Ento starbombers

The last of the ships from my painting stint over the weekend, a trio of Sting-class starbombers from the Entomalian Empire.

Note that the species is referred to as the Entomalian in Starfleet Wars; while it's spelled Entomolian in Galactic Knights.

The head-on view brings out the insectile look of these craft.

Once again, I went for the iridescent look that's characteristic of my Entomalian fleet.

Enough painting--I need to play some games!

Carnivore starbombers

Here's the trio of Carnivore/Carnivoran (the two games use these terms interchangably) starbombers I completed over the weekend.  They're painted to match the rest of my Carnie fleet.

Like star armored pursuit ships, starbombers in Starfleet Wars are fragile craft, unable to withstand even a single hit from a large warship.  They pack plenty of particle weapons, though, so they remain a substantial threat to the bigger starships while vulnerable to fighters as well.

In Galactic Knights, starbombers are also delicate, and they often carry multiple salvoes of plasma torpedoes, capable of gutting the biggest starships in a single turn.

 This type of ship also has plenty of anti-fighter weapons, but not as much as the SAPS.

I like the streamlined look of these ships; seems very 1950s-futuristic rocket-like, with the great big intake up front.  They look like they'll come in handy for other spaceship games too; particularly War Rocket.

Terran armored pursuit ships

Here's a closer look at the pair of Dauntless-class star armored pursuit ships (SAPS) for Starfleet Wars/Galactic Knights that I painted earlier this weekend.  As you can see, I used my conventional colors for the Terran spacecraft.

As you can probably tell from the weapons on this model, the SAPS is meant to function as a mobile antiaircraft platform, giving larger ships protection from enemy fighters.

 In Starfleet Wars, the SAPS shares game mechanics with starbombers, but have no offensive capability against larger ships--they're only good versus fighters, starbombers, and other star armored pursuit ships.

 In Galactic Knights, armored pursuit ships (there's no "star" prefix in GK) play much the same role, but use the same offensive and defensive rules as conventional ships--they just have less armor and fewer weapons.

I like the design for this model, which on the table is nearly as long as a Terran destroyer, and judging from the silhouette, probably thicker as well.

Rock on!

A quick planetoid from a lava rock I found in my driveway.  I just made a base like usual, stuck the rock on it, spraypainted black, and drybrushed gray.  A dozen or so more, and I will have enough for a decent-sized asteroid belt.

Something constructive

As I have a very long weekend, I decided to get a little painting done.  I've finally started painting some more starbombers and stellar armored pursuit ships--the "smaller" Starfleet Wars/Galactic Knights vessels (I use quote marks here because even though, gamewise, these spaceships are smaller and less powerful than destroyers, the actual models are at least as big as DDs.

I'll post some more gallery pictures of these ships later this weekend; for now it's just a quick work table shot.  In the lower right you can see my other Star Frontiers battleship, primered and ready for painting.  I'll tackle it soon, promise (gotta pace myself, right?).

You can see another asteroid from a lava rock in this photo.  It was simple to paint: spray black, drybrush gray, and done.  I still need to decide how to paint the remaining armored pursuit ships, which for some reason I primered in gray awhile back.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Wish I could make it to Houston this weekend

It's kind of short notice, but I just found out about this gathering on Memorial Day weekend: Comicpalooza in Houston.  This event bills itself as "the best and biggest annual multi-format pop culture convention in the southwest region of the United States."

While it covers all sorts of geeky subjects--comics, movies, sci-fi and fantasy, horror, steampunk, and new media--it's the gaming offerings that interest me.  Convention guests from the gaming industry include Steve Jackson and a couple of later-edition Dungeons & Dragons game designers, Chris Perkins and Chris Sims.

Most of the games are 4E D&D or Pathfinder, which aren't my thing, but I did notice a couple of miniatures events on the schedule: Undead States of America (a zombie game) and Universal Space Game System (spaceship combat), both by Ubergoober Games.

There's also a videogame setup that sounds really interesting: the Artemis Bridge Spaceship Simulator, created by Thom Robertson, which features several linked computers simulating the main screen and bridge stations of a starship.  I'd love to give this one a try.  Maybe someone can set this up at the next Millennium Con or Chimaera Con.

Is anyone planning on attending this convention?  If so, I'd love to see some photos.

I want to play Starfleet Wars ...

... so I've been studying the rules.  The best way for me to learn a game is to make up my own quick reference sheet.  By referring to every part of the rules, going back and forth through the books to tie them all together, and restating them in my own words, I end up with a pretty decent grasp of the rulebook.

I did that for Starfleet Wars, putting most of the information needed for play onto a single 8½" x 11" piece of paper.  But in doing so, I realized the game still requires players to process a lot of information for each ship, especially if you use all the advanced rules.  The ship record sheet in the SfW rulebook is pretty sparse when it comes to giving a player everything necessary to use all the vessel's weapons, which led me to design my own.  Here's an example:

This new record sheet has a list of all the options available to a starship captain, and space to designate targets and write orders for true simultaneous play.  When I do get to play Starfleet Wars, hopefully this record sheet will make the game run smoothly.

So does anyone else devise their own play aids for their wargames, or am I just waaaaaay to obsessive?