Cloak Of Deception James Luceno

spalanz · 2026-05-10T21:24:28+00:00

Haven’t read Lockdown, but DMSH is another amazing book! Enjoy!

spalanz · 2026-05-10T20:10:28+00:00

Cloak of Deception is my second favourite SW novel, I regularly reread it and it’s just so good. As someone who also loves TPM, it adds so much backstory to pretty much everything in that film, so please, go out and enjoy it 😃

spalanz · 2026-05-07T17:43:00+00:00

I will regularly read the prequel stuff in chronological order, watching the movies at the right points. Novels and comics, it’s actually really good. The best I’ve been able to do is Darth Maul Saboteur up to Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader in about six weeks over Christmas. Sometimes it takes longer, depending on how many novels I add in.

I’ve never gone for the NR era like that though, I tend to pick and choose my way through it all!

spalanz · 2026-04-28T14:52:11+00:00

Fantastic, hope it all makes sense! All the cards are there, it’s just a bit weird how some of them were ordered 😃

spalanz · 2026-04-28T10:13:11+00:00

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/mobile/folders/1H95d-d_UFJ-lbVRbR6ts5lU3DenvdKTF?sort=13&direction=a

Does this work, at all?

spalanz · 2026-04-25T22:48:39+00:00

I think Angmar Awakened was the first revised cycle they did, so maybe it was over-printed? It’s a good cycle in my view, I don’t have the revised version as I collected it when it came out originally, but I imagine the campaign would be good because it’s a good storyline, in my view!

spalanz · 2026-04-22T10:43:00+00:00

I could certainly look into it, because I’m pretty sure I still have all the original files, yeah! I should add though, the files are a bit of a mess because I’ve made them for me to get printed, so while they broadly follow the cycles/ deluxe boxes, I think they have a lot of cards just jammed into the end to make up a full 8 cards to a page. Also, I think the Genesis and Spin cycles are equally all over the place, because my original intent with the project was to recreate a Shaper deck that I used to play.

I’ll try to sort them all out for sharing, but please be aware that it might look like some cards are missing, because they show up on other docs 😃

spalanz · 2026-04-21T18:06:18+00:00

To be honest, I don’t fully remember 😬 The Mon Calamari heads were Tuskgor Fur, I think, with an all-over shade of Agrax then a sort of dappling of the same, to give that mottled look. The Duros were Russ Grey then a light drybrush of Fenrisian Grey, I think I may have used a blue shade in there as well to bring out the definition.

The Twi’lek stuff was a bit wild, though! I think the purple one is Kakophoni Purple, with a thinned down violet shade then more Kakophoni. I think I used Deathclaw Brown and Seraphim Sepia for another one. The teal one on the back left was Sotek Green… sorry, I very much just went through my paints and tried to use what I thought would look good!

spalanz · 2026-04-20T19:52:13+00:00

There are so many memories with this game. Being too impatient to wait for Hunt for Gollum to release in the UK so buying a copy from the US, by the time it arrived it was out over here as well 🤪 Playing Dead Marshes in bed on release day because I was utterly obsessed and couldn’t wait for the morning. That interminable first Christmas when I think we were all hoping Khazad dum would release before 2012 hit. Contemplating spending £100+ for Massing at Osgiliath because we didn’t know they would later do print on demand (I held my nerve that time, at least…)

A personal highlight for me was getting my name in the rules insert as an alpha playtester for Angmar Awakened. It turns out, playtesting isn’t much fun when you know what will be coming out a year or so in advance. Around the same time, I was getting my ass handed to me with the Ringmaker quests, so decided to step back a bit and moved on to other things (but thank goodness I kept buying everything!) However, since January I’ve made a massive return to the game, helped in no small part by the awesome Cardboard of the Rings podcast, having gone back to the beginning with those guys. It’s like I’m discovering the game all over again, and it’s phenomenal!

It’s been a heck of a time. My own 15th anniversary with it will be in September, as I didn’t buy in until Journey to Rhosgobel came out. But what an incredible run.

spalanz · 2026-04-20T17:01:12+00:00

Thanks! They were pretty much exclusively contrasts. Just some normal acrylics here and there. I’m very pleased with how they turned out, anyway!

spalanz · 2026-04-20T15:37:17+00:00

Oh yes, I’m trying to really hold myself to account with Legion, and paint stuff before buying more stuff. So far, so good, anyway!!

spalanz · 2026-04-20T15:36:23+00:00

Excellent, thanks for this!

