Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Starmada Unity Review

 In this post I review the spacehip combat game Starmada Unity.

When I started to look for rules for my Star Trek games and was asking around the internet for rules the two names you hear most often are "Full Thrust" and "Starmada."  I've settled on Starmada as my go-to.



Starmada Unity Review


Starmada Unity is the latest version of the Starmada rules which apparently have been around for a long time with several different names (Starmada, Starmada Admiralty,. Starmada Nova... there are a lot.).  So I guess to be clear I'm talking about Starmada Unity Version 2 published in 2020.  


The jacket says this is supposed to be definitive version. 

Somethings to know up front:

Starmada is a 'universal' starship combat game in that it has no universe attached to it.  it's a TOOL KIT rule set so that you can build your own ships  and flush out any universe you want.  This fits my needs perfectly because there are no prepackaged Star Trek miniature starship games (or I would of gotten it) and I LOVE to tinker with stuff.  Tool kit rule sets are the best as it basically states 'use this framework to create what you want.'  

Ok I lied, there IS a Starmada Universe presented at the end of the book as an example of what can be done.  The ships examples are useful for seeing various sizes / power levels and the author seems to go out out his way to show different options / traits in use.  But I barely skimmed the universe background fluff as the whole point of me playing Star Trek is that I already know that universe and don't need to learn another.  I don't want to learn about the bleeping aliens from planet bleep that like to bleep in the bleep with the bleep.  

Starmada uses hexes.  it's basically 'a miniature board game (which is says so on the cover) and your awesome miniature ships are just gonna be pretty counters.  As it is with almost every game.  Now most of my miniature wargaming is grid-less / hex-less but I like hexes when it comes to games with starships, airplanes, sailing ships, submarines, battleships, warwagons, mechas. helicopters, and dragons.  You get the idea.
Basically I think hexes just work really well in the starship combat genre.

Starmada recommends using hexes from about 3cm to 5 cm (1.25" to 2") big and a minimum play area of 18 hexes wide and 32 hexes across.  I didn't pay super close attention to that initially which is why I am bringing it up now.  I got my space mat from Cigar Box battle mats; it's a '6x4 plus' (which is 5x6) with 2" hexes on it and it has just enough hexes on it to be 30 hexes wide by 39 hexes long.  Whew!


2" hexes with 1/7000 ships.
Mat from Cigar Box battle mats.



Starmada is really well written and easy to read.  Everything is easy to understand (except for the maths on designing ships but more on that later) and nothing is vague.  I've read a lot of rules books in my time and I get frustrated when things are not clear; so it's nice when a rulebook is clear and concise and deserves to be pointed out.  And big plus is that every concept is in BOLD and there are page number references throughout so you're never really flipping through the book looking for the odd rule.


The layout of Starmada works well: it first goes over the parts of the ship in the Starship Display sheet, then the basic rules for moment, combat, and then goes into TONS of optional rules about how those core rules can be tweaked to taste (to fit the universe you want), then terrain rules and scenarios, and then the Starmada Universe and sample ships. 


Game Play



Like every other starship game (and Age of Sail games for that matter) each starship will need a Starship display sheet, so you can track what happens to it through the game.  here is the basic form:

 
This is the display sheet for an Ambassador class starship for the Federation
You can design ships and generate the display sheets using the spreadsheet.
More on that later.


I'm not gonna go over everything on the sheet (because that's what the rules do and do it well).  But everything you'd expect to be a sheet is there; and once you know where to look and what is what this is all you need to steer you starship to glory!  By it being blown up.  Especially if the ship is called Enterprise because that thing is always being blown up.

There's a spot for how many Hull points the ships has (because when they're gone so is the ship), engine rating, shield rating...  It shows how many weapons the ship has, the weapon firing arcs and all the stats for the weapons.  Everything important that a captain needs to know.  Only thing missing is a map to nearest restroom.  A display sheet with the table to write orders for moves takes about half a sheet of paper.  

The idea is that as the ship takes damage and things break you tick off boxes and systems degrade till they stop working.  I often feel like I have about half my boxes ticked off; I'm halfway through to system failure.


