Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: Grumpy Gnome on August 19, 2019, 08:46:05 AM
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Nothing quite like being late to the party, and the internet does not forget!
Recently I was bitten by the Dropfleet Commander bug thanks to winning a great deal on an eBay auction. So of course I started researching the game with the fervor of the newly converted...
Much to my dismay it looks like the game was quite the fad... a couple of years ago! Not so much now. I can see that I would have been a fully committed kickstarter backer, so what do you do when you see that your new passion is an old flame of several others, discarded and thrown aside?
Or am I wrong? Are there many of you Dropfleet Commanders still lurking around? Hoping that TT Combat can reinvigorate the game with a 2.0 reboot like they seem to have done for Dropzone Commander with Battle for Earth?
Have any of you spoken with TT Combat Staff about the future of Dropfleet?
What do you think of Dropfleet compared to Full Thrust and Firestorm Armada?
What do you think of the fan made errata? I am still just learning the official rules so I am not sure what to think of such an extensive fan project.
I mentioned a bit of this on my blog and talked about my ideas for color schemes for my UCM fleet.
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2019/08/18/busy-day/
What do your fleets look like? Indulge an over enthusiastic fanboy....
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Even though I did not back the KS, I was an early convert, having played Dropzone Commander quite a lot, and owning two armies for that (Scourge and resistance).
The game is great, but due to many other projects, it got relegated to shelf duty until last year, when a buddy, who did pledge in the KS, got the urge to paint up his fleets. So myself and another friend unearthed our boxes too and set to painting and playing the game. I went with Scourge, and the others went for UCM and PHR respectively.
So we basically got into it only last year, and we've played it quite a few times since then. It even went so far that we started expanding our fleets, and I now have at least one set of every released extra unit, bar one. And yes; this includes the Dreadnought :D
Both the Commander games were on the rise to become quite big, even though there was some fallout when the Kickstarter failed to be fulfilled when products were already out in retail. Much booing and hissing on the interwebs, but really, there was no foul play involved.
A short time later, Hawk Wargames was absorbed by TT Combat. The main reason was that the lead designer/owner/sculptor got burned out on the logistics, PR and sales side of things, and the larger company could step into those fields, while he could concentrate on what he likes (and does!) best; sculpting and game designing.
So there was a period in which the original stocks of Hawk Wargames products were discounted and sold off, before TT Combat labeled products were released. So there was quite some time where very little DZC and DFC products were available. It also meant that no new releases were forthcoming for more than a year. And this was a real problem for the popularity of the game, as many people assumed that with the demise of Hawk, the games were dead too.
But TT Combat is now releasing new products for the game again, a new rulesbook is coming soon, and support is growing again.
It never was a huge game to begin with; it had still been creating its own niche when the whole setback occurred, but with the weight of TT Combat behind it, with a bit of patience, I'm certain it will crawl out of looming obscurity and grow to prominence... :)
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That is great to hear. I have been absorbing as much YouTube videos and internet blogs as I can find. I see the Hawk forum has appeared to die off and a fan run forum has stepped in. TT Combat does not seem to manage a forum?
I broke one of my usual rules of only buying used and on sale to get a couple of things from TT Combat, including Battle for Earth. I love the fluff!
Thanks to eBay I picked up some inexpensive Dropzone stuff but 10mm is not my favorite scale and to be honest storage space for terrain is limited, although I would ,love to do some post apoc vegetation overgrown city ruins.
Whilst reluctant at first my wife has come around to Dropfleet, which was good of her since we originally agreed to just one genre to focus on... medieval fantasy. So now it looks like the plan is for her to have small fleets of each of the other nations whilst I build my dream UCM Grand Fleet. She was not a huge fan of the fluff so I thought I would have to rewrite bits to suit her but she has come around on that to a certain degree.
I can see the ship bases are fiddly. So far I have found two aftermarket base accessories help. I am currently favoring the ones from Blotz but I would like to hear if anyone has other suggestions.
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Yes; the bases are a bit of a thing... ::)
The status and height dial is OK and perfectly workable, but the hull-point pegs are a right nightmare. Especially during large engagements with loads of ships in close proximity to each other.
The times ships got bumped or toppled during the repositioning of the peg on a ship under fire are beyond number. It has come to the point where both of my regular opponents basically refused to use the pegs and resorted to dice during play. Especially since it regularly happens that pegs spontaneously popped out of their holes. Seriously; I've seen them do it!
Also, the dang things always seem to disappear, and I always come home a few pegs short.
I've been thinking about putting a thin metal sheet on the bottom of the dials, and using small magnets to keep the tracker/peg in place on the base. I mean; we have the technology...
The fluff is nothing spectacular, but it is well thought out. The only thing (kind of) bugging me is the addition of the Shaltari. They are an interesting faction, no doubt, and they play very differently from the others, but they somehow feel shoehorned in there.
The other factions all have a crucial role to play in the ongoing narrative; the UCM is us; exiled humankind, under attack by the relentless Scourge. The PHR are humans that followed a strange prophetic artifact, abandoning Earth after being warned about the arrival of the Scourge, and now they have returned, but not fully human anymore, their goals and purpose unknown. The Resistance are those humans that were not able to flee before the onslaught, were never captured by the Scourge and fight a guerrilla war on the occupied worlds.
All of those are connected and influence the others as they work towards their goals.
And then there's the Shaltari, who just happened to run into humanity, wage war on everyone, including themselves, and add absolutely nothing to the overall story arc. As if the designer had this cool game play idea with gates and transporters, but could not fit it into his design of the other races. So they were created just so the mechanism could be added to game play. they bring diversity in play, but bring nothing decisive to the table when it comes to fluff. They could be written out, and the overall arc would not be influenced at all...
And I am planning my terrain in such a way that is is usable for both 10mm and 15mm, so I can play several games with one set of terrain. And since it's all urban terrain, it could work for 6mm too, in a pinch (well for Epic/40K anyway; architecture is supposed to be ridiculously oversized and monumental anyway ;) ).
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One of the auctions I won had UCM ships magnetized... not just the options but replacing the little clear widget on the stem. I much prefer that so ordered a bunch of magnets to do the other ships, useful since several are bits box salvage type ships without complete bases.
The thing I like about the blotz Bases is no dice for damage tracking. And not that expensive, unlike laser forge on Etsy.
https://blotz.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=24_124_185&products_id=1108
One of the rules that has jumped out at me as possibly needing a rethink is the fighters in the launch assets. I am not really seeing much point in mixed launch assets compared to just sending bombers. Am I missing something?
