Jeffro’s Car Wars Blog

A friend of mine let me know about a guy in the area that was interested in learning the game, so I quickly made room in the schedule for the fellow. We had to baby-sit a six-month old for the first part of the session, but things picked up a bit when baby took a nap and his wife stepped out to go shopping.

I explained, movement, HET’s, phasers & phaser capacitors, Photons, Disruptors, Overloads, and shield reinforcement. I must have talked for an hour or so. After a single turn walk through, the guy was asking about how to do mid-turn speed changes– except for a few details he had a basic intuitive grasp of the intent of the rule already! After our first big volley of damage, he was asking about the “energy balance due to damage” rule. (As far as I knew he’d never seen a rulebook.) He asked about a lot of the unexplained boxes on the SSD, but as with the above advanced rules I just mentioned, I said not to worry about them for this game.

I played the Tournament Klingon against his Tournament Fed. I’ve had the hardest time grasping Klingon tactics, but things finally fell in place for me in this game.

On the first turn, I took a shot at range 13. On turn two, I charged overloads and tried to evade. I couldn’t prevent an overrun and we blew each other up pretty good. We dropped each other’s #1 shield and when I passed over him, I let him have it with all my phasers on his rear shield. (Need to double check that same hex combat rule again.) I then turned to follow him to pound him on the next turn.

On turn three I got to range 3 and dropped another rear shield and scored a couple more internals. On turn 4 I continued to follow him. My opponent was faster than me because I had lost a lot more power and he managed to prevent me from taking any shots through his downed shields. Not having a #1 shield made it very difficult for me to follow him!

My opponent turned as I held my fire… then HET’d such that we were a few hexes away off of each other’s #1 shields. (Thinking about it later, I think he could have nailed me through my down shield without giving me the same option if he hadn’t turn duirectly towards me, but I didn’t realize it at the time so I could tell him he’d ‘really’ won.)

He missed with two of his three photons… and I hit with all three of my disruptors. When the dust settled, he had no phasers left and only 2 photons… while I had three disruptors and a few phasers left. He conceded the game– but I had obviously won due to my insanely lucky die rolls, so he didn’t seem to feel too bad about the loss….

(I’d arrived at 12:30 or so and was leaving before 4PM, so it took the usual 3 hours that I allocate for the usual SFB duel even though I had to do a lot of explaining….)

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I’ve struggled to learn SFB for years, but now it all is beginning to come together. The rules that we played with this time were fairly easy. Adding shuttles, tractors, boarding parties, scatter packs, and mid turn speed changes wouldn’t be that hard to do. It’s just detail from here on out. If we played several games and added a rule or two each time, I’m sure we’d get the hang of it.

One thing that made it hard to pick up the game before now was never having the right scenario. I thought pirate scenarios or police actions would be the way to go… but these scenarios just fizzled for me when I tried to play them with my friends. I played the Tholian in the classic Juggernaut scenario with an SFB group back when I was in highschool. I played the “Surprise Reversed” scenario more recently and just got blown up before I could do anything. In neither of these situations did I really learn anything.

I played the D7-CA game with a friend waaaay back and we just went to range one and blew each other up. I couldn’t figure out how the Klingons could possibly win. Last year I tried again and got creamed– I was trying to keep my opponent at range 15 for several turns and found out it could not be done. (Sabre Dancing just doesn’t last for several turns like I had thought it should!)

Anyways, in this game… I could see how the different aspects of the ships really were balanced against each other. It was neat to finally see that in action and have it be something more to me than just an idea in a “Victory At…” article.

I like the tournament ships because you know they are balanced and you know that the game is a fair test of skill. As I continue to learn the game, I intend to focuse on the tourney ships and ignore the weirder rules/ships/scenarios until I’ve mastered the game that’s been “playtested” at hundreds of tournaments.

As others have noted, the game that’s underneath the rules is really dynamic. I think I’ve finally caught my first glimpse of it… and I’m looking forward to seeing more!

I’ve bitten the bullet and tried a couple of online games.  Just can’t seem to find face to face gamers in my neck of the woods that can play when I’m not busy….

