Topic: Migrant Gamer

Greetings all,
     I'm a long time gamer who's been away from space warfare for quite some time. Recently, I found some really nice ship models on Cults3D which prompted me to return to space combat; I'd planned on returning to Full Thrust, but after finding the Starmada: Full Thrust book online I've gone this direction instead (always loved the setting of the Tuffyverse but the flexibility of Starmada seemed more interesting). I've got a small fleetpack of UNSC, NAC, and a couple FSE (?) models gathering dust somewhere or another but I'm mostly going with the 3D printed ships this time around which leads me towards my first question (I had more but forgot them in the process of typing): What size physical fleets do most players tend to build/buy for their navies? For clarity I'm not asking about the points values you play with or what fleet distribution you use but the actual number and types of models you own. Once I finish printing up fleets I also intend to order some of the classic metal minis I love as well but not sure when to say "enough is enough"; I know I want to finish out the five FT major powers, one two of the lesser powers I always liked, as well as a few Brigade Models fleets that caught my eye recently (did not catch the name of the faction though).
     A second question just came back to me: I found another crossover product of Starmada's on DriveThru for campaign play (Victory by Any Means) which looks like it was written for an older (obsolete?) edition of the rules. Were there any plans to bring this supplement up to the current edition of the game? If not how difficult would it be to covert myself (given effectively no knowledge of the applicable edition's rules)? I've created similar campaign style supplements in the past for other space combat games but would prefer to have something ready to move in than building the house myself.

Re: Migrant Gamer

Welcome!

I'll let others answer your first question, although I suspect the responses will be all over the place. smile

As to the second question, you are correct: VBAM was initially written for Starmada X, which is about 15 years out of date. There were plans to update the rules, first to Admiralty and then to the current Unity rules, but nothing ever came of them. Certainly the existing product would give you a nice starting point, but there would be some significant modifications required: specifically, the ship conversions from Starmada to VBAM and back again.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: Migrant Gamer

Just remembered a third question, what size are the standard bases that come with GZG and Brigade Model's ships? I know the larger DN/SDNs from GZG come with a 50mm flight stand but what about the smaller ships? I'm working on making my own versions of flight stands to print and want to be in the same general range. I'm currently thinking 30 or 32mm for fights and escorts; 40mm for cruisers, 50mm for capitals, and possibly 60mm for the super capitals (DN and above). I *want* to say my older metal ships had 1” bases but haven't dug them out (read as: found) yet.

Re: Migrant Gamer

The VBAM conversion is definitely a little out of date on both the Stamada and VBAM ends.  VBAM itself is under a slow evolution into a 3rd edition right now, which looks like it is on track for sometime early to mid next year if I had to estimate.  However, once that is done, I am sure that the folks at VBAM would be interested in a conversion book with the newest edition of Starmada.  The Discord channel for VBAM would be a good place to float questions about such a conversion.