Hard Vacuum

[procyon (OP)]

We picked up a new game a few weeks ago called Hard Vacuum.  Its based around space combat circa WWII.  Physics is a little shaky but the kids and I love it.
(My wife isn't sold on it as she had a good start, but the kids have gotten REALLY good...)
Not 4x, strickly just scenario based, although the kids want me to come up with some way to make a campaign possible.  You can design your own 'planes/ships' which the kids use to modify the existing designs to their liking.  The booklets are small but the text is good.  There were a few editing issues but the middle boy found a site with errata to fix it.  The supplement 'HV: Science Gone Mad' has the errata in it (at least ours did).  One of the kids has also downloaded another supplement (free).  Straight forward and explanatory rules with plenty of detail if you want it, or you can leave it out if you want a quick and easy game.  The supplement adds a bunch of weapons and options and is worth it if you like the game to begin with.
The basic game is just the US vs Germany in the space near earth.  The supplement adds in the British.  The download supplement adds in the Russians.   It does not have a set scale, and you will need to supply your own hex map.  The booklet comes with laminated counters that you would have to cut out yourself, but we just scanned them and adjusted the size to fit our map, then printed them on cardstock. You could use plain paper and be just fine. The rules allow for tabletop play without a hex field, and it works pretty well (we've done one big game on the kitchen floor) if you don't have spare hex mats laying around.  All you really need is a ruler, although a protractor would help in a few cases.  Makes it trickier as you can't just count the hexes. 
Ships are quasi historical based with neat little blurbs about the ship's use and history in the battle for orbit, etc.  Just reading the 'history' of the war and the ships if pretty good in and of itself (but I've always had a soft spot for that sort of stuff, and I'm definitely a big WWII fan).  The designs aren't necessarily balanced, but the scenarios in the books are pretty well balanced.  There is no incentive to design anything but a fighter in the rules, but there are designs for freighters.  The supplement has bombers also, but other than victory points for a scenario there is no difference between a ship carrying one bomb or six.  For the most part each nations ships is based around a different form of fuel or propulsion, with some variation in weapons based on the 'drive', but 13mm MGs, 20mm, 30mm, 75mm, rocket banks, mines, etc can always be put in and work rather well.
The biggest plus and funnest part of the whole game is the movement system.  It is inertia based with each ship having a thruster 'diagram' allowing for different levels of thrust in the six different directions of the hex map, plus spin.  Values carry over from turn to turn and are modified by the thrusters you fire in this turn, which can make guessing where your opponent is going to end up pretty tricky.  On the tabletop just guessing where you will end up can be a little tricky.  Trying to line up a shot on a bunch of wildly moving targets is actually pretty fun, as is pulling off some unusual manuevers the leave folks pointing the wrong way.  My favorite is to try and overshoot my target while spinning the ship 180 degrees and firing after I've overshot my target.  It is a blast.  Of course when my target has guessed what I'm up to and has spun so that it is also flying 'backwards', my little tactic isn't quite so successful.  This aspect of movement makes it completely unsuited for solataire play, as much of the fun is the 'dogfighting' aspect, which is lost when you control both sides of the battle.  The various thrust values are tracked by little triangular chits that surround or are put on your counter, which actually works better than I thought.  Even the 10 year old has figured it out pretty well, although he has occasional math errors (some of which I am sure are intentional).
Overall, I and my family have enjoyed this game.  My kids tell me that there are two other supplements out there which add in the Japanese and the end of the war in another.  If anyone knows where we could pick up a copy of these we would be very grateful.  If you've got questions or comments, send them on.

[procyon (OP)]

We've been playing Hard Vacuum for a bit now, and the kids asked me if I would write a few of the games up that we ran.  This would be the first one and I just thought I would share.  This probably isn't exactly where this post should belong, but nothing else looks any more appropriate.  It was the very first game between I and the middle boy of the current 'campaign'.

Feel free to comment.  I may write up and post a few others, or maybe not.  Just depends on the time.



