Sovereign Wars

Miniature Update: Bardox Comand Cruiser off to the printer

2012-02-12T20:03:00.000-08:00

Things in the model department are starting to pick up speed. The Bardox Command Cruiser has been sent to the printers and I should have it back in a couple of weeks. This is the first of our larger scale models to be finished so hopefully is comes out well, I am trying a lot of new techniques in this model to number one make the model look better and make the printing process a little easier. Below are a few images of the 3D model along with the Bardox Fighter.

A Little background on the Command Cruiser, First it is not intended to be a gunship by any sort its a command and control ship filling in the gap as a fleet command ship in smaller games and as a order relay ship in larger games. The Command Cruiser also is jump capable with a hanger bay allowing it to carry a unit of frigates or fighters into combat.

Yes all the spikey bits should be visible on the final printed model at least that's the goal.

This model will come out to roughly 9 cm or about 3.5 inches roughly and will come as a multiple part model.

Here is a size comparison between the Fighter and the Command Cruiser, remember we have decided to make the fighter and frigate class models larger in order to get a better quality model and allow use to use fighters as units in the game.

Here is the original concept art created by our talented concept artist.

Additional work can be found at morugankodi.deviantart.com

Be sure to check out the Production Gallery in the sidebar for additional images.

As always all models were created using Blender 2.5

Miniatures Coming Soon to Shapeways.com

Keep and Eye out for This Week in Sovereign Wars it will be making a comeback as we get closer to Gencon 2012

Until Next Time

joel@sovereignwars.com

Don't Forget to Sign up for the Closed Beta. More information on the sidebar

And you thought we were dead...

2012-02-01T22:25:00.000-08:00

Seems like its been a few months since an update was posted to this page, well fear not anyone who is following us or even the slightest bit interested in the game we are not dead matter of fact things have been moving along fairly well. Over the past few months both concept work and new models have been coming together as well as the rules, I am also busy planning Gencon 2012 where I hope to be able to show at least one completed fleet as well as preview the Rana which will be the third alien species to go into the book. The book is coming along as well with a lot of work being concentrated on the narrative that will run through out the book. Enough with the talk I imagine you all want to see some new images. Below are some photos of the prototype model of the Bardox Fighter that I previewed a few posts ago. I would call this a "draft" quality and to say I have learned a lot about the the printing process in making this model is a understatement. Its also kinda of a trip to have a fully realized 3d version of something that was just data on a screen only months ago. Anyway stay posted I will be posting more updated with more concept art as we get farther along in the design process.

Miniature Update: Bardox....Its about time?

2011-10-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

Its been 522 days in development...I will say that again Sovereign Wars has been in development for 522 days and that is not counting the year of trying to figure out how to get it started. I am happy to finally be able to give an update on the actual models for Sovereign Wars. First of all special thanks goes out to our talented concept artist that has created some awesome concepts that are exactly what I have been looking for a long time. The drawings have all been spot and I can only see them getting better as the design process goes on.

The first model that is going off to the printers for prototyping will be the Bardox Fighter. The Bardox are a warrior race of gorilla like beings. Their entire culture revolves around fighting and war which leaves little room for science, so their ships and technology advance very slowly and they primarily thrive on stealing and reverse engineering the technology of others. The Bardox also have some of the fiercest troops when it comes to ground combat and more specifically boarding actions. Tactics wise the Bardox prefer a much more "Physical" approach to space combat with most of their ships designed around nose equipped for ramming other enemy ships or simply boarding them and removing the enemy crew.

I will have more information on the Bardox early next week along but for now here is a first look at the Bardox Fighter. I am still making adjustments to the model but this is really close to the model that will be going off for prototyping.

The images above represent what the final production model will look like in one of the Bardox paint schemes. The model itself is build to use the stand displayed but could easily be fitted and any of the currently available stands.

This is a raw look at that details of the forward left side of the model. Notice the dual cannons on the left side giving the model an asymmetric feel.

Here is the original concept art created by our talented concept artist.

Additional work can be found at morugankodi.deviantart.com

Be sure to check out the Production Gallery in the sidebar for additional images.

As always all models were created using Blender 2.5

Miniatures Coming Soon to Shapeways.com

Coming up Next on This Week in Sovereign Wars: Ship Sub-Systems

Until Next Week

joel@sovereignwars.com

Don't Forget to Sign up for the Closed Beta. More information on the sidebar

This Week in Sovereign Wars:Order Management

2011-09-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

Jon is playing his Bardox fleet against Tim's Desnki. During his turn Jon activates a group of fighters and moves them two combat moves which uses both of the units orders. Tim then activates and sends his own fighter group after Jon's using one order to move and then one order to fire the groups weapons Tim's fighters destroy only one of Jon's fighters. It's now Jon's activation and he activates his Command Cruiser he immediately performs two transfer actions and sends two orders to the fighter group. This leaves the Command Cruiser with three orders left, Jon can use these orders to perform any other actions including transferring orders to other units. He chooses to end the Command Cruiser's activation allowing the Command Cruiser to be reactivated later or to reactive to any incoming fire. Its now Tim's activation and he chooses to send a Cruiser over to help out his fighters. Tim uses one order to move the cruiser closer and then another to fire at Jon's fighters. Since the fighters have orders now Jon decides to react by returning fire using one of the fighter group's orders.

