Set up a game to show my wife.  After the game her comment was, "I like this better than that Star Trek game you have."

I smiled and explained that I ordered Klingon Armada yesterday (as well as the Rules Annex).

I will say that Starmada is in a position to usurp CAV as my game of choice with my wife as CAV takes longer to set up a game.  With Starmada I just roll out the mat and pick some ships for the point value.  Having laminated my ship datacards has helped. :geek:

I just posted the first four ships for my NSL battlegroup at my blog.

http://scsminimadness.blogspot.com/2009/11/first-off-line.html

Enjoy!

Has anyone worked up stats for the ships in this series?  I've been itching to game them since I started reading the books earlier this year.

Weapon systems seem straightforward, long range missiles, beam arrays, short range grapeshot and the null (or void, can't remember right at the moment) cannon.  I was wondering for the grapeshot, do any of the expansions have a weapon trait that ties the number of impact or damage dice to the target's speed.  For those not familiar, in the books they're basically ball bearings shot out like a shotgun and the velocities involved in the passing engagements is where they get their destructive power (the ships make combat passes at .2c in the books).   They are generally used to deplete shields.  The other weapons I think I can model fairly accurately with just the core rules.  Unfortunately, I don't recall any information as to how many of the weapons the various ship classes have.

Ships do have FTL capability, but only at jump points so I'd leave hyperdrive off.  The ships exhibit a seemingly extraordinary ability to accelerate, so weight save on hyperdrive would go to engines and then some.  They have shields, but they seem to be penetrated rather frequently, so I think the cap on shields would be 4 for battleships.

No fighters, so don't have to worry about them or point defense type equipment.  But there are boarding shuttles, no transporters.  Otherwise, the smallest vessels mentioned are used by the bad guys and they are out-of date corvettes, I'd guess around a hull 1 filled to the brim, or a hull 2 with some space left over.

Targeting systems and countermeasures are prevalent, so I'm thinking all ships would have Firecontrol and CM.

I think I've hit the high points, any suggestions, comments, or anything I've missed?

BTW: The author's webpage http://www.sff.net/people/john-g-hemry/

Having printed out the sample ships and laminated them today (having you're own laminator is a good thing) I was itching for a game.  My wife was working on her homework so a solo game it was to be.  I decided that since there just happens to be two ships in the sample set that just happen to be the same CRAT I'd use those.  Hmm, what two ships that are supposed to be an even match do I have miniatures for...ooh ooh a D7 and a Constitution-class, the classic pair up. (queue the background fight music)

So I got the minis (a random D7 and the Constitution, laid out my FedCom hex boards (waiting for the HotzMat to arrive) on the coffee table and got down to business.  The game only lasted 3 turns, The Constitution landed a solid hit in the first turn at long range, the second turn saw some manuever and a fairly even exchange of damage, and the last turn could've gone either way.  The combat phase ended up destroying the D7, and had the damage rolls on the Constitution landed a few more odd numbers she'd have been destroyed.  As it was, the Constitution would would be spending a good amount of time at the nearest Starbase undergoing repairs.

So, the combat mechanic worked smoothly for me.  Playing solo destroyed the whole purpose of plotted movement, but it worked.  Overall I can't wait to play against another person.