5150 Fighter Command - The Rules....
For those of you familiar with THW rulesets a lot of the 5150FC will be 'bread and butter': The sections of 'passing die', activation, Stars and Grunts are very familiar, however, look a little closer and there are some unique 'tweaks' in 5150FC which make them different from the usual THW rules...Nothing drastic but some important changes mean that even if you are a seasoned 'THW Fanboy' a careful read-through is necessary.
Quite quickly it becomes apparent that there are quite a few typos and small errors which I wasn't expecting (I hope that Ed and the members of the THW Yahoo Group correct these in later versions) some of these (especially in the 'examples of play') may fox those who are not familiar with the THW rule system. Not to worry, a quick post on the excellent THW Yahoo Group should bring clarification very, very quickly. Whilst this doesn't ruin the rule set it is annoying and should have been taken care of in pre-production...
Typos and small mistakes aside it quickly becomes clear that this is a cracking set of rules, they really seem to capture the fast pace/ frantic dogfight 'tension' that we all imagine and have seen in all the best Sci-Fi movies...plus, the unique THW way of creating the 'fog of war'/ 'chaos' and the degree of lack of control the player has are excellent in enhancing that tension and excitement.
Following my read-through I was excited to play....Now, I consider the research into and collecting of miniatures/ scenery and all the other paraphernalia an enjoyable part of the hobby, so my initial thoughts of trying the rules out using 'pen and paper' were quickly quashed 'it's just not me'.
A quick look at some of the gaming blogs and posts on the THW Yahoo Group revealed that the plastic spaceships available from em4 miniatures here in the UK fit the bill for fighters and bombers (at a great price too!) and so an order for 3 packs was duly placed (26 ships in all).....
...the box (interesting huh?, a thrill a minute on this blog...)
...the contents (I know astonishing..) 12 spaceships and flight stands (which you can choose to have in black or clear plastic..)
..a closer look at the 12 ships.
The plastic moulding is very good, very few (if any) flash lines or flashing to be seen and the detail on the ships themselves is excellent, an absolute bargain.
The next step is decide which ships will represent which faction in the 5150 universe (and therefore which colour scheme they will get) and which ships will represent light, medium and heavy fighters, or perhaps in some cases bombers (although I'm not sure whether bombers should be larger than these models are?)....Anyway, the next step is to prep and paint....but that will have to wait...I'm off on holiday in the morning so it'll give me something to look forward to when I return.......Ciao for now!
Following my read-through I was excited to play....Now, I consider the research into and collecting of miniatures/ scenery and all the other paraphernalia an enjoyable part of the hobby, so my initial thoughts of trying the rules out using 'pen and paper' were quickly quashed 'it's just not me'.
A quick look at some of the gaming blogs and posts on the THW Yahoo Group revealed that the plastic spaceships available from em4 miniatures here in the UK fit the bill for fighters and bombers (at a great price too!) and so an order for 3 packs was duly placed (26 ships in all).....
The Fleet Arrives....
...and so two days later (great service from em4, (I have used them in the past and thoroughly recommend them) my package arrives.....
...the contents (I know astonishing..) 12 spaceships and flight stands (which you can choose to have in black or clear plastic..)
..a closer look at the 12 ships.
The plastic moulding is very good, very few (if any) flash lines or flashing to be seen and the detail on the ships themselves is excellent, an absolute bargain.
The next step is decide which ships will represent which faction in the 5150 universe (and therefore which colour scheme they will get) and which ships will represent light, medium and heavy fighters, or perhaps in some cases bombers (although I'm not sure whether bombers should be larger than these models are?)....Anyway, the next step is to prep and paint....but that will have to wait...I'm off on holiday in the morning so it'll give me something to look forward to when I return.......Ciao for now!
