Our play through of Czar of the South has come to a pleasing conclusion. I learned a lot, and am using the lessons to redevelop and improve the rules.

I quite enjoy the games we play via this forum, and my random internet associates.

Does anyone have a passion to run a game? Alternatively, do people have thoughts on what we should do?

Conquest, Exploration, Trade, Politics, Roleplay vs Strategy? Cooperation in teams, or individual empires?

32 minutes ago, LTD said:

Our play through of Czar of the South has come to a pleasing conclusion. I learned a lot, and am using the lessons to redevelop and improve the rules.

I quite enjoy the games we play via this forum, and my random internet associates.

Does anyone have a passion to run a game? Alternatively, do people have thoughts on what we should do?

Conquest, Exploration, Trade, Politics, Roleplay vs Strategy? Cooperation in teams, or individual empires?

I'm down for anything, but we never have gotten around to doing an Exploration/trade game, which was the alternative style of Warlords that you suggested in the thread that started us down this long and enjoyable road, so I think I'd prefer that.

Is anybody interested in an existing game, e.g. Advanced Third Reich?

I am open to running a game (and may very well be able to run ATR in a couple of weeks, as I hope to soon have the physical copy), but don't have a lot of originality, hence why I am more prone to offer suggestions to rules that making my own games. . .

An exploration and trade game is a good idea, but I fear it will turn into a very solo operation - me in my little ship going this way, and you in your little ship going that way, with little interaction between players, and all the work being done by the GM. It's a good idea, and I'd like to give it a shot - I just need to do some more work in this direction.

Advanced Third Reich seems amazing - I'm an old hex war gamer from years back (my first boardgame purchase was "field marshal"). I have a copy of Eastern Front from the 80s in a cupboard somewhere...

41 minutes ago, LTD said:

Advanced Third Reich seems amazing - I'm an old hex war gamer from years back (my first boardgame purchase was "field marshal"). I have a copy of Eastern Front from the 80s in a cupboard somewhere...

From what I have played of it (using the old computer game and some of the shorter campaigns against a human opponent) it is very fun.

I may do another Close Quarters game sometime with a different battle map and slightly modified rules. I liked the quick pace of the game and simplicity of orders. That won't be until at least September though. My wife and I closed on a house and are moving in at the end of the month--it's exciting but there's definitely work to be done.

I'm pretty open. I liked how LTD incorporated trading into the last Warlords game and Czars, but I agree that pure exploration / trading may end up being a solo affair.

I've never heard of Advanced Third Reich, but I'm willing to try anything (except standard Risk and Settlers of Catan).

Risk + Catan = Czar of the South

I’ve started a map for a trading /exploration game. It’ll be more of a “seat of the pants” kind of deal rather than a set of fully hashed out set of rules.

Traders of the Inner Western Rim

Map

65.63 is Granica Station – an interesting port in a storm! Orbiting a planet composed entirely of methane ice, Granica station has been built to help open up the Inner Wester Rim for trade and exploration. The Imperial Senate has granted a charter to the Granica Merchants Corporation to develop trade in this part of space. Hyperlanes (marked in blue) have been established to two planets, and another links back “west” to the rest of the Galaxy.

63.61 is an example of a dangerous giant star, while 66.62 is just plain old yellow star, without interesting planets. These stars will disrupt hyperspace lanes.

66.66 is a nebula hex, and 61.62 represents hazardous asteroid fields drifting in deep space. Hyperjumps cannot be made over these hexes.

There are many hexes that have not been explored, so their exact composition is not shown on the publicly available charts. You can explore these spaces for yourself, or trade for the information from other players or groups.

The Granica Corporation knows there are many other planets as well as a number of black holes in this region of space, but it has been isolated for so long from the galaxy that hyperlanes have not been constructed. That will change over the coming years – the Empire wants a major hyperlane constructed to bypass another more troublesome region of space, while the corporation wants to open up routes for larger ships to make credits!

Hyperjumps

Ships can jump to lightspeed in a number of ways:

Short Jump – a number of small jumps (one hex) equal to a ship’s move – one fuel per jump – Ships won’t be destroyed by terrain (except blackholes). Can’t move into nebula hexes (purple hexes). Can move into asteroid hexes (white dots). To give orders for such a jump, give the numbers of the hexes to be jumped into, or use the “clock” system, where each side of the hex is number 1 to 6. 6 is at the top, 3 at the bottom. 1 is upper right, 4 is lower left. So a ship in 66.65 could say “Jump to 67.65, 68.65, then 68.64.” Or, they could say “Jump 2,1,6.”

