Fellows, what do we know of space combat games?

I've found (that seem to be in production and with ship models):
Battle Fleet Gothic
Full Thrust
Starmada X
B5: A Call To Arms
Victory by Any Means

Any other?
Pro's and Con's?

Bud in with your knowledge and help a distressed gamer out!  

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It would be nice to get lightspeed,
so far we can only reach slight speed.- Erik M
092b85658e746a91d343e53509d357744e56f641

There's Attack Vector: Tactical from Ad Astra and it's Honor Harrington spin off Saganami Island Simulator.  They've also got a new set coming out but can't remember the full name at the moment, just that it has "strike" in the title.

There's a new one out called Warcosm that costs something like $7 US in PDF format.

If I'm not mistaken, VBAM is more of a campaign system rather than a tactical level game.

There's a newer version of Starmada called Starmada: Admiral's Edition.

If you want to discuss starship combat games in general this site is da bomb (and where I got the above info): Starship Combat News

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BFG pro:
* setting
* easy to learn
* cool and lot of different ships and races
* rather well known due 40k connection
* GW game which use cm's instead of inches  
* dedicated fanzine (Warp Rift) (Yes, shameless promotion)
* tactical diverse (in most cases)

BFG con:
* some may say the rules (you go - I go) is too daft
* some fleets/ships can easy be abused by powergamers

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Light at the Horizon.

Warp Rift
Project Distant Darkness
Eldar MMS

GothiComp Hall of Fame
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176

I also found Tom's lists. A very good find.

_________________
It would be nice to get lightspeed,
so far we can only reach slight speed.- Erik M
092b85658e746a91d343e53509d357744e56f641

Squadron Strike?

_________________
https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond.
https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.

blackhorizon budded in with some experience, any others?

_________________
It would be nice to get lightspeed,
so far we can only reach slight speed.- Erik M
092b85658e746a91d343e53509d357744e56f641

Warcosm is fleet based (aka lots of ships). Haven't tried it yet but people seem pretty happy with it over at the SCN.

Starmada X I have played, haven't tried but one game of AE so far.  I like Starmada a lot.  It's a very simple game but still tactically challenging and the ship construction system is awesome with the number of options it has.

Play usually follows like this:
plot movement for all your ships
move ships simultaneously
conduct fire one ship at a time (we alternative between players as it keeps everyone more active)
apply damage to ships at the end of the turn
repeat

The simultaneous movement makes for a challenge as you're trying to out guess/maneuver your opponent.

Weapons fire works like this:
roll a number of dice equal to a weapons ROF
for each hit, multiply by a weapons penetration and roll that many dice
for each die that penetrates, multiply by a weapons damage and roll that many dice
check off the appropriate damage boxes on the target ship

As to the difference between AE and X, movement has changed a lot.  AE is a little closer to reality where X is more cinematic. AE changed some term names around and removed a few unbalanced weapon abilities and added some new ones.

The only thing that I don't like in Starmada are the weapon arcs, they are just labeled oddly in my opinion. Although there are alternative weapons arcs in the appendix that you can use.  In addition to movement options, boarding rules, fighter traits, and a slew of other things.

All and all Starmada is a lot of fun, and cheap.  Finding people to play is difficult but that's nothing new for Epic gamers.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

VBAM is top stuff, if I was a man of liesure I would run it for everyone here But yes its a top level game, not a tactical simulator.

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If using E-Bay use this link to support Tac Com!
'Abolish red trousers?! Never! Red trousers are France!' – Eugene Etienne, War Minister, 1913
"Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography."
General Plumer, 191x

Sounds as VBAM for why and Starmada as for how to fight?

_________________
It would be nice to get lightspeed,
so far we can only reach slight speed.- Erik M
092b85658e746a91d343e53509d357744e56f641

I love Starmada to death.  Easily my favorite space combat game.  The creation system is pretty straightforward and easy to use.

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Set phasers on "fun"!

VBAM has Starmada X edition, I'd love to try that out sometime for an entire campaign that stretched for a year. At the price they are offered at and their flexibility you can't go wrong.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php? ... 29192&it=1

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

Yeah, that's the one!

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My Photobucket: http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/Sergeant_Crunch/
My blog

OK. Some impressions of the games...

Battlefleet Gothic - A nice and relatively simple system. It doesnt capture the 'in space' feel as much as other systems, but it plays fast and throws some interesting decisions at you in terms of forward planning. It also benefits from an active community.

Full Thrust - Currently at second edition, although promises of a third edition have been around for a long time. This has more detail than BFG and is a 'harder scifi' game. I have the full sets of books for this, and overall I love the miniatures and the system. It is a little more complex than BFG and is aimed at slightly smaller games.

Attack Vector: Tactical, Saganami Island Tactical Simulator and Squadron Strike - I am putting all three of these games together, and I dont own these so impressions are based on web chat. These three games are from Ad Astra. They all use the same basic movement system, and this set are the most complex space games available, and really aimed at only two or three ships per side. They are truly three dimensional, giving spin, heading, elevation and so on. They use angled blocks to show ship spin and heading. Attack Vector is the 'core' system. SITS is the Honor Harrington setting. Squadron Strike is the baby of the bunch, due for release soon. Rumour is that you will be able to mix background science in a single game, allowing one side to play Newtonian physics and vector movement, while the other side uses Star Trek physics. Both AV:T and SS are on my shopping list. Be aware that AV:T has two editions out.

Babylon 5: A Call TO Arms - No matter how players deny it, this take the BFG mechanics at its core and moves them on. It shares many core mechanics, in the B5 setting. ACtA minis are currently in transit. Mongoose recently dropped the line and Iron Wind Models picked them up, but there is a delay in this process. ACtA is in its second edition.

Babylon 5 Wars - I recently got into this, and really like the system. But, it is now very out of print, and difficult and expensive to find.

I hope that this helps. These are the games that are currently available that I am aware of... Of course, new games come out all the time.

What kind of game are you looking for?

_________________
https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond.
https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.

Thanks CS, and others.

As for game to look for... Not sure.
I'm moving away from Empire (GW) and looking more towards the more sensible world of Battlemech (as mentioned earlier). As it look right now I'll end up with a mish-mash of makes.  

I'm am more than anything a campaign player. So maybe there's a serious mix of various systems in the pipe-line. I know for sure that Epic is to broken to be enjoyable for me and I also know that DRM is going to be my prime game.

The reason to look at ACTA is the same as LotR, the missus could be made interested, just as in the TV series. Problem is that one never knows what MoonGoose is going to do. Not a feeling one has with Brigade and GZG, they feel stable.

On the other hand it's very easy to hook up with the Empire (of 40k). To easy, to not held together.

Thanks everyone, work continues and a weekend of getting my DRM done and finished lays ahead...  

_________________
It would be nice to get lightspeed,
so far we can only reach slight speed.- Erik M
092b85658e746a91d343e53509d357744e56f641

Battletech - arg the ranges the ranges (and of course the profiles ).

_________________
If using E-Bay use this link to support Tac Com!
'Abolish red trousers?! Never! Red trousers are France!' – Eugene Etienne, War Minister, 1913
"Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography."
General Plumer, 191x