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Now on On Kickstarter!

Event Horizon: Fleet Battles is a miniatures space combat wargame set in the year 5318. It has been over 3000 years since Terra and the Sol system completely vanished without a trace, leaving humanity stranded in the Mobius system without a home. Before it disappeared, Terra wasn't much to look at due to years of pollution, caused by the decimation the Psionic Emergence left behind. Most of the privileged had already started to colonize Mars or expand to the Mobius system, but it didn't change the fact that Terra would always be 'home'.

No longer bound by one planet, humanity spread out amongst the stars to create multiple empires. Without having a home planet, the history of Terra slowly faded away, and it wasn't until long before the one common bond everyone shared started to vanish. Despite having access to the vast expanse of space and knowing the devastation of war, humanity had not learned its lesson. It just meant more planets to conquer or destroy. it would only be a matter of time before empires would start to clash with one another.

Humanity had been easy to define because everyone was still 'human'. Even the psionics who emerged were human. But as some replaced their organs with cybernetics, or gene-spliced themselves with traits of another life-form, the definition of what it meant to be human began to blur. Under the name of survival, expansion, and even evolution, humanity went through changes depending on which empire they belonged too. Soon there were thousands of new colonies, all with their own ideals and beliefs. Some of the empires could no longer even be recognized as human, at least by visual appearances.

Game Setup



Game Phases



Ship Orders

You create ship movement orders utilizing a movement deck for each ship. Each movement deck contains 24 cards that outline the various orders that can be issued to a ship. Your ships movement orders can contain one of each card up to the amount equal to the ships main engine rating. The other player will not know how you plan to move your ship or what movement orders you will assign to it until it comes time to actually move the ships.

Example: Player A controls a ship with 6 thrust. Player A can issue orders by selecting 6 cards or less. You would do this for each of the ships under your command, depending on the amount of thrust of each. Using the diagram below as an example, Player A decides to only issue 3 orders: Main Thrust, Turn Port 30° (turn left), Main Thrust.

When it is time to execute the ship movement during the Movement Phase, each ship before revealing their movement orders will first move the current momentum it has already built up. Currently, it is at a momentum of 2. So it will move 2" in the direction of their momentum heading. Then you would use use the movement cards, which you already queued up during the Planning Phase, to continue moving the ship.

Example: Player A will now flip the movement cards over revealing the movement orders. Starting with Main Thrust which tells us to move that ship another 1" forward. Then we reveal Turn Port 30° which tells us to pivot that ship to the left by 30°. The last card is Main Thrust 1 which moved us another 1" forward. You will notice we move forward towards the direction that the ship is facing.

You have piqued my interest.

Hello, hopefully over the course of the actual Kickstarter we can do more than pique your interest. We have gotten some feedback and and concerns that have already been brought up, which is understandable since not everything was explained as well as an actual Kickstarter page (soon, still pending at the moment).

Not all the ships look like the above. Those were just a couple examples pulled from one of the fleets. There are 6 fleets which each have their own design as well as neutral faction ships. There are more pictures posted on our facebook page and there will be updates on the Kicsktarter with the designs. Although some factions do have some weapons only available to them, each ship has multiple configurations. As an example a base ship comes with 4 different configurations as these ships were designed with certain roles in mind, but the different designs let them be used for different styles. There are also upgrades to those ships which cost more points but allows the builds to be versatile.



Someone mentioned needing a protractor for movement which I can understand confusing at first. Movement when we play tested it at conventions and stores play testers said it was straight forward. No protractor is needed at all. The flight base is hex shaped. Simply put everything is in 30-180 degrees left and right, in 30 degree increments so 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and bootleg turn (180). With a hex shaped flight base they are simply a notch on it. No math needed, no complicated measuring. One complete hex side is 60 degrees, half way point is 30 degrees so it is fairly simple. The cards are written with Port, Starboard, degree's for flavor text really. When commanding ships in space you wouldn't be giving orders to simply turn left, turn right. It would be similar to submarine control. Except we aren't dealing with a complete 3D environment, although we did try it but found it to be too time consuming.

Another person mentioned that it seemed similar to Wings of War, which never playing it had to look up. Oddly we originally started with a template system like Wings of War, although more closer to X-Wing. We loved the simplicity of the dial for movement and template system. We tried a code wheel (for those that remember the software code wheels from the 80-90s) so we could issue multiple orders. We moved to a sliding device but unfortunately none of them gave the ease of creating orders that allowed for diversity and even bluffing. The other issue with a template movement system like X-Wing and Wings of War... ships move like war planes in gravity. We wanted ships to be like spaceships, not planes. Ships without gravity can strafe, they can be using momentum to carry a ship one direction while turned to the side to fire. We also didn't want them to be like naval ships where fleets circled each other.

