Netrunner Tokens - Brokenegggames - Rectification

Update 7.4.2014: Please find the original post below.

After all the hassle I was ready to totally give up brokenegggames but they wrote me a final email after I published my article and comments.

They apologized again and promised me a gift to make up for all the trouble. I was skeptical but full of expectations. I was ready to write a sarcastic email again after I saw no further changes of the tracking ID (like before). Unexpectedly the status changed and I was really looking forward to it. 

On one day last week  the promised compensation arrived. I was totally surprised because I received a valid tax ID, a friendly email and it took only 2 weeks after I placed the order.

They send me both sets which sums up to 40 $ plus additional shipping. I never received such a compensation so I am very happy and somehow relived.

Nevertheless - you may understand - I was very uncertain. Was this only a response to my public postings? I shot them an email and ask if the could explain why this order was delivered accordingly in contrast to the other 2 orders. 

The following may not be true but I strongly assume it is because it fits into the whole picture.

They wrote me that the clerk at the USPS facility stole a couple of packages. He got fired but this explains why I received no tracking ID after the shop printed out the label. It was never scanned after receiving. The altered some ways to handle their international orders and I pretty sure it will be much better in the near future.

I herewith want to rectify my former posting because I think I have to do so and I think they are a small new company with great ambitions. Bad publicity is never good and I don't want to blame somebody who is not responsible for a mistake.

We will  order again and I will observe and posts how that works out.

in the next days I will upload a review about the tokens.

_____________________

Original message:

Dear all

this is just a very brief warning for all you happy runners out there who are willing to spend a lot of money on special acrylic tokens for Netrunner.

Unfortunately I already prepared most of the framework for my review about the wonderful tokens of brokenegggames.com we ordered over 2 month ago. I was so excited about them but it turned out to be a huge disappointment.

I still find them the most beautiful and useful tokens out there at the moment, especially their credit stick design is brilliant and they are - excuse me Team Covenant I enjoy your videos but not your tokens - really neat.

Check them out here www.brokenegggames.com.

We decided (besides 50 $ for shipping) to order tokens worth 350 $ and we already prepared to wait a long time. Some internet background check was not very promising but I payed via Paypal to get customer support for the worst case scenario.

I will spare you the whole story but after over one month I wrote them a message. 

They replied and told me the package was send back to them (I never heard about the reason nor got a tracking ID first hand). After several emails which assured me that everything would be fine and they will send it again I received a tracking ID which never changed status from electronic shipping info received (which means the shop has printed out a label but had not handed over the package to USPS yet). 

I waited patiently but had to request customer protection after 45 days with paypal. 

At this time I already offered (as a customer!!!) to pay additional 30 $ for express shipping. Additional 20 days were added to sort everything out. I received no answer for all of my last emails which were always motivated and appreciative. I am a patient customer, I can understand "out of stock", "backed up with orders" or other issues as long as the shop talks to me. If someone lies to me or ignores my requests (but claims to answer after 36 h) I am getting angry.

After Paypal started to request the tracking ID they uploaded the old one which still says electronic shipping info received. After one week Paypal transferred the money back to my account.

Well, until the present time nothing was delivered and nobody answered my last emails.

I can only warn you to buy from this company. You can risk it but pay via Paypal to be on the safe side. 

If you have positive experiences please share those with us.

Tournament report - Store Championship Hamburg

On Saturday, March 15th a small group of our Berlin City Grid decided to squeeze into one car and take chances at the Hamburg Store Championship 2014.

We departed at 6:40 which forced me to bring at least 3 red bull, a travel mug full of coffee to have a minimum chance to stay focused at the tournament which began at 10 am. 

With good mood and after picking up the last buddy we spend most of the time during the trip talking, laughing and already predicting the Hamburg meta which was a surprise (or not). I will write about that later.

Due to our fastidious planning we arrived in time at 9:55 to register and got in touch with the other participants who were mainly from Hamburg. Only one other nice guy came from Münster.

The store the whole event took place in was awesome. The Atlantis Game Store is one of the best locations I ever had the luck to visit. It is huge, well decorated, comfy and elegant in the same way and provides 2 different play areas at the first floor and basement. It is a bit more pricey but offers discounts for several games.

