Bob Nash - 07:06am Oct 15, 2002 PST (#4229 of 4236) 

How would Starfall compare to any of the following: Stellar Conquest,
Godsfire; Star Probe/Star Empires; Star and Sword; Twilight Imperium? I
am looking for fun stellar exploration & conquest game w/ less
bookeeping that Stellar Conquest; less involved (more developed? ) than
Star Probe/Star Empires. I enjoy Godsfire and to lesser extent liked
Twi. Imp.; but Starfall is one I never got to really look over. 



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dav Vandenbroucke - 07:33am Oct 15, 2002 PST (#4230 of 4236) 
Tell them I said something.

I'm not familiar with all of those games, but I would say that Starfall
is more similar to Stellar Conquest. It's more of a classic "4X" kind of
game, with less diplomacy or internal political considerations (as
contrasted with Godsfire, for example). There is a fair amount of
paperwork to keep track of the characteristics of star systems. On the
other hand, there are holding boxes for fleets, and so you don't keep
track of fleet composition on paper. 

The most interesting hook of Starfall is the interstellar movement
method. Starfall points are black hole thingies that provide gateways to
other parts of space. That part is pretty ordinary. But when you "make
starfall," you are randomly placed in a hex inside a 6x6 sector (called
the "focus" of the starfall point). Thus, you don't know exactly where
you will wind up. The other interesting thing is that starfall travel is
strictly one way. Once you make starfall, the only way back is to find a
chain of starfall points that happens to lead to the sector where you
started. It is possible to move hex-by-hex, but this is usually too slow
to be practical. 

Star systems and starfall points are found by going out and searching
for them with explorers. The number of similar bodies within six hexes
of your search determines the probability of success. 

There isn't as much ship differentiation as in Stellar Conquest. Ships
are explorers, combat, or development. The last two can be built as "pi"
ships (cheap, slow, can't make starfall), or "infinity" ships (more
expensive, faster, can make starfall). 

There is an elaborate procedure with lots of dice rolls for determining
the characteristics of discovered star systems. Some of it seems to do
nothing but add a bit of color. You might discover star systems that
like you and agree to join you peacefully. Otherwise, you have to
conquer the populated ones and colonize the uninhabited ones.
Colonization works as a kind of combat. You send your development fleet
and roll on the development table. Eventually you wear down the planet's
resistance, and you have a colony. Colonies can be upgraded to developed
worlds using the same procedure. 

Combat is CRT based. You add up the strength of your fleet, and roll two
dice, resulting in losses for the enemy. It goes back and forth like
that until one side is destroyed or runs away. 

The only R&D rules are optional. As I recall, they aren't really worth
bothering with. 

The game does have a nice black "starfield" map, and it comes with those
doublethick Yaquinto counters which are nice on the hands. Since there
are offmap boxes for fleets, you don't get towering stacks. The graphics
are typical of the period, black-on-color. Neutral counters are
white-on-black. Nice, but nothing that will make you say "wow." 



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Nichols - 01:34pm Oct 15, 2002 PST (#4231 of 4236) 
(What's so Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?

One of the first wargames I ever owned was Yaquinto's Starfall. Came out
during the height of the original Star Wars euphoria - 1979. Traded it
years later for God only knows what game. Dav's description fits nicely
in my memory. I do remember that the game had a real dense, heavy flavor
to it. It was not light gaming but it was solitaire playable to a
certain degree. 

For photo, see: http://www.huntbc.freeserve.co.uk/SBGp3.htm#%20Sb 

"Starfall is an operational level game of science fiction exploration
and conquest set in the distant future. Players take on the role of
galactic emperors ever-expanding their empire through the acquisition of
new planetary systems. 

The players deploy exploration craft to discover traversable black holes
that may lead to new, usable planetary systems. Once a system has been
discovered it must be evaluated for possible terra-forming. Planetary
systems in control of a player generate resources that can in turn be
used to build more spacecraft for combat as well as further exploration.

The game consists of 1 21.5" x 27.5" mapboard, 550 die cut counters, log
pad, set of charts and tables, operation sheets, 2 dice, 1 rulebook and
a plastic counter tray. "