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What scale should a Star Base be?

 
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Your preferred size?
1/2 scale, 14" diameter
7%
 7%  [ 1 ]
1/4 scale, 7" diameter
46%
 46%  [ 6 ]
1/8 scale, 3.5" diameter
46%
 46%  [ 6 ]
Other (list below)
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
Total Votes : 13

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Bill Stec
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 25 Jan 2012
Posts: 158

PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 5:51 pm    Post subject: What scale should a Star Base be? Reply with quote

[post deleted by author! but thread remains because it contains good discussion.]

Last edited by Bill Stec on Thu Dec 19, 2013 12:15 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Wolverin61
Commander


Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 495
Location: Mississippi

PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

1:1 Twisted Evil
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Gimp
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 13 Feb 2013
Posts: 43
Location: Tucson, AZ

PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Going smaller than 1/4 scale might make the model look far too odd next to the normal ships that are supposed to dock inside it.

Going larger than 1/4 scale would make measuring ranges odd, as by game scale, they should still be coming from the center point of the model.

While it could be fun to have a full sized plate model, where docked ships could be put on the plate, and flying ships could be moved under it, the dichotomy of model vs game scale doesn't really make that very feasible for game play.
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Scoutdad
Commodore


Joined: 09 Oct 2006
Posts: 4754
Location: Middle Tennessee

PostPosted: Wed Dec 04, 2013 3:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

While I'd love to have a larger set of base models to use... there are several drawbacks:

1) table space. - not everyone is lucky enough to have a 4' x 12' table dedicated to gaming. With a typical gaming mat size of 4'x4' - a larger base will occupy a proportionally larger percentage of the gaming space.
Putting a 14" diameter SB model and a defensive fleet plus a 2,500 point or so attacking fleet on a 4x4 mat leaves no room to move. You just sit there and fire every turn. And chain reaction explosions will get wicked in a hurry!

2) cost - Although you'll only need 1 of them (unless you need one painted for each empire... and Lyran county... and Hydran fleet...), imagine how much it would cost. A fleet box will probably be cheaper than the Starbase mini itself.

3) portability - Unless all of your games are held at your house, you need a way to carry this monstrosity. Preferably something that will prevent damage during transport.
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Jack Bohn
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 10 Aug 2009
Posts: 76
Location: Lima, Ohio

PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 8:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just to picture my thoughts on the stand for such a large mini: here's a half-Starline starbase, on a foot-high stand. The base of the stand is a hexagon 17 inches across the angles. That's 8 hexes from a central hex, overload range. The base is 1/2 inch tall, if I made it myself, I might use shelf board, two map boards are cut to fit around the riser. The riser would be 1/8 inch model rocket launching rod. That should hold a plastic starbase. Solid resin or pewter, you may want to go with 1/2" OD copper pipe. Laughing



The mention of a plexiglass pedestal gave me the idea of putting a shelf under the model. It's holding some 1/2" counters for ships docked, and one mini coming in for same-hex combat. I really wouldn't put a mini up there, I hope the other player is just off looking for his counters.

Down at the bottom of the stand is a small representation of the starbase to remind us that it is in only (part of) one hex. It sits on a small collar so you can rotate it. Again, I'm not sanguine about rotating the large model, so the tabs of the small representation are numbered, and so should the plexiglass dish be. As a memory aid, or to attract attention at cons, colored yarn could be slackly tied between the corresponding modules of the two. (At the end of a full base rotation, unwind it.)


Edit: I don't know why I had 1 inch stuck in my head, applying it to both the side-to-side and angle-to-angle measurement. I've redone the graphic, with the hexes resized to 1.25". (You may have to clear the browser cache, you can tell the new one by the pattern on the stand being lighter than on the board.) The base is now about 6 hexes, the full strength of a Phaser IV; if it were 8, it'd be 21.25".
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Last edited by Jack Bohn on Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:04 am; edited 2 times in total
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Jack Bohn
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 10 Aug 2009
Posts: 76
Location: Lima, Ohio

PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, yeah. I entered the dimensions of my dining room table, and had the program tile the whole thing with hexagons, 57*40!

It's still a work in progress. When the first pass had the shadow of the starbase falling on the area of interest at the base, I thought of putting spotlights on the underside; but, instead of looking up the syntax for that, I just moved the main light over. Still, if the gaming table is directly under an overhead light, it might be good to put some battery-powered LEDs in the model!
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Scoutdad
Commodore


Joined: 09 Oct 2006
Posts: 4754
Location: Middle Tennessee

PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 6:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My gaming table is about 42 hexes by 100 hexes (if using the meg-hex sized hexes), as I've had 3 full-sized, 42x30 hex maps on it side-by-side before.



I could probably do a starbase assault using a full scale SB... and I know I could do one with a half-scale version.
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