5150: Fighter Command where to get fighters, and some capital ships ideas

As i was little sceptic about Two hours wargames 5150: Fighter Command, reading through rules (after some solo playtest i will post review) i am getting more and more excited about it , though my friends are hooked with Xwing maybe i can convice them for some game especially when they see that really big Columbia-Class Battlestar right in the middle of table and them fight off every cylon attack - i think that will be very convincing. Any way as i am big fan of Space Combat sims (shame that genre died with Starlancer - but recently we get fix in form Wing Commander Saga and Diaspora) i will not end with BSG setting. so i wrote this "guide" for everyone intersted.

We will start with fighter/bomber minis and move up to Capship ideas


EM4 Plastics
propably most used set for space dogfighting, EM4 have set of plastic fighters from Metal Express Silent Death game - it contains 12 different space fighters, but for price less than 3 pounds (2.55 is i checked recently) you can have squadrons build up in no time. this is only set i am aware that is sold in hard plastic detailed review you can find here (unfortunately in Czech http://battlefieldpilsen.blogspot.cz/2012/08/em4-spacecraft.html)

Metal Express
Speaking of Silent Death, Metal Express still selling its fighter/gunboat range counting over 140 individual fighters. Alien ships, Human ships you name it while some designs are little retro, there are ships which fits into many settings (WC-like and so on) , and they are planning release more fighters soon.

CinC
Company which is know more for their 6mm miniatures but they also selling range of space fighters . but these fighters are little big so you can use them as corvettes or other cap ships .

CinC Fighters in scale with Metal Express ships

Reaper miniatures
Well known miniature maker of Fantasy and Scifi 28mm (his aquatic monsters are known to be fielded as bio ships in Fleet scale games) but also maker of forgoten game CAV which has scale 10mm, this range have few VTOLs which can be used as transports, bombers or even smaller CAPships but maybe even heavy fighters.

Reaper minis/Robot Supply Depot range Baron APC

Hawk Wargames/Dropzone Commander
Also well known 10mm wargame but again suitable for dogfight gaming before ordering you should check diameters of ship for which want to use but big dropships can be used as transports(in case of PHR as cruisers) and smaller ships maybe for fighters

Dropzone Commander PHR Athena Air supperiority Fighter can make very nice Cap Ship

Studio Bergstrom

Best reseller of fighter scale miniatures in my book. miniatures you are getting from this vendor have top notch quality control, almost no mould lines and defects. If you are looking for setting specific fighters this is the place where to come - non-BS G , non-Star War s, and even old Wing Commander machines worth of checking out. but beware the photos on his shop are bad, but in reality his minis are top of the line.

Wing Commander Confederacy Fighters by SB

Brigade Models

Brigade models have their own range of scifi fighters specially designed for their game and world - Squadron Commander the game is free but not my cup of tea. you should also check 6mm rangfe VTOLs , i personaly want to use angelsharks (i own two for my 6mm army) as assault boats/ small transports

Iron Wind/Aerotech

Durning golden ages of FASA and games like Battletech there was supplemental game called Aerotech, which simulated aerial combat in Battletech universe. this miniatures are still sold by Iron Wind, and while most of larger ships are not usable in FC the fighter are top notch. however some larger ships are still usable as transport frigates

Various 6mm Scifi retailers

Most of 6mm scifi retailers will sell VTOLs while not every model is usable most of them are in some way for few examples: Microworld, GZG, Plasmablast games, Dark realms miniatures and so on. DRM for example have very nice range of small and big aircrafts , alien and human alike.

Shapeways

Another great sources is Shapeways,many people established shops there and selling their 3d models as miniatures via shapeways. worth to try if you are looking for something specific however little pricey.