A system that would allow a ship to side-strafe using their existing momentum would definitely get my interest, as I am used to either ships as fighterplanes, or naval sailing ships.

More Newtonian physics would be a cool thing.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
A system that would allow a ship to side-strafe using their existing momentum would definitely get my interest, as I am used to either ships as fighterplanes, or naval sailing ships.

More Newtonian physics would be a cool thing.

That was how we were used to playing games which we still love to play. It was one of the hardest things of why I couldn't really get into space games though. It didn't feel like there was something that would let me use momentum to move forward, spin my ship completely around and fire behind me while momentum continues to carry me forward. When ships were disabled they should continue moving at the speed they were moving, which could sometimes mean off the table if someone wasn't too careful. I wanted to feel like I was flying a spaceship, not an airplane so inspiration came in the form of anime like Captain Harlock and Star Blazers.

I'll throw a video together this weekend covering movement a bit more. We have it explained on the Kickstarter page (once it is approved) with pictures but I think it would be better explained in a video. Hopefully that will make it clearer on how it is done. The system is pretty straight forward and easy to understand once you've gone through it once.

Ouch, my eyes. As a fellow 3D artist, stop showing those wireframes and instead go with a render with a strong ambient occlusion pass on it.

What will the ships be made of? Is there a pledge for just the ships?

 Vertrucio wrote:
Ouch, my eyes. As a fellow 3D artist, stop showing those wireframes and instead go with a render with a strong ambient occlusion pass on it.

It is funny you say that. One site said they wanted the opposite. I actually prefer the wire frames but I can understand that for most that would be hard to visualize. As suggested though I replaced images on the main post, by removing the wire frames, with other images.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
What will the ships be made of? Is there a pledge for just the ships?

Currently they will be made with a lead free tin alloy, so something pewter like. If there is demand we will look at creating some in resin or hard plastic type for the Kickstarter as well. That would probably be a stretch goal. We would also like to create some larger scale versions in resin for collectibles but that will probably be later but that is outside the scope of this project.

We have officially launched on Kickstarter. I hope you will come check us out and support us.

I'd suggest moving this to News and Rumours so you get more coverage. I'm tempted but not seeing many freebies from this campaign. Everything is a paid add on. Also do the ships come prepainted? It seems bizarre that the KS ship comes that way.

Thank you. I have asked if a moderator could move it or if I should just remake another post.

Every other stretch goal is a freebie for any pledge Lieutenant or higher. If you aren't interested in those miniatures, those 'free' unlocks can be used in exchange for one of the 30 fleet designs. The way it was designed was to unlock an Add-on then next stretch goal unlocked a freebie and so forth. Depending on how things are going as well, there are some other plans as well.

The ships are not pre-painted. Originally the ships were going to be printed colored. The costs weren't that bad but the timeline to meet production was too great unless we wanted to double or triple the costs for the miniatures. We went the traditional pewter-like material and possible colored resin choices as well depending on the how the Kickstarter does.

Are you saying they could have been colored plastic for not much more money, but with a longer wait?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Are you saying they could have been colored plastic for not much more money, but with a longer wait?

Sorry it should of read, "The ships are not pre-painted. Originally the ships were going to be printed colored." instead. The pre-painted should of said 'printed'.

Originally we looked into 3D Printing since our prototypes were printed in solid colors. The issue was that to print a high quality miniature that also paints well takes 4-6 hours to print one. That is just the printing time for one, not including cleanup afterwards. We could do it for less time, but the quality wasn't what we would like and the paint doesn't take well to it. It would take 2 years to get quantities that a traditional casting or injection could do in a couple months. Costs for 3D printing are dropping but they haven't quite gotten to where they can be used for main stream market. Printing small quantities (50 or less) could be fine but when you start talking large quantities, even small runs like 300-500 prints then you are talking a significant amount of time and cost. Unlike other manufacturing methods, printing more doesn't make it cost less.

We can do the same thing with colored resins. We can still cast them with a solid color, providing a high quality surface for painting as well. Resin are slightly more expensive but take more quality control. If we hit our goals and do well, we would like to upgrade the manufacturing process from a pewter-like to resin. We know some people prefer one over the other, so the great thing is by doing well, we can offer a choice to customers. The options really depend on the backers as they are the one making this all possible.

Could I suggest that you include blank cards in the decks as well to allow for bluffs? Or even just include cards with bluff written on them.

It would mean that you never actually know how many orders have been issued to a ship at any one time.

Cheers

Andrew

 AndrewC wrote:
Could I suggest that you include blank cards in the decks as well to allow for bluffs? Or even just include cards with bluff written on them.

It would mean that you never actually know how many orders have been issued to a ship at any one time.

