7/29/2012
- Hydra now has the Space
Pirates rules supplement for War
Rocket now on their site under the
Downloads
section. This free 14 page PDF
details the history of space piracy in the
War Rocket universe,
features rocket stats for the Space
Pirates, and introduces new crew and
equipment customizations. The Space
Pirate PDF also includes the Squadrons
of Infamy—three new pirate fleets from
our Space Pirate Clan Contest winners as
well as a short story from War Rocket
creator John Douma.
Also
the miniatures for the Space Pirates class
3 and class 4 ships will be released on
July 31st.
2/6/2012
- War Rocket update from Hydra
as posted on TMP, they Space Pirate
ships of class 1 and 2 are available and
the class 2 had some issues and was
remastered. Space Pirate class 3
master has been printed and the class 4
will go next week so production miniatures
should be available soon. They are
finishing up the Space Pirate free PDF
supplement and should have it posted near
the end of the month. A new Top
Secret fleet for War Rocket is also in the
works.
Space Pirates
class 1 |
Space Pirates
class 2 |
Space Pirates
class 3 |
2/27/2010
- The Galacteer class 4 and the Valkeeri
class 4 miniatures are now available plus
here are some preview pictures of the
Imperial class 3 and class 4s. We
can hope to see some previews of the next
2 War Rocket fleets sometime
this year.
Galacteer Class 4 |
Valkeeri Class 4 |
Imperial Class 3 |
Imperial Class 4 |
8/14/2010
- The rulebook and new ships are now
available from Hydra's
Online Store. The Galacteer
class 4 and Zenithian Class 4 minis will
be available in September. The
Imperial Class 3 and Class 4 minis are due
to show up in October.
Galacteer
Class 3 |
Zenithians
Class 3 |
Zenithians
Class 4 |
Valkeeri
Class 3 |
8/1/2010
- "After two years of hard work,
Hydra Miniatures is pleased to announce
the completion of the War
Rocket rulebook, just in time
for Gen Con Indy. This last month was a
flurry of activity, as the Hydra team put
the finishing touches on editing,
illustrating and designing this stunning
book. We are very proud of our final
product, and we are exited to share the
action-packed cover by talented Spanish
illustrator Diego Gisbert Llorens. This
high-quality rulebook is 78 pages in
length and will retail for $25."
"We
expect to have the War Rocket
rulebook and the latest rocket models
uploaded to our online store shortly after
our return from GenCon."
4/25/2010
- Wave 1 of the miniatures for War
Rocket have been released.
This first wave of War Rocket
miniatures includes the first two rockets
from each of the four factions: Galacteers
(human space patrol), Imperial
(forces of the Marduk the Tyrant), Valkeeri
(domineering space amazons) and Zenithians
(saucer men from the seventh
dimension.) This minis are the
class 1 and class 2 ships, work is
progressing well on the next two ships
from each faction. The large models will
be composite resin and metal kits. In the
next few weeks, we will be heading into
the layout phase for our War
Rocket rules. The final 8
rockets and the rules will be available at
Gen Con
Indianapolis from August 5-8.
Galacteer class
1 |
Imperial class
1 |
Zenithians class1 |
Valkeeri class 1 |
Galacteer class
2 |
Imperial class
2 |
Zenithians class
2 |
Valkeeri class 2 |
11/7/2009
- Hydra had samples of some of the
ships at Origins and GenCon this summer
but no word about release. SCN
Field Operative Phil Shanton recently
emailed Hydra about the status of
this game and their response was.....
"The
rules are nearly finished, but still need
art and layout. We are working on the
fourth fleet right now. Obviously we blew
the October deadline, but we hope to pick
up speed and finish the project soon.
It's been a learning experience and I've
been surprised how much work goes into the
production of an entire game from scratch.
It's going to be a great game and series
of figures, and my best estimate for
release is Spring 2010."
2/17/2009
- Hydra had a War Rocket demo at DunDraCon
and in the notice on their account they
state "The War Rocket
rulebook and miniatures are scheduled for
general release during the fourth quarter
of 2009."
1/3/2009
- In Hydra's announcement of their
Post Christmas Sale, they mentioned:
"we
are extremely pleased with the progress on
War Rocket, and plan to
release the rulebook and miniatures in
August 2009."
10/6/2008
- The latest from Hydra Miniatures:
Hydra Miniatures
would like to thank everyone for applying
to be official playtesters for War Rocket.
The War Rocket development team only
expected a maximum of 12-18 applications
and were stunned to get a whopping 63
applicants! The caliber of the playtesters
is very high and the decision making
process will take a little longer than
anticipated. We hope to notify everyone
about our selections by the middle of next
week.
Also
we have two work in progress photos of new
War Rocket ships. The first ship is a
class 2 patrol ship from the Imperial
fleet of Marduk the Tyrant. This ship is
designed by master 3D sculptor Phil
Beauchamp and this three-piece white metal
casting will be approximately 2.5 inches
(60mm) long.
Our
second preview is from the Zenithians--the
Saucer Men from the Eight Dimension! This
small class 1 attack saucer was designed
by our talented new digital sculptor
Stephen Meli. This Zenithian saucer will
be a one-piece casting approximately 1
inch (25mm) in diameter.
