Snap Ships Tactics

Special Transmission - A New Add-on Arrives!
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Jul 28, 2022 at 07:03:40 AM

“Alert! All hands to the building bays! The resupply mission is a go!”

Oh, you thought we were done? This special offer goes out to all the hard-working builders in the Forge Fleet, the crews that construct the ships that keep the hotshot pilots soaring through space.

This add-on has been in the works for almost the entire campaign. Early on we saw requests for more of the hard-to-get Snap Ships core pieces, especially those oh-so-useful orange pegs that enable you to connect any two cubes together. The issue here is that the core cubes are among the most expensive Snap Ships pieces to produce, as they have an exterior shell with the softer inner core. This requires extra molding and assembly at the factory. But it’s also what makes the Snap Ships connection feel so solid and unique.

So it took some time to figure this one out. As far as we know, this is not something you will ever see at retail. This Kickstarter affords us the means to create special short run offers that just wouldn’t make sense at retail and to fulfill them alongside the game. So we put something together, begged for permission, double checked budgets, and landed on this special Builder Pack:

Each pack comes with 8 “tri cubes”, 8 standard cubes, 8 cubes without pegs, 8 half-height cubes, and 20 orange pegs. Half the cubes are in Forge gray, and half are in Komplex black.

They will be loose-packed in plastic bags without any official packaging, so as to keep the cost as low as possible. It’s going to be a heavy little bag, so as with all add-ons, additional shipping and taxes will be charged in the Pledge Manager. But for those looking to expand their collections, build capital ships, or just get more of the hard-to-acquire components, this is it!

There will be no limit to the number of Builder Packs you are able to purchase, but remember the impact to shipping costs!

Thanks again for a truly awesome campaign - please help us spread the word far and wide as we enter the final rush!

Incoming Transmission - Day 29 - The Grand Finale
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Jul 28, 2022 at 03:41:43 AM

Greetings builders and pilots!

Get ready for the biggest decoded transmission we’ve yet intercepted. Today’s message is chock full of free bonus items and important news. 

“Alert! The Komplex has amassed a fleet of hundreds of ships and they are transiting into Forge space in a matter of hours. It’s time to call in every unit, every piece of gear, and every ace up our sleeve to fend them off. First we need to double our output of newly designed snapship parts. Double the shotguns, wings, and thrusters; we know the Komplex is doing the same. Call in every ace in the fleet! They’re the best we got and we’ll need ’em when the Komplex Battlelords arrive. We've got one shot to win this battle - we'll need to work together to seize the day!

Day 29 Unlock 1 - Double the Options, Double the Fun

We’ve spent a lot of time and energy developing the set of 16 exclusive pieces for the Snap Ships Tactics Starter Box. Heck, many of you have spent time voting on how they should be decorated. But one thing that has bothered us is that these pieces are so good, but the only way for fans to get more of them is to buy a second Starter Box. A second Starter Box is surely handy, but if you really don’t need the rest of the items and just want the pieces, well…

We couldn’t find an easy way to break the box up, so instead we’re just going to give you backers a second copy of these pieces for free. Yep, the 16 pieces just became 32. This is a Kickstarter exclusive! The retail version will not include the extra copy of these parts. And yes, these pieces will get the same paint deco. We just can’t wait to see what you can build with all the extra plastic pieces.

And we should mention that you’ll also get an extra copy of the seven cards that match up with these exclusive pieces. You’ll be able to run double shotgun cards with up to four cannons, or two sets of paired Vector wings, and so on. We’re expecting some epic builds!

Note that the image above also shows the winning Deco colors as chosen by you. The vote was incredibly close; thanks to all who participated!

But we’re not quite done yet.

Unlock 2 - Pilot Cards

As of today, the pilots of your ships might no longer be anonymous. With this unlock, we’re providing Pilot cards for the true aces of the Forge and Komplex from the battle at the Virgo Defense Perimeter. In addition to adding some flavor and color, each of these pilots has a powerful once-per-game ability that can turn the tide or guarantee victory.