Long Jump – one jump of up to hexes equal to move – one fuel. If the path crosses terrain of any kind (star, asteroid, planet, black hole, etc) the ship is destroyed. The jump may “end” in a hex with terrain and not be destroyed (except for a nebula). List all the hexes to be jumped through. For a long jump order write “Long Jump from 66.65 to 69.63, via 68.64, 67.64.”

Hyperlane Jump– starting in a hex where a hyperlane begins – spend one fuel to jump to the other end of the hyperlane, regardless of distance. This takes one turn.

Ships

We will use the generic squadrons from Armada and use their stats (and special abilities in combat if and when it happens).

Hull value will represent cargo space, as well as hits in battle. Fuel only takes half a cargo space (so a VCX can carry up to 16 fuel, or 7 cargo and 2 fuel, and so on).

Speed will represent how many hexes they can jump in Cautious or Long. On a hyperlane speed is irrelevant.

Dice will be used in combat situations (as will rogue, relay, etc).

Cost will be as per Armada but multiplied by 100 (so a VCX costs 1500 credits).

You can pilot one ship yourself, but if you have more than one you will need to hire a pilot/crew. If you are piloting a ship, keep track of your location. You can only give orders to buy and sell from the location you are that turn. So if you jump to one planet, and don’t leave instructions for another ship on another planet, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t do anything!

Squadrons with multiple models can be purchased “individually”, but with cost, weapons, and hull divided by 3, rounded down. (So an A-Wing will cost 357 credits, have 1 blue die in attack, 2/3rds of a blue die in counter, 1/3rd of black die anti ships, and have a hull/cargo space of 1. Effectively, an A-Wing represents a fast courier ship that carries enough fuel to get to a destination and return, and not do very much else at all. A Y-wing would cost 333 credits and have 2 cargo space, so could make a simple exploring vessel – load it up with fuel and jump 3 hexes in exploration, then next turn jump back to pick up more fuel.

Ships will need to be maintained every so often to prevent mechanical failure.

Credits – the money is a physical object and must be transported from place to place. It does not take up any cargo space. Keep track of your money – if it is all on one ship and that one hits a black hole or encounters pirates, you might be in trouble

Trading Goods – each planet will produce various consumer items and peculiarities that will always be in some kind of demand on another planet. So there will always be something to take somewhere. You can never sell trade goods on the planet you bought them. No-one wants their own junk back!

Fuel – Fuel is needed to jump to hyperspace but can also be taken to other worlds to sell or store to help players jump onwards.

And of course, the well-known resources common to the galaxy – produced on some planets, demanded on others.

Ardanium – is relatively abundant and used in almost everything.

Berubian – is vital for making things go boom and is quite volatile in price as well.

Cortheum – is required in vast amounts to produce hyperspace fuel. Always in demand.

Dedlanite – is used to pave roads and make those fancy anti-grav devices float.

Exonium – is quite rare and extremely expensive. Those who trade in Exonium rarely have funds for anything else.

Each planet will have a listing of how many units are available for sale and at what price, as well as how many units are in demand and for what price.

For Example:

Planet Crambi (59.62)

Good - BUY HERE / SELL HERE

Trade Goods - X,10 / X,13

Fuel - X,15 / X,12

Ardanium - 5,30 / 4,25

Berubian - 0,0 / 1,150

Cortheum - X,60 / X,50

Dedlanite - 7,100 / 0,0

Exonium - 0,0 / 1,1000

So any number of Trade Goods can be bought on Crambi for 10 credits each, and any number sold for 13. Fuel costs 15 to buy, and can be sold for 12. There are 5 units of Ardanium for sale at a price of 30, and the planet also has people willing to buy up to 4 units for 25 credits each. Berubian and Exonium are in demand, whereas the planet produces enough Dedlanite to never want to buy any at any price.

Some price information will be made public via the hypernet each turn, but there are planets that are so obscure that they have no way of transmitting such information across the vast gulf of space. You might have to turn up and see what’s on offer and what’s in demand. Prices will change often, if only by a small amount each turn, in response to supply and demand.

