"SPACE FIGHT!" Starship combat boardgame

[Morrus]

Wait a second: Does each side in the boarding combat get one attack per round, or one attack per combat unit? For example, if you have a boarding combat with each side having 5 combat units, is each side attacking 5 times (once with each combat unit) or is each side attacking only once?

Each combat unit gets one attack on one other combat unit. They cannot gang up on each other (this makes it pointless beaming a unit aboard, say, a Colonial Battleship).

The assumption is a bunch of isolated battles taking places in various locations about the ship. No more than one unit can fight another.

The advantage of having lots of units is that once a boarding unit has beaten one of your units, it has to defeat another. But it has to do so sequentially.

 

[Alex319]

I see. So if the attacking side has X combat units and the defending side has Y combat units, then each side makes a total of min(X,Y) attacks each turn.

 

[Morrus]

each side makes a total of min(X,Y) attacks each turn.

I don't understand what "min(X,Y)" means.

Each combat unit gets to attack one other combat unit only each turn, and each cmnat unit can only be attacked by one comat unit each turn.

Basically, they pair up one vs. one. Excess units wait in line.

 

[Alex319]

min(X,Y) means the minimum of X and Y - that is whichever number is lower. So if one side has 3 combat units and the other side has 5, the minimum is 3.

The way you describe it that is correct - if one side has 3 and the other has 5, then each side would get to make 3 attacks.

 

[Alex319]

And also, with the "each combat unit can only be attacked once":

1. You will need to have a rule about who gets priority for choosing attack targets, in the case where there are three or more sides in the same boarding combat, and two of the sides both want to attack the same opposing combat unit.

2. There are cases where it is worthwhile to attack your own combat units in order to prevent your enemy from attacking them. For example, suppose I'm defending a ship with 2 Imperial Soldiers against an attacking force of 5 Spartan Warriors led by a Dark Lord. It's highly unlikely that I will be able to successfully repel them, but if I had my Soldiers attack each other, then they would only hit each other on a 14 or higher, while if I let my enemies attack me then they would hit me on a 6 or higher. So I would survive a lot longer. And since each combat unit can only be attacked by one other combat unit, if my Soldiers attack each other, then the Spartan Warriors can't attack them.

 

[Morrus]

2. There are cases where it is worthwhile to attack your own combat units in order to prevent your enemy from attacking them. For example, suppose I'm defending a ship with 2 Imperial Soldiers against an attacking force of 5 Spartan Warriors led by a Dark Lord. It's highly unlikely that I will be able to successfully repel them, but if I had my Soldiers attack each other, then they would only hit each other on a 14 or higher, while if I let my enemies attack me then they would hit me on a 6 or higher. So I would survive a lot longer. And since each combat unit can only be attacked by one other combat unit, if my Soldiers attack each other, then the Spartan Warriors can't attack them.

We laughed out load when we read this - it would never have occured to us in a million years! Brilliant!

You're right, that's definitely not the intention, and I'll stick a few words in there to plug that little leak.

 

[Morrus]

Yesterday's playtest concentrated on objective based games rather than straight fights.

The first used a rough version of the stance/formation rules - a group of fighters escorting three civilian vessels, being attacked by a group of fighters whose objective was to destroy the civilian vessels before they left the play area.

The second was a dense asteroid field populated by mines and laser towers. There was a McGuffin on the central asteroid guarded by two combat units from an unknown race. The objective was to be the first to get to the asteroid, defeat the combat units on the surface, collect the McGuffin and escape the battlemap.

Both worked very well, and we noticed that scenarios can utterly change the style and feel of play, which bodes well for replayability of the game. The formation stuff worked fairly well - needs a bit of tweaking, but the basic concept worked perfectly.

We did have one amusing incident where my Ferederatio Cruider was negotiating the asteroid field. I'd taken to destroynig smaller asteroids rather than going round them (as reaching the central asteroid first was vital), while the opposing Spartan Scouts were able to negotiate the field fairly easily. At one point, my cruiser approached the large central asteroid; I intended to come to a stop immediately at the beginning of the next round to avoid collision. Unfortunately, a cloaked Spartan Scout decloaked right behind me, fired a torpedo into my rear and luckly hit my engines, making me unable to alter speed until I repaired it. Result? My cruiser plowed straight into the asteroid and exploded.

 

[Morrus]

Added some more ships today to fill in the big gap in medium ships.

Alliance Flyer (revised)
Alliance Corvette
Imperial Light Cruiser
Rebel Blockade Runner
Hive Probe
Federation Scout

 

[Morrus]

Some more very rough new ships I've been playing with. I probably won't include these in the core book, and they need some work.

Various Federation starships, and some larger Rebel ships.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Some more very rough new ships I've been playing with. I probably won't include these in the core book, and they need some work.

Various Federation starships, and some larger Rebel ships.

If you like to designate a ship as "common" for a faction, it might make sense to include it in the core book. The "Federation Frigate" is described as such, for example. If it's such a common sight, why not include it in the core set? (Of course there are pratical answers - you need to commission more artwork, which is expensive!)

I am not sure for how many ships you're aiming at per faction in the core book, or if you want to keep all factions currently contained in it.

The game might feel "incomplete" if you do not have enough ships per faction, on the other hand the engagements described so far don't really seem to feature all that many ships.