RPG Design: Glittering Void: A Role-Playing Game of Space Mecha Theatre

 

I first wrote this game at the same time I wrote Hostile Space.  In fact, as I was working on the wargame, I decided that it would be a fun setting to role-play in.  I originally wrote Hostile Space after watching tons of clips from various Mecha shows.  For some reason, they were just coming one after the other on my feed.  I enjoyed watching the Mecha buzz around and fight each other.  Therefore, it seemed like it could make a really fun dogfighting game. 

However, the heart of all good Mecha/Real-Robot stories was not about the dogfighting, it was about the characters and their stories.  Many of them had very spiritual plotlines and focused on romantic love triangles.  They were all about relationships.  The big robot battles were often just metaphors for the spiritual and emotional conflicts that characters were engaging in.  Hostile Space was not going to capture that aspect of Space Mecha.  Wargames were not a good venue for the melodrama and theatre, but it would be perfect fodder in a Role-playing game.

Hence, Glittering Void: A Role-Playing Game of Space Mecha Theatre was born.  

Space Mecha Theatre

What is Space Mecha Theatre?  Despite the trappings of Sci-fi, big robots, and warfare; the genre is not about the flying robots.  Those are just the genre tropes and setting.  The setting tropes should not be confused with what Space Mecha Theatre is about.  Space Mecha Theatre is ultimately about people and their stories.  Most of the drama, melodrama, and tragedy occurs outside of the Mecha.  

Space Mecha Theatre is about how individual people deal with the complexities around them like war, political scheming, and advanced technology while maintaining what quintessentially makes us human.  The common humanity of all the protagonists is the key focus of the story.  There is always "Big Things" going on around the characters like war, economics, and politics but it always comes down to how the individual deals with them and carries on.  The focus is on what makes us humans, and the commonality of emotions and experiences of the human condition.  That is the Theatre.   

Big Robots, spaceships, colonies, and political powers are all just setting conventions for the human theatre to take place in.  Space Mecha Theatre means that this is going to be set in a world where such machines are common.  The focus is human vs. human conflicts in a relatively "real" sci-fi universe within the Solar System.  Travel times are slow, communications are limited, and space is a hostile environment.        

This is not Space Opera.  This is not Hard Sci-Fi.  This is not Space Fantasy.  This is Space Mecha Theatre!               

Game Design Goals

This game took me about 5 years to complete.  It is the crunchiest Role-Playing Game that I have put together.  However, it had many of the same design goals as my other, simpler RPG-Lite games.  The key difference was how I wanted the game to be able to capture the varied and wonderful action that I had found in Space Mecha Theatre content.  

This game had the following design goals: 

• Give players interesting and meaningful choices
• Make character creation simple and easy
• Simple, abstracted, attritional combat, NO HIT POINTS!
• Hard to outright "fail"
• Reward Role-play

The Core Unifying Mechanic

This game uses three basic concepts that layer together to create a relatively deep unifying mechanic to the rules.  

1. The Rule of 4 
2. Dice Shifting
3. Level of Success

The Rule of 4 simply means that on any given dice, you want to score a 4 or more for a success.  

Dice-shifting means that all Modifiers are to the size of dice that you roll.  The dice used in this game are standard RPG dice so D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20.    Difficulty changes the dice you roll, not the target number.  The target number is always 4+ per the Rule of 4. 

Level of Success simply means that the higher you roll above 4 on a test, the greater your potential level of success.  These levels of success are compared in opposed rolls to determine outcomes.  To determine a level of success, you simple roll a dice, and subtract 4.  You can then compare the level of success between opponents. 

That's it.  This simple unifying mechanic is the basis of all tests and rolls within Glittering Void.  These rules apply for characters negotiating a Peace Treaty between Great Powers, fights between Combat Suits, and Characters trying to bluff their way past guards.  

The New Age

Man has expanded into the Solar System with the help of the Fold Drives.  They have established themselves across the Solar System.  These colonies fragmented into new alignments and political blocs.  Now, there are four Great Powers that maintain a stable balance of power between themselves using an umbrella organization called the Concert of the Solar System.  Scattered between these Great Powers is a variety of Freeholds; independent colonies that shift their allegiances between Great Powers via proxy contracts and alliances.  The Great Game is the various Great Powers of the Solar System jockeying for spheres of influence with these independently minded Freeholds.  

Characters in Glittering Void can take on a wide variety of roles within the world of the New Age of Mankind.  The default setting is agents of the Concert of the Solar System as Peace Representatives, where their job is to act as roving troubleshooters to maintain the stability and integrity of the Solar System order and avoid an all-out war.  However, there is room for a variety of campaign styles and 1-off adventures such as Scouts, Couriers, Pirates, Businesspeople, and more.  The New Age is full of political intrigue, espionage, and off-book operations that are perfect for various types of games.   

The game has a brief and high-level background that is entirely optional for you to use.  It includes tools about common technologies such as Combat Suits, generators for quickly developing your own Freeholds and colonies, and even a starting adventure to give you a feel for the world of Glittering Void. 

What is in the Book?

