Moon Colony Bloodbath!

 Our friend Graham popped round again last week, and we played Moon Base Bloodbath.  Each player is running a moon colony, but things soon start to go wrong...

 Each player starts with a moonbase, in which 30 people live.  They also have 4 money, 4 food and a hand of 4 cards which represent various buildings they can construct.  Each player is playing against the game rather than against each other, but each is completely independent, so it isn't cooperative as such.

My character was Dr Banerjee.  None of the characters have any different abilities, it's just a way to differentiate between the colonies, as will become clear in due course...

Starting board.

Each card in the "Progress Deck" is turned over and resolved, one at a time.  Every card affects all players, so all will benefit or suffer equally unless anyone has played a card that protects them in some way.  There are 4 "Work" cards, which allow you to do one of the 5 coloured actions on the character board: Restock (gain 2 crates of supplies); Mine (gain 4 money); Farm (gain 4 food); Research (gain 2 extra building cards into your hand); Build (pay money to construct one of the buildings from your hand).

Work!

There are also 2 "Trouble" cards, which cause you to add a card from the "Event" deck into the Progress Deck.

Trouble!

The Event cards have a set order in which they are introduced, and with the odd exception, generally get worse as the game progresses.  They cause you to lose colonists, add a malfunctioning robot to the progress deck and affect your hand of building cards.  The first is Hunger, which means you have to pay 1 food for every building that you have, or lose the number of colonists equal to any shortfall.  At the start of the game this isn't a problem because no-one has much in the way of buildings, and we haven't used any food yet.  If you are able to overcome Hunger, you gain a couple of extra colonists as a reward.

Hunger!

 Following Hunger, comes Paperwork.  You draw an extra building card, but then have to discard 2 building cards from your hand.

The Event Deck

 For the first Work action, I spent my 4 money to build a "Market".  The card shows the cost to build (top left), the number of extra colonists it holds (top right), any extra action you get to take when you play it (pink box at the bottom), and any bonuses it gives at other times (just below the picture in the centre).  In this case, if I take the Farm action when a Work progress card is played, the market allows me to swap 2 of the 4 food I produce for 4 money.  When the Market was played, we added the "Trade" twist to the Progress Deck, as per the instruction in pink at the bottom of the card.  Twist cards add extra things that you can do during the game.  When the Trade card is drawn, all players can choose whether to swap a supply crate for 2 extra building cards added to their hand.

Building the market.

The building card goes at the top of your colony.  A green quarter circle in the centre indicates each work period that passes.

The colony grows...

Over the next 3 work periods, I mined for 2 turns to get enough money to build a Titanium Mine.  This will give me double the amount of money 

Adding a Titanium Mine.

And so we reached the end of the first turn.  The Progress Deck is shuffled and placed face down ready for the next turn, but now we know that it contains the Hunger and Paperwork events.  It also contains the Innovation card, which was added to the deck when I played the Titanium Mine.

Final work for the turn.

The Progress Deck also contains the "Intensive Farming" Twist, which was added when one of the other players constructed a building.  This allows you to spend a supply crate to get a bonus Farm work action.

Intensive Farming

The game progresses for the next couple of turns, with 2 new events being added every turn.  The third event is "Glitch", which adds a malfunctioning robot to the deck, then we have an air leak, "Tempers Flair" and a whole series of "Accidents".  Skipping ahead to the end of what was probably the 3rd turn, my colony has grown significantly, thanks to the market allowing me to farm and convert food into money at the same time.

End of Turn 3?

Looking more closely at the buildings, as well as my market and titanium mine, I also have a "Makeshift Lab" that earned me 2 free supply crates when I played it (and will come in useful later if I have to lose it, because it will give me a couple of extra building cards into my hand), and an "Assembly Line" that lets me pay 1 less money for each building I construct.

Buildings.

There's also a "Trading Post" that gives me 2 extra money whenever I add a card to the progress deck, and a "Hacker Lair" that lets me ignore the "Paperwork" event when it occurs.  The Hacker Lair also allowed me to add a Perk to the Progress Deck when I played it, earning me the 2 extra money as per the Trading Post card.

More buildings.

 The Perks you get to add to the Progress Deck are bonuses of the things you can work for, and only apply to your specific character.  They're only half what you get when you work, but are still a pleasant surprise when that card gets turned over!

