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The vector movement rules from Full Thrust were nice and simple while still getting the feel of space movement across.

You had velocity, facing and heading.. to slow down you had to turn into your heading.

Whenever you moved your ship you extended a tape measure between your start and finish points and that angle became your new heading, the distance became your new velocity.

Then, at the start of a ship's move, it had to first move at a number of inches equal to its velocity, at the angle of its heading before doing its own moves with its engine...then after that a new velocity/heading was worked out.

It was extremely easy, you just place a matchstick to represent the heading and make a note of the new velocity.

Best real-feel physics space combat game I've played... it did need *huge* tables, though!

3d is workable too, although 3d vector movement would be a bit of a nightmare. And choosing between the two I'd rather have 2d and vector movement since it just has a nice feel to it.

 scarletsquig wrote:
The vector movement rules from Full Thrust were nice and simple while still getting the feel of space movement across.

Ah, cool. I'd heard of Full Thrust of course, but that was the limit of my knowledge.

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0159/4298/files/HWG_Newsletter_salute_2014.pdf?1550

latest newsletter

Very interesting, like the sound of that 'invasion of New Eden' campaign.

And I know this one in particular is for DZC, but some of the artwork these guys use is great

I like the look of those Resistance Dropships and Tanks. Never really liked the look of the ramshackle stuff. It's good to see that you'll be able to create a somewhat militaristic looking resistance force.

As usual with me, I am grumpy that they chose 10mm for Dropzone Commander, rather than the 15mm I already have lots, or 6mm which is also widely available. No doubt the rules can easily be adapted, though.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Really hope they can Kickstarter it and get some hard plastic sprues sorted... I like their stuff, but the resins are too pricy.

YES! If they bring out a plastic starter set (at least), they will immediately put themselves ahead of Firestorm Armada, Full Thrust, et. al..

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
Really hope they can Kickstarter it and get some hard plastic sprues sorted... I like their stuff, but the resins are too pricy.

YES! If they bring out a plastic starter set (at least), they will immediately put themselves ahead of Firestorm Armada, Full Thrust, et. al..

They have a plastic starter set and it's FANTASTIC. Two factions with enough to play the game right out of the box, including more than adequate cardstock terrain. But they've only done plastics for those two factions (and only a limited selection of their units of course). Plastic starter sets for the other two factions are really needed.

3D is not important to me. I think BFG explained it away well enough by stating that, when the engagement distance are measured in the hundreds of miles, the Z axis becomes a bit irrelevant.

I also liked how BFG handled movement as you had to move forward a minimum distance before you could turn. Meant you had to always be thinking at least one turn ahead.

But a lot will depend on what kind of theme they will for: slow and lumbering giants of space, or fast and nimble?

 AlexHolker wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
The vector movement rules from Full Thrust were nice and simple while still getting the feel of space movement across.

Ah, cool. I'd heard of Full Thrust of course, but that was the limit of my knowledge.

Alex: http://www.groundzerogames.co.uk/downloads/FullThrust.pdf
and a lighter version of FT:
http://www.groundzerogames.co.uk/downloads/FT0916_UK.pdf

Back to DZC in Space, I'm curious to see and hear more.
DZC is the next game on my list because everything I've seen from models, to gameplay to interviews with Hawk conveys a solid, well thought-out game.
Here's hoping Hawk and AC take their time and produce a similar, well thought-out fleet action game.

I'm not sure why they would change the name away from "Dropzone" that should be the part they keep. Perhaps just Dropzone: Invasion based on the fact that reading through the bios of the current factions seem to indicate that the scourge are geared toward planetary invasion and seem to be the "big bad" of that setting.

I'm just wondering if they will have an attacker and defender based system.

I'll be watching this one. I've always wanted to get into the game, and if they add space combat that might be the thing to finally break me down.

I can see the sense in a boxed starter set with a couple of plastic fleets included.

For myself, I'm not that fussed about the materials the ship models are cast in. Few space games are ever likely to sell the volumes that make it worthwhile to produce polystyrene models.

Metal is perfectly acceptable up to a certain size, when it gets too heavy (a couple of inches long, maybe...). Resin is a good material for weight, casts in similar moulds to metal, and has the same utility for low volume manufacturing. The Cold Navy models were initially cast in metal, which all my examples are, then when Ravenstar took over the line, they changed to resin.

As for expense, models generally cost from £2 to £10 depending on size and elaboration. You wouldn't want a large fleet of big expensive models for tabletop games, because there is a sensible limit to the space and time available for games. If you don't want "official" models, there are quite a lot of nice generic fleets on sale.

