Traveller Starships from Foreven Shipyards

In the run up for this years TravellerCon/USA convention, I ordered some classic ships from Foreven Shipyards, a Shapeways supplier of licensed Traveller ships.

This year's TravellerCon theme is the Vargr, the genetically uplifted canines often referred to as "the Wolves of Space", so imagine my delight when I realised that Foreven Shipyards offered a Vargr Corsair ship in 1/1000 scale.

Personally, I've never cared much for the Vargr. In our classic Traveller campaign of my youth, there was always one fringe player who insisted of playing one, and it usually made the session feel "off". Certainly, his character was not allowed on the settee. The irony of this year's theme is not lost on me.

All models displayed on a 1" grid.

Vargr Corsair

The ships are very nice - they are also, in some cases, rather pricey. This is due in some part to the materials in use, as well as the manufacturing process. Still and all, worth every penny.

Also ordered was a set of four Gazelle-class Close Escorts and a March-class Type R Subsidized Merchant.

Gazelle-class Close Escorts

In each case, the classic lines of the original artwork is faithfully reproduced, making these models a joy to behold. Cast in Smooth, Fine Detail Plastic, the detail is excellent. One thing to watch for is there seems to be a lengthy curing time for the plastic. I'm not sure how long, except to say that the models have a slightly tacky feeling, except for two models I purchased in October of 2018. I have had some 15mm Rhodesian Alligator APCs that had to sit atop the hot water cistern over the winter before the Smooth, Fine Detail Plastic lost it's tack.

Type M Subsidised Merchant

Flight stands were ordered from Litko, at the suggestion of the model maker.  I had a bad experience with them in the past, but Litko seems to have improved on both delivery time as well as customer service. My complaint with the execution is the post pieces have not been cut straight.

The idea that a company with "Aerospace" in its name making Out-of-Tolerance parts is rather droll....Ω

What Have I Been Up To?

Regular readers may have noticed another long absence, well, I'm back, and I'll share (guiltily) what I've been up to...

There's been quite the gap in posts lately, and it's entirely my fault - we haven't been able to link up with my friday group, and I've only been to one Mid-Week Wargame Wampage since January.

Not that I haven't been gaming - but, dirty secret, it's been online. After some 15 years of being online, I finally found my first MMORPG, and Megz has been sharing the madness.

For the stone-knives-and-bearskins fans amongst the readers, that acronym stand for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play Game, and in this case, it's Star Trek Online (hereafter STO).

Character Screen - Note the Traveller reference name...

Yes, space-cadets, it's now possible to boldy split an infinitive, where no on has split, before  - online. STO is a combination of the Sims 2 meets FASA'a Star Trek Combat Simulator, all in the universe of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek.

Players may select Federation, Klingon or Romulan as their character.  There's also an "alien" sub division, which is allied to either Fed or Klingon. Also, the Romulans aren't exactly a full faction (locals call them a "fraction") since Cryptic Studios decided it would be easier to ally the higher ranked Romulan characters to either the Federation or Klingon Empire (to be clear, I think this was a bad, sloppy, lazy decision...)

Gotta love the "bad" guys

Your character progresses from a Cadet to a Fleet Admiral, over the course of play. Lower level missions are more reminiscent of the TV series - there are some negotiation missions, search party missions, patrol missions and such like.

That said, most missions, either ground-based or in space, are combat oriented. As you character gains rank and prestige, new venues will open: there's the planet Nukara - hot as hell where an environmental suit is all standing between you and fiery doom.  There is New Romulus, where the refugees from the Hobus Supernova are rebuilding their home.  There is Defera, which is being invaded by the Borg. There is Kobali Prime, under invasion from the Vaadwaur, and harbouring an unpleasant secret.

Marooned on a barren world...

In addition to these "Adventure Zones" there are the canon worlds of Vulcan and Andoria (which seem to have been forgotten by the developers at Cryptic) and Risa, the Resort World, where the Galaxy Relaxes (for a short time during the summer).

