To Boldly go- and have cake!

My son's Black Ops Star Trek birthday cake

Star Trek Birthday Party Games

My son N has turned 12, and with that comes his themed birthday. This year he chose Star Trek as the theme, since we've been really enjoying the new Discovery show. My Mrs, who makes amazing cakes (both inside and out) createed a great badge cake in the "Black Ops" style, and it was up to me to provide the games. Having a couple of weeks to think about it, I went for two options.

 The first was to introduce the crowd of 12 year olds to the fun card game, Space Poo- because what 12 year old does not like saying those words together!   Things got out of hand (see what I did there?) quickly, and a raoucous good hour was spent. 

Then on to the main event- a Star Trek table top game!

But first, let's step back a few days before the party, where your humble narrator had nothing quite ready and just a bit of free time to rub together.

Star Trek Prep

Okay, so I have a set of Starship rules (See Starship on my blog) and I had gleaned about 8 pre painted ships from the Community Manager on the Star Trek Online game at work from the swag pile he had. This gave me enough Klingons and a cool Romulan or two, but only a couple of Miranda class Fed ships. Panicked I searched Ebay and Amazon, but nothing could get to me in time.

Then I called up my local game store Game Kastle, and asked. They had some primed and unpainted ships from Wizkids- perfect! A quick lunch trip and I nabbed three great ships. These I painted up two nights before the party.

Sexy Ships STO has lots of cool reference on how to paint ships

I added connector "nipples" to the bottom of all the ships and then they were ready to go 5 Fed, 5 Klingon/Romulan ships. Now to stat them out.

The Photoshopening

I pencilled in some stats playing on strengths of the sides. Feds get more armor and shields and more phasers than the Klingons, and some photon torpedo salvos.They also got a free fix it token to use once per game, as that is a typical thing that happens in the shows. 

Miranda class ships are cool!

Klingons got some phasers, decent amount of Torpedoes, and a short range disruptor that was like a shotgun of doom!  Oh, they also have cloaking... what am I going to do about that?  Quickly I took one of the outlines I had and traced it in vector, then cut clear plexi birds of prey. They would be used when the Klingon ships were cloaked. Turned out better than I had hoped.

The center warbird uncloaks and fires a salvo of photon torpedoes! 

okay, I had all the ships ready, now to build the game out for a 12 year old mind and attention span.

Stat Sheets

I wanted the game to be easily understood, with simple measuring and firing system. As most if none (turned out none, other than my own) had ever played a table top game, I figured odd dice would throw them so just stuck to D6's and incremented the weapons in those variables.

Movement was done by stick, as were gun ranges. Torpedoes went 3d6 per turn- and if you rolled more 1's than anything else, would burn out. 

With those rules pretty clear in my head, I stated out the weapons, and then went into photoshop to build out some easy ship sheets. Similar to Starship, each vessel has sheilds, armor and crit boxes, plus a compliment of weapons with ranges and stats on the page, so all you need is there for you.

Stat sheets- players mark off damage boxes, and erase when repaired.

The Game! (jumping back forward)

All was done, and set up a few hours before the guest arrived.  Sides were taken and the rules quickly explained then we just jumped into it. Everyone got how to play by turn 2, and by turn 3 the first ship was blown to smithereens- a Klingon bird of prey that got too close to 2 Fed ships and ate a torpedo!

Federation captains at the ready

The Klingon empire's finest!

Young Fossling commands the USS Hussar deftly into the asteroids

So, overall the game was a success, with a noise level of a horse race! Once the Klingons realized that they were both explodable, and that the Fed ships were more vunerable from behind, Two Bird of Prey ships cloaked and did a back end button hook, to successfully clobber three of the Fed ships from behind, while the larger Romulan vessel bravely stood up and tanked the Feds from the front.  Two turns is all it took and it was curtains for the Federation! Victory to the Klingons!

Cloaked ships get behind the Federations line.

Battle stat sheets are an excellent after action report card

All in all a good time was had by all- which then culminated in a traditional Fosshaus party- with a melee in the back yard!

I hope next years parties are just as exciting and challenging.

STARSHIP!- Battle of the Belt





Here are a series of  shots of the two Starship! games I ran at Kublacon this past weekend. I was originally scheduled to run the game once, but thanks to the enthusiasm, the over full signup sheet (and a special shout out to Roderick of the Kublacon staff for securing me another table) I was able to run the scenario twice.   Thanks again to everyone that came to play, looked on, and for all the nice comments!

The first battle in action, yours truly powered by coffee

EMC fortress Rowell defends the rocks!



