David Johansen
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- May 4, 2017
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So this game came up elsewhere and I was going to write a description and thought it needed its own thread as it was too big of derail. So, like Star Fleet Battles, Star Fire was a minigame from Task Force Games. It came with a blue hex map and a sheet of blue and red die cut counters to represent opposing fleets. Each ship class had a simple silhouette that was used by both sides. The ship classes were Escort, Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer, Light Cruiser, Cruiser, Battle Cruiser, Battleship, Super Dreadnaught. The game was a simple, alternating activation movement and fire game with each ship being moved one hex at a time. Ships had a stat line like Ct (2) - SSSSAAWWLIIII (4) which would be a corvette with turn mode 2, four shields, two armour, two gun/missile launchers, a laser, and four ion engines for a move of four hexes. Damage was marked off from left to right so systems failed. There were various weapon systems with different ranges and defenses. Lasers went right through shields and energy beams pierce armour. There was a simple design system for ships giving each class a number of spaces to fill with systems which had different space requirements and costs. There was also the Terran / Khanate war which showed the introduction of new technologies through a number of scenarios.
Star Fire II introduced fighters and carriers. Fighters were very simple but could be rearmed with Lasers, Guns, or Missiles by returning to the carrier. A further war against the Rigellians starting with a Pearl Harbor attack and bringing the Khanate or Orion and Terran Federation into alliance against a new threat. Star Fire III Empires introduced a campaign system which allowed technology to be developed and worlds to be explored. A small chart set up the jump point lines on the map as exploring ships passed thorough the warp point.
Task Force revised the game in a new boxed edition to which New Empires was the first supplement. The new rule book integrated Star Fire I and II and expanded on the technologies available but New Empires was the crown jewel. A two part solar system and intercept map allowed battles to be fought across entire star systems.
The game introduced planetary incomes and populations. Ship yards to build ships and technological development tracks. The interstellar map became more abstract, with the players rolling d1000 to find an address for each warp point's destination. There were rules for generating star systems, exploring them, non-player empires, diplomacy, and of course, ledgers for military budget expenditures. The basic campaign started with each player rolling up a random star system and spending an initial build budget on their fleets. Having tried to run it a couple times, I'd suggest giving each player three warp points in their home system. It's too easy to get boxed in with just one or two. We always used d100 for a shorter game but still never got very far. The other scenario is basically multi-player Imperium. The referee plays a vast interstellar empire and the other players play small upstart empires on its boundaries.
The game play used monthly turns with transit times linked to system map level of play, intercept play for when the fleets got into the same hex, and then battle map play. I think it wound up being overkill but I'm always toying with the idea of a simpler space empire jump point campaign game.
Starfire was a major inspiration for my Galaxies In Shadow star system design rules. I wanted the in play, physical detail oriented kind of system rather than Traveller's random and abstract approach or GURPS Space's intricately detailed math simulation. I wrote an Amiga Basic program to do that once but I generally feel a game's subsystems should be able to be applied in play, at the table.
David Weber and Steve White wrote and published four Starfire setting based novels, Crusade, In Death Ground, The Shiva Option, and Insurrection which is chronologically last but was published first. These are fun milsf but do show the key problem of the design. Fortified warp point assaults where ship after ship is blown to pieces coming through the warp point which isn't the most interesting tactical experience.
Anyhow, if anyone wants to talk about space battle campaign games like Victory By Any Means, Federation and Empire, Imperium, or Twilight Imperium that'd give some depth to the discussion.
Star Fire II introduced fighters and carriers. Fighters were very simple but could be rearmed with Lasers, Guns, or Missiles by returning to the carrier. A further war against the Rigellians starting with a Pearl Harbor attack and bringing the Khanate or Orion and Terran Federation into alliance against a new threat. Star Fire III Empires introduced a campaign system which allowed technology to be developed and worlds to be explored. A small chart set up the jump point lines on the map as exploring ships passed thorough the warp point.
Task Force revised the game in a new boxed edition to which New Empires was the first supplement. The new rule book integrated Star Fire I and II and expanded on the technologies available but New Empires was the crown jewel. A two part solar system and intercept map allowed battles to be fought across entire star systems.
The game introduced planetary incomes and populations. Ship yards to build ships and technological development tracks. The interstellar map became more abstract, with the players rolling d1000 to find an address for each warp point's destination. There were rules for generating star systems, exploring them, non-player empires, diplomacy, and of course, ledgers for military budget expenditures. The basic campaign started with each player rolling up a random star system and spending an initial build budget on their fleets. Having tried to run it a couple times, I'd suggest giving each player three warp points in their home system. It's too easy to get boxed in with just one or two. We always used d100 for a shorter game but still never got very far. The other scenario is basically multi-player Imperium. The referee plays a vast interstellar empire and the other players play small upstart empires on its boundaries.
The game play used monthly turns with transit times linked to system map level of play, intercept play for when the fleets got into the same hex, and then battle map play. I think it wound up being overkill but I'm always toying with the idea of a simpler space empire jump point campaign game.
Starfire was a major inspiration for my Galaxies In Shadow star system design rules. I wanted the in play, physical detail oriented kind of system rather than Traveller's random and abstract approach or GURPS Space's intricately detailed math simulation. I wrote an Amiga Basic program to do that once but I generally feel a game's subsystems should be able to be applied in play, at the table.
David Weber and Steve White wrote and published four Starfire setting based novels, Crusade, In Death Ground, The Shiva Option, and Insurrection which is chronologically last but was published first. These are fun milsf but do show the key problem of the design. Fortified warp point assaults where ship after ship is blown to pieces coming through the warp point which isn't the most interesting tactical experience.
Anyhow, if anyone wants to talk about space battle campaign games like Victory By Any Means, Federation and Empire, Imperium, or Twilight Imperium that'd give some depth to the discussion.