This game is not without its drawbacks - the social element is a trifle...awkward. If you thought miniature gamers had genetic social handicaps, just have a read thru a MMORG's user forum: after following a few threads, you might think you were reading an HMGS "Lets Move/Not Move Historicon Thread".

That said, there are some delightful people playing Online, with the advantage of being able to meet ad hoc, and with no boxes of miniatures, terrain, dice, measuring tapes to cart about. Players organise themselves into fleets, the STO equivalent of World of Warcraft guilds.  Fleets can be helpful resources, providing access to rare equipment and supplies, or they can be barren monuments to their founder's vanity.  Megz and I have been in both kinds.

Other hitches include a lack of Quality Control in the programming department - there are harmless bugs that are so old ("Talk to Loot Critter" springs to mind) that the current programmers seem to have no idea how to fix them. These aren't glaringly bad, but they serve as a pointer to a deeper issue...

Probably the greatest drawback - which some might label a "feature" - is how much TIME this game will burn. Many tasks have a 20-hour cycle (or "cool down") which encourages the player to log in daily.  At the higher levels, assigning Duty Officers, R &D, plus supporting the various "fronts" (Borg front, Tholian front, New Romulus, etc) can easily add up to an hour, and more if one wishes to play some tactical encounters.  Include making friends (most of the other characters are players - especially the ones running and jumping about like idiots) and one could easily spend four hours and up online.  It's happened to me.

After six months, the obsession is passing, and I find myself able to go back to working on miniatures, or work, or watch the news (bleah!) without wondering if that Level XIII Anti-proton bank my engineers are working on is finished...think I'll log in for a minute...


...nah!  I'll check in tomorrow.  I have miniatures to paint...Ω

Return of the Forgotten Photos: Babylon 5 Fleet Action - The Battle of the Line

Another old set of photos, of a fleet-scale game of the Battle of the Line, from the Babylon 5 Universe, using the Babylon Fleet Action rules from the now defunct company, Agents of Gaming..  AoG was a good, if somewhat self-indulgent, company that produced Babylon 5 Wars and Babylon 5 Fleet Action.

Babylon 5 Wars looked and played a bit like a streamlined version of Star Fleet Battles, and while fun, could take a long time to complete a game. B5 Fleet Action organised mutliple ships  into squadrons, factored in weapons, shields and maneuvre, and enable players to engage in large fleet actions and finish in perhaps four hours.

These are old pictures, dating from 2001.  I think they were taken on film, developed and then scanned.  They were lurking on an old Iomega Zip disk - remember those?  Like a 3.5 diskette on steroids, they were.

I don't quite remember which side won the scenario - I tend to think that the Earth Force had to simply hang on for a certain number of turns, at which point the Minbari, who are up to this point wiping the map with the earthers, suddenly and mysteriously ask for a truce.  The rest is Television History...

I do remember the Evil Minbari Warlord, Myk'Ry'an, upon discovering the location of the Earth command ship (the only carrier on the map, hmm...) decided to concentrate fire, decapitate the Earth fleet, and break my scenario.  Only some desperate maneuvre on the part of the carrier and escorts helped avoid disaster.

Hold the Line!  The Minbari Advance

The blocky, wedge-shaped carrier and command ship (bottom centre) takes evasive action.

Two Hyperion cruisers, flanked by two pairs of Nova Battleships
Smaller escorts and some GZG in foreground

The Minbari Fleet

The Earth Alliance Command has ships to burn, which is fortunate, 'cuz they do.

The Earth Alliance Fleet

Fire, you Fool! Fire EVERYTHING!

Finding these pictures made me a bit nostalgic.  I think I'll try this scenarion again, or a smaller part of it, using Starmada...Ω

Interstellar Wars: The Battle of Ross 154

After a gap of several months, I was able to get to a meeting of the Friday Night Pals.  I was keen to put my Imperial Battleship through her paces, and designed a Power Projection scenario based on an incident that occurred in a game of GDW's Imperium, with a dash of WWI African history.

