Cost to get started?

[PhoenixAndy]

I think the title says it all really.

What sort of collection would I need to build up to start being able to play?

Also, as this is almost certainly different, how much would I need to start being competitive?

 

[Tank]

Depends on what type of games you want to play, the Fleet boxes are good value for what you get but may not provide you with everything you want.

I'd probably suggest deciding which fleet you want to start with and building a 5 point raid fleet with them.

 

[PhoenixAndy]

I'd probably suggest deciding which fleet you want to start with and building a 5 point raid fleet with them.

A what? :?

 

[Epaminondas]

Buy the Sky Full of Stars box set

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=510&qsSeries=28

~$50

Includes the basic rules, and counters for most of the races including fighters. (not dilgar or drakh)

Everything you need to play, but dice!

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Figure out what fleet attracts you the most. Then buy a fleet box if it looks good for you; most fleet boxes are excellent for the respective race.

~$100

Supplement with a few extra individual ships you like, and maybe more fighters if you need them.

~$50

Buy Sky of Stars (all factions), Armageddon if EA: $70. Improved ship stats, rules improvements, new lists for everybody. Might want to wait for the new edition coming out sometime next year; while the box set is a great deal with the counters, and thus recommended; the changes in these two books aren't huge; the big ones are well known on the web.

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Recommendation: buy the box set, play a few games and then decide if you want to buy minis and add ons.

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5 point raid refers to the game mechanism for picking fleets. Unlike most other game systems where you pick a unit with a certain point value; Call to Arms (CTA) has priority levels... Patrol, Skirmish, Raid, Battle, War, and Armageddon. All ships at one priority level are nominally equal to all other ships at the same level, no points.

5 point raid means the default level is raid, and you have 5 ships points to buy ships with. Ships that are above raid level cost more then the ships at the raid level; and ships smaller then raid are cheaper.

For example, the Earth Allaince has Omegas as battle, novas as raid and oracles as skirmish. A 5 point raid force could contain the following:
- 2 Omega (4 points), 1 nova (1 point)
- 5 nova (5 points)
- 1 Omega, 2 nova, 2 oracles

and so on.

Its a bit wierd when you come from a point buy system; and frankly I think point buy is more balanced then priority level. Priority level does limit your ability to take das uber ship of doom in a low level game... but you lose granularity between ships. Not all ships at a given priority level are equal; but the system forces then to be so.

For example, a Command Omega is NOT worth the same as a Sharlin!

 

[Burger]

To play: only the revised box set is absolutely essential. It come swith counters for most ships, you can play it right out the box.

Sky Full Of Stars is highly recommended, lots of updates etc and much larger fleet lists.

To be competitive you'll need Armageddon too, since most tournaments will use it from now on.

All of the above can be played using counters, minis are not essential. But if you do want minis, the cost varies depending on the fleet. Shadows or Vorlons, are pretty much good from the fleet box (approx £50). Others you'll want to boost with the reinforcements box (approx £30) and probably some extras.

 

[Alexb83]

I bought what I considered a whole fleet, rulebooks etc. a few months ago at the SST open day.

SFOS
Revised Box Set
Minbari Fleet (Still haven't got my Tinashis!!!!)
Minbari Reinforcements

130 sterling pounds

Afterwards I bought Armageddon and some extra Nials to bolster the fleet (an extra 6 bases) I think this came to an additional 25 or so factoring in postage etc.

 

[Locutus9956]

revised box set: £30. Contains the basic rules and enough counters to start playing just about any fleet.

To get fully up to date on the rules you will also need Sky Full of Stars and Armagaeddon £40 (Highly recommended as some of the rules changes are really quite important and theres ALOT of changes to the fleets)

Thats all you need to get you fully up to date on rules and be able to play against anyone (using counters).

In miniatures terms:

Fleet Box £55 should be plenty to get started and competitive with in most cases though depending on your preferences you might want to pick a few ships seperately instead/as well.

My suggestion would be buy the revised box set (and the update books too I would suggest though these are not strictly needed, Id say its a good idea to get into the habbit of using these rules from the start and you can also try out the full fleet lists this way) and play some games using counters for a while, then once you and any mates you get into the game have an idea of which fleets you like the most and what ships you want to use, you can go out and buy the Minis you actually want

 

[lastbesthope]

Buy the Sky Full of Stars box set

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=510&qsSeries=28

~$50

Actually that's the Revised Edition box set.

Get that and play with the rules and counters therein until you know what fleets you want, then buy the minis for those.

However before you make your final choices you should consider getting:

Sky Full of Stars ($40/£25)

This expands the Fleet lists and adds many new rules. There is a SFOS counter set, but it is basically the same counters as in the Revised Box set plus 4 more sheets of counters for ships in SFOS.

Once you have that, the next major rules update is Armageddon ($25/£15) which adds some rules FAQ a few new ships and pretty much replaces the EA, Vorlon and Shadow fleets.

Other than that there are 3 supplements, all of which require youto have SFOS:

Earth Minbari War
The Drakh Fleet Book
The Dilgar Imperium

Each of these are independent, you can use them seperately or even not at all.

LBH

 

[PhoenixAndy]

So, if I'm understanding correctly, the Revised aCtA set gives enough counters to give most of the fleets a good workout, and can be augmented easily with a couple of the teh otehr sets that provide rules and/or counters.

The minis, while very pretty, essentially don't add anything to the game played with counters, aside from any ships that may not be available as counters, besides the fact that they look a lot cooler, yes?

What are people's opinions on playing with just counters, just minis, or combining both?

 

[H]

quite a lot of people play with counters, I have done so when I can't be bothere carting a fleet around, and it doesn't detract from the game, it's still the game that matters, minis can in fact be a hinderance some times (some of my drakh always fall over for example). their is a group in the North east somewhere that always use counters, and they still play, so it's fine. whats important is that you enjoy the game, whether you use a pea, or a Warlock model, the stats and tactics are the same, so enjoy!