226 Reply by hundvig

(12 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

I think a warm, wet Venus is mandatory, but there's no reason it all has to be jungle.  Monstrous crab-things in the boiling equatorial seas are fine by me, as are wasp-man hive-villages in the high  mountain peaks and all sorts of reptillian types on the polar continents.  No matter how you slice it, not a great place to visit, and you'd hate to live there.  smile

Re: Martian invasion status, does anyone remember the old Devil Dinosaur comic?  One storyline featured high-tech alien invaders who come down, start slaughtering dinos and cavemen left and right, then get swarmed under by giant army ants.  Silly, but to the point.  Neolithic tech does not equate to harmless, especially when local animal husbandry skills involve dinosaurs and the like...

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

227 Reply by hundvig

(12 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Oh sure, they might land all right, but between the reptile men, the carnivorous jungle plants, the pseudodinosaurs and the Venusian Devil Plague they sure won't last long.  smile

The real Venus is such a dull place, sadly...

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

228 Reply by hundvig

(17 replies, posted in Defiance)

Cones are great for tunnel clearance, too.  Vital for clearing those darn xenos out of your asteroid mines...  smile

Go to forum: Defiance

229 Reply by hundvig

(6 replies, posted in Starmada)

andyskinner wrote:

Thanks.  But what I meant by "use" was whether you spread them out across the table, or what?  The FT ship records are small enough to put a fleet on a page (with space for orders on another sheet).  The Starmada ones don't look like they'll shrink well.

andy

I find if I fiddle around with cut-and-paste functions a bit, I can fit a squadron of a dozen average mid-sized (hull 10-14) ships on one page, although that may vary if they have a lot of special equipment or weapon batteries (anything with lots of check boxes to track).  You can save a lot of space by putting all the ships of the same type together as well...no need to duplicate the hit chart over and over that way.  Overall, it doesn't seem any more difficult to do layouts for than Full Thrust...if nothing else you don't need a special font for making your own designs.  smile

As for conversions, I'd done some very rough attempts to model the Phalons into Starmada way back when, but abandoned it when I realized I'd rather just build new designs for them with no direct attempt to refer to FT.  The best approach for choosing hull sizes is probably to pick the largest model you're likely to convert (probably some SDN or CVA) and assign that Hull 20 (or 18-19 if you want some wiggle room for later), and the smallest ship (recon scout, no doubt) Hull 1, and then sort of fill in the range from there.  Starmada can handle size 21+ ships, but they start getting very, very slow and unfeasibly expensive as they grow past size 15 or so.

One thing you will notice, In Starmada you can usually afford a lot more small ships for the price of a big one than you can in FT, since the Hull Size system isn't strictly linear.

Rich

Go to forum: Starmada

230 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

cricket wrote:
hundvig wrote:

Angel of the Revolution ends with the world at the feet of the triumphant Aerians, who found a Utopian society in the mountains of Africa after destroying the ability of other governments to wage war and saving Britain from a Franco-Russian invasion complete with subs and war zeps.  Syren of the Skies takes place 150(?) years later, when the Aerians, following the prophetic commands of the long-dead Natas, give control of the world back to the national governments.  This leads to all sorts of entertainment, as the last heir of the Tsars promptly steals an Aerian skyship, duplicates it, and starts a world war that gets interrupted by most of the life on the

So, how much of this is compatible with the Iron Stars background so far?

Well, not much if you stick to Griffith's timeline, which is a bit silly in spots.

But you could very easily have the Red Russians as catspaws or allies of that shadowy organization known as the Terror, lead by Natas and his lovely-but-ruthless-in-a-good-way daughter, Natasha.  And Natas, who claims to be a prophet with uncanny powers of the mind, might very well be a dupe of the Martians, who presumably are up to mentally dominating the odd Terran mystic or two.

The airship inventor (who was so colorless I've forgotten his name...typical period hero) presumably drowned himself after hearing the news about Cavor.  So, no free ride for Natas and company.

The World Wars are (presumably) still on the schedule in IS, just delayed and with different players than Tsar Wars.

