Having become increasingly disliking of the combat resolution system for Starmada: Admiralty Edition (S:AE) I finally looked up Full Thrust: Cross Dimensions (FT:XD). This variation of the Full Thrust rules combines the rules from the multiple Full Thrust books (available for free from Ground Zero Games) and adds some new weapons. I had looked at Full Thrust a while back but having the rules spread across multiple books with later books modifying some of the basic mechanics put me off somewhat.
What has been irking me about combat in S:AE was the iterative process for rolling each attack. Each attack with each similar weapon system requires a total of three die rolls with multiple dice. My issue isn't the number of dice rolled but the number rolls made. There is a roll to hit, a roll to overcome defenses, and a roll to determine damage allocation. This provides for a great amount of granularity for how different weapons behave allowing for the creation of one weapon that may be highly accurate with a high rate of fire but does not have much penetration or damage potential or another that has difficulty getting past defense but inflicts a great amount of damage on impact. It's actually one of the strengths of the design system within the game. The down side is that rolling a handfull of dice, sorting out which ones hit, rolling to see which ones penetrated then sorting those dice out, and then rolling for damage (sometimes with a multiplier) can begin to take time, especially with larger squadrons of larger ships mounting multiple weapon types. Individual weapons, engines, and shields/armor are potentially damaged from the first hit onwards. A battleship could potentially lose it's main gun in the first hit just as easily as a frigate.
Combat in FT:XD is much smoother. There are a limited number of types of weapons and there is only one roll that is modified by the target's defenses. This reduces the game's ability to closely replicate how weapons from specific books/shows/movies (which let's face it, generally falls into Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and occasionally Babylon 5) behave but does simplify gameplay. Roll to hit, typically hits are counted on 4, 5, or 6 and apply damage (applying half of the damage to armor if present) to the hull boxes. Systems are rolled for critical damage at the end of each of three or four rows of hull boxes, depending on the construction options used for the ship. A battleship's main gun won't be a candidate to be destroyed until after it has sustained enough damage to destroy a typical frigate.
I tried the sample scenario included with FT:XD using my GZG starship miniatures, this being the first time they were used for the game they were designed to be used with. The scenario is simple, each side has mirrored forces of two cruisers and three frigates. One side has to attempt to exit his ships off the opposite side of the table and are set up in a line abreast formation. The other side is to intercept and destroy the opposing player's force before he can get them off the table. This player deploys in two columns, one with the two cruisers and the other with the three frigate, in a corner on an approximately 60 degree bias from the table edge. My 9 year son Phillip played the interceptors and I played the blockade runners.
We both quickly picked up the basics of the game. Phil had no problems writing preplotted movement orders after I told him he could use left and right instead of port and starboard for indicating turns. Combat was quite smooth as I expected, slowing down only for the first couple threshold checks until we got the hang of the mechanic. By the end of the game I had lost my frigates and one cruiser had been effectively disabled while Phil had lost a cruiser to a containment breach in his power core and a frigate to weight of fire. His remaining frigates were heavily damaged but his remaining cruiser was untouched. My cruisers did manage to exit the board though. We called it a tie since I exited the board but had lost three of my escorts in the process. The upside is that we both managed to avoid the usual first game high speed pass that most FT players seem to experience since momentum is conserved turn to turn.
My impressions are that while I liked the faster combat I found that I prefer my starship games to be played on a hexmap for ease and speed. Turning and measuring, then turning and measuring again was a bit fiddly and moderately annoying with ships in close proximity and maintaining formation. So I'm left with something of a quandary. I like the combat resolution (though I have my doubts about adapting settings satisfactorily using the limited weapon options) but didn't like the movement mechanics with FT:XD. In S:AE I like movement on a hex (I use a modified movement mechanic rather than the one in the rules) and the differentiation between weapons but want a streamlined resolution mechanic. Majestic 12 changed the way combat works in their latest version, Starmada Nova Edition, but I'm not sold on it as it now uses a more complex defense mechanism though I suppose I ought to give a run using the sample rules in the interest of fair evaluation. I'm told Colonial Battlefleet may be what I'm looking for but don't really want to spend $15 + printer ink to find out it isn't what I want. I'm already invested with Starmada, both the base version as well as the licensed Starfleet Universe version, so will probably stick with it but the hunt continues. All this though has had me wondering if I still have the draft version of a starship game I had been working on about six years ago but never finished due to getting bogged down with figuring out how to assign point values.
Showing posts with label Starmada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Starmada. Show all posts
20120610
United Federation of Planets Squadron Complete!
Finally finished with all of my Feds. Of course this doesn't mean that I won't buy more in the future....
Here are the pics of the newly completed BC and DN. Followed by the whole group. (Still trying to figure this camera out, all of these ships are a stark white.)
I'm also almost done with the Black Lightning Dictator.
Here are the pics of the newly completed BC and DN. Followed by the whole group. (Still trying to figure this camera out, all of these ships are a stark white.)
I'm also almost done with the Black Lightning Dictator.
20120512
Battle Station Assault!
Finally got around to playing the final battle of the Day One campaign today. Took a lot longer than I thought it would, but that was mostly due to outside distractions. At any rate, after replaying the third battle the two side were relatively closely matched, with the Federation having the advantage. The victory condition was destroy 900 points of enemy models. The forces were...
