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Author Topic: A Billion Suns  (Read 4192 times)

Offline rokarege

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A Billion Suns
« on: May 17, 2019, 12:16:42 PM »
Mike Hutchinson (Gaslands) is writing a new game about interstellar operations which will be release by Osprey in 2020.

Design Blog, playtesting
Quote
Each player commands a fleet of mighty cruisers, sleek destroyers and agile fighters as they attempt to hunt down pirates, defend their mining vessels and disrupt each other’s activities. The rulebook provides everything you need to play exciting and tense games of interstellar exploration, exploitation and combat.

From an interview on BigComicPage
Quote
the game is striving to be very much a “science-fiction” game, not a reskinned naval game.

The result of this is that, for one, there are no army lists up front. You simply jump in the ships that you need, turn by turn, as the tactical situation evolves. While this theoretically gives you infinite reinforcements, the resources you pay to jump ships in are the same resources that determine victory. Overspend, and you go into debt. Underdeliver on the mission and you might not make that money back! It’s an exciting and very unique dynamic on the tabletop.

Speaking of unique dynamics, the other bonkers thing about A Billion Suns is that games can take place over multiple tables! You can play with one system on the kitchen table and another on the kitchen counter, and a third on that bench! Using the jump points, fleets can both deploy across the multiple tables as well as hop between them, creating an utterly new wargaming experience.


Offline Daeothar

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2019, 01:19:00 PM »
You had me at mighty cruisers, sleek destroyers and agile fighters.

This sounds really, really enticing already...  8)
Miniatures you say? Well I too, like to live dangerously...
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Offline YPU

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2019, 02:49:35 PM »
There is a facebook group with an active playtest community. I still havn't read up on all of it, but there are a lot of interesting ideas. Mostly you can field (during a fight! ) as many ships as you want, but its all about getting the most profit from your contract in the end.
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Offline Hobby Services

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2019, 03:03:11 PM »
Tried the first several iterations of the playtest, didn't care for it at all.  Too abstracted and "gamey" for my tastes, I prefer my starship combat with a little more detail and ship/wepaon customization.  Still, it was looking playable, just not my thing.

Offline YPU

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2019, 03:20:51 PM »
Tried the first several iterations of the playtest, didn't care for it at all.  Too abstracted and "gamey" for my tastes, I prefer my starship combat with a little more detail and ship/wepaon customization.  Still, it was looking playable, just not my thing.

I can definitely agree on that sentiment, it would be a game I might like to play that uses space ships, not THE game I would want to play about space ships, if you catch my drift.

Offline Hobby Services

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2019, 03:31:54 PM »
I can definitely agree on that sentiment, it would be a game I might like to play that uses space ships, not THE game I would want to play about space ships, if you catch my drift.

Yeah, I guess I was hoping for something more like A Sky Full of Ships or Battleshift.  They're both pretty abstract and handle bigger fleets than rules like Full Thrust or Starmada comfortably manage, but still closer to a traditional fleet battles game than Billion Suns.

Offline Commander Roj

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2019, 10:51:54 AM »
I can definitely agree on that sentiment, it would be a game I might like to play that uses space ships, not THE game I would want to play about space ships, if you catch my drift.

I am looking at “Billion Suns” and the club I go to have been testing it ( I haven’t been able to make it though). Looks like it would at least be worth a punt for the price, but I totally get the sentiment. I am playing a bit of PSC’s “Red Alert” with my children having tried it at Salute. We didn’t buy the box having plenty of models already, but just cards, mat and dice. Rules downloaded. I quite like that for a quick game (45 - 60 mins). It won’t replace FT or Starmada (I prefer FT on balance), but it has good qualities. Typical case of horses for courses?

Offline williamb

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2019, 08:32:52 PM »
Tried the first several iterations of the playtest, didn't care for it at all.  Too abstracted and "gamey" for my tastes, I prefer my starship combat with a little more detail and ship/wepaon customization.  Still, it was looking playable, just not my thing.
  Tried it and had similar thoughts.   Combat/weapon systems seemed a bit off.

Offline Daeothar

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2019, 07:08:33 AM »
That sounds too bad.

I really liked the idea of a generic space combat ruleset, and the concept of theoretically unlimited reinforcements at the cost of victory points does seem interesting. Plus the possibility of playing on several tables/systems simultaneously and jumping between them also sounds pretty cool.

But then again; I already have several quite deep space comabt rules/games, so a lighter,more gamey one could still fill a niche.

I'll reserve my judgement until after I've played it. Here's to hoping somebody at Poldercon will be demoing it next year... ;)

Offline YPU

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #9 on: May 20, 2019, 09:37:39 AM »
I'll reserve my judgement until after I've played it. Here's to hoping somebody at Poldercon will be demoing it next year... ;)

We could well do a playtest round before that at BOD if you want!

Offline Daeothar

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #10 on: May 20, 2019, 09:59:43 AM »
We could well do a playtest round before that at BOD if you want!

Sounds good :)

But pardon my ignorance: BOD?

Offline YPU

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #11 on: May 20, 2019, 12:15:52 PM »
Sounds good :)

But pardon my ignorance: BOD?

wargaming Club that meets at the same place as Poldercon is hosted.

Offline Daeothar

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #12 on: May 20, 2019, 12:30:47 PM »
Ah!. Well that would be doable I guess... :)

Offline YPU

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #13 on: May 20, 2019, 12:32:02 PM »
Ah!. Well that would be doable I guess... :)

I'm on my phone atm, but shoot me a PM and we'll see about a date.

Offline YPU

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Re: A Billion Suns
« Reply #14 on: May 23, 2019, 09:50:01 AM »
Reading trough the rules, something I havn't seen mentioned yet is the fact the game can be played across multiple tables at the same time! Warp jumping between them. Its strange but definetly a creative fun different aspect to set the game apart!