Friday 5 April 2013

Billy and the Mercs - 5150: Fighter Command AAR - Part Two

Part One











Well that was eye opening to say the least. The Dogfighting Maneuver Table really increases the tension on the table. One minute you're in good shape, the next you're taking fire as your enemy "did some of that pilot stuff" and gained the advantage.

The mechanics are easy to learn but it's going to take some time for me to get really good at it. With the option to perform 8 Special Maneuvers and no pre-plotting of movement you get the feeling of flying these babies. Think ahead and you'll be fine, don't and you'll end up going down in flames. At least that's my personal feelings. The movement system is very fluid and things can change quickly.

I'm not much of a space gamer myself but it is quicky becoming one of my favorites. And the ability to link it with Star Navy is a big plus.

7 comments:

  1. Fighter level space combat...with solo / same side option. I was looking for something like this for so many years. Finally I have an excuse to buy some fighter miniatures :-)

    Do these rules include obstacles like asteroids? Oh...and does returning to your homebase call for a test?

    Whiteface / Oliver

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  2. Yes Oliver, the rules includes asteroids, dus or gas clodus, drifting space hulks and minefields. See here an example: http://2hourblog.blogspot.com.es/2013/03/5150-fighter-command-new-mission.html

    You have a test for landing your fighters in your carrier and also for ships leaving the battlefield.

    Cheers,

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    Replies
    1. Ah, nice. I hadn't seen that post.

      Whiteface / Oliver

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  3. Looking good! I see I'll need some more ships!

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  4. Great batrep.

    I am not that good at planning several moves ahead, so this means I wil almost surely loose against a opponent that is?

    Well from my point of view it doesn't seem that interresting in playing battles I know I will loose before the battle even started.

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  5. Neither do I HercWarrior, I've never been a good player of chess.
    In my opinion, you can plot several turns in advance only to see them destroyed by activation dice and fighter reactions.
    It's always good to think ahead but this rarely survives war, and with FC happens the same IMO. I think if you use your common sense you'll do well.
    Cheers,

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  6. HercWarrior. In some games the target automatically gets away, in FC they have to roll and can fail. The nice thing is that the enemy can screw up by failing his Special maneuver rolls. So let's say I get on the tail of a guy and he tries a Special move and fails, he won't automatically get away like some games allow for. Instead he fails and is a sitting duck. So to answer your question you don;t have to think 2 or 3 moves ahead like in other games.

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