Ambassador class starship; 1/7000


Turn Sequence



Now that we have our ships, it's time to play.  The game turn goes through 5 phases of Orders, Movement, Fighter, Combat, and End (the clean up phase).  In each phase all players are doing something. The Orders phase and the Combat phase are really the right and left ventricles of this game. That is to say the Heart of the game.

ORDERS PHASE:


Everything that a ship does that turn needs to be plotted out during this phase.  You actually write out what the ships movement is, including any special maneuvers you allow.  Usually this is expressed something like '3P2L2' which means 'move 3 hexes forward, turn to port, move 2 hexes forward, slide slip to the left, and go 2 hexes forward.'  The standard movement rules in the core rules are moderately complex; and can get more or less complex depending on what optional rules you use.  I like the Optional rules for Free Form Turns and Graded Turns that make ships act more like sailing ships / airplanes (because that's how they move in Star trek on TV).  

The main thing is a ships movement is confined by how strong it's engine is; ships will have a current engine rating (that will decrease when the ships takes hits to it's engine naturally) and any move can NOT exceed that rating.  Things that drive up the engine requirement are big changes in speed and multiple turns.  What this means is that ships can do big changes in speeds or multiple turns but have hard time doing both at once. 

This is also the most complex part of the game turn because the players have to do MATH.  It's basic math, not long division, but math none the less.  For example: in my games with the options I use the formula for the engine requirement goes: [Difference in speed from previous turn and current turn] + [modifier of number of turns (1 for 1 turn, 3 for 2 turns, 6 for 3 turns)] = Engine requirement.  
If I'm explaining it right then it should sound mildly/moderately complex depending on your IQ and how well the GM explains it.  people tend to 'get it' with a few examples and within a turn or two.

The orders phase is potentially the longest phase; because each ship needs it's orders / movements plotted out.  Depending on how many ships you are moving about this can take awhile.  All players are doing it at the same time so everyone is engaged.  Though if one side has a lot more ships to pilot or one side has a stronger sense of analysis paralysis someone could be left waiting around.    5-7 ships seems to be sweet spot (and again, this will depend on how many optional rules you use to make ship management more or less complex).

It's also a lot of fun as you try to guess how your opponent is gonna move and move your own ships into a better position.


MOVEMENT PHASE;

Now everyone reveals orders and moves the ships.  There are clear rules for what happens when ships end up in the same hex and etc.. It's a great drama as ships move around each other into better or worse positions as everyone anxiously / expectantly sees what all the ships are doing.  It is EXTREMELY satisfying when the enemy ships go where you thought they would and you have out maneuvered them.  Right after you slide your ship behind the enemy's ship and at close range; It is the time to look up, smile, and give the player the double finger guns. 

Galaxy to Negh'Var:
"pew pew pew pew"


FIGHTER PHASE:

I'll tell you that I read this section and thought "Everything here looks like it's in order. Very good.  spit spot. tut tut tut."   and then never read it again.  Star Trek doesn't use fighters (name one Star Trek episode where someone said "launch the fighters!") which is part of the appeal for me.   


COMBAT PHASE:

In this phase ships fire their weapons at each other, and the dice rolling begins.  In the core rules all firing is simultaneous and damage is not applied till the END phase; so it doesn't matter the order and if a ship is blown up it will still get it's chance to fire.  The captain will get the chance to say some cool last words while the ship breaks apart. "I never got to tell her, that I...(boom)"  
Basically each side takes a turn picking a ship and firing EVERYTHING that the ship has/can and then move on the next one.  

Shooting weapons is not complicated;  Each weapon has an arc of fire (the directions it can shoot from the hex the firing ship is in), a short range, medium range, and a max range, a rate of fire (how many dice to roll / how many shots), an Accuracy rating (number needed to hit), and Impact rating (how many dice to overcome the targets shields) and a Damage rating (how many dice/ damage it does).
There's also a bunch of traits that weapons can have as well.
There are a few modifiers that affect to-hit rolls but not a lot.  Mainly it's easier to hit at close range than long range.  

