Battle for Planet Earth and the Question of Rules.

A friend of mine read an article.

(Riveting, right?)

I don't know the name of the article, though I myself would enjoy reading it.  This article wandered about a few different topics in the retelling, but in an aside it spoke to a central core of miniature wargaming that isn't spoken about enough.  Often the idea of the game, exploring each and every possibility, is more enthralling than the game itself.

It's not a bad thing I think, as long as you recognize it.  It feeds the Gamer ADD like dating a new girl.  It is what it is and on another drive between the Richmond and DC offices, after the last call was done, I chewed on the Battle for Planet Earth, that on again, off again Star Blazers redo.  The problem is the rule set.  I want it to feel pre-dreadnought, with limited formations, wildly random hit effects, and, well, not every ship looking the same.

The way I saw it, out there on 95, is that there are a few decent contenders, but I'm not really enamored with any of them.  They lack the elegance I've seen in other genres, but there's two that are out there that I think have some possible staying power.  Well, three, but one is not published.

First is Battlefleet Gothic, sadly their free Specialist Games version ripped from the website.  Thank you Games Workshop (again).  Simple system, basic mechanics, easy to teach and learn.  Little customization is required, the original models fits the models size I'm looking at.  It's not complex, but it's doable and it meets the need.

The other one I was looking at was one I played back in college, called The Stars Our Decimation.  We got through a half-dozen games in a short sprint, before folks moved on to other games of the era.  TSOD became Voidstriker sometime in the middle of the first decade of the new millennium.  So I decided to reach out to buy them, but the Cafe Press site is no longer functional.  This is what I would call a conundrum.  So I reached out, on a lark, to the writer....and now by the grace of a generous soul, I have a copy.  It's an excellent balance of playability and crunch.  What makes it interesting is the the fact that it is a hex game.  There are ways to play hex games on an open table....so this truly remains an option.

The third?  Song of Void and Stars has "been almost there" since 2012.  I like Ganesha games.  It's a simple rule base, and I have hopes for it, I'll just have to wait.

So....

I am still here, though with a 20 month old and an active work life there is little time available for anything but the necessary.  I've not completely stopped mind you, and figured I best come here for proof of (gaming) life.

So...What am I doing. Or trying to do. Limited time should help me focus but so far my Gamer's ADD has won out.

1. Duergar-As you may or may not know, Dragon Rampant is due to come out come winter.  At my current painting rate I'll not have a new army ready, even if it's for the smaller scale for which Dragon Rampant calls, but the rule set has me started.  None the less I have recently acquired some of Clam Miniatures Ewal Dvergar.  I've not seen much traffic of them but bumped into them while looking for Chaos Dwarf substitutes. I've purchased some of these, and along with some Skaven Auxiliaries I think my Duergar expedition is set.

2.  As seen elsewhere, I have a few of the Star Blazers ships in my Battle for Planet Earth project.  After a recent order, the few has blossomed into too many.  Still, I enjoy putting them together and hope to get a game going, though frankly the rule set on this one is deeply in doubt.  Clearly in my mind this is a story of Pre-Dreadnoughts in space, but the rule set remains a challenge here.

3. Lastly I looked at my pile of Mechwarrior Clix. That too has grown, and as a result I've added to them an order of N-Scale train kits from Japan with a distinctly Shogunate era flavor to them.  Between these two components I have a view of one of two options:

• Mech Wars a la Battletech on a sparsely populated city-state dominated world.  

• Kaiju Hunting on Hokkaido.  

In either case I need to figure out the rules.  For Mech Wars, give the number of Mechs we're looking at, Alpha Strike looks like a front runner (I can't stand filling out dozens of bubbles).  Alternately there is the Ganesha Set which between Samurai Robots Battle Royale (battle report elsewhere on this site) and Mighty Monsters.  This later gives the advantage of having two very specialized rule sets for the two participants if I go with Kaiju Hunting-but the rules have limits (six a side gets a little clunky as experience has shown).  Alternately I'm looking at Savage Worlds Showdown as an option.  What this all comes down to is the ability to push three inch tall mecha across the table.

So three options.  So what.  Pretty boring read, but my hope is that one of the three of these will actually turn into something.  Time will tell.  So far it's not gone well.  I have 2mm sitting by the way side, as well as others.  Too many others.

(By the by, any folks in DC with an appetite to unload a pile of Mechwarrior Clix, please contact me).

Further Thoughts on The Battle for Planet Earth

This is an opportunity post I started while I had a two month old passed out on my chest.  As the twin of this points to, he's six months now, so little progress was made. This means, probably, few links and no pictures.  Not sexy, but an opportunity to spitball.

Since I started this, I have failed the Guild challenge.  Between work and parenthood, it wasn't happening.  but I still have my fleet.

I can't argue that the ships from Bandai are cheap.  Running two bucks a pop, they're pretty well detailed, and well the occasional headache occurs putting them together, there's far worse I've encountered with fantasy figures in 28mm.

The problem is that of scale.  I originally bought these figures with an eye to mixing them with Silent Death ships.  I was inspired by this post and the rest is history.  The problem is that some mix, some clearly do not.  If you look at the lead figure variants here ships match, but the Bandai plastic Okita and Kodaikan (if you're still following me, bravo) are close to the same size.  Or in more sane words, Cruisers and Destroyers are roughly within an inch of each other in a game which huge ships clock in at 6".  A possible explination is the size of jump drives....but I will noodle on this.

As a side note for anyone who might care, I am a fan of Silent Death, it was the go to game for college days.  It plays fun but two problems arose, periodically.  The first is the moment we all remember from every bit of space anime in history, when the ships get to standoff distance, and every torpedo is released, and has to be tracked.  The other is the Conga Line of Death, where intiative feeds into ordered distruction. Still, fun and quick.  I'm now looking to see if I can convert CY6! to something playable...project 107 on the pile.

So what am I saying.  I like these ships.  I have now about 30 of them.  And I still have no clue what I will rule set I will use.