"Game Suggestions?" Topic

I'm hoping to find a game wherein players do NOT control the minutiae of each ship – shield power, etc.

I'm hoping to find something that lets the fleet commander choose the fleet directions and targets for the ships.

Thanks!

I'm hoping to find a game wherein players do NOT control the minutiae of each ship – shield power, etc.

I'm hoping to find something that lets the fleet commander choose the fleet directions and targets for the ships.

Thanks!

Starfire may be worth a look. There is a free intro version on wargamesvault.

Star Navy by Two Hour Wargames. link
I have the previous version, not this one. But it should be pretty abstract, firing/damage based on the quality of the ship, resolved with a single roll, then maybe another roll to see what the target's captain decides to do.

Oh, and you can ask questions of the author on their forum: twohourwargames.proboards.com

Hey Bill, thanks for the "edit" button!

Full Thrust from Ground Zero Games
I think it's available for free on the interwebs?

Second vote for Full Thrust – As long as you don't play the Sa'Vasku faction, who live or die by power utilization.

Simple without being simplistic, FT uses a very intuitive damage and repair system, and a choice of either Cinematic or Vector movement without modifying the ship between types. You can even design your own vessels.

Battlefleet Gothic has all of the materials free online and plenty of miniatures from an array of sellers. Some sell physical models, some sell 3D printer files. There are also people who will print ships from those files for you. There's also a large community to answer questions.

Dropfleet Commander is by the same designer and has an obvious common heritage, but is in physical print and has new miniatures coming out. However, there may be elements of the rules that you will find too detailed because you need to decide if each ship is going to turn on active sensors and then you track how big the "spike" on your ship is from your emissions (turning on active sensors, firing weapons, hitting full boost, etc.), active scans against you, etc.

While I truly love Full Thrust

I do not think it matches the request that well, as it is still controlling each ship a an individual. Tracking damage and plotting moves for each.

Commanding vast fleets of ships, is something I was working on, inspired by the anime "Legends of the Galactic Heroes"
link
Find a video of some of the fleet combat, it is impressive.

My approach was to think of wings of ships as a unit, much like pike blocks, where the individual ships mattered very little, but just were part of the unit's strength.

I was in fact going to use a Renaissance set of rules as the start, with some wings like pikes, some like knights, and some like arquebusiers. Sadly never got off the ground.

So many choices. In addition to the above, there are also Starmada and A Sky Full of Ships. The latter especially hits the level you mention, but any of these would be fun.

GOBS— Generic Outlandishly Big Spacefleets!

It's designed for exactly what you want. And it's free.

thegobspage.com

And yes, I'm the designer.
Caveat— the original thrust numbers are too low. Increase by 2, across the board.

Tgerritsen nailed it! A Sky Full of ships is certainly one that you do not do things at the ship level. I have set up an IO group for it with loads of ship and fleet designs, for Babylon 5, Star Trek early and later, Star Wars and much more.
groups.io/g/ASFOS/files/Files

Gobs I like but haven't played enough to make an informed comment.

Thanks

John

Thanks for suggestions! I'll do a bit of researching, and probably some rules collecting, to find stuff to read.

I'd like to recommend (my) Stars and Steel – the fleet scale space-opera-style wargame, where you command the fleets composed of squadrons of the huge spaceships… Even the big battleships are just the gears in the warmachine :)

As the squadron is the basic unit, the battles are solved smooth, without bogging down into the details. In addition it's modular and provided with literary hundreds of STL models.

link