The game book has what you need to get started to play right away including blank character sheets, index, table of contents, Quick Refence Guides, and Appendices with all the common technologies, skills, backgrounds, and gear for the game.  It has a core concepts section to get you started, followed by easy character creation.  There is also a section about how to run the game for the aspiring Comptroller (GM).  There is even a sample scenario to give you a good place to start off in the Glittering Void!  This rulebook is 165 pages long!    

Final Thoughts

I have played this game with people who have never played Role-Playing Games before, as well as veterans to RPGs.  It delivered a satisfying game experience for both groups of players.  The Character creation was easy enough for newbies to wrap their heads around and make strong characters.  The gameplay was crunchy enough for harden veterans to enjoy making tough tactical decisions.  The mechanics are simple but allow for a wide variety of in-game depth and complications.  This game was 5 years in the making!  

You can find it on my Blood and Spectacles website.  I am eager to hear what you think of it in comments, on my Messageboard, my Socials, or directly through the Contact Me page on the website.  

Art by _SpacePossum_

    

     

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Wargame Design- Hostile Space- Anime Inspired Space Mecha Combat

 

Well, this is a bit of an unexpected surprise.  I have been working on this title for a long time.  Those that have been following the blog for a while probably recall my efforts to build the Mecha, and play some test games over the years.  Looks like the first battle was from May, 2021, with the big follow-up later that month.  I finally got my first Mecha done in October.  Now, three years later I finally decided to complete the rules for distribution.  Of course, I made a name change from Glittering Void to Hostile Space along the way too. 

I was very close on giving up on these rules in post-production.  Why?  Instead of making a miniature game, I started work developing it into an RPG.  There is more to come in that space, but I figured I might as well get this out into the world too.  

Those of you who are my Patrons on Patreon have had access to these rules for a year or so.  With their help I have been able to make some adjustments to altitude, modify some cards, and clarify some wording.  There help focused on finish off these rules.  As thanks, they got access to the finished product months prior to everyone else.  In addition, the Patrons have also had access to the RPG rules of Space Mecha Theatre, In Strife and Conflict Beta rules, a G.I. Joe RPG module, as well as various other work in progress games.  They also get access to my first forays into Mecha combat; JUGS: A Game of Big Stompy Robots.    

Hostile Space game came about thanks to my pet bearded dragon.  Of course, my games come from a lot of different places.  They come to me in dreams, they come to me playing other games, and they come to me when I am working on business projects.  Even by those standards, this is a weird place to start.  My lizard likes to watch genre fiction, especially Kaiji movies.  As a result, auto-play eventually brought up various samurai flicks, yakuza movies, and then eventually Mecha shows and clips.  As I went about my business, these clips started to sink into my psyche.  I wondered how to translate the action I was seeing on screen to the tabletop?  

That led me to the following design goals: 

1. Maneuver was going to be an important element to the game
2. More military based and not Super Robot, Kaiju, or Over-the-Top Super Mecha
3. Piloting was going to be a critical skill from the player
4. Feels like space mecha combat with death coming from everywhere
5. Campaign system to build ace pilots and differentiate them from the rest
6. Generic and scale agnostic

So, let's talk about how I tried to do this in the game.  

A pair of New Olympian Ares Combat Suits

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

One thing I love about aircraft games, is the idea that placement and maneuver are more important than shooting.  Position is critical, because without the correct position you can not get a clean shot, and leave yourself vulnerable to be targeted yourself.  If you watch a lot of Anime mecha, movement is a key component of any battle featured on screen.  Therefore, they are more aircraft games than any other wargame type.  It made sense that I would lean into the conventions of this genre more than any other.  

As you know, I am no stranger to airplane games.  I tried to re-invent them with White Star/Red Star.  However, for this game I wanted to be a bit more "traditional" in my approach.  There were a number of games to build-off of, and I was looking at games like Aeronautica Imperialis, X-wing, Bag the Hun, and Blue Max.  These have traditional mechanics such as altitude and secret maneuver choices.  However, I also was really interested in the Battlestar Galactica mechanics where ships could face one-way and move a different way.  

I wanted to incorporate these types of mechanics into the game.  In any given Mecha's turn it can change its direction of movement, do a maneuver, change height in the battlespace, speed-up, slow down, and even change its forward facing separately from the direction of movement.   This means that flying and positioning your mecha is more important than any other aspect of the game.  Plus, weapons have limited fire arcs and can only fire up or down one level.  Therefore, you can maneuver to avoid or engage and knowing when to do which is vital.    

These are skills that a player will need to bring to the game.  The actual piloting of the Mecha in your force are a thing for the player.  Is it the right scale for the conflict where each Mecha is being piloted by the player?  Probably not, but I do enjoy the "skill" aspect of these types of aircraft games.  Some of the most thought provoking and tactical games I have ever played are Airplane games.  Hopefully, I have captured that here too.  

Earth Alliance Suits close in on a New Olympian Ares

Model and Scale Agnostic

I made the game scale and model agnostic, so you can bring any sized mecha you want to the game.  I actually designed the game with Dream Pod 9's With The Lightnings range in mind.  However, I ended up using some cheap plastic robots that I modified for the game.  Therefore, when I wrote the game I wanted a model and scale agnostic system.  

