Big news all around this issue. As you've no doubt read already, SHADIS is going monthly, and with precious little warning to some of the loyal columnists (that's me, among others). As a result, I was caught short with nothing on hand ... so I've shamelessly dug up a previous review I did for Flagship. Apologies to those who get both, but there ought not be too many of you who get both and remember this review.
Speaking of Flagship, there's some pretty big news there as well. As many of you know, I functioned as US Editor for that publication And as the PBM Editor here as well. Naturally, such an ordered environment had to bow to the forces of entropy.' The US edition of Flagship has recently been sold, and will be renamed American Flagship. The new owner (and editor) is Bob McLain, a, regular coluninist and long time veteran of the PBM scene. I'll still be affiliated with Flagship, doing some sort of article, review, or column for each issue, and I'll continue to handle the duties here as well. For now, those desiring to get in touch with American Flagship by snail mail can still contact me - a new address will be forthcoming.
Ok, enough housekeeping. Forthwith, I present to you a review of Continuum by Zephyr Games, a low- to mid-complexity game of galactic conquest.
What, Another Space PBM?
That's what I imagine that a hefty percentage of you experienced gainers are saying to yourself. 'Tis true that the "galactic empires at war" theme has had more than its share of the PBM market, and it's also true that such games have come and gone across the years. What, then, makes Con. tinuum any different from the others, and why should you risk your hard-earned dollars on this game? Read on - I'll cover what makes Continuum unique, and what it's good and bad points are. Whether you risk you money, as always, up to you.
The Basics
The basic premise behind Continuum is similar to that behind dozens of other space empire designs - each player begins with a single star system, and strives to eliminate his or her competition in order to fulfill their rightful destiny as ruler of the known galaxy. That established, we turn to what is in one's setup packet: a slim 30-page rulebook (5" x 8.5"), a four~page color hex-grid map -of the playing area, information on the player's starting system and know technologies, a listing of other players in the game, and the initial fill-in-the-box turn sheets. All of this is surprisingly complete, even with the brief rules.
Continuum isn't a horribly complicated game in terms of rules, but is rather deep in terms of strategies, as we'll go into later.
Each game is played on a 40x40 hex grid (2-dimensional) that contains 160 different star systems, over which up to 20 players (fewer at the discretion of the GM, but usually not less than 15) vie for total control. The map printout is split into 4 quadrants, one per page, and depict each star system color-coded by spectral type important for production purposes.
Players are allowed to choose from a list of colorful "icons" that will identify their systems and fleets on a first come, first served basis. These will serve to indicate ownership and fleet dispositions of all one's own holdings, as well as any enemy units within scanning range. This is very neatly done, and the map is one of Continuum's nicer points each turn you can get a good perspective on what is happening just by looking at the "known" area of the map.
Once the game gets goings, players will receive reports on leading empires, technology advancements, fleet and ship dispositions, and known ship designs in a fairly easy to read format. The fleet and ship listings do tend to get a bit cluttered at times, due to the large number of each that a player can have. Otherwise, it is a model of clarity.
The basic space PBM theme of "produce, research, expand, negotiate and conquer" holds true here as in other games. Continuum does have its own angle on each of these things, however, so I'll address each separately.
Building for a Better Future: Production
The economic system in Continuum is very simple, and is kept that way on purpose. The designer wants the players to focus on ship design and combat, not niggling accounting details of taxation, population, raw materials, and the like. As a result, it's quite simple to keep track of the economy of empire.
Each star system owned produces generic resource points, which is used for all economic activity: ship production, investment, research and development, and ship repairs. Home systems will typically have a RP value of 200, regardless of spectral type. Other systems will have a random amount of RP production depending on stellar class: White stars will usually have the lowest income, followed by Red, Blue, Green, Orange, and the coveted Yellow stars, some, of which rival homeworlds in potential. The budding emperor will do well to keep an eye toward spectral class when planning his initial expansion!