Check out the classic Star Fleet Battles scenario “The Surprise Reversed” here:

http://home.comcast.net/~pmthecat/PBM1/PBM1.htm

Those cold hearted imperialistic Federation dogs are about to massacre a defenseless fleet of Romulan cadets.  Presently the PBEM web page shows the Fed CA at point blank range in formation with a drone swarm launched from his scatter pack shuttle.

In a Classic Traveller rpg, I’m playing a pilot on Working Passage.  You can view the proceedings here:

http://www.downport.com/wp/

Wow, it’s great out here! Car pool lanes, sea food, great Chinese restraunts– and cars even stop for pedestrians. The weather’s great and there’s lots to see.

I got in one game of SFB at Gary’s Games. It’s a pretty nice store– a bit dumpier than The Compleat Strategist, though they did have a pretty good selection: a yard of SFB stuff and a good stock of Ogre material. The clerk was a little eccentric and didn’t seem to be a fount of knowledge when it came to historical wargames, but he was friendly and let us use the tables in the side room to play our games. (He didn’t allow us to eat or drink back there– and even though it was understandable, it still was inconvenient!)

The guy I played against was a pretty nice fellow. He was a programmer that worked with the same stuff that I do and probably the same age as me. He’d owned SFB and F&E type stuff all the way back to the Commander’s edition days of the mid 80’s. He’d never played much though, so he was excited to finally get down to business.

We broke out the Federation heavy cruiser and the Klingon D7 battlecruiser. I took the Klingons again, and we agreed to have a “plan vanilla” game of no refits, a floating map, and no Commander’s level rules such as mid turn speed changes.

After a few turns a few other SFB players showed up. One was an ADB contact that owned everything that had ever been published for the game. The other was a very competent player that happened to not frequent the message boards too much. Another slightly older fellow showed up, too. They were all on the whole a clean cut crowd, intelligent, and not too obnoxious (not like the creepy dudes playing Magic out front, anyway!!) I was glad to see them all together planning their next big get together. Hopefully a new gaming group will form out here….

My opponent didn’t overload his torps and really chewed me up in my attempts to “Sabre Dance.” His phaser-1’s cut down my rear shields and every time I turned away after firing my disruptors, he still managed to pull into range 8 and ruin my day. I came to the conclusion that I really don’t know beans about flying the Klinks– turning toward the Fed like I was doing was suicide!! I got some tips from the more experienced players there, so maybe next time….

(I conceded after 7 turns….)

I figure it takes at least 4 games to master the rules and tactics of a new game, so hopefully I’m half way there on getting the hang of that D7. We’ll see. The Fed ended up right on the corner of two shields several times, so the importance of that particular rule was drilled into me. Also, I didn’t fire my drone rack again in this game. I really ought to do that. I felt it was pointless because it was only speed 8 drones. Still, if the Fed flys around them, that still means he’s not closing the distance so much– and even if he shoots it, that’s one phaser shot I don’t have to eat!

Ah well…. The next game will be better, I promise!

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I played a game of Star Fleet Battles this weekend: Federation CA vs Klingon D7 (no refits) on a floating map. I played the Klingon.

The first turn I pulled in at about range 14 and fired my disrupters. 3 hit and I maybe did 5 points of shield damage after blowing through the reinforcement.

The second turn I did it again. Strangely, the Fed ship was not firing any weapons.

The third turn I got ready to try it again. The Fed seemed to have dropped reinforcement and invested in speed this time. I couldn’t manage to get a shot at him without heading into range 8 territory. I didn’t want to waste the energy I had in my disrupters, so I pulled on in and fired away. I didn’t do a whole lot of damage, but the shield had a good solid dent in it.

One impulse later, the Fed turns towards me and unloads. All four overloaded photons hit. Over fifty points of damage came through my shields. I was toast.

This was a disaster, but better than the games I played of this when I was a kid. Back then we’d overload weapons and move to range 1 on the first turn to unload. This time around I actually managed to pull off two turns of “saber dancing.” I of course should have given the Fed wider berth– so what if I waste a bit of energy and miss a chance to fire disruptors! Don’t close range unless you’ve stacked everything in your favor. If things don’t turn out the way you want, turn away and try something else! The next game will be much better, I’m sure….