That said, I did not include a "Build your own Mecha" system into the game.  Instead, I created a background and factions.  These are there so you can quickly get a fun, thematic game to the table quickly but the game works fine if you eject the background in the book.  Instead, there are some fairly straightforward unit designs from each faction that can fit into a variety of archetypes.  

Why did I avoid a "Build your own Mecha" system in the game?  The main reason is that they are too hard to build, too hard to articulate, scale arbitrarily, and are impossible to balance.  Once they leave my hands, they are way to easy to cheese, and there is no system I can design that a player could not simply break.  Of course, players are always free to design their own Mecha and homebrew what they wish!  The Mecha designs I have in the book should be easy to break up and use as a baseline for your own creations.         

An Earth Alliance Lander is escorted by a pair of Combat Suits

Replayability! 

The rules have a campaign system that can be used to link games together.  Your squadron can also gain experience and become Aces.  Their is skill progressions and special maneuvers that Aces have that other pilots do not.  Plus, the campaign has a definitive end point with a "Final Battle" scenario. 

There is a variety of units besides just Mecha in the game.  There are interceptors, long-range launchers, ground defenses, mines, defensive weaponry, and more.  These different units allow a squadron and player to deal with a variety of tactical challenges.  

There are 10 different missions that your squadron can fly, so you never have to play the same mission twice.  I also spent some time adding in a variety of "terrain" beyond simply asteroids!  This includes dust clouds, gravity convergences, radiation fields and more.  These features give the game a lot of tactical elements to be exploited and adds to replayability. 

A Mastiff tries to dismember a New Olympian Ares

Final Thoughts

It's amazing that this took me about 5 years to get this game to where it is today.  I am so happy that it is finally ready to join my stable of games on my Wargame Vault page.  Post-production really is a bear!   

My playtest games were very tactical with a lot of decision making every time I touched a model.  The rules were easy to grasp, understand, and put into practice.  However, put it all together on the table and to counter your opponent was a lot harder to do.  I played several times, and did not find that I had "solved" the game.  The hardest part was trying to "guess" what my opponents were going to do, and to be there to intercept them, or to try and avoid them.  There was a lot of thinking and considering as we moved.  This slowed the game down somewhat, but in a delightful way. 

I look forward to seeing how you all use the game, and what you think of it.  

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On the Painting Desk: Splash some Paint on It - Space Mecha

 My 2021 goals included painting up some anime inspired Space Mecha for my playtest games of Glittering Void.  I was intending on using some Dream Pod 9 miniatures from the With the Lightnings range.  However, I decided to take a leap of faith on some cheap plastic toy "Not Gundam" robots from Kikko on Amazon.  In a different post, I shared how I went ahead and customized each model and prepared them for painting. 

Recently, I spent time finishing them off with paint.  I was unsure how they would paint up, as they were never intended for painting had featured some shallow details and hard plastic.  Hard plastic used for toys often does not take paint well.  In addition, I had not given the figures a bath in warm, Dawn water so they probably had chemical residue left on them from the molding process.  

For paints, I decided to go with cheap, Big-Box store acrylics.  I had success using them in other projects, and since each mini was about 10 US cents a pop, I figures these were tailor made for the cheap stuff!  I used a brand called Apple Barrel and each bottle is about 50 US Cents at local retailers.  For brushes I also used old, Big Box retail brushes.  Nothing fancy for these guys.

No fancy Army Painter Paints this time!

 I decided to work with the New Olympian models first.  Other sources told me, they had been based on the Gelgoog suit from Gundam, but I have no idea what that even means!  In my head, I imagined the New Olympians to be a bit haughty and saw themselves as above other Solar Systemites.  Therefore, I wanted them to use a Purple paint scheme with Bronze bits, and an orange visor.  

I undercoated them with watered down white, and the paint seemed to hold Okayish.  Then, I gave them two undercoats of dark purple.  I then dry-brushed a lighter purple, and used an even lighter purple to add some highlighted panel lines.  As a final step, I washed the whole thing with Army Painter Dark Tone.  That gave me the general color scheme, but the Dark Tone wash did tend to cover the other painting work I had done on them.  

Next, I went back and picked out the weapons, and a spinal column on the sculpt in Bronze.  I also painted the visors an orange color, and added a white dot to the visor.  After that, I called them done.....

 Overall, they look suitably dark, intimidating, and still dark purple.  They look regal, mean, and ready to blow up some stuff in space!  The work on highlighting and dry brushing was mostly lost in the final effort though.  

Next, I took the Earth Alliance boys. I did not bother undercoating white this time.  Instead, I gave them two bases of a dark grey to start.  I then drybushed them two other shades of lighter grey on top, giving them a layered look. Next, I painted there weapons black, and then drybrushed silver on top of the undercoat of black.  Finally, I picked out some orange on the "Command Suit" on the shields to help them stand out a bit further.  Finally, I also hit them all up with a Dark Tone Wash.  

Overall, they look like utility suits churned out by a totalitarian state with no frills to the design.  Only what is needed.  Good, that is the right vibe for them.  

Since these are "Space Mecha" in a flying game, the last step was to get them mounted onto "flying stands.  That was not as easy as it sounds, because these models were never intended to be mounted on anything, much less a flying stand.  They did not have great contact surfaces, locations for base pegs, or good balance either.  Plus, some of the "flying" positions I put them in did not help my cause either.  

