I have three fleets coming in this week from the original Mongoose release and so was thinking about what rules to try out.

No matter what I might think of ACTASF the arcs and movement system in Starmada really cause me some issues. I don't think either are very intuitive.

That said I have print versions of all of the Nova books :-)

By Tony L. Thomas (Scoutdad) on Wednesday, May 05, 2021 - 03:42 pm: Edit

I would have preferred the ACTASF system to retain the six, 60-degree arcs of SFB - but ACTA was already established with 90-degree arcs.

But good luck. Let me know what your experiences with the two are, and if you have ACTASF questions, feel free to email me (address In the profile) or PM if you happen to be on FB.

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Wednesday, May 05, 2021 - 04:20 pm: Edit

90 degrees is problem better than 60 degree arcs that are off-centre from the hex base facing :-)

By John Williams (Johndw) on Friday, May 07, 2021 - 12:03 pm: Edit

I will say, I have gotten Starmada and it just feels harder to grok for me than ACTA was. Maybe because ACTA is a little more similar to other games I've played.

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Friday, May 07, 2021 - 12:26 pm: Edit

I find the engine rating and checking movement orders to be unnecessarily fiddly.

By Tony L. Thomas (Scoutdad) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 12:05 pm: Edit

Quoth Zac: "I find the engine rating and checking movement orders to be unnecessarily fiddly. "

Let's be sure (Since this is the ACTASF topic) to point out that those fiddly rules are from Starmada, please.
I have hard enough times trying to entice new players into ACTASF w/o giving them the mistakelyu impression that's its full of fiddly rules.

Thanks, 8^)

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 12:27 pm: Edit

Yes. It is Starmada.

Not a lot of fussy and fiddly things in ACTASF at all. The only bump I have had so far are the Long Range drone rules but I read through them again and I finally figured them out :-)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 06:14 pm: Edit

I am hoping that during Stratcon I will find someone who will play a game of ACTA with me as I would like to experience it. Somebody else will have to handle damage allocation (none of that makes any sense to me) but the tactics and move/fire cadence I can deal with.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 06:17 pm: Edit

At this point I am 90% certain that the Early Bird edition of ACTASFR1 wont happen until the last week of May. Jean is racing to proofread it and I'm racing to make the fixes, but the race is marginal. Jean is going out of town Saturday and needs a couple of days before then to do things other than work so we might not finish in time without driving ourselves and each other to insanity.

Worse than that, Simone was due today to do the cover (without which we cannot upload it) and had to cancel as she has some plague or other. She won't be able to do the cover until after Jean is out of town.

Jean and I will discuss tomorrow if there is a way to accomplish the release before she returns from her trip.

By Tony L. Thomas (Scoutdad) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 05:16 pm: Edit

Now I wish I was going to be able to make it to Stratcon.
Unfortunately, making sure Evey gets to dialysis and back during that timeframe trumps playing ACTASF with Steve.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Wednesday, June 09, 2021 - 11:59 am: Edit

We released new ships on Shapeways. Of particular interest to you are the ships that are in A Call to Arms: Star Fleet - Reinforcements 1.

These are the Federation Battle Frigate Scout, the Klingon FWC/FWCB/FWL War Destroyer Leader, the Gorn X-Ship Advanced Frigate and X-Ship X-Light Cruiser (also called the X-Ship Advanced Heavy Destroyer), Kzinti New Fast Cruiser and Police Flagship, Orion X-Ship Battle Raider and X-Ship War Destroyer, and the Civilian Small Auxiliary Scout.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 04:32 pm: Edit

A Call to Arms: Star Fleet, Reinforcements One Is Now Available

"Captain, reinforcements have just shown up on our sensors!"

