Clockwork Armada: Neuer Kickstarter

Mit einer Kampagne auf Kickstarter soll Clockwork Armada von Game Fleet Productions finanziert werden.

Introduction

Clockwork Armada is a tabletop miniatures game of space battles set in a fantastical alternate reality. In this universe, planets are flat, and the laws of physics function on very different principles. The upward rushing hurricane that makes up outer space is known as the deep sky, and strange alien life hides in the mists. The battles that you take part in will act out the stories of the kingdoms and cultures that sail their clockwork ships between these worlds.

Miniatures

Clockwork Armada uses highly detailed resin and pewter miniatures to represent the warships of each faction. All backers of pledge levels that offer miniatures as rewards will receive a survey after funding is completed, allowing them to choose what classes of vessels to receive for their backer rewards. Many different ship parts for each faction’s capital ships will allow for a total of seven unique cruiser and battle cruiser variants to choose from per faction.

 

*The Ship Master pledge is effectively the ’starter set‘ fleet package. The Commander pledge would be ’starter set plus‘.

*Backers will have the choice of many different ship classes with unique weapon systems once funding is completed.

Carthesian Empire

The Carthesian fleet is influenced aesthetically by the ships that sailed the oceans during the Age of Sail. Backers will have choices in their cruiser and battle cruiser options such as cannons, beam weapons, launch bays, shield generators, and mage bunker parts to transform their ships into many different classes of vessel.

The Carthesian corvettes come with two different variant weapon options included.

Moren Confederation

The vessels of the Moren Confederation use the dreadnoughts of the first World War as inspiration for their designs. Backers will have choices in their cruiser and battlecruiser options such as cannons, beam weapons, launch bays, shield generators, and lightning cannon parts to transform their ships into many different classes of vessel.

The Moren corvettes come with two different variant weapon options included.

Course Ruler Set

Physical miniatures pledge rewards of Ship Master and higher come with one or more Course Ruler sets. Each set contains fortyplasticrulersegments: ten segments for each of the four levels of mobility in the game. These modular segments are each one inch in length with differing degrees of turn depending on the ruler level, and are used by ships in the game to alter course. The design of the ruler pieces will vary slightly in the production version to conform with the specifics of the plastic injection molding process, though their size and function will remain the same.

Set will include 40 ruler segments

Bases and Reference Cards

Each miniature will come with its own plastic ship base and flight stem. The base includes markings to easily visualize the quadrants and heading of the ship during a game. Frigates and corvettes use 35mm bases, cruisers have 50mm bases, and battle cruisers come with 70mm bases.

Each ship also comes with a 2.5×3.5″ full color stat card specific to its class that allows for quick reference of the ships attributes, as well as damage tracking. The back of the card contains text for any special rules that the ship may have. Frigates and corvettes use one card per squadron.

 

*The cards shown are proof of concept prototype card art. The final cards will look even more polished.

Gameplay

A game of Clockwork Armada is typically played on a 4’x4′ table between two or more players, though smaller spaces can be used. Thematic asteroid fields and clouds are fun, but one can simply use any flat space for a board with areas marked out to represent ‚terrain‘ effects.

Before the game, players decide on a game size and construct a fleet list from the ships available to them. Besides the ships themselves, each player will need a ruler for measuring weapon ranges, a Course Ruler set, and four ten sided dice, with one of the dice being an alternate color, or somehow differentiated from the other dice.

Clockwork Armada uses an alternate activation game round, which means that once the fleets are deployed and the game begins, each player takes turns activating their ships. A ship’s Thrust value determines how many inches it may move in an activation, and the Course Ruler is used when ships need to turn. Since ships must always move at least half their available distance in an activation, players must plan ahead as it may take a few turns to get back into the fight if a ship finds itself out of position.

When one ship wishes to shoot at another, any weapons that can fire from the quadrant that the stem of the enemy ship falls within may attack. Once modifiers are determined, a single dice roll mechanic determines how much damage is inflicted, and if any shots pierce armor to take ship systems permanently offline. Hull points are lost in the quadrant grid facing the attacker, and overflow damage fills the Core grid. When all the hull points of a ships’s Core is filled, that ship is wrecked. Damage and lost systems are conveniently tracked on a ship’s stat card.

