Eldanesh Publishes a Board Game

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[Eldanesh]

Hello all, as a few of you may know after that massive coh2 testing spat I took a break, mainly because I founded a campus tabletop gaming club that is super active. (surprised me too)

That lead me however try as a side project to see if we could launch our own board game. Currently we have quite a bit of pre-art done and a soon to be released public alpha of the rules, and I am hoping to get input from the EIR community.

This first game will be a hybrid wargame/boardgame that focuses on tactical star-ship combat between fleets. Notable features will be a board game pick up and play format while maintaining war-games quality miniatures, simultaneous "blind" turns, and an extremely wide array of play styles between characters, factions, and types of task forces.

Let me know what you think here on the forum, our page or our own forum when it launches! This is very much a community endeavor and we want to review the concepts as much as we can.

Our new facebook page is here:
https://www.facebook.com/bluehousegames


Regards,
Eldanesh

[XIIcorps]

So Warhammer 40k battlefleet gothic ?

[Eldanesh]

So Warhammer 40k battlefleet gothic ?

BFG is a favorite of ours, and you may or may not know that only in the last few months GW has stopped the last remaining direct order options for BFG on their site. Other games played by some of our devs and testers however include Firestorm : Armada, Full Thrust, and Colonial Battlefleet just from the "BFG" genre alone. Obviously there are also plenty of non-space naval type wargames as well.

All in all, we hope to approach the genre of BFG and the other games mentioned, however many of the gameplay and production elements as well as of course the IP will be new takes. For example, we will be using a hex grid, there will be a more modular and pick up and play approach to lists and factions, want a distinctly lower price point, and the attempt at simultaneous turns seems to be fairly novel to the genre.


Regards,
Eldanesh

[nikomas]

Just curious, did you guys ever play Attack Vector? I tried to get my friends to try it but they gave it one look and then decided that I'd gone insane 

(To be fair, I did try to make them play Birds of Prey a while before that and I guess they were still in trauma over it)

[AmPM]

The most similar game might be Crimson Skies, basically airplane combat but with simultaneous turns.

[Eldanesh]

Just curious, did you guys ever play Attack Vector? I tried to get my friends to try it but they gave it one look and then decided that I'd gone insane  

(To be fair, I did try to make them play Birds of Prey a while before that and I guess they were still in trauma over it)

Thank you for your comment nikomas, I asked our main dev about attack vector,  he has played it and wrote a note :

"While Attack Vector: Tactical is renown for it's innovation in representing 3 dimensions on 2-d surface, it is not the kind of game we are making. AV:T is a game for diehard scifi fans who enjoy spending an entire afternoon resolving one battle. There is nothing wrong with that, but what we are doing will hopefully appeal to a broader audience. Our game will play fast and hopefully retain some of the amazing tactical elements of games like AV:T."

I also like the heavy physics in my games but I agree it's probably not what we're going for. The rest of EIR does not seem to share our enthusiasm for wonderfully long and relaxing turns either like you or I haha. We want to make a game that can be a gateway to other games in the genre while still standing on it's own, the sort of game you CAN get away with dragging in your friends to play with you, and they may even thank you for it! Certainly we will take note of both games and we are compiling a list for active reference, so any suggested, especially mechanics you all think are great, we definitely look into.

I will also note that momentum is in the game to significant effect, it's something we felt was quite important. It has certainly been approximated in many respects to keep it elegant, but it's there.

The most similar game might be Crimson Skies, basically airplane combat but with simultaneous turns.

Thank your for the reference AmPM, as I mentioned previously we are always on the hunt for game and mechanic references.


Regards,
Eldanesh

[AmPM]

How many units on field are you wanting a player to have at any time?

[nikomas]

Yeah, Games like AT:V are tough cookies to say the least... I honestly prefeer simpler games for the most part, it's just that for hard sci-fi combat options are fairly limited.

I will also note that momentum is in the game to significant effect, it's something we felt was quite important. It has certainly been approximated in many respects to keep it elegant, but it's there.

Thats good to hear, space combat and momentum goes hand in hand


So I realize this is going to be something easier to play, as said, something I can make my friends play with me? I don't mind that! However since you mentioned momentum I'm curious how detailed the combat phase is planned to be, is anything along the lines of...