As you can see Sovereign Wars order system provides for a very dynamic game that is constantly changing providing another subtle layer to your typical space combat game.

Designer's Tip: The order management system in Sovereign Wars can take a bit to wrap your head around specially when most players are use to a more rigid system of activating a unit once in a turn. The biggest tip I can give is to find a way to keep track on your orders on the table that works for you. I prefer to use glass beads that are easy to use fairly inexpensive to get and they standout among a table full of miniatures. Keeping track of orders and making sure you use your orders wisely are one of the major keys to victory. I would also recommend that you protect your Command Ships with everything you have because once they are gone a severe gap in orders can occur that is hard to recover from.

Coming up Next on This Week in Sovereign Wars: Ship Sub-Systems

Until Next Week

joel@sovereignwars.com

Don't Forget to Sign up for the Closed Beta. More information on the sidebar

Sovereign Wars Closed Beta Update

2011-09-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Its been a few weeks since I have posted but things have been going well. I have posted the latest major revision to the beta rules to the development site which I hope will be the final version of the rules before I start putting the book together. We are to the point where we are concentrating on the building out of the individual factions.

In other news, I have spoken to a couple of concept artists that have shown interesting and they are beginning to work on preliminary ideas for the various ships and characters of the Sovereign Wars universe. I hope to have some artwork or models to show soon.

Now is as good a time as any to join the beta. We are still looking for participants in the beta there are plenty of spots open so if any one reading this is interested please check out the side bare for information on getting into the beta.

This Week in Sovereign Wars will continue next week with an article on Order Management.

This Week in Sovereign Wars: The Combat Roll

2011-08-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

Each week on www.sovereignwars.com we will be covering a new rules related topic. It may be as simple as order management or as complex as custom ship construction no matter every week we will be giving players insight to the game of Sovereign Wars.

This Week: The Combat Roll
In Sovereign Wars all combat is resolved with a single roll. This roll takes into account the skill of the attacker to fire their weapons as well as the defenders ability to avoid being shot. This roll also determines the base damage for a single attack. The idea is to speed up game play by removing all of the extra die rolling that many other games use. A basic combat roll starts with 2d6 being rolled. We then take the result and add the attackers Gunnery Value to the roll this total becomes the Attack Value. We then compare it to the defenders Defense Value, its important to note that this value may be modified by cover as well as other actions which we will cover in a later post. If the Attack Value is greater than the defenders Defense Value the attack is successful and we move on to damage resolution, of course if the defender's Defense Value is greater the attack is a miss the action is ended. If the attack is successful we then subtract the defender's Defense Value from the Attack Value and we get the base Damage Value. At this point we can then subtract the defenders's Shields Value and get the Applied Damage which will be covered in more detail later.

As you can see we are doing a lot with one roll and there can be a bit of math involved but once you have made a few rolls it becomes second nature and you can complete attacks in seconds.

Designers Tip: To speed up the game and make the combat roll even more simple compare the attacker's Gunnery Value and the defender's Defense Value prior to the roll. Determine the difference and then either add or subtract the difference from the die roll depending if the Attacker or Defender has the higher value. For example lets say Tom's cruiser is attacking Sam's frigate. The cruiser's Gunnery Value is 7 and the frigate's Defense Value is only 5. Since the cruiser's Gunnery Value is 2 higher that the frigates defense we would say that the roll is +2 meaning that whatever is rolled we are going to add 2 to the result which will give us the Base Damage Value. Since we already took into account Tom's Gunnery Value and Sam's Defense Value we can move onto determining the Applied Damage. Of course whenever the result is in question it is always best to go through each step of the Combat Roll to make sure everyone agrees with the result.

Until Next Week

joel@sovereignwars.com

Closed Beta Announcement

2011-08-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

I am happy to announce that Sovereign Wars is ready to begin its closed beta state. Now mind you we are still working things out but the basics are all there and the game is playable. The current goal is to polish and refine the core rules as well as build up a robust construction to all for custom ship building.

For those interested please send us an email including the information requested below to info[at]sovereignwars.com

Requested Information

Name:

Where are you located?(city or state is fine)

Why are you interested in Sovereign Wars?

What other games do you play?

Remember to send the information to info[at]sovereignwars.com. Please put "Beta Application" in the subject. We are looking for about ten testers initially and will expand out to more in the next few months. As people get accepted to the Beta they will be given access to our development where all the files needed to play can be accessed.

