Hey all!

While I am an Armada and X-Wing player, I am also a big wargamer.

I thought I would share a new game that was just released by Sam Mustafa, veteran wargames designer and author of such games as Longstreet...

Maurice...

Blucher...

LaSalle...

and the classic Grande Armee.

Just this past weekend he released his newest game, and his FIRST non-historical game, "Freejumper!"

In it you design a ship, grab some crew, and then adventure around the universe, fighting other players and gather loot. The game is different than Armada or X-Wing in that you usually fly only a single ship, and you design your ship from the keel up, choosing from a variety of systems to make a truly custom ship. You then go to battle and have to really manage your ship, bringing up shields, fighting off viruses, blasting away with cannons, and all the rest. As with all of Sam's games, it is a VERY fluid and intuitive system, stripped of all non-essentials and boiled down to a SIMPLE system which just WORKS. You get the basics in about five minutes, but holy crap... as enemy beams are frying your central computers, shields are getting battered down by cannons, viruses are punching through the firewalls that protect your systems... it is amazing that it can be so involved in one way and yet so simple in another.

The game is fun and SUPER quick (you can play a four player game in less than an hour) and REALLY intuitive and subtle. As a serious gamer I was a bit surprised when I first played it, but **** if it wasn't a HELL of a lot of fun. NOT a fleet game at all... a lot more focused on the combat management of a single ship. 22 bucks for the pdf, and the cards you need are free to download. I really cannot recommend it enough, especially here, where everyone loves a good spaceship game:) This is the chance to cobble together YOUR version of the Falcon and fly around the universe! It is NOT a tournament game... it is a "let's have a few beers and play a game with friends" game.

Anyway... for a really in-depth look, check out my blog...

http://lordashramshouseofwar.blogspot.com/2016/05/sam-mustafas-freejumper-detailed-look.html

Or check out Sam's page to buy it!

http://www.sammustafa.com/honour/

That sounds really fun. I might have to look into that after I move to a new city (I don't want to accumulate more stuff before I move).

Thanks for sharing this.

If it's just a PDF you buy, do you have to come up with all the miniatures and stuff on your own? That sounds both cool and lame.

Hey!

Yep, just a PDF. You can use any spaceships you want... all that matters is that they have a centerline and basic fire arcs. It is meant to be very simple to grab whatever you want to play... I've used my small armada ships for it, and it works fine. You could even just draw a ship on a piece of paper and use it:) The cards that represent the systems are a free download from his website... so really, there isn't a lot to clutter up the place... just buy it now!

It is a lot of fun though... the management of your ship's systems is both involved... are you keeping that positronic shield to defend against a possible overwhelming beam attack the enemy could be concealing, or do you use it now to stop that smaller attack...? but also very simple... the fact that every system is represented with a card that is in your hand (online), next to you (offline) or next to you and turned sideways (damaged) just makes managing the ship very simple. It is cool how there are no artificial limits on number of attacks or anything... it all depends on how powerful the computer on your ship is, because that is what allows you to bring used systems back online.

Sam is one of the biggest wargames designers around today, and his games are always super streamlined and simple, but always have at least one very elegant system they are built around... he is a very logical thinker, and having playtested a lot of his games he playtests the hell out of things and then really pulls them apart and rebuilds them. It always leaves the games well designed and slick to play, with depth but SIMPLE depth, as strange as that sounds. The interplay between systems and your ships "brain" is that system in this game.

hmm I may have to look into this one eventually. Does it use dice or any components other than the ships and cards?

It does use dice, but not often at all... just for one or two things... maybe 10 rolls total in a game. Most of it is card driven. No other components necessary, but you do want to have some basic space scenery and the like... honestly, anything you have for X-Wing or Armada or whatever would work fine.

It really is a fine little game. It nails such a sweet balance of easy simplicity (which I sometimes find disappears in heavily-upgrade-focused games of X-Wing and Armada) and yet serious strategy in managing your ship and its systems.