As damage happens to the ship you tick off boxes on the display sheet but don't actually apply it to the end of the turn (there is of course, an option of having it apply immediately).  I like to circle the box during combat and not cross it out till the end of the END phase;  because sometimes you'll need to see the number in the box for later on.

This phase can take awhile depending on how many ships you have and how many weapons they got. naturally to speed things up you can roll weapons that are firing at the same ship together.  It's also a lot of dice rolling as you roll to see if you hit, each hit then rolls to see if it overcomes the shields, and then roll for where the damage goes.  once you know the process it goes fast but the first couple of shots can drag.  

Klingon Birds of Prey 1/7000



One especially clever aspect of taking damage is the idea of the Loss Limit.  This only applies to the Weapon track of a ship, but it ensures that as a ships weapons take damage, that damage will be spread out all over the ship's available weapons and special equipment.  For a totally made up example: Say a ship has 10 piss shooter guns, 1 cannon of devastation to make your mom cry, and 1 cloaking device.  When the weapons systems take damage; obviously the piss shooters will be the first to go (it's the player of the ship taking damage that decides what are lost) but the piss shooters probably have a loss limit of 5.  Which means after 5 are crossed off the next losses have to be from somewhere else...so do you lose the cannon or the cloaking device?  Losing weapons can be full of fun choices.  



END PHASE: 

Lastly it's the end phase and it's basically the clean up phase. Players apply damage to their ships, check for victory per the scenario, etc..  Then the game turn starts over again in the orders phase


Optional Rules

When I say that Starmada is a tool kit rule set I mean it's a COMPLETE tool kit.  At least half of the book are optional rules that players can add to modify the game to their tastes.  It's all about the universe you are trying to portray.  It will be too long winded of me to go over many of them here, but let's look at options for starship shields as a quick example as it's common in Starship settings.
You could of course have no shields, and ships just take damage when they're hit.
You can have shields that protect the ship like a bubble around it.  Weapon fire can still overcome the shields (depending on the weapon's Impact rating and traits) but the shields are stable and always there (until the ship takes damage to it's shield track)
You can have shields that protect the ship like a bubble but stop everything thrown at them, but degrade over time until they are gone, like hit boxes.  (the game calls these Screens).
You could have a mix of the two.
Instead of the shields being a bubble around the ship in uniform strength, the shields can be Directional and have sperate rating for Forward, Port, Starboard, and Aft.  And you get idea.

Basically there are optional rules for EVERYTHING.  I think this is strength as you can craft the game to play how you want it, to fit the TV world that you know.  

Galaxy class 1/7000


Ship Construction:


There is about 5 pages on how the maths of the ship construction work.  SKIP IT.  SKIP IT unless you like maths and more maths.  You can't do this stuff unless you really know math and have one of those hefty calculators they make you buy in high school to do graphing.   I guess it can be nice to know how some traits load into others but the book could of do a better job of saying "Doing this math by hand is impossible, go get the spreadsheet."  
In the player resource section there is more about the spreadsheet, where to get it, and directions on how to use it. The spreadsheet is free and updated.  


Spreadsheet being used for Ship Construction.
An Excelsior class Starship.


I will admit that I was skeptical about all this because it started to sound like work and effort.  "why do I need a spreadsheet?  I just want wanna make whooshing noises while moving ships and saying  'Make it so, Number One!' A spreadsheet sounds too serious."  

But I was wrong, because actually the spreadsheet makes ship construction so. damn. easy.  All the math is just done for you and it lets you make ships that break the rules if you really want to.  Plus as I mentioned before, the display tab will print you out a nice looking Starship Display sheet to use for gaming.  

There is a small learning curve for using the spreadsheet.  But I guarantee that if an ape like me can learn to use it then you can to. It's really a simple tool and again directions are included in the book.

Ship design follows the well known principle that a ship's hull size will determine how much 'space' it has to hold weapons, engines, coffee machines, yogurt shops, special gear.. etc.   There's a nifty mechanism in the Tech Levels you can assign (the ship above has none).  But if you increase the tech level of say weapons then all weapons will cost less hull space and therefore free up more room for MORE weapons or what not.  That represents ships that are superior in tech and therefore could have more stuff in them than a similarly sized ship from a less advanced society.  Ships will be assigned a Combat Rating  which is the estimate of how effective a ship is in the game and works like a point value.  