Cargo can only be stored in ships, so if you arrive on a planet and find the price has dropped, you can either sell, or keep it on board to sell another time.

Loans

There are various unscrupulous lenders available every so often - repay twice the borrowed amount in a certain number of turns – or face the bounty hunters!

Other Stuff

There will be many other things happening in this game as players cooperate, fight, plot, steal, maybe conquer a backwater planet and set up as a petty dictator pirate buccaneer. Whatever floats your boat.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

Do you just come up with this stuff overnight?

9 hours ago, Bertie Wooster said:

I may do another Close Quarters game sometime with a different battle map and slightly modified rules. I liked the quick pace of the game and simplicity of orders. That won't be until at least September though. My wife and I closed on a house and are moving in at the end of the month--it's exciting but there's definitely work to be done.

Congrats!

9 hours ago, Bertie Wooster said:

I've never heard of Advanced Third Reich, but I'm willing to try anything (except standard Risk and Settlers of Catan).

It's an old strategy board game by a company called Avalon Hill. Highly detailed, very fun, up to 6 players.

They made a computer game version of it in 98 or 96 that you can find online for free. It's nowhere near as fun as real players, obviously, and the controls are very clunky, but it usually is the only way to play, at least for me, as finding opponents is quite difficult.

8 hours ago, Bertie Wooster said:

Do you just come up with this stuff overnight?

Mostly during the day. But overnight my subconscious makes suggestions on how complicated things are, and I resolve to simplify.

Also congrats on your house Bertie. Pinch your wife on the bum from me.

I cleaned the map up some, dusting off some old skills...

I've made a few changes. Let me know your thoughts on the below:

Traders of the Inner Western Rim

Map

[18.29] is Granica Station – an interesting port in a storm! Orbiting a planet composed entirely of methane ice, Granica station has been built to help open up the Inner Wester Rim for trade and exploration. The Imperial Senate has granted a charter to the Granica Merchants Corporation to develop trade in this part of space. Hyperlanes (marked in blue) have been established to two planets, and another links back “west” to the rest of the Galaxy. 19.24 is planet Corpfordi, and 21.32 is planet Darbagh.

17.26 is an example of a dangerous giant star, while 17.24 is just a plain old orange star, without interesting planets. These stars will disrupt hyperspace jumps and lanes.

20.33 is a nebula hex, and 17.30 represents hazardous asteroid fields drifting in deep space. Hyperjumps cannot be made over these hexes.

There are many hexes that have not been explored, so their exact composition is not shown on the publicly available charts. You can explore these spaces for yourself, or trade for the information from other players or groups.

The Granica Corporation knows there are many other planets as well as a number of black holes in this region of space, but it has been isolated for so long from the galaxy that hyperlanes have not been developed. That will change over the coming years – the Empire wants a major hyperlane constructed to bypass another more troublesome region of space, while the corporation wants to open up routes for larger ships to make credits!

Hyperjumps

Ships can jump to lightspeed in a number of ways:

Short Jump – a number of small jumps (one hex) equal to a ship’s move – one fuel per jump – Ships won’t be destroyed by terrain (except blackholes). Can’t move into nebula hexes (purple hexes). Can move into asteroid hexes (white dots). To give orders for such a jump, give the numbers of the hexes to be jumped into, or use the “clock” system, where each side of the hex is number 1 to 6. 6 is at the top, 3 at the bottom. 1 is upper right, 4 is lower left. So a ship in 66.65 could say “Jump to 67.65, 68.65, then 68.64.” Or, they could say “Jump 2,1,6.”

Long Jump – one jump of up to hexes equal to move – one fuel. If the path crosses terrain of any kind (star, asteroid, planet, black hole, etc) the ship is destroyed. The jump may “end” in a hex with terrain and not be destroyed (except for a nebula). List all the hexes to be jumped through. For a long jump order write “Long Jump from 66.65 to 69.63, via 68.64, 67.64.”

Hyperlane Jump– starting in a hex where a hyperlane begins – spend one fuel to jump to the other end of the hyperlane, regardless of distance. This takes one turn.

Ships

We will use the generic squadrons from Armada and use their stats (and special abilities in combat if and when it happens).

Hull value will represent cargo space, as well as hits in battle. Fuel only takes half a cargo space (so a VCX can carry up to 16 fuel, or 7 cargo and 2 fuel, and so on).

