Holy testicle Tuesdays Batman! I didn't realize just how huge this game is until it arrived today.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/79127/star-trek-fleet-captains
I got another surprise when I opened the box. The size of the 'Heroclix' starship minis are big. And it comes with more than I imagined. Or maybe it looks like more since they're so much larger than expected? Either way, Wow!
While I'm not a Trekkie, I thoroughly enjoyed ogling the starships from the first few ST movies and especially the so-called "Submarine Knife fight" in the second. [ insert obligatory "KHAAAAAN!" here] Enough to have purchased plenty of SFB in my youth, along with very enjoyable memories of FASA's Starship Combat Simulator back in the day. So when I spotted this one with a mix of hex-based movement and card-driven play awhile back, it quickly went on my Want List.
I've not even played it yet but I've already nerdgasmed just seeing it. I Squee'd like Gus a bit when I opened the Sails Of Glory box, but this was wholly unexpected. Now I'll be forced to get the Romulan expansion soon, too. :-*
Although the minis themselves aren't painted. May have to address that. As if I don't have enough minis to paint already. :-\
Holy hell, that game looks awesome! Nefaro, I may have to kill you for making me aware of it. :P
The fact that the minis aren't painted is about the only thing keeping me from immediately driving to the nearest store to get this. Although I have to believe it runs a pretty penny as well; can I ask what you paid for it?
If you tell me this is something different from Star Trek: Attack Wing, Imma scream.
I bought the basic Attack Wing set and the USS Reliant some time ago but haven't had time to play it. Same story with me and the X-Wing Minis game (got the basic set, the Falcon, Slave-I, and a TIE Interceptor, but haven't played it yet either). :(
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 12, 2014, 02:50:53 PM
If you tell me this is something different from Star Trek: Attack Wing, Imma scream.
Yes. It is completely different from
Attack Wing. I would say it's closer to a competitive
Mage Knight although perhaps not quite as unusual in it's game concepts. It's from the same publisher so I get the impression MK may have had some minor influences on it.
Fleet Captains is more like an adventure game with Star Trek warships & science vessels. You explore the hidden hex tiles and are given three objectives at any one time. Some of them are to be hidden from other players, while some are open for everyone to see. I believe there are different types too, such as Science, Combat, Etc.
There are also numerous different Command decks, of which you must pick a few and mix together for your fleet's use in the game. Your ships are rated for movement, combat, and such but you get all the special stuff that such card play entails along with it. You also have a list of certain ships can perform each turn, such as claiming new territory and building outposts in those that have been pacified, for example.
So it's not just ship combat. It's as much or more about exploring and achieving various goals in a card-driven environment. I've not yet digested the rules yet, so I can't give any hard impressions yet. But my initial unboxing was pretty inspiring. O0
I watched a couple quick YouTube vids of this game, after seeing mention of it somewhere, and was enthralled. 'Jplay' has a 4-parter that can give a short peak at the gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQoFg8p5Cg0&list=PLQcL0QgYU_akzgnrVOLw_nXr1Cv2UoCZa&index=1
The base set comes with around a dozen ship classes for each side, Federation and Klingon. There was a Romulan expansion but those were obviously snatched up to extinction since almost nobody is selling them. Rumor says they are gonna do another run of the Romulan expansion along with the Dominion expansion coming out soon. I'll probably snatch them both up.
The unpainted heroclix minis aren't bad. I was a bit surprised as most WizKids minis are pre-painted, but they still look pretty damn cool. Painting these starships looks to be an easier proposition than many of the other adventure game models I have. I may end up doing these first, before the rest, as they obviously don't need near as much detail work.
I've not seen this series yet. I think it's just a parts overview, setup, and quick rules explanation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQxdk2JYcMk&list=UUvQcHLq3dOfsmMEVrdBhJMA&index=3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DM76a8JgU8&list=UUvQcHLq3dOfsmMEVrdBhJMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0B1m8AhXOc
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 12, 2014, 02:50:53 PM
If you tell me this is something different from Star Trek: Attack Wing, Imma scream.
I bought the basic Attack Wing set and the USS Reliant some time ago but haven't had time to play it. Same story with me and the X-Wing Minis game (got the basic set, the Falcon, Slave-I, and a TIE Interceptor, but haven't played it yet either). :(
Well then, you'll want to get into Star Wars : Armada and not play it, either. ;D
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163745/star-wars-armada
Admittedly I got both games because the bits are pretty cool. As models alone they'd make a neat display on a shelf.