I fear it would be swarmed by all those Yugioh and Pokemon kids but on Saturday it was blocked for the Netrunner players which created a nice atmosphere. One match per table assured enough space and the store provided snacks and drinks to buy.

The tournament organizer who I won't name here out of thoughtfulness did a great job. He introduced the event, set up the tournament rules and judges and soon we were ready to play. He was the first TO I met who performed deck checks which earned my respect. I would not accuse somebody for cheating but it send a good signal to everybody. 

We were 15 players in total so one of us got a bye for every round. I was chosen first which gave me the opportunity to look at all the identities played. It was a little bit disappointing because a lot of players brought netdecks to the tournament which is not something bad or condemn-able in general but lacks a bit of self-confidence or eagerness to experience with their own decks (my 2 cents). Some told me they downloaded a deck the day before the tournament they never had played with before. Well, I should not stick my own head out too much because I started with Andromeda and NBN:TWIY too. Criminals and NBN dominated the tournament. One player played HB:CI and the rest Weyland. Jinteki was missing. On the runners side I spotted one Kid, 2 Noise players and the rest of the pack played Andromeda or Gabe.

Most Andromeda decks I saw played the anarch breaker suite with Datasucker, the occasional Femme and Knight. Weyland was 50 % pure tag'n'bag or rush hybrid decks.

Round 1: bye for me

Round 2: NBN:TWIY and Shaper: Kid

Unfortunately my first game was vs. one of my friends from Berlin. Nevertheless we both played for winning. He had a good start with his Kid deck and was able to snitch 4 Agenda Points out of R&D when I still faced one of the worst draws I could imagine. 2 x 4/2, 2 x Archer and a shipment from sansan on my starting hand after the mulligan (before I had 4 Agendas).

Well, I was able to recover to 3 points with one Astro and destroyed his Yog with an Archer but he finished the game with one Beale from HQ and another draw from R&D. 

He played NBN fast advance so I run aggressively and was able to install Keyhole soon. I rampaged through his R&D and trashed multiple Agendas and Jackson Howards. The funny part was that I had at least 6 tags and he played a Psychographics decks and only 1 credit was missing on his side to score another Beale. He used Jackson 3 times to put agendas back into his R&D but finally the pressure was too intense and I won. Close!

Round 3:Andromeda and NBN:TWIY

A pretty solid criminal deck with Datasucker and not really any surprise. I was able to play 2 sweep weeks during the first round so I had a strong economy and rezzed Tollbooth in front of R&D and HQ. I was able to build up a lot of pressure with 2 early Astroscripts with one token each. He snitched a Breaking News. Although my Archer was no obstacle for his Faerie he stole no agenda from R&D although I feared he would after installing a R&D Interface.

The game was very exciting because he had tons of credits after several Armitage Codebusting actions, Kati Jones or Desperado runs. I was not able to tax him down noteworthy so I gambled at the end and installed a Beale in an open remote and one additional ICE (only popup) and one GRNDL in my protected remote (3 Ice in total, 2 rezzed). He prepared for 3 clicks and attacked the remote. I really saw him considering a run on the lonely card but he could not risk it. I scored Beale and won next turn.

He played NBN and I was able to steal one agenda from R&D early, one Breaking News he installed unprotected and after a Sneakdoor, HQ Int., HQ Int. run I snitched one additional 2 pointer (Astro). He made a mistake and clicked for Jackson with 2 cards on his hand. I run HQ and stole 2 agendas. The game was over very fast but very intense due to the speed.

Round 4: Gabe and NBN:TWIY

I was able to score one Astro and 1 breaking news during the early game but he installed Desperado in first round and was able to siphon me 3 times during crucial periods of the game. He got lucky and snitched the two 2 pointer of 5 cards from my hand during 2 turns and stole another from R&D. It was only a matter of time and he won the game after finding a Breaking news. He played a Knight which I was able to destroy with my Archer but inevitably he did not needed it. 

In contrast, however my Andromeda deck ripped through his defenses easily and with 2 well placed Inside Jobs I was able to score 4 points before he scored something. I only made one unsuccessful keyhole run and decided to run his hand more aggressively because he drew cards a lot but never played a single one. I won quite fast but this guy (first place at the end) was tough.

