Flotila pro Full Thrust

Menší ragtag projekt, nedávno jeden ze znamých mě oslovil kvuli wargamingu vesmírných lodi,
přičemž full thrust stále považuju za hru která ty souboje velmi dobře reprezentuje na herním stole a zaroveň umožnuje si designovat vlastní lodě a použit tak jakékoliv lodě které jsou dostupné na trhu či použit modely uplně odjinud nebo scratchbuildnout vlastní.

V připadě Hecaté jak jsem nazval rasu kterou tyto lodě reprezentují jsem použil modely Grav vozidel z Firestorm:Planetfall které jsou skvělé v měřítku vesmírných bitev a nápadně se podobají lodím Shivanů z prastaré herní serie Freespace.

Podobně budou i stylizované lodě Hecaté - rychle, dobře manevrujicí a velmi dobře vyzbrojené uvidíme jak dopadnou střety proti flotilam z Battlefleet Gothic, Battlestar Galactica nebo třeba HALO.

Současná podoba flotily - 1 bitevní loď, 1 Carrier, 5 křižníků a 5 destroyerů

Bitevní loď třidy Ravana

Křižník třidy Aeshma

Těžký Carrier třidy Mara

Destroyeři třidy Rahu

Nyní musím do flotily zakomponovat malé stíhačky ale jinak se jedná o plnohodnotnou flotilu do hry Full Thrust.

Ever Evolving Hecates part 1

When i was decided to create alien race to Full Thrust crossed dimensions i was thinking about Freespace Shivan or Master of Orion 2 Antares style race, great destroyers, but when playing some 4X games on my computer i realised, to give them more feel like real, while great destroyers are funny something to create my own race and give them part of me. to give them more background i need to some kind of language and i choose  Kelen on of the artificial languages you can find on net.

while logical it doesnt resemble any type of language on earth break all laws for it.

History

Jalūta - The Great war

The Hecates are calling them selves Jatāona,  and their race has been among stars for centuries, and on some planets thumans discovered ruins with Hecate symbols thousand years old. Hecates have legend, how their Empire grown and prospered for many years until Masēnre came - The enemy. Great War eruppted and last for thousand years until Hecates were defeated and Masēnre left .Then came decandence Jatāona - Antāra. Durning this age which last today Hecates lost many of their technologies, and their spacefaring  empire are only fraction of what it was before Antāra. 

Civilisation
Unlike humans Jatāona have caste system, every invididual is born with certain predisposition, some have capability to use pheromones, and smarter than rest - making them excelent leaders, commanders. this Jatāonas became part of leading caste -  Makerāon. Most Numerous individuals however are born strong and with excelent space coordination Tāña.  To this caste belong all pilots and marines in their nomadic fleets but concept of them are not warrior but rather defender of fleet. Last great caste is Ankīri there are some hecates born without any "gift", they will not be leaders or defenders, but their work for fleet is more important, to this caste belong scientists, engineers, workers and the rest

The Hecates dont have rulling goverment which will lead all their fleets, but rather every fleet it is self-contained empire. But when crisis raises they work together as one. This race is highly religious beliving in rise of their empire someday and destroying Masēnre so they can live in peace and end their exile.

Every fleet is lead by female Jatāona called Marōāñēl - Oracle, while Commanders and Captains leads their ship- She leads the fleet in terms of civilisation - where the fleet will go and what to do there. Usually when Oracle dies, one of the kēra (term for priest) aquire gifts of Oracle and became the new one.

Myths and legend also speak about great Anīstīli, last planet habitated by Hecate - whatever this is their homeworld is not known, and no Jatāona ever saw this planet. Legends said it is home of  Mārjanen, the Great Oracle. She is now sleeping, but will raise when the time is right, and will lead Jatāona to their destiny

Scout Drone

Technology
While according to legends the Jatāona race lost many of their advanced technologies, their still far more advanced than humans. their FTL drives called Anxūri are far more effective than human drives, faster and more precision capable of jumping near planets or stars. Most Hecate ships are also equipped with shields which protect their ships againts beam weapons they are called Anxēxi.  Main weapons of Jatāona ships are Anlūi, meaning sunlight capable of riping through other races with ease.

