Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: aktr on January 11, 2021, 08:55:32 AM
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Hi,
I have a load of Sapceship miniatures and I'm wondering what to do with them. most are UCM ones from Dropfleet Commander but I do also have the Halo fleet battles boxset sat on my shelf
I have previously played full thrust which I have fond memories off but haven't touched in over 5 years, BFG, DFC and the halo game
so what do you like?
bonus points if it has some sort of solo scenario seen as it looks like I wont be meeting up to play games any time soon
Cheers
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I've only played a couple of playtests, and it isn't released yet but the upcoming "a billion suns" was definetly the most interesting spaceship game I've played, however it heavily relies on its specific setting.
Each player controls some star spanning mega corporation. At the start of the game you draw cards to generate multiple objectives, each objective is scored in different ways from evacuating bases to hunting space kraken, mining asteroids, escorting other ships etc. Many objectives also introduce a extra table to play on, which ships can jump between.
The clever bit is that you can jump in as many ships as you want. they all just cost credits. You know how much the objectives are worth in credits, so at the end of the game the player with the most cash on hand wins. Ships are very simple in their stats but all distinct and allow for some very cut throat tactics. I remember jumping in a brace of monitors equipped with spinal fixed railguns, to try and blow up the infected space station my opponent was trying to evacuate. Stories like that just don't really come up in other games for me.
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A vote here for Wiley Games 'Starfighters'.
It's very cinematic, has a fleet rules expansion and I believe can be played solo :)
Available here in the UK and Europe.
https://oshiromodels.wixsite.com/oshiromodelswebshop/rules (https://oshiromodels.wixsite.com/oshiromodelswebshop/rules)
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I've only played a couple of playtests, and it isn't released yet but the upcoming "a billion suns" was definetly the most interesting spaceship game I've played, however it heavily relies on its specific setting.
I dont know any space-battle rules, but "A billion suns sounds" great!
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I have not tried a whole lot of spaceship games. But I really do have a soft spot for Battlefleet Gothic. It really is one of GW better games.
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When I saw the question, my first thought was; 'easy; that's X-Wing'.
And even though I still find it an excellent game (I gave up on it when 2nd ed was forced upon us), but I have actually played several other space combat games since then, which have all been great. X-Wing is the only starfighter game though.
First off is Dropfleet Commander. It's a great game, obviously with its limitations (like every other game), but also the novel concept of fighting in low orbit.
The goal is to land your troops on the surface (the 'Dropship' in the title gives that away), and battles rage between 3 orbit levels, adding (literally) extra depth to the game.
I enjoy it a lot, and it's the only space combat game we play locally at the moment.
And I was lucky enough to have played one of the Billion Stars test games with YPU he mentioned.
I really liked the game and I would really like to play it again, as it has great promise!
And the list would not be complete without GW's classic Battlefleet Gothic. It shows it age, but what it lacks in innovation (it's basically Travalgar in space), it certainly makes up in atmosphere and lore (I still love the 40K setting). Miniatures are pretty dear these days though...
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I have had my morning coffee and have some more thoughts.
Dropfleet seems very solid rules wise, and those models are marvelous. Its also one of the few ship games out there currently that actually gets support? Others are old and forgotten by their makers, but with good fan support which can be a bit dense to get trough, or have fallen into obscurity entirely.
On the last note, I do personally quite enjoy Colonial Battlefleet. It does use hexes for movement but it has just the right level of crunch for me if I want to fiddle with designing my own ship stats etc. It could definetly do with a second edition to iron out some of its inconsistencies though.
To add to Daeothar's point. BFG is also still very cool, if you enjoy the universe its a great game in that setting IMHO. Models are harder to get indeed, but the past year has seen an explosion of printable files for them online for free.
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Full Thrust 2nd Ed is still my favorite after many years. I've tried many other games to scratch that itch but always come back to the classic.
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I liked BFG, so hope that'll get rolled out again as Blood Bowl and Necromunda from the old Specialist games have could well tempt me back.
There are some setting specific rules of Interest I've noted but not tried such as Colonial Battles, ACTA Star Trek, and Dropship. Billion Suns does look good but bit locked into its background setting.
Wiley Games Starfighters and Stars and Lasers on WargameVault have also caught my eye...
Full Thrust did look very good and tried it once or twice, just not such a fan of the pre plotting so rule sets avoiding that tend to be of more interest.
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There are some setting specific rules of Interest I've noted but not tried such as Colonial Battles, ACTA Star Trek, and Dropship. Billion Suns does look good but bit locked into its background setting.
Colonial battlefleet is actually setting neutral with pretty cool faction building system, but there is a expansion that turns it into a battlestar galactica game (unofficially) which is very popular. Billion suns without its bleak applied capitalism would fall flat indeed.
EDIT:
I keep coming back to this topic, but Mike Hutchinson uploaded Solo rules for A billion suns less than 30 minutes ago on the page, as a pre release freeby.
http://abillionsuns.space/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/A_Billion_Suns_Solo_Rules.pdf (http://abillionsuns.space/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/A_Billion_Suns_Solo_Rules.pdf)
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Played on a hex mat, Red Alert is a Commands and Colors game.