Another good sources of models  fighters are collectible miniatures like Mechwarrior Dark Age, Statrek or Star wars everything from Wizard Of The Coast

Capital ships are different beast, they didnt have dedicated models, there is no reseller of Capship models in fighter scale, so we need look into few sources

1) Collector models like Mass Effect ships, Terminator, Serenity, Star Trek and so on.

good source for these are Ebay or Amazon

2) Scifi Plastic and Resin Models in various scales for Example Battlestar Galactica from Revell,Moebius or Timeslip creatious, or even Japan Anime series ships - Battleship Yamato, Gundam and others. good sources for these models are Hobby Link Japan

3rd Option is scrathbuilding, kitbashing and so on, there is lot of various options here but with Mad mecha containers its fairly easy to build up cargo haulers. here is pic of what of what one member of 5150 FC facebook group build up

Hopefully this guide will be usefull to game in fighter scale and if you are not yet in our 5150 Fighter Command facebook group you can join us here 

Capital ships space combat

While various players prefer historical or modern battlefields, there those - and iam sure that there are lot of us who love the epic battle scenes where space capital ships firing and destroying itself in deadly gauntlets.

you see it in various movies and shows - Star trek, Star wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly,Stargate series, Babylon 5, Battleship Yamato  and many others. same goes for books - Warhammer 40.000, Honor series, Battlestar Prometeus,Crimson worlds or even classics like Enders game. Even Pc games starting from EVE: Online, Homeworld series, Nexus to even less known games like Flotila or  Stellar Impact

There are lots of gaming rules for space combat, Firestorm:Armada, StarArmada, Task Force Zeta, Battle Fleet Gothic  to A  Sky full of Ships. but ruleset that far most popular around world is old Venerable Full Thrust which comes through various reedition and remastering by players, and with cooperation there is 3rd Edition of FT on way.

so apart from famous ranges (Babylon 5, Star Trek TOS and other official ranges) we will look on other ranges what they have to offer to casual new player.
Brigade games created ships for their own universe called Iron Cow now featured in game Stararmada X: Brigade. their range contains 10 different nations , two of them are aliens. personally i dont much like design of the ships they lacked deepth of GZG models but now the new range called british came out i changed my mind these new ships are more than good (and germans or american rep. aren´t bad either

Ground zero Games, IMHO the best and largest ranges on market up today. Created specially for Tuffleyverse which is featured in Full thrust,Dirtside II and Stargrunt II games. the Full thrust range contains 16 different nations, four of them are alien - two of biological origin, one your typical warlike aliens and lastly hightech crusties ships which were long labeled as mysterious fleet. also the models are some of the best on market , and Jon from GZG is good bloke and always there to help you out, the postage is little higher but you get your stuff here in europe really fast - in matter of days. (cca up to three days)

Zandris IV one of the smallest vendors in space gaming wargaming currently offering 3 different ranges , two oftem resambles ships from famous space combat game, there was fourth alien race but it is discontinued and offered only two ships but they were closest to the Shivans from Freespace series i have found yet. i personaly own ships from them,  and they were flawless, quick delivery worth money.





Antenocitis workshop got FATC Hiigarian fleet  that means if you join not-Vaygr forces from Z4 and these Hiigarians you can wargaming battles from HW2, the miniatures are really nice somewhat big but really nice, however you can buy them only in deal packs which is shame also the price tag isnt much player friendly.

Ravenstar miniatures got some archaic style of buying, pics of things showed on blog and you must order via
mail, pretty strange but otherwise great service. lots of non-BSG ships from Battlestars( of various size and classes) through Basestars to civilian fleet, essential for every BSG fan. he also selling his Cold navy range which are greatly designed.  they also selling some 1" scale non-BSG fighters for those who are intersted in dogfighting




Studio Bergstrom had some nicest ranges based on movie or pc series. like Ravenstar they also produce 1" Scale fighters, and few original ranges like Hive or ORC, ever want to field Rodger Young cruiser? here is your chance.

B-3 Designs is old sculptor of B5 ships for Call to Arms: Babylon 5, he got his range of his own for B5 and BSG while it is not big there are many original designs even with backstory excelent. also got range for fleetscale ST fighters and range of B5 1" scale fighters still itching to get some Star Furies and Nials for Tacship/BSG Mass combat and do some dogfighting.

