Rail Gun: Rules examples

I, and most gamers I suspect, really like examples of play in a rules set. For my in-development spaceship game Rail Gun, I'm creating some examples of different rules, using the cool 2-d spaceship art done by Andy Nelson.  Here's an example of movement in the game, and how players determine direction, speed, and all that. Yell "Magnify!" at your computer to make it bigger (and click on the picture, but yelling Magnify is an important part of the procedure).

More pics after the bump.

NOTE: I noticed a typo where I round speed 3.94 down to 2...should be down to 3.

Rail Gun playtest: Attack on a merchant convoy

I played out a solid Rail Gun playtest today, with a small force of small ships attacking an enemy merchant convoy.  The game was sort of a blend between a naval convoy scenario and an air-combat bomber game. Some pics and a description of the game below. Thanks for looking!

Rail Gun playtests using Powerpoint

I put together a Rail Gun playtest board using Powerpoint.  Here is a screenshot of the result. The ships move on small dials, that keep the ship's movement direction clear, while the images of the ships themselves can be pivoted freely.  A scale ruler measures distances and the various other shapes seen off to the side help with tracking damage.  Click to make bigger. Thanks for looking!

Rail Gun: Carrier Operations

Starfighters are a cornerstone of sci-fi media and it just wouldn't be right to leave them out of a spaceship game.  In this post I'll describe the way I've integrated fighters and bombers into my spaceship combat game Rail Gun.  More after the bump. Thanks for reading.

Bombers, by Andy Nelson

Rail Gun: Fire Combat

I will continue talking up my space combat game Rail Gun with a post today about how the rules handle fire combat.  Short version---Rail Gun dispenses with numerous categories of weapons to focus the rules down to two main types, Guns and Missiles, and a sub-type, "ship killers."  More after the bump. Thanks for reading!

Carrier, by Andy Nelson.

Rail Gun: Crew Quality and a ship's data card

Playtesting for Rail Gun has ramped up in the last week or two, with numerous games played testing out the overhauled system. I'll start discussing aspects of the game with this post, which will examine Crew Quality and look at the "data card" for a destroyer.

Speed	Type DESTROYER I.D. ANTIETAM Damage OO			CQ 3	Stress
	Acc 4	Man 2		Def 2
	Pro F/S/R  -2/+0/+1
	Weapon	Arc	Rng	Str
	Mssl	FLR	20	3
	Guns	F	3	2

Playtesting A Sergeant's War scenarios and Rail Gun spaceship gaming

Hey all, some playtesting updates here.  I'm currently working on a new scenario book for A Sergeant's War, tentatively titled 24 Hours on Okinawa, and a near total overhaul of my in-development spaceship game Rail Gun. Some general notes after the bump.

Gunship, art by Andy Nelson

Rail Gun Playtest AAR

I am currently playtesting my space ship wargame Rail Gun. I used miniatures with the game for the first time today, having used counters in the past  In the game, a battleship escorted by two destroyers engaged a pair of enemy heavy cruisers and three destroyers.  The fight was quite bloody---one heavy cruiser destroyed, the second badly damaged; the battleship was barely space-worthy.  I am still working on game balance but I counted this as a successful playtest.  Pics and a blow-by-blow account of the game below. 

Spaceships from my bits box

Here are some kit-bashed space ships I’ve made to use in games of Rail Gun.  They are made from stuff from my bits box, mostly 40k weapons but also pieces from other models.  I have another 8 waiting for paint and plan to build more.  They attach by magnet to my simple nail-and-base flight stands. Thanks for looking!

New ships for Rail Gun

Here are some new 2-d, print-and-play spaceships for Rail Gun.  They will be included in the final version of the rules.  Andy Nelson, author of the orbital-combat game ASAT, designed these using Lightwave.  More images after the bump, including one of the full 3-D renders. Thanks for looking!

Carrier--the hoops on the sides of the ships are "arrestors," which generate forcefields.  Fighers and bombers land on the carrier by moving into the arrestor; cranes then transfer them to the hangars.

Rail Gun---ship data sheet preview

My original idea had been simple MS Word charts for Rail Gun---but Andy Nelson, of Paper Forge (and author of the excellent ASAT) has come aboard as artist/illustrator/playtester extraordinaire and has knocked out some great drafts of the ship data charts. Here's a preview. Rail Gun has gotten a lot prettier! Click the picture for much bigger image.

Print-and-play ships for Rail Gun

I will include a number of 2-d ships to use with Rail Gun, for players uninterested in buying and painting space ships.  Here's a sample of what I'm going for.

Rail Gun: Wargaming Rules for Starship Combat, playtest version available

I have put up my in-development space-ship rules on Wargame Vault in PDF form