Ares Games Pre-Releasing Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles At SPIEL ’18
October 18, 2018 by brennon
Ares Games are going to be pre-releasing Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles at Essen SPIEL '18.
At the show you are going to be able to snag yourself the Starter Set which you can see above containing two Vipers and two Raiders as well as play the game and give it a demo for yourself.
As with the other games from Ares within this wheelhouse the miniatures are completely pre-painted and ready to go out of the box. If you're playing as the humans you'll also get to use the ace pilot Apollo too for a bit of a neat spin on the game once you've got used to the basic mechanics.
You can start out with a Quickstart version of the rules from within the box which gets you used to flying your ships and then venture forth to delve into the more intricate mechanics of the game. This includes learning all about different pilot abilities, manoeuvres and flying through more cluttered spacescapes.
The game also comes with these awesome control panels!
For those who are wondering about the theme for the game, it will be drawing on both the classic version of Battlestar Galactica (which I actually watched!) and the Reimagined series which practically took over TV a few years ago now.
There is going to be a lot more coming down the pipeline so watch this space!
What would you like to see them do with this property?
"...it will be drawing on both the classic version of Battlestar Galactica (which I actually watched!) and the Reimagined series"
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oh man,this is so cool, still want a Battlestar!!!
But why not use the classic ships for a core box…. *sigh*
Because people know the Reimagined series better right now I would assume. They will be making ships for the original series though so watch this space.
watching…… is it ready yet?
So basically you are saying that I’m old?! oO 😉
Or too stubborn to realise how much better the remake is? 😉
Those are not you fathers Cylons 🙂 I’m OG when it comes to BG.
nah, the remake is crap.
The original is soo much better.
You young ones don’t appreciate good ol’ campy Sci Fi
I don’t think the original series was particularly successful. But it did provide a great starting point for the ScyFy remake, which was a bit of a runaway success. I think the ScyFy remake is probably the best way to go with this, maybe provide the occasional nod back to the original, much like the TV show
I beg to differ. The original series received an Emmy as was nominated for a Golden Globe. But other then most modern TV series it didn’t drag on forever 😉
Awards aren’t really the best measure of success. It was cancelled due to poor ratings and the sequel series wasn’t particularly well received. Even if you don’t believe the reasons for its cancellation, you can’t deny that the remake succeeded in maintaining traction for much longer (i.e. long enough to tell a complete story) than the original. So you could argue it managed to succeed in convincing a broadcaster to stick with it – which is really the only kind of success that matters. It also didn’t drag on – 4 series in total, which also sets it apart from many modern TV shows which I agree are often flogged to death.
That’s not to say you personally don’t like it but it achieved nowhere near the same levels of success that the remake did. It’s not an attack on anyone’s personal tastes to say it wasn’t as successful – you’re perfectly entitled to enjoy whatever floats your boat.
From Wikipedia
“Battlestar Galactica initially was a ratings success. CBS counter programmed by moving its Sunday block of All in the Family and Alice an hour earlier, to compete with Galactica in the 8:00 timeslot. From October 1978 to March 1979, All in the Family averaged more than 40 percent of the 8:00 audience, against Galactica’s 28 percent.[9]
In mid-April 1979, ABC executives canceled the show. An AP article reported “The decision to bump the expensive Battlestar Galactica was not surprising. The series … had been broadcast irregularly in recent weeks, attracting slightly over a quarter of the audience in its Sunday night time slot.”[10] Larson claimed that it was a failed attempt by ABC to reposition its number one program Mork & Mindy into a more lucrative timeslot.[11][verification needed] The cancellation led to viewer outrage and protests outside ABC studios, and it even contributed to the suicide of Edward Seidel, a 15-year-old boy in Saint Paul, Minnesota who was obsessed with the program.[12][13][14]”
There was also a law suite where “20th Century Fox sued Universal Studios (producers of Battlestar Galactica) for plagiarism, copyright infringement, unfair competition, and Lanham Act claims,[3] claiming it had stolen 34 distinct ideas from Star Wars.[4] ”
I believe it had the audience, but greed and stupid TV executives killed it. Many liked the remake, I definitely did not because it was another Hollywood throw away the original except in name only and lets do our own thing. Many good movies and TV series have been killed that way which is probably why I do not bother with broadcast TV and most movies.