The spreadsheet is also where you design the weapons under the weapons tab.  You really can design any weapon that you can think of, just by the stats and traits available.  Once a weapon is inputted into the spreadsheet under the weapons tab, it shows up in the drop down menu in the ship tabs. 

I can't stress enough how easy it is.  And you can make anything you like. 


Excelsior class Starships 1/7000


The only thing really missing from the rules is power allocation; which seems to be a staple on other games.  Starmada assumes the ship has full power all the time.  I actually like this because it's a feature that I do not want.  The game is more about maneuver than it is about good ship management.  The captain doesn't tell his crew to stop using the dishwashers so there's power for the air conditioning.


The Endless Tinker

If there is one drawback to all this freedom, it's that a game of Starmada can take awhile to set up.  Depending on how fussy you are, one can spend a lot of time designing ships to get them right.  There's also a lot of options to shift though.  For me this was part of the fun, but it's also the fun of mild frustration as you take on a creative project like designing your own universe even within the well defined and extensive framework that the game provides.  Such as:
What should the stats for a phaser weapon be? 
How many hull points should ship class X be?
If  ship class X has suchandsuch hull points then how many should ship class Y have? 
If I want a ship to be able to do whateverthing, how many engines should it have?

There's a lot of opportunity for endless tinkering and a project could never feel finished.  But maybe that's not a bad thing?  


Endings

I hope that this review of Starmada Unity will be useful to someone.  I obviously think very highly of it, and I only purchased it on a lark.  "if I'm gonna do space ships might as well check out these rules...."  glad I did.  

If you're looking a for a rule set where you can create/copy your favorite IP then Starmada would warrant looking at closely. 

Thanks for Reading.
Till next time.



Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Asteroids Terrain

 Every Ass should have a Roid.

No, not those kind of Roids.  And I don't mean hemorrhoids.

I mean Asteroids.  

(This blog is the epitome of classy humor) 


Asteroid Space Terrain


Being new to space gaming I find I am in need of some space terrain; all the  gorgeous terrain that I have is no good for space as space doesn't have woods, trees, hills, etc...  

I know space is basically empty so an empty table would be appropriate but where's the fun in that? 
There's not a lot of space terrain options really, and asteroids are the obvious choice.

I made some rocks in space.  

Asteroids.


I looked at some pictures on line of some real asteroids and thought they looked kinda boring.  Mostly they looked like coffee beans with craters.  I wanted something little more dynamic and craggy.  

The idea of this one is that a little piece is floating above the main hunk.







Asteroids could probably be any color you like, but I like gray.
Gray is my favorite color.
It matches my outlook on life.


with some ships for size comparison. 
I wanted hulking asteroids that would like they would actually damage the ship,
not little pebbles that would bounce off the shields.


Construction Process

Because don't you want to know? While looking online for guidance I didn't find many 'make your own asteroids terrain' tutorials.  maybe it's a boring topic?  Maybe it's that damn easy so no one bothers.

I didn't want to buy any, because as I said, I wanted hulking-menacing-dinosaur killing- looking asteroids and I wanted the bases to be the same as the ships.  So that everything matches and looks good. Unlike my wardrobe.  I don't think any of my socks match.  

There are however; lots of tutorials for making terrain with rocky faces and cliffs that use bark chips.  And my over caffeinated brain put these two ideas together; Asteroids are just big rocks in space.  The side yards of my house are full of bark chips free for the taking.  (because I already paid for them).


One day while playing in the backyard with the children,
before the floods of Noah hit California, I picked up these.

I picked up chips of various sizes that looked interesting.  Either due to shape or texture or perhaps it had a compelling back story of love and adventure.

Treatment: before starting the work I took the chips and washed off the dirt and stuff in the tub.  And then for an extra measure I let them soak in a bowl full of bleach for 10 mins.  Just to kill anything that might be growing on them.  Then dumped it all back in the tub and took out the chips to dry and left the rest for the wife to clean the next day. 

