Game: A Call to Arms: Babylon 5 Space Combat

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Bostich — 2007-12-06T17:42:21+00:00

Earthforce - The Third Age

Thread: San Diego A Call to Arms Tournament

Harkonnen13 — 2007-08-09T20:29:17+00:00

I will be running a B5: ACTA tournament using the 2nd edition rules and fleet lists at Game Towne.

Saturday September 22
12 pm
$5 entry fee
Prizes!

Game Towne
3954 Harney St.
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 291-1666

(in the Old Town section of San Diego)

Send me a PM with your email address for tournament format or join
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/sdwargamers/

Thread: Re: 2nd Edition

Wulf Corbett — 2007-07-08T22:32:46+00:00

The first draft of the final PDF of the rulebook has now been sent to playtesters (I think that makes sense...) As I understand it, this should then be passed to a second, smaller set of playtesters for destructive testing. I really don't understand the vagaries of publishing, but I'd put the shelf date about a couple of months away still.

While still instantly recognisable to anyone who's played the first edition, it does contain some quite serious changes which I'm sure will create controversy. One thing is certain - first edition books & supplements will NOT be compatible - virtually, if not absolutely, every ship has been seriously redesigned & rebalanced. Speaking for myself, I believe they are better representative of the ships on the show, and (for the majority which were never ON the show), are far more effective and flavourfull than first edition.

Although I am considering holding my breath until I turn blue if I don't get my way about the Drazi (not a good tactic when communicating by email...)

So... should you have waited? Well, depends on how much spare cash you have, how patient you are, and how much you enjoy the revised first edition...

Thread: Re: 2nd Edition

bagoas — 2007-06-25T19:39:17+00:00

Just bought the revised edition as an impulse. Should maybe have waited for the second edition?
Note to self - always check BBG before purchases

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-06-13T17:57:44+00:00

Thread: Re: 2nd Edition

Harkonnen13 — 2007-06-11T07:40:10+00:00

No actually you won't see a difference between armor and hull. Minor rules changes, all of the fleets have undergone a major tweak to fall more in line with what was seen in the shows and all of them are actually competitive with one another. New fleets include the Gaim and Psi-Corps. Two books, one rules, one fleet. To put it simply, 2E kicks ass.

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-06-05T00:09:30+00:00

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-06-05T00:06:02+00:00

An Earth Alliance squadron

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-06-05T00:04:08+00:00

Two Earth Alliance Hyperions engage the Dilgar task force

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-06-05T00:02:31+00:00

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-06-05T00:01:16+00:00

A Dilgar squadron

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-05-30T06:48:34+00:00

Omega Destroyers in the thick of battle

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-05-30T06:46:14+00:00

Part of my Earth Alliance tourney fleet

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Harkonnen13 — 2007-05-30T06:43:36+00:00

Shadows vs Mimbari at KublaCon

Thread: Re: 2nd Edition

ibn_ul_khattab — 2007-05-29T22:51:01+00:00

my guess is that it will be updated to be in line with Victory at Sea which is functionally the same system. If your luck you will see a difference between armour and hull. Thats the main difference between the two systems (and maybe range as well).

Thread: Re: Supplements

Triggy — 2007-05-29T22:23:20+00:00

The supplements are superceded by Sky Full of Stars and Armageddon. These are the two books you need if you want to be fully up to date.

However, 2nd edition will be released in 2-5 months if all goes to plan so you may wish to wait...

Thread: Re: 2nd Edition

Triggy — 2007-05-29T22:21:37+00:00

It's an overhaul of the main rules and ships. All of the previous supplements will be obsolete and only the 2nd ed. rulebook and fleet lists will be needed.

Several things will change but fundamentally it's the same game, with more going on!

Thread: Re: 2nd Edition

andstrauss — 2007-05-25T20:03:18+00:00

I heard it will be available in August 2007. As to the content, I don't know.

Thread: 2nd Edition

leberegel — 2007-05-04T07:43:59+00:00

Does anybody know, what the 2nd Edition will be like? Does it contain all the new rules from Armageddon and the Supplements 1-3? When is it going to be available?

Thread: Supplements

leberegel — 2007-04-27T09:11:22+00:00

I own the revised rules and wonder if the supplements 1-3 and the armageddon expansion are already included in the revised rules. If not, are they worth their money?

Thread: Earth vs. Some Minor Nation

nickjost — 2007-03-23T17:46:57+00:00

Got to play my second round of this game. This time we took Earth vs. one of the minor nations that get mentioned in the bigger fleet book. I took long range Artemis missle cruisers, a Hyperion CC for knife fighting and the smaller carrier (8 starfurries). My opponent took three small carriers (2 fighter squadrons each) one mine throwing ship (new rule for us) and 2 ships with heavy long range bore weapons.

