Friday Freebie: Full Thrust!

Image (cc) robartesm via FlickrIt seems my internet is back on, temporarily at least, which allows me the pleasure of introducing the free game that's probably inspired me the most:  GroundZeroGames' Full Thrust.

Full Thrust got me completely and utterly into space fleet wargaming, and it can't just be coincidence that GZG also make and sell some very nice starship minis to play the game with.  The newer designs are particularly nice - check out the ScanFed, for example - and far as I can tell from my research, GZG ships set the benchmark in 1:3000 scale space minis.

So... what's the game like?
Full Thrust uses big handfuls of d6, has well balanced weapons and defences for the different fleets, and also possibly the single most aggravating movement system ever.  The (also free) updated rules More Thrust introduce new, streamlined and frankly more logical inertial movement rules - so no need to worry there.

Where Starmada tracks damage as hull, weapon, shield or engine hits, Full Thrust has damage tracks and requires rolls to be made for each of the ship's systems when certain damage thresholds are reached, which makes for a tenser game.

Full Thrust's weapons are simple - which influenced our decision to switch to the completely customisable Starmada - but work... and on reflection, if we'd spent less time tinkering with our weapon systems in Starmada we might have spent more time learning good ways to deploy and manoeuvre a fleet.

On reflection, although Full Thrust seems book-keeping heavy and less "exciting" than its competitors, it seems it's still the most popular space combat tabletop wargame - and is well worth your time.