A Find, Then Another.

Some things in the Attack Wing universe have been let go.

The Romulan, Dominion and Borg faction packs from a few years ago, the third Dominion War set for Alliance are four and I accept that unless I am insanely lucky, I will never see them, but that is ok, I have plenty.

One that did get away and I remember having it in several carts, but never jumping was the Animated Series Faction set. The short run Animated series from 1973-74, the unofficial fourth series of the TOS period and a link to the movies, won an Emmy, helped keep the series alive and even broke some ground in the world of early serial animation, then dropped off the face of the earth.

It adds several ships including another Enterprise, two Klingons and a Romulan D-7 (bit rare that one), several Captains and Crew with Weapons, Tech and the odd Elite, fleshing out the TOS quite well, if you are ok with the animated art.

Mildly interested in an end of year ad, I followed my nose and found not one but “3+” Animated series sets at half retail or clearance price. On the open market these things are going for north of $300US used!

Looking to fill my cart and with a recent review of the Kirk expansion for Away Teams, I stumbled over that, the Scotty set and the “Q” expansion. The last one adds a lot of variety and different play styles with some needed randomness.

I am also keen on the terrain expansion, so we will see.

These seem to have evaporated, but the Q competition pack was a win.

Fun times.

Ed. What t do with the AS packs (yep bought 2, why would I not)? The Klothos, Devisor and Talon are all too cheap, I assume to be in line with later tournament costs, but a 14 point D-7 is just an auto buy, so these will have to be adjusted.

I can take the second Talon name and Devisor card as is with a picture change into the Enterprise era, but the Klothos, a cloaking D-7 in the mid point between TOS and TNG is actually going forward to the TOM period (D-7’s are thin up there). Which gave me an idea.

I have a Vulcan/Fed TOS Intrepid coming in a repeat Vulcan faction pack and the TAS Enterprise at 20 pts with shield repair is a beast and too cheap and powerful for the TOS set (and a repeat), so these are going TOM (the other will be point adjusted). The Enterprise refit was done early in the movies, so it stands to reason the older ships would have been in this universe as well (Miranda and Oberths made it to DS9).

Can It Be?

I have, I kid you not, probably a dozen sets of ECW rules, which may seem a lot, but like most periods of war gaming, maybe more than some, it is a tricky period to settle on.

I also have two sets of figures, a comprehensive Redoubt 28mm set, covering the Montrose and English campaigns, great for small actions and skirmishes up to medium and a decent 15-18mm Museum minis set with a more conservative range of figures, no clans, no Forlorne Hope, no character figs, but ideal for small to medium field battles.

So, what have I decided in for these two platforms?

A Very Civil Action, a free set from the Perfect Captain, modified a little, but not much, really just a re-write from the parent Spanish Actions, will cover the element based 28’s.

The elements will be a rough-semi irregular square either 40 or 50mm depending on type with 2-3 figures mounted. A compromise between a circle and a square, tapered edged and irregular to blend with the table top.

I have found after some experimenting, that consistent circles are actually difficult to create regular looking formations with. This works ok for TPL where shape is nearly irrelevant, but not VCA, which is set to a slightly higher scale and is more formation specific. The 3-2-1 system favoured for Pikeman’s Lament is better, but does not suit this game.

I can also play Pikeman’s Lament with these bases.

For the 18’s, I will do the other free set Victory Without Quarter, again with some mild re-writes to suit my needs and collection.

The main thing is perception of scale. I am going to use the term Battalia, meaning a regular sized unit made up of all of or part of a regiment, or several small units combined, like they actually did it.

These rules are clean and flavourful at a scale I like (small field actions), but lack the variety of VCA, which suits my Museun range.

The other departure is to retain DBR-style element basing*. This has several benefits.

• It is more flexible and recognised. I can basically play any set of rules with these bases.

• It allows for more logical unit composition and formation shapes. It can represent 1:1 ratio units with a third pike row added, something VWQ as written struggles with. It can form a multi facing pike and sheltering shot block (also allowing pike or shot only units to represent awareness of a threat to the rear) and open order can be more open, not just elements spread, but in depth also.

• I have the bases and a unit already mounted for them (so sick of rebasing).

So, after all these years, all these rules, so much time and money wasted, I am going with two free sets of rules.

Who knew?

Also a surprise has been my library. Struggling to find the information I have been chasing, the internet coughing up the same sites with the same articles over and over, I discoverered, partly by chance, my own extensive library while looking for something else.

I have some great books, and quite a few. Turns out I have been adding to the library well past my reading period, turning more and more to the web, ignoring some excellent resources.

*40x20 with 3 shot, 4 pike, 40x40 3 horse, 3 dragoons (mixed mounted and dismounted) and artillery. The extra depth of some means little, especially at larger DBR scale.

Attack Wing, Why I Like It Better Than X-Wing.

My first science fiction love was Star Wars, the original movie, first time round the block when I was about 10, watched at the beautiful old the Princess Theatre Launceston. I can even remember (roughly) where I sat, up in the stalls left hand side.

I went in with I know not what expectations, possibly none, I certainly don’t having remember any, but I came out changed.

Science fiction that looked real, looked like it was the history of another place, lived in, like it actually happened, not the weird, super clean, strangely fanciful fiction I had seen up till then.

Star Trek came later, a constant flood of series from various generations, filling the void Star Wars left between the original trilogy and the things that came later, movies I did not even bother with until recently.

I found Trek a little boring at first. The old stuff was old and looked it, I viewed it like a teenager looks at a child, too close to their own recent past as to feel familiar, but alien, the newer stuff was that clean, unlikely future I had rejected in the past.

It grew on me. The big ships, variety of encounters and sheer saturation won in the end and Star Wars became the “other one”, a world of pulp fiction and many series I had little awareness of. Somehow Star Wars lost it’s special place, it revealed its simpler ideas and less developed story lines for what they were, pure Space Opera.

Ok, the point.

I bought into Star Trek Attack Wing early to get into a game type that was not admittedly my preferred style (pre-painted, semi board game), but an itch that needed scratching and going AW meant avoid the larger commitment of the more popular X-Wing. I also knew more about it and familiarity is a thing.

X-Wing still happened, then Armada, both just completed as their respective games wound down. They became an obsession and I even sold off some Attack Wing to help soften the blow of chasing some weird and rare X-Wing and Armada ships.

That was a mistake.

If I could wind the clock back, I would have avoided X-Wing all together or stuck to my guns of only doing the TFA period (bought cheap on clearance), something the 2e upgrade packs would have perfectly fit with and also probably avoided Armada or more likely avoided the Prequel sets where I started. These were never completed, which still annoys.

That would have let me complete my AW range which was still clicking along in the background (missed the Romulan, Borg and other Faction packs and 3rd Dominion War solo set, now going for hundreds) and chase up some OP’s when they were plentiful. I would also have kept what I had and ended up with, I think, a more enjoyable game for a casual and non-competitive player.

Why is AW better in my eyes?

It’s not the minis, they are all over the place in quality, paint job and scale*. Unlike XW, the ships are actually secondary to the cards, which may sound odd, but this will make more sense as we explore further.

It’s not the core game play, because AW uses basically the same system as X-Wing. There are differences which we will get into, but at the heart of it, they are the same game bought under license.

Opinions vary as which theme bests suits the mechanics better, but I feel the subtle mechanical differences allow both to fit the game perfectly well, just differently.

So, what is it?

The AW game straddles an interesting place between the small ship X-Wing dogfight and huge ship Armada fleet battles. AW gives you the feeling of flying a larger ship, one less agile than in X-Wing, but also one that is “squishier”, more robust and deeper.

The dials and Action bars are less interesting, but that also matters less. Manoeuvre is important, but unlike X-Wing, not all important. In XW, Actions are all important and add to the zippy, darting and weaving fighter vibe. Ships like the Interceptor or A-Wing rule space, at least until upgrades to other ships even out the field.

In AW, Action bars are much less about repositioning manoeuvres, only offering Cloak and Sensor Echo (a great handling of cloaking), or Regeneration.

Captains are separate from ships, meaning vastly more variety up front, a Captain, named ship and Elite Talent provide a triple synergy and there are often multiple choices of better known Captains.

This can lead to odd combinations in open competition play, so again, sticking to timeline and faction limits helps make it feel right.

There are more upgrades, especially Crew, especially named Crew. X-Wing tends to be a Pilot/Elite Talent/payload squad build with “Action chains” all important. The second edition worked to reduce that dynamic, but it is still there. It does a great job of simulating that single seat fighter fragility and it’s dynamic with larger ships, but AW has a different feel.

In AW, there are near countless combinations of exceptions, mitigations and additives, all designed to give you the feel of ensign “X” saving the day by pulling off a miracle manoeuvre or fixing a used/broken/stolen/”not installed til Tuesday” upgrade. Some upgrades can even be added “just in case” and used to absorb unpleasantness if needed.

It is, as I eluded to above, a “squishier” game, with fewer alpha strike and premium builds, less of a “I have the most agile ship until you upgrade to be my equal” and is more aligned to scenario play, the need to adapt to what comes rather than build to outsmart. There is a community and they do have ideal builds, but if you avoid that free-form space, you can make almost anything work and stick to theme.

The core sets are a prime example of the difference in the games.

The X-Wing core provides about a third of a competitive squad for each side. One X-Wing vs two Tie Fighters was never meant to be a competitive set, only a start with about 30-35 points a side. As bought, it is crying out for more and some major figures in the franchise are missing, like Vader.

The three capital ships in the AW set can provide multiple combinations, you do get Picard and two other named Captains, plenty of Crew, named and plain ships, the upgrades can be mixed freely if you so desire, even a three person game played and although there are not enough ships for a 100pt competition squadron, the game is not so hung up on that, it is ok with a 50 point build (available three times in the set) and a decent scenario . It is far more than the XW set provides and for many probably enough.

Building an AW fleet is a matter of adding maybe 2-3 more ships to the three factions you have started or looking wider, which provides plenty of options and tactical directions, each ship coming with enough upgrades to open up a myriad of tactics, even within a faction.

For a brief moment, I had retained a small TNG period representation of all the factions (2-3 ships) and was actually happy, but then I got the fever again when clearances started to appear.

XW actually needs several ships just to make a squad, many of these coming with upgrades that are ship limited and quickly you are staring at a 10-15 ship collection.

Story telling is heroed in AW, each ship coming with a scenaio. XW has only started to support this in later iterations, to their detriment.

When I want to play AW, my mind goes to a scenario idea, a mini story, when I play XW, I build a 100pt squad (still playing 1e here) and have at it. Oddly, scenarios in XW are often popular, but only in later releases has that been pushed.

I see a story here (probably a short one), something XW needs to have added. This is a rare but plausible departure from canon.

The range of personalities available mean more in AW (contentious), but every Captain or Crew card adds a personality and a face. In XW, the Pilot is basically a ship, the Crew fewer in choice and available slots and as often than not, generic. In AW Crew is everything, which is as it should be. X Wing 1e has issues with Crew like Leia Organa being an over priced ability available only in an expensive Huge ship expansion. In 2e there are sometimes overwrought and convoluted abilities.

I prefer the overall dynamic of upgrades in AW.

I have lists of XW upgrades I pore over, most committed to memory, but in AW, there are so many I don’t even try. Most upgrades in AW are bespoke, be they Tech, Crew, Weapons or Elites, there is little repetition, Weapons being the only real culprit and that is down to the reality that there are not many weapons in Trek.

Weapons are needed, it’s a combat game at heart, but they do not dominate. In AW, it is logical to take Torps or their equivalent, maybe something more faction aligned, but you can fly a decent game without. Ships are tougher, mistakes less precipitous, other things matter as much.

In XW, ordnance is much more varied and can be brutal, but it is often a one-shot strike.

Something AW also does well is disabling of upgrades, not spending and removing them. XW 2e did add the “charges” mechanic and 1e some half baked ideas, but AW has always allowed Photon Torpedoes to be replenished, or busy Crew cards to be re-enabled. It fits the theme and makes for a longer lasting game.

Crew are more important and common, many ships having 3 slots and many Captains can even add more. Most are named, meaning literally a cast of hundreds.

A great example is the humble Enterprise NX (pre-Federation), on paper a Tie fighter at 2-3-3-0, but add four Crew (with Archer) and with them some more Weapons and Tech and that little ship can stick around for a while, not “pop” like a swarmer Tie. You can have 8-10 abilities on that little ship, the Tie gets a Pilot, maybe an EPT and Mod.

The Elite Talents are similar, but with Captains and named Ships also sporting abilities and most Talent being unique, the mix is softer and more flexible, there are literally thousands of combinations.

Many EPT and Pilot combinations in XW are often not even considered optional and create very powerful combinations used in multiples, something AW avoids with more choice and less repetition. In 2e as there was little point denying them, many combinations even became standard.

Tech is a good way of upgrading any AW ship, Sensors, Mods, Droids, Illicit do this in XW, but are limited and there are clear favourites.

It is not for nothing I cut back 1e upgrades in XW, not using EPT’s, Mods or Titles, which just seem to even out the field and de-throne the stand out ships. In AW, the overall softness of upgrade effects and the less brittle ship abilities defuse this, basically I obsess over one, barely give the other any thought.

Edition wars are less painful. No 2e mass-migrations, just some annoying point value changes*, a polishing of the core rules and clarification of some exceptions. Wizkids were not as tight in their roll-out of AW as the XW custodians were, but the game was also less brittle by design.

It is a gentler introductory game. For all the reasons above, AW is a soft landing, a fun afternoon, no sign of gamesmanship or power building early on, no sudden death choices and if you avoid competition play with its “anything goes” dictum, every upgrade can find a home.

A last thing and something I will happily own as mine and mine alone is hacking AW cards. Thanks to the bespoke nature of many Crew and Ship cards, you get a lot of excess and repeats when you build larger fleets, but thanks to cosmetic consistency, it is easy to cut and paste (literally, not technically) and increase your choices. I have built up decently deep genre sets using this technique, like more than doubling the ship choices in my Kelvin set, reusing otherwise wasted Mirror sets which were cheap and plentiful in the later stages, even filled some holes, like a missing Chekov in the TOS range. By my count, I have probably 200 more ships, Crew and Captains than I originally bought.

No, they will not stand up to competition scrutiny, but yes, they do add to the game for casual play.

Your milage may vary, probably does on average as XW is by far the more popular game, but for me AW was where I went first and looking back was where I should have stopped.