Federation
Battle Station
NCL
oCL
2x Frigates
Klingon
C8 Dreadnought
D7C Command Cruiser
2x D7 Battlecruiser
F5 Frigate
I controlled the Klingon cruisers, Phillip the C8 and F5 (until later when he ceded control of the F5 to me). Zachary flew the Federation.
Zachary set up the station in a corner with ships forming a defensive line three hexes in front of it. I set up the cruisers on the near side of the station while Phil set up further out. (sorry about the fuzzy pictures, getting used to a new camera)
First turn saw Zachary dress his gun line while Phil moved forward and I did as well, but more cautiously to see if Zachary would come running out or not. Zachary hit the C8 with a couple Phaser-4s, did a couple points of hull damage but not much else.
Phil must've gotten spooked by the big guns on the station as he turned the F5 around and launched drones at the NCL. I moved forward just far enough to plink at the NCL with disruptors.
One of the D7 got hurt enough for me to pull him off the line while the other cruisers moved up to get into the edge of the Phaser-1s range. The damaged D7 only took a few points of hull damage, but his shields got chewed up pretty bad. So I figured I could make some repair rolls and have it catch up with the dreadnought. Zachary kept his gun line in place (for most of the game) and tried to score some lucky hits with proximity fused photon torpedoes. The NCL accrued damage steadily.
I decided it was go time and move the undamaged cruisers up to take out the NCL after the drones did some more damage to and Phil focused on the station. The NCL went out in a fireball, but the C8 was starting to show some stress on her hull, but systems remained largely unaffected.
With the NCL gone I was able to focus fire on the station, which was all I needed to win. The C8's shield were still holding out so I was confident in a victory even though it was down to about 5 hull at this point. managed to take out a FF with the D7 in the back, it couldn't range the station yet. The other D7 that had been the D7C's wingman was taken out by the combined firepower of the Federation ships.
And here's the end game. All but one of those blue drone tokens hit the Battlestation for the SFU version of the Macross Mega Missile attack. It left the station with 8 hull left. The C8 took it down to 3, and the D7C finished it. Unfortunately the C8 also bought it with the stations dying onslaught of Phaser-4 fire. I tried to take out the oCL before the end of the turn, but couldn't get enough hull hits.
At this point I had scored about 1040 points and Zachary had scored 893. The Klingons with the game by victory condition. If Zachary had destroyed another ship I would still have won by points. For the campaign, having won two of the earlier games and this one the Klingons achieved a major victory. They may have lost their dreadnought, but with the station out of the way further fleets will be able to push into Federation territory freely. If Zachary had won the scenario I would still have gotten a minor victory for the Klingons. The most he could have gotten was a minor Federation victory by winning this game with a higher victory point total than me.
The game was enjoyable despite some issues involving trying to game with an active 8 year old. I'm debating picking up the new version of Starmada and going through and converting the SFU ships to that format, though supposedly that will be done for us. I like Starmada Admiralty edition well enough, but the new version is supposed to streamline some of the die rolling. It gets time consuming waiting for the kids to pick out the dice that were successful for the next iteration of rolls.
Next game will probably be me teaching them how to play FUBAR with either 15s or 28s.
Federation
Battle Station
NCL
oCL
2x Frigates
Klingon
C8 Dreadnought
D7C Command Cruiser
2x D7 Battlecruiser
F5 Frigate
I controlled the Klingon cruisers, Phillip the C8 and F5 (until later when he ceded control of the F5 to me). Zachary flew the Federation.
Zachary set up the station in a corner with ships forming a defensive line three hexes in front of it. I set up the cruisers on the near side of the station while Phil set up further out. (sorry about the fuzzy pictures, getting used to a new camera)
First turn saw Zachary dress his gun line while Phil moved forward and I did as well, but more cautiously to see if Zachary would come running out or not. Zachary hit the C8 with a couple Phaser-4s, did a couple points of hull damage but not much else.
Phil must've gotten spooked by the big guns on the station as he turned the F5 around and launched drones at the NCL. I moved forward just far enough to plink at the NCL with disruptors.
One of the D7 got hurt enough for me to pull him off the line while the other cruisers moved up to get into the edge of the Phaser-1s range. The damaged D7 only took a few points of hull damage, but his shields got chewed up pretty bad. So I figured I could make some repair rolls and have it catch up with the dreadnought. Zachary kept his gun line in place (for most of the game) and tried to score some lucky hits with proximity fused photon torpedoes. The NCL accrued damage steadily.
I decided it was go time and move the undamaged cruisers up to take out the NCL after the drones did some more damage to and Phil focused on the station. The NCL went out in a fireball, but the C8 was starting to show some stress on her hull, but systems remained largely unaffected.
With the NCL gone I was able to focus fire on the station, which was all I needed to win. The C8's shield were still holding out so I was confident in a victory even though it was down to about 5 hull at this point. managed to take out a FF with the D7 in the back, it couldn't range the station yet. The other D7 that had been the D7C's wingman was taken out by the combined firepower of the Federation ships.
