SCN - Attack Vector

Well, the second ship book is progressing, thanks to a lot of work by Erich and Mark Graves – Mark is doing SSD and class history reviews every week. Erich helped rewrite the perl script that automates (mostly) SSD generation. Now if only our hosting provider wouldn't randomly hide ghostscript.

We're waiting for some freelancers to finish turning in text for the setting book."

4/16/2011 - The 2nd Edition of Attack Vector is now available. It has incorporated all errata items to date, updated the layout of the rulebooks, and refined the firing arc displays on the ship system's displays, while offering an expanded setting book. An upgrade kit is available that replaces the rulebook, SSD book and setting book for Attack Vector: Tactical, along with the updated Ship Control Cards.

9/13/2008 - The Attack Vector minis that were in pre-order are now in production and shipping

6/23/2008 - Sci-Fi SkunkWerks will be producing large scale (1:1500) resin castings of the ships from Attack Vector's Ten Worlds universe. Sci-Fi SkunkWerks is starting from the original CAD files used to make the Ten Worlds miniatures, done by Charles Oines, and is working with Charles to clean up and scale up the models for these larger display scale models. Pre-orders will be taken soon once pricing can be finalized.

2/6/2008 - The next three sets of Attack Vector miniatures are available for pre-order along with a set of minis for Voidstriker. You can pre-order through an interactive PDF and once 150 packs have been pre-ordered (the Voidstriker set counts as 3 packs) then the minis will go into production.

ADA 11205 One Lafayette and two Kennets
Lafayette-class Croiseur de Patrouille (FN/Olympian Light Cruiser)
Kennet-class Frégate de Patrouille (FN/Olympian Frigate)

ADA 11206 Four Haifengs
Haifeng-class Gunboat Destroyer (Xing Cheng Corvette)

ADA 11207 Three Shokoladkis
SV Shokolodki Class Self-Mobile Orbital Artillery Platform (Novaya Rossiyan Frigate)

In addition, pre-orders are also being taken on new Ninja Magic magnetic base adapters for use with Attack Vector: Tactical along with Saganami Island Tactical Simulator. The new adaptors come in a pack of 90 degree, 30 degree, and 60 degree adaptors so you don't have to use the tilt blocks.

3/29/2007 - They next two packs of minis for Attack Vector: Tactical can now available, the Kuan Yin Battle Squadron pack with 3 minis and the DiGleria Battle Squadron pack with a DiGleria and 2 York miniatures.

Kuan Yin Battle Squadron

Digleria and York Battle Squadron

2/4/2007 - The first of the miniatures for Attack Vector are now available. The Rafik and Wasp Battle Squadrons both come with 3 ship miniatures. The next miniatures for AV:T should be available soon.

al-Rafik Interceptor of the Medinan Caliphate

Wasp Fast Attack Destroyer of the Olympian Defense Forces Space Arm

10/6/2006 - A Ten Worlds Ships of the Fleet Wall Calendar is now available for 2007. Each page is 11"x17" making the calendar 17"x22" when hung on the wall. It includes 12 pieces of custom artwork by Charles Oines of ships from the Attack Vector universe.

7/23/2006 - Nexus Journal #1 is now available as a 96 page softcover book.

Nexus Journal is the periodical publication for the Ten Worlds setting. Each issue brings additional ships for Attack Vector: Tactical, fiction, setting and background details on the Ten Worlds.

In Volume 1, we bring you the Astrographica account of a Schwarzvaal transect, Honey Trap by Matt Picio, the Mansur class keelgun cruiser, and the FN Redoubtible class missile corvette.

In addition to this, we have a preliminary rule for short period (planetary) orbital mechanics, tactics submitted by players like you and two pieces of fiction!

2/9/2005 - Attack Vector: Tactical 1.5 is now available. If you registered your 1.0 version copy of AV:T, you can get your copy of the updated rulebook for cost plus shipping. Instructions are here.

For one, we went through and did a massive overhaul of the ship design process and engine. The upshot of it is that it's considerably automated from 1.0. We also had to really dig deeply into how ships are made to make sure we had a process that could be automated, rather than rely on designer intuition and "That Looks About Right..." While we were at it, we removed things nobody ever reported using (crew casualty rules) and fixed a few things that were providing cheap and reliable mission kills, at the expense of fun. (Reactors now take more hits to destroy, for example).