Perks I haven't been able to add to the Progress Deck yet.

Jumping forward another couple of turns, we find that some of my buildings have gone.  Accidents and malfunctioning robots have been taking their toll, and instead of losing colonist counters, you can choose to lose buildings to the value of the number of colonists.  I've built a few more though - 2 sets of "Hydroponics", which are very useful.  Every time I farm, I get an extra colonist for each card, and whenever I lose another building I gain an extra money for each card.  I also have my "Organ Banks", which let me ignore the "Accident" event cards as long as I have supplies in the building.

A few buildings have changed.

By the end of the turn I've lost the Trading Post and Hacker Lair (counting as 13 colonists in total), but thanks to the Hydroponics I earned 4 money as they vanished, which added to the money I already had, enabled me to build some solar panels.  At this stage of the game, I don't care so much about the special ability it gives me, just the number of colonists it counts as.  This was the end of the final turn.

The colony slowly dwindles...

 I haven't mentioned much about the robots yet.  These are usually the most harmful cards in the Progress Deck once they've been added.  They usually kill a fair number of colonists, but often have additional problems they cause for you, or occasinally give a small bonus (e.g.the mining robot kills 6 colonists, but gives you 1 extra money for every Mine that you have).

Just a few of the many robots.

 The game ends when the first person (in this case Mrs Mini Metal Mayhem) has lost all their colonists.  Those with colonists left add them up to see who has the most.  Graham had 27 surviving, I had,,, 28!  A win by a single person!

If by some miracle, everyone has managed to keep their colony going for 6 turns, the final event card "Instruction Manual" is added to the deck when the first "Trouble" card is drawn.  This then ends the game, and the player with the most colonists wins.

 We really enjoyed this game, the way you constantly add to the Progress Deck slowly ramps up the tension.  The race is on to build up the colony as quickly as you can early on, before the deaths start to mount up.  The way different buildings interact is very useful, it often pays to think very carefully about the order in which to build them to make sure you get the most out of any bonuses they provide.  Towards the end of the game, it's worth constructing buildings just for the colonists they come with as much as the other benefits they provide.

There are enough robot cards, buildings and Twist cards that you'd need to play this a lot of times before you encounter them all.

We give this game an A, and I suspect we'll be getting our own copy to play with the kids when they're a little older (or by ourselves when they've gone to bed!). 

A Billion Suns: Test Flight

I've seen a few reviews of A Billion Suns, but watching Mr Wargaming's solo campaign was what really made me want to give it a try.  I have lots of starships bought for Full Thrust, which will work fine for A Billion Suns.

 I downloaded the quick start rules and persuaded the kids to give it a try.  We sorted through my boxes of starships and found some suitable fighters, gunships and corvettes.

Number Two Son selected my Full Thrust ESU fleet.  He didn't want to give his corporation a name, so their identity will remain a mystery for the time being.

Strikeboat (gunship), fighters and Corvette.

Number One Son went for the NAC fleet, with its Star Wars themed fighters (the A-Wing proxies are actually ESU light fighters), plus some Space: Above & Beyond ISSCVs (Inter-Solar System Cargo Vehicles) standing in for gunships.  They are employed by BugLab.

Corvette, fighters, ISSCVs (gunships)

 The trial game calls for 3 beacons to be set out in 2 separate playing areas.  I grabbed Mrs Mini Metal Mayhem's jewellery-making box (with her permission) and found some nice beads.  These were mounted on pieces of paper clip, sprayed black along with the base, then painted with gold and silver acrylics to produce the beacons.

Beacons from beads and paperclips.

 After our recent Voidfighter game, I made an order from eM4 Miniatures for some Silent Death fighters - just before I found the fighters I already had when sorting through the starship boxes.  I should have thought of looking there in the first place!.  Anyway, at the same time, I filled in my shortfall of D12 and D4, but also got a new set of D6 in rather nice purple and black with gold spots, a nice space nebula-like effect suitable for space battles.

Space dice!

 This game was also my first opportunity to try out my new "space game mat", which is actually a space shower curtain obtained for under £10 online.  The only problem is the folds from how I had it packed away, but I'm going to roll it up from now on, which should make it much flatter next time we use it.

