Note – My giveaways are my own. YouTube does not in any way endorse or have anything to do with my contests.
Most of my giveaways tend to follow the same two rules.
Be a subscriber! (Public subscriber – if you keep your sub’s secret I won’t know!)
Leave a Comment on a video! (Mean comments will be disqualified! Be kind!)
It’s as simple as that. I’ll announce winners usually at the end of a video. Giveaways tend to run for a few weeks, and the goal is that you’ll watch all the way to the end!
Update – 9/27/2020 – ARC Trooper Giveaway!
For the ARC Trooper Giveaway, I’ll send you one of my ARC Troopers following the above normal rules, however this will run up until Oct 31st, 2020. Winner will be announced early November.
There is a SECOND ARC Trooper giveaway which follows my Social Media rule below:
Social Media Giveaway Rule:
In addition to being a subscriber, you must also Share a post on facebook, or re-tweet a tweet on twitter. One of each will get you an entry. Blindly sharing everything will not get you bonus entries. I’ll announce your twitter handle or facebook username is you win. It’s literally a 50/50 chance which of the two platforms will contain the winner, so either one is fine, but using both is better!
-Tim
Older announcements –
For January and February 2019, I’m running a Force FX Lightsaber giveaway. The winner will receive an electronic Amazon gift card in the amount of $150, which can be used to purchase a lightsaber of their choice. As lightsabers on Amazon tend to fluctuate in price depending on demand, this is just a flat amount. If you want a $200 Saber you’ll have to pay the rest out of pocket. If you find a Saber that costs $70, then congrats you can now buy two! You can do whatever you want with the gift card – but I had to pick an amount and $150 seemed like a good and generous amount.
How will you know if you win?
Easy – watch all of my videos! I announce winners at the end of videos, and this contest will have a winner announced on or about the 1st of March 2019. I’ll announce the winner and then they will have to contact me through my ABOUT page on my YouTube channel. I’ll then arrange to get them the gift card as soon as possible, usually within 48 hours of contacting me.
The spirit of this contest is to promote discussion on my channel, interaction among Star Wars and Gaming fans, and provide a little excitement and reward for one lucky subscriber. I reserve the right to disqualify anyone from prize winning eligibility at my own discretion. This would generally be spam bots, hate speech, are generally people being cruel to each other. I will not reward someone for being a jerk to my subscribers.
Wave 3 has been announced and it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The Clone Wars have officially begun!
This is officially being dubbed as Wave 3, and it’s exciting for so many reasons! First off, it’s not JUST new factions! We are getting a Scum Z-95 and an Imperial TIE Striker! There seems to be nothing for the Rebels yet, but I’m sure there’s a good reason for that. It’s probably going to be tricky to fit 7 factions worth of expansions into each wave that’s coming, so we’ll probably see some alternating releases for awhile!
It’s also worth noting that the Z-95 and TIE Striker don’t come with any new cards that aren’t already found in their respective conversion kits, so if you were hoping for new pilots for these ships you are likely out of luck for the foreseeable future. The good news however, is that if you’ve already got your kits, you probably can skip these purchases altogether!
Additionally, we are getting Squadron Packs!
These new squadron packs will act much like a miniature faction starter! Coming with 3 ships each they’ll remind you of the structure of the original core set, but these don’t come with dice, damage decks, or templates – so you’ll still need the core game’s box to play if you are just now diving into X-Wing.
Darth Maul’s Scimitar looks awesome and will have the ability to cloak!
The Vulture Droid expansion will sport a different pain job than the squadron pack, so if you want extras this is an additional option.
The ARC-170 looks even more beautiful than the rebels’ version, and looks to come with Chancellor Palpatine!
The Delta 7 has a new paint job, and through this preview we notice some new pink/purple actions, that likely interact with the force somehow!
Now that the Rebel Commandos have arrived in Legion, you may be wondering how to best use these new versatile Special Forces units, especially since this is the first expansion pack to offer two units for the price of one! Lets break down the ways you can run them and which ways work best.
The Heavy Weapons
These are what make this unit shine. The DH-447 Sniper has unlimited range, pierce 1, and two dice ( albeit one of them is white). It also has High Velocity, which if it’s the only weapon in the attack pool, the defender can’t spend dodge tokens. It’s VERY likely to do damage, but only a little.