At this point I had scored about 1040 points and Zachary had scored 893. The Klingons with the game by victory condition. If Zachary had destroyed another ship I would still have won by points. For the campaign, having won two of the earlier games and this one the Klingons achieved a major victory. They may have lost their dreadnought, but with the station out of the way further fleets will be able to push into Federation territory freely. If Zachary had won the scenario I would still have gotten a minor victory for the Klingons. The most he could have gotten was a minor Federation victory by winning this game with a higher victory point total than me.
The game was enjoyable despite some issues involving trying to game with an active 8 year old. I'm debating picking up the new version of Starmada and going through and converting the SFU ships to that format, though supposedly that will be done for us. I like Starmada Admiralty edition well enough, but the new version is supposed to streamline some of the die rolling. It gets time consuming waiting for the kids to pick out the dice that were successful for the next iteration of rolls.
Next game will probably be me teaching them how to play FUBAR with either 15s or 28s.
20120205
Q'apla!
Played the second game of the Day One campaign today instead of watching the Super Bowl. Myself and sometimes Phillip were running the Klingons and Zachary the Feds. This game was anyone's game until something seemingly insignificant, a few lucky rolls at the right time, turned it in my favor. Unfortunately we didn't take pictures this time. Forces were:
Federation Division 2:
2x Heavy Cruiser
1x New Light Cruiser
1x Old Light Cruiser
Klingon Division 2:
1x D7C Command Cruiser
2x D7 Battlecruiser
1x F5 Frigate
Zachary started by keeping his CAs in the center with lights on the flanks. Phillip and I kind of split them between us, but he scored some early lucky hits on one of the CAs. We both spent a couple turns saber dancing, but had a hard time landing hull hits, so most of the hits would just get repaired in the end phase. Finally in a position to push into overload range, Zachary moved his NCL forward and in two turns it was destroyed. The seemingly insignificant error he made was that while he did destroy the F5 that got the killing blow on his NCL (overloaded disruptors at 2 hexes). He should have split his fire and let the torpedoes finish the F5 instead of starting with phasers (which due to an untimely bad roll for him all missed, all 2's and he needed 3's) then finishing with torpedoes which generated about 10 more damage points than were needed to destroy the tiny ship. He may have gotten lucky with the phasers on a damaged D7 and taken it out along with the F5, which would have left me with a huge firepower gap. Even if he had focused on the D7 instead of the frigate he would have put me in a hurt. In the second to last turn he took out a D7, but left me in a position to destroy both CAs by turning to repair when he probably would've been better off turning about and unloading photon torpedo hell on my ships. End result was the Fed squadron only had a lightly damaged oCL remaining while I had a D7C and D7, both with hull integrity at about 50%. So, while damaged and having lost a couple ships, I still consider it a fairly big win for the Klingons that will set us up to have fairly close point values for the station assault in the last game.
The Klingons seem to have had some bad intel on the next objective though. They allocated two D7s and a D6 to engage a squadron that turned out to consist of a Command Cruiser, Heavy Cruiser, New Light Cruiser, Old Light Cruiser, and a Frigate. He'll have to destroy all three of my ships to claim victory, while I'm going to have to take out the FF, the oCL, and a third ship. If I manage a win on this one it's going to be by the skin of my teeth.
Federation Division 2:
2x Heavy Cruiser
1x New Light Cruiser
1x Old Light Cruiser
Klingon Division 2:
1x D7C Command Cruiser
2x D7 Battlecruiser
1x F5 Frigate
Zachary started by keeping his CAs in the center with lights on the flanks. Phillip and I kind of split them between us, but he scored some early lucky hits on one of the CAs. We both spent a couple turns saber dancing, but had a hard time landing hull hits, so most of the hits would just get repaired in the end phase. Finally in a position to push into overload range, Zachary moved his NCL forward and in two turns it was destroyed. The seemingly insignificant error he made was that while he did destroy the F5 that got the killing blow on his NCL (overloaded disruptors at 2 hexes). He should have split his fire and let the torpedoes finish the F5 instead of starting with phasers (which due to an untimely bad roll for him all missed, all 2's and he needed 3's) then finishing with torpedoes which generated about 10 more damage points than were needed to destroy the tiny ship. He may have gotten lucky with the phasers on a damaged D7 and taken it out along with the F5, which would have left me with a huge firepower gap. Even if he had focused on the D7 instead of the frigate he would have put me in a hurt. In the second to last turn he took out a D7, but left me in a position to destroy both CAs by turning to repair when he probably would've been better off turning about and unloading photon torpedo hell on my ships. End result was the Fed squadron only had a lightly damaged oCL remaining while I had a D7C and D7, both with hull integrity at about 50%. So, while damaged and having lost a couple ships, I still consider it a fairly big win for the Klingons that will set us up to have fairly close point values for the station assault in the last game.
The Klingons seem to have had some bad intel on the next objective though. They allocated two D7s and a D6 to engage a squadron that turned out to consist of a Command Cruiser, Heavy Cruiser, New Light Cruiser, Old Light Cruiser, and a Frigate. He'll have to destroy all three of my ships to claim victory, while I'm going to have to take out the FF, the oCL, and a third ship. If I manage a win on this one it's going to be by the skin of my teeth.
20111022
More Starmada With the Kids
OK, I lied, I thought I had pics of the C8. I don't. I humbly ask forgiveness and hope you accept these pictures of a Starmada game in lieu.
