New b5 player need advise

[Grandadflash]

Hi i'm looking to get into b5 acta but Don't know
Where to start what rule books or starter set to get.
So if anyone could help that would be great.
I live in Cardiff UK thanks

 

[wargame_insomniac]

Hi Granddad

As a new player myself I can tell you that everyone here has been most helpful with fleet and painting advice.

The current ruleset is the 2nd edition- there is a red hardbook rulebook and similar fleet book. If you find any black rulebooks they are probably 1st edition.

Mongoose do not currently produce minatures as they did not renew their B5 licence a couple of years back. So all of the figures are Out Of Production. There is no current starter set- Mongoose did sell various fleet box sets but these appear to be either hard to find or expensive. So you will probably have to pick up blisters of single ships, unless you are lucky.

Was there any fleet that you specifically wanted to play?

Cheers

James

 

[Rick]

Unfortunately, Mongoose have stopped producing the game. However, you can still find copies of them for sale occasionally - I believe Amazon have them:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Babylon-Call-Arms-Fleet-Book/dp/1905850646

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Babylon-Call-Rulebook-Mongoose-Publishing/dp/1905850638/ref=pd_sim_b_1

You'll need both the main rulebook and the fleet lists to play the game. If you can find a copy, Powers and Principalities would also be desirable, but not essential.

 

[basaint]

Check the online PDF stores for books too. Heres PnP, the last update to a Call to Arms before they stopped b5 and went to Noble Armade:

http://www.rpgshop.com/miniatures/b5-powers-and-principalities.html

Noble Knight online store for minis and Agents Of Gaming.

 

[Karhedron]

Hello,

The starter sets as others have observed have mostly sold out. If you can find independent gamng stores in your area, it might be worth giving them a call as they might have one or two lurking at the back of shelves.

Noble Knight and Agents of Gaming seem to be the only 2 places left selling new models, otherwise you will have to resort to eBay. The common ships for most races are generally not too hard to find. What you may struggle to track down are the last wave of ships that Mongoose produced as part of the "Armageddon" expansion. These include very large ships for each race that were set after the main run of the show ended (imagine Centauri, Narn etc equivelents to the Victory and Excalibur and you get the idea). These ships were only in production for a short amount of time and not many were made. The exception seems to be the Centauri as their Adira and Liati advanced ships are still available fom Noble Knight.

In terms of races, you have all the main races present in the show.

Earth Alliance (3 variants representing the different eras available)
Minbari
Centauri
Narn
Interstellar Alliance
Vorlons
Shadows
PsiCorps
Dilgar
Drakh
Vree
Gaim
Drazi
Abbai
Brakiri

The races in italics can be fielded independently or together as part of a "League of non-aligned worlds" fleet.

The balance between the races in 2nd edition is improved although some are slightly stronger than others. Do you have any idea what fleet you are looking to field?

Some races are easier to buy than others as they have been in production for longer. PsiCorps, Gaim, Drakh and Dilgar fleets will be tricky as you will probably have to scour eBay for the ships you need. Other races will be easier to find.

 

[AdrianH]

Add pak'ma'ra to that list.

Another mixed fleet, introduced in "Powers & Principalities", is the Army of Light, which represents Sheridan's alliance from season 3 onwards and includes a few ships from each of Earth, Minbari, Narn, all the League races, plus the White Star. For games set in years later than 2259, it replaces the combined League fleet.

Noble Knight have the 2nd Edition rulebook and Fleet List as well as a limited selection of miniatures. They also have the Sky Full of Stars counter set, which was designed for an earlier version of B5:ACTA so does not have all the ships, or even all the fleets, in the 2nd Edition Fleet List. Still, it will give you something to play with while you search for miniatures. And don't let the fact that they're on the other side of the Atlantic put you off - I bought some miniatures from them, which arrived pretty quickly.

 

[Grandadflash]

Thanks for the advice I just ordered the rulebook
From amazon thank you. Don't know what race to start maybe ISA
Find out when I see the book . Anyone in Wales play?

