The Final Front Ear

It’s been busy busy here at maison Broom just lately; I’ve played more games in the last two months than in the last two years - and finally got to meet, albeit over a computer screen, some of the great gamers I’ve corresponded with since I’ve been blogging. I have to say it knocks solo gaming into a cocked hat.

On the subject of cocked hats (watch out - sweet segue coming up) a close personal friend of the blog recently sent me a brand new copy of C&C Tricorne they claimed they had no need for, which was very generous of them indeed. Recalling how much I enjoy C&C in general I’ve decided to rebase my growing AWI forces to fit this rule set and my hexon hexes. It’s taken me over 40 years to settle on a figure scale that suits me and the last ten to realise I prefer simple rules and hexes or squares over open terrain and measuring. Doh. Fast learner eh!

Anywhoo… On the subject of finally getting my gaming sh*t together, I’ve also commenced play testing a Star Trek ship to ship combat rule set that’s been on my mental back burner and endlessly tinkered with since 2005 or thereabouts. 

Dad joke alert. The final front ear.

My wants were simple. No ticking off damage boxes, multiple ways to win, NO power management, no buckets of dice, no complicated tables, limited table clutter, customisable ships, use of tactics, no measuring, no turning arcs or game aid appliances, ships crews to be as important as the ships themselves and a dash of added burn card unpredictability. 

The Trek combat we see on screen does not of course follow realistic physics, and aspects of it are more like naval battles in the ocean. It was this ocean / naval connection that led me inevitably to a fantastic game system that I realised I’d been playing for a while and which I could easily co opt. I’m referring of course to Galleys and Galleons. I dropped the designer of G&G a line in 2017 to ensure he had no issues with me dicking about with it…and here we are six years later still in the testing stage. Lol.

In this post I’ll document the set up for a quick game of what I can only call « Galleys and Galleons….In Spaaaace. » and in the next one how the game itself went down…err…man. 

My setting for this whole shebang is the alternate so called Nu Trek of the 2009 JJ Abrams reboot, for the simple reason that I like the ships…and anyway Stew’s already got TNG totally locked down. Lol.

First off I drew a mission card for each of the protagonists, this gives a points limit that restricts how many or what type of vessels can be deployed. The Federation drew a catch the pigeon mission in which a stolen shuttlecraft and a hostage VIP need to be rescued from an asteroid field. The Romulan player (also me on this occasion) drew an I Spy mission where they have to scan an opposing vessel four times to pick up important intel.

The Federation player has this vessel:

The USS Eisenhower NCC-1890 (Constitution Class). The red bands on the base denote the hex sides through which it may fire its energy beam weapons.

And the Romulan player has this vessel:

The I.R.W. Varak (Corvid Class) Warbird.

All ships came from Nashstarshipyards at Shapeways and all the counters were from good old Warbases.

Both players randomly drew a one use burn card that can be deployed at any time in the game. Usually you’d keep these secret until deciding to play them, but this is show and tell time.

Each ship has a data card showing it’s points cost it’s quality and combat rating (as per G&G) and a set of icons denoting its major systems. Systems in various combinations are needed to operate the items listed under the special rules section. 

Each ship has three white dice and three red dice (which denote hull damage) though only three represent the vessel at any one time. White dice get replaced with red dice when the ship gets damaged. Three of these are rolled against a vessels Q (quality) rating every turn to see how many actions the vessel may perform. The green plastic ? Markers replace the vessel on the board when it cloaks, and the two teardrop acid green markers are plasma torpedo’s which after launch track their targets across the board for three turns - unlike energy beam combat which is instantaneous.

Not that any one is wondering, but those systems that are common to most vessels are bridge, weapons (all), crew, warp core (or equivalent energy producing doohickey), propulsion (warp and impulse), sensors, comms, hanger bay and shield generators. In addition to these the Varak has a cloak and the Eisenhower a large cargo bay. At the bottom of the card the movement potential of each vessel is listed. The Varak is slower but can turn more than the Eisenhower, while the Federation ship is faster overall.

There. Clear as mud. 

Think that lot was bad? I’m going to bore the arse off you with the next post. Lol. Feel free to skip it if its not your bag daddyo - 

I’ll be back to proper historical wargaming soon enough.

Toodleooh.