A Hit-Point or Hardpoint/Module damage system? (Straight up Health like CoH vs. locational damage like Men of War)
Firing Arcs? (Limited arcs of fire depending on ship facing)
Multi-Turn Ordinance? (Multiple turns for weapons to reach targets, like missiles)
If above, Point Defense?

I'm asking since the mention of momentum seems to imply you're striking for a middle ground, modular damage systems is a personal favorite of mine (basically roll on a ship table for damage locations) but something I rarely seen done, probably with reason.


For people who might be reading but not familiar with the terms in regard to boardgames*





Oh, as for what AmPM just said, I'm guessing the practicality a lot of what I just asked depends on that huh?

[Eldanesh]

How many units on field are you wanting a player to have at any time?

We aim to ship the game with roughly 20 ships (with a kickstarter we can get the up front funds to do plastic injection moulding which lets us drive down the price point compared to the other games) , with a full battle having between 6-10 ships per player. By having task forces and lists attached modularly to commanders for each faction, the idea is that this can be scaled simply by adding more commanders and task forces quickly, for the purposes of multiplayer or just a bigger 1v1 engagement.  

Regards,
Eldanesh

[Eldanesh]

Yeah, Games like AT:V are tough cookies to say the least... I honestly prefeer simpler games for the most part, it's just that for hard sci-fi combat options are fairly limited.
Thats good to hear, space combat and momentum goes hand in hand


So I realize this is going to be something easier to play, as said, something I can make my friends play with me? I don't mind that! However since you mentioned momentum I'm curious how detailed the combat phase is planned to be, is anything along the lines of...

A Hit-Point or Hardpoint/Module damage system? (Straight up Health like CoH vs. locational damage like Men of War)
Firing Arcs? (Limited arcs of fire depending on ship facing)
Multi-Turn Ordinance? (Multiple turns for weapons to reach targets, like missiles)
If above, Point Defense?

I'm asking since the mention of momentum seems to imply you're striking for a middle ground, modular damage systems is a personal favorite of mine (basically roll on a ship table for damage locations) but something I rarely seen done, probably with reason.


For people who might be reading but not familiar with the terms in regard to boardgames*





Oh, as for what AmPM just said, I'm guessing the practicality a lot of what I just asked depends on that huh?

Given the scale I just posted, it would be difficult to do fully functional locational damage however there will be a table that resolves as the ship runs low on "hull points," which represent HP as well as crew. This will factor into whether the ship drifts as a capture-able victory point or blows up/goes down to various effects, and the more overkill there is the more likely for it to shatter of course (see, damage and insanity tables in Dark heresy).

The hull points will also be a part of the very straightforward dice pools mechanic such that , say, if you try to board a ship then you are comparing hull points for *attack* as well as defense plus skills etc.

Firing Arcs I feel are crucial especially with the bluff based simultaneous movement system, so they are in. Games then ditch arcs I just find miss out on a hell of a lot. It's not really a inaccessible mechanic to new people either especially if you ship the game with a little arc measure tool.

Multi-turn ordinance is very much in and a big part of the game. Your true ordinance like missiles will be terrain as much as actively dangerous depending on how you use them. With most of our mechanics we try to fit them into the pre-existing basic stuff for elegance and simplicity, so they function off momentum like ships. Fighters and bombers will also be in and treated similarly with some distinctions. Ordinance will have saves against as well as the opportunity to simply avoid them.

Since crits are in the game adding a specific system damage to that effect is quite possible and something we're considering. It does add a level of complexity and tracking so it's really open to debate.

Regards,
Eldanesh

woot 1337 double post

[nikomas]

I like what I'm hearing! Now you've got me even more interested as few games strike a good middle-ground between sim and casual fun. Most of them either lack critical features (imo) like momentum and arcs, or they're to complicated for most friends like AT:V. I look forward to seeing how this develops, good luck!

[Eldanesh]

I like what I'm hearing! Now you've got me even more interested as few games strike a good middle-ground between sim and casual fun. Most of them either lack critical features (imo) like momentum and arcs, or they're to complicated for most friends like AT:V. I look forward to seeing how this develops, good luck!

Thanks nikomas, we hope we can meet our goals in terms of gameplay and product, and style as well. We have a lot of testing planned with the final alpha of the rules this week and hope to share it with those of you that would like input on it directly at the end of the week!

For anyone else who has input or questions, I'm happy to take them.

Regards,
Eldanesh