I agree on the Shaltari seeming to be the weak link in the narrative. My wife would rather have them be the lizardmen the Scourge were using as hosts during the initial invasion. I have toyed with the idea of using Stargrunt rules for a 28mm Dropverse game with various proxy minis.
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Plenty of solutions for the bases, yes. It was a good idea in theory, but in practice, it has proven just way too fiddly.
And fighters can be utterly crucial in keeping your ships alive. Yes, offensively, bombers are king, but keeping fighters near your own ships reduces the effect of each wave of bombers. It's a base/token for base/token trade.
So if you are on the receiving end of 3 bomber bases/tokens, and you have 2 fighter bases/tokens with your ship, only one bomber base/token gets to roll for effect, as the other two are removed (together with your fighters). And especially when your capital ship has already suffered some damage, reducing the bomber wave is key. Because once damage is dealt, the effects increase almost exponentially, and it it rare that a cruiser can weather more than one barrage and a fighter wave.
The game is absolutely brutal in that respect.
But fighters really become interesting in higher level games, when you can field more than a single carrier. because with just 3 or 4 launch tokens, you're better off concentrating your assets, while when your launch capacity increases to 10 or 20, a careful division is key (because the other guy probably has the same capabilities!).
Your wife's explanation sounds perfectly reasonable, and would actually involve the Shaltari a lot more into the overall narrative. I like it! :)
And I've been holding on for the release of Drop Squad Commander for years now. It's only logical, right? Then you get to play truly interesting campaigns, fighting your way to the surface of a planet in DFC, dropping your troops and securing a beach head in DZC and then going in to secure an objective in DSC... 8)
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One of the rules that has jumped out at me as possibly needing a rethink is the fighters in the launch assets. I am not really seeing much point in mixed launch assets compared to just sending bombers. Am I missing something?
Have you played against a fleet that's running heavy on close action ships yet? Scourge generally does it best, but UCM and Shaltari can skew into it effectively as well. Both UCM and Scourge CAW forces will leave you scraping for every bit of PD cover you can get, which is a good argument for fighters escorting key units. You can also get mileage out of launching fighters at a target being pursued by your own bombers from the previous turn if the enemy launches fighters to cover the target. Clearing the escort will get more bomb hits through, and it's often more useful than launching another wave of bombers at long ranges.
And fighters can be utterly crucial in keeping your ships alive. Yes, offensively, bombers are king, but keeping fighters near your own ships reduces the effect of each wave of bombers. It's a base/token for base/token trade.
So if you are on the receiving end of 3 bomber bases/tokens, and you have 2 fighter bases/tokens with your ship, only one bomber base/token gets to roll for effect, as the other two are removed (together with your fighters).
Unless there's been errata to change the core rules, that's not how that works. Fighters can remove other escorting fighters one for one, but when using them against bombers they provide extra point defense against the damage inflicted by the bomber attacks. Generally speaking one fighter counter won't provide enough PD dice to stop a single bomber's attack cold, although you can get lucky and when you factor in the ship's native PD the fighter's contribution is more likely to save a ship from damage.
And then there's the Shaltari, who just happened to run into humanity, wage war on everyone, including themselves, and add absolutely nothing to the overall story arc. As if the designer had this cool game play idea with gates and transporters, but could not fit it into his design of the other races. So they were created just so the mechanism could be added to game play. they bring diversity in play, but bring nothing decisive to the table when it comes to fluff. They could be written out, and the overall arc would not be influenced at all...
They didn't "just happen" to run into humanity, and they're the real "bad guys" behind the Scourge invasion. They deliberately led Scourge probes to the human homeworlds after concluding that both races were a long-term threat to their species as a whole due to their reproductive rates and aggressive expansionism. The plan was probably for both sides to cripple each other and wipe the winner out afterward, or turn the survivors into a client race like the Pulgari. Whatever entity is behind the White Sphere screwed things up by saving a bunch of humans to form the PHR and (maybe unintentionally) weakening the remaining human fleet so much they had to flee to the future UCM worlds rather than fight. This lead to even more fracturing of the Shaltari clans as some of them are helping the UCM or the Scourge to stretch the renewed conflict out, others are making a power play within their own culture and the Scourge-human war be damned, and at least a few are freaking out about the Sphere and PHR, who seem to have come out of nowhere and may be a bigger threat than the UCM, Resistance, and Scourge combined.
They're not just a wild card or excuse for game mechanics, and they sure aren't a minor part of the story that could just be dropped without impact.
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Having said all that - I gave up on the game around the time Hawk sold itself. Found the rules too limited, and while the focus on planetary invasion was cute for a while the lack of any other kinds of scenarios quickly left me cold. No convoy raid/defense games, no deep space interception fleet actions, no asymmetrical blockade runs, and the fact that not one invasion scenario actually has a defense in place is daft. The Scourge were on the cradle Worlds for over a century but they have to deploy their troops from orbit just like everyone else? No troops in place on the ground? No defenses built despite an active resistance and ongoing hunting ops to collect free humans for hosts? Not even skeleton crews manning the armed orbital platforms? Nope, everything's a symmetrical game. Just not impressed with 1st edition at all. Maybe TTC will fix some of that, we'll see eventually.
There's absolutely no players locally any more, and its US retail presence was badly hurt by the TTC takeover dead period. Too many stores suddenly found stock impossible to order, and an awful lot of gamers moved on before that was fixed. Again, that may change over time, but I suspect it's going to be an uphill battle.
OTOH, the minis are gorgeous, and they work as well for more versatile games as they do for DzC. I haven't bothered to post most of my (long since sold) stock fleet images, but there's a fair amount of Dropfleet content on my blog, including (I would guess) the largest gallery of space station builds in the universe. https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/search/label/Dropfleet%20Commander
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I have enjoyed your station designs and custom ships.
Fair point on the fighter cover, I had not thought of that angle.
And, another fair point on the Shaltari when you put it like that. My wife just rolls her eyes at the space porcupine concept though.
My thinking on the scenarios was to develop our own. I watched a video where some guys created their own scenario of ships attacking a larger fleet in space dock facilities. They created their own mechanic on when the ships could deploy from repairs. My thinking is to pinch scenarios from other games when the planetary invasion ones grow stale.
I would also like to develop more extensive damage tables. I get that the game is streamlined for tournaments but my wife and I like more narrative role playing aspects.
And I worry that ships are going to pop too quickly.
That said, I do like the scan plus signature ranging system.
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My thinking on the scenarios was to develop our own. I watched a video where some guys created their own scenario of ships attacking a larger fleet in space dock facilities. They created their own mechanic on when the ships could deploy from repairs. My thinking is to pinch scenarios from other games when the planetary invasion ones grow stale.
