Sunday 1 July 2012

Battlestar Galactica Ship Cards (for Colonial Battlefleet)

I'm a big fan of nice flashy unit cards and of wasting lots of time I should be spending doing something more important. To that end I knocked up some graphical SSDs for my semi-painted BSG fleets using Powerpoint, GIMP (he he, its basically photoshop with a funny name) and the 'Man vs Machine' excel unit builder. 

The pictures here are a lot lower quality than they appear in powerpoint, I'm not sure how to retain the quality using this software atm. I've included an SSD I did a while ago of a Star Destroyer because I also made a key, although I then changed some of the icons. Hopefully to someone who understands the game it is decipherable without too much trouble.  
A quick run-down of the newer symbols used below:
The wrench  = Damage Control Bonus
The 'round' turret = PDS critical
The 'anti-aircraft turret' = Flak Batteries
The 'O2' = Life Support critical
The ship's wheel = Bridge critical
The steel girder = Structural critical
The 'pentagon' weapons batteries = Cluster Missiles
The 'House' shaped ones = ASGMs
The 'round' weapons batteries =  railguns of various stripes (rather than the Turbo Lasers on the original star wars one). 

Note: the symbols for which dice to roll for 'attack' and 'penetration' are the shape of the dice used, hence the cube =d6 and the diamond = d10.


Personally I much prefer the cool graphical displays you get in Full Thrust to the boring unit cards of Colonial Battlefleet, although the latter is arguably the better (and more balanced) game. I took a dose of inspiration from the Full thrust graphical SSDs and from other people's efforts on the SteelDreadnough forum when making these. They're a bit of a hodge podge. 
I did my own builds. There's nothing really wrong with the ones in the book but I like everything to be exactly as I envision them, hence some changes here and there. Technically a few of them break the system slightly (like the Pegasus' mass of 1,005) but in such minor ways it really doesn't matter imo. 
I was amazed by the number and quality of the images available all over the internet when making these. Apparently people love drawing the ships from BSG and sticking them online. I'm not complaining...
Powerpoint is an incredibly powerful tool if you can get to grips with it and whilst I had to learn a few new things I was impressed how much this program can do and be so user friendly at the same time.

If anyone is interested I'm happy to share the powerpoint file and the images I used to make these so you can print them out at full quality (each is meant to be half a page) or change and manipulate them as you want. Just leave a comment and email address and I'll get in touch. 

Hopefully I can get these ships painted up (I don't have many left to do) and be ready for a game in the next couple of months. 

7 comments:

  1. I saw your post on the SCN forum.

    They are great.

    I am really interested in the powerpoint file and the images.

    herc.warrior@gmail.com

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome graphical SSDs! I also am interested in the powerpoint file and images you used as I'm a big fan of BSG and Colonial Battlefleet.

    maj.dizaster@gmail.com

    Thanks,
    Maj. Diz Aster

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for the files.

    As soon as I manage to make some myself, I will mail them to you.
    It wont be soon.

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I found your work on TMP and think you did an awesome job!! may i please have a copy for my fleet? thanks for your work and your willingness to share.

    Thanks
    bargunner@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Im just getting into BSG and would love a copy
    Cheers Gordon
    adlerhobby@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. 2 years on... I'd love a copy of the power point

    heckman AT cfl.rr.com

    ReplyDelete

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