Star Trek film- wargaming
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Clanger
Mongoose
There are some old games which might wet your cravings. The FASA Star Trek Combat Game or Starfleet Battles.
That is until some thing official comes out. As for this franchise I can see long drawn out contract negotiations to whom ever takes it on. For a little while before we see anything new from any company.
That is until some thing official comes out. As for this franchise I can see long drawn out contract negotiations to whom ever takes it on. For a little while before we see anything new from any company.
Joe_Dracos
Mongoose
Federation commander is okay, but not great....
I can actually neam a few of those classes cause I recognize them from the game.
The USS Kelvin (the ship in the begining) is a pre-refit Akula class destroyer.
The Enterprise is a Pre-Refit Command Cruiser (Duh)
There is a ship that flys in front of the enterprize as they prepare to head to Vulcan, that is a Pre-Refit Mars class Battleship.
There was also a Light Cruiser mixed in there, but other then that I didn't get too good a look at the other ships.
I can actually neam a few of those classes cause I recognize them from the game.
The USS Kelvin (the ship in the begining) is a pre-refit Akula class destroyer.
The Enterprise is a Pre-Refit Command Cruiser (Duh)
There is a ship that flys in front of the enterprize as they prepare to head to Vulcan, that is a Pre-Refit Mars class Battleship.
There was also a Light Cruiser mixed in there, but other then that I didn't get too good a look at the other ships.
l33tpenguin
Mongoose
I never really cared for Star Trek ships. They just seem... well, unimpressive. A bunch of disks with engines. They don't look made for combat.
The new movie was pretty awesome, though...
2 hours for a battle between two ships? Thats just... ugh. Boring? A 10-20 minute match, sure. 2 hours? Even B5Wars wasn't that slow!
The new movie was pretty awesome, though...
2 hours for a battle between two ships? Thats just... ugh. Boring? A 10-20 minute match, sure. 2 hours? Even B5Wars wasn't that slow!
Clanger said:
The old FASA game was very good but in a fit of juvenile lunacy I unfortunately sold my rule set a long time ago.
Have avoided SFB, only beceause I never thought I was strong enough to lift the complete set of manuals.
Also agree on the design aspects of the ships . Did buy a few from Amerillo a year or so ago and was very disappointed both in the overall quality of the sculpts and in their moulding.
I was a Starfleet Battles nerd for about 8 years. I had every book, mag, subset, revisions etc. The rules alone (which are printed rather tiny 2 columns per page) took up 2 Very large binders alone. Plus sheets. Plus ship charts, scenario's etc etc. Its a lot of trees there. Plus there's a lot of rule 14.2.4.5.a things.
If you like extremly detailed ship combat its fun. The classic Klingon D7 versus Fed cruiser scenario takes about an hour and a half once you have all rules down pat. Then it just keeps getting more and more complicated.
I was a true believer for it, but eventually it just got to be too much for all my friends. At the end it was me and a bunch of very greasy gamers who I didn't really like that much playing. I think I sold all my books etc for $200 bucks at the end.
Trying to run fleets of 10 ships per side was a nightmare, so you need a lot of people to make it work.
It 'can' be a lot of fun, and if you like reading and re-reading rules and losing/winning because someone forgot energy allocation rule 23.4.5.6b you'll have a blast!
If you like extremly detailed ship combat its fun. The classic Klingon D7 versus Fed cruiser scenario takes about an hour and a half once you have all rules down pat. Then it just keeps getting more and more complicated.
I was a true believer for it, but eventually it just got to be too much for all my friends. At the end it was me and a bunch of very greasy gamers who I didn't really like that much playing. I think I sold all my books etc for $200 bucks at the end.
Trying to run fleets of 10 ships per side was a nightmare, so you need a lot of people to make it work.
It 'can' be a lot of fun, and if you like reading and re-reading rules and losing/winning because someone forgot energy allocation rule 23.4.5.6b you'll have a blast!
Dihenydd said:
Ooh, you make it sound so tempting :wink:
As I get older I find that I still like detailed games, but only for small numbers of figs/ships etc (but this sounds too heavy by far).
For spaceship combat I prefer quicker games. That seems to be the concensus here regarding Starfleet Battles.
I believe some people have done mods for Star Trek using ACTA rules, so if you want to play Star Trek, you could try these.
sidewinder
Mongoose
I saw one of the trek mods on here once. trek ships were too weak for my taste. And Federation commander is a lot more streamlined then starfleet battle was. For one there is no crew to keep track of. And you spend power as you fire weapons and stuff. The only thing you pay for ahead of time was your initial speed.
Try to remember what SFB is gentlemen. It is not a game designed in the era of the short game. For me, one of the things I like about SFB over ACTA is that the game last a bit longer. It opens up more maneuver and tactics than ACTA. That said, some of the rules are just down right unnecessary, and in some regards just plain silly. But it is a quality game that has been around for over 30 years.
