I'm running two minis events
Dave has event submissions for two events.
Here's the text from them:
When Universes Collide (Friday Night)
What would have happened if the Minbari first contact had been with the Klingon Empire, rather than the Earth Alliance? Now's your chance to find out! (Klingons are based off of SFB, Minbari are based off of B5Wars. And a hex is a hex is a hex.)
Note - it will make things MUCH easier if you come by the table before the game and get the "How to play the game" one on one teaching session, which takes about 15 minutes. It's not absolutely required, but the more people who've done this, the faster and farther the scenario will go.
The Battle of Cochrane's Rift (Saturday Night)
Star Fleet Battles ships versus a Cylon Basestar, with special victory conditions.
Note: To make this game fun for all players, please come by between sessions of other games and let us teach you the game one on one in 15 minutes before the scenario starts. We will teach anyone to play.
There may also be a Birds of Prey event submitted by Ken Ellis, and I'll have materials on hand to teach all four of my games.
A link to the 2 page cheat sheet for Squadron Strike
First things first - because of how the 3-D mechanics work, they read like they're terrifyingly complex. When you play them and draw on the cards that make them possible, they click into place for 95% of the people I show them to.
If you're intrigued by what the game entails, or want a brief overview of how to play it, follow the link below (1.8 MB PDF)
http://www.adastragames.com/downloads/Advertising/SquadronStrikeTwoPageF...
Alden Moore and I will be running the "Kill a chocolate" demo, which takes about 10-15 minutes to run, and lets us teach the game in a one on one context (teaching the game to 6 players at a time takes considerably longer). So, if you're between rounds, swing by. We'll feed you and show you something cool.
Invitation to a Slaughter?
I've been to those sites with the B5 and BSG SSD's for use with SFB and am passing familiar with their rules and ships. Aren't the Mimbari going to mop the floor with the Klingons?
The Cylons aren't nearly so powerful, of course, but having a Basestar engage a Fed or Kzin carrier group would be fun to watch.
Tactics...
The Minbari are based (roughly) off their B5W stats - they don't have shields, but they do have some hellacious ECM. They have a very good fire/cool heavy weapon, and their phaser analog is decent. They have some fighters, but not a lot. (They're Tinashis, the Klingons are D7s).
The Klingons are based (roughly) off of their SFB stats - they do have shields, they do have disruptors (though a quirk in the game engine gives overloads to range 9), and they do have drone racks, though there are differences.
On points, the Minbari are about 12% higher than the Klingons when their fighters are factored in; they tend to be a lot less forgiving...and maneuver with momentum in 3-D space tends to throw lots of people's tactical expectations off.
I try very hard to set that scenario up so that the two sides don't know exactly what the other side is capable of.
At Origins and local playtests, the Klingon players usually figure out what they have to do before the Minbari players do.
If you're going to be at World Boardgaming in Lancaster PA next week, I'll be running these same events
The Cylon versus Star Fleet Universe game has a particular tempo:
Phase 1: SFU ships are cautious and approach gingerly, not wanting to be the first faction to get whanged. Usually with "Look at the SIZE of that thing..."
Phase 2: Cylon picks a target of opportunity. Everyone goes "Holy mother of..."
Phase 3: Lots of discussions among the SFU ships about who's going to be volunteered to be the weapon magnet while the rest of the fleet charges in for a close range pass.
Phase 4: Lots of carnage with many crippled SFU ships, and a dead base star, with everyone talking about the narrow escape they made.
Which is, more or less, as it should be for a convention demo game. Make sure all aspects of the game are shown, make sure that people have a fun time, make sure that the paying customers had a good story to tell about how they barely pulled a win off by the skin of their teeth. :)
I specifically make the 'ships I hand to players' familiar ones from SFB so that the players can go "OK, I know how a Fed works..." and go from there.
(From your introduction post, I suspect that you're probably closer to the target demo for Squadron Strike than the SFB tourney players at Co5N are.)
Scheduling Squadron Strike Events
I'd like to maximize the chances that when I do SS events that I can get the widest range of SFB players (possible customers) at the table as possible.
I don't know the tempo of games at Co5N; I do know that trying to get anyone in the SFB tournaments to do anything else at Origins is all but impossible. Heck, I couldn't even get Al Rae and Dale Fields to break long enough to buy me the beers they owe me. :)
"I don't know if I made the finals, so I need to hang out by the Judge's desk to get a few more games in."
"I can't commit, because I'm in the finals, and you have a set start time..."
"I was in the finals, and got eliminated. Now my brains are sizzling like bacon, and I can't learn anything new."