This game was a three-way meeting engagement between myself (the blue/orange Mauridians), Michael (the grey/green GZG NSL), and Zachary (tan/scarlet GZG FSE). The boys actually had an advantage in that their designs were coherent, while I didn't realize earlier that somehow I had managed to mix together two separate sets of stats for the Mauridians and that the stats for the Mauridian dreadnought made no sense at all with regards for the weapons arcs. Yet in the end it came down to Michael and myself and was fairly close. He held back until Zachary was almost out of the game, then started advancing towards me. In the end though I had the dice on my side for one, especially with those one-shot supergun frigates.
Was a good, if long game. If I hadn't needed to help them with firing each turn the game would've been half as long as it was. It's not bad with only a couple ships per side, but this represented about 1500 points per side. My oldest son seems to have the hardest time grasping the combat phase. I think the stats I gave the GZG ships are fairly good, but need a little tweaking, especially for anti-fighter defense. The Mauridian carriers ended up being ridiculous, so weren't used and also need reworking. The "singularity missiles" I adapted from the original stats Xtreme Hobbies gave the Mauridians were insane. At one point in the game one hit from the weapon generated 21 damage and pretty much eviscerated Zachary's battleship. Another thing I think I need to do is boost the shield values overall.
Next week is Tomorrow's War, painted figures or not...
This game was a three-way meeting engagement between myself (the blue/orange Mauridians), Michael (the grey/green GZG NSL), and Zachary (tan/scarlet GZG FSE). The boys actually had an advantage in that their designs were coherent, while I didn't realize earlier that somehow I had managed to mix together two separate sets of stats for the Mauridians and that the stats for the Mauridian dreadnought made no sense at all with regards for the weapons arcs. Yet in the end it came down to Michael and myself and was fairly close. He held back until Zachary was almost out of the game, then started advancing towards me. In the end though I had the dice on my side for one, especially with those one-shot supergun frigates.
Was a good, if long game. If I hadn't needed to help them with firing each turn the game would've been half as long as it was. It's not bad with only a couple ships per side, but this represented about 1500 points per side. My oldest son seems to have the hardest time grasping the combat phase. I think the stats I gave the GZG ships are fairly good, but need a little tweaking, especially for anti-fighter defense. The Mauridian carriers ended up being ridiculous, so weren't used and also need reworking. The "singularity missiles" I adapted from the original stats Xtreme Hobbies gave the Mauridians were insane. At one point in the game one hit from the weapon generated 21 damage and pretty much eviscerated Zachary's battleship. Another thing I think I need to do is boost the shield values overall.
Next week is Tomorrow's War, painted figures or not...
20111004
The Mighty Hood Goes Down
Here are the pictures from "The Mighty Hood Goes Down." I think I could've held out for the full 10 turns if I hadn't started to get bored and charged in to try to take out Zachary's D6.
The short version is that I spent the first few turns repairing lucky long range disruptor hits, got bored in turn five (it was getting late too) turned in so I could fire some overloaded torpedoes in an attempt to take out the D6 (which I did) fully expecting to be taken out as well (which I did).
20110206
Ven'Tara Carriers Complete
I actually finished these a couple weeks ago, just now getting a picture of them. These are Ravenstar's Cold Navy Mauridian Ven'Tara carriers. They are resin like the rest of Ravenstar's miniatures and the quality is the same high level of the rest of the pieces I've ordered from him. They were already base coated before I deployed so they only needed the darklining, highlighting, and details but that was more than enough to remind me that it has been a while since I painted anything.
20100312
FSE Fleet and a side project
Here's the group shot:
And this is one of the side projects. A tray to help keep the dice from going all over the place. The dice tower I made a while back fits nicely in this as well. The felt isn't cut quite perfectly, but well enough to get the job done.
And this is one of the side projects. A tray to help keep the dice from going all over the place. The dice tower I made a while back fits nicely in this as well. The felt isn't cut quite perfectly, but well enough to get the job done.
20100308
And the FSE fleet is done
In a final sprint I've finished the FSE battleship and battlecruiser. I think that from here on out I'm going to start with the larger vessels when I have the option. I seem to care more at the beginning of a fleet. I'll seal these last two tomorrow and mount them on their flight stands. Next up for painting are the VSD and the Mauridians. Though I need to wait for some Ninja Magic magnetic adapters to show up before I can start on the Mauridians. In the meantime I can work on the VSD and a couple side projects I have going. Nice thing about the Mauridians is that I already have a paint scheme for them from the first two frigates I bought a couple years ago. It's a bright scheme, but I like it. Hopefully it paints quick.
20100307
Four More
Finished up the three FSE corvettes and final escort cruiser this morning. Just need to seal and mount them. All that remains for that fleet is the battlecruiser and battleship. Thinking about priming the Star Destroyer.
20100228
More FSE Done!