Cheers

Andrew

That is something that could be considered. We are trying to keep the decks fairly lean as we can although we would also like to include some special orders that could go in them as well. Currently there is a "Silent Running" card which is essentially no orders given for that card. There is also technically nothing stopping you from playing turn left 90 degrees, then turn right 90 degrees as well to basically counter-act each other. We have a couple players that do that so it looks like they just played 4 total cards, but they really only used 1 card (turn right 120 degrees) so they could be carried by their momentum, moving away from the enemy fleet but still firing.

As a longtime. BFG and spacefleet geek, i am interested.

Stretch goals have been hugely updated and revamped. Add-ons now create new miniatures (outside of the original 30) as add-ons. They also unlock free miniatures for Lieutenant tiers and above.

I am currently working on getting an updated product shot with everything in the box. We have almost all the fleet pictures up. I need to get images separated into Faction Fleet Starter Sets as well as individual miniature pictures so backers get a better feel of what comes with what. That should be coming in the next day or so.

Dark Severance wrote:

 Vertrucio wrote:
Ouch, my eyes. As a fellow 3D artist, stop showing those wireframes and instead go with a render with a strong ambient occlusion pass on it.

It is funny you say that. One site said they wanted the opposite. I actually prefer the wire frames but I can understand that for most that would be hard to visualize. As suggested though I replaced images on the main post, by removing the wire frames, with other images.

If you need to show wires, show them on a well rendered image, not a viewport screen grab.

Most of the time, though, the reason why they ask for wires is that raw hard edges don't convey forms that well. You need bevels on the edges for rendering to catch the light, but thats a lot of extra work for a 3d printed model that will naturally get bevels as a byproduct of the printing process. You can save some time by using a shader that will round all hard edges a little during rendering, along with using ambient occlusion.

As for turning, put notches into the hex bases and make a turning key that the bases slot into for a 30 degree turn.

 Vertrucio wrote:
As for turning, put notches into the hex bases and make a turning key that the bases slot into for a 30 degree turn.

Now that is an idea I like. I will have to look into what it would take for us to make modifications to incorporate something like that.

earth and the rest of our solar system gone? i cannot help but wonder if its disappearance was the result of an accident involving a wormhole created by using a graviton accelerator to create a singularity which, in accordance with weil-tenser dynamics, would make the space-time curvature infinitely large...
sorry. the name of the game prompted that train of thought...

Dark Severance wrote:

 Vertrucio wrote:
As for turning, put notches into the hex bases and make a turning key that the bases slot into for a 30 degree turn.

Now that is an idea I like. I will have to look into what it would take for us to make modifications to incorporate something like that.

Alternatively, you don't need to modify the bases. Instead, just create a semicircular template that is laid down against the corners of the hex base, with the corners pointing towards markings/notches on the turn template itself. Then, using the corners as a guide, just rotate the base until the corner points to the correct change in angle.

This is how I planned to handle turns in space fleet game if I ever got to the point where I could make one.

As we are talking about bases, is it possible to put a dice dock in the base for momentum recording purposes? Just saves on knocking dice with rolled dice and all that.

 yastobaal wrote:
As we are talking about bases, is it possible to put a dice dock in the base for momentum recording purposes? Just saves on knocking dice with rolled dice and all that.

It is possible to put a dice a dock in the base but we are looking at moving away from dice as the counters. We are trying to streamline that more so possible modifying the die cut to add the numbers to the direction counters themselves.

I want this to do well but I just can't see it based on current activity. Maybe someone with more kickstarter analysis skills can weigh in and suggest improvements.

 Vertrucio wrote:
Alternatively, you don't need to modify the bases. Instead, just create a semicircular template that is laid down against the corners of the hex base, with the corners pointing towards markings/notches on the turn template itself. Then, using the corners as a guide, just rotate the base until the corner points to the correct change in angle.

This is how I planned to handle turns in space fleet game if I ever got to the point where I could make one.

I will have to do some testing with that. Originally I was going to use a dodecagon and we had a special ruler for it. It seemed clunky unfortunately and was harder to tell what sides were defined easily based on the shape. I'll have to make sure it doesn't make gameplay slow down.

Zond wrote:
I want this to do well but I just can't see it based on current activity. Maybe someone with more kickstarter analysis skills can weigh in and suggest improvements.

We are worried about the activity but it is making us strive to keep improving it. I will be meeting with manufacturers this week to go over the components and see where we can lower or streamlines costs if we can. We have another week to go before it becomes time to think about rebooting it. If at that point we aren't at the 50% funding then the chances for it being successful drop drastically. In which case we will evaluate and figure out an alternate plan and still keep at it.

We will be rebooting this in a couple months. Take a look at the upcoming changes and revamp that we have been working on. Thank you!

Missed this first time round and I am a sucker for Space ship battle games so look forward to seeing if re-surfacing