I made a couple of abortive efforts at that myself, but never finished them. BFG would seem like the obvious place to steal scenarios from, or A Call To Arms, both of which have some mechanical similarities. The point values need to be reconsidered for bombardment ships and troop carriers when not playing invasion games - they're grossly overcosted without that being a main objective.
I would also like to develop more extensive damage tables. I get that the game is streamlined for tournaments but my wife and I like more narrative role playing aspects.
And I worry that ships are going to pop too quickly.
Stuff does die alarmingly fast, especially with a bad catastrophic damage roll or two triggering chain reactions. Crits are too frequent for my tastes as well - bypassing armor so often makes it feel kind of pointless.
That said, I do like the scan plus signature ranging system.
It's probably one of the best elements of the game, yes. Ironically, I also like how dangerous ship explosions are since it makes bunching up a real risk and discourages traffic jams. But big booms happen too quickly and chain reactions (especially among frigates) are too over the top. Lowering the potential damage might fix that.
My wife just rolls her eyes at the space porcupine concept though.
They probably didn't intend people to see them that way, but you don't get to pick your nickname even when you're hyperadvanced alien warriors. Their ships are by far my least liked designs in the game, and oh gods, are they a pain to paint well.
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Right now my only opponent is my wife, so points balance takes a back seat to narrative. What miniatures I have finished and our non-Standard table size will dictate more than streamlined tournament balance.
I do hope TT Combat have some plans for the future in regards to the game though. I read on one of the online discussions about an unknown threat that the Scourge have been dealing with. Makes me wonder if there is another faction on the horizon.
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Unless there's been errata to change the core rules, that's not how that works. Fighters can remove other escorting fighters one for one, but when using them against bombers they provide extra point defense against the damage inflicted by the bomber attacks. Generally speaking one fighter counter won't provide enough PD dice to stop a single bomber's attack cold, although you can get lucky and when you factor in the ship's native PD the fighter's contribution is more likely to save a ship from damage.
You are right of course. The last game I played was before the summer and things get hazy fast, especially since I'm not a 'rules guy' myself ::) Still; fighters absolutely have their purpose.
They didn't "just happen" to run into humanity, and they're the real "bad guys" behind the Scourge invasion. They deliberately led Scourge probes to the human home worlds after concluding that both races were a long-term threat to their species as a whole due to their reproductive rates and aggressive expansionism.
I have all the books (both DZC and DFC), and read them front to back, but I must have missed this. In which book is this mentioned? This does make them even more detestable... ;)
The last game we played, was a three way battle, with Scourge and UCM fleets both arriving in system to do the same thing; destroy a PHR Dreadnought before it leaves dock. We had some house rules to accommodate the lack of ground targets, and none of our fleets were optimized for pure space battles, but we made it work, and it was pretty fun.
The PHR forces (same points as UCM and Scourge combined) started in the middle of one side, while the other two started out in the opposite corners. The dreadnought was in the middle, and the player could roll for its activation each turn (getting more probable each turn; think deep striking mechanic in 40K) while we rushed to do damage to it as soon as possible. He had a small patrol force with it, and the rest of his fleet came up behind it.
The scenario and house rules could do with some more tweaking to balance things out a bit more, but the overall idea was solid. And when you build your fleet, it can be tweaked to be effective in this situation too. Just make sure you don't select bombardment ships and anything with heavy launch assets and you're good.
And like I said; the game is absolutely brutal. I went into my first game, thinking of attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion ;) , but what we got was; ship gets hit, gets taken down to half its hull points and receives some debilitating effects, gets hit again, blows up spectacularly, damaging several others ships, which then also explode, cascading damage through both fleets, to the point where we could fit in two games with our starter fleets in the first evening... ::)
I think a bit of a rework of the damage system would not be a bad thing. I mean; once you get used to it, you can play and plan around it, obviously, but none of us were prepared for the slaughter fest this game is at first. Some less brutal damage effects could go a long way to ensure some more tactical play.
As it is, especially with small fleets, once your critical assets get vaped, you're basically out of the game. I played a game where I was able to destroy my opponent's only ship capable of dropping troops, so that was that... Only in larger games do you get enough redundancy to be able to react to setbacks to your plans. And even then you're always fighting a steep uphill battle. Less brutal combat could negate all that a bit.
I mean; what's the use of having 16 hull points when you loose them all in one or two rounds of combat? For some reason I've got frigates that usually outlive the large capitals even though they're just 4 hull points (of course those capitals are priority targets, but still). At the moment, when a ship gets fired upon, no matter its class, it will get destroyed in two turns max, unless something statistically improbable happens to the attacker's dice...
I understand that Resistance is now being dragged into DFC as well, even though they were initially just a ground force. So that's at least one more faction for the game, and I really like their aesthetics. The Art Deco/ Streamline look they have going is just too cool to ignore, so here's to hoping they extend that look to the ships as well :)
Right now though, I'm in full agreement with you guys in that the game needs a tweak to the damage system and some more variation in scenarios/type of games more than it needs another faction. But for some reason I have faith in TTC, and the game(s) might just move into the right direction (although DZC is fine the way it is now IMHO).
Still hoping for that Drop Squad Commander reveal though... :D
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Now that is the kind of interesting house rules scenario I was thinking of. Sounds fun!
The modular design concept of the Resistance ships should appeal marketing-wise, given the popularity of the modular space station models outside just Dropfleet players. And good business returns normally means increased continuing investment/development.
28-32mm skirmish is all the rage right now, so I would not be surprised to see Dropsquad Commander if TT Combat did not already have so many projects on.
I am curious how their upcoming Stellaris project might overlap DFC.
https://community.ttcombat.com/2019/08/16/painted-ether-drake/
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it has definitely stagnated I find.
you'll find very little discussion about it on forums and Facebook and still very few people know of its existence. I've only ever seen 1 shop stock a limited amount of it and seen a fair share of complaints on quality since TTCombat took over.
it doesn't help that Hawk Wargames didn't do much to promote the game and TTCombat does close to absolutely nothing at all to promote it and expects it to grow still.
its something a friend tried and still tries to get me into. but I see it now as a complete waste.
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it has definitely stagnated I find.
you'll find very little discussion about it on forums and Facebook and still very few people know of its existence. I've only ever seen 1 shop stock a limited amount of it and seen a fair share of complaints on quality since TTCombat took over.
it doesn't help that Hawk Wargames didn't do much to promote the game and TTCombat does close to absolutely nothing at all to promote it and expects it to grow still.
Agreed, although worth mentioning that the quality complaints are all resin-related, the plastics are still l fine AFAIK. Hard to screw up injection-molded plastics. Quit the facebook group a while ago, although it was still middling active about a year back.
