Full Thrust Review

 

So this post is going to be a bit different, my hope is to introduce the limited readership to a really fun game my friend has recently shown me. The game is Full Thrust and it is a space fleet tactical war-game.  It is approximately the same scale as Battlefleet Gothic but I am not sure how the rules compare.  It was invented by Ground Zero Games in the UK and is jointly promoted by them and MechWorld from Germany. No one has given me anything to write this post… but maybe they will ;)

A general overview of the mechanics are; pre planned movement, shooting with pools of dice (dice pool management), and a detailed damage system which combines to make it a fun game, but with large variance in a few small places.

The game is played over multiple turns with both fleets planning and then executing their moves concurrently.  I don’t think there is a set number and my games go to 7 or 9 but if I was better it would probably go longer.  The game take over 2 hours for the basic size fleets, shown in the pictures.  When my brother and I play we have even started moving each other’s ships which is possible due to the clear planning mechanics, but it does slow the game down a bit.

Shooting (in the basic game) is done with two weapon systems; laser batteries and torpedoes.  The shooting phase has alternating activation and beings with an initiative roll for who gets to pick the first ship to activate.  This is where the first bit of variance creeps in as once ships start getting damaged an early activation can be used to destroy a ship that then doesn’t get to retaliate. The order in which you choose to activate a ship is significant as well and totally controlled by the commander of the fleet, however there are turns where shooting first is just more important.  Once a ship is activated it can then target a number of ships based on the number of active fire control systems it has, this ranges from 1 to 3 on the big ships.  The strength of the batteries and torpedoes then depends on the approach of the two vessels with all weapon systems having a unique arcs and range dependent dice pools.  Laser dice pools are combined making it essentially one roll per target, if you have different coloured dice for the torpedoes.

Rolls to hit are standardized (4+, 5+ if the target has active shields) and the commander controls the chance of success by allocating more batteries to the target.  Once hits are scored the target vessel starts to take damage immediately and “hit point” boxes are crossed of the data sheet.  As ships take more damage, rolls are made for the different ship’s systems to determine if weapon, engine or even life support systems get knocked out. At the end of this part of the turn each ship can use their damage control teams to try and repair some damage however this is rare, and another place where some lucky dice rolls can provide an unexpected boon.

There is an advanced game that has missile boats and carriers, I guess the missile boats launch drifting mines that can intercept other vessels as they navigate the battlefield.  But I have not played this.

I think my favorite aspect of the game is the planning phase.  This is the phase where the players really do have all the control and try to outwit their opponent.  Much like the dial in X-Wing, or the orders tokens from Epic 40k, this provides the moment that generates the most regret and second guessing. The data sheets are also great, and simplify the complex damage accounting system into something that is smooth and plays well.  The models look cool to, oh and yes I think the light cruiser looks like the HALO rifle, and the cruiser came out first J