Full Thrust article

[pixelgeek]

In the hopes of getting some of my local friends involved in playing Full Thrust I put together a 'Getting Started' article to help them along.

https://zacgaming.wordpress.com/getting-started-in-full-thrust/

It has links to the rules (and descriptions of the various variants), minis and other resources. If there is anything I am missing please let me know so I can add it.

I also posted some files for SSD templates that I am using.

https://zacgaming.wordpress.com/2021/05/02/ssd_templates/

They are available in SVG, EPS and Affinity Designer versions.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

A couple of minis manufacturers you might add to that list:

Silent Death Metal Express - the figs are mostly meant to be fighters, but so many of them are either scale-neutral or larger gunships they're worth a look for any FT player:

https://silent-death.mx/store/

Gallery at my old blog only shows the tip of the iceberg for the SD range:

https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2019/09/silent-death-gallery.html

Hydra Miniatures has a remarkable range of retro-pulp scifi spaceships in six different styles:

https://shop.hydraminiatures.com/index.php?cPath=40&osCsid=322f0835ed944b6e783e1b8f52234a5c

And Monday Knight Productions makes the old Starfleet Wars range under their Galactic Knights line these days, which are some old classics not to be missed:

http://www.mondayknight.com/OnlineStore.html

[mellis1644]

Great post BTW. This is a game I have wanted to try to years but never got too...

[pixelgeek]

Great post BTW. This is a game I have wanted to try to years but never got too...

I was looking for a ruleset here a while ago and people mentioned it but I discounted it at the time. After some more searching I settled on FT. Its more fun than I initially thought.

[pixelgeek]

A couple of minis manufacturers you might add to that list:

Added. Thanks. I overlooked the Silent Death models because I didn't think they would scale well but that might be because almost all of the models I picked out from the range were specifically fighter sized.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Added. Thanks. I overlooked the Silent Death models because I didn't think they would scale well but that might be because almost all of the models I picked out from the range were specifically fighter sized.

Full Thrust works okay even as a dogfight game if you restrict your "ship" designs a bit - limited firing arcs, higher thrust ratings, use cinematic movement for Star Wars or old BSG style games or vector movement for Bab5 or modern BSG style fights.

But a lot of the SD fighter minis also work fine for small ships - they're generally about the size of a GZG destroyer with a fair amount of variance, and most lack any details establishing a definite scale - even the "cockpits" can just be painted as sensor or weapon blisters easily enough.

[bermanj]

I loved FT for many years. Now, many many years later, I introduced my children to the game and it was a instant hit.

I've found the Full Thrust Lite rules make for a great introduction to the game. A couple of play-throughs using the same, and your gamers are going to be able to cope with the various add-ons etc.

[Grumpy Gnome]

I love what you are doing with this Pixelgeek, as I have mentioned on our blog.

We had to shelve our space combat gaming plans to focus on our other projects but Full Thrust was our favorite rule set from the research we did.

[pixelgeek]

I love what you are doing with this Pixelgeek, as I have mentioned on our blog.

Thanks.

We had to shelve our space combat gaming plans to focus on our other projects but Full Thrust was our favorite rule set from the research we did.

Do youmean that huge lot of Dungeons and Lasers 2 minis? :-)

[pixelgeek]

I've found the Full Thrust Lite rules make for a great introduction to the game. A couple of play-throughs using the same, and your gamers are going to be able to cope with the various add-ons etc.

I suspect that you are right. I think that the biggest thing is planned movement and the turning restrictions

[Storm Wolf]

Ah Full Thrust, fond memories of running games at the club. I must admit I preferred the second edition over the later 2.5 version but fun nonetheless.

Played it with my kids when they were young, and it didn't phase them much

Have fun with it

Glen

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I think that the biggest thing is planned movement and the turning restrictions

One approach to teaching those mechanics that's worked for me in the past is to put your new players on one side with a ship or two apiece and your vets (or just you, if you're the only one familiar with the game) on the other.  Have the vets plot movement normally.  When they're done let the new folks declare where they're trying to wind up in general terms, then show them what the movement plot for what they're trying to do would look like one step at a time.  After that, have the vets move according to their pre-plotted movement as usual, again explaining step by step how the plot translates onto the table..

Most folks will get the basics after a few turns, and once everyone feels comfortable then you can take the training wheels off and start having both sides plotting normally.  The fact that pre-plotting will tend to leave the vets with slightly worse than optimal firing positions will help offset their greater experience too, although Full Thrust's combat system isn't particularly skill-sensitive anyway beyond making judgement calls on how to prioritize targets and split fire.

"Placed marker" weapons like salvo missiles and plasma bolts require more familiarity with the movement rules than other weapons, and you'll probably want to ease people into using them.  Fighters are mechanically similar but more forgiving, so maybe have them test-fly some of them before they start lobbing missiles around.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Thanks.

Do youmean that huge lot of Dungeons and Lasers 2 minis? :-)

Not specifically but sort of, it was my Tarnished Splendor (Napoleonic Horror) project that really got space combat shelved for us.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

For anyone who missed it, Pixelgeek's put up a nice set of graphic SSDs for Brigade's Indonesian fleet using the suggested stats and homebrew rules from my much-disused blog's oldest post (which I've since updated to cross-link to his page).  You can see the new SSDs here:

https://zacgaming.wordpress.com/indonesian-republic-ssd/

I'm also reliably informed there should be some new ships for that fleet coming at some point down the road, which will be nice to see.  Always liked that fleet's design style.