SF3D

Game Analysis

by Rob



I have a couple games, SF3D and its follow-up SF3D 2 which focuses on powered-armor (akin to Starship Troopers) combat. The game boards are similar to ASL maps, and each piece represents a single armor troop (with the exception of 7-man non-armored infantry squads).

The original game is Japanese and, unfortunately, was never properly translated. A lot of details in the rules (such as troop-transport rules) are left out, and in some cases the rules are dramaticly altered. The best example is the way combat rolls are done. The US version takes the familiar and common 'add 2d6' approach, but the original Japanese version is 'multiply 2d6'. This creates a significant difference between the two because they both use the same target numbers! So one unit, which has an attack rating of 14 has a target of 12 against units with a defense of 2.

Within the US version, this is a hit 100% of the time. In the Japa-nese version this is a hit somewhere around 61% of the time. You can find what's been translated of the original rules at www.sf3d.com. We would be very interested in finding a fan who is fluent in Japanese to contribute to the translation.


Back to Strategist 325 Table of Contents
Back to Strategist List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1998 by SGS
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com