Pocket Landship campaign
Even though I'm not a black belt Pocket Landship champion like JW, I have been a fan of the game ever since I tried it in PnP format. It is simple to learn, simple to play, and has enough tension to keep you coming back for a quick gaming fix.
The Kickstarter treatment it received turned it into a real beauty: thick cards, nice illustrations, and high quality dice. The rulebook includes a pleasant surprise for those who are already familiar with the base game: a campaign consisting of six missions of progressive difficulty. You score 3 victory points if you win each mission at the first try, and less points if it takes you more. The final mission is the hardest and gives you 5 VPs if you win right away. In the end you tally up the score, and see if you earned a medal.
Each mission has a title ('Intercept Enemy Patrol', 'Wipe Them Out' etc.) and tells you which types of enemies you have to face and which landship you will be using. The first mission is easy: it only has 6 enemy cards of infantry and artillery, no mechs. Once you get through it you move on to the next, and the next, until you reach mission six. This one pits you against nine enemy forces, five of which are mechs. Commanders will be at your disposal (one per mission), as well as a deck of advantage cards. When you defeat 2 mechs, you get an advantage card that gives you a one-time bonus. Even though Commanders and Advantages can only assist you once per game, this small support can come in handy in critical moments.
I split the campaign in half and completed it in two days. Perhaps I got lucky but I managed to win all but the last mission in a single try. Then the final one took me six... I ran out of Commanders and began to use Drivers instead (they also provide a bonus). It would be expected of me to employ Driver JW but I didn't, as his bonus sucks compared to, say, Driver Waldrom's (double the damage of an attack). Besides, I didn't want to get him killed. He is a Commander on this website.
