From: "Rich and Catherine Spainhour" <rcspain@bluegrass.net>
Subject: Solar System conflict game (was re:Battlefleet Mars) (LONG)

<SNIP>
>Having read and enjoyed Kim Stanley Robinson's epic Mars trilogy (and lots
>of other recent SF set on Mars by Bear, Baxter etc) are there any other
>board games around (or upcoming) which follow 'Battlefleet Mars' in
>depicting realistic political and military conflict in a solar-system
setting?
>
>Alan Poulter               <mailto:admin@grognard.com>
>                                <mailto:apoulter@nyx.net>
>                        <mailto:alan@poulter.demon.co.uk>
>Web-Grognards                      <http://grognard.com/>
>


YEP.  Try Dream Pod 9's 'Jovian Chronicles.'  The Rulebook contains two
complete sets of rules (RPG and Tactical-Level Wargame) and a background of
mostly-hard SF (exception being the mecha).

Humanity has colonized the Solar System as far out as Jupiter, mostly living
in O'Neil Cylinders, with a few hardy souls living in domes on Mars and
Luna, or tunnelling into large asteroids.  Two superpowers:  Earth and
Jupiter, with multiple independant factions.  No aliens, most conflict comes
from the rapidly escalating cold war between the Central Earth Gov't. and
the Jovian Confederation.  No clear-cut good or bad guys here, though CEGA
is the more aggressive of the two.  Mars is in a state of civil war, with
each of the two Martian nations allying with one of the two superpowers.

Space tech restricted to STL travel.  Humanoid mecha are the armor of
preference.

The game rules rock!  If you don't like RPGs, don't sweat it:  the Tactical
Rules stand alone (though a terrific RPG-to-Tac interface is provided for us
roleplayer/ grognards)and include:
Space Combat (Chris Weuve take note:  VECTOR-BASED MOVEMENT! Yeah!)
Atmospheric Combat
Ground Combat
Interface rules to link the three combat scales so that you can do
fully-modeled planetary assaults.

If you buy the optional J.C. Companion Rules, you also get:
Infantry Combat (in all three scales)
Weapon Design System (build yer own!)
Vehicle Design System (calling all gearheads!)
Plus more neat RPG rules dealing with vacuum, zero-g environments, etc.

Game plays fast but realistic, the background is engaging, and the art is
the highest quality I've seen in a game, ever.  Also, I haven't found a
single glitch in the rules (the Silhouette System of Heavy Gear fame, by the
way).  The Space Movement System is the simplest, fastest playing one I've
seen yet, and can model up to FOUR simultaneous vectors.  I'll never play an
"airplanes in space" space combat game again.  In fact, I think I'll port
the JC Space Combat System over into all my SF games.  Its that good.

You can get all three J.C. rulebooks (Basic Rules, Companion, and Mechanical
Catalog) for about $45, less than you'd pay for Silent Death, which has NO
RPG rules, no ground CBT, and doesn't model vectors.

Four stars.  Joe Bob says check it out.

--Cheers,
Rich Spainhour (rcspain@bluegrass.net)
Grad Student at the University of Land Warfare