Every rules question we had in writing has been incorporated into the rulebook.

We also added a few technologies to the game, based on commentary from SFCONSIM-L and 2 years of player input since publication - we now have water heat sinks (which store 1 heat point, or can be "flushed" to remove 6), chemical batteries as an alternate "reactor" power input, solar arrays (including the ability to accept beamed power between engagements), and (under the hood) a consistently applied metric for power generation systems dependant on the technology used. (The Civilian Reactor no longer breaks the curve in ship designs.)

We've added flash coolers as something that can be in a weapon mount - fire a weapon, spend coolant, and reduce its cycle time.

There are now certain actions (such as burning fuel) which can reduce the mass of the ship - reducing the mass of the ship can increase its maximum thrust rating in game scale units. (See below.)

We've added over three pages of "Science Behind The Rules" notes throughout the book.

The seeking weapon rules have been rewritten - they havn't changed, but they've been explained in greater depth, with more examples and more explanatory diagrams.

On the back cover of the rulebook, we've printed the Range-Angle Lookup Table, which combines two steps of shooting a bearing into one color coded table.

Missiles now have to check for reliability, depending on how long the ship has been deployed. You can baby them along, but it costs balance points...and helps give the right feel for the logistics mess of using expendant ordnance on ships that do multi-month independant cruises away from supply freighters, without making you track the freighters.

Defenses against inbound seekers were improved - EMP warheads, counterfired nukes, counterfired coilguns. The Zone Defense Particle Beam had its aggregation cap removed. Lots of cases were explictly spelled out.

The first chapter of the AV:T 1.5 rulebook (the tutorial), and the v 1.5 Wasp and Rafik SSDs are now a PDF file. http://www.adastragames.com/downloads.html Combine them with the box miniatures and downloadable cut out paper tilt blocks on the web site already, acquire a hex map and some chocolates, and you too can teach yourself the game.

5/19/2005 - Ken of Ad Astra announces that the first issue of the Nexus Journal for Attack Vector: Tactical and its Ten Worlds universe is due in Late June 2005 and pre-orders are now being taken..

Nexus Journal is the periodical publication for the Ten Worlds setting. Each issue brings additional ships for Attack Vector: Tactical, fiction, setting and background details on the Ten Worlds, "current event" summaries for events going on in The Great Game, and more!

In Volume 1, we bring you the Astrographica account of a Schwarzvaal transect, a review of the latest Legion of the Dove Holovid (and notes on how to convert it into an RPG adventure), the Mansur class keelgun cruiser, and the FN Redoubtible class missile corvette.

In addition to this, we have a preliminary rule for short period (planetary) orbital mechanics, tactics submitted by players like you and two pieces of fiction!

The first copies of AV:T were shipped to end consumers today. More will be shipped later this week; we're currently doing the invoicing and packing amongst other tasks.

4/6/2004 - Attack Vector: Tactical is at the printer and may be out later this month. Take a look at the new cover image (above). I received the following offer from Casey and Gaming Solutions:

www.GamingSolutionsInc.com is now accepting pre-orders for "Attack Vector: Tactical". This is an elegantly designed and well engineered, real-space combat simulation. Forgoing the "Flash Gordon" swooshing effects, "Attack Vector: Tactical" is the first, and possibly only, game to competently replicate movement and combat in multiple dimensions without the traditional sci fi crutches of "inertial dampeners" and unlimited thrust, or little details like the 50-G turn you just made not turning your crew into a strawberry jam-like substance.
As part of the pre-release, Gaming Solutions Inc. is offering free shipping on all copies ordered before the general release date.

There is also an interesting discussion about Attack Vector: Tactical over at The Miniatures Page.

9/13/2003 - Ken has released this press release a couple days ago on the 11th:

Attack Vector: Tactical has been picked up by Alliance distribution, and we have "intend to order" memos from Gameboard, Esdevium and Blackhawk Hobbies. The laminated components and plastic bits are in
the warehouse now.

The release date for solicitation at game stores is Spring of 2004; we are waiting on artwork to come in to send the color components to press, and the rulebook and setting book are coming together nicely.

The MSRP will be $54.95, due to increases in color printing costs and the UPS price hike. All direct orders done at the old $49.95 price will be honored as such; at some point in the not too distant future
the price on the shopping cart will change to reflect the solicitation price.

