Battles in the Stars

Sci-Fi Solo Rules

by George Sivess

Introduction

For quick afternoon game I use the old Superior Models Starfleet Wars ships and rules, with slight modifications, and find them to be a good outlet for gaming fever. The Superior models are now sold by Mondayknight.com

In my Galaxy there are only two real powers; the insect like Entomalians and the Terrans. As per the Starfleet rules, the Terrans have better ships but the Entomalians have more of them. Needless to say, I fight as the Terrans.

The Entomalians make great enemies for a number of reasons. Being insects they don’t think a lot so once given orders, they will try to carry them out without regard to losses. Also, since they view the inhabitants of the Galaxy as a food source we do not have to deal with surrender rules or prisoners. The food source thing also provides good scenarios for the battles; intercept the Entomalians before they can land on one of your planets and eat the population.

For simplicity and to keep from buying a fortune in models I divided the number in class in the rules by four. I then created 4 fleets and put the remainders into a Reserve Fleet which can be used to replace losses should you decide on a campaign or can suddenly appear (by die roll) into a battle in progress. The complete OB is shown below:

ClassTerranEntomalian
Dreadnought GD4 (2 old, 2 new)8 (2 old)
Carrier GAC52
Battlecruiser GB710 (3 Roach)
Cruiser SC129
Destroyer SD4957
Destroyer Ldr SDL1012
Star Bomber SB2510

The old and new variants are the different models put out by Superior. The old “Mantis” is no longer available. The Entomalians also have two kinds of GBs, the “Scorpion”, and the “Roach”. Both are available and are very different in looks and capabilities (at least the way I have modified the rules).

Fleet composition is as follows:

TERRAN Fleet

Ship1st2nd3rd4thReserve
Dreadnought (new) GD N - 1 1 - -
Dreadnought (old) GD O 1 - 1 - -
Carrier GAC 1 1 1 2 -
Battlecruiser GB 1 2 1 2 1
Cruiser SC 3 3 3 3 -
Destroyer Leader SDL 3 2 3 2 -
Destroyer SD 12 8 12 8 9
Star Bomber SB 3 3 - 9 10

ENTOMALIAN Fleet

Ship 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Reserve
Dreadnought (new) GD N 1 1 2 2 -
Dreadnought (old) GD O 1 1 - - -
Carrier GAC 1 1 - - -
Battlecruiser Scorpion GB S 1 1 2 2 1
Battlecruiser Roach GB R 1 1 - - 1
Cruiser SC 2 2 2 2 1
Destroyer Leader SDL 3 3 3 3 -
Destroyer SD 12 12 12 12 9
Star Bomber SB 2 2 2 2 2

Battles in the Stars Sci-Fi Solo Rules


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