A quick play session of Starmada

As I wrote in the previous post, I got to play some Starmada: Admiralty Edition. As the authors state, Starmada is like a big toolbox with a set of core of rules and a lot of options. At this point I'm using only the basic rules that take 24 pages of the main rule book, with the addition of the "Sequential Movement" option (essentially removing the secret plotting of move orders) in order to simplify solo play. I also picked up some ideas found in the Starmada forum: giving a material advantage to my opposition, and using cards to randomly select the next ship to move for each side. I used the sample ship data cards that you can download from the Majestic 12 Games site (check the stuff.zip file.)

In this playtest battle, I used a single Volhard-class cruiser and two Anval-class frigates against a similar opposing force, with the addition of a Swiftsure-class destroyer (a force roughly 1/3 stronger than mine.) The first side to obtain at least 130 victory points wins. Therefore, I decided that I would try to destroy one enemy frigate and one destroyer, while the opposing forces would concentrate on taking down my cruiser. On the first turn, the ships maneuvered around towards the intended targets but no ship was in range for combat.

On the second turn, things became interesting. The two enemy frigates moved into close range of my cruiser, causing some damage. However, both were decimated by the cruiser's missiles and railguns. My two frigates lined up against the enemy destroyer and fired all of their railguns, causing it to blow up. However, since combat is simultaneous, the destroyer managed to hit my cruiser and one of my frigates. Lastly, the enemy cruiser fired a barrage of long range missiles against one of my frigates, nearly destroying it.

The destruction of two frigates and the destroyer gave me 200 points, resulting in a victory at the end of the second game turn. This match made me aware of the importance of shields. Even at close range, shields can avoid a lot of damage as they allow "saving throws" for each hit. Positioning is also very important. For instance, the Anval-class frigates have powerful engines but they should be used to move around and pick targets carefully.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the basic Starmada game. The rules are consistent and easy to grasp. The combat rules do call for a lot of rolls (something that seems scheduled to change in the next edition) and I can see how they might slow down larger battles, especially when a ship chooses to fire at multiple targets. Ship construction seems very solid although, as the authors put it, "the help of a sturdy calculator will be invaluable." One point to be aware of is that a data card is necessary for each ship in play, as there are many stats to be tracked during the game. If you use a tablet or laptop while gaming, a spreadsheet might replace these; otherwise you might need to print these sheets before each game.

Cheap space battle mat

My first project in this vacation was to make a simple hex-gridded board to play the starship battle games that I have bought during the last year. By the way, the board was inspired by a post I saw in another blog but now I just can't find the link to give proper credit. In that case, the author used a series of circles to draw the hexagons. Here, I used two sets of diagonal lines drawn with a ruler and a 60-degree square on a sheet of black cardstock. The dots were painted with a correction fluid pen.

It took me an afternoon (around five hours) to get the mat done, with 29x18 hexagons (about 1" between flats.) The mat is far from perfect but it cost very little to make, and the hexagons look regular enough to play. Besides, printing a poster-sized battle mat like this would cost around US$40 from the print shops I know (yes, print-on-demand services are really expensive around here.)

I'll start my playtests with Starmada: Admiralty Edition as I found out that a new edition is about to be released and it feels bad to think that I haven't even tried the current one. Right now I've read the basic rules and I'm thinking of a way to play solo while keeping the movement orders mechanics.

Vacation!

I'm finally on vacation for a few days. I didn't really make any plans as my job has a habit of ruining them (right now I'm still tying some loose ends before I can actually relax.) Anyway, let's see if I can get some gaming / papercraft / painting done.

Who cares about the "rebooted" D&D

Ok, Dungeons and Dragons is the "forefather" of RPGs and lots of fun can be had with its many editions. I agree that 4th edition might work as a miniature game / dungeon hack game -- a much narrower scope than its predecessors, even if it was done by design. It might even work as a solo game, after all, everything is so well determined that you can easily randomize some encounters and have fun.

