Star General [OT]

Hi, I know that this is off topic but I'm wondering if any has a good
discription
of how combat works in Star General, or the other 5-star games.
Thanks!
-Stephen

> At 2:10 AM -0400 10/26/99, DracSpy@aol.com wrote:

Okay, I've been meaning to review Star General anyway.

They're all classic hex-based wargames. In the other 5-star games
infantry moves 3-4 hexes and can attack units adjacent. Armor goes
faster, artillery has a range of 2 or 3 and can shoot in defence of adjacent
units forming a key defensive tactic, air units can run out of fuel, there's
hidden movement which adds spice to a fun (if way
out of scale) naval system, battleships shoot 4-5 hexes, subs hide
from everything but air and DDs. Units have ten steps at full capacity,
experienced units can have more than ten (which are disproportionately
powerful and expensive). Ground units have Hard and Soft attack and defense
factors to reflect the effects of tanks. New units and replacements are bought
from Prestige Points; which are gained by winning battles and capturing
objectives. Supply of both ammunition and fuel is a vital factor, strong units
can be surrounded, run out of ammo, and destroyed.

In Star General there are two scales: space and planetside. Usually 10 ground
turns are fought for each space turn (if any ground combat is occuring). Each
planet has cities which produce Resource Points and can support facilities
(which produce RPs or allow production of ground forces or allow for higher
tech units to be purchased). Neutral planets can be grabbed in one turn by a
single AFV, enemy planets might have a few militia units while heavyily
defended planets can have over a hundred regular army units defending them and
will need to be simultaneously assaulted by 6 transports (one in each adjacent
hex since they can't move away after unloading). Invaded planets don't produce
RPs while they are being fought over, and it's really easy to burn through
thousands of RPs trying to keep up an attack in the teeth of a stiff defence.
Rounding out the economic picture are merchant ships, which move from planet
to planet collecting RPs.

Space combat can be pretty intense. Ships are fairly mobile (Missile
Boats can move 7-9 and shoot 3-4 hexes) and have a fair amount of
firepower. Units are rated for Laser and Missile strengths. Lasers fire first
and tend to damage units instead of destroying them, then missile fire is
exchanged which destroys factors. Damaged strength points can be repaired in
the field, while replacements can only be taken at a starbase or fleet tender.
There's a lot of advantage to keeping a lot of light units out scouting,
hunting transports, and destroying merchants. It's important to keep Missile
Boats with your fleet for their defensive fire. There are six races in the
game, each with its unique mix of forces. Everyone has at least one unit that
only they have, and a few races don't construct some classes (Draconians value
defence and don't build battlecruisers).

Star General is a good hex-based entry in the Civilization genre due
to it's strong economic and supply systems but has more of value for the
wargamer. Balancing the game is tough, I've been lucky and gotten fun games
about half the time I try a new setup.Each player will have to find a balance
that suits their style of play. The best game I've played involved a three
front war, plus skirmishes on 3 more flanks with one of the main fronts
involving close to five hundred ships on each side by the end of the game (the
AI line was 4 deep and extended for 40 hexes, and that's just what was within
spotting range of my battle line, luckily the AI ships had low missile
defenses so my Missile Boats were able to savage his forces just slightly
ahead of his replenishment rate, and I had to take about 10 planets with over
100 units defending them. I haven't played much since that ordeal, er game,
but I'll have to take another shot at it soon. This game does requires very
careful attention as ignoring minor tactical details can result in serious
consequences, but it rewards the careful general.

Six player network play is possible and would be a terrific way to kill a
weekend. This game is now going for cheap in a lot of places,
I got mine from eBay in 7/99 for about $12 (75+ hours of gameplay
later it's one of my best gaming purchases already). Depressed Macintosh
gamers will note that this game can be played under emulation. I used a 300
MHz G3 with about 70MB RAM allocated to Real PC with Win98 loaded and the game
plays just fine.