My Artemis opened at extreme range and used concentrated fire. They were almost able to take one of the light carriers in the opening salvo. Because of this he chose to make speed towards the nearest dust cloud with all of his carriers. My carrier and my Hyperion likewise moved to place a cloud between him and his long range guns. From this position of safety I began to launch my fighters near the table center.

He responded (because of the long reload times) by twice firing on the Artemis. While he did significant amounts of damage he was unable to bring one of them down. He also launched the mines. These are a devastating anti-fighter weapon but were useless against my ships. The club he's playing at has made a house rule removing the -1 to the damage roll. This is a dumb house rule since it makes these into super weapons and ignores the niche they fill.

The third turn I opened fire again, this time against his long range ships and was able to cripple one after another burst of concentrated fire from the Artemis and plinking from my Hyperion and fighters. He had a dinner appointment so we ended early with him conceding the game. He was in a poor position as my star furies outnumbered and could out dogfight his fighters and I had a capital ship advantage.

Lessons Learned:
* Long range missile fire rocks in this game
* Short range probably rocks more
* Having a scout along would have been handy for the re-rolls they provide (which would have allowed the missile cruisers to take other special actions).

Thread: Re: Can Babylon 5 Wars mini's be used with this?

RedShark92 — 2007-01-16T20:02:58+00:00

Actually this may need a further clarification...

Agents of Gaming produced Babylon 5 Wars minis in two scales (though neither of these were an absolute scale but were relative, varying across ship classes).

Full scale were the larger figs that were the initial release - average cruiser length is in the area of 5-7 inches. Fighters were in the neighborhood of an inch or so long and were mounted one to a base.

Fleet scale were smaller figs, originally intended primarily for the Fleet Action game though they later abandoned the Full scale figs and produced the Fleet scale exclusively. Most ships that AoG produced existed in both scales, I would guess that there were some that only existed in one scale or the other but I can't say that for certain. Fighters were tiny and were mounted six to a base.

Mongoose initially cast from existing AoG molds and used the Full scale models for their ships and the Fleet scale models for their fighters.

Any new Mongoose ships will be in the Full scale.

While you could mix and match Full and Fleet scale models on the table the results would probably look a little funny. I'm using Fleet scale models exclusively but I'm using a Starmada X conversion for my Babylon 5 gaming.

Thread: Re: Victory By Any Means

agashamirv — 2006-12-01T22:09:20+00:00

The 2nd Ed. had the campaign. I can't recall now whether Sfos had the campaign, or just the rules update to 2nd ed.

I think it did, but not sure.

The jist of the campaign is that you have a solar system, and each planet/neteor field/etc. had value either strategically or economically, or both.

Everyone IRRC would simultaniously make their moves with their fleets, so you might do flybys of each other, or get jumped without expecting it, cool stuff like that.

It looked simple and fun, but we didn't get around to trying it out.

It was also scalable, you could use more planets or solar systems to make it go longer, or accomodate more people.

Thread: Re: Victory By Any Means

Darken Rahl — 2006-12-01T16:20:10+00:00

Hi agashamirv,

I don't have the Sky Full of Stars supplement, just the "old" basegame.
I also wasn't aware that that SFOS was a campaign system! I thought that it only contained rule changes.
Is the campaign system comparable to and as complete as VBAM?

Thread: Re: Victory By Any Means

agashamirv — 2006-12-01T12:04:42+00:00

You're not interested in the SFoS campaign?

Thread: Victory By Any Means

Darken Rahl — 2006-12-01T09:44:49+00:00

Hi there,

I am thinking about organizing a grand ACTA campaign for my gaming group.
The "only" system I can find which might be suitable is the "Victory By Any Means" ruleset.
I recently found out that the VBAM system was originally developed for the B5 Wars game (By AOG).
But when AOG lost their license, modifications were made to the system, which made it more generic.
So has anyone ever actually tried this with a B5 game (B5W or ACTA)? Does it still play well with B5 after the modifications?
And is there anything left of the B5 races (planets, background, technology, star charts etc etc) in the VBAM books (or is it available seperately)?

Any info would be welcome!

Thanks!!!

Regards,
Darken.

Thread: Re: Maybe a dumb question

Xzing Quippo — 2006-09-06T05:23:17+00:00

I wanted to thank everyone for your responses, great ideas. You guys rock!

Thread: Re: Maybe a dumb question

n815e — 2006-09-05T12:49:44+00:00

We have a black bed sheet we put on the table. You can sprinkle white paint on it for stars and do photo prints of space pictures and use that as terrain.

Thread: Re: Maybe a dumb question

agashamirv — 2006-09-05T11:03:55+00:00

If you want to make your own, check out the hubbel (sp?) telescope pictures at NASA.

Thread: Re: Maybe a dumb question

kracken — 2006-09-05T07:58:06+00:00

Maybe you can try this link: http://www.star-ranger.com/OtherProducts.htm#Gamemats

It has a list of vendors that do space themed gamemats.