Normally, RPs can only be spent at the system where they were generated. However, transfers can be made to other systems or to other players -- at a small cost. Any RPs transferred will spend one turn "in transit", during which time they are unavailable for use by anyone. This isn't a significant penalty, but it does encourage good planning. Otherwise, RPs can be used to build ships that will appear at the end of the turn in a "Holding Fleet" -- a fleet that can neither move nor fight, and that will be instantly destroyed if engaged by enemy ships. Only after the ships are transferred to an active fleet (and thereby equipped with crew and fuel) on a subsequent turn can these vessels be used. This also forces advanced planning, as building a large fleet this turn to counter a surprise enemy thrust is worthless -- you'll have to have the ships already assigned for them to act as defenders.
On the other hand, system reinvestment and technology research is immediate - those RPs are applied at once. System reinvestment allows a player to increase the RP production of a system by 1 RP for every 7 RP spent. This is a pretty low return on investment, and should only really be used by a player who is forced into a pure defensive position and even then, R&D is usually a better choice. Otherwise, RPs are used to repair damaged ships, at 50% of the cost of building new replacement systems.
Note that some ships may be equipped with devices that will attempt self-repair, at no cost in RPs at all. Such systems tend to he both slow and expensive, however. Finally, if you desire to do nothing else, you can just accumulate the RPs from turn to turn at the system, to be spent later en masse for that really expensive ship design, or that massive transfer of aid to a needy ally...
Scientists and Naval Architects - Research
The heart of Continuum is ship design - assembling a listing of different components into a workable warship, and using those designs to eliminate your enemies. There are six technology areas that may be researched: Hulls, Weapons, Defenses, Warp Drives, Sensors, and Miscellaneous Modules. Each player begins at TL 1 in all areas, and research is conducted independently in each - it is quite possible to be, say, TL 3 in Scanner tech, but still TL 1 in all others.
Note that all research is related to ship construction, with the single exception of Scanner Technology. In other words, there is no way to increase your RP output via R&D, nor are there planetary based defenses. The only things a system contains are a scanner of the very latest TL, an RP production value, and an RP stockpile. Everything else is contained in the various fleets in orbit about the planet.
Every player beings with a listing of the common TL 1 components - ship hulls ranging from the tiny size 4 Scout to the mid- sized size 16 Light Cruiser, as well as a variety of non-mobile "System Defense" platforms, from size 1 to size 50. Upon these hulls can be assembled Warp Drives, Thrusters, Pulse Lasers, Anti-Missiles, Repair Pods, and a plethora of other items - a beginning list of 13 different units. Each subsequent TL breakthrough will bring the ability to construct new modules: better weapons, longer range scanners, bigger hulls. It is in these design considerations that you will decide the style of your battle fleets. Will you rely on small, swift, expendable ships? Huge armored leviathans, sturdy but slow? General purpose jack-of-all, trades vessels? The choice is yours.
Investment in technology is straightforward. Each system can contribute a percentage of its total RP stockpile toward a particular area. Depending on the amount spent, you will then have a chance on subsequent turns of attaining a breakthrough to a new level, at which point spending drops to zero and the cycle continues.
For example, let's say you elect to spend 50 RP from your home system on Scanner Tech on turn 1. This will give you x% chance of attaining Scanner TL 2 (the actual chance is not revealed, but you do get a "pie chart" showing the rough chance each turn). Assuming you are unlucky, you will still have an x% chance on the next turn of attaining a breakthrough, even if you spend no RP's on that particular area. Thus, while it is possible to spend enough quickly to get a 100% chance of a breakthrough, it is more economical to spend small amounts each turn, and gain the breakthroughs a bit slower.
Make sure that you always have a small amount in each TL area, even if it's not critical to you; the chance of "hitting the jackpot", however small, is worth it.
