Has the end of the miniatures range killed ACTA?

[Nomad]

Stopping mini production certainly hasn't helped.

Or has it? The huge wave of final orders has shown that there's still interest - and money - in ACtA. I think the chances of a re-start of production are materially better than they were in February.

There seems to be considerable 'momentum' behind the game - lots of fleets out there, we've just started a new campaign - but without toys to sell, the retailer support won't be there.

Eventually, if production does not restart, it will dwindle to a core of die hards - like me, I play *lots* of unfashionable games - and that'll be that.

 

[Harry Lonsdale]

I think it will keep going okay even without the minis, but only if they can get counters out pretty quickly to replace them. Getting new people to play without miniatures is one thing, getting them to play with nothing is another story.

 

[Banichi]

As much as I want to be optimistic, I voted 4. The main draw for the people I got into the games was the B5 minies. But this doesn't mean I'm going to give up though, stubborn I am.

 

[Rawwar]

Well I'm stubborn too to be honest as are a good few of my friends.

Most of us got into the game because we were all big B5 fans anyway. I saw a link on another forum, followed it, saw the Narn fleet & thought I've got to have a few of those. I started spreading the word from then on & found some kindred spirits along the way.

I was angry that Mongoose stopped mini production because I wanted to get into the game and plan my purchases with more care but them's the breaks. At least I've got those shiny red ships I was after, the down side is there's probably other fleets I'd have bought too in the long run.

Will it die? I'm not too sure, I've got the minis as have a few of my friends and as we're all old B5 fans whether the game is popular means little to any of us. Without minis it might go underground but I do think there will be a hardcore of fans out there that will still play it whatever happens.

I'd like to see the rules nailed, the irony might be that as commercial interest in the system dies the rules might actually get tighter. Once people realise there is no money in keeping churning out further editions of the rule books someone might actually decide to write a definitive rules set :?:

The shame is (as has been pointed out) we can't take the game to a wider audience. I think there's one or two people I could've got into this if only it had proved more stable.

 

[Digger]

I think ACTA will survive - Like Star Fleet Battles survives! :x

 

[Locutus9956]

Sadly I think Digger has hit the nail on the head. When I said 'has ACTA been 'Killed'' I didnt mean it would cease to exist and noone would play it, thats just not going to happen, I do think its going to become one of those games that gets played from time to time rather than being active with loads of tournaments running and campaigns running at lots of gaming clubs.

I can see it turning into just another B5Wars or Starfleet Battles or Battlefleet Gothic. Fun games all of them but they just dont get played often sadly

I for my part have no intention of giving up on the game and will definitely continue playing and attending tourneys as long as they run (and I still intend to run another one at Yeovil later in the year). I've poured too much time and money into the game to just drop it and I couldnt bring myself to sell my minis. Whether I'll pay money for further suplements though really depends how the game is doing when they come out, if its still alive and kicking I'd probably buy new books but I'm not about to shell out 20 quid on a game that Im never likely to play when all's said and done

 

[JayRaider]

ACTA Sucks!!! :shock:

HAahaahah just kidding :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Early morning giddyness.

 

[mrambassador1]

I think ACTA will have a troubled future. It could do just fine but I'm afraid the solution will not please most of you. That is to abandon the idea of ACTA being a minis game and package it as a wargame (like twilight imperium etc) using counters. Go back to the 1ed boxed set giving everything needed to play, rules fleet lists and counters. They could still produce updates every year or six months or whatever it is. Wargames do perfectly well, roleplaying games do perfectly well, and minis games do perfectly well. I don't see why it wouldn't do well as a wargame without minis. The biggest obstacle is that it is now known as a minis game and could take some doing to get people to think of it as a wargame. Most gamers play all 3, and while we all have a favourite, we still cherish the other 2, perhaps its time to think of its future more as a wargame.

(Probably not what a lot of you wanted to hear, it may survive but not as you know it, without all the pretty shinyness)

 

[wkehrman]

Other: It's too early to tell.

 

[Delthos]

I hope and want it to survive and I want mini production to restart. As much as I purchased during the End of Line sale, I still don't have ever thing I want. My friends didn't get all they want. We really like this game and don't want to see it gone.