Selection: I laid out my space mat to check the size.  I waned big and hulking but not so hulking that an asteroid would spill out over a hex too much.

hexes are two inches so tried to find ones that fit well enough.
Klingon ship in there as well.

Build: I selected 5 to start.  First I drilled a hole in the bottom for the flight peg.

This is a boring picture.
But it proves that I have power tools.

Then using a hot glue gun I stuck some smaller pieces to the bigger pieces to try and make it look dangerous, and then stuck them on the flight bases.


I drilled some small holes and stuck some small pieces on wires, the idea that I could make some look like they were floating right above.  This proved fiddly and I only did it with two.


  




 that's basically it.  pretty simple and easy actually.  And I have lots of materials to make more if necessary.  Pretty cheap too as I just picked the things off the ground.  The hardest part about the whole thing was being outside with the kids (shudder).


5 bases to start.  Don't know how many space rocks I'll want.

Painting: I won't bore you with painting.  Primed everything black and dry brushed dark grey, medium grey, and white.



I think they came out pretty decent.  It'll be nice to have a little Line of Sight blocking terrain for space.the idea is that they can be group together in a cluster or out on their own.  In the future I might try making some bigger ones that use 2 or more flight bases and take up more hexes


Rock on, Rock Out of here


Time to move on.  You're a boulder person than me if you've even read this far.  Don't take it for granite.  And if you haven't thought hard about makin asteroid terrain, well igneous is bliss. 

Thanks for reading.
Double Thanks for writing a comment.
Till next time.

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Even More 1/7000 Star Trek

 

Oh
      no.

     Could it possi
                      bly be
even more!

S          (to boldly go)
P
A                       (make it so)
C
E
ships.


Wonder.  Geez.  For a little while there I was transported to an alternate universe where everyone had to write like how e.e. cummings wrote poetry.  I'd go back and change it but I'm afraid of provoking another space anomaly and being stuck there for                 ever.



MORE 1/7000 Star Trek 

Returning to normal and moving on: I've been on a painting spree lately and have really been cranking them out; when compared to myself, which is the only comparison that matters.  Unless you're someone who paints even slower than me.  In which case my hobby-life is rich and fulfilling and yours is void and stagnant by comparison and I get rewarded by feelings of well being.
  
I'm tellin' ya; Downward social comparisons are the KEY to happiness.  You should try it.


Painting Sweet Spots

Returning to normal FOR REAL this time and moving on: I'm in the Painting Sweet Spot with these spaceships.  I'm sure all of use wargamers have felt the happy effects of the Painting Sweet Spot at one time or another, and it kinda comes and goes, and can be defined rather personally.  For me there are 2 definitions of the Painting Sweet Spot.

1) The time when painting a project that you have painted enough of X to have a good grasp on how you like to do it and you like the results, but you still haven't painted enough of X yet for it to be a boring chore; like my children are. 

This is where I am with the spaceships.  I've painted enough of them now (around 20) that I know what I am doing and I like the results but not sooooo many that the novelty is gone.  It's still engaging.  


2) The time when painting a project that you have painted enough of X that the project is nearly done, like 95% done, and the last things are easy.  It's the anticipation of completeness.  Sometimes it can take a LONG time to get there and sometimes you never seem to get there because the project just goes on and on and on.....  Like taking care of my children.  

This is where I will be soon with the spaceships; as there's only about 10 or so more to do and the project is done.  (unless I order another fleet....maybe Romulans?)  

I only said that last part to mess with Dai.  There will be NO Romulans.
(maybe, actually I found some Romulan ships that aren't crazy expensive, so we'll see).



Finished Feds

As seen in the pervious post: I've have some purchases arrive with Star Trek reinforcements.  I've now painted all of the Federation new arrivals for a fleet of 13 total ships.  Impressive?  yes. 


Defiant Class:



Here we have another Defiant class starship.
There she is:
Defying you to not to love her.




Excelsior Class:






Excelsior class starships.
They excel at being pretty.


As the work horse of the fleet I've added two more of the Excelsior class starships.  



Ambassador Class




Ambassador Class Starship.
She can be the ambassador to my heart anytime.