Did these up from primer to sealer today, two FSE heavy destroyers and one escort cruiser. I also got one base color and a wash down on the other escort cruiser and the three corvettes as well as primed the battlecruiser and battleship. I think I finally managed to get a wash I like, it's a mix of ProPaint Chestnut Brown and MSP Brown Liner. These have already been based and are in the cabinet, but I apparently couldn't wait to take a pic. (click for bigger pic)
20100227
Starmada With the Boyz
Played a game of Starmada with Michael (12 going on 13 in a little over a week) and Zachary (10) last night. This was their first time with the game. It started out as a Klingon Armada game between Michael and I, but Zachary came down to the Man Cave and wanted in on the action. I didn't have any of the ships printed for the Kzinti so I grabbed some of the sample ships from the core rules for him. You'd think he'd be the one to lose not having any of the fancy bells and whistles, but in fact, he almost won! So, for ships, I had a C8 dreadnought, Michael had a Federation heavy cruiser (CA) and two frigates (FF), and Zachary had the sample battleship (BB) and a CA. We used the D1 (basic movement) optional rules to simplify things for them. Michael and I used Federation Commander counters for our vessels while Zachary got to use the NSL BB and an escort cruiser for his CA.
Michael had my usual luck with the dice, he just could roll a hit for anything. He kept going after Zachary's BB since it was over half his point wrapped up in it, but it's high shields deflected all but three points of damage from Michael. Zachary on the other hand, started out with insanely lucky rolls. He wiped out Michael's CA in the first turn and a FF in the second, putting Michael out of the game.
I knew that the difference between how KA faceted shields and regular shields worked wasn't going to work out well for me unless I could damage that BB some before closing the range. So for the first three turns I danced around at long range for my distruptors taking pot shots at Zachary then turned in once he turned to deal with me. I caused some minor damage this way, dropped his shields to four. What really helped was following two waves of drones when I closed the range. The first wave took out a bunch of weapons, the second knocked his shields to 1. After that it was just a matter of taking out the last few boxes of damage. Unfortunately my C8 did not come through this unscathed. The BB and CA opened a hole in my forward port shields, which (admittedly, with a little coaching from myself) Zachary exploited in turn 5 by maneuvering his CA into position just off my bow. At the end of turn 5 his BB was gone, meaning I'd accomplished the victory condition, but I only had 1 hull point remaining. If we had played the next turn or he had rolled one more odd number for damage, that C8 would've been gone.
It was fun teaching them how to play. They were having some problems with the plotted movement, but were starting to get the hang of it by the end. Next time though, if I mix 'regular' Starmada and Klingon Armada ships the KA ships will use the standard faceted shields rule rather than the KA version. Hopefully that will make them last a little longer. The only reason the C8 lasted long enough for a second turn of intense fire was that it had comparatively much more hull than the other ships, but it's shields were flimsy. I have a feeling I'm going to get several requests to play again today.
Michael had my usual luck with the dice, he just could roll a hit for anything. He kept going after Zachary's BB since it was over half his point wrapped up in it, but it's high shields deflected all but three points of damage from Michael. Zachary on the other hand, started out with insanely lucky rolls. He wiped out Michael's CA in the first turn and a FF in the second, putting Michael out of the game.
I knew that the difference between how KA faceted shields and regular shields worked wasn't going to work out well for me unless I could damage that BB some before closing the range. So for the first three turns I danced around at long range for my distruptors taking pot shots at Zachary then turned in once he turned to deal with me. I caused some minor damage this way, dropped his shields to four. What really helped was following two waves of drones when I closed the range. The first wave took out a bunch of weapons, the second knocked his shields to 1. After that it was just a matter of taking out the last few boxes of damage. Unfortunately my C8 did not come through this unscathed. The BB and CA opened a hole in my forward port shields, which (admittedly, with a little coaching from myself) Zachary exploited in turn 5 by maneuvering his CA into position just off my bow. At the end of turn 5 his BB was gone, meaning I'd accomplished the victory condition, but I only had 1 hull point remaining. If we had played the next turn or he had rolled one more odd number for damage, that C8 would've been gone.
It was fun teaching them how to play. They were having some problems with the plotted movement, but were starting to get the hang of it by the end. Next time though, if I mix 'regular' Starmada and Klingon Armada ships the KA ships will use the standard faceted shields rule rather than the KA version. Hopefully that will make them last a little longer. The only reason the C8 lasted long enough for a second turn of intense fire was that it had comparatively much more hull than the other ships, but it's shields were flimsy. I have a feeling I'm going to get several requests to play again today.
20100218
Pictures
Here's what I've accomplished so far:
My second Emperor CAV. The colors were supposed to be the same as those on Mil-Net, however, one of them turned out a little more purple than I expected. I think it works. I've got one more Emperor to paint, but it has to be a special paint job on it as it is one of the masters.
This one is the Centauro escort carrier along with the Mirage and Camerone fighters. Still perfecting my paint scheme for these. I don't think the shading is pronounced enough on the carrier and may go back to darken it up some.
And some terrain pieces. The satellite dishes are from JR Miniatures and in 6mm scale. The space station is a kitbash of several pieces that have been sitting around for a while. All three are painted to the 3 foot and squint standard, but they get the job done.
My second Emperor CAV. The colors were supposed to be the same as those on Mil-Net, however, one of them turned out a little more purple than I expected. I think it works. I've got one more Emperor to paint, but it has to be a special paint job on it as it is one of the masters.
This one is the Centauro escort carrier along with the Mirage and Camerone fighters. Still perfecting my paint scheme for these. I don't think the shading is pronounced enough on the carrier and may go back to darken it up some.
And some terrain pieces. The satellite dishes are from JR Miniatures and in 6mm scale. The space station is a kitbash of several pieces that have been sitting around for a while. All three are painted to the 3 foot and squint standard, but they get the job done.