The Proton Charge Saboteur is the answer to swarm lists. Now finally, your opponent may have to think twice about grouping up 6 units of Corps close together! This unit can Arm a proton charge as an action, which places a charge within range. When detonated, these charges will make a ranged attack against EVERY unit at range 1 of it, one at a time. This is tremendous for multiple reasons, which include damaging groups of enemies, dealing out loads of suppression, and even hurting vehicles! The attack itself , which consists of one red die and two white, has Blast, Impact 1, and it’s own special Surge to Crit! Each Saboteur has Detonate : 1, which allows them to trigger ONE charge to detonate after ANY unit takes an action. This means, you can drop a mine, move out, and trigger your charge after you move. This also means you can run in, drop a charge, and immediately blow it, potentially hurting yourself! It could be dangerous doing the latter, but if that means you can hit 3 enemy units? It just might be worth it!
The Basic Unit
One of the first thing’s you’re going to notice, is the lack of a personnel upgrade, which means you aren’t going to be able to outfit this unit with six miniatures, so five will be your limit if you use a Heavy Weapons miniature. In addition, we get Comms, Gear, Grenades, and a new upgrade called Training, which isn’t half bad considering that we get Duck and Cover with this wave. As far as the rest of the stats, they are largely similar to the typical Rebel Troopers, with a few key upgrades (which help, considering they cost an extra 20 points). So what do we gain for those extra 20 points?
First off, these Commandos have both offensive and defensive surge, which is pretty nice to start. Additionally they have a courage value of 2, which helps them still get two actions even when they have a suppression token. It also makes them a decent commander if your commander should die. Their keywords however are especially helpful. Low Profile means you may seriously want to consider always running Duck and Cover. Scout 2 is incredible for early game positioning and objective play. Sharpshooter 1 is just all around good, though generally it lends itself to doubling up fire on a unit that’s already been shot and now has suppression, snipers, or both.
The Commandos are an all around solid unit – but you may not want to run them without a heavy weapons upgrade. Running them with only 4 miniatures can work if you’re looking for some quality trooper units for your build, but generally you’ll probably want to run some heavy weapons units. Before we talk Builds, let’s look at the Strike Team.
The Strike Team
The Strike Team is almost identical to the standard Rebel Commandos card, with three key differences. First, the cost, which is only a mere 16 points! Second, the miniature count is only 1. Lastly, the keyword “Heavy Weapon Team”, which forces you to take a heavy weapons upgrade, which then becomes the unit leader.
The Strike Team is an ideal way to inflate your unit count, considering that a Strike Team can be as cheap as 42 or 44 points, depending on which Heavy Weapons option you select. For players who want to push the limits of units in a list for things like activation advantage, the Strike Team will prove an effective way to pad your activations, while also giving you some excellent tricks.
Which Configuration is Best?
For starters, I will suggest using the Sniper in a Strike Team, and the Saboteur with a full unit. This way you can have two distinct Special Forces units in the same list, with only a single expansion box. Other options certainly work, but not everyone will want to buy 3 boxes of commandos to try every permutation.
Snipers
Snipers work VERY well with a Strike Team. Having only 2 miniatures, gives them easier access to be deployed on smaller, narrow ledges. Additionally, camping a sniper in the corner of a map, often means the rest of the commandos are NOT firing their weapons. A Strike Team minimizes this by having only one miniature sitting around doing nothing.
Snipers don’t work as well in the full Commando Unit, because that generally tends to mean that you bring them into the battlefield, putting them within range 3 of enemy units, which someone diminishes their value a bit. However, it does allow you to more easily split fire, dealing out suppression, or combining the sniper’s weapon to give your larger attack Pierce 1. One other option is also to simply be a strong Counter-Sniper unit. A Five-Person sniper unit is much less likely to die from opposing sniper fire.
Saboteurs
The Saboteurs work a little better in a full unit, as they are more likely to want to get down into the middle of the battlefield and mine the heck out of it. Having additional miniatures also means that the saboteur has a longer lifespan, and thus, can survive longer. Don’t forget, your Saboteurs need to be alive in order to trigger “Detonate”. When your last saboteur dies, the rest of your charges can no longer be triggered.
