Starfleet Wars: Avarian Ships Part 1

Somewhere around 1975, ALNAVCO released the Superior "Starfleet Wars" rules and ships. There were five different races; the Terrans (whose ships look suspiciously like those of the Empire in Star Wars), the Avarians (birdlike creatures), Entomalians (inumerable isectoid race), Carnivorans (a Feline related race - think Kzin), and the Aquarians (water breathing life forms), These were very nice  models, and the introductory rules came with one of the small ships for each race. My original wargaming group got hooked on them, and we began collecting fleets - Chuck took the Entomalians, Paul the Terrans, Charlie the Aquarians, and I took the Avarians, plus the Carnivorans for good measure (as I always usually painted and out purchased the rest of the guys combined when it came to any of our projects) .

The fliers that came out with the original release of the ships showed all of them painted white with minimal details in other colors, sort of a la "Star Wars". We didn't care for that, and devised our own general paint schemes for the five races - Entomalians in browns with yellow, orange, and dark green highlights, Terrans in white and silver, Aquarians in medium blue, greens, and gold, Avarians in dark blue, Carnivorans in black and red. We kicked around various ideas for a space campaign with our fleets, but it never got beyond the planning stages. Recently, Mack has been reviewing the original Starfleet Wars rules on his Super Galactic Dreadnought blog, as well as collecting and painting ships of the various factions, recently re-released under the Galactic Knights brand, and with brand new Galactic Knights rules, which are not the subject of these posts. There is a review of the new GK rules on Board Game Geek here.

Last week on his blog, Mack proposed a campaign modeled on the WW2 hunt for the Bismark, the details of which can be found at:

http://supergalacticdreadnought.blogspot.com/2012/01/sunday-starships-chancellor-campaign.html

Named "The Chancellor Campaign", he called for volunteers as strategic and (local) tactical players. I volunteered for the former, and am now the proud(?) admiral in charge of the powerful Avarian Homeworlds fleet. Together with two fellow Avarian players, we must hunt down and neutralize the massive Terran Super Galactic Dreadnought "Chancellor", and its Galactic Battleship escort, before they can do too much damage to our shipping, which is focused upon bolstering the defenses of one of our star systems where we anticipate a future Terran assault.

I've been threatening to post pictures of my own Starfleet Wars ships for quite some time, and this campaign provides me with an excuse to so so. Never fear, I am still painting Napoleonic troops, and posts on topics Napoleonic will continue to be prominent here.  So, let's start with some pictures of the first batches of Avarian star ships.


"Hawk" class Stellar Destroyers (SD)

The Stellar Destroyers were the smallest class of ships in the original SFW rules, and the boxed starter set came with one SD each from each of the five factions... just to whet your appetite!

The stats for the "Hawk" Class SD are as follows:

Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads

    31             2                     3                16%               none                2                  6

By way of explanation, in SFW, beams and shields, and engines must be powered; it costs the SQUARE of the desired factor in power units to enable it; thus a beam factor of 2 costs 4 units, while a shield factor of 3 costs 9 power units, and a move factor of 5 would cost 25. Standard ships are capable of a maximum speed of 5 (movement is 3" x the move factor) Each turn the player must specify what he is powering. As a ship takes hist, its power factors are reduced, with zero reducing the ship to immobility. It is readily apparent that, even undamaged, no ships will be capable of powering their max speed, shields and beams. Thus, there are always choices to be made.

The CIDS factor is the % chance to hit fighter craft - each ship has 10 rolls per turn (when in range), with bigger and better ships having higher CIDS factors. As a ship takes damage, its number of CIDS shots is reduced proportionate to the damage suffered.  Finally, Particle Weapons (PW - think torpedoes) require no energy to fire for their first shot, but thereafter 5 power units per factor fired are expended. They ignore shields of the target, and can cause special (critical) damage as well. They are the principal weapon of the smaller ships, but the number of reloads is finite and their range is less. Never the less, they can be deadly, even to large ships, IF they get close enough. Tractors can also be powered from the same pools, and there are "boarding" rules as well.

The stats for each factions ships of the same class are all subtly different, reflecting the differing tactical doctrines of their creators. These distinctions could easily be further differentiated with minimal rules tinkering. 

"Screech Owl"  class Stellar Destroyer Leaders (SDL)

This class was a rather late addition to the SFW ships, coming out after several other new ships and ship types had been released by Superior. Note that I give each ship a "facing color" of its own (above red, yellow, green and orange) - you can see my Napoleonic background there, obviously! For the Avarians, the first ship of a class always has red, then the second yellow, the third green, etc. This makes the ships readily distinguishable on the tabletop without needing labels. 

Here are the stats for the Avarian "Screech Owl" class SDL's:

Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads

  36                 2                    4                 22%             none               3                   9

Thus it can be seen these slightly larger ships pack a bit of extra punch above the run of the mill SD! 

"Falcon" class Stellar Cruisers (SC)

Here's a squadron of  Falcon class SC's; it is now easier to see the overall paint scheme I have used for the Avarian ships - dark blue hulls, black "necks", white superstructures, light blue layers below those where applicable, and gun metal colored levels below that. The major laser mounts are metallic blue with silver barrels, and the small laser turrets (representing CIDS mounts) are silver. 

The stats for the "Falcon" class SC's are:

Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads

    65             6                   7                54%                none                2                   6 

     

"Squadron - Flank Speed!"

Thus, these Cruisers take more than twice as much damage as the Destroyers, and can certainly power higher factors, especially when traveling at the faster speeds. They ae also much better at fending off the attacks of fighter craft. 

"Eagle Class" Galactic Battecruisers (GB)

This particular class is  the pride of the Avarian fleet; it easily outclasses the ships in the same class of any other faction! In addition, the sloping hulls of the Avarian ships are described as being "heavily armored", especially from above. Supposedly the Avarians characteristically fought in a "box-like" formation, hulls to the outside. There is nothing in the rules that encourages or rewards this, however. 

Here are the stats for the impressive "Eagle" class Galactic Battlecruisers:

Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads

  156            10                 12              44%                  none                2                 6

I made these "flight stands" years ago from washers, nails, and epoxy, then spray painted black. These models are really quite heavy - too heavy for a single plastic flight stand of the old school to be sure!

A look at a pair of Eagles, engines putting out "full thrust". Note the multiple heavy laser turrets! The star mat is from the old Geohex line... 4 by 6 feet, and without the hex grid!

The SFW wars describe the Avarian Particle Weapons as "Proximity Fused Anti-Matter missiles"; each faction has a different weapon description. This, however, has no effect upon the game according to the rules as written. Once again, no reason that couldn't be changed a bit for more flavor!

Well, I think that's about it for now. Subsequent posts will cover the Galactic Attack Carriers, Galactic Dreadnoughts, and Super Galactic Dreadnoughts of the Avarian fleet, followed by their Transports, Starbombers, Star Armored Pursuit Ships, fighters ("attack craft"), and Space stations.  I'll then cover the Terrans in the same fashion, and, eventually the Carnivorans, Entomalians, and Aquarians.

For those of you who are not fans of Sci-Fi, don't worry, the Napoleonics will be back and soon; my Russian Opolchenie are nearing completion as we march on towards the battle of Borodino at Historicon this July!

"Engage!"

Peter