to fill up the pilot skill slot, an auto thruster modification that makes it a lot harder for ships to hit you if they are firing outside of their firing arc which happens a lot against rebel ships, and the virago title which gives you 2 new upgrade slots so you can equip the accuracy corrected which will make sure you always roll at least 2 damage symbols.



The next ship I got is the Tie Advanced because I mean come on people it's Darth Vader. The Tie Advanced has 2 attack, 3 agility, 3 hull, and 2 shields. What really makes this ship special is Darth Vader's special ability. He can perform two actions in one turn. In X-Wing this is a HUGE advantage and you'll probably be using it every turn. He's got green maneuvers on soft 1 left and right, 2 forward, and 3 forward. He can move 5 ahead and can do a red 4 k turn. On the Tie Advanced I normally give it these upgrade cards. Predator for a pilot skill which will make it a lot easier to get more damage results from your dice, cluster missiles so you can hit twice with 3 attack dice, and a modification to either your hull or shields to beef up it's health.



For today the last ship I got is the Tie Defender. This ship has 3's across the board which is very good for a Tie. It's got green maneuvers on 3, 4, and 5 forward, red maneuvers on the 1 and 2 sharp turns, and a WHITE 4 k turn which is extremely useful. For upgrade cards I would give him the heavy laser cannon so he'd be rolling four attack dice, and outmaneuver which reduces a ships agility value by 1 if you are outside their firing arc. This is an absolutely devastating combination on any large ships with low agility like the Millennium Falcon or the YT-2400. Lastly I would give it a good modification like an auto thrusters or 1 more hull or shield.



So there are some of my new X-Wing ships. Bye.


- By Ashton

Dice Masters

Hello people's. Today I'm talking about a game. Here it goes.

The game I'm reviewing is called Dice Masters. It's a game by WizKids that you can buy in sets, currently there are 3 sets. The first set and the one they have the most for is the Marvel comics set so the characters and actions will all be from the Marvel universe, the second set is a Dungeons and Dragons set with characters and actions from that universe, and the third set that we haven't bought yet is a DC comics set with characters and actions from that universe. Each set is a starter pack that'll give you enough dice and cards for two players and you can also buy other kits of more dice and cards as well as booster packs which will carry 2 cards and 2 die representing that card.

Dice Masters is very intuitive and a strategy game with just enough luck in it to make it interesting. The game is based around buying dice with energy from the dice you start out with so you can hurt your opponent. So after you've picked at least 2 or as much as 8 character cards, have no more than 20 dice available to buy from them, and have 2-4 action cards laid out, you are ready to start. So first you take your 8 sidekick die and put them in your dice bag. Next reach in your bag without looking and take out four dice and put them on the table, if you have less than four draw however many more, if you have more than four put them all back and draw four again. Once you have your four dice you can roll them in your reserve pool. You'll probably get all symbols like the fist, lightning bolt, mask, shield, or question mark and these are each 1 energy. The action cards at the top will probably have an energy cost of 3-4 so you could buy one of those dice with your energy. Your character cards will have a higher cost and you have to have at least one of their respective symbols in your energy pool to buy it. If you have a question mark you can make it any type of energy.

There's a 1/6 chance to roll a sidekick on a sidekick die. The sidekick face will show symbol that looks like a pawn with 3 small numbers around it. The upper left number is a 0 so it costs 0 energy to put that dice into the field, the upper right number is a 1 so if this die were to fight another die or damage your opponent it would do 1 damage, the lower right number is a 1 so if that die is dealt 1 damage it is knocked out. These rules also apply to all character dice you buy except they have a 1/2 chance to roll a character face and may occasionally roll 2 energy. Now that your dice is fielded you can attack. To attack just put your dice in the attack zone, now if your opponent has any dice in the field he can assign dice to block yours to prevent it from damaging him. Before damage is dealt each player can now spend energy to use global powers, outlined in red any player can use these powers if they are face up in the game, or use special powers a character may have. Finally you assign damage, if any characters were knocked out you can place them in your prep area and then next turn you can roll four dice plus the ones that were knocked out. If any character wasn't blocked then they do damage to your opponent. If you roll an action dice and get an exclamation point you can use the corresponding action.

So there's the basics of Dice Masters. It's a great strategy game with a lot of dice. Bye.


- By Ashton

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Hello people's. Today I'm talking about a game. Here it goes.