The Saboteurs CAN also work well as a Strike Team, but this is one of those cases where I would advise to run more than just one. Strike Teams are cheaper, and that means more Saboteurs, and thus, more charges placed all over the battlefield. You could in theory place a maximum of 18 charges in a single game with three Saboteurs, and although that certainly won’t always be the case… being able to place several near key objectives is amazing. The other advantage of having multiple saboteurs is that you’ll have multiple instances of Detonate. It’s partially about redundancy, in that losing one saboteur will still allow you to trigger charges, but it’s also about having the ability to trigger more than one at a time. Blowing 3 charges when an AT-ST steps too close, and taking it from 6 health to dead in a single move… is really satisfying!
In Closing
These Heavy Weapon units really help make the Commandos Shine – so weather you’re trying to snipe, mine, or simply use the commando’s regular weapon to actually shoot enemies within range 3 – it’s gonna be a great time! Imperial Scouts will likely behave in a very similar fashion in terms of teams and pairings. Once those come in both sides will finally have Special Forces!
This Year’s Gen Con was my first ever Gen Con! Easily the busiest convention I’ve ever been to, it’s easy to get lost among the activity! I took a bunch of pictures though so lets go through my time!
First up – I had to wait in a line that was nearly a mile long for Will Call to get my tickets to the In Flight Report. I didn’t even have time to check into my hotel – went straight to the convention center!
But I made it! Front row seat! I was crazy nervous that I wasn’t going to make it in time but luckily I managed!
And was surprised with 2 KeyForge decks for attending! I’ve got to say I’m pretty impressed with this game. The concept of completely unique decks in every box is really ambitious! And it plays quickly and is a bit of fun as well!
But THIS thing was the star of the show! The Super Star Destroyer for Armada really stole my heart! Finally being able to see it was amazing! After the report I grabbed some dinner and made my way back to the hotel, to prepare to teach some Legion and Armada the next morning!
The next morning – right before they opened the doors and let everyone in!
Everyone wanted to get pictures of the incoming rush!
There was alot of cosplay! X-Wing and Legion were the two biggest attractions right in front of the main door, and they almost didn’t have any Armada tables, but luckily I found a core set on a table and was able to get it set up!
We had a core set, Wave 7, and the Rogues and Villains pack for Armada! Nobody was scheduled to demo it, but I jumped all over it and made alot of new Armada fans from Thursday through Saturday.
Andrew Cox, Fellow Orlando Gamer, took home the championship for Destiny! Way to represent Orlando! Now we just need to him playing Legion and Armada as well!
Got to check out some other games as well – Project Elite is being relaunched by CMON, and the new miniatures look awesome!
Finally got to see this giant Cthulhu miniature from CMON’s new Cthulhu : Death May Die kickstarter. It’s amazing, but it’s just so big it reminded me of the fact that I wouldn’t have had the room to actually put it anywhere!
Got a nice demo from Ares Games on their new title Battlestar Galactica: Starship Battles. This looks gorgeous!
And got some more pictures of new FFG releases!
Sunday I was judging for a Legion Team Battle! 2v2 Tournament!
There was also an X-Wing Epic Tournament going on!
And the Armada Finals! Congrats to JJsJuggernaut on an extremely close finish! Not exactly sure why they had Destiny promos for the Armada winners….
When all was said and done, I had a TON of stuff to bring home and just my carry-on – so I had to break everything down!
I managed to get it all to fit! Yup I put the falcon in a sock for safekeeping!
All in all, it was exhausting. Working for FFG, demoing games nonstop, over loud crowds can really drain you. Next time I need to go as a fan instead of an exhibitor. I’d love to play in the tournaments and have more time to actually shop and participate in the con a bit more!
I also managed to capture a bunch of video as well! Here’s just some of what I caught!
In preparation for Gen Con 2018, FFG has published all of the points and upgrade slots for all of the ships and everything launching in the first wave of 2.0! These are published in 4 separate files, and I’ve consolidated them all into one single PDF for printing ease and consolidation.
This is certainly subject to change, and I’ve already noticed some changes from the cards released for Second Edition in the TIE Reaper expansion Pack, namely Swarm Tactics is printed as Imperial Only, yet according to FFG it is a generic upgrade that all can use. This is just one more reason we’ll all have to stay up to speed on the latest from FFG regarding X-Wing 2.0!
Do you think X-Wing Second Edition can recapture the magic?
Here’s my breakdown of these files, from last week.
