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TT Gaming – The Hobbymagazine
Space-The final gaming frontier?
Roland
Looking around in the market there is a plethora of rules for all kinds of setting. Whether you are into
Fantasy, SciFi, Ancients or even specific historical eras there is plenty to choose from. Coming to the
mysterious 3 the apparent lack in popular rulesets is amazing especially when considering how
popular SciFi and Spaceships are.
There is uncharted Seas and Sails of Glory and a number of smaller publications for naval warfare.
Airwar C21 as well as Wings of Glory fill the niche for the plane lovers but besides Firestorm Armada
and the much older Full Thrust and Starmada rulesets is there anything else out there for the
astronauts?
Well of course there is but how many of these enjoy a wider popularity? And how many games with
any of the three rulesets have YOU actually witnessed yet? Let’s face it Space seems to be the final
gaming boundary.
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I say seems because the recently released X-Wing and Star Trek Attack Wing games have brought
Spacebattles to a gaming table near you. Of course one can argue the popularity is solely the product
of the respective licenses Star Wars and Star Trek but in my opinion there is more to it.
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Space and Spaceships have always been icons for their respective shows or movies. To travel the
infinity of space in a spaceship has inspired generations of people to watch scifi and imagine
themselves travelling the stars on board one of these vessels.
Sa
For a number of years two rulesets dominated this particular area. Full Thrust from Groundzero
Games and Starmada from Majestic 12. Admitted there are others like VBAM (Victory by all means)
but none of these have been able to challenge the two sets I mentioned. Then came Firestorm Armada
and things changed.
Spartan Games’ attempt to bring Space Battles to the masses was met with great enthusiasm and
response. Now Firestorm Armada has recently been updated to second edition, lots of new fleets made
available in the meantime and also a new starterbox has been released. Unfortunately no one at
Spartan was available for a deeper investigation.
Hence the question persists how popular is Space Gaming, especially outside the two big franchises
Star Trek and Star Wars? Why is Spartan Games the only larger manufacturer to offer a game? Why
are other items produced mostly by smaller companies?
Spacegaming for the masses
The first real attempt at a popular Space Battle Game was arguably Battlefleet Gothic from GW. Now
we can argue that no real support was given and BFG subsequently cancelled with the rest of
“Specialist Games” just recently. There is a plethora of blogs, fora and discussion boards that ponder
about these events. Looking at the history of space-gaming my conclusion is significantly different.
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TT Gaming – The Hobbymagazine
A matter of perspective
What happens if you do not find the miniatures of a particular game aesthetically appealing? You do
not buy them. In turn this also means you do not buy the corresponding ruleset. But what if the minis
are alright but the rules are crap? You will not play the game, simple.
The real problem I see in spacegaming is the lack of a simple, yet deep ruleset combined with great
minis. If you only have one of these two ingredients you are not gonna make it, period. Let us look at
some of the games and the “consensus” across the community. Sometimes it is hard to find such but in
general not many people are concerned about the demise of BFG.
The design of BFG minis has been, in my opinion, very much matching the 40K universe. Some
people like this, others don’t. Compared to the designs of Spartan Games the GW offering is more
often than not the second choice. Staying with Firestorm Armada the rules seem to be the greatest
concern.
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“Boarding is way too powerful” a line I keep hearing so I figure there must be some truth to it. Great
minis but rules that are questioned? Rules issues are the crucial pinpoints and other rulesets do not fare
much better. Example? Starmada: The shipdesign rules are flawed. Build 1 Hullpoint carriers and your
fighters will swarm and crush any opponent. Full Thrust? I got a headache by page 2. Realism does
not count a toot if it renders the game unplayable. Worst case scenario if some nerd like myself does
not even start and try the game besides the effort.
Sa
So in summary it seems to be true that space gaming, so far, has been the final gaming boundary. A
new approach is needed. Majestic 12 has re-released Starmada, Brigade Models publishes their own
Starmada edition, written for their excellent line of Space Ships. Full Thrust and Groundzerogames
have established a new website/shop and with some fantastic designs there I still hope they are trying
to make the game more accessible for newcomers.
I feel that many of these, and others I have not mentioned, wish to avoid the supermarket approach of
oversimplifying the rules. It certainly has advantages when some kinds of gamers are staying in other
systems and do not become attracted to this niche. Other niches in our hobby, namely naval gaming,
fare quite well with this approach. The lack of a popular gaming system, rules and minis does not
mean that a whole area of the hobby is blank.
It is admittedly not very crowded in space (pun intended) but that only means you can enjoy the
nerdness with equally nerdy nerds. When you finally find someone that has heard of the ruleset you
play, or even plays the same you are off on your very own space trip.
Popularising space
Firestorm Armada has to some extent started changing this. The game enjoys some spread but is still
far away from the market share other non-GW games have achieved. X-Wing in particular but also
Star Trek Attack Wing are two games with accessible rules and great minis that show how space could
be populated with gamers.
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TT Gaming – The Hobbymagazine
All that is needed are a good ruleset and great minis. The minis are available. Look at the Cold Navy
designs (now property of Ravenstar Studios). Look at Spartan Games Firestorm Armada, look at… the
list is endless and anyone can find the spaceship design of choice.