Origins
Hecates are aquatic race, originating from planet they are refering as Anālhāri, which leads human scientists to belief that Anīstīli is the remaing colony of Hecate Empire. But strange is that Hecate ruins found through known space were found on barren or desert planets. Durning boarding actions and ground combat (this happen rarely though Jatāona marines are using exo-suits and drones which enable them fighting in virtually any conditions.

Relations
Humans barely understands Jatāona and their psychology. Firstly is the concept of Alliances for Hecates, it is temporaly thing, used only in time of crisis, when crysis is averted, behavior of Jatāona Fleet can and will change, former ally can now found itself in combat with fleet. Also dealing with Oracles are hard job even for most skilled human diplomats, they percieve world so differently that is almost impossible to make any diplomatic progress apart from short-term treaties.


this is all for this post i will continue with more details about Jatāona

Full thrust AAR,Hecate FT Cz

 

Few days ago my Hecate fleet meet in battlefield with my Friend T´au fleet (now OOP models from Forge world which is shame, they are really nice models. we both have  Battlecruisers, but T´au have also cruiser, and three destroyers. My Hecate has two heavy and two normal destroyers. maneoering along the planets i quickly engaged Envoy ship (T´au cruiser) and with few salvo missles she went down from my destroyers. T´au Protector (Battlecruiser) and Hecate Aeshma we´re locked in deadly close-range fire which Protector emerged victorious. heavy destroyers exchanged fire with two castellans (T´au heavy destroyers) which again prevail and destroy one of the Hecate H destroyers but suffering lot of damage. destroyers were capable of cripling third escort which to avoid any more damage move out of their range. Destroyers then engaged Protector and dealt heavy damaged, T´au fleet regained iniative and destroy one heavy and one normal destroyer, remaing Hecate ships disengaged, and today T´au fleet was victorious.

Před několika dny se má Flotila rasy Hecate utkala s flotilou T´au (dnes již nevyráběné modely od Forge worldu což je škoda jsou to opravdu pěkné modely. Obě naše flotily obsahovali loď třidy Battlecruiser, T´au také měli k dispozici také Cruiser a tři destroyery. Hecate oproti tomu disponovali dvěma destroyery a dvěma heavy destroyery. Destroyeři Hecate které manévrovali kolem jedné ze dvou planet rychle zaměřili křižník pomocí salvo missles a teměř bez obtíží zničili. Protector(T´auí Battlecruiser) a Aeshma (Hecatský Battlecruiser) s utkali v boji zblízka, a z tohoto souboje vyšel Protector jako vítěz. Těžké destroyery si vyměnovali střelbu z Castelany (Destroyeři T´au) a vzajmně se těžce poškodili ale jeden z těžkých destroyerů Hecate byl zničen. mezitím se destroyeři utkali se třetím Castelanem a poškodili ho, v zajmu zachrány lodě se Castelán odpoutal a snažil se dostat z dosahu , zbraní destroyerů, byl vyřazen můstek ale T´au rychlé systém opravili. Destroyery se poté opřeli do Protectora kterého ještě více poškodili, ale Castelánům se podařilo druhý destroyer vyřadit, Zbylé Hecatské lodě zvolili ústup, a tak se změnila bitva ve vítězství T´au


Prior to Battle i painted GZG Mystery Fleet/Crusties ships for my own universe Hecate ships here are some pics.
Před bitvou jsem nabarvil některé lodě od GZG z řady Mystery/Crusties pro mojí Flotilu Hecate. zde několik fotek

Protože považuji hru Full Thrust za kvalitní a hlavně volně šiřitelnou rozhodl  jsem udělat překlad pravidel Cross Dimensions do češtiny v horizontu několika týdnu by se mohla proto první verze objevit.

Battlestar Galactica:RS Wargaming

This is the Commander. Moments ago, this ship received word of a Cylon attack against our homeworlds is under way. We do not know the size or the disposition or the strength of the enemy forces, but all indications point to a massive assault against Colonial defenses. Admiral Nagala has taken personal command of the Fleet aboard the battlestar Atlantia following the complete destruction of Picon Fleet Headquarters in the first wave of the attacks. How, why doesn't really matter now. What does matter is that as of this moment, we are at war. You've trained for this. You're ready for this. Stand to your duties, trust your fellow shipmates, and we'll get through this.