Agents of Gaming aren´t sculptors, they are selling old aging ranges from fallen games like Babylon 5 Wars or GROPOS. for B5 gaming you got everything here.


there is big Star ranger comunnity where not only players gather but also sculptors and vendors lots of various talk, battlereports, advices inspiration and so on. Mechworld.de is another page where some players gather but mostly Full thrust ones, MW created Full thrust Lite rulebook. and lastly there is The Miniature Page which have they own Space combat board

so still interested in epic space battles? lets gets some ships and start fighting!

Spellcross last battle in15mm

Once upon time there was great czech turn based strategy game called Spellcross:The last battle. Aside from never forgeting atmosphere and great gameplay most importatly the back story. Sometime ago i mentioned as great backstory for any 15mm gamesystem. In game they were two sides - Alliance of human nations - Modern armies with tanks and ai and arty support backed up lately with some scifi tech and the Other side - fantasy armies with orks, deamons, and all that fantasy stuff everyone want.

In backstory the Otherside vast armies came through "portals" and quickly defeated defenders - Alliance
forces - humanity is losing war, so best commanders and troops must turn tide of war or human will perish forever.

Ruleset
Basicly any ruleset (Gruntz, TW, Fireteam Andromeda, Platoon Leader etc.) can support this setting as long as they can create close combat units. personaly i would prefer Gruntz or TW but other ones will do also.
I think due creation freedom i would run this type of setting in Tomorrow war.

Sides and Units
For Alliance you can use any type of modern miniatures you want ranging from Rebel,QRF to Khurasan. In original game player have access to Light infantry (typical standart bog infantry), Heavy infantry (think of support infantry armed with heavy machineguns and missle launchers, Rangers (not namely only rangers but also other elite light infantry units equipped to deal with enemy infantry), Commandos - best of best.
there were also other specialised units like Mobile infantry - yes like those from Starship troopers book, Paranormal infantry (Psykers) and heavy support weapon teams like flamers or mortars.
Vehicle wise , Alliance used lots of modern vehicles including M1 Abrams,M113 or Mi-24 hind but basicly any modern vehicles will do, there were few scifi vehicles which you can take from any Near-future miniature line - i would use Khurusan Federal medium tank (tracked)

Otherside well any fantasy line will work there are lots of manufactures who can suffice your needs - Splinterlight miniatures, 15mm.co.uk, Magister militium, Khurasan miniatures and many more. your basic block will be lots of Orks, wolf riders and other fantasy stuff any one can whisper away. In game you faced Orks, Ka-Orks(up-armoured version of Orks), Fallen angels,various deamons, harpies, gargoyles, Balistas, Undead, various spellcasters, Steampunk style machines (mechanical Mammoth and others)


The Spellcross seting have great potential for games, modeling terrain building and if you play also fantasy put those model into scifi gaming so what you waiting for? Humanity needs YOU!

Fireteam Andromeda Review

Fireteam Andromeda

this review is done from playtest version of rules however i assume not much has changed in final product as game seems very solid, from my point of view the autor was inspired many game systems but it working well together.

So what is FT:Andromeda about? It is classic Reinforced platoon skrimish game as well as Gruntz,Tommorow war or Fast and Dirty. But this one is different in many many ways.

Unlike most of the gaming systems for 15mm it use only one type of dice – old revered D6 and didnt use much counters/markers.

What makes Andromeda so much different it is Control and Command systém – it is similiar to one used in famous skrimish game but i never though it could work in Platoon level game. You have number of command points which comes from number your deployed ,confident (non-panicked,non-broken etc.),regular units, squad attachments like APCs or squad suport teams didnt generate CPs. What are command points good for? One command point is used if you want to activate unit, you also using command points for calling reserves, increasing iniative ratting or perfoming special orders. However there is a catch. Your commander have command ratting which means how many orders he can spend, when orders are spend per phase then hand control to enemy player when he activate units in same fashion. You can also use CPs to react at enemy actions durning enemy phase , but when you run out of CPs the turn is over for you.