Each ship in a squadron can equip one pilot and use its ability in response to a specific game situation. These abilities are powerful and dramatic, and as such, the pilots themselves have a squad point cost. This is different from Parts cards which are factored into the cost of the ship based on its chassis.

Now that you have a general idea of how they work, let’s take a look at the pilots!

Each member of Frost squadron brings a unique specialization to the battlefield.

As leader of Frost Squadron, Dex can convert any hit into a critical hit. This is perfect for disabling an opponent’s ship at a key moment or potentially causing lots of additional damage by venting its heat cubes. Opponents will need to be wary about running in the red too much while he’s around.

Dee-La takes a more defensive approach, which can even extend to protecting her squadmates in larger games. She can force your opponent to target her instead of a nearby friendly ship, and force a reroll of one of their attack dice. This can give her ally the time to arrange an escape, or line up the perfect shot.

Aspiring ace pilot Klik simply doesn’t play by the rules. When he rotates, he can perform a U-turn instead. More than one Komplex fighter has found themselves nose-to-nose with his ship after painstakingly maneuvering into his rear arc.

As an R&D researcher, Atam is an ideal choice for fielding those big, expensive parts. His ability lets him fully vent one part at the start of his turn. It goes without saying that this can cause a huge swing in power economy if it’s timed well!

Finally, Twobells is rugged and reliable. This attitude extends to his ship as well, letting him cancel all critical hit results from a single attack or missile impact, preventing their damage and protecting his parts from being disabled. He likes to stick around for the long haul.

The Komplex never settles for second-best, and they have plenty of their own tricks. Their true names are unknown to us; these are the callsigns brave Forge pilots have given them in the wake of their brutal tactics.

Legion has no concept of self-preservation, only victory. This makes them a terrifying threat on the battlefield and they’ve caused more than one pilot to flee just with their presence alone. They can clear any number of heat cubes from their ship at the start of their turn, effectively enabling a double alpha strike. This power comes at a cost, as they will suffer damage for each heat cube vented in this way.

Nyx has been known to pull impossible maneuvers, baffling even the most experienced Forge pilot. They can change the direction of movement for any short or long move, even one that falls in the middle of a sequence of icons. Blink, and you’ll miss it!

Truth is the enigmatic leader of the Komplex operations near the Virgo Defense Perimeter. He is able to adapt to any situation on the fly by reducing the power cost of any one action to zero. Let’s just take a moment to consider the implications of that: any action, no matter how large. Forge pilots will need to be very careful of the parts at Truth’s disposal.

Moros is a creation blinded by vengeance. If someone deals him critical damage, he’ll make sure another ship within the range of his ability receives damage as well. This can even be the ship that attacked!

Finally, Scylla is a relentless hunter. They always seem to have luck on their side. Their ability enables them to reroll all their dice in a single attack.

A Note on Power and Availability

Earlier you raised concerns over the Organized Play system having a level playing field when we originally proposed having the Chassis cards be a Kickstarter exclusive. In response to your concerns, we made sure they would no longer be an exclusive addition. After all, creating a solid and stable Organized Play environment is one of our core design concerns.

Because of this, these new Pilots cards are not intended for Organized Play. They were designed at the request of many commenters and are intended as fun gameplay mods to spice up your casual battles at home, the game store, or open gaming room. They have powerful, game-swinging effects, and playing with them is entirely optional. Our intention is to make them a special reward for you, the early backers. They are planned to be exclusive to this version of the game and offered from time to time as promos. We hope you enjoy them!

Unlock 3 - Deluxe Range Rulers Add-on

We agonized over this one; we really did. We explored multiple different options for including rulers beyond the cardboard ones (remember that two plastic movement tools are already in the Starter Box). But we couldn’t find a way to make the costs work. The best option we found is to offer a deluxe ruler set at a nominal fee for those that want them. These rulers will be cut in acrylic and will be available as a $10 add-on. You will get a single range 1 ruler (160mm) and a single range 2 ruler (320 mm) with markings. 