TTC is definitely stretching themselves too thin, and it shows.
I have all the books (both DZC and DFC), and read them front to back, but I must have missed this. In which book is this mentioned? This does make them even more detestable... ;)
Haven't even seen Battle For Earth, but Dropfleet Commander core book, page 189, Shaltari section, under Arcitects of Fate is where most of it comes from. In short, the only time the Scourge have ever deigned to talk to humans as far as the UCM knows, it was to tell us that the Shaltari had led their seedships to the Cradle Worlds after helping us find and settle them in a deliberate effort to get both races to wipe each other out.
Now, they are Scourge and might be lying, but what do they gain from it? We're not going to stop the Reconquest to go beat on Shaltari, who can basically avoid us at will. We're not going to distrust the Shaltari any more than we already do, they're notoriously unreliable and flaky. Giving us another race to have a grudge about won't save the Scourge any trouble, although they may not be good enough at reading human psychology to realize that.
They might also be misinterpreting things, but the way the disparate tribes are meddling they sure seem to be extending the war and increasing casualties rather than helping anyone win. And the Scourge are in a good position to know if their seedships were meddled with, even by Shaltrai tech.
It would be really interesting to know if the PHR and the resistance fleets got a similar message from the Scourge, and how they're reacting to it if they did. Also be really interesting to know what the PHR thinks of the Shaltari agenda, and whether the White Sphere (arguably technologically superior to the Shaltari in many ways, even if the PHR as a whole isn't) has the porcupines as worried as they probably ought to be.
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It is proving a bit tougher to settle on a color scheme for my UCM ships.
I tried white with blue trim, a look I commonly like in artwork but it just did not grab me. I tried grey and yellow with a bit of a US Navy vibe but that did not work for me.
My first MCRN attempts looked more Farscape Peacekeeper than MCRN, mostly down to the red I think. I ordered some Army Painter Martian red but that was still to vibrantly red. I tried mixing it with orange but still too bright, then my wife recommended mixing it with desert yellow (tan) which at first I thought mad it too brown but I have been coming around to it. The trick now is to get it military looking rather than looking like a race car.
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Hawk's resin products were always the best I've ever worked with. The products were absolutely free of any flash, fit like a glove, were not warped and the resin used was also of excellent quality; just the right balance between flex and hardness.
But since production has shifted to TTC, I've seen a regretful decline in quality, with what seems a lesser type of resin, loads of flash and also warpage. None of the above are beyond redemption, but are absolutely not up to previous standards.
Luckily I play Scourge, so warpage is less of an issue; the tentacles actually require some repositioning or warping here and there to keep each ship unique. So as long as the cast is complete, I don't particularly mind a bent appendage here and there... ;)
And Battle for Earth is still on my to-get list too. Thanks for the pointers; I'll re-read that section, but from what you outline, their presence is indeed a bit more involved than I had previously assumed. Still more marginal than the others, but at least involved :)
+++EDIT+++ Rick W.: that scheme looks pretty cool! It does have a bit of an Expanse Martian feel to it; I like it. Large stencil type numbers and some warning stripes usually work well to make something more utilitarian and military. Use a very abstract, forbidding font, no serifs, and higher than wide, with no borders. White might work, but the red you used as well. And then a very thin yellow or white stripe all around the hull just in front of the engine nozzles, just like on aircraft.
Please keep it up 8)
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Yeah I am just now tracking down us navy decals and numbers.... I would love to put on ship names but that seems excessive.
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I've been working on creating UCM logo decals for my fleet. Thinking of a charcoal base colour, with white and red (maybe orange) stripes reminiscent of Mass Effect Terran ships (like the Normandy, even though those were blue) and possibly some numbers as well.
Ship names, while possibly very fiddly and even superfluous (considering the ship names can go onto the bases) would nonetheless look very cool IMHO, and I might do those as well, once I get to paint up my UCM ships :)
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I wound up doing my first fleet of UCM ships in a gray-and-orange scheme. Came out okay, although it was a bit of a rush job to get playing quick, and I wound up selling it off eventually.
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2017/07/dropfleet-commander-lemuria-class.html
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UBiMX6d4-GE/WVf7tfaDRUI/AAAAAAAABWc/qviYbqIvP6IWdrdM4ngSKETAVJk2ptDxACEwYBhgL/s1600/101_4247.jpg)
More recently I experimented with a base metallic and "hot color" paneling, which I kind of liked. If I do more I'll probably add more shades on the panels.
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2019/06/dropfleet-commander-ucm-light-cruisers.html
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvlOOUGs9r4/XQK5RJpX7yI/AAAAAAAAEMk/0CPwKIgkbEMRVI95q3-f17l4gked2PibQCEwYBhgL/s1600/101_7713.jpg)
Think my favorite scheme to date was the pale-gray-and-orange here, although I may just be biased by liking the nonstandard assemblies more than the canon one. I mean, if you're going with stupidly huge turrets, you might as well go all the way, right?
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2019/06/dopfleet-commander-kitbashing-ucm.html
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y-s8fTgcBM8/XP5vTKFlhKI/AAAAAAAAEJg/G2qhN-TDg3ANqY4wrFhVg1s-EAG4PDoKgCLcBGAs/s1600/101_7688.jpg)
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Yeah, ideally I would figure out how to make my own decals, precisely to get ship names and UCM logos.
I saw someone had done their fleet in a Mass Effect scheme. Looked great, but also looked like a lot of work.
Hobby Services. I trawled your blog researching my design concepts.
Your metallic UCM ships have an interesting retro 80‘s heavy metal vibe to me... looks like ships to compliment the recent Colony 87 Kickstarter figures. Really cool!
As for huge turrets, I did consider trimming down the rail gun barrels but they look long in the Expanse as well.
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Hmm... I am having a terribly hard time settling on a paint scheme for my UCM ships. I thought I had cracked it with the MCRN look but now the original box art simplicity is calling to me. And I like this similar but slightly different take on the original artwork.
http://fullsd.blogspot.com/2017/03/dropfleet-painting-guide.html
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Hmm... I am having a terribly hard time settling on a paint scheme for my UCM ships. I thought I had cracked it with the MCRN look but now the original box art simplicity is calling to me. And I like this similar but slightly different take on the original artwork.
http://fullsd.blogspot.com/2017/03/dropfleet-painting-guide.html
That scheme strikes me as something you could probably emulate with GW contrast paints fairly well. Save you most of the panel lining, anyway, which is one of the more tedious parts of the painting.
