Dark Nebula Games

Just finished up my first game, the battle report and comments are as follows:

Sat down with a mate to play the game and explained the basic game concepts, and went though setup of picking modules, just took the pre-made opportunity selection instead of choosing them for now. Both players had a corvette and a scout of the same type, and we set up on a fairly small battlefield. Here is where captain Ice and captain Tea faced off against captain Beef and captain Cake. When we were drawing modules, I knew we drew extra equal to our leader rating, but I wasn't sure where that was pulled from, so I played the highest leader rating of one of our ships, for this exercise it was 2.

After a fair amount of time with setup, the game kicked off really quickly. The ships moved into tactical positions and started firing and taking damage the second round. I found this an great bonus, not a lot of down time, it got down and dirty fast, seeing blow-through damage the very next round, and the round after that getting to allocate damage to the next outer column.

This damaged the ships but they could still fight, so it was still fun to play with damaged ships. One thing we noticed is that the ships can get going really really fast. The turn rating doesn't seem to get high enough as my friend started his ships with speed 8 and then put all 8 PP into his velocity the very first turn. So the very first turn he was moving at 16 velocity. The turn penalty didn't seem to really phase him, as he could technically keep speeding up and moving in circles to get to a good position. Until I blew out one of his drives.

The size of the ship seemed to be strictly a bonus as the only effect on movement is fewer PP to allocate. This didn't bother me, because I would play larger ships using their PP to use modules, instead of zip around the battle field like steel butterflies, with guns and stuff. But, with no greater turn penalties for the larger ships, again there is not much to hold a speedy opponent back from just dumping all his PP into velocity again.

Tried a few of the other mechanics that all flowed smoothly, like warheads.
The modules had some fuzzy wording and we kinda just guessed at some of it.
The antimatter cloud was one of it, it had a range, and we weren't sure if that was a radius or a distance he could project the could if he wanted to help an ally. Even then, it said it dissipated at the end of movement phase which would be before you get any bonus of the cover. We just played it till the end of NEXT movement phase.

There is a lot of talk in the rulebook about special movement types and scenarios, and I think a lot of this is just confusing and extra stuff not needed to enjoy the game. It may come more naturally as I try progressively more complicated scenarios, but at this point it seems to be not necessarily.

Other than that I think it's a great system, and has tons of potential. My favorite part so far is damage allocation, I love how quick, simple and yet deep it is.

And the module concept is a fantastic way to let players customize their ships with out the side effect of a build-a-ship system, where people can build game breaking ships.

Anyway, keep up the good work, can't wait to try the next playtest round!

Quote:>>The turn rating doesn't seem to get high enough as my friend started his ships with speed 8 and then put all 8 PP into his velocity the very first turn. So the very first turn he was moving at 16 velocity. The turn penalty didn't seem to really phase him, as he could technically keep speeding up and moving in circles to get to a good position. Until I blew out one of his drives.

Looks like I need to clarify in the rules. If you are moving a speed of 16 you must move four hexes forward before you can make a one hex turn. This is the Turn Rating.

If your drive was damaged then the ship would have to move 5 hexes forwards before you can make a one hex turn. You can use special maneuver the push the limit. For example a Carzy Ivan allows you to make a 2 hex turn, instead of a one hex. Each time a ship turns it can only turn one hex facing, unless you use a special maneuver.

So if you ship is clipping along at 16 then the ship can make only 4 one hex heading changes in a turn. Look up turn rating for more details.

For each X amount increase in velocity the turn rating will increas by one. A very fast moving ship will not be able to make many heading changes in one turn.

Also I may add that speeds greater than 16 would follow;
Velocity of 16-20 turn rating of 4,
Velocity 21-24 turn rating 5 and so on.

Quote:>>The modules had some fuzzy wording and we kinda just guessed at some of it.

Yes modules need clean up and editing. I keep thinking up new modules and opportunities to use, but do not always clean up the grammar.

So you got some fuzzy and not clear ones.