A good looking ship but with a stupid class name.  'Ambassador Class' sounds like the group of people who paid $30 extra to board an airplane first.  



Sovereign Class




Extra pics of this shup as I think it came out looking rather well.


Sovereign Class
She will reign over our hearts. 


This class of ship is the 24th century version of the Enterprise.  Known as the Enterprise E, and is the star of the latest Star trek movies.  Not counting the Kelvin timeline.  DONT GET ME STARTED on the Kelvin timeline.  Just call it a reboot and move on, we all know it's fictional.  (if you have no idea what I am saying then you have a more fulfilling life, probably because you don't have children or they are better behaved than mine). 

The previous Enterprise D was blown up in a movie; mainly because they wanted a new ship that would look better on the wide screen.  The Enterprise is always being blown up in movies.  


A Galaxy class next a Sovereign class.
The Sovereign obviously has gotten a few up grades.



Whole Fleet:


Technically I now have all the ships that I need to run a good scenario at the up coming sci-fy convention in March..  I don't even have to paint those additional Klingon ships that I got.  Which Kinda makes them a waste of money and time...  like these children I have.  Except that I actually wanted the spaceships.

Here is everybody:



Star Trek Federation fleet.
Also known as "The Grey Menace." 


Federation: "We like saucers and rocket thingys."



All that's left to do now is attach labels to the ship bases somehow.  And I'll probably paint up those unpainted spaceships I have laying around just for the sake of completeness.




That's Where I Do It

Someone started a fad now ragging across my favorite blogs of showing off the painting desk.  Though I have shown the marvel of my painting desk before,  I like to join in so I can feel included.  Here's my hobby desk in it's current glorious disarray (from about a week ago when I took the pic.)

down the length


From where I sit.
(the other messy desk in front of it is my wife's hobby desk.
She doesn't use it much anymore except for storage).



It's quite cluttered at the moment as I'm in the middle of being productive. 
It could almost be one of those "look and find" books for little kids.
Find the:
  • Screw driver that ought to be in the tool box.
  • Broken bicycle Christmas ornament that needs repairing; from 2 years ago.
  • 15mm Lutheran Seminary for ACW Gettysburg games, bought over 2 years ago and still not painted.
  • Dried up bottles of super glue.
and etc..least I think it COULD be like a look-and-find book.  I wouldn't know. Whenever the kids asked to do one with me I'd say something like "That sounds BORING.  You're boring. Find it yourself.  I got to watch Youtube videos' about how to make perfect fart jokes."





Kidding (this subtitle works on two levels.  I'm a blogging genius.) 

I'm kidding about the kids.  But maybe I did it a little too hard and now you suspect my parenting skills.
To put you back on team Me; here are two pics proving that I'm actually engaged with children.

here I am showing Daughter #1 (9 years old) my awesome dad-
I mean DANCE moves before we go to her schools Father - Daughter dance.
It was 1950s themed.


Son #2 (4 years old) had a rough night and little sleep due to nightmares.
The next day, we spent the morning making a dream catcher
(the plate with the center cut out)

Son #3 (2 years old) is playing peek-a-boo in the back.

What a 4 year old can have nightmares about is beyond me.  "Are there not enough cupcakes so that everyone in class gets one?  There ALWAYS enough cupcakes."

But there.  Now you know that it's not ALL yelling and timeouts and complaining.  Now you're back on team Stew.  


Thanks for Reading.
Double thanks for writing a comment. 
Till next time.  Live long and do that hand thingy.  I can do it, but it hurts my fingers.

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Star Trek 1/7000 (Federation)

 Oh noes, lookit more little trek ships...but this time the good guys.


1/7000 Star Trek Federation


These are the good guys right?  I mean this is not Warhammer 40k where everyone is kinda a prick.


Defiant Class



Some would say that the true star of DS9 is not the space station but this ship.  Supposedly one of the Federation's first ships built purposely for combat (as opposed to exploration and dance parties) it was made to kick ass and chew bubble gum (and it's all out of bubble gum).  So naturally it's a really small ship that most of the time seems to need only 8 people to crew it.  