"I was in the finals, got eliminated, but I still have a chance to get into Saturday Patrol."
Now, I know that some (and perhaps most) of that is "I'm trying to be nice to Ken, and not tell him 'no, I'm not interested' outright.' On the other hand, I'm going to Co5N to show some pretty cool things off to you folks. It'd be nice to know what times I'm not going head to head with the "Must. Play. More. SFB!!!!" meme for scheduling.
(Note that I can teach the basics of the game in 15-20 minutes one on one, so coming by and learning it between rounds is definitely feasible.)
Your best bet
Probably Saturday evening. I'll play unless I make it to the elimination round
I am going to play SFB, drink and hang, but...
I promise you you will have your 15 minutes with me. Additionally, I will make efforts to actually play beyond the teaching, but not to the exclusion of SFB, drinking or hanging (and, of course, the running of my Fed Com game). Plus, who knows, if things keep going as well as they are with me and ADB, maybe next year I'll run a SS and not Fed Com.
""I'm trying to be nice to Ken, and not tell him 'no, I'm not interested' outright.'"
See, there's where you are lucky. I am not nice. I'd actually tell you if I was not at all interested. I have been interested in the past at Origins, but other things (Poker, Drinking, hanging out and SFB/FC) have taken precedent.
Also, and I know you were working on something in the past, for my part, my interest would raise considerably if there was an online client for the game.
Cool
I will be interested to hear your thoughts (and anyone else from the SFB community that plays) as I am signed up to play in a Saganami Island Tactical Simulator event at Gen Con and am pondering trying Squadron Strike the day after if I like SITS.
Please share your thoughts on the game.
Ken
Online Clients
We are currently playtesting a PBEM client on my forums to see what can and cannot be done on an immobile 'flat, top down' view of the map. What I want for an online client is in a separate discussion on the forums; in very short form, I want the ability to pan the camera around the map, and I want to use graphical hinting to show things like ship to ship die roll modifiers. (Click on your ship, hold down the shift key, click on another ship, it shoots the range and bearing, and tells you what the net die roll modifier is to hit.)
The person building the Flash-driven shipbuilding application estimates it's about a solid programmer year to make it work. We already define the ships in an XML schema, and one of my projects at Origins is to have the Spreadsheet of Doom open, pull out XML files, have him run them through the SSD printer, tell me where they're breaking, and fix them at the same time.
The discussion of the SS online client is here:
http://www.adastragames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=1889
The SS client could handle the SITS combat with minimal changes. (In effect, we'd turn off some features, turn on a few others, and use a different module for damage allocation.) It's about 95% compatible on movement, 100% compatible on shooting bearings and about 10% compatible on damage allocation.
The SS/SITS client couldn't handle the AV:T or BoP movement engines, but some of the code would be re-usable.
If you are planning on picking something up at Co5N
Please post here (or email me) with what you're planning on buying, so I can be sure it's in the inventory to be shipped. I need to have this information no later than Monday, and earlier would be better, so I can make sure it gets packed and shipped.
I am also paying for my Co5N dealer/demo table (and badges for me and Alden) with product donated to the con. One item is a donation for the winner of the SFB tourney.
I want a few things
Ken,
I would like Saganami Island Tactical Simulator and the 2 Jaynes Books, Manticoran and Havenite.
Got it
Do you also want Ship Book 2 for the Silesian ships?
OK,gonna have to check out Ken's booth
I just stared reading some of David Weber's stuff and didn't know there was game-type merchandise out there. Cool!
Ken
No, just the three I mentioned for now. Have to see how much space I have at the end of the weekend, since I am travelling by train.
Ken
Per our earlier discussions, bring Saganami Island Tactical Simulator and Squadron Strike for me.
I think I will be coming after all...
I wasn't sure of coming, because I'm not SFB tourney material (I used to be OK, but I pretty much suck anymore at SFB). But I would like to check out Sqn Strike.
Great Joe
Besides, there is more to do than just SFB. We hang out, drink, play other games, drink, go out to dinner, drink, and play some poker sometimes. Did I mention we drink? :) Looking forward to seeing everybody in just over a week. Man do I need the break from work.
I'm getting the impression.....
that there may be some drinking involved! ;-)
Droid, weren't you picking up for...
Robert Estrada as well?
Robert Bassett
I'll need to get back to you on his commitment. Phone calls are in.
Moose - everything you're ordering
Can fit into the SAGANAMI ISLAND TACTICAL SIMULATOR box. I use a slightly oversized box that will comfortably hold three 'Skinny Captain's Log" sized books.