Wormhole: The Sathricans released
WorldWorks Games have announced the release of Wormhole: The Sathricans, their DIY space combat game. More info can be found at the dedicated Wormhole page on their website.
From their website:
WorldWorksGames is proud to present “Wormhole”, a groundbreaking space combat game. Why groundbreaking? Because Wormhole is the only such game that allows anyone to build up a massive fleet without spending hundreds of dollars on expensive miniatures and rule books. You don’t even have to wait for shipping to get your hands on it because Wormhole is a completely digital product which you download from home, print, build and play. We’ve included everything you need in an easy to navigate package, stepping you through the entire process from planning your game to building your fleet.
Ever lose or damage a card, a token, or some other *vital* piece to a game before, having to replace it with a cheesy-looking standin or buy the whole thing over again? Not with Wormhole. Every element can be printed, or reprinted as needed.
How long has it been the case where you have two choices…you can play a space-based game with simple, unattractive little cardboard or plastic tokens, or you can play a game with beautifully detailed miniatures that you have to buy, assemble, and either fly around “in the grey”, spend hours painting or hire someone else to paint for you (at added expense)? Not with Wormhole. The vessels in the Sathrican fleet are all highly-detailed and beautiful pieces of work, but they’re also easy to print and assemble. Best of all, when you want to expand your fleet, you print out a few more pages and add them.
And the game itself…no lengthy, complicated charts and forms here. We’ve seen space-based games that have all the fun of filling out tax forms and taking an advanced statistics test rolled into one. Wormhole ISN’T THAT WAY. The focus is on the fun, on spending less time making calculations and more time doing what you came here to do…blow up enemy fleets. The bookkeeping is accomplished in an innovative, visual manner that isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen before. Flip a switch, rotate a cube, and the battle goes on. That’s not to say there is no complexity in the game, in fact we’ve scaled the rules so that you can add levels of depth as you become more comfortable with the mechanics.to walk you through each model build (and more tutorials regarding basic build methods).
HUZZAH!
This game looks so freaking cool! I like the control stand concept. The best of a computer game and a miniatures game. It’s about time miniature gaming entered the 21st century! If the game plays well, I am getting it!
It does look quite interesting. The control panel is an interesting idea as well
I wonder how much effort it takes to get a home-printer version looking half as nice as the photos.
I wouldn’t bother printing this sort of thing out on a home printer unless you had a colour laser.
Most print shops can print out directly onto cardstock with laser printers that won’t bleed.
I’m pretty sure Denny, the proprietor of World Works Games, uses an Inkjet for printing everything he shows. This stuff does in fact look great printed out on a home printer.
Wow, when they mentioned an “innovative” new way to play minis for this system a while ago they weren’t kidding! the ships don’t look very appealing to me, but I may pick it up just for the control scheme to use with my star wars and star trek minis.
I know that all this was printed on a home Laser but you can easily get done with inkjet - you just have to shop around for your refills. Also it is important to understand that third party inks are mostly just as good as the “brand” name.
I have been cardstocking for years - mainly through WWG and Ebbles - I have items that were printed off back in 2003 that still look sexy.
On the flip slide I have gone laser too.
It is a big day for WWG and Denny to get this out the door finally.
Lord Abaddon of Wormwood
what a great idea - has to be bought
Intriguing - I may have to keep an eye on this - if I can find some other interested players I might have to give it a go
YMMV. The inkjet I had at home didn’t do a good job of these sorts of things so I started using a colour laser.
Mine was a cheap printer so perhaps a better printer would be a better job and not eat as much ink as mine did.
He’s talking about Starfleet Battles, here!
I might try it out, for kicks. Seems like it would be something fun for a gaming club but it would be hard to push this in a game store.
I’ve been somewhat interested in a space combat game. I probably still have more interest in lead minis for playing with, but I’d like to hear about that gameplay on this game.
Maybe some of you who are buying it could give it a few test goes and let the rest of us know how it plays? :-)
I also see now why this took so long to come out - it’s a huge product. I was expecting just some ships and simple rules, but looking at what is included is amazing. Even the whole control panel-scheme is pretty neat. Although I will admit I don’t have much interest in playing the rules as designed, I mainly want to print out some paper ships for Full Thrust…
Jason Hupka wrote:
“I mainly want to print out some paper ships for Full Thrust”
Great minds think alike, that’s exactly what I was contemplating. I’ve done some “cardstocking” as well and use an inkjet printer for it. The pieces come out looking great, but it can really burn through your ink cartridges quickly. Still, compared to what I just paid for a Babylon 5 fleet (for Full Thrust usage) the inkjet cartridges look like a bargain.
The control panel thingy looks WAY too fiddly for my liking. Maybe it’s easy to use once you get the hang of it, but you also have to find a place to store that thing… or probably two of them, actually.
Still, I’ve been keeping my eye on this Wormhole project ever since it was first announced. Congrats to Denny and the Worldworks folks for getting it out the door. :-)
I’m surprised by the length of the rules. It’s about fifty-some pages but most of each page is an image and the formatting for the page.
I have a Canon i850 Inkjet and with the right settings (ie normal paper, but print on cardstock) the stuff comes out extremely sexy. Only issue is if it gets wet. That’s were a color laser shines… if it gets wet and you can wipe it up in a hurry, no damage.
I hope this really does well for WWG.