In this game, it is also important to be able to "rotate" the model to a different facing then the direction of the stand, so I needed them to NOT be glued in place permanently while on the stand.  Ugh! 

Here is what they ended up looking like.  

The New Olympians seen above, minus 1 down for repair work.  

The Earth Alliance, also down 1 for repair work. 

Not too shabby!  A big improvement over the paper standees I used, and much better than how they looked pre-converting and painting.  Now they look like actual gaming pieces and not just little plastic toy robots. Well, at least uniform looking..... 

I look forwards to getting them on the tabletop again soon!  Now, I need to figure out how to make some of the other suit types and factions for the game too.  

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On The Painting Desk: "It's (Not) a GUNDAM!" - Space Mecha

 On my, "Purchase" goals was some mecha from Dream Pod 9's range.  They were upsized mecha from the Jovian Chronicles universe to be used with their With the Lightnings rules.  I had built my own Space Mecha game called; Glittering Void that I wanted to use them with these rules.  

However, instead I found a set of ugly "Not-Gundam" plastic robots on Amazon.  I got 144 for about $14 USD.  These were only 10 cents a model as opposed to $10 a model.  I had plenty of them to chop up and they were cheap, so I had no regrets deciding to cut them into pieces and to start making space mecha out of them.  This would not be my first time using toys in my wargames.    

  This is what I started with.  Each one is about the size of a 28mm model but is made of hard plastic like a Green Army Man.  Still you can cut them with a knife or plastic cutter easily enough, and trim them with an exacto blade. You can see on the side how they can be cut up at the joints pretty easily.  

Looking at my previous battle reports, it was clear I needed some suits for the Earth Alliance and the New Olympians.  After I had those done, I could think about other factions.  I wanted a good selection of weaponry and suits for both sides of the battle.  Later, I could also make some Defense satellites, Fighters, and other craft from Sculpey as well.  I have some experience with scuplting Aeronautica Imperialis aircraft, so that seemed like an easy addition for later. 

I chose the top two designs to be the bulk of my troops.  The "Not Gundam" would be the Earth Alliance Hoplite suits while the "Not Gelgoog" in red next to it would be the bulk of the New Olympian forces.  I also decided to use the "Not Gyan" suit in the lower left corner in blue to be the basis for the Earth Alliance other suit types.  These Earth Alliance suits were intended to be more advanced than the front line Hoplite suits.  

The first thing I did, was cut the models up into various pieces so I could reposition them into more dynamic poses.  These guys would eventually go onto flying stands, so some more "flight" oriented positions seemed like a good way to go.  I was able to clip them behind the knees to bend and reposition their legs, cut them at the shoulder joints to reposition the arms, and do other various cuts and chops to put them in better positions.  I then used Green Stuff from Gale Force 9 to "tack" into place.  

After that, I had to think about weapons load outs.  The Earth Alliance used MAS Rifles which are essentially mass driver cannons, or "space age" slug throwers.  For those I dug in my bitz box and found some old first edition Warhammer 40K bolt guns.  I glued those straight on as the Earth Alliance used rifle type weaponry.  For the New Olympians I had some Eldar Guardian plastic weapons from the original metal/plastic Rogue Trader Guardian box.  I decided to actually mount these into the wrists of the New Olympians to represent their Beam Rifles.  These were suppose to be more hi-tech looking than a MAS Rifle. 

I also had some specialty weapons I wanted to add.  New Olympians had Heavy Beam Rifles that I used Eldar Melta-Guns for and mounted in the wrists as well.  The Earth Alliance had a Rocket Tube, which I used a Ork Plasma Gun for.  I also had an Earth Alliance Spartan mecha with a Combat Shield and Laser Axe, I decided to use a High Elf shield and a Ork Chainsword from 1st edition as well.  Lastly, I wanted some Swarm Missiles/Missile Pods which I just made out of Green Stuff.  

Finally, I wanted the Earth Alliance command suit to look similar but different to the Hoplite suits.  Therefore, I merged the Spartan style body of the "Not Gyan" with the arms of the "Not Gundam".  These gave them a distinct and more advanced looked, without disconnecting them from the Hoplite frontline suits.  

When all was said and done, I had two distinct forces of suits.  I had 9 for the Earth Alliance and 8 for the New Olympians.  This is what they looked like when I was done modelling.   

New Olympians: 

Earth Alliance: 

Combined: 

I now had all the suits I needed modeled up.  The next step was going to paint them all up.  I am interested to see how these paint up as they are not made of the normal plastic that I typically paint.  I also forgot to give them a wash of warm water before I started working on them, and now I have a feeling it is too late.  The wash is suppose to make it easier for paint to stick to the minis, as they maybe covered with industrial solvents and chemicals that impede painting.  What a comforting thought after I have handled them!   

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Battle Report: Glittering Void- Targeted Attack

 When I originally designed this game, I intended to use Dream Pod 9's "With the Lightnings" Range of figures for my space mecha combat fix!  I still do, and the rules even trying to call out some of the sculpts that go with some of the mecha profile.  However, the game is pretty much scale and model agnostic so you could use anything you wanted!  You could even use Gunpla kits if you wanted to!  

I initially used some of my infamous paper templates to do some playing and testing with the rules.  

