"Your Favorite Spaceship Gaming Rules" Topic

What are they? I'm rules hunting and want a fun, simple and fast game pitting a small to large fleet per side.

Full thrust

Colonial Battlefleet.

Design rules are harder to abuse than FT

What matgc83 is working on here looks interesting. TMP link

I like Full Thrust, but I dislike the ship record sheets. Anyone tried to translate the sheets to dice?

Generic Outlandishly Big Spacefleets! ( G.O.B.S.!)

Fun, fast, flexible and free. thegobspage.com

My fave, but I'll admit I'm biased, seeing as I created them. But they do fit the description you've made on all fronts. They're meant for fast battles with large fleets using minimal record keeping… and LOTS of explosions.

EDIT: And no individual record sheets. Each ship is a stat line; an entire fleet can fit on one sheet of paper.

I'll take USE ME over Starmada:AE, but those are the only two sets I've played.

The old Starfleet Wars rules would certainly meet those criteria as well:

link

Firestorm Armada

War Rocket---I'm biased of course. Since most spaceship games are actually naval games in space we wanted to make a set of rules that were fast, fun and based on aerial warfare. I love playing our game! We've even met people who use our War Rocket rules for Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. War Rocket can support 12-15 models, has no paper record keeping, and usually takes 2 to 2.5 hours to play a game.

However, if you are interested in a game that revolves around resource management and only supports 2-3 models per side, War Rocket is not a good game for you:)

-Matt Beauchamp
Hydra Miniatures
hydraminiatures.com

My favorite free set of multiplayer space fleet rules I've ever written: SUNDER THE STARS And by "fleet" I mean more than a dozen individual ship models per player – not counting fighters. Largest game to date was a 2 player vs. 2 player engagement with 17 ships per player, which took (including teaching the rules) about 3 hours. Can be played with or without a hex mat.

Al | ravenfeastsmeadhall.blogspot.com

I'm a Full Thrust fan--but I guess that's 'cause I started out with Star Fleet Battles (back in the old mini format) and like using ship control sheets.

Rob

Full Thrust.

A Call to Arms. Full Thrust is good also.

Full Thrust for me.

I've played a few sets now.

Full Thrust is good, altho if you want larger ships it starts to get a little tedious and the record keeping, whilst reasonable, gets old fast.

Firestorm Armada is fun but simplistic, altho the lack of record keeping is great.

Colonial battlefleet is better than FT in my opinion, its harder to break and you can do comparable things with the rules, altho its hex-based, so this may be deal breaker.

Battlefleet Gothic is pretty fun and simple, sort of Firestorm Armadaesque (predated it) but unless you want to use their background there are better sets for generic gaming. Nice lack of record keeping overall.

Pax Stellarum is Matgc83's new project which personally I think is looking great (from what little I know of the mechanics) but he's not going to have a first raft done for a few months.

Personally I'd probably go with Colonial battlefleet, but if it was a large battle I'd be tempted to shift to Firestorm Armada.

Full Thrust for me… and Silent Death when I can get someone to play it.
War Rocket is certainly on the list of games I want to try, along with Starfleet Battles (despite all the warnings).

Full Thrust. Easy to play, easy to teach, easy to tinker with, and most important, easy to find players for.

Don't forget, the annual Ground Zero Games East Coast Convention is next week in Owego, NY.

starmada fleet ops are my favourite rules. Simple and fast.

I enjoy Battlefleet Gothic – but part of the reason has to do with the fluff and the baroque appearance of the ships.

Colonial Battlefleet for Battlestar Galactica and A Call to Arms for Star Fleet. Fun fun fun.

I like a bunch of stuff that fit that criteria. Full Thrust, B5 ACTA, and Battlefleet Gothic.

Fleets is Full thrust
Fighters is hard Vacuum

Full Thrust, ACTA and Silent Death, not in any order….

Never heard of Silent Death. I'll have to search on that one.

I'm currently really enjoying A Call To Arms – Starfleet.

Love Full Thrust, Firestorm Armada and ACTA.

Loving ACTA-SF right now. Had a blast playing Starmada in the past and looking forward to the new edition as well as Pax Stellarum!