First Intercept

September 9th, 1942

01:26
   Second Lieutenant 'Danny Boy'  Williams clenched and unclenched his toes.  The flight suit heaters helped, but they never seemed to keep his feet warm.  The rubberized leather just seemed to suck the heat right out of you.  He checked the instruments and then checked the slide rule to make sure.  Holding position just above what most people would consider the atmosphere was a little bit of a juggling act.  Making sure you stayed in a certain area just above the Earth took that and made it into a mathmatical nightmare.  Translating that into tips and taps on the thruster controls was half science and half art.  Except if you screwed up the math half, you ended up as a pretty shooting star for the folks below to watch.
   Which was kind of a coincidence.  "I wonder if they thought of that when they named the SP-45 the 'Shooting Star'?" thought Dan out loud.  He looked out the canopy at the haze above the blue-white mass of the Earth.  From up here it looked like a great big platter with swirls of hazy steam streched out in all directions.  The inky black darkness above ruined that though.  The black reminded you that just beyond the glass was a heartless killing monster.  The dead silent vacuum of space.  'The only thing more dangerous is the damned ####'s.'
   'It's always worst when your by yourself.'  Normally they flew the overlapping missions in pairs.  It gave you someone to talk to during the long flights, and helped to ease the lonliness.  Unfortunately, the booster from Launch Site 4 had failed its preflight checks, leaving it grounded.  'Just what you get flying rockets built by the lowest bidder.'
   Dan looked around again.  The German bombers were out there somewhere.  Three had been shot down in the last week, but they kept coming.  Every day or so another group to unload their death on Washington.

02:10
   Hauptman Otto Rumstedt checked the course of his Do 221 'Saenger'.  Everything seemed in order.  Hitting the insertion point that would allow the rocket everyone called the 'Bouncy Boat'  to drop its bombs on target - without burning up on reentry to the atmosphere - was a very precise endevour.  It wasn't something to be left to chance.  Not that Otto was the type to fly his ship recklessly.  Straining against the harness Otto pushed himself up to see out the back of the canopy.  Gliding silently behind him was the second bomber.  Usually a bomber flight was three Saengers, but losses from the new American 'fighters' was cutting down on the number of available bombers and pilots.
   Settling back into the seat, Otto waited for the next 'skip' off the upper atmosphere.  The front of the Saenger looked like nothing so much as a fat fishing trawler, designed to allow the rocket to bounce off the upper atmosphere as it made its trip around the world.  It also allowed the rocket to survive re-entry twice.  Once in a shallow run to release its payload of three 1500 kilogram bombs.  The second time to bring it home to Peenemunde.  The nose of the rocket was its strongest point, but it had proved vulnerable to gunfire.  Along with the rest of the ship.
   Otto felt the slow steady pull as the Saenger began to skim the thin air of the upper atmosphere.  It felt like he was being gently pulled toward the front of ship.  It became less gentle, and then a sharp shove backwards as he fired the thrusters to kick the Do 221 back into the vacuum of high orbit.  This would be the last skip before the target.  In forty five minutes they would begin the bomb run.

02:54
   Dan sat in the cockpit humming to himself.  Twelve hours strapped in a seat fighting the occasional bouts of nausea brought on by weightlessness seemed like an eternity.  Staring out of the cockpit trying to spot the specks of german bombers as they approached would play tricks on your vision after awhile.  There were only a few points they could use to attack Washington without burning an excessive amount of fuel.  They had only limited reserves, just like the Shooting Stars.  If you burned to much trying to manuever, you wouldn't have enough for re-entry.  Even the Shooting Stars had to watch their fuel levels.  Parking near where you would have to enter the atmosphere on your return to the East Coast helped, but you had to remember to leave enough fuel to get home.  One pilot had made his first kill last week, only to find out he would never make it back.  The joke was that the brass would have killed him for trashing his rocket even if he had survived re-entry, but no one laughed too hard.
   Dan perked up for a moment. 'What is that?'  Pulling the binoculars from their wall mount he looked out at the haze in the distance.  The binoculars floated free for a moment, then he grabbed them again and snapped them into their clips.  Pushing the button on the control stick Dan activated the radio.  "Ground Control, S P zero six two.  Two inbound bogies over mid arctic approaching insertion point.  Preparing to incept.  Further orders?"  Seconds later the speaker in his helmet crackled to life.  "Roger S P zero six two.  Engage and destroy.  Good Hunting.  Control out."  That was it then.  This was the first time he had seen a german ship.  It would be his first intercept.  'This is going to be the first time I try to kill someone."
   Tapping the control stick Dan put the Shooting Star into a slow drift toward the area he was sure the german rockets were heading for.  He had intentionally set himself up so he was on the 'wrong' side of the area the bombers would move toward.  Positioning yourself on the inbound side of the insertion point left you with less room to set up your attack.  Less time meant you would need to burn more fuel to try and correct.  Less chance to steer yourself onto target.  "A small burn early can save you a large burn late." his instructors had told him.  'Time to see if this will work.'
   Dan watched as the german ships began to fire their thrusters, adjusting their speeds and courses as they approached the starting end of their bomb run. They were above him slightly, although up and down didn't mean much here. 'Hopefully they are too busy working their slides and switches to see me.  Yet.  Just a few more seconds.'  Dan flexed the right toe pedal and put a touch of spin on the nose to bring the gunsight out in front of the targets.  'That's it.'  And then it went to hell as the two german rockets fired their thrusters and dropped below the nose of the Shooting Star.  "smeg." he heard himself say.  In a few seconds they should pass below his ship and reach the area where they would enter the atmosphere.  From that point on they would be safe.  The Shooting Star couldn't follow, and bullets would be useless.  Dan pushed the stick forward and felt the thruster push him back in the seat as the ship leapt forward.  'I need to give myself enough room to line up the shot. Now to bring the nose around.'  The Shooting Star was in a veerrrry slow spin.  She could spin like a top if you laid on the RCS thrusters long enough, but that definitely wouldn't help his accuracy.  The nose came around quickly and the german bombers came into view.  'Only going to get one shot at this.'  The Shooting Star shook as the four Browning .50's spat tracers out into the darkness.