However, one day I ran across a bulk set of ugly toy Gundam knock-offs with 144 for about $14 US.  I swooped in and picked them up for use in this game.  Make no mistake, these are some seriously ugly, plastic toys, but at about 10 cents a pop, it did not seem like I could go wrong.  Plus, they are cheap enough to cut up and re-assemble with no fear.  I may also give some of them a lick of paint to see what happens, but not this day.  I could try to pick up some of those Lego weapons to go with them for Beam Cannons and Mas Rifles and the like too.  Perhaps I will see how converting these ugly little dudes goes before I try any of that.  

Armed with my new, plastic Kicko robots I decided I had to get them out on the table for another battle using the Glittering Void rules.  If you go to the desktop version of the blog, you can see a Work-In-Progress section of the blog.  This section has links to games that are playable, but still in the development process.  You can find Glittering Void there.   

The trading contract for the Freehold of New Arcadia will expire and come up for re-negotiation in the next rotations.  Traditionally, these contracts have been held by corporate interests aligned with the New Olympians, and New Arcadia was considered within the New Olympians sphere of interests.  However, the free hold is located in the Asteroid Belt, which the Earth Alliance views at its territory.   

With the contract set to expire, elements of the Earth Alliance have begun aggressively courting New Arcadia.  They have offered lucrative incentives, and coupled them with veiled threats.  In fact, some smaller trading and prospecting vessels from New Arcadia have gone missing in the region.  The Earth Alliance has cited this as a prime reason to change contracts, as the New Olympians have failed to properly protect and enforce the expiring contract.

The powers that be on NeOlympus have deemed it necessary to reinforce their alliance on New Arcadia.  To this end, they have deployed a patrol ship and a compliment of suits to New Arcadia space.  A Carrier arrived and dropped off just such a ship before continuing on its route.  The New Olympian commander on the scene has pledged to find the cause of the missing prospecting vessels.    

 Investigating the last know location of one of these New Arcadian Prospecting ships, the New Olympians had unusual activity on their scopes.  Interference was being thrown out by a large Radiation Band in the area.  Therefore, a patrol of Suits was deployed to investigate further.  This led to an engagement in the Radiation Band between unknown Suits and the New Olympian pilots.

Post-battle analysis allowed the New Olympians to identify that the suits engaged were of Earth Alliance design.  However, the Earth Alliance is well known for selling their tech to anyone with the currency to buy it.  Identifying their suits would not be enough to link them to the loss of the Prospecting Ships from New Arcadia.  

Therefore, the Patrol Craft tracked their potential telemetry to a nearby Asteroid that could house a forward operating base.  En route, unknown suits were identified attempting to transit from the area.  The New Olympian pilots were scrambled to engage the fleeing Suits and attempt to disable and capture the Polemarch suit.  Hopefully, the "Officers" suit would allow the New Olympians to gather needed intel on these freebooters and discover their connection to the missing Prospecting Ships.  

Forces: 

New Olympians

3 Ares Space Combat Suits

1 Ares Space Combat Suit

- Upgrade #2: Dual Heavy Beams

Freebooters

1 Polemarch Suit

- Upgrade- Combat Shield

4 Hoplite Suits

- 1 Upgrade- Rocket Tube   

On the left is the Freebooters.  The Yellow is the Polemach suit, Orange are Hoplon suits, and I will use the #4 suit with the Bazooka.  The right is the New Olympians.  The Yellow is the Dual Beam suit, while the red are standard Ares suits. 

I use dice to raise or lower their altitude.  On the table is Alpha, 1 dice is Beta, and 2 dice is Gamma level.  

I also made some small paper circles for future games that will be used to show the direction travelled.  A key part of this game is that you can travel one direction, but face another.  Facing is based on the Front (marked with an F on my templates but normally the actual faces of the model) and the direction of travel will be based on the triangle on the marker below the template.  Eventually, I will have bases with direction arrows on them, while the miniature will be able to swivel.  Make sense? 

Mission:

Today's mission is found in the main rulebook.  This scenario is a targeted attack.  The New Olympians are trying to disable/knock-out the Polemarch suit, while the Freebooters are attempting to take out the Ares with the dual Beam cannons.  These suits offer an additional +15 VP for taking them out.   

Set-up

Today's game will be on a 48 MU x 48 MU board with 1 MU being one inch.  This area of space has two large radiation fields that the Freebooters are trying to use to cover their escape.  They are marked by Pipe Cleaners.  These fields cover Alpha, Beta, and Gamma heights.  They are obscuring and dangerous.  

The Freebooters are set-up in the corner around their edge of the board.  The Polemach is in the back at Beta level.  The other Hoplon suits are forward of his at various altitudes.  One looks like they are planning on going around the Rad Zones for a flank attack.  Meanwhile, the New Olympians are on the center of the opposite board edge.  The squadron is anchored on the right by the Dual Beam Cannon suit.  The others string across at various heights.  The New Olympians appear to be going between the Rad Zones to start. 

Turn 1:

The Freebooters go first as they have more Suits on the board.  

Move: 

The two sides race towards each other eagerly without holding back.  They look to be going head-to-head.  In that case, the Freebooters look like they have brought more guns to the party! 

