5150: Fleet Commander AAR

Ed the THW Guy was kind enough to send me a copy of the newest game in his sci-fi universe, 5150: Fleet Commander. This game is at a little higher level of abstraction than the rules that I co-wrote with him, 5150: Star Navy, so I decided to run a largish fleet battle. With just four stats per ship (and only one stat that changes), it was easy to get a number of ships on the board.

My Star Navy had a capital ship squadron (Dreadnought and two Carriers) and two escort squads (Light Cruiser and two Destroyers, and Destroyer and two Frigates). The Hishen had their own capital squad (Planetary Conquest Ship and a pair of Motherships) and a couple of escort groups (each with a Slaver and two Patrollers).

The two sides launched fighters and missiles, and opened fire (all taken care of with one combat roll per ship). The Star Navy damaged one of the carriers on the first volley, but lost one of its frigates as the Hishen retaliated.

Other human vessels also took damage (meaning they could not return fire during the Hishen turn or initiate fire on their next turn).

With each vessel targeting its equivalent on the other side, the big ships were not doing much damage to each other. The smaller craft, on the other hand, quickly eliminated one another. Most of the smaller ships, however, made their rolls to remain in the battle, with just one human ship, the light cruiser, fleeing the battle after taking damage. All the rest stayed until they were destroyed.

Still, even after losing ships, neither side's commander wanted to leave the battle. C-beams glittered as the two fleets continued to exchange fire, with more escorts evaporating each turn. The large vessels, however, were hard to damage--and they could all take a lot of it.

Finally, the Star Navy carrier attacks got through to their opposite numbers. First one Hishen mothership erupted, then the other one turned into a rapidly expanding debris cloud.

With most of their fleet gone, the Hishen commander still refused to flee, and the Star Navy's ships were able to concentrate most of their firepower on the alien flagship. Only a few shots got through to do damage, but they were enough to send the planetary conquest ship into damage control mode--meaning its crew was too busy to shoot at the Star Navy.

Finally, a couple of shots made it through to demolish the remainder of the defenseless flagship's hull, destroying the final Hishen starship.

The Hishen fleet was completely wiped out, while the Star Navy lost two destroyers and two frigates (although severely damaged, the light cruiser is now fully repaired and ready for its next fight). It was a fun game, and it took me around an hour-and-a-half to play. Thanks, Ed!

High rise for 28mm

As I started to throw away the packaging for a new TV soundbar, I looked over the pieces to see if anything was usable for terrain or buildings for my miniatures gaming. I didn't think so until I set one of the styrofoam pieces on its edge. That's when I realized that I had the makings of a modern or futuristic high rise building for 28 mm figures! Great. Because I'm so good about finishing gaming projects.

This will be a representational model, not a diorama, so I'm not worried about fitting in stairs or being too picky about measuring movement. Instead of determining movement based on a figure's speed, I'll adjudicate it based on location and how long it takes to get there--so maybe one activation to get from one side of a level to the other, but two actions to move between floors. And yes, I consider that shaft to be open to all the levels, so you can have line of sight (and therefore shooting!) between characters on different levels. Now let's see if I ever follow through on this.

Loot from MillenniumCon

As always, part of the fun of going to a game convention is getting stuff: Buying new products, receiving prizes for playing in games, and scoring bargains at the flea market. MillenniumCon was no different:

For playing an introductory game of Frostgrave, I received these playing aids, a couple of figures, and some terrain. More importantly, I met some local players who have a weekly game at Dragon's Lair:

From a vendor with tables stacked high with old Citadel Minis, I tracked down some additions to my Oldhammer skellies and some Halfling mercenaries to join my Bretonnians:

 

At Ed the THW Guy's table, I bought a couple of rules to try out, and for inspiration in my own designs:

At the flea market on Sunday, I couldn't resist this Star Wars diecast spaceship for one buck:

Also at the flea market, I found some more Bretonnians for my Oldhammer project, as well as Kings of War (and other games):

The same guy also had some movement trays, templates, and tokens:

Finally, another flea market vendor had some Warhammer 5th edition sourcebooks, which will provide inspiration:

Lots to keep me busy over the next few months.

A few of my favorite posts

With a few of my favorite starships.

I started this blog because I wanted to see more material about miniature starship gaming. I kept doing it (off-and-on) because I enjoy it. I'm obviously pretty happy with what I post to Super Galactic Dreadnought. Still, there are some posts that I'm especially proud of:

Interview with Starfleet Wars sculptor Scott R. Spicer

In order to learn more about the game and the minis I enjoy, in 2011 I emailed Scott Spicer, who worked with his father Ron Spicer to sculpt the Starfleet Wars models for Superior Models. Scott graciously responded with an essay about the creation of those fantastic sculpts that gave new insight into this line of miniatures.

In-depth examination of Starfleet Wars rules

I took a multi-part, up-close look at the rules that I had originally derided as too complicated. Turns out the game play is pretty elegant, and this review inspired me to run and play several games of Starfleet Wars, including a short-lived campaign.

Release of 5150: Star Navy rulebook

My very own  published starship combat rules, co-authored with Ed Teixeira of Two Hour Wargames. The Star Navy ruleset was the result of playtesting, revision, and more playtesting. I had a blast developing this game with Ed, and I'm really happy with how it came out. 