I'm not surprised there's iterations of SWM and STAW that look similar but add much more. Sounds like Armada and Fleet Captains are much deeper than simple slugfests. Not that there's anything wrong with a good tabletop slugfest.
My local hobby store said they weren't going to carry STAW any longer as the sales dropped significantly. This was earlier this year though, and he didn't have either Armada nor Fleet Captains.
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 13, 2014, 06:15:11 AM
Admittedly I got both games because the bits are pretty cool. As models alone they'd make a neat display on a shelf.
I'm not surprised there's iterations of SWM and STAW that look similar but add much more. Sounds like Armada and Fleet Captains are much deeper than simple slugfests. Not that there's anything wrong with a good tabletop slugfest.
My local hobby store said they weren't going to carry STAW any longer as the sales dropped significantly. This was earlier this year though, and he didn't have either Armada nor Fleet Captains.
I don't think my local store carried Fleet Captains much, if ever, although they've had Attack Wing stuff for quite awhile. That's why this one took me a bit by surprise when I saw it on the 'net (a YouTube vid). From what I understand, it may have been rather scarce there for awhile. If the difficulty in getting the Romulan expansion is any indication, it may well have sold out for awhile. The box size could also be rather troublesome for some places.
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 13, 2014, 06:15:11 AM
Admittedly I got both games because the bits are pretty cool. As models alone they'd make a neat display on a shelf.
I'm not surprised there's iterations of SWM and STAW that look similar but add much more. Sounds like Armada and Fleet Captains are much deeper than simple slugfests. Not that there's anything wrong with a good tabletop slugfest.
My local hobby store said they weren't going to carry STAW any longer as the sales dropped significantly. This was earlier this year though, and he didn't have either Armada nor Fleet Captains.
Armada isn't actually out yet. It's basically going to be X-Wing, only on a bigger scale with capital ships and fighter squadrons.
Quote from: Nefaro on August 13, 2014, 07:52:57 AM
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 13, 2014, 06:15:11 AM
Admittedly I got both games because the bits are pretty cool. As models alone they'd make a neat display on a shelf.
I'm not surprised there's iterations of SWM and STAW that look similar but add much more. Sounds like Armada and Fleet Captains are much deeper than simple slugfests. Not that there's anything wrong with a good tabletop slugfest.
My local hobby store said they weren't going to carry STAW any longer as the sales dropped significantly. This was earlier this year though, and he didn't have either Armada nor Fleet Captains.
I don't think my local store carried Fleet Captains much, if ever, although they've had Attack Wing stuff for quite awhile. That's why this one took me a bit by surprise when I saw it on the 'net (a YouTube vid). From what I understand, it may have been rather scarce there for awhile. If the difficulty in getting the Romulan expansion is any indication, it may well have sold out for awhile. The box size could also be rather troublesome for some places.
To further clarify... the base game of
Fleet Captains is available right now, at various places. Just not the Romulan expansion at the moment - it has sold out.
I'm gonna try to do a solo run through of the standard 2-player game to get a feel for it. But I've seen a couple solo variants available at BGG too. May try those at some point too.
Painted all the Klingon ships except the Negh'var. Still want to do a touch-up on the detailing here & there but they turned out pretty good and were a joy to do since there was plenty room for color interpretation. The Birds Of Prey got some extra attention. ^-^
I'll probably post a pic once I get them finished up. I'm sure the Federation ships won't be quite as fun to paint, with the primary color so uniformly standard. Hopefully I can figure out a decent looking light blue color for the warp nacelles and it doesn't take near as long on the detailing as it did for the Klingons.
The Romulan expansion is not back at retail, so I ordered that.
Don't think I'll pick up the Dominion set. Never watched much about them so it doesn't really pique my interest.
Instead, I picked up some Federation Commander stuff for some old school SFB-style gaming. If I feel like it, I'll just use the Star Fleet Captains minis I'm painting for double duty in that instead of the counters, despite it being based on TOS. >:D
Preview of my Klingon ships' paint jobs. Still need to do some touch-ups on various overflow spots and darken the Bird Of Prey guns and engines a bit.