The Earth being destroyed by a cosmic fire-cloud is still over a century in the future, which gives mankind plenty of time to conquer the rest of the Solar System, invent FTL travel, or just figure out how to stop the silly thing.  I can't see a spacefaring humanity (and the British Empire in particular) rolling over and accepting their fate the way they did in the books.  Surely some clever engineer will invent planetary-scale ether props by that time, allowing them to just move the Earth out of the way, or ram and disperse the cloud with some useless piece of real estate (pish...like we really need Uranus!), the latter option being tidier in the long run.  And you know how Her Majesty likes things tidy.  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

231 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

cricket wrote:

However, I don't recognize "Tsar Wars" or "Natas"...

Sorry, another couple of George Griffith's works, although he didn't refer to them as Tsar Wars himself.  Bit early for that play on words, y'know?  You can get the skinny here:

http://www.heliograph.com/buy.shtml

Basically, "Natas" is the head of a terrorist-but-in-a-good-way(?) organization devoted to stopping war and overthrowing all the tyrannies of the Earth (especially Tsarist Russia, who Natas has a personal beef with), which they accomplish mostly by lucking out and running into the dead-broke inventor of the world's first viable airship engine as he's thinking about killing himself.  They proceed to build a small fleet of airships and intervene selectively in the sort-of-worldwide war that breaks out shortly thereafter.

Angel of the Revolution ends with the world at the feet of the triumphant Aerians, who found a Utopian society in the mountains of Africa after destroying the ability of other governments to wage war and saving Britain from a Franco-Russian invasion complete with subs and war zeps.  Syren of the Skies takes place 150(?) years later, when the Aerians, following the prophetic commands of the long-dead Natas, give control of the world back to the national governments.  This leads to all sorts of entertainment, as the last heir of the Tsars promptly steals an Aerian skyship, duplicates it, and starts a world war that gets interrupted by most of the life on the planet being destroyed by a cosmic fire-cloud.

No, really, a cosmic fire-cloud.  Maybe we do need terrain rules in Iron Stars, eh?  smile

For my money, much better stories than the rather better-known Honeymoon in Space, although you still have to allow for a fair amount of dated "period" thinking...Anglo-Saxons are inherently a superior race, all of Islam is a united militaristic juggernaut, democracy is an inherently flawed concept that will lead to the blind rule of the uneducated masses, that sort of thing.  Enjoyable despite that, and (amazingly) carried by Barnes & Noble.

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

232 Reply by hundvig

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

Fair enough.  The effect is somewhat self-limiting, of course...the more Volatile weapons you mount, the more the effect hurts you, since they'll be occupying more slots on Ye Old Damage Chart.  Still say it's perfect for those dinky "spear-carrier" ships in settings like Starblazers, which carry decent firepower but explode like rear-ended Pintos.

Anyone remember the old Renegade Legion Interceptor modules?  There was one scenario where the "heroic" TOG fighter squadron is flying against a bunch of captured Rebels while being filmed for a propaganda movie.  The Rebs' fighters are all captured secondhand ships which have been prepped by the TOG SFX crews by packing them with explosives and magnesium strips for better kabooms...  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Starmada

233 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

We're accepting Wells' work as canonical (well, within limits...the War in the Air thing clearly didn't/doesn't happen as written), what about other writers' from the period?  Are we borrowing at all from Verne...does Nemo sail the seas, Robur roam the skies, and has there been a cannon shell shot to the moon?  Or Griffin...while Honeymoon and the Tsar Wars stuff clearly can't happen as written, that creepy SOB Natas and his Terrorists would make an excellent catspaw for the (Wells) Martians.  And how about Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty?  I've got a soft spot for the World Crime League myself...

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

234 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

cricket wrote:

"Anarchists" are by definition "terrorists"... except that anarchists are honest about the fact that they enjoy chaos, whereas terrorists (try to) hide their evil streak behind a pseudo-political agenda...

Well, no.  One can be an anarchist without embracing terrorism as well, at least at the philosophical level.  Terrorism is all about what is and isn't acceptable tactics in conflict.  Being an anarchist is to reject the structure of organized society in favor of self-determination.  Many anarchists (particularly the bomb-chuckers in the time period we're talking about)  are also terrorists, but they aren't really a subset of the breed.

