From Ad Astra Games

"Any Ship. Any Universe. Fully 3-D"

"Building off of the streamlined 3-D movement engine of Saganami Island Tactical Simulator, 2nd Edition, Squadron Strike lets you build any ship, from any setting, in full 3-D glory—and then pit them against each other, in titanic battles for the fate of galaxies.

Squadron Strike takes between 5 and 10 minutes per turn with 6 ships per side, and combines fast play with more tactical depth and scalable detail than any other "construction ready" space combat game.  It's suitable for ages 12 and up.

In Squadron Strike, ships move in one of three movement modes, named for the number of Newton's Laws being obeyed; with these options you're not stuck with whatever movement mode the game designer liked - you can pick the one that works best for the setting you're trying to run in. You even have optional fuel rules (for both interstellar and tactical movement) to simulate the setting or TV series to whatever degree you like. You decide what reality level is appropriate for your level of fun.

You can design nearly everything in the game, from missiles, to beams, to fighters, to torpedoes.  An original setting includes pre-built ships and weapons for people who don't want to get deeply into the customization process, but if you want it, you have complete control.

Automated tools do complete SSD generation for you, in Excel format, or with higher end features via web applications."

4/1/2012 - Ad Astra Games is now taking pre-orders for miniatures from three fleets for the new Star's Reach setting that will be used for both Squadron Strike and Colonial Battlefleet.

The Star's Reach setting is one of old school space opera, before it got dark and grim and gritty dealt with the last survivors of humanity.  Setting books are in the works and could be out at the end of May.

You can pre-order miniatures from the 3 factions.  The exact count of which minis will be in each fleet box will be determined later once the exact volume of metal for each ship is determined though you will probably get 1 of the larger ships and 2-3 of the smaller ships in each fleet box.  160 fleet boxes will need to be pre-ordered before production begins.

6/27/2010 - Squadron Strike is getting a new rulebook, SSD book, and revised and expanded setting book - this is a line refresh that has grown out of answering rules questions on the Ad Astra forum, and taking a chance to add suggestions from users and players throughout the last year and a half.  Upgrade kits are available for order.
Among the changes:
1) More weapon traits - there are now more options for designing weapons to suit any universe you can imagine.
2) Revised ship costing model; the ship cost calculations more accurately reflect their combat capabilities in a general case.
3) Weapon costing model improvements, and more information available to weapon designers when they're designing weapons.
4) A re-organized rulebook that includes expanded, walk through examples of how to shoot bearings, and which shuffles the order of presentation of a few things to make them easier to find.
5) A complete rewrite to torpedoes to improve game balance, broaden their options, and to make Bubble torpedoes a bit more useful as an option.
6) A restructured campaign game section.

Also now available is Ship Book 2: The Three Face War. The setting of the Posthuman Diaspora Goes to War!  This expansion includes 15 more ships, plus registration benefits as the Japanese, Russians and Rhodesians slip into the posthuman conflict, where through mirroring one another, they go from war as a hobby to war as an avocation, carefully bound within rules of conduct, and monitored for compliance, and run by war ministries in a near post-scarcity society.

12/2/2008 - The Squadron Strike boxed game is now shipping.  Distributors have their copies and pre-orders are being sent out.  Also the pre-order trigger for the Squadron Strike minis has also been met so they will happen and that process will still take a few months, but you can still pre-order until the schedule is finalized.

9/20/2008 - Squadron Strike rules are now at the printers so those who pre-ordered them can pay now and they should be shipping at the end of October.

Ad Astra is now taking pre-orders for the Japanese Fleet Box 1.  The target again is 40 boxes and again the exact composition of the box depends on final production costs of the minis and the number of parts for each ship.

From top left corner: Fubuki, Ryujo, Nagato, Takao, Mutsu, Yamato.

8/6/2008 - Ken has another announcement...

Russian Fleet Box 1 for Squadron Strike is now up for pre-order! Yes, the game made it to the 140 pre-orders we needed to finance this and the Brits made it past 20 pre-orders. (We need 17 more British pre-orders)

The pre-order target to start production is 40 fleet boxes. We don’t know exactly how many ships would go into each $59.95 fleet box, but our other fleet boxes contain 8 to 18 ships each (the 8 includes a three-piece superdreadnought). The cost of making the molds varies with a lot of factors, including complexity of pieces, size of pieces, and number of pieces.

Next up are the Japanese. We need 7 more Squadron Strike pre-orders and at least 20 pre-orders for the Russians to be able to afford to put the Japanese up for pre-order.

7/23/2008 - Ken has made the following announcement:

British Fleet Box 1 for Squadron Strike is now up for pre-order! Yes, the game made it to the 133 pre-orders we needed to finance this. (pre-order these minis here)

The pre-order target to start production is 40 fleet boxes. We don’t know exactly how many ships would go into each $59.95 fleet box, but our other fleet boxes contain 8 to 18 ships each (the 8 includes a three-piece superdreadnought). The cost of making the molds varies with a lot of factors, including complexity of pieces, size of pieces, and number of pieces. For example, possible rotating section require more pieces.

Next up are the Russians. We need 7 more Squadron Strike pre-orders and at least 20 pre-orders for the Brits to be able to afford to put the Russians up from pre-order. Then we turn to the Japanese.

As with all Ad Astra Games pre-orders, you pay nothing now and we don't store your credit card information. When our caster tells us that everything is ready to go, we'll send you a notice to confirm your order and pay.

5/16/2008 - Ken Burnside of Ad Astra Games has announced that Squadron Strike is now available for pre-order and there is a pre-order target of 105 copies before they are printed. Pre-order page

Squadron Strike comes with a complete, integrated campaign system, including web apps that automatically generate campaign maps, victory decks, and system maps. Just enter the campaign turn in the web app and the positions of the planets on the system map update automatically!

The boxed game will have two map sheets, a bag of tilt blocks, two bags of stacking tiles, box miniature sheets, a rulebook, an SSD book and a setting book. The ship design tools are available as a free download in Excel; the web applications (including a nicer ship design tool set, and campaign support) are behind a subscriber login.

Your serial number gives you a 90-day trial subscription to the subscriber areas; after that, the subscription area costs $20 per calendar quarter, or $60 for an entire year.

2/3/2007 - In development from Ad Astra Games is Squadron Strike, a 'Cinematic 3D Space Combat Game'.  A player should be able to simulating multiple genres of space combat using 3D or 2D movement with multiple types of movement modes (defined by the number of Newton's Laws they follow).  Plans are to have extensive web support including a web-based SSD builder where you can design your weapons, fighters, or ships and then save them online and use them to build ships which can be saved and printed as a PDF file.  Plus a web-based box miniature generator where you upload your own art to make box miniatures.

More info and discussion can be found on the Ad Astra forums under Squadron Strike.