Yeah you’re right, there wasn’t a single invisible flying motorcycle in the remake, what were they thinking?
If you’re not going to do your own thing, put your own stamp on something, there’s absolutely no point doing a remake.
Since this is a dogfighting tabletop game, I’m really trying to remember, where was the combat in the original series better than the modern series? It’s been forever since I’ve seen the original.
That being said, shapeways modeler “Mel’s Miniatures” has everything from the original series already made up, if you prefer the original visual style. They’re in XWing and Armada scales, not sure how that compares to this.
No, the original series dog fighting was rather generic and dull but I liked the overall desing of the cylons way better. They were machines not some biohybrid. Also there were three cylons in one attack ship. In the new series the ship was the cylon what totally annoyed m.
I enjoyed the concept in the remake that a cylon was actually just a digital personality that could be re-downloaded into a number of bodies each time they died. It is possible that a Cylon could inhabit a ship or a humanoid body to suit a need. I thought it was actually a very good take on what AI might actually be like.
I would have been interested in fleet-scale, but not this. To be honest, the license is paper-thin either way, with so few ships in the TV series. I understand that there’s more variety once you take in other media of course.
As Ares put up the main rule book last weekend so I had a good read through. Ever since a game set in the Galactica universe was announced I was interested. As Ares did speak vaguely about doing all sorts of ships I was hoping more for something like Armada than X-Wing.
Note: I have no experience with Wings of Glory in any form so I have no feel for the underlying game dynamics like I have for Attack Wing, Armada, X-Wing, Tanks, Blood Red Skies etc.. Even if they share a common idea going back to Wings of Glory the execution is different.
The rules came across as being unnecessarily convoluted in order to achieve relatively simply outcomes. Its organised into a quick start and extend rules sections which is good, but everything seems to take 2-3 times longer to explain. There are elements in the rules that add flavour, but my impression was this was geared to allow things like the ionic manoeuvre of the Vipers flipping around, firing at the pursuing Cylon fighters while still traveling in the same direction. To what extent such design choices impact game flow we shall see.
Despite an extensive rule book I was a little surprised by how much was left open or ‘optional’. I am by far no tournament player or need everything balanced, but when there is very little indication about force compositions or what effect certain rules have on the game, its a bit difficult to judge what to play. Maybe some of this is in the separate missions book too.
The ruleset doesn’t give the impression of scaling up well. Maybe this was a problem with Wings of Glory (?) – I’ve seen a few comments about this – it would though be a bit of a shame if the game did bog down when played on a larger scale because that’s what the dogfights were largely about. You are always going to get some clutter on the table and I do prefer the idea of a control panel more than a handful of tokens aka the FFG way of doing things. Nonetheless there is quite a lot going on to fly these fighters.
Is there a lot on the pipeline? That does have me wondering. Ares has shown off a different armed Raptor and a Heavy Raider, but apart from a couple of Mks of Vipers and a normal Raider where else to go? You can add in different configurations, there will obviously be at least two Raptors. So will this become a game of micromanaging some detail differences between sub-variants of the same type? That would appeal to some a lot, not so much for broader audience. A game doesn’t need 7 factions of at least 10 ships, but it needs more than a half-dozen if you want this to go on for more than a couple of years.
There would be more variety at a smaller scale, and the Battlestar Galactica Deadlock PC game just added a whole load more to the mix. Ultimately the appeal lies in seeing Battlestar slogging it out with each other or with Basestars or waves of fighters. And this ruleset can’t do that. The paint jobs are reasonable enough, nothing special but inline what one would expect at that price point. I would repaint the Raiders to their more metallic finish as soon as I could. It gets ships on tables quickly though and that’s what’s important. If that is Ares can supply enough.