The very first portable videogame I had as a kid was a Nintendo Gameboy Advance. Shortly after I got it my mom got a game called Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. I saw her playing it once and being a lover of fantasy, I begged her to let me play it but she wouldn't until she had finally FINALLY beaten it. Then it was my turn. I LOVED that game. The story is that darkness washed over the land of Magvel but five heroes beat it back with five sacred stones. The heroes established five countries that would guard their respective stone. The kingdom of Renais and Grado have long since been allied but all of a sudden the much larger Grado empire attacked and invaded Renais, it's the royal twins Ephraim and Eirika's job to stop Grado.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones was the 8th game in the Fire Emblem series so it's shortened to FE8. FE8 is a fantasy strategy game where you control a small band of characters that can move around a grid game board and fight enemies on the board. In a way it's like a more complicated game of chess. The characters are different from each other from their classes and a if a character levels up enough or gets a specific item they can change their class into a more powerful one. For instance Franz is a cavalier, a weak mounted unit capable of using spears and swords and he can be promote into a paladin, a much more powerful mounted unit. Gilliam is a slow, armored knight who can use spears and he can promote into a powerful general that uses spears or a great knight that can use spears, swords, or axes. Even two characters that are the same class and level would still have slightly different stats.

In FE8 you keep these characters through out the entire campaign so if a character's health is reduced to 0 they permanently die and if you want to save them you have to restart the level. If a main character dies you HAVE to restart the level. On your turn you can use all of your units before the enemies move. A unit can move and then attack or do an action or attack or do in option, you can't move afterwards. In combat lances are good against swords, swords are good against axes, axes are good against lances and bows are neutral and can only attack from a square away. In magic combat dark is strong against anima (thunder, fire, wind), anima is strong against light, and light is strong against dark.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is an amazing fantasy strategy game and I recommend it for anybody a fan of fantasy or strategy games. Bye.


- By Ashton

Alto's Adventure

Hello people's. Today I'm talking about another iOS game. Here it goes.

The game is called Alto's Adventure. It's an infinite runner game where you are a boy named Alto living in a village on a mountain covered in snow. All of a sudden the llamas escape from their pen and you hop on your snowboard to catch them. On your way down the mountain you'll encounter rocks or campfires that you have to jump over, if you run into them you'll be knocked off your snowboard and you'll have to restart. You can however land on top of them and it will bounce you into the air. While you are in the air you can hold the screen to backflip but you want to do this only on the larger jumps because of you land without completely flipping you'll have to restart. Every so often you'll also come across bunting lines that you can grind on, to grind on them all you have to do is land on one and it's automatic. You can also grind on a few roofs scattered throughout the village. There are also ice patches on the ground that pose no danger they will just speed you up. There's also the forest, rain, and snow you can ride through but they don't change anything. When you see a warning sign you should prepare yourself and try to gain speed of you can because up next is a chasm that you have to jump over or you'll die. Some chasms will have wooden ramps or bunting lines to help you get across them. You can automatically stop a running llama just by running into it and your score will increase for every llama. You can also get gold coins scattered across the mountain and larger super coins that are worth 10. There are two power-ups; the magnet which will collect all gold coins on tech screen for however long it's activated and the hover feather which will make Alto hover slightly above the ground so that rocks and campfires won't hurt him. In the store you can buy upgrades to the power-ups that will make them last longer with the coins you get in-game. You can also buy "the wing suit" for 7,500 coins. You get a speed boost for tricks like backflips, grinding, jumping over chasms, sliding on ice patches, bouncing on rocks etc, and combining these tricks will give you a better score and a longer speed boost. Every time you get a speed boost your scarf will get a little bit longer and once it reaches a certain length it and you will turn and it will activate the wingsuit. Once it's activated you can tap a symbol on the screen to glide. It will run out after a while but you can keep it going longer by getting good combos.

There are also many goals and achievements in Altos adventure, more characters to unlock, and even mountain elders you have to outrun. It's a great game. Bye.


- By Ashton

Drivers Permit

Hello people's. Today I'm talking about my experience with trying to get a drivers permit. Here it goes.

So I turned fifteen in October which is how old you have to be to get a drivers permit in WV. My friend Derek got his drivers permit sometime after Christmas and he gave me a book that the DMV had given him to study out of. I started studying and after 3-4 weeks of studying I was ready to take the test. Unfortunately there are certain things you have to bring with you before you take the test like your birth certificate and your social security card. Mom had these things but I had forgotten to ask my school for proof of enrollment which you also need.

At school during lunch I went down to the office and filled out a form that let them make one for me and a few days later I went back to the office and mine was ready. Yesterday I was going to take the test in the morning. Mom drove me to the DMV with all the forms I needed and I brought my book for any last minute studying.

The line was really long so we were there for quite some time before we got to the information desk. When we did they made sure my paperwork was in order and they gave me a letter and a few numbers and then I had to wait again in a chair and listen for my code. When they finally did call it I came to another desk and they told me to go in the test room and take the test on my left. I went in and it's a room filled with monitors on the walls and on the left one is my name and the test. So I took the test on the monitor and it was very stressful because you can only get 7/25 questions wrong before you fail and I got like 5 wrong in the first 10 questions. Luckily I finished with six questions wrong I PASSED BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH. I paid them
five dollars and they took my aside and took my picture on put it on my permit.

I haven't drove yet but I'm looking forward to it. Bye.


- By Ashton