It is still my obsession, even after stripping my collection bare and going again, even after spending more on both Armada and XW respectively.

I will keep my X-Wing and Armada collections, why would I not, but AW is the favourite.

*I fix this by keeping my fleets to strict faction and timeline sub-sets, even splitting DS9 and TNG and some repaints. One thing that I am always aware of is the fragility of many X-wing ships. They are lovely, but I have spare X-Wings for a reason. Simple and chunky AW ships rarely suffer from this concern.

**I have mostly dealt with the PV’s by keeping to faction limits and making a choice on either dearer or cheaper values, “hacking” cards as needed.

Fleshing Out The Kelvin Timeline.

The Attack Wing Kelvin timeline set was excellent, but a little sparse if kept on its own.

I have expanded it slightly, giving me the chance to play with two ships per faction, all named by “hacking” the generics (Enterprise, Enterprise-B, Excelsior, Sovereign* vs Suvwl, Amar, Kreech’ver, Somraw), but that still limits ideas and the actual ships are gorgeous, so what is the potential?

Scenario 1;

The Enterprise is sent to the aid of another ship found eerily empty, but intact on the far side of an asteroid belt. The Crew are split to help get the other ship back home, allowing the player to use other captain and crew options, but the ship is of curse, a trap.

Four Romulan (??) intruder drones (Enterprise Romulan Drones) are using this as a test case and intend to take on the two ships as either captured research vessels (two better than one and the Federation response is important) or simply to temper their combat potential.

The premise is that they are either those drones, nt recognised or seen before, or simply not those drones, maybe a more obscure source.

Hmmm, maybe too late?

Much slower than the Federation ships, they are considerably more nimble, quite resilient and pack a decent punch. They are also pack hunters and care little for their own safety.

On paper, they look fairly matched, the difference in movement and tactics is the crux.

The change this up, I have seven Tholians, enough to wrap up even these more powerful ships.

Scenario 2;

The Borg travel to (in) the Kelvin universe, sending a Tactical Cube (a scout at this scale) to feel out the Federation (or Klingons). Two Federation ships are shadowing it until they realise what it is up to and have to stop it escaping back to its own time.

Same points values mean a 70-80 point Borg Cube, so all the toys, massive fire power and regeneration.

Simple scenario, destroy them before they can either assimilate/destroy the ships or escape with relevant information through a dimensional gate before it closes. Like the first Kelvin movie, this may result in a noble sacrifice.

An option to this is using Species 8472, in a two to six ship fleet, maybe taking on both the Federation and the Klingons and possibly flip the scenario to a Federation escape.

*Other options are available, I am waiting for my second These are the Voyages pack.

This English Civil War Thing.

I am struggling with this ECW thing.

Two sets of minis, two scales, two simulation ideals, still little idea.

The Redoubt 28’s have been partially remounted, about 30 figs, just what I have ready and about the third time they have been unceremoniously ripped from their bases, using 45mm circles, rough by design, placed in threes. I will use 50mm for looser troops and horse.

Why circles?

I feel that ECW battles are often portrayed by perfect blocks and files, all very neat and organised, but almost every illustration or reinactment I have seen, including the covers of almost every set of rules on the period has a rough group of pike or shot mid battle and it does not look neat by any measure.

Swedes, not English, but this only goes to my point, the English on the whole were even less well drilled!

Circles allow me to form decent shapes, but they have a softness, a malleability that lets presented pike fit in gaps, unit sides to turn slightly in reaction to a threat, even form a decent looking pike block.

They can be used for Pikemens Lament, Very Civil Actions, Forlorne Hope, WABECW, 1644 etc. Any game where large figures may be removed in single or more amounts (casualty counters used). Sabot bases can be used to tighten these formations up, the round bases still adding variety and a naturalness to their look.

Th

The 15-18 Museum have been harder.

I like the idea of DBR, the element basing also very malleable for basically any game I have, but square bases for VWQ are in the mix. I will go with DBR though for the following reasons.

• They can create standard Battalia for POW-R, VWQ, DBR, any of the above using sabot bases or not.

• The pike ratio thing in VWQ, is hard to fix with their own square bases, but it is an easy fix with DBR elements, simply add a third element for higher pike ratio units, so 2/2/2 for 2:1-ish (12 shot, 8 pike), 2/3/2 for 1:1 (12 shot, 12 pike).

• I intend to re-write the DBR rules in a softer, more characterful tone, omitting the irrelevant bits, renaming the troop types (and supplying unit cards for each), making a more thematic results table. It will not change at its core, but it also will not resemble the original. I will also retain the 1st edition Battalia or 4el maximum command width.

• I already have a regiment based and I like how they look.

• DBR can be played at condensed scale, allowing very big battles to be simulated.

• The DBR game allows for single elements to function as well as larger units. I favour small to medium engagements, scenario and terrain driven, so endless “demo” videos of massed regiments lined up on a bowling green have done little for me. Give me single elements holding a rear guard bridge, forlorne hope ranging wide, horse running rampant in the rear, beleaguered regiments being ground-down and making a stand, the battlefield degenerating into a dozen micro battles, but mostly, give me a story! Oh, and spare me all the dice.

I really need to paint another regiment, fourth time I have used these I think. They look right in several favoured systems, a sabot base is an option, but really not needed.

Really need to get on with this.

Ed. I had one of those “wrote itself” moments with a set based loosely on the VCA scale, but very different mechanics, more to come on that.

It Is Decided (Maybe)

It is decided (maybe a good name for a set of rules?), basing my 18 and 28mm ECW figures will be done two ways to suit two “families” of rules.

My 15-18mm Museum figs, enough to make about 30 units are already started (1 unit), as DBR style elements. This is also decent for Forlorn Hope, Principles of War, Fields of Glory, Impetus Baroque (don’t have, but might get), WAB ECW, but most importantly Victory Without Quarter, becasue it actually fixes a problem there.

VWQ has quite rigid needs as written and uses square bases. There are fixes for pike ratios etc, but not really as they, as the author even alludes to, break the games balance and make mounting using the recommended system problematic. DBR basing fixes this. For 1:1 ratio units add one row of pike (which may be drawn from a “generic” pool) and for small units, simply make up a mixed Battalia of parts.

The Battalia now becomes the base unit like the cavalry squadron, a regiment of almost any size can be used to make anything from a part of a Battalia, to three complete ones.

I can then place the Battalia onto a sabot base and move it in one go.

DBR element mounting used with VWQ are fine for facing. It also makes forming a pike block more attractive as you can spread the shot around the block.

This is basically a 1:1 ratio VWQ/POW/DBR battalia, 1 or 2 occasionally 3 of these make a regiment (or brigade), but they can also be made up of mixed elements from the same army.

DBR (re-written) with its flexible unit sizes and combined attrition and morale and VWQ modified with different unit sizes and pike to shot ratios represented, are favourites at this point.

My 28mm Redoubt figs will be based 2 or 3 on circular bases, enabling slightly modified** Pikemans Lament, Pike and Shotte, A Very Civille Action, Forlorn Hope, WAB ECW, etc, basically any singles or “unit only” system or my own take on the bits I like from above.

I can sabot base these as needed, but the circular bases still add facing and handling benefits.

TPL recommends 1-2-3 basing, but I intend to modify the rules as written, using elements for condition and attrition rather than full'/half unit conditions.

The point of divergence is the rigid facing of the long-thin DBR style bases as opposed to the flexible circular basing better for handling large figures, which can both use sabot bases if needed.

*3 Pike or Shot on 4mm bases, 2 of looser types (or 3 on larger 50mm bases), Dragoons and horse on larger base. The bases will vary in size for Artillery and other oddities. Some figs, like personalities and leaders may be either separate or included on the base and in play or ignored as the scenario and game require. Some big guns will get a second or even third Crew base. Still some stuff to iron out there.

**TPL will get the element base modification (attrition levels and combat dice counted by element, not full/half), VCA will get a few treaks, P&S, WAB, FH etc are do-able options.

More Faction Limited Problem Solving

My STAW hacking has nearly wound up, because basically, I have almost no cards left to cut and paste (real cuts, real paste, no tech talk here!).

The Kelvin timeline pack is interesting, well more frustrating really.

The ships are physically bigger and more powerful than their standard timeline equivalents (as in the biggest Federation ships in the game), their stats read like late TNG battleships and they are fast, so mixing them in with the other Feds is not a choice.

I did ponder a USS Vengeance-like cross over, the model is actually big enough to dwarf the TOS Enterprise like in the movie.

You get the whole crew as double sided cards, so a real win, very thematic and adds to the hectic, “always options” feel of the films.

The Klingons do not, but their actual presence in the movies was limited, so fair enough.

The upgrade cards are thin and some are a stretch, the Feds not even getting a single Elite Talent for their several captains with a slot, but that is easy enough fixed, I have raided a bunch of cards from my other discarded Mirror packs, the ISS Avenger, Dauntless, Regents Flagship etc, and some mainstream Fed and Klingon packs.

I also added another Klingon captain, Krell from the TOS set with a suitably mean looking Klingon face and the Somraw Commanders ability.

You get two named Klingon ships drawn from canon and two generics, and two Fed generics and two named ships, but they are both the Enterprise (which could also have been a double sided card!?), so as it comes, your second ship has to be a base ship with reduced stats and no special ability.

I had a spare Excelsior card (think I have bought this one five times!) from a recent clearance grab and as one captain option in the Kelvin set is Sulu, I could not help myself (although Pike or Spock probably make more sense).

The Enterprise only has two Crew slots for seven of the best and most fun Crew cards out there, so this means more can be in play, but choices still have to be made. With a second TatV set coming, I may even add an Enterprise-B to this set.

The Klingons get the Kreechong, a bit of a mash-up name. I wanted to use the Somraw again, but the name text came from the Somraw Captain card and was a little big and the Mirror Starship name plate was quite wide.

I was low on ship abilities, as in-almost nothing left, but I had the Enhanced Hull Plating card from the Mirror Avenger, and as I had added that upgrade card to the Kelvin set, it made for a lucky coincidence.

I now have to track down a 4 Shield icon from my last orders coming (A third Vulcan faction pack, the Aj’Rmr, “Yesterdays Enterprise” OP, Turret Terror OP, 3rd Wing Attack Ship, Trap Travesty OP, a huge OP card pack, a second These are the Voyages pack* and a D’Kora card pack). Should be ok.

I now have (if House Rule 1** is applied), enough to make a 130pt Federation fleet.

The problem is, two full strength Federation ships are too much for the Klingons.

Being a split in the timeline already, I thought that maybe I should look to the other races that tend to jump around a bit, this being modern Trek after all, where set timelines are only a suggestion.

Species 8472 come from fluidic space and can potentially connect with any universe and time. Four 38 point named ships are tough for any faction, even the more powerful Kelvin Feds, so a great opponent and scenario base.

Potentially 5 of these. Nasty.

This led to The Borg, also capable of jumping around time and space like race assimilating Daleks. A first contact scenario with the Tactical Cube 138 (acting more like a scout) vs two Federation ships?

I then added the Tholians, who appear in TOS, Enterprise and it’s Mirror episode (with a Constitution class) and are mentioned in other periods, are not a stretch at all. They are weak, but six of them vs a lone Enterprise, maybe coming to the aide of a stricken generic?

Then this;

What if the Kelvin Enterprise had to track down an unknown threat near Romulan space and came across one, then two Drone ships creating havoc? These are slow but agile and tough (maybe too tough for the Enterprise era). This has a slight third movie vibe, with a small and agile semi-swarm vs a single big target and flips the usual Feds vs the Behemoth role. The Romulans could have tried this trick against any period Feds. The models are some of the best STAW has and in their home time line, they are a power house.

Ed. I have bought two more drones and will run them as a 4 ship faction-less, unnamed independent “drone” force of unknown origin (could be Romulan, might not be?).

My “Q” pack has some interesting bits like the World Eater.

Finally, this “thought bubble”. The Krenim from Voyager, who are strong, especially in numbers and bend time and space by inclination, sometimes badly. What if a Kelvin Enterprise was drawn into their failed experiment or, they by choice or error send a small fleet to the Kelvin timeline?

These can also pose a threat to a hastily allied Federation/Klingon alliance if needed.

Suddenly the Kelvin set has some legs and some adversaries that are often a tough fight for other factions, maybe the strong Kelvin fleet can pull something out?

My intention has always been to keep the original cards and ships intact as bought (unless they became officially redundant, like the early Voyager or NX-Enterprise cards), adjust points totals and then make each time and faction limited set as self sufficient as possible with the left overs, be they hacked cards or simply repeats.

*Wizkids had a sale ok! In can make another named Constitution class, the two “red” early Vulcan ships add to my rebel fleet, a Vulcan civil war spin-off I have been pondering based on the events of the last series of Enterprise and the Nebula will flesh out that class, not sure of the name, but USS Kuvak, Soval, T’Pol or another Vulcan sounding one makes sense. The TatV pack has the useless gold ships, so thickly painted I don’t think I can re-do them, what a waste, but over 100 cards, some of the Elite Talents alone can and should be spread far and wide, the Kelvin set in particular!

**House rule 1, applied in low ship count games is that Upgrades can be bought beyond the Upgrade bar limit, but a ship may only have Upgrades up to their bar active at any one time. A Captain may buy more than one Elite, a ship may have several Weapons etc, and sometimes even the same Captain or Crew member may be bought more than once for the same ship (obviously). but the following applies;

• If an Upgrade is disabled, it may not be re-enabled if it is not active. No disabling while it recovers. Time tokens also stay in place on disabled cards (but this is also flexible).

• If a duplicate Crew or Captain card are disabled or lost, their fate is shared by all their shared cards. This is basically the rule for the Kelvin set anyway and I usually sleeve them back to back. The benefits of multiple Crew Upgrades are mitigated by their actual abilities being cost balanced like any other.

• A point limit may apply (usually the ship cost), which is usually plenty, but stops tiny ships getting massive upgrade hits.

• If a card adds something to the ship’s capabilities, it leaves with the card, such as an extra active Crew or Tech slot. You do not loose the Upgrade, just the ability to activate it.

• You use the Captain skill of the currently active Captain.

• If a card contradicts any of this (like Kirks multiple Elite Talent play), either amend the rule or do not play the card or the House rule.
  
  

Mersey To The Rescue, Or Go My Own Way?

My eternal quest for, or more accurately inability to decide between ECW rule sets is ongoing.