 

[Locutus9956]

I think ACTA will have a troubled future. It could do just fine but I'm afraid the solution will not please most of you. That is to abandon the idea of ACTA being a minis game and package it as a wargame (like twilight imperium etc) using counters. Go back to the 1ed boxed set giving everything needed to play, rules fleet lists and counters. They could still produce updates every year or six months or whatever it is. Wargames do perfectly well, roleplaying games do perfectly well, and minis games do perfectly well. I don't see why it wouldn't do well as a wargame without minis. The biggest obstacle is that it is now known as a minis game and could take some doing to get people to think of it as a wargame. Most gamers play all 3, and while we all have a favourite, we still cherish the other 2, perhaps its time to think of its future more as a wargame.

(Probably not what a lot of you wanted to hear, it may survive but not as you know it, without all the pretty shinyness)

The problem I see there is, to be brutally honest there are much BETTER Wargames out there for space combat in general in my eyes. What ACTA always had going for it that just kept it in the running for me was the beutiful (most of them anyway.....) Babylon 5 minis.

It COULD work as a wargame with counters only, hell I know people who have played it at our club for ages and only ever used counters or borrowed minis, I often use counters to plug gaps in my fleets where Im still finishing off a ship or just dont have the right mini to hand, but if the minis werent there at all Im not sure Id really have gotten into ACTA to begin with. Now I AM in and HAVE the minis I aint getting out while theres still folks who want to play but I just dont see alot of folks clamouring to join in without the minis to back things up.

 

[Da Boss]

best game I have played (or at least equal with Battle Fleet Gothic :wink: ) - fast enough for me to play and uncomplicated (mainly movement here ) compared to others I have tried (SFB, Battlespace, Interceptor, Full Thrust)

 

[H]

that will all change in 2009. . . ;-)

 

[Da Boss]

Indeed - looking forward to it - would be reading tonight but working till late....................

 

[No. 1 Bear]

i can see a long and slow bleeding death, maybe something like 3 years then nothing.

 

[Locutus9956]

SFB - Much better game, much more detailed but not suited to large scale battles due to speed of play. However strategy and management of your fleet plays a much bigger role than, well rolling dice.

Full Thrust - Movement system is slightly more complex to the point that you, (gasp!) have to write down a tiny little line like 2S+3 per ship per turn.... And the firing/damage resolution system in full thrust is FAR less drawn out and complex than ACTA.

BFG - Much simpler game all in all, you could argue that it is in some ways TOO simple, but personally I like it and actually prefer some parts of it to ACTA (the way torpedoes are done, Holofields vs Stealth, points vs PL, much less crit impact on the game.... and basically, much less bookeeping, oh and despite peoples fear of thing and misconception that its in any way complicated to use, I LOVE the gunnery table)

B5Wars - Feels WAY more 'true to the show' than ACTA has ever come. Sorry but thats just the way I feel about it, when I play B5Wars it FEELS like B5. When I play ACTA it still feels like B5 but not nearly as clearly. In B5Wars, you get starfuries and whitstars pivoting round and flying past backwards firing at their persuers, shadows just shrug off damage, Earth ships fly right up to point blank range and blast their adversaries apart. ACTA tries but just doesnt QUITE get there in my eyes. B5Wars big flaw though is of course it takes 14 millenia to play a game.

Interceptor and Battlespace cant say I've ever played em but have heard some good things from other folks about em.

 

[Iain McGhee]

I'd expect that the folk like me who are big B5 fans will stick with it, as long as they have several fleets already, but it'll be hard to get new players interested until mini production starts up again (hopefully). The B5 connection is the main reason I got interested in the game (tried B5W but didn't like the ridiculous length of time it could take to play and I wasn't playing any systems at all when Fleet Action appeared).

 

[Clanger]

I liked the old FASA Renegade Legion Interceptor game with the damage templates and internal damage wire diagram. That game worked very well with facing and speed and giving missiles turns and speeds. I loved the box counters .

FASA when it was about made excellent games (Battletech, Renegade Legion, Star Trek, Shadow Run).

 

[Da Boss]

Ah its just the movement that gets me confused - left and right - always ended up facign the wrong direction or worse off the table...........

I prefered Centurion to Interceptor as said all those FSA games were excellent ......

trying to avoid spending a fortune of the new Clasic Battletech - it looks tempting oh yes very tempting

 

[l33tpenguin]

I'm kinda.. 'meh' as to whether the game dies out or not. Partly because I've only had a handful of chances to play. But also because I am happy owning a little fleet of Earth Alliance ships that will be hand painted and make me happy arranged in my gaming room on their own little shelf, next to my Macross models and Lego Star Wars stuff.