If you like that system, it’s worth checking out.
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Played on a hex mat, Red Alert is a Commands and Colors game.
If you like that system, it’s worth checking out.
Hrh. I actually bought a kitted out kickstarter off a local auction site for the ships. And they were to be used in Billion Suns! :D But I never got to play it.
I enjoyed Memoir '44 though; is Red Alert any good?
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I've only played a couple of playtests, and it isn't released yet but the upcoming "a billion suns" was definetly the most interesting spaceship game I've played, however it heavily relies on its specific setting.
Is there some kind of "inertia" mechanics for the starships movement ? thanks
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I second Red Alert
Main Points (Pro or Con depending on your point of view)
-It's Fleet Level, so it doesn't deal with physics or "pilot level" mechanics.. There are somewhere around 24-30ish ships per side on the table for a game.
-It's Card Driven and more Narrative than say BFG or FT (The Cards can cause some significantly random stuff occasionally)
-Also, because it's Card Driven, there is a Fan Made (but well respected) Solo Bot
A relevant point from the ask of the original poster, is that you were looking for rules to employ your existing collection, Red Alert comes with a truck ton of starships.
As in 70+ starships... ...in the core game
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Is there some kind of "inertia" mechanics for the starships movement ? thanks
I havn't been up to date on the playtest, so I can only speak to what I know which might be outdated.
But no, movement is simplified to 1. turn on the spot, if you turn more than 90 degrees your forward fixed weapon can fire. 2. move up to trust value. Do this twice if given the Vector command.
I havn't played red alert yet, but if its nearly as good as memoir but with ships that is really promising.
Hrh. I actually bought a kitted out kickstarter off a local auction site for the ships. And they were to be used in Billion Suns! :D But I never got to play it.
Maybe we should play a game, once the plague has passed?
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Maybe we should play a game, once the plague has passed?
You'll be more than welcome in my still new gaming room :)
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There's two that I regularly play. For Star Trek ship gaming I play Attack Wing. For all other spaceship gaming, I default to 5150: Star Navy from THW.
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A vote here for Wiley Games 'Starfighters'.
It's very cinematic, has a fleet rules expansion and I believe can be played solo :)
Available here in the UK and Europe.
https://oshiromodels.wixsite.com/oshiromodelswebshop/rules (https://oshiromodels.wixsite.com/oshiromodelswebshop/rules)
+1, simple and fast. Worth a look
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Well for me I started with Star Fleet Battles (SFB) which had masses of paper work, 32 impulses per turn (I think?) and large Ship SSDs. This would make my head spin nowadays I fear o_o
More recently if would have been Fullthrust II which I preferred to the updated version and Battle Tech Aerospace (I think it was). I have also played a brief smattering of the 40K space game (but I don`t remember what it was called?).
So for me its FT2 all the way, an oldie but a goodie
Glen
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Another oldie (1990) was "Silent Death" It was not overly complicated and came with a lot of starships. I sold my copy a couple of years back. Still use full thrust have Star Trek clixs as well as Battlefleet Gothic and I love Red Alert the C&C game (Lovely components in that one)
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full thrust looks like very interesting : an official range of minis available, free rules, physics...I may give a try !
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Another oldie (1990) was "Silent Death" It was not overly complicated and came with a lot of starships. I sold my copy a couple of years back. Still use full thrust have Star Trek clixs as well as Battlefleet Gothic and I love Red Alert the C&C game (Lovely components in that one)
Ah Battlefleet Gothic that was the one, thank you.
Glen
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full thrust looks like very interesting : an official range of minis available, free rules, physics...I may give a try !
We played the game with the physics rules (vector-based movement) but felt this really made some fleets way too strong. My NSL fleet had incredible shooting and with vector-based movement it became too easy to just pivot and blast everything else to bits. There was no challenge at all. When we used cinematic movement this way way harder to do and gave much nicer combats.
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Shame; all space combat games I've played so far were all cinematic, and I've really wanted to play something simulating Newtonian physics for a while now (basically since I started reading the Expanse).
Are there any alternatives out there for this type of play?
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Shame; all space combat games I've played so far were all cinematic, and I've really wanted to play something simulating Newtonian physics for a while now (basically since I started reading the Expanse).
Are there any alternatives out there for this type of play?
There are a couple of games I know of that try to give a sense of this while still being playable and largely two dimensional.
For fighters, there is Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles. This one just lost the license. Small number of units but the maneuver system is great.
For ships, there is the old Babylon 5 Wars. Out of print but I think there are places online where you can download the rules.
There was a game that I never played based on Honor Harrington that used a more complex system of movement that looked like it includes vector movement, simulated three dimensions and even angles in three axes.
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There was a game that I never played based on Honor Harrington that used a more complex system of movement that looked like it includes vector movement, simulated three dimensions and even angles in three axes.
That was the Sagamani Space Combat Simulator system IIRC
Lets not forget that the OP has a lot of large scale ships so they need a system that can handle cruisers, batlleships etc
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... I love Red Alert the C&C game...
