Fleet Action? Looking for info/news/thoughts/etc

[keltheos 0]

Seems like the new DW rulebook (or minibook?) doesn't have much info online other than a couple broad blog posts. I don't see anything on here about it either. What's the haps with it? Is it another edition or an alternative way to play Admiral's edition? I saw something about a living rulebook, stats being worked on by the community...etc. Very confused.

 

I ordered one blind and it's on the way, but wanted to plug in now and start learning about it. Play group's already asking me questions.

[Nazduruk_Bugzappa 1,813]

Fleet Action is a different game. It uses the same models, but different profiles to speed up gameplay.

[fracas 349]

Are the fleet action profiles out?

[Merlin 549]

Essentially, its just a dumbed down version of the proper game to allow games to be finished in 30mins or less.

That's about all you really need to know.

Personally, I do not see the point in it. But Spartan just gives the impression that they've thrown caution to the wind and let madness take them.

[Orson76 18]

I received my copy of Fleet Action today the book contains only stats for 1 ship the Prussian Havel to illustrate what the stats mean on the ship card.

I will not go into much detail as without stats it is impossible to know what the game experience will be like. The booklet is A5 size with 47 pages and no index. The style is similar to Dwars with lots of Bold highlighting and red and blue colouring when discussing the new Passive or Active defences the model has. Passive against gunnery bombards etc, zActive against Torps Rockets Boarding and Bombing attacks.

Line of sight and range measured from the centre of the model this applies to all models including those on bases. Only one turning template is used the medium one but some models like armoured will not use it just like in Dwars. All models however who do use the turning template must move 2 inches forward before turning.

I am not sure whether to go into much further detail if Spartan would be happy with this.

Overall I am excited by this and cannot wait until we get the Stats to be able to examine this game on the table.

[Sky Captain 176]

Not my cup of tea.

[varnos 277]

I received my copy of Fleet Action today the book contains only stats for 1 ship the Prussian Havel to illustrate what the stats mean on the ship card.

I will not go into much detail as without stats it is impossible to know what the game experience will be like. The booklet is A5 size with 47 pages and no index. The style is similar to Dwars with lots of Bold highlighting and red and blue colouring when discussing the new Passive or Active defences the model has. Passive against gunnery bombards etc, zActive against Torps Rockets Boarding and Bombing attacks.

Line of sight and range measured from the centre of the model this applies to all models including those on bases. Only one turning template is used the medium one but some models like armoured will not use it just like in Dwars. All models however who do use the turning template must move 2 inches forward before turning.

I am not sure whether to go into much further detail if Spartan would be happy with this.

Overall I am excited by this and cannot wait until we get the Stats to be able to examine this game on the table.

 

That's... Really curious. I'm all for living rulebooks and the like, but why ship a product you can't play until some later unspecified model statistics release? wtf.

[Erloas 382]

I believe that review is for the rulebook only. I imagine at the very least the models in the box will have their stats in the box.

I'll know soon, getting the box for my birthday, but I assume many others will have their box at least a few days earlier.

[alamo 455]

so another game to buy and wait for stats..................this is why I stopped DW. altho Fleet battles does look interesting for speed of play.

[CaptBrucesea 12]

why thats my question it makes me sad that this has been made becuase it will mean that eventually DW will be replaced with an inferiour version the games as is works well the things that speeds up a game the most is to replace teh tokens with dice witht the pics on made it so much quicker to find the token you need

[sleeping_squirrel 184]

I received my copy of Fleet Action today the book contains only stats for 1 ship the Prussian Havel to illustrate what the stats mean on the ship card.

I will not go into much detail as without stats it is impossible to know what the game experience will be like. The booklet is A5 size with 47 pages and no index. The style is similar to Dwars with lots of Bold highlighting and red and blue colouring when discussing the new Passive or Active defences the model has. Passive against gunnery bombards etc, zActive against Torps Rockets Boarding and Bombing attacks.