Thread: Maybe a dumb question

Xzing Quippo — 2006-09-05T07:43:08+00:00

I purchased this game at Gen Con, however the box doesn't come with any sort of board. Now at Gen Con they had this nifty "space" background laminated on which to play the game.

Now I figure I can go online somewhere to get a star field background for a board and go to kinkos or whatever and have them print it out and laminate it, I have no problems with this. However, does anyone suggest a cool background or a place to get a cool background to use as the star field for a board?

Thread: Re: User Review

BattleZone — 2006-08-17T23:10:31+00:00

phoeniix wrote:
A good comparison, I find, would be to GW's neglected Battlefleet Gothic. The rules are similar and unlike its cousin (Bab5 Wars and Fleet Action), they are really much easier to learn.

I agree to the fact for $50, the box does feel very light indeed. It would have been great if we were given at least few ships from maybe 2 different races.

Great review, but no way I would give money to GW for BattleFleet Gothic, especially with their pathetic track record of not supporting games that dont appeal to 12 year olds. Stick with Babylon 5, it is much better

Thread: Re: Compare to BFG?

BattleZone — 2006-08-17T23:08:16+00:00

So this is better than BFG then?

Would seem like, but thats not hard given the crappy support GW gives it specialist games

Thread: Game Mat/Playing Surface

paratrewpr — 2006-07-02T03:24:15+00:00

I'd like to know if anyone out there has created their own game mats for this game. I tried to create one from a near canvas material and its just sucking the paint up. I'm going to try that again with fabric paint and might have better luck but in the meantime, if anyone has success stories or ideas, I'd sure like to hear them.

Thanks

Thread: Re: Sky Full of Stars Expansion

paratrewpr — 2006-06-25T03:05:17+00:00

Do you think that's worth the 25 or so dollars it is?

Thread: Re: Sky Full of Stars Expansion

n815e — 2006-06-22T13:02:04+00:00

There are a couple of new special actions in there that aren't in the revised book, some new scenarios.

Thread: Sky Full of Stars Expansion

paratrewpr — 2006-06-22T02:28:48+00:00

I'm new to the game and was wondering if I buy the *Revised Version* of the Call to Arms boxed set, is there any need to get the sky full of stars expansion? Is "Sky Full of Stars" just about the rules update or is there more to it?

Thanks,
Jeff

Thread: Re: Can Babylon 5 Wars mini's be used with this?

paratrewpr — 2006-06-03T01:18:57+00:00

thank you.

Thread: Re: Can Babylon 5 Wars mini's be used with this?

n815e — 2006-06-02T13:01:15+00:00

They are exactly the same models. Mongoose bought the moulds from Agents of Gaming.

Thread: Can Babylon 5 Wars mini's be used with this?

paratrewpr — 2006-06-02T02:11:50+00:00

Title says it all... just curious. I don't have either game though I've played the Call to Arms and loved it. Was just wondering if the two games are compatible, well the figures anyway.

Thread: Re: Compare to BFG?

CmdrKiley — 2006-03-28T23:00:49+00:00

Yes they are exactly the same as the old AoG B5Wars minis. Instead of the B5Wars fighter models, they are using the Fleet Action scale fighter groups (six tiny fighter mounted on a hexagonal plastic base). However Mongoose is selling them for less! I remember buying the EA Posiedon Supercarrier by AOG for $40. Mongoose is selling the same model (with a better base) and 16 fighter groups for $25!

Mongoose is now making new models for this game as well. Including the Victory Class Destroyer from B5: Crusade. Many of which existed only in the Fleet Action rules, but they are making B5W scale minis for them now. Also the Drakh will be making an appearance in a few months, all new race with all new ships.

Mongoose is now doing the same thing with the old GROPOS (10mm Ground Combat game set in the B5 Universe) minis and is releasing a game called War Without End.

Thread: User Review

agashamirv — 2005-11-20T18:27:29+00:00

Those of you that have played Babylon 5 Wars from Agents of Gaming are in for a surprise when you play the new version of space combat in the Babylon 5 universe by Mongoose Publishing.

No longer do you need a physics degree to move your ships. It won’t take hours to play a game with 2 ships on a side. This new game is built for speed.

What you get

Mongoose has taken a rather innovative approach to a miniatures game. Not only do you get the rulebook and some dice in the box set, you also get ship counters for more ships than you’ll probably ever need. Every race has multiple counters for each of the ships in their fleets. There are also counters for civilian ships, jump gates, and jump points. This is great, since you can open the box, read the rules, and jump into playing, not having to wait weeks, or in my case, months to build your miniature fleets.

The down side is that the counters are hard to read. The font they used is almost blurry. The second problem is that the ships aren’t numbered, so if you’re using multiple G’Quan cruisers, you’ll have to come up with some way to keep track of which is which.

