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!
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| Interceptor Gunship |
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| 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...)
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| Hawk Interceptor |
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| 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.
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| Falcon Fighter |
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| Falcon Fighter |
Finally, the Sparrowhawk Blaster has a concealed main gun (no rules effects) plus targeting computer.
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| Sparrowhawk Blaster |
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| 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)),
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| Tri-wing |
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| Tri-wing |
The tanker is slow and unarmed but has shields and repair systems.
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| Tanker |
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| Tanker |
The freighter is equally slow, but has limited defences in the form of turret mounted guns. It also has shields and repair systems.
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| 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.
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| Starting positions. |
Blue Force have the initiative. Both sides close, Blue fighters spreading out to cover all angles, while Red Force interceptors accelerate to attack speed.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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...
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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.]
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| 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).
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| Ouch! a lowerful hit and little defence. |
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| Hawk interceptor shot up. |
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| Red squadron revenge. |
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| More damage to Interceptor gunship. |
By the end or turn 3, local space glitters with fragments of wreckage.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Freighter suffers damage. |
In the general dogfight, the Hawk interceptor is critically damaged and drifts, helpless, through the battle area.
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| Hawk Interceptor eliminated. |
Desperate gunfire from the freighter and the Tri-wing damages the Interceptor Gunship's engines.
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| Engine damage. |
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| 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.
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| Freighter destroyed! |
Victory for Red Squadron! We played out the end of the turn, but the remaining shooting was ineffective on both sides.
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| End of turn 5. |
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...
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