I am big fan of Battlestar Galactica series - either Reimagined,Original or stand alone pilot Blood and Chrome,  and least but not last Diaspora:Shattered Armistance pc game.   Full thrust IMHO is well suited for BSG gaming althought maybe Colonial Battlefleet will be suit better but i dont like Hexes anyway  first decision was easy first or second Cylon war. While first war will be easy on backstory as war rages on. The second in truth is easy too, only thing which is problem is CPN backdoors that Cylons used prior to attack on Colonies. Easily this could be say that Battlestar/s are returning from training maneovers and new system will be installed after return, like in Diaspora.

I looked into Studio Bergstrom miniatures line which features stylised non-BSG miniatures , new and old Battlestars, Basestars, vipers, raiders, Raptors and so on. There are others vendors that sells non-BSG minis namely Ravenstar miniatures,B3 Designs and Novastar. these vendors also make starbases, and civilian ships along with non-canon Cylon and Colonial Fleet ships.

Jump complete. Reading debris in low orbit and multiple nuclear explosions on surface. Virgon is gone, the Fleet is gone..... Incoming DRADIS contact!Single Cylon Raider!

So where to start, If you want to start Full thrust BSG you will need capital ships - i would suggest two Battlestars, and three or four Basestars for this reason i will choose two Battleships (they looks like Columbia class)for economical reason i would start with smaller complement of Vipers four of Vipers and one or two raptor flights to count as torpedo bombers . for Cylons choice was similiar Two Heavy cruisers and two smaller Deuce light crusiers, fighter escort will be 4 wings total with respawn - when wave is destroyed Cylon player can launch another.

Galactica has seen a lot of history, gone through a lot of battles. This will be her last. She will not fail us if we do not fail her. If we succeed in our mission, Galactica will bring us home. If we don't... it doesn't matter anyway. 

to the storyline we will be following two Battlestars conducting patrol along the Red Line BSG Athena and her sister ship BSG Rhea has been sended to emergency beacon set up by Armistice station, upon discovery that Armistice station is destroyed, and receving reports of massive assault againts Colonies they racing to rescue, unlike Galactica or Pegasus their Commanders decide to make a stand.

Since we aquired place to play Full thrust in local board games store with tables to play, we possible can aquire some new players, i am wishfull thinking we can make campaing called Fall of Colonies

Hecate my alien race to Full Thrust

As great Freespace  i always wanted to create similiar race into spaceship gaming, not even BFG allow it

something similiar - i dont want space "bugs" who only feeds but something more sinister  like Shivans.

While my Mystery fleet ships or on the way i decided to create some form of background of race, since i was always RPG player/gamemaster i just love this side of hobby - creating your own background.




It begun with name Hecate - Greek goddess of witchcraft among other things, apart from that it sound menacing so who are Hecate? Know your enemy and that stuff? Well basicly humanity dont know much about Hecate and their motives. Few months ago Hecate ships appear in Ross 128 system and destroyed human instalation along with military protection detail, and then disappear. Similiar attacks happened along border worlds in whole human space but without any pattern or it seems.

Face of Enemy

Since then Human diplomats and Inteligence services tried to contact Hecate, but without any success.
Durning battle of Beta Aquille humans was able to beat off Hecate, and also recover one smaller Hecate ship and thus founding dying bodies of  their enemy. Quickly they assume that Hecate evolved in water or in low/zero gravity which gave them they main advantage, they have far more better space coordination than humans allowing them using their ships in space to its limits.
Hecate ships are faster and more maneovrable than human counterparts, thanks to different propulsion system. Weapons of Hecate starships are similiar to humans although they are using different technology in terms of power and destruction potential are similiar


After Battle of Beta Aquille the Hecate dissappear and never to return, or it seems. Humans joked about how they crushed aliens with single stroke. But truth was different, Hecate were lurking shadows and prepearing for invasion. the first who faced the invasion was Admiral of 7th fleet with his ships for first time humanity faced Hecate Light Carriers and Dreadnought, and within matters of minutes 7th Fleet fallen ill prepeared to meet this kind of threat.

After fall of 7th Fleet the humanity , lost almost every border colony forcing whole fleets to retreat to core worlds and earth itself. Will humanity be able to turn the tide and defeat Hecates are will they succumb to total destruction of human race?

Hecate Fleet (Courtesy of  http://starbase-spartan.blogspot.cz)

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!