Special Commands are orders issued before activation phase, you can order your men to lay suppresive fire, concetrate their fire or fight better in Close combat.

Durning activation of unit, units must follow a sequence:

first regroup which is special action shaken infantry can try to rally while, vehicles with systém down or immoblised status can try repair themselves. Some weapons must need to be reloaded and this is done to i regroup action.

Second action in sequence is move – most infantry moves 6“ inches and can then perform run or shooting (Power armoured infantry cannot run) while vehicles can shoot on move unit they move full speed.

Then is shooting action in which unit can fire or infantry can use run action which grants them additional movement.

And last action is assault old fashioned charge of enemy positions.

Unit which has been activated cannot be activated durning turn but can react durning your opponent phase and perform defensive actions.

Hitting enemy is easy – it is only about how good the shooting unit is and applying modifers. Then if target is hit owning player must roll save on save table and if you are in cover you gain better save. Vehicles use same systém but if hit gets through – shooting player will roll on penetration table – on 1 vehicle will only suffer morale check but if score is higher it can be damaged or destroyed outright. Unlike games which used similiar systém here when the shoot is powerfull enough will grant you additional bonus modiferers on penetration table. Most infantry is dead when their armour is defeated.

Close combat is easy too – there is systém in which units are fighting durning close combat – charges goes first,then confident units, vehicles and shaken units goes last (if they survive that long)

when unit fighting it need to roll to on to hit table where their experience is put againts target there is similiar table to wounding target like in shooting. Vehicles are also more easily destroyed in close combat if units charging vehicle are equipped for this task. After close combat there is good old morale check if both units pass they will hold and fought another phase but combat is over but if one of them fail they will turn tail and run while other unit can move up to their maximal move allowance but cannot assault another unit.

There are other advanced rules like psionic powers, Electronic warfare, Off-board Artillery and ofcourse lots of gear weapons and other upgrades.

There is three basic scenarios with variable deployment all them is Evil company classics.

But what i like on Andromeda is your army cutomization . The game is played by points - the up to 1000 points you can také one platoon on 1001-2000 and so on. Every Platoon use what rules call Template – you can have generic platoon which is jack of all trades have access to most units but it doesnt have upgrades that other platoons have. Then there is Infantry platoon which can be upgraded to drop troops platoon, Special forces or garrison force – Droptroops can deploy from skies, Special forces are better trained and Garrison is conscript type platoon – more guys less trained.

Appart from that platoon can také some other upgrades – marksman guardians and other which improves their effectivness on battlefield.

Third type of Platoon is Rapid Response platoon – which means Mechanised infantry for subtype they can take instead of Mech infantry and jump infantry the mighty power armour troops. Another type of platoon – heavy recon exchange their basic troops for recon vehicles last type of platoon is Assault troops which grants jump troops as core choices and power armour troops will fill the rest.

And last one is for my all Treadheads out there – the Armoured Platoon this type of platoon doesnt have any subtypes and are made of vehicles or battlesuits. But instead they can také traits first is flanking force in which you can hold your units in reserve and then outflank your enemy and other is blitz which grants you additional movement on begging of the game.

When building your platoon you first must také the command units – depending how many you také more you can také your core units. Then there is Command support units – there is only limit maximal allowance in template. Then there is support list – for every core unit you can také one support unit.

There are lots of type of units, all of them can také various upgrades,weapons and armour – in this terms are game very cutomizable and ballanced. For example you can switch your Apcs for VTOLs and make Aircav styled platoon and so on.

So final verdict – if you are looking for easy and smooth systém or game systém which you can show to fortykay outcasts this game is for you – if you are looking for Hardcore hardscifi simulation you should také look on Tommorow war,Stargrunt II or Platoon Leader.