Gencon 2011- Sovereign Wars report

2011-08-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

I would first like to thank everyone that played the game at Gencon this year I got a lot of good feedback on how the make the game better and a lot of ideas on where to take the game into the future. I also talked to a lot of people and the general consensus is there is a place for a game like Sovereign Wars, its nice to hear that I am not along in the gaming community in wanting a game like Sovereign Wars. Overall very positive response from everyone that participated.

Overall Gencon 2011 was a blast as usual, I got to see some of my old gaming buddies and my friends in the industry. I also made a lot of good contacts that will help the improve the future of Sovereign Wars.

That's is for now I will be posting a gallery of images from the demo games as soon as sort through my Gencon Pics. I will also be posting information about how you can get into the Sovereign Wars closed beta a little later today.

Moving right along

2011-07-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

Only one more test to go, a dozen or so miniatures to finish and a slew of other things to finish but the rules are coming along nicely. I am happy to announce that unless something completely blows up at the last alpha test on Tuesday the rules are ready for Gencon..finally. So keep posted to this site for more information on how to get access to the Beta rules which I will be releasing immediately following Gencon.

Oh yea did I forget to mention that Gencon 2011 is next week! You may even see some more activity on this page as I try to get the word out about Sovereign Wars during the convention. The main goal however is to have two good demo sessions and to bring some more players into the fold of Sovereign Wars fans.

That's it for now if anyone that reads this(there are a few of you out there) is heading to Gencon keep your eyes out you just may see a couple of Sovereign Wars T-Shirted individuals running around maybe even some people wearing buttons...you never know(also depends if the stuff shows up in time....got to love print on demand companies)

Sryth

A Logo..........Finally

2011-07-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here it is after months of work we finally have a logo.

Now on to GenCon and Alpha Release 1.0

Gencon Bound

2011-07-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

And you thought this blog was dead......Its just been in a development coma for a few months.
Yes folk its that time of year again. Gencon is just around the corner in fact its less than a month away and Sovereign Wars will be there. Its been a long time in development matter of fact over a year I am finally ready to show off the current state of the game. So if you read this blog and you find your self at Gencon Thursday and Friday night stop by and say hello. I am running a demonstration each night and right now each game is sold out but you never know someone might not show. I will also be around both nights if anyone has any questions it may be possible to get in a pick up game as well.

The events can be found in: Hall G : Blue : 40

Sovereign Wars an Overview with some design philosophy thrown in.

2011-02-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

I have been asked by a few people now to explain just what Sovereign Wars is. Since I have been hard at work on the 3d models and the rules this overview kind of got pushed to the side. Now that the url is live and the alpha rules are coming soon I figured now is a as good a time as any to write up the overview.

So what is Sovereign Wars? Sovereign Wars is a table top space combat game set in a distant part of the milky way galaxy. The first book with contain four races that are currently struggling to control their corner of space. The game is played with ships organized into fleets ranging from units of fighters up to large carriers and cruisers. A standard game will have at least one large carrier or cruiser class ship and a variety of support craft you are looking at about 10 to 15 ships for a average game but the game will scale up for even larger battles. Fleets will be constructed using a simple point system that allows for quick list building and overall balance. One of the main design philosophies of Sovereign Wars is to keep the rules as light as possible but offer complexity in how they are used in actual game play. Game play it self involves an abstract movement system that allows for little to no record keeping and keeps the game moving at a quick pace. You won't have to have any special templates or gauges to move ships in Sovereign Wars a simple tape measure will be enough. Along with the simplified movement system the games combat rolls are just as easy we use a simple two d6 system where one roll determines if you hit and how much damage you have caused. Those are pretty much the basics within those rules there is also a resource management system where fleet commanders must allocate and manage orders effectively allowing the ships to attack and react to their opponent. In addition there are also rules for boarding actions, ramming as well as special characters and ships the provide benefits to the fleet.

Now that we know the general basics of what Sovereign Wars is let go over what Sovereign Wars is not. It is not about record keeping, each ship or unit will have a stat card that will allow you to track damage and any other effects right on the card getting rid of the need to ship control sheets for every ship. It is not a simulation. We abstract movement and scale to make the game play fast and to keep the game fun. Sovereign Wars is not about ship building or customization. Everything has its stat card and there are special effects and features that make them different from other ships but you won't have to worry about what special gear your opponent has that is not visible on their ship. All this ships that will be part of the initial release will have there stats easily accessible in the main book.

The overall goal of this whole Sovereign Wars project is to buck the trends of typical space games and to make a game accessible and fun to play anything that takes away from the action on the table with the models is thrown out. You won't see any charts or tables in the game, you also won't roll firsts full of dice that you have to count out and then roll again. Once you have learned the rules they are easy to remember and are also very clear to implement.