Line of sight and range measured from the centre of the model this applies to all models including those on bases. Only one turning template is used the medium one but some models like armoured will not use it just like in Dwars. All models however who do use the turning template must move 2 inches forward before turning.

I am not sure whether to go into much further detail if Spartan would be happy with this.

Overall I am excited by this and cannot wait until we get the Stats to be able to examine this game on the table.

Thanks! What about boarding?

[Rabenschwarz 56]

Everyone calm down. It's just the new take on armoured clash, it's not trying to be Dystopian Wars. It's for playing bigger or faster games, that's it.

[CaptBrucesea 12]

no I wont have it and I don't like it, I don't like change!

[Benchpresser 268]

why thats my question it makes me sad that this has been made becuase it will mean that eventually DW will be replaced with an inferiour version the games as is works well the things that speeds up a game the most is to replace teh tokens with dice witht the pics on made it so much quicker to find the token you need

 

It's never going to replace DW, it's an attempt at a ..'primer' for DW.  Similar to other games that give you "quick-start" rules before delving into the real game.  I think it's misguided and doomed but it will never replace the real game.

[AndyT 206]

I had hoped Fleet Action would be official rules for small scale battles but it looks like these unofficial ones remain the best option http://community.spartangames.co.uk/index.php?/topic/15953-battle-patrol-rules-for-smaller-faster-scenarios/

[Orson76 18]

Hi Andy,

It can be used so but like Armoured Clash I think this is that it is aimed at large games able to be played in the time at a club evening. As to fears of it replacing DWars get real guys one small box set and say 3 months for stats!!!!

How longer before the Armoured ones come out after Naval before I can get the great Russian force painted by Andy on the table and then my Flying models after that.

Sleeping Squirrel asked about boarding the game has a damage chart which I cannot reproduce here but I will give an example of a boarding action.

In the game the player activates his squadron moves then declares all his attacks by the squadron for ranged then boarding action. Boarding only occurs at point blank 0-8 inches. All models in a squadron that intend to iniative a boarding assault must target the same model. The attacker then adds all the crew points of his models together to form an attack dice pool. The defender then rolls his active defence dice using the usual exploding dice roll needing 4-6 for success. Each success reduces the attack dice pool by 1.

Next is the melee step the players now roll simultaneously using the exploding dice rule with the attacker using the surviving attack dice pool and the defender using their crew point rating.

So 4 Prussian stolz destroyers attack a covenant cleomedes cruiser. The crew of each destroyer is 3 so the attack dice pool generated is 12. The cruiser has an active defence of 4, so rolls 4 dice getting 3 successes so the attack dice pool is reduced to 9 dice. In the subsequent melee step the attacker rolls 9 dice while the cruiser with 4 crew points rolls 4 dice. Then they compare the number of successes each of them rolled against the boarding assault table. The difference between the scores determines what effect there is when rolling on the damage table. Note no loss to crew points only disorder or damage to the model.

In boarding both players each roll a d3 and compare the result on the damage chart this can be amended depending on the the differences in success rolls from the melee step, applying the result to the attacker or defender depending who rolled the most successes.

That is the basics of boarding in the game however there is one more point that if the defender has fighter sent to defend the model then they add their active defence to the models when dicing to reduce the initial attack dice pool. A carrier can launch one intercepting fighter in the opponents activation against an attack that is within effective range of the centre point of the carrier model that is 8+ to 24 inches. In the game SAW are reduced to just token per carrier point.

[Merlin 549]

So they've effectively changed boarding to use the Firestorm method? Only you can't actually lose a ship to boarding outright, only to the damage it causes??

What a laughable change that is.

[sleeping_squirrel 184]

I like that, Orson76 thanks for sharing!

[Orson76 18]

Your welcome mate. I am not a firestorm player but after Merlin's post I looked at the downloads page for task force. Open the carnage table it is slightly different for FA only 6 disorder boxes so 3 in the first line then 2 then 1 but you will be able to get an idea of how the damage table looks.

