"StarStrike. A preview of the next NWG scifi game." Topic

One project among many, but since this one is coming along faster than expected (and faster than the post-apoc rules), I figured I'd share a bit. This time about how units will be organized and what the troop profile looks like.

This was also posted on my blog here
link

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What is StarStrike? It is a set of science fiction rules for about 20-40 figures on each side, aiming at a bit more conventional "space adventure" than the hard scifi that you got with No Stars in Sight.

The always awesome Alexander Wasberg did a playtest in 6mm on his blog, but I imagine most would play in the usual 15-through-28mm scale.
Personally, I mostly skirmish in 15mm, though I've wanted a few units of GZG 25mm figures for a long time.

I figured I'd give you guys a few hints at what the game plays like.

Today, we'll talk about your units:

The unit:

The standard "squad" will be 4-6 figures, though there's no particular reason they couldn't be bigger.

I find that slightly smaller squads tend to just flow better on a busy gaming table and it provides more distinct units to use.
If you have 30 troops, I'd generally rather have 6 teams of 5 each, than 3 teams of 10.

Squads are not forced to operate within a certain distance of each other, though there are tactical benefits to doing so, in particular, receiving the benefits of the leader.

A squad may have a leader, though it's not a requirement.
Whenever the squad activates, the leader receives a number of commands.
Orders are essentially bonus points and can be used to give a figure an extra move, an extra shot, cover when they wouldn't have it normally or rally from being pinned without having to test.

To receive these benefits, you have to be within 8" of the leader, which creates an incentive to stick together, without forcing it.

You can also have individual figures who operate on their own, either as combatants or as leaders.
A squad may even detach a soldier to operate as an individual, to guard a flank or hang back to provide covering fire.

In a typical game, I imagine you'll be limited to 1 individual per squad.

Stats:
There are three stats determined by troop type, all rated from 1-10:
Discipline (used to recover from being pinned down and for reaction fire)
Training (affecting weapons fire and initiative)
Morale (affects how stoic your troops are when their friends get wasted)

Two more stats come from the armour worn:
Speed (movement rates)
Survival (a mash-up of toughness, luck and physical protection)

In addition, there'll be a list of character traits that can be used to improve a figure in certain ways (18 at the moment, I imagine between 20-25 total in the finished game).

The fancy stuff:
Rounding out the details, there's some Space Magic and Heroes.
I imagine big, scary space monsters will be a thing too.

Next time, I'll talk about the turn sequence. Let me know your hopes and fears :)

It's a competitive field, but I'll take a look when it comes out. Any rules for vehicles? From hairy horned bipedal riding beasts to grav tanks or small drop ships?

Edit for part 2 – will it share enough similarities with No Stars in Sight that one could transition back and forth pretty easily? I ask because right now I have completely different rule sets for Traveller vs. Star Wars (and another if I ever do Star Trek), but that taxes my brain so I'd be interested in one family of games to cover those genres.

Of course I'm not sure if Traveller would fit into NSiS or this set better.

Super competitive but initial playtests have been positive :-)

Vehicles will be covered yeah. When I start talking about mechanics, I'll touch on that too but I am trying to keep the vehicle mechanics as simple as possible, and as similar to the infantry rules as possible.

Similarities:
I'm not sure if it will be super similar though most things I write have some common threads in them.
Things like reaction fire and suppression are here as well but it's more of a direct "This guy shoots that guy" sort of approach.

Leadership is emphasized in that leaders are still driving your troops but you can be a lot more independent here.

For Traveller, I tend to view it as a bit more space adventure so I'd fit that to StarStrike. But a lot of people view Traveller as more of a hard scifi setting, which is obviously NSIS territory.
(and judging by Striker, GDW thought it was hard scifi too).

You could probably do both in FiveCore though ;)

StarStrike part 2: Turn sequence
Alright, so we know what our troops look like.

Time to take a look at the turn sequence then.

This is fundamentally an old-fashioned alternating turn sequence with a few twists.

The initiative roll:
If both sides have troops left to act, each player rolls 1D10 and adds the highest Training score of their un-activated units.

Whoever rolls highest gets to activate.

On a draw, each player must "exhaust" one unit or individual of their choice, that lose the ability to activate this turn.

What does that all mean?
It has a few interesting impacts:

First, particularly in games with a lot of elements on each side (and thus, a lot of initiative rolls), not all of your units will get to act, but most will.
Those that fail to act can still do some, limited, reaction fire.

Since units may be exhausted, there's an incentive to make sure that each side has a few individual figures detached.

Since initiative is rolled using the highest Training score you have left, there's some tactics in whether a good unit activates early (so they can fire or move before other units act) or you hold them back, to boost your initiative rolls.
Keeping a high Training individual figure in "reserve" is a valid tactic and helps represent the effects of leadership.

One side could activate several times in a row if they have high Training scores or good rolls. This tends to even out, as the enemy will get a bunch of clustered activations as well but it makes for some fun opportunities to coordinate attacks or improve a position.

Actions:
When the unit activates, they have 6 orders to select from.

3 are full move speed orders and 3 are half speed orders.

At full speed you can:
Engage: Move and fire normally.
Evade: Move without taking reaction fire. No shooting.
Storm: Move, fire at short range and get a bonus move to reach hand to hand fighting.

At half speed you can:
Prowl: Half move without taking reaction fire, fire at short range.
Alert: Half move, does not shoot normally but may reaction fire at long range.
Regroup: Half move, no shooting, may attempt to restore their morale.

Leadership:
Each leader receives from 1-3 leadership points. When the leader activates, he/she/it may give that number of orders to figures within 8".

An order can give a figure a full speed bonus move, an additional shot at normal range, recover from being pinned down or get the benefits of cover.

This makes well led units quite powerful, since they can operate with a lot of flexibility. A squad with a level 3 leader could regroup and still take a few shots for example.

Thanks Ivan.

More sneak peeks on the blog but figured I'd answer a few questions that either have been asked or are likely to.

This is probably the last sneak peek :)

*The tone is what I'd call "semi-hard scifi space adventure". Traveller, Laserburn, early 40K. That'll give you a pretty good idea.

* The game is aimed at a release by the end of April if all goes well. Later, if things drag out.
I like to keep cycles short but obviously everything has to fall into place well and I want to make sure I feel good about the game.

*The rules will include a points system where you can create your own units by selecting from a pretty good range of troop types and an expansive armoury.

Points are intended for guidance, rather than hardcore tournament play.

*The official setting will be a suggestion rather than a mandate. It'll incorporate the setting of Five Parsecs From Home with the alien races from No Stars in Sight.
This is what I refer to as the "weasel-verse".

*There won't be a random force generator this time around.

*You will be able to design your own vehicles.

*Basic campaign rules will be included. They'll probably be fairly simple but will allow some continuation for players who like to portray the same troops in consecutive battles.

*Alien races will be based on the ones from No Stars in Sight. This means 10 or 11 critter types corresponding to a pretty good selection of classic alien archetypes, with heavy roots in things like Mass Effect, Traveller and other classic games and worlds.

*A decent selection of rules for scifi battlefields like low gravity, hostile environments and other strangeness.

*Miniatures depicted in the rules will include Armies Army and Angel Barracks.

Just caught up on this today, continues to sound interesting. Yay Traveller!

Traveller was a pretty foundational "how to scifi" gaming experience for me :)