The scenario, set during the Interstellar Wars in the Traveller Universe, revolves around an Imperial Battleship, the Karunasborg, which has suffered a jump systems failure as a result of wilderness maintenance while in the Ross 154 system, known to the Vilani as Agidda. The battleship is in orbit around the fourth planet in the Ross 154 system, known as Agidda Delta/Rufiji. Rob C. and DJ played the Imperials, whilst Albrecht, Kenzie and myself played the Terran Confederation.

The Karunasborg and her destroyer escorts

What is it about Agidda/Ross 154 that makes it a continual combat zone? Well, it's just under three parsecs from Terra, placing it within two or three jumps distance. It's a Hi-Population world, with a technological culture, and it is anti-1st Imperium.

Scenario Background: A Terran scoutship has detected the Karunasborg and lived to tell the tale: now the Confederation has dispatched a heavy cruiser squadron with orders to destroy the Karunasborg and any important escorts.

What the Terrans don't know is that the Karunasborg has been reinforced by a detachment of light cruisers and a light carrier with a compliment of fighters. The Vilani are still out-numbered, but the odds have narrowed.

The Terran Confederation Fleet Arrives

Here's the scenario in Power Projection format:

Ross 154 - Agidda Delta/Rufij

Attacking forces must destroy damaged Imperial Dreadnought. Defender must prevent this.

1st Imperium as Defender/Native (200 points budget)
Zirukaruna-class BB                   (52)

4 x Shamshir-class DD               (64)

2 x Shibash -class CL                 (50)

1 x Shaskis-class ECV               (25)

            with 4 flights fighters

                                                (191 points + fighters)

Imperial Objectives: 1. Defend Dreadnought for six Turns.  2.Escape 50% Fleet

Terran ConFed as Attacker/Intruder (300 points budget)

3 x New Brooklyn-class CR            (99)
1 x Regulus-class CS                    (25)
2 x Crockett-class DD                    (28)

4 x Guanxou-class CL                   (100)

                                                    (252 points)
 
Terran Objectives: 1. Destroy Dreadnought. 2. Damage CLs (2 threshold checks)

Native sets up at Native start point. Intruder enters from board edge B.  Native must hold for six turns and then depart via jump engines.
 
Damaged ship misjumps on an 8+; one shift in favour of Intruder’s victory level
Damaged ship destroyed on an 11+; two shift in favour of Intruder’s victory level
 

Imperial Light Cruisers, Escort Carrier and fighters

Turn 1 and 2: The Imperials held station whilst the ConFed fleet advanced at 3/4th speed. As I have written before, DJ is a cunning and dangerous opponent.  He used his heavy missile fighters to great effect, detonating a Terran destroyer, bloodying a Terran cruiser, and just being a general nuisance.  As the ConFed advanced, they had to weather a volley of Imperial missiles while being unable to reply in kind.

Terran ConFed Heavy Cruiser, Strike Cruiser and Destroyers

During the second turn, the lads finally got to see a charged particle spinal mount fire (Here's your C-beams a-glitter, Earthlings) as the BB opened up on my brand-spanking-new heavy cruiser.  3d6 damage took out three rows of structure - the only bright spot being we weren't using Tuffley's B5 mods, so I didn't have to check for structure criticals. That would have seen my cruiser collapse like an old accordion.

Imperial Light Cruiser is down

Turn 3 and 4: The ConFed had lost two ships (mine), but had managed to score some missile hits on the Karunasborg, thanks to Kenzie and my Strike Cruiser. Albrechts cruiser had also been savaged, but he managed to cripple the Imperial light cruisers and escort carrier. The dreaded particle spinal mount had missed my strike cruiser, whilst i was still busy trying to shoot down fighters.

Turn 5 and 6: As one of Albrecht's light cruisers blew up, his squadron engaged the Karunasborg at medium range, knocking out some systems, including the spinal mount. My surviving destroyer had managed to knock out another fighter flight. Kenzie was flanking around the far side of the local gas giant. t
 
By the end of turn six, the Imperial battleship was ready to jump. Consulting the Power Projection jump rules, we were surprised (some of us more so than others) that minimum safe jump distance was 70 inches from the planet.  Somewhat put out, amidst some degree of mirth (some of us more than others) DJ elected to jump at minimum distance of 7 inches, and rolled an 8, which indicated a misjump.  This shifted the victory slightly into the Confederations favour, but it had been a difficult fight.