The main issue is committing to a basing style that fits with a chosen game system without limiting future changes or dissatisfaction with rule set “A” over “B”. My WW2 rules vexations are similar. Weighed against this is the need to get on with it.

The ECW period has been a problem from day one, which is interesting as I actually have forces fielded in two scales, 15-18mm Museum and 28mm Redoubt, so I have two chances to stuff it up…. !

Rules I have looked at (and own).

Big and glossy, lots of eye candy, but lacking what I need.

WH ECW is too…. Warhammer. I can still do it with either scale, but it lacks the right feel.

Pike and Shotte is too big and also fails to feel right. I can do it, but likely will not.

1644 is another beauty and nice to flick through, but unfortunately I do not like the rules.

The Kingdom is Ours were interesting, but not a contender apart from their eye candy. I may be one of the few gamers I know who own enough dice! Lots of eye candy even if an advertising forum for the publisher.

Field of Glory; Renaissance, is probably the modern equivalent of Forlorn Hope or advanced DBR with lots of polish, lots of books, but without the character. Being a rules heavy and rigid set of rules, no temptation there. Beautiful books, a long way from my happy place, but I bought them (lots of them) cheap on clearance the lists and pics are excellent.

Old school, for better or worse (mostly Pete Berry titles).

Forlorn Hope is close and a favourite of many, but a bit old-school clunky. A great resource and I have most of the scenario books, which are a great and insightful read for any system.

File Leader is about the right scale, the rules are slim, but needlessly convoluted.

Push of Pike, not bad, light and breezy, but again a little old school.

Once upon a time in the West Country is another old school game focussing on 1:1 skirmishes. Too small a scale.

Outlier ideas, system evolutions, oddities.

DBR may be a 15mm option and I have mounted my 15’s for this out of habit. This surprises me, as I have never really engaged with DBM/DBR, preferring DBA if anything, but this one is starting to emerge as a contender after researching other’s recommendations and I am happy my 15’s are mounted for it. It seems to handle mutual support, depth, the push and pull of these battles and the scale medium to large battles on a regiment as tactical unit basis is perfect (100 men a base, may be scaled down to 50 odd for smaller ECW regiments).

Basically, against all the odds, these rules feel right. One element can go it alone, unit composition is reasonably flexible, but regiments can fight together with support. Attrition and morale are integrated, long lines are discouraged in favour of regimental sized facings (from V1), but formations are possible, depth and flank support are key tactics and (after I rename them), all troop types are covered.

The battlefield also looks suitably messy.

I will give them a more approachable and ECW specific re-write, their legalese style does my head in (not alone there) and there are nuances I can add as well as general classes can be called out for what they are like Clubmen rather than Hordes, Gallopers instead of Pistols-fast etc.

Looks right, plays well. My short list of changes includes shifting scale to 50-70 men per element making this unit above about 350-500 men.

Principles of War Renaissance is an old favourite, possibly a contender for 15mm’s as the armies are a little large (12-20 units minimum) for 28mm figs. Basing is fairly irrelevant, so DBR style works.

Victory Without Quarter a free set (although I own the rest of these anyway) and probably my go-to for larger actions with 15mm figs. Simple and logical, easily hacked, looks and feels right. I can use my DBR mounted 15’s and arrange them as suits on sabot bases.

The Pikeman’s Lament. An Osprey “Blue book” by Dan Mersey, a favourite rules writer* (love Dux Bellorum for Arthurian), these are really close to perfect. The simplification of unit sizes and conditions and the loose to no connection of pike to shot are not insurmountable obstacles, but are there.

Very Civille Actions, another free set is another favourite. The game is about right, mechanically ok, but perfect to scale. It is hackable and has some lovely unit cards. It has element removal (a favourite) and morale is more of a consideration (most units broke before they were utterly destroyed, but it can still happen). The rules are written strangely, almost a Q&A, but they are up for a re-write anyway.

The colonel of an idea for my 28’s is developing somewhere between the two above.

Polemos ECW is another big battle set, but designed for 6mm figs. I can push these into play with my 15’s, but I probably will not.

See a pattern here? Lots of options for battle scale element based 15’s, nothing solid yet for my smaller scaled 28’s.

What am I chasing?

For 15’s I am happy enough with several sets of larger scale battle rules (VWQ/POW/DBR).

For my 28’s scaled for smaller actions in Scotland, Cornwall, Wales etc, I am after something that covers these actions but not at 1:1 skirmish level, something more tactical and situational, but not that small.

I would like to field a full regiment in all its parts with attached supports, but not much more.

My Covenanters for example comprise about 50-60 shot and the same in Pike, 6 dragoons, lancers and gallopers, a regimental gun, some command. About 150 figures give or take, so at say 1:5-10, maybe 750-1500 men, perfect for those important but small actions in far flung places, many of them scantly documented.

These figs also have handling issues, being large Redoubt figs, so factoring in pikes etc, a cumbersome if impressive table presence.

Originally, VWQ was of interest, with POW as an option using large diorama bases. These handle well (although single drop can be a heart breaker), but these are bigger scale games.

Very Civille Actions is closer to right, just needs a few rough edges filed off. TPL added some clever ideas and showed the popularity of these small battles.

One area most small scale games fall down on as written is the interaction of pike and shot, such as sheltering or the “Hedgehog”. This seems to be a trend. The Hedgehog, where a block of pike shelter shot under their pikes, seems to be in limbo with many rules of this scale, meaning pike need to intercede a horse charge or the shot fall back, rather than form the Hedgehog. The fact is, there is a lot of dissent on what really happened in the ECW, how well and how often a Hedgehog was formed if at all.

Basing.

I like 2-3 figs on a round base rather than 3-4 figs on square ones. This gives the unit a more “hodge hodge” feel, with more subtle facing and it is flexible when two pike blocks connect. This is always an issue, large element bases are one fix, setting the pikes back so they do not fight the terrain or other units, but “soft” round edged bases can also fix this.

With round bases, you can form rigid formations (the figures on the base are as important), but you can also adapt to odd terrain shapes, contact with the enemy, less rigid facing and the more realistic looseness of most ECW era units.

Movement trays can also be made with “plugs” for the elements rather than being filled up entirely (or not) by square bases. The bases can also be set at slight angles, looking less rigid and more realistic, almost no illustrations of ECW battles show perfect Napoleonic style lines and blocking. It is a natural reaction for the outer files to curl back in self defence and for shot to shoot at slight angles.

This base limit, also facilitates the benefits of small aggressive Forlorn Hope or assault companies working well in confined spaces.

The VCA rules use square bases, but really, they do not need to and my basing nets me 25% more foot bases.

In TPL, a unit with 7-12 figures gets 12d6, a unit with 6 or less get 6d6. I know this is more of a condition measure than actual casualties, but I struggle with it. Disordered units also get a drop and dropping to 6 or fewer figs assumes disorder, but this 6 to 12 jump is too severe for me, I prefer more incremental drops with morale as a separate thing, so if each base has 3d6 fighting capacity giving a 3/6/9/12 (or even 15/18 with bigger units), it feels more realistic and falls in line with VCA. Basing in 3’s helps facilitate this.

Maybe elements could have varying attack dice depending on their attacks efficiency against different defences (Horse v Pike, Horse v Shot etc). Wheels are turning.

This also helps with situations where only bases that can see/contact can fight (probably 2 deep is the limit, maybe at reduced effect unless pike), like contesting a bridge, cramped street or hedge lined road? It even allows for actual base contacts to be accounted for rather than the looser “all figs are engaged” rule of TPL.

If not, I would actually prefer a more abstract “unit condition” system.

The other thing that is troublesome is the Hedgehog formation. If the unit successfully forms up in one (not guaranteed), the Pike defend for both, but casualties can come from either.

I can finish the Covenanters (4 pike, 6 shot, 1 Dragoon, 1 Lancer, 1 Forlorn Hope, 1 Gun, 1 “Mosser”), then the Montrose force (4 Irish Pike, 4 Irish shot, 6 Clan, 1 Mounted, 1 Forlorn Hope), then a Blue and Red regiment, some mounted and a gun or two for the English and I am basically set for any combination of scenario based games.

The reality is, I will probably go with something of my own making (as is often the case with me and many others, hence the plethora of rules out there), using 2-3 fig round bases and a cross between VCA’s element combat determination and loss, VCA/PL’s stat cards, a mix of both activation systems, PL’s less formal formations and a more story telling morale mechanic.

Some core ideas;

• Each element is used to determine fire power and melee values, which is for me flexible than the 12/6 PL system or singles.

• Each element is a strength unit with a stamina or constitution value that has to be beaten in one attack phase to be lost. An element loss also forces a morale test.

• Figures are mounted on circular bases to allow for semi-rigid formations.

• A limit of two ranks involved in most combat (impetus may change that). This is slightly more rigid than PL, but not much so and supporting ranks may help engaged ones.

• Activation should be card draw for units or commands (2-3 units working together under one commander), then a command test for various actions, which allows aggressive, timid, disciplined, untrained troops to have their space (like TPL and VCA’s tests). Some actions would be easy or automatic to apply.

• Discipline and formations would be close or loose, effecting movement and combat and simply expressed as bases touching, bases close but not in contact, so individual element facing matters.

• Morale should be fluid and flexible. This is the fun bit. I want to show the ebb and flow of a battle, the positive effect of victories over defeat, inspirational leaders (or their loss), notable resolve and uncommon valour, contrasting with moments of infectious cowardice and craven leaders etc. When a heavily depleted unit is standing firm or turns their fortunes around, I want to know why! Both VCA and TPL have excellent “character” points, but I feel they lack these in morale. Morale would be a story telling tool.

• Units will not be fixed like TPL, but more stepped like VCA with 2-8 elements.

I could use either published set with the above mods and well might.

My usual aversion to rules as written is a common reality with wargamers, me suffering at least as much as most, but with a 80-90% workable core, the easy path is the hack a little, usually fully ok with the rules writers and an accepted, even expected practice.

https://edmwargamemeanderings.blogspot.com/p/pikemans-lament-resources.html.

Switching to elements allows for fewer dice, slower reduction and the greater likelihood of a morale collapse, while retaining some attrition. Elements may well “melt away”, but that is usually pre-catastrophe.

The main thing is, I can commit to mounting as TPL, VCA, WHECW and Forlorne hope will all take the style.

*Other favourites are Dave Brown who writes rules I feel make sense and covers periods and scales I like. They are tight and solid, but can get immersive (a double edged sword) and sometimes feel “mechanical” until you get used to them. Nothing for the period unfortunately, because if he did, it would likely fit with my way of seeing things.

Arty Conliffe shakes things up and breaks with convention, but sometimes things just do not work as advertised. His Armati rules with their Renaissance expansion just cover the period, but only just. Feels pushed. My 15mm DBR mounting fits this system.

The Sordid World Of Card Hacking.

My Star Trek Attack Wing (STAW) card hacking is done. There is literally nothing left to cut, past or discard.

The idea was to make every redundant card useful, flesh out my sometimes thin factions (I only play series aligned, so no illogical* cross overs of timelines or factions), no power builds of bizarre non-canon mixes.

This meant that after my small purge a few years ago, some periods like The Original Series or Movies or Enterprise, were uneven or just plain……plain.

My rebuild into the STAW universe, a product of holding on to just enough of some periods and basically all of the less popular ones, kept the fires burning and then came some clearance and new releases. It has been a dramatic revival to say the least.

My TNG Fed “battle” fleet for example had about four ships (one Galaxy, One Akira, One Excelsior and one Nebula), which has now expanded to about 20!

There were more ships out there, but at post STAW high tide, they had become scarce and expensive, some of which I had sold for little only recently! What is out there is the same old range of unwanted ships, usually DS9, Enterprise or Mirror universe options. I just bought another clutch of them for $10 a pop, because, well, you will see below.

Ok, too many useless cards, too many holes in my collections and some imbalance has crept in over time in points values specifically.

Scissors and glue, a little black pen run along cut lines and some self imposed rules;

• no repeats in the same time line,

• all changes need to feel right,

• balance needs to be retained, which with AW is not that hard as the system is quite “soft”. Doing this in X-Wing could seriously break the game,

• time moves (mostly) in one direction, meaning you can use old tech in a later period, but not the other way around.

The TNG period is split into DS9 (small ships), TNG (large ships) and Voyager. This helps spread some repeats without change, DS9 in particular getting some young Picard and Riker cards, then TOS and TNG are split, finally the separate Kelvin timeline and Enterprise are sets.

What did not need changing?

Many cards can be split over timelines, meaning duplicate TNG period personalities can appear in TNG, DS9 or even Voyager sets and some long lived races like Vulcans or Romulans might appear one time line earlier or later (Tuvok already does).

Weapon and other non named upgrades are fine with multiples, but some are unbalanced with others (like Photon or Plasma torpedoes at different costs to effect), so care has been taken to split these into different periods like dearer ones into DS9 or an earlier period, cheaper into TNG “battle” for example.

What hacks well?

First up, STAW hacks well because the components are consistent for the most part and the game is a lot less rigid and tight in its approach than X-Wing or Armada. Many mods and abilities are repeated over the range already, most effects are far from game changing and there are fewer “power builds” available.

No Soontir + Palpatine + PTL for example or “Fortress Han”. The game, especially if limited to series aligned sets, feels more like a story telling platform than an alpha strike brawler. I know there was a competitive circuit out there and favourite card combos, but when the game is faction limited, many of the auto builds simply evaporate.

Basically, mistakes in play and Wizkids in design, can be absorbed into the game dynamic and the tidal wave of options tends to drown out lone beacons.

Points values are an easy and often necessary fix. I have run out of usable numbers, one of the things stopping any more changes (but more cheap buys will address that).

Wizkids have not been kind here, changing to much lower values in later ships, splitting some periods into the early and late groups. This is especially annoying with generic ships (see another solution below).

Upgrade bars can be changed easily. This can help minor point discrepancies and other annoyances, like the Tholian Patrol ship with a single weapon slot, meaning it can be either a web spinner or an attack ship (WTF?) or 1-2 point differences in generic ships, where the dearer one can be expanded or made “special” with upgrade options. Generics on the whole can also be spiced up with more variety, making some of them genuinely attractive.

Captains, Crew and Ship cards are generally easy enough. Some can be a melding of two halves, the “fake” laid over the base, which the Romulan and Klingon fleets benefitted from most.

Ship stats are a mix of ideas.

