Thanks for giving Horizon Wars: Zero Dark your attention. I think you'll find the campaign experience more satisfying if you check out the new Operation Nemesis supplement. I'll stand by "The Red Force", because the game is definitely intended for players to create their own vision for the opponent, so creating your own narrative for who the bad guys are is absolutely in the spirit of the game.

Thank you for this series. I quite enjoyed it! I own almost all of these even if I haven't played then much yet. I agree that Rogue Stars is too cumbersome, especially the damage system. I did play it solo to learn the rules and played it rules as written. It is a hard system to wrap your head around but once you've played a couple of times it becomes natural. The fact that failed activations allow for opponent reactions actually makes it a great solo experience if you're playing two-handed. It adds a lot of unpredictability even if you are trying your best playing each side. The 3 step scenario generation allows for a lot of variability as well. So both those points create great narrative moments for solo play. You can import the world elements from any other game really or create your own. In regards to starships, a boxed game called Core Space by Battle Systems does exactly what you're looking for. Ships allow you to store your loot and allows your crew to heal among other things. At the end of most scenarios you're trying to get back to your ship. Core Space is very much Firefly. The downside is it isn't miniature agnostic although there are tools available to build and import any miniature you want into it. There are rules for creating your own character in the Deluxe rulebook and a fan made tool approved by Battle Systems online. Anyway, I look forward to your plays of Horizon Wars Zero Dark.

Thanks for the series. I'm sure I'll be referring back to these videos when I'm looking to expand my sci-fi game collection.

nice series, like that you said that stargrave is not your jam and you didnt stop there. You when in a Quest to find the holy grail

Great stuff. You could take a look at the new Space Station Zero. Also Starport Scum for solo scifi skirmishes.

I'm only a third through your video but I have the free Horizon Wars: Zero Dark Training Run PDF to test out the rules and already you've picked up a rule I missed concerning Stress rolls when you get hit and getting bonus actions, so thank you! I'm keen to test out this game again so I think I will do that and get back to this video later!

Thank you very interesting series. I play Hardwired bit I will checkout five parsecs

I glad you went through all these; I’ve had a lot of these games and was nice to see your take on them, I have Horizon Wars and now need to find this zero dark. I don’t think these man to man skirmish games will ever have a starship unless it is treated like an abstract off board base, with a rated med bay or workshop to aid in repairs and what not. Primarily I think it’s a matter of scale the Falcon on a 28mm 3x3 board is like half the allotted table space. In a nutshell to be mini agnostic these systems all tend to be campaign theme vague so you can squeeze in what you want. I am more shocked no speeder bike, airspeeders or typical vehicles, imagine a speeder or hover skiff battle across the desert like the old Thunder Alley board game, jumping ship to ship. Having more experience in rpg’s myself, I think a solution ot the starship conundrum shy of writing it from scratch is to lift a starship ruleset from another system, do a light profession system to man crew stations, Capt/Leadership, Gunner, Pilot, Engineer, Repair, ECM etc. Considering it’s a dice pool system Classic WEG Star Wars comes to mind, but I played it a bunch, it probably ranges 1 to 6 well enough to pair to this system, look for free D6 Space pdf online, its open license.

I agree about the ship thing. They need something like in Star Rovers. There's a good video here showing the ship plan kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rLCGgMupzM-XlnU.html