Shoot: 

Everyone is just out of range.  

Turn 2: 

The Freebooters have more models and go first.    

Move: 

The Polemarch moves to try and lure some of the New Olympians away, but he largely fails as they turn sharply into the Rad Cloud for cover.  However, the main target with the Dual Beam Cannons lags behind and is in the open.  Hoplite 5 and 4 close in while the others try to target the Ares suits in the Rad cloud.  

Whoops, upon a review of the rules for Rad Fields it turns out they are Dangerous terrain.  That means the Ares suits that flew in there need to make Damage checks! two of them fail!  Thankfully they do not suffer from any special damage.  

Shoot: 

The Dual Beam Ares sees Hoplite #5 closing in up high.  His targeting computer lights him up and he fires, taking the suit a blast of high-powered energy!  Scratch one Freebooter!  The Dual Beams had a forward and Up fire arc, so he could target the higher suit. 

Hoplite #4 lowers his Rocket tube and prepares to fire on the Dual Beam Ares.  The pilot makes a Burst Fire check and passes! His shot is clean, and the Dual Beam Ares is blown to smithereens by a hail of Rocket fire!  Boom!  Objective complete for the Freebooters.  

Of course, that is not the end of the shooting war.  Ares #1 fires out of the Rad Field and manages to blast Hoplite #3 into small pieces with a Beam Rifle shot!  The Polemach returns fire but does not have the range. 

Hoplite #2 fires into the Rad Fields, and manages to finish off the damaged Ares #3! The pilot fails to eject and is riddled with slugs.    

Turn 3: Disengagement Turn

The Freebooters still have the advantage.  They go first again.   

Move:

Realizing their mistake, the remaining Ares suits scatter to get away from the Rad Field.  It damaged their electronic systems and failed to give them adequate cover.  The Polemarch breaks off and goes high, while his remaining Hoplite suits pair up to support each other.  

Shooting: 

The Freebooters have no range or angle this turn.  

Ares Suit #2 has a shot with his Beam Rifle at Hoplite #2 through the edge of the Rad Field.  The pilot makes a Rapid Fire test and passes.  He Opens up a barrage of Beams from his outstretched gun hand and riddles the Freebooter suit with fire.  The Pilot manages to eject safely from his disabled mech, and his picked up by Hoplite Suit #4.  However, his suit is destroyed.  

Conclusion: 

With that, both sides withdraw to lick their wounds.  It was a short, brisk engagement that left both sides bloody.  However, the Freebooters managed to eliminate the heavy firepower of the Dual Beam Ares suit, and the New Olympians failed to catch the Polemarch.  

Freebooters scored 92 VP, while the New Olympians scored 45 VP.  The Freebooters win. 

The two remaining Ares Suits docked back with their patrol ship.  The new, empty maintenance hangars sat open and dark.  A shadow descended over the pilots and crew.  They had come to New Arcadia filled with confidence in their skills and their machines.  Now, that confidence was being tested by a band of Freebooter scum.  

The enemy suits had managed to slip the Patrol Crafts scopes in the Radiation Fields.  The trail of the missing prospecting ship had gone cold.  With that, the New Olympian Patrol Craft made way for a nearby way point, and prepared to make a jump to the closest neutral Freehold, Liberty Pointe.  

Liberty Pointe was not aligned with the New Olympians or Earth Alliance.  The freeholders of Liberty Pointe were aligned with the Outsider Confed.  However, they welcomed ships from all parties to help bolster their trade.  They were a well known den of thieves, cut-throats, mercenaries, and black marketeers.  If the Freebooters were going to try and fence anything from their attacks on New Arcadia; Liberty Pointe would be their logical destination.  

As the New Olympians, that did not go well...... at all.  Of course, the obvious mistake was breaking into the Rad Field.  I wanted to use it for cover.  It was only after doing it that we decided to look at the rules for them again.  Woops!  Not only are they obscuring, but they were also Dangerous!  That cut my forces Hull down by 2 without my enemy even firing a shot!  

I also criminally mis-used my Dual Beam Ares.  I wanted him to slide sideways and provide covering fire for my advancing Suits.  That part worked, but then I left him exposed when he could not keep up with his fellows due to his flight angle compared to his compatriots!  Bad wingman..... Bad! 

On playing again, I think I need to go back and review how damage/critical damage works.  With this "line" Mecha they will rarely get any Critical Damage.  They tend to explode too fast!  Maybe this is fine, leaving Critical Damage for more "Heroic" mechs?  I will want to review and run some more playtests and simulations before I decide.  

Lastly, I liked the models fine.  I do want to chop them up, repose them a bit, and paint them.  I also feel like I need to scour the bitz box and find some weapons or other gear to kit them out with.  I have some other projects to finish up first, but this will be a fun side project. 

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Battle Report: Glittering Void- ID and Engage

 

If you are in desktop version, on the left hand side of the blog you will see a WIP section of the blog.  That is where I put various games I am still working on and adapting for play.  Today's game is called Glittering Void and it can be found in that section of the rules.  

The trading contract for the Freehold of New Arcadia will expire and come up for re-negotiation in the next rotations.  Traditionally, these contracts have been held by corporate interests aligned with the New Olympians, and New Arcadia was considered within the New Olympians sphere of interests.  However, the free hold is located in the Asteroid Belt, which the Earth Alliance views at its territory.   