Manifest (Stellar) Destiny Expansion
This is the quick grab of surrounding neutral star systems, and is vital to a player's continued success. Note the word "quick" - virtually every one of the 160 systems will be owned by the end of turn 3! Hesitating during this phase is fatal in the long run, but so may be overreaching yourself. For this reason, small ships are the rule of thumb early. However, under no circumstances should you build an unarmed design, as it will automatically retreat when encountering a hostile vessel, losing what ever you may have gained. The preferred explorer ship with the starting equipment is either a size-4 Scout with a TL-1 scanner, a fission missile launcher, and 2 TL-1 warp engines or (preferably) a size-6 Police Ship with a TL-1 scanner, a fission missile launcher, and 4 TL-1 warp engines.
The next larger ship, the size-8 Escort, is twice the mass of these two, and so would require twice as many TL-l warp engines to attain the same speed: not worth it at all! Build as many of these small ships as you can, and stake your claim to all surrounding systems, following them with a second wave of similar or larger ships.
Being the first to take a neutral system has two advantages: first, there is a small stockpile of RPs on each system in addition to the normal production. Second, and more important, there is a small chance that a new technology of a random type will be discovered on a new system -- a wrecked alien ship with TL-2 scanners, for example.
Once a system has been taken, fortify it heavily with defense platforms, or ship designs with few warp engines and lots of weapons and defenses. After the first 3 or so turns of frantic expansion, the game momentum swings heavily to the defense, as non-mobile designs are more cost effective than fast ships. This is the time to build yourself up, assemble your fleet, and contact your neighbors...
The Silver Tongue: Negotiation
Now comes the ticklish part. You have seized all available galactic real estate, and have a combination of map edges (the map does not wrap around) and potentially hostile neighbors in all directions. While you experiment with ship designs and drive your scientists feverishly onward, you need to contact some of those faceless icons out there. In a curious twist, cooperation between fleets in Continuum is impossible; battle will always occur between fleets belonging to different empires. You can, however, negotiate borders with certain of your neighbors, and even send RPs back and forth - assuming you have that much trust!
In the initial setup, you can choose how much contact information you wish to disclose: none, name and address, or name, address, and telephone number (work, home, or both). Watch out for those "anonymous" players, as they are usually the most ruthless of the warmongers.
The Iron Fist -- Conquest If you are lucky enough (or skilled enough a diplomat), you can pick your own time in which to attack; otherwise, you'll be defending yourself against enemy fleets sweeping in toward your worlds. This is where your ship designs come into play: Just how effective are your missile-carrying destroyers against the enemy's heavily shielded frigate squadrons? Combat is the heart of the system, and it is wellexplained in the rules. There are a few twists due to ship and fleet initiatives and retreat levels, but these will become apparent after your first couple of skirmishes. Remember: weapons and defenses aren't the only measure of a ship's combat ability! Advanced warp drives and high-tech scanners will give any fleet a big edge in the grand strategy.
The Tactics of Empire: Beginning Tips
A few rules of thumb for the novice player :
- 1. Expand as quickly as possible -- or faster. See the above commentary.
2. Invest early and often in R&D.
3. The most important technologies early are Scanners and Warp, not Weapons and Defenses.
4. Don't forget that ships built this turn are sitting ducks for an attacker, if their cover fleet is forced to retreat.
5. The defender has the advantage early, but this will disappear if you get too complacent. You must spread your defending ships about, while the attacker can concentrate his forces.
6. Even obsolete designs can absorb enemy fire in a pinch.
So, is it any good? Conclusions
The answer is a qualified yes. If you're not afraid to play "yet another space game," Continuum can be a lot of fun. Due to the number of ships involved, filling out the turns can be a bit tedious, but it's not very onerous, and there's no tricky codes to remember - just ship IDs or even names (the GM is very flexible). Turn around is one turn every 3 weeks, and this is adhered to, most of the time. The GM is quite accommodating if you have problems or late turns, and is reachable by phone. He'll even set up a fax on that number by prior arrangement for those desperately late turns. If you're looking for a moderately deep game with simple rules and an emphasis on naval combat, this is a good one to try. Contact them at Zephyr Enterprises, PO Box 178, Citrus Heights, CA 95611-0178.
Back to Shadis #22 Table of Contents
Back to Shadis List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines
© Copyright 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group
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