02:55
   Otto had seen the American rocket for some time.  When it had fired its nose thrusters to bring its guns on line, he had given the order to break from the planned course.  That move would burn precious fuel, but there would be more than enough left to complete the mission and return home.  The Saengers carried no weapons so the only hope was to avoid being shot.  The cocky American pilot would only have a few moments to line up a second shot before the bombers would be safe inside the protection of the atmosphere.  At that point the trans-sonic bomb run would begin.  Nothing would be able to stop them .
   Otto could see the tracers panning across his field of view.  'The American is spraying fire as he spins.  He will have no accuracy.'  Otto pressed the radio on. "Set thrusters and begin insertion burn."  The Saenger began to drop and a slight glow lit the cockpit.  It was to soon for any light from re-entry.  Otto strained against the growing G forces and looked out the rear glass, and saw the other Seanger's hull spinning as fire and gases spurted from its hull.  A bright flash and it was gone.
   Otto turn back around and concentrated on his insturments.  He was still alive and still had a mission to complete.

02:56
   Dan tapped on the stick and pedals.  The world stopped its slow spin as he watched the drifting wreckage of the trailing german bomber.  The lead ship was already a distant speck of light.  In a few minutes it would release its bomb load.  Hopefully it had been forced off course enough to cause the bombs to miss their target.  Dan pressed the radio button again.
   "Control, this is S P zero six two.  You need to sound the sirens.  You've got one coming in."
   "Roger S P zero six two. Out."

[ShadoCat]

Not 4x, strickly just scenario based, although the kids want me to come up with some way to make a campaign possible.  You can design your own 'planes/ships' which the kids use to modify the existing designs to their liking.  The booklets are small but the text is good.  There were a few editing issues but the middle boy found a site with errata to fix it.  The supplement 'HV: Science Gone Mad' has the errata in it (at least ours did).  One of the kids has also downloaded another supplement (free). 

Where did they find that supplement?  I've got both the main and Science Gone Mad.

[procyon (OP)]

Have tried to send you a couple of messages but they never have shown up in my outbox.
The kids found the site, and it was a free download (they had me come look at it when they found it to see if I wanted it) , but I don't know where it was.
The kids tried to find it again but tell me the site doesn't exist anymore.
It was nicely done, and if you send me an e-mail address I will try to get you a copy as soon as I can.

[ShadoCat]

Have tried to send you a couple of messages but they never have shown up in my outbox.
The kids found the site, and it was a free download (they had me come look at it when they found it to see if I wanted it) , but I don't know where it was.
The kids tried to find it again but tell me the site doesn't exist anymore.
It was nicely done, and if you send me an e-mail address I will try to get you a copy as soon as I can.

I got it.

Thank you very much.

[procyon (OP)]

After lots of digging, finally managed to track down the last two supplements rules.
The Highest Ground, and Bright Sun Ascending/Wars End.

Kind of neat, but still haven't found the PDFs for the counters.