When the campaign launched we told you that we needed 75 backers from AUS and NZ to freight direct to Australia, resulting in an overall lower shipping costs for backers. That’s the magic number for us to be able to offer the reduced shipping costs without having to subsidize a significant portion ourselves. We are currently halfway there, and we’re hoping we’ll hit it by the end of the campaign. 

However, we also realize how much of a difference this makes for backers, so we’re willing to commit to the lowered shipping costs at this point, regardless of whether or not we hit the magic number of 75. We hope this entices anyone who might be on the fence to jump into the cockpits! As of this moment, Australia shipping costs are now Zone 2 and New Zealand’s are Zone 3. 

We appreciate your support in helping us reach this goal - please spread the word to your friends about this change to further help the campaign!

Past and Future

Ready to go back in time? We’ll be visiting with two Snap Ships pioneers later today, Hayden and Jay of PlayMonster. From 2019 to the present day, these two master creators built the line and modeled the pieces that make up the fleet you know and love today. They’ll be showing off concept art and talking about the process and the early days at 6pm EST today at www.twitch.tv/snapships.

Wednesday's stream is TBD, but we expect to stream gameplay in some form. 

Then on Thursday. Join us on the final day of the Kickstarter on stream! We will be at www.twitch.tv/snapships starting at 3:30 EST. While we’re keeping an eye on the Kickstarter when it ends at 4pm EST, we are also looking forward to sharing some thoughts with you about what comes next and what our future plans are.  Looking forward to seeing you there if you can make it!

48 Hours Left! Share with Everyone!

So that's it! Now we need your help. Spread the word far and wide throughout the known universe and get as many pilots as you can to their battle stations. We want to make sure that everyone who has any interest in this campaign knows about it. And besides, more pilots means more stories to tell and take part in! Share this graphic and a link to the Kickstarter!

Let’s have a truly epic final 48 hours!

Incoming Transmission - Day 27 - Form Up!
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Jul 27, 2022 at 03:19:37 PM

Greetings builders and pilots!

Today’s decoded message centers around squadrons - some alternate art options for the Chassis cards that feature squads as well as some thoughts around playing entire squadrons. Finally, we wanted to address some questions about organized play.

“You may be the best hot shot pilot in the entire universe, but there comes a time when the Komplex gets behind you and you just can’t shake them. I don’t care how good you are, everyone’s number comes up at some point. And when yours does, you’ll be damn glad to have a couple of other hotshot pilots watching your back. Not to mention, I love that feeling of sniping Komplex drones while my comrades keep them busy. Truth is you can just do more when you have squadmates you can trust and count on.”

Day 27 Unlock - Alternate Full-Art Chassis Cards

Today we’re unlocking six special chassis cards just for Kickstarter backers: alternate full-art chassis cards.

These “squadron” chassis cards have the same stats and abilities as the ones in the Starter Box, but they have exclusive new artwork and a different graphical design. We’ve changed the layout for these cards to move all the design and build information onto the back. That gave us more space for beautiful ship artwork to show off.

On each card, you’ll find the main subject larger and in front, with a new pose, pictured as part of a squadron. Have a look at these sample images for the alternate chassis cards.

We chose to do the original six presets, but eagle-eyed pilots might spot the two new Sabre and Scarab presets flying in formation in the artwork.

These alternate full-art chassis cards will be a Kickstarter exclusive.

Playing Larger Games

Speaking of squadrons, you may be wondering how well Snap Ships Tactics handles larger games. After all, wouldn’t it be great to have two squadrons chasing each other down and strafing past their allies to get in a shot from just the right angle? Well, the answer is that the game scales very well. We’ve run many demos at conventions, and we’ve found that giving a player a single ship to control for their first game is the best way to learn. While the 1v1 duel format is a relatively light game, perfect for introducing a new player or testing out a specific build, it’s not that much more complicated if you get four people around the table and put four ships into space. At this point, each player still has a single ship, which still works well, even for new players.

And of course, there’s the cooperative game for players who would rather work together against the game than battle human opponents. With four ship models, you will have two players with one ship each, likely going up against two AI ships. We’ve even showcased videos of this in the past. This is a great opportunity to introduce players to the game who might not like head-to-head confrontation.

