Dropfleet - a Scourge medium cruiser.

[Hobby Services]

Has anyone done an AAR that actually has game play in it? Don't know much about the rules.

If you search Youtube for "dropfleet commander" there are quite a few videos, the most informative of which that I've seen are from Beasts of War.  Some stuff from the playtest stage, but others are newer with the finalized rules.  Also a few (rather long multi-part) battle reports in German and English over here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl18ow2t5AACDhdhH9NeQdA

Imagine there'll be more as people start playing, it is still pretty new.  Many game elements remind me strongly of Battlefleet Gothic (big surprise, given Chambers' involvement in both) but it's definitely got a unique-to-space-gaming twist in the way it concentrates on delivering troops to planetside and supporting them once there.  Wrecking the other guy's fleet is nice, but it may not win you the game if he gets enough GROPOS down while you're doing it.

[The_Beast]

Thanks! I'll give it a view.

That IS impressive, whatever Cherryh's comments on the worthlessness of fighting for planetary property. 

Doug

[Hobby Services]

Thanks! I'll give it a view.

That IS impressive, whatever Cherryh's comments on the worthlessness of fighting for planetary property. 

Doug

Not sure planetary real estate was worthless to Cherryh so much as (along with the trade/manufacturing stations that completed the interstellar economic net) being too vulnerable to attack to be defended.  As soon as one side starts shooting worlds, species extinction is practically a given, and even "just" wrecking stations destroys civilization to the point space travel collapses in short order.  Fleets have to be built and even spacer families recognize that the resources to make ships come from big, fat, nearly-defenseless targets that everyone has to tacitly agree to leave intact or there's no point in even fighting in the first place.  The first faction to wise up and start building self-sustaining FTL-capable manufacturing platforms would probably rule the universe, but either it never occurs to anyone to do it or it simply isn't technologically feasible.

Dropfleet's setting is very different (the humans are trying to retake worlds the Scourge already conquered ages ago, and the Scourge want the planets relatively intact for resources, including humans to parasitize - and the Shaltari seem to be playing games or acting as kingmakers for their own amusement) but it does seem that planetary bombardment isn't a good path to victory in most scenarios.  You can do it, but it probably won't help enough to win.

[The_Beast]

I'll go find the essay she did for a book on writing sci-fi, but worthless seemed to hit the mark. I got the impression of 'anything you can do, I can do better' in space kind of thing.

I started off in a tangent about 'probably not a meaningly useful population in the foreseeable future', and then I asked myself, 'why are you trying to engage a book in a conversation', and got very quiet.

Doug

Edit: By the way, I had an orbital campaign worked out, on a 2d map, of course, that kept plot of where the ships were in relation to planetary surface. The various orbit levels: do they seem to be inside or out of stationary, my nearest orbit.