Enough about the game for now I have also have people asking me about the models. The goal of the model line is to represent the ships of the game in a scale that is comparable to the other popular game out there. One this we are doing with Sovereign Wars is our fighters are mounted in a 1 to 1 fashion so there are going to be bigger that they normally would so that they are visible and easier to use. With that said initially the models will be available through online print on demand channels along with printed copies of the book which will be release in full color as well as a basic PDF for free.

I think I have rambled on enough with this first post about the game itself. In the upcoming weeks we will be releasing backgrounds on the various races of Sovereign Wars along with more in depth discussions of the various systems that make up the game.

Domain Name active, seeking alpha testers

2011-02-10T19:06:00.000-08:00

www.sovereignwars.com
I am happy to announce that this site can now be reached through the url www.sovereignwars.com. With the new url I am also starting to promote the game a bit more with some post on the various space combat gaming forums.

Alpha Testers Wanted
Over the next couple of days I will be releasing more information on the initial alpha testing for the game culminating in the basic rules pdf which will be release under the Creative Commons License. For anyone that is interested in participating in the development of the rules please feel free to drop me an e-mail at sryth.varo@gmail.com

Capitol Ship update

2011-02-09T20:09:00.000-08:00

The prototypes are back for the capitol ship I previously show and for they most part they turned out well but still need some work. Below are some updated images of the the "re-sculpt" of the model.

Basically I have given the ship a more asymmetrical look and made it a bit thicker toward the engine compartment. I am also going to be doing my panel line like details as opposed to the raised sections as seen on the previous model.

Modeling Update

2011-01-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

Hello folks, its been a while but development has continued on both the art and design side of Sovereign Wars below are some early images of the Bardox capitol ship.

These images show off a new design direction for the miniatures as well as a change in the scaling. This model will be approximately 5" long when it is completed. All that is left to finish on the model is the window details as well as the various weapons.

Other Updates
The rules are currently available to testing and I am currently planning some test events at Gencon and possibly some other smaller local cons.

Sovereign Wars Alpha Release

2010-09-18T07:20:00.001-07:00

I am proud to announce that we are at a state in development that the game has been released to the alpha testers. Hopefully we will be able to go to beta by the end of the year depending on how well that alpha goes. Stay posted to this blog, over the next few days I will be posting information about the first four races of Sovereign Wars.

Artists Wanted!
I am looking for some talented artists to contribute to the model line as well as the rule book. Anyone interested please drop me an e-mail here. We are looking at artists of all types from Character Design to Ship Design. Have some talent looking for a resume piece and the opportunity to get involved with a games on the ground floor drop us an e-mail.

Frigate WIP

2010-05-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

Just a small update on the frigate I am working on. Rules are coming along nicely we will hopefully be testing next week. Check out the images below. This model is approximately 50% complete.

Front Quarter view

Overhead view

Rear Detail Shot

Frigate Preview, Help Wanted

2010-05-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

Frigate Preview

I have a couple new images of a frigate ship to show. These are early but you can start to see the look that I am going for. This ship will be about twice the size of the corvette which was about the size of a quarter.

Frigate Front Quarter

Frigate Rear Quarter

Help Wanted

As this project has kinda of taken off as of late I am in a position where I could use some help. I am looking for talented 2d and 3d artists that are interested in working in the Tabletop Gaming industry, that are willing(at this point) to work pro-bono so to speak, at lease until we start publishing materials at a faster pace. I am looking for art for the rule book as well as concept art for the 3d models we will be sending to the print on demand source. Anyone interested please feel free to comment to the post or e-mail me at this link

More Model Updates

2010-05-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

I reworked the prototype a little after more trial and error with Blender I finally have a model I feel confident sending off to the printer. I have posted some additional images of the final basic Corvette model. You may notice that this model is missing the turret on the top of the hull, that is because there will be multiple turrets available for this corvette allowing the player to customize their ships to fit their needs. These images are the last you are going to see for a while on the model side anyway as I am busy working on the rules as well as some other 2d assets. Stay posted for more information.

A close up of the rear quarter of the ship. You can see the hatch in this picture which is human scale.

More of a front quarter showing off the bridge windows and will as the upper hull detail.

A top down view

I should have samples of this model printed in 3d in plastic in around a week to ten days. I will post images of the real thing once I have them.

Sovereign Wars: Corvette Model Preview

2010-05-07T05:40:00.000-07:00

First off I would to welcome visitors to the new site for C²Games and I would also like to announce your first game tabletop miniatures game: Sovereign Wars, a starship combat game inspired by the game like Homeworld, Freespace 2 and tabletop games like Babylon 5 Wars and Full Thrust. Below are some early renders of one of the ships for the game. I am also deep in development on the rule system and should begin beta testing within the next couple months. Stay posted to this blog for new and updates about the game itself as well as our plans for the game.

Corvette Class prototype