Crossover Wars

One of the attractions of starship combat games is the fact that the ship design rules (if the game has them) allow players to depart from the stock models to come up with their own creations or adapt vessels from other works.  For example, I remember my friends playing Starfleet Battles (the Star Trek franchise), duking it out with homemade record sheets depicting the Battlestar Galactica and a Cylon Baseship!

 

Indeed, the original Starfleet Wars rulebook and the new Galactic Knights rules both note the game can be played with other lines of miniatures.  And most other rulesets--even if they don't spell it out--are adaptable to other minis lines or settings.  No other space minis game is as well known for this as Full Thrust.  This game has been out for seventeen years (and out of print for awhile, too), and thanks to all the rules being available online--for free!--FT has developed a much more widespread following than the admittedly obscure games by Superior Models and Monday Knight Productions.  I've never played Full Thrust, but I have read the rules and a few battle reports from those who have played it.  It seems like an enjoyable game, and if I can find someone around here who plays, I'd love to get a game going.

I wouldn't even have to worry about finding suitable miniatures.  Thanks to Dean over at Starship Combat News, I can obtain Full Thrust record sheets for my Galactic Knights/Starfleet Wars ships:

• Aquarians
• Avarians
• Carnivorans
• Entomalians
• Terrans

Dean offers a brief background for each race and a design philosophy for each fleet.  You won't find stats for every model in these fleets--no transports, star bombers or armored pursuit ships--but you will get designs ranging from destroyers on up to super galactic dreadnoughts.  Dean even has two versions of the SGDNs: one describing only the weapons on the top of the mini, and the other listing all weapons, dorsal and ventral.  He also describes fighters in Full Thrust terms. 

Unfortunately, there seems to be a shortage of Full Thrust players here in the Austin-San Antonio area.  If I ever do find an opponent, though, I will already have a fleet (or five) ready.