For the 3-turn introductory game, you place 2 beacons in one sector (circled green on the left), and one on another sector (circled green on the right, with the large metal ruler separating the 2 sectors).  BugLab jumped a squadron of fighters (circled blue) into sector 1, and the other corporation jumped a squadron of fighters into sector 2.  Ships jumping in have to arrive at least 10" from the objectives.

Fighters jump in at the start of turn 1.

 Both squadrons then flew their full 6" towards the nearest beacon.  The fighters cost each corporation 2 credits to jump in.  We marked this with a couple of red counters for each side to show their debt.  There was no fighting because they were each the only occupier of their sector.

Unnamed corporation fighters approach their beacon.

BugLab fighters approach their beacon.

 At the end of the turn, they earned credits: 5 for having the greatest mass of ships within 6" of a beacon, plus another 5 for having the most ships in a sector.  We removed the red counters and gave each side 8 gold counters to show their profit so far.

 Turn 2 saw an unnamed corporation corvette jump into Sector 1 (costing 5 credits) to contest control.  BugLab jumped a gunship into Sector 1 (cost 3 credits) to reinforce their fighters.

Gunship vs. corvette.

 In Sector 2, the fighters circled the beacon, ensuring they remained within 6".  In Sector 1, the gunship accelerated 6", passing the corvette to try and secure the other beacon.  The corvette's auxillary blasters caused a point of damage to the gunship as it flew past.  The corvette then made use of its full 10" move to sweep past the gunship, though it took a couple of points of damage from the gunship's auxillary blasters.

Gunship vs corvette due to my rules mistake.

 The BugLab fighters remained close to their beacon to ensure they retained control of it.  At this point I made a mistake.  We did all the active attacks for the ships, in this case only the gunship had anyone in its fire arc to shoot at.  This was WRONG! Each ship is supposed to move, then suffer passive attacks from enemy ships, then make its own active attack.  So the gunship should have finished its entire turn (which meant there would be nothing it could shoot at in its fire arcs) before the corvette moved.  As it was though, due to my error, the gunship fired on the corvette and through some very lucky dice rolling, destroyed it.  Having jumped in behind the corvette though, the gunship was beyond 6" from the beacon and was therefore unable to hack it to earn the 5 credits available.  Both sides earned a total of 10 credits, 6 for the one beacon each controlled, plus 5 for control of a sector.

On the third and final turn, the unnamed corporation jumped in a second squadron of fighters (cost 2) to protect the beacon they controlled.  This gave them an extra 5 credits for the beacon plus 5 for controlling the sector.

Extra fighters incoming to Beacon 3.

 BugLab jumped additional fighters into Sector 1 as well.

BugLab fighter reinforcements arrive on the left.

The BugLab fighters and gunship converged on their second beacon, ensuring they'd earn the extra credits from hacking it. They earned 10 credits in total for the beacons, plus 5 for controlling Sector 1.

Beacon 1 secured by BugLab.

Beacon 2 secured by BugLab.

 The final score was 28 credits profit for BugLab, but only 21 Credits for the unnamed corporation.

 

Anonymous profit 21.

BugLab profit 28.

 

Despite some grumbling from Number Two Son when his corvette was destroyed, both kids enjoyed the game - though fidgeting and arguing was very distracting and might have contributed to my mistakes with the rules!  Re-reading them, I've realised that they should have been able to bring in more than one ship on a turn.  I read the paragraph "Players take it in turns.... to jump in one ship."  I thought this was a very simplified version where you only get one ship per turn to keep it quick and easy, but that's because I missed the second sentence that says "This continues round and round until all players have passed."

We'll have another try, but using more ships, and hopefully getting the firing correct too!  I think I'll be getting the full rules, the kids are very eager to use all my fighter carriers, frigates, cruisers, battleships and destroyers as well.  For "utility ships" required, I have various freighters and small transports which should work fine, as long as we can remember which side they are on.  I have some polystyrene spheres which can become planetoids and some asteroids made from torn up car washing sponge.

To finish, a picture of all our gold counters, which Number One Son felt should be positioned in the centre of the star on my space shower curtain...

Gold!

