"Goodbye, Jovian Chronicles" Topic

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The line is getting "retired".

I hope this means that they intend on putting out NEW models for the game, perhaps in Fleet scale, as it is quite excellent (JC and Lightning Strike)

Dang. Might need to pick up some more of the ships before they're gone forever.

I know that within a month of the line going away, I'll suddenly *need* some of the minis I don't have. That's the way it always goes.

Wish they'd have lowered the prices… 12 bucks for a single ship is well outside my pricepoint….

Sigh. Might as well pick up the last few I need. Maybe they could sell off the molds to someone else…

I liked a lot of things about the rules, but the high cost of the figures always kept me from taking the plunge.

Which, come to think of it, can be said about every game DP9 has ever made, and probably every one they ever will.

Looked at DP9's product lineup many times when piecing together my Full Thrust fleets. Never pulled the trigger, due entirely to the price. Too expensive.

The best part about buying into DP9 rules – was that 6 months to a year later you could buy new versions all over again… Thankful they switched to PDFs with free updates…

"I liked a lot of things about the rules, but the high cost of the figures always kept me from taking the plunge.

Which, come to think of it, can be said about every game DP9 has ever made, and probably every one they ever will."

Quoted for truth.

Amazed it lasted this long. Never seemed to be a huge seller.
-Kle.

Not surprising, but still very sad to see it go. Jovian Chronicles is what originally got me into spaceship gaming (not counting BFG) and I've always liked the setting and the models. Too bad the fleet scale stuff never saw light of day. I wonder how much this decision had to do with the departure of John Nguyen.

Well, I'll keep hoping that the line will be resurrected one day.

Well… I at least had to get a couple of Valiants before it disappears forever. It's been my favourite starship miniature since I saw it in the 2nd edition of the JC roleplaying game.

Might try to use them together with some of Charles Oines shapeways designs in the future. :)

Sheesh. And here I was planning on playing with a 3d modeling program to make all the Macleod-series modular ships.

And I'm broke as a joke right now, so little to no chance of me being able to buy anything… grumble.

I'm really disappointed to hear this! I love the JC setting and the idea of mixing captial ships, fighters and mecha in a space combat game. They had been hinting for the last couple years that they planned on updated the Lightning Strike rules but I guess not. :-(

Lion in the Stars, if you do that consider me your first customer! I've had the very same idea myself, but don't have the skills for it.

I'd love to see some mechs about the scale of the 6mm GZG ones, with more anime/flight poses. (about the size of a 15mm infantryman)

I'd like to see 4-6 base sculpts, with "heavy weapons" versions – similar to the GZG Hound Dog series.

There are some "fleetscale" ones at 6mm.co.uk (Loud Ninja/Eli Arndt) but they are too tiny to show decent detail (or be used with 6mm sci fi)…

Yes, some fleet scale mecha would be wonderful! I've found quite a few on Shapeways, although they're fairly different from the official JC sculpts.

I tried using Iron Wind metal battletech power armour (whatever the little suits are called) but it is a PITA to separate them from their base.

The fleet scale Heavy Gear stuff looks nicest but at $2 USD a pop (compared to 50-75c for a comparable 15mm infantryman or GZG mecha)… I could get a Perry 28mm for that dosh.

Also several were miscast (which I've never had in all my dealings with Khurasan, GZG etc)… They do paint up well though, but GZG Hound Dogs remain my favourite with their heavy weapons options…

@EvilleMonkeigh –

The ones you mentioned were sculpted by me for 15mm.co.uk. They were definitely designed for fleet scale games but some folks have had good results basing them on the ground as 6mm infantry in hard armor.

-Eli

@Fire Broadside: Well, I'd have to develop the skills to pull that off myself.

Maybe once I get settled in at a new job and some bills paid down I will have time to settle down in front of a computer and fiddle around with Sketchup or some other low-cost 3d modeling program that Shapeways can use. Might be interesting to fuss around with 1/1200 models, or maybe 1/3900 scale models instead of the 1/500 mecha and 1/5000 starships. Would make the ships much bigger, however. An Alexander-class DD is some 480m long, and 1/3900 is a convenient 1"=100m for a ship length of 4.8". That would make the 21m tall mecha roughly 6mm tall, which is a bit smaller than I want. I want EVA crew, Marines, and small exosuits roughly 6mm tall. Not sure whether I want the major mecha to scale with the grunts or in a smaller scale, say ~20mm tall or so. Clearly bigger than the EVA crew, but not ginormous, either.

Sadly, my Voc Rehab stipend hasn't posted, because I was going to buy a whole pile of Jovian craft. Enough for a whole Valiant- or Forge-class wing, and then some. 4 regular Pathfinders; a Pathfinder Sniper, Recon, and Command; 6 Lancers; and at least one of every other Jovian mecha. None of the ships, I don't really like the non-Macleod series.

Jovian Chronicles, I hardly knew ya!

@ Eli. Yeah, I know – I followed them with interest in your blog. They are, as you say, more 6mm infantry size and would be best multi-based as a "squadron" from what I can see. Kinda like the GZG not-Macross transforming mechs.

I'm talking more 6mm mecha like GZG Hound Dog mecha. They could be used for space and ground games. Would love some ones that size *hint hint*

DP9's weird choice of huge 28mm mecha (and charge $11 USD+ each for them) with tiny ships was both jarring aesthetically, but also expensive…

I like the design aesthetics in DP9's H Gear and J Chronicles games BUT one thing you can always count on with DP9 is that they will make wierd scale choices for their figs…

If they'd gone with 15mm rather than 20mm for the old HG line I would have bought some. If they'd gone with 15mm or 6mm for the new HG line I would have bought some. If they'd gone with 1/300 rather than 1/350 for the HG 'fleet scale' line I would have bought some. Same with the JC figs. As it is, I have a few of their models but I won't buy into the games because I don't trust that they won't do something wierd again in the future (even if I was inclined to pay their prices).

I know they rationalized it as picking the "right" scale for their games, but I think it was always more about making it difficult to mix with competitor lines and create a captive player group. Stupid because they would almost certainly have netted more sales from people who wanted to mix DP9 figs with existing collections than they would have lost to people using proxy figs in DP9 games. Assuming they were ever willing to adopt a reasonable pricing stucture of course.

Here's my final haul of Lightning Strike stuff. I'm missing a couple of Jovian ships as well as all the Venusian stuff, but I'm planning to use different miniatures for them anyway.

No Exos either, but since I've always wanted to do them in fleet scale that wasn't such big a problem.

Still… feel a little sad that it's gone. :(

Welp.