Need more ships for your preferred fleet? Want to add different fleets? Or are you looking for new foes? Then A Call to Arms: Star Fleet, Reinforcements One is for you! There are more ships for empires you enjoyed in earlier volumes: Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Kzintis, Gorns, Orion Pirates, Tholians, and Seltorians. The WYNs that were previewed in Book 2 now have a full-scale fleet you can use. We introduce the Frax, a simulator empire designed by the Klingons to provide an opponent for their officers going through their version of Star Fleet Academy. Remember the Juggernaut from Book Two? There is a whole fleet from the Juggernaut Empire! This unknown enemy from a faraway galaxy periodically sends ships marauding across the Alpha Octant. There is a new monster for your fleets to defeat: the deadly space tarantula. There are more civilian ships to protect and a fleet repair dock to fix those damaged ships.

New types of ships include advanced technology X-ships that add more power to your fleets. War dreadnoughts add depth to a squadron. The Juggernauts add a Shriek Missile. X-ships can carry new versions of plasma torpedoes. The new trait X-Ship gives those ships powerful advantages. Of course, there are rules for X-ships. There are seven new scenarios. One scenario is based on a story that appeared in a Captain's Log; we added it to this book. Finally, there is a consolidated index to all three books.

Reinforcements One has all the rules and information you need to play the game when combined with Book 1.2 and Book Two. Please note that you must have Book 1.2 to play this game. Some of the material assumes you have the expansion Book Two.

This is the early bird edition. We will update the PDF when we are sure any issues are resolved.

Get your PDF copy of the A Call to Arms: Star Fleet, Reinforcements One from these sources:

Warehouse 23: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/ADBM30003
DriveThru RPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/361181/
Wargame Vault: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/361181/

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 06:39 pm: Edit

I just read the PDF preview and the TOC lists 'Additional Ships for the Frax fleet' but it is the first release for them correct?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 06:44 pm: Edit

yes it is

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 06:47 pm: Edit

So the entry should be updated then?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 09:43 pm: Edit

Someday, at least 90 days. Uploading a new version is a chore and we don’t do it every time somebody notices a typo.

By Andrew Schwenzer (Andrew_Cluetain) on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 09:46 pm: Edit

Was looking over the Reinforcements book and looking at the Damage of X Drones, shouldn't they be 9 damage per not 6 like Regular drones? I can see the argument not to make them range 32, so no complaints there.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, June 17, 2021 - 03:38 am: Edit

That is something only Tony can answer.

By Tony L. Thomas (Scoutdad) on Sunday, June 27, 2021 - 11:43 am: Edit

Well, Shoot!

The original intent (in order to get R1 out in a reasonable time frame) was to have X-ships armed with standard, FAST drones.
I was going to do more playtesting of X-drones and possibly add them into Book 3, if they were needed (after all, not EVERYTHING needs to go into a game designed to be fast and simple).

Somewhere along the lines, the designation got changed to X-drones. I will insure that this discrepancy is resolved (one way or the other) before the next update.
Until then... just consider them fast (speed 32) drones

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Wednesday, July 07, 2021 - 08:40 pm: Edit

I painted up two moons for my ACTASF games

Exploding moon

Glowing moon

By John Williams (Johndw) on Thursday, July 08, 2021 - 07:42 am: Edit

Those are some nice looking moons! The moons/planets I have planned are like.. flat cardboard that I've cut out and will paint to make it easier to move ships over/around the objects.

By Daniel Eastland (Democratus) on Thursday, July 08, 2021 - 08:36 am: Edit

Nice! The exploding moon reminds me of the end credits for the Star Trek reboot movie.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, July 08, 2021 - 10:49 am: Edit

@Zac: Well done!

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Thursday, July 08, 2021 - 11:07 am: Edit

The moons/planets I have planned are like.. flat cardboard that I've cut out and will paint to make it easier to move ships over/around the objects.

I find it easier to do 3D terrain for some reason

The exploding moon reminds me of the end credits for the Star Trek reboot movie.

I wanted to add some more debris to it but I couldn't figure out a way to do it so I will just add some asteroid pieces around it

Well done!

Thanks Ted

By Andrew Schwenzer (Andrew_Cluetain) on Wednesday, August 18, 2021 - 10:59 pm: Edit

Any word on the fast / X drones? And something I just thought of, does the +1 to hit non X ships only apply to direct fire weapons and not seeking weapons? I forget the wording, the book might already be correct.