20100215
One More Down
Finished up the FSE escort carrier to go along with the fighter stands. Important lesson learned though. For the other ships that come in multiple parts it's better to paint then assemble, it's almost impossible to get under the bridge superstructure. This puts the annual total to a whopping four!
20091224
NSL Done
OK, the NSL ships are done as well as the civilian transport. Unfortunately due to weather I won't be able to seal them for a few days. :( Group pic to follow at some point.
Trying to figure out one color on the FSE and they'll be started.
Trying to figure out one color on the FSE and they'll be started.
20091221
Stay On Target...
OK, finished the NSL escort carrier and the two fighter flights. Pics when I get around to it. More interested in trying to finish 100 items by the end of the year.
20091210
Day 1, First Battle
So, I got KA, made some data cards and decided what better way to try the game than to straight into the Day 1 mini-campaign. The Klingons have decided to attack an ill-prepared Federation and have staged a series of near simultaneous attacks in order to cripple Starfleet ensuring success for the Klingon Empire.
The Day 1 campaign has you select two fleets from the Federation, the Klingon Empire, or the Kzinti. I'm sticking with the traditional Feds vs. Klinks. Each side splits their fleet into three groups and selects a group for each of three battles. Each battle has a progressively higher victory point threshold. In the game I played, both sides achieved this threshold in the same turn, so in the absence of anything specifying what to do in this situation I awarded "victory," however pyhrric, to the side that killed more points. The fourth battle is a base station assault with point values determined by the total of victory points earned by each side throughout the campaign.
The fleets were arranged as thus if marked with an * it means I don't have a mini and am using the 1" counter from Federation Commander:
Federation
Division I
Dreadnought*
Light Cruiser
2x Frigate
Division II
Battlecruiser*
Heavy Cruiser
2x Frigate
Division III
Command Cruiser*
Heavy Cruiser
Light Cruiser
Frigate
Klingon
Division I
C8 Dreadnought*
D7 Battlecruiser
F5 Heavy Frigate
Division II
C7 Heavy Battlecruiser*
D7 Battlecruiser
D6 Heavy Cruiser
Division III
D7C Command Battlecruiser
D7 Battlecruiser
D6 Heavy Cruiser
F5 Heavy Frigate
For the first battle I chose the third division from each fleet as the point cost the largest ship in both fleets was just under the victory threshold meaning that at least two ships would have to be destroyed to win and with the force make up, one of them had to be a heavy cruiser or better.
Deployment consisted of the Feds forming a group in the center while the Klingon's had the D6 and F5 in the center and the D7's on the outer flanks, hoping to force the Fed's to split the heavy cruisers between them.
(click image for larger pictures)
Federation Division III
Klingon Division III
Deployment
Turn one saw the Federation escorts move ahead of the heavy cruisers to screen the expected drone wave while the heavys pulled alongside each other and laid in a course for the D7C. The Klingon D7s moved slightly forward to get the Feds into the long range band of their disruptors. The D7C fired and established what would be a trend throughout the game for that vessel, no effect. The Klingons launched a wave of drones, 7 targeting the CC and 3 targeting the CA and that was the end of the turn.
In turn two the Feds accelerated towards the D7C, who realizing he was going to be in range of far too many overloaded photon torpedoes the captain decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Unfortunately this didn't leave him with many targets in his available fields of fire. The F5, with its annoyingly short ranged disruptors charged forward in an effort to close within short range of the frigate hoping to take it out as well as absorb shots that would otherwise have been used against the drones. The D6 maintained station and the D7 bolted forward in an effort to come at the Feds from behind.
The drones moved inexoribly closer to their targets, but during the firing phase, the Federation escorts destroyed two flights, concentrating all but their photon torpedoes on them. The Light Cruiser hit the D7C with both torpedoes and crippled her engines...not good for the D7C who needed to get away desperately. The F5 and Frigate engaged in a game called Mutual Assured Destruction, except the Fed frigate was saved by the fact that the Klingon rolled one less hull hit than needed to destroy it. The D7 finished the Frigate, and took a few pot shots at the CC, causing marginal damage. The Fed heavies concentrated on the D7C and took out a good number of weapons and several hull boxes, and to add insult to injury more engine damage. The Light Cruiser launched two shuttles targeting the D7C and its drones targeting a Klingon flight. The D7C fired its remaining drone and all the remaining Klingons launched suicide shuttles, all targeted at the CC. This did not seem to be going according to Klingon High Command's plan.
Turn three, the Feds moved further forward concentrating on the D7C, the D6 maintained position again as the targets were expected to move into range of overloaded disruptors, and the D7 continued its flanking move.
The first wave of seekers hit their marks, the CC was able to either destroy or weather the attack well, only taking a couple of damage points. The CA wasn't so lucky, it took several hull hits and it's photon torpedoes were gutted. The CC opened up on the D7C and it blossomed into a cloud of gas and debris. This satisfied the victory conditions, but I figured that since damage is simultaneous and doesn't occur until the end of the combat phase that the rest of the ships should get their fires in. The D7, sensing a kill fired overloaded disruptors and all phasers at the CA. She almost went down, but had two hull remaining. The CA fired at the D7, doing minimal damage. The D6 then finished off the CA, and the CL fired at the D7 almost taking it out.