7/31/2003 - I talked with Ken at GenCon and he continues to streamline the mechanics and play aids for Attack Vector: Tactical. They are still taking pre-orders and if they hit 200 it will be printed. Reguardless of pre-orders, it will be released around the GAMA game trade show in the spring of 2004 and the Fleets version should follow soon after along with additional supplements.

6/25/2003 - Ken posted the following info on the Sfconsim-l mailing list on 6/18:

Due to customs paperwork, the parts I'm having shipped from overseas won't be here in time for GenCon. It came as a surprise to my importer as well.

Since I won't have the booth sales to recoup the printing costs, and the presence with GenCon to woo distributors with, I'm putting AV:T on a pre-order system.

Once I reach 200 pre-orders, I will make arrangements to send it to press, and I will use the time accumulating orders to arrange for more marketing. This will also let us do a better job on a few other aspects of the project.

The good news is that I've found printers who've let me shave some money off the cover price; the game is $49.95, and can be ordered at: http://www.adastragames.com/dv/index.html

It's been a long road. I'm hoping that's the light is at the end of the tunnel."

3/13/2003 - Attack Vector: Tactical is scheduled for a GenCon 2003 release and a picture of the cover is now available. It will be a boxed, stand alone game. Included in each box will be:

Delta V (the pre-release version of Attack Vector) is now officially out of print. I have a handful of extra rulebooks I'm selling for $10 each for people who want a copy for a reference.

Sierra Madre Games' Rocket Flight has 3 copies left in inventory. If you want a copy of Rocket Flight, get the order in quick. I am still donating $2 from each sale to the Space Access Society while they last.

Slated for a GenCon release this year will be Attack Vector: Tactical. AV:T is the tactical space combat engine of ship to ship combat with playable, accurate and fun 3-D spaceship combat in the rich setting of the Ten Worlds.

Coming out for Christmas will be Attack Vector: Fleets. This is a vector movement game that handles large scale fleet actions, where each ship is represented by a large die cut hexagonal counter and a business card sized damage track. It is also set in the Ten Worlds universe, and the ships from AT:T will be mapped to AV:F.

In future development, Ad Astra Games plans on re-releasing an improved version of Rocket Flight, including delta V maps for the interesting systems for the Ten Worlds, allowing the use of this game as the operational movement component for either of the Attack Vector line of games, or to play the game with a different solar system for greater replay value. Phil Eklund has delivered the maps, and is gathering info for more rocket engines. We hope to reduce the card count and improve the production quality of the artwork on this re- issue.

We also have a "grand operational" game for the Ten Worlds universe in the works, which, while a standalone game on its own using fog of war similar to Columbia's block games, will link up with the Rocket Flight re-issue to allow people to play complete operational campaigns in the Ten Worlds. It will be possible, using the extra maps for Rocket Flight in addition to this game, for players to build fleets, move them between stars, move fleets in system, and break out either Attack Vector: Tactical or Attack Vector: Fleets to fight out the combat actions.

Finally, we intend to release mechanics neutral roleplaying sourcebooks set in the Ten Worlds. We are currently soliciting opinions for which game engines people would like to see supported. Each sourcebook is slated to be 48-64 pages, with a color insert showing an icosohedral overlay map of the planet in question.

In support of these products, Ad Astra Games will sell a periodical journal, tentatively called Astrographica, which will be presented (fictionally) as the successor to the National Geographic magazine. It will typically have some fiction set in the universe, a couple of new ships for both of the AV game lines, condensed newswire services covering historical development of the Ten Worlds timeline, (similar to the JTAS newswire for Traveller) and a "National Geographic" style article giving a first person account of a trip through an interesting spot in the Ten Worlds setting.

10/12/2002 - DV will be changing names. Ken has talked with distributors and because DV has a non-English character and since Fantasy Flight has a game Delta V (pronounced 'Delta five'), a name change is in order. The new name is.....Attack Vector, but this will be the 'line' name with DV probably be retitled Attack Vector: Starship Command and a vector tiles game in development becoming Attack Vector: Fleet Command. 'Attack Vector' was the name of a web game by Mike DeSanto who has give permission for Ad Astra to use the name. Expect changes to the Ad Astra website towards the end of the month.