"New Jovian Wars previews! KS coming in February" Topic

Having spent hours painting the new fleet scale mecha for the upcoming Jovian Wars by DP9 I'm dying to get my hands on the new ships!

The latest preview is the Alexander destroyer and it really looks awesome! I've been privy to some of the other ships from the Ships of the Fleet books and I can say they do not disappoint. :)

The CEGA forces I've painted so far.

The alpha rules are available freely from DriveThru and although I haven't had time to try them out myself yet, they look fairly quick and breezy while still retaining a lot of the realistic feel of Jovian Chronicles: link

As I said elsewhere, very glad to see the Fleet Books ships making an appearance.

-Will

Cool stuff! I love Jovian Chronicles and I'm glad to see that it is around nearly 30 years later. Fleet Action scale? Nice! Now the game is actually affordable!

Cast-iron pilot holes? Brilliant!

There's just no reason for doing the Alexander without the ring section. It's just too cool!

Sorry, this is so sweet that I can't control the exclamation points.

enckinney: Thee and me have, occasionally, not seen eye-to-eye…

THIS AIN'T ONE OF THEM!!!

Doug

Crap. I have large Jovian and CEGA fleets of the smaller models…and a horde of the larger mechs. What to do, what to do…

Stupid auto-correct… "Cast-in," of course.

Oh, daaaaaayyyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.

Do. WANT!!!

look awesome and easy to put together.

Some additional information: Apart from the Valiant and the Poseidon all the ships in the KS will be from the Ships of the Fleet books, and having seen renders of the rest I can say that they all look as good or better than what we've seen so far.

The existing ships (Thunderbolts, Bricrius etc) probably won't get updated versions just yet, as DP9 want to focus on getting new designs out the door first.

The ships have been upscaled a little bit, about 25% making them sturdier and easier to customize.

Speaking of which, there are extensive rules for customizing your ships and the idea is to carry this over to the models. So you could field an Alexander with two counter-rotating centrifuges, or extra guns or what have you. There will be many different parts and upgrade kits for you to play around with.

They have been designed to allow for rotating centrifuges on the models.

There has been a lot of interest in Jovian Wars and the new models so I think the kickstarter will do well. And since it's all resin and white metal there's no time consuming injection moulds that need to be made so DP9 aims to have it fullfilled before June, ahead of the planned second kickstarter for Heavy Gear.

I forgot to include the prototype Valiant:

@Moonbest – Having all the new fleet scale exos I can tell you they look pretty damn good, and the new ships are gorgeous!

However, there's nothing stopping you from getting the alpha rules (will be in beta by the time the kickstarter launchers) and trying them out with your existing models. You just need to bluetack some cardboard to the ship bases as they have changed in the new edition.

Moonbeast – how many of the larger scale Mechs are we talking…?????

@Macross Martin:
CEGA: 3 packs of Wraith fighters (2 per pack)
6 packs of Syreen (1 per pack)
5 packs of Cerberus (1 per pack)
5 packs of Furies (1 per pack)
10 packs of Wyverns (1 per pack)
5 packs of Wyvern Marines (1 per pack)
4 packs of Wyvern command/bombers (1 per pack)
1 pack of Dragonstriker mech (resin)

Jovian:
4 packs of Lancer fighters (2 per pack)
5 packs of Vindicators (1 per pack)
6 packs of Retaliators (1 per pack)
10 packs of Pathfinders (1 per pack)
7 packs of Pathfinder Snipers (1 per pack)
7 packs of Pathfinder Command/Recon (1 per pack)
6 packs of Hectors (1 per pack)
1 pack of Stormrider (metal/ 1 per pack)

And then there's the ships…

Moonbeast – blimey! That's a few! Well, I do have a birthday coming up, so if you're thinking of selling these to fund shifting down to the fleetscale…. :D

Something I'd really like (especially if there's a customization option for ships in the game) is a bits service, so I can fit a Majestic- or Ypres-class with dual centrifuges.

And a Valiant with the newer engine cluster instead of the line.

And maybe even a Corsair with the battle ring.

The scary ships are going to be the Gagarin-class tender and Lennox-class cargo. The Lennox-class is going to be about 140mm long, and the Gagarin-class is going to be nearly 190mm long! Heck, the repair bay alone on the Gagarin-class is 75mm long. I really hope that there's an option for the repair bay to be open…

Crickies, almost 8 inches long? Reality check for me.

In spite of the X-Wing monsters, that big, and it's terrain, not a ship. Still, I must have my precious.

I really hope that there's an option for the repair bay to be open…

So designed or not, SOMEONE will get 'er done.

Doug

A new preview! This time we have the CEGA Constantinople Marine Assault Vessel – "basically a very mobile ground army", as it saysin the Ships of the Fleet, Vol 3 book.

@Lion – While we don't know the details yet the idea is that the players should be able to customize in all kinds of ways and I would imagine some kind of parts service be a part of this.

Oh and the Gagarin… I think you'll like it. ;)

I started a Facebook group for everything Jovian Chronicles where Robert DuBois and Dave McLeod is posting updates, for those who are interested: link

@TheBeast: The Gagarin is supposed to be big enough to put smaller ships inside the repair section, so that they can be worked on in atmosphere. The repair bay is some 300m long, and almost that big around, too.