What we need is a universal ruleset, easy to grasp, with some realism but most of all balanced and
focussed on fun. If we could get that and moreover could get such a rulebook commercialised then
you, too could be playing.
The advantage of established systems, nevermind the name and manufacturer, is simply that they exist
for quite a while. Subtract that and the argument of “no one is playing this” can no longer be upheld.
You are playing a game because everybody plays it? So if everybody jumps of a cliff you follow suit?
With a little bit endeavour you can not only lead a change in gaming, no you can be that change.
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As a former demo man myself I totally feel your pain trying to convince players to give something a
try. While you know they will probably like it most players are reluctant for a variety of reasons. First
of all: It does not have an Aquila.
Sa
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This is not a joke. A lot of players reject anything that does not come from Nottingham Lenton with an
official Aquila on it. Why a lot of people limit themselves in their fun I cannot fathom but is it my fun?
Yours? To each its own and why try to convince the inconvincible? Show other players that are more
open how to have fun with a game that you like. Part of my business but also part of me being me I try
a lot of games and in my opinion 95% of good/bad verdicts are depending on the person introducing
the game. It would go far beyond the scope of this article to argue about good demoing but the fact
stands.
For space gaming to become more popular we need good and affordable minis. We need rules that are
fun and accessible but still hold some realism and most of all we need these rules to be balanced. But
all this would be futile if we do not get the right people to demo these games to us.
Will the X-Wing/Attack-Wing hiatus continue? Will it collapse when the licence loses its appeal? Will
both games end up like so many others or will they finally bring Space to a gaming table near you?
Only time can tell – hopefully with lots of gaming until then.
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TT Gaming – The Hobbymagazine
Project Diary – British Space Fleet
Roland
© Brigade Models
Sa
Both directly from box, no cleaning done
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Top Right: Corvette
Bottom: Carrier
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I have chosen to paint them similar to the ones
displayed on the Brigade website (and on the
advert you have just seen). VGC Steel Blue
and GW Yriel Yellow detail. gunbarrels in
GW Boltgun Metal and then washed with P3
Armor Wash to create the desired effect. I use
my flying stands from Brigade Models for the
Cold Navy Terrans, Mauridians and Squardon
Commander Minis from Brigade. All my
flying bases are from Brigade who also sell
baseweights to stabilise particularly large
minis.
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A small care package arrived from Brigade the other day. Besides 6mm buildings for review also my
British Fleet. Well a small detachment really but enjoy the view.
This is how the
spaceships arrived. As
you can see very little
flash and almost zero
mouldlines to deal
with. Some filing and
you are done. The
carrier is a multi-part
casting whereas the
other ones from my
selection were single
piece castings. Glued
together the small fleet
is waiting to be
primed.
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TT Gaming – The Hobbymagazine
© Brigade Models
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WiP before blue engine
highlights and final armour
wash on the gunbarrels.
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After the priming in VGC
Black I covered them in VGC
Steel Blue for hulls and VMC
London Grey for the flight
deck on the carrier. Seeing
there was little break up the
monotony of the hull I optet
for some areas to be covered
in VMC Deep Sky Blue
instead and also some armour
panels to be Yellow (Revell
Aqua). They are done very
fast and paint very easy so you
can game soon after your
order has arrived.
Now check out the BatRep to see how well the small British detachment can fare in claiming a
starsystem from its EuroFed rivals.
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TT Gaming – The Hobbymagazine
BatRep: Deep Space Battles
Roland, Hao
Deep Space Battles is an upcoming ruleset that has been in development and playtesting for quite some
time now and I finally found a victim ehem opponent to try it out before release. Based on the
Starmada ruleset, Deep Space Battles (DSP) is very much streamlined. While there are a number of
other rulesets none of those I played has fully convinced me yet. As a perfectionist this is admittedly
hard though.
We decided on a small encounter and used the Quickstart rules (e.g. no asteroid movement) and
Spaceships from Brigade Models (www.brigademodels.co.uk) as our forces. Without a proper gaming
mat yet (delays in manufacturing) we played on my small round table instead.
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Round 1 - Deployment
The British deploy in two clusters, the
carrier Glorious protected by Destroyer
Cunningham and Corvette Walker in one
and Light Cruiser Halifax (Adm. Brooks
Flagship) and Corvette Lancer in the
other.
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The European Federation and the British Stellar Navy have previously clashed over Sector P34. The
British expeditionary detachment under Admiral Brooks has been sent out to defeat remaining EuroFed
forces and claim the system for the British if practicable.
Eurofed chooses to deploy cloaked with 4
Destroyers and openly displays Heavy
Cruiser Impero as a token. Admiral
Brooks orders planes launched and
positions himself in between the Carrier
and the enemy in order to protect his
most vital asset. The British ships scan
for cloaked enemies but fail to produce
any “hits”.
Miniatures © Brigade Models
EuroFed immediately moves on both flanks to evade
concentrated fire and allow one pack of assets to “get
through”.
Miniatures © Brigade Models
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