OK, so after months of work on a set of spaceship miniature rules I decided to dump them in favor of another set I came up with this weekend. All that work getting formatting just right, making diagrams, and even creating custom artwork (as well as paying for a sweet-ass cover piece), and here I am playing something else. I've just finished turn one of my first playtest game and I already know this new, as-yet unnamed game is more fun. The solo-playability of the new rules is much better I think.
The last two posts on this blog I talked about how I'm using discs to facilitate 2D vector movement without a hex mat, and how I'm putting a ship's entire readout on the back of one disc each. The picture below shows the ship readouts for all the vessels fighting in this playtest. For fun and I.D. purposes let's call the top four the Ships from the Golden Galaxy; their opponents are the remaining three: the forces of the Dark Nebula.
The number in the silver triangle indicates a ship's size (from 0 to 4). The six numbers in the white circles show firepower capability in the appropriate arcs. The green "readout" area shows each ship's name and five energy allocation schemes; the schemes limit how energy allocation tokens can be assigned (A for Attack, D for Defense, M for Move). Finally, the orange circle marked "XP" is where I pencil in the Experience Bonus for each ship (0 to 4). I left this blank because the bonus can change throughout a campaign as a ship's crew becomes more experienced (or loses a key crew member).
The next picture shows the set up. I only used 60% or so of my board, as I have modeling projects going that need table space. You can see the incomplete hex overlay on my space mat. Each ship has its readout glued to a disc and as shown in the picture, each ship is starting with its velocity vector right off the nose.
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| DIY hex-mat... not my best idea |
The unnamed spaceship game uses initiative to maximize the solo experience. Initiative is used in three different phases, so it's very important and I constantly had to recall the order the ships were acting in. I created a little tool to help me out. I took two of those fridge magnets you sometimes get with junk mail, the really thin ones. I used one as like a tablet sheet and then cut up the other one into strips and painted over the advertisement. I then wrote the names of all the ships on these little strips. Then when I rolled initiative, I simply move the ship names around so it reads from top to bottom the order of who has to act first (most disadvantaged). The following photo illustrates this technique, as well as shows the order for this first turn.
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| Magnetic initiative sheet |
The next phase after initiative was the targeting phase. The pic below shows the Ships of the Golden Galaxy after the targeting phase. Everyone is shooting! I use thick spaghetti coated with red and blue acrylic paint for my beam markers. The colors distinguish the forces, just like in the movies.
After declaring targets (in initiative order), the next phase was energy allocation. Dice were rolled and the Triggale had to cancel its attack (not enough power!) but everyone else had decent amount of energy. Again, energy was allocated in initiative order. This improves the solo-playability because even though I have to make the decisions for each side, the vessels acting later can "react" to what the others have already declared.
After the energy tokens were placed (no picture, sorry) the attacks were resolved. The Poroth fired at the Ardoin and due to the extreme range, the target got 6 defense dice plus 1 for energy allocated for defense. Despite rolling 7 dice, no 6's showed up so the Poroth actually had a chance. Rolling only 3 dice the Golden Galaxy's biggest ship rolled one 6, meaning a hit, all the way across the board! A single die was rolled for the Ardoin and its number 4 energy allocation scheme was crossed out. The Dark Nebula forces replied by massing fire on the Poroth, which to a hit and crossed out its number 3 energy allocation scheme. Blood on the first turn.
Beam markers and all associated Attack and Defense energy tokens were removed from the table and it was time for movement. The following pictures illustrate the SS Fifthian's movement. Die rolls indicated a movement of 4, so I placed 3 extra discs on the table, extending the ship's velocity vector to the appropriate length. The first picture shows the Fifthian immediately after being moved. The next picture shows the ship's readout disc being repositioned back to directly off the bow. The other discs were then removed.
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| Movement of 4 |
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| Making sure the vector is pointing correctly |
After movement all remaining tokens were gathered up and the two blasted ships made Damage Control rolls but neither managed to fix their systems. The turn ended with the conclusion of the Damage Control rolls.
I know I haven't made a download of these new rules available, so most of the above text leaves the reader without a frame of reference. The game will come, but I just wanted to get this AAR down while it's still fresh in the brain. Or maybe I just want to avoid homework so I'm wasting time on this blog...
Stay tuned for turn two.
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