This expansion is a title-only expansion that has multiple new titles for every ship in Star Wars Armada! It is NOT official and NOT tournament legal. This was a project of mine and it’s now available! This expansion is free to everyone! Download the FULL PDF here!
The Nunchuck Expansion is a free expansion for Star Wars Armada. It consists exclusively of titles for existing ships, which will showcase new strategies and new options for ships that only had limited roles. The Nunchuck Expansion is NOT an official product and is not tournament legal. I am designing the expansion and will be releasing them right here on crabbok.com.
Here are a few samples of just a few of the Imperial Titles that will be included.
Some of the details are still subject to change, and I’ll be letting my patrons on patreon vote on some of the names as well! Let me know what you think!
X-Wing 2.0 is getting closer and the time has never been better to have a giveaway! You can win one of three X-Wing Second Edition Conversion Kits right here!
The conversion kits are absolutely essential to anyone playing the origina X-Wing Miniatures Game, who wants to dive in to Second Edition without having to buy all the new ships. If you don’t get one, you will be stuck waiting for new Second Edition ships to come out, and will also end up paying an arm and a leg. For about $50 MSRP, (cheaper if you shop around), you can get a conversion kit for either Rebels, Imperials, or Scum, which will upgrade multiples of each of your ships to second edition format.
First Order and Resistance conversion kits aren’t yet fully announced, so we don’t know how much they will cost or what exactly they’ll contain. We do know that they will be cheaper, so you can expect to pay less for those.
How do I Enter The Giveaway?
Simple – All you have to do is to become a subscriber on Crabbok’s Channel, and leave a comment on one of his videos and you’ll be automatically entered to win! Here is a link to the announcement video!
When will the Winners be Announced?
The winners will be announced during the last week of July. This means you will know if you’ve won, before they go on early pre-sale at GenCon, and long before they go on sale at local retail stores, later in September. Winners are typically announced at the end of a video, so stay subscribed and watch all the way to the end!
How will I Get my Winnings?
If your name is revealed as a winner, you’ll have 30 days to contact Crabbok, either on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, or the email address, found on Crabbok’s Channel. You’ll be e-mailed a digital gift card for the amount of $42.49, the cost of a conversion kit on coolstuffinc.com.
What if I don’t play X-Wing?
Honestly, at this point you can do whatever you like with the giftcard. You can put it towards some other game. It’s up to you!
Want to learn more about X-Wing 2.0? X-Wing Wave 14 just came out with some new ships that have 2.0 cards in them! Here are some unboxing videos!
If you are in the market to upgrade your tabletop gaming experience than you absolutely need to check out some of these amazing terrain pieces from Imperial Terrain. They were kind enough to send over a few for me to look at and I’ve got to admit that I’m pretty blown away. The detail on these pieces are extremely high, and all of them have some type of battlefield functionality that makes them superior to simple rocks and trees.
The Small Mechanics Shop
These little shops make perfect buildings for any setting. They feature a mostly flat roof, which accomodates fitting troops on top, and even the occasional speeder bike. The feature a built-in ladder on one side to facilitate easier climbing up and down. They are tall enough to easily fit troopers inside as well. The two doorways offer multiple paths in or out, and the removable roof allows you to separately move and measure units above and below.
Having buildings with an interior that is accessible during the game, really enhances the possibilities. Perhaps you place an obstacle inside, rather than on the roof? Perhaps you hide units leaders inside after grabbing an objective! These little shops are very versatile and beautifully detailed.
Landing Pad
The Landing Pad is simply amazing. It’s hard to say more than that, simply because the size and detail here are unparalleled. In the above picture, there are actually two landing pads, joined by a leaf, which extends the top platform, however it is possible to connect 4 or more for even larger platforms. Each individual landing pad has an elevator door, a ladder, and enough space to land a standard starfighter on the top. They areabout 7 1/2 inches tall, which means they are considered height 2 as well.
Having terrain that is height 2 offers some very interesting game mechanics, in addition to simply being big and beautiful. Luke Skywalker, for example, cannot simply jump up there from the ground. Though if he were on a tall enough roof of a nearby structure, then possibly he could. The ladder however, does allow easier access to the top. The elevator, if you allow it to be used in your game, can offer alternate paths to the top as well.