For more experienced players that have gotten comfortable customizing and flying a single ship, it’s not a big jump up to controlling a squad of two or three ships. Two things add strategic depth here. First, designing a squad of ships that work well together and cover each other’s weaknesses is a bigger challenge than making a single ship that works well on its own. Second, turns alternate back and forth between teams, but the order that the ships move and act can change with each round as the battle progresses. This adds an additional layer of complexity and strategy to take into account.

All of this is to say that we have designed Snap Ships Tactics from the beginning to support larger games with entire squads dealing battle against other squads.

To manage multiple ships in larger games, we add ID tokens and activation tokens to each ship. The ID token is very useful for telling ships apart if you have several of the same chassis or several that look similar. You use the activation token to keep track of whether you have used that ship yet this round. While the order that the ships activate might fluctuate, each ship will only get one chance to act every round.

Organized Play

A few backers have asked us about our plans for organized play after the Kickstarter is fulfilled, especially what the format might be. This is something our team has talked about a lot, and while we’re not ready to announce an official plan yet, we plan on supporting games of a few different formats. For example, we are planning on supporting both 1v1 duels with 1 ship (4 points) per player, and 1v1 squadron battles (12-points, 3-4 ships per player) from the beginning. 

Calling All Pilots

Have you told your local gaming store about Snap Ships Tactics yet? Do you have a favorite local brick-and-mortar retailer you hope will host organized duels when Snap Ships Tactics releases? Let us know in the comments!

Incoming Transmission - Day 25 - Upgrades Installed!
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jul 22, 2022 at 10:31:04 PM

Greetings builders and pilots!

Today’s decoded message includes some additional pieces, a call to action to get your vote for what colors we provide, as well as a list of bonus parts that will be at your disposal.

“Have you ever seen a Forge hangar bay? It’s a sight to behold! Rows of landing pads surrounded by robotic arms and ground crews scurrying about like dust in a whirlwind. Racks and racks of weapons and equipment for any conceivable scenario. It sounds like a lot, but the flexibility to configure our ships to face any threat the Komplex might throw at us hardly feels like an advantage anymore now that we’ve seen how quickly they adapt.”

Day 25 Unlock 1 - Flat 1x1 Plates

When we revealed the squadron sticker sheet on day 13, a couple of backers suggested we needed some more places to put stickers on these ships. After a bit of back-and-forth with the factory, looking at how to adjust the mold plan, we’ll be adding four perfectly flat 1x1 plates to the Starter Box. Two of these will be molded in Forge gray, and two in Komplex black plastic. These pieces provide the perfect canvas for squadron stickers, or you can use them to simply cover any empty ports on your ships with a nice quiet bit of blank space. Remember, it’s your ship to build and stylize! #NoPortLeftUncovered

Unlock 2 - Vote for Part Deco

Today we’re also unlocking new custom paint decoration for more of the exclusive new pieces in the Starter Box. As with the wings we talked about in Update #4, the base color of these plastic parts will be molded to match the main kits: Forge gray and Komplex black plastic. Adding paint operations at the factory is expensive and labor intensive, but we feel these new parts deserve a bit of extra attention to make them really pop. Some of them will require two paint hits - one from each side.

We’ve got several possible designs in mind for each, and once again we’re letting you decide which paint pattern we go with. Pilots, the visual fate of the Forge and the Komplex are now in your hands! See the bottom of the update for the vote link!

But don’t sail off just yet; there are even more parts on the rack!

Bonus Unlock -  STL Prototype Parts, Set 2

Hey everyone! It’s Jeff again with another pack of some “classic” parts that were the very first pieces ever designed and 3D printed to prove that Snap Ships could be a real thing. One of the fun pieces is a cockpit that Scott called “the trucker cockpit”. It feels a bit more industrial, very unlike anything in the official toy line. There’s also another two-cube engine, but this one is more square. The three-nozzle engine is one of the very earliest pieces ever designed; I think that piece was designed the second weekend I spent working on Snap Ships. You’ll also get another cool radar dome based on a radar dish building just outside of the airport I grew up near in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Finally, more fins and a large forward-facing cannon round out the parts.

