Starfire 2e Task Force Game

[Marc_C]

Every year I take out my old 80s Starfire space battle rule set and play a solitary game. Several years ago I bought 3 copies of Battleship Galaxies (Hasbro) to get the ships and the beautiful hex maps. I now have two fleets of 30 ships to play with. The ships were pre-painted but I added colour to make the details stand out.

1e. I bought booklet #1 at a hobby shop. It came in a ziploc.

Now I play 2e but with d10s instead of 2d6 for each attack because it speeds up play. It is an extremely simple system. It's made to handle very large battles quickly. There are other editions. I'm told 3e is the best. You can buy them on wargamervault.com.

The main battle. The Khanate (brown) flagship was destroyed. The Terran (bleu) flagship miraculously survived. It was better a blocking missiles with its Point Defense System.

End Game. The Terran destroy the Khanate fleet securing of the planet and its moons. In a blaze of glory coordinated attack the two last Khanate ship managed to destroy the Terran flagship.

My fleets. 30 Khanate and 30 Terran ships

Typical roster of ships. A simple string of letters. System are taken out left to right. Some weapons can skip over system to hit further down the line.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I loved this game! It scratched the itch when SFB became too cumbersome to find players for.

 

[aramis erak]

3E was d10's only. Note that d10's on 2E's tables chop the maximum range and F***-up the odds; d12 means not altering the range.
I've put it out that a 1.5E - 1E rules, but 3E to hits table - would have a good space to grab new players, but Marvin is irrationally fixated on the campaign game, rather than the tactical rules. They're up to 6th or 7th ed now.

 

[Marc_C]

3E was d10's only. Note that d10's on 2E's tables chop the maximum range and F***-up the odds; d12 means not altering the range.
I've put it out that a 1.5E - 1E rules, but 3E to hits table - would have a good space to grab new players, but Marvin is irrationally fixated on the campaign game, rather than the tactical rules. They're up to 6th or 7th ed now.

Indeed. I adjusted for d10's and the size of my hex maps. Funny, I was thinking of using d12s yesterday.

 

[Marc_C]

I loved this game! It scratched the itch when SFB became too cumbersome to find players for.

Yes, SFB wasn't able to handle large fleets unless you played for the entire weekend!

 

[aramis erak]

Yes, SFB wasn't able to handle large fleets unless you played for the entire weekend!

A 6-on-6 battle in SFB (two rated aces) 6 hours

A 30-on-30 battle in Starfire 3e with occasional players took an hour, including selection of fleets and putting counters on the map... plus 20 min of printing on an old and slow 9-pin bit-banger,

 

[Baron Opal II]

I can't help but think that if every player had a tablet with a properly formatted Excel or Google Sheet spreadsheet that it would take half the time. However, I sold all my SFB boxes, sheets, &c. a long time ago.

 

[Marc_C]

I can't help but think that if every player had a tablet with a properly formatted Excel or Google Sheet spreadsheet that it would take half the time. However, I sold all my SFB boxes, sheets, &c. a long time ago.

You can find them on wargamevault.com or you can be them directly from starfiredesign.com.

 

[Baron Opal II]

Star Fleet Battles? Or are you referring to Starfire? I did pick up the third edition Starfire rules and campaign book last week, actually. There are a few young people I know that might be interested in a short campaign style battle. I'll have to see how the Zoom, I mean battle screen displays work out.

 

[Marc_C]

Star Fleet Battles? Or are you referring to Starfire? I did pick up the third edition Starfire rules and campaign book last week, actually. There are a few young people I know that might be interested in a short campaign style battle. I'll have to see how the Zoom, I mean battle screen displays work out.

Oups!