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I have not tried contrast paint yet. Samples I have seen done look good but I prefer the look of washed items so far, even if it means a bit more work. EDIT: I am not patient enough to panel line or highlight every edge. I respect those that are, and do.
And I finally settled on a paint scheme. Went with my own variation on the official artwork and also based on the work of a couple of other artists. Got the Navy Logo. Put on red and green port/starboard marker lights. First time I ever did engine glow. And I magnetized the ship to post connection.
More info on my blog.
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2019/08/27/in-the-navy/
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I see TT Combat is not on the trader list for Crisis this year. Does anyone know if they intend to attend? I saw them there last year.
https://www.tsoa.be/crisis_traders.html
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I bought my Dreadnought there last year at a very healthy discount (quality miss I believe, but some hot water and a very small dab of putty were the only required fixes).
Too bad they won't be there, but maybe Brexit might have something to do with it? Hopefully they will still show up though, because they have more interesting stuff than just Dropzone/fleet... :?
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I will admit I like saving a bit of money repairing imperfect pieces.
The dreaded Brexit. That is likely going to affect a lot of us gamers on the continent.
EDIT: I decided to email TT Combat to ask them what is up. You going to Crisis again this year? Last year was my first, I had just restarted the hobby and was blown away by the sheer scope, scale and diversity of it compared to stuff I have seen in the past.
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Disappointed that I have not had a reply from TT Combat.
Looking at Hobby Services blog got me looking at other games.... and Full Thrust has me intrigued. I like the idea of vectored movement. I found an interesting fan expansion of the game. And it looks like there are beta playtest rules to improve fighter gameplay.
To those of you who have played Full Thrust, is it a bit more slugfest or do ships pop as quick as in Dropfleet?
https://emeraldcoastskunkworks.wordpress.com/category/project-continum-rules/
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Disappointed that I have not had a reply from TT Combat.
Looking at Hobby Services blog got me looking at other games.... and Full Thrust has me intrigued. I like the idea of vectored movement. I found an interesting fan expansion of the game. And it looks like there are beta playtest rules to improve fighter gameplay.
To those of you who have played Full Thrust, is it a bit more slugfest or do ships pop as quick as in Dropfleet?
https://emeraldcoastskunkworks.wordpress.com/category/project-continum-rules/
Those rules are a fan project, and contain quite a lot of dubiously balanced additions to the GZG version. I'd recommend reading the Remixed rules (found on the same site) which compile the GZG books and edit them together a bit for clarity, or just read the original four books available from GZG directly as free pdfs. The former option is probably less confusing, as the FT core book and More Thrust run on notably different rules (albeit similar mechanics) than the more recent Fleet Book 1 & 2, which introduced vector movement and a new and more versatile design systems.
That said, the game is (despite the lack of an official new edition in decades) still going strong due to a fairly huge fan base and the ease of modifying the game to fit different IPs, play styles, and gaming needs. It plays well with anything from 3-4 ships per player to 20+ for experienced players, and it supports multiplayer team and free-for-all games fairly well. It does suffer from a lack of published "generic" scenarios (like the obsessively symmetrical ones in DfC) but those are pretty easy to either create or steal from games like Battlefleet Gothic.
In general, I'd say ship destruction rates are lower than in DfC, although very small ships will still tend to die quickly - but "small" is relative to the point values on the table. If you're playing a 1000 point game (fairly small IME) a destroyer is a fair-sized ship, but in a 3000 point match they're likely to melt pretty darned fast. Ships don't (barring some optional rule stuff, some fan made) explode when killed, so you don't see the firecracker chains you get in DfC frigate squadrons.
There is no "tournament scene" for the game, and the fan base is decidedly unfond of the mere idea, so not ideal if that's your thing. Part of that comes from the rock-paper-scissors aspect of the ship design system. Some things tend to beat others easily if you skew heavily, but there's always a counterbuild and having a bad rock-paper-scissors matchup decide a game works poorly in tourney circles. The game is an older design from the 90s and is definitely better played "friendly" with gentlemen's agreements to not abuse the ship design rules than in the cutthroat "win at all costs" mentality you see so often these days.
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Gaming will be almost exclusively with my wife. We both prefer more narrative type games than tournament games. The streamlined symmetrical gameplay of Dropfleet seems great for tournaments but less than optimal for our tastes.
The passion I have seen online for the game is a big part of what attracted me to it. I can not help but wonder what keeps people loyal to it, there must be something broadly appealing to it. On the surface it does seem more... crunchy. It reminds me more of the Wargames of my youth than the highly polished, very quick rules of today. The evolution of Rogue Trader to the current iteration of WH40K comes to mind.
The model agnostic aspect, and the price, appeals as I can use our Dropfleet ships and create our own fluff. My wife likes the Scourge ships a lot but not the fluff. So I may end up creating our own fluff even though I think the fluff in Dropfleet is good... and especially well presented in the Battle for Earth book.
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Gaming will be almost exclusively with my wife. We both prefer more narrative type games than tournament games. The streamlined symmetrical gameplay of Dropfleet seems great for tournaments but less than optimal for our tastes.
The passion I have seen online for the game is a big part of what attracted me to it. I can not help but wonder what keeps people loyal to it, there must be something broadly appealing to it. On the surface it does seem more... crunchy. It reminds me more of the Wargames of my youth than the highly polished, very quick rules of today. The evolution of Rogue Trader to the current iteration of WH40K comes to mind.
The model agnostic aspect, and the price, appeals as I can use our Dropfleet ships and create our own fluff. My wife likes the Scourge ships a lot but not the fluff. So I may end up creating our own fluff even though I think the fluff in Dropfleet is good... and especially well presented in the Battle for Earth book.
You should be fine then. FT's biggest weakness (if it really is one) is that you can break the system by willfully doing so, which makes it bad for competitive play. For at-home/casual gaming it's really quite good, versatile, easily tinkered with, and easily adapted to all sorts of scenario play. If you do Facebook at all, I'd recommend signing up to the FT group over there, you can get all sorts of advice and general help there, along with plenty of pretty starship photos. https://www.facebook.com/groups/fullthrust/?ref=bookmarks
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No Facebook for me. I was massively active there for years, getting into all kinds of politics as well as hobby stuff. Not good for my blood pressure or sanity any more though so this Grumpy Gnome stays well away from there now. I can see though that the internet community has increasingly moved away from forums and onto Facebook.
What my wife and I really want is an immersive experience with narrative, good looking spaceships and an interesting table.
I really like the idea of vector movement to make it feel less like wet navy WW 2 wargaming.
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You'll definitely want to look at the Vector Movement rules then, which came out in Fleet Book 1 and were refined with some minor changes in Fleet Book 2 (both of which are free downloads on the GZG webstore). The earlier rules in Full Thrust/More Thrust are the "Cinematic Movement" system these days, which are definitely more "Hollywood" physics ala Star Wars.