Starfleet: "We need a ship to counter the threats of the galaxy. let's make one."
Federation: "yeah cool.  Should we make a battleship or heavy cruiser or something?"
Starfleet: "Naw man, let's make an escort vessel! That will show that we mean business." 

Size Pic; next to a 25mm round.
Damn small ship.


Excelsior Class



Here's another Excelsior class starship to join the fleet.  In the My Star Trek = Ships of the Line but in SPAAAAAACCCE analogy this class is like the 3rd rates.  As such it's just the basic ship and there's not much to say about it.


"yep"


Actual size pic: a medium ship.


APPARENTLY the paint I used on the top of the saucer and neck looks blue in one pic and purple in the next.  That's very spacey-agey futuristic and totally done on purpose.



USS Freitag (I checked the spelling TWICE)


I'm pretty sure the whole internet follows the blog written by Jonathan Freitag at Palouse Wargaming Journal (as it should be).  So you will recall, back in September last year on his 10 year blogging anniversary, that he sponsored a haiku writing contest about why his blog is so great and he is so handsome.  At least I am assuming he is handsome but I've never seen him.  But all the other wargame bloggers that I have seen are good looking people and I'm pretty damn attractive so I'm just assuming that the better one is at blogging the more attractive one is.  

In all seriousness his blog is a wealth of painted units, battle reports, insights on wargaming, and positivity.

The haiku prize was a gift certificate to your favorite gaming store; drawn form all the entries.  I won the contest because I stuffed the box with 5 haikus.  Haikus are like the easiest poems to write; they don't even need to rhyme, and kids learn them in grade school when learning how to count syllables (also checked that spelling twice).  I opted for a Shapeways gift card and said that I'd buy a space ship and name it after him.

The gift card was WAY more generous than it ought to have been:
so he gets a big ship in his honor.




I haven't put the labels on the bases yet because I'm still figuring out how I want it.
In Star Trek; all the Federation ships are named USS "something"



Naturally because it was a gift I wanted to paint it really well,
so that my online friend wouldn't feel like he wasted his money.



Sorry I wasted your money.



Size Pic
This is a Galaxy class ship like the Enterprise D was in TNG.
One of the bigger ships.

Thanks again JF.  And congratulations again on 10+ years of wargaming blogging.



Whole Federation Fleet


Let's see how the Federation fleet is shaping up...

Everyone fly straight


Now fly left..

Now fly right and ignore the chair in the background


I just thought this was a cool picture.



HHMMMmmmm, the Federation fleet is just bit out numbered compared to my Klingon fleet (which can be seen on the previous post HERE if so inclined).  


Problem is, I'm all out of space ships.  OH NO I hear you say.  But what can be done?   I guess I could take a break from painting and focus on my children for a little bit.  I know, it's A Terrible Loss.
But wait, is that a fortuitous knock at the door? A package you say? 

This package has potential written all over it


Yay!  Reinforcements! Just in time in time too.
The kids will have to wait, because Dads gotta paint.

STILL heavy on the Klingons.  But this should keep me busy enough until the convention deadline in Mid March.  Probably won't even need all of them.  I got so many because I received Shapeways gift cards for Christmas and my birthday: because I TOLD people to get me that.  

And I did.



This Sky is All Star, but No Shine

....I don't even know what that means...


It MEANS: This Blog is all Paint, and no Play

Not true!  Sometimes true.  However I did recently have Mr PC, Mr. CG, and Mr. DJ over for some phaser firing, shield scrapping, photon.......um...photoning space combat.



It's pretty hard to make pics of space combat look interesting.


This was an opportunity to test out all my ship designs, as I had to create all the ships stats within the framework of the rules.  Plus I had tinkered with some stuff as most of us miniature wargamers do.  We just can't keep our hands to ourselves.  So this was a playtest (and a good time).  How did I do?  pretty darn good. but there are always things one doesn't think about till it hits the table.  


For more pics you can see David's post HERE.  



At This Point in the Space-Time Continuum 


It is time to leave, which you've already done in the past to make this future in order to prove that the past belong to this future in the present.  Time travel episodes are dumb.

Thanks for reading.
Double thanks for writing a comment.
Till Next time.