Terror tactics are an inevitable and predictable response to an overwhelming disparity in strengths between opposed factions, whether ideological, political, religious, or other.  That doesn't excuse the behavior, or the decision to escalate a largely pointless cycle of violence, but I think it's easy to be complacent about the way the "accepted rules of conflict" work when they favor your side.  You have to expect the underdog to at least try to bite, no matter how futile it may be in the long run.

Not that I'm thinking about any current situations, no sir, strictly Edwardian era thinking here.

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

235 Reply by hundvig

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

What bloody moron came up with THAT garbage?  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Starmada

236 Reply by hundvig

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

Oh sure, you resurrect the fool post and don't comment on it.  Any thoughts on the SU mults?  I was really guessing there...

Rich

Go to forum: Starmada

237 Reply by hundvig

(3 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Best approach within the limits defined might be to establish a pool of (historically?) available ships for each side, and assign each country goals for victory.  Maybe have more ships become available at intervals as ships from other theaters or the odd new build arrives, and perhaps a rule forcing a badly-damaged ship to be withdrawn for repairs rather than used to destruction.  Assign victory points for winning battles, more points for accomplishing preset campaign goals, with a winner beiing declared when some set number or ratio of VPs is reached.

Of course, you'll also need a strategic movement system, and some kind of rules for intelligence and scouting.  Just simple stuff like that...  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

238 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

cricket wrote:

The largest cities in 1901 were:

London
New York
Paris
Berlin
Chicago

What other logical targets are there?

Munich, clearly.  Everybody loves pop music...even Martians.

Yeah, it's a song reference.  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

239 Reply by hundvig

(17 replies, posted in Defiance)

Hmmm...smokingwreckage seems to have covered most everything.  I'll add:

1) You shouldn't obsess too much with using CDWs (suicide or otherwise) if you don't like the concept.  They certainly don't fit every army/troop, and *not* having them isn't crippling.  The points you don't spend on them will go nicely toward buying other things.

OTOH, using suicide CDWs with, say, a troop of combat-drugged expendable convict troops might be appropriate.  You could even call them "slayers" or somesuch.  smile

2) That Extra Training skill is darn handy for representing above-average shooters, as even a +1 is pretty big in Defiance.  Spending the army design points on high-quality, high-power weapons also seems to fit the Grymm/Squat motif.  You'd expect them to have good gear, right?

3) If you're going to go with small squads, you'll need high morale and good leadership to compensate.  Elites are always good...and once again, being outnumbered by lower-quality foes seems to fit the army idea.  Good leaders will also help with accuracy, conveniently enough.

Rich

Go to forum: Defiance

240 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Orbital mechanics alone might explain why the Martians have been quiet....waiting for another close approach, and working on their vaccines while they're at it.

OTOH, if we want the Martians to play a role in Iron Stars (other than as skeet targets), they need to have something better than interplanetary cannon shells for ships.  I still maintain we can give them proper spacecraft (saucers, of course) without contradicting Wells, whose POV characters are less than omniscient.  Make the cylinders the assault landing craft, launched from saucers in orbit rather than Mars (added advantage of being less absurd in terms of real physics), with the actual ships depending on the landing force to build a spaceport for them to land at.  Ergo, when the troops all fell over dead, the fleet was left with no choice but to bombard or withdraw...or maybe both.  Maybe some of the saucers went home to spread the news, and some are out in the Belt rigging a few kinetic weapon surprises for London...

The "lights on Mars" in that case would be the final nuclear exchange that unified Mars under one government, whilst simultaneously damaging the ecosphere beyond recovery...hence the sudden interest in finding a new place to live.

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

241 Reply by hundvig

(10 replies, posted in Starmada)

mundungus wrote:

Hey Dan, could you put the latest version of the SXCA up on mj12games.com?  I'd rather not walk around Yahoo!Groups alone at this time of night.

Peter Drake

Second that.  Bloody format change still makes my head ache, and I've watched my groups traffic drop by at least 60% since it happened.  Bet that's helping their advertising rates, eh?

Rich

Go to forum: Starmada

242 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Well, I guess it depends on how big the Martian invasion was, and how long it lasted before the germs got 'em.  If there were thousands or tens of thousands of cylinder landings all over the planet, then maybe enough people were killed to really change the flow of history as we know it.  The Far East War in the core IS book seems to imply that that isn't the case, though. 