I dislike the generic ships having 1 less shield value. It makes no sense and the often 1-2 point cheaper ship seems of little benefit when you lose both 1 shield and an ability as well as the inconsistency of “0” value ships having nothing to reduce.

In some periods (TOM and earlier), I have made these consistent, in TNG and DS9, generic and named ships are treated as two separate games (and their point costs support this also), Voyager is the exception, things left as they are, seeing as most ships are named and the ones not are used as lesser “filler ships” only as Wizkids intended.

Sometimes things that just bug me are fixed.

The Tholians have had their agility changed to 3 from 2, which seemed off for their small and nimble design as well as adding a single Agility 3 ship in TOS.

The Xindi Insectoid is now 3-3-3-0 for similar reasons, as they “popped” reasonably easily, but should be at least as agile as the NX series.

The NX series were problematic, being relatively small and nimble, but slower and tougher than the bulk of the Xindi and the Romulan Drone ships. I toyed with the idea of changing them from 2-3-3-0 to 2-2-4-0, but will sit on that a while as it makes them quite a bit weaker (Hull points are less effective than either Agility or Shields) and they have several other ways of being a little more robust.

I had fun with my assimilated fleet, boosting some Primary stats and point costs across the board, pretty much every later faction getting a representative (except the Kazon of course).

I have little use for Mirror universe ships generally, often don’t even watch the episodes, their cards being absorbed into main stream sets or bulking out the two Mirror periods I have retained, the Kelvin and TOS original. Both of these have benefitted greatly with some genuine options (the Kelvin did not even come with any elite talents). This gives me a TOS Chekov, a second Yarr and some others like Captain Black for the Enterprise era.

A few others had their abilities re-homed. Captains like the famous but anonymous Romulan Commander (TOS), Charvanek, Picard, Kirk, Archer, Sisco all have alternates from captains of other periods.

I especially like the “desperate” Kirk (Mirror card with Karr ability) or “undercover” Sisco from the mirror set and “Xindi war focussed” Archer (a simple skill 7 Hirogen). These allow you some surprise value while fielding favourite commanders.

A few generic Captains got promoted as mid to low end leaders with abilities because often in limited period sets, Captains are either skill 6-9 or 1, with not much between. This is not unprecedented (Somraw Commander, Romulan Commander, Xindi Councillor etc), allowing all those generics to be a little more interesting. This re-homed the huge redundancy of Kazon, Vulcan, Klingon and Romulan leader abilities.

I find it easier to replace the top picture and faction icon than try to cut around the icon and ability panel.

Obviously if there are going to be clashes like Mirror Kirk v Re-purposed Kirk, the original takes precedence (or maybe they should be the same?).

The Borg, a little weaker than most overall, now have a fleet of assimilated TNG re-paints, mostly ships that did not match the later paint schemes anyway.

Ship names were fun.

The USS Ni’Var for example which means “of two worlds” now appears in TOM (ex-Pegasus) and DS9 (ex-Sabre class).

For exotics, there is a bioship Delta and Theta and a couple of Borg scout cubes extra.

The Enterprise era gets the Voyager NX-04, Federation NX-10, a dawn of the Federation flagship. The Xindi get Insectoid Xindus Prime, Reptilian Dometus, lots of Vulcans (including a rebel faction), more Andorians which are very thin and the Romulans and Klingons, are bulked up with excess ship names from other periods. Captains for the Terrans include Black and Soval from the mirror pack, both considered logical call-ups for a Romulan or Klingon war scenario.

I probably had the most fun with the DS9 small ship fleet. A surplus Sao Paulo with a printing error became the Independent, I added ships to most factions like the Romulan scout Ra, Bajoran scouts Rassin and Bajor, Interceptors 2, 3, 4, 7 and 11, Marquis raider Hiro Kyan, USS Hunter (Sabre class).

These all got points adjustments to the older levels for consistency and as they are in an enclosed space, balance is retained.

The TNG or “battle” fleets are played as either generics or named ships as I have so many, generic ships preferred for big battles.

In generics, they have been either point adjusted and in some cases their upgrade bars changed for balance and variety.

In unique ships I have added as many as I can justify, USS Dominion (Galaxy), Dreadnaught (Prometheus), IKS Mulan, Gath’Oth, Gornar, Ves Batlh (Enterprise era), Reman Shinzon (Scimitar class), Ferengi Lurins Raider, Cardassian Pringor, the mirror universe ship Prakesh, Dominion Gor Nistas.

The TOS period, always a favourite but not favoured by Wizkids has increased somewhat. The Intrepid is represented twice, the newer Vulcan aligned one has been renamed USS Soval, better fitting its Vulcan-centric role. I also made a Dauntless, a Romulan Praetus, Klingon Kronos One (new K’Tinga flagship with the only 4 Primary in TOS but no cloak) and D7 Somraw, Gorn Gos’Orass, the modified the Tholians (see above). The ISS Avenger adds to the Mirror faction (see below) meaning I can easily make 100 pt fleets from any of these factions. I was tempted to make the Avenger the Spectre, but the process was already done and some strong glue fought me.

The TOM period was pretty sparce, being the favourite of the guy I sold some to, but not mine, but thanks in part to the 10th anniversary pack, it got a good fleshing out and is probably stronger now than before. The Enterprise refit now has a sister ship the Spectre, a heavily armed Klingon war variant like the USS Vengeance from Into Darkness (I toyed with the idea of using one of the giant Kelvin ships renamed).

I thought a war-like option could be fun, especially as a Khan hijacking would be tough enough to take on the Enterprise head to head, no sneakiness needed. I also added the Cerberus and Vulcan to the Excelsior class, Ni’Var to the Oberth, and Federation to the Miranda.

The Klingons, being the main protagonist in this period have a huge fleet, as many ships from this period as I could find, some duplicates from the last Klingon boxed set, but minus Chang’s BoP (had it, sold it, but I have managed to replace the bulk of the cards and its effect), so 2 Bop, 2 D7, and no less than 7 K’Tinka class.

This period can now easily field up to 250-300pts a side.

Voyager series, basically intact as the buyer was not a fan, is decent in both Federation and hypothetical allied fleet. I can play a true mixed fleet of options from the Val Jean surviving, two Delta Flyers, the Dauntless becoming a friend and asset, the Prometheus as an alternate or possibly sent to help, or the Raven or Equinox surviving their encounters.

Lots of Hirogens, Kazon, Vidiian, Krenim, Sp 8472, Borg and through a curious Adversaries of the Delta Quadrant duplication of one cardboard panel, but missing the other, resulting in Wizkids sending me a replacement half set, I managed to make two Nasari and Numiri ships and captains.

This set was a little annoying with no generic captain for these factions.

By my calculations, about 50 more named ships, the same in useful captains and by splitting the game into sub-games, more uses for my many other duplicate cards. Probably 200 cards put to use and more options in more periods for more factions with some minor quibbles resolved.

I do not play tournament, usually supply the entire game as it goes and nothing was done to deliberately break the game. If someone has an issue with this, I can just field official cards.

*logical being Borg, Species 8742, Tholians etc who did cross time lines.

An example;

The TOS Mirror timeline, when played time and faction limited is thin, basically most slots are set so no surprises or variety. There is some choice in captain (2 + a generic), weapons are Photon Torps and Phaser Barrage etc. It is really only crew that has some depth.

So, what could I do?

First up, three ships, the basis of a decent 100pt+ fleet.

The ISS Avenger from Enterprise (I only used the original and Kelvin mirror sets, the rest were raided for parts) and a generic with a shield bump.

The generic is changed from an all too squeaky clean Pike to the slovenly Decker (also fixes duplication). Quite a bunch, cold, stressed, mean and apathetic.

Now they need captains, so the three are increased to four with a stray Gardner with a suitable snarl on his face. I also have a Tellarite generic, but I do not think he would be tolerated in that empire.

More captains need more Elite talents so I got creative.

The ISS bought with it Sabotage, to go with Tantalus Field and a special making use of a spare Marlena Moreau card.

Moreau is a crew card but there is a synergy here and as Kirks wife, she could be considered to be an edge for his ambitions.

All suitably thematic and the Moreau plays to her “power behind the throne” role.

House rule #1* is “multiple cards of the same character may be used as long as they all take the same effects, so if Moreau Elite is disabled, both are (place the crew card under the elite until it is re-enabled).

The Moreau Elite is the homeless “Intendants Orders” from the Regents Flagship. Nice Synergy and the cost cut Moreau imparts on herself is balanced out with both cards being disabled if the Elite is played.

There is a short fall in Weapon upgrades pictured with potentially 6 slots to fill, so I found another Photonic Torp.

Crew are also a little thin, only just a full fleet, but with the Orion Tac Officer (likely serving under duress), and a very dead Red Shirt that I forgot to photograph, I have fitting additions.

One option could be to change the upgrade bar on the generic ship?

Maybe only a devious Orion could find a place in this twisted reality.

Finally Tech, where I am over supplied.

Two of the above came from the ISS Avenger (I had two, the other cards went to the Kelvin set).

So, from a single ship with a limited choice in Captains and Crew and little else, I now have a triple ship fleet, almost completely loaded out and capable of even fighting within it’s only ranks (Kirk v Spock) with some substance.

*Rule #1 includes “if a Captain is duplicated, only one of its Captain variants can be used at one time” and they all suffer the same condition (or the dual card rules from the Kelvin pack). Multiples of the same character of course have to be on the same ship.

Rule #2 is the option of “fielding more upgrades than the bar, but only having active as many as the ship’s action bar allows (not counting Elites)”. If a Captain or Crew card add any slots, this increases the active options. If Disabled, an upgrade can only be re-enabled if it is in the active group. This allows the player to field for example, the entire Enterprise Crew in the same game, but decide which to play as needed.

It's All In A Name (or Generational Blindness)

I read some of a very long thread about the USS Intrepid, a TOS series Starship named with 1960’s sensibilities, a Constitution class, crewed by an all Vulcan Crew.

The original question was “why an all Vulcan ship, named as an Amero/Anglo-centric human ship name?

Comments ranged from “maybe it was lend-lease” or “A Vulcan captain might choose an all Vulcan crew”, “maybe it was translated from Vulcan”, to “these ships have a long life and are re-purposed”.

The actual ship itself, taken from the Vulcan faction pack, probably about to meet a similarly sticky end as the one in the series.

I was intrigued that every answer took the historians approach of “it has to have a real and logical answer in the Trek universe?”.

The obvious answer is, it was written in the 1960’s for a TV series aimed at broadening the thinking of, but also having to be harmonious with, middle American post war ideals. Most of the writers and crew had served in WWII or Korea, some on ships like the Enterprise, Intrepid etc. It made sense to them.

Simple as that, it was generationally mandatory that the ship be named after a ship type that made sense to a post war English speaking audience.

It still happens too often.

I very much doubt the writers, even as open minded as they were and known for pushing social boundaries at the time*, had the foresight or even vernacular to think 50 real years ahead.

Ironically, it is the general acceptance now of all things Trek that has elevated even those dated ideals to canon, thus seeming to need real answers for real assumptions.

*Including having Russian and Japanese crew, trying to get a female first officer on the bridge and the first interracial kiss on TV.

Two Very Different Ways Of Segregating 1e X-Wing

I tinker with 1e X-Wing regularly. It makes me happy, keeps me invested and connected.

Two segregations that have become popular around here lately are deliberately polar opposites, but both equally satisfying.

Everyday Heroes uses only generic ships pilots.

The hump that needed to be smoothed was one of PS for the various ships. The Rebels were severely nobbled here with a scattering of PS4 pilots, no 5’s or 6’s. The Empire has a pair of 6’s and several 5’s, the Scum a decent showing of 5’s (a product of limited names to draw from, resulting in a need for better generics like Imperial Guard pilot and Black Sun Ace).

The fix is elegant and simple. The “PS” value becomes a load-out value, which can be spent on EPT’s and Mods only, two upgrades we generally avoid to fix the broken bits of 1e. These are effectively free, factored into the cost of the ship, so a bought benefit, but a benefit no less. If a ship also has an EPT slot, that can be used to buy any value EPT, bought as normal.

Crew and Droid upgrades are also limited to generics and upgrades generally are quite conservative with no Ion effects for example.

“0” cost Mods and EPT’s are obviously removed as are any that pertain to PS variants, limitations or effects and Titles, named or generic are also out.

Initiative is changed to “random order after dials are set”, the d6 roll winner choosing to move and fire first or second in order for each, both having advantages, the first mover/firer obviously gets first shot, but the second gets to manoeuvre in response to the first mover and the Snapshot EPT becomes a big deal.

The Rebels could be accused of being less interesting, less “modified”, but that is fine, it all evens out with larger squads etc. The weaker-cheaper pilots are more predictable, less interesting, the stronger ones can be quite capable and unpredictable.

The Red Sqd X-Wing for example has 4 points to spend on Engine Upgrade (faster), or Expert Handling and Vectored Thrusters (jouster), or maybe Wingman and Selfless (support Biggs), Deadeye, Munitions failsafe and Stay on target (payload Luke).

The PS 6 Imperial Guard pilot could go with Stealth Device and PTL or maybe Targeting Comp, PTL and Lightning Reflexes (faux Soontir) or Autothrusters, Predator and Crack Shot and that is before taking another paid EPT.

The Black Sun Ace Kihraxz, lacks Vaksai, but can still sport 5 points of upgrades and an EPT, so up to 9 points of EPT’s and Mods.

The ships are clean, the mods stand out as points of difference, every missing name can be mimicked.

*

The second group is “Legends”, which only uses named Pilots, Crew and Droids as well as named ship Titles. These are quite literally the stuff of legend.

Legends assumes mundane Droids, Crew etc are always present making the world go around, it just calls out the names that make a difference.

Time for the ships with few or no generic options like the two Phantoms or Captured Tie to shine.

PS is used as usual, but no EPT’s (there is an experimental option) or Mods (the named pilot abilities are the difference). This translates into more mixed squads, just like the movies, which is fine.

Legends also increases the range of options including Ion effects and combat is resolved as normal.

Legends feels like a platform for mixed squads with interesting combinations and still allows for many of the power builds of open X-Wing (Han, Chewie, C-3PO and Falcon Title or Palpatine and Soontir).

If I had to choose, Everyday Heroes could easily be my one ride here, but all options are good on their day.