Zandris IV vesmírné lodě

Před nějakým časem se my dostal do pracek Terran diplomatic corps patrol pack od Zandris IV, obsahuje
dva heavy destroyery (dlouhé 4,5 cm) a jeden Heavy cruiser (ten je trochu delší a větší 6,5cm). Z4 je firmou jednoho muže který vydáva modely v měřítku Squadron scale (pro hvězdné bitvy), 6mm vozidla a nakonec armoured suity/mechy pro 28mm, spekuluje se i o možných strojích pro 15mm
Všechny modelové řady maji velmi přiznívé ceny i když některé věci jdou sehnat i levněji. Jejich lodě patří mezi ty lepší na trhu (rozhodně bych řekl že jsou o kategorii výše než GZG a určitě jsou na tom lépe než lodě od Brigade). V současné době obsahuje 4 různé typy/rasy lodí první je zbrusu nová řada Diaspora obsahující dva typy stíhaču, dva typy destroyerů, jeden typ cruiseru a jeden carrier.
další opoznání menší řada je Imperial obsahující dva typy lodi cruiser a battleship, třetí řadou tvořili pouze jeden typ lodí mimozemského vzhledu (původně byli dvě křižník a fregata a mohli být skvěle na vytvoření ras typu Shivan ze serie Freespace) poslední tvoří Terran diplomatic corps které brali inspiraci ve skvěle hře Homeworld 2 (rasa Vaygr) ačkoliv mají reprezentovat lidské lodě což se jim daří. tato poslední řada obsahuje 2 typy fregat,3 typy destroyerů, 3 typy křižníků,2 Carriery,jeden typ stíhačů a jednů obří loď třídy Superdreadnaught.
Z4 také nabízí různé deal packy pro všechny rasy (kromě Nemesis) které vám umožní sestavit standartní flotilu do her ACTA nebo Full thrust velice rychle (Do FT startovní Patrol pack bohatě poslouží)
pro své lodě TDC které používají jméno Taaiidan Confederation jsem zvolil toto schéma

Většina lodi od Z4 je zpracovana v kovu (až na některé vyjímky jako je superdreadnaught který je v resinu) a velice kvalite samozřejmně několik drobnosti bylo potřeba začistit ale jinak svou cenu si určitě zaslouží, určitě si časem pořídím další lodě od Z4.

v jednom z dalších članků se zaměříme na Full Thrust:Crossed dimensions a zbrusu nový online designer lodi z Mechaworldu.

Flotily Full Thrust

V připravě na flotilu lodí do Full thrust jsem udělal lehké seznam i pro ostatní kteří by chtěli postavit flotily z jiných lodí než Battlefleet gothic.

Zandris IV
Tento výrobce disponuje několika řadami inspirovanými serii Homeworld 1-2. Vyraběl i řadu lodi podobných Shivanům ze hry Conflict:Freespace ale ta už je delší dobu mimo produkci
zde by v uvahu přichazeli lodě diplomatic corps na obrázku níže .
firma také vyrabí 28mm battlesuity a 6mm bojovou techniku

 Fate Amenable to Change
Můj asi absolutní favorit Higgaranská flotila z hry Homeworld 2 jsou zde nějaké modely které se nevyskytovali ve hře přesto se jedna o jednu vůbec z nejlepších Fleet scale modelu  IMHO.

Brigade Models
Modely pro hru Starmada X: Brigade ze světa Iron Cow velký výběr , ačkoliv mě osobně přijdou modely dost jednoduché, na druhou stranu vítězí cena která je bezkonkureční.
vynikající je také jejich řada 6mm vozidel,letadel a pěchoty pro systém Iron Cow a dale vyrabí 15mm vozidla (bohužel true scale takže jsou drobet menší než je standart)

Full thrust 
Originalní modely pro hru Full thrust přes 200 modelů a vychazí nové a nové lodě.
k dispozici pro pozemské mocnosti i mimozemské rasy.
samozřejmně nejen Full thrust modely vydavá GZG takže naleznete i 15mm pěchotu a techniku,6mm modely a 25mm pěchotu (bojovou techniku proto měřítko převzala firma Deamonscape)

Ravenstar miniatures
u této firmy naleznete vše pro hraní Battlestar Galactica (tzn jak síly 12 kolonii tak Cylonů), a lodě z různých her a serialů všemožné Anime, lodě podobné Normandy atp.
také se věnuje vyrobě vozidel v měřítku 15mm

 Ninjamagic
Velice zajímavé modely firmy Ninja magic k dispozici celkem 3 národy. Mnohem zajímavější však je doplňkový prodej adaptéru na basky které umožní vám umístit lodě na base v dynamických "pozách"

Armoury Hobbies
Výrobce lodí ze znamých serialů Stargate SG1 a Stargate Atlantis,Babylon 5 ,BSG, Star Trek TOS nebo Třeba Buck Rogers.