It’s been a lot of fun to revisit these pieces - a real walk down memory lane. It’s heartwarming to see these pieces I printed hundreds of times, but it’s also exciting to know just how much more detailed and thrilling the production pieces became!

Vote for Your Favorite New Part Deco

As a reminder, don’t forget to vote for your favorite color options for the new part deco described above! Scroll up if you need to see the sample images. Here is the link:

Voting will close at 10 a.m. Pacific time on Sunday, July 24th - the time of our next Transmission. That’s 48 hours from now. Lobby for your favorites in the comments. May the best paint job win!

Incoming Transmission - Day 23 - Choose your Battlefield
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Jul 21, 2022 at 01:31:42 PM

Greetings builders and pilots!

Today’s decoded message gives you the chance to choose a gorgeous vista where you may do battle as well as covers some of the terrain you might run into.

Day 23 Unlock - Choose Your Playmat Artwork

“Attention, pilots! Our operatives at Forge High Command have been working diligently to collate incoming reports of Komplex activity throughout the galaxy. Today, we are fortunate enough to share the results of their analysis with you.”

The standard play area for Snap Ships Tactics is 3x3 feet (90x90cm). You can simply mark out a suitable play area, or you can battle over your favorite starfield backdrop. With today’s unlock, you can now choose from any of these four designs for the playmat add-on. And if you fall in love with more than one, you can select the add-on multiple times, choosing a different background each time!

These playmat designs are purely cosmetic, but Josh has painted them based on the lore of the Snap Ships universe. Our adventurous explorer, Jeff, has just returned from his deep space tour of these far off vistas with a briefing for you. Taking these recordings was fraught with danger, but we think you’ll find it worthwhile when he shares the details of his journeys.

Octavian’s Rift

“It’s just so empty…barely enough suitable stars near enough to scoop for fuel; I’m in real danger of getting stranded out here. Ancient sailors of the seas in the Sol system would tell of the doldrums - extended periods of no wind and a slow agonizing boredom. I never thought being a hotshot, deep void explorer could be dull, but Octavian’s Rift was exactly that. Until my scope lit up with Komplex activity, anyway. Maybe they wandered into the Rift and found themselves drifting on fumes, or maybe they were trying to cross the rift to get to some outpost beyond the void. Doesn’t matter really. I barely got out with my ship intact. 2/10; wouldn’t visit again by choice.”

Bannon’s Landing

“Long before we woke the Komplex and the fight for galactic survival began, before the bloody feudal wars of the Late Expansion Period, and even before the tragedy at Persiphone III, there was the thrilling age of Snap Ships Frontiers. It was an age of rapid exploration that pushed the human bubble further and further into the unknown and inky black. Back then, humanity experienced one of its first encounters with an alien life form on the tiny little frontier outpost of Bannon’s Landing. Established as a mining colony, Bannon’s Landing was as far from Sol as you could get and still be connected to humanity. It consisted of a few hundred brave souls who used the newfound Snap Ship jump tech to dig their fortune out of the hard rock on the very edge of colonized space. Most of them just wanted to get away from other people. What they found was a hard life on an unforgiving world made worse by the discovery of an indigenous life form hell-bent on using the colonists as snacks. The good news for the miners was that the aliens were as big as a small dog and not too tough to handle. The bad news for the aliens was that the miners found them delicious. Fast-forward a few hundred years and you’ll find that Bannon’s Landing is a thriving colony with the most unique cuisine in the sector. If you’re out around these parts I recommend stopping by for the food and company; both are great. 8/10; can’t wait to come back.”