In addition to the rule book and ship counters, is a fleet book. This book contains all the stats for all the ships in the game. That’s also a nice touch in a miniatures game. No need to spend more money buying all the fleet books, you have all your stats right there.

Game play

This game is not the same game it used to be under Agents of Gaming. The play is fast and deadly now.

The game is played on a 4’x6’ table usually, with some scenarios using a different set up.

The turn starts with a D20 roll for initiative. You add your racial modifier (Minbari get a bonus, Earth Force a smaller bonus, etc) and the high roll wins. The winner of the roll gets to decide who goes first each phase.

Movement Phase - The first player has to move the first ship (their choice which ship they choose). Since all ships move before anyone fires, it’s to your advantage to move last. During this phase, you may give your ships special orders, like ‘close blast doors’, ‘all power to engines’, etc. You get the idea. You make a command check to see if you succeed in your order, then finish your move.

Moving is in inches. As this game is about fleets and capitol ships, they have a limited amount of turns that they can make each turn. Most can only make one turn, but nimble ships like the Minbari can often make 2 turns during the movement phase. Super Maneuverable ships such as fighters and White Stars can make unlimited turns during their move.

There was a problem in this release of the game in fighters being too powerful since they move after all capitol ships, allowing them to swarm a ship in arcs the ship could do nothing about, but this has also been remedied in Sky Full of Stars.

Firing Phase - After all ships have moved, the firing phase is next. Again the winner of the initiative roll determines who shoots first. They declare the firing ship, and the target ship(s). Distance and firing arcs are checked (You may pre-measure, a welcome rule that only makes sense with computerized targeting).

Each weapon on a ship has a firing arc. Forward, Aft, Port, or Starboard. Some ships may also have the Bore sight arc. Bore sight weapons may only fire in a direct line in front of a ship, so it is imperative that these ships move last in order to line up a target. It doesn’t do you much good to line up a target, and then have it move out of your boresight.

Ships may fire all their weapons as long as a target is in the correct firing arc for the weapon. Ships may fire at multiple targets.

Once the rolls to hit the targets are made, the target ships may use Interceptors if they have them. Interceptors will negate incoming hits, but as more hits come in, it becomes harder to intercept them.

Once all interceptors have been used, all remaining hits cause damage. Damage resolution was the most cumbersome aspect of the game, but it has been streamlined in the new Sky Full of Stars Supplement. Damage is rolled, with 2d6. Low rolls do no damage, average rolls do 1 crew and 1 hull damage, and high rolls do critical damage.

Each ship has a hull and crew rating. Once damage has exceeded crew, the ship is adrift. Once hull has been exceeded, the ship is destroyed, possibly catastrophically if enough excess damage has been delt.

Critical hits will cause additional damage to crew and hull, and also may have adverse effects on the ship, like not allowing movement, or only being able to fire one weapon.

Damage Control phase – This phase is the end phase of the turn, where ships attempt to repair critical hits.

Once damage control has been conducted, if the victory condition of the scenario haven’t been met, initiate is rolled for the next turn.

The Campaign

The box set contains the rules for an interesting campaign system. This is nice, since so few miniatures games come with these, and they’re a nice change to the free-for-all most miniature games revert to.

The campaign centers around one solar system the players battle over. It appears to be easily scalable for however many players you may have. It also looks like a fairly quick campaign that doesn’t drag out forever. I’ve yet to try it out, so can’t say much about balance issues.

The Miniatures

Here is the greatest failing of the game. The miniatures are great. They are nice big hunks of metal, no wussy plastics here. But there are two problems, one major and one minor.

They’re using the old Agents of Gaming molds, and they’re showing their age. Or at least that’s what I thought. They released a Limited Edition ship, the Excalibur, with the release of the game in 2004. When I opened the box I was amazed at the horrid shape the model was in. I got two of them in 2005, and they’re both in the same shape, so it’s obviously a mold or casting problem, not just a fluke. I have heard several other people complain on their forums about the casting problems, so it’s not just me. I’ve also picked up some of their metal miniatures in their other lines and had the same problems, horrid casting.

I spent over 30 minutes filing the ship to get it to go together. In the 12 years I’ve been playing miniature games, I have NEVER spent that much time filing any model.

Most of the other ships had excessive flash, but that’s easily fixed, so no big deal here. The fighters, being as tiny as they are, don’t cast well either. About 1/3 of the fighters I got in my fleet box were only half cast. Apart from these two issues, the rest of my fleet box was in pretty good shape. Hopefully Mongoose will get these issues straightened out, since they’ve only been in the miniature business since 2004.

The second problem, which is a minor one, is the flight stands the models sit on. As with pretty much every flight stand out there, they’re just not up to the task of holding up that big model on the table, and transporting. When I spoke with Alex (owner of Mongoose) they’re working on a ball and socket joint for future ships, which will resolve this issue. For now you can drill out the hole for the flight stand and make a custom one.