With the contract set to expire, elements of the Earth Alliance have begun aggressively courting New Arcadia.  They have offered lucrative incentives, and coupled them with veiled threats.  In fact, some smaller trading and prospecting vessels from New Arcadia have gone missing in the region.  The Earth Alliance has cited this as a prime reason to change contracts, as the New Olympians have failed to properly protect and enforce the expiring contract.

The powers that be on NeOlympus have deemed it necessary to reinforce their alliance on New Arcadia.  To this end, they have deployed a patrol ship and a compliment of suits to New Arcadia space.  A Carrier arrived and dropped off just such a ship before continuing on its route.  The New Olympian commander on the scene has pledged to find the cause of the missing prospecting vessels.    

 Investigating the last know location of one of these New Arcadian Prospecting ships, the New Olympians had unusual activity on their scopes.  Interference was being thrown out by a large Radiation Band in the area.  Therefore, a patrol of Suits was deployed to investigate further. 

Forces

New Olympians

3 Ares Space Combat Suits

1 Ares Space Combat Suit

- Upgrade #2: Dual Heavy Beams

Unkowns

1 Polemarch Suit

- Upgrade- Combat Shield

4 Hoplite Suits

- 1 Upgrade- Rocket Tube

Unknows on the Left, New Olympians on the Right

Of course, today's play test will be featuring my (in)famous Paper Templates!   

I use dice to raise or lower their altitude.  On the table is Alpha, 1 dice is Beta, and 2 dice is Gamma level.  

I also made some small paper circles for future games that will be used to show the direction travelled.  A key part of this game is that you can travel one direction, but face another.  Facing is based on the Front (marked with an F on my templates) and the direction of travel will be based on the triangle on the marker below the template.  Make sense? 

Mission:

Today's mission is found in the main rulebook.  In this scenario, unknown blips have been detected and combat units have been deployed to identify the unknowns and determine who they are.  You can score additional Victory Points by using your sensors to "ID" a target as well as normal combat processes. 

Set-up

Today's game will be on a 48 MU x 48 MU board with 1 MU being one inch.  There is a Radiation band that goes across the board at Alpha and Beta level.  This radiation band has been making long range Identification of the unknowns difficult.  It is 12 MU wide and arcs across near the center line of the board.  I am using pipe cleaners to differentiate the edges.    

The Unknowns are on one side of the Radiation band, while the New Olympians are on the other.  All suits are deployed up to 6 MU from the board edge.  The New Olympians are at various altitude bands and speeds.  The Earth Alliance are all at Alpha level and coming on at full speed.       

Turn 1:

The "Unknowns" have more units, so they can activate a unit first.  Each player chooses the Maneuver cards for their suits and marks it on the H.U.D. along with their speed and altitude. 

Movement:

Both sides speed towards the radiation belt.  However, no one breaches it this turn.  Two New Olympian Suits are above the Radiation Belt at Gamma altitude, but none of the Unknows are there to match them.  

Shooting: 

No one has the range for shooting yet.

You can see the height and direction indicators in action!

Turn 2:

The Unknowns still have more Units, so have the Initiative.  

Movement:      

Unknown H3 breaks the Radiation Belt at Alpha.  He is met by A6 speeding up and maneuvering into the belt at Beta, while A7 (with his dual Beam Cannons) escorts him in and drops to Beta as well.  Unknown H4 tries to maneuver into the Belt, but is just shy at Beta Altitude.  

The New Olympian A5 breaks the edge of the Radiation Belt, and he is met by two incoming unknowns at Alpha level as well.  One rotates away from him, while the other stays close by.  A5 is covered by A2 at beta level.  

Finally, Unkown P1 enters the edge of the Radiation Belt and pivots towards A6, both at Beta.  

Shooting: 

Unkown P1 has Pilot skill of 4+ and Initiative, so they attack first.  A6 is in the proper arc and medium range. The Unknown hits once, but the New Olympian suits shrugs off the blast with its armor! 

The New Olympians have a higher Pilot skill than the remaining Unknown suits, so they shoot next.  A7 with the dual Beam cannons targets H4 and thanks to Extra Damage blasts the suit into inert junks!  

Ares suit 5 fires on Unknown H2 at range, but the shot bounces off the Suits armor.  A2 fires at Unknown P1 at range, and hits; blasting off the suits combat arm!  Ares Suit 6 does not have the right arc to target H3.  

The Unknowns fire back!  H3 fires on A6, but misses due to radiation messing with his gun sights.  H1 also streaks by targeting A6 and his Mass driver tears into the enemy suit and damages its thrusters.  Despite getting attack himself, H2 is out of range of the attacker! 

Turn 3:

Both sides have the same amount of models, so they dice off.  The "Unknowns" have Initiative.  Everyone chooses maneuver cards.   

Movement:

Suits scattered as the fighting intensified!  H3 and A7 rocked past each other at Beta altitude.  Meanwhile A6 dodged out of the opposite side of the belt, but facing the wrong way and ending at altitude Alpha.  H1 tried to pursue, but was too slow.  A2 and P1 both ended up going high and breaking out of the Rad Belt, but unable to draw a good bead on each other.  Finally, A5 and H1 got very close and started circling each other at Alpha level. 

