Solo Tabletop Spaceship Miniature Rules Playtest: Iteration 1000000

3x2 inch card for newest solo space game

I mentioned in my last post that a (non COVID-related) hiatus from work would give me more time to blog. Since that was early January, the evidence clearly points to the contrary. Actually I’ve been doing more gaming since my high school days and loving it; I just haven’t been writing about it. I’m lucky enough to be part of two RPG campaigns and, when I’m not gaming with those groups, my solo tabletop wargames continue.

Last year I released the final version of Greater Space Battles, my tabletop starship miniatures wargame designed for solo play. While I’m very proud of the production as well as the mechanics, I’ve found the game just lacks something. It’s smooth, it works, it just seems a little too beer-and-pretzels.

Accordingly, I’m playtesting another set of solo spaceship rules, this one melding ideas from all of my previous solo space battle rule iterations.

I think the reason Greater Space Battles feels lacking to me is that I was raised on Star Fleet Battles: if a space game isn’t tedious, it must not be right. All joking aside, there is something about “energy allocation” that just captures the feel of being on the bridge of a complex interstellar warship.

My newest iteration therefore returns to an energy allocation grid concept, similar to the one I used in Greater Space Battles Version 2.0. I’ve changed this newest grid from a 5x6 to a 6x5 matrix (rows and columns respectively) to facilitate some new, and I feel better, rules.

The new ruleset also reflects a huge philosophical shift for me, as I’ve abandoned widespread on-table token use and returned to paper record-keeping. My rules have always been token heavy, as I’ve found this vastly speeds up play. Pre-game construction and post-game storage of these tokens (often dozens, if not nearly a hundred) represents the prime drawback to this philosophy, and a major hurdle to set-up and hence play. It doesn’t matter if the rules mechanics support fast play if onerous set-up means the game will never start.

In an attempt to keep the paper record-keeping minimal and preserve some production values, I designed some quick 3 inch by 2 inch ship cards, featuring the system grid on one side and a ship diagram opposite, used for recording offensive and defensive energy use. Clear packing tape laminates the cards allowing temporary grease pencil records.

Raiders at bottom, defenders at top

With the new cards in hand I set up a quick scenario. Side A, shown in the next two pictures, must escort the transport with vital supplies from the small terraformed moon to the airless moon, on the other side of the board. Side B, the raiders, obviously want to stop them. The next few pictures illustrate some of the rules concepts.

Defenders

Raiders

Energy allocation example

Since it’s a solo game, the energy allocation grid is used to constrain, but not eliminate, player choice. In the picture shown here, the dice dictates that the solo player chooses between only lines 1, 2, and 4; line 3, the weapon-heavy energy path with four “Attack” actions, including a special weapon, is not available.

Energy allocation roll: need a "6".  Oh no!

The next two pictures illustrate how random rolls add a great deal of tension to the game. The two medium capital ships (ship size 3) orbiting the large planet start at Speed 0 when long range scanners identify the raiders entering local space.

Obviously both ships would ideally use energy path 6, as it features the most “M” Movement actions. Unfortunately, the dice offered the worst possible choices instead, limiting the available options to the weapons-heavy line 1, or the defensive-based lines 2 or 5.

Auxiliary thrust roll: need 4+... uh oh.

Luckily, all ships in good repair still have auxiliary thrusters to help them move: they just have to roll above their ship size to earn an extra thrust point. As shown in the next picture however, the dice again declared otherwise, with the ships earning a measly one thrust, just enough to change facing. Obviously these captains were reprimanded for their poor readiness and sluggish response.






I’m four turns into my playtest and so far loving the new rules. I’m making tweaks turn-by-turn but I think it’s settling into the final shape.

Final thoughts: I originally envisioned these ship cards as generic, with an empty space to draw the energy grid in with semi-permanent alcohol pen. The technique worked for this first playtest but proved extremely time-consuming to roll up and fill in the card by hand.

I’ve since made a crude but effective “shipbuilder” file for MS Excel, which randomly generates ship cards that are ready to print. I’ll just print out (and laminate) new cards on junk mail or other pieces of scrap paper.

Automated Shipbuilder Input (bottom) and Output (top)