Overall

In conclusion this is a great lighter space combat game. If you want to play a big fleet battle, this is the system for you. Check out the Mongoose forums, the player support is great. One player has made downloadable ship sheets that work really well for the game.

I rated the game an 8. It would have gotten a 9, but the problems with the miniatures dragged it down a notch.

Thread: Re: Compare to BFG?

HMS_Resolution — 2005-11-17T18:46:37+00:00

Somewhat belatedly, yes.

The ACTA miniatures are exactly the same as the "full-size" miniatures from B5W. But you probably know that by now anyway.

Thread: Earth Alliance vs Narn

kracken — 2005-05-09T04:11:35+00:00

Introduced the game to my housemate late last night, so we played a 3 point Raid level game, with him taking Narn, and me taking EA. This isn't much of a report, since i can never remember the details. More like... a summary. Everything will be described according to my perspective.

Narn Fleet:
2x G'Karith
1x T'Loth
1x Ka'Toc

EA Fleet:
2x Hyperion
1x Nova Dreadnought

First turn> EA (me) loses initiative and moves 1st. Nova holds the centre with both Hyperions taking up flanks. Nova moves forward full and hyperions move up full also, maintaining formation, but slightly ahead of nova. Hyperions both launch fighters. Fighters move up full speed.
Narn's formation is (from my left) G'Karith 1, T'Loth, G'Karith 2, Ka'Toc. all ships move forward, turning slightly to my left. No fireing this turn, all weapons out of range.

Second turn> EA loses initiative again, and moves leftmost Hyperion (Hyperion 1) up again, followed by Hyperion 2, and Nova, still holding formation. Nova launches a fighter. All fighters move up and surrounds G'Karith 1.
Narns move again, launching 3 fighters, full speed, and again turning to my left. G'Karith 1, and T'Loth are bearing down on it, but luckily as both of us were rather cautious in our movements, the G'Karith was in range with only it's main gun. It launches a e-mine into the fighters, taking them all out. Ka'Toc fires into hyperion 1, scoring a crit, damaging weapon systems. (fire only on 4+, on 1d6).

Third turn> EA loses initiative again. Nova uses special action "All Power to Engines" and parks itself in the middle of the battle field, ready to dish out some fury!! Narn ships move forward too, placing G'Karith 1 in the portside of the nova. He didn't know that the broadsides of the nova was quite so devastating. Hyperion 1, moves up, uses it's 2/45 turns to turn away from and aim the Boresight Aft weapon at G'Karith. Hyperion 2 moves into range too.
attack phase, G'Karith 1 suffers damage from combined fire of hyperion 1 (which manages to fire, 50% chance after suffering critical damage), and the Nova. Hyerion 2 fires on G'Karith 2. T'Loth and Ka'Toc fires into Hyperion 1, missing with the beam weapon, but getting some hits through the interceptors. Hyperion 1 reparis critical damage (50% chance of firing).

Fourth turn> EA loses initiative (getting used to it), and moves Nova deeper into the middle of the action, while Hyperions 1 and 2 continue holding flanks. with the hyperions' manuverability, it wasn't too hard getting something into boresight. narn ships all move within range, with G'Karith 1 out of action to the left, T'Loth moving closer, G'Karith 2 and Ka'Toc bearing down on Hyperion 1. After a round of furious firing, G'Karith 2 sustains crits (no special actions, speed reduced to 0). Hyperion 1 sustains some damage too, halfway to threshold. Hyperion 2 fires on Ka'Toc, dealing damage. Narn fighters move to surround hyperion 1.

Fifth turn> EA wins initiative! Narns move past EA ships, heavily damaged from the first fusilade. All attempt to turn round back to engage. From the left, G'Karith 1 running adrift, T'loth circling back, Ka'Toc "comes about, faces the rear of EA ships, and G'Karith 2, suffering from crit damage doesn't move. Hyperion 1 veers off to the left, while Hyperion 2 and Nova moves to the right, desperately trying to come about but failing to do so. Hyperion 1 consistently harassed by frazi fighters (stupid me, forgot I had AF weapons on board). minimum firing this turn, Ka'Toc suffering some damage from Nova, Hyperion 1 suffers damage from T'Loth, and reaches crew threshold. G'Karith 2 repairs critical damage. Narn fighters move to surround nova.

