![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Battlestations intro
Nov. 10th, 2012 01:09 amJust tried playing Battlestations (new-to-me board game, combining starship combat and RPG character-driven style) for the first time. I played Cal Hoskins the medic; Judith was Alice Stevensen the security officer. We were on board a scout ship which was suddenly invaded by five giant bug monsters for no reason other than that we wanted to learn the game mechanics.
After the initial panic of the first exchange of shots and/or mandibles, we fell into a run-and-gun strategy. Humans, it turns out, can move slightly faster than these bugs, so we would run along the corridor, she would turn and shoot at the nearest bug, I would work on healing her wounds, and the bugs, struggling to keep up, would usually not have time to attack. Eventually the last two bugs cornered us in an engine room dead-end, and, though almost out of hit points ourselves, managed to take them down.
Anyway, it's a very fun game. Reminds me a lot of Red November, but more flexible and RPG-ish. Haven't tried out the actual ship movement mechanics yet; they look like they take a lot of inspiration from Star Fleet Battles but of course much much simpler and with more focus on what the player characters are doing IN the ships. For instance, if you want the ship to turn, you have to be at the helm and make a Piloting skill roll with difficulty equal to your ship's size plus its current speed. Looking forward to playing more of this.
After the initial panic of the first exchange of shots and/or mandibles, we fell into a run-and-gun strategy. Humans, it turns out, can move slightly faster than these bugs, so we would run along the corridor, she would turn and shoot at the nearest bug, I would work on healing her wounds, and the bugs, struggling to keep up, would usually not have time to attack. Eventually the last two bugs cornered us in an engine room dead-end, and, though almost out of hit points ourselves, managed to take them down.
Anyway, it's a very fun game. Reminds me a lot of Red November, but more flexible and RPG-ish. Haven't tried out the actual ship movement mechanics yet; they look like they take a lot of inspiration from Star Fleet Battles but of course much much simpler and with more focus on what the player characters are doing IN the ships. For instance, if you want the ship to turn, you have to be at the helm and make a Piloting skill roll with difficulty equal to your ship's size plus its current speed. Looking forward to playing more of this.
