Still waiting for it. It had better be in soon, because Im getting annoyed...
/taps foot impatiently
How did you order it? Was it thru Lulu?
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Still waiting for it. It had better be in soon, because Im getting annoyed...
/taps foot impatiently
How did you order it? Was it thru Lulu?
Not being a DBx gamer, I can't tell how these would play out, but it's a fun read anyway:
http://www.geocities.com/gobcommand/modern/dbayank.htm
I love the WalMart base camps for the soccer moms...
> This game sounds like a perfect candidate for my email based
> abstract game server (pbmserv@gamerz.net
> http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv)
>
> May I have permission to code it up for playtesting?
Go right ahead... just make sure the appropriate disclaimers exist (Copyright, All rights reserved, Do not take internally, Your mileage may vary, etc. etc.)
The game is played on a chessboard, between two teams of five (5) pawns.
In addition, there are three "balls" represented on the board, each of which may either exist in a square by itself or may co-exist with a single pawn (in which case that pawn is considered to be "carrying" that ball).
To start the game, place the three balls on the center line of the board, so that each is on the vertex of four squares, as shown below:
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | | | | | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | | | | | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | | | | | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | | | | | | | |
+-O-+-+-O-+-+-O-+
| | | | | | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | | | | | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | | | | | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | | | | | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
This is the only time during which a ball is not located in a specific square. A ball in its starting position MUST be "picked up" by the first pawn to enter a square to which it is adjacent.
Then, each player places his five pawns along the back row on his side of the board. Finally, each player rolls three d6s; the player with the lower total acts first. Re-roll ties.
During a turn, a player uses each of the rolled dice to perform an action with one of his pawns:
MOVE: The pawn may be moved any number of squares (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) up to the number rolled on one of the dice. A pawn may never cross the center line into opposing "territory". Once a pawn moves into a square occupied by a ball, it is considered to be carrying the ball, and the ball will move with the pawn until it is either passed or thrown (see below).
PASS: A pawn with a ball may elect to pass it to a teammate. To do so, the teammate must be within a number of squares equal to or less than the number rolled on one of the dice.* The ball is then moved to the new pawn's square. (Passing is probably irrelevant to the basic game -- it will only become tactically useful once pawns are given different abilities.)
THROW: A pawn with a ball may throw it at an opponent. Again, the target of the throw must be within a number of squares equal to or less than the number rolled on one of the dice.* The opponent then declares whether the targeted pawn will attempt to catch or dodge the throw. Then, each player rolls one die:
1. If the throwing player's roll is higher, the targeted pawn is "out" (removed from the game), and the ball is placed into the square vacated by that pawn.
2. If the throwing player's roll is lower, and the target was dodging, the throw has missed, and the ball is placed into any empty square adjacent to the targeted pawn (targeted player's choice).
3. If the throwing player's roll is lower, and the target was attempting to catch the throw, the throwing pawn is "out" (removed from the game), and the ball is placed into the square occupied by the targeted pawn.
4. If the rolls are equal, and the target was dodging, treat as a missed throw (#2). If the rolls are equal, and the target was catching, treat as a successful throw (#1).
*When determining distances, count along the shortest path between the two players. Diagonal distances are counted the same as orthagonal ones.
Whenever a die is used to perform an action, it is considered "spent" and cannot be used for another action (i.e., a player may only perform three actions per turn).
Once all three dice have been used to perform actions, the acting player rerolls his dice, and then play passes to the opponent. (Thus, a player -- and his opponent -- will always know during his opponent's turn what dice he will have to use during his next turn.)
The game ends when all of the pawns on one team have been put "out".
Any chance the spreadsheet will get updated to *not* include the tech level modifier to those pieces of equipment that have been deemend uneffected by such considerations?
Done.
http://www.mj12games.com/starmada/sxca.xlt
Hey all,
I am pleased to announce that the Cascor is now available thanks to John Voysey efforts. Savor the moment and thank him.
Thanks, John!
Now, who the heck are the Cascor?
Meanwhile I will also continue to work on an original setting based on Balance of Power with John Voysey's help and a Cold Navy setting. After which I don't know if I'll ever want to look at Starmada again. :shock:
:cry:
> I think you might have to go back to the point of the novel.
> Wells was writing it as a reaction to British Imperialism (of
> which he was not a fan).
> He wanted to generate the "British refugee experience", if you will.
>
> I think the downfall of the martians wasn't really the
> bacteria, as much as the arrogance of the invaders (aka
> Imperialists). They didn't bother to check whether it was a
> hospitable planet, they just came to conquer assuming nothing
> could stop them. And they were felled by that smallest of things.