Studio Bergstrom
velice zvlaštní firma připomínající pejsek a kočička vařili dort , mají mnoho různých lodí a stíhaček z různých settingu ale zda se že žadná z řad není kompletní - krom toho mají několik vlastních řad jako třeba Hive fleet,
ORCdef a Terran které jsou kompletní.
co je však zajímavé naleznete tu lodí ze Star Treku,Starship Troopers ale i například stíhačky z PC hry Freespace,Stargate(včetně Puddle Jumperů)  ale i lodě ze Starwars 4-6.
 Čím je však Bergstrom unikatní jsou modely stíhaču ve velkém měřítku ty příjdou vhod až two hours games vydají svou dlouhodobě připravovanou hru 5150:wing commander

Spartan Games - Firestorm Armada
FSA je relativně novou hrou z dílen Spartan Games, v současné době má 6 základních národu hotových (vyjma stíhaček) a další nové vydává, oproti lodím ostatních výrobců včetně GW jsou lodě Obří (průměrná Velká Battleship/Dreadnought má 10-13cm Terranská Battleship má 17cm! Oproti ostatním modelům je hlavní výhoda i to že jsou k dostání i u nás.

Samozřejmně se nejedná o všechny výrobce, spoustu věci jde sehnat třeba na Shapeways a někteří menší výrobci také vyrabějí vesmírné lodě

Full thrust

 Full Thurst

Historie hry Full thrust od GZG začína někdy před 12 lety, Jon Tuffley zakladatel a vlastník firmy si dal tehdy zaúkol, vytvořit hru zabívající se bojem vesmírných křižníku jak to tehdy znazornovali filmy a serialy, např. Babylon 5

Narozdíl od nejrožšířenějších herních systému té doby, si dal za úkol aby hrači mohli vytvořit vlastní lodě i světy se kterými budou ve vesmíru svadět bitvy.

FT samozřějmně jako všechy hry od GZG mají své vlastní miniatury (počet lodí který si v současné době mužete pořidit na GZG Shopu je kolem 200, a další se připravují), ale autor sam upozornuje že mužete použít jiné miniatury.

Tím hlavním co odlišuje FT od ostatních space combat her je systém pohybu a poškození. Ne nečekejte Vektorový 3D pohyb, ale tzv Simuntalní pohyb.
Každý hrač má k dispozici "spreadsheet" kam zapisuje na začatku kola rozkazy svým lodím, změny kurzu, rychlosti,start bombardéru nebo stíhaček atp.tyto rozkazy zapisují oba dva hrači a během pohybové fáze je odhalí a obě strany naráz provedou své akce, kdo zná hry Aeronautica Imperialis nebo třeba Sturmovnik Commander budem jim tento styl pohybu relativně povědomý.

Lodě používají tzv SSD (System Status Displey) které obsahují systémy které loď obsahuje (Obrané systémy,zbraně,štíty a jejich generátory, motory atp.) a hullpointy.
Ty jsou rozděleny do řádku a pokaždé když je jeden řadek zničen loď dosahne threshold pointu - došlo ke kritickému zasahu nasledovně si hráč hazí na poškození lodních systému.

Hra samozřejmně obsahuje obvyklá pravidla - torpéda,malé stíhačky ale orbitalní dělostřelectvo, mocné nova kanóny, obrané systémy lodí, skokové FTL motory  a mnoha další.

Další výhodou že pravidla Full Thrust jsou zdarma včetně 3 expanzí (Fleet book 1-2,More thrust) ale vzhledem k tomu že některé systémy a pravidla jsou rozkouskovany doporučují  fan kompilaci -  Full Thrust: Crossed Dimensions.


Pravidla  
Full thrust,More Thrust,Fleet book 1-2 a FT Lite
Full thrust Crossed Dimesions

užítečným odkazem jsou také stránky Star Ranger obsahující většinu výrobců hvězdných lodí a diskuzní fóra