Boxed Culture: A Gale-like Force 1

I just got back from my local board game night. I had a great time, just in case you were wondering. Most importantly I tried out WWE Superstar Showdown. I know proceed to laugh…

… Okay no that you are done I would like to spend this weeks article praisng a company that is not Fantasy Flight Games. This week I would love to focus on Gale Force Nine.

These are GF9’s non-board game items. Now let’s get back to the interesting stuff!

Gale Force Nine (GF9) is a company some of you may know from the miniatures world. They make very amazing laser cut components for miniatures games and lots of stuff for mini gaming in general, including really good green stuff! In 2012 GF9 acquired the rights to make a game based on the Spartacus television franchise from Starz. This was a launching point for them as board game manufactures. They were able to obtain many other licenses including Firefly, Sons of Anarchy, and Homeland.

It doesn’t always look this good but it will make you feel like you are about to cut a man!

GF9 is notorious for not using their own custom created artwork for games. So unlike Upper Deck and other companies that commission new artwork, GF9 uses screen shots from the shows themselves. Some people really dislike this and think it is as tacky as Flying Frog Productions using their own actors to mock up scenes for their games. I am looking at you Last Night On Earth. I do no have any problems with this personally but I can understand how it comes off as lazy. To be honest, in the end it makes you really feel like you are flying around with Mal Rynolds or running guns with Jax and the crew from the Sons.

Most of the games are built in a top down fashion. This means they take a theme and build a game around it. This is very apparent in the Firefly and Spartacus games. Some of the mechanics in these games are so specific you actually can get a bit confused trying to remember them. Other times it is very easy to see exactly why a crew member who is a straight shooter will get mad if you are stealing from a hospital. These games border on the super fiddly due to their complex mechanics and numerous expansions.

That is another thing GF9 does well is expand on their base games. So much so their first three games have at least 2 expansions each. The Firefly game, by far, is the largest game. It has two extra boards and so many cards you better be playing it on a huge table or you may not have enough room. However it does feel very encompassing. You get a good feeling that you are playing in that universe and you see people you know but still get to make your own stories.

Hmmm… I think I need a bigger table…

This is probably my favorite part about GF9. When you play on of their franchised games you can make stories with you favorite characters like you are writing your very own fan-fic. No that wasn’t suppose dot turn you away, it was supposed to make you excited to make you own crew for the Serenity, or try to thwart terrorists attacks on the US, It may even make you…

Thanks for reading ill see you all next week.

-Kyle