"Fleet Commander - Genesis on Kickstarter" Topic

I found this kickstarter and it looks pretty interesting.

link

Has anyone else seen it? What are your thoughts.

To movement/attack/defensive mechanic being driven by die rolls is interesting.

It isn't cheap, but there are quite a few ships included and they are pre-painted (which could be good or bad).

saw the rules vid and was not impressed although the minis look good

If I counted correctly, the Admiral level is a total of 62 ships for the 119 euros. Not to bad if you like the looks of them.

Not too excited that where ships can move is dictated by a random roll. We're dealing with ships moving through a vacuum, using directed energy to do so. That doesn't feel like the right mechanic to represent such a concept.

Can't help feeling the designer should have remembered that when one meets the Buddha, one should kill the Buddha.

Surprised by Jerry Hawthorne's endorsement, as a result; that man knows how to write mechanics that suit the theme of a game.

Brought me up short as well, though I THINK the idea is to bundle initiative into the mechanic.

Likewise, the minis are appealing, and Sean will be pleased by if I pitch in, which I may.

The absolute good part of 'pre-painted' is he'll know I won't be asking him to do them up for me. ;->=

Doug

I'm interested; the game looks fun for what it is. I don't think it was meant to be a simulationist wargame, but an abstract strategy game with a nice space combat veneer. You can hold some dice turn-to-turn, and pick how many of what type to roll, so movement is more about resource management and some luck, with combat being deterministic. That looks like it could be a fun switch: I've played a lot of games where I get my figs or pieces in a great spot, or outnumbering my opponent, and then do little to no damage because of some fickle random dice rolls. The multiplayer aspect looks enjoyable too. The rules are such, that I think even non-wargamers could enjoy them, though they offer the depth of thought that gamers should still have fun.

I can get some space combat hi-jinks, and the game seems quick enough the normal game group could play it on off nights, or I might even get my non-gamer friends to play sometimes!

For what it is worth, the same company also successfully kickstarted an earlier version of the game, and delivered:

link

~Brian

I guess I'm not put off by the movement mechanic because I just don't think this game is about how well each player maneuverers individual ships. In my mind I'm thinking each ship represents a flotilla (or space equivalent) of ships. As a fleet commander I know where I would want my fleets to be, but will they follow my orders (did I get the correct rolls) and get to the correct location in time.

Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I think this looks interesting and I'm looking forward to it.

Much more of a board game feel than other space combat games, but I'm okay with that.

And as Zyphyr said, there are 62 (I think it is 64 now) prepainted ships to add to my collection.