 

Voidfighter: Rules Review & Commerce Raid game

I popped into the newly refurbished Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library at The Forum in Norwich the other day (the same place that hosts the Diceni games show).  They've given the whole place a good spruce up and rearranged some of the children's sections.  Unfortunately, the signage (Xpress, Teen, Young Adult etc) doesn't always match the location description in the library catalogue.  This wouldn't be a problem if the staff still hadn't got the hang of where the different sections are either, some of which seem to be randomly spread across multiple locations.  From what I could see, the self-service return/borrow machines (the default used by the vast majority of borrowers) seem to have been reduced in number and hidden away behind screens, making them more awkward to find and use.  Overall, something of a disappointment, when an excellent library manages to make the books more difficult to locate and take out...

Anyway, I digress.  While in the library, I managed to locate the games section (still more-or-less where it used to be - look up Dewey decimal classification section 793.93 in your local library!), where I picked up a few new things to look at. Osprey Wargames' Voidfighter by Casey Garske is something I've seen mentioned a few times, so I was pleased to have a chance to try it out.

These are "space opera" rather than hard science fiction rules - think Star Wars starfighters swooping around in a fast, dramatic WWII dogfight way rather than vector-based movement.  The rules are slightly abstract, and the author specifically discusses how it doesn't matter what guns you're firing (lasers, railguns, bio-weapon pods), it's just the die type of damage that's important.  In this way, it reminds me of Tomorrow's War from Ambush Alley Games.  Much of the game takes place through opposed 2-die rolls, eg Firepower dice vs Defence dice when attacking, Piloting dice vs Piloting Dice for certain manoeuvres etc.  Combat bonuses/penalties through manoeuvring tend to be increasing or decreasing the die type used, eg acquiring "target lock" on your enemy shifts up one die type, e.g. 2D8 to 2D10.  If you're in the enemy's rear arc, you get an additional uplift, so would increase to 2D12.  The target might have used the "Guns-D" combat action which would give it a bonus die type for defence, eg increasing from 2D6 to 2D8 for a fighter.  Upgrades tend to give a +1 bonus to the die roll (defence or firepower) instead of increasing the die type.

Most ships would end up pretty generic, but the "upgrades" are used to distinguish between them, granting bonuses to defence or shooting, speed and manoeuvrability, as well as adding torpedoes, tractor beams, the ability to transport fighters or ground troops...

The basic rules themselves cover only 13 pages, with another 3-4 pages on ship design.  There are about 17 pages of ship designs based on various films & TV series such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars etc.  There are also a lot of scenarios which introduce additional rules such as boarding actions, ground support missions etc.

I haven't mentioned Command Points yet.  You get 2-4 each turn depending on the size of game, they have to be spent that turn and can't be carried over.  They can be spent at various times during the turn, to take special actions such as firing a torpedo, making a faster move, dropping a mine, making a special manoeuvre, getting a piloting bonus, firing decoys etc.

Movement and firing is all done with reference to measuring sticks.  The suggested sizes of stick are 2.5", 5" and 10", but because we were using the bedroom floor and Lego rather than a table and small models, we used 3", 6" and 12".

The rules are easy to learn, though some names could be easier.  Small, medium and large might be more useful descriptions for ships rather than snubfighters, gunships (covering freighters, bombers, dropships, landing craft etc) and corvettes (covering large freighters, small fighter carriers etc).  The "Guns-D" manoeuvre made during the gunnery phase could get a more obvious name such as "evasive action", the "Fox One" Command Action could just be called "Fire Torpedo".

I initially thought I'd use my old Star Wars MicroMachine X-wings, Y-wings and TIE Interceptors, but I couldn't find them.  Maybe my eM4 space fighters... no, can't find them either.  Instead, Number One Son built some Lego ships, so I constructed a few too.  Voidfighter rules state you measure to the base.  We didn't fiddle around with bases, instead using the cockpit of each model as the reference point.  This is small clear "cheese" wedges on my ships, mostly clear 2x2 "carpet slider" pieces on his.

Let's take a look at each side:

 Red Force: The commerce raiders will attempt to destroy the freighter and tanker.

 

 Flagship of Red Squadron is the Interceptor Gunship.  Fast, manoeuvrable, with torpedoes and a targeting computer, plus 2D8+1 and 2D8+1 guns.  It's also slightly over the points limit for a gunship, but never mind!