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Rick, may I suggest Full Thrust Cross Dimensions as a possibility? It condenses many of the rules from earlier GZG books plus some player contributions - Scarper and I use these rules and we enjoy the fast play and subtle firing/ manoeuvre nuances available. Never tried Continuum or tho FYI. I’m a Battlefleet Gothic fan and found FT good for general fluffiness and narrative play.
EDIT: I like your paint schemes, the latest one is nicely done indeed :)
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Continuum seems to build on Dimensions. There are some things in Continuum I do not think we will use but there is enough that I think we will try it over Dimensions.
And thanks for the compliment! I really want to get around to painting more but I have so much on my to do list first.
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If you're looking for the compiled GZG FT rules, that's Full Thrust Remixed, which edits together the crunchy parts of the four "official" books into one volume without adding a slew of fan mods. http://members.ozemail.com.au/~laranzu/fullthrust/rules/ftremixed-us.pdf I'd also recommend a glance at Dean Gunderberg's Full Thrust Resource page, which has links to many of the better balanced add-on rules and systems as well as fleet stats for many non-GZG ships. http://fullthrust.star-ranger.com/
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Thanks for that mate.
I want to convert Dropfleet weapons to FT where possible but do not need all the exotic weapons of Continuum from what I can see so far.
I found Continuum by researching the Star Rangers page. Brilliant resource.
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I found Continuum by researching the Star Rangers page. Brilliant resource.
Sure is. Dean's a godsend for the FT community, and spaceship gaming fans in general.
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Thanks again for the tip on Remixed. The presentation and focus is much easier to digest than Continuum.
Although I will admit it was a bit of a challenge crunching numbers yesterday to try to create stats for just a few ships yesterday. I can see where some people can have fun making ship designs but all. I kept thinking was that it was time not spent painting.
I tried the shipyard program on mechworld.de which is pretty cool but very fiddle with a tablet. On my old PC it would have probably worked better. And I was unable to figure out where the png file went when I tried to download it. Looks like I will have to draw SSD‘s by hand. Joy.
It has been fun thinking of our own fluff, my wife is keen on her Scourge ships being used for a race of aquatic space elves. She likes the look of mantic naiads. I thought the one hero riding a sea serpent could be riding a razor worm. Preferring biomechanics and disliking AI, they are fiercely territorial and vigorously enforce their borders.
I am thinking of using the UCM ships as naval vessels of the Terra Novan Federation, a collection of systems settled by humans from Earth before the wormhole used to get there collapsed... such as in EVE online. After 200 years the Terra Novans have somewhat accepted their fate but still hope to find a way to reconnect to earth. As such they are constantly exploring and do not recognize the right of any nation to enforce boundaries in open space.
So you can see the recipe for conflict brewing....
So the slippery slope, now I am thinking of more distractions with 28mm sci-fi. Sigh.
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Still tinkering with designs for my UCM (to be renamed at some point I suppose) ships. Currently going back to the U.N. Expanse design inspiration.
Suggestions on a decal to run opposite the navy logo welcome. I have looked for anchors with little luck, closest thing being French Navy roundels. Considered U.N. flags but only source of those I found small enough is China. Same with some Halo decals. Thought about US Coast Guard decals, but they are not quite right either. Thought about Star Trek UFP emblems But not found them. Maybe Babylon 5 if I can find the decals?
Got some Scourge dropzone vehicles that my wife likes, so will turn those into new ships for her fleet when I find the time. I am thinking of using the dropships as tenders/motherships and the tanks as monitors. The apcs as transport merchant ships.
My wife is keen to have some of the options in Full Trust Continuum so it looks like we are going with that. It is a lot of fun brainstorming with her about the fictional culture she is creating, even when she makes wildly different decisions than I would.
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Whilst TT Combat never replied to my email, I see they are on the trader list for Crisis. Let‘s hope Brexit is delayed again.
I picked up some Mantic minis and some Battle Systems terrain for my 28mm distraction for this universe my wife and I are creating.
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Looks like Brexit is delayed... might go to Crisis after all.
Although I spent entirely too much on Core Space. Great folks at Battle Systems, met them at Spiel in Essen last week. Convinced me to invest pretty much all in...
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2019/10/27/so-much-done-so-little-finished/
Anyone have advice on using clear acrylic bases? I am thinking our sci-fi minis need more broadly applicable bases for the wider selection of terrain we intend to use compared to our fantasy project.
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Met with the TT Combat folks... got some monitors and lots of motivational info on the future of Dropfleet...
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2019/11/11/crisis-loot/
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Congrats on the haul; a nice pile of loot :D (and quite a bit larger than mine).
However, what irks me the most is that we completely missed the TT-Combat stand, as I had been planning to burn a good stack of Euro's there. And not only on their Dropzone and -fleet stuff either; I find their resin and MDF terrain very affordable and there are some really nice pieces in there.
We assumed they had not made the trip due to the looming Brexit, but apparently they did after all. Shame... :?
I share your observations on this year's edition by the way; I hope it's not a sign of things to come...
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Very tempting deals on MDF terrain on their stall. My wife wanted the Venice terrain, I wanted the sci-fi terrain... but we are still waiting for Hagglethorn Hollow and I have a bunch of Battle Systems sci-fi terrain... so we had to pass on the awesome deals on offer.
I would have liked to see the Stellaris Kickstarter models but they said limited space in their van prevented bringing them.
The big thing was feeling much more confident about their future support of the IPs after speaking with one of the bosses.
As for the loot, almost all of that was on greatly reduced prices. Being budget minded like that means we got a lot of stuff but I had to avoid buying new stuff at full price.
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Today‘s blog entry is all sci-fi...
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2019/11/23/sci-fi-distractions/
I‘ve some ideas to spice up Core Space using bits from other games.... which I know is silly since I still have not played it yet.
And I have been struggling to come up with a paint scheme I like for the Mantic Marines I have. I tried grey, I tried green and I tried mixed grey and green. Nice but not quite right.
Suggestions welcome. Something to go along with how I intend to paint my UCM ships perhaps... otherwise maybe something maroon and black like how they are painted in the Star Saga artwork?
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Holy cats, even in the baggies I know those minis. Someone else who actually got their figures from the Alien Host kickstarter. That's a rarity, to put it mildly.
EDIT: Oh, got them through ebay. Might have known. I object to "obscure" as a descriptor, Troll Forged used to have quite a few fans and his proprietary restic formula was pretty innovative (and cheap) - at least before the KS wrecked his business and his life. Real crowdfunding horror story, that.
