Clash of the Aquanauts - an early stage project thread for BLAM 2011

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi all,

following inspired discussions spread over various submarine-building threads, I thought I'd open a "catch-all" thread where we can collect ideas, start planning and hopefully show off nice things.

Our key agenda points would be:

1. What table size (probably 6x4 or something similar)?
2. What style of game (Infantry skirmish with vehicle elements)?
3. Miniature scale/size (28mm, Gawd's Own Scale, of course)?
4. What rules (Gaslight has been suggested already)?
5. Who does what?

That's it for starters. Have to do some work now, but will check back periodically and contribute.

[Malamute]

Tis now sticky

Happy to contribute whatever I can, probably a few deep sea divers and British Naval Brigade if required.

[Westfalia Chris]

Great! Thank you, Mr. Cushing!

Anyway, for way of introduction, here are the links to the threads that spawned this idea (in chronological order):

"VSF Mini Sub" by AndyM

"Sub/Landing Craft" by AndyM

"The Terror from the Deep" by Westfalia Chris

"It's a little nippy out there" by gamer Mac

To sum up, the idea is having a VSF underwater game ("Stingray" meets "20,000 Leagues" with lots of rivets added) to present and play at BLAM 2011.

Rules

As for rules, Gaslight was suggested, and would provide an established VSF ruleset. "Downside", if you like, is that I have never played it (except for one game of VSF Stargate) and therefore do not have any working knowledge of the rules, certainly not enough to write a scenario for it.

An alternative would be that someone (I'd volunteer, shamelessly) writes up a fast and easy, but suitably detailed set of rules that will be able to handle divers, various small submarines and other underwater craft, and various critters of the deep blue sea. For that, I think we should have a little brainstorming session to get a list of what to include and what to leave out.

Miniatures

The style of the game being underwater skirmish, I would suggest each player controlling one unit of "infantry" (read, divers) and one or two underwater craft, depending on their size and game potential. There are various deep-sea divers out there, but before making proper plans, I guess some factions definition work would be in order.

Terrain

Basically, a table full of seabed. Onto this, we could place various algae forests and coral reefs, and maybe have shoals (correct term?) of fish providing moving cover/LoS obstructions. Larger sea life like squids, sharks and morays could occur as random encounters.

Other features would probably be dependent on the scenario played. The simplest one would probably be a ship's wreck carrying a valuable cargo which is of equal importance to some or all of the factions. Alternatively, an underwater city would be nice (I'm looking your way, Templemere!), but may provide cumbersome to transport, depending on who does it.

That's some ideas for starters. Maybe everyone involved could dream up a faction he or she wants to play, and we will continue work from there.

[Thunderchicken]

Alas I'm unable to be involved in this project as I'm planning my own but I'll have a rummage through my bits and see if there's anything I can offer. I was considering playing aqua VSF some years ago so I'd be surprised if I haven't bought a few bits for it.

Great project and looking forward to seeing it develop in your capable hands.

Edit: Chris, forgot to mention your flirtation with GASLIGHT at BLAM was To Be Continued by GASLIGHT rather than the original ruleset or Battles. The basics are still the same though.   

[Chairface]

Don't forget some rules from automotons. Mage Knight submersible golems would look quite smashing in an underwater VSF game.

[number9]

I've tinkered around with this idea using GZG's space-based Full Thrust rules (they are free to download online) as a foundation for underwater conflict. They have a pretty simple inertial vector movement system that would simulate underwater movement well enough. In this case the big fish and crab ships would effectively be "carriers", and human dive teams would then become "fighter squadrons".

Everything you might want to simulate like different weapons and armor capacities of the main ships and divers can be repurposed/renamed from the core rules. You can even simulate diver air supply through utilizing the "fighter endurance" rules.

I think the biggest areas lacking would be boarding actions, undersea beasts, and specific rules/ideas that convey the Victorian mechanical idiosyncrasies of brass fish-as-subs. Also there isn't a whole lot of heroic level detail.

Certainly additional work would have to be done to make the rules fit the atmosphere, but there seem to me to be enough rules similarities between adventures in space and adventures underwater to warrant some crossover consideration.

[Captain Blood]

Tobi (Green Knight) had a very neat little underwater game at GLAM in Kiel earlier this year. There's a pic on Matakishi's site http://www.matakishi.com/glam2010dayone.htm

He used .45 Adventure rules. I didn't get to play, but it looked like a lot of fun 

Not quite sure how you'd use subs and deep sea divers and Naval Brigade... Unless of course you had a great big Nautilus with full interior... Kind of Zeppelin like...   

[Mister Rab]

Unless of course you had a great big Nautilus with full interior... Kind of Zeppelin like...   

Do it do it do it 

[Froggy the Great]

Really, what's the difference between a submarine and a zeppelin if you don't have any windows?

[Bullshott]

Don't forget some rules from automotons. Mage Knight submersible golems would look quite smashing in an underwater VSF game.

If these are the figures I'm thinking of (the chaps wit the tridents), they also make great divers in their own right.

[OSHIROmodels]

Go for the self style rules Chris, I think with the environ in question it would be easier to start a fresh than to modify existing.

I've had a long couple of days at work with more to come but when I'm a bit more free I'll post some ideas up.

cheers

James

[Thunderchicken]

Found some Scheltrum divers and Atlantis types (not advertised on the website) so let me know if you need them for the game.

[Westfalia Chris]

Go for the self style rules Chris, I think with the environ in question it would be easier to start a fresh than to modify existing.

I'd guess so, too. I'm currently leaning to a two-activation system, with various actions, units moving in random sequence based on initiative ratings, and different movement rates for different types of divers, e.g. "seabed-sloggers" (boiler suit), "surfaciant swimmers" (aqualung-type), and "amphibians" (which would be in the style of the "Creature", or the Atlanteans in that Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge story, or, IIRC, the Aquaphibians from "Stingray").

For vehicles, limited numbers of turns based on agility, movement rates to reflect that, and simple damage rules that consider hull rigidity and integrity as well as the inner workings.

I think I'll whip up a rule skeleton, and we will build on that.

[oldskoolrebel]

Hey, I think Colin and Andy had been talking about something similar possibly for BLAM... sounds as though there might be a few underwater tables this year!

Sounding good Chris, can't wait to see your progress.

Cheers
Andy

[Andym]

I suggested earlier that, if you want, I'll happly make the board? I had some ideas. Most of these were drawn straight after the last BLAM.


Myself, Colin and Oldskoolrebel thought about having an underwater base and have people escape from it into a sub and that was going to be our game.

The boat is meant to be a sunken steamer with the dead captain hunched over the wheel. Of course you'd also have cliffs, kelp fields and reefs.
I also thought about a floating mine field and my brother Colin suggested an abyssal canyon.

As for the Nautilus i have been thinking about that for a while...





The mini sub in the drawings is supposed to be the sub i built.


I think ,though, it might be too big to build!