OTOH, if there were only a small number of landings (as an experiment, or to establish a beachhead, or as recon) and the damage was concentrated in the large cities of Europe (and perhaps America), then there might not have been great timeline changes from what we know, at least not right away.  The colonies might be a little more independent in the face of weakened European military strength, but they also wouldn't have access to captured Martian tech, which would tend to quickly restore the First World's military-technological advantage despite invasion casualties.

Of course, if the landings *were* more widespread than WotW seems to imply, then everybody gets a shot at grabbing derelict tripods and landers and the like.  The industrial nations might be more able to take advantage of the windfall at first, but even Third World countries might be able to duplicate the tech by hiring outside advisors.  "Mercenary scientists" selling technical expertise might be a hot commodity in this case, supplied no doubt by either unscrupulous industrialists, sinister anarchists, or the World Crime League.  At the very least, I'm sure Nemo will be happy to upgrade the Nautilus...heat rays are good fun.

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

243 Reply by hundvig

(25 replies, posted in Game Design)

If you're going to do a dungeon crawl game, please include some nice, complete design-your-own rules for monsters, traps and treasures.  That way we can customize to our hearts' content, and build dungeons that work with our own minis collections.  After all, not like you'll be selling figs yourselves, right?

Besides, high-utility customizable design rules are pretty much what we've all come to expect from MJ12 products anyway...  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Game Design

244 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Defiance)

The Book makes it quite clear that the MI can easily detect tunnel activity.  "Frying bacon" y'know...

Rich

Go to forum: Defiance

245 Reply by hundvig

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

"Collapse of America" refers to what, exactly?  Did the continents subside and now we have an American Ocean between the Atlantic and Pacific?  Or do you mean the United States government collapsed?  Canada and Mexico are also part of North America, y'know...to say nothing of all the other equally American countries to the south.  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Starmada

246 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Defiance)

Let's see:

Warriors:  melee fighters with tunnel capability

Blister Bugs, Blaster Bugs, Firefries:  shooty types with minor variations in range and power, but slightly more fragile than Warriors and can't tunnel

Hopper Bugs:  flying melee troops, *very* fast

Tanker Bugs:  big, slow, super-tough melee monsters the size of a tank, armed with very powerful acid spray and able to tunnel

Plasma Bugs:  really big, really slow walking plasma cannons, probably most useful for air defense

Brain Bugs:  expensive but give extra actions to other Bugs each turn, as well as having scary psychic powers, fairly tough to kill but big penalties if they do drop

I think that's everything so far.  I can see how to adapt most of this stuff to Defiance easily enough, but I'm a little reluctant to just skip the tunnel rules altogether, since it's (for me, at least) a big chunk of the Bug's flavor.  Might be able to simulate a lot of it with the Covert Ops rules, though...have to reread that section first.

OTOH, I might just say the heck with it and just do the Bugs as a random gribbly army, which would let me just play them as a Matrix/Organic swarm force, as well as letting me add my own weird scratchbuilds.  Have to do something with all those spare legs, I'll have 98 of them when I finish this latest batch...  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Defiance

247 Reply by hundvig

(41 replies, posted in Defiance)

Anybody worked up a Starship Troopers Bug list yet, or do I need to get cracking?  I've been fiddling with the magicsculpt, working on making body sections for a "centipede" bug to use all those spare legs you end up with from the Warrior sprues...

Rich

Go to forum: Defiance

248 Reply by hundvig

(12 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Afraid I'll pass, sorry.  Already own all the Wells stories in one format or another.

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

249 Reply by hundvig

(6 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Re: gyros, yep, missed the "before" part of "before, during or after" when I read the description.  As Radner would say, never mind.

But which one is priced wrong, the Wurger or the Meteor, hmmm?  smile

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars

250 Reply by hundvig

(6 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Ah, and one more:

5)  There are two identical-stat fighters in the MW book (one German/Austrian and one British, I forget the names offhand) that have different point values given.  Which one(?) is incorrect?

Rich

Go to forum: Iron Stars