9/23/2008
- War Rocket needs
playtesters:
Attention Space
Cadets!
Hydra Miniatures
needs a handful of dedicated playtesters
for its upcoming pulp sci-fi spaceship
combat game War
Rocket. These speedy game rules do
not attempt to simulate space combat using
the laws of physics. Instead, War
Rocket uses the laws of action
adventure to provide a fun and fast-paced
game experience.
You can play a game
of War
Rocket with fleets of 10-15 ships
in less than 90 minutes with minimal use
of tokens and absolutely no paper record
keeping! The game emphasizes speed and
maneuverability over firepower and
encourages the types of space dogfights
that are the mainstay of pulp sci-fi
stories and serials.
The War
Rocket rules contain a number of
scenarios with specific objects to
encourage tactical decision making and
narrative campaigns. The advanced section
of the War
Rocket rules includes ship
customization options like force-fields,
lucky pilots, and disruptor beams. Space
phenomenon like asteroid fields,
planetoids, and quantum vortexes as well
as a bestiary of space creatures add extra
depth to your War
Rocket games.
We require
playtesters to play 3 or more games with
their wargaming group and report the
results to the War
Rocket development team.
Playtesters will receive playtest credit
in the final printed rulebook and will
earn credit towards free War
Rocket miniatures.
If you are
interested in being a playtester, please
write a paragraph describing your previous
gaming experiences and explain why you
think you should chosen as an official
playtester. E-mail your paragraph to hydraminiatures@yahoo.com
with the phrase “War
Rocket playtest” in the subject
line. Playtest applications will be
accepted until Monday,
September 29, 2008 and the lucky
playtesters will be notified by e-mail
shortly thereafter.
7/21/2008
- Matt updated the status of War
Rocket rules and miniatures on Hydra's
Blog.
Highlights
are:
We
are currently doing extensive playtesting
of the rules to insure that gamers will
have an exciting, satisfying set of pulp
sci-fi space combat rules. The quality of
the rules is very important to us so we
are taking our time to make sure we “get
it right.”
Since the War Rocket
ships are smooth and lack the
‘greeble’ of Star Wars style ships,
the surfaces need to be extremely smooth
and free of the texture left by the 3d
printer. We’ve had problems making
silicon molds since rapid prototyping (RP)
resin leeches chemicals that cause the
molds to cure improperly. This resulted in
very bumpy, porous castings.
Our new printer Todd
Boyce of Ninja Magic successfully steered
us toward a solution he uses on his own
ships. The RP master prints are taken to a
jeweler and molded in a jeweler’s
moldmaking material. The RP resin model is
burnt away in a high temerpature kiln and
molten bronze is poured into the hallow
cavity in the heated mold. The mold is
broken open to reveal a very clean bronze
master casting. We can clean up any
imperfections such as printing lines in
the bronze with jewelers buffing tools.
The result is a nearly flawless casting!
We will be
previewing the first few production
castings in a few weeks.
Galacteer class
1: Final bronze master casting. Size
(1.25″ or approx. 30 mm long) |
Galacteer class
2: RP resin master. Size (2.5″
or approx. 60 mm long) |
We’re gamers
ourselves so we know it’s tough waiting
for products when you are really excited
about them. Hydra Miniatures has very high
standards of quality and we are working
hard to make sure the figures and rules
are simply top notch products! Over the
next few weeks, we’ll be showing
previews of our first productions castings
and the first images of the Imperial fleet
of Marduk the Tyrant. Thanks for your
patience and stay tuned for more War
Rocket information!
1/20/2008
- Matt Beauchamp,
president/principal sculptor of Hydra
Miniatures has announced they have a
new game in the works, War Rocket.
"We
opened in October 2007 and our main
product range is a line of 32mm Pulp
sci-fi figures based on pulp art from the
30's 40's and 50's. However, we are
venturing into spaceship combat territory
with our new game in development--War
Rocket!
We hope to have the game
ready for release this summer."
This additional
information is posted on their website:
Our 32mm pulp sci-fi
figures have proven wildly popular and we
are currently working on more pulp sci-fi
goodies. In addition, we are extremely
excited to announce our upcoming product
War Rocket-- the game of pulp sci-fi space
combat. The rules are being designed by
master painter Dave Pauwels and will focus
on the smaller spaceship missions that are
the mainstay of pulp sci-fi comics such as
Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, or Dan Dare.
War Rocket is designed to be a fun and
fast, mission-centered game in which each
player controls no more than a dozen
sparking, buzzing rocketships.
The miniatures are
being created by veteran 3D designer Phil
Beauchamp and the masters were output
using a 3D printer. Metal castings are
made from these resin masters and the
detail on these models is incredible. The
scale of the rockets is approximately
1:285 (6mm) and most spaceships will be 1
to 3 inches long. However, we'll be
designing larger battleships that will be
4-5 inches long.
Currently there are
four factions in development: Galacteers
(Galactic Space Patrol), Imperial Forces
of Marduk the Tyrant, Zenithian
saucer-men, and Space Pirates/Marauders.
The two ships in the illustration above
are from the Galacteer faction.