Sixth turn> EA loses initiative. Hyperion 1 turns, moves away from T'Loth, and boresights the Ka'Toc. Nova fails to come about and moves as best she can to turn back. Hyperion 2 comes about, and boresights G'Karith 2, and within range of all forward weapons too. T'Loth moves towards Hyperion 1, G'Karith 2 and Ka'Toc moves to face Hyperion 2. Attack phase, Hyperion 1 fires it's only weapon at the Ka'Toc, and scores 5 hits with the heavy laser cannon! Ka'toc is destroyed (rolled 2 bulkhead, 3 crits)! Hyperion 2 fires all weapons at G'Karith 2, destroyed too! Nova unable to join in on the right, turning back, but still harassed by Narn fighters. T'Loth fires on hyperion 1, but either misses, or is intercepted.

Seventh turn> EA wins initiative. T'loth moves to chase heavily crippled Hyperion 1. hyperion 1 turns away, using it's superior manuverability to boresight(aft) the T'Loth, while maintaining a good distance away. Hyperion 1 fires boresight aft weapon, damages T'loth, and T'Loth's own weapons are out of range. All other Narn ships out of action. Nova fails to come about again, trying its best to turn back. The Nova has not fired in 2 turns!

Narn player concedes. T'Loth is the only active ship on board, unable to catch up to hyperion, and if he does, the nova would have turned back by then. EA wins, with the Nova undamaged, and Hyperion 1 badly damaged. The rest of the Narns are either destroyed (Ka'Toc) or running adrift (G'Kariths 1 and 2).

A good game, at the end, a much closer result than what he thought. Hyperions prove their worth with their manuverability, and is very well supported by the Nova in the initial turns. that whale of a ship wasn't able to turn back in the last couple turns, but did it's job well in the 1st half of the game. Kudos! the G'Karith 1 under-performed, with it's low hull value, but G'Karith 2 managed to harass my ships quite well. Ka'Toc was efficient, and was it not for the beam weapon hit from Hyperion 1, it would have been a big thorn in my side. T'Loth didn't get into the game much, speeding past some of my ships, and didn't have the weapons to back it up.

My housemate thought the game was pretty good, but that interceptors unbalanced the game. His shots were consistently being intercepted, and my ships had high hull values. He conceded because the remaining Nova was undamaged, had interceptors 2, and hull 6. A fearsome ship at raid level.

Thread: Re:Compare to BFG?

Darken Rahl — 2005-04-14T06:20:51+00:00

HMS_Resolution (#470202),

I read somewhere on the geek that the miniatures from A Call to Arms are the same as the ones for B5 Wars (AOG). Is this true indeed?
I have the 2nd edition basic game but no miniatures, apart from the ones in the box. The original B5W miniatures cost an arm and a leg on Ebay, so I'd like to use these new miniatures for B5 Wars. Is this possible?

Thanks!

Thread: Re:Compare to BFG?

HMS_Resolution — 2005-04-09T01:22:24+00:00

Black Knight (#447358),
Having played BFG in the distant past, and currently owning ACTA, I can say that much of the game will be familiar to BFG players, particularly the way that "standard" weapons batteries work (Each batter has a firepower rating of X dice; roll them, eeach one that equals or exceeds the target's hull number hits; roll 2d6 to determine damage effects, and repeat). Beam weapons work a little differently; you roll a number of dice equal to the beam rating, and if a die "hits", you roll again; if you roll a six or equal or greater to the target's hull rating, you score another hit. Repeat ad infinitum.

Thread: Compare to BFG?

Black Knight — 2005-03-07T21:03:16+00:00

The machanics sound very similar to GW's Battelfleet Gothic? Anyone have a basis for comparison?

Thread: User Review

anarchy — 2005-02-15T16:11:11+00:00

A Call to Arms Rules Supplement 1
Review

Introduction
A Call to Arms Rules Supplement 1 (RS1) is the first in a planned series of supplements for Mongoose Publishing's counter or miniature-based B5 space combat game. It has articles, a FAQ, updated ships, new rules and revised scenarios.

Components
RS1 is a 5.75" by 8.25" perfect bound softcover book. It is 48 pages long, with a color cover and black & white interior. The inside of the back cover has four counters of space stations for use with the game (see below). They have to be cut out and this would ruin the cover.

Contents
RS1 contains the following sections:
* Introduction Editorial
A single page introducing the RS series.

* Online Community
A brief discussion on the online support for ACTA, but only what is available on Mongoose's official site.

* ACTA FAQ
Three pages of Q&A.

* Battles in Hyperspace
Two pages of new rules for fighting completely within Hyperspace. I haven't played with them yet, but my initial impression is that it is way too easy to become lost in Hyperspace (effectively destroying that ship for purposes of victory conditions).

* Fortresses of Light
New rules for the operation of space stations. It includes the rules for the B5 station, something that was sorely missing from the original box set. There are also an upgunned B5 station (for later in the series timeline), an Earth Alliance station, a Narn listening post and a Centauri station. Starbases are big, take lots of damage and can engage multiple targets a turn with all of their firepower. Five pages of rules and five new ship data sheets.

