Posts by Ian S

  • Billion Suns

    The rule says no more than <whatever the scale is> at any one time, which we've been playing at 5. I don't think we've ever gone more than that, but that was more down to a lack of models (on my part anyway).

    I got some more stuff from Brigade to make my EuroFed fleet a better fit for my ABS selections:


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    I got the freighters with the side-containers to use as Medium Utils and the tri-wing Star Wars shuttle looking ones for Light Utils. I also found the three-position fighter stand, which is sold separately in their accessories section, for some godforsaken reason.

  • Billion Suns

    Looking good! Although, I noticed the other day there is actually a rule that limits the number of utility ships to <scale>, which I hadn't noticed before. Which I think is a dumb rule and we should carry on playing it the way we have.

    Unless there's some horrible unbalancing thing that happens if you swarm with utility ships, which I can't see myself, but who knows...

  • Billion Suns

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    The finale: With the extremely valuable anomaly called the Rhexis Pearl about to go unstable and be lost forever, two Frigates come through the jump gate and lay down a withering curtain of auxilliary blaster fire. Under cover of the guns, a battlegroup of Medium Utility ships braves the Rhexis storm to get their mag locks on the prize.

  • Billion Suns

    I love this game for the absolute scenes it makes. Here two Corvettes (top) and their fighter screen await the results of a Recon Wing's scans, hunting smugglers in a busy shipping lane when they're ambushed by three wings of Bryan's bombers looking to scoop the bounty. In the bottom right a utility ship offloads a heroic medical team returning from saving the space station from a virulent disease .


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  • 7th April 23 - A Billion Suns

    Contracts in Detail:


    Supply Contract

    Docking - When a Utility Ship Battlegroup without a docking token scans the planetoid, it gains a Docked token.

    Supply - When a Utility Ship Battlegroup with a Docked token scans the planetoid, it places a number of friendly Supply tokens on the planetoid equal to it's mass.

    Closed Markets - At the end of Round 3, discard any cards remaining in the Hearts deck.

    Revenue - In the End Phase, each CEO takes it in turn to discard a number of friendly Supply tokens equal to the value of the top card of the Hearts deck to gain the revenue from that card. Discard the card. The process is repeated until all CEOs have fewer Supply tokens than the value of the top card in the Hearts deck.


    Whaling Contract

    Instinctual - 1. Space Kraken targets highest value ship within 12", or closest ship if none. 2. Moves towards target. 3. Suffers any Passive attacks 4. Attacks target battlegroup

    Appraise Quarry - When a Space Kraken is scanned for the first time, the scanning CEO draws the top card from the Diamonds deck.

    Whaling - When a Kraken is destroyed it drops a heart token within 2". When a Utility Ship Battlegroup scans a heart token, it picks up all heart tokens within scan range.

    Revenue - When a Utility Ship Battlegroup uses a jump point, its CEO can reveal and score revenue from one Diamond card held for each heart carried.


    Infowar Contract

    System Overide - Each ComSat may be hacked. To hack a ComSat, a battlegroup must scan it. if a CEO hacks a ComSat, it ceases to be hacked by any other CEO.

    Revenue - From Round 2 onward, in the End Phase, the CEO with the most hacked ComSats scores one ComSat, that ComSat ceases to be hacked. Repeat until there are no hacked ComSats. For each scored ComSat, the CEO draws the top card from the Spades contract deck and collects its revenue. Then discard the card.


    The game ends when no more revenue can be scored from these contracts.

  • 7th April 23 - A Billion Suns

    FAO Bryan B and Mitch (or possibly Mitchp ).


    If you're both still up for trying this on Friday night, I thought I'd do a bit of the setup ahead of time. It's a bit involved, and a bunch of faffing with playing cards, the time is probably better spent playing. If you're OK with that, I'll run through what I drew below:


    A Billion Suns Setup


    1. Decide on a Scale. - The recommends scale 3 for a first game.


    2. Choose a Contract Set. There's only one in the book, so I picked that, Core Systems. (You can get additional sets as expansions, apparently)


    3. Generate Contracts. This is done by creating a 'Contract Generator Deck' out of the 12 picture cards in a standard deck of cards. I drew Q Hearts, K Diamonds and J Spades.


    This means the three contracts our intergalactic CEOs will be vying for will be:


    Queen of Hearts - Supply Contract: This nascent colony world is on the brink of starvation. This means they are willing to pay significantly over the odds for their essentials.

    King of Diamonds - Whaling Contract: The Escaldian Mega-Squid is a near-priceless delicacy, but fishing for it is a deadly business.

    Jack of Spades - Infowar Contract: Perception is reality. War is information.


    4. Set up the System - This is done by the System Administrator, who we roll off for. They'll be setting up two tables (or one divided in half somehow) and one Planetoid, three ComSats and three Space Whales, wherever they like across them, as long as there is at least one objective on each table.


    5. Start Round 1