Full Thrust Cross Dimensions Trial Game

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.

Second FUBAR Game

Played a second game to teach the boys today. Once my netbook stops acting stupid or I can get on a real computer I'll post the report. I think the pictures are actually worse this time.  Need to sit down and play with the settings some more with the new camera.  I wish the old one hadn't gotten flaky, I really liked the optics on it.  Anywho, the kids took the game quickly and I see it becoming a staple in our gaming line up.

On an unrelated note, I did partake in the OGRE Designer's Edition Kickstarter project, so sometime in November I'll be the proud owner of a freakin' huge box with about 20 pounds of game in it.  I think the kids will like that one too, they don't have to wait on me to paint stuff.

FUBAR Sci-Fi With My 15mm Toys

So, I bought Tomorrow's War a while back and I've played one trial game with it. While it has a lot of neat ideas, I don't see myself playing it with the kids. Maybe with some other adult gamers after a couple demos or practice game, maybe solo, but not with the kids. Not yet at least.

Fast forward to this past weekend. A friend of mine with a penchant for using frogs as his online persona asked me to review a VSF supplement he was doing for FUBAR. Now, on and off he had been recommending FUBAR to me for use with my sci-fi collection as I had been becoming upset about CAV and looking for a replacement. I read the base rules over it didn't grab me.  For some reason though when I was looking at it this weekend from a troubleshooting point of view I started to see lots of potential here, especially for my 15mm stuff since TW seemed a bit dense. So I figured what the heck on Sunday night and threw some terrain down and got my Felids and bugs out. First time through I screwed up turn sequencing as I had misread the activation section. That took about 15 minutes with two units per side (the bugs got a chance to respawn, Felids had to survive six turns before being air lifted out). Second game took about 30 minutes with me following the rules. Still not entirely sure that I was handling suppression right, but seems I was after reading through the Forge of War forums. I would post  a pic, but my camera crapped out again before I started.

My overall impression is that it's a very basic system that is quite easy to modify to fit your needs in a game. I think units might come out a bit "samey," but that's ok for the grunts I think. Need to try it with vehicles next time I think and see how they work, but I think I may need to make some alterations of my own before I'm totally happy with it, primarily in further differentiation of weapon types. Most importantly I enjoyed playing it.  It should be easy to teach them the rules, which is another plus in my book. If you're looking for an all encompassing tome of rules +5 this isn't the ruleset you're looking for. Core rules print on one letter-sized page (though apparently there's a looming shift to a two-page format without even adjusting the cost of the rules). Different supplements exist for various settings/genres, though while there is a medieval set I didn't see anything specifically geared towards fantasy. Supplements are generally one or two pages following the same format as the core rules. If you're looking for something that is easy to modify and leaves a lot up to your creative juices regarding how you play with your toys then this is right up your alley. I also get the feeling that this is the game you want to play if you have 30 minutes or an hour and want to get a quick game in.

 My recommendation is that if you haven't looked at FUBAR, go download it, grab those 40k figures you have sitting around and give it a shot. Worst case scenario you hate it and have only printed one or two pages, though I doubt this will be the case.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

The upside is that I've found a fellow wargamer at work. The part I'm not entirely certain about is that it looks like I'll be getting back into 40k. I don't think it'll be in a big way. I still don't really like GW as a company. Not out of any kind of hatred for them trying to make money, but the way they go about it. That and their assumption that they own the wargaming hobby. Anyway, for the time being I'll be looking for used figures on eBay. Haven't fully decided which forces, but right now I'm thinking Kult of Speed Orks or Tau. I always thought the Tau looked cool and Orks for the fun of it. The interesting part is that I haven't played since 4th Ed and it sounds like there were several changes from 4th to 5th as well as new Codices. If nothing else, it'll be good to get some games in.

The other upside is that I can use the figures for Tomorrow's War, which according to UPS will be on my doorstep in five days.