Aurora 4x
Off Topic => Off Topic => Topic started by: Steve Walmsley on July 24, 2011, 08:29:03 AM
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I have a large room in my new house that isn't being used at the moment so I am thinking about setting it up as a wargames room, with a few trestle tables for large maps or miniatures battles. I have a lot of old board wargames from the 1980s that I could play but I am looking for suggestions for a good sci-fi tactical combat game that works with miniatures. The problem is it will have to be something I can play around with solo as I won't always have an opponent.
I was planning on trying Attack Vector: Tactical but I can't find a supplier in the IOM or UK, especially for the models, and postage from the US is as much as the game :). I also looked at Full Thrust but that apparently uses plotted movement so not ideal for solo. I have Star Fleet Battles so perhaps that is an option (Or Federation Commander) and also Babylon V Wars. Tempted by Battlefleet Gothic just for the background but I am not sure that is a current game.
Anyway - suggestions please!
Steve
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You allready mentioned half of what I own (Full Thrust and B5-Wars)
The only ones else I own are Battle Space, Interceptor and Leviathan and Silent Death from I.C.E.
BattleSpace
The Battletech space-war game
I wasn´t very impressed by this, but it was ok-ish, as I was a huge BattleTech fan back in the days
There appear to be a lot of new rules I haven´t bought, so gameplay might have improved (back in the days, fighters would rule the sky, and battleships with small (read BattleMech) weapons would seriously outgun warships with dedicated Capital-Ship weapons)
It is also out of print and it seems it is now called Aerotech 2, published by Catalyst Games, miniatures are from Ral Partha
Ok, Aerotech 2 is _also_ out of print and is now integrated in Total Warfare, covering everything, from Infantry to at least Dropships, warships have not been mentioned
It seems this also is not intended for new players, but for ones, at ease with the basic battletech rules, which seems - odd, given that I was unable to find any other rules for space combat in the battletech universe.
Seems Catalyst Game bought streight into FASAs publishing methods, when they took over :(
Interceptor
The Renegade Legion Space Fighter Sim
Fighters have movements points spent for accelerating/decelerating and turning. Speed is tracked from one turn to the other. Damage, once armor is penetrated, is tracked via a nifty flow-chart (like 4 pts penetrate, 2 dmg pts take out the right side thruster the remaining two go on to hit the right side shield generator and the remaining point hits the powerplant, taking it to half power)
Leviathan
The Renegade Legion Warship combat sim
Similar in movement rules as Interceptor. Weapons are rather limited (Laser-Batteries, Missile Batteries and Crowbars (Spinal Massdrivers) and the damage model is also more simple.
I think you know this, as the armor scheme of Aurora has some similarities to the Renegade Legion way of handling armor.
Silent Death
A Space Fighter sim from I.C.E.
Strictly Space Fighters and (smallish) gunboats. Simple movement points but plays faster than Intercepter/Leviathan because of this.
Damage is applied in a similar way to Full Thrust, with parts taken out at various points on the damage track.
All of those are rather dated and I haven´t played them in several years. The Renegade Legion stuff is out of print, but the rules are available on the net somewhere - found them!
RL Interceptor rules here http://www.madcoyote.com/kannik/rpg/rl/rl-index.html
RL Leviathan rules here http://indigo.ie/~ngilsena/pdfs.htm
Note: I realy don´t know how legal those are, but those games are out of print for a loooong time now. Make of it whatever you want ;)
Silent Death can be found here: http://www.ironcrown.com/?page_id=232
Total Warfare can be found here:
http://www.classicbattletech.com/index.php?action=products&mode=full&id=220
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Could go with Astra Imperia too ;)
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Now you reminded me :), I have Aerotech, Leviathan and two copies of Interceptor. I really liked the latter. There was a computer game of Interceptor many years ago (it was on 5 1/4" floppy disk - not even 3.5" :)). Minimal graphics but great game
Steve
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I got the second one only, Battle for Jacobs Star, which came on a CD
Ah, the memories :) :)
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I really enjoyed Interceptor/Leviathan, and love that parts of it made it into Aurora.
I also recommend 'Sky Galleons of Mars' though I have no idea where you might find a copy. Still, Hood vs Bismarck over the red planet is a fantastic fight.
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Steve, for a miniatures game I'd suggest Full Thrust for Ground Zero Games. It has a workable delta-v style of movement. And the best part GZG is in England. Actually England seams to have a very good variety of miniatures companies, both casting and rules.
My best suggestion is to go here http://theminiaturespage.com/ (http://theminiaturespage.com/) TMP has the best general information about miniatures gaming that I've found.
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Starmarda may be worth a look as well, nicely weighted to Squadron/Fleet level, and not bad solo
Matt
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Surprised that Saganami Tactical Sim wasn't mentioned.
hxxp: www. adastragames. com/products/adastra/sits. html
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How about StarFire? ;D ;D :o ???
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Surprised that Saganami Tactical Sim wasn't mentioned.
hxxp: www. adastragames. com/products/adastra/sits. html
The core rules are Attack Vector: Tactical which Steve initially mentioned.
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The core rules are Attack Vector: Tactical which Steve initially mentioned.
I actually have AV:T. It's... umm... Well, I'm not honestly sure if I like it. It's a great idea, and definitely more unique than any other game like it, but it takes realism to such a high degree that it gets clunky at times (Firing rail guns is nearly a nightmare. I do not want to fill out formula sheets to shoot a gun ;D )
You could always go with Starmada.
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Full thrust is available free, its pretty good, fond memories of that one. You can get Full Thrust,More Thrust and a couple of the Fleet Books here (along with the Dirtside and Stargrunt if you want to extend your scenarios to planetary invasion):
http://www.groundzerogames.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=9&id=29&Itemid=50
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Seeing as I know you're and ex SFBer and you also mentioned Federation Commander (btw, there are robot opponent rules for that on their website), there's a Starmada version of Star Fleet Battles (and you can get it all from them via e23 as PDFs).
ADB also recently announced a deal with Mongoose to do A Call to Arms:Star Fleet, along with Mongoose producing a new range of minis for them. Never played ACtA myself, so don't know if the system is any good for solo, but apparently it works well for big fleet battles.
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How about StarFire? ;D ;D :o ???
Not sure I want to re-open that particular can of worms :)
Besides, I never actually played any pure tactical starfire, just campaign battles.
Steve
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Full thrust is available free, its pretty good, fond memories of that one. You can get Full Thrust,More Thrust and a couple of the Fleet Books here (along with the Dirtside and Stargrunt if you want to extend your scenarios to planetary invasion):
http://www.groundzerogames.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=9&id=29&Itemid=50
I think it is plotted movement so not ideal if I want to mess around solo. I might try it for multi-player though. Some friends from work and I have started Boardgame Sundays, where we play a variety of boardgames from 1pm until about midnight. Nine of us yesterday. Fairly basic stuff so far but I hope we get into more complex games soon.
Steve
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I think it is plotted movement so not ideal if I want to mess around solo. I might try it for multi-player though. Some friends from work and I have started Boardgame Sundays, where we play a variety of boardgames from 1pm until about midnight. Nine of us yesterday. Fairly basic stuff so far but I hope we get into more complex games soon.
Steve
Being solo you don't have to use all the rules. I do like the vector movement system that is introduced is Fleet Book 1. I've used variations of it for my own solo games.