Running Holmes Basic D&D

I got to play the version of the game that introduced me to roleplaying--Dungeons & Dragons. I DM'd for a group of players who hadn't sat down for some good old-fashioned dungeon crawling for years--or even decades. I got to create and run my very own attempt at a megadungeon. Although it was only a few sessions, it was fun while it lasted.

Those are some of my favorites. Readers, what about you? Any posts on SGDN that really stood out for you?

A swarm of Gnats

It's been a long time since I worked on spaceship minis, but I finished painting up 30 Gnat starfighters I got from Monday Knight Productions some time ago.

These attack craft will fill out the fighter compliment of my Entomalian fleet for Galactic Knights, Starfleet Wars, Star Navy, and other spaceship games.

These are light fighters, a bit smaller than the Mosquito heavy fighters also used by the insectoid Entomalians. Gnat and Mosquito, of course, are the recognition names assigned to these craft by Terran Transsolar Federation Naval Intelligence. I'm not sure how the Entomalians refer to them.

Interestingly, in Galactic Knights, the Gnat starfighters are kamikaze vessels that destroy themselves as they crash into enemy starships. Guess it's easy for the Bugs to just hatch more pilots.

It's nice to work on spaceships for a change. I'll have to do this more often. I don't need to buy any more starships; I still have some that are unpainted. Should keep me busy.

Planetary engineering

It's been a long time since I've mentioned anything space-related on this blog.  Just to show you that I haven't abandoned the genre completely, here's another planet for use in my starship battles.

This world is made from a 12-inch Styrofoam hemisphere from a craft store.  I coated it in white glue to protect it from aerosols which can dissolve the material, then lightly applied about four different colors in a mottled pattern.

This massive object provides takes up a lot of room on the gaming table and can shelter even the largest vessels, like this Victory-class super galactic dreadnought of the Terran Transsolar Federation Navy.

It's noticeably larger than my other planet model, but too small to represent a gas giant at this scale.  Instead, it's a larger (but less dense) Earth-type world with a thicker atmosphere, no oceans, and lots of plant life.  I plan on using both of these planets, along with an airless moon, in a future convention game.

Star Navy at MillCon

Friday night at Millenniumcon, I ran a game of 5150: Star Navy.  I'd prepared an eight-player scenario in which eight players each take two starships, a dreadnought and a cruiser. 

The setup has the players' admirals on the smaller ships docked with a space station in the middle of an asteroid field, with their larger vessel on the opposite side of the board.  Looking back, I probably should have started all the cruisers facing out, instead of in, to get the game moving a little quicker.

As it turned out, only three people showed up to play the game, and I gave them each two pairs of ships to handle.  Two of them, Joe and Coach K, had played Star Navy before.  The third player, Jesse, was new to the game.  While I could have taken the final four ships, I decided to instead concentrate on refereeing the battle.

When hostilities broke out (as they always seem to do in these situations), the players had to get their commander back to the flagship and escape.  We quickly saw our first casualties.  Once each force had a few fighters launched, we saw some more losses.

Eventually, a couple of admirals managed to return to their dreadnoughts as each side continued to launch as many fighters as they could.

The fighters proved dangerous in large numbers, but the larger vessels were hard to kill, soaking up a lot of damage from the small craft.

Eventually the fighters took their toll, but Joe's remaining dreadnought still kept taking hit after hit, limping slowly to the edge of the asteroid field.

Finally, unable to escape its tormentors, the DN exploded.  Still, it was a great run that almost succeeded.

As the game progressed, other capital ships bit the dust, and players' forces dwindled.  In the end, Jesse, the first-time Star Navy player, ended up accomplishing the most and had the most ships left on the board, so he was the winner.

The players all enjoyed the scenario, and I had a fun time running the game.  I hope to run another Star Navy scenario at next year's Millennium Con.

Some photos from Millennium Con (Friday)

Just some quick pics from my Millennium Con experience on Friday Night.  While the majority of the games were historical in nature, such as the one pictured here, there was also plenty of sci-fi gaming.

I ran my 5150: Star Navy scenario (more details on that later).  I had enough ships for eight players, but ended up with only three.  Here's the setup:

There was also a nifty Death Star trench run game for the X-Wing miniatures game.  I didn't get a chance to play in it, but I took a few pics:

There was also that annual crowd-pleaser, Circus Maximus, which was as popular as ever.

More pics and a more substantive con report at a later date, hopefully.

Star Navy at MillenniumCon

Convention alert:  I will be running a game of 5150: Star Navy next month at MillenniumCon in Round Rock, Texas.  Here's the scenario:

Somewhere Out On That Horizon ...

When the legendary mercenary commander known as Psi Russ falls to an assassin's bullet, chaos reins at the gathering of Free Companies he had called. Before, he was uniting the mercs to take over the galaxy. Now, you and your fellow fleet commanders are at each other s throats. In the confusion, you have time to make your escape ... or to settle old scores.

The game will take place Friday evening, on the first day of the convention.  There's room for up to eight players, and all minis will be supplied.  I hope to see some of you there!