The first minis I've ever (nearly) finished painting:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi57.tinypic.com%2F2qx6q6q.jpg&hash=2bb6410395f7e52f1b255632b3409c9672429000)
This gives you an idea of how they looked straight out of the box:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fangoasazilei.files.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F05%2Fstar-trek.jpg&hash=7e96829e17ce547a1e6e75f92eabfe0523d4942d)
I have the Federation ones primed but not yet painted. Just got the set of Romulan ones in too. So much more left to paint and I've not quite finished these yet. Hopefully I become much faster at this, the more experienced I become. :))
Great pics, Nefaro. Your Klingon ships look awesome.
Quote from: mirth on September 17, 2014, 03:51:36 PM
Great pics, Nefaro. Your Klingon ships look awesome.
Seconded. Those B'rel-class birds-of-prey look especially impressive. O0
Quote from: Martok on September 17, 2014, 04:32:14 PM
Quote from: mirth on September 17, 2014, 03:51:36 PM
Great pics, Nefaro. Your Klingon ships look awesome.
Seconded. Those B'rel-class birds-of-prey look especially impressive. O0
Thanks guys.
I spent more time on the BoPs. Love those things and it showed.
Had thought about adding more varied color to the D-7s too, as there are some other smaller panels along with the lighter-colored ones. But there are four of them and I had already spent a lot of time on the set at that point. I may add some when I go back to finish cleaning up some of the blobbed lines. My hands were getting less steady as the hours beat on. :D
AFAIK these use the same models as
Star Trek: Attack Wing, although these "Clix" versions come unpainted.
Was surprised to see Angry Joe doing a live stream of this game earlier tonight. Had to watch.
I didn't realize he was also an avid tabletop gamer. O0
I picked up a copy of this on sale after seeing some good reviews. Grabbed the Romulan expansion along with the base game. I haven't had a chance to play it yet other than to set it up on my table at home and run through a few turns in order to get a feel for the rules.
The minis and the cardboard chits are decent but my god, I've never seen such chinzty cardstock for the game tiles and the cards. Even after sleeving, the cards still feel like they're made of damp tissue paper. The ones that came in the Romulan expansion were pressed around a bag of chits and are very badly warped. I've had them under 30 pounds for 5 days but they're still badly bowed. I knew WizKids had a reputation for doing things on the cheap, but this is absurd. I'm going to try to laminate the map tiles but I suspect that'll be a bit of a chore.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on September 04, 2017, 05:13:31 PM
I picked up a copy of this on sale after seeing some good reviews. Grabbed the Romulan expansion along with the base game. I haven't had a chance to play it yet other than to set it up on my table at home and run through a few turns in order to get a feel for the rules.
The minis and the cardboard chits are decent but my god, I've never seen such chinzty cardstock for the game tiles and the cards. Even after sleeving, the cards still feel like they're made of damp tissue paper. The ones that came in the Romulan expansion were pressed around a bag of chits and are very badly warped. I've had them under 30 pounds for 5 days but they're still badly bowed. I knew WizKids had a reputation for doing things on the cheap, but this is absurd. I'm going to try to laminate the map tiles but I suspect that'll be a bit of a chore.
Yes.. the cards & hex 'tiles' are pretty thin.
I think the cards will be fine for me, if I sleeve them. But the hex-shaped cards are what I have to be careful with, when shuffling them.
Edit:
I've also been wanting to pick up the latest
Mage Knight board game expansion. But WizKids screwed up some of the components. With some randomly drawn cardboard tokens being a different size than all the earlier ones, and some of the cards being a bit discolored.
They are reportedly sending replacements for them, if you buy the expansion, but you have to contact them and wait for quite awhile for them to show up. Probably months. >:(
I suppose it isn't as big of a deal since I only ever plan to play the MK board game solo, but it's still best not to be tipped off as to what I may be getting on my next draw. :-\
I see their other Star Trek game, based on the Mage Knight system, is getting an expansion released any time now. Hopefully they learned their lesson.
Have you played Fleet Captains?
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on September 04, 2017, 09:00:04 PM
Have you played Fleet Captains?
I ran a couple turns, but still haven't gone full psycho on it. Partly because I still have grandiose plans of finishing the paint jobs on all the minis first.
And my unpainted minis collection continues to slowly grow.
I've discovered that it takes far less time to order such things than actually paint them.
Quote from: Nefaro on September 04, 2017, 10:06:54 PM
I've discovered that it takes far less time to order such things than actually paint them.