>
> Works for me.
Well said, brother.
> Problem #1
> The martians being buried for milennia, to emerge when they
> did. The thought on this was it was ludicrous, and had no
> credibility whatsoever. Surely some sign of them would or
> should have been discovered. The fix was to keep it as it was
> in the original, with them simply landing.
We actually don't know how long they'd been there -- a character mentions that they were buried for "millions of years", but he was also clearly insane...
Still, the idea was pretty stupid. Makes much more sense for the "Martians" to land and immediately start blowing things up, as in the book. The only flaw in my opinion.
But the lightning scenes were durn cool...
> Problem #2
> The whole premise of the humans being fertilizer, and the
> fact that the martians kill some and harvest some.
Straight from the book. Maybe a poor concept, but there was precedent for it.
> Problem #3
> Tom Cruise was an idiot. Make his character a little more
> than a numbnut.
Why?
Again, I say the point was not to show how smart we humans are, that we can cope with anything...
I didn't think his character was an idiot (hell, he had the smarts to stay alive when many others didn't), but even if he was, so what?
> Problem #4
> The kids were annoying at best. Both of the guys found
> themselves rooting for the martians as the movie progressed,
> and wnated the humans to be exterminated. They were kinda sad
> when they weren't.
I disagree. The kids acted like kids. Yes, they are annoying, but that's what kids are for...
> Problem #5
> The armed forces (yet) again portrayed as imbeciles. One of
> the reviewers was army reserve, and served in Iraq though. So
> this may influence his opinion.
Don't know why they seemed like imbiciles. They did their best, got blown up.
> Problem #6
> The ferry scene. People act so stupid in movies. Why do they
> run TOWARD an obvious target, instead of hoofing in an
> obvious better direction?
They were running AWAY from the tripods. There was a river in the way. What else were they supposed to do?
Again, I state that Spielberg wanted to illustrate an American refugee experience... and the people certainly acted like the refugees in any newscast I've seen...
> Problem #7
> Why would the martians, who are an obviously superior
> intellect, come to earth and drink the water?
Why else would they have come here? The book (and the narration at the start of the movie) makes it clear the water was almost exclusively why the Martians came in the first place.
Now, a better question would be, why come to Earth and drink the water BEFORE testing for toxins?
> Problem #8
> Idiotic dialogue in general.
Can't say I cringed at any of the dialogue. Wasn't Shakespeare, but it was okay.
> It looks as though most of the reviews have been favorable.
> In the interest of fair play I'll offer up a couple of
> differing opinions. I had lunch with a couple of gaming
> buddies of mine, and was commenting on how the reviews of
> WotW seemed mostly favorable. They both rolled their eyes,
> and for most of our lunch proceded to expound on the
> wretchedness of the movie. At one point in time comparing it
> in quality to Star Wars Episode I, which hit home with me. As
> I think that is one of the worst films in history.
Huh.
It seems to me as if the negative reviews are coming from people who didn't get what they expected from the film... they expected another "Independence Day" or something.
But for me, it was precisely as advertised, and did not disappoint.
WotW was not about human ingenuity, or perseverance under fire, or anything like that. In the words of Spielberg, he wanted to convey the "American refugee experience", and he did that. He wanted to keep the essence of the original story, and he did that.
About the only disappointment to me was that Cruise's entire family survived... it seems as though dramatic necessity would be for at least the son to have died...
Is the 'blood-draining' thing in the movie? I'm curious...
Yup.
Eww...
I don't know, personally, the end of the movie felt abrupt to me. I personally feel like the first movie had a much smoother transition between darkest hour and resolution. I also missed the faith angle as well.
What was up with the fog horn noise? With that said, I really liked the rest. The energy beams were perfect.
The "faith angle" and a lot of other stuff mentioned here is strictly from the '53 movie. What I liked about this film (among many other things) is that it reached back to the original source material more often than to other versions of the story.
Although the scene in the basement was clearly an homage to the George Pal version...
And I LOVED the foghorn noises -- suitably alien and chilling.
The scene on the ferry was also extremely well done.
As far as the abruptness of the ending, yeah... it could have been smoothed over a bit. Basically, Spielberg did the first half of the book ("The Coming Of the Martians") and did very little from the second half ("Earth Under the Martians"). But that would have required a lot more scenes of relative inaction as Cruise et. al. wandered around looking at the destruction wrought by the aliens.
> Thanks for keep us wet monkeys happy, Dan!