Interceptor Gunship

Interceptor Gunship

Next is the Hawk Interceptor, an incredibly fast ship with lots of guns (2D6, 2D6).  We messed up the rules here, not realising that the second lot of guns should have been in a turret (but that would have taken the fighter over the points limit...)

Hawk Interceptor

Hawk Interceptor

The Falcon fighter has an unusual swivelling turret.  Turret guns would only fire the medium length (6" in our game, 5" by the rules), but this has an Enhanced Turret which allows it to fire the normal long range (12" our game, 10" per standard rules).  There's a targeting computer too.

Falcon Fighter

Falcon Fighter

Finally, the Sparrowhawk Blaster has a concealed main gun (no rules effects) plus targeting computer.

Sparrowhawk Blaster

Sparrowhawk Blaster

Blue Force: The convoy will attempt to get off the far side of the game area while the fighters try and fend off the raiders.

 

 The convoy is defended by 3 Tri-wing fighters.  This is a fairly standard fighter, nothing exciting, but it is tough (shields) and well armed (targeting computer, 2D6+1 & 2D6+1(t)),

Tri-wing

Tri-wing

The tanker is slow and unarmed but has shields and repair systems.

Tanker

Tanker

The freighter is equally slow, but has limited defences in the form of turret mounted guns.  It also has shields and repair systems.

Freighter

I started from one corner.  I gave my opponent the choice of which corner he wanted to start from; he decided on a head-on attack.

Starting positions.

 Turn 1:

 Blue Force have the initiative.  Both sides close, Blue fighters spreading out to cover all angles, while Red Force interceptors accelerate to attack speed.

Blue Squadron convoy escort.

 Movement  uses the medium measuring stick.  I will describe the movement in inches - please remember that we played using 20% longer measuring sticks than indicated in the rules! The Speed of the ship indicates how many move actions you can take, these being either movement forwards, or a manoeuvre of some sort.

Red Squadron prepare to attack.

The Red Force interceptors both have the Fast upgrade, which let them make one medium 6" move, plus an additional 3" short move.  Both command points were used as well, enabling each ship to convert a 6" medium move into a 12" long move.  The Hawk interceptor with its move of 3 could travel another 6", giving a total of 27" that turn! Blue Force also used Full Thrust command points to move to block the enemy fighters.  Ships can turn up to 90 degrees after each move action taken, and a manoeuvrable ship can take an extra 90 degree turn before its first move action.  No weapons were in range, so we moved onto turn 2.

End of turn 1.

Turn 2:  

 Movement brought the 2 forces into contact.  Blue Force could have tried the Escort manoeuvre, which after a successful piloting roll gives +1 to the escorted vessel's defence, to a maximum of +3.  Instead, I decided to press forward to try and disrupt the Red attack before it reached the convoy.  If I could do some damage to the lead ships before the other 2 fighters caught up...

Contact!

  My initial attack destroyed the Interceptor gunship outright - until we remembered that Reds still had their command point available, and could have used "Better Lucky than Good" to deduct 1 from the damage result roll, converting destroyed into hull damaged.  This skill would normally have to be used before the damage dice are rolled, but we allowed it on this occasion.  The damaged hull reduces the gunship from 2D8 defence to 2D6 defence, which theoretically makes it easier to damage in the future.

Return fire damaged the hull of one of my fighters, knocking it from 2D6+1 defence to 2D4+1.  We removed a few bricks from both ships to show the damage (not necessarily related to the systems hit - just the most convenient parts to remove).

First damage on both sides.

 Turn 3:

Initiative switched to Red squadron.  Things instantly developed into a twisting dogfight, each side jockeying for position to make the most effective attacks.  Attacking from the rear of an enemy shifts your attack up one die type, so it's important.  We also started spending command points to try and achieve target lock.  To do this, you make a short 3" (2.5" normal rules) move, then an opposed piloting roll against the target.  Success for the attacker shifts the die up another level.  Failure just means they don't get the bonus - no risk here of suffering any penalty, so it's worth even a poor pilot having a go against an ace pilot, safe in the knowledge that they won't suffer if it doesn't work.

Turn 3 movement.