Last Years Orders Start To Arrive

I have a few things coming for various games, most ordered last year. For some it seems like an eternity ago for some and they are all late (I get why). This week two arrived.

Please excuse the mini rant about long drop times, something only one person is responsible for and it is a first world problem.

The BRP UGE Creatures book. This one was only about a three months since random discovery to arrival, but an auto buy as the core BRP system is still my pilot point for RPG’s.

Not as much a monster manual as a guide to making monsters by class or type and across genre, it is compatible with basically every D100 game I have (with conversion notes for the Chaosium ones). It is colour, nicely presented, as comprehensive as a medium sized, universal system support book can be and I hope they follow it up with a Powers and Gear book of the same quality in the near future.

The second item was an avalanche of TMNT Unmatched boxes.

I went for the lot or I guess in pizza theming “the works”, realising that if I did not, it would never feel complete.

I was there at the beginning of TMNT. I had some 1e comics, went to the movie (original one), even got the Palladium TMNT RPG (still have a pdf of that somewhere). I have not kept up with them more recently, but it is safe to say, I am an early adopter.

The core box “with extra cheese” is the second Unmatched collaborative set, allowing for solo or team play and it is comprehensive. Two villains, two big boards, the Turtles and their sidekicks, various minor henchmen and even peripheral characters handled as events in the initiative deck.

These look true to the comics. The alternates look like later versions.

The “cheese” is an alt-art version of the main play deck, the one that handles the villains and co in the larger game. I have no need for this really, but it is cool to have.

The second box is a little pizza box full of 16 alternate character sculpts (some of the best Unmatched offers) and all the minor characters. This was a must have for me as I have decided to get minis for all sidekicks, so the official ones were a must.

A morning outing with the alternate Turtles. Action poses and more detailed than the originals.

I bought the separate card packs for Shredder and Krang so they can play normally. They will make great enemies and it completes the offer. Interestingly the core box has a hole for these, in fact as usual with Unmatched the box holds all the cards with sleeves on, so way to go Restoration Games. The only thing I have no place for is the alt-art core deck, but I will tuck that away.

Sidekicks. I shot this angle to show Splinter’s tail.

The bad crew, Shredder and Krang alternates, all the henchmen. The Alternate sculpts are better than the core ones, but also more over the top.

The last bit was an underwhelming looking plastic bag full of cool bits. 24 “Hand” Ninjas and other upgraded components (plastic traded for cardboard). These minis are up to the standard of the rest, just smaller, less varied and purple, but a huge upgrade from little marker discs!

I will continue to collect Unmatched sets, the Bruce Lee/Ali set is on the way now and Hellboy is an auto-buy. I was luke warm warm on Lee vs Ali, but then I thought I missed Lee the first time around and he and Ali are the ultimate “who would win out of…” characters that kind of define the system.

Ali vs T-Rex, Hellboy or Luke Cage, Lee vs Electra, Daredevil or Shredder, plus a temple and boxing ring. All good.

Only Captains Chair (months late now), DCeased Gotham Knights (even more overdue) and the standee upgrade box for Cyclades, disappointingly absent when ordered before Christmas.

Soon Grasshopper, soon.

Brushes Are Wet Again.

After a year of saying yes to a lot of jobs that earned little, but cost a lot of time (it’s called video people, it eats time like a goose poops), I have managed to re-kindle my miniature painting bug over the holidays, with more realistic goals and standards set with a desire to get stuff on the table.

My cunning angle of attack will be to do the scenery first. This makes sense as the drive to add figures to an already great looking game space is always stronger than painting figures and then having to build the surface and sets for them to be used.

Step one is to take stock of what has already been done, which is as usual, more than I remember doing.

I have completed enough to at least get on with for now, but I have failed in the past to let these accomplishments push me on to greater things.

U.S. troops in Iraq or Afghanistan. Cigar box “Desert Town” mat and home made buildings.

“Avengers Assemble!”, some remounted Heroclix. If you are picky, there are plenty of excellent paint jobs to go with or touch up if needed and it is nice to get some pre-painted figs on the table (the big job is the rules).

It’s a bugger when you turn up to work for a modern skirmish game and the player-gods decide to throw a dinosaur at you!

18mm ECW Museum figs, one of two sets for the period, the other in 28mm Redoubt.

My cowboys and some of their substantial town.

Some Yanks in Italy. Britannia figs in classic 20mm.

The enemy view of same. The Cigar Box range of mats includes some photo realistic and these more model-like ones. All do their job well and contours are firm insulation foam hills placed under, which look great.

20mm Britannia Pacific marines. This mat is “Redwood forrest”, but doubles as rich jungle Pacific.

More Clix, Hellboy this time (look behind you guys!).

Some excellent Foundry foot Serjeants. I failed to get mounted figures, so a castle or seige skirmish only.

Next is finish the projects that are either closest to my heart and interests or my biggest passion projects.

The list is daunting, but also exciting, with priority given to;

• 28mm Weird West using Malifaux 1e with some other figs (Reaper mostly), probably using Savage Worlds, Haunted West, or something home brewed for rules. I went to gift these and ended up collecting more, so I must love them! A western town (have) and a Dickensian village (have).

• 5mm scale giant mechs using a large set of Heroclix Mech Warriors traded with a friend. This is mostly a remount job, with selective touching up. I will use 6-10mm scenery here.

• 15mm DBA (2.0/2.2 or 3.0 edition or Armati at a pinch). A tournament set using double sized (24 el) armies, covering Polybian Roman v Carthage v Successor (various). This is already under way, but stalled at fiddly Successor shield designs, so I will simplify and just get it done. Really like the rock-paper-scissors vibe of this game and these armies cover most of the troop types. Needs only a little clearly defined scenery on a set board size (have).

• 20mm WW2 Europe, Russia, Pacific and some Vietnam, which will be mounted for two game system families, with element = section bases (BattlegroupPanzer Grenadier/O Group/Crossfire/Battlefront) for operational level (battalion v battalion) games of over 100 figs each (option of Coy level with element = team) and one with figs mounted as singles for 1:1 to 1:10 scale for smaller 20-60 fig forces (Rapid Fire style). I have enough figs for both (indeed doing all my units the same is a bit redundant as I have 10-12 German units for example) and I like both styles. Again these are partly complete, just need some application applied. Big one this, a ruined village, city ruins, farms jungle etc, lots to do. I have done the jungle, which gets the Pacific and Vietnam out of the way.

• 28mm “Gangs of Old Kroy” rat wars game, using my huge but now out of date Warhammer Skaven armies. Rules may be a bought set, or my own. The Dickensian village above.

• 32mm Supers and Supernatural game using re-purposed Heroclix. This one is very much about the scenery, the rules and remounting already painted figs. I have a full city to finish (not as bad as it sounds) and about 100 figs to re-mount (also not too bad). The rules are already written in my head and in some form in a file somewhere and they work, they just need finalising. Anything can work, but the big city, a smaller, darker one, desert with various towns and the jungle are mostly ready.

• 28mm Arthurian using the big base Dux Bellorum system. Dark age village done.

• 28mm ECW using………. a system of some sort, possibly A Very Civille Action, still not sure. Middle age village and farms, partly done.

• 28mm moderns. I built up a comprehensive arid, jungle and urban range mostly around Eureka figs with others to fill holes. Afghan village, jungle and modern city as above.

• Finish my Armada fighters and Attack Wing re-paints. Scenery mostly card stock.

• Board games like Zombicide Black Plague, DCeased or Marvel, which I decided to paint for some reason. I am always surprised when I open up an old game like Pandemic Cthulhu or Batman Talisman and find the figs painted, but Zombicide was a monster in every sense with over 300 figs. Lesson learned, once started…. . It is not for nothing I have lately preferred the standee options.

There are plenty of other projects that hopefully will follow, some nearly complete;

• 28mm cowboys (complete town, just need rules).

• 28mm Dark Ages (complete), using an official Dark Age variant of Lion Rampant. Dark age village and tower.

• 18mm ECW using which ever mounting system the 28’s do not use, probably Principles of War or Victory Without Quarter (modified). I picked up some cheap and interesting “DnD buildings”, that turned out to be closer to 15mm than 28.

• 15mm huge army ancients, possibly with the Tactica or Armati rules or something of my own creation. These were originally a tactical primer of an early Roman Empire legion vs various barbarian, horse tribe, skirmisher, mixed and Civil war opponents. I later added a mid Imperial Roman vexation. Each force numbered over 300 figs (about 80-100 DBA elements) and looks impressive on the table.

• 15mm ACW. Big AB armies, no idea on rules yet, but plenty of options*. Some American farmsteads and bits for this and below.

• 15mm AWI. Similar mixed Essex, Hallmark and Washington Wars armies (some are my first minis).

• 18mm Napoleonic Peninsula, War of 1812 and Russia, using 1:20 scale rules of which I have a few sets. My slight interest in Napoleonics is based on smaller fights with larger units using AB figs and one of several excellent rules sets. I have a plastic Hougemont, some other buildings and mats*.

• 15mm late Crusader. Desert mat and some dwellings.

• 6mm various (basically every period I did not do in another scale) from WW2, colonial, Crimea, Samurai to Aztec and more. 6mm has its own scenery, yet to be done.

• 10mm Fantasy, a full set of old Warmaster figs.

• Sci-Fi bits in various scales.

• 15-18 other bits, some a bit unlikely.

• 12mm Sun King a beautiful little hallmark set.

*The base of the games are a set of Cigar Box cloth mats, with some neoprene and cloth for naval, space etc.

My Gripping Beast Arthurians (all the older metal range) need re-mounting onto diorama bases for Dux Bellorum. I prefer the rules and it reduces handling damage).

A 6mm Samurai castle. It seems I covered a lot with this scale years ago that I had managed to forget. Just needs an army to surround it.

*One of the issues I have faced often is rules. Surrounded by purchased options, I ten to go with a heavily modded take or my own, which can bog things down. Part of the new offensive is the make a smart choice and get on with it. Smart means a basing style that can be used for a few.

Revised, Updated And Glorious, But Still Flawed.

Looking closely at my SciFi RPG options, some things have become evident.

Mongoose Traveller 2022 edition, was first cab off the rank, but it is unworkable and a shining example of a big, glossy, overpriced but under produced book that sits in my wheelhouse of things that most annoy me about this hobby.

The big glossy tome, with its main enemy behind.

Some background.

I love Traveller, like a person coming home from a long career travelling loves their home town, it was there when I first discovered my immediate world and flavoured my view of the rest as it expanded.

It was my first RPG (before TableTop needed to be inserted in front) when I got the little black box of three books and it was my favourite for a long time, a beacon of systemic logic, when compared to D20 games in particular, games I did not mesh with from day one. I spent many a school lunch time with friends discovering our made up universe, such as it was.

It supported the fiction I was reading (A Mote in Gods Eye, The Stainless Steel Rat, 2000AD comics, Chronicle of the New Sun, Dark Tower), what I was watching (Star Wars, Blake’s Seven, Blade Runner) and it was solidly grounded, while still open to much adaption. The original boxed set lacked any type of illustration, literally leaving it up to players to decide what it looked like, the front cover text of the beleagured Beowulf creating an emotive “mind picture”, but nothing else.

It was not until Call of Cthulhu (2-3e) that I discovered another system family that sat as well with me.

I have had almost every edition of Traveller, played Striker, 2300AD, Mega, some other spin-offs and generally feel content with their simple mechanics.

The 2008 Mongoose or 1e edition was an automatic buy and it sat really well with me mechanically and aesthetically. It suited my preference for matt finish, low preciousness games, with retro mono art that reminded me of my roots in gaming.

Love the comic book style pics.

I like/need games I can tinker with and make notes in the margins of, games without overly strong opinions baked in (unless that was why I bought them*), nor the all too precious high gloss pages that scream “leave me alone, I am perfect”, while sporting a bunch of typos. It was one of the games I would highlight when dissing the big glossy tomes I have a love-hate relationship with.

The 2016 2e edition of MT broke the golden rule of Traveller. The starship design rules were no longer included in the core book. Even with the pdf of High Guard at hand I mostly ignored it and recently gifted it when I got the newer version.

I assumed all would be good, I assumed a lot.

I recently chose MGT2.2022 as my main SciFi squeeze, until reality hit. There are no robot rules, not even an example of one, not even any real mention and worse, there are not even any drones listed in equipment. Star ship ones are, but not others and the Remote Op skill is included.

There are some glaring omissions (Battledress is talked about but the actual listing of it is missing), some floor plans are wrong, lines of text missing or incorrect etc, which is just poor for a re-boot book with little time pressure on it (no one even expected it, so no excuse at all).

Lovely illustration of Battledress armour, shame they forgot to include any specs of it in the actual book!

The book is sublime, which that makes it all the worse for being flawed and sorry, but errata does not cut it, not at this price, in this well trodden space.

The 2008 version is actually better in many ways with some examples of drones and robots, basic rules for more, more Alien races, less railroading of a look and fewer fixed ideas (or ones that sit better with me), more of that old school pulpy feel and I can add notes in the matt paper borders (even mark errata points), which helps, because it does need some.

It lacks the harmonious mechanics of 2e, but has some clever sub-systems and it all works fine with a few tweaks.

A study in two styles, the later version is up to date by modern standards, but the older presentation has it’s own thing and for someone bought up on the art of 2000AD comics, Chris Foss and John Berkey art, it sews so many creative seeds.

Now don’t get me wrong, I want to like 2e and had a plan laid out to deal with no robots (a post Human vs AI ascendency war, resulting in a human win and suspicious anti-AI culture like Dune), but I am not spending over $100au per book just to then over-do some more robots, drones, vehicles, star ships and gear, also likely with their own annoying typos and omissions.

There should have been at least some skeletons, a few samples to build from in the core, like the 2008 version has plenty of, summed up in a single paragraph.

I am happy, I even prefer to do my own thing on the fly with some basic hints, but nothing at all is a little too much of a stretch.

MGT1e is tempting, but maybe a stretch for long term play and it looks like I have lost all my pdf’s of the support books.

Above are ship floor plans from MGT1e, M-Space and MGT2e. The first two are functional, the MGT2e ones are beautiful for sure, something I may use in another system. The MGT1e ones photo copy well and can be used with minis.

So, I am going with M-Space instead for a several reasons.

• It is more complete in scope in one book and open ended enough to accomodate my needs. What is missing has usually been covered in another compatible game and there are many*. There is nothing to say Cthulhu, Mothership, Luther Arkwright or others cannot be integrated into an M-Space game effortlessly.

