A Sky Full of Ships, is one of Dan Abbott's "Fast and Simple" free wargames rules. Like all good science fiction fleet rules, it uses a movement system that takes into account momentum, and allows gamers to design a wide variety of ships.
Dan writes:
I first started space gaming with several little known rule sets many years ago, but soon heard about, and started using Star Fleet Battles. An excellent game for its time, I played it for several years but as it got more and more complicated, I started to feel like I needed to study the game like a college course just to play it. I moved on.
I quit playing space combat games for a while, but then I discovered Full Thrust. In no time I was back playing everything from tiny single ship actions, to huge multi-player campaigns. I still play (and enjoy) this game. But there was a problem. Although great for small battles, its game mechanics for combat took too long to work out in large fleet actions. For us, this lead to boring pauses in large multi player games while you waited for your opponents to fire large ships.
Motivated by the release of Fleet Scale Babylon 5 miniatures from Agents of Gaming, I started mixing & matching ideas and soon these rules were born. I used simplified game mechanics and a stream lined turn sequence so that huge battles could be played quickly & easily using large fleets of ships. Hope you enjoy
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
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