Speaking of wet monkeys... you've all read this, right?
http://www.firefoot.com/i_like_monkeys.htm
but to add to the pain
Was Starmada nominated?
If not, then I say "woot woot" to AV:T.
If so, then clearly the vote was rigged...
TMP thread re: Origins/GenCon and Starmada:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=47454
It's a fair question...
What to say?
The travel budget is tight (non-existent?).
So...
Anyone know of a unique, quirky line of minis that doesn't have an associated rules set? Something that goes beyond your typical orks/dwarves/elves?
Looking for an excuse to do an ARES supplement...
> Please forgive my ignorance, but what does the pink box next
> to the combat rating represent? On some new ships I've
> designed it is sometimes a positive number and on some a
> negative number. Should it be the same as the rating? The
> Mass? Zero? A little help would be appreciated!
>
> I'm really enjoying working with this sheet (a breeze
> compared to Full Thrust, no offense!), but I want to
> understand if I've unbalanced my ships...
The pink box represents the number of Space Units remaining on your ship. If it is a negative value, then you need to take some things off...
Soo... if you need the spoiler warning, then I pity you. Go read the durn book!
Personally, I thought it was the best movie treatment of an H.G. Wells novel... ever.
But that might be due to my devotion to the source material; I will be the first to acknowledge that I may be blinded by this. The fact that this version pretty much stuck directly to the book was a Good Thing in my mind. (Don't get me started on the recent travesty of "The Time Machine" or Val Kilmer's "Island of Dr. Moreau".) We didn't see the equivalent of HMS Thunderchild's battle with a tripod -- the only omission of consequence...
What I can't understand is why some critics (and many in the theater) thought the ending "lame".
I mean, let's face it: you can't spend two hours showing just how dominating the aliens (Martians? Spielberg didn't say...) are, how overpowering their technology is, how impotent Humans are against them, and then suddenly have a guy with an Apple notebook upload a computer virus to the mothership...
Oh, wait...
Seriously. If that's what the critics (and the audience) wanted, then I say they deserve all the crap that Hollywood feeds them.
In my mind, there are only two ways "out" of this story:
1) The Humans lose. Game over.
2) Deus ex machina, in this case in the guise of microorganisms.
The book still scares the crap out of me... so did this movie. And I'm not the only one; if the basic plot is so lame, why did it spawn three motion pictures and start a national panic in 1938? Why is a book over 100 years old still selling like hotcakes?
The point of the story is not to show yet again how Human know-how can save the day and get the girl in some contrived yet focus-group-tested manner. The point of the story was to instruct Victorians on the horrors of colonialism from the point of view of the vanquished. In a more modern setting, the point is to show our insignificance, our vulnerability (I loved it when Dakota Fanning kept asking "Is it the terrorists?"), and, dare I say it, the debt we owe to even the tiniest part of our ecosystem.
It may not have been a great movie (heck, I can't say if it was even good -- although it sure as heck entertained me). But it was an excellent treatment of a classic story.
Why can't that be enough?
H.P. Lovecraft did one story set on Venus IIRC, following a human explorer who becomes trapped in a mysterious maze of invisible glass walls. Although the focus was not really on the environment, I think he depicted it as being more desert-like than jungle-like.
Anyone know which story this might be?
as for help
well the rules will need tweaking etc
do you lot know anything about rules? :mrgreen:
Possibly...
I think someone around here has done some work along those lines...
http://theminiaturespage.com/news/828264/
Freakin' cool!
Good job, Steve & Co...
How can we help?
> Did you get the guns stats from here? I found this following
> the links in the back of the book.
> http://www.navweaps.com/
> +++
> Yes, indeedy. Best site I've found regarding historical gun data.
> ==========
>
> Really?
> Huh...
> I thought we just kinda of made all that stuff up.
> That's what I did for all the ship data anyway.
>
Heh...
Did you get the guns stats from here? I found this following the links in the back of the book.
http://www.navweaps.com/
Yes, indeedy. Best site I've found regarding historical gun data.
Do you want ship record charts for the two bases?
Whether you want them or not, here they are...
http://mj12games.com/forum/files/asteroid-missile_974.pdf
http://mj12games.com/forum/files/asteroid-gun_158.pdf
thanks guys, I'll add them to our Cd with our packs if that is ok
As long as the designer says okay I have no objections.
Do you want ship record charts for the two bases?
Excellent!
And for those who want the starship record sheet, here it is:
http://mj12games.com/forum/files/kerberos_143.pdf
mj12games.com/forum → Posts by mj12games
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