• It has low preciousness (but it is still beautiful). Matt printed with large margins, so notes can be added, even printed pages inserted (and I have two copies, three with the older edition with pdf’s, all for less than the Traveller 2e core book).

• The vibe of the book is more emotive than prescriptive. If you start with a story idea first, you do not hit that baked in Traveller 3rd Imperium thing.

• I can apply it to anything from alternate past (Tales from the Loop/Electric State/John Carter/H.G. Wells), the present (Dresden Files, X-Files, Laundry Files, in fact all the files), Star Wars pulp, Star Trek utopian future or Sci Fantasy as is or by applying any number of other compatible games*.

• I prefer the art even though much of it is abstract and a little sparse. I get a Scandi-1980’s classic SciFi art feel from it, which is more my style, just the cover of the Companion for example gave me an adventure seed.

• The systems are more interesting and comprehensive, especially non combat systems, like extended conflicts and again, I can draw from so many other systems in the extended family.

• It is cheaper and less greedy, not needing you to buy whole books for small insights into elements that should be in some way in the core. Some stuff is even free and there is a direct line to the creator.

• I prefer how tech is handled, with a regular level of tech level 12-ish (Traveller measure) as standard, Q-tech as the optional “ancient” tech and no explicit measures. Sometimes the TL ratings in Traveller make little sense to me, especially with current advances where we may well have sentient AI before we have a settlement on the moon!

• MGT 1e can be used for inspiration.

The art in M-Space hits that “lived in” look of Star Wars, with a more up to date, if Scandi twist.

Once again, the ease of a D100 system with its comprehensive coverage of genre, intuitive and easy to grasp mechanics, multi game cross-compatibility and approachable offerings has won the day. They have even addressed the back story character gen of Classic Traveller in the Companion.

Art can be more than a stylised space suit, dogfight or street scene. It can be emotive, deep and thought provoking. The artists of the 1970’s to 2000’s and the current Scandi artists tend to add context, humanity and scale.

*Mythras/Imperative, Destined, Legend, Luther Arkright, Worlds United, After the Vampire Wars and most BRP titles.

Sci Fi TTRPG's, What To Pick And Why

With the holidays on us, I am back into gaming as a good distractor and creative outlet.

Sci-Fi TTRPG’s have always been a favourite, but I tend to get stuck on rules sets.

M-Space is a D100, Mythras Imperative spin-off that really puts me in the right head space (so to speak), but it is a building block generic and hard edged game, less Star Wars (maybe a little Andor), more early Trek, Alien or Interstellar, so most games tend to lean towards dystopian futures, darker themes. I used to collect Sci-Fi art books in the 80’s like Trevor Webb or John Berley or the more recent scandi works by Simon Stalenhag and this reminds me of those (Clarence Redd, the author being one of those).

Mothership takes M-Space style gaming into an even darker space. The system is also D100 but simpler and the game more a one-shot or short campaign style. It is Alien with licence filed off, deadly, disheartening and highly xenophobic, ideal for what it is, if just a little limited in scope. Regardless of the system chosen, the scenarios available are excellent and highly adaptable.

Savage Worlds (Sci-Fi Companion). This one bothers me as it was meant to be “the one”, the pulpy Sci-Fi fix-all with direct connection to the SW system tree, but it has fallen away a little. I think that is down to me forgetting why I bought the companions in the first place.

Originally I only bought the companions to add to the core for things like kids-on-bikes, supers or supernatural pickup games that needed more…… stuff, but I now feel swamped by the weight of it all. It is a great, flexible and fun system and it and M-Space effectively cover the whole gamut of genre and styles, but neither add any specific theme.

I also have a fan based Star Wars hack, worth a look.

Traveller (2022 revision). This one is an old favourite in a well liked form*, a game I have owned every single version of except for Marc Millers T5, which looks more like a science reference book. The big thing that held me back was a lack of AI and robots without buying the specific book for them, but I guess in hind sight, that may be a good thing.

One tension I find hard to reconcile in Sci-Fi RPG’s and fiction is the continued ascendency of humanity over AI. Even now, that seems unlikely unless we as a race choose to retain control for no other reason than to protect our own relevance.

Using robots and computers as human controlled tools only, the Traveller core book champions biological races over AI in a homage to past SF tropes. The Robots book can add more options, but I am not keen on going down that rabbit hole ($100au+ per book, lots of books). The reality for our own world is already much less bio-autonomous.

I am reminded of the religious level tech rejection of Dune and the ascendency of the Human spirit mantra or the quaintly clumsy semi-sentient Droids in Star Wars**.

Traveller (2008 1e). I have a soft spot for this clunky, unpolished 80’s homage to the “little black box” OG version. The line drawings, the overall feel and layout all take me back and in some ways it is actually a little bit better than the new version, such as Robots and Drones actually getting a mention, basic rules even. The mechanics are crude when compared to the latest 2e print, but they work ok.

Star Wars (d6 WEG version probably ReUp). I have the anniversary original and ReUp pdf and some other bits for this. Might play it for fun, especially after seeing Bad Batch and Rebels.

BRP for a Dark Tower, Shadow of the Torturer style far future Earth fallen game. This has been boiling away for years, bringing together all the legacy D100 game styles (Hawkmoon, Elric, Future Earth etc) and anything else I want to add. BRP Creatures is on the way soon-ish, which may well cement this one.

Frontier Space, a D00 lite game is of some interest, but I feel the number of games before it will deny it seeing daylight.

Star Trek Adventures; Captains Log, is a solo adventure generator for the STA game and for me a gentle toe dip into a game that scares me, because I could very easily get eyeballs deep in this one. The 2d20 system does not appeal greatly, but the scenario generator does excite and it looks to be, at least in part, fairly system agnostic. I could also add the Core book for deeper mechanics, but I know where that could lead.

Things I do not have (yet).

Cortex Prime (on order). This is possibly the best generic game for Sci-Fi, offering both systemic and thematic flexibility as well as rounding out my Marvel Heroic RPG system (which lacks char-gen rules). This is a clever system that hits a sweet spot for me of being highly narrative, but at the same time mechanically sound and you basically build the game parameters as you go.

Scum and Villainy, is a Firefly, Star Wars, Dark Matter-like rogues in space game that appeals on many levels. Based on the Blades in the Dark, Forged in Darkness system, a game I have avoided so far, wishing to keep my system choices tight, it has hit a sweet spot for me with their SF and Military version Band of Blades, so maybe it’s a thing and unlike STA, it is contained.

Tales from the Loop/Electric State are Year Zero Engine systems that I do not have in any form, both based on firm favourite books I do own (with others). I feel M-Space/BRP/Cortex can do the hard, but grounded SF they are based on, no need to get the game books, just use the originals for inspiration and eye candy. I might get Electric State as a one-shot game generator and it has the easiest system in the series to grok. The reality of these is the original works of fiction (and others) are enough to get me going.

Alien, also using the YZE system from above, is effectively the same as Mothership and I do not need two versions of the same thing, even if the mechanics do look cool. Unfortunately I left my run a little late and it looks like the “Evolved” edition has lost some of the original’s clarity.

Games that will not be looked at;

Star Finder and Stars Without Number, are basically DnD in space so no interest here.

Anything else, because this is enough!

*

From here, it looks like M-Space or Cortex will be used for some grounded games (The Loop etc), Traveller 1e for a space cowboy sandbox in true ‘80’s SciFi style (with Drynax maybe) and Savage Worlds for a pulpier version, more Guardians of the Galaxy.

*It may be because I had the original “little black box”, but to me Traveller needs to be self contained, something they lost in the 2016 version, which I have since gifted. The 2022 revision is better in many ways and feels complete again, except for basically zero robot or drone rules (but I have pdf’s of the 2016 books).

**My take is the second Empire fell when biologicals rebelled against sentient AI (maybe the last Emperor was an AI and decided humanity was a servant race or surplus to requirements?), so after a protracted war and the collapse of all things civilised, the AI were beaten (a massive computer Virus maybe or something more kinetic) and humanity turned its back on all things non-biologically sentient, even limiting or banning cybernetic implants.

Robots are seen as tools only if allowed (anything in human guise is highly sensitive), computers have to be human controlled and non sentient/humanoid in nature and are heavy policed, with massive stigma and paranoia common and overt enforcement of these rules, some parts of the fractured Empire even going further.

This has resulted in a loosely cobbled together “Empire” limited to TL12, with slow, cautious advancement without the aide of AI. Any tech higher than this is preciously guarded and mysterious with little scope to repair or improve on it as the tech is too advanced to trust.

Ancient AI may be a good protagonist, rarities and story drivers, maybe even an AI enemy re-emerging from the depths (2nd Empire strikes back)?

The Trials And Tribulations Of Generic RPG's

Generic RPG’s are a terrific way to enter the TTRPG hobby, but they can also be a bit of a double edged sword.

One one hand you have the world (universe, alternate reality) at your finger tips, on the other hand you have to colour in the world picture yourself, sometimes even draw the lines.

I have found that quite often, generic games draw me in for their flexibility, their promise and their lack of constraints (hate constraints, but like guide lines and flexibility). I think that free-form structureless structure is my ideal.

The problem is, I usually stall at the creative bit, not because I am lazy (well, not only), not because I do not have any decent ideas, but because I often do not know where to start, where the lines need to be drawn. The BRP UGE is a prime example. It, like most generic games, has tools to help, but I find it hard to commit, ironically often turning to the ready made worlds on the lagger system tree like Cthulhu or Runequest.

Generic RPG’s often struggle to give you some character, a feeling of the type of game they are capable of providing without leaning too far one way or the other. Savage Worlds is a good example of a generic game that claims to be able to do any genre/mood/style, but is actually better at providing a pulpy style to any basically genre, other styles are very much down to player and GM pay-in.

The BRP UGE in contrast is better at realistic simulations. You can push either peg into either hole, but why force it?

This also realistically leads to some generic systems simply not being able to do some things well. Want to play a Guardians of the Galaxy style SciFi game, then Savage Worlds rocks. Want to do something more grounded like Tales of the Loop where action is less dynamic, but more threatening? Best look at a game like M-Space (Mythras) or BRP.

A themed game saves you much of the creative brain work, but paints you into the corner of having to learn its lore, adhere (mostly) to it’s requirements and tell your stories against a fleshed out backdrop made from another’s imagination.

Like most people I often come up with ideas when reading other peoples works.

I find alternate roads, ones that better suit me, but rarely find a perfect “as written” work. This is often rule zero of a game, the reality that players and GM’s will stray, so no issue really, I guess it is just a matter of where do you accept and where do you create.

Do I need to remake structure rather than build from the ground up to be truly free?

This tends to work best when you already like the theme, such as Tales from the Loop or Tolkien, but it can be a compromise in the worst way if the theme jangles and the mechanics are not worth the effort or worse, you break what you like.

My advice to myself, and to others if it helps, is to start small. Everything great started small by the very nature of things.

This is how we used to play. Small adventures with small characters that explored their world as it and they evolved into larger entities.

This is how Forgotten Realms or Runequest started, with a village, then a nearby forrest or row of hills housing a temple or ruin, then maybe a nearby city, a kingdom, then a continent or even another time or dimension and so on.

Savage Worlds is ideal here.

This system allows the players to start creating the feel of the game they want to play from minute one, the GM guiding and learning from them equally. The world, it’s parameters, its limitations will set themselves as they go, the massive depth of loosely themed companions are just there to draw from.

I have looked at several of the more themed sets like Deadlands and chosen against going into them, because apart from the price (hard to get in Australia and quite expensive, especially if you get drawn into all the fluff), the baked in theme does not hold me. I like SW for it’s “write it as you go” generic nature.

Sometimes though, worlds collide in the best way.

Haunted West popped onto my radar today, while circling Scum and Villainy and Electric State on a local website (Campaign Supplies), two game styles I know I can do with systems I have (Traveller, SW or M-Space), simply by adopting the theme and going from there.

Some games, as lovely and polished as they are, are really only a one-shot engine or short campaign at best. Other systems can mimic their domain without such constraints.

Anyway, back to Haunted West.

It is a D100 game, with the system modernised in the ways I like. It is much like Deadlands, but without the supernatural baked in so heavily to the theme (it tackles everything from ancient European Horrors to Aliens, but all are optional and their level of influence is up to the GM).

It also tackles a lot of mature themes maturely and it has a ton of background. Finally it also allows several play styles from crunchy miniatures and measurements to mostly narrative play.

It was a reflex buy and I anticipate its arrival immensely.

A little of this and a little bit of that, but nothing too heavy handed, almost a themed generic game.

The secret sauce was a generic enough game with a not overly opinionated theme, well produced and deep (800+ pages), well priced at less than twice the price of your average book (or as it goes, a single SW companion in Aus.) with more than twice the content, and an improved version of a system I like with play style options.

It is all in the mind I guess.

I tend to stumble with generic games through analysis paralysis and grind to a halt with themed ones faced with a wall of pre-made stuff I want to do differently or were simply insurmountable walls of text like the Iron Kingdoms RPG (with 100 pages of history up front). The trick is of course, to just play and let it work itself out.

Commitment to creativity is the key, setting boundaries and focussing on them is the lock.

When do generic games shine?

When the theme, no matter how compelling, is probably not enough to hold a full system or longer, deeper game. An argument could be made for example, that Mothership or Electric State are both games that are built around a single premise, one the space hulk monster hunt, the other a road trip across a perilous land. Both could easily be done as a single scenario in a bigger game, but that brings us to what makes themed games different.

Themed games are usually tighter and more on point.

Looking at the two mentioned above, they shine as one-shot games, the mechanics are honed to the theme, the theming itself is myopic, Mothership excelling in dark fatalism, Electric State feeding off the excellent inspiration provided by the book.

Simulating Mothership with for example M-Space is perfectly possible, nearly ideal even, but you need to set the scene and look to the rules for options. Electric state is much the same, M-Space could do it and Tales from the Loop or even The Labyrinth (a later book). There is of course a sub-theme effect of generic games.

Savage Worlds could cover a Mothership-style scenario, but it would be hard to avoid either a nihilistic or pulp-comedic vibe, because the mechanics promote that. It would be possible to darken the mood (as prescribed in the books), by removing some of the elasticity of the system, but it needs to be overtly done.

