Wondering how big an army should be?

I've been putting together my rules set for a Sci-Fi game where you can use any companies models and so have been coming up with the usual armies including your standard humans, genetically enhanced warriors, orcs, alien creatures etc. As part of it I have been pondering how to create the points costs for the units and I thought the best place to start was with how many models/units I wanted in each army. So I thought I would ask other people what they want from Sci-Fi armies. I was thinking a Standard army should be around 2,000 points, there seems to be a reason most companies use this number but I can't say that I know it. I figured that a standard human army should have something like:
4 Characters
4-6 Units of basic infantry
2-3 Support units
2-3 Vehicles
I wanted the game to play quickly (set up to pack away in around 2-2.5 hours) so figured with the reduction of dice rolling down to To Hit, To Damage and then the morale roll at the end of the phase you could probably get more models on the table but is it better to have a game with fewer models/units that are harder to kill or a quick game with lots of models that are easier to kill?
I thought a Space Marine style elite force should have average:
1-2 Characters
2 Units of basic infantry
2 Support units
2 Vehicles 
So what size would you want your Sci-Fi army to be? Does it even matter? 

Quick Sunday sesh

Thought I'd start posting about some games I've been playing!

Kicked off with a brand new copy of Terror in Meeple City (the game formerly known as Rampage) someone brought, so unfortunately there was some assembly required! With 4 people helping out though we were soon set to cause some mayhem:

Leonard the Long-Tail surveys his prey.

This is a game in which I'm all about having fun with winning an occasional bonus (well, it hasn't happened yet). There was much chaos with people moving aggressively, breathing fire aggressively and of course flinging buses to try to snag some teeth from the other monsters.

Leonard tried making a move on Gloria and got smacked upside the head.

Eventually we had a weird endgame situation where the next person to knock a meeple off the board would lose instantly, but the last building tile needed to trigger the game's end was precariously balanced on the edge of the board with a meeple still standing in it. Eventually someone sucked it up and knocked off the last meeple. I scored a dismal 10 with the winner racking up 33 by continuing to smack the others up and steal their meeples.

We next played Specter Ops - no pics unfortunately! - which I've been eager to try. I was a standard Hunter playing The Puppet - we had the full 5 so there was also a traitor in our midst. Blue Jay was the spy and tried pinning the suspicion on me with some cunning equipment use - luckily I was aware of the tools she *could* have and talked my way out of it! A few turns later we deduced the traitor (who revealed and slunked off into the shadows before we could call a vote) and started closing in on BJ. A desperate breakaway attempt was intercepted and the Beast pounced on her for some nasty damage. With limited escape options available, she fell on the next turn.

The opening seems quite important for the Spy - the Hunters quickly close in and they need to make a reasonably clean getaway without blowing too much equipment (which I think was BJ's downfall here). Awesome game!

Playing more Epic the card game.

Having had a chance to properly go through the rules and play a few games last night I relaised just how different Epic is to magic. We had initially assumed you can play events like instants in your opponents turn but this turns out to be extremely wrong as there are only three points you can play the, and no one may ever play a card 'in response' to a card. This changed the dynamic quite a bit as it allowed players to act in their turn without the worry of something being killed just before they eanted to use it. You may only play a card in an opponent's turn: 
- when attackers are declared
- when blockers are declared 
- when your oppoent says they wish to end their turn

The other odd thing is that there isn't one attack phase but as many you want. You can attack with one champion then play a card and go through each one in turn if you wish. Also, if one creeature blocks all attackers are considered blocked. It takes a lot of getting used to but makes some of the other cards make a lot more sense.

Overall I'm really happy with it as a 'let's punch each other in the face with monsters' game which doesn't take itself seriously. One of my frustrations with MtG has always been the need to manage Mana so now I can cast crazy Dragons without the need to deck build. Squee!

Attending the best board games convention in the world!

Anyone who loves board games knows that October is the month of Essen and E.L.F were there once again! Warning this is a big image dump of all the games I demo'd:

Getting ready for a gaming pilgrimage.

I have had some great games over the last few few days and it has been a brilliant warm up for the crazy four days pf gaming to come.