Imperial Forward Oupost
The Imperial Forward Outpost has several modular pieces that allow you to build it however you wish. There is also a gate that can rise and fall as well. Perhaps there is a control panel, or perhaps you agree that it will be closed until the beginning of turn 3, or perhaps you decide that the get is a destructible piece. There are so many possibilities with this outpost, that you may want to get multiples.
The interior is also full of intricate details, such as supply crates on the ground, and highly detailed floor grating. It allows troops on the top or the bottom, and can be set up as a small garrison, a wall across the battlefield, or with enough sets, a fully fledged castle!
Summary
I absolutely love these pieces and will be using them in many future battles. Look for them in battle reports! I can’t wait to see how they influence the game! If you’d like to get your own, head on over to Imperial Terrain and either get an STL file to print yourself, or if you prefer they can print them for you and ship it! I might be ordering some more in the future!
Here is a video review if you’d like to see more!
Here are some pictures of the pieces after a quick paint job.
It’s not a joke this time. In an attempt to fix this aging system, and future proof the game, X-Wing is getting a second edition.
It’ll follow in a similar design to previous Core Sets. A T-65 X-Wing and two TIE Fighters. This time around however, the T-65 will have folding S-Foils! It’ll use the same dice and many of the mechanics will be the same, but there will be several key differences. For starters, It’ll have a new damage deck, so picking up a new core set to play Second Edition will be required. It’ll also have some positive changes to the game.
The Good:
New Force Powers
The Force is going to play a significant role in Second Edition. It’ll be a stat on certain pilot cards. Force tokens will be able to modify a single eyeball result to either a hit or evade, as well as triggering additional conditions when required. This allows a contrast between ace pilots, and force-sensitive pilots, in more meaningful ways that don’t always boil down to simply manipulating focus results. New upgrades can interact with force abilities, and new crew members can also lend force tokens to the ships they are on. It may now finally be possible to have a meaningful Obi Wan or Yoda on board the Millennium Falcon.
Turrets
Turrets are getting a makeover. The Mobile Firing Arc from the Shadowcaster expansion was so popular that they have applied that similar aspect to Second Edition. Turrets will no longer be able to shoot in every direction at the same time, and will now be limited to certain 90 degree arcs, depending on their current position. This will be more thematic and more balanced, and will likely increase the reward for skilled flying.
The App
Card will no longer have point cost printed on them. Instead an app will control those things, allowing errata to take place in real time and give FFG an easy ability to adjust point costs based on real world interactions of cards and the developing meta. This might be problematic for players who don’t have a smart phone, but since the majority of players do have access to the required technology, the negative impact of this should be minimal. The positive side here is that this will allow for a more dynamic meta game that will adjust and balance itself accordingly. It should also prevent the need for constant card errata. If a card seems to be too strong it’s point cost can simply be adjusted.
Ship Base Size
In addition to so many subtle changes come the welcome change of the medium base size. We’ve seen time and time again, that some ships were “in between” the small base and large base size, resulting in some bizarre situations like the K-Wing on a small base, and the IG-2000 and U-Wing on large bases. The Medium Base is a new base size that will bridge the gap between the two size in standard X-Wing and the Slave-1 will be the first ship in this new category.
The Bad
Cost
First off, you’ll need to buy a $40 new core set, and that’s just to get started. If you want to use all of your old stuff, you’ll need to purchase a conversion kit, which will set you back about $50 for each faction. Considering that there are three faction conversion kits launching right away, you can spend almost $200 to BEGIN playing second edition, and that means using all the miniatures that you ALREADY HAVE! That’s alot of money to begin playing a game using your old stuff. Naturally, players on a budget will probably want to stick to a single faction when beginning 2.0, but many of us have amassed larger collections over the years and we won’t simply want to throw out all of our old ships.
Cardboard
One of the biggest problems in the original X-Wing was the fact that there was a separate Ship Card and Cardboard Chit for each pilot. This lead to a mountain of cardboard inserts that absolutely must be saved, sorted, and accessible for future builds. Other games have handled this better by having pilots as upgrade cards rather than being printed on the cardboard tokens – and this WOULD have been a perfect opportunity to fix this, however they left this flawed old system intact. This is a huge missed opportunity for storage efficiency.
Here’s my video reaction to 2.0!
There’s a whole lot more to Second Edition, and it’s sure to have some fans of the game angry, while others will rejoice for the fixes. It’s currently set to be available for an early purchase at Gencon 2018, and then a wider release in September! Will you be getting a copy?