Polystyrene makes more sense if the models are very large.

2 to 10 pounds would be amazing. Around here, it costs $20 just to look in the Firestorm Armada blister.

That is because the game publisher also sells the "official" models. BFG is another example.

To be fair, the ship models are large and detailed, and you need don't need so many of them.

In contrast, you can get a 41 ship fleet pack of Terran Diplomatic Corps from ZandrisIV Miniatures for £72.50. A lot of people will look at them and complain, "They are metal", "They don't have enough detail", and so on, but there you are, a large fleet for under £2 per model, with a unified design aesthetic, which can be used for any "naval" style space game rules.

That is a brilliant deal. I could sell 3 or 4 Dauntless Light Cruisers to cover it If I didn't already have about 6 years of painting queued up I'd be all over it. Also, "Eloquent Diplomacy Fleet", superb name.

I'd never heard of z4, great link, thanks

I got it from Star Ranger's Starship Combat News.

http://www.star-ranger.com/

The site is getting a bit out of date, but it is still an excellent resource for space games.

Actually, having looked at the models in more detail, and having dug out my old copy of '21st Century Foss', and having considered I could use them in BFG, or this new ruleset, or for FA, and get a space mat which I could also use in X-Wing ...

Damn this hobby.

Those Zandris IV miniatures are not even subtle about their "borrowing":

Their Imperial ships are based off the Imperial battleship and cruiser from "Legend of the Galactic Heroes".
Just compare their ships, down to the detailing to
http://gineipaedia.com/wiki/Imperial_battleship_(788_UC_era)
http://gineipaedia.com/wiki/Imperial_cruiser_(788_UC_era)

Their blockish Diplomat and Negotiator ships (and several more like them) are Homeworld-series based and are even in Taiidan yellow and red colors.

All of whom should be paying Chris Foss royalties

Talking of the Legend of Galactic Heroes, I dug around on HLJ a bit and found the following kits:

http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist?Word=Heldensagen&DisplayMode=grid&Dis=2&Sort=std&qid=SQMULPWH62WA&set=1&q=1&Scale2=12000

These are 1/12000 scale which means they should measure about one to two+ inches long. They come ready painted and require minor assembly in some cases. Material is ABS plastic.

Most of the boxes contain 8-10 ships. 6,400 Yen is 45 Euros which is about £40, though of course there is also postage and possibly customs duties.

Someone with £300 to splurge could get themselves several very nice space fleets very quickly and easily. I am extremely tempted, but cannot afford the money ATM. (Not to mention that my Cold Navy fleets aren't finished yet...)

Back on topic: the artwork feel a bit generic to me. Kinda that style we see all computer games have. Was hoping for something with a bit more of its own identity, stylewise.

I think this sounds wonderful. I bought a bunch of old WW2 ships for a naval game but never got the rules down, I was 17 and didn't have all the patience I needed.

I wanted to get into BFG but it deep six'd before I could get in.

Projected release date?

I don't think there has been any mention yet. From the OP it sounds like Andy Chambers is still writing the rules, so I probably wouldn't expect it this side of Xmas in all probability.

In the meantime I would pick up the new Firestorm Armada starter set if you want a space combat game. Nice miniatures, reasonably priced and a lot of people have been raving about the update to the rules with the V2 edition.

I did pick up a firestorm armada ship, but it was to use as a crashed ship / terrain (anticipating this new game will use terrain). Also ordered a Deep Cut Studios space mat. Yes, I know I'm jumping the gun a bit but given that I'm already really into DzC, and have been craving a BFG type game, this is perfect for me.

One note regarding ships- the Firestorm Aramada ships are huge! I can't imagine the DzC ships being anywhere near the size of the largest Firestorm Armada ones. I don't see that as a positive or negative, just something to note.

Apparently this game has been in the works for a little while, but it is definitely still being worked on so I agree that I wouldn't expect it this year (although I do hope to see more info about it released, of course).

BoW mentions this on their weekender http://www.beastsofwar.com/the-weekender/weekender-return-salute/ (32:00 to 34:00 approx.)


The drop ship from salute is meant to come in at about an 1.5 inches (based on their 'it's this big') with other stuff going up to 12 inches plus

12"+ would be ridiculous. But I do look forward to seeing what we get for this. I'm picking up a few PHR models for counts-as in Epic so being able to use them for Dropzone and combined space games would be cool.

How large are Firestorm Armada ship models?

A Dindrenzi Praetorian battleship from the 2 player starter is 6 inches long, corresponding Terran is 5.5 inches long

I was gonna say the larger ships are around 6". Which is still pretty huge but 12" would be crazy!