Alegis Downport

A few weeks later than I planned due to another family emergency (which involved cutting a holiday short) which has been temporarily been resolved for a few weeks at least, it feels good to be able to put my mind to writing a product review. I have several books to catch up with, kindly provided by the generous guys at Independence Games and Stellagama Publishing. Thank you for sending me these gents, my apologies for the far longer than planned delay in starting to get back into the swing of things. Real life is throwing me some unexpected issues at the moment, but I’m steadily working through them.

The Loki-class Q-ship is available from both the Independence Games online store and Drivethru RPG for $9.99 for the PDF or softcover book (and PDF) for $22.99. It grades a total of 49 pages including covers and OGL / copyright notice at the end of the book. The product is aimed at Independence Games own setting ‘Clement Sector’ which is Cepheus Engine compatible. Therefore you should be able to use this in any of your CE-based games with little modification.

When I first skimmed through the book, I had to do a double-take and thought I’d seen the ship design before; and thats exactly the point of ‘Q-ships’. In case you’re not aware of what one of these are, Q-ships first came into being during the First World War. German U-boat’s were a huge danger to British merchant shipping and Q-ships were specfically designed to address the problem. By covertly converting a merchant ship to include guns and weaponry, they would rely on the U-boats need to conserve torpedo’s and conduct their attacks on the surface. The merchants crew were trained to even react in the same paniced manner that a real merchantman would, in reality once the U-boat got close enough shutters and covers would come off revealing a deadly surprise for the Germans.

Fast-forward to the Clement Sector, so how does a concept from four-hundred years ago fit into the depths of space? This is where the book starts with the background to the Loki-class Q-ship. Pages 4 to 20 provide an enjoyable narrative describing how the Loki-class came into being; it starts with an initial ‘pained’ discussion between United States Space Navy senior naval staff in how to address an increasing problem with pirates attacking merchant ships in the Sequoyah subsector. This then moves to discussions with the manufacturer Boone Starship Industries (BSI) and how this ‘black project’ was kept under wraps (spoiler – no surprises, a ton of cash). By secretly fitting in a Loki within the normal Thorpe-class construction line, these heavily-armed merchants can slip unnoticed into the usual shipping routes. There aren’t many Loki-class ships, just five either commissioned or planned. However, their perceived presence in the shipping routes is enough to make pirates think twice about attacking a Thorpe-class merchant, which could be a Loki in disguise.

Page 21 begins with a breakdown of how the Loki-class differs from a standard Thorpe-class. Military-grade crystaliron armour, reinforced bulkheads, power supplies, fuel tankage, better Zimm drive and environmental support is a start. Weaponry is where the Loki packs a punch; we are talking capital ship-level kit here. Particle beam weapons and barbettes, beam lasers, middle launchers and sandcasters and gatling lasers which are hidden or concealed about the ship. Even though there is all this hardware installed, a certain amount of space is dedicated to ensuring that if the ship is checked by customs, it would pass without challenge or incident. For example, the cargo bay is fitted out in such a way that it would look like a normal merchantman and provides no idea that its cargo is much more deadly.

Pages 30 to 32 provide a set of game stats and costs breakdown listing how the ship is constructed. Pages 33 and 34 I had to check closely as it appeared that the spacecraft graphic had simply been repeated. Thankfully this wasn’t an oversight, on closer inspection I noticed on the second graphic you can see the previously hidden weaponry now deployed. Page 35 provides three side view variants of the Loki-class in different colour schemes also showing the additional weapons on show.

Pages 37 to 42 provide the obligatory ship deck plans and the book is rounded off with a short encounter describing what happened with the USS Loki went up against a pirate Rucker-class starship.

Though much of the book is narrative around the gestation of the Loki from first idea to a combat encounter, I found the book thoroughly enjoyable to read. Each section describing the background to the Loki made me want to read a bit more, but suffice to say I certainly wouldn’t want to come face-to-face with a Loki-class. I have a feeling I’d be heading for the escape pods very quickly. With some excellent illustrations from the ubiquitous Ian Stead and deck plans by the author Michael Johnson, I would certainly recommend picking up a copy of the Loki-class Q-ship, especially if you want to give your players a nasty surprise.

I would like to thank John Watts of Independence Games for very kindly providing a copy of the book for me to review.