Thanks, Lion, but I have the book. ;->=

I really wasn't arguing, just saying I put it in the middle of the battle, and every pretty much happens around it.

And I REALLY do want!

Doug

These ships are looking very promising.

-Will

Yep, got to get these…

Ships look promising, but the new rules aren't silhouette….

Ships look promising, but the new rules aren't silhouette….

I'm ok with that; the Silhouette system is good and a breath of fresh air when it appeared in the 90's, but I'm no longer as attached to it as a I first was.

-Will

I'll probably end up using Full Thrust, Voidstriker, or Slag anyway…

Not sure what I'll do with the old scale ones I've got.

Ships look promising, but the new rules aren't silhouette….

Neither was Lightning Strike, and LS is better for large fleet engagements than Silhouette/JC. JC is better for playing Gundam games, where pretty much each mecha is a character and you might have 1-2 big things on the table as targets/objectives.

Though now I'm tempted to abuse the Squadron Strike design spreadsheets to see if I can build JC ships in that…

Almost certainly you can, and with the all-new AVID assistant that let's multiple devices share data, a lot of the "3D is too hard!" objections vanish. What's the bearing to that ship? Tap. Ah, good.

Latest preview is up: the Majestic fleet carrier. That's a 4 inch base by the way.

Oh, and I just finished painting my first batch of Jovian exo armors. :)

Ok, I give. Those DO look fantastic. But I'm still a fan of the larger-scale minis.

I wonder if there's any chance of those being cleared out cheaply by DP9 post-Kickstarter? I can only hope. :L

Those do look nice, but like MacrossMartin, I still prefer the larger-scale mecha…

I will probably end up with both. Use the large mecha for small games or RPG, fleet-scale for big games.

Different question: Would DP9 be willing to consider making larger-scale ships to go with the 1/500 scale mecha?

Love hearing from people who appreciate the large scale exos! A lot of times it's the other way around and the scale difference is what players mention as the main reason they're not attracted to the game. :D

Today we played a station assault using the tactical rules in the roleplaying game (hexes, inertia, burn points – the whole thing!) with the new models and while they're certainly a lot smaller they do give more space for the ships and you get a better sense of "actual" scale.

For me though, the main selling point is that I get six exos for the price of one of the larger sculpts! Suddenly I can play the rpg and Lightning Strike as it was meant to be played! And still use them for the new Jovian Wars that is looking like a lot of fun at this point. As soon as I've painted enough ships I'll do a full battle report with photos.

Can I be a pain in the ass and remind the sculptors that the Majestic model shown should have two more catapults top and bottom? She needs 12 cats, only has 10 in that model.

@Lion – That's a good catch! Tony has obviously modelled the earlier 2213 version that only had 10 catapults. I'll let them know.

Speaking of different versions of the ships; since Jovian Wars allows for a lot of customization on exos and vessels the base models will be stripped down, to allow for players to arm them as they have designed them. So if some guns are missing that's why.

That Majestic is straight up gorgeous.

-Will

And today we got the final preview for the kickstarter. The CEGA Birmingham class assault carrier:

Any Jovian Chronicles veterans will see that this ship has been extensively redesigned with the addition of a four habitat centrifuge which of course made the rear facing catapults impractical so we now just have the front facing ones. She also now has double the engine power (needed for the added mass of the centrifuge I imagine) and a rear facing KKC.

Robert also laid out the plans for the kickstarter that will launch on February 15th:

"The initial goal of the Kickstarter will be to make four of the new resin spaceships designs, the Alexander and Majestic for the Jovian faction and the Constantinople and Brimingham for the CEGA faction. With the Kickstarter being used to raise the money needed to pay for the 3D models, rapid prototyping, silicon production molds for the larger resin parts, vulcanized rubber molds for the small pewter weapon parts, and to make copies of the spaceships for our Backer reward packages.

As we are based in Canada we have to run the Kickstarter campaign in Canadian Dollars (CAD) and our initial funding goal will be $9,000 USD CAD (about $6,818 USD USD with the current exchange rate). We plan to have an $88.00 USD CAD pledge level (about $67 USD USD) that will include a set of the basic Alexander, Majestic, Constantinople, and Brimingham miniatures with their basic acrylic posts and bases, plus any extra parts added to the kits via stretch goals that we have planned.

Only 102 Backers are need at the $88 USD CAD pledge level to reach our initial funding goal. We'll also have Add-Ons available, for an extra pledge, including the remastered Valiant and Poseidon miniatures, which Dream Pod 9 has already invested in to show everyone our proof of concept. Plus the Jovian and CEGA Exo-Armor and Fighter Two Squad Packs presently available on the Dream Pod 9 Online Store, will be available as Add-Ons for an extra pledge.

So Backers will be able to add to their pledges and reach our initial goal faster and then unlock the many stretch goals we have planned. Which include 12 more Jovian and CEGA spaceships that we have already made the 3D Models for and that will be revealed during the Kickstarter Campaign, plus extra weapons and parts to upgrade and customize your ships."

How long will this KS run for? The usual 30 days?

Can't throw any money at things before March 1 (and really shouldn't thrown any money at anything even then…)

Not sure exactly, but probably about a month. Robert also mentioned that shipping will be fixed (and much lower) than their Heavy Gear KS. :)