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Author Topic: Grumpy Gnome Sci-fi (page 6 Core Space, Mars Attacks, Stargrave, 5 Parsecs)  (Read 11120 times)

Offline Hobby Services

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander
« Reply #30 on: September 12, 2019, 11:13:57 PM »
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

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander
« Reply #31 on: September 13, 2019, 09:05:18 AM »
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.
Home of the Grumpy Gnome

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Offline Hobby Services

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander
« Reply #32 on: September 13, 2019, 01:37:32 PM »
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.

Offline Ragsta

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander
« Reply #33 on: September 17, 2019, 08:04:21 AM »
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  :)
« Last Edit: September 17, 2019, 08:09:26 AM by Ragsta »

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander
« Reply #34 on: September 17, 2019, 11:28:01 AM »
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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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander
« Reply #35 on: September 17, 2019, 12:25:28 PM »
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/

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander
« Reply #36 on: September 17, 2019, 01:25:18 PM »
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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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander
« Reply #37 on: September 17, 2019, 04:45:59 PM »
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.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander & Full Thrust
« Reply #38 on: September 27, 2019, 05:04:59 AM »
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.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander & Full Thrust
« Reply #39 on: October 15, 2019, 05:18:23 AM »
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.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet Commander & Full Thrust
« Reply #40 on: October 18, 2019, 11:59:39 AM »
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.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet, Full Thrust and Core Space
« Reply #41 on: October 29, 2019, 11:45:59 AM »
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.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet, Full Thrust and Core Space
« Reply #42 on: November 11, 2019, 02:30:03 PM »
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/

Online Daeothar

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet, Full Thrust and Core Space
« Reply #43 on: November 14, 2019, 03:20:39 PM »
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...
Miniatures you say? Well I too, like to live dangerously...
Find a Way, or make one!

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Late to the party.... Dropfleet, Full Thrust and Core Space
« Reply #44 on: November 15, 2019, 06:02:24 AM »
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.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2019, 06:04:34 AM by Rick W. »

 

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