possible ES2 tabletop game?

[Pterosaur Gaming]

ive been looking at the space battles of ES2 and while they lack substance in game, would make perfect for a tabletop space battle game, something akin to star wars armada but with the ES2 style, and a part of me just wants to own a fleet of hissho and sophon ships with their faction heroes in lead, is a boardgame like that possible? i can see ship customization being easy for a tabletop version, and heroes can be used in a similiar way star wars armada heroes are used, because like i said before, space battles in the game seem like they can be turned into a tabletop game very well.

[Bozobub]

The main barrier I can think of, is that it would take a VERY long time to play.

[Pterosaur Gaming]

That is to be expected from almost all tabletop games.

[lethminite]

The problem is the space battles actually have a LOT of complexity, if you want to get into it.
A board game couldn't possibly include as many variables into it's combat, so you'd have to simplify it's combat.
Make 3 packs of mixed ships, that can each be customised to be effective at multiple ranges, and a ratio of energy:physical attack and defence for each ship, then picking a card that gives them a passive bonus, but also controls their path, and thus how long each set of ships stays in their optimal range.
Add it other details like flac vs missiles/fighters, and you start to realise that there is a lot going on under the hood.

No way a board game can keep all that.
What parts are core to you? pick one of three cards? energy vs physical attacks? long vs short distance? customising ships?
While ES2 has lots of randomness in the fights, there are so many shots, it's quite consistent across the whole battle, but in a board game, you'd want combat to be smoothly resolved, and so you can't have 1000s of dice rolls, and it honestly feels like the "truest" version would have deterministic combat, so you'd have to strip out evasion. Maybe have some +1 or -1 strengths to being at the right position on the card, and +1/-1 for having the right attack for their defence etc.

I'd say ES2 would actually work best as a board game by taking one of the existing 4x space games with custom races (TI, eclipse etc...) and just being an expansion or stand alone game that added the ES2 races (think small world of warcraft).
I think the races are the thing that makes ES2 most unique.
4xs are probably the hardest board games to design, because you are so limited in scope, because everything you add needs it's own component, and the players have to be able to track everything.

You might be able to make it work if the game was ONLY doing the space battles. Like you picked out your squad, then resolved one battle over the coarse of an hour. But as i said before, I think the most interesting thing is the difference races, and it would be hard to bring that across, since the combat is where ES2 has the least difference between different races.

[Pterosaur Gaming]

Originally posted by lethminite:

The problem is the space battles actually have a LOT of complexity, if you want to get into it.
A board game couldn't possibly include as many variables into it's combat, so you'd have to simplify it's combat.
Make 3 packs of mixed ships, that can each be customised to be effective at multiple ranges, and a ratio of energy:physical attack and defence for each ship, then picking a card that gives them a passive bonus, but also controls their path, and thus how long each set of ships stays in their optimal range.
Add it other details like flac vs missiles/fighters, and you start to realise that there is a lot going on under the hood.

No way a board game can keep all that.
What parts are core to you? pick one of three cards? energy vs physical attacks? long vs short distance? customising ships?
While ES2 has lots of randomness in the fights, there are so many shots, it's quite consistent across the whole battle, but in a board game, you'd want combat to be smoothly resolved, and so you can't have 1000s of dice rolls, and it honestly feels like the "truest" version would have deterministic combat, so you'd have to strip out evasion. Maybe have some +1 or -1 strengths to being at the right position on the card, and +1/-1 for having the right attack for their defence etc.

I'd say ES2 would actually work best as a board game by taking one of the existing 4x space games with custom races (TI, eclipse etc...) and just being an expansion or stand alone game that added the ES2 races (think small world of warcraft).
I think the races are the thing that makes ES2 most unique.
4xs are probably the hardest board games to design, because you are so limited in scope, because everything you add needs it's own component, and the players have to be able to track everything.

You might be able to make it work if the game was ONLY doing the space battles. Like you picked out your squad, then resolved one battle over the coarse of an hour. But as i said before, I think the most interesting thing is the difference races, and it would be hard to bring that across, since the combat is where ES2 has the least difference between different races.

actually my discussion was talking about space battles only for it said "space battle tabletop boardgame, something akin to star wars armada but with the ES2 style" armada is a capital ship to ship battle tabletop game, meaning yes, it can work as a space battle tabletop game, and may work best with the armada mechanics.

[Sabaithal]

I wasn't even aware board games were still being made. Its highly unlikely, especially given the scope of this game.

[Scheneighnay]

For a fan project, go ahead, but the community is too small for anything official.

[philosoraptorgames]

I'd look to Eclipse or Twilight Imperium for inspiration if you want more of a space 4X experience in boardgame form. Eclipse in particular is very much tabletop Master of Orion (much moreso than the actual Master of Orion boardgame, which is more of an engine-builder having little in common with the computer game franchise).

If you just want the space combat aspect there's tons of games out there for that. I'm fond of the old Knight Hawks space combat game that came with the second boxed set for the Star Frontiers RPG. Star Fleet Battles is of about the same vintage; since then there's been Silent Death, Full Thrust, Babylon 5 Wars, Lightning Strike, Aerotech if you like the Battletech rules, Squadron Strike, any number of things attached to RPGs like Traveller... Lots of places to look for inspiration. Armada is also an excellent choice from what I've heard but I haven't actually played it.

Under any of them you'd have to do most of the ship design work yourself, and maybe add rules for components unique to the Endless universe. So maybe start ruling out candidates based on how easy or hard you expect that to be. This kind of project can be a small fan-made expansion to an existing game or a major life focus for months or years, it's as big or small (above a certain minimum) as you want it to be. Some systems are more human-readable and balanced than others but as long as you're having fun you're doing something right.

[Mors Avis]

One of the main reasons I keep coming back to ES2 is that it has a great board game "feel" to it. The fantastic art, combined with the various unique factions, the huge tech tree, organic diplomacy, politics, varied victory conditions, and card-based battles really have a nice "synergy". The star map, with it's lanes--and eventual warp travel--looks/feels like a game board. Even the land battles, with its cards/tactics and mini-games, is interesting in a "board game" kind of way.

Other space empire games, like Stellaris, can get way too far in the weeds with statistics, number-tracking, etc., resulting in a rather soulless experience at times.

[C.Blossom]

i would rly enjoy that im just curios how the invisibility of the umbral choir would work

[sirfuzzzy]

As philosoraptorgames said, Twilight Imperium 4th edition and Eclipse 2nd edition are amazing games if you can get enough players together. The experience surpasses any 4x video game you will find. I recommend 5 or 6 players for Twilight Imperium. Eclipse is more strategy and less diplomacy or interaction so it's doable with fewer players but not nearly as epic of an experience.