Reminds me, I really ought to update that gallery some more.
http://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2019/04/assimilation-alien-host-gallery.html
Never did the Mantic marines, just their Enforcer kinfolk. I would think a sort-of-Catachan Guard scheme would look okay on them.
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Ah! Great to learn more about these monster minis. I was struggling to figure out how to even put them together. Won them for a euro a piece. Not sure they are to my taste yet... depends on what they look like once I put them together I suppose.
As always you are a wealth of knowledge, thanks mate.
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I have updated my blog with the information, credit to you and a link to your blog. Once again, much appreciated. It seems whenever I tread a path I find your footsteps precede me.
Added a bit about my Mantic Marine troubles on the blog as well. If anyone has suggestions or advice, it is warmly welcome.
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I have updated my blog with the information, credit to you and a link to your blog. Once again, much appreciated. It seems whenever I tread a path I find your footsteps precede me.
Thanks, the exposure always helps. I'm sure the project overlap's just a coincidence. You certainly got a bargain on the figs there.
I updated the gallery post with some new (well, old - they're from 2017) images of a few other models, including the drone and cannon drone I can identify in your unassembled lot. The drone (ie the big mantis thing) is a bit tricky to assemble. My advice would be to prop up the lower body on a box or some balled-up junk fabric at whatever height you want it at then attach the legs one at a time, checking to make sure they're sitting flat on the ground after each one so it isn't unstable when finished. Once that's done the upper body/head/arm assembly can be done without too much trouble.
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Thanks for that, much appreciated!
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Some more sci-fi distractions....
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2019/12/05/more-sci-fi-distractions/
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Ok, I think I finally settled on a Marine color scheme. Sort of MNU from District 9.
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2019/12/10/bits-and-pieces/
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Seems like my Christmas gifts were dominated by sci-fi rather than medieval fantasy...
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2019/12/28/christmas-loot/
So much to expand our Core Space project, I just need to find time to paint more! Perhaps when my son starts going to school...
EDIT: I am curious if other folks use non-Core Space materials to play Core Space, and if so what materials.
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Lovely thread and nice Christmas haul!
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Thanks Von Lucky. That is a nice blog you have going there!
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Some Star Wars minis that will be repurposed for Core Space.
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2020/01/12/star-wa-er-i-mean-core-space/
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Finally got started on my proper Core Space minis... the two starter crews.
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2020/01/22/proper-core-space/
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Crew of the Black Maria...
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And the crew of the Ion Hope... which my wife will be using.
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As always feed back, suggestions and advice are welcome. Feel free to discuss anything I mentioned on my blog in this thread since it is more user friendly than leaving comments on the blog.
The minis are not as glossy in person as they look in the photos. My photography skill has improved a bit but not nearly enough to do the minis justice.
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I've been eyeing Core Space for a while now and your posts are beginning to worry my wallet.
I've got a couple of questions if you have the time :)
I've read that the miniatures supposed to be 28mm, but some say they're closer to 32mm. How big are the miniatures, how tall?
Do you buy your bases from Litko in the states, or have you found an EU supplier?
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Looking good, the extra effort shows. The white on the Tirgarde's vest looks a little thick - but that could be just the size of the photo. Many thin (painful at times) layers will solve that.
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Munindk, just measuring them now... I would say generally 32mm from Sole of the foot to eye level generally. I have had to become really flexible when it comes to scale variations over the last year. I tend to just consider it bonus diversity... especially in my sci-fi project since humanity may be evolving or genetically modified to suit different environments. Or what may look human might in fact be something else entirely.
I found some Litko bases on Amazon.de but they sold out. I found something close to Litko, but they sold out. Very frustrating really because I would prefer not having to import from the States. I found some 2mm thick clear bases on eBay.co.uk but have not ordered any yet and with Brexit looming may find British sourcing in the Future almost as irritating as American sourcing.
But the thinner bases look so much more appealing to me than the more commonly found 3mm ones.
Von Lucky, good spot there mate. Yeah, I got a bit carried away, sometimes less is more. I was using Army Painter Starship Exterior, which is more a very light grey than white and the thickness snuck up on me. It is much easier to work with than any white I have tried so far though, including the Citadel Contrast Apothecary White... which I used on Tirgarde‘s shoes.
Two things I need to do to improve my work. Thinner paint and more high lighting... but both take so much more time and my back log of projects is crazy.
I notice my photos do not really show the work on did. on all their eyes. It would seem I still have some way to go to improve my photography skills.
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Thank you kindly :)
I'm asking because I think the Core Space crews might work for smugglers and the like for Star Wars, where I plan on using Star Wars Legion miniatures for the most part, and they're 35mm ish.
A couple of hundred 25mm and some 40mm and 50mm bases comes to $50 for the bases and $25 for the shipping... add in customs and it gets really silly.
I'll start to look for european 1,5mm thick bases. Maybe Oshiro can make them?
*edit* I found some from Australia on ebay. 9.85 australian dollars for 100 25mm discs 1.5mm thick. Shipping was 5 australian dollars. Comes to around 9.20 euros and its so cheap that its below the customs limit! I'll let you know if they're worth it when they arrive :) */edit*
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I will be curious to hear if they are proper clear, without a blue or green tinge to them. Otherwise I am considering this supplier.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-Laser-Cut-2-3-or-5mm-Clear-Acrylic-Circles-Discs-War-Games-Workshop-Bases/122026378459?hash=item1c6956c4db:m:mAj7TipFNpolCXtZcJOux9w
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I'll let you know when they arrive in 2-6 weeks :)
Meanwhile you can have the link, just bear in mind that I'm not yet recomending them (yet). I need to have the product in hand frist.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acrylic-Disk-Circles-25mm-Diameter-1-5mm-Thick-x-100-pieces-Clear/301870690874?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acrylic-Disk-Circles-25mm-Diameter-1-5mm-Thick-x-100-pieces-Clear/301870690874?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649)
They also have other diameters and thickness' on their shop.
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Thanks for the link. The feedback on the item looks good. I could do with some bigger bases for monsters, heavy weapons and robots.... and that is a great price. Just a bit of a wait on delivery... but my backlog is so big that is no stress. I may try them out.
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I got my bases and they're as clear as can be. Got here fast, I ordered on the 23rd of January and the package arrived here today. Less than 2 weeks from Australia to Denmark.
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That is pretty quick! I decided to get some 25mm and some 40mm from them yesterday, so it is a relief to hear yours arrived looking good.
Although I have not yet figured out how I am going to base this Troll Forged beastie.... Tau for scale reference... and I need to decide a color scheme. I am thinking an Alien Xenomorph kind of look...