Shooting: 

P1 gets to try to shoot first, but he has no targets!  

A5 manages to scan Unknown H2 as he lashes out with his combat arm!  He misses!  The New Olympians are our of shots.  

H2 tries to attack A5 back, but fails to land his punch.  H1 uses his Mass Rifle on A7 one altitude up from him.  He snags the Dual Heavy Beamed Ares but not enough to take it out!     

Turn 4: 

The Unknowns continue to have Initiative.  

Movement:       

The two sides are beginning to break apart, and will need to maneuver back in to continue the fight.  However, there may be some opportunity fire.  

Shooting: 

A2 fires a long rang beam shot at H1, but misses.  A2 and H2 exchange fire, but fail to find the mark in the Radiation Belt.

Turn 5: 

The Unknowns continue to have initiative. 

Movement: 

H3 and H2 move back into the belt to engage at Beta and Alpha respectively.  P1 also drops back into the belt to Beta.  They are met by A2, A6, and A7 all coming back into the fight.  H1 and A5 are dueling beyond the belt.  

Shooting: 

P1 fires on Ares A2 but misses.  

A7 fires his dual Heavy beam Cannons at H3, but some how he flies on through the blast!  A2 also targets H3, and damages his controls! A6 also fires but misses.  A5 fires on H1, and knocks the pilot unconscious with a blast to the cockpit, taking its Pilot rating above 7+ and taking it out of action. 

H3 returns fire on A6 but misses as well.  H5 flies by and fires on A6 and blasts the suit into atoms with his Mas rifle!       

End: 

The Unknowns have lost 2 suits, to the New Olympians 1.  The New Olympians also got 1 ID on the Unknowns.

Turn 6:         

This time, the New Olympians snatch the Initiative.  

Movement:

The remaining Unknowns swarm Ares 2 in the Radiation Belt at Alpha level.  A5 tries desperately to get back into the fight, while A7 is at Beta and can not provide covering fire.  This could be the last firefight of the game. 

Shooting: 

A2 gets a clean ID of P1 and H3.  He then fires at the unIDed target.  The close range firepower is too much for the suit, and leaves it drifting lifeless in space. 

P1 fires up close at A2. The close range Mas Rifle fire is enough and totals A2.  From outside of the Rad belt, A5 fires his Beam Rifle at P1, and manages to score a hit that causes internal damage and reduces P1 Thrust by 1.    

H3 no longer has any shots as A5 is too far away and A2 was destroyed.  

Turn 7- Disengagement Turn

The Unknowns regain the Initiative. 

Movement: 

P1 and H3 try to break off back to their home base.  However, A5 goes head-to-head with the retreating H3 at Alpha level.  A7 continues to stay at Beta and try to cover the retreat back to their patrol ship.  

Shooting:

A5 opens fire at close range on H3 and blasts the enemy suit to pieces.  Boom! 

Conclusion

New Olympians win 75 VP to 40 VP.  

Even before the patrol returned, the Intel crew were analyzing the signature IDs sent back to the Patrol Ship.  It was clear that the Unknown Suits that had been engaged were Earth Alliance models, but that wouldn't be enough to pin the missing prospecting craft on them.  The Earth Alliance sold their hardware to anyone with enough resources to buy them.  They could just as easily been pirates, mercenaries, or rebels.  More work would need to be done if the New Olympians were going to prove that the Earth Alliance was somehow involved.  

So, how did the game play.  If White Star/Red Star is intended to make the "flying" part of the game easier, this did the opposite!  You have to carefully use your thrust to rotate facing, rotate direction of movement, AND choose the right Maneuver card to get into a position to use your weapons.  

Thankfully, the 3 altitude makes it mush easier, with most suits being able to shoot up a level as well.  Therefore, the "engagement" radius is pretty large but there is also a lot of maneuver you can do to try and avoid combat for a bit.  It is all about careful planning and the order of activation.  

The Radiation Belt made the fighting up-close and personal.  I reduced the speeds to 1 MU instead of 2 MU per rating (accidentally) and that helped on a 48 MU x 48MU board.  Plus, the Rad Belt slows suits down too.  They could be zipping all over the board otherwise!  I do not have a problem with that!  

The game was supposed to capture the feel of an Anime dogfight, and I think it does that pretty well!  Suits are zipping around all over the place.  Guns are blazing.  Suits can get special damage that impact their performance.  Finally, there were several cinematic moments in the game as Mecha suits fired as they flew past each other and away, they tried to hit each other on a few close passes, and the closer you got the more deadly everything was!  

I want to try playing through it a few more times before I pass final judgement.  maneuvering was a bit more intensive than I normally like, BUT those maneuvers do capture the right feel of the game.  The H.U.D. was also invaluable as an off board tracking system.  I think I might be able to ditch the maneuver cards, but I need to try some non-suit only games before I decide.  The cards seems like they will make non-suits maneuver more realistically.  Finally, there are a couple niggling details to iron out as well just to smooth out play.    

Another W.I.P. game managed to hit the table this year!  I am pretty happy about that! Give Glittering Void a try for yourself, and let me know what you think in the message board.      

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