Very insightful look into what they’re doing with the game/rules – kudos! Will be good for folks deciding if they want to plumb for this.
Wings of Glory has a control panel. It is card board and uses tokens but everything is visible and in a single place. The Star Wars Miniature Games does use tokens but with the points system your are looking at most a 5 v 5 skirmish so it is not that big of a deal.
I am not sure what you mean by scale. You can have a 100 v 100 game if you want to pay for all those miniatures and you have a large enough table. You would still need to move 100 craft for your turn which would take up time. There is no concept of squadron movements. Wings of Glory plays best at 3 v 3 from a time perspective. I like to play it using scenarios. There is a whole community trying to reproduce famous air campaigns. I have a scenario where the Allies are going over to bomb German factories. It has AA guns, fighters, bombers etc. and it can take up to 2hrs to play.
Who knows, maybe if the dog fighting game is successful they will have a Star Wars Armada type of game as well. We are still early days.
As a X-Wing Tournament player, the rules are mostly the same but there is a seperate tournament specific set of rules. Not sure what Ares has in mind for this game. The X-Wing tournament specific rules were for balance and to remove cards that are to over powering.
The Battlestar Galatica wiki has 17 different colonial fighters. IMHO, that is plenty and easier to balance than the close to 100 you have in Star Wars Miniatures Game which forced FFG to create the 2.0 version of the game. This is a dog fighting game and I do not believe you need 6 different factions. The meta is what will rule this game.
17 is pushing it a bit. Most of these are different Viper variants with small differences and not all are cannon.
Interesting review, cheers. I’m certainly disappointed they didn’t go fleet-scale/armada with this. Hadn’t realised though, that there are 17 different types of colonial fighters as mentioned by @turbocooler! That will keep my interest for the time being if they go down the expansion route with a variety of fighters but I feel they have missed such a great opportunity to go armada style with this.
Merely first impressions, not so much a review. Download the rules and have a look yourself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still pick up a copy and have a go.
Ug.. Just ordered 2 starter sets. I wish starter sets from Ares or FFG would come with like, double the amount of stuff .. because really, 2 fighters for each faction is never enough.
Great looking models.
I heard that they are planning on making the warships like Battlestars and Basestars. Those are going to be great, if the fighters are anything to go by. And I will use those warships in Dropfleet because getting my group to start ANOTHER game is getting harder by the game.
Initially not interested. But after flipping through the digital ruleset, I’m really interested to see how they captured the unique style of dogfighting represented in the show.
I’m not particularly interested in playing but I will most definitely collect those models!!
I liked the original Galactica movie but found the TV show rather dull. The remake on the other hand was and still is one of my favourite TV shows ever ?
That does look interesting. Then it helps in my eyes that those are based on NuBSG instead of OG BSG. I didn’t have chance to watch original BSG back in day and I don’t think it holds up to this day. How ever I did watch NuBSG and I did like it a lot.
Mechworld.de did a full thrust version a few years back for a capital ship game for Battlestar
I think I would’ve preferred a smaller scale so you can include battlestars and base stars but this will do for now ?
Definitely will need to paint up the Control Panels … even a wash and dry brush.
So looking forward to those models. I will have to dig into the rule book to do see how deep I will go. X-Wing still hasn’t bounced back very well at my FLGS and am not certain how another game will do. Wings of Glory didn’t fair well and Tanks sputtered. Still buying the starter set
Wouldn’t mind seeing the Stealth Viper but I don’t think this game has much to stand on
When I originally read the press release i formed the impression this was going to focus on the capital ships and fleet action rather than dogfighting fighters. As others have said – more Armada than X Wing. I can’t say this scale interests me. The driving narrative of the series is at fleet level, and I hope they release a version to cover that. Lovely models though!
I really want this to be good. I burned out on X-Wing and I love the BSG universe. I pre-ordered the core set and crossing my fingers it catches on.