Homeworld Fleet Command

I had put proper time into Homeworld 1 & 2 on PC, so nostalgia was enough to get me backing Homeworld Fleet Command. It was a poor emotional investment. The game is built on Airfix Battles, so it was not starting from nothing; it still manages to feel rushed in the places where it ought to have been settled.

The introductory scenarios set out fleets and offer a more restricted version of the space battle, without bringing every part of the system to the table. Our two games were not unpleasant. They were simply the grace period, before the design asked to be treated as a full game.

Once more of the game is opened up, so are the holes. Movement for the larger ships remains one of the significant questions that the clarifications have not resolved, while the errata has already reached 17 pages. Players are not merely competing with their fleets; they are competing with what the rule is supposed to mean.

Production quality is middling to poor, nowhere near the standard of Fallout Miniatures. It is pretty. So is a Kickstarter promise, before you need to use it.

We stopped once the scenarios moved beyond the basics, because the game was not ready to come with us. If you find it cheaply, treat it as a wager that the rules may eventually be put right. In its current form, Homeworld Fleet Command is expensive nostalgia that forgot to become a finished game.