Totally agree except for the ships. Fantastic game, but I bought the components and am using my own ships.
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That was the Sagamani Space Combat Simulator system IIRC
Lets not forget that the OP has a lot of large scale ships so they need a system that can handle cruisers, batlleships etc
https://www.adastragames.com/ (https://www.adastragames.com/) is the company that developed the Saganami rules. They continue to publish the same system under their own name.
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Hi,
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
I forgot to say originally that I'm looking forward to A Billion Suns so that seems like a good bet, squadron strike sounds like it could be interesting so I might get the PDF of that for a read
Thanks to selling them some old WFB miniatures I now have a chunk of credit at TT Combat so I might buy a 2nd faction for Dropfleet so I can either run demo games of that or a different space ship game
Cheers
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I think this is a interesting litmus test for Billion suns. These are the ship stats, there are a couple of extra rules (carriers can spawn fighters and utility ships) and there should be campaign rules where you can expand your tech for your corp (stuff like auxiliary getting 360 degrees fire) but by and large, this is the depth of unit stats in this game.
(https://i.imgur.com/Z72aDSW.png)
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I played a lot of Full Thrust and can heartily recommend that. It is however a classic game with the administartion that entails. If you don't mind checking boxes, the game is fantastic and basically miniature agnostic, although it does have its own fluff. Ship design is possible. It is a Capital ship game, with swarms of fighters operating as a unit. I don't think it had aliens IIRC.
Silent Death is also very good, designed to play on a hex map but can be converted to tabletop with simple tools. It is basically a fighter game, with only the smallest of capital ships. Very entertaining. Also classic in terms of bookkeeping. Ship design is possible. It has a strong Alien faction, the Night Brood.
Star Wars Armada is also a superb Capital ship game, with many similarities to (but a LOT more depth than) X-Wing. It has a very influencial meta game, which you can see as an advantage or a disadvantage depending on your taste. It s (of course) also limited to the SW universe and needs its own range of miniatures. The SW canon is, of course, crawling with aliens.
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Full Thrust did have Aliens Introduced in later supplementary material.
There was also a Babylon 5 Version of Full Thrust in The Babylon Project Earthforce Sourcebook.
The Honor Harrington Wargame Rules are available on Wargame Vault.
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Shame; all space combat games I've played so far were all cinematic, and I've really wanted to play something simulating Newtonian physics for a while now (basically since I started reading the Expanse).
Are there any alternatives out there for this type of play?
I am slowly working on a set of rules specifically to capture Newtonian physics based fleet battles in the near future (100-200 years).
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I am slowly working on a set of rules specifically to capture Newtonian physics based fleet battles in the near future (100-200 years).
That is quite a lead time for publication. Are you still going to be around?
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That is quite a lead time for publication. Are you still going to be around?
Sorry its set in the near future, less then 200 years from now. I have most the base rules done just need to start play testing and adjusting. Then will add optional complex rules and a campaign system. Will also try to come up with some SOLO rules.
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Billion Suns is now up for pre-order from Amazon and Caliver, with a mid-Feb release date.
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Wonderful; I'll be getting me a copy for sure...
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I've had my head in billion suns so much that I forgot about Stars and Steel! Which is a game specifically designed for huge fleet battles, using small ships "microfleet" and the rules are available for "pay what you want" prices!
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/313886/Stars-and-Steel--main-rules?src=hottest_filtered (https://www.wargamevault.com/product/313886/Stars-and-Steel--main-rules?src=hottest_filtered)
While billion suns has a lot of interesting ideas, the whole game is very much tied to its setting, in that your bottom line profit is all that matters. Stars and steel is much more grand scale fleet battles in the classic sense.
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Just popping into mention that Horizon Wars: Infinite Dark will be released later this year.
It seeks to have a flavour of Newtonian physics without getting too bogged down in the mathematics of it, has rules to play at one of three "command levels" (fighters, traders/miners, battleships) and includes solo rules.
Currently it's in beta testing with my patrons but I hope we'll be putting the rules more or less to bed in the next month or so and I can get to laying out the rulebook. My original hope was to be published by the end of March, but that's looking more like the end of May, now. The upside of having such great beta testers is that I get lots of feedback and suggestions. The downside is that I have to respond to a lot more feedback and suggestions! ;)
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My favorites are Star Wars Armada, Babylon 5: A Call to Arms and Battlefleet Gothic.
Even if a combat game has the perfect rules, the background stories are very important for me. This three game combine the stories and good rules.
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I really liked the Halo Fleet battles game, its a lot of fun. Obviously it disappeared when Spartan games went pop. It was the right level of complexity for me (not very)
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Full Thrust is my go-to most of the time. The right amount of detail for me and I like the vector movement. There have been lots of content tweaking it to various settings... Traveller, Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc.
BFG and Silent Death are great fun as well and a bit more 'pew, pew, pew' in their playstyle.
The 5150 space games are something I'd like to try... if I can make it through the author's writing, which has been a bit off-putting for me in the past.