* Taming the White Star
Revised rules for the White Star. The basic problem from the original box set was that White Stars would quickly lose their crew, long before they became incapacitated by hull damage. These new rules fix the Adaptive Armour and Self-Repairing traits. Four pages, including tactical tips for using the White Star in combat, and a new ship data sheet.

* Advanced Fighter Combat
Five pages of new rules for more detailed fighter combat. These are a slight revision to the playtest rules that have been available on the Mongoose website for a while.

* The Second Battle of Quadrant 14
A new historical scenario between Narn and Centauri forces. The Narns are heavily outnumbered, but only need to survive for 10 turns to give their forces time to escape. Three pages, including a scenario layout.

* Maximising the Maximus
Revised rules and characteristics for the Centauri Maximus. It basically got "nerfed". Two pages and a ship data sheet.

* The Raiders Campaign
Exactly as it sounds, this is a campaign for Raiders. It is five pages long. It's also from the Mongoose website.

* Revised Scenarios
Updated victory point calculations and six revised scenarios: Assassination, Fleet to the Jump Gate, Convoy Duty, Blockade, Recon Run and Supply Ships. The updated VP rules are one page, and each scenario gets its own page.

Analysis
For $7.95, it's a fair deal. The new space station rules are the highlight and finally bring the namesake of the show into the game. The single new scenario is good. But all the revisions to ships and scenarios smacks of Errata. It's nice to have them all in a single collected book, but they should be (and some are) available for free on the website. Both the Advanced Fighter Combat and Raider Campaign are available on the website, but in playtest form (which is not substantially different from their final form here).

If you're a fan of the game, this is a pretty easy buy. It's small, relatively cheap and adds just enough to be worthwhile. If you're into B5 just for the sake of B5, it's a harder sell. Like it says, it's supplemental.

Thread: Re:User Review

phoeniix — 2005-02-10T14:16:29+00:00

A good comparison, I find, would be to GW's neglected Battlefleet Gothic. The rules are similar and unlike its cousin (Bab5 Wars and Fleet Action), they are really much easier to learn.

I agree to the fact for $50, the box does feel very light indeed. It would have been great if we were given at least few ships from maybe 2 different races.

Thread: Re:Comparison to AoG B5 Wars?

anarchy — 2004-09-27T16:46:03+00:00

Well, I found this at my local FLGS and picked it up last week. My review is posted and I'll get some pictures up shortly.

Thread: User Review

anarchy — 2004-09-27T16:30:08+00:00

A Call to Arms: Babylon 5 Space Combat
Review

Introduction
A Call to Arms (ACTA) is a new space combat miniatures game by Mongoose Publishing. The designer is Matthew Sprange, with additional text by Bruce Graw and August Hahn. Bruce has worked on the previous B5 space combat games by Agents of Gaming. Matthew Sprange is the author of Mongoose's B5 RPG.

Components
What's in the box?
* Two books. One 48-page rule book and one 96-page ship data and fleet list book.
* 15 counter sheets of irregular sized counters, pre-punched on cardstock.
* One poster. Nothing related to gameplay, just a poster.

There are over 100 counters, depicting ships and fighter flights from all the major powers and several of the minor ones. The counters are thin but serviceable replacements for the more expensive (and heavier) miniatures. It would have been better to have thicker counters, but at least they are pre-punched. There are no informational counters for the various states that may occur during the game, which is an oversight.

The rulebook is black and white. There is no artwork in the rulebook beyond a few example figures and scenario map layouts. There is only a simple table of contents with no index. The layout is simplistic, but easily readable. About a third of the book is devoted to the rules, special actions and ship & weapon special traits. The remainder of the book is divided between advanced rules, scenarios and campaign rules. The advanced rules cover jumpgates, crew quality, squadrons (moving and firing with several ships at the same time), asteroids and other bits of stellar debris, launching and docking fighters. The amount of fluff is surprisingly small for such a rich and detailed background - if you're not a B5 fan, you're not going to find detailed background info here. There is also one page of designer notes.

The fleet list book, on the other hand, is in full color. It has a more extensive table of contents, but also no index. The rules for "priority levels", or how many ships and of what quality you can purchase, are detailed here. There are a few other rules here that probably should have been included in the rulebook. Most ships, or fighter flights, get a full page devoted to them, with game stats, weapon list, ship history, dimensions and a picture of the ship or fighter. The following factions are detailed:
* Earth Alliance
* Centauri Republic
* Narn Regime
* Minbari Federation
* League of Non-Aligned Worlds
* Interstellar Alliance
* Raiders
* Vorlon Empire
* The Shadows

There are also miscellaneous craft, like freighters and spacedocks. The lists are complete enough to play right out of the box, but there are a few surprising ships missing from the list: the Babylon 5 station itself and the Vorlon Planet Killer. There are over 80 ships detailed, including fighter flights.

What is missing from the box? The previously mentioned informational counters. There are critical hits that need keeping track of, activated ships, initiative, captured ships and other states that could be better tracked by counters.

