#artemisbridgesimulator

[big-wired]

The Starfleet booth at the Calgary Expo! They had some great pins and plaques as well as the Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, who were at Dragoncon. A really cool booth. Check them out at kingsofstarfleet.org . #calgaryexpo #calgaryexpo2019 #startrek #artemisbridgesimulator https://www.instagram.com/northernjoltstudios/p/BxNzeBEjuHV/?igshid=h66p7m2vf33y

[discordjack]

#CaptainSonar is exactly as chaotic as I expected. But it’s also that special kind of fun you can only get from chaotic communication games like #KeepTalkingAndNobodyExplodes and #ArtemisBridgeSimulator. This one has you and (preferably) 7 friends manning 2 opposing submarines in a duel to the death. The captain moves the ship one space at a time. With each move, the engineer must assign damage to a node, temporarily shutting down its matching system until repaired. The first mate also charges up any of the sub’s...subsystems: sonar, torpedoes, etc. The captain calls out directions as he draws the sub’s route, e.g. “HEAD NORTH!” and the first mate and engineer must respond with a clear “OK!” after they’ve done their part. Then the sub can move again. Meanwhile, the radio operator is tracking the enemy captain’s directions trying to deduce the location of the enemy sub. Each time a captain resolves a weapon or activates the sonar, real-time pauses. The two games I named in the intro are computer games, which are generally better than humans at keeping track of minutiae in stressful situations where you’re trying to act as fast as you can. Luckily there aren’t TOO many fiddly details in this game, but even with the 7 experienced gamers I played with, we still had a few rules hiccups and difficulties in hearing enemy captains, as well as awkward east-west mixups and move takebacks–e.g. firing damaged weapons. Despite that, most of us enjoyed it. I think it’s pretty fun, but requires disciplined gamers who make sure they’re not accidentally–or, unforgivably, purposefully–cheating. #SpaceAlert fixed this with a separate planning and resolution phase, but when you have two dueling teams, that’s nigh impossible to do. We did what the rulebook suggested and tried the turn-by-turn variant for our first game to learn the rules. It’s a decent game in its own right, but not as fun as the real-time duel–at least with 8. With 2 or 4 players, the turn-by-turn game could be a lot of fun too, but that remains to be seen. With the right people (disciplined and/or fun-loving folks who don’t mind a few rules mistakes) this game is an absolute riot. Recommended with those caveats.

[discordjack]

#CaptainSonar is exactly as chaotic as I expected. But it’s also that special kind of fun you can only get from chaotic communication games like #KeepTalkingAndNobodyExplodes and #ArtemisBridgeSimulator. This one has you and (preferably) 7 friends manning 2 opposing submarines in a duel to the death. The captain moves the ship one space at a time. With each move, the engineer must assign damage to a node, temporarily shutting down its matching system until repaired. The first mate also charges up any of the sub’s...subsystems: sonar, torpedoes, etc. The captain calls out directions as he draws the sub’s route, e.g. “HEAD NORTH!” and the first mate and engineer must respond with a clear “OK!” after they’ve done their part. Then the sub can move again. Meanwhile, the radio operator is tracking the enemy captain’s directions trying to deduce the location of the enemy sub. Each time a captain resolves a weapon or activates the sonar, real-time pauses. The two games I named in the intro are computer games, which are generally better than humans at keeping track of minutiae in stressful situations where you’re trying to act as fast as you can. Luckily there aren’t TOO many fiddly details in this game, but even with the 7 experienced gamers I played with, we still had a few rules hiccups and difficulties in hearing enemy captains, as well as awkward east-west mixups and move takebacks–e.g. firing damaged weapons. Despite that, most of us enjoyed it. I think it’s pretty fun, but requires disciplined gamers who make sure they’re not accidentally–or, unforgivably, purposefully–cheating. #SpaceAlert fixed this with a separate planning and resolution phase, but when you have two dueling teams, that’s nigh impossible to do. We did what the rulebook suggested and tried the turn-by-turn variant for our first game to learn the rules. It’s a decent game in its own right, but not as fun as the real-time duel–at least with 8. With 2 or 4 players, the turn-by-turn game could be a lot of fun too, but that remains to be seen. With the right people (disciplined and/or fun-loving folks who don’t mind a few rules mistakes) this game is an absolute riot. Recommended with those caveats.