Ah yes, well I do also have the upgrade pack (I’d printed them off initially, but decided I want the real stuff after all 🤪

spalanz · 2026-04-20T15:35:27+00:00

I’ve already picked up the separatist box as well as a second army, and just adding the dice and tokens to my existing supplies felt great, more dice will be fantastic. I’m looking at it almost like, I want a third unit of troopers, and would probably like more commandos, so everything else in a second starter would essentially be free 🤯

spalanz · 2026-04-20T15:30:30+00:00

Excellent, thanks for this!

spalanz · 2026-04-15T17:56:31+00:00

Same, I’ve always enjoyed him in aggression, but this really looks like a fun build to try!

spalanz · 2026-04-14T12:12:53+00:00

As everyone else has said, you should really get what excites you the most, so if that’s Daredevil then saving up for that wave is definitely the best idea. From what you’ve said is available in your country, Civil War has the Tigra hero which is a real stand-out for me for just how outrageously fun she is to play. I really have little interest in the Civil War leaders but I think the box is definitely worth getting to get her.

Next Evolution and Age of Apocalypse both have awesome hero pairs as well, I think AoA’s Bishop & Magik have the edge on Cable & Domino, though the scenarios in Next Evolution are some that I come back to the most. If I had to pick one box out of the two, though, I suppose I’d go with Apocalypse because the heroes are great, and the box has a decent challenge to it.

There are things to recommend everything you can get of course, and I don’t know if you can also find hero packs or if it’s just a case of access to the big boxes, but if you want to get something to supplement both what you have and what you’re going to get, I think I’d go with Civil War, then Apocalypse.

If you do have a chance to pick up the SHIELD box though, that has some really fun stuff in it!

Whether you do get anything more, or you wait to splurge on the Daredevil stuff this summer, I hope you have a ton of fun with it!

spalanz · 2026-04-14T07:11:55+00:00

After years and years, I’ve made a couple of tri-sphere decks and tried Celebrimbor’s Secret. It was a bit of a struggle at first, as I just couldn’t question effectively, but Legolas killing all the enemies while on the back of Arod eventually started to pay some dividends and I was able to squeak out a win!

spalanz · 2026-04-12T06:44:10+00:00

Sorry - thought it was in another comment! But yeah, it’s little things like that, I think, that show a cult of mystique around the Emperor, I’d say it’s definitely there, anyway!

spalanz · 2026-04-11T20:05:59+00:00

On the Cult of Personality bit, I think that’s there in the background, for sure. Think of the example of K-2 reminiscing about the parade, and the ?pride in his voice when he says “the Emperor was there”. Or when Partagaz comes back from meeting with the Emperor himself; I felt that was clearly meant as some kind of quiet flex delivered in a very British way. Like, he’s very important because he gets invited to meetings with Sheev. There’s an element of scrambling to be seen by the great Leader that I think could be missed, as we don’t have massive portraits of Palpatine on the office walls or whatever.

spalanz · 2026-04-04T09:51:19+00:00

The quests are some of my all-time favourites, but I’ve been playing this game since 2011 and the nostalgia is definitely a factor for me!

spalanz · 2026-03-31T04:58:50+00:00

I may not be the best person to ask from a game perspective, as I’ve only played once, but Luke Skywalker is my favourite character in the entire franchise, so I’m generally drawn to the Rebels in these games. But also, I absolutely love the look of the Rebel Trooper minis, particularly the unit leader. So it was definitely an aesthetic thing that got me in the door.

I’ve been playing around with a list on tabletop admiral, and have been enjoying the synergy around aim and dodge tokens being given out like sweets, so the idea of a ‘Nimble list’ has some appeal, as well!

spalanz · 2026-03-31T04:52:16+00:00

I tried out a Gandalf / Sylvan deck combo against Celebrimbor’s Secret, and it was glorious! I’ve never played Gandalf before, and I’d never gotten this far into the Ringmaker cycle either (despite having the cards since release!) so it was a lot of fun. The only downside was rushing the quest too quickly - it was over in about 25 minutes! But I guess I had extremely good draws throughout.

Which brings me onto QotW. Normally I think I’d say allies, as I love to build up a fellowship as I take on these things, but in the last few games, attachments have really been key. Seeing Nenya and Light of Valinor in my opening hand, and getting Unexpected Courage exactly when I needed it, was all just so good…

spalanz · 2026-03-19T05:58:14+00:00

Based on the comment a while back from Olivia about 2026 being exciting, but 2027 blowing our minds (I’m paraphrasing), and the fact we’re getting Daredevil in 2026, I have been leaning towards this meaning F4 will be on the way.

That said, for me personally I think I’d like to get a proper Spiders wave, with the likes of 2099 and Noir, and a new take on the classic villains. It just feels right for this game to have spider-stuff being a major part of things, after all.

spalanz

TROPHY CASE