SLAG!

Playtesting & Rules Development
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countercheck
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SLAG!

Post by countercheck »

There's a fun little diceless tactical space wargame out there called Slag! I feel very strongly that it would be a perfect fit for a tactical system for VBAM. Has anyone done a conversion for Slag! so I don't have to? Or should I get going and make one of my own?
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Tyrel Lohr
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Re: SLAG!

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

I haven't heard of Slag! before, so I have a feeling there probably isn't a VBAM conversion floating around for it anywhere. Are there any good online resources for the games or sample ship sheets to get an idea of how it handles unit statistics?

For most conversions the only absolute necessities are a construction cost and a maintenance cost (and you could even just take 10% x construction cost to calculate maintenance if you wanted to). Converting over DV, AS, AF, etc. is obviously nice if you are planning on using the CSCR, but if Slag! plays fast enough you might not need to. Their entry on BGG says that it an be played over a lunch hour, but I'm not sure how big of a battle they are talking about there.
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Re: SLAG!

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Slag! is an odd one. It LOOKS like it converts over just fine, but there are all sorts of little things that make it tricky. Ships are built around boxes, each box holding a single system, and there's a simple way to calculate the number of 'points' a ship is worth, which SEEMS like they would convert directly to construction cost, but the boxes vary in size depending on the size of a ship. A single size 5 box from a cruiser is the same size as an entire size 0 space plane. Further, the game is optimized to play at 100-150 points, which would be a fairly small skirmish in VBAM, and the point spread from frigate to dreadnought is about 80 points.

I may just rename the various sizes, so instead of size 9 being a Cost 90 Dreadnought, we don't go much higher than Size 4 (Cost 25). It would be a rare shipyard that could handle a cost 90 ship.
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Tyrel Lohr
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Re: SLAG!

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

With that spread of values, you might able to take the point cost divided by 3 (round up) to get a workable construction cost value. That would leave your 80 point dreadnought at 27 EP a piece. If you used the completion time rules from 1E, that would be a 14 turn build time. The small 1 point ships/fighters could then either have a 1/3 cost, or just say that each 1 EP of space planes is just a flotilla of 3 of them.
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Re: SLAG!

Post by countercheck »

That's an option I'm considering, but I'm worried it might make fleets too large and increase resolution time. Considering increasing the number of EPs that can be spent at any given location, but not decreasing prices, so the superheavies are super-expensive (they're also super-effective), but can only be built at a few places.
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