Ship’s have many options during an activation besides directly firing on an enemy ship. A vessel may choose to use Special Orders, like All to Engines or Evasive Action, or prepare reactive attacks or movements against any ships that may sail too close. Many of these options allow for a Discipline check against the crew and captain’s skill to gain even greater effects from these Special Orders, at the risk of damaging the vessel. If the fighting grows desperate, ramming and boarding actions are always an option.

It takes more than mere destruction to win a game of Clockwork Armada. Victory Points are scored by fulfilling mission scenarios, as well as the personal objectives of a player’s fleet and Flagship.

Each player in Clockwork Armada has a Flagship to command the fleet. Each faction will have a choice of three different commander types to captain their battle cruisers. Flagships have unique abilities and can issue Directives, which provide unique benefits to the ships around it.

A PDF of the game rules will be made available for free on the Game Fleet website, as well as printable game tokens to keep track of effects and terrain. A sample game of Clockwork Armada will be uploaded soon.

The Story

The cultures that exist on the hundreds of flat worlds in the Fields of Celestae setting are shaped by the unique existence they struggle to survive in. Extended travel through the deep sky is fueled by advances in clockwork and steam technology, as well as the treasure hunters that search for the ancient wreckage from which mystery technology, or mystech, is salvaged. Voyages between worlds are made possible by stream currents, naturally occurring vortexes of air that sometimes lead to nearby stars. Ships containing priceless stream keys artificially agitate these currents into existence, and thus the trade and traffic of civilizations continues to flow.

The Carthesian Empire is by far the dominant power in known space, and has been for nearly two thousand years. Its fleets are more accurate, agile, and experienced than the powers that remain a threat to its supremacy, keeping in check the few holdouts that are not wooed by its rich culture. Enemies of the Empire often find that they must contend with powerful mages that can bend the four elements themselves to the needs of the armada. Descendants of a victorious slave race, the Carthesians seek to make the Fields a secure and prosperous place, one in which appropriate tribute is paid to their guiding hand.

The Moren Confederation is a new domain, freshly established after overthrowing a generation of Carthesian domination. The Confederation holds together a dozen worlds with the promise of mutual survival against Empire retribution, though the majority of its power lies in the worlds of Balmoral and Moren. The Confederation has been able to survive an unprecedented amount of engagements against the Carthesian fleet by implementing many unconventional tactics. The torpedoes and bastionite prows of their capital ships allow a Confederation fleet to push into an opposing armada before firing both broadsides to devastating effect, while their arc cannons help to mitigate the gunnery advantage of Carthesian ships with lightning bolts that can’t miss their target. Even so, the Confederation has not yet been tested by the might of an Empire heartland fleet.

We look forward to sharing more about the rich story of Clockwork Armada in future updates. Hopefully we can begin to scratch the surface of this rich setting.

Project Goals

Work is now underway to enhance the existing 3D ship models seen in the video and renders on this page. Our pre-production run of miniatures showed us that some additional practicality would need to be married to the aesthetics of the ships. Most of the details on the miniatures will be deepened for greater visibility and to hold paint more readily, and engine exhausts and masts will be thickened to prevent bending. This will make the production models more vibrant and sturdy.

We will be producing Kickstarter updates very frequently for our backers, both during the project and after funding. We love talking to you!

Once funding is completed, the new master models will be 3D printed and sent to the casting house we are working with for full production. At the same time, the ship bases and Course Ruler segments will begin production in plastic, and the card art will be finalized and sent to printing.

Remaining funds after fulfillment is completed will go directly toward expanding the miniatures line. Character Flagships will play a big part in the fiction and future games of Clockwork Armada. The 70mm ship bases have an additional stem hole in anticipation to support future larger ship classes.

We will also use the funds to begin bringing miniatures from two other fleets to life: the viking longboat themed Banfirar, and the Allied Kingdoms of Zant, which are based aesthetically on the ironclads of the American Civil War. We have plans as well for a high quality full color game book with rules, art, and fiction. The rules and resources for Clockwork Armada will still always be available online for free.

Templecon 2014

Finally, we will constantly be updating and improving our website and the fiction within it. We are very excited about the setting of Clockwork Armada as well as the game, and want to tell its story.

Die Kampagne steht aktuell bei 7.291,00 USD von einem Ziel von 42.000,00 USD und läuft noch 28 Tage.

Quelle: Clockwork Armada Kickstarter