Speed will represent how many hexes they can jump in Cautious or Long. On a hyperlane speed is irrelevant.

Dice will be used in combat situations (as will rogue, relay, etc).

Cost will be as per Armada but multiplied by 100 (so a VCX costs 1500 credits).

You can pilot one ship yourself, but if you have more than one you will need to hire a pilot/crew. If you are piloting a ship, keep track of your location. You can only give orders to buy and sell from the location you are that turn. So if you jump to one planet, and don’t leave instructions for another ship on another planet, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t do anything!

Squadrons with multiple models can be purchased “individually”, but with cost, weapons, and hull divided by 3, rounded down. (So an A-Wing will cost 357 credits, have 1 blue die in attack, 2/3rds of a blue die in counter, 1/3 ^rd of black die anti ships, and have a hull/cargo space of 1. Effectively, an A-Wing represents a fast courier ship that carries enough fuel to get to a destination and return, and not do very much else at all. A Y-wing would cost 333 credits and have 2 cargo space, so could make a simple exploring vessel – load it up with fuel and jump 3 hexes in exploration, then next turn jump back to pick up more fuel.

Ships will need to be maintained every so often to prevent mechanical failure.

Credits – the money is a physical object and must be transported from place to place. It does not take up any cargo space. Keep track of your money – if it is all on one ship and that one hits a black hole or encounters pirates, you might be in trouble

Trading Goods – each planet will produce various consumer items and peculiarities that will always be in some kind of demand on another planet. So there will always be something to take somewhere. You can never sell trade goods on the planet from which you bought them. No-one wants their own junk back!

Fuel – Fuel is needed to jump to hyperspace but can also be taken to other worlds to sell or store to help players jump onwards.

And of course, the well-known resources common to the galaxy – produced on some planets, demanded on others:

Ardanium – is relatively abundant and used in almost everything.

Berubian – is vital for making things go boom and is quite volatile in price as well.

Cortheum – is required in vast amounts to produce hyperspace fuel. Always in demand.

Dedlanite – is used to pave roads and make those fancy anti-grav devices float.

Exonium – is quite rare and extremely expensive. Those who trade in Exonium rarely have funds for anything else.

Each planet will have a listing of what items are for sale or purchase, and at what price.

For Example:

Planet Crambi (59.62)

Trade Goods – 50 / 80 (trade goods will have two prices – the first is how much it costs to buy them here, and the second is how much you would get for selling trade goods from another planet here)

Fuel - 17

Ardanium - 70

Berubian - 120

Some price information will be made public via the hypernet each turn, but there are planets that are so obscure that they have no way of transmitting such information across the vast gulf of space. You might have to turn up and see what’s on offer and what’s in demand. Prices will change often, if only by a small amount each turn, in response to supply and demand.

Cargo can only be stored in ships, so if you arrive on a planet and find the price has dropped, you can either sell or keep it on board to sell another time.

Loans

There are various unscrupulous lenders available every so often - repay twice the borrowed amount in a certain number of turns – or face the bounty hunters!

Other Stuff

There will be many other things happening in this game as players cooperate, fight, plot, steal, maybe conquer a backwater planet and set up as a petty dictator pirate buccaneer.

4 hours ago, LTD said:

Credits – the money is a physical object and must be transported from place to place. It does not take up any cargo space. Keep track of your money – if it is all on one ship and that one hits a black hole or encounters pirates, you might be in trouble

Are there banks to deposit the credits into?

If keywords like rogue and relay are relevant to combat, I'd like to know more about how combat works.

Banks are a possibility. I’m just trying to remove the automatic transfer of funds from place to place which seems “unstarwars”.

Combat would be rare, and could be played out in vassal by standard armada rules, but with only squadrons. For simple things the GM would just roll.

Should I just set it up and run with it?

Yeah I like it.

We may actually see a Vassal battle for once. Usually it doesn't work out with these games, but GNIP and I are in the same time zone--and these should be REALLY short battles.

Does anyone else wish to join? @The Jabbawookie @Matt3412 @idjmv @FortyInRed @jhh3

Thanks Bertie - I plan to start a new thread soon and launch the game - new players can join as we go.

Gah sorry I suck and missed this. I'd like to join next game or mod a game of mafia

7 hours ago, FortyInRed said:

Gah sorry I suck and missed this. I'd like to join next game or mod a game of mafia

You can still join this game if you want.