Dave
Dave
Oh absolutely. I loved playing it for a long time or I wouldn't have gathered all those parts/rules/counters/sheets! Great scenario's and lots of interesting backstory to read. I especially like it b/c it was never actually a sanctioned game (although that might have changed now). Hence you read a lot about Starfleet and Klingon but will never ever here Kirk or Spock etc. I believe it had to do with the licensing. They couldn't get the the TV show, but were able to get the 'concepts' from someone other than Paramount, I remember once, but now forget in my dotage.
The speed/move counter system is brilliant. The ship speed versus turn radius is great too. The having to decide on energy before the turn starts is also great as it adds surprise and the chance to out-think your enemy instead of just reacting phase by phase. I especially liked the versions where you had to map your moves as well but were allowed to fire and do other actions on your action phases. The campaign game is epic in scale.
There's a lot to be said for this game as can be seen in the loyalty of its fans. I just found it hard to initiate new players because of the sheer volume of the rules. And even after playing for so long I would occasionally forget a rule or exactly how one speedcharges a plasma R torpedo etc. I guess its part of the appeal, if you know the rules better, you can do things the other guy can't. I suppose it reflects real battles, a veteran captain can do things a commander can't.
If you stick to the Commander level games for awhile you can still get a lot of enjoyment without the burden of Full Captain rules.
Dang, now I almost wish I hadn't sold it again.
The speed/move counter system is brilliant. The ship speed versus turn radius is great too. The having to decide on energy before the turn starts is also great as it adds surprise and the chance to out-think your enemy instead of just reacting phase by phase. I especially liked the versions where you had to map your moves as well but were allowed to fire and do other actions on your action phases. The campaign game is epic in scale.
There's a lot to be said for this game as can be seen in the loyalty of its fans. I just found it hard to initiate new players because of the sheer volume of the rules. And even after playing for so long I would occasionally forget a rule or exactly how one speedcharges a plasma R torpedo etc. I guess its part of the appeal, if you know the rules better, you can do things the other guy can't. I suppose it reflects real battles, a veteran captain can do things a commander can't.
If you stick to the Commander level games for awhile you can still get a lot of enjoyment without the burden of Full Captain rules.
Dang, now I almost wish I hadn't sold it again.
Picked up a copy of the captain's rulebook going cheap.
Damn, I see what you mean. It's bigger than of one of GW's big printed rulebooks, and:
a) It's ALL rules - no background section, painting, hell, even the ship stats and scenarios are in another book
b) It's in a card binder not a hardcover book
Could use it to beat tribbles to death....
Don't get me wrong, some things I like. As with B5Wars, system- and facing-specific damage feels right. It takes the ACTA criticals issue to the extreme - nearly every hit takes out something important and you can't fix them*.
Since there is granularity to the damage model**, though, you don't get the main complaint about generic 'critical hit tables' - where the opening shot from a patrol boat takes out a superdreadnought's entire port armament.
From the starboard side.
That part I like, it's just the power allocation and ECM (much like B5Wars) that puts me off - I want a battle with starships, not spreadsheets. Granted the game design concept is 1-2 ships in the fight, compared to the half-dozen in ACTA, so maybe I'm just not of the mindset for it.
* That aspect of criticals in ACTA compared to BFG I never minded.
"someone blew off the main gun with a thermonuclear missile!"
"Oh, no, wait, it's fixed."
"Damn, engineering's getting good these days!"
never seemed to make sense....
** I always wondered if that might help; if an omega had, for example, two seperate forward heavy lasers as line items with half the power each, a 'lose one weapons system' critical is much less of a cause for swearing. Would take a lot of reworking, though. Maybe in 3rd ed, eh?
Damn, I see what you mean. It's bigger than of one of GW's big printed rulebooks, and:
a) It's ALL rules - no background section, painting, hell, even the ship stats and scenarios are in another book
b) It's in a card binder not a hardcover book
Could use it to beat tribbles to death....
Don't get me wrong, some things I like. As with B5Wars, system- and facing-specific damage feels right. It takes the ACTA criticals issue to the extreme - nearly every hit takes out something important and you can't fix them*.
Since there is granularity to the damage model**, though, you don't get the main complaint about generic 'critical hit tables' - where the opening shot from a patrol boat takes out a superdreadnought's entire port armament.
From the starboard side.
That part I like, it's just the power allocation and ECM (much like B5Wars) that puts me off - I want a battle with starships, not spreadsheets. Granted the game design concept is 1-2 ships in the fight, compared to the half-dozen in ACTA, so maybe I'm just not of the mindset for it.
* That aspect of criticals in ACTA compared to BFG I never minded.
"someone blew off the main gun with a thermonuclear missile!"
"Oh, no, wait, it's fixed."
"Damn, engineering's getting good these days!"
never seemed to make sense....
** I always wondered if that might help; if an omega had, for example, two seperate forward heavy lasers as line items with half the power each, a 'lose one weapons system' critical is much less of a cause for swearing. Would take a lot of reworking, though. Maybe in 3rd ed, eh?
