Aotrs Shipyards: Manoeuvre Group Sci-Fi Expansion Beta

[Aotrs Shipyards]

Something a little different today. In advance of the final part of the re-release program for the Shipyards, and Hammerhead at the weekend, I have decided to release a beta version of the Manoeuvre Group Sci-Fi Expansion rules.

You can download the PDF here.

Manoeuvre Group is itself, as always, available at Wargames Vault here.

This was something of a spur-of-the-moment decision, so this is still very much a beta/early access release. I have elected to do so partly as an apology for the upcoming price rise at Only-Games, and also for having had the unfortunate timing to have had to release the Soviet Remnant at what is, to put it mildly, likely the worst possible timing.

Finally, I have also become increasingly aware that people generally tend to buy models for a set of rules (rather than to get the models and then use them for whatever rules). While it has been my intention to get this up in its final form as a free expansion for a long while, Manoeuvre Group’s Issue 2 revision is still not complete and I don’t know when it will be. (And I can only chivy Dad so much…!) So I elected that this was as good (or bad) a time as any to put out what I currently have as the beta version, in the hopes of maybe perking some interest, and at least, perhaps, giving people some stats to attach to the Shipyards models; even if those stats may not necessarily make sense on their own, they are at least comparable to each other!

So, what is in this expansion?

One, the additional rules for sci-fi (shields, scanners, heroes, energy weapons and so on), and magic.* The rules are fundementally complete and up-to-standard even in this version, bar any minor tweaks to match up to those in MG Issue 2 to come.

*As explictly defined as “any paranatural abilities” including psionics, that stuff those famous magic space samurai etc use. It is labelled under magic, since of the two powers of the current factions presented here that have enough users to make a battlefield… They are both magic!

Two: Vehicle stats. Some of these are intended to be used by moderns vehicles that have been “modernised” for the 24th century (a long-standing tradition that dates back to Stargrunt II before MG was even written, since I was pretty much the only one with a sci-fi army!) The rest are stats for all the currently (or shortly-to-be) released ranges on the Shipyards. This all mechanics crunch, with no fluff* (for one, this is already a large document).

The presentation of the stat blocks is principally where the beta status lies. While what I have used is functional, it has room for improvement. My intention was once MG Issue 2 was done, to have a unifed statblock format that would apply to both moderns and sci-fi, but MG decided they didn’t like the one I did and haven’t done their own yet. So a couple of vehicles have different stat blocks (them being some of the test versions), but most are in the beta status.

Three: Some sample force listings. As noted in the expansion itself, these are not balanced army lists for taking and using on the table top, so much as indicators of how platoons are organised and deployed. (By necessity, since a) the various factions don’t have the same number of vehicles and b) a standard evening’s game migh only use a company’s worth of units for time anyway.)

What is not here: Point values and contruction rules. MG and thus the sci-fi expansion are entirely scenario based games, so they simply don’t have the former. And as the scifi stats are based initially around the modern tank stats, trying to bend a construction system around that without actually having to literally do the real-world engineering was simply not practical, and without a point system, seemed doubly pointless, especially as terrain is the great leveller.

*For (some of) the fluff that I have previously put up, here it is in PDF form:

A Guide to the Army Of The Red Spear

Bleakbane’s Galaxy Guide: Jalyrkieons

Bleakbane’s Galaxy Guide: Cybertanks

Bleakbane’s Galaxy Guide: Herosine Empire

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