However, when I read about the announcement of yet another "reboot" of Dungeons and Dragons, this time allegedly with "input from the players" my first thought was, "don't reboot it, just shut it down for good." I mean, come on Wizards, you already have product lines that perfectly fit the needs of showing increasing sales figures to shareholders. The market of RPG books is a niche one that doesn't grow really fast. To achieve that with RPG books, you have to continuously release new, "rebooted" editions to try and force your player base to buy them all over again. That is, until you burn out your audience or maybe the whole market. Keep your boardgames and novels and maybe license the IP to videogame companies, rather than trying to emulate videogames with pen and paper.

Edit: found this awesome quote, from page 7 of the Player's Handbook (2008): "This is the 4th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Game ... It builds on what has gone before, and firmly establishes D&D for the next decade of play." Yeah, right.

Emergency Dispatch

I've been wondering about the fact that miniature games don't have to be miniature wargames. However, there doesn't seem to be a lot of examples around. Recently I played a 2008 game called Emergency 3, where you are an emergency dispatcher who must send rescue and police units to help people in car accidents, fires and crimes.

The game was heavily criticized for the high amount of micromanagement necessary to play. I figure part of this was due to it being a computer game, so players expected some autonomous AI from the cops, firefighters and medics. This made me think of using Chain Reaction 3.0 to add emergency teams and maybe even allow playing some random emergency scenarios on the tabletop. Bear in mind that I haven't tested these yet:

The Lists
I based the firefighters and EMT lists on the Police list. All of them are unarmed:
2 - 3: Crew commander / emergency physician (rep 5)
4 - 5: Veteran firefighter / paramedic (rep 5)
6 - 9: Seasoned firefighter / EMT (rep 4)
10 - 12: Rookie firefighter / EMT (rep 3)

For civilians, the list is simpler: just roll one die, on a 1-2 they are rep 3, otherwise rep 2.

Changes in the Flock of Seagulls Test
A civilian who passes 0d6 in a Flock of Seagulls test will hunker down instead of retiring.

Emergency medical treatment
All firefighters and EMT can rally other figures, and both can carry out of the fight figures to a safer place. All EMT may perform a challenge to bring an out of the fight character back to consciousness (stunned.) Paramedics and Emergency Physicians may perform a challenge to stabilize characters that seemed obviously dead. On a success, they count as in critical condition and cannot be further improved during the mission. Otherwise they are confirmed dead.

Fire
Sources of fire must be marked on the table as 2"x2" patches and they have a rep ranging from 1 (small flames) to 6 (raging inferno.) Civilians make the Flock of Seagulls test when they first see a source of fire of rep 3 or greater. A character who needs to approach or move close (2") to a source of fire with a rep equal to or higher than theirs must make a reaction test. Pass 2d6 = carry on; Pass 1d6 = halt; Pass 0d6 = duck back.

Characters who pass through a source of fire or finish their move within 2" of it suffer a ranged attack. The target rating and impact are equal to the rep of the fire source - 2 (minimum of 1.)

Sources of fire are extinguished by using a fire hose or fire extinguisher. Roll a number of dice equal to the character's rep (+1 if using a fire hose.) Non-firefighter characters roll one less die. You need to accumulate a number of successes equal to the fire's rep to reduce it to one rep below. So to extinguish a rep 3 fire you must first obtain 3 successes, then another 2, then another one success. You can reduce the rep of a source of fire by at most two levels on a single turn, even if multiple characters are trying to extinguish it.

If a source of fire is not being extinguished, there is a chance it will grow in intensity. Roll one die. On a result equal to or less than the rep of the fire, increase its rep. However, fires will only increase rep above 4 if there are ate least two other patches of fire within 2". If the source of fire does not increase its rep, roll another die. On a 1-4 it will spread, creating another patch of fire in the general direction: 1 = north, 2 = east, 3 = south, 4 = west.

Smoke
A closed room with at least one rep 3 (or greater) source of fire will start to be filled with smoke. A character without proper equipment must make a reaction test before acting: pass 2d6 = carry on; pass 1d6 = carry on; pass 0d6 = make a recover from knockdown test, worst result is out of the fight.