Brilliant asteroid station! A suprise piece made for me by the talented Peter Grose.
 The planet can be seen below



S'Tang invasion fleet!

The EMC Fleet move to stop them.

The first battle started with the EMC line breaking class 5 pulling a "Leroy Jenkins" and charging right into a well deployed CAP of EMC fighters, leaving his two class 3 support ships in his wake.   All I can say is that it reminded me of a nature show I once saw, where a capybara runs though a piranha infested pond. The Line breaker was destroyed in a turn!

 

EMC Carriers Lilith and Medra launch fighters, while S'Tang Energy Torps race in.

With the S'Tang Line breaker destroyed, the EMC fighters race towards
their next victim.

 

 

After the Line breaker went down, The S'Tang retaliated by destroying the Fortress , which lasted almost 4 turns much to the amazement to all of us (due to godlike repair rolls by her captain).  Unfortunately for the S'Tang, they could keep decent fleet cohesion, and the EMC fighters took down two more of their ships  despite attempts to counter with Mecha.  This battle ran to a conclusion in about 4 hours with only one S'Tang ship remaining. I think the EMC lost only the Fortress.  Kudos to Dylan, who brilliantly stepped in as CAG for the EMC. 



Second Battle of the Belt- S'Tang keep formation, and protect my coffee!

 


S'Tang Battle ship caught 3 tactical and one anti matter torp from the EMC flagship,Empress Eulalie. that equates to 7d6 of damage.. or in simpler terms, that big boom you see.

 

EMC fighters take heavy losses from S'Tang class 4 missile ship as they come in, only to then be
jumped by Mecha! Out of 27 squadrons, only 7 made it in to hit ships, and only 3 of them got out.

 The Second battle of the Belt went much differently. The S'Tang, learning from the last battle, kept tight formation and covered each other, holding back while the EMC fighters came screaming in. When they did, they were met with 36 salvos of missiles which ripped through them before they could get close to any ship. Once close, the S'Tang they counter launched their Mecha ( which although slow, are well armored and perfect for ship defense) who surrounded the fighters and destroyed all but 7. After the furball was over, only 3 squadrons of EMC fighters lived to tell the tale, but not for long.

Without fighter cover and having closed within Plasma inferno (think plasma carronades) and Mecha range, the EMC valiantly went toe to toe with the S'Tang. Captain Farin of the EMC battle ship Yarmouth is to be commended for taking multiple heaving beatings, yet managed to keep his ship up and firing  broadsideafter broadside into the enemy, while protecting the flagship. Unfortunately, no one was protecting the carriers which quickly went down to a flanking action from the S'Tang class 3 ships, and Mecha. Soon the fat lady was singing and the Yarmouth, the Hussar, and the Empress Eulalie went code Omega. Only the S'Tang Carrier , who pulled back after launching, was undamaged; the other ships were venting badly, and probably would not have made it another turn or two.

This battle lasted about 3 hours with a totally different conclusion than the first. As a designer, this gave me great joy ( and assuaged my fears that I poorly designed the S'Tang fleet)!

Sorry this was a bit long, but I had many requests to give a blow by blow. Enjoy!

Starship! : EMC Dockyards

Finished the last of the EMC Fleet needed for the upcoming kublacon convention. http://www.kublacon.com/  The game is Saturday morning on the 28th. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop by and say hi, or take command of a ship!



Orbital Weapons Platform- class 3 , Rowel. Yeah, like the thingy on spurs...




OWP Rowel. and a class 4 missile ship,  Dresden



Class 4 Battleship, the EMC Yarmouth



Yarmouth's Business end. Very elegant lines are what I love about this model.



Class 4 light Carrier, Lilith, with Battleships Yarmouth and Angmar.

 Now that the ships, Fighters, Mecha, and torpedoes are all done, I get to finish up the 9x 6 space canvas and back drop, as well as an asteroid field.  Hey, I still have two weeks!

Starship! : EMC Dockyards (WIP)

Building more EMC ships for the upcoming Kublicon game. Here are two class 4's: the upper one is a battleship, Heavy armor and bristling with Laserlances. She'll be called the Angmar.  The lower ship  is a light carrier; by light, I mean she has fewer launch catapults and  carries less squadrons than a normal carrier, but makes up for it with a bit better armor, and some decent fire power.  This particular ship predominently carries light fighter squadrons.  I'm looking for a name for her- any thoughts?

OWP's or Orbital Weapons Platforms. Aka fortresses

Also built up some "Orbital Weapons Platforms", the largest of these will be a Class 3 fortress for the EMC. This one will anchor down the edge of the asteroid field for my game. A very simple conversions from a (magnificent) Firestorm Armada ship.  OWP's don't move much at all, but make up for it with more Build points on every side.