M-Space is already a harder, more realistic and therefore less forgiving game so it could be easily shifted to Mothership style, just adopt a Call of Cthulhu mentality, one where survival is not guaranteed, the adversary is not a push over or even beatable. It might even be a better game as the players may go in with a less “doomed” frame of mind from the start.

So, a good generic game is not only a decent set of flexible and comprehensive rules, but it must also be good at adapting to different themes. This is tough as art, font, previous history and any built in bias, intended or not, will influence the user from page one.

For me it often starts with a single picture.

A Jim Burns work from the 70’s. Plenty of inspiration here.

Ed. I have just purchased a second hand copy of the Cortex Prime system book. I was not in the mood or head space for more systems, but this one has me intrigued. The system is not only a generic set of rules, but a “building block” game system.

You actually design the game around the theme you want to support and it has a proven track record with games like Marvel Heroic Role Playing (A game I have what little was published, but it has no char-gen rules) and Firefly, a favourite series and a theme I had in mind with my hunt for a good SciFi game. I was never interested in Smallville, but I now get that that very asymmetrical dynamic could only be handled well by a handful of systems and this is one of them.

It uses a Savage Worlds style dice range in small pools, but the characteristics, groups of important stats, skills, affiliations, special abilities and motivations are up to the player and GM to design to suit the game. Want a game heavily influenced by interactions (Delta Green, Reign, Tale from the Loop), then add them and name them as suits (family, self, friends or company, state, family).

I have a feeling that the creative stall I suffer from is rooted more in setting the feel of the generic game than anything else, Cortex Prime sets the style in char-gen, so it may well fix that.

It also seems to be probably the easiest game to port other games across to, like Tale, or Electric State and adds the char-gen rules needed to add characters missing from their unfinished Marvel game.

Is this the ultimate any genre, any style, any mechanical platform game? We will see.

Into The Unknown, Knowing More, Wishing For Something Different.

The first expansion for Into The Unknown (ITU), is on the way finally (it never made it, but Wizkids kindly replaced it without question). I have a great respect for this deep and well constructed game, but feel I may never get a chance to play it properly.

Gt my heart racing when I first saw it, but things have gone a little soft over time.

Unlike Captains Chair, a game designed to be played 1v1 or solo, it is a game that may need two well versed players in both Trek, especially the Dominion War and the game mechanics to really shine.

The roll out is interesting, but I feel, a little odd.

The Enterprise makes sense as does the Defiant, although needing to buy the expansion just to complete the core cast is a little crap. No Riker and some others on the Enterprise, especially one with the Hathaway included seems like a cash grab.

The Dominion make a decent opponent, but why not start with a less specific and massively more flexible Klingon or Romulan adversary?

The expansion is equally vexing.

Another Defiant class?

Why not a Romulan Scout or Science ship to go with the Romulan included or even a K’Tinga or K’Vort for the Klingons?

The next expansion is not on my must get list on any level. Cardassians and more Klingons. No thanks, I am done there. Romulans maybe, but not more Klingons.

The separate ships are also strangely annoying.

A second Enterprise (that does not cosmetically match the other ships) seems like a needlessly convoluted collectors piece, that could have been an Akira, an Excelsior, or maybe a Nebula, and why a Bird of Prey in a cloaked version when more than one ship can cloak?

With another B’Rel BOP coming in the next expansion I wonder again if more variety could have been better? It does not help that the Klingon battleship and Cardassians generally don’t interest.

Collectors pieces, not useful additions, with no other useful game additions included like scenario, crew or captains, apart from the ship panel.

What would I have liked to have seen?

First up I would have liked the ships a little smaller and horror of horrors, fudge the scale a little.

Why?

Because the Borg, the D’Deridex class, Dominion Battleship and some others ships will be prohibitively large, possibly never made because of it. This may have meant making some of the little ships slightly bigger, or not.

They are lovely to look at, but after so much effort was applied to scale them correctly with each other, they are comically oversized on the play table. Sure the Defiant would be tiny, but I have a absolutely minute Millennium Falcon and other rogues in Armada that make me happy and to my mind, that only makes their presence on the table all the more intriguing (they are a fudge also).

It is funny to me that they have become so obsessed with scaling, when the actual representation on the table is so abstractly absurd. They should all be unrecognisably small at true table scale.

I do appreciate the true to scale effort, but smaller would have worked as well and to me increases the feeling of tiny points of light in the vastness of space (and the movement tools etc may have been easier to make?).

The game is good enough to stand on its merits with just some attention paid to avoiding the Attack Wing “scale all over the place” thing.

Star Wars X-Wing and Armada both made small compromises and got away with it, they just avoided clangers like the Delta Flyer at 15% the size of the Scimitar or Borg Sphere or the TOS Enterprise about right to the TNG version, then other ships wildly off with it.

Personally, I would have loved them to do themed sets that could be integrated-or not, as the player chooses or singles like Attack Wing with missions included. This would allow players like me to just cover periods of interest (TOS, TOM, Voyager, DS9, Enterprise).

I would pay for a core game and twice what they are asking for their very well priced single ships if there was more value included in each and I could build up faction specific sets and only repeat ships if I actually wanted to.

I would love, love, love a Kirk vs Khan vs Chang set, as this is probably the best game produced for those conflicts.

The future of this game will be interesting. It is admittedly an itch-scratcher, a dream come true for some, but I am not expecting it to end well.

Would I, an admitted Trek lover and Attack Wing hoarder really spend $500-1000au in this space if the bulk of the ships are not actually of interest (the Dominion war is a stretch for me)?

Captains Chair is another I am loosing patience with.

Shran, but no Archer, then Kirk, Khan and Pike, but no TOS Klingons or Romulans. Nothing Voyager or Borg mentioned at all, two Discovery captains, but both Federation, two Lower Decks captains and nothing Dominion yet. Way to milk it Wizkids, running out of care factor here, no matter how good the game is, this “scatter gun” coverage is tedious.

Really need a set with some TOS enemies, a Voyager blip and some Borg (the ideal solo opponent?). Some series specific sets like Xindi war, Voyager, TOS and TNG maybe.

Ed. The first expansion re-send arrived today, late, but welcome. It finishes the Enterprise crew, adds some Fed ships, Klingons and a sole Romulan. I am done here now, lots to explore elsewhere.

The Fine Art Of Cutting Your Losses And (Hopefully) Increasing Your Gains

Game collecting, or I guess collecting of any type is sometimes a fine art.

Do you obsessively always get everything available or just the bits that interest? Do you go for the “maximum” experience or always seek better balance?

I try with all my heart to strike a balance. I am happy to stop at a point of sufficiency short of completeness as long as that point makes sense and feels right.

Examples;

My Eldritch Horror set has the core game and all three of the small expansions, but not one of the three “big box” ones. The pretty universal vibe from the community was the small expansions added much without growing the footprint of the game, one is even considered near mandatory to make the core game work*.

The larger expansions add table hogging extra boards, eat huge amounts of time and add complication and one is guilty of the “big empty box” syndrome common with some games.

The ideal starter or even end point would be the core and Forsaken Lore, then maybe a second small expansion, either Signs of Carcosa, Cities in Ruin or Strange Remnants. Opinions were divided which, so I went with all of them.

Everdell core got all the small expanded game card set expansions Rugwort, Extra, Extra! and Legends (through the BGG store as I missed them initially) and some Rugwort Rats from Etsy.

I then picked up Bellfaire to open the core game up a little (the ideal example of an expansion to me, with more options, but no real change in the core dynamic**) and then I waited for Mistwood for solo play. Mistwood adds an AI opponent, or a ghost player and no extra boards.

This felt just right, but I have just purchased Newleaf.

I was avoiding the big expansions that changed the core game, but Newleaf comes with some extra useful content (core and legend cards, events), ways to play them with an integrated theme that sits ok with me and ignorable other bits.

I can take what I want, much the same as Bellfaire. It also has butterflies, bats and bees, love those guys.

Spirecrest and Pearlbrook are not going to happen. My set is balanced and punches above its weight.

Mostly enough.

Star Wars Villainous. This is a tough one. The game is far from balanced in any form. The characters play fine and to theme, but a strong character or a competent player versus a weaker character/player create a dead duck game every time. Some characters like Kylo need a higher player count and Count Dooku needs at least one nerf to have any chance at all.

I have the first two expansions, but I am struggling with the last (Thrawn and Dooku) as they are weaker than the rest. The game is a seldom play for us, so much so I have to re-read the rules from scratch most times, making the last expansion feel like a completists fools errand. The game also struggles with insert-itis**.

This has since been gifted rather than continue to add to it.

My Attack Wing, Armada and X-Wing sets could all have done with less range (ideally I would exchange my prequel Armada collection for the same value in X-Wing ships), but these suffered from a combination of late game clearance deals, then post production obsessive chasing.

Attack Wing originally bought to be “the one” to avoid the others and even within that I could have stopped at TOS/TOM/Enterprise/Voyager themed sets and skipped the TNG era completely (where many of the scale and bloat issues are found).

X-Wing was only picked up because of the mass dumping of TFA 1e starters (5 for $100au), with intentions of limiting myself to TFA fleets (and the 2e starters were even a perfect fit) and Armada was meant to be the prequel fix-toe dip, which was never finished.

What happened to all of these after the initial “planned” bit is history and I regret nothing (well……….).

Zombicide is a mess, but I am actually ok with where I am.

Black Plague has plenty of depth, but it is not complete (no Green Hoard, no Oriental version), but I did get a few of the special edition character boxes, a few small box expansions and the kickstarter character box also.

Now, to where I would have gone if I had known.

DCeased is only getting the intro game and Gotham Knights if it is released (it completes the character figures) and Marvel gets the core, which I picked up cheap and it’s Intro set for other bits. These are far from complete, but I refuse to spend another $500au to get them there. The game is not that compelling!

My Star Wars Destiny set, was bought simply because full blister and starter boxes could be had for peanuts when it was cancelled, but it did turn into a few silly card and dice chases (no luck getting a full Vader set in 4 full boxes!).

I then split my sets into themed sub-sets and gifted the balance to avoid massive waste.

Another case of a curious and slightly infuriation mix of well themed starter boxes and luckless random blister buys, leading to real money spent for very little.

Tiny Epic games were a later discovery, when there were a dozen available. I was keen to get them all, then the flood gates opened. I have managed to stop buying them (Vikings was my last), no Cthulhu, Dungeon or Pirates and I even stopped collecting the originals. I am happy with about six different games with “deluxe” bits where relevant. I also bought a couple of Ultra-Tiny Epic games, which are quite amazing for what they are.

One thing of note with these is every single top ten list of TEG’s is different, making collecting them a hit and miss affair. I like Zombies, Vikings and Cowboys, have mixed feelings on the rest I have and no list I have ever read matches my tastes. It is also interesting to note that apart from their size, the value of the games locally ($50+ au) is often on par with similar “real” games (Cyclades Legendary edition is only twice that).

7 Wonders Dual for us was a much better buy than 7W regular as we most often play as a couple. The core game is a little unbalanced (few use green Science cards for victory and if they try, it is easy enough to spoil their plans in the late game), but the Pantheon expansion opens up more options and breaks the flow of play.

We have the Agora expansion also, but have never played it and would likely only play it with the base as a different feeling game to the Base + Pantheon game. I did get the Leader cards from Etsy (fan made content based on the Leaders expansion for 7W), which can open the game up almost like a Pantheon-lite expansion and is ideal for travel as they fit in the core box. I also like that specific leaders are called out, it adds some flavour and context to the civilisation you build.

Unmatched is getting the full treatment because it is fully and seamlessly inter-compatible and I just love it. This is the best and easiest intro game I have, one that can grow with the player, be played in teams and cooperatively and rewards you playing your character of choice, not just the best ones (basically the opposite of Villainous).

The game is also a stand out in that even after over a dozen releases, the earliest characters are just as relevant as the new ones. Every time I play it, the game is close.

I did hold off on some boxes until recently (Witcher, Shakespeare), but now I intend to get Hell Boy and have TMNT and Ali v Lee on pre-order (maybe not Stars and Stripes we will see).

In hind sight I could probably have skipped the Marvel sets as they add the least to the overall landscape and the elusive Deadpool single is a ghost these days.

Into the Unknown has just started and seems to be in a death spiral of slow expansion releases already. I really only want to complete the Enterprise and DS9 crews and add a small Romulan presence (really wish the second Defiant in Tensions Rising was a Romulan Scout or Science ship), so one more expansion will end that.

Away Missions is a little gem that has much to gain by grabbing the expansions. I did not go with the TOS sets, but I have the rest and each adds options to the game that keeps it interesting.

This is another case of a core game that some find unbalanced (The Borg can be hard to play, but make an ideal team for teaching or an experienced player to use to even things up a little), but one that opens up dramatically with Klingon, Romulan and more Federations teams.

Captains Chair is a bit like Unmatched in that it can be played in any combination and solo, so I will get the two new sets and leave it at that (I really just want some TOS/Strange New Worlds love). I would have been ok with a proper TOS/TOM themed box only.

You see the pattern?

If logical boundaries can be found, I will set them. If a favourite period or logical stopping point is presented, I will grab it and stop there, or sometimes not it seems.

I like to add an expansion that increases options and improves balance first, but occasionally (and sometimes with intent) let it get out of control, especially when a game is ended. I have learned to avoid expansions that are just money grabs, add little (or are just bad value), or run the risk of ruining the core game.

Control tends to come with;

1. awareness of the landscape (including possible growth-future releases),

2. planning within that landscape to a satisfying conclusion,

3. being satisfied and moving on, because there are a lot of games out there.

If you have no idea what the landscape may be, which is to say, it is still a growing concern, then you cannot plan your “sanity fences” to fend off rampant expansionism. It does not help that companies like Wizkids tend to deliberatley mix things up so you cannot easily draw clean lines within the offer (again, Captains Chair with only TOS or TNG characters).

The perfect pain storm tends to be blind collecting (Destiny), which is both frustrating and wasteful, a limited release schedule with common instant collectibles (AW, XW), coming late to the game (most of the above) or waiting seemingly for ever for new releases (Into the Unknown, Captains Chair, Zombicide DC/Marvel). The last is probably tariff based, so way to go Trump and the new world order!

Wingspan is improved with the European expansion for all the right reasons, but we are yet to be tempted to run the Australian expansion (we have) or the South American one (we do not have). It is a beautiful game, but basically fine as is.

Sometimes, I can short circuit the process by just being patient.