Round 5: Andromeda and NBN:TWIY

My opponent was a nice guy from Hamburg and I really enjoyed the game. I was a bit nervous because I had no idea about the overall scoring but thought I could reach first place if I would win both games. I started as a runner and again Keyhole kept his promise and shredded through his R&D. I guess I got most of the points from R&D which was only protected by a Pop Up Window and one wraparound. the game was over in 10 minutes. I constantly trashed ICE I could not break so his defenses were weakened a lot. 

The NBN game was one of the most hilarious games I ever had. He constantly ignored my Dataraven but put out a Plascrete just in case. I had no scorched in my hand but I assumed he was afraid of getting flatlined. I was able to score a Market Research worth 3 points as my first agenda. He stole one Astroscript. I was getting nervous because he never played a siphon or other events. He trashed my San San and Marked Accounts constantly which was in my favor because he lost a bunch of credits. After he discarded 2 Inside Jobs I tried to gamble and scored one Astro behind a single Bastion. He attacked my HQ furiously and I was expecting him to shut down my Archer in front of R&D. It never came. At the end I scored another Marked Research with SanSan City Grid and my Astroscript token.

All of his Account Siphons were still in his deck (only 15 cards left).

After everybody finished I was pretty convinced to make it top 3 but it was one lost game which denied me the 1 place. Nevertheless I was very happy with the mat which is really awesome and got two copies of Kati Jones like everybody else. 

I really enjoyed the weekend. I spend a whole day with my friends, a super hilarious journey, I met nice people and was pretty successful. ;) Let's see how the next store championship will be.

As I mentioned before I was surprised to see so many people using net decks and I can only encourage people to make their own experience. I still believe that a deck you defined during several month will still perform better as a standard Andromeda deck. It will be still strong but the player wins the game not the deck.

I will release my "Evolution of my Andromeda deck" post soon to explain my point of view more clearly.

Keep running!

Pictures: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/organized-play/2014/store-championships/adn-2014-storechamp-prizes.png

Fear and Loathing - Card review

 What? No. We can't stop here. This is bat country.

So, we finally saw the new spoilers from Fear and Loathing and I want to review the cards. As usual I will use 6 points to assess the data pack.

1. Oh my God, this card is so bad but can be used as a beer mat.

2. A card for subject decks or one which will have it's small moments.

3. A respectable card which we will see around. It is useful, certainly not for every deck.

4. A great card. Rock solid and supports present deck variants.

5. An excellent card which you have to use, unless you don't have a good reason not to do so.

6. A meta altering card, a must have like Jackson Howard.

I will award credits as points from 1-6.

Alpha and Omega:

A flexible, expensive AI Breaker which is limited to the outermost and innermost piece of ICE. A 3 ICE heavy server will force you to use another breaker which limits the use of this this card at the moment. Sure, it costs 3 credits to install 3 ICE but that's affordable. And 14 credits for a runner is something to consider although personal Workshop and Test Run plus Scavenge could get it faster and/ or cheaper. We will see if those 2 cards will find their way into decks with all 3 other types of ICE breakers.

Blackguard:

An expensive but still very powerful card if you play as much expose cards as possible (Lemuria, Infiltration etc.). It is very expensive and needs no further preparation. 11 Credits is expensive but can cause serious trouble in mid and end game for the corp. I am not sure if it will replace Desperado and it's value but I will definitely build a deck around it.

Blackmail: 

Wow, this card is a killer. Netrunner is coming to a point where bad publicity plays a major role and I predict that Blackmail will have a huge impact on the whole meta. If more cards will be released in the future which may cause the corp to take a bad publicity it will be even stronger. You could run a server, the ICE causes bad publicity and you could jack out and run again with this card to avoid other ICE to get rezzed. Play this with expose effects and you will be able to bring the corp to tilt.

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Blue Level Clearance:

I don't like double operations not very much but that's a solid card which you could play after some fast advance tricks to restock your HQ and to gain 2 credits. Nothing special but useful.

Cybersolutions Mem Chip:

Akamatsu costs 1, Dyson costs 3 and now we have to pay 4 for 2 MU to save deck space. If you need 2 MU it will be useful to put 3 in your deck but a combination of Akamatsu and Dyson provides more flexibility. If the number of programs you really (!) need will increase it can be helpful. I don't see that at the moment.

Executive Wiretap:

I tried to use Expert Schedule Analyser (which allows you to expose the Corp's hand). I cannot make up a situation where I want to spend 4 credits and 2 clicks just to glimpse at the corps hand. Stupid card.

