"Favorite Hex-based Spaceship Combat Game?" Topic

So, in cleaning up my studio and game storage area(s), I found that I have a large cloth hex-gridded starmap, 3" and 5".

Looking for suggestions – what's your favorite hex-using space combat game, and why? Looking for big-ish ships here, as I've got a bunch of older Full Thrust and some Firestorm Armada starter sets. (Yeah, I could ignore the hexes, but that just doesn't sit well with me, for some reason…)

Silent Death, followed by Quad-S

Seconded Sneaky Reaper!

Though you seem to mean capitol ships. I don't use hexes for those. I like FT.

Star Blazers Fleet Battle System uses hexes anywhere from 1 inch to 3 inches since the bigger the hex the more ships you can have in a hex.

But then if something goes bad more ships might be destroyed or badly damaged by that.

The original Star Fleet Battles minigame. You just motored around with either a Federation cruiser or a Klingon warship and shot the crap out of each other. The game kept getting bigger and more complicated, and frankly in my opinion ruined it.

I sort of like the Galactic Knights rules and miniatures available through Monday Knight Productions ( link ) . The ships are the old Superior Starfleet Wars ships that are pretty big. The rules are pretty easy to figure out and have an interesting movement system.

Im probally dating myself here. I choose an old Metagaming title called WarpWar. Fun and easy to play.

FT, although it doesn't use hexes (but could be adapted). We also play SFB occasionally.

Battleship Galaxies.

*I know, I know…*

Mayday

Starmada Compendium and Starship Tactical Combat Simulator (FASA Star Trek).

Starfire

Another vote for Galactic Knights.

Starmada!

Another Galactic Knights vote here…

Showing my age… Knight Hawks!

It's old and clunky, but I love it. Always have!

The rules are free too.

PDF link

FT, although it doesn't use hexes (but could be adapted)

Absolutely; has been done several times. One was the fan-written VMS that Ken Burnside uses in his strawman 'comparisons' to Full Thrust.

Too much work to translate an elegant system to a confines for which it was never intended, methinks.

So many lovely other choices.

Doug

Silent Death, Knight Hawks, and FASA's Start Trek tactical simulator.

Jovian Chronicles, though it's really for mecha combat around the big boys. Excellent vector movement system that isn't as complex as Squadron Strike, huge variety in weapons.

You will need the Jovian Chronicles Rulebook 1st edition for the vehicle combat rules, and the JC Companion for the vehicle creation rules.

Spend the time to create a spreadsheet to make the vehicles, you will thank yourself later! Designing something in the Silhouette system is rather involved, playing it is slick.

Colonial Battlefleet is my go to hex spaceship game, surprised it hasn't been recommended yet.

Robert

Starfire is the one I have the most experience with, though I have several of the others mentioned here.

Regards,

Scott Chisholm

Starmada Compendium or Starmada X.

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Something I'm running into with Colonial Battlefleet and Starmada is the restriction on having more than one ship in a hex – with these big hexes, I was hoping to be able to stack, or at least allow enemies to pass through. Has anyone had any luck house-ruling that?

I love WarpWar, but it's not terribly tactical. I've got a WarpWar/Triplanetary hybrid project rattling around in my head, though…

Starfire…well, let's just say that I regret selling my old copies of an early edition. Galactic Starfire is a bit more than I want to take on.

Interestingly, I'm finding myself to be somewhat (but not completely) averse to vector movement systems. This is a bunch of space opera 'space boats', so I'm not too worried about conservation of momentum. Think Star Wars/Trek, maybe.

Silent Death is a bit too fighter-oriented, but closer to what I'm wanting.

I hadn't thought of Jovian Chronicles at all, which is odd, considering how much I loved it. Again, one I regret selling off. I may have to pick up the noted PDFs, and see. I remember the Silhouette combat system being superb.

Mayday – great system, but I'm wanting bigger ships.

Galactic Knights – I have to admit, I'd like to keep the marker clutter to a minimum. I dont know much about how it plays,though.

Knight Hawks – Now that is a name I've not heard in a long time. Shame that the construction rules don't generate the military designs, but still…a lot of potential there.

Well, hoping to get a copy of Hexcess Thrust from a helpful TMPer, we'll see what that's like.

Silent Death (or course).

I'm still very fond of the original Star Fleet Battles (though not the tournament monster it became).

John T

nvdoyle -

The Starfire Design Studio has the "original" Starfire games as digital downloads for 5 USD each here: link

Also, One Small Step Games has a game on pre-order called Star Fury: Genesis (link) that is supposed to be inspired by Starfire. However, given the glacial pace of pre-orders for it, I have no idea when it might see the light of day….

Regards,

Scott Chisholm

Scott – thank you very much! I'm not sure how I missed that…

I'm still really loving Talon. I just wish there was…

Oh! Since I last looked they've announced an expansion, with a bunch of new and variant ships. No new factions, but it's a start! Pretty cheap one too, hopefully leaving room for something bigger.

Silent Death and fasa star trek simulator

I'm with Lost Wolf on this, mainly FASA Trek.

Those are the only two I've played over the years, plus they make up the majority of spaceship miniatures that I own.

And the SD minis are even used in FASA Trek!!

Babylon 5 Wars and Federation Commander.
The latter because I enjoy the manoeuvre-focused gameplay and the former because of the diversity of gameplay offered by the different weaponry and factions.