Ain't that the truth... of the 147 minis that came with Mercs:Recon that I received two years ago I have finished painting 4..... L:-)
Quote from: Barthheart on September 05, 2017, 05:19:46 AM
Quote from: Nefaro on September 04, 2017, 10:06:54 PM
I've discovered that it takes far less time to order such things than actually paint them.
Ain't that the truth... of the 147 minis that came with Mercs:Recon that I received two years ago I have finished painting 4..... L:-)
;D
Funny you should mention that. I've only finished a set of 5 (?) guards thus far, and still have yet to glue one or two more factions together.
Those are the ones which have been sitting idle on my painting desk for months. Haven't painted at all. :-\
Have both core sets and a couple expansions. So I'm a LONG way from finishing.
Quote from: Nefaro on September 05, 2017, 12:06:27 PM
Quote from: Barthheart on September 05, 2017, 05:19:46 AM
Quote from: Nefaro on September 04, 2017, 10:06:54 PM
I've discovered that it takes far less time to order such things than actually paint them.
Ain't that the truth... of the 147 minis that came with Mercs:Recon that I received two years ago I have finished painting 4..... L:-)
;D
Funny you should mention that. I've only finished a set of 5 (?) guards thus far, and still have yet to glue one or two more factions together.
Those are the ones which have been sitting idle on my painting desk for months. Haven't painted at all. :-\
Have both core sets and a couple expansions. So I'm a LONG way from finishing.
Have you seen this guys painted collection.... might use some of his colour schemes.... whenever I get around to painting again..... :P
http://sync-wargaming.blogspot.ca/2017/05/
Got all the tiles laminated and trimmed. Wasn't fun but at least it's done and they're a lot more durable. Now to start modifying the formed plastic storage tray in the box. It doesn't have room to hold the expansion cards and tiles, especially after they've been sleeved and laminated.
My Fleet Captains core game actually came with two K'tinga/D7 cruisers with the same name. I got a dupe instead of the differently named one.
Luckily the only difference was the name.. the stats on the clix dial are the same. Easy to just change it myself. I've read numerous people complaining about having some broken or missing ship minis, though, so I'll count myself lucky.
WizKids QC was :2funny: at the time.
Although CS seems to be pretty damn terrible for the creators of Mercs: Recon. I emailed them a year ago, about a missing card in an expansion box, and they never even bothered replying.
Quote from: Barthheart on September 05, 2017, 01:51:29 PM
Have you seen this guys painted collection.... might use some of his colour schemes.... whenever I get around to painting again..... :P
http://sync-wargaming.blogspot.ca/2017/05/
I dig the style, and how each faction has it's own visual flavor. Definitely something that drew me to the game. 8)
Picked up the Texas and African based faction boxes because they looked so distinct. Can't remember the exact faction names. The Texan nation has the western flavor, with cowboy hat & duster smattering in it. The African armor looks pretty cool.. with the big shamanic mask-looking helmets & such.
Quote from: Nefaro on September 05, 2017, 04:15:06 PM
My Fleet Captains core game actually came with two K'tinga/D7 cruisers with the same name. I got a dupe instead of the differently named one.
Luckily the only difference was the name.. the stats on the clix dial are the same. Easy to just change it myself. I've read numerous people complaining about having some broken or missing ship minis, though, so I'll count myself lucky.
WizKids QC was :2funny: at the time.
Although CS seems to be pretty damn terrible for the creators of Mercs: Recon. I emailed them a year ago, about a missing card in an expansion box, and they never even bothered replying.
No problems with the base game for me but two of the ships in the Romulan expansion were broken (easy fix with a little glue) and some of the map hex tiles were not cut properly and had jagged edges and pressure creases. Little bit of scissor work and a clothes iron helped. Also, the ship deck and the espionage mission deck were both wrapped around a bag full of counters and had severe bows to them. Still crushing those under all my Tide of Iron boxes in an attempt to flatten them out but they've still got quite a bend to them.
I tried out the 2-player game tonight at the FLGS. It was alright but a little too random for my tastes. The randomized nature of the fleet drafts and starting mission deck made it feel like the game was driving player decisions rather than the player shaping the game via their choices. The missions that both the Federation player and I drew were quite passive in nature so we both just stuck to our edges of the map and puttered around scoring victory points and never really coming into contact, let alone conflict with one another.