Closing in for the kill

Post Game Thoughts:
Tough little scenario.  I had feared a Terran walkover, but with the Imperials standing off and firing missiles, the Terran ship advantage was trimmed down nicely. The game took about three hours, which included chit-chat and suchlike.

The fighters, which I had added somewhat as an after thought, were very effective.  We've made fighters harder to kill, by essentially giving them three hit points and three weapons batteries. A hit from a ship kills one hp and one battery. Without enough destroyers as escorts, the cruisers had a hard time fighting both fighters and enemy ships.

Some readers who play Power Projection may have noticed an absence of nuclear missile markers - in fact, I forgot to deploy them, so the game was played with standard missiles. Maybe both sides were out?...Ω

Still More Forgotten Photos - Star Wars Fleet Action

Some of the chaps over at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Wargames Society were discussing Star Wars Fleet wargaming, so I decided to put my oar (or twin ion engines) in.

These may well be my oldest photos yet - from 2001 - so I apologise for the quality. Once I get the chance, I'll take new photies and replace them here.

These minis were either conversions from existing Galoob Micro Machines/Action Fleet or else heavily kit-bashed.

Below are two Imperial Serpent-class cruisers.  These are mostly milliput with some bits from Starblazers miniatures for the bridge.  Abaft starboard is an Interdictor Cruisers - notice the balls.

Below are two Imperial Nebulon Frigates.  These were kit-bashed from two of GDW's Sky Galleons of Mars plastic ships - maybe an End-Runner?  Various sections of plastic pipette, coffee stirrers and cocktail sticks were used, along with a healthy dose of Milliput.  The three little corvettes in the lower right hand corner were cut from the hanger of the die-cast metal Imperial SD.

Below, the two frigates are escorting a die-cast metal Imperial-class Star Destroyer and a slightly smaller Galoob plastic Victory-class Star Destroyer. The Interdictor cruiser can be seen at the top left.  This is a nice picture for showing the relevant size. The hex-grid is (IIRC) 1.5 inch.

Finally, the Rebel scum. All are from the Galoob Micro-Machine/Action Fleet line. The small MC40s were simply cut-down versions of the MC80.  I think the ship on the extreme left was a  Star Blazers figure, drafted as a Dreadnaught.

These were fun to make, in the days when I had a lot of free time.  The scale was dictated by the availability of the Mon Cal ships, as I had no intention of scratch building both sides.  Somewhere, I have the Super Star Destroyer "Executor" as a kit, which I have yet to build. Ah, someday....Ω

Babylon 5 Starmada: Ambush at Ragesh 3

Narn Battle Squadron

The Narn-Centauri War broke out anew last night as the Friday Pals met to try Starmada: Admiralty by Majestic 12 games.  I brought out my AOG B5 Fleet Action miniatures. In past games, we have been using a modified Full Thrust/Earth Force Sourcebook rules set by Jon Tuffley , and while the carnage was everything one could hope for, some dissatisfaction about the movement of ships had cropped up. Starmada:Admiralty was going to help prevent the fleets from closing too quickly, and preserve a "fleet action" feel.

The year was 2259, the name of the place is Ragesh 3. The Centauri have a Marcanos-class base and a small fleet protecting it.  Two squadrons of Narn cruisers with two squadrons of Narn heavy destroyers enter the Ragesh system - their orders is to sweep and clear the system of the Centauri.

Rob C. (as Lord Cassdo) and myself (Lord Frylari) took the Centauri (Rob had the fleet, and I manned the station) while Warleaders D'Jay and K'enzie assumed the mantle of the thrice-damned Narns.