-Tim

FT and Starmada

There's Starfleet Wars if you want simple rules with resource management, but the game's out of print.

Galactic Knights is another game of about the same complexity as Full Thrust, with vector movement that's fun and easy to pick up.

I am a Starmada fan, and really enjoy War Rocket. I am also starting to play A Call to Arms Starfleet. I am thinking that ACTA Starfleet might replace Starmada soon.

Mind you I am using the OLD Starfleet Battles Miniatures and the OLD FASA starships. I am unsure about the new resin stuff, from what I have heard I am not impressed.

The FASA rules right now.

Captain Gideon

Another vote for Silent Death.
And i hope, for Wargamer1972's sake, the ODB dont see that comment. If so there might be a knock at the door as the "helping hands" of House Colos may make a visit. :-)

Grimm

Starmada is my choice for gaming. For larger games I like 'A Sky Full of Ships'. I want to try Starmada Fleet Ops. Just need Bab 5 stats. I'm interested in Colonial Battlefleet since I am a fan of their WWII set. Again, seeing Star Trek or Bab 5 ships lists would make me jump in.

I played Full Thrust for many years and enjoyed it. I think it's a decent fit for Trek style games. However, I don't think it works as a Bab 5 style set. I would play Full Thrust if someone else was running a game. But it's towards the bottom of my list of favorites. Too many other sets have come along and do a better job now.

Thanks,

John

Full thrust must be the favourite, with Silent Death as a good second for fighter/small cap ship games.

Used to be a Full Thrust player but its Colonial Battlefleet for me these days.

Robert

I've tried a bunch, but always go back to Full Thrust.
It's dirt simple to mod it too, which makes it ideal for, well, anything.

I kinda enjoy A Sky Full of Ships too. Different feel, but still fun.

Full Thrust is the only one that fits the bill for me and I've read/got are too many rule sets in this area!

Isn't there a new FT book planned?

full thrust…

I like Battlefleet Gothic and Call to arms based (such as B5 and star fleet battles)

Al

Have tried Full Thrust, Starmada-X and B5 ACTA for large fleet battles, and BFG for beer and pretzels game, and Silent Death for space fighter combat.

Cheers

James

Starmada, Starmada Fleet Ops, Colonial Battlefleet, Full Thrust, Task Force Zeta,

One Page Fleets (Free!)!

link

Warcosm

FASA Star Trek followed by Full Thrust.

Isn't there a new FT book planned?

Well yeah, but that's been the case for better than a decade now. :)

Never heard of Silent Death. I'll have to search on that one.

Be enlightened:

metal-express.net

We'll be back fairly soon… just have to tie down a few loose ends, and we can take the webstore live… stay tuned….

Leland R. Erickson

Full Thrust 3

Star Fire. I would play that again in a second.

Well yeah, but that's been the case for better than a decade now. :)

Yeah, but the groppos have been waiting a heck of a lot longer for the promised Bugs Don't Surf. ;->=

'Broken' parts of FT have been pretty easily avoided in my experience, but depends on the folks with whom you play, I guess.

Never saw a rule set somebody couldn't cheese up, but FT IS all about playing with your own possibilities.

Star Fire. I would play that again in a second.

Which version? I own most, and haven't been tempted by anything but the first. Warts and all.

SF Second had a Quick Start doc with a small list of rules; even that seemed like a steep curve. I couldn't get Marvin Lamb to give me such a list for any other edition.

Doug

To answer the OP's actual question:

For large starship combat, hands down, Full Thrust. Just played a couple of pick-up games with a newbie at Dun DraCon last weekend, and I have to admit that the system is damn-near perrfect.

For space fighter combat, Silent Death: The Next Millennium. Yes, I *am* biased as I evolved from mere fan and regular player to co-author/author of a number of supplements to the system, and I *am* a major co-conspirator working to bring SD:TNM back to the public including all the 100+ different fighter, gunboat, freighter, and escort minis, plus the resin 3-to-1 ships ASAP.

My bias aside, SD:TNM is the best system out there for cinematic fighter combat IMHO.

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson