Who's getting into 'A Billion Suns' and why?

[macrossmartinParticipant 146xp 3]

Greetings, fellow space-cadets.

After watching a game design discussion with author Mike Hutchinson on Guerrilla Miniature Games’ youtube channel I am seriously ruminating (ohh, those prunes), on the idea of getting into A Billion Suns.

The game’s central premise seems to be space mega-corporations hire mercenary fleets to do their dirty work in vacuum, so you can choose pretty much anything for your ships, and have at it. Working for different corps brings different advantages, and your fleet can be working for one corp one week, and another the next without painting an entire new fleet.

(Although painting a couple of fleets for cola wars in space has some appeal…)

Any insights from anyone lucky enough to have tried the game already?

If you are also thinking along my line, what’s your motive for boshing paint onto steel leviathans of the void?

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 2]

the game is a lot of fun, I particularly like the fact that scenarios are generated first and then you have to build your fleet to complete your objective while staying under budget.

I’m currently building two fleets based on the Babylon 5 Fleet Action game and can see it being a lot of fun in the long term.

I interviewed Mike a couple of weeks ago, it will be on the channel on Tuesday 23rd. In the meantime find yourself a fleet you like and get to painting

[sundancer 42957xp 1]

I’m tempted…. still clinging to the “I will get through this year without yet another system” 😉

[limburger 21698xp 1]

I bet you can use your Xwing fleet @sundancer …

Consider it an upgrade from Xwing v2 😀

so technically all you’re buying is a new version upgrade pack 😉
(and it’s cheaper than the v1-v2 Xwing upgrade … )

[sundancer 42957xp 1]

I could see SW:Armada working but not X-Wing…

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 1]

I am very tempted. I have been 3D printing space ships for a while now with the intention of painting them up like the Infinity factions and Billion Suns seems like it would be a good rules set to go with.

At the moment all the ships are just sat in tubs but when I get around to painting them up I will probably do a project for it. I have no idea whether or not the classes I ran with will align to Billion Suns but I am sure, being an agnostic rules set, I will be able to shoe horn my models into the game.

I went with 8 size classes, starting at 0 (because I am an Ada programmer by trade and that’s just how it’s done).

Class 0 – Dreadnoughts and Fleet Carriers, generally over 12cm with a soft limit at 12cm (although that’s more of a guide than a limit)

Class 1 – Battle/Heavy Cruisers and Assault Carriers, generally 10-12cm long

Class 2 – Light Cruisers, generally 8-10cm long

Class 3 – Destroyers, generally 6-8cm long

Class 4 – Frigates, generally 4-6 cm long

Class 5 – Corvettes, 3-4cm lonh

I also added Bombers and Fighters as classes 6 & 7 just in case the rules support such things. In order to build the fleets, I have had to steal ships from well known IPs

[blipvertus 12354xp 0]

Maybe. If I do, I might use my Dropfleet models. Or maybe some War Rocket minis as I like the retro theme. (Same universe as Retro Raygun.).

[hairybrains 12990xp 0]

I have it on order, and have quite a few SW armada and dropfleet ships and I have the files from Game God

https://www.gamegodterrain.com/sci-fi

but I haven’t printed any yet as I am not sure what or how many I will need of each.

As for why, always loved my big spaceship games and I thought I would give this a go, sounds like fun the buy in to low as you only need the book if you have some ships already

[torros 23816xp 0]

Havent really got into a good miniatures fleet space game since Full thrust . Amazon are saying the rules will be here tomorrow 18/02 so looking forward to giving them a brief read through as I can’t  see any games being  played until at least the summer

[torros 23816xp 1]

It arrived

[osbad 4279xp 1]

I’m thinking about this.  I like space fleet games.  Looking forward to seeing the lets play.

 

Edit: just hit “buy”…

[captainventanusParticipant 4936xp 1]

Picked up a copy read through it last night. I get the unique elements of the rules and can see how this might give quite a different gaming experience. Managing resources and having to prioritise different battles is a different so of challenge. I’m happy to give it a try using DFC fleets, no harm in that ever. Overall I’m not unhappy to have gotten the rules, but beyond trying it out for the challenge I can’t see myself playing this much. I am far less interested than I was a good year ago when looking over the early concept on the website.

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 1]

My copy arrived this morning (following an impulse buy on Amazon) and I think I can easily map the ship classes I invented onto those described in the book. I will also see whether it’s possible to invent a new class for the light carriers I envisioned using (perhaps allowing them to carry less or only allow them to house specific ship types). This might be my next project after I finish Star Saga

[doomriderParticipant 1411xp 2]

I just bought the new 40k rulebook, Zona Alfa, and Baron’s War. I don’t need another system. God damn I need that one, too.

[lonkelo 3195xp 3]

I’ve been staring at my bitsbox for ages, thinking I could kitbash myself a basic fleet out of it. A Billion Suns is the perfect excuse for me to do so.

I’m really liking the idea of playing across multiple tables and deciding on your fleet after the game starts.

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