Tactical Command
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Planetary Empires
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=16491		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Erik M [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:31 am ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
Yo folks!

What are people's feelings about "Planetary Empires" and what experiences are there from this and "Mighty Empires (2nd)"?

Erik
Author:  netepic [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:51 am ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
I own it, haven't opened the box yet - but i'd use it with Mighty Empires, 1st edition :D.
Author:  Erik M [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
1st ed indeed... Here with the Alfakta map too.

Problem is that both ME1 and ME2 are to green for Empire of Mankind (EoM).
Hm... un-opened...


Anyhow, the ME1 map has seen quite some campaigns, using the "Bloody Empires" fan rules.
Working campaigns I might add.
Author:  vytzka [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
I've got it. The tiles are nice, if a bit same-y looking (you only get 15 unique tile sides - 8 tiles on the sprue and the spaceport is one-sided). Special buildings are adequate, I suppose, not great but will do the job.

Rules booklet is pretty crappy though. You get something like four pages of rules, repeated in a multitude of languages (seriously, GW, Japanese? Do they even get the core rulebook translated in Japanese?). As you can guess they're very bare-bones - usable but not great. I found the Rok of Ages (giggle) campaign writeup in White Dwarf about five times more interesting and useful than that.

What was a real bummer considering the rules was that positioning of armies is utterly nonexistant. You play a battle with your buddy, choose a tile belonging to him, roll 2d6 with some modifiers and if you beat it, it's yours. Your armies aren't displayed on the map in any way and beyond a penalty for target tile not being adjacent to any of yours it's location doesn't matter.

Oh, and one from the WTF department? Hive city tile, the one proudly displayed on the center of booklet cover? You can only get it by a direct order. Not a store. Not a White Dwarf add-on. Direct.

Good job, GW.

All in all I'd give it a solid 6. Plastic bits are good enough but rules support is just uninspired. If you wanted a decent campaign system for 40k give it a wide berth. But I think I'll make a good lava-and-jungle deathworld out of it for my Flesh Tearers. Now if only I could find some time for that :sulk:
Author:  vytzka [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
Quote: (Erik M @ 20 Aug. 2009, 16:34 )

Anyhow, the ME1 map has seen quite some campaigns, using the "Bloody Empires" fan rules.
Working campaigns I might add.

Tell me more about these Bloody Empires that you speak of.
Author:  Erik M [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 4:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
About Bloody Empires;

I've come to realise that battles with un-even forces only works in very limited ways. Usual battles must be even, one way or another.

So economy and strategy was the deciding factors for winning the campaign, on the battlefield each army was as big as the other. And each player had one army to move around with and one to defend the capital.

Resources where gathered and used to replenish armies and (re-)build your Empire. Biggest chest of gold in the end won. But to have that biggest chest you had to be a good general too!

To add possible armies to fight you also had a "colony"; a city at the other end of the world. Basically working the same way as your capitol but with some limitations.

We also cut down what was allowed in FB, which we used, and was thus able to run a full campaign over a weekend.
What we cut down? Max lvl 2 characters. That alone make that game enjoyable and a lot faster played. And you cut away very little actual FB to.

On top of this we used money from Blood Royal, chests from some sort of ice-cream and various home-maid counters and markers. The chaos-player had Epic Nurgle beasts as army markers as an example.

Ah yes, you never fought more than one actual battle per turn. The rest where simple die-rolling (with a lot of chance for a tie, IIRC). This usually mean that players don't gang up on one opponent, as it result in fewer actual battles for you to fight.
Author:  The_Real_Chris [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
Now is the time to plug VBAM!

http://www.vbamgames.com/
Author:  vytzka [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
But that's sci-fi :tongue:
Author:  Erik M [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
I expect VBAM to be a good one and soon in my bookshelf.
But that said... I want all stats on top of the map. No number-crunching book-keeping.

And vytzka is quite right!  :whistle:
Author:  Dave [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
VBAM was not an easy read for me. I'm hoping that the second edition is more stream lined and gives you an actual step-by-step process to follow for turns. I was completely lost on how even to begin with first edition.
Author:  Erik M [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:26 am ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
Well Dave, campaign systems are often far to convoluted to really work well with TTG (tabletop) anyhow. The really worst was actually Mighty Empires. With six movement steps and potential battle after each it was totally not suited for use with FB (3d Ed at that!).

A campaign system for TTG must be Move - Fight - Economy, and only one fight instance.
That way you could for example gather one evening to make economy and moves. And perhaps a few battles, if you got room. The rest of the battles to be done during the week.

Two TTG's comes to mind to make a whole turn happen in an evening; Battleground and HOTT. Battleground isn't strictly speaking a TTG, but could easily be made into one.
Author:  netepic [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:41 am ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
Quote: (Erik M @ 21 Aug. 2009, 09:26 )

The really worst was actually Mighty Empires. With six movement steps and potential battle after each it was totally not suited for use with FB (3d Ed at that!).

Now that IS fighting talk :D.

I loved Mighty Empires, we used to play it as a stand alone game, it is only recently with 6th Ed Warhammer that we started to combine it with tabletop games. They led to some excellent battles.

I do feel that espionage is missable though, we just skipped that phase.
Author:  Erik M [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
As a stand-alcapone it's remarkably good.
And if you only have one fighting phase, ie that armies lock as they meet and all fighting is done in one "end phase" it's still usable with TTG's.

A side point there would be that number of banners into the battle doesn't change that each side has the sdame number of points to fight with.
It can be used to influence the battle in other ways thou... Where you get reserves from (and that reserves are used!). How many VP you need to win, for example one VP per banner in the battle to start with.
Author:  vytzka [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 4:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
You gave me some food for throught here Erik.

What I actually do like about Planetary Empires system, despite it's flaws (or near absence  :laugh: ), is that the upgrades you have on the map (as I said, you don't have any banners moving around - which is a shame - BUT you can build improvement buildings) don't just add to the army point totals of the owner. In addition to that you can get bonuses to reserves/deployment/going first rolls, add Universal Special Rules to units in your army, and make the tiles harder to capture after they do beat you.

Having additional banners add to a pool of points you could use in some fashion to improve your army before the battle sounds like a pretty good idea.
Author:  Chaplain Leviticus [ Sat Aug 22, 2009 1:02 am ]
Post subject:  Planetary Empires
I picked up Planetary Empires also.  The pieces are larger than I expected but the rules are rather plain and only 5 pages in length, the rest is just repeated in other languages.
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