 

[Rick]

Thanks for the advice I just ordered the rulebook
From amazon thank you. Don't know what race to start maybe ISA
Find out when I see the book . Anyone in Wales play?

Hope you got the fleet lists book as well, because there is minimal information on the fleets in just the rulebook. Personally, I'd wait and see what mini's are available before committing to one fleet.

 

[Karhedron]

Thanks for the advice I just ordered the rulebook
From amazon thank you. Don't know what race to start maybe ISA
Find out when I see the book . Anyone in Wales play?

Don't forget that you will need the fleet list book too.

ISA is a good fleet but you may struggle to find models for it. The White Stars are easy enough but the rest of the fleet is harder. Most of the fleet (Whitestar gunships, carriers, fighters, Nolotar frigates, Bluestars) were only available for a year or so and hence were produced in limited quanities.

To give you an idea, Bluestars recently sell on eBay for around £15 each! :shock: That is an extortionate amount of money to pay for the smallest capital ship in the ISA list. I would see if you can source any of the models for the fleet before you set your heart on ISA.

Alas I am not based in Wales or I would cheerfully offer you a game.

 

[treknogeek]

I recommend going with Agents of Gaming as much as possible. Of course, this is because they sell Fleet Scale models which are smaller but therefore cheaper and more abundant. You can effectively get an entire fleet for the same cost as 5 or 6 of the regular sized models.

Here is their link to the Fleet action stuff. I have gotten two fleets from them myself and counters and have had good experiences.

http://www.agentsofgaming.com/opak.htm

 

[Sgt Cinder]

Yes, the fleet action scale is a good way to go to get a lot of ships for a good price...but keep in mind that not all the models that were made for the larger scale are available in fleet action-size.

Right now on ebay there are 80+ offerings for many different types of ships. If you search there, check the "worldwide" option and try these three search strings:

Babylon 5 acta
Babylon 5 a call to arms
Babylon 5 Wars

I often find different sales that don't show up under one or more of those searches - depends on how the seller words their listing.

There are also some really great-looking 3D printable (in paper) models available for some of the more common ships, but I don't remember the link to the web site...

 

[AdrianH]

The link you want is Burger's Ship Viewer:
http://www.ibisfightclub.co.uk/

Specifically, the 3-D counters are here:
http://www.ibisfightclub.co.uk/Counters

 

[basaint]

For games set in years later than 2259, it replaces the combined League fleet.

You can still use the League fleets but the ships would have to be pre-2259

 

[Karhedron]

I recommend going with Agents of Gaming as much as possible. Of course, this is because they sell Fleet Scale models which are smaller but therefore cheaper and more abundant. You can effectively get an entire fleet for the same cost as 5 or 6 of the regular sized models.

http://www.agentsofgaming.com/opak.htm

One compromise that seems to work quite well is to use the Fleet action scale models for the small, numerous escort ships like Vorchans, Olypmus's (Olympii?), Torothas etc and then use ther larger scale models for the iconic capital ships from the show.

This gives a good balance between having some of the nice big models and getting an affordable fleet together.

 

[Grandadflash]

Check the online PDF stores for books too. Heres PnP, the last update to a Call to Arms before they stopped b5 and went to Noble Armade:

http://www.rpgshop.com/miniatures/b5-powers-and-principalities.html

Noble Knight online store for minis and Agents Of Gaming.

I ordered P&P so much cheaper than anywhere else thank you.

 

[H]

if you are in North Wales, you could drive to Chester ( as long as you don't mind dirty ole England) as their is a wargaming club there, they at least used to do B5, as I have played against a couple of their members.

 

[Grandadflash]

I'm going to start with tokens before deciding a race . If I get sky full of stars tokens will that be enough or will I need the first box as well ?

 

[basaint]

Starting out, you should be fine with SfoS.

 

[Grandadflash]

Got my fleet book today But don't make much sense still waiting for the rulebook Lol

 

[Grandadflash]

Well my P&P book came this week and counters But still waiting for my rulebook