"Stargrunt game with Khurasan Neo-Soviets." Topic

Hi all,

Here's quick write up of a game I played the weekend before last. I was going to post this earlier but my dad passed away this past Wednesday so the write-up went on the back burner.

It wasn't much of a game, but it was fun and gave me a chance to spend quality time with my son, and we got a chance to try out Stargrunt.

Yeah, a blast from the past that is still a hoot to play. Here's the link to the game:

link

Enjoy.

Condolences on your loss mate.

Sorry to hear your loss :(

condolences …

and also could not be ignored what a great table and minis for a great game..

Francisco

My condolences on your loss. I'm glad you and your son got to play together. That's a very nice table and minis. I like the StarGrunt rules and hope you and your son enjoyed them.

My deepest sympathy for your loss.

Your game did look very good. Really nicely painted figs!

Take care.

Very sorry to hear about your dad.

You and your family have my sincere condolences.

Thanks for sharing your battle report and pics. Looks like a fun game, and any with your kids are always better.

Checked out some of your other reports too, and noticed you use of Ultra-FUBAR.

Not sure if you've played enough games to really tell, but between StarGrunt and Ultra-FUBAR, do you prefer one over the other?

Are there some points about each that you like/dislike, that could be bolted on to the other set?

Sorry for your loss. My condolences.

Thanks guys.

@Mako

It's a hard call. I like both systems a lot but it's really not fair to compare the two. FUBAR is just a single page of rules so it is very undeveloped compared to Stargrunt. Stargrunt really does have everything in its pages- artillery, air support, morale, unique command and control rules, a decent vehicle combat system, and so on. FUBAR is little more than very basic combat system with a clumsy set of vehicle combat rules. In other words, Stargrunt is better to me because it has more "meat" on its bones whereas FUBAR is barely bones. Finally FUBAR's activation system can be very frustrating. This AAR shows that in spades:

I prefer Tomorrow's War really. The action/reaction system gives a very dynamic game. It has rather similar mechanics to Stargrunt but it plays smoother in many ways.

I'll probably play a couple of more games in Stargrunt then switch over to Tomorrow's War. My son, Jeremy, is reaching the point where he can play more complex games. So Tomorrow's War is one the horizon for me, maybe this summer.

We found Stargrunt to be smoother than TW though the book is pretty confusingly laid out :)

The morale system is still the best we've played.

It could do with the odd tweak but nothing terrible. It really is a terrific system, even after this many years.

A new Stargrunt is apparently forthcoming.

Sorry for your loss.

Nazrat – For real? I'd be all over that.

I was thinking the combat system, at least for small arms. TW's is a tad easier and resolves quicker than SG, but your mileage may vary.

This link is something I wrote about my dad. He was in the Air Force during the early 60's and did some cool stuff.

TMP link

Thanks for the details, Tgunner.

The FUBAR activation system is easy to fix. Just use a D10, or D12 instead of the D6 for that. Fewer non-activations of the poorer troops that way, but they still might freeze at a critical moment in the battle.

Works superbly.

Tgunner – everyone's experiences are different, all good :-)
I do agree combat is easier in TW than Stargrunt. The reaction/turn sequence system was what didn't work for our group.

Humm… Never thought of using a bigger activation die. I might have to give that a shot. FUBAR's vehicle system needs revamping too. I didn't really care for the "my 120mm sabot hit your puny APC, and yeah, I just knocked off your machine gun" effect.

I never had too much trouble with the reaction/turn stuff, but then again I play with very small forces so I've never really seen the mind numbing cascades that I hear about. I typically field maybe 20 or so troops on each side split into maybe 4-5 units along with a few vehicles. I've never tried to ramp it up to company level or higher. How big were your games Weasel?

I think my next game will be Tomorrow's War. Jeremy has been pestering me to play it again.

With that said, Stargrunt is one of my very favorite systems of all time. It's great to break it out and run it through a game or two like I did back in college. It feels a little clunky and I know the 40K types were looking a little glazed over when we were doing fire combat, but it works nicely and is pretty fast when you have small forces on the board.

Tgunner – From platoon to half-company.
My old group had a very low tolerance for involved turn sequences though, so that may have played a big part of it :-)

That's a tad bigger than what I play. Stargrunt can easily handle that.

Know what you mean about the turn sequences. That's why I bailed on ASL.

The things you mentioned about Fubar are true. That's why I changed the vehicle rules to reflect bigger battles. I'll post about it on Friday.

Thanks,

John

I talked with Craig several times about the potential of Fubar being a large battle set. I used some of my ideas and some of the other gents on the Yahoo group or forum. Basically, tanks are either, ok, pinned or immobilized/destroyed. Units all get a last one activation. That was not my idea, but it is a darn good one. My Star Wars clone Wars games have had a couple 100 infantry and 30+ vehicles on the table. Games last about 3 hours. Infantry are not pinned/suppressed.

I think the rules are ok. But the Command and Control rules are weak. For a long time the adherence to a one page only set stopped a HUGE amount of improvement on the rules. Craig finally gave in and let them be 2 or 3 pages. I think 10-12 pages would still work if it all added to the rules improvement in playability and quality.

That's pretty much why I have walked away. Craig is a brilliant rules writer and very good guy. but he hasn't been involved with the rules for a few years now. So I have moved on. I may still use the rules now and then. I am just looking for something I like more.

Thanks,

John