Starship! Fleet Week: The EMC

More ships for my upcoming Starship! game. Here is the European Militaristic Cyber-synthesis, or EMC. Think of them as a mix of Russian WWII meets up with Proto Borg. Lots of bolt-ons!

Class 4's: A missile ship and a carrier.

Class 4 Battleship. heavy armor and shields, and lots of guns!

Class 5 Flagship. Spinal guns and Torpedoes.

In Starship, when you build your fleet/ race, you get to not only choose which ordnance you want, but also traits and tech advances. For the EMC I have chosen the traits Broadsides ( all 45 degree arc guns get +1 to hit) and Aerospace Superiority ( fighters launch farther, dogfight better and do more damage to ships).  The fleet is designed to optimize these traits, so has two carriers, and a battleship/gunship with broadsides of laser lances, the main gun type of the game. Toss in some standard Torpedoes and missiles, a Spinal gun or two, and you have your fleet!



The Fleet in formation: the Class 3 DE is designed to screen the flagship
and shoot down Mecha with batteries of small 180 degree arc "panic" guns.



EMC fleet, starboard side.

I did the designs for the EMC ship models , and Steven Tang did a marvelous job sculpting them! They are really a treat to build, as all the guns, Fighter bays, missile pods, fins,  etc are pieces you glue on- so the variety of ships is awesome!

Starship! Fleet Week: the S'Tang Armada

I've been rather busy painting and a sculpting and a working, but managed to take some quick shots of the two fleets I have painted for my upcoming game at Kublacon.

The first  fleet is the S'Tang Armada: a fire worshiping race, and most of their gun build outs prove it! The ships have both phasing (always target as if +20cm distant) and liquid armor (can move armor boxes around to fill holes in battle) both of which I tried to communicate in the design and the paint job. Most of these sculpts were Done by the talented Steven Tang; I did the others. The S'Tang race, of course, is named after their sculptor.


Class 5  carrier and a gunship, also known as the line breaker



Class 4 ships- watch out for their spinal guns!
 I used black glitter to give the "phasing " look.

S'Tang tactics include sending in a line breaker to soak up fire, get very close and fire broadsides of armor melting Plasma infernos (doing damage to three sides of the targeted ship!) while the smaller class 3 ships flank and fire energy torpedoes at the opposing fleet to get them to break up or lose lots of shields. Once the carriers get close, they and launch a  swarm of medium and heavy Mecha squadrons, which, if they make contact with an enemy ship, can literally rip it to shreds!

Class 3 ships are a combination of torpedo ship and Mecha carrier. !

The mighty armada!

STARSHIP! Ships WIP

I am currently working on a rewrite of our old Starship! rules, more of a gleaning and cleaning than anything else, which will help me run convention games better. Mostly I am doing this because I am currently excited about building and painting space ships.  Speaking of ships...

A busy paint table is a happy paint table!

A shot of the S'Tang fleet in "dry dock". The two racial traits of the S'Tang are phasing,IE they are always hard to hit, and liquid armor which gives them the ability to move armor boxes around on their ships- quite handy in a fire fight! To represent these traits, I am trying to get a crustacean like look to the main body, and then mixing it up with some black and white/gold glitter for the "phasing" part.

 

EMC Fleet in line of battle  with a CAP of fighters



An Admiral's eye view of the S'Tang Armada with
 Fighters and Mecha mixing it up in the center.

Deep in the battle! S'Tang ships firing short ranged, devastating Plasma infernos.

   I have had the good fortune to get a few playtests in for the upcoming game I'm running at Kublicon. Here are a few shots of one playtest at the Sount Bay Game Club.  Starship! uses our battle poles to create 3D action, which makes for an aesthetic as well as tactically fun game.  Note the squadrons of fighters, mecha and torpedoes on the game mat.

STARSHIP! - Launch all fighters!



A seletion of Fighter chits for the game.


I thought I'd post a few shots/ scans of  my fighter and Mecha squadron game pieces I just painted. These are for a game we (Flagship Games)  published about a decade ago called Starship! these are 20- 20 "flats, representing various sizes/classes of fighters and Mecha that one can purchase for their capital class ships. I am currently rewriting, cleaning up and "updating" the rules with a colleague, James "numbers" Laird. We've just about finished and I hope to run a game or two at an upcoming convention soon.

Light (yellow), Medium (blue)  and heavy (red) figthers.

Mecha! Testing colors, trying to get some contrast.

Stay posted for more shots of ship fleets, and the game in action!