 The Interceptor Gunship was through the Blue defences and made its attack run against the tanker.  A command point was used to fire a torpedo which ploughed into the hull, reducing it from 2D8+1 to 2D6+1.  Gunfire tore into the stricken vessel, the already weakened hull bursting apart - additional damage to a system that has already been damaged will take a ship out of action.  Had the tanker survived the turn, I would have been able to use a command point to activate the repair upgrade to remove the damage token.  I think this just means that it can take another hit to that location without destruction.  I wasn't sure whether the damage penalty is also removed, the rules don't specifically mention this. [Having read a few posts on Voidfighter Facebook pages since, sounds like you do remove the damage penalty too.]

Kaboooom! Scratch one freighter.

 In the general dogfight that followed, one Tri-wing was destroyed outright, the Hawk interceptor was badly shot-up, losing speed, defence, firepower & upgrades, yet somehow surviving.  The Interceptor gunship lost a set of guns and had the crew injured (pursuing Tri-wing achieved target lock increasing firepower from 2D6+1 to 2D8+1, plus shot from rear arc increasing it again to 2D10+1).

Ouch! a lowerful hit and little defence.

Hawk interceptor shot up.

Red squadron revenge.

More damage to Interceptor gunship.

By the end or turn 3, local space glitters with fragments of wreckage.

End of turn 3.

 Turn 4:

Initiative remained with Red squadron. The Falcon fighter moved towards the freighter.  The damaged Tri-wing attempted to swing past, but clipped the Falcon and ended up reduced to half engine power (both pilots make unopposed piloting rolls to avoid the impact - both failed!).  The Falcon came through unscathed.

Collision warning! CRASH!

The Interceptor Gunship powered round in a tight turn to attack the lumbering freighter, desparately pursued by the remaining undamaged Tri-wing.  Despite the impairment it had suffered, the gunship managed to inflict serious damage on the freighter, reducing the defence and firepower.

Freighter suffers damage.

In the general dogfight, the Hawk interceptor is critically damaged and drifts, helpless, through the battle area. 

Hawk Interceptor eliminated.

 Desperate gunfire from the freighter and the Tri-wing damages the Interceptor Gunship's engines.

Engine damage.

 

End of turn 4.

 Turn 5:

Blue Squadron regain the initiative.  The freighter makes a Full Thrust move using a command point, but just can't get clear of the area fast enough.  The Falcon fighter slips in behind it, and a well-placed volley destroys the last of the convoy.

Freighter destroyed!

 Victory for Red Squadron!  We played out the end of the turn, but the remaining shooting was ineffective on both sides.

End of turn 5.

Post-game thoughts

 The game played quickly, and the rules were very easy to pick up, though we did forget a couple of bits.  There should have been a die-type increase for the faster vessel's defence when it is fired upon.  There are a few fuzzy bits in the rules which would benefit from elaboration, this being one.  The firing procedure is a pretty important part of the rules, but is only dealt with very briefly, with a passing reference to a modifiers table.  "For each point of the defender's speed higher than the attacker", the defender gets their defence shifted up a die type.  An example or two might help with this.

We only used very basic rules.  There's lots of extra stuff on "space terrain" - asteroids, gravity anomalies, space creatures, wormholes etc. There are also leader and squadron traits to add further character to your squadrons.  There are a lot of manoeuvres we didn't try, lots of of Command Point options we didn't get a chance to use.

Overall, I like the game, it's fast and easy to learn, and although the majority of fighters start off pretty generic, all the upgrades can give them very different character.  The many example ships in Chapter 7's "Voidfighter Catalog" provide loads of great ideas, especially if you can work out what most of them are - most were fairly easy (obvious Star Wars examples, also Children of Ra = Battlestar Galactica remake, with 2 types of Viper, Blackbird stealth fighter, Raptor gunship and so on, Celestial Chorus = Cylons),  There are good examples of designing biological ships with the Cnidarians.  The rules on generating scenarios are great, introducing extra rules as you play through them.  There's a short campaign section too.  Given how brief the basic rules are, they would benefit from a few more examples in play, as given the worked example in the shipyard construction rules.

 I'd give these rules a B+. Could be improved/clarified, but they play well and I'll definitely be playing again - and might even buy my own copy!  In the meantime, I've realised that I'm very much short on D12 and D4, so a visit to eM4 models is required.  By happy coincidence, the Silent Death plastic starfighters are on sale at the moment too...