The Battle Barn

I know Brian is, but is anyone interested in learning and playing this game regularly?

I am, and have been, interested in this game for a while and the one time that Brian and I played it, it was a really fun space combat game. I'm not sure if I want to play one of the races in the game (fluff wise) so I might take my counts as streak to this game as well. Possibly make some Reaver's from 'Firefly', or the humans from 'Space: Above and beyond', maybe even find some things to make Cylons.

Anyway's, anyone else think this sounds like a rather fun game? Never heard of it? Heard of it but never played or saw it played? What are your thoughts, people?

I wants to play...but need some time before I can actually get into it...is it a GW game?

No, its from a company called Spartan Games.

i have not seen the rules, but the models are quite nice. I really like the Sorylian Collective models....but the Dindrenzi Federation look interesting as well, they look like huge rail guns with a ship built around it.

As I've told Brian, I'm up for giving this game a try too.

I really want to try this as a break from 40k, but I haven't been able to get my hands on the rulebook yet. Any chance somebody could run a game of it tomorrow?

I've got the rulebook and can bring it on out. I don't really know the rules well though so wouldn't know how to run a game. Dave got a chance to play in the demo so is a bit more up to speed on the system than I am. Just need him to actually come out to The Barn one of these days and demo it for us

First impressions from a few hours spent with a borrowed copy of the rulebook (thanks, Brian). The rules look to be pretty clear and straightforward. In play, the game will be much more like Warmachine than 40k. The model count is slightly larger than Warmachine but much smaller than 40k, and like Warmachine all units (ships or squadrons) resolve all of their actions before moving on to another one. Line of Sight is never blocked by other ships, but you can put obstacles like asteroids on the field that will get in the way. Also, larger ships carry torpedoes for long range fire (basically missiles), which can be minimized by the Point Defense (PD) that most ships have. Ships and fighter wings that are within 4 inches of the line of fire of a torpedo barrage can use their point defense to help, essentially trying to shoot down the torpedoes as they go by. You can also "attach" fighter wings to larger ships where their PD will help defend against torpedo strikes, attacks by other fighters, or boarding assaults.

Firing arcs are fairly simple also, as most weapons have a 90 degree cone of fire to the front, left, right, or rear. Some weapons, called Fixed, can only fire straight at the cardinal directions in a line as wide as the ships base. Turrets can fire 360 degrees.

The game uses all 6-sided dice, usually needing 4+ to hit, but 5+ if it's a large ship firing at a smaller one or if the target ship is cloaked. Any 6 rolled counts as two hits AND adds another die, so the random factor is fairly large. Each weapon has a strength that determines how many dice you roll to try to get those hits. Actually it's four strengths, one for each of four range 8 inch bands, but they are easy to find on the ship's stat card. Ships that have shields will roll a smaller number of dice in opposition to the weapon's dice then compare it against the Damage Rating of the ship. Equaling the DR produces a hit, subtracting one from the HP of the target, and doubling the ship's DR removes two HP plus forces a roll on the critical hit chart.

It looks like a fun game, and much cheaper to play than 40k. There are six or so factions but very few special rules for each one. Some have all Turret weapons that can fire in any direction, some have broadsides that can fire to one side or the other but only one at a time, some have shields or cloaks, some have better point defense or better ship toughness (damage rating and hull points), etc. But you don't have to learn an entire codex of special rules to understand your opponent's force.

I'm interested in any of the 3 games that Spartan Games puts out, Dystopian Wars, Uncharted Seas or Firestorm Armada.

Jeff and I played a game Friday, and I got another one in on Sunday in Kalamazoo. After playing it with somebody who had played it more than once and actually owns some of the miniatures, I realize that Jeff and I did a fair number of things wrong! It's still a good game, and I like the idea of playing it even more. I now have a much better set of counters and the templates (still cardstock, but in color now and properly sized), and I will probably have at least a starter set of mini's in a couple of weeks. The mini's produced by Spartan Games for the game are very nicely-sculpted and a good price, but they're also completely optional! Unlike a certain other British miniature company we know and love, Spartan seems to be making it as easy as possible to play without buying their stuff. They publish PDF's on their website for ships and counters, so all you really have to buy is the book. GW has generally claimed to be a miniature company first who make rules and such to sell more miniatures. Spartan seems to be taking the opposite approach: making good games and rulebooks first, then making miniatures as a way to make the game system more attractive. If so, they make awfully good miniatures for something that's not their primary business!

I am curious what are the things that we got wrong?

Well for starters my cutout counters were smaller than they were supposed to be. I printed the PDF from within a browser, and for some reason it printed at about 2/3 the size it should have. That didn't matter a whole lot since all measurement is post to post, but it would have made the Foreward Fixed guns even more of a pain than they're supposed to be. I have much better counters now: full color, full size, and backed with 1/8 inch foamcore board. Currently, only one of the fleets has the backing board, but will be fixed by this weekend.

"Split Fire" does not mean any time a single ship fires at multiple targets. It only counts as split fire when you take the dice for a single weapon and split that up. (I think you were arguing for that interpretation anyway, in which case you were right)

Frigates (small ships) still have to use the turn counter when they turn; they just don't have to move forward before wheeling around the turn template. Only Wings (fighters, bombers, boarding craft, etc), which we didn't use, can do unlimited turning however they want.

Point Defense needs 5's to hit rather than 4's, although the extra dice and such for 6's still apply.

You might have forgotten to roll for Shields a couple of times.

Initiative rolls are 2d6 plus Tactics Bonus. Tactics bonus is +2 for most factions, but +1 for Soryllians and +3 for one of the others.

I don't think you have to declare all firing before resolving any of it like I'm used to in 40k. You just have to finish firing with one craft before you move on to any others.

The biggest mistakes were still my awful tactical decision of closing with you quickly rather than drawing out the torpedo duel as long as possible, and forgetting to turn off the stupid cloaking devices!

Just noticed one more thing with another glance at the rulebook: it is possible to do more than one critical hit to a ship with a single barrage. If you double the CR rating, you roll twice on the crit chart. That would be enough to one-shot a cruiser-class ship, although it would take 12 hits to do so. A ridiculously huge 30 hits would triple-crit a battleship.

I am probably going to order some of the ships from the Directorate faction soon.

I have a Relthoza starter fleet and a carrier mostly assembled. In case anybody's curious, the 6 frigates are two-piece white metal, the cruisers are 4-piece resin, the battleship is 6 pieces of resin, and the carrier is 3. The manufacturing tolerances apparently are very tight as most pieces fit together very well without much sanding or cutting. Flash and miscasts were minimal except on the main body of the battleship, which had more problems than the rest. I might need to do a bit of gap filling, but nothing too serious. Very nice-looking models all around, with lots of details and guns, and resin is much easier to glue than metal. I'm not all that impressed with the bases, unfortunately. The rods mostly fit into the bases without much more than some deburring where they were cut, but the sockets for the frigates are significantly bigger than the rods, making the frigates very wobbly on their stands. I'm a little bit worried about the carrier as well because it's so heavy, and I have to drill the hole for the battleship as it's full of excess resin and won't sit on a stand at all right now.