Halldover FW-74

“After setting my trip through the Turing Tunnel at Dark Sun Ridge, I got comfortable for the transit to what I thought would be a trading post. Instead, I found myself getting bumped about with more warnings blaring than I knew existed! I swear, I thought my ship was going to come apart around me when I was shoved out of the tunnel and into a system unknown to me. At least I wasn’t alone as several modified Sabres were on me quicker than anything, my radio squawking all sorts of commands. Turns out I had somehow ended up in the Halldover FW-74 system. From what I could gather, this was some sort of hush-hush military research lab. Before I was escorted out, my instruments detected all sorts of gravitational waves that shouldn’t even be possible. Best I can reckon, those fellas are doing some crazy experiments with relativity wells - trying to tear into time dilation or something. I must’ve been passing by at the wrong time and got pulled out of transit by whatever they’re doing. The wildest part was that when I eventually ended up at the trading post, I realized I lost about 2 weeks of time in the process! Lucky for me, society hadn’t collapsed in that time, so I was able to fit in and keep going about my business. 1/10; not a great time.”

Polestar Gateway

“The largest Transit Tunnel project in the human bubble is being constructed in the FP-84 system, also known as the Polestar Gateway. Everyone knows that this system will eventually be home to the biggest Transit Tunnel hub we’ve ever built. What most people don’t know is that we weren’t the first ones to see the potential in this system. Humans had colonized the habitable planet FP-84 for decades before discovering the tunnel system deep below the surface of the planet’s moon. Wide, perfectly smooth walled tunnels stretched for miles. Drone scouts mapped the tunnels and revealed that they ran in a grid covering 3600 kilometers. The tunnels were cut into the rock with smooth walls and measured exactly 13 meters in diameter. The tunnels were suspiciously empty with no sign of who made them or their purpose. The Turing Corp ended up leasing the whole moon and occupying the tunnels to begin the Polestar Gateway project 48 years ago and it looks like they have another 30 years of construction left before we can start to use it. There is a large Forge base of operations on Polestar as well since the Transit project has significant potential as a valuable military target for the Komplex.  If I was a betting man, I’d say that FP-84 will be the center of some intense military action soon enough. 6/10; the sight of humanity building something so magnificent is uplifting, but the parking is atrocious.”

Playmat Details

All four of these playmat designs will be available during the Kickstarter and late pledge period. We have no plans to make playmats available in retail distribution after fulfilling this Kickstarter. If you purchase one or more playmat add-ons, we’ll confirm which artwork you want on each one in the pledge manager after the Kickstarter ends.

Terrain Tile Setup

Whether you play Snap Ships Tactics on a space playmat or a convenient flat surface, you’ll be choosing and placing terrain tiles at the start of each of your battles. Each type of terrain offers specific advantages and can be an important consideration when building your ships. The Starter Box comes with the assortment of terrain tiles shown below.

Terrain tiles provide useful effects when ships overlap them. They can help you double down on a core strategy you’ve invested in, or they can help make up for any weaknesses in your ship builds. You might also want to consider how your opponent might use a particular terrain tile against you when deciding where to place it during setup.

So what do all of these different terrain tiles do?

Ice Clouds allow you to vent one power or heat cube. These are great for ships with lots of heat-generating parts, such as missiles. Building a ship with an exhaust can also open up combo potential for using parts more than once in a turn.

Debris Fields increase your evasion by one, which is never a bad thing and can make the difference between flying and finding yourself floating through a useless pile of scrap.

Tycho’s Rift provides a gravity-assisted speed boost to a ship flying across it. As soon as a ship overlaps a rift, it performs an additional move in the same direction.

Asteroid Fields grant the ships in them a free anti-missile action, potentially destroying missiles tracking your ship without having to waste an attack from one of your weapons.

Large Asteroids function like walls; ships must fly around them. Having an obstacle that completely blocks line of sight provides useful opportunities to hide when you need to vent some power cubes and reposition for your next turn. Just remember that you can’t stand still in this game!

Reduced Shipping for Extra Playmats

As noted on the main page, the playmats are heavy items and require additional shipping costs. But we can offer reduced shipping for the adventurous souls who order more than one mat:

Special Co-op Stream with One Stop Co-op Shop

Scott is going to join forces with Steve from OSCS’s YouTube streaming channel to take on the AI in a special 2v2 version of the Tabletop Simulator mod. That’s happening at 9 p.m. Eastern time on the OSCS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgIgKL9dkdw

We’re going to attempt a Twitch co-stream. We’ll see if we can make it work!

Looking forward to hearing about your exploits, pilots!