The Centauri Battle Line

The Centauri squadron consisted of: two Primus battlecruisers (with attendant fighter flights), two Sullust destroyers and a Vorchar Elint heavy combat vessel. The Marcanos base had four flights of fighters for system defence. The Elint vessel protected any friendly ships within 4 hexes by jamming enemy sensors and increasing the range by one band (i.e. medium range to long range, long range to no target).

The Narn Fleet

The Narn had two identical squadrons, each with: 2 G'Quan heavy cruisers, a G'Quonth attack cruiser, and two Katok battledestroyers. That would be a total of ten warships against five plus a base.


As the outnumbered parties, the Centauri had to destroy twice as many points of ships than they took as casualties to win  The Narn had to clear the system.
 

Marcanos Station

Fighters: Engage and Destroy

Turn 1 - 2 Opening moves. As the opposing squadrons closed, the fighters swooped in to engage their opposites.  B5 fleet games usually involve masses of fighters, and we've learned to try and hold a few flights in reserve to use against ships. So, instead of engaging in the optional Dogfights, the Centauri fighters stood off at range one while engaging the Narn and the Narn complied. The Narn, having more fighters, quickly gained the advantage in the fighter fight.

An Energy-mine Strike

Turn 3 - Energy Mines. The Narn energy mines began to drop on the Centauri fighters. As an area-effect weapon, each fighter in a flight was attacked, and each fighter in each adjacent hex was attacked at a slightly lower chance to hit.  The Centauri lost about 60% of their fighter screen.


Turn 3b - It's a Trap!  A second Centauri squadron, identical to the first, hidden in the planet's sensor-shadow, entered the battle.  Fresh fighters rushed forward  while the surviving Centauri flights withdrew to the relative safety of the Elint jamming field. When the Narn tried to track them, they found they were unable to fire (long range = no target).  Warleader D'Jay was outraged, and promised terrible retribution against the perfidious Centauri plague.

The Narns Advance

Turn 4, 5 - CGI Rendering Slows to a Halt.  Or that's what it felt like.  As the main fleet elements began to trade laser and pulse volleys, the game slowed to a crawl.
 

A Sullust destroyer in trouble

To Centauri dismay, the armour on the Narn cruisers was proving hard to crack (a bit too hard, if you ask me). The Narn lasers were carving up the larger Primuses at an alarming rate. The station had moved closer in it's orbit to the protective Elint screen, but hadn't quite reached yet, and was being pummeled by energy mines.


Endgame - It was getting late, so we called the game for the Narn - they had inflicted about 60 damage points to the Centauri 30. As one Centauri philosophically observed "We had them where we didn't want them..."


Post-game Thoughts:

The Ambush is Sprung

While I enjoy playing the Centauri, mainly due to their cheerful methods of skullduggery, I had intended to referee this session, due to the number of "gotchas" the Centauri were employing (Elint ships, and ambush).  Fortunately, while DJ was suitably outraged at each turn of the worm (or Spoo - 10 credits an ounce, if you can believe it), it didn't effect the outcome of the game. The Centauri still lost.

I had more detailed fighter flights printed out, but failed to bring them to the game. Thus all the fighters were treated as "standard" when really, the Centauri Sentris should have trait "Dogfight (+1 against fighters) and the Narn Frazis should have "Anti-Ship +1".

Centauri in Disarray

The B5 templates (downloadable from the MJ12 forums) need auditing.  The points were off, with the Centauri having about 50% more points then the Narn.  Certainly, the Narn Energy Mine needs some tweaking.

One of the reasons we used Starmada Admiralty was to limit ship speeds so the fleets actually operated like fleets - that was satisfactory.

We had high hopes for Starmada Admiralty, but there are some issues.  Movement aside, the single biggest issue we had was with the damage resolution phase. It seems straightforward enough - roll to hit, roll to penetrate shielding, roll damage - in practise, the game slows down drastically when more than a few ships are involved on each side.  This should improve with practise, so perhaps a smaller fight is in order for the next run.

We've agreed to try again, and I will add some game data to the ship rosters to help speed the game: advanced firing arcs, ship and weapon trait effects, damage charts, etc....Ω