So, three turns, two ships dead on each side, and a slight victory for the Federation. The Emperor will not be pleased. VP totals are: Federation: 478, Klingons: 430.
What did I learn? Well, the weapons on the F5 are annoying. You have to get into range of the Feds to use them. It should've stayed with the D6, then the ships would've most likely ignored the F5. Klingons need a lot of manuevering space. I may need to take my mat upstairs where I can spread it out to full width on the dinner table. Overloaded photons are brutal, have to time them right though. If escorts focus their phasers on the drones launched beyond their movement rating the Feds can weather a fairly substantial drone wave. Vice versa, Klingons should wait until they are with in the movement envelope of their drones. This is problematic though as this is inside the overload range for photon torpedoes. This was great fun and played quickly despite my having to go pick up the kids from school in the snow. Looking forward to the next game, hopefully I can get my wife to run the Feds next time.
The Day 1 campaign has you select two fleets from the Federation, the Klingon Empire, or the Kzinti. I'm sticking with the traditional Feds vs. Klinks. Each side splits their fleet into three groups and selects a group for each of three battles. Each battle has a progressively higher victory point threshold. In the game I played, both sides achieved this threshold in the same turn, so in the absence of anything specifying what to do in this situation I awarded "victory," however pyhrric, to the side that killed more points. The fourth battle is a base station assault with point values determined by the total of victory points earned by each side throughout the campaign.
The fleets were arranged as thus if marked with an * it means I don't have a mini and am using the 1" counter from Federation Commander:
Federation
Division I
Dreadnought*
Light Cruiser
2x Frigate
Division II
Battlecruiser*
Heavy Cruiser
2x Frigate
Division III
Command Cruiser*
Heavy Cruiser
Light Cruiser
Frigate
Klingon
Division I
C8 Dreadnought*
D7 Battlecruiser
F5 Heavy Frigate
Division II
C7 Heavy Battlecruiser*
D7 Battlecruiser
D6 Heavy Cruiser
Division III
D7C Command Battlecruiser
D7 Battlecruiser
D6 Heavy Cruiser
F5 Heavy Frigate
For the first battle I chose the third division from each fleet as the point cost the largest ship in both fleets was just under the victory threshold meaning that at least two ships would have to be destroyed to win and with the force make up, one of them had to be a heavy cruiser or better.
Deployment consisted of the Feds forming a group in the center while the Klingon's had the D6 and F5 in the center and the D7's on the outer flanks, hoping to force the Fed's to split the heavy cruisers between them.
(click image for larger pictures)
Federation Division III
Klingon Division III
Deployment
Turn one saw the Federation escorts move ahead of the heavy cruisers to screen the expected drone wave while the heavys pulled alongside each other and laid in a course for the D7C. The Klingon D7s moved slightly forward to get the Feds into the long range band of their disruptors. The D7C fired and established what would be a trend throughout the game for that vessel, no effect. The Klingons launched a wave of drones, 7 targeting the CC and 3 targeting the CA and that was the end of the turn.
In turn two the Feds accelerated towards the D7C, who realizing he was going to be in range of far too many overloaded photon torpedoes the captain decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Unfortunately this didn't leave him with many targets in his available fields of fire. The F5, with its annoyingly short ranged disruptors charged forward in an effort to close within short range of the frigate hoping to take it out as well as absorb shots that would otherwise have been used against the drones. The D6 maintained station and the D7 bolted forward in an effort to come at the Feds from behind.
The drones moved inexoribly closer to their targets, but during the firing phase, the Federation escorts destroyed two flights, concentrating all but their photon torpedoes on them. The Light Cruiser hit the D7C with both torpedoes and crippled her engines...not good for the D7C who needed to get away desperately. The F5 and Frigate engaged in a game called Mutual Assured Destruction, except the Fed frigate was saved by the fact that the Klingon rolled one less hull hit than needed to destroy it. The D7 finished the Frigate, and took a few pot shots at the CC, causing marginal damage. The Fed heavies concentrated on the D7C and took out a good number of weapons and several hull boxes, and to add insult to injury more engine damage. The Light Cruiser launched two shuttles targeting the D7C and its drones targeting a Klingon flight. The D7C fired its remaining drone and all the remaining Klingons launched suicide shuttles, all targeted at the CC. This did not seem to be going according to Klingon High Command's plan.
Turn three, the Feds moved further forward concentrating on the D7C, the D6 maintained position again as the targets were expected to move into range of overloaded disruptors, and the D7 continued its flanking move.
The first wave of seekers hit their marks, the CC was able to either destroy or weather the attack well, only taking a couple of damage points. The CA wasn't so lucky, it took several hull hits and it's photon torpedoes were gutted. The CC opened up on the D7C and it blossomed into a cloud of gas and debris. This satisfied the victory conditions, but I figured that since damage is simultaneous and doesn't occur until the end of the combat phase that the rest of the ships should get their fires in. The D7, sensing a kill fired overloaded disruptors and all phasers at the CA. She almost went down, but had two hull remaining. The CA fired at the D7, doing minimal damage. The D6 then finished off the CA, and the CL fired at the D7 almost taking it out.
So, three turns, two ships dead on each side, and a slight victory for the Federation. The Emperor will not be pleased. VP totals are: Federation: 478, Klingons: 430.