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Having played a game of Core Space now I get it. Awesome game.
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It is fun. I am glad to hear you enjoy it. And it has so much potential for further development.
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A bit of a thread resurrection… 🧟♂️
First thing. Mundiak, thanks for the tip on the bases. They worked out great for me.
Second thing….
This hobby can be quite frustrating. There is never enough time or money it seems. Priorities keep changing due to both internal and external factors.
I have managed to get a few games of Core Space in, once I got over my “Do not play games with unpainted minis” hang-up. Not quite finished with the stater campaign and the game is everything I hoped for. I backed Core Space:First Born as well and while I have not played it yet I am optimistic considering how much I like the base Core Space so far.
As for our Dropfleet stuff, including our Deep Cut Studio starfield game mat (which I felt looked a little too… washed out… for my taste), we ended up putting it all on eBay quite some time ago. It was quite a sizable collection and took some time to sell off in bits and pieces. But it felt like the right thing to do at the time in order to not over-extend ourselves.
Part of the reason I got back into analog tabletop wargaming was to replace PC gaming. And I do not regret that decision. But sometimes I will come across something on YouTube that will make me feel nostalgic, like a Fallout 4 video or an Arma video. And so it was seeing a Stellaris that brought back a space fleet battle itch…
While we had gotten rid of the rest we had kept the Full Trust Continuum rules and I was thinking about them when I saw some Firestorm Armada stuff on eBay. We did not win any of those Firestorm Armada auctions but the itch was there so I started rereading all the Firestorm Armada and Full Thrust stuff I could find online. I spent hours looking at the Bergstrom and GZG websites for ships but when I discussed it with Mrs. GG she did not see anything she liked as much as the Dropfleet ships we used to have.
Then we were fortunate enough to come across an old Dropfleet Kickstarter pledge bundle at a great price from a mate. Yes, it will add a lot to my “to-do” list but such is the way of the hobby.
Now, to be clear, previously I had planned on just using the Dropfleet ships to play Full Thrust as we were unsure Dropfleet Commander provided the kid of game we were after. We did mind the ground war aspect so much as just how quickly/easily the ships went “pop”. From a narrative perspective it just felt off to have ships be so… disposable. That said we really liked the signature management aspect of the combat rules.
And we now wonder how Dropfleet as evolved the last couple of years under TT Combat with all the new ship releases.
Getting information has been challenging as I am not on Facebook and do not use Discord.
And I recall the headache I had trying to write Full Thrust SSDs for the Dropfleet ships. Ugh! 🤕
As an aside we have also been picking up the Stargrave books/miniatures and the Five Parsecs from Home rule book. I have no idea when I will be able to get to them but at the very least I should be able to mine them for things to repurpose to Core Space. Suggestions/advice welcome!
And we have gotten our hands on an absolute motherlode of Mantic Mars Attacks stuff to put to use somehow…
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Well then; welcome back to Dropfleet... :)
When I started playing, it was a shock to me too, as to how fragile ships are in the game. Even large cruisers, battleships or dreadnoughts can go boom after even a couple of hits. And the cascading effect of the (critical) hit tables can even cause a chain reaction of destruction across closely packed squadrons and even fleets. And then I'm playing Scourge to boot; the fastest but most fragile of all factions... ::)
But after a few games, things sort of clicked and I really enjoy the game. We don't play it often enough though (too many other games to play) to really get into the meta of it, but we're getting close nonetheless ;)
I also have a deep cuts mat, but I have the one with the fully lit up cityscape on the surface of the planet below. I thought it fit the setting best, as it's all about low orbit manoeuvering to get troops dropping on their objectives. Which, by rights, should then be played out (each and every one of them) as Dropzone Commander games, obviously :D
But where do the Star Trek miniatures fit into all of the above projects?
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The Star Trek minis are for a couple of projects.
1) Core Space… we also have some Firefly and Alien Xenomorpjs minis for this already. Ideally I would like to mix a bunch of minis from different IPs for this. Silly, I know.
2) We could not resist a recent Humble Bundle deal on the Modiphius Star Trek Adventures RPG PDF's…. while it is unlikely that we would be able to get a group to play a pen & paper RPG any time soon I was thinking we might be able to use information in the PDFs to add some Trek flavor to perhaps Five Parsecs from Home or something like that.
3) And finally… if nothing else…. shelf decoration. While much of the recent Trek material has been a disappointment for me I am still something of an old school Trekkie.
With the game mat, we went with a starfield as we were planning deep space combat rather than orbital. We get the Dropfleet orbital hook, it makes sense from a tactical/strategic sense. However we felt the ground combat mechanics were flawed. That is another reason we were thinking Full Thrust. That and the fighter/bomber mechanics. However, we are going to Spiel so we may get some new mats there. We both much prefer buying mats in person rather than trusting online photos.
Edit: We did look into playing Dropzone attached to Dropfleet but Mrs. GG really did not take to it and it would require us to start a whole need scale of terrain. I do wonder if TT Combat will ever come out with a skirmish game in the Drop-Verse, ie Dropcompany Commander….
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And the latest blog post….
https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2022/10/12/an-itch-that-must-be-scratched/
…. talking about Full Thrust, Dropfleet Commander, Battle Systems , Spiel in Essen '22 and more.
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I cancelled my Dropfleet and Full Thrust projects and sold all the ships off.
However, I am continuing my Core Space project… hoping to merge it with Stargrave and Five Parsecs from Home, with a bunch of Games Workshop stuff as well, ie Tau, Kroot and Ash Wastes… maybe Tyranids.
And perhaps use my Mars Attacks Martians to fight Quar….
Time will tell… and I never seem to have enough time!
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I cancelled my Dropfleet and Full Thrust projects and sold all the ships off.
If you need to get rid of more Dropfleet again; I'll probably be game for anything UCM or Scourge ;)
Oh, and I've almost finished the first of the two Full Thrust fleets in that starter box you sold me :)
Time will tell… and I never seem to have enough time!
Quoted for Truth... ::)
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I look forward to seeing them mate!
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I like this thread, I hadn't really looked through it before, but it's nice to follow your process. I had a happy stroll through your blog too.
Keep up the good work, blogs, like forums, are a dying breed and we'll miss them when they've gone
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I like this thread, I hadn't really looked through it before, but it's nice to follow your process. I had a happy stroll through your blog too.
Keep up the good work, blogs, like forums, are a dying breed and we'll miss them when they've gone
Thanks! I really appreciate hearing that. Sometimes writing a blog feels like shouting into a deep canyon… when you do not hear anything back it can be a bit unsettling. 👍