Post by Eric Farrington on Jul 12, 2021 13:42:15 GMT
I got my copy of Stargrave in the mailbox the other day. It took a bit longer as I insist on getting hard copy books rather than PDFs. Why? I do not know? It is a personal preference. However, sometimes that slows down my reviews as I wait for a dead plant version to show up at my location.
Anyway, this game is the highly anticipated Science Fiction skirmish game by the prolific wargame designer Joseph McCullough. Many people have been looking for the "Next big thing" in sci-fi skirmish gaming and the buzz was that this was it! Obviously, it is a variation of the popular Frostgrave line, only this time set... IN..... SPACE!
The game is set in the Ravaged Galaxy. The great galactic civilizations have been brought low after the carnage of the Last War. Where once civilization flourished, now it was nothing but decay and ruin. Planets were left to fend for themselves, as were the people on them. To make matters worse, after the Last War; pirate fleets sprung up to replace the nation-states. These pirate fleets roam the Ravaged Galaxy smashing anything that could be a threat to them and looting, pillaging, and destroying as they go. Now, the Galaxy is more like a huge version of Tortuga from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
You represent a small starship and their crew trying to make their way in this tough galaxy. You can put any backstory you want to it, but you are essentially Mal and the crew from Firefly/Serenity. The crew is trying to get by and keep on flying. This is accomplished by hiring yourself out for various small time jobs like smuggling, raiding, trading, etc. You know, the dirty work. By staying small time and in the shadows, they avoid the Pirate Fleets.
Honestly, I do not know how much I will really have to say in this review that you can not understand from my Frostgrave and Ghost Archipelago reviews. These are practically the same game systems with only a few minor variations. However, there is some genre gloss to bring it into the new setting. Therefore, I think this review will be a bit different than some of my others as I focus on what makes this game different from the others.
You can read the rest of the review at my blog: bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/07/review-stargrave-osprey-games.html