What did I learn? Well, the weapons on the F5 are annoying. You have to get into range of the Feds to use them. It should've stayed with the D6, then the ships would've most likely ignored the F5. Klingons need a lot of manuevering space. I may need to take my mat upstairs where I can spread it out to full width on the dinner table. Overloaded photons are brutal, have to time them right though. If escorts focus their phasers on the drones launched beyond their movement rating the Feds can weather a fairly substantial drone wave. Vice versa, Klingons should wait until they are with in the movement envelope of their drones. This is problematic though as this is inside the overload range for photon torpedoes. This was great fun and played quickly despite my having to go pick up the kids from school in the snow. Looking forward to the next game, hopefully I can get my wife to run the Feds next time.
20091205
Klingon Armada Arrived
I am a happy geek.
Klingon Armada arrived today just in time for my leave. They've done the grunt work of porting all the designs from Federation Commander: Klingon Border and Klingon Attack. I'm going to try my hand at converting some of the ships in the Communiques from ADB. Unfortunately that means I may need to buy additional minis...oh darn. ;)
I'll be pairing the Constitution against a D7 later and will post my observations.
Oh, and for those unfamiliar, Klingon Armada is the joint venture between Amarillo Design Bureau and Majestic Twelve Games that adapts the Starfleet Universe (SFU) to Starmada AE, my choice in star ship combat rules. I bought FedCom, but was totally pleased with it. Now I can get my Trek fix in without having to remember whether or not I allocated power to the head in Corridor A, Deck 2. (yes, yes, I know, FedCom isn't that detailed...no, seriously...put the phaser down...)
Klingon Armada arrived today just in time for my leave. They've done the grunt work of porting all the designs from Federation Commander: Klingon Border and Klingon Attack. I'm going to try my hand at converting some of the ships in the Communiques from ADB. Unfortunately that means I may need to buy additional minis...oh darn. ;)
I'll be pairing the Constitution against a D7 later and will post my observations.
Oh, and for those unfamiliar, Klingon Armada is the joint venture between Amarillo Design Bureau and Majestic Twelve Games that adapts the Starfleet Universe (SFU) to Starmada AE, my choice in star ship combat rules. I bought FedCom, but was totally pleased with it. Now I can get my Trek fix in without having to remember whether or not I allocated power to the head in Corridor A, Deck 2. (yes, yes, I know, FedCom isn't that detailed...no, seriously...put the phaser down...)
20091112
Kickin' the Tires
Posted this at the Majestic XII forums the other day, forgot to put it up here:
Having printed out the sample ships and laminated them today (having you're own laminator is a good thing) I was itching for a game. My wife was working on her homework so a solo game it was to be. I decided that since there just happens to be two ships in the sample set that just happen to be the same CRAT I'd use those. Hmm, what two ships that are supposed to be an even match do I have miniatures for...ooh ooh a D7 and a Constitution-class, the classic pair up. (queue the background fight music)
So I got the minis (a random D7 and the Constitution, laid out my FedCom hex boards (waiting for the HotzMat to arrive) on the coffee table and got down to business. The game only lasted 3 turns, The Constitution landed a solid hit in the first turn at long range, the second turn saw some manuever and a fairly even exchange of damage, and the last turn could've gone either way. The combat phase ended up destroying the D7, and had the damage rolls on the Constitution landed a few more odd numbers she'd have been destroyed. As it was, the Constitution would would be spending a good amount of time at the nearest Starbase undergoing repairs.
So, the combat mechanic worked smoothly for me. Playing solo destroyed the whole purpose of plotted movement, but it worked. Overall I can't wait to play against another person.
Having printed out the sample ships and laminated them today (having you're own laminator is a good thing) I was itching for a game. My wife was working on her homework so a solo game it was to be. I decided that since there just happens to be two ships in the sample set that just happen to be the same CRAT I'd use those. Hmm, what two ships that are supposed to be an even match do I have miniatures for...ooh ooh a D7 and a Constitution-class, the classic pair up. (queue the background fight music)
So I got the minis (a random D7 and the Constitution, laid out my FedCom hex boards (waiting for the HotzMat to arrive) on the coffee table and got down to business. The game only lasted 3 turns, The Constitution landed a solid hit in the first turn at long range, the second turn saw some manuever and a fairly even exchange of damage, and the last turn could've gone either way. The combat phase ended up destroying the D7, and had the damage rolls on the Constitution landed a few more odd numbers she'd have been destroyed. As it was, the Constitution would would be spending a good amount of time at the nearest Starbase undergoing repairs.
So, the combat mechanic worked smoothly for me. Playing solo destroyed the whole purpose of plotted movement, but it worked. Overall I can't wait to play against another person.
Oooh Shiney!
So it's not enough that I can't really paint figures really well right now, but then I go and order more starships from GZG. Of course, now I'm waiting for Brigade Models to get their casting machine woes rectified before order some ships from them. And I've been eying some of the Spartan Games starships and The Warstore will have a Black Friday sale and they carry Spartan Games minis. Then, what's the point of having a "universal starship combat toolkit" if you can't do Star Wars, so I've been pricing SW Starship Battles singles on EBay and looking at the Studio Bergstrom fighters. And of course I need the Klingon Armada and Rules Annex supplements...
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