Most opportunities or modules usually effect one and only one target unless stated on card.

Quote:There is a lot of talk in the rulebook about special movement types and scenarios, and I think a lot of this is just confusing and extra stuff not needed to enjoy the game.

I think you may have miss understood or more likely I need to clarify Turn Rating better. See my comments above. As for special movement comes into play when you need to get in better firing position, some one messes with your turn rating, avoid mines and so forth. They usually comes more into play when ships are damaged or you want to push your luck.

Note this may need clean up and play testing also. The rule are off to a real editor for clean up.

Quote:>>>When we were drawing modules, I knew we drew extra equal to our leader rating, but I wasn't sure where that was pulled from, so I played the highest leader rating of one of our ships, for this exercise it was 2.

I got to look at the rules again, it’s late and I’m tired. I had so many variations on this running through my head. But what I may intend to do. Is you get extra module cards for the highest leader skill in your task force. The commander of the task force pulls string to get a better selection of modules. So if you have 3 ships in your task force and each ship has two modules. Then you have a total number of modules for the task force is six. The command then has a skill of 2 mean you draw two extra modules. Max task force is about 3-4 ships. You might have the type version which says diplomacy skill and it should be leadership skill instead.

I might also go with skill bonus for extra module cards. Leadership skill level of 1-2 you get none, 3-4 +1 card, 5 +2 cards. Then this would be per ship only, not task force.
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(03-12-2010 12:35 AM)hawkfire Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:Looks like I need to clarify in the rules. If you are moving a speed of 16 you must move four hexes forward before you can make a one hex turn. This is the Turn Rating.

I understood that you had to move 4 before each facing change, the point was that it didn't quite seem severe enough figuring how much ground you can gain moving 16 spaces, especially when only the most extreme of weapon ranges can even reach 15 hexes. And that, a ship with 8 PP could reach a speed of 16 the very first turn, if they choose 8 as their starting velocity and dump all their PP into velocity boost before the first movement phase. And then at that point there was no reason not to keep going because the penalty didn't get any worse at that point.

(03-12-2010 12:35 AM)hawkfire Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:Also I may add that speeds greater than 16 would follow;
Velocity of 16-20 turn rating of 4,
Velocity 21-24 turn rating 5 and so on.

That I think would be good. But maybe at a set rate of increase so you don't have to make the chart much bigger. Maybe even at a +1 penalty per increase in velocity after 16 as well to discourage people from getting too crazy. Like have velocity 16=4, 17=5, 18=6, etc.

Another potential idea, would be to have it cost a PP for each facing change you make, then you sort of have to decide if you want to maneuver or go flat out.

(03-12-2010 12:35 AM)hawkfire Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote: The commander of the task force pulls string to get a better selection of modules. So if you have 3 ships in your task force and each ship has two modules. Then you have a total number of modules for the task force is six. The command then has a skill of 2 mean you draw two extra modules. Max task force is about 3-4 ships. You might have the type version which says diplomacy skill and it should be leadership skill instead.

That was it, the Diplomacy word threw me off, I figured it was the highest level captain of the fleet this would pull of off from the wording of that section.

Quote:Quote:
Also I may add that speeds greater than 16 would follow;
Velocity of 16-20 turn rating of 4,
Velocity 21-24 turn rating 5 and so on.
That I think would be good. But maybe at a set rate of increase so you don't have to make the chart much bigger. Maybe even at a +1 penalty per increase in velocity after 16 as well to discourage people from getting too crazy. Like have velocity 16=4, 17=5, 18=6, etc.

Another potential idea, would be to have it cost a PP for each facing change you make, then you sort of have to decide if you want to maneuver or go flat out.

Adding 1 PP per turn would be good. I also like the +1 penalty per increase in velocity after 16 as well to discourage people from getting too crazy. Like have velocity 16=4, 17=5, 18=6, etc.


Last the smaller ships can really buzz along they are nimble and quick. Bigger ships slow down abit no to nimble.