Restoring Face

Good Idea and maybe playable after Honor and Profit has been released but at the moment you have only really bad or awesome syops, executives and clones like Jackson Howard, Akitaro Watanabe or Isabel McGuire so if you really need the bad publicity to be removed you have to rely on the few possibilities existing at the moment.

Yagura

I like Yagura for the early game. It's cheap and the runner does not know if you are bluffing or not. But if you put one card to the bottom of R&D the next one may be an agenda so be careful to play it. It fits into the future style of "gamble - Jinteki - gameplay".

GRNDL Refinery:

This card need to be in play for one round to make it worth the clicks in comparison to Melange Mining Corp but I like it. The runner must choose if he runs a strong server to trash it. If he does you won't loose much but he will. If he does not run you could get 16 credits in 2 turns. Awesome. I like the card.

GRNDL:

Already, here we go. At first I was impressed and I guess the card is still good but it's like a scored Hostile Takeover without the agenda point and 5 influence less. Weyland: BABW can generate over 10 credits in the first round easily so I don't see the necessity to play this ID, especially with 5 influence less.

 

Hemorrhage:

Noise, Keyhole and Hemorrhage are really putting the thumb on on the corp and the savior action of Jackson Howard but the click you need to use it will slow it down. We will see how balanced the card is. Keyhole run, install parasite, use Hemorrhage and run archive can be pretty strong.

Market Research:

Tag me style will be penalized much more and NBN already good tagging options will cause the card to replace Character Assassination. A 4/3 Agenda is awesome for NBN and Astroscript will be more dangerous than before.

Quest Completed:

Nasty card and awesome flavor but can ruin a corps day. Similar to Notoriety but no guaranteed Agenda point. I don't like the card. It is so situation dependent that I don't want to put it into my deck.

Toshiyaki Sakai:

Personally I like the whole gamble style gameplay of Jinteki. It requires a totally different style to play and it can cause you to win flawlessly or loose. With 2 influence you can splash it in other decks too. maybe Weyland. Replace it with a 3 pointer in and play Punitive Counterstrike if the runner steals it or score it next turn.

Strongbox:

I played against several click denial decks but this card will definitely get trashed the same turn the runner accesses the server. usually you don't run last click versus HB so it may happen you still have enough clicks left to snitch the Agenda. I guess this card will sometimes help you to score an Agenda but I would not use valuable deck space for it.

Subliminal Messaging:

Nobody should underestimate drip economy. A huge boon is that you can wait and play the card if the runner has not made a run last turn. Criminals who run a lot won't allow you to play the card that often but you will still have the chance to do so. If you play 3 you can always get them back on your hand and use those cards to reduce the probability to draw an agenda from HQ. I suppose this card has the potential to be an auto include.

Tallie Perrault:

Let's take a look at all operations:

Grey Ops:

Big Brother, Power Shutdown, Closed Accounts, Freelancer, Invasion of Privacy, Neural EMP, Subliminal Messaging

Black Ops:

Hellion Alpha Test, Scorched Earth, Punitive Counterstrike

Some of these cards are only played to win the game so you won't be able to make use of your bad publicity. Nevertheless it is an interesting card. Let's see how often we will be able to distribute bad publicity.

Vulcan Coverup:

Awesome. I get an agenda point and can deliver meat damage to annoy the runner, potentially flatline him or to soften up the Plascrete although experienced runners will discard 2 cards and leave the carapace intact. It still can interfere with the runners plans which is always desirable. If you can score a Cleaners before this one it is getting really nasty.

Wraparound:

Good ICE. Cheap and has the potential to be more resistant to parasite attacks and AI ICE breakers if no fracter is installed. I pay 2 and you need 2 clicks to use Crypsis and 8 credits is simply stunning. Will die immediately if a fracter is installed but that's not the purpose of this card. I love it.

Conclusion

I don't think that this datapack is a very good one. We got a few good cards like Blackmail, Wraparound, Subliminal Messaging and the rest is just average. A lot of cards will find their ways into theme decks and people will try to use them with different success. Some cards may increase in value later if bad publicity becomes more and more a threat. I would recommend buying it.

Pictures:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4354

http://www.hark.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/fearandloathing.jpeg