Cyclaides Legendary is a big tempter especially with favourite reviewers like Board Game Bollocks rating it consistently in their top 2 games for years (and I have bought). I waited for the deluxe (Legendary) version, which promised to be a cleaner and smoother experience at reduced cost.

The original basically needed at least 1 expansion to make it complete and 2 for a full experience. It was and is as I had hoped. I am not even bothered by the Maelstrom expansion coming later (or the need to buy the deluxe set to get both) as it is optional, cheap enough and coming soon after the core game.

I bought the Carcassonne big box, which did it justice well and truly and was much better value than buying a half dozen smaller expansions.

It turns out, I may have bought a better, or at least more efficient version of the Everdell experience with Silverfrost. It not only has a more dynamic and challenging core system (snow!), but also a simpler solo AI than Mistwood, a Spirequest sub-game and slicker mechanisms, but that also falls into the “wait a very long time to see where things finally land”, category.

I bought it anyway as an Everdell variant with a Spirequest vibe. The simpler Farshore does not tempt, but Everdell Duo does.

*

For me the perfect expansion is one that expands on the core game without wholesale change, fixes needed balance issues, adds more of the good, makes the bits that do not work perfectly fit into the game more relevant and keep the footprint/shelf presence of the game under control.

Expansions like 7WD Pantheon (or the Leader cards), Everdell Bellfaire, Extra, Extra! & Legends, Eldritch Horror Forsaken Lore are ideal and near mandatory for those games. All are a small additions that add much and should really be included in future core releases or re-designs, like the Cyclades Legendary edition, which cherry picked the best of three expansions.

Everdell Pearl Brook/Spire Crest, EH Under the Pyramids and the other big box expansions are not on my wish list as they either add little, change the feel of the game or sometimes become a distracting sub-game in their own right. There are also some “big, but empty box” traps in there.

Other times, a little “where would I like to end up and how will I get there most efficiently” before I start a journey can be helpful.

If I limited my X-Wing collection to TFA period (1 and 2e), my Armada collection to the original series and my Attack Wing fleets to TOS, TOM, Voyager and Enterprise, I would have saved a lot, had the same overall experience and picked up some of the bits I missed in the end (like Weapon Zero from Enterprise).

*Most games are pretty well designed, but sometimes elements are a little unbalanced from the start like uninspiring Science cards in 7WD, limited card selection in Eldritch Horror or the overly complicated Events in Everdell, that the designers may fix these with an expansion.

**Insert-itis is when the box insert refuses to accomodate sleeved cards, cannot fix it’s own components once assembles or has no room for small expansions that do not have their own box, like the three characters for Star Trek Expeditions (a massive box with no room for it’s micro expansion box). Villainous will not take sleeved cards and/or the needed token tray has to be carried separately.

Star Trek Attack Wing, Why Playing "Pure" Matters.

Star Trek Attack Wing is a big game with a decade of releases.

This tends to be the weight most competitive games struggle to handle. STAW also has a few other layers of complications, but these can be used to help balance the game, indeed, the designers may have intended this the whole time.

The designers of STAW seemed to me to be creating a game that requires timeline and faction specific alignment to make sense of their designs, which are then hijacked and used in a true mix-n-match by the tournament circuit. That is to say, the ships they design are in balance if played to cannon, but the balance is thrown out when timelines and factions are mixed.

One of the game elements that STAW has over X-Wing is their ship Captains are separate from their ships. When abused (i.e. in competition), this makes for some really weird combinations, but when kept “pure” it adds needed variety in sometimes small fleets.

Then we come to relative ship strengths.

For tournament players, many lesser ships (i.e. from the older periods) were stripped of their cards then sat unused or were only added as cannon fodder or fillers in unlikely fleets.

Weak ships in AW are a relative thing and to their credit, the designers did balance ships within their own periods.

If you use these ships only against their contemporaries, their abilities are well themed and balance out properly. The only issue is some fleets are thin to say the least.

The Gorn are a scary proposition in a TOS fight with stats of 3-1-3-4 (highest Shields in TOS) and some funky upgrades, but drop them into a TNG game and they die quickly, unable to match even a Ferenghi Marauder. Right horse on the right course.

By separating my ships into faction and timeline pure fleets, I have achieved a form of unbalanced-balance that suits just fine. Kirk as captain of a Borg cube with crew drawn from across the galaxy and through time might be a powerful option, but not on my watch! Everything feels right, it fits and makes sense.

No more weak vs strong ship anomalies, such as the Vulcan D’Kyr ships from the Enterprise era having similar stats to a D’Deridex in TNG!

This Enterprise from the Kelvin set is a monster, so a favourite of some tournament players, but it totally unbalances the game unless kept in its patch. I have toyed with the idea of using one as the a USS Vengeance style ship for an “Into Darkness” style scenario, it is genuinely that much bigger than the Enterprise in the other image above with stats of 4-1-6-3 and speed 6!

This has also allowed me to re-purpose (and hack) the many repeat cards you accumulate for more bespoke options. If you take a ship ability or name from one era and shift it to another, the game is not (has never been) so finely balanced that this causes problems, it just adds options and avoids repeats.

This is only really possible thanks to pure timelines.

My TOS set for example includes the Federation Enterprise, Intrepid, Soval and Dauntless, the Gorn Gornarus, Go’Sorass and Gress’Sril, the Klingon have a spanking new K’Tinga flagship Kronos One (as yet without cloaking), Gr’oth and Somraw D-7’s, Romulan Gal Gath’Thong, Praetus, Vorta Vor, Kazara BOP and D-7 Algeron. Seven of those ships are recent “home made” add-ons, can you tell which?

Play how you will, but I for one see real benefits in sticking to the factions and periods that are canon, in fact I really struggle to move away from them. AW is a scenario driven game, these scenarios often hinting more than softly towards certain combinations of ships, so take the hint.

I do choose to mix it up when it can be, the matchups are genuinely “Trek” in their weirdness, like un-encountered Xindi meeting later Federation or Borg, Sp8472 and Tholians popping up all around, as they did, even the Gorn in later or earlier periods.

Scenarios I do intend to play are;

• The Borg going back to pre-federation Terran with a Tac Cube taking on the whole Earth and Andorian or Vulcan fleet (my Vulcan fleet is massive).

• The rebellious Vulcans attacking Andoria and Earth.

• Tholians vs Terran, the nimble NX vs Tholians look fun.

• Sp8472 vs Dominion.

• Sp8472 vs Terrans and co.

• Borg vs TOM period Feds.

• Borg vs Dominion.

• The Kelvin Enterprise in the Terran period (truer to scale).

• Gorn vs Terrans. The Gorn are tough and resilient.

• Bajorans or Marquis going into the Delta Quadrant in numbers vs Kazons (or the reverse)

• Hirogens vs Borg (likely)
  
  

X-Wing 1st Edition, Was It Really Broken?

The recent demise of 2e X-Wing was on the cards, but a shame and the reasons for it are laid plain, nothing new to sell, a tournament circuit fractured and dwindling, constant rules changes and resistance, but mostly a lack of growth and new blood. It was also a victim of a time when gaming generally, especially big circuit gaming seems to be on the wane.

Second editions existence and the pain, or excitement it caused was felt necessary as 1e was deemed too “broken” to fix.

Broken?

Second edition addressed a few things, mostly to do with tournament play and natural mechanical evolution;

• The game had left some ships behind, specifically the first ships you would think of in a Star Wars game. The reality was, the iconic names of Star Wars were mostly redundant in the tournament space, and often not fun casually.

• Point values and upgrade options were printed on the cards, meaning needed changes had to be applied via existing means. These fixes had become habitual, standardised even, but the options available were often a stretch of the system or even player acceptance.

• The elephant in the room of multiple time lines was becoming troublesome. The Prequels were never addressed and the sequels kept throwing up new ideas and hurdles (see mechanics above). That Star Wars Armada was doing a Prequel range only made this more obvious.

• There were too many new ideas (mechanics) and the core concepts of the game were changing, game balance and play styles shifting. Builds were ever more dependent on Action chains and as more were introduced, it became more complex.

It is hard to un-make things once they are out there and equally, some older options simply never made it to the table*. The fixes were largely successful, if a little messy and all together too late.

The X-Wing, namesake ship of the game, by the end of the 1e game was nimble, strong, tricky and well priced with needed options available (though not really options). The Kihraxz, the Scum equivalent, is a chameleon with even more options and even the Tie Advanced had merit for pilots other than Vader.

It was a fun ride, in retrospect few would change a thing from the “golden” years of the game, but it was always going to end badly.

To be honest, the simple clarity of 1e is the major draw for me, later game hi-jinx accepted. I liked points on card and could live with either removing or modifying the bits that jarred. “Official” card reprints for the tournament circuit (like the Armada upgrade card box) would have sufficed for many and effectively “2e’d” the game, but it was decided to go further for better or worse.

Second edition did get a lot right.

Larger upgrade cards were nice for older eyes, no point or upgrade options printed on ship cards provided needed flexibility and cleaner cards overall. An up to dated and evenly balanced design space for all ships, new upgrade types like Force and Turret Gunner, with mostly rationalised upgrades, fewer power choices and some already experimental mechanics, like Turret rotation, were settled as rote.

Recently, finally looking closely at 2e, I really like what they did with Droids and Ordnance (fewer, cleaner and more logical), can even live better with EPT’s and Mods (most generic Titles are absorbed), appreciate the logical choices made for some upgrades and reject a few overly wordy cards as I choose. It is a better game, but is it a better experience?

Dials got generally more exciting, “power” upgrades were dumped, along with “duds”, wording was tightened up (bit legalese, but ok) and the whole thing felt slicker, if a little weightier.

There is more covered, so there is more going on. Sometimes things are evolved logically, other times like they “balanced it to death”.

Life is unbalanced and these unbalances make it fun. The rock-paper-scissors simplicity of 1e has been diluted, something that around here we deliberately reduce by removing the clutter.

What went wrong?

Timing sucked.

COVID put a dent in all things communal, even though it did boost board game sales overall. X-Wing had no real solitaire option, so online play was the go if that was your jam. If not, the flame slowly dwindled.

There were new ships to buy in the TFA and Prequel ranges, but many of the original ships were not reprinted. The Auzituck, Alpha Starwing (a ship I have never actually seen so I will assume peple are just making it up), Star Viper, U-Wing and many more were supported in upgrade packs (rarely in the right numbers), but you needed to be part of the 1e to 2e migration upgrade dynamic or miss them, so no joy for new players.

Even now, it is sometimes possible to find some 1e clearance ships more easily than 2e packs and rare ones are costing as much as entire collections.

More K-Wings? Seems not. My second one was a Spanish language print with sourced cards and tokens. Picking up a third may cost me the same as buying into an entirely new game system.

The game was more popular than ever on the tournament circuit in later years, but casual and club players were shifting away to new games, or just away from games generally. An interesting point is Armada and Attack Wing have stayed mostly unchanged (1.5e shifts, not wholesale changes) and have stayed relatively sound as a result.

The Ship and Upgrade cards with no printed point cost or upgrade bar are clean and flexible, but there was constant change, both in the costs and their whole delivery system. The tournament circuit was constantly changing, the casual player resorted to pre-built “quick pick” cards or just gave up.

I wonder if many card based games would survive if they required a separate list of costs and conditions to play.

The feel is different, it’s not the fun club game it used to be, more an exercise in math.

Can’t explain this properly, but the feel of 1e still excites. 2e is like the pub band that has gone on to a more polished experience, but lost that “special something” along the way and higher ticket prices are still giving you the same perceived value.

Hard to fault the majority of decisions made, but no matter how much is good, something was lost.

For me they missed the golden opportunity to separate Pilots from ships.

This would have solved a few problems and added variety as well as adding that “what if” element to the game. AW has its Captains and even Wings of War added Aces in the late game. Luke flew an E-wing in later fiction, he could have flown a Y-Wing, A-Wing or even the Falcon. Han could have flown an X-Wing or YT2400, many Rebel pilots were, after all, trained in a Tie. Why limit pilots to ships, then have them fly several other ships anyway (Hera, Vader). What about Poe in a F/O Tie, which actually happened?

Breaking with the old, then adoption of the new stifled by bad luck, resentment and confusion, some choices that split the field more clearly into the tournament and casual groups, then supporting only one of these properly, higher and limited entry costs, a feeling for new players of missing the “golden age”, then finally an older idea assailed by newer ones (Crisis Protocol etc).

People move on and nostalgia only satisfies a few, but if that is also gone with genuine change, then there is not much to hold on to for them.

For me a good game is a good game, so a reduced form of 1e is pitch perfect and a TFA period jaunt into 2e is developing.

Classic that uses all the ships in the original trilogy and optionally Rogue One. This has EPT’s and Titles, but these are assigned in Pre-builds that suit the Pilots to their roles in the movies (EPT’s sometimes as multiples). For example, Luke gets his classic alpha strike build of R2-D2, Deadeye and Advanced Proton Torps, Vader has Advanced Targeting Comp, Determination and Squad Leader and Han Solo gets the Falcon Title, Chewie, C3PO, Elusiveness and Trick Shot.

Training Day that uses the neglected TFA fighters only, some core upgrades, but with the addition of Tech.

Skeleton Crew that uses a small core of 6 ships per factions, no Actions outside of the core 4, no EPT’s, Titles, named Crew or Droids (and no FAA Droid), an optional small choice of Mods, but with ship specific limits (0 for light ships, 1 for most others, up to 2 for some large ones and the Kihraxz) and faction aligned crew and ordnance upgrades. The combat rules are also simplified with Critical hits going directly to Hull, no cards are used.

Bare Bones expands the core ships to all the ships with the basic 4 Actions, adds back in named Crew and Droids, damage cards are back, but all other limitations are kept from above. As a simple balance fix, 2e dials can be used, which makes most older ships less rubbish and tames a few outliers.

Legends. This is similar to bare Bones, except that it only used named Pilts, Crew, Droids etc. The idea being generics are taken for granted, named heroes and villains stand out from these. Apart from squad builds, who really wants to fly generics?

Everyday Heroes. If the answer to above was “me, I will”, then this one is for you. The rules change a little to a random turn order (rolled after dials are set), the PS of the Pilots now used to determine EPT allocation.

This is due in part to the imbalance of PS values across the generic ships (Rebels are screwed) and in part to their irrelevance. Royal Guard Pilots and Black Sun Aces and Assassins sit on top, but EPT’s are not free, so not too much.