First released in 2008, Squadron Strike is a hex-map tactical wargame designed by the Ad Astra Games. The game uses a simplified version of the 3-D maneuvering rules and assets initially developed for Attack Vector: Tactical, and is intended to faithfully reproduce space combat from a variety of settings using it's variable rules and ship design system.
Along with it's internal ship-design system, Squadron Strike incorporates a number of pre-built settings intended to facilitate play:
- 'Empire Directorate War' - First Contact between the Empire of Brasil and the Directorate of Sapiency happened in 1939. The Directorate did technology transfers to help the Brasilians conquer the rest of the planet, and offered the Earthers a seat in the Directorate. The Empire of Brasil refused this offer, and went on a conquering spree.
- 'Traveller'- An adaptation of the space combat in Traveller for the Squadron Strike system.
- 'Romance of the Seven Realms' - A Space Fighter focused Space Opera setting heavily inspired by Star Wars.
- 'Newton's Cradle' - A Hard SF setting, centered around a war for dominance between various solar system powers after a Kessler Syndrome event cuts off supplies from Earth.
- 'Exile's Stars' - A first contact Space Opera setting.
The Squadron Strike system provides examples of the following tropes:
- Standard Starship Scuffle: The whole point of the game.
- Space Friction: The game has three different movement modes with varying levels of this - Mode 0 has total friction, with spacecraft halting instantly when thrust is turned off, Mode 1 has a more Space Is Air inspired model, where spacecraft produce friction by turning, and Mode 2 has no friction at all.
The Squadron Strike published settings use the following tropes:
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Newton's Cradle
- Apocalypse How: The Kessler Cascade produced by the Tharsis Combine's asteroid attack on Earth's orbital infrastructure qualifies as Stellar Scale, Societal Disruption. Limited access to Earth-launched resources resulted in mass economic disruption and resulting conflicts, but society as a whole has survived with little outright collapse.
- The Alleged Car: The "Rockhopper" used by the Belters is the spacefaring equivalent of a Toyota technical - it's a light mining vehicle with a missile pod strapped to it, with limited protection, poor propulsion capabilities, and almost no ability to survive attacks. It is incredibly cheap and can turn on a dime, though.
- Difficult, but Awesome: To minimize mass, Titanian ships have their propulsion system mounted frontally, with weapon systems and crew habitation tugged behind on long tethers. They have great propulsion capabilities and beam weapon armaments in general - but the latter are mounted facing backward, making maneuvering and gunlaying somewhat counterintuitive relative to more conventionally laid out craft.
- The Martian Phobos is a Lightning Bruiser with a very strong heavy mass driver armament - that is mounted in a rather limited broadside arc.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Played with. Mass drivers and missiles with kinetic and fragmentation warheads are the most common weapons in use, but the energy weapons that are available are very effective - lasers have very long range for direct fire weapons and can intercept incoming missiles, while particle beams have shorter range but extreme armor penetration and damage capability, and both have nearly perfect accuracy.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Typical missile boxes can launch five at once, and many craft have several of such launchers.
- Solar Sail: Most craft have magnetic sails for propellantless maneuvering out of combat.