I would like to be good enough that I could force the Fed player to eject his overloaded photons and switch to standard loads– or even proximities. If that were possible, the Klingon could whittle his opponent away for a few turns and tally up a sizeable advantage. If the Klingon can close to overload range while the Fed isn’t overloading– or better yet, while he’s reloading– so much the better!

I recently noted here that the SFB Module that included “Battle Cards” was out of print. I was right at the time, but that’s about to change. This module represents the best approach to dealing with any sort of “Secret and Simultaneous” game action. Car Wars players that prefer that kind of mechanic could pick up some good ideas from this package– and SFB players will get the tools to help preserve their sanity when they attempt to play with their incredibly complex system!

“Captain’s Module A+ includes: Impulse cards (improved over the old version with
the next movement impulse listed for each speed, in addition to whether it moves
on the current impulse). Command Cards (improved with 18 cards per set,
providing more control over what actions you commit to without actually making
written notes). Step Cards (12 cards outlining the steps taken each impulse).
216 die-cut counters for play aide use, including monsters, point of turn and
slip, wild weasel, EM, etc. SFB Rules Cross Index. New and updated play aides
including Reverse Impulse Chart, Pseudo-speed chart, Tactical Intelligence chart
and work form, Unit Tracking Cards, planetary landing display, Klingon firing
arcs, useful charts and tables, particle cannon energy form (revised for the new
rules), speed change calculation form, drone tracking form, fighter tracking
form, enemy energy tracking form, advanced EA form, Fleet Command tracking form.”

http://www.starfleetstore.com/MERCHANT2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=5625

Module A+ Expanded Edition:

http://www.starfleetstore.com/MERCHANT2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=5625-X

GURPS books on sale: BIG SAVINGS!

http://www.starfleetstore.com/MERCHANT2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=S&Category_Code=GSJG

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If the old 10 phase movement chart seems like a lot, try SFB….

32 phases called ‘impulses.’ (I suppose that was just to confuse people who might think it had something to do with impulse power??)

Each phase has an ‘impulse procedure’ that is nearly as long as the entire Car Wars 5th edition rules…!

To really play the game right, you have to have the “Speed Changes During a Turn” rule from Advanced Missions… very tricky to get the hang of and plenty of sticklers here for new players to get confused on.

And though you can’t design starships in SFB (not the same way that you do in Car Wars anyway…) you get the same kind of complexity every single turn by having to fill out your Energy Allocation Form.

The net result of this complexity is that you get the most sophisticated range of tactical options that are available in just about any war game. It also takes a lot of time to learn and to play it. And there are no 6 person scenarios that can be played to completion in a single sitting.

SFB and Car Wars Compendium 2nd edition both have this in common: “Secret and Simultaneous Fire”. This rule is very realistic, but a pain to implement. The makers of SFB published Battle Cards to help people pull this off. I spent some time myself to make up my own with index cards. Each player would supposedly play one every phase revealing their orders.

In reality, this idea never got traction. Battle Cards haven’t been reprinted and our Car Wars games drifted away into the usual off-the-cuff fire announcements anyway. It was just too much work to try to consistently implement the rule– especially if it was just an optional suggestion. This of course led to the “me, too” fire response during the same phase that anyone announced fire. This is one more instance of Car Wars players anticipating the 5th edition rules!

“Secret and Simultaneous Fire” is a good idea, but computers can handle it much better than us table-top gamers. It’s critical that the rule be enforced in SFB because it’s much more common for people to pick up random weapon hits on an attack. That made players think hard on whether or not they should fire first. (If they didn’t take out a photon or two, they’d be in big trouble….)

Anyway… the 5th edition rules codify the way we tended to play Car Wars. The new rules fit the feel of the game and it’s easy on the referees. Players that like the old rules can still implement them in the new game if a particularly hairy situation merits it. The standard game, on the other hand, should be as simple and quick-playing as possible. (SFB rightly makes distinctions between its “Basic Game” and the “Commander’s Rules.” Car Wars should follow that pattern if it’s going to have additional complexity layered in….)

Because of this rule change and others like it, we can play twice as many games in an evening– and we look forward to the game twice as much!