There is no player reference card with all the tables and charts (about 10 are referenced repeatedly during play for initiative, combat, critical hits - there are at least that many more for scenario setup, campaign play and so on.)

Gameplay
Players pick a scenario, ranging from Assassination (standard combat, but the attacker picks one of the defender's ships that is worth extra victory points [VP]), Convoy Duty (one convoy player versus attacking raiders), to a straight up Annihilation (last ship flying). There are 11 scenarios, none of which are "historical" (i.e., depict events that took place on the show.) Overall the scenario selection is diverse and offers plenty of re-playability but suffers from a strong connection with the B5 universe. These scenarios could work for any space combat game. "Terrain" is randomly generated based on the scenario.

Picking a fleet is interesting. Players mutually decide on a priority level (Patrol, Skirmish, Raid, Battle and War) which will determine the number and quality of ships available. You can buy more ships of a lower priority level or fewer ships of a higher level. Most of the fleets have several choices at each priority level, but a few (like the Shadows) have either one choice or none. You can trade in a ship for a fighter wing (multiple flights/counters of fighters, but each flight can only take one hit). There is an In Service date for each ship that may determine availability.

Initiative is rolled to determine ship placement, which side moves first and fires first. It is modified by race, with Vorlons and Shadows having a very large advantage.

The turn order is Initiative, Movement, Attack and End Phase. All phases are discrete (all ships are moved before there is any firing.)

During the Movement Phase, the player with initiative will determine who goes first. Each player alternates moving one ship or squadron at a time. Auxiliary craft (like fighters) have their own movement phase after all capital ships have moved. Ships have a minimum move distance of one-half their maximum Speed. Turning can only happen after they have moved this minimum distance, and all ships are restricted to a few turns (one or two 45° or 90° turns).

Instead of using normal movement, players can choose a Special Action, which are special maneuvers like Initiate Jump Point! (open a jump point if the ship is equipped with one), All Stop! (move between 0 and 1/2 maximum speed), Come About! (make a tighter turn or one additional turn), and Give Me Ramming Speed! (attempt to ram an enemy ship). There are 12 special actions. Some require a random roll modified by the quality of the crew. A few are opposed by your opponent.

After all ships have been moved, players alternate moving all of their auxiliary craft.

The player with initiative starts the Attack Phase. Players nominate ships to fire on enemy targets. Each ship can fire at multiple targets, and probably will have to since all weapons have restricted firing arcs and ranges. There is no blocking of LOS by ships and terrain. Players can measure range at any time.

Attacking requires a fair amount of dice rolling. You roll Attack Dice, based on the type of weapon. All attack dice which match or exceed the target's Hull value are hits. You then roll for each hit to determine the type of hit (bulkhead hits cause no damage, solid hits cause damage to ship and crew and critical also cause damage to specific systems). You are most likely to roll solid hits. There are weapon traits which allow re-rolls or modify the target's hull or cause additional damage. Weapons can have different values and traits depending on which type of ship they are installed on.

There are two damage tracks, one for the ship and one for the crew. If either is reduced to 0, the ship is out of the battle. Before that happens, ships can be Crippled and/or running on a Skeleton Crew. These have negative modifiers for movement and battle.

Critical Hits cause additional damage and have a lasting negative effect.

Finally, there is the End Phase, which is primarily for Damage Control (repairing the negative effects of a critical hit during a later turn.)

Phases repeat until the scenario victory conditions are met or the total number of game turns are over.

Analysis
A Call to Arms is a quick-playing fleet combat game. It doesn't simulate small numbers of ships as well as it does larger fleets, since the rules are not tactically as deep as B5 Wars or Star Fleet Battles. It is comparable to Renegade Legion: Interceptor in terms of rules complexity.

Good Points
* Small number of easily understandable, clear rules.
* Large number of ship choices.
* Complete rules for campaigns.
* New B5 gaming! Yay!

Bad Points
* No historical scenarios, which is not a long-term problem.
* Thin counters. This is partially offset by the number of counters in the box.
* Minimal B5 distinctiveness. The Special Actions and Weapon/Ship Traits add the feeling of B5, but the movement rules don't quite feel "right" after watching B5 combat. No stats for the B5 station is a crime against humanity. Well, not quite.
* For a $50 game, the box feels empty. If the quality of the counters was higher, and there were a few player aids, it would be a better value.

If you enjoyed B5 Wars or B5 Fleet Action, after a period of adjustment, you should enjoy ACTA. And while it is not a beer and pretzel game, ACTA is far less complex than SFB and makes playing a large fleet battle feasible during a single evening.

Thread: Comparison to AoG B5 Wars?

anarchy — 2004-09-25T03:41:48+00:00

Does anyone know how this compares to Agent of Gaming's B5 Wars?