Babylon 5 Wars

Babylon 5 Wars will be out in mid- April. The minis may be released
earlier. This is straight from Bruce Graw, their Pres. I did the counters for
the game and participated in the playtesting. I think those who want something
between Full Thrust and SFB will enjoy it greatly.

Hello, Has anyone played the new Babylon 5 Wars game? I'd like to hear how
well its written. Hopefully I'll be able to find some folks to play it with.
Phil P.

> Has anyone played the new Babylon 5 Wars game? I'd like to hear how

It's not out yet that I am aware. The B5 Project role-playing game was
*just* released today (but does *not* include Jon Tuffley's ship combat rules
that I could find; are these being released in the EarthForce Sourcebook???
Jon?)

The only stuff I have seen of the B5Wars game was the playtest package
material, so not sure what changes have occurred since the playtest sessions.
Be forewarned: it is more complicated than Full Thrust, but
not as bad as SFB.  ;-)  Bit more complicated than Battletech, but you
can *do* things with your ship(s) (such as roll maneuvers, pivots, etc). I've
yet to get any of my 'Mechs to do a leaping somersault...

Mk

> On Fri, 14 Mar 1997, Phillip E. Pournelle wrote:

> Hello,
Is it out yet? I know the Babylon 5 Project is out this week, but did the
Babylon 5 Wars came out as well?

************************************************************************
*
*"To be or not to be that is the question."
*
*To be is infinite better then to be in the limbo flowing around...
*
*So.....			 Get a life... :)
*

> On Fri, 14 Mar 1997, Mike Wikan wrote:

> Babylon 5 Wars will be out in mid- April. The minis may be released

COOLNESS! How soon will the minis be released?

Later,

> Has anyone played the new Babylon 5 Wars game? I'd like to hear

> Has anyone played the new Babylon 5 Wars game? I'd like to hear
Jon?)
> Yes, the starship combat rules are going to be a chapter in the EF

Ahhhhhh...thanks; any idea when this might possibly be released? I've been
trying to get to Chameleon Eclectic's website all weekend but it's been a
bust.

Mk

As I described in my previous message reagarding my B5 Fighter Simulation
Game, most players when they play for the first time do go charging into
battle, assail their opponent and then (assuming they survive) spend the next
two turns bleeding off momentum, building it up in the opposite direction and
then go screaming off again. The best player in the game was like a ballet
dancer in how he flew his ship. He would thrust to set his initial vector,
adust slightly as he closed his opponents and then would dance on the outer
edge of their effective fire control range of else just outside their weapons
arcs. It was brilliant to watch him play. For those who want games where they
don't have to plan ahead, please play the other games, collectible card games
come to mind. War Gamers should be able to plan ahead, since every successful
military engagement does require some far seeing and then adjustment as
contact is made with the enemy... By the way, that ACE I refered to earlier,
while he is a very intelligent Electronic Warfare specialist, does not have a
college
degree....
Phil P.

[we go briefly off-topic here]

> For those who want games where they don't have to plan ahead, plea=

You don't have to like collectible card games, but they have their own place
in games of strategy, tactics, and planning ahead. Don't knock 'em 'cause you
don't like 'em by attributing that they don't have something when they do.
I've gotten slammed more times than I care think for *not* thinking, and have
pulled out some incredible plays *by* planning ahead.

Just 'cause it ain't got counters/minis and a map don't make it all bad,
ya know.  ;-)

[coming back briefly on-topic]

Speaking of cards...anyone make any headway in the FT threshold damage cards
yet??

Mk

> On Mon, 17 Mar 1997, Phillip E. Pournelle wrote:

> For those who want games where they don't have to plan ahead,

Whoa there! Are you seriously telling me what to play?

Please note I said "plan AND CALCULATE". I've no objection to planning.
Plans just rarely survive contact with the enemy :-) Therefore they
have to be loose and flexible. Whereas CALCULATION is a sure thing, as long as
nothing changes. But things do change, meaning you have to do the calculation
over again. And again. And again. And again...

And I do not want to do mechanical trigonometry every time I try to get
somewhere. That's what the ship's computer is for.

Just a couple of questions for any B5 Wars players out
there...

Is it possible to not face a hex side while firing? A Minbari War Cruiser can
only bring all its front weapons to bare on a target if that target is neatly
lined up along a hex row if facings are restricted to hex sides. This seems
pretty stupid, but I can't find any rules which allow lining up on a target.
Are there any? Has anyone come up with something workable?

Also, has anyone tried ditching the hex system and just used some convenient
measurement scale? Any problems with doing this?

Finally, more a background point, but does anyone else think that the scales
are totally wrong? 150m length for a Minbari Cruiser seems out by a factor of
about ten, given how big they look when compared to B5 itself (8km long).

I think the game could be more tactically interesting
than FT - mainly because of the more varied fire arcs
(an Omega needs to recharge its big front weapons, so has to be brought round
to give a broadside etc), but isn't too suited for big combats. I'll leave
judgement until I've played a few real games I think.

Hello all,

> From Sam,

> Just a couple of questions for any B5 Wars players out

Well, I have yet to play more than one game due to my life becoming a hectic
whirlwind, studying for finals whilst trying to get a job and hold down the
one I currently have is getting mighty intersting at this end.
:)

> Is it possible to not face a hex side while firing? A

Unfortunately I have no ideas about this, sorry. As soon as I get some time I
plan on ditching the hexes period, maybe use something similar to the fire
arcs thing in full thrust or something. Not sure,

> Also, has anyone tried ditching the hex system and just

I wouldn't think so, and from what I can gather the hex maps they give you are
waaaay to small anyway, the board needs to be bigger.

> Finally, more a background point, but does anyone else

Yeah, I think they got the scales out of whack myself, especially when they
say the Hyperions are longer than the Omegas, BUT a note in their defence is
that if you pay attention to the episodes with the army of light, the sizes
seem to shift and so on, not sure, but I think the production company for the
CGI may have made a few errors themselves. AOG themselves have said they got
some details incorrect and that they would be updated in future supplements,
IIRC. Considering how they have to keep sending stuff off to Warner Bros. for
'approval' (which has to add so much time to the production) you'd think this
sort of thing would get picked up?

> I think the game could be more tactically interesting

Yeah, (he says dragging it vaguely on topic) the game is slightly more
tactical in that aspect, but then damage seems to be rather nasty, not sure,
and this is going off the one game I have managed to play, but it seems to me
that once you start firing things go to hell, consistent with the show and
all. As for big combats, not sure, I think for it to work all the players have
to be experienced at the rules etc. so that you don't have to keep stopping
and go "what happens now?". Sorry for the
off-topicness.....

Oh yeah, just a plug for the B5 Wars mailing list btw:

send a message to; majordomo@csua.berkeley.edu and include the following text
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That's all folks.

> Samuel Penn wrote:
...Snip...(JTL)

> Is it possible to not face a hex side while firing? A
...Snip...(JTL)
> --

Sam, I shall admit that I have not tried the B5 rules. A suggestion for the
limited (direct hex line) arc of fire is; Allow the firing ship to use its
main weapons on any hex that the weapons passed thru or end on during the move
portion of the turn. (I presume move then fire is the norm.)

Bye for now, TTFN,