As I stated there is only 1 stats card available outside the starter set at this time which is the Havel light carrier to see the differences from the Prussian Dwars list here are the stats

Medium naval model squadron size 1-2 90 points

MARs carrier (1) Minelayer ( total the number of squadrons in a fleet whoever has more can place a minefield terrain piece as an additional terrain piece. Terrain pieces no bigger than 8x 8 inches! That's a minefield.

Move 10 inches DR 5 HP 5 CP 4 ActD 4 PasD 1 VP 4 for when model destroyed of course

Weapons Standard Broadsides Arc P+S MAR massed fire PB 7 EF 7 dice Player has to declare at end phase when any used SAW tokens are replenished whether token is bomber or fighter.

Bombers Arc 360 MAR Hunter PB 7 EF 7

Fighters Arc 360 MAR Hunter PB 6 EF 6

Special rules A single model squadron can have 0-3 Wachtar escorts attached.

As for the MARs buy the book guys.

Lots of negativity on this forum if not for hard core DWars fans okay but why the threads about who is still playing the game if all is rosy in the DWars garden.

This is not intended to be a replacement but a variation on a theme leading eventually perhaps to others playing the main game.

I am very excited about this as I have large land forces and a Prussian fleet, never gets used now very little interest in anybody new wading through DWars book to play a game never mind a club night no chance on that.

Anybody in a similar position that wants to get their models back on the table book is £10 what is that compared to the model cost you invested in. I think this has great potential for fun gaming remember that.

[sleeping_squirrel 184]

I am expecting my local shop will have the book soon, I will definitely get it. My only concern is the damage table as I do not like these kind of designer decisions that forces you to reference tables repeatedly again and again after every "hit".

 

Player has to declare at end phase when any used SAW tokens are replenished whether token is bomber or fighter.

 

SAS has only one wing?

[Erloas 382]

I would assume there is only one size of squadron, but that it would be more effective (relatively to DW) than a single SAS.  If SAS are just going to be a token then you don't really need 5 of them together just to get to a "useful" size, and with a streamlined fast play system you just make the one "size" a size that is useful on its own.

 

Neither of the USA online sites I normally use have a release date yet, it is still listed as a pre-order.  So I have no idea when I might get my copy (of the starter set, not just the rulebook).

 

As for Tables, I really have no problem with tables as long as there aren't too many and they are set up in a logical way.  In those cases you generally have the entire table memorized after just a few games and it becomes second nature to the game itself.  (To-hit and to-wound tables in WHFB/40k were simple, hit locations in Battletech is a bit easier to mix up locations but still easy to get down if you're playing with any regularity)

[Farcages 159]

I'm curious to see how this game will hold up. It'd make for some nice action in between larger, more thorough standard DW battles. Also, it'd be fun to mix fast and regular matches in situations like campaigns.

[Brother Glacius 56]

I really don't care for the damage table in Taskforce. Far too random. Oh look, I barely hit you, but we both rolled high and so your ship goes boom. Oh, you smashed my face in with that hit roll, but we both rolled low and my ship is only disordered. It does do the job though of speeding games up.

[Orson76 18]

In the game the Carrier MAR will denote how many wings of SAW can be 'placed on deck' in the end phase before moving on to a new turn. Carrier models choose which type of SAW they wish to field in the upcoming turn and literally place them on the deck of the carrier model. This is why the wing has only 1 SAW token. The Havel being Carrier (1) only deploys the 1 token. As stated above the decision can be either bomber or fighter.

The new 2 player box sets include the 5 token trays plus 10 SAW tokens but these are not used in fleet action I presume they have been included in case you wish to battle using the main 2.0 rules.

I have to apologise for an error in a previous post the max size for a terrain piece is 8x8 inches but a minefield is actually only 4x4 inches.

[sleeping_squirrel 184]

Are there any scenarios/missions or something like that?