Starmada: Fleet Ops 2011

Starmada: Fleet Ops is a "fleet-scale" game using the same database as Starmada: Admiralty Edition science-fiction starship combat game. S:FO is very similar to S:AE in many respects, but Starmada: Fleet Ops' flow is intended to be faster-moving and more abstracted.

Game scale is "grand tactical", each ship is a single counter on the map, and its statistics (damage level, weapons, and so on) are tracked individually, although not in as much detail as Starmada: Admiralty Edition. (Any ship you can build using Admiralty Edition's ship design rules can be represented in Starmada: Fleet Ops, making the two games highly compatible).Construction rules are included, and also guidelines on converting Admiralty Edition ships to Fleet Ops statistics. An entire fleet of ships can be represented on a single standard sheet of paper.

Play is simultaneous. Each player takes turns giving orders to his units by placing a marker on top of one ship to indicate the orders it has been given. Once all ships have orders, initiative is determined. The player losing initiative moves all his ships first (giving the non-moving player an advantage), but then fires first in the subsequent fire phase (gaining an advantage).

Movement and firing are both simplified and sped up from Admiralty Edition, reducing the amount of record keeping and the number of die rolls. Mechanics new to the Starmada system are introduced, including morale and command ships.

The product is available as either a download in Adobe .pdf format, or as a print-on-demand saddle-stitched book (44 pages). Additional material, including printable colour counters and map sheets, is available for free download from Majestic 12 Games' website for purchasers of either format.