Vacuum Cleaned

A game of Hard Vacuum, the Sci Fi game of World War 2 fighters in space (now where have I seen that recently?), and one of the best vector movement systems around. Hadn't played this game for years, the last time being when Paul brought it in when the club was still upstairs at the Duke.

From Furness Wargamers in Space

Have experience of Newtonian vector movement in the past from other games, such as used extensively in GDW Traveller games such as BattleRiders. Quite a few people hate such systems as the craft act realistically (at least in the 2D of the table) and not like in Star Wars, where fighters act like WW2 planes.

If anything the craft in this game, even including fuel limitations, are a bit too maneuverable; making targeting as much about guess work as anything. The early war expansion has craft with more limited maneuverability.

The mines on the German fighters appear to be pretty much useless unless someone gets lucky or their opponent badly miscalculates. Didn't bother launching mine.



Deflection, the idea that two objects travelling in different directions are harder to hit than if they were going in the same direction, played a big part in the game due to the high closing velocities. Even though craft were successful in facing each other, accurate shots were difficult to get off, and the German's were burning through their limited ammo quickly.

The rule about doubling the chance to hit upon craft with no defection lead to our two craft wiping each other out, as purely by chance our vectors matched perfectly at close range, the simultaneous fire destroying both craft. The remaining German continued fighting till it ran out of ammo just short of taking the remaining Yank out.
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