"Scenario generation for Galactic Knights" Topic

One of the more challenging aspects of Science Fiction naval gaming, at least in my opinion, is coming up with interesting scenarios for the games. Star Navy 5150, which I have previously reviewed, has a very clever system for doing this, plus generating a series of actions linked into a campaign, with minimal record keeping:

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We enjoyed our Star Navy battles, but I prefer something with a little more tactical richness to it. Also, I have extensive fleets for 4 of the 5 factions in Galactic Knights (the old Superior Starfleet Wars ships, which are still in production). We had tried the GK rules previously, and enjoyed them.

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However, aside from the scenarios included for learning the rules, they lack any guidance on scenario generation, etc , although they do include extensive ship building rules, as well as "standard" designs.

Therefore, I have embarked upon a project to "translate" these ideas from Star Navy 5150 for use with Galactic Knight. The first step in this process was to modify the SN process for setting up battles such that it would work smoothly and easily with GK; hopefully I have done so. The results are here:

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The SN system could be similarly adopted for other Spaceship combat games as needed.

Several future posts are anticipated dealing with translating the SN campaign system into one suitable for use with GK. Both rules sets are recommended!

Peter

(the old Superior Starfleet Wars ships, which are still in production)

Cannot be said too oft!

I regularly see eBay auction with 'out of print.' *seethe x 2*

I really like the stepped results; very granular compared to most I see, though translating the point-difference to games I'm enjoying will be challenging. Definitely will try!

Thanks!

Doug

I can't take credit for the scenario generation concepts, which are tweaked from SN.

The Superior/GK ships are available from Monday Knight Productions, and also from The Panzer Depot (often at better prices).

Interesting set up rules, will the full rules include unbalanced fleet sizes with victory conditions adapted to give both sides a winnable game? That's one thing I've found to really add a sense of real battles to any system.

Robert

Robert (? Toaster" = Cylon)

The Campaign system uses the number of ships in your force to determine the number of ships in the enemy force, which will usually but not always be close. As there is a Mission objective, the actions take place in the context of the overall mission, so players have good reason to cut their losses and hyper out if tings don't look good… as long as each individual ship has an intact hyper drive system!

That's one difference between Star Navy and Galactic Knights – in Star Navy the ship is assumed to have an intact yper drive as long as it hasn't gone kaboom; in Galactic knights it is quiet possible to knock out all a ships hyper drive systems without necessarily destroying it outright.

I can't take credit for the scenario generation concepts, which are tweaked from SN.

Not to worry; was lauding the 'tweaking'. ;->=

Thanks again!

@Toaster: Have you seen Mike Brown's set up for Full Thrust? Borrowed from Traveller's Brilliant Lances which gave full credit to Ariel's Seastrike (Gonsalvo take note..), as I recall, thirteen each of attacker and defender cards, with adjusted points for 'the mission'.

Each side draws an appropriate card, and the other side can guess from the fleet that shows up, unless there's reinforcements. Diabolical fog of war. ;->=

Now THAT'S tweakin' beyond MY poor mortal powers!

Doug

@ Gonzalo Toaster doesn't = Cylon, I've been Toaster slightly longer than the new BSG has been about and its a long story involving working with electrical appliances and pilots who wouldn't fly without an on board source of well done bread.

@Doug, seen it, printed it, use it regularly and I repost it every chance because I feel everyone should have a chance to try it. link
I still think it's the best scenario generator I've found and the whole point of my question was 'will this be as good?' because one can never have to many scenario generators.

Robert

Great posts! Thanks guys. I have been looking for a campaign system for GK for a quite. My current focus is a set of Space Station rules for GK.

With your permission Gonsalvo, I would love to use your campaign rules and possibly use them for developing an on-running GK campaign at Enfilade (NHMGS convention ran every Memorial Day weekend in